Chapter 186: Red Maple Boarding School (23) “He Never Replied”

Ms. Medina’s lesson content was English. If Shang Qingbei were here, he might have been interested; unfortunately, most of the surviving players were past the age of needing to take English exams.

They were either fidgeting or restless, yet they had to pretend to listen attentively in front of the NPCs—it was truly miserable.

Fortunately, at exactly eleven o’clock, a piercing bell rang precisely on time, signaling the end of the class.

Ms. Medina gathered all the players in the hallway, her icy gaze sweeping over every face: “I know that many of you didn’t rest well last night and sneaked out of the dormitories when I wasn’t looking—those who did it know who they are.”

Seeing this posture of settling accounts after the harvest, the players held their breath, anxiously awaiting the arrival of judgment. A few individuals with poor psychological fortitude were already trembling faintly.

Ms. Medina seemed pleased with the players’ fear, her gray eyes narrowing slightly: “Of course, I keep my word. I can forgive all your violations on the first day. But a Bad Kid took something of mine and hasn’t returned it yet. This malicious behavior must be punished.”

The moment she finished speaking, a small player in the crowd let out a gasp. Everyone looked over, only to see large patches of yellow flowers suddenly blooming across his chest, vigorously and passionately spitting out stamens, cascading down like a waterfall.

He wailed in pain, falling backward onto the ground, rolling and convulsing non-stop. Yellow flowers were constantly being crushed beneath him, but soon more flowers bloomed from the corpses of the crushed ones. Broken petals and intact stamens covered him entirely and climbed in all directions.

The nearest few people snapped out of their daze and quickly retreated to the side, terrified of being contaminated by even a tiny bit of this strange plant. Soon, the area near the fallen player was just an empty space covered in yellow flowers.

He was still struggling desperately, but as more and more flowers bloomed from his chest, it became difficult even to move. He could only twitch his limbs and let out faint, barely audible moans.

The sudden death point gave no one time to react. The players stood stiff and numb beside him, watching the unfortunate soul’s struggles weaken, his voice grow fainter, until he was gradually submerged by the flowers.

Not until the person on the ground was completely still did Ms. Medina walk over, reach her hand into the cluster of flowers covering the corpse, and pull out several yellowed letters.

Some players recognized them; those were the letters Jiang Junjue claimed to have copied from Ms. Medina’s office.

Now it seemed Jiang Junjue had lied. These letters were not copies at all; they were the originals!

“Another Bad Kid burned down the Archives, which is unforgivable! Although someone has already been punished for it, I know he wasn’t the real culprit.” Ms. Medina stared into everyone’s eyes and said in a hoarse voice, “I already know the answer to who did it, but I would prefer you to report him and bring him to me!”

The players, watched by her viperous gaze, mostly dared not move rashly, but a few cast suspicious glances toward Zhang Yiyu. The only ones known to have gone to the Archives alone were her and the now-deceased Yamakawa Nobuhiro.

Ms. Medina looked around but ultimately failed to find the true culprit among the crowd, shaking her head in disappointment.

“Between eleven o’clock and noon, it is free activity time. At twelve o’clock, everyone must gather at the cafeteria on time.” She dropped this sentence, took the letters, and strode away.

Not until her footsteps vanished in the stairwell did the players relax slightly, their breathing rising and falling in the silence, carrying the relief of surviving a disaster.

Ms. Medina in this school was an unsolvable existence, and her actions were utterly unpredictable; whom she punished and whom she spared was entirely up to her mood… You must realize, the rules never said players weren’t allowed to take things from the office… “Jiang Junjue, what exactly do you mean?” The young man wearing the earring was the first to challenge Jiang Junjue.

This Earring Man and the deceased short man were roommates.

At this moment, he spoke logically: “You anticipated that keeping those letters on oneself would cause trouble, which is why you put them on the third floor and asked us to go up and look at them together. You lied to us, saying the letters were copied. Did you plan all along to find a scapegoat to take Ms. Medina’s punishment in your stead?”

Jiang Junjue used two fingers to take the cigarette from his mouth and silently tucked it behind his ear. The players vaguely looked toward him, waiting for his explanation.

Seeing Jiang Junjue remain silent, Earring Man pressed his advantage: “We respected you as a Veteran Player in the Tingfeng Guild, which is why we chose to trust you and follow your arrangements, not so you could treat us like fools and exploit us arbitrarily…”

【Important NPC Ms. Medina has been infected with “insomnia syndrome.” The instance is about to enter a new phase.】

The cold system prompt interrupted his words, and a loading progress bar popped up unexpectedly on all players’ system interfaces.

They exchanged glances, and some began to harbor suspicions, looking toward Jiang Junjue, who had once again clipped the cigarette butt between his fingers.

【New rules loading… Scene updating…】

Amidst a string of irritating busy tones, Jiang Junjue tossed the cigarette butt in his hand and calmly uttered three words: “It succeeded.”

He surveyed the people around him and calmly explained: “Based on the situation in the bathroom yesterday, you should have realized that the germs can be transmitted through contact with the dirt on an infected person. The letters I found in the office were well-preserved and contained a large amount of information, making them likely very important to Ms. Medina. This means that once she discovered the letters were missing, she would definitely try everything to get them back.”

“Therefore, after realizing I was infected, I smeared some of the dirt that had fallen off me onto those letters. Of course, at that time, I didn’t know this disease was called ‘insomnia syndrome.’ I just thought dragging a hostile NPC down with us would give us an advantage.”

Speaking of this, Jiang Junjue looked at the indignant Earring Man beside him and sighed apologetically: “I told you the letters were copied by me, not because I intended to harm any of you. I was just afraid that someone, out of fear, would report me to Ms. Medina if she asked. I had to ensure my own safety first, which is why I was forced to conceal part of the truth.”

“As for that young comrade dying because of this, it was completely outside my expectations. How could I have known that something I casually placed under the floorboards would be secretly carried by someone?”

This explanation sounded plausible. Although the players still had some doubts, they ultimately didn’t press the matter further.

In the hallway, the already dim scene grew even darker. Dark water stains seeped out from the corners and floor cracks, and tiny fungal plants grew ominously.

The air was filled with the heavy stench of decaying plants, mixed with the foul, fermented smell of disinfectant, weaving shadows of disease and death.

On the system interface, lines of new prompt text refreshed, accompanied by a cold, detached narration:

【Loading complete. The instance has started a new phase.】

【After the last native resident in the Red Maple Boarding School was also infected, Mr. Thorson made the decision to seal off the school and prevent the plague from spreading.】

【Yes, historically, the Red Maple Boarding School experienced a Massacre on June 8th that left no evidence, and for a long time, it was labeled as an “accident.”】

【From today’s perspective, this Massacre might be an unforgivable crime against humanity; but undeniably, the deaths of the infected effectively contained the spread of the disease and saved large areas of innocent land.】

【Of course, there was still one who slipped through the net of the Massacre. A lucky child escaped from the horrific living hell—which of you will he be?】

【Task time limit triggered.】

【Task time: 5 days, 12 hours, 49 minutes.】

The time inside the instance was 11:11 AM on June 2nd. This meant that at exactly midnight on June 8th, most people would die as recorded in the Archives, and only one person would survive thanks to the guaranteed minimum survival mechanism… The countdown of life hung over their heads like the Sword of Damocles, and the players’ expressions were grim, unanimously directing resentful looks toward Jiang Junjue.

Jiang Junjue, however, looked indifferent, standing listlessly as if the life and death of others had nothing to do with him.

The text on the system interface continued to refresh:

【Main Quest updated. Replaceable quests added.】

【Main Quest (Optional): Prepare enough antidote to cure everyone’s “insomnia syndrome.”】

【Quest scenario updated.】

【More unwilling ghosts will resurrect in this land of death. Some harbor malice toward everyone, while others are willing to offer some assistance.】

At this point, the players realized that although the new phase seemed perilous, it was actually a case of “danger and opportunity coexisting,” and their dissatisfaction immediately vanished.

The situation had not worsened; it could even be said to have improved considerably.

After the first day’s exploration, valuable clues had nearly been exhausted. The introduction of new scenes and NPCs would undoubtedly provide more clues, serving as the fulcrum for breaking the deadlock.

And besides the original, nearly impossible mission, they now had other options.

If they couldn’t kill Ms. Medina, they could try the other mission: preparing the antidote to cure the disease.

Chen Lidong spoke up at the right moment: “I opened both small rooms at the end of the corridor. One room is piled with Native Resident documents, which might be helpful. However, those documents can’t be taken out, and we can’t read them.”

“If you can’t take them out, copy them down. If you can’t read them, you can ask, right?” Jiang Junjue half-closed his eyes and reverted to his lazy tone. “Plenty of Native Resident ghosts are bound to pop up later; surely some of them can read…”

As if to confirm his words, several human figures flickered indistinctly in the shadows of the corridor. The edges of the water stains became clearer, gradually solidifying into the outlines of small, skinny children.

Clear children’s voices echoed intermittently in the corridor. Listening closely, one could distinguish two voices talking back and forth.

“Those people are coming tomorrow. I heard they are also infected and want to capture us to cure their disease…”

“Are they also infected with insomnia syndrome?”

“I don’t know, I only managed to eavesdrop on a few sentences. If I get caught eavesdropping, I’ll be put in solitary confinement.”

“I’m so scared, I don’t want to be taken away… The children taken to the fourth floor never came back…”

“Shh—Ms. Medina said that as long as we don’t do anything unnecessary, we won’t be taken away. They only capture Bad Kids who use witchcraft.”

“Hehe! I don’t know witchcraft, I’m not a Bad Kid! Let them take the real Bad Kids away!”

The voices gradually faded, and the subsequent words could no longer be clearly discerned.

Zhou Datong asked, puzzled: “Doesn’t ‘insomnia syndrome’ usually only infect Native Residents? I figured those Philanthropists aren’t Native Residents. What disease are they curing? What do they have to do with the Native Residents?”

This was the confusion shared by most people; no clues pointed to an accurate answer.

Jiang Junjue was silent for a moment, then pointed ahead: “Let’s go check out those two small rooms first.”

The group marched grandly toward the end of the corridor. Although many companions had died, the presence of eighteen people was still considerable.

Zhang Yiyu quietly allowed herself to fall to the back of the line. Seeing the shadowy figures on both sides in her peripheral vision, she shivered, but still gritted her teeth and retreated step by step, cautiously separating herself from the main group.

After retreating all the way to the stairwell entrance and confirming no one would stop her, she sped up and jogged downstairs.

From the end of class until now, she had been constantly transmitting real-time information from the players’ side to Qi Si, but she had never received any response from Qi Si.

Every word she sent was like dropping a stone into a swamp, vanishing silently without a trace.

She suspected Qi Si had died in the coffin, but the 【Evil God Believer】 icon on her system interface gave her a sliver of hope. The skill’s effect was still active, meaning the player corresponding to the skill might still have a chance of survival.

But she quickly thought of another possibility: Qi Si was merely an agent of the Evil God, and after signing the Contract with him, she worshipped the Evil God, not Qi Si. This meant that even if Qi Si died, she wouldn’t lose her “Follower” status… Zhang Yiyu only regretted being too weak, a 【False Human】 who was useless except for being able to perceive anomalies.

If she were just a little stronger, she could challenge other players directly, without constantly relying on Qi Si’s help; failing that, she would at least have a way to remotely confirm whether Qi Si was alive or dead.

Unfortunately, there were no “ifs.”

Zhang Yiyu repeatedly asked Qi Si whether she should continue following the players to find clues or seize the opportunity to pull him out of the coffin.

No result, no echo, only silence.

Without receiving further orders, Zhang Yiyu could only rely on her own common sense for analysis.

It was known that the players would copy the clues, so she would eventually learn the general content; however, Qi Si had asked her to open the coffin as soon as possible, and the later she was, the lower Qi Si’s chance of survival.

—It would be safer for her to strictly carry out the pre-determined order.

Having fully convinced herself, Zhang Yiyu suppressed her fear of ghosts and walked step by step toward the Graveyard in the east.