Chapter 107 Old Campus [The dungeon boss is being conceived...]
One sound after another, first powerful, then faster, like an avalanche in his chest, going from one extreme to the other, as if trying to smash his chest open.
The frozen blood began to flow again, like surging rocks rushing to his limbs and bones. Xue Chao suddenly sat up, clutching his heart and gasping for breath.
Sweat dripped from his forehead onto the sheets. He looked up, but there was no one around. He was still in the hospital room, the cold white room bathed in blue moonlight.
The silence, like that of a graveyard, cooled his pounding heart. He couldn't help but examine himself, wondering what kind of incompatible fate he had that made him so terrified at the mere sight of that unlucky god.
Sometimes, before he even saw the guy's ghostly figure, his radar-like heart would report it first.
He knew he wasn't afraid of Him, except that His face matched his aesthetic standards, there wasn't a trace of genuine sincerity that could make him lose his composure... It was more like the instinct of sensing a natural enemy, telling him "the greatest danger is coming."
Jiang Ming followed in. He wasn't surprised. He was just curious, though, why the others didn't have any unusual reactions to the bad luck when they saw that thing.
Jiang Ming still looks respectable now. Others can't sense his disguise, but he just happens to be too sensitive.
Xue Chao checked himself; the photo was still there, and outside the window was still a lush green lawn and a shimmering lake. He looked up at the sky, but the kite was gone. He didn't know if it had flown into the sky or crashed and been retrieved.
Leaving the corner where the ward was located and returning to the corridor, he saw that there were more students again. He passed by his own classroom and looked at the photos again. Suddenly, he heard the teacher scolding the students loudly. The homework assigned caused the students to wail and cry out, "We can't finish it!" He paused, raised his eyes slightly, and a familiar male classmate put his arm around his shoulder and walked forward affectionately.
"This humble servant has come to accompany Your Majesty. Is this the convenience store or the restroom?"
Xue Chao didn't answer for a while, and put down the photo... It turned out that the key was not in the photo. He looked around the lively corridor again, and was urged by the boy to call his name before he said: "...All you do is eat and pee, you have no ambition. Go study."
The boy with the basketball-shaped head said the same thing as expected, pulling him along: "No one's pursuing you, they've all gone after you, school heartthrob! You'll only ever be number one if you keep studying. Why don't you wait until they set up a new ranking above number one before you start working hard? Play basketball!"
As they passed by, a soccer game was being played on the green field. Sure enough, a goal was scored and cheers were heard. Walking along the stone path, they could see the student with the cell model head squatting by the lake feeding swans. Their gaze then shifted to the pavilion, where the student with the paint head was painting a girl feeding swans. A young couple passed by the painter and quietly held hands.
Then came the basketball court. As they greeted him, Xue Chao's gaze swept over their faces inch by inch. It seemed to be the same people as before. He hadn't looked closely at them then. There were too many people on the way from the teaching building to the court, and many of them were unremarkable. Even he couldn't possibly remember everyone.
He still declined, sitting on the flagpole, the swing behind him still arguing on the phone, because it was just the same few sentences over and over, making it the hardest to tell if they were repeating themselves, while the aroma of instant noodles wafted from the convenience store in front.
What are you doing here?
Xue Chao did not accept the bread offered by the girl, saying, "I rushed back from the hospital."
The girl was taken aback: "Are you feeling unwell again? Why didn't you ask someone to keep you company? Are you feeling better now?" She stopped joking and took a picture of him with the Polaroid camera lens, so he could see himself in the reflection: "Your face looks pale. You should go back and rest."
Having lost blood and then suffered from heart palpitations, his face was indeed deathly pale, like a white sand ruin that no one could reach. His blue eyes were like a spring of sweet water from the soul of a lost person, forever bathed in a layer of indifferent moonlight. He smiled and shook his head, closed his eyes for a moment, and those lost souls sank into the water.
“You’re not taking it seriously again.” As she said this, a slight sadness crept into her voice. “If you took care of yourself like you take care of the plants and animals in your lab, that would be enough.”
He veered off-topic from the conversation, but the other person brought the conversation back on track.
He recalled mentioning a biological laboratory later on, but to verify whether the repeated events would self-correct, he didn't go into detail about the laboratory: "Maybe some things are just destined. People often talk about 'fate, fate,' isn't that what it's all about?"
The girl's camera then focused on him, making him look into her eyes. Behind the words "destined" lies "powerlessness to resist." He may not believe in fate; he's just lazy and too lazy to fight back.
I don't know if "laziness" is satisfactory to her, but she didn't comment, nor did she show any liking or dislike. She simply accepted his idea calmly, nodded, and said, "In your lab, I like Morpho butterflies the most."
This was too abrupt. Xue Chao took this as evidence of "self-correction" and no longer shied away from it: "Because it looks like my eyes?"
The girl, having her lines stolen, wasn't surprised. She nodded again, a nod that should have been accompanied by a smile. She said, "And it flies very fast. I like things that can fly and fly fast."
Her friend called her, and she waved goodbye to him. Xue Chao was still thinking about her words, quietly watching her back. However, his gaze inadvertently shifted, and he suddenly realized that the friend who called her last time was this tall.
The other girl should be about the same height as the girl in the Polaroid photo, but this one is a head taller than her.
He immediately took a few steps to catch up and noted down the look of her student ID photo. Since he hadn't paid attention to his female friend's face last time, he couldn't be sure if it was the same person... He could only leave it for the next verification.
He originally intended to stroll around the campus to find other trigger points, but now, after memorizing the people on the basketball court, he headed straight for the biology lab.
The ward was just like last time, clean and tidy, nothing but white. The blanket was half-lifted, as if the person lying there had just left... just like when he left.
Outside the window, a butterfly kite slowly drifted past the ward window, flying towards the freer clouds.
Xue Chao lay down again. This time there were no doctors or nurses. The surgical light above his head was still cold and intense. The light was like a torrential rain, pouring into his eyes and flowing along his neural network, overwhelming his consciousness.
His heart was out of balance again, but this time, without the ghostly shadow stimulating him, his amazing adaptability had automatically adjusted itself, first stimulating his heart, and then maintaining it within the normal range.
He opened his eyes again and returned to the ward.
There were no kites outside the window. This time he realized it wasn't because they flew too high or crashed and were taken away, but because it wasn't time to fly kites yet.
He folded the blankets on the hospital bed and returned to the corridor. This time he paid attention, and sure enough, everything felt familiar. The teacher who assigned the homework was still the same teacher, but he hadn't looked closely at the students and couldn't confirm their identities.
"This humble servant has come to accompany Your Majesty. Is this the convenience store or the restroom?"
But he recognized the boy with the basketball head. Just as the boy was about to be embraced, he coincidentally dodged, looked closely at him, and got really annoyed: "Are you in love with me, Brother Xue...? I still prefer cute girls. Forced relationships are not only not sweet, but also bitter. Think it over..."
It was the same person. Xue Chao withdrew his gaze and walked forward: "Get lost."
"I'm not leaving!" the boy grinned and pressed closer again. "Come on, let's play ball!"
The green lawn seemed to be cheering again. Walking along the stone path, you saw people feeding swans, painting, and young couples secretly holding hands—everything seemed the same.
But when they arrived at the basketball court, several boys gathered around, and Xue Chao noticed that there were two different people. Their height, build, and voices were completely different. He casually asked about the two people from before, but they looked blank and didn't recognize them. It was as if they had been playing against these two strangers all along.
He couldn't be called a stranger; only he felt like a stranger.
He played with them for a while and scored four goals in a row before being "besieged" by the others. He then jokingly mocked them, saying "This is boring," and left for the flag-raising platform.
He deliberately bumped into those two people, just like any other NPC.
There was only one anomaly: two people were replaced without anyone noticing.
Behind him came the familiar sobs, but when someone spoke, Xue Chao's eyes narrowed and his voice changed—the person arguing had changed.
He turned to look at the swing. From this angle, he could only see the girl's calves and shoes, which hung listlessly on the ground, rubbing against each other a couple of times, as if being comforted and pushed by the swing.
The person was different, but the content of the argument was exactly the same. Because there were so many repeated words, Xue Chao had already memorized the gist after listening twice. When he listened to it a third time, it was like listening to another voice actor performing the same lines.
Next up was the girl who happened to be leaving the teaching building and saw his Polaroid camera.
Xue Chao got up and took a few steps into the leisure area hidden by the peach trees. He tried to avoid the girl. The girl, who was on the phone, was startled by his sudden intrusion. The heart-shaped doll head looked at him, and one of its big eyes blinked anxiously. She realized that he had heard her emotional distress. Embarrassed, she stood up from the swing, wiping away the fluffy tears streaming from her big eyes, and ran away. She seemed to bump into someone again, whispered an apology, and ran away crying.
He sat on the swing, swayed a couple of times, and then the girl with the head held high walked in: "What are you doing here?"
He slowly stopped: "I wanted to ask you that too."
"I was bumped into by a classmate when I was passing by, and she was crying. I tried to call out to her, but she was running too fast. I came in to see what happened." The girl hesitated, then handed over the bread. "Did you scare her?"
Xue Chao took it and brought up the lab: "Because I'm the mad scientist in the lab, you've seen me, so you won't be scared. Shall we go take a look? Last time you said you liked Morpho butterflies... I know, they look like my eyes."
Even when she was abruptly and illogically interrupted, the girl didn't seem upset or confused. She was like an NPC following a fixed plot and engaging in a fixed dialogue, smoothly replying, "That's right, I like things that can fly and fly fast."
Her friends arrived as scheduled. Just like the second time, Xue Chao asked them where they were going. They said they were going to feed Jili, Pudding, Baibai, and Honglian. Xue Chao listened in a daze before realizing that they were feeding the stray cats and dogs on campus, as well as the swans and koi in the lake.
He wasn't in a hurry to go back this time. He wandered around the campus and saw a little mongrel named "Jili". Pudding was a cow. Compared to "Pudding", "Chocolate Milk" or "Oreo" might be more appropriate.
There were many koi in the lake. He asked his classmate who was painting, "Painting Head," which one was "Red Lotus." At first, the other student didn't understand, but then he suddenly realized and pointed to an exceptionally fat koi, saying, "You should mean 'Hydrangea.'" Well, the students didn't even have a unified name for it; they had formed factions.
This was confirmed when he asked his classmate who had the swan model head which one was "Bai Bai". This classmate came to feed the swan every day, but he had never heard of any swan named "Bai Bai". It must have been an uncommon name given to one of the swans by other classmates.
As he passed the green field, he also noted down the names of the people on the football field; the yellow jerseys belonged to the team that first scored the goal.
Back in the ward, the blankets were neatly folded, just as they had been when he left.
He experienced another heart palpitation and went into the corridor.
The classroom sign changed, and the second year of high school became the third year. However, the scene of laughter and playfulness remained the same. The teacher who assigned homework changed from a short-haired, elegant Chinese teacher to a slightly balding physics teacher. The subject changed, and naturally, the homework changed as well, but the students' wailing and whining remained the same.
The boy who took him to play ball was the same, but after passing the green field, the team that scored the goal was a different team in blue uniforms. No one was feeding the swans. By the lake, a male student with a model of a globe head was feeding the fish. The person drawing the picture was the same, but the picture changed to a boy feeding the fish.
Xue Chao was wondering if the young couple had changed, but after waiting for a while, no couple passed by the students who were drawing and secretly held hands.
...People not only change, but they may also disappear completely.
The same was true on the basketball court; there was one less person, and of the remaining players, only one was someone who had appeared before, and almost all of them were new faces.
The swing area turned into a three-person group surrounding one person making a phone call, giving advice to the girl who had been cheated on. They took turns speaking, seemingly adding more content, but in the end, what the girl said to the other person was still the same as before.
The girl who took the Polaroid head photo came with her tall friend, so their time together was short; they only chatted briefly before saying goodbye.
Xue Chao asked them where they were going, and they said they were going to feed "Fugui" and "Baibai". "Fugui" was a Shiba Inu that had been abandoned on campus, and "Baibai" was a swan. He asked how "Jili" and "Pudding" were doing, but the two girls were clueless.
He then wrote "Red Lotus," but the two girls still didn't recognize it. He added, "The fattest koi," and the two girls suddenly realized, then asked in confusion, "Isn't the fattest fish called 'Hydrangea'?"
Xue Chao laughed and said he had misremembered. The girl with the Polaroid head pointed at him with her fingertip and tossed him a jasmine-scented bread. He then teased her, "Didn't you give those little things in my lab names? Aren't you a big fan of Morpho butterflies?"
"His name is 'Xue Chao'."
Xue Chao was taken aback: "What?"
"I named it 'Morpho Butterfly' because it looks like your eyes... You had the same expression back then, haha." The girl covered the mouth of the photo as if laughing, "So later it was changed to 'Helena,' isn't the alternate name for the Morpho Butterfly of Light 'Helena Morpho Butterfly'?"
[The dungeon boss is being spawned...]
[Dungeon Boss: Helena]
[Transformation progress: 80%]
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