Chapter 5
1:27 PM, Bird Auditorium.
Cen Xun entered the lecture hall at the scheduled time, sat down in his seat, and looked at the stage. The principal had not arrived yet, but the electronic screen was already turned on, showing a red and black PPT cover with the H University logo, and a line of bloody words hanging on it: "H University All Faculty Work Meeting".
A black background with big, blood-red bold characters. Cen Xun narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling that this color combination was strangely familiar.
On second thought, isn't this the panel color scheme of the Nightmare System?
Before Cen Xun awakened, he had never thought the color scheme of this PPT was strange. After it was out of the loop control, he could naturally taste something amiss.
There are no coincidences in the world, only inevitability.
Do the two identical color schemes mean that the power behind the Nightmare System has infiltrated H University?
Cen Xun still remembers that when he first entered this university, the classic color scheme for conference PPTs was still blue and white.
When did the change begin?
When Cen Xun fell into deep thought, it was already 1:00 p.m.
The moment the door of the lecture hall was completely closed, Cen Xun suddenly felt something. He raised his eyes and looked around thoughtfully.
He had a vague feeling that as the enclosed space took shape, an invisible "field" seemed to envelope the entire lecture hall, silently isolating the space inside and outside the door.
Cen Xun had never had this feeling during the previous cycles. Obviously, the fact that he could feel this "field" this time was also one of the changes brought about by his awakening of his special identity.
When Cen Xun was lost in thought, an old man with gray hair and a haggard face walked up to the podium. It was the president of H University, Hong Yingtao.
Principal Hong looked to be in his fifties. Unlike the stereotypical leaders with a pot belly, he had a haggard face and a lifeless aura. He stared at the people sitting in the hall with his sunken eye sockets, and his hoarse voice was transmitted to every corner of the lecture hall through the microphone.
Having gone through this process so many times, Cen Xun remembered every word and every pause in the meeting clearly.
There was nothing special about this meeting. My impression of it was that the principal first spoke some official rhetoric, and then the deans of each college took turns speaking. Next, the principal randomly called on teachers to report on their mid-term teaching progress and asked if they encountered any difficulties during the teaching process.
Cen Xun has a very high presence in the principal's office and is often called upon, so he always prepares his speech in advance.
Principal Hong, who looked as dry as a mummy, continued to deliver important speeches:
"Teachers should continue to learn, improve their own teaching level, implement the new curriculum reform, and encourage students to develop comprehensively."
"In future work, we will implement the 'three focuses': focus on teaching quality to comprehensively improve teaching standards; focus on team building to comprehensively enhance the strength of the teaching staff; and focus on routine management to enforce discipline in all aspects to provide students with a good teaching environment."
"To implement the 'Three Grasps' policy, the school will be conducting a questionnaire survey among faculty, staff, and students. Please fill it out truthfully and urge all students to complete it promptly. The questionnaire will be sent to your and your students' mobile phones via text message shortly."
Hearing this, Cen Xun's fingers on the back of his hand nodded unconsciously. The content of the questionnaire had appeared in the previous cycle, but Cen Xun felt that such a weird questionnaire was just a formality and did not take it seriously at all, let alone do it honestly.
But this time, Cen Xun plans to conduct this questionnaire survey.
The reason is simple. Cen Xun just feels that time keeps repeating on August 13th. There must be a reason for it. Only by figuring out that reason can the cycle be broken.
This questionnaire survey happens to involve all teachers and students in the school, and may be related to the secret of the cycle.
The lengthy meeting finally entered its final stage.
The colleagues beside him were already drowsy. Cen Xun seemed to be still sitting there, but in fact his soul had flown away. It was not until the principal called his name that he came back to his senses. Just as he was about to take action, Cen Xun suddenly realized that something was wrong.
The order is wrong!
In the original cycle, he would be the fourth person to be chosen, but this time, he became the first person to be chosen.
Objective conditions such as time and environment have not changed, so why does the order in which the principal calls people change?
Cen Xun's expression remained unchanged, as if he had heard nothing, until three seconds later, when the male teacher sitting diagonally opposite Cen Xun stood up.
According to the procedure, the first person to be called was this male teacher, so even if the principal called Cen Xun, this male teacher would still act according to the original procedure.
If Cen Xun also took action, it would simply make his abnormality public.
There is no reason why Principal Hong would suddenly change the order of people. Could it be that the principal is also an "NPC" who has awakened his self-awareness?
Cen Xun's inaction seemed to dispel the principal's suspicion, and then the principal's roll call order returned to normal.
Cen Xun stood up according to the original order, took the microphone, took out the manuscript and began his report.
The reporting process was no different from the previous ones. The only thing that made Cen Xun feel strange was that Yu Guangli's sleeping colleague seemed to wake up, turned his head towards him, and gave him a look that made Cen Xun feel very strange.
No, it seems there is more than one.
Cen Xun read the script at the same speed and slightly raised his eyelids.
When he raised his eyes, Cen Xun met dozens of pairs of dark eyes staring at him intently.
The dean and professors of the same level who were originally sitting in the front row turned their heads at the same time. Their dark eyes were bottomless, staring at him sinisterly and glaring at him fiercely, as if they had seen something unbearable. Principal Hong stood on the stage, his face was haggard and lifeless, and he also stared at Cen Xun straight, with countless pairs of inorganic dead fish eyes, which was extremely grotesque and evil.
These strange gazes seemed to be real, like spotlights, shooting from all directions, trying to expose Cen Xun.
Cen Xun stood under the strange gaze and read his manuscript slowly and leisurely.
Then he nodded politely to the principal and sat down again.
The teachers in the entire lecture hall looked down, still staring at him, but as Cen Xun expected, the "procedure" was still in operation. As long as he finished his report normally, the next female teacher would need to continue reporting according to the "procedure".
What was strange was that while she was reporting, her head was still turned towards Cen Xun, her dark eyes staring at him intently.
Cen Xun sighed softly.
It seems that it has been discovered.
Although I don’t know how I was exposed, fortunately the “procedure” is still operating normally. As long as I follow the “procedure”, at most I will just be glared at by colleagues who cannot escape the control of the “procedure”, which is not a big problem.
The only person we should be wary of is Principal Hong.
Only Principal Hong broke away from the "program" control and suddenly changed the order of roll call.
This may mean that Principal Hong is also an "NPC" who has awakened his self-awareness.
Cen Xun was not sure whether Principal Hong had any special identity or skills, and if so, what level they were.
Cen Xun lowered his eyes and gently rubbed his seemingly empty index finger with his fingertips.
The teachers' meeting came to an end amidst strange stares. At 15:00, Principal Hong announced the end of the meeting.
Cen Xun could feel that the "field" that enveloped the lecture hall was dissipating.
What on earth is that thing?
As Cen Xun was pondering, the tightly closed door suddenly opened and a vicious voice came in: "Principal, when our security team was patrolling just now, we found these students gathered together secretly, seemingly eavesdropping on the meeting. What do you think we should do?"
As he spoke, seven or eight students were driven in like quails by the security guards.
Cen Xun raised his eyebrows slightly.
He remembered that this had happened several times in past cycles.
In order to find more clues about the "key", the player heard from somewhere that the principal was going to hold a meeting of all teachers, and secretly waited outside the lecture hall.
But without exception, they would be discovered by security guards and taken into the lecture hall.
The player does not have a real student identity in the school. Therefore, when facing the principal's questioning, once the player reveals that he is not a student of H University, he will be thrown out of H University by the security guard.
After several groups of players were thrown out, such scenes never happened again.
Cen Xun guessed that the player camp must be really anxious, so they took the risk and came to the lecture hall to eavesdrop again.
On the stage, Principal Hong frowned, a sinister look on his gaunt face. "Which class are you from? What are you doing sneaking around outside the lecture hall?"
All the teachers turned their gazes towards these students simultaneously. The strange stares from all directions sent chills down the players' spines, their legs trembling.
The pressure came to the players, and under the principal's increasingly gloomy questioning, beads of sweat gradually appeared on their foreheads.
Many players had come to the lecture hall and tried to eavesdrop on the content of the meeting, but without exception, they were discovered by the elusive security guards every time, so they made a plan before coming.
Originally, they planned to place the eavesdropping device directly in the lecture hall, but this conference hall seemed to have a signal shielding device, and if the eavesdropping device was placed in the lecture hall, the eavesdropping device would fail.
So they decided to drill a hole in the wall in advance, put the eavesdropping device in the hole inside the China Unicom conference room, and hide in another building.
The plan should have been foolproof, but God knows why they were caught.
Are these security guards really security guards? They are judges of hell!
The players were desperate and tried to struggle, saying, "Principal, we weren't eavesdropping. We were just studying in the classroom. Besides, why would we eavesdrop on the meeting for no reason?"
The principal ignored him and repeated mechanically, "Every internal meeting is top secret at the school. Some malicious individuals disguise themselves as students to infiltrate the school and steal secrets. To confirm whether you are from the public, please state your student ID and name for verification."
The players looked grim.
They do not have their own student files at H University, so naturally they cannot report their student numbers.
What to do? If they can't respond effectively, they will be thrown out of the school by security and die in various outrageous ways.
He was hit by a flowerpot, had his head cut open by a falling kitchen knife, and stepped into an uncovered sewer.
Being hit by a dump truck was considered a good thing. The worst thing was being pierced by a sudden steel bar. I had to endure it until the end of the game at midnight before I could get relief.
No, no, it can't end like this, we have to think of a way
The leading player winked at the other players in the team, indicating that they should run separately.
Naturally, the escape plan failed. The security guards were well prepared and took action the moment they tried to escape, catching them like chickens.
The principal shook his finger in disgust and said, "Throw away outsiders from my school."
The security guard took the order and immediately dragged them out.
The players yelled and tried their best to break free, but it was all in vain.
Wang Tianyun and Gu Peiwei were also among the seven players who were caught. They were both smart people, as can be seen from the fact that they dared to take the risk to improve Cen Xun's favor.
Seeing that he was about to be dragged out by the security, Wang Tianyun suddenly had an idea and shouted in the direction of the seats, "I can prove that I am a student of H University. Professor Cen of Folklore knows me! I even asked him about folklore knowledge at noon."
A thunderous roar echoed in the empty lecture hall, and the other players were shocked. No, how could someone force a relationship like this?
Besides, aren't both Professor Cen and Professor Jin NPCs? NPCs only follow procedures, so how could they possibly rescue the players?
But the weird thing was, there actually was a familiar figure standing up from the seats. He squinted his eyes as if trying to identify him for a few seconds, then said, "I recognize this student, and the girl next to him, too. She's also a student I know."
Other players: “???”
He actually helped speak up!
Gu Peiwei, who was called out together, was flattered. She really didn't expect that the favorability she gained from Cen Xun would actually be useful.
In the silence, the principal paused for a few seconds, accepted the identity given by the school teacher and added: "So, what about the others?"
Cen Xun turned to the other players, met their expectant gazes, and said coldly, "I don't know him."
""
God knows, when everyone learned that Wang Tianyun and Gu Peiwei were actually trying to gain NPC favorability, they thought they were doing useless work. Everyone knew that the game would enter a new cycle after midnight every day. Even if the favorability was fully gained in this round, the favorability gained through hard work in the next round would still be directly cleared.
But now, they feel that they were really stupid in the past!
Favorability is really useful. Here’s how to pass the lecture hall test!
Now the players are regretting, very regretful. If they had been told earlier that favorability was so useful, would they have taken so many detours?
The players who were dragged out beat their chests and stamped their feet, regretting their actions. Wang Tianyun and Gu Peiwei, who were lucky enough to be rescued, were still in fear and looked at Cen Xun with particularly fiery eyes.
Cen Xun smiled slightly. He was not afraid of deepening the principal's suspicion. After all, the principal had already discovered the abnormality, so he might as well give the players a little sweet taste.
Players will only be willing to do things for him willingly if there is a carrot hanging in front of them.
After the meeting, the teachers left the lecture hall in an orderly manner and returned to their own routes.
Cen Xun walked out of the lecture hall under the principal's gloomy gaze and met two players who were waiting for him at the door.
Wang Tianyun's eyes were filled with gratitude: "Thank you, Professor, for speaking up for us just now. I really don't know how to repay you."
Gu Peiwei patted her chest and said, "I was so scared just now. I thought I would really be thrown out by the security guards."
Cen Xun said, "These are all minor matters. The principal is very exclusive of outsiders. If you are mistaken for someone else, you will be in danger."
Wang Tianyun and Gu Peiwei exchanged a glance, and Wang Tianyun asked cautiously, "Professor, do you know why the principal hates socialites sneaking into the campus so much?"
Cen Xun explained gently, "At today's meeting, the principal said that the social group is a complex entity and poses a threat to campus security. To protect the students, the school has strictly prohibited social members from entering."
After receiving another message, the two players' eyes lit up with joy. Just as they were about to ask again, Cen Xun's phone suddenly rang.
Cen Xun picked up his phone and took a look at it, then nodded slightly to them: "I have something else to do, you guys can do whatever you want." Then he left.
Wang Tianyun and Gu Peiwei: ""
Don't go, let us finish asking the questions!
The reason why Cen Xun was in a hurry to leave was, firstly, to lure players, and secondly, because of the extra text messages on his phone.
[School Office] Dear teachers, in order to jointly build a beautiful campus, implement the "three-grasp" policy, and improve the strength of teaching staff and the happiness index of students, we sincerely invite you to fill out the "Questionnaire" and look forward to your participation!
A link is attached below.
It was this text message that Cen Xun had received many times when he was still on repeat, but he never clicked on the attached link every time.
Is he going to click it this time?
Unknown links are likely to hide unknown dangers. If you are unlucky, you may die and have to start over.
However, Cen Xun has always liked a famous saying: opportunities and challenges often coexist.
Let him see what kind of perfect campus the principal wants to build.
Cen Xun curled the corners of his mouth, and his fingers moved without hesitation to click on the link.
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