Chapter 17
Chapter 17
One year later-
///Ding~ Congratulations, Host. You have awakened the Protagonist Aura System!///
///Ding! Friendly reminder: Host has been transported to the Zhihui Primary School Instance!
Instance participants: 20
Instance difficulty: C-rank (average mortality rate: 20%)///
A cold electronic voice rang out in her mind. Wei Sen opened her eyes to find herself and nineteen strangers standing in the middle of a fog-shrouded playground. All around them was dead silence.
A nauseating stench permeated the air, as if something were quietly rotting somewhere in the dark.
Wei Sen and most of the others were dressed in pajamas, looking completely out of place here.
“Where is this?”
“Wasn’t I asleep at home?”
“Who are you people?”
Everyone began talking over one another, utterly baffled by everything before them.
Only Wei Sen stood silently where she was. This long-lost, familiar feeling…
This place was… the Eerie World!
Wei Sen swept her gaze over the crowd. On each person’s left wrist was a round black watch, its face displaying a cold number: 0.
Wei Sen lowered her head and glanced at her own wrist. She had the same watch too, but the number on hers was different.
It was 100.
In the end, she had come back after all.
Too much had happened in the year since she left the Dark Fairy Tale Instance. She had almost forgotten the 365-day deadline.
During that time, the mysterious System had never awakened. Not until now. As if some game had officially begun, the System had actually “woken up” inside her head.
The Protagonist Aura System? She had no idea what it was supposed to do.
///Ding~ Friendly reminder: The Protagonist Aura System grants the Host the blessing of a protagonist’s aura. When your Merit Points reach the corresponding threshold, you may randomly draw an additional reward. Reward types are abundant and require the Host to explore them personally!
Next Card Draw requires an accumulated total of 200 Merit Points. Please keep up the good work, Host!///
Wei Sen looked at the number 100 on her watch. Was this the Merit Points reward the System had mentioned back then?
Why had she come to the Eerie World again?!
The last time, clearing the Instance had been so she could survive in the real world. Then what was the reason this time?
The only thing worth feeling grateful for was probably that she had a System, and that this Instance was the lowest difficulty level.
With that thought, Wei Sen quietly hid the watch beneath her sleeve.
“Everyone, please calm down!” A cool female voice suddenly cut through the noisy air.
Wei Sen looked up and saw a tall woman step forward. She seemed to be about 1.7 meters tall, with an oval face and neat short hair, every inch the image of a capable career woman.
Her voice was not loud, but it landed like a heavy hammer, instantly suppressing everyone else’s voices.
“Although I don’t know why we’ve all appeared here, my guess is that this should be a rule-based horror world. Right now, the most important thing is to survive first and find a way out!”
Wei Sen quietly studied the tall woman. Did she have a System too?
“Ha! Rule-based horror? Lady, have you been reading too many novels?” A girl wearing heavy makeup, her entire face practically screaming cosmetic work and artificial enhancements, opened her mouth to mock her.
“It’s the beautiful influencer Xia Susu!”
A burly man suddenly shouted excitedly, as if he had discovered some extraordinary treasure.
His gaze stuck to Xia Susu, his face full of ingratiating smiles. “My online name is Lonely Ah Qiang. You can call me Ah Qiang! I even sent you a Carnival gift once!”
Xia Susu curved her lips in a smile, a trace of barely perceptible contempt flashing through her eyes.
The career woman ignored Xia Susu and walked to the center of the crowd. “While you were arguing, I already found the rules for this place on the noticeboard over there!”
“Rules?” The crowd erupted at once.
The career woman led everyone through the fog to the noticeboard.
It was an old-fashioned blackboard noticeboard, densely covered with words written in red paint:
[Zhihui Primary School Rules:
1. Dedication to one’s post is a fine virtue of every citizen of the Eerie World. If you abandon your duties without permission, the consequences will be severe.
2. To ensure teaching quality, no faculty or staff member may leave the school before summer vacation arrives.
3. If you have a problem, you may seek out the principal. But please remember: as a faculty or staff member of this school, you must obey the principal’s instructions unconditionally.
4. There are no mirrors in the school. If you see a mirror, smash it immediately. Remember, do not stare for too long at the person in the mirror, no matter how much “It” looks like you.
5. Remember, primary school students have very fragile hearts. Do not refuse any of their requests during recess.
6. As a member of the faculty or staff, do not harm students. Otherwise, the consequences will be extremely serious!
7. There are no students at school on weekends. If you see a student, it must be a hallucination. Leave the area immediately. Do not look back. Do not hesitate.
8. Once it gets dark, you must return to your own dormitory. Do not stay outside alone. It is very dangerous! Unless you have a flashlight.
9. Elementary school students do not live on campus. If you see a child appear at school at night, close your eyes immediately until there is no movement around you.
10. One of the above rules was created by “It.” Be sure to distinguish it carefully!]
Wei Sen stared at the rules before her, an indescribable sense of strangeness creeping over her.
Especially the “It” in the final rule. What was “It”?
She felt as if countless eyes were hidden in the mist behind her, staring fixedly at her.
“So we’re faculty and staff at this school now?” someone asked.
“Seems that way, but right now, there’s no way to confirm everyone’s identity,” Bai Xue said.
Xia Susu rolled her eyes and said with disdain, “This is obviously just someone playing a prank.”
Ah Qiang seized the chance to move over beside Xia Susu and echoed her. “Susu’s right! Rules horror? What a load of crap.”
“I advise everyone to be careful! This place is covered in fog. We have no idea what’s behind it. And all of us are wearing the same wristband. What do the numbers on them mean?” The career woman raised her watch.
The crowd began talking over one another. Some agreed with the career woman, while others remained skeptical.
“What era are we living in? People still believe in pranks like this?” Xia Susu gave a contemptuous laugh. In front of everyone, she unfastened her watch and threw it onto the ground. “There. I tossed the thing. So what?”
Everyone’s eyes focused on her. Indeed, nothing happened.
“The rules don’t say we can’t take off the watch, but since every single one of us is wearing one, it should be important,” Wei Sen, who had been silent the whole time, spoke up to remind them.
The moment Wei Sen finished speaking, an electronic voice rang out in her mind.
///Ding~ Congratulations, Host, for accomplishing a good deed: a friendly reminder. Merit Points increased by 1.///
Wei Sen glanced at her wristband. The number on it had changed from 100 to 101.
Then she swept her gaze over the others. Their numbers were still 0, including the career woman who had spoken the most.
This fully proved that the number on the watch represented Merit Points, and that she was the only one who had awakened the System.
It also seemed that doing good deeds was one way to increase Merit Points.
“I’m throwing this lousy watch away whether you like it or not! What can you do about it?” Xia Susu shot Wei Sen a glare, then continued, “This is obviously a prank variety show. Believe it if you want! Anyway, I’m leaving. Anyone coming with me?”
The crowd fell silent.
Although everyone wanted to leave, with the rules right there in front of them, no one dared to test them lightly.
Seeing this, Xia Susu’s little face flushed red with frustration. She turned to Ah Qiang. “Brother Ah Qiang, do you want to leave with me?!”
Ah Qiang glanced at the glaring rules, his expression turning somewhat unnatural. But when he saw the expectant look on Xia Susu’s face, he still mustered his courage, took off his watch, threw it away, and said, “Susu’s right! Come on, let’s get out of here!”
“Anyone else coming with us?” Xia Susu lifted her chin and swept an arrogant gaze over the crowd.
“I’m going too!”
“Me too.”
Once the first person agreed, more and more people began to waver. In the end, nearly half of them prepared to leave with Xia Susu.
Just as they were about to go, Wei Sen decided to take the opportunity to test the System again.
“Are you sure you want to leave now? Rule Two says that before summer break arrives, no faculty or staff member may leave the school. Right now, no one knows what happens if you break the rules,” she reminded them.
///Ding~ Congratulations, Host, for accomplishing a good deed: giving everyone a friendly reminder. Merit Points increased by 7.///
Wei Sen immediately understood. Sure enough, good deeds increased Merit Points based on their scale.
After she said that, quite a few of the people who had originally planned to leave chose to wait and see for the time being.
“Cowards.” Xia Susu rolled her eyes at Wei Sen, then looked at the other four people still willing to go with her. “Let’s go. Leave these idiots here to play along with the production team.”
Everyone held their breath as they watched Xia Susu, Ah Qiang, and the others walk into the fog.
Wei Sen lowered her eyes in thought. This was an Instance with the lowest difficulty, with an average death rate of 20%. Surely these people wouldn’t be so unlucky that they’d get wiped right at the start…