Chapter 165: Red Maple Boarding School (Part 2) – “This NPC is actually quite nice.”

【instance Name: Red Maple Boarding School】

【instance Type: Team Survival】

【Preliminary Hint: Disasters repeat themselves, and survival is not easy; living is a blessing, while death is destiny.】

In a vast, empty concrete room, Chen Lidong opened his eyes. Turning his head, he saw his cheap teammate, Zhou Datong, standing aside with a foolish grin, and immediately felt a headache coming on.

Chen Lidong was twenty-nine this year. Having spent years navigating the rough edges of society, he had long since polished his demeanor to a slick finish. Paired with a black suit and sunglasses, he had the distinct air of a local thug.

In reality, he had no worries about food or clothing and even had some savings. In instances, he had accumulated quite a few powerful items. Even compared to the top players on the stone tablet in the Player Square, he could be called “competitive.”

For this instance, Chen Lidong had entered as a team with Zhou Datong.

Both were new members who had just joined the Sera Guild and were still in the probationary phase; they hadn’t even met the guild leader, the Puppeteer, yet.

The core member who recruited them had tossed each of them a team ring and told them to perform as they pleased. It was only after Chen Lidong spent a thousand points to buy information that he learned all members had to pass the test of three instances, with their official membership decided based on their performance.

Becoming an official member offered many benefits. Protection was secondary; the most important thing was the ability to take loans from the guild to obtain enough points in advance to fulfill some of their wishes.

As for the content of the test, first, it looked at whether one was ruthless enough—those with a “Saint” complex who constantly felt compassion could not stay. Second, it looked at the instance performance score. One had to be strong in either intelligence or combat; Sera would not value a useless lackey who could only follow orders and hack blindly.

Chen Lidong had worked as a construction foreman for a while and had dealt with many rowdy migrant workers. He was second to none when it came to being cold-hearted.

As for intelligence, he also felt good about himself. In the words of his hometown, he was a “shrewd operator.” With a bottle of wine and a pack of cigarettes, there was no place where he couldn’t hold his own.

The only thing that gave him a headache was Zhou Datong, the teammate Sera had assigned to him.

Whether it was fate or not, Zhou Datong happened to be a migrant worker, and exactly the kind Chen Lidong looked down on most—the type who was missing a few gears in his head and was overly fussy about everything.

They had met in their seventh instance. Since both were from Yuzhou, they considered themselves fellow townsmen and naturally formed a team, then somehow managed to survive together.

A core member of Sera responsible for recruitment was also in that instance. Appreciating Chen Lidong’s ruthlessness in killing, he extended an olive branch. Zhou Datong was brought along for the ride onto Sera’s pirate ship.

Then, through a series of coincidences, that core member assumed Chen Lidong and Zhou Datong were very close, so he directly tied their names together on the team application.

By the time Chen Lidong realized the problem, it was too late. The team rings were already made, and changing them would require a processing fee of ten thousand points.

Looking at his carefully managed account, Chen Lidong could only swallow his grievances.

He had no objections, and Zhou Datong naturally had none either. After all, “Brother Chen” looked very insightful and was willing to share his experiences with him.

The current instance was the third cooperation between Chen Lidong and Zhou Datong.

As long as they completed this instance and passed Sera’s assessment, the two could unbind and go their separate ways.

In the concrete room, more and more players were slowly waking up. At a glance, there were about twenty people, and that didn’t exclude those who might have loaded into the instance at other locations and hadn’t had time to gather yet.

Chen Lidong tucked the black ring on his right pinky toward the base of his finger, setting it to hidden mode. Leaving the dazed Zhou Datong behind, he slipped into the increasingly lively crowd.

The players exchanged names, and a few even announced their affiliations: one from Jiuzhou and three from Tingfeng.

Chen Lidong naturally didn’t dare to reveal his identity at this time. He played dumb to muddle through and then started fishing for information from the other players.

Before he could get any useful information, a middle-aged woman calling herself “Ms. Medina” appeared. She gave a series of threats along the lines of “violating school rules is forbidden, or the consequences will be severe.”

One player was blunt and asked what the school rules were.

To everyone’s surprise, Ms. Medina became furious, accusing the player of not paying attention and saying she would put him in solitary confinement.

Upon hearing the sentence, the unlucky player seemed as if possessed by a ghost. With limbs twisting, he walked into a hallway, appearing to be heading toward the confinement room of his own accord.

A confinement room in a instance was likely nothing good, not to mention the incredibly eerie sight of his limbs moving out of his control.

The player’s face instantly turned as white as paper.

He struggled to turn his head, casting a pleading look at the crowd, but his body walked away step by step, eventually disappearing into the depths of the hallway.

Not a single player dared to lend him a hand. After he had served as a warning, no one dared to ask questions about the school rules again.

Chen Lidong immediately understood why there were so many players at the start of this instance.

The death rules were hidden; it would likely take filling them in with lives one by one to test them out… After punishing one player, Ms. Medina turned and left, leaving the other players stranded.

The players didn’t dare to move recklessly. They sat on the floor in the featureless concrete room, waiting for the plot to progress.

Chen Lidong also waited for a while at first, but soon realized that just waiting like this wasn’t the way.

Clues for clearing the game wouldn’t grow legs and run to him. Even if not for others, but solely to improve his instance performance score, he had to take the initiative.

Chen Lidong had originally intended to persuade a female player from the Jiuzhou Guild to go with him. In his view, Jiuzhou was the number one guild after all, and she surely had many life-saving items on her.

Unfortunately, she looked at him with a face full of wariness and even put on a posture as if she were ready to scream for help at any moment, as if he were some child-trafficking villain.

Left with no choice, Chen Lidong could only leave the group with his deadweight teammate, Zhou Datong.

As it turned out, the old saying “the bold feast while the timid starve” was not wrong.

After walking only a few steps along the hallway leading to the confinement room, Chen Lidong heard a system prompt.

【Detected that you have left the student group; a reasonable identity is being supplemented for you.】

【Identity ‘Philanthropist’ has been loaded.】

From the prompt text, Chen Lidong learned that the character he was playing was a Philanthropist dedicated to promoting peace and improving the lives of children.

His visit to Red Maple Boarding School was on behalf of an organization called the ‘Indigenous Peoples Charity Foundation’ to conduct an inspection and judge whether the school’s facilities and management met’social welfare standards.’

In other words, he directly didn’t need to follow the school rules anymore. Even the instance’s main NPC, Ms. Medina, would have to be polite to him.

This immediately gave Chen Lidong confidence. A Philanthropist coming to inspect a school—why would he fear being harmed?

The only flaw was that Zhou Datong didn’t trigger a system prompt; his identity remained’Student.’

To Chen Lidong, this was nothing. He had protected Zhou Datong all this way; why would he fear a school instance?

So, while bragging to Zhou Datong, Chen Lidong continued to explore the depths of the hallway. Then, he heard a cry for help coming from behind an iron door.

“Classmates, I beg you to go tell Ms. Medina that I know I was wrong… I haven’t eaten for three days. I’m so hungry, I’ll die if this continues…”

The grayish-black iron door was coldly embedded in the wall. The moans coming from behind it were as faint as a thread, sounding like someone on the brink of death.

Zhou Datong was startled: “Chen… Brother Chen, did we trigger some event? Is… is that a person or a ghost behind there?”

“I’m here, what are you afraid of? Didn’t we leave the main group just to trigger events?” Chen Lidong patted Zhou Datong’s shoulder, walked up to the door in a few steps, took a hammer from his inventory, and struck the lock.

“The one inside is probably an NPC who provides clues. If it’s a person, we’ll save them; if it’s a ghost, we’ll kill it. Didn’t the boss lend me that 【White Blade】 before we entered the instance just to deal with this kind of situation?”

Chen Lidong was absolutely certain that what he had encountered was most likely his own identity mission.

He came here to check for school violations and accidentally discovered Ms. Medina abusing children—didn’t it all connect?

Thinking this, Chen Lidong hammered the lock even harder.

The lock was exceptionally sturdy. He hammered it at least a dozen times, yet didn’t even leave a crack.

“Brother Chen, how about we go find Ms. Medina? Didn’t the NPC say to find her and pass on a message?” Zhou Datong suggested cautiously.

Chen Lidong felt a bit embarrassed, and his tone became unfriendly: “Are you stupid? Setting aside where to find that Medina, even if we do find her and let her take the person away, where else are we going to ask about the school rules?”

Zhou Datong suddenly realized: “You’re right, Brother Chen, you’ve thought of everything!”

Chen Lidong took out the 【White Blade】 from his inventory and gestured at the lock.

The voice from inside the door sounded feebly once more: “Classmate, the door isn’t locked. It’s just that there’s no handle on the inside, so I can’t get out…”

Chen Lidong: “…”

He put away the 【White Blade】, reached out to turn the handle, and gave it a tentative pull.

The iron door opened effortlessly, and a youth wearing a gray short-sleeved shirt tumbled out.

The youth had light brown skin, a high nose, and deep-set eyes, clearly of the same ethnicity as Ms. Medina. Due to malnutrition, he was as thin as a clothes hanger.

Chen Lidong intended to build some favor with the NPC and quickly took out a compressed biscuit from his backpack, handing it to the youth.

“Thank you.” The youth took the biscuit with trembling hands, looked up at the two of them, and said hesitantly, “You two, school rule number three: students must wear school uniforms while at school. If Ms. Medina sees you not wearing uniforms, she will be angry.”

【Rules have been updated】

【Red Maple Boarding School has the following rules; as a student, please be sure to follow them:】

【3. Students must wear school uniforms while at school.】

Three lines of prompts appeared on the system interface. Chen Lidong and Zhou Datong glanced at each other, both seeing the pleasant surprise in each other’s eyes.

Without sacrificing a life, they had easily learned a rule. They had truly struck gold!

Chen Lidong looked at the youth and forced a kind smile: “Child, don’t be afraid. I am a Philanthropist and an observer for the ‘Indigenous Peoples Charity Foundation.’ I’m here to help you. You can tell me about things like corporal punishment or starvation, and I’ll report them to the foundation. I’ll definitely get justice for you!”

He had completely immersed himself in the role of the “Philanthropist,” reaching out affectionately to pat the youth’s head.

The youth dodged imperceptibly and began taking small bites of the biscuit.

Beside him, Zhou Datong saw the youth’s cracked lips and took out a bottle of water from his backpack, handing it over. The youth accepted that as well.

Chen Lidong waited until the youth had finished eating and drinking before asking affectionately, “Child, what is your name?”

“Name?” The youth’s eyes became vacant, mixed with a hint of obvious confusion. “I’ve forgotten my original name. My number is 47. You can just call me ’47.'”

Chen Lidong guessed that Red Maple Boarding School was likely something like a concentration camp; otherwise, why would they use numbers instead of names?

He asked again, “Can you tell me about the school rules here? It would help me report to the foundation.”

The youth shook his head somewhat apologetically: “I’m sorry, I forgot many things after I woke up. Aside from what I told you, I can’t remember anything else.”

Zhou Datong looked sideways and muttered softly, “How can this NPC know nothing when asked?”

“This is normal. How could a instance tell us all the rules at once?” Chen Lidong paused, speaking animatedly. “Let me teach you something else. This NPC says he has amnesia; this setting is very likely related to the instance’s worldview. The confinement room probably messes with one’s memory.”

“Is that so? Haha, if you hadn’t said it, Brother Chen, I really wouldn’t have thought of it.”

“Stop flattering me. Let’s take the NPC back first. It’s time to seize the right to speak.”

The two spoke without any regard for the youth beside them. In their view, sentences involving words like “NPC,” “player,” and “instance” would be automatically filtered out and kept from the NPC’s ears.

Unfortunately, the youth was not a real NPC, but Qi Si wearing a human skin mask.

After solving the food problem and seeing the 【Side Quest Completed】 prompt, he shed his half-dead appearance and stood up, openly listening to the two players’ conversation—

And wore an ignorant expression, pretending he couldn’t hear a thing.

Chen Lidong finished his bragging and turned around to see the “NPC youth” had stood up at some point, standing at an estimated height of 1.8 meters.

He grumbled internally, “How can he be so tall despite being malnourished?” while wearing a kind smile: “Child, come with us. Didn’t you say you wanted to apologize to Ms. Medina? We also happen to need to see her and ask her some things.”

Qi Si nodded and lowered his gaze. “Are you both Philanthropists here for an inspection?”

“I am,” Chen Lidong said, then pointed to Zhou Datong beside him. “He isn’t.”

Qi Si continued, “Since this is our first meeting, may I ask how to address you?”

Zhou Datong grinned foolishly. “I’m called Zhou Datong. This is my Brother Chen, Chen Lidong.”

Qi Si smiled at Chen Lidong and greeted softly, “Hello, Mr. Chen.”

Chen Lidong nodded, quite enjoying the respect. He thought the NPC was quite polite and a good kid; he didn’t know how he had offended Ms. Medina.

Thinking again of Ms. Medina’s capricious nature, he felt that being punished for no reason didn’t seem particularly strange. His gaze toward Qi Si couldn’t help but hold a bit more sympathy.

It was getting late. Chen Lidong led the way back along the path they came, with Zhou Datong following closely behind.

Qi Si trailed far behind the two, the corners of his lips curving upward.

Since receiving the prompt about the 【Crimson High Priest】 card, his goal was already different from that of the other players.

“Calamity rather than salvation, behind the scenes rather than center stage”—he already had an idea of how to play his part.