Chapter 36: Club Recruitment (Thirteen)

Mu Yu went upstairs with Ye Sui. After picking up the eight school newspapers and handing them to other people, they returned to 201 and 203 respectively. After closing the door and taking a few moments, they came out and stood in the corridor with others to study.

Lu Chongnian and his team have already gone through these eight newspapers again, and from the content, they still haven't found anything unusual.

Hao Jia and Li Ke have both read several issues of the school newspaper, and both said that the news content in their memory is the same as what is presented in the newspaper they are holding in their hands now.

"Could it be that there are problems with these two issues?" Fu Xiaoju pointed to the school newspapers in May and August.

In May, the school newspaper’s club activities section published news about the Small Animal Protection Association’s social practice. Qi Shan did not appear in the photo, but his name appeared in the interview.

In August, the school newspaper published a news report about a cosplay club's performance. The person standing in the center of the photo was none other than Bird Brother himself, but he was so heavily made up that he was unrecognizable.

The friends they knew appeared only in these two issues of the school newspaper. Could the problem lie with these two issues?

Brother Bird was tangled up and said, "But there is nothing wrong with this news about our club. I have a deep impression of this news. There is not even a single word wrong in it."

Everyone stared at the two issues of the newspaper with frowns on their faces, almost staring a hole in their eyes.

Mu Yu murmured, "Five news stories in each issue...?"

The others were stunned.

Mu Yu's eyes swept across the eight newspapers one by one, and this time he said with certainty: "It's five."

I didn’t notice it when I wasn’t paying attention to the school newspaper before, but now that I have, I realize that they have encountered the number “five” again.

In terms of the number of people, the best configuration is "5" clubs, "5" activity classrooms, and then "5" club activity news each issue.

What does this mean?

Lu Zhongnian placed his index finger on the first club news item from the left in the August school newspaper: "Volleyball Club, a cultural and sports club."

Everyone's attention shifted over there.

Lu Zhongnian moved his index finger to the right: "Astronomy Club, a professional learning club."

Then move to the news in the middle: "Cosplay club, life interest club."

The two news items at the bottom are: "Artificial Intelligence Club, Science and Technology Innovation Club; Street Sweeping Club, Social Practice Club."

The others gradually opened their eyes.

They then looked at the other seven issues of the school newspaper and found that each issue contained five news stories corresponding to exactly five different types of clubs, with no repetition in any issue!

"This, this should be the school newspaper editor's rule that every issue must select club news for reporting in this way," Jiang Shuyue asked uncertainly, "Does this have anything to do with our cracking of the copy?"

"I don't know." Lu Zhongnian took back his hand, thought for a moment, and said, "I always feel that there should be some clues that we haven't found yet."

Ye Sui stood up and said, "Maybe we need to have more clubs go through the assessment before we can figure it out."

Yu Hui was puzzled: "But if we pass the test, we can only get a master key. If we don't know which drawer to open, wouldn't it be useless even if we risk our lives to pass the test?"

Mu Yu thought about it and analyzed: "If we can figure out which drawer to open just by daydreaming, and then send a group of people to pass the assessment and get the key, we can complete the clearance mission. Then, wouldn't the preparations of the other clubs be a waste of time and effort? It's not about fairness between players, but will the dungeon be arranged like this?"

From the beginning of the dungeon until now, they have been preparing for the club assessment, but in the end, is it possible that only one group of people is needed to solve the problem?

This is obviously unrealistic, there is no such good thing in the copy.

Of course, it seems that they will get nothing but a key after passing the assessment, but maybe - maybe there is something they have not noticed.

Hao Jia thought about it carefully, and said to Ye Sui solemnly: "Qishan may not be able to hold on for much longer, how about we...?"

Ye Sui nodded.

"Let's go and confirm with Qi Shan. If he is ok, then we will go up now." Ye Sui said to Mu Yu and the others.

They turned around and went back to classroom 203.

Fu Xiaoju yelled at them: "By the way, you might run into that ghost teacher when you go upstairs. Just say hello and bow to him!"

Ye Sui made an "OK" gesture and the door closed in front of them.

Fu Xiaoju carried Li Ke and said, "After I put the senior back in the classroom, I will go downstairs and look around to see if there are any clues that I missed!"

Seeing that the two of them had also run away, Jiang Shuyue could no longer bear the overwhelming feeling of impending death and went back to the classroom to recover.

Mu Yu turned around and said to Lu Zhongnian, "After Ye Sui and his team come down, our team will go up—"

His eyes suddenly became unfocused, and he leaned to the side, wrapping his arms around Bird Brother's neck.

"?" Lu Zhongnian's eyes suddenly froze.

Brother Bird was about to die - not only was he strangled half to death by Mu Yu, but he was also scared half to death by Lu Zhongnian's eyes!

Yu Hui screamed beside him: "It's over, it's over, it's happening again!"

Brother Niao's face turned blue. He struggled to push Mu Yu away, but he was not as strong as Mu Yu. Instead, a strong arm went around Mu Yu's waist and pulled him over in one swoop.

"Cough cough cough, I almost suffocated to death--" Brother Bird choked desperately.

Mu Yu took advantage of the situation and hugged Lu Chongnian instead. His eyelids were drooped and his eyes were dull. His hands were around Lu Chongnian's waist, tightening continuously.

Lu Zhongnian frowned, pinched Mu Yu's wrist, turned him over so that his back was facing him, and then fixed Mu Yu's hands in front of him and held them still.

Mu Yu did not struggle randomly, but Lu Zhongnian could clearly feel the hands under his palms trying hard to break him free.

Unable to break free, Mu Yu turned her head and leaned it on his shoulder, looking like she just wanted to stick to him.

"Muyu!"

After calling Mu Yu but he still didn't wake up, Lu Zhongnian raised his eyes and asked Bird Brother and Yu Hui: "What's going on?"

Brother Bird said hesitantly: "It is the death mechanism of our classroom. Our souls can transform with the props we wear at any time--"

More than twenty minutes ago, Mu Yu was the first to discover this death mechanism.

At that time, his soul had already transformed with the props on his body four times.

The first time was because of the change in the hair accessories on his head. His perspective became looking up, and he could only look at the ceiling of their classroom vaguely, but he had no idea what was happening.

The second time was after Fu Xiaoju knocked on the door of their classroom. He ran to classroom 204 to ask Lu Chongnian and the others to borrow a saw. On the way, he paused because his soul and the necklace on his neck had transformed.

The third time, his soul transferred to the skirt, and the skirt's soul entered his body, so "he" hugged Lu Chongnian, and Lu Chongnian discovered something was wrong.

The fourth time was after he returned to the classroom. With his back against the door, he was about to tell Brother Niao and Yu Hui about his discovery, when his soul was swapped with the hair accessory again!

Props are different from humans. They don't have thoughts, so their souls are transferred to the player's body, and their behaviors seem to all reflect their instincts - for example, the instinct of clothes is to wrap the human body, and jewelry just wants to stay quietly where they should be.

Therefore, this soul transformation that occurs to the player is unlikely to cause any harm to the people around him.

But for players whose souls have been converted, it is different.

"It's no use taking off the clothes and jewelry that have already been put on. Ayu said that when I took off the necklace from his neck, he felt like a small part of his soul was missing. Even after I put the necklace back on him, that part of his soul didn't seem to come back." Brother Bird swallowed and said.

"That is to say, from the moment we put on clothes and jewelry, our souls have actually been divided into different pieces and bound together with different jewelry."

"Each item has the potential to control our bodies at any time, and once this soul transformation begins, it will become more and more frequent, and the item's ability to occupy our bodies will become stronger and stronger. If we don't stop this trend, there will always be a moment when a soul transformation will occur, and this soul transformation cannot be automatically reversed."

"At that time, if the person next to us can find the item that transformed with us and take it off, then we can temporarily take back our bodies, at the cost of losing part of our souls. But if they find the wrong one, then it's equivalent to losing part of our souls in vain."

"So our current strategy is to try not to pick up props until it's really too late..."

Lu Zhongnian stared at him and asked, "Did he test these on himself?"

——Niao Ge and Yu Hui haven’t put on any costumes or props yet, so it is impossible that this was tested by the two of them.

Niao Ge and Yu Hui nodded silently.

When Mu Yu discovered the death mechanism, their trial fitting had not even begun.

Mu Yu asked them not to move and to ensure that no meaningless soul loss occurred before the assessment officially began.

Lu Zhongnian's voice became colder: "How many props did he pick up in total?"

“…Three.”

Bird opened his mouth and consoled him: "But maybe it was because he already had a lot of stuff on him at the time, so after taking off those three items, he said that the loss of souls didn't seem to be that much..."

His voice trailed off and his face showed shame.

They didn't want to be cowards and only want Mu Yu to take action when something dangerous happens. However, the final result seemed to be just that. Only Mu Yu suffered the loss, which made Niao Ge and Yu Hui very ashamed.

If they had known this would happen, they would not have let Mu Yu try it on first.

At this moment, Mu Yu blinked and suddenly woke up.

He had just undergone a soul transformation with the dress he was wearing, and also heard the conversation between the three of them.

He signaled Lu Zhongnian to let go of his hand and comforted him, "It's okay, everything is still under control, don't worry too much, I think everything will be fine as long as you pass the assessment."

Currently, the only group that has passed the assessment is Fu Xiaoju and Li Ke. The damage they suffered is one-time, so no changes can be seen before and after the assessment, but Mu Yu believes that all the death mechanisms imposed on players by the classroom will eventually stop after the assessment is passed.

Lu Zhongnian's lips were pressed tightly into a line.

Before he could say anything, the door of classroom 203 was opened.

They looked over.

Ye Sui and Hao Jia helped Qi Shan out.

Qi Shan's appearance at this moment became extremely terrifying.

His body became very long, his hands and feet became very thin, and his hands became the shape of dog paws.

His face was also deformed, his nose and mouth were stretched out, and his ears stood up and became pointed.

Rather than being a human being, he looked more like a dog that looked like a human, and even his walking posture became very strange.

His hands were tied to his upper body, but from his eyes, which were a mixture of coldness and aggression, it could be seen that he still had some self-awareness, so staying in this state until arriving at the community union office was probably a plan he agreed to.

Mu Yu restrained his expression, walked over, grabbed Ye Sui, and stuffed his demon coin into Ye Sui's hand.

"According to the situation of Ma'er's group, the assessment contents of different groups are still too different. You may not be able to enter the illusion. So no matter what, you should exchange an item and bring it in first."

The situation in Qishan is too dangerous.

Ye Sui's transformation into a beast has stopped, but Qi Shan's transformation seems to be still continuing. I don't know if it's because he has completely fallen into the pit of the copy.

Their group really couldn't wait any longer. They might die if they went to the Society Union Office, but if they continued to stay in the classroom, Qi Shan would probably die even faster.

Ye Sui didn't refuse Mu Yu any more. He took the coin and nodded.

Mu Yu looked at Qi Shan and Hao Jia and whispered, "Be careful."

He finally looked at Ye Sui.

Ye Sui patted his shoulder, and everything they wanted to say to each other was left unsaid.

After the three of them went upstairs, Mu Yu called Niao Ge and Yu Hui to go back to the classroom to make final preparations.

Lu Chongnian called him.

Mu Yu stopped, and Lu Zhongnian looked at him and said, "You don't like me to take risks, but you always seem to be the first to rush to the front when there is danger."

Mu Yu was stunned.

"I know this is your character and principle, and no one can change it," Lu Zhongnian's tone sounded calm, "but be more careful, okay?"

Mu Yu paused and said, "I understand...but I always consider the risks before I do anything."

Lu Zhongnian asked back: "Does this make any difference to you?"

In the corridor, the two stood facing each other.

"If it wasn't a matter of certain death, you would definitely rush to the front. If it was really certain death, would you retreat?"

"Mu Yu, you also said that if it was the latter situation, you would choose to sacrifice yourself without hesitation. The only difference is that in the former situation, you would discuss it with us."

"But even in the previous situation, don't overdo it," Lu Zhongnian said slowly, "If the swing is too high, you will fly out, and I don't want you to fly out."

Mu Yu looked at him.

He knew that Lu Chongnian was now talking about how he tested the death mechanism by picking up props.

So after a moment of silence, he replied, "I know."

Lu Zhongnian observed his expression carefully.

Mu Yu was also very serious: "I really understand. I'm not angry with you."

Mu Yu was not the kind of person who would act pretentious. He liked to refute or express displeasure when hearing anything. He knew that Lu Chongnian cared about him.

Then Lu Zhongnian's eyes softened.

He asked in a low voice again: "Have you read the note?"

“I have.”

"Are you still angry?" Lu Zhongnian tilted his head and observed him more carefully.

Mu Yu recalled the note.

On the note, Lu Chongnian first answered his question about what happened on the morning of August 21st.

"I've also tried to recall what happened that morning, but I may have lost more memories than you. I can only remember what happened when I first woke up. There's nothing special about it. I may be able to recall some of the other memories if I try harder, but not so quickly."

Mu Yu believed that not only him, but Lu Chongnian must have also confirmed that their amnesia had nothing to do with the hangover.

Something must have happened that morning.

After that, Lu Zhongnian added a sentence on the note:

"Jin Sheng is missing, and Zhao Jiayang has entered the fog."

Perhaps the word "mist" reminded him of a sentence he accidentally said at the beginning of the copy, which made Mu Yu unhappy. He added after this sentence:

"When I said that, I didn't mean that I didn't care about my life or death. I just didn't like the feeling of being passive."

"Are you still angry?"

…

There is a dot after the words “I just don’t like the feeling of being passive”.

Mu Yu always felt that Lu Chongnian should have stopped writing and thought after writing this sentence, and perhaps he himself had not fully figured out his mentality at the time.

If he really just hated being passive and wanted to step into the fog to find out what was going on, then he could have explained it to Mu Yu like this at the time, and Mu Yu would not have been unable to understand.

But Lu Chongnian's reaction at that time was silence.

Or, he could choose not to explain to Mu Yu at all. After all, the relationship between the two of them was not the kind that required a clear explanation to each other.

But Lu Chongnian chose to explain to him again.

And when he wrote this sentence later, did he really think it through, or did he simply want to reassure Mu Yu?

Mu Yu didn’t know.

He couldn't see through Lu Chongnian.

He always felt that Lu Chongnian didn't care that much about his life.

Whether it was Lu Zhongnian's words about wanting to step into the mist, or his decision to enter the water tank without hesitation in the previous instance -

Lu Chongnian could have chosen to explain all these things in a way that others could accept, but Mu Yu always felt that there was a sense of "casualness" in Lu Chongnian's behavior.

But every time Mu Yu got angry, when Lu Chongnian coaxed him and told him what he thought, Mu Yu felt that Lu Chongnian's "casualness" was like an illusion that disappeared in an instant, as if he still knew that he could not die casually.

Mu Yu actually couldn’t understand. If Lu Chongnian really didn’t value his own life, then why wouldn’t he value his own life?

Mu Yu likes Lu Chongnian.

In the previous three years, he had been paying attention to the boy he liked all the time, but he still knew too little about Lu Zhongnian.

But there's nothing we can do about it, right?

If you think about it carefully, there is already a huge distance between him and Lu Chongnian.

After realizing this, Mu Yu was suddenly no longer angry.

Because objective problems cannot be changed by getting angry.

now--

He opened his mouth and said to Lu Zhongnian: "Lu Zhongnian, let's let those things that happened before go. I just want to say that no matter what you thought in your heart before, I just hope that every time you show up in the future..."

He considered it for a moment, and said, "When you feel blank, think about your family, Yan Shaowen and the others... or me."

"I'm not trying to blackmail you morally, but I want you to think about this: is the blank space in your heart really blank?"

Lu Zhongnian looked at him steadily.

"Forget it, let's not talk about others."

Mu Yu picked up Lu Zhongnian's hand: "Just the two of us."

"You should still care about me a little, right? Although I don't like you always hiding things from me, I know you don't want me to be scared or worried."

"Like the matter of the two worlds—"

"I forgot to tell you at the beginning that your existence in this world has been completely erased. Everyone has forgotten you, but you obviously know this yourself. Why do you know this?"

"For example, you said that you didn't see me until today. Why did you not see me until today, when the dungeon brought us together?"

Mu Yu looked at Lu Zhongnian and said, "Is it because the world you are in is a world where my existence has been completely erased?"