Chapter 40
Chapter 40
When the bell rang for the second period, Wei Sen walked into the classroom.
Her gaze swept across the entire class, and there was Wang Hua, sitting at his desk completely unharmed.
Wei Sen’s hand tightened in secret.
No wonder Wang Hua’s body had been gone from downstairs when she came up earlier. There hadn’t even been a single drop of blood.
An Eerie Entity couldn’t be killed after all!
“Class begins!” Wei Sen stepped up to the podium and began teaching according to the lesson plan.
More than half the period passed without anything strange happening.
The clock at the back of the classroom showed no signs of Contamination, and the principal did not appear in the corridor outside.
But the calmer things were, the less she could afford to let down her guard.
Wei Sen was just about to turn around and write on the blackboard when, out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw someone sitting in the empty seat in the last row.
She looked closely. Sitting in what had been an empty seat was now a little boy. His school uniform was older than everyone else’s. His cheeks were gaunt, and his face was deathly pale.
It was Yu Ming!
Wei Sen met his eyes for a few brief seconds, then set down the chalk and headed out of the classroom.
Teacher’s Guideline Article 7: There are only forty-three students in your class. If you discover a forty-fourth student in the classroom, immediately close the classroom door, leave at once, and report to the Academic Affairs Office as soon as possible. Do not attempt to communicate or make contact with the extra student.
Wei Sen had many questions she wanted to ask Yu Ming, but according to the rules, she could not speak directly to Yu Ming after he had suddenly appeared in the classroom.
She quickly left the teaching building and went to the Academic Affairs Office.
Wei Sen knocked on the door. When Bai Xue saw her, she shot up from her chair.
“Yu Ming appeared?”
“Mm.” Wei Sen hadn’t expected her to guess why she had come. It seemed the position of Academic Affairs Director came with far more information than she had imagined.
Bai Xue could not hide the joy on her face. She picked up a pencil from the desk and headed toward the teaching building.
Wei Sen immediately followed.
“Is that pencil an Anomalous Artifact?” Wei Sen asked.
Bai Xue glanced at her in confusion. “Anomalous Artifact? In the group, I’ve always called them ‘items.’ I’ve never once mentioned ‘Anomalous Artifact.’ How did you know that term?”
Wei Sen shot back with a sidelong look, “How did you know it?”
Bai Xue smiled faintly and said, “You’ll understand soon enough.”
Wei Sen followed Bai Xue to the doorway of Class 2, Grade 3. Wei Sen stopped at the door, while Bai Xue opened it and walked straight in.
Standing by the window, Wei Sen saw that the person in the last row was still there.
Bai Xue hid the pencil behind her back and walked toward Yu Ming.
“You’re Student Yu Ming, aren’t you?” Bai Xue wore a kindly smile.
Hearing someone call his name, Yu Ming turned stiffly to look at Bai Xue.
The other students all seemed terrified of Bai Xue. One after another, they stared straight ahead, not daring to look at her.
Yu Ming blinked and asked in confusion, “You… can see me.”
Bai Xue came up to him, her smile turning cold and sinister. “That’s right. I can finally see you!”
As soon as she finished speaking, before anyone could react, Bai Xue reached out and drove the pencil straight into the very center of Yu Ming’s forehead.
Wei Sen froze.
She was going to kill Yu Ming?!
But Zhao Yue, who had harmed an Eerie Entity before, had died without even an intact corpse. Bai Xue knew perfectly well what the outcome could be, yet she still dared to act.
Or was this required by her rules?
Wei Sen watched everything happening in the classroom in confusion.
With the pencil embedded between his brows, Yu Ming’s body twisted in agony, his expression especially savage.
Yet the pencil was like a sealing talisman. Though Yu Ming was in unbearable pain, he had no way to break free from its restraints.
Without another word, Bai Xue grabbed Yu Ming’s arm and dragged him toward the classroom door.
The bell rang for the end of class, but every student in the classroom remained motionless, staring blankly as Bai Xue took Yu Ming away.
Only Guo Xiaolan, seated in the first row, had tears flowing from her pale, clouded eyes.
“Where are you taking him?” Wei Sen asked, stepping forward.
Bai Xue did not look back. Instead, she gave a faint, cold laugh. “Come see for yourself.”
With that, Bai Xue grabbed Yu Ming by the hand and dragged him upstairs.
Wei Sen suddenly realized there was only one place upstairs they could be going: the Principal’s Office!
Wei Sen followed Bai Xue all the way to the door of the Principal’s Office on the seventh floor.
Bai Xue knocked. The office door opened, and Principal Zhang walked out.
Bai Xue shoved Yu Ming in front of the principal. “I caught him!”
“Jie jie jie. Well done…” Principal Zhang looked at Yu Ming before him, the corners of his mouth splitting all the way to his ears. Then his mouth slowly opened, revealing yellowed teeth like countless sharp knives. His jaws stretched wider and wider, until he bit down on Yu Ming’s head.
Principal Zhang seemed to be savoring the finest delicacy in the world. With one bite, he snapped Yu Ming’s neck, then swallowed the small body in another mouthful.
His bloody maw chewed, making crunching, grinding sounds.
Neither Bai Xue nor Wei Sen dared to breathe as they watched the horrifying scene unfold before them. The principal had actually eaten his own student!
After swallowing what was in his mouth, Principal Zhang finally returned to his original appearance. His tongue seemed to stir around inside his mouth.
“Urgh!” Principal Zhang cupped both hands in front of his mouth and spat out a puddle of bloody water.
Wei Sen frowned in disgust. The air seemed thick with rot and the stench of blood.
“Jie jie jie. Well done. This is your reward.” Principal Zhang held the bloody water out to Bai Xue.
Although Bai Xue’s face was also full of revulsion, she forced down her physical discomfort and reached into the puddle of blood, pulling out a key.
“Thanks!” The instant Bai Xue took the key, a Red Door appeared behind her.
Wei Sen was stunned.
There really was a Red Door, and the Red Door really was the exit from this Instance!
But opening the Red Door required a key, and the key in Bai Xue’s hand had been exchanged with the principal using Yu Ming.
In other words, one of Bai Xue’s Clearance Conditions had to be helping the principal find the missing Yu Ming!
Now that Yu Ming had been eaten by the principal, it would be impossible for Group B to fulfill “It”‘s wish!
Because Yu Ming, the one who was “It,” had vanished!
As Wei Sen thought this, her expression grew especially grave.
Bai Xue toyed with the key in her hand. Both her hands were stained with blood, yet she looked at Wei Sen with the air of a victor.
“Sorry, but I’ll be leaving first.”
“Heh.” Wei Sen let out a cold laugh.
Bai Xue had clearly known Group A’s Clearance Condition, but she had chosen to hide it from her own teammates. Instead, she had spun lie after lie, sending those people off to risk their lives for her.
“How did you get that Anomalous Artifact?” Wei Sen asked.
Bai Xue glanced at the Red Door so close at hand, but she did not seem to be in any hurry. “One of my rules said, ‘It’ fears their methods. At first, I didn’t know who ‘It’ and ‘they’ referred to. I really have to thank you for telling me about the public criticism notice in the Principal’s Office. Only then did I learn that Yu Ming had been bullied by Wang Hua and Sun Qiang all along, which meant he was afraid of them.”
“Then Zhou Junjie told me he heard Wang Hua ask you to go to the Gymnasium at midnight, saying he would tell you how to leave. Of course, I knew you definitely wouldn’t go. But I needed to find someone to meet Wang Hua. I had to know what exactly their methods were…”
“So you gave Zhou Junjie the flashlight and encouraged him to go to the Gymnasium,” Wei Sen said.
Bai Xue laughed softly. “That’s right. Exactly. I never expected their methods to be so cruel. You all clearly went into the Gymnasium back then, yet none of you discovered such a useful Anomalous Artifact. Hahaha!”
“I didn’t see any Anomalous Artifact at the time,” Wei Sen said.
“Of course you didn’t,” Bai Xue said, lowering her voice. “Because… it was stuck in Zhou Junjie’s throat.”