In this game world, academic memory was a plunderable and highly valuable resource. Resources had transactional value, and the merchants who traded them were profit-driven and devoid of humanity. Ruthless merchants loved hoarding for speculative gain.
It was highly likely that they would store the best academic memories to reserve for the children of wealthier, more powerful families in this world.
Moreover, they might also store some memories as a contingency for unforeseen circumstances.
Ning Changfeng suddenly realized something. "So you're planning to enter the Reflection Hall because...?"
Ning Su replied, "If they are storing memories, the most likely place would be that Reflection Hall connected to memory."
That was the "treasure" he sought to claim.
Ji Zeming's eyes lit up. "If they're storing anything, it must be the academic knowledge of top-tier students. If we can get it, scoring 600 marks will be a breeze!"
Lu Yue chimed in, "So this is the right path for survival?"
"Breaking into the Reflection Hall is something we need to plan carefully and not act recklessly," Ning Changfeng cautioned. "Even if everything is as we suspect, and even if we manage to get the memories, we still don't know how to transfer them."
"Going in now to retrieve the memories would just alert them, making it harder for us to figure out the transfer process. So, we need to first learn how to transfer the memories, then retrieve them—or work on both simultaneously."
Ning Su said, "The instructor's black tree whip can extract memories itself. The black tree whip looks similar to the tree-like objects on the Reflection Hall. Maybe transferring memories is related to those objects, so we still need to enter the Reflection Hall."
Ning Changfeng insisted, "Either way, entering the Reflection Hall is something we must deliberate carefully!"
Ning Su fell silent.
They had only just started planning and hadn't yet figured out how to enter the Reflection Hall. But unexpectedly, an opportunity soon presented itself.
This time, the rankings on the bulletin board were posted earlier than before. By lunchtime, they were already up. After eating, the group came over to check the performance rankings for the entire grade.
"Jiang Ming actually scored 611 points!"
"How is that possible? Didn’t he only score 420 points last time?"
"An improvement of nearly 200 points in one week? Impossible!"
The surrounding players checking the scores suddenly fell silent, as if they had guessed something.
A few of them followed the discussion and looked up the player named Jiang Ming’s scores, and sure enough, it was 611 points.
Most players entering these instances ranked within the bottom 100 of their grade, and even those outside the bottom 100 typically didn’t have stellar grades. Among the 100 players who had been through various horror instance worlds for years, very few could achieve 600 points on an exam.
Although this mock exam wasn’t as difficult as the previous two, there were still only eight players scoring above 600, all of whom were familiar faces known for good grades. Jiang Ming’s sudden appearance on the list seemed extremely unusual.
Ning Su commented, “Last time, he scored 420 points: Chinese 132, Math 58, English 69, and Social Science 161.”
"…"
Did you memorize every player’s scores? What kind of godly memory is this?
Ji Zeming paused and said, “So, his weak subjects are Math and English, yet he did exceptionally well in both this time!”
It’s impossible to improve that much in these two subjects in just one week.
Lu Yue exclaimed in shock, “Whose memory did he transfer to?!”
Ning Su looked toward Ning Changfeng and said, “Do you remember the student who was dragged out of the second examination hall?”
Ning Changfeng also thought of that student the moment he saw Jiang Ming’s scores.
Typically, students dragged out of the examination halls were among the top ten in their grade. But during yesterday’s exam, there was an exception—a student ranked outside the top 120 in the second examination hall was dragged out.
They had discussed it at the time but couldn’t figure out what it meant.
Now, they understood.
For the players, scoring 600 points wasn’t easy. However, for students who had studied at Qingyi High School for three years, it wasn’t that difficult. Not only in the first examination hall but even in the second, some students were capable of achieving this.
Moreover, Jiang Ming didn’t necessarily need to transfer the memories of a student capable of scoring 600 points. Since his Chinese scores were already very high, all he needed was a student strong in Math and English.
Ning Changfeng’s expression turned cold. “He’s working with the school authorities.”
Jiang Ming couldn’t have achieved it on his own, and that student had been dragged out of the exam room by an instructor. It could only have been the school leadership helping him.
Ji Zeming: "Why would the school leadership help him? He must have offered them some kind of benefit!"
Lu Yue: "We’ll just ask him and find out. Maybe he knows how to transfer memories. If that’s the case, it would save us a lot of trouble."
They were desperate to learn the method of memory transfer.
Ning Changfeng frowned. "This might not necessarily be a good thing."
Ding-ding-ding!
The evening self-study prep bell rang.
They agreed to find Jiang Ming after evening self-study and then returned to their respective classrooms.
As in the previous two sessions, during evening self-study, the bottom 100 students in the grade were sent to the Reflection Hall to reflect and write self-criticism.
The last time the bottom 100 players were sent to the Reflection Hall, five of them resisted and were killed. Over the past two days, another six players jumped to their deaths, leaving 11 spots in the bottom 100 vacant. As a result, the number of players sent to the Reflection Hall this time was no fewer than before—70 players in total.
Watching these 70 players enter the Reflection Hall, the remaining players felt a heavy weight in their hearts.
There weren’t many players left who hadn’t experienced the Reflection Hall.
Initially, more than 80 players had been protecting the eight amnesiac students. Later, it might become a situation where a dozen players were left to protect seventy. Could they even manage that?
The pressure in this dungeon world was growing heavier and heavier, making them even more desperate to figure out how to transfer memories.
After evening self-study, many players went to look for Jiang Ming.
They all came up empty.
During evening self-study, Jiang Ming had moved to a different dormitory.
Jiang Ming’s roommates asked the dorm manager and learned that he had transferred to a single-person dorm.
Qingyi High School did have single-person dorms, which could be accessed in two ways: paying a high accommodation fee or ranking in the top ten in the grade to qualify for free residence.
Jiang Ming’s transfer to a single-person dorm immediately raised suspicions.
The players went to the single-person dorms to look for him.
After knocking on several doors and asking a few students, they finally cornered him in his room.
"Jiang Ming, how did you score 611 points on the test?"
"Say it, did you tap into someone else's memories?"
"You can't keep it to yourself—what's wrong with sharing?"
Faced with a real-life example of someone successfully scoring 600 points, the players were getting anxious.
Yet Ning Su and Ning Changfeng, standing at the very front, remained silent.
It was only then that they realized this Jiang Ming was the same male player who had bullied a female classmate in the Black Forest and had his wrist crushed by Shi Tianzhu.
He was the first player they had seen bullying amnesiac players. Under their warnings, he didn't dare continue, absurdly escaping the school inspection that time and avoiding the Reflection Hall.
Seeing him now, the two immediately sensed something was off.
Sure enough, just as the players were urgently questioning Jiang Ming, their impatience leading them to grab at him, the dorm manager and the director of student affairs, wearing high heels, came storming up.
"What are you all doing? Causing trouble in the middle of the night?"
"Ning Su, it's you again! Can't you stop? Are you the ringleader in bullying your classmates?"
"Jiang Ming already told us you bullied him before. This time, we won’t let it slide! Off to the Reflection Hall for reflection!"
Ning Su: "…"
More wronged than Dou E*, Ning Su glanced at the grim-faced Ning Changfeng and said, "Alright, teacher."
(T/N: Dou E refers to a character in the classical Chinese play *The Injustice to Dou E*, known for her unjust suffering.)
