Chapter 208 Mizuki Private High School (80)

Nan Huan had been talking to Twelve and Mocha Meng, and they both agreed that there was something wrong with the music, so Nan Huan was always on guard and didn't dare to get too involved, so she didn't notice when the crowd was in turmoil.

But when Beixi and Chaka realized something was wrong at the same time, Nanhuan realized that, or at that moment, the music seemed to have broken through some kind of boundary, namely the player's own psychological defense.

Whether you like it or not, whether you are on guard or not, music is like the melodious sound of bells in the distance, which can enlighten people and forcefully squeeze into everyone's mind.

The shaking drum beats and musical rhythms began to become distorted and strange. At least from Nanhuan's aesthetic point of view, these rhythms could not be considered musical works in the universal sense. It could even be said that the notes were randomly pieced together.

Compared with previous dance music, it's like the aesthetics have suddenly plummeted.

Nan Huan's face flashed with obvious confusion. After all, ever since Twelve and Mocha Meng were tricked, or even earlier, she had felt that this main quest was very strange.

Unlike other previous copies, the logic is clear, the rules of death are obvious, and the means of the copy are clear. How should I describe this main task? It just feels very confusing, making Nan Huan a little unsure. What on earth does it want to do?

Just like now, they finally seem to have figured out the rules that trigger music, but the rules themselves are ambiguous, and at this critical juncture, the music changes again.

Nan Huan was unsure for a moment whether the music was an accomplice of the mission or a troublemaker.

The heavy drum beats fell into Nan Huan's mind. She caught something from the fragmented rhythm, but before she opened her mouth, she glanced at the people originally in the dance floor and saw that they were dispersing from the center to the surroundings without any explanation, as if some ferocious beast had suddenly appeared in the center of the dance floor.

Then, Nan Huan discovered that there was nothing in the center of the dance floor, but the crowd was moving from the center to the periphery like petals, and all the people's movements began to reverse, like a stop-motion animation.

Before she could think about it, the same effect occurred on her body at the same time. Nan Huan felt her body begin to move uncontrollably, but these movements were not ergonomic and were completely reversed.

She watched helplessly as Bei Xi's hand, which he wanted to hold, was uncontrollably retracted in mid-air, the speed gradually increasing from slow to fast. Everything in front of her eyes began to blur, and Nan Huan could only capture a few specific points.

She had already recognized the strange rhythm of the music. It was not just a random tune, but every note of the music was reversed. So it was the reversal of the music that made time flow backwards for everyone. It was not the kind of going back to a certain point in the past all of a sudden, but everything was moving backwards step by step with the present point in time as the axis.

In the chaos, Nan Huan felt her wings stretched out uncontrollably. The pain appeared in an instant and then suddenly disappeared. She knew that time had gone back to the moment when she was whipped.

Time was going backwards, and they quickly left the auditorium, then returned to the morning exam, and then returned to Morpheus' dream that day.

All the reactions projected from the body quickly reappeared on the body within a few seconds.

Nan Huan's mind was the only thing that was clear in her body. Because of the speed, all the people in front of her were stretched into a colorful, jumping symbol, reversing themselves.

If Nan Huan was still skeptical about the strangeness of the main mission just now, the time reversal caused by the reversal of the dance music has now confirmed her idea that there is something wrong with this mission.

She had experienced several side quests with Bei Xi before, all of which involved time factors. She didn't think it was a coincidence, but when the main quest was first announced, it didn't show any relationship with time. Nan Huan thought she was overthinking it, but now it seems that may not be the case.

But now she was wondering, when would the reversed time stop? Would it stop at the time when they first entered this school? Could it be that the system wanted them to start exploring this instance again and again?

But why?

Just now the players gathered together to discuss. Not to mention what triggered it, they were even very cautious about the music and didn't dare to listen too attentively. So what on earth triggered the music reversal mechanism?

In the past, no matter if it was a copy or a system, its actions were traceable. This was the first time that Nan Huan was unsure of the meaning of a copy or a system.

I don't even understand what the significance of this mechanism is?

Soon time went back to one day ago, two days ago, until after exiting Morpheus' dream at double speed, it accelerated back to the first day the players came to the dungeon.

Do I really have to refresh this copy?

Just when Nan Huan was puzzled, the time that was flowing quickly on her body suddenly stopped. The sudden slowdown did not make Nan Huan feel better. On the contrary, it allowed her body to react, and the dizziness caused by the passage of time just now was reflected in an instant.

It was like riding an irregular, high-speed roller coaster, but before she could symbolically vomit, she found that the colorful symbols around her that represented the players, like jumping codes, were slowly slowing down.

Only the colorful stripe representing President Chaka was still reversing at a fast speed, and the next second, the stagnant time on her body was uncontrollably merged into Chaka's reverse flow due to some kind of compulsory attraction.

Nan Huan wanted to resist at first, but her fighting ability was no match for the opponent. Moreover, she noticed from the corner of her eye that not only her, but also Bei Xi and other players were attracted by the reversed time blade on Chaka's body, so she simply gave up struggling.

She was wrong. It seemed that the music was not reversing the timeline of the entire copy, but the time flowing through each person.

As players, they only started to have a timeline in this campus after entering this copy. So even though their timeline had been reversed to the beginning, due to the limitations of the copy, they did not leave the copy, but directly merged into Chaka's timeline and continued to reverse forward.

When his vision was no longer restricted by the dazzling light, Nan Huan discovered that except for Yang Yina, all the surviving players were floating in the white light in a state of weightlessness. And in the center of this light was Chaka. She was still moving back at a strange speed, and the colorful light on her body had reached a state where it was unclear.

A few seconds later, just when the players came to their senses and were trying to find a way to gather everyone together, a dazzling light emitted from Chaka's body again, engulfing everyone.

Nanhuan was completely plunged into darkness until the bell for the start and end of classes, which they had become very familiar with in the past few days, rang in their ears.

The moment Nan Huan opened his eyes, before he could see clearly where she was, he could no longer hold back and bent down.

The head was spinning and she wanted to vomit out all the air in her lungs when a pair of familiar hands were already on her back.

An opened bottle of water was handed to him, "Drink some water to clear your mouth."

Nan Huan finally got over the discomfort in his stomach, stood up straight, coughed twice, and then asked the most important question, "Where are we now?"

A large group of people were lying on the ground around, but others were not treated as well as she was, with no one to support them. Everyone was sitting on the ground in a mess. The only one who was not affected at all was Bei Xi.

"Still in school, just not the school we were in just now."

Bei Xi had already observed the surrounding environment and seemed to realize that this was not quite accurate. She paused for a moment before adding, "To be precise, this should be Shuimu High School. The tea card is missing, and our masks have all disappeared here."

The amount of information in this sentence was so great that Twelve's violent dry coughs were stopped directly by this sentence.

Nan Huan then saw clearly that this place was indeed very familiar. After all, they had just seen it not long ago during the task of activating the system. If there was any change, it was that Nan Huan saw the vending machine not far away at a glance.

"This timeline should be earlier than the timeline when we entered that mission."

Nan Huan almost immediately entered reconnaissance mode and began analyzing.

"We should have collectively entered Chaka's timeline. Obviously, in this timeline, she should not recognize us yet, and it seems that there are no obvious changes here."

Twelve was stunned, and after rubbing his stomach for a long time, he finally realized an important question, "Miss, what task do we have to complete here? Shouldn't our main task be to find a dance partner? How come we are suddenly in President Chaka's timeline, or even beyond so many timelines before we entered the dungeon? Should we look for clues and return to the auditorium now?"

Twelve's words attracted the attention of others, and everyone finally realized the weirdness of this task, and all turned their eyes to the president and the eldest lady.

After all, previous experiences and lessons have made everyone fully aware that the most reliable people on the scene are the president and the eldest lady, and they even subconsciously feel that the two of them can solve all problems.

Nan Huan rarely spoke immediately, but paused for a moment before looking at Bei Xi. She noticed that the latter nodded slightly at her, as if she was very sure of her current inner thoughts, so she spoke uncertainly.

"What do you think of this setting for the main quest? The music suddenly reverses, bringing us all into President Chaka's timeline?"

Nan Huan did not give a conclusion immediately, but raised a question that seemed to be completely unrelated.

They are now in the small garden in front of the teaching building. Bei Xi has been keeping alert and checking the surrounding environment, but the whole campus seems too quiet, and there is no movement in the teaching building. It really doesn't seem like a normal school, but she doesn't feel any threatening factors around her.

Of course, the first reaction of other players was to be on guard. After all, they had reached the final stage of the main quest. Generally speaking, in this situation, one step forward would lead to two pitfalls, so everyone had to be on high alert.

But now there is no music, no dance floor, and even no monsters around. It really doesn't seem like the style of a system or a copy.

Because time was reversed, Mocha Meng's gradually decreasing health points returned to their original state, so she was the most deeply touched. When she heard the eldest lady's question, she was the first to speak.

"From a game designer's perspective, it's really not that good."

Moka Meng analyzed rationally, "According to what happened just now, even if I am careful, my health will be gone at a certain speed. As long as I am delayed from finding a dance partner, I will definitely become a monster. This should be the purpose of the main quest. Now it's the penalty kick stage, and there is still no goalkeeper. As a result, the player who took the penalty suddenly gave up the chance. If I were the system, I would be very elegant in cursing now."

"But from the players' perspective, this is a good thing for us. Time has been reversed, and logically speaking, our main quest has not actually happened yet. Everyone's health has returned to half of what it was when we first entered the dungeon. We are not parasitized by monsters, and we don't have to bother guessing which one is the normal dance partner. At the moment, it seems that the danger has been reduced a little."

Because of the fixed mode of the game, everyone's thinking is still based on completing the main task. After hearing Mocha Meng's words, it was as if they suddenly understood and opened the door to a new world.

Twelve was the first to bear the brunt of the attack. He couldn't suppress his smile as he changed from his previous state of worry. He clapped his hands together and said, "Right, so we have already followed the reversed timeline to the time before the dungeon officially started. Does that mean that we don't have to do the main quest anymore?"

Other players also realized that the current situation was not like the previous situation, where they traveled to a certain point in the past in the mission, but the entire timeline of the person began to go back. They have now entered Chaka's timeline, and at this moment, it is obvious that the copy has not been opened yet, let alone their main mission. Strictly speaking, they have not yet officially enrolled.

Regardless of the game designer's perspective, or whether it was a sudden glitch in the system, everyone suddenly realized that the current situation might not be a bad thing, and the atmosphere instantly changed.

But just as Twelve finished speaking, Bei Xi hit him on the head in annoyance.

Bei Xi's expression seemed to be a bit disappointing, as if he was saying how could Twelve only talk but not have a brain.

Nan Huan asked with a smile, "Are you happy too early? Have you ever thought that we were forced to come in, what if we can't get out? Or can we only follow Chaka's timeline again? Not to mention how much time will be wasted, when the dungeon opens, do we have to deal with Morpheus again? We narrowly won last time, what about this time?"

"And don't think that this place is safe. It just looks like there are no threats around. Have you forgotten that in this timeline, President Chaka was deceived by Yanqi in the end? I don't think the system suddenly did this to remind us of the past and let us watch everything happen with our own eyes?"

Nan Huan did not give them any extra illusions and directly exposed the situation they were facing now. The situation where they had no idea about anything was actually more difficult than the organized main task, especially since they had already reached the final stage of the main task. Nan Huan did not think that the system was so kind.

Twelve pursed his lips, a little anxious. "Miss, please don't keep me in suspense. I can't think so much. And I think this system might have split personality. It used music to mess us around before, and now it suddenly seems to be giving us a nice guy card. It's too contradictory. It doesn't seem like its style."

"Also, I thought this main quest was weird before. Now it seems like a system with two split personalities. They saw that we were doing well and pushed us into the fire pit. When they saw that we were not doing well, they came up with this timeline reversal. It's like they have schizophrenia. My head is about to explode."

She was afraid that the president would hit her head again, so this time she covered her head while speaking, and occasionally glanced at Bei Xi's expression.

Nan Huan found that Twelve was very smart. In fact, she had already keenly perceived the key to the problem, but her ideas were not bold enough.

"Then have you ever thought about what if the power exerted on this main quest or this copy is not just systematic? Just like the previous side quests, why don't the monsters that have been successfully disguised as students kill the original students? Killing the students is the best solution. Without any worries, they can play the role of students openly without worrying about when the students will break free and disrupt their performance?"

This idea was indeed quite out of the ordinary, so much so that it took Twelve some time to fully understand what the eldest lady meant. "You...you mean..."

Twelve swallowed hard before continuing, "Are you saying that those students were not kept alive by the monsters on purpose, waiting for us to discover and rescue them?"

"Well," Nan Huan gave an affirmative answer, "At least the three-dimensional slice should not be a prop that the system has set for us to obtain. Including the main mission, all tasks have the element of time. At first, I thought that the existence of these time factors was largely to interfere with the progress of our mission, but now it seems that this is not the case..."

Bei Xi, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke in the silence, "Whether it is the time loop, time chaos or even the current time reversal, it has largely protected the students from extinction and us from turning into monsters. The time factor is not a factor that interferes with our completion of the task. On the contrary, it acts as a lubricant, providing us with another possibility when the task is difficult or the ending is certain."

Everyone was almost confused by Bei Xi's long speech. At that moment, they felt that they seemed to understand something, but it seemed that something was missing. However, before Twelve could ask a question as a representative, the originally quiet campus suddenly shook.

All the silence was broken in an instant, as if something sleeping had awakened.