13 Menggui High School (13)

This was originally just an ordinary campus.

Nan Zhu had considered that there might be strange traps in the small supermarket, but she never expected it to be such a big pit, big enough to kill all of them!

"Run this way!" She reached out and grabbed Zhao Jiayue, who was staggering as she ran, and with a tense expression, she ran as fast as she could towards the classroom.

The other people who were originally with her had already been scattered in the previous chase, and no one knew whether they were alive or dead.

The vast campus was eerily quiet. Nan Zhu vaguely heard her own rapid, panting breaths. The icy wind rushed into her mouth, cutting her throat and lungs like a knife.

"Wait, wait..." Zhao Jiayue suddenly began to struggle, trying to shake off her hand. Gasping for breath, she shook her head and cried, "I'm sorry, I... I can't run anymore..."

Nan Zhu stumbled and stopped running.

She turned to look at Zhao Jiayue, whose face was covered in tears.

Zhao Jiayue is a new player who has just entered the game. She has no items, no skills, no physical attribute bonuses, and she is even confused about the essence of the game.

Zhao Jiayue was just an ordinary girl who accidentally entered a game instance.

So, like all ordinary people, she was too weak to the monsters in this instance, and to the players who had already survived two instances. She was both timid and incapable, her whole being screaming that she wanted to live, yet also that she was a burden and a hindrance.

Since entering the instance this morning, Nan Zhu has helped Zhao Jiayue many times, and even Chen Qi, who doesn't talk much, has silently helped Zhao Jiayue a few times.

Perhaps because they are the same gender, Zhao Jiayue is also very dependent on the two female players. When she encounters danger, she will subconsciously ask them for help. She will even subconsciously lean on their side when walking, seeking psychological support for herself.

Therefore, this was the first time Nan Zhu was refused help by Zhao Jiayue.

Zhao Jiayue took the initiative to break free from Nanzhu's hand. When Nanzhu reached out to help her up again, she not only did not reach out and get up, but also cried and shook her head, falling backward towards the strange creature behind her.

"Leave me alone..." Zhao Jiayue cried uncontrollably, but her words were clearer and more rational than before. She wiped away her tears and choked out, "I'm too weak. If you keep dragging me along, I'll definitely kill you!"

She lived an ordinary life, with a loving mother and a loving dog. From childhood to adulthood, she never intentionally or unintentionally hurt anyone. She would even close her eyes in fear when she saw her mother killing chickens or fish.

Having been pulled into this terrifying and bizarre game instance without even realizing it, Zhao Jiayue was very grateful to Nan Zhu and everyone else for taking care of her. It was precisely because of this gratitude that she was even more determined not to become someone who indirectly caused everyone's death.

"I'm stronger than you. Get up, I'll run with you towards the classroom, we'll be there soon!" Nan Zhu's face darkened, she grabbed Zhao Jiayue's thin arm and coldly scolded, "If you really don't want to be a burden to me, stand up and run with me. If you really kill me, you can cry then!"

Zhao Jiayue also wanted to live. She missed her mother and the puppy she had raised with all her heart. But the strange creature chasing them was moving too fast. In that short time, Zhao Jiayue could hear the footsteps getting closer and closer behind her.

She cried as she avoided Nan Zhu's outstretched hand, and as she smelled the approaching stench of blood, she closed her eyes in despair.

Large tears streamed down her cheeks. It turned out that before a person dies, there are no memories flashing through their mind. Her mind was blank, and she couldn't even remember what her mother looked like.

But the expected pain never came.

The light she perceived through her eyelids was neither chaos nor darkness, and the temperature she felt through her body was still bone-chillingly cold.

"...She's crying so intensely, are you really not going to wake her up?" Qin Fu'an held the supermarket clerk's hands behind her back, turned his head and asked the somber-looking Nan Zhu curiously.

Nan Zhu looked at Zhao Jiayue, who was waiting to die with her eyes closed, and said in a deep voice, "Let her cry. Since she doesn't want to live anyway, crying to death is better than being chewed up and swallowed alive by the monster!"

Upon hearing this, Qin Fu'an suddenly looked down curiously and asked the monster he had subdued, "Dude, I didn't mean any harm. I just wanted to ask, how dare you chase after her and bite her?"

It's said that when humans are angry, their fighting power can be several times greater than usual. Qin Fu'an used to think this was just a rumor, but now, looking at Nan Zhu, whose anger level is off the charts, he suddenly feels that perhaps even if he didn't appear, this strange creature that only has the speed talent but not much fighting power wouldn't be able to harm them.

Salesperson: "..."

Get out of here! Can you let go?!

Seeing the clerk's inner turmoil, Qin Fu'an looked up at the enormous soul that had long since retracted its tentacles above the campus and began to wonder if his deskmate's leftover food would get cold after he looted the supermarket and returned to the classroom.

It was probably Qin Fu'an and Nan Zhu's conversation that finally brought Zhao Jiayue out of her terror of death. She slowly opened her eyes, sobbing. After seeing the scene in front of her, she didn't even have time to cry. She hurriedly got up and subconsciously leaned against Nan Zhu.

"...I'm really not dead?" She looked at Nan Zhu with teary eyes.

Nan Zhu was indifferent, but answered every question: "If you want to die, you can put yourself in its mouth right now."

She gestured with her eyes to the supermarket clerk who had been restrained by Qin Fu'an.

Despite her cold tone and sharp words, Zhao Jiayue suddenly burst into laughter through her tears, excitedly reaching out to take her arm and whispering joyfully, "I'm really not dead! Sister Zhu, thank you so much, I'm so glad I didn't kill you!"

Nan Zhu: "..."

She really wanted to tell Zhao Jiayue that she wasn't the one who saved the person, and that she shouldn't ignore Qin Fu'an who was standing next to her.

But Zhao Jiayue didn't dare to contact Qin Fu'an, and Qin Fu'an didn't care about a meaningless thank you.

He told the two players to go back to the classroom to do their homework. As the substitute teacher, he wouldn't help the students cheat if they didn't finish their homework.

"Thank you for saving us." Nan Zhu thanked him sincerely, and then told Qin Fu'an about the situation in the supermarket and the direction the other three had fled.

After they left, Qin Fu'an noticed the barrage of comments flooding the screen.

"The host should reappear later. I want to see more of the extreme struggle between Nan Zhu and Xiao Xinren between life and death."

Qin Fu'an read out the most frequently viewed comments word by word, and asked curiously, "Are viewers these days really this serious? If I hadn't saved her, she would have really been swallowed by the monster, leaving not even a bone behind. Is this the death tug-of-war you wanted to see?"

As soon as he finished speaking, countless ellipses appeared in the live chat.

[I've never seen a streamer who ruins the atmosphere like this; they don't create any entertainment value at all!]

[Nonsense! There was clearly a great atmosphere and entertaining moments between him and that little NPC classmate, hehe~]

[Although the newbie is weak, she's quite principled. I just don't know how many game stages she'll survive with that kindness and principle.]

[Hehe, I've already followed her. I love kind and principled streamers like her. It's so satisfying to lure her step by step into death or moral decay. I hope she survives until the next level of her stream starts!]

[Upstairs, maybe being a streamer would give you a greater sense of accomplishment. Why don't you give it a try?]

[...try it and you'll die?]

Qin Fu'an didn't pay much attention to the audience members who were chatting enthusiastically. He recalled what Nan Zhu had just said, frowned, and finally decided to solve the problem at its source.

Qin Fu'an lowered his head, his slender fingers clamping down on the salesperson's chin, forcing it to look up and meet his gaze.

The sales clerk had no choice but to look directly into those long, narrow, eerie green eyes.

"Have your companions bring my student back." Staring into the monster's eyes, which were magnified to the extreme, Qin Fu'an smiled and emphasized, word by word, "Remember, I want him alive and whole."

Only after he let go did the thin but incredibly fast salesperson cough and bend over.

After it left, Qin Fu'an caught a glimpse of a slowly moving barrage of starlight.

[I don't know why, but even though it's supposed to be a tense, thrilling, and dangerous game instance where you could die at any moment, it looks surprisingly...lighthearted in this streamer's room, like watching a school drama, not a horror stream at all.]

Qin Fu'an stared at the comment until it slowly disappeared before thoughtfully interacting with the audience.

Is it possible that this was originally just an ordinary school campus?

Upon hearing this, the audience nearly froze their screens with question marks.

But Qin Fu'an continued to analyze for them, spouting nonsense with seemingly logical arguments: "Actually, for the teachers and students in this school, the players who were thrown in are the strange and out-of-place ones, right? As for me... I'm just better at communicating with strange creatures than humans, so as long as you treat me as a strange creature, you shouldn't feel any sense of separation."

[I'm so upset! He actually considered our feelings and suggested we change our perspective!]

[I've doubted my own ears and eyes, but I've never doubted the streamer's mental state. What good person would associate with a ghost?!]

[Is this the explanation I wanted? I wanted you to be a fugitive, hunted by ghosts, crying in despair!]

[Haha, the streamer is so funny! I've followed them. I hope you can stay this relaxed forever.]

In just one lunch break, the popularity of Qin Fu'an's live stream surged again.

Some people discussed his behavior, some discussed his unusual eyes, and some discussed how long he could live, but for Qin Fu'an, there was only one thing he wanted to know.

"Can the goods on these shelves really only be purchased with academic credits and body parts?" He asked as he walked between the supermarket shelves, lightly wiping a shelf with his hand.

My once clean fingertips were immediately covered with a thick layer of dust, clearly indicating that almost no students had entered this small supermarket so far.

Only a few players from Nanzhu dared to barge in.

If they hadn't run fast, given their usual performance today which almost resulted in a negative score... and with the sales staff pressuring them to buy, probably no one would have been able to leave this ordinary little supermarket unscathed.

A perfect score of 100 is required to earn one credit, and even the cheapest candy costs 10 credits. With this kind of exchange system, it's likely that students at the school won't be able to afford a single chocolate after an entire semester.

[Author's Note]

Students: QAQ

.

Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution:

Refuse 3 bottles of angst-inducing novels;

One bottle of "Clear Rain and Lonely Boat";

Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!