As night fell, the entire sky took on a translucent pale purple hue, appearing almost unreal.
Teacher Liu disappeared suddenly, leaving Xiao Cheng alone, sitting on the edge of the rooftop, swinging her legs, looking down at the empty school below.
The blood-red filter she had been wearing had gradually disappeared, and she could now see the metal sign on the school gate, each character glowing with an eerie light.
Her student ID was laid out open beside her, but the photo on it had become blurry at some point.
Her personal information is still displayed below the photo.
"Xiao Cheng, student ID 7, initial score 60."
The initial score was stamped with a bright red seal, with a note next to it indicating that the student had passed and was allowed to graduate.
As darkness fell, a piercing roar suddenly echoed from the office building next door, followed by a violent shaking of the earth. Xiao Cheng saw "himself" struggling to run out, with the monster relentlessly pursuing him.
She sighed softly, put her student ID back in her pocket, then braced herself with both hands and fell from the top floor expressionlessly.
Another version of myself happened to run past the teaching building, even forgetting to keep running, and looked up in astonishment.
The expected pain didn't come; Xiao Cheng bumped straight into a warm embrace. Then, Fang He's teasing voice came from above: "What a coincidence? Going bungee jumping?"
This development was quite different from what Xiao Cheng had expected, and the scene was all too familiar. Even after she stood up again, her mind was still blank. She turned her head as if sensing something, and saw Liu Xiaoying with a conflicted expression that she couldn't bear to look at.
"You guys are really something, is it really necessary to do this again?" she complained, utterly exasperated.
"What's going on now?" Xiao Cheng looked at Fang He in confusion. "Timeline reset? Or has something else happened?"
"I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure either." Fang He shook his head helplessly. "Actually, you should be asking yourself what you just did."
"I..." Too much had happened, and Xiao Cheng didn't know where to begin. Hiding the story about "another self" inside her body, she answered simply, "It's nothing. I saw myself from other timelines, and then I jumped off a building in front of her."
Fang He: "..."
Liu Xiaoying: "..."
"Because of the previous analysis, there will be contradictions between different timelines. In other words, I created a bug... Is that okay?" Xiao Cheng defended himself.
"So we're now on the real timeline." Fang He understood what she meant, and then, as if realizing something, he suddenly pulled out his student ID and opened it to the first page.
His initial score also changed to sixty, and it was stamped with a seal indicating that he had qualified for graduation.
As for Liu Xiaoying, her initial score was already sixty, and now she only has an extra stamp.
“No, that’s not right.” Fang He’s expression turned extremely serious.
"What's wrong?" Xiao Cheng asked, turning her head to look around as if she had sensed something.
The surrounding darkness grew thicker, everything taking on an ominous gray hue, as if shrouded in a deathly aura. A strange premonition intensified, and she involuntarily tensed, becoming alert.
The sky was like a giant dome, covering the entire school below. Looking up, an invisible screen appeared overhead, and then blurry words gradually became visible.
Fang He didn't look at the screen, and said in a calm tone, "Rule one: the initial score cannot be changed."
At the same time, the sentence on the screen also appeared completely.
"The first rule of the school is that the initial score is set and cannot be changed except by accident."
The score is fake, but the seal is real.
In the surrounding darkness, something began to stir restlessly. Xiao Cheng could clearly sense that the school was rejecting him.
Liu Xiaoying and Fang He also quickly realized this.
A sharp bell suddenly rang in their ears, and countless translucent souls drifted over, surging into the teaching building in a daze.
At the very end, Xiao Cheng saw four other players, who remained in their dead state, looking no different from the NPCs.
Once all the students had returned to their classrooms, a whole line of teachers, led by Ms. Liu, walked out of the office building, each carrying a pointer. Dozens of pairs of high heels clicked rhythmically on the ground, creating a rather impressive spectacle.
They ignored the three people outside the building and went straight into their respective classrooms.
Finally, the counselor came out. He stopped in front of Xiao Cheng and the others, his smile unusually sincere: "Congratulations on graduating."
He bowed deeply to each person, a perfect 90-degree angle, much like bidding farewell to a deceased person.
The first person to be sent away was Liu Xiaoying.
She felt as if she were trapped in a small, transparent box, frantically pounding on the air in front of her, but without making a sound. Then, she blurred, dissipating into specks of light, and vanished instantly from Xiao Cheng and the others' sight.
A soft popping sound was heard in the air.
The student ID card appeared out of thin air, then fell to the ground and turned into an award certificate for outstanding graduate, exactly the same as the one hanging on the office wall, with Liu Xiaoying's name on it.
A sense of constraint also began to gradually envelop Xiao Cheng and Fang He.
Their student IDs suddenly became extremely hot, automatically floating out of their pockets, hovering in mid-air, and slowly turning to the first page.
The initial score numbers began to fluctuate rapidly, and pale red powdery debris peeled off, revealing the true numbers hidden beneath the disguise.
zero.
Fifty.
Their ratings have never changed.
At the same time, the stamp on the score began to turn from red to black, and Xiao Cheng felt that breathing was becoming increasingly difficult, as if the oxygen in the air was being slowly drawn away by something.
This is going to be a box out (meaning the game is about to end).
In the nick of time, she saw a flash of cold light before her eyes, and when she turned around, Fang He had pulled out a short knife from somewhere and slashed the two student IDs to pieces in a few swift strokes.
The feeling of suffocation vanished instantly. Before Xiao Cheng could even catch her breath, Fang He dragged her into the teaching building.
The counselor didn't chase after them, as if he was wary of something, and stood there watching their backs with a gloomy expression.
A hidden roar came from the depths of darkness, and the fragments of the student ID suddenly froze in mid-air, slowly beginning to reassemble.
Xiao Cheng followed Fang He and ran forward silently, but the feeling of being scrutinized, like a thorn in her back, did not disappear.
"We're running out of time!" She glanced back hastily, her voice filled with anxiety. "What do we do next?"
Fang He did not answer immediately. Standing at the door of the first classroom, he kicked open the tightly closed door.
The room was packed with students, and Teacher Liu was standing on the podium. With the loud noise, everyone turned to look at them.
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