The ringing sounded quick and short, spreading across the campus as if urging everyone to do something. All players heard the sound, but not everyone could react to it.
Some players seemed to realize something and wanted to leave through the crowd, but unfortunately the surroundings were too crowded. Countless players were trying to squeeze in, and those who went upstream were naturally submerged.
Elvia, who was standing outside the crowd, turned around and left in another direction without stopping.
This was his third time at Love Academy. Even though the missions were different each time, the map hadn't changed much, so he quickly found his destination.
Classroom 205, Building 2.
There were a few people sitting sparsely inside, and they just glanced casually when they saw someone coming in. However, Elvia's outstanding appearance and cold temperament still made these people's eyes linger for a moment.
Sitting down by the window, Alvia still held Zhou Zhou in her arms, her hand gently stroking the little white-haired head, while her eyes scanned the classroom inconspicuously.
The walls were snow-white without a single stain, and the blackboard in the front had some slight white scratches, as if someone had written something and hastily wiped it off.
There is also a similar blackboard at the back of the classroom, with a campus scene painted on it. Judging from the text, it seems to be a blackboard newspaper about the school anniversary.
People came in one after another. The players wanted to get more information in an unfamiliar place. Others had the same idea. The classroom became noisy from the initial defensive state.
Some people also wanted to talk to Elvia. Just from the pure white fur of the Nightmare in his arms, one could tell that this player must be very capable.
But the other party's aura was too cold, and it could only accommodate the adorable nightmare. Everyone else seemed to see the words "Keep away" from the other party's aura.
Players who know what's good for them will naturally not try to get close again.
The bell rang three times, with an interval of five minutes between each ring. After the third ring, the sky outside gradually brightened.
The early morning sunlight slowly penetrated through the windows, making the entire classroom brighter, and everyone's expressions became clearer from hazy.
As if by intuition, the noise in the classroom became lower and lower, and finally gradually disappeared. The players all sat in their seats, their eyes wandering at the door from time to time.
Soon, footsteps were heard in the corridor. As the sound became clearer, a woman in a black windbreaker walked into the classroom.
The woman walked up to the podium mechanically. The vertical collar of her black windbreaker covered half of her face, and her eyes were numb and without any light.
She didn't look at the players in the audience. She stared blankly ahead, and said word by word as if reciting a line: "Today we will look at the first chapter of the textbook, about the school's rules and regulations..."
The lecture stopped after ten minutes. The general content was about the need to go to and from get out of class on time every day, the school's reward and punishment system, and some common school rules, etc.
That was about all she said. After the woman finished speaking, she turned around and left without caring about other people’s reactions.
There are thirty sets of desks and chairs in classroom 205, but only half of them are occupied at the moment. As for the other half, it is unclear whether there was no one there originally or other players did not arrive yet.
After the woman left, the players began to discuss loudly.
"I thought I would find some clues here, but this is all?"
“There’s nothing wrong with the content.”
"I think the biggest problem is the NPC. It should be an NPC. It looks weird. Now that the other party has not gone far, why don't we follow it and see."
This player's proposal was quickly agreed upon by everyone, and several players followed him out of the classroom.
Alvia didn't move. He was thinking about the information the other party had just revealed.
For example, if the other party says that they will punish those who do not abide by the rules, then what kind of punishment will the players who did not attend class on time today receive? There will also be rewards for those who abide by the rules. Are the rewards related to the tasks and the way to pass the levels?
Elvia pinched Zhou·Pet·Zhou's ears with one hand. The furry ears felt soft and cool to the touch, very nice to touch.
The people in the classroom gradually left, leaving only Elvia still playing with the furry creature.
Seeing that no one else was around, Zhou Zhou moved his ears but did not pull them out of Alvia's hands. "Aren't we going to find Zeus?"
"I will definitely show up when the time comes."
Alvia looked at the pale golden light slowly climbing up the wall. The snow-white wall looked illusory white under the sunlight. He squinted his eyes and took out two student ID cards from his pocket.
It was something that was fished out from the students’ bodies at the lakeside.
The metal card is printed with the student's portrait and simple personal information, and there is a complex and intricate pattern on the back of the card, which looks like vines and thorns.
Placing the two student ID cards face up on the table, Alvia stared at the cards for a while, then suddenly switched the positions of the two cards and put them together.
The patterns on the upper and lower cards are different, but now they fit together seamlessly, as if they were cut from the same piece of metal plate. When put together, there seems to be a person entangled in the middle of the vines and thorns. The pattern is sunken and appears a little blurry because it is too small, and the human figure is only a rough outline.
Come to think of it, the characters they are playing now are also students, so why don’t they have student ID cards?
No one answered this question. Alvia stood up, carried Zhou Zhou out of the classroom, and before leaving, she glanced at the erased marks on the blackboard and then walked out of the classroom.
After walking out of the teaching building, Alvia was still thinking about her student ID and the words on the blackboard, but the clues were too fragmentary to piece together any useful information.
Seeing Alvia thinking seriously, Zhou Zhou wagged his tail proudly. He knew everything, and Alvia would never be able to guess the plot until the very end.
After leaving the teaching building, Alvia found that the atmosphere on campus had changed.
Originally, there were a large number of players entering this dungeon, so it was very lively everywhere, but now not only are there fewer people, but the remaining players also have obvious panic on their faces.
What happened?
Two people came running from a distance. They were Ayu and Afeng, who had woken up in the same dormitory with Elvia.
"So you're here, great."
The two men seemed to have been running for a long time. They looked out of breath and had panic on their faces.
Perhaps it was Elvia's powerful aura that made them feel safe, and the two of them felt noticeably more relaxed after getting closer.
Before Alvia could ask, the two men immediately told him what happened afterwards like pouring beans.
It turned out that the four of them went to the Art Building together. After hearing the bell, they guessed that they might have to go to class as required on the task panel.
But the scene was too crowded, and only the two of them squeezed out of the crowd. The other two really couldn't squeeze out, so they finally split up, two of them went to the teaching building, and the other two went into the art building to continue looking for clues.
But when they returned to the art building after class, it was empty.
There were so many people crowded together not long ago, how could they all disappear in just ten minutes?
They didn't dare to stay in the art building for too long, thinking that the other two might have gone to other places and didn't necessarily disappear, so they looked everywhere.
But during the search process, I found that there were many players who were also looking for companions.
All their companions also disappeared, or rather, all the players who did not act according to the roles they played disappeared.
And the number of people among them accounts for almost half.
"This copy is too unreasonable. Half of the players have been eliminated just after they came in and haven't done anything. How can we possibly pass the level if it continues like this?" A Yu couldn't help but complain.
"Why don't we act together? After all, there are fewer and fewer people left, and we don't know what will happen next."
"And we want to continue looking for clues in the art building. It's a bit embarrassing with just the two of us..." A Yu felt a little embarrassed. After all, it was really embarrassing for two grown men to say they were afraid.
Alvia agreed.
When they arrived in front of the art building, it was indeed empty.
The bustling scene before seemed like just a dream.
It was clearly daytime, but the empty building was unusually quiet. I don’t know if it was a psychological effect, but I always felt that the closer I got to the building, the colder my back felt.
It was precisely because of this that Ayu and his friends did not choose to enter, but instead looked for more people to go in together.
Originally, they wanted to find more players to go in together, but the first person they met was Elvia. They guessed that Elvia must be a very powerful player, so the two of them invited him.
Although the sun was shining brightly outside, the interior of the building seemed unusually cold.
A Yu and A Feng have been very alert since they entered, like frightened birds.
Zhou Zhou poked his head out from Elvia's arms and looked at the two men.
These two people were lying. If it was their first time entering here, how could they look like this? After all, they were experienced players in Nightmare City. They were so timid when they saw an empty building. There must be something wrong.
He nudged Elvia, hoping to draw her attention to the difference between the two, but ended up getting patted on the head instead.
Zhou Zhou:?
I'm not asking you to pat my head, I'm asking you to pay attention to these two people.
Perhaps the resentment in Zhou Zhou's eyes was too obvious, and Alvia seemed to receive the signal. He glanced at the two people behind him and asked casually, "There seems to be something strange here."
"What's strange about that?"
"The only clues about the deceased were the student ID and this building. Why didn't any players come here?"
A Yu paused: "Aren't we here yet?"
"There should be hundreds of players left."
A Feng looked a little panicked: "Maybe he found other clues and went to other places."
"Really?" Alvia did not continue asking, but lowered her head and stroked the nightmare in her arms.
Afeng seemed to want to say something, but when he opened his mouth, Ayu next to him stopped him with a look.
No one spoke after that and the atmosphere was very tense.
Zhou Zhou stood up from Alvia's arms and asked with his mouth: "Why don't you continue asking?"
A small fox-like animal is trying hard to lip-sync, which looks very funny, and you can't tell what it is saying from its lip movements.
Alvia curled the corners of her mouth and understood what Zhou Zhou meant.
“No need.”
Alvia did not lower his voice when he spoke, and both men looked at him.
Before they could ask what Al was talking about, a cold wind suddenly blew through the empty building.
The freezing cold wind blew through the building at an abnormal speed. It was invisible to the naked eye, but it was everywhere.
Several people immediately fell silent. A biting cold wind surrounded them, like a cold poisonous snake wrapped around their bodies, making every inch of their skin stand up with hair as if in stress.
Something is coming!
Elvia and Zhou Zhou looked up at the second floor at the same time, and several windows made of colored glass came into view. The east direction should have projected brilliant colors under the sunlight. But at this moment it was extremely gloomy, as if covered with a layer of dust, dull and lifeless.
Just when the other two were feeling uneasy, something seemed to be moving on the gray stained glass. It was so inconspicuous that it looked like dust being blown by the wind by chance.
Zhou Zhou's red eyes were shining as he stared at the window, as if there was something interesting there.
The dust on the glass slowly rolled and condensed, and the color gradually deepened, until even the two players could see it.
Ayu pointed at the window and exclaimed, "What is that?"
The gray, transparent colloid lifted itself off the glass and floated in the air. It then suddenly expanded and stretched, eventually turning into an extremely huge and ferocious face, which rushed towards the crowd with bursts of roars.
“Ahhhhhh!”
Both players were scared away.
Alvia and Zhou Zhou were not scared. Their attention was even drawn to the two players who were screaming at high decibels. They watched them stumble out of the building.
After Zhou Zhou and the other two disappeared, he turned around and shouted to the translucent monster that was still roaring fiercely: "Zeus!"
Looking at the still calm Elvia and the smiling Zhou Zhou, the monster stopped moving dejectedly.
Then it slowly shrank and turned into the original little boy.
But it is still in a gray and translucent state.
"It's not funny. You guys weren't scared at all."
Zeus looked like he was in a soul state, and one could even see the buildings behind him through his body. From his hair to his skin color, everything was light gray.
"Because I guessed it was you at first sight." Zhou Zhou answered honestly.
Having stayed in Elvia's arms for too long, and there was no outsider around at this time, Zhou Zhou jumped to the ground nimbly, shook his body, and stretched.
Only Alvia dropped her hands, with a hint of regret in her eyes, and then looked at Zeus: "Is this your surprise?"
Zeus sensed a mockery in this plain remark.
He floated up from the ground like a real ghost until he could look down at Elvia: "I was afraid that you would be as scared as those two players, so I restrained myself, understand?"
Whenever these two met, they would quarrel, and Zhou Zhou would immediately jump up to stop them.
After all, these two people are taller than him now, and Zeus is still floating in the air and can't reach him.
"Hurry up and do the task. No quarreling now."
As soon as Zhou Zhou opened his mouth, both of them shut down.
Zeus looked at Elvia with an expression that said he didn't care about her, then turned around and floated to Zhou Zhou, and his expression immediately changed.
"Zhou Zhou, you're so cute like this."
Zhou Zhou blinked his fiery red eyes: "Isn't this what you changed into?"
After all, he himself does not have the authority of the Nightmare City and can only rely on Zeus's ability to transform, so the appearance of this little animal is actually created by Zeus.
"Different people have different feelings. If it were him, he would definitely have a condescending expression. Look, just like now." Zeus took the opportunity to discredit Elvia.
Zhou Zhou found it funny to see Alvia's helpless expression. Zeus really disliked Al. He didn't know what Al did to make Zeus accept him when they first met.
The three of them stayed here for a while before preparing to go on the mission.
It was as if Zeus had become addicted to being a ghost and he never returned to his original form, but just floated around.
It was indeed a very novel experience for Zhou Zhou to follow Elvia's feet and walk like an animal. Not only the coordination of the limbs but also the line of sight was completely different.
Anyway, Zhou Zhou and Zeus are just here for show, so the task of clearing the level will be left to Elvia.
Going up the stairs, this building is also made up of classrooms, but the classrooms in the art building are filled with drawing boards, paintbrushes, and various stone sculptures.
Elvia entered the first classroom. The walls were covered with portraits. Each one was very abstract, with all kinds of strange lines, mottled blocks of color, and people of different shapes whose facial features could barely be recognized.
In short, Zhou Zhou didn't understand any of the paintings. Although he was the one who built the copy, the details of the scene and the parts that were not related to the task were all automatically generated, so Zhou Zhou had no idea what the paintings meant.
Alvia looked at it very seriously.
He was like a tourist admiring paintings. He stayed in front of each painting for a while, and his expression only changed slightly when he saw the last painting.
Zhou Zhou was very bored, so he was either observing Elvia or looking at where Zeus floated to. He happened to see Elvia's eyebrows slightly raised in front of the last painting.
What's wrong? Did you see something interesting?
Zhou Zhou immediately stretched his neck to look over.
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