Chapter 59 Old Campus: "She is a 'Divine Weapon'—Infinite World..."
The letter was taken away, and a sunflower drooped down, its naturally fragrant petals brushing against Xue Chao's cheek. Xue Chao pushed it away in disgust: "Stay away from me, I'm allergic."
The young man with the sunflower-shaped head tilted his head, his interest suddenly shifting from the letter: "Pollen allergy? Doesn't seem like it, Xue Chao has a faint floral scent that has been lingering for years."
"I'm allergic to you." Xue Chao was too lazy to argue, and tapped the letter in Jiang Ming's hand, "What's the gist of what you wrote?"
“I don’t know about the future timeline,” Jiang Ming said astutely. “This SOS letter wasn’t opened? She didn’t read it. This is the cause, and the resulting effect probably isn’t good. I’m guessing one died, could the girl who jumped off the roof be her?”
"It's possible—what happened to you?"
Jiang Ming cupped his face in his hands... bringing the bouquet closer so Xue Chao could see his "back to basics" appearance: "I'm here to woo you, so I'm giving you a flower. Do you like it?"
Just like the children in the first unit, plant heads emerged from human necks, as if they had been born together. Xue Chao examined them closely like he was looking at an extinct dinosaur, and asked curiously, "What does it feel like?"
“Instinct.” Jiang Ming’s petals trembled. “Just like birds are born to fly and fish are born to swim, once you enter this identity, you know what to do.”
He pulled Xue Chao's hand and touched the back of his neck, moving upwards from the delicate softness of human flesh to the hardness and thorns of plant stems. White bristles brushed against his fingertips, causing a slight pain and a slight itch.
Finally, it was drawn to the petals and gently rubbed against them.
"It sounds easier than it actually is." Xue Chao withdrew his hand and used fine scissors to remove the mailbox lock.
“Although the head is no longer a human head, the thoughts are still there, and it’s not that easy.” Jiang Ming saw Xue Chao’s expression change slightly and picked out a broken rubber band from the lock. “How come… ah, it looks like a girl’s rubber band. Someone has tampered with the lock.”
"Oh no!" Xue Chao immediately followed the root back into the building. Jiang Ming followed, and as Xue Chao was pulling up the rope, he wrapped the root tightly around his neck, using the prop to sneak into the building, not afraid of being hanged. "Did he deliberately lure you away to make a move on your current protagonist?"
“There’s a third player.” Xue Chao revealed directly, then tried to elicit information from him. “In the first unit, there was only one player. They were only blocked in this unit, so the third player only appeared in this unit. His ability hadn’t met the unlocking requirements yet. When we entered the shop, it was full, meaning we were among the first customers to arrive. His ability could only be from an external item he brought in…”
"It's not as simple as you think. It's easy to carry small melee weapons like daggers, blades, and throwing knives. You'll get one or two equipment slots at the start. But higher-level items require an application and signing a 'life-or-death order,' which means 'If I carry this item, I guarantee...'. The most common thing is to compete for the best ranking. The average ranking from the previous period is used as the baseline. The higher the item level, the higher the ranking needs to be. If the conditions are met, the application will be approved. If it fails, you'll be punished in the dungeon at best, and assimilated into the dungeon at worst."
Therefore, Wang Song's impatience back then was not entirely due to his personality, but rather because he was carrying a death warrant. Given the level of that trench coat, if Wang Song had not met the conditions, he would probably have faced certain death.
The same applies to Pu Fengchun; she had planned this all along and was determined to drag him into the fire pit, otherwise she wouldn't have risked using an S-level item.
This sounds like the real "betting agreement".
“However, there is another possibility.” Jiang Ming also seemed to be full of curiosity about the new head. The petals of the head turned clockwise and then counterclockwise, like a folk dance. “She is a ‘divine weapon’—there is a group of people in the infinite world who can use their superpowers at will, even if the popularity value of the room does not reach 60 points.”
Xue Chao: "So what do these heavenly soldiers and generals rely on?"
"Lifespan," Jiang Ming said lightly. "She just made a move? Then she might have aged several years."
Xue Chao frowned: "...Disposable consumables?"
"You raise an army for a thousand days to use it for one day, and there's no way to repair it. Players with such strong offensive abilities are highly sought after by major guilds and rarely end up as divine weapons. Among all the divine weapons, she's definitely a 'top-tier weapon.' She's very generous; the other side just wants you dead." Jiang Ming smiled brightly, then suddenly changed the subject, seemingly more concerned about his own emotional issues, "You don't like sunflowers? Then do you like red roses? I'll give them to you."
"Allergic reaction." Xue Chao replied casually again, automatically ignoring the guy, thinking about the so-called "divine weapon"—no wonder the third player made a move so early, that guy was exploiting a bug.
The earlier the level in the instance, the younger the character's age and the more lifespan they can consume, until their age equals that of the player, at which point their lifespan will truly be depleted.
In the later episodes, Pu Fengchun will no longer be the main character, but will become an alternate character, making him difficult to find. Moreover, in the episodes where that person is the main character, he will have the main quest to complete and will receive the most attention, making it even more difficult to take action.
In this unit, the player cannot kill directly in situations with many NPCs, otherwise it will be considered out of character (OOC).
The best time to act is now. He and Pu Fengchun are separated, and Pu Fengchun only has one NPC by his side.
Xue Chao's expression turned extremely grim. His immediate priority was to find Pu Fengchun. He wrapped the root around his wrist, preparing to "lower the rope" from the center, when he heard a loud thud in front of him. Something crashed to the ground and bounced back.
The railings of the circular corridor disappeared, replaced by four basketball hoops that divided the circle into four equal parts. Dummy heads fell from the seemingly endless end, passing through the layers of hoops. Then, like dumplings being dropped into a pot, dummy heads fell one after another. Xue Chao, without changing his expression, was about to throw the rope when Jiang Ming stopped him: "Falling from that height, it's enough to break your head. Do you want me to live a life of widowhood? You don't even know where people are!"
"I'm just waiting to die, she's doomed." Xue Chao shook off Jiang Ming, lowered himself down the rope, dodging objects thrown from above as he went, and broke out in a cold sweat after descending ten floors.
The sunflower head looked at him and murmured, "So nice to everyone?... How annoying, she should just die."
He casually grabbed a fallen mannequin head, plucked out the long, black, curly hair that had been implanted, and draped it over his own plant-like head, shaking it playfully.
“It’s not like we’re completely clueless.” After a while, Xue Chao’s voice rang out from above Jiang Ming. He followed the clues all the way to the top and took the escalator several times to higher floors. “The floor where Pu Fengchun is located will be different from the other floors.”
"What's different?" Jiang Ming raised his voice as they were further away.
"Her floor is the quietest," Xue Chao replied loudly, "—I think I've found it!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a beam of red laser light swept past from below, cutting him off. Jiang Ming exclaimed "Wow!" and was about to look at Xue Chao's expression when he saw the man who had come down from the crowd looking completely calm, with a slight smile on his lips.
Jiang Ming exclaimed "Wow!" again: "You're deliberately provoking her... She can lock onto Pu Fengchun?"
He ripped open his shirt, pulled out the sunflower stem wrapped around his collarbone, and immediately followed, his face full of excitement as if watching a show. Just as he reached that floor, he heard a girl behind him questioning him with an indistinct expression: "Is it you who ruined my plans three or five times?"
"Huh? No..."
"Yes, that's him. Here you go!" Xue Chao suddenly jumped up from downstairs, pushed Jiang Ming out, and quickly ran towards the concert hall.
Jiang Ming immediately surrendered, displaying a tragic willingness to sacrifice himself for love: "Don't chase after him, I did it all..."
The girl, whose features were completely concealed by a black robe, said coldly, "He is the host."
"Aren't you going to go after him?"
The girl's coldness was tinged with malice, and she eagerly awaited Xue Chao's reaction: "I was just worried about who would collect her corpse."
Jiang Ming withdrew his hand, his expression changing, looking utterly bored: "Then you lost. That's the broadcasting station."
"What?"
"The protagonist and the host return to the radio station together, and this episode ends. This time, the player is already at the radio station. The difficulty lies in the fact that the host is locked outside."
Therefore, the third player, who has locked onto Pu Fengchun and is bound to make another move, is like a signpost in a maze. Xue Chao's previous "anxiety" was all to provoke her into making a move to "guide the way."
The girl immediately understood and flew into a rage: "He's using me as a tracking device?"
"You'll get used to it. He's using me as a roadblock, isn't that what's holding you back?" Jiang Ming advised like an experienced person. "Besides, his solution wasn't lying. When the whole stadium is on broadcast, the broadcasting station is the quietest eye of the storm. You can find it by searching layer by layer, but it takes time and energy. He's definitely impatient, so he's using you to finish quickly... Hey, hey, don't pluck my petals!"
Suddenly, each floor started spinning at a different frequency, like hula hoops spinning on a stick. The light overhead was intense, and the sense of exposure struck again.
As soon as Xue Chao entered the concert hall, the audience understood:
"【Pu Fengchun】has finally arrived! So the earring Xue Chao was wearing back then wasn't the one that was mistakenly killed, but another earring that was also targeted but the enemy hadn't made a move yet..."
"【Pu Fengchun】No wonder Pu Fengchun kept checking her earrings when she was being dragged away. I was wondering why she was so nervous when she played so smoothly. Turns out she was waiting to avoid a fatal blow. If it were me, I would be anxious to death. I have eight hundred little movements a minute. I have to say, I'm pretty steady..."
"【Pu Fengchun】The two of them have an amazing understanding. One doesn't care whether the other can avoid it or not, he just cares about convenience. The other completely guesses the other's temper and starts preparing early."
Pu Fengchun awkwardly raised her upper body, one leg pierced by a laser. Among the dripping blood and bits of flesh were fragments of the white rose earring. The earring was marked, meaning it would only attack if it stuck into a person. She was afraid that NPCs wouldn't count as "people" and wouldn't be included in the judgment, and she was also afraid of being out of character, so she simply stuck the earring into her leg under her skirt. Injuring a leg was better than getting a headshot. Hitting the target would make the opponent underestimate her.
The healing potion was applied to the wound, and it was healing. After a brief disconnection, the mother suddenly went berserk. Pu Fengchun couldn't dodge and could only lean back to avoid it. He saw a long, strong hand grab the woman's neck and slam her head against the piano lid.
The man picked up the piano certificate from the ground. Inside was half a torn sheet of music, with only the words "Alice" and a butterfly in the title. There was still a sentence on it, written in the handwriting of the grown-up Pu Fengchun: "Interest has not yet become an end in itself, and I have not yet become an innocent machine."
The entire scene was revealed, with Xue Chao looking down at her: "The dungeon isn't over yet; it'll only get harder later. If you're still alive, come find me."
The restored radio station was bleached again, and the girl who broke in and Pu Fengchun who fell disappeared one after another. The radio station was covered with the "layer" of the new campus.
This time, the radio station is much simpler; it's just an ordinary campus radio station.
Main Quest 2 "Campus Memories" has been updated.
[Main Quest 2-3 "Ninth Middle School": My Notebook, My Corner, My World.]
[Task Details: Please experience your middle school years and complete your own storyline!]
Inside the camera station, a thin, hunched-over boy pushes open the gate to the junior high school. He's tentatively pushing the door open to enter.
The locked player name has changed to [Deng Dayun].
[The camera position has been automatically bound to the current player]
He was still thinking about the words on the sheet music, his tone filled with the same nostalgia and longing as Jiang Ming had grown up.
The mission is called "Campus Memoirs"... so the timeline of each unit is "the happiest memory" for the protagonist of that unit?
Until the campus collapsed, the memories ended, and his true, hideous nature was revealed.
What exactly was the point of collapse, and how did it reach a certain "accident" over time? But the second unit clearly collapsed much faster than the first.
A gloomy-faced boy stepped over the bare branches, with the quiet old street behind him in the night. The school fence was outlined with sharp points by the moonlight, reminiscent of a dilapidated church with crows flying by.
The campus at night is always different; there's no incongruity that needs to be examined closely, but an eerie atmosphere is laid bare.
Xue Chao stood by the window, his fair face standing out in the dark broadcasting room. Deng Dayun was startled when he saw him. Xue Chao, who was mistaken for a ghost, waved his hand in a friendly manner, but was met with a cold face from Deng Dayun after he realized what was going on.
The boy entered the teaching building without looking to either side, deliberately ignoring him. Xue Chao raised an eyebrow.
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