Sui Yuan stared at the heart in front of him, his fingers trembling with nervousness.
He remembered Xie He saying, "This is a gift for you, sweet berries. I don't mind if you want to eat them."
Even if he ate them, Xie He wouldn't mind.
Thinking of this, a strange feeling rose in Sui Yuan's heart.
To enter this instance as an NPC, the game had instilled in him numerous medical-related knowledge diagrams. He was already used to all organ diagrams, yet this gift still felt very special.
Sui Yuan didn't reply to the messages on his phone.
Instead, he sealed the jar and placed it on the shelf.
He lit a cigarette and lay down on the sofa, his gaze repeatedly drifting to the pure black jar.
───
Xie He returned to his old dormitory.
Song Gua was no longer there. Xie He rummaged through his belongings. He remembered that the original owner was actually very perceptive; he would hide clues in the legs of his desk, certainly not leaving them lying around.
Xie He searched the walls, the bed frame, and other places, but found nothing of value.
Finally, he pointed to the bed and moved the entire bed back—
Finally, hidden in the metal sheet against the wall, Xie He found a note and a report card.
The note read: 【Liar! Liar! Liar!】
The ghost girl had previously said that she hated being lied to. The fact that Xie He had dealt with the students who bullied her, yet the ghost girl didn't show any joy, indicated that this wasn't what mattered most to her.
—Something else was weighing her down.
Xie He looked at the report card again.
The name "Xie He" had been steadily rising in the rankings, from the bottom of the grade. Although he was only around 200th in the most recent exam, just a mid-to-upper-level position, it was still over 1000 places higher than before.
Next to his report card were the small words "Keep it up!" written on it, indicating how much he used to care about this.
But those two words were now crossed out.
What had caused this change?
Xie He thought for a while, and after forming a general idea, he lay down on the bed, his arm behind his head.
Soon after, a "thump, thump, thump" sound came from outside the door, like a basketball hitting the floor hard. Suddenly, a pair of eyes peeked out from under the door, staring eerily into the room.
"Thump, thump, thump—"
The faint moonlight made those eyes appear sinister. Its gaze darted towards Xie He.
Xie He didn't pay any attention.
—If the other party could come in, they would have already.
He just felt that this rhythmic sound was like a hypnotic FM radio station. Soon, he fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning, the faint sunlight streamed into the room, and the heavy thumping sound had disappeared.
The school's loudspeaker crackled a few times.
Then, the man's voice rang out, solemnly announcing, "Students, after much consideration, I've decided that we'll take another graduation photo today as a memento. Please all students, after breakfast, put on your school uniforms and come to the playground—"
Graduation photo shoot.
Xie He found a school uniform in his locker and changed.
The weather looked fine, but Xie He had a vague feeling that something was about to happen.
When he arrived at the playground, several thousand students had already gathered on the lawn.
A man wearing a baseball cap had set up his camera and tripod, intently adjusting the camera settings.
Beside him stood another man, slightly overweight, leaning forward to look at the screen.
These two looked exactly like the two Xie He had seen in the broadcasting room that day; they must be the photographer and the principal.
The image from the camera was being projected in real-time onto the large screen in front of them. All students could see their current appearance in real-time on the projected screen, making it easier to adjust their posture.
“Girls over there, move to the side!” The portly Principal Zhang glanced at the screen a few times, then waved his arms enthusiastically, directing the students to line up, shouting, “Hey! Taller students, move to the back! Those standing on stools, be careful not to fall!”
“Click—” Time for the photo was quickly up.
After the photographer pressed the shutter button, everyone was captured in the photo.
The photo was projected onto the large screen, showing the faces of all the teachers and students, but in the corner—
A girl stood there silently.
She wore a white dress, clutching a syringe filled with blood tightly in her hand, looking utterly terrifying. A dark aura gathered on her featureless face, forming a sinister smile!
A ghost!!!
A ghost!!!
"Ahhh—!" The crowd screamed in terror, scattering in all directions. Many students tumbled from their chairs, some even breaking their tailbone as they continued running. Others, while running, exploded with a loud "Bang!" as the virus broke out, spraying blood everywhere.
"Bang bang bang bang!!"
Soon, the lawn was covered with gruesome, rotting pieces of flesh, the withered grass stained a vibrant crimson with blood, and even the warm sunlight couldn't dispel the overwhelming stench of gore!
Screams erupted all around, the scene descending into chaos.
The ghost girl had appeared again.
She had resurrected!
Xie He stood amidst the crowd, suddenly remembering something.
Players in the "good guys" camp will correspond to a student.
Players in the "traitor" camp will correspond to a deceased student.
Does this mean that as long as he lives, the ghost girl won't truly die?
"!"
Similarly, when Song Gua joins the "traitor" camp, there will be an additional ghost corresponding to... Song Gua.
No wonder the game says the difficulty has increased.
The ghosts in this instance cannot die; their power is near invincible.
What to do?
───
The playground descended into chaos due to the ghost girl's appearance.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Xie He stepped into the sports equipment room next to the playground—the closest hiding place—and found the fleeing principal.
The other players had surrounded the principal and were questioning him.
"So, you're saying you don't know who the ghost girl is—" Zhang Langlang stared at him, narrowing his eyes warily.
Surrounded by the crowd in a corner, Principal Zhang nodded shakily, but his eyes lit up when he saw Xie He enter. He unexpectedly raised his voice, "Xie He, what brings you here?!"
The remaining players looked at Xie He with surprise and suspicion.
These two know each other?!
Xie He scratched his brow and explained to the other players in a low voice, "I just found out too. My original body was the principal's child."
Zhang Langlang glanced at him thoughtfully, "You have so many identities, aren't you? The principal's son, or—"
Xie He: "Or what?"
Zhang Langlang smiled, a knowing look on her face, "Someone an NPC has taken a liking to."
Xie He: "..."
Xie He thought for a moment and said to Zhang Langlang, "Could you guys go out first? I want to ask him some questions, but I'm afraid he won't tell me."
Zhang Langlang hesitated for a moment, weighing the pros and cons, and said, "Okay."
After they left and closed the door behind them...
The principal's face immediately changed, pointing at Xie He: "It's you again! What are you doing here? Get out—!"
Xie He had anticipated this scene, leaning against the side with a casual smile, saying, "You really do have two faces, one in front of others and one behind, you're quite the performer."
"Didn't you promise me that you'd take me on a trip after my grades improved—" he said, raising his eyelashes to look at the principal, "Why didn't you keep your promise?"
He paused for a moment, unsure of what to do, waiting for Principal Zhang to fill in the gaps.
"Heh. A trip?? With your grades, do you even deserve it? I've been so busy lately, where would I find the time to take you!" Principal Zhang stood up, rubbing his neck, and roared, "Weren't those people ones you called earlier?! They've gone too far! Good-for-nothings!!"
"But you promised me that if I improved my ranking by 1000 places, you'd take me out to relax," Xie He continued. "If you hadn't promised me, I wouldn't have had any expectations, wouldn't have been working tirelessly day and night, and wouldn't have been disappointed later—"
She wouldn't have hidden her report card under her pillow.
She wouldn't have marked her grade goals for each subject on the back of her report card.
She wouldn't have mustered the courage to write "Keep it up" on her report card, only to cruelly erase it with a broken heart.
Principal Zhang scoffed, "Fine, now you've learned to talk back, huh?"
Xie He ignored Principal Zhang's words, calmly stating, "Not just this time, but many, many times. Things you promised me but didn't do—"
"And, you dragged me to the school assembly and made me apologize for something that wasn't my fault. What if I, at my age, already had my own self-respect?"
"Perhaps these are small things in your eyes, but they were the last straw that broke the camel's back after my daily torment—"
"If you cared about me even a little bit—"
Xie He thought about it, wondering what the ghost girl who jumped to her death must have felt in the end.
She must have been bullied by her classmates for a long time, finally finding a glimmer of hope in life. This hope could have helped her endure the hardships of life, but in the end, it crushed her.
Unfortunately, humans are fragile.
When feeling down, sometimes just a single word, or even a pen that suddenly stops writing, can cause an emotional breakdown.
Principal Zhang probably doesn't know that the dead child was his own. If he did, what would his expression be? What emotions would he feel?!
Principal Zhang: "You're still suffering? What worries could a little brat have? Get back to class!"
Xie He chuckled lightly. Who could really care about him anyway?
As the two were talking, they heard shouts outside, sounding like Old Zhang's voice—
They couldn't worry about anything else—
Xie He quickly opened the door, and Principal Zhang rushed out with him.
There, on the grass outside, lay three players, covered in blood, clutching their bleeding necks. They must have died as soon as they ran back.
Only one female player still had a faint breath. She pointed her bloodied finger at Xie He, her arm trembling: "He...he..."
But the female player only managed a few labored breaths before her chest stopped rising and falling. Until her death, her eyes remained fixed on Xie He, wide and horribly staring, as if she had witnessed something terrifying!
The three corpses lay strangely piled on top of each other, a pool of blood already forming on the ground.
"Hiss—" Even Principal Zhang, a man past fifty and with a wealth of experience, felt a chill run down his spine and cold sweat break out on his palms upon witnessing this scene.
Zhang Langlang, still shaken, said, "They said they were going to find the ghost girl, and they came back like this. Xie He—" Zhang Langlang looked at Xie He, incredulous, "Tell me, why did she point at you just now?"
An eerie silence fell over the scene.
"Beep beep—" Xie He's phone suddenly rang.
It was an automatic notification that a quest had been completed: [Congratulations to player Xie He. The traitor's faction main quest: Destroy the good guys' faction, current progress 60%!]
It turned out that the death of a player from the good guys' faction also counted as destroying the opposing faction.
Xie He glanced down at his phone. It must have been Song Gua or the ghost girl who killed those players…
No, the culprit could also be another ghost…
It was the “Song Gua” that had split off from Song Gua, the one within the ghost faction.
Beside him, Cui Xu looked up at Xie He, a smirk playing on his lips. His tone was contemptuous. “Xie He, none of our phones have rung.”
“But why did your phone get a mission notification when two players died? This news came too suddenly. Anyone who didn’t know better would think you were the mole.”
“So, what message did you receive? Can we see it?”
He turned his back to the others, looking at Xie He with an exaggerated laugh.
The other players understood the implication.
All the clues pointed to—Xie He was the mole!
Xie He: “Of course, if you—”
Xie He raised his eyelashes, meeting Cui Xu’s gaze directly, “If you want to die—”
He pointed a finger at Cui Xu.
With a loud "Bang—!!", the opponent was slammed into a wall some distance away, his back arching slightly. Instantly, the wall cracked like a spiderweb, sending up a layer of bluish-white dust!
Cui Xu, however, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and walked out of the wall as if nothing had happened. He twisted his neck, and his shattered head began to reassemble.
The players at the scene screamed in shock!!
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