-1-
“…This won’t work…”
"Are you crazy? Otherwise, we will all die here!"
"I……"
In Teaching Building No. 9, the light tubes were swaying gently above the classrooms.
Looking at the child tied to the chair in the middle, with his head lowered and covered in blood.
The young male student clenched his fists, then slowly shook his head.
-2-
"I'm here to see squad leader Qianqian."
He said, still cowering a little, hiding his face under his hood: "I'm not here to kill anyone."
"you--!"
The scarred man standing nearby suddenly yanked his collar, and the student's hood and headphone cord fell off with the tug.
He was a young, handsome and frail male student, his eyes tightly closed in fear behind his glasses.
That kind of fragility is not rare, fragile, or overly white; that kind of fragility is a very common weakness with the temperament of a good student.
Just an ordinary student buried in books in an ivory tower, that's all.
But his pronunciation was still clear.
"I'm not here to kill anyone."
The student said, his voice gradually becoming hoarse as the scarred man tightened his collar, "You are killing people. You can't... kill people!"
-3-
The scarred man—Hong Shu suddenly grabbed his collar, lifted him up straight, and then swung his fist—
The student flew out heavily and hit the child who was tied to the chair.
...He didn't manage to hit the kid directly because Hong Shu grabbed his hood again, lifted him up, and threw him heavily to the ground.
It's like tossing and catching a lifeless marble.
But students are not pinballs.
He fell to the ground, holding his stomach and coughing violently, with blood flowing from his nose and mouth.
...The human body is so fragile that it cannot withstand a single blow.
"Waste." Hong Shu looked coldly at the embarrassed student. "How many times do you want me to tell you, it's just an NPC. An NPC that looks like a child."
-4-
As expected, I shouldn't just take advantage of a native NPC for the sake of convenience.
——This copy named [Teaching Building No. 9] was originally a C-level copy in the game library of the Eternal Life Game, and Hong Shu didn't take it seriously at all.
But he has been really unlucky lately...
First, when he was clearing the A-level dungeon [Plague Attack], he inexplicably picked up a clearance item, inexplicably logged out of the game, and forgot most of his memories of that dungeon - that's fine, Hong Shu originally became a player of the Eternal Life Game not to explore the dungeon world view.
His goal was to accumulate experience, unlock and complete the [Highest Achievement] of the Eternal Life Game, and redeem it for [Eternal Life].
It is also the goal of all players.
...However, after the [Plague Attack] dungeon, Hong Shu discovered that all the heavy weapons and props in his warehouse had been used up, and the settlement experience given by the game for that game was pitifully small.
He spent almost the resources needed to clear an S-level copy, but was rewarded with at most a D-level copy.
I complained to the Eternal Life Game system, but I only got the reply that "the settlement was correct, the player passed the level illegally, and the experience reward was deducted."
-5-
What is considered illegal customs clearance?
The A-level dungeons in the Eternal Life game have always been famous for their difficulty. Which great player is so bored that he wants to help him cheat in the dungeon and indirectly take away his props and experience?
The rubbish system of the Eternal Life game really needs to be reinstalled.
...After repeatedly appealing and almost becoming so angry that he wanted to quit the Eternal Life Game, Hong Shu received an opportunity as a reward from the system.
It is said that players can use the "VIP channel" to ensure that they can pass the A-level [999 Bus] copy without any damage, and can also obtain corresponding rewards.
Okay, even though I refuse to admit that there is a bug in my judgment, the compensation is still acceptable.
Hong Shu recruited a few players and re-entered the [999 Bus] dungeon to gain experience.
This time it went smoothly, with no amnesia and no forced logout.
However, after the game ended, there was still a problem with the reward settlement.
The Eternal Life Game gave the explanation that "an unknown monitoring program was detected, the VIP channel was destroyed, and the copy was not passed."
[This monitoring program is tracking players, invading the Eternal Life game. 30% intrusion, 50% intrusion, antivirus program activated...]
-6-
After "starting", there was a buffering period and then no notification.
The complaint channel was closed, the trading area turned gray, and the Eternal Life Game was shut down like a crash.
It was shut down for a while, as if it had suffered a massive attack.
How could it be possible that a game as powerful as the Eternal Life Game, capable of granting eternal life, could be attacked by a random surveillance program brought out of a dungeon? And it's called a "surveillance program originally designed to track players," not an antivirus program specifically written for the Eternal Life Game? How could a random surveillance program defeat it?
The system really needs to be reinstalled. I don't even know a plausible reason for the system crash.
Hong Shu and a group of players quarreled, complained, and threatened to quit the game - but there was nothing they could do, the game was frozen.
And the game master isn't behind the immortality game. He remains indifferent to human threats, that beast.
The Eternal Life Game could not be reopened until two months later.
-7-
In the past two months, Hong Shu, who had lost item resources and experience rewards one after another, saw his status among players drop sharply.
He used to be able to summon a large number of elite players when entering an A-level dungeon, but when he entered the dungeon again, he could only recruit a few low-level players who were greedy, cowardly and greedy for life.
Originally, Hong Shu thought that [Teaching Building No. 9] was just a C-level dungeon and did not require much teamwork, so he could just find a few people to make up the minimum number of people required to enter the dungeon.
...Who would have known that [Teaching Building No. 9] is a hidden A-level copy.
After entering, before even entering the school gate, those guys who were there to make up the numbers became cannon fodder.
-8-
Who made them think that the old security guard at the door was a low-level NPC who was easy to coerce?
-9-
Hong Shu didn't think those players died tragically. Those trash with such low abilities who came to play the dungeon would die one day, it was just a matter of dying sooner or later.
Moreover, before they died, they helped him test out that the security guard at the school gate was a boss-level monster, so their deaths were well deserved.
Leaving the frenzied security guard behind—and not seeing the latter put away his evil face after watching him run away, pick up the newspaper and go back to drink tea and read the newspaper—Hong Shu fled into the school in a panic.
Fortunately, at school, he met a few more players who were panicking because the C-level dungeon was suddenly upgraded to an A-level dungeon.
The bad thing is, those players are still useless.
"The cafeteria requires a meal card, the playground requires a gym uniform, and the teaching building requires a student ID... The billboards and posters have strange drawings on them, and there are distorted patterns on the classroom windows that are completely incomprehensible... We've run out of props, and there's no way we can get through the game on our own... The clue given by the Eternal Life Game is 'Kill the female student,' but there's no one here except us..."
-10-
After wandering around the campus like a headless fly for a few times, Hong Shu came to the conclusion: this is an A-level puzzle copy.
There are clues and riddles hidden everywhere on billboards, test papers, slogans, and blackboard newspapers.
...His worst skill was solving puzzle dungeons. In the past, when clearing A-level dungeons, it was always done by the players in the team who were good at reasoning...
This time, there was only trash around.
"...Excuse me, are you trapped here?"
Just as they were worrying, a male student stumbled over and approached them.
Wearing the school uniform, he allegedly came to look for his ex-girlfriend who was trapped here.
"As soon as I stepped into Building 9 with my phone in hand, the light inside and outside the building changed... I thought about coming out to check what was going on, but..."
Aboriginal, undoubtedly.
-11-
A native who came from the so-called "normal world" in the copy and was accidentally dragged here.
...Hong Shu didn't know why the Eternal Life Game had to set up this kind of NPC, who seemed to be a living person who had accidentally entered the horror world from reality.
In the experience summaries of countless players who have completed dungeons, there are always many of these living NPCs - and, more often than not, these NPCs will not play any role in passing the level, they just "accidentally strayed in".
Maybe some players will sympathize with them and lend a helping hand.
But NPPC, a group of low-dimensional creatures without brains or logic, living in their own world.
Data in a copy, pieces of paper in a fake world.
The player is above them—these virtual pieces of paper in the virtual replica—and of course the player can use, tear, and discard them at will.
Whether it's a friendly NPC or a hostile NPC... they're just NPCs. It's ridiculous to act like a "living human" and act like they're going to die.
Hong Shu couldn't understand why the Eternal Life Game set up the background logic of "coming to see the ex-girlfriend" for an ordinary student. The system of the Eternal Life Game really needed to be reinstalled.
-12-
According to Hong Shu's previous style, he would just tie up this native who suddenly jumped out and use him as cannon fodder at the critical moment.
...But he was really short of people this time, and the student looked timid and easily frightened, so he made up an excuse to coax him into joining them in the team.
"We saw the girl you described, but she ran to the roof of Building 9. Let's investigate the clues together and find a way to check inside the building," he lied casually.
So, like a drowning man grabbing at a straw, the NPC easily followed them.
What's even more unexpected is that this NPC is quite smart.
The male students helped them solve almost all the mysteries in this copy.
...A weakling who can only study. Hong Shu has always looked down on such men, but this NPC might have been created just to serve as a guide for the game.
After all, this was originally a C-level copy.
-13-
"We need to find the monitor quickly," the students kept muttering. "She's been stuck here for three days. She'll cry if she doesn't have a chicken leg for three days."
...Care leads to confusion. This student's good brain seems to become a mess when it comes to his ex-girlfriend. This is probably why he was deceived by them all the way.
Besides, what kind of ex-girlfriend would cry if she didn't eat chicken legs for three days? Trapped in a place like this, the thing you should worry about is not eating chicken legs, but whether you can survive.
Worried that the other party might be the "game guidance NPC", Hong Shu tolerated this nagging native all the way.
Following the male student's guidance, Hong Shu and his group avoided all traps and ghosts along the way, and entered the No. 9 teaching building like a hot knife through butter.
There was no one in Teaching Building No. 9.
-14-
The student who went straight to the rooftop did not find his ex-girlfriend there.
Hong Shu also didn't find the "female student" in the main clue in the building.
"Kill the female student" is the clue given by the Eternal Life Game before entering the copy.
...They couldn't find it no matter how hard they looked. Finally, the students who were anxious to find someone and the players who were anxious to pass the level found the last classroom in Teaching Building No. 9.
-15-
Outside the classroom, a black rope loop was tied around the crooked tree.
Inside the classroom, the dazzling white light tubes on the ceiling swayed slightly.
Kill
Kill
Kill
Kill
——The ceiling, blackboard, walls, floor, bent and collapsed desks and chairs were all covered with the bloody word "Kill".
On the chair in the middle of the classroom, an unconscious little boy was tied up.
She was wearing a schoolgirl uniform and was covered in blood.
-16-
...This was the first time that the clues to passing the level were presented so directly and easily before my eyes.
Hong Shu had passed several A-level dungeons and felt that he was about to complete the game, but his intuition as a player was not right.
At this moment, the native was undoubtedly the most suitable person to be the cannon fodder in the front. At this point, all the patterns and answers had been explained by the students, and they no longer needed to solve the puzzle.
"Hey, you. Kill that thing, quick. A kid tied up in a place like this, covered in blood, must be a ghost."
But the guy who was timid all the time and only became noisy when talking about his ex-girlfriend said no.
"There's no clue that it's a ghost...it's a child! You're...you're...killing people!"
-17-
Hong Shu was very impatient.
Very, extremely, impatient.
These seemingly living beings are merely the excess of the immortality game system... low-dimensional, digital, paper-like... The reason why NPCs exist...
Of course, to serve the players.
If you want to save it, save it; if you want to crush it, crush it.
How can a low-level thing like an NPC pretend to be righteous and kind and then blame the player's behavior?
Negotiating with him had exhausted Hong Shu's patience.
"Hurry up and kill him. If we kill him, we can pass the level, and you can rescue that squad leader you've been thinking about so much."
The NPC student stopped talking.
He curled up on the floor, coughing up blood. Immortal games always make the NPC's blood and scars look so realistic.
"Hello. Hello."
The student did not answer.
...Sure enough, the indigenous NPC passers-by are just brainless trash.
Looking at the student who was coughing non-stop on the ground, Hong Shu kicked him again impatiently.
"Can't you hear me?! Get up! Go kill that kid! Quickly!"
-18-
An old player who has experienced the dungeon, an adult man who adds almost all the experience rewards to his strength.
The good student in the ivory tower was once again kicked into coughing up blood.
But he still didn't answer. He coughed until his lungs were about to burst, but he still refused to answer.
"...Never mind. Since you're so stubborn..."
Hong Shu raised his foot and stepped hard on the NPC's hand that had only held the pen.
Waste of time.
What a waste of time, just an NPC.
He turned around and said to his companions, "There should be some 'ex-girlfriend' of his here, right? She's also a female student... Let's go around the school again and bring that female student back..."
The student immediately began to struggle violently and frantically—at his feet, under the fist of this terrifying, grown man—coughing, struggling madly, stretching out—
-19-
Hong Shu sighed and turned his head.
He looked at the hand that suddenly reached out and grabbed his ankle.
Delicate, like the hands of a student who has only ever held a pen.
He refused to let go.
"You...don't...don't..."
The student coughed out a few words: "No...don't...Qianqian...don't...allow..."
ah.
Just an NPC.
...posing like a living person.
-20-
Hong Shu said, "Get lost."
Then he punched down.
-twenty one-
——"What are you doing here?"
Hong Shu's fist stopped in mid-air.
The classroom door was opened, and a black-haired female student stood at the door with a smile on her face.
-twenty two-
She was extremely beautiful, with her bangs resting neatly on her forehead. She stood gracefully with her hands clasped behind her back in a cute manner.
"Are you playing games?"
The female student laughed and said, "It's a fun game? Add me in? Everyone, games are only fun if we play together, right?"
【Clues:】
Killing a female student
The male student grabbed Hong Shu's ankles harder and harder - "Go away," he tried hard to squeeze these two words out of his throat to warn the girl who broke into the classroom - but Hong Shu kicked him away with just one kick.
-twenty three-
...Yes, I told you, the previous one was indeed a trap.
This is the game of immortality.
This is how players are treated.
Hong Shu grinned and approached the female student at the door.
"Yes, come and play, play together - come here, little sister, don't be afraid -"
-twenty four-
Miss M smiled at him with two sweet dimples.
"Don't be afraid."
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