First encounter with F1

Anru, who held the opposite view to Chesia, asked: "...Do you do something without any preparation beforehand?"

Chesia said confidently, "Preview? What's there to preview? You'll understand once you start class, won't you?"

"Life is about being spontaneous."

Aru: "I hope you'll be just as confident when you ask me for answers in Morse code during the exam."

However, Aru's answer was yet another act of cheating and deception—

"I can't sign all of them, sign half for me!" Chesia pushed the thicker copy of the two piles of papers in front of Aru.

"I won't work for nothing."

"Alright, alright, don't you have a business deal lately, transporting a shipment to the Stan region? I'll send someone to escort it for you, okay? You're such a cheapskate." Chesia gave Anru a disdainful look.

"Then you're really at a disadvantage."

"Oh, so you know I'm at a disadvantage. That's good. I thought Venetian merchants like you had terrible consciences."

"You big swindler, you'll easily lose your friends and be abandoned by everyone if you keep doing this."

"Forgot, you never had any friends or family."

"Just live your whole life clutching your pile of money!"

Nobody loves you!

"Since you're going to hold a grudge, give me back my mask!" Chesia belatedly realized that Anru had forgotten to bring the mask she always wore when she came to Sugmat, so she had to temporarily borrow the Japanese Noh masks she had collected.

I'm so kind, generous, and lovely, and I only thought about this now.

“Your mask is so ugly it’s thought-provoking; you should pay me compensation for the damage to my image,” Anru said, tossing the mask into Chesia’s arms.

"If you have no artistic talent, may Satan curse you."

"It's better than living a life of creating hellish art."

"Are there any outstanding students among this year's freshmen? Can I borrow their homework to copy?" Chesia suddenly remembered that she hadn't done her holiday "homework" yet.

"Didn't you see it yourself?"

"The data was eaten by Da Ben." Da Ben is a sled dog owned by Chesia. It's a bit silly and thinks anything white is snow, which arouses its homesickness. So it eats the soil from its hometown to comfort itself.

"No. There are good-looking ones, but their abilities aren't anything special." Anru didn't even blink when she lied.

"Oh. Is that so? Never mind then. I don't need to waste my points on trash." Chesia went along with it and didn't expose her.

He asked again, "Wasn't that person anything special?"

"It's just a few tricks and gimmicks."

"You know, those specially admitted students always come up with a lot of ways to attract our attention."

The two of them, each harboring their own secrets, tacitly lied to each other.

When the exhibition ended, Chesia asked the hostess about Lin Xue's whereabouts and hurried in the direction Lin Xue had left, secretly cursing Anru as an idiot in her heart.

You think you can compete with me?

If it weren't for the fact that I could still make some money off you, I would have shot you long ago.

On the other side, Lin Xue had already left the main building and was wandering around.

The Sugmat shopping mall is a large complex of commercial buildings, like a city within a city.

In the center of the building complex, there is an abandoned church that has not been demolished due to a cultural heritage preservation plan.

Originally, this area was also planned as part of a commercial district and opened to tourists as a tourist attraction.

However, because people had died there and a notorious church murder had occurred, no one dared to go inside.

In the end, the developer had no choice but to abandon the maintenance of the church, and the dilapidated church, left unrepaired, became even more desolate.

As a result, this place became a mecca for adventure enthusiasts.

Green ivy climbs all over the wall like fish scales, sealing off every door and window.

When Lin Xue arrived, the door had already been smashed open by adventure enthusiasts using hoes.

He walked in with ease.

Fortunately, I don't have to be the one vandalizing public property.

The sound of a piano drifted in from somewhere.

Someone is playing a hymn called "White Lily" or "Lilian," which tells a story about love and forgiveness.

In the legend of "The Words of God", Lillian was hurt by humans, and her pure heart, as innocent as a white lily, was plunged into darkness.

She clasped her hands together, and the universe exploded.

She drifted away on the wind amidst the dust and fragments.

From then on, the world was without light and without darkness.

Everything returned to its original, pristine state.

There was no strife, no sorrow, no jealousy, and no love.

The tears of her lover, who had once been infatuated with her, fell upon her and became the first rain after the destruction of the universe.

As raindrops fall, new life sprouts up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

Everything started anew, and so they met again.

Until the next time, Lillian once again brought the world to an end.

At the end of the long river where the sun sets, she stands tall and graceful.

Some people slandered her, some people insulted her, and some people suspected her.

But none of this will change her.

She has been disappointed in humanity countless times, and she has also forgiven humanity countless times.

Let humanity know that love is as precious as death.

The goddess of the world turns the pulsator of time, so that beauty may last forever, lovers may be united, and those with loving hearts may find a world as beautiful as paradise.

Until forever.

A large section of the stained glass dome is missing, and sunlight leaks down from it, casting its light onto the bench of the grand piano.

The stool was empty.

Lin Xue sat down on the piano bench, only to see the reflection of a boy in a white shirt on the piano.

That boy had a face completely different from mine.

But like a reflection in a mirror, it moved in sync with Lin Xuele's movements.

When Lin Xue looked at him with a puzzled expression, he looked back at her with the same puzzled look.

Lin Xue reached out her hand towards the reflection.

Just as it was about to touch its reflection, the reflection shyly withdrew its hand.

It's like being afraid that your own cold body temperature will burn the flesh of the human body.

The reflection has disappeared.

Lin Xue tried pressing a note on the piano keys.

The reflection also harmonized with the music—

Lin Xuele's hands flew across the piano keys, and the reflected transparent hands began to play a four-hand duet with Lin Xuele.

The transparent reflection did not leave, but detached from the piano's lacquer and appeared on the piano bench, right next to Lin Xue.

When the reflection plays the piano, it is unassuming, serving entirely as a complement to Lin Xuele's playing.

When the song ended, the reflection completely disappeared.

It was as if he had never existed.

Lin Xue discovered a small music box that had just appeared on the piano.

He cranked the music box, and beautiful music flowed out quietly like running water.

The gentle melody without lyrics was all the words that the reflection wanted to say to Lin Xue.

-

As Lin Xue was about to leave the mall, the receptionist came out and told him, "Mr. Lin, you'd better take the car we've arranged to go back."

I want to wander around.

"No... Once you leave the mall, you'll be in the most chaotic neighborhood in all of Silan. There are many stray dogs and homeless people there, and your safety cannot be guaranteed."

How could she compromise her own safety? Then Lin Xue was even more determined to go and check.

Safety was a word Lin Xue had never considered.

From the moment I entered this bizarre world, I had already disregarded life and death.

Danger is ever-present.

Clink glasses with death in the darkness.

I feel more at ease in danger than in a peaceful life.

After declining the hostess's offer, the hostess took out a satellite phone and handed it to Lin Xue: "For your safety, please take this with you. If anything happens, you can call us directly, and we will send someone to handle it."

She said with a wry smile, "If anything happens to you, it would be a huge responsibility for us."

Lin Xue left the Sugmat shopping mall. Just a few hundred meters away, what was once a bustling commercial area had suddenly become a completely new and cruel world.

The sky was gray, the houses were dilapidated, people walked backwards like zombies, and many people stared at him.

It's like peeling a piece of flesh off yourself.

The groups of homeless people were like a pack of wild dogs, drooling and twitching, hiding in the shadows, looking for an opportunity to strike.

These are homeless people who have lost their homes and can no longer find work. After years of living on the streets, they are no longer human, but have become a terrifying group like wild dogs, robbing and attacking pedestrians everywhere.

Even the weakest person can be terrifying if they unite as a group to attack.

They followed closely behind Lin Xue, ready to pounce on him and devour him at any moment.

A girl's shrill cry for help came from afar: "Help—"

Lin Xue saw a group of thin, homeless men surrounding the poor girl, preparing to do something indecent to her.

While Lin Xue was fighting with the homeless people around her, the girl revealed a pair of incredibly dark eyes from under her long bangs and stabbed a dagger into Lin Xue's heart from behind.

Absolutely perfect. If she weren't involved in a honey trap, she'd have a real talent for being a careful surgeon, Lin Xue commented.

"I'm sorry, but who told you to be so kind and compassionate?"

Fearing she hadn't completely stabbed him, the girl stabbed Lin Xue a few more times.

"Since you're going to do a good deed to the end, why don't you tell me what else you have in your estate? Anyway, you're dead, so you won't need it anymore..."

She was about to search Lin Xue's body when she said, "It's St. Lia's uniform, but unfortunately it's a men's uniform. However, it's not like I can't dress up as a man to enroll..."

"Now your money and status are all mine, hahaha, I haven't even experienced life as a St. Leah student yet..."

Suddenly, a pair of strong hands grabbed her wrists, rendering her unable to move.

Her terrified gaze magnified to its extreme when it met Lin Xue's smile:

"You... how come you're not dead?" The ghost stared at Lin Xue with eyes that looked as if it had seen a ghost.

Lin Xue looked at the dagger in her chest.

It's a bit like the wind-up mechanism on a toy.

He yanked the dagger out of his chest, and the hole closed in the blink of an eye. He saw the blood splattered on the ground and thought to himself, "What a waste. What excellent material for raising ghosts!"

"Oh, should I die now?"

"I've been alive for so long, I've forgotten everything."