Chapter 54 "Escort" Function
All teachers have experienced the apocalypse.
The replicas inside the simulator are likely based on real events, and some of them may even be the teachers' memories.
This barrage of information came crashing down on the students, completely exceeding their capacity to handle it.
The campus was unusually quiet that day.
In class, everyone was unusually well-behaved and listened attentively.
A girl looked at Bai Tang on the podium and suddenly remembered a day not long after the start of the semester when Teacher Bai had an abnormal and violent reaction when faced with a simulated zombie.
Teacher Bai was so frightened that she froze on the spot, but instinctively pushed her hand away, telling her to "run quickly".
Later, the principal arrived in time, stopped the zombies, and even sent a special reminder to the entire school to temporarily suspend the zombie rental service.
The girl didn't understand the principal's intention at the time; she thought the reminder was making a mountain out of a molehill, but now she finally understands.
"..." She subconsciously bit the dead skin on her lower lip, her note-taking movements slowed down, and she stared blankly at Bai Tang's back.
Bai Tang was turning around to write on the blackboard. Her long bob was tied into a small braid at the back of her head. Because she was short, she had to stand on tiptoe when writing on higher parts, leaving behind lines of increasingly skillful writing on the blackboard.
The person who was full of student spirit when school started is now a respectable teacher.
Ms. Bai, who is so frightened by the sight of zombies that she can't move, and who pushes her students away even in fear, was she about the same age as she is now when she was attacked by those zombies that can climb walls?
The difference is that no one warned them of the end of the world, and no one taught them how to survive.
The apocalypse destroyed their lives, took away their loved ones, killed them, and then brought them back, brought them to these students.
Is this a gift or a form of cruelty?
What were the principal's and teachers' feelings as they gathered everything they had learned from the apocalypse and death to teach them?
Another layer of dead skin was torn off, leaving a cut on the lower lip, and a salty, fishy taste seeped into the mouth.
The girl quickly lowered her head to wipe the blood from her lips, and then, taking advantage of this action, raised her hand, stretched her index finger to the corner of her eye, quickly wiped it, and then gripped her pen tightly, trying to cover up the truth by scribbling down a few ambiguous words in her notebook.
Today, she figured out a lot of things.
For example, how did Teacher Hao get the scars on his face? Why is his action of killing zombies so skillful, yet always accompanied by disgust?
For example, where did Teacher Liu's clever and talented granddaughter go?
For example, why does Teacher Zhao always avoid looking directly at realistic zombies?
For example, why is the composition of the school's teaching staff so strange, with both young and old, ranging from recent graduates who are complete shut-ins to retirees who have been retired for more than ten years, as if the principal did not screen them at all before hiring them.
Because death is inherently unreasonable; it falls equally on everyone's head.
The teachers almost never leave the Fangzhou campus, perhaps because in this world, they have nowhere to go and are homeless.
...After class ended, the girl remained seated for a while. Many others in the classroom were doing the same, either hunched over their desks browsing forums or staring blankly at the presentation slides.
If someone from another school were here, they probably wouldn't understand why so many people are staring at these satisfyingly slap-in-the-face stories with melancholic expressions.
Suddenly, someone screamed from the corner, breaking the deathly silence.
"Look at the announcement right now!"
*
[The "Simulated Combat Pod" has been fully upgraded!]
[New Feature: Replay]
Users can now view a library of completed playthrough videos and choose to upload their own playthrough videos for others to reference. ...
"Is this even considered an update?" Zhang Han lay on his dorm bed, flipping through the announcements, and wondered, "Can't I already upload my own gameplay videos to the forum? This update seems to just be adding a video library to the combat pod, categorized by dungeon for easier viewing, nothing else that's remarkable."
The forum does allow uploading videos, but there are restrictions: only those who have completed the game can view other people's completion videos.
"Could you please read the announcement first?" Shen Qingqing shook her head, somewhat exasperated by Zhang Han's impatience. "The important part is below."
After she finished speaking, she scrolled through the page again and read it carefully once more.
Her intuition told her that this function was quite extraordinary.
Seeing Shen Qingqing's focused expression, Zhang Han quickly followed her prompting and continued reading.
The "Replay" feature includes two options: "Escort Service" and "Experience".
[Choose the companion option. The simulated combat pod will create a virtual avatar for the user's uploaded video of the player who cleared the dungeon, making them a teammate to play the dungeon together. Note: This function has a limit on the number of teammates depending on the dungeon mode.]
[Choose the experience option to simulate combat and take on the perspective of the player who has cleared the level. The player will "take control" of the controls, providing a fully immersive experience.]
[You can even sense some of the strong emotions of those who clear the level, in order to better understand their action logic.]
Zhang Han was stunned when she read the description of the second option.
A moment later, she did the exact same thing as Shen Qingqing—swipe up on the page and read it again.
"The perspective of the player before the immersive experience... Is this what I meant?" Zhang Han looked up.
Simply seeing the classmates' completion records wasn't that appealing, but at that moment, the same name spontaneously popped into their minds.
—Anonymous tourist.
*
Less than half an hour after the announcement was issued, the room where the simulated combat pods were located was already packed with people.
After the students who had just come out of the combat pod confirmed that there were indeed records left by anonymous tourists in the image library of instance 004, everyone was even more reluctant to leave.
Many people who had already entered the instance this week didn't want to wait until next week, so they simply grabbed those people queuing to enter the simulation pod at the room door and directly asked them to exchange.
"I'll reschedule my appointment with you next week, and I'll treat you to another meal, okay? Anything under fifty yuan is fine."
Although the simulated combat pods require advance booking, the time restrictions are not so rigid. If students have something come up at the last minute, they can find someone to switch privately. As long as both parties agree, they can submit the application together through the student watch.
However, as more and more students arrived after seeing the announcement, those who held this week's spots instantly became highly sought after.
The conditions offered in exchange are becoming increasingly outrageous.
"Who can switch with me and bring me meals for a week! I can deliver to any male dormitory, and I can also help female students bring them to their dorms."
"I can help take care of them for two weeks! I'm from the girls' dorm."
"...Holy crap, you're offering this too? I'll bring you a month's worth. I'm from the local area, and I can bring you my mom's chicken soup and ribs on weekends, as well as the super delicious duck feet and milk tea sold downstairs from my house."
"That's too much! If anyone wants to give up their seat to me, I'll cover all your meals, delivery, water, and seat reservations for this month..."
As a girl was about to enter the classroom, she was stopped by countless hands reaching out from all directions.
She pushed them away forcefully: "No, no, get out of the way!"
What are milk tea and duck feet? Nothing can stop her from running into the principal's arms.
Just to get into the dungeon a week early, one group desperately tried to bribe someone, while another group desperately refused. Anyone who saw this scene would call it surreal.
One of the boys, who had only come to watch the fun, was being jostled around and finally couldn't take it anymore: "Can you stop pushing around? It's just a walkthrough video, right? Now that there's a video library, and people who came out before have confirmed that the anonymous tourist's video is indeed there, why don't we just download it and watch it on the forum? Why do we have to go into the simulated combat pod ourselves?"
Another boy with acne scars standing nearby stared at him like he was an idiot: "Are you stupid? The focus of the new feature is clearly not on replay, but on companionship and immersive experience. Both of these require you to personally enter the combat pod. What's the use of just watching recordings?"
"Just tell me, do you want to be teammates with the principal? Do you want to? Do you want to?"
He was so excited that he almost spat on the man's face. The man hurriedly wiped his face, thought about the scene, swallowed unconsciously, and honestly admitted, "I wanted to..."
"That's good then." The person who spoke rolled their eyes and said, "And the experience features are even more amazing. You get to experience the principal's actions from a first-person perspective, and you can even feel some of her emotions! What's the difference between this and a master teaching you step by step? If you still can't learn this, you might as well pack up and go home to farm."
"?" The student from the farming class, feeling innocently insulted, was unhappy. "No, why are you discriminating against me based on my major?"
What does this have to do with them?
"…Sorry." The pockmarked boy hadn't expected this and quickly apologized. After apologizing, he looked at the other person and said, "Now you understand why we robbed them—wait, where did they go?"
While he was apologizing, the person he was talking to somehow managed to squeeze to the front row.
The guy who was just acting all nonchalant is now jumping around in the crowd with his hands raised higher than anyone else's.
"Look at me! I can wash your dirty clothes and smelly socks for a month! Purely hand-washed, no pollution and no harm!"
Boy: "…………Damn it!"
I should have known better than to tell him. Why did he have to say that extra word?
*
After finally escaping the enthusiastic crowd and entering the classroom, Lu Dongyu's hair was a complete mess.
The conditions offered by her classmates were very tempting, but she did not regret refusing them at all. Her eyes lit up as she stared at the rows of capsule-shaped simulation pods neatly arranged in the classroom.
Only a fool would trade with them for a week's head start in having the chance to explore dungeons with the principal.
Lu Dongyu lay down skillfully, the hatch closed, and she quickly entered the main interface.
She had already played instance 004 before, but Lu Dongyu was well aware of her own skill level and had no intention of challenging the hidden boss-level mutated cat. Before playing, she carefully read the forum guides to avoid all the pitfalls and just wanted to pass the level smoothly. Fortunately, her name was added to the principal's record.
At this moment, Lu Dongyu clicked on the completed dungeon record and successfully found the No. 004 beginner dungeon. Sure enough, there was a new option at the bottom of the page that hadn't been there before.
[Replay]
Clicking in, the first thing you see is Lu Dongyu's own playthrough. After the update, not only is there a first-person replay, but students are also allowed to review their gameplay from a third-person, God-like perspective. Making good use of this can be very rewarding.
After recording, there was an option to upload the record to the public hall. Lu Dongyu felt guilty and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming several times that sharing was turned off.
Her records are not presentable to others.
There is a button in the upper right corner of the record page: [Share Clearance Record]
Many of the students who came to the simulator today checked out copy 004, and two of them even achieved good results, so they chose to upload it.
But Lu Dongyu ignored the other records and fixed her gaze on the one at the top.
[Player nickname: Anonymous Visitor]
[Clearance time: 5 minutes 19 seconds]
Overall Rating: SSS
[Sharing scope: Visible to all]
Sure enough, there was a record of the principal!
Lu Dongyu was about to light it up, but stopped at the crucial moment. After hesitating for a second, she decided to check the situation of the other dungeons first.
Once you enter the instance, it could take a long time, so it's best to check first to see if there are any updates or if any skilled players have uploaded their save files.
Returning to the dungeon selection page, the screen is filled with various dungeons, each distinguished by a different color to indicate its difficulty: light green for beginner, yellow for intermediate, orange for advanced, and dark red for hellish difficulty, making it easy to see at a glance.
Lu Dongyu stared at the three deep red copies floating at the top, and then, as if possessed, reached out and tapped them.
She knew perfectly well that no one had ever cleared the Hell difficulty dungeon, let alone uploaded any records, but... she just looked and looked.
The loaded screen startled her.
On the empty page, there was only one record, with an ID that she knew all too well.
[Player nickname: Anonymous Visitor]
[Clearance Time: N/A (Time statistics not included)]
Overall Rating: N/A (Rating not included)
[Sharing scope: Visible to all]
Lu Dongyu's gaze froze, her pupils slightly contracting.
Realizing what had happened, she quickly checked the remaining two hell dungeons.
Sure enough, they also had corresponding clearance records, and the uploader was still an anonymous tourist.
Unconvinced, Lu Dongyu randomly opened more than a dozen dungeons in a row and finally discovered the pattern: not all dungeons had records uploaded by anonymous visitors, but the higher the level of the dungeon, the more frequently her name appeared.
This is definitely great news for students.
The more difficult the dungeon, the more valuable the experience of those who came before, not to mention that this is the principal's experience.
But... Lu Dongyu couldn't understand why the anonymous tourist's record didn't have a duration or rating.
All instances played within the simulator come with built-in statistics functionality.
Unless, of course, the principal wasn't just "playing" in a simulated combat pod...
Her mood gradually darkened.
The answer is already clear.
Considering the speculations on the forum, Lu Dongyu finally dared to be certain.
All the dungeons with completion records are based on the principal's personal experiences.
Her main purpose in opening the historical image archive was probably to show these images to students.
When she finally understood, Lu Dongyu was shocked and excited, but also felt a little bittersweet.
Although the principal did not teach herself, what she provided to the students was perhaps the most valuable thing in the entire Fangzhou.
But what is the price to pay for all of this?
She herself was hesitant to publicly upload her playthrough record simply because her gameplay wasn't fancy enough. But for the principal, what she needed to share was her real memories, her emotions, and even things she might have seen in the dungeon that she didn't want to face again.
Lu Dongyu thought of Xiao Juan again.
Thinking that it was likely the principal's and Teacher Lu's personal experience, she couldn't help but wonder, so far no one in the entire school has successfully saved Xiao Juan... So, did the former principal manage to do it?
After just one night together in the instance, many people fell in love with this "character" and shed tears for her death.
What about the principal and Teacher Lu, who had spent months working alongside her?
How did they feel when they lost this important friend?
Lu Dongyu suddenly dared not think about it anymore.
The page was showing her walkthrough of the Hell dungeon, and she clicked to replay it.
Sure enough, a notification popped up—
[Warning: You have not cleared this dungeon yet and cannot use the replay function. Please try again after clearing it!]
Lu Dongyu sighed softly, her heart filled with melancholy.
It's unclear how long it will take her to catch up with the principal.
I really want to... help her right away!
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