Chapter 99 The Old Campus "Always...far away, yet so close at hand..."
So the butterfly wasn't observing whether Deng Dayun was dead or not, but rather pretending to be dead because of his approach.
...There was a vague and incomplete entry in the notes about "mutual repulsion".
What repels what? The creator and the created butterfly?
What is Xue Chao after? Whether it's a work of art or a pet, it's all part of the creator. Who would want someone who isn't affectionate towards their owner?
Could it be that Xue Chao himself didn't want to trigger the power of the Morpho Butterfly, but instead created it for someone else?
So what's the meaning of him appearing in a dream called "Memoir" as "Xue Chao"?
Repulsive...repulsive without a subject?
Xue Chao's expression suddenly changed, and he even showed a hint of fear. Just then, orderly footsteps came from downstairs, and the two of them immediately retreated the way they came and went around the mountain.
"Never mind him..."
"You'll carry it?"
"..."
Xue Chao hid behind a car in the parking lot and waited for the patrolling bodyguards to pass by before taking Pu Fengchun back to the teaching building area.
“If he were going to die at the bar, he would have died long ago,” Xue Chao said. “He was wearing a clean bartender’s uniform; he was one of our own, so you don’t need to worry about him.”
"Where is your mother?" Xue Chao followed Pu Fengchun into the leftmost teaching building.
"dormitory."
Xue Chao asked in surprise, "Dormitory?"
"You heard me right. After the last unit, her desire for control has increased again, and she moved into an empty bed in my dorm."
Xue Chao was filled with respect: "How did you manage to sneak out?"
"Fight fire with fire. Each subject will have one set of test papers. Except for the essay, keep the deductions within five points in exchange for a chance to go to the 'cafeteria'... but you can't stay for too long. You have a tracking device on you and you need to hurry."
Xue Chao felt a pang of sympathy upon hearing this. Fortunately, he wasn't the one playing this role; otherwise, he would have had no choice but to take a risky path and escape from prison.
Pu Fengchun caught a glimpse of his expression and laughed, "Have you forgotten that I have a 'resonator'?"
"This must be the legendary 'invitation of the god of learning'... It sounds more effective than the Ouija board."
Pushing open the door to the Academic Affairs Office in Building 1 leads to a study room. The tables and chairs are made of stacked exercise books, and sticky notes are visible everywhere, containing vocabulary, classical poems, science formulas, the periodic table, and more, ensuring that no matter where you look, you are surrounded by knowledge. There is an MP3 player on the table playing "The price of a shirt is nine pounds and fifteen pence." There is also a private bathroom.
Just as Xue Chao was about to sit down, Pu Fengchun stopped him: "If you sit down, you'll trigger 'happy learning'... You'll have to finish at least one test paper, otherwise you won't be able to get up."
“…Terrifying.” He hadn’t come here to rest anyway. He stood cautiously in place, and just as he pointed to the bathroom, he heard a loud “bang” outside, like something had crashed down.
*
As Xue Chao said, after Deng Dayun woke up, although it wasn't to the point of needing a private car delivery, the bar didn't make things difficult for him and let him go.
But as he walked alone on the bustling road, feeling out of place, he felt a chill in his head, as if the wind was blowing through it. The prosperity was the prosperity of the ghostly path, and at the end was the palace of the King of Hell. He was already a ghost.
Where ghosts roam, where is life?
Hearing footsteps in the distance, a female student hurriedly ran into Building No. 3. A car was blocking the way, so he could only see the ends of her hair jumping around, but he didn't care and just walked forward blankly.
Just as he was about to reach the gate of the Third Teaching Building, he suddenly heard a whistling sound of something falling overhead, and his mind cleared as if he had been electrocuted—the girl was a human head, and he had tampered with the rooftop of this teaching building…
He quickly jumped back, and the girl landed right in front of him. The body twitched, and its limbs were stretched out like an inflatable toy, somewhat messy and disorganized.
Blood mingled with her disheveled short hair, slowly spreading to his feet. Deng Dayun lifted his foot, and blood trickled down the sole of his sneaker, turning it a deep red. He looked up again, meeting the girl's lifeless eye beneath her sunken head.
The notebooks were scattered at his feet, and a few Polaroid photos fell out. He picked them up; they belonged to a girl named "Minmin." The photos were of the two of them together, including one of them eating takeout on the rooftop. The clock on the opposite laboratory building showed that it was lunch break time.
They were friends and often ate and chatted together on the rooftop, like a secret hideout.
The notebook is a journal, and inside is a missing person notice for Minmin.
It turns out that Minmin was also a victim of the organ incident... So this player went to the rooftop to find his missing friend's notebook and accidentally fell off the loose railing.
What about the people who were supposed to go to the rooftop?
Deng Dayun's mind was filled with images of the girl's death, like a stark reminder... He failed to snatch the shimmering butterfly and couldn't escape the instance. If he couldn't think of any other way, he could only continue with "Deng Dayun's" storyline... But he felt that "Deng Dayun's" death was imminent.
My heart was pounding as I entered the teaching building. I heard faint noises in the stairwell, like someone lingering down the stairs.
He knew how he died. He was chased in the stairwell, his head was broken off, and then his head was chopped off and thrown into the toilet trash can.
...His death was in the stairwell!
The last remaining member of the group was late. The rooftop trap killed another unrelated person. The person who arrived heard the sound of falling and realized something was wrong. He went back the way he came to look for him and happened to run into "Deng Dayun" who had realized something was wrong and ran upstairs!
Deng Dayun turned and ran, the sound of resonance dropping rapidly echoing as he rushed out the door, the main quest already grayed out.
The chase didn't end as he broke through the stairwell. He reached for the knife at his waist, only to find it had fallen into the bar. In a panic, he ran around to the back of the building, when suddenly a plant root wrapped around his neck and dragged him into a classroom on the second floor. He nearly suffocated.
When he returned from the brink of death, he looked up in a disheveled state and saw a strange yet stunningly beautiful face smiling at him.
"Welcome to the team, new member!"
*
At the window of the classroom, Xue Chao and Pu Fengchun witnessed Fang Tailai's corpse.
Xue Chao looked grim, while Pu Fengchun was shocked: "This is the second one... Is the next one Deng Dayun? There's an NPC with a student ID card chasing him with a knife..."
"His mission failed." Xue Chao knew how Deng Dayun died; he fled the teaching building, so the mission must have failed.
"Should we go check on... that corpse?" Having almost had their lives swapped, Pu Fengchun's vigilance skyrocketed. His usual acuity towards hidden dangers had turned into paranoia. "Is it really the protagonist player from Unit 5?"
*
“She…” Deng Dayun looked in astonishment at the girl at the table who was muttering to herself and drawing circles on the paper. He had just seen her a few minutes ago, and now she was right in front of him!
"What was that guy who fell to his death outside...?" Deng Dayun's mouth was covered by Jiang Ming, the young man's long hair draped over his shoulder, the man was cold all over, and he said gently in his ear, "Shut up."
Fang Tailai broke out in a cold sweat. A series of images flashed before her eyes. She looked at them one by one, then suddenly opened her eyes, gasped for breath, and looked at the two characters "Xue Chao" circled in red.
"He died before us. The Morpho butterflies were created by him during his lifetime. There were six of them in total. We all happened to come into contact with them. So when we died, our souls were taken back to the most beautiful memory we wanted to return to by the Morpho butterflies. That is, a dream constructed according to the wishes of the visitors. Once we find that the dream is not right and we start to waver, the dream will collapse... and the guiding Morpho butterfly will die."
“And since the five of us have all broken free from our respective dreams, all five butterflies that guided us have died, leaving only one as a safety net… This is making us compete.” Jiang Ming looked at Deng Dayun.
After Deng Dayun recovered, she wasn't so shocked anymore. There was no shortage of capable people or tricks in the game; she must have used some method to fake her death.
Even faking death didn't register as completing the mission? Why didn't I clear the game? In the end, I still need the Butterfly?
His mind was in a mess, and when Jiang Ming looked at him, he immediately tensed up like a small animal encountering its natural enemy: "...The last butterfly was taken by the host and the book-head."
Fang Tailai looked at Jiang Ming, half-dead: "The outcome is decided, are we just waiting to die?"
They're clearly in cahoots.
Deng Dayun started spacing out again, lost in his own world, lifeless and wooden.
“Pu Fengchun used it.” Jiang Ming tapped his cheek with his fingertip, then suddenly smiled. “But that wasn’t the last butterfly.”
The two looked at him at the same time. Fang Tailai: "A butterfly that didn't die in a personal dream?... Is it my unit? Two units merged, saving one butterfly?"
“The morpho butterflies were matched with humans one by one, and they all died.” Jiang Ming circled his fingers outward twice. “I mean, besides the six morpho butterflies created by ‘Xue Chao,’ there is one more.”
He deliberately stopped to admire their expressions, then cheekily hooked one of their shoulders with his arm: "This is a bit tricky, so we need to stick together—"
With a twisted longing in his voice, Deng Dayun asked in a somber tone, "...Where?"
Jiang Ming smiled enigmatically: "Always...far away yet so close at hand."
*
Xue Chao naturally suspected who the person who fell to their death was. He had told Fang Tailai about how "she" died, and even if she didn't believe him, she would be wary, especially since she had witnessed it again when she went upstairs to get the red pen.
But it doesn't matter anymore.
"It's too late."
Whether it's Fang Tailai or not... it's too late.
He glanced at Flash Butterfly, who was now feigning death. His expression darkened further as he pressed down on Pu Fengchun's raised hand: "Don't leave yet... I'm afraid we'll still need your special ability."
Pu Fengchun asked Xue Chao to stop Deng Dayun because she could tell that Deng Dayun was not in a good state. But in the end, the only lifeline returned to her hands. She was the only hope at the moment, and she would not pretend to be magnanimous and hand it over to other players.
So Xue Chao needs her help, and she can't just run away like that... Moreover, it's quite novel that there's a place where her useless superpower is needed. After her superpower returned, it was like it had been plated with gold, and it had indeed become stronger. She hasn't tried it yet and wants to know what Xue Chao will use it for.
In any case, for them, the biggest threat to the entire country is already...
Does the bathroom have a mirror?
After giving an affirmative answer, Pu Fengchun saw Xue Chao standing in front of the mirror, first examining his own face, and then bringing up a prop from the panel, which was a kaleidoscope.
It wasn't bought by taking advantage of her; it must be a prop from the shop in the back unit that she had never seen before.
She saw Xue Chao slowly raise the kaleidoscope and point it at his own head.
She blinked and then opened her eyes, suddenly facing the huge, dark blue butterfly in the mirror.
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