Chapter 72.2: First High School (31)

Su Zhiwei glanced at the person coldly and spoke in a chilly tone, “Congratulations indeed.”

Although Su Zhiwei said “congratulations,” there was no hint of congratulations in his icy tone.

“Brother...” The male student seemed to sense Su Zhiwei’s anger and shrank back, but in the next moment, his gaze fell on the person lying on the bed.

Excitement and enthusiasm instantly appeared in his eyes, and he hurriedly approached the bed, seemingly wanting to touch the teenager lying on it, without considering whether this body would be harmed by his speed.

However, just as the male student was about to reach the bed, he was blocked by a piece of paper that appeared out of thin air. The paper was drawn with strange red patterns and floated in front of the male student, obstructing his way.

The male student immediately stopped and turned around, casting a sinister gaze on the man sitting on the sofa, his eyes looking extremely frightening.

Su Zhiwei gave him a faint glance. “I told you, he doesn’t belong to you.”

The male student lowered his gaze, concealing the expression in his eyes, and weakly called out, “Brother...”

Su Zhiwei sneered, “Don’t call me brother. You’ve grown wings and dare to kill even Song Yu. I can’t afford to be your brother.”

“Brother, I’ve figured it out... figured it out...” the male student intermittently spoke.

Su Zhiwei spoke expressionlessly, “I helped you for ten years to let you come out.”

“Too slow...” The male student turned to look at the person on the bed. Following the previous method, it would take him hundreds of years to leave that mirror.

He didn’t want that.

Before, he hadn’t thought hundreds of years were a big deal, but now even a second felt like torment.

He wanted a body; he wanted to live; he wanted to appear openly under the bright sun.

He wanted... the teenager.

“Slow?” Su Zhiwei laughed in anger. “Indeed, Song Yu died quickly.”

Su Zhiwei stood up, approached the male student with a sense of oppression, and looked down at him, his tone indifferent. “Then you tell me, after Song Yu’s death, who will suppress the ‘divine being’ in the mirror?”

“Do you know that he hasn’t completed the sealing ceremony yet? The next descendant of the Song family won’t be born for at least another ten years. Killing Song Yu is equivalent to ruining centuries of effort by the Song family.”

“He... won’t awaken. It has been hundreds of years... and still no awakening...”

The male student seemed to have become more proficient in speaking, much better than before, and his tone flowed more smoothly. “And now I can control... its dark mist... The Song family doesn’t need to suppress the dark mist anymore...”

“I won’t let the Song family notice...”

The more the male student spoke, the more fluent he became, almost like a normal person. Only a slight inconsistency could be heard in the intonation, and his expression became more human-like, except for a slightly unnatural smile.

“As long as the Song family doesn’t notice... everything will remain the same.”

“And ten years later, the Song family will send someone to perform the sealing ceremony again. It’s just ten years, nothing will go wrong.”

Su Zhiwei paused for a moment. “Did you complete the sealing ceremony before you died?”

“I did,” the male student replied calmly. “I was killed because I became too weak after sealing the mirror.”

Su Zhiwei didn’t know whether to believe it or not, but he just gave the male student a cold glance and spoke indifferently, “I hope so.”

The male student wanted to say something more but suddenly paused, then looked up at Su Zhiwei. “Brother, someone has intruded into my ghost domain. I’ll go take care of them. Please take care of Song Yu’s spirit.”

After finishing his words, the male student didn’t wait for Su Zhiwei’s response and twisted his way out of the room once again.

Meanwhile, Su Zhiwei glanced at the teenager lying on the bed, walked to the bedside, gently tugged the thin blanket, and then picked up the air conditioner remote control to adjust the temperature to the most comfortable level.

Then, he also left the bedroom.

After a minute or maybe two, Ruan Qing slowly opened his eyes, his beautiful pupils clear and bright, without any signs of tiredness or drowsiness.

So, there really was a so-called ‘divine being’...

The existence that needed to be sealed was probably not a benevolent and just ‘divine being’.

According to the conversation between the two people, it seemed that there was a ‘divine being’ sleeping within the mirror, and the dark mist of the ‘divine being’ was probably a result of its unconscious intrusion into the real world due to being asleep and uncontrolled. This had caused some negative effects, which was why the Song family had been sealing the dark mist in the mirror for generations.

The time limit was approximately around ten years.

The previous member of the Song family turned into a monster within the mirror and died during the sealing ceremony in Class 1-1. Somehow, they also became trapped within the mirror and sought revenge by killing all the students in Class 1-1.

Su Zhiwei was probably trying to find a way to help his younger brother come out.

The method likely involved a midnight blessing prayer, sacrificing the soul of a student from the top-ranked high school, in order to allow his brother to come out without awakening the ‘divine being’ or letting the dark mist invade the real world.

However, it seemed that the younger brother couldn’t wait and directly killed Song Yu, who would be the one to seal the mirror this time, regardless of whether it would awaken the ‘divine being’ or if the dark mist would invade reality.

The most important question was... did this younger brother really complete the sealing ceremony ten years ago?

Ruan Qing thought it’s highly likely that he didn’t, and Su Zhiwei probably thought the same way, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked that question for no reason.

If he didn’t, it meant that the sealing hadn’t been done for nearly twenty years, and the situation was extremely unstable.

It’s unclear what reason compelled this boss-level younger brother to come out of the mirror right now.

If it wasn’t for him, this instance would probably involve participating in the midnight blessing prayer event, going through the examination, and being killed by the person in the mirror if one looked into it for too long.

Most of the players were in Class 1-1, and there’s a mirror behind the wall at the back of the classroom. So even if they didn’t look into other mirrors, as long as they sat in the classroom, the person in the mirror would appear later on.

Therefore, their task was essentially to fight against their own mirror image as well as the mirror images of others, and survive for ten days.

This difficulty level was not low, considering that once the mirror image replaced someone and hid among them, it was easy to kill other players.

It’s a game that combined strength and intelligence, where the challenge lay in identifying the mirror images and killing them. The difficulty level was suitable for an intermediate-level instance because not everyone possessed similar perception and judgment abilities.

At that time, it was highly likely to evolve into mutual suspicion and killing.

However, because the boss-level younger brother insisted on coming out in advance and killed Song Yu, who came to seal the mirror, the instance directly upgraded to an advanced instance.

Now... it seemed that all the monsters in that exam room had come out.

What they were now facing was clearly the challenge of surviving from this group of monsters, and the difficulty level had increased significantly.

After all, the strength of the people in the mirror was not much different from their own, but the beings in the exam room were obviously not at the same level.

Not to mention the boss-level younger brother.

Su Zhiwei was the older brother of this boss-level younger brother. He said he would protect Ruan Qing and let him stay in the safe cage he provided. Perhaps that was the safest option.

After all, he was not only the boss’ older brother but also a member of the Song family, not weaker than the boss-level younger brother.

Ruan Qing tightly pursed his thin lips, tightened the blanket on his body, and finally let go of his hand, slowly getting out of bed.

Naturally, it would be good to survive until the end, but he didn’t want to clear the instance in that way.

Not to mention that relying on Su Zhiwei might not necessarily guarantee clearing the instance and leaving.

Su Zhiwei was a member of the Song family. He might have gone through the sealing ceremony, knowing about talismans and knowing sealing techniques was not surprising.

Perhaps he had some strange means that would prevent Ruan Qing from leaving the instance even if he cleared it.

In other words, there wasn’t much difference between following him and dying in this instance.

Relying on others had never been as good as relying on oneself. It would be better to take this opportunity to investigate what exactly the “deity” sealed in the mirror was. Perhaps that would be the ultimate answer.

Moreover, he had the item “Crimson Moon” and the talisman given by the players...

No, wait! This talisman was not given by the players!

The monsters in the exam room were afraid of the talisman, but the player who was directly killed by the teacher obviously didn’t have any talismans.

And just now, the talisman didn’t work downstairs in the teaching building, indicating that the beings around him... obviously were not the monsters that came out of the exam room.

It’s Song Yu!

Song Yu gave the talisman!

Ruan Qing had just figured it out when the temperature in the bedroom suddenly dropped a few degrees. There was something... coming.

Ruan Qing looked panic-stricken in the direction of the window. The window was open, but the curtains there were mysteriously swaying, even though there was no wind at all.

It was as if something was crawling in from there.

The situation was eerie and filled with terror.

Ruan Qing’s brain went numb for a moment, and his body was covered in goosebumps. He tried to calm himself down and quickly retreated to the door of the bedroom, then forcefully closed it.

There was a talisman posted on the door, probably left by Su Zhiwei. Ruan Qing directly put it into his pocket and then, without hesitation, ran downstairs.

***

[Welcome, players, to the instance “First High School”.]

[Once upon a time, First High School was the best high school in the city, with kind teachers and friendly classmates.]

[But from a certain day, First High School became somewhat strange.]

[It seems... no one can leave the school anymore.]

[Instance mission: Survive for seven days.]

After being thrown into the instance, the first thing several players did was to pick up their phones and check the instance information.

Most players had terrified and panicked expressions after reading it. There were only a few who remained calm.

One of the players raised an eyebrow. “First High School? Wasn’t this the instance announced by the game system just now? An upgraded advanced instance? Interesting.”

There were about ten players present, but not all of them were advanced players. In fact, there were only two advanced players, while the rest were all intermediate players, and there were even unfortunate beginner players.

After all, it was actually quite difficult for advanced players to level up. If they left every game to the advanced players, they would hardly be able to gather the required number of players for the instance.

So, at times like this, it all depended on luck. Even if low-level players draw advanced instances, they would consider themselves unlucky.

Everyone didn’t waste any time and immediately began investigating the situation of the instance. Even if it was a hell-level difficulty, no player wanted to give up hope.

Gradually, the truth was pieced together from the accounts of the high school classmates.

It started with a notorious school bully. Because the top-ranked student accidentally bumped into him twice, the bully forced that top-ranked student to jump off a building.

Apparently, the school bully named Su Qing was a cannon fodder NPC, while the one forced to death, Song Yu, was the big boss of this instance.

Although Su Qing, the cannon fodder, was not of much use, he possessed the boss’s hatred value.

In a critical moment, they could push him out to attract the boss’s attention and buy themselves some time to escape.

A player pressed a knife against an ordinary student and asked fiercely, “Who is Su Qing? What does he look like?”

“He... he...” The student spoke timidly, but suddenly, as if he had seen something, he pointed at a teenager not far away and said, “He looks like that!”

The player followed his gaze and looked over.

 

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