VAP - Chapter 180
Chapter 180: The Ruler in the Endless Deep Darkness (13)
Headmaster Xuan strolled into the meditation room, ignoring the class monitor's greeting. She stated perfunctorily, "I am Xuan Jiu. Starting today, I am the headmaster of this academy. I'm just here to inform you."
A stir immediately went through the students. Some were in disbelief, others indifferent. One person frowned at her black cheongsam, while in the eyes of another, a faint glimmer of hope ignited.
But these reactions were not within Xuan Jiu's scope of concern.
Step by step, the sound of heels clicking on the floor drew closer. Yue Du kept her head down, only able to see the hem of the cheongsam swaying gently. The pair of matte black stilettos stopped in front of her, revealing pale, slender ankles.
The newly appointed headmaster let out a low chuckle. Without making any other movements, she leaned over with great interest, her gaze sweeping over Yue Du's tightly pressed lips, her damp bangs, and her neck and earlobes, which were flushed red from the heat. She waited leisurely for a reaction.
After a brief silence, Yue Du looked up to meet her gaze.
"We meet again," Headmaster Xuan said with a smile.
Her voice and tone were terrifyingly familiar. And she was also Einser. Yue Du pressed her lips together, feeling herself instantly become the focus of everyone's attention. She replied conventionally, "Hello, Headmaster."
"So formal? We've shared a bed, you know," Xuan Jiu feigned sadness.
Who shared a bed with you?
Yue Du paused, then said casually, "You must have mistaken me for someone else. I don't recall ever meeting someone as beautiful as you."
Xuan Jiu frowned and said nothing. After a long moment, she sighed softly.
That sigh was enough to send the onlookers' imaginations running wild. The gazes directed at them seemed to grow a few degrees more complicated.
It was the first time Yue Du had encountered someone so unpredictable. The corner of her mouth twitched slightly as a familiar sense of helplessness welled up inside her.
In a flash, she composed her expression and said solemnly, "Headmaster Xuan, even though you are the headmaster, you cannot disturb our meditation in the meditation room while we are communicating with the great consciousness of the Lord of the Undying Flame. This is disrespectful to the deity."
Then she lowered her eyes, as if unable to bear it. "I understand how you feel, but even if I look like that person, I am ultimately not her. I hope you can move past this confusion soon, Headmaster."
Xuan Jiu was speechless.
Ah, the little cutie is starting to show her claws.
The class monitor and other loyal followers of the evil god could finally bear it no longer. Even though Mr. Geng had previously instructed them to treat the new headmaster with the same respect they showed him, the new headmaster was disrupting the discipline of meditation, which was nothing short of contempt for the Lord of the Flame. No devout believer could tolerate it!
The class monitor immediately said loudly, "Headmaster Xuan, if you have something to discuss, please wait until after meditation. The meditation room is not a place for idle chatter."
Xuan Jiu had no intention of paying her any mind. She simply stared at Yue Du with a faint smile until Yue Du was about to break out in a cold sweat despite the high temperature. Only then did she reach out to tuck a damp strand of hair behind Yue Du's ear and withdraw her gaze. "My office is at the end of the third-floor hallway. Come find me if you need anything."
Yue Du responded politely, "Take care, Headmaster."
Understood. I'll definitely stay far, far away from the third-floor hallway.
After Xuan Jiu left, the meditation room returned to silence. The flame burned silently, surrounded by everyone, serving as the so-called bridge to "get closer to the Lord."
Gradually, the temperature in the room grew higher and higher.
Yue Du's thoughts were already becoming sluggish. Through the heat-distorted air, the central flame appeared as a double image. The silence had long been broken by the students' heavy breathing, and a strange, burnt smell faintly emanated from somewhere, though she couldn't find its source.
"Lean on me," Ah Jiu said, taking Yue Du's hand.
Perhaps because Ah Jiu was a System, her hand was not hot but instead carried a hint of coolness. Yue Du squeezed back tightly, instinctively chasing the cool sensation, trying to slip her hand into the wide cuff of Ah Jiu's school uniform. At the same time, her body unconsciously leaned toward the System, pressing against any part that was cool.
Since Yue Du's memories had been sealed, Ah Jiu hadn't been this intimate with her in a long time. She couldn't help but indulge in the moment. Certain thoughts stirred, only to be secretly suppressed again.
But Ah Jiu also knew that Yue Du was pressing against her mainly because she was barely conscious from the heat and must be very uncomfortable. The thought made her heart ache, and for the umpteenth time, she wanted to grab Greed and beat it up.
If she had known Greed's game was so torturous, she never would have sent her beloved in here.
She had originally thought Yue Du's constitution was strong enough to treat any horror game like a harmless playground. But who could have guessed that both her Five Elements abilities and her System constitution would be sealed under Greed's settings, forcing her to suffer in this environment? Tsk.
However, now that they had entered a world controlled by Greed, they couldn't escape easily—not unless Ah Jiu disregarded the survival of this small world and forcibly intervened with her own power. But Yue Du would definitely not want to see that happen.
Ah Jiu lowered her eyes and pulled Yue Du closer into her embrace.
I'll just have to wait a little longer.
It won't be a long wait, because Greed is also Her.
Time passed, second by second. Just as the temperature reached a point where it could cause humans to suffer heatstroke, faint, or die from dehydration, the flame abruptly vanished, leaving only residual heat.
The class monitor stood up, raised her hands above her head in a peculiar gesture, and announced loudly, "Today's meditation is now over!"
"Over!" The students all quickly stood up, made the same gesture, and then staggered out the door after her.
A few players trailed behind. The gentle breeze outside the door helped them sober up.
"Damn, are these kids masochists?" The burly man wiped his face and tapped his forehead hard, trying to drive away the dizziness and nausea. His older female cousin moved away from him in disgust. "Cooped up by a stove every day, aren't they afraid of getting sick from the heat? And they're still smiling. What's so happy about being roasted by a fire?"
He was talking about the students ahead of them. Even though they were drenched in sweat and unsteady on their feet, they still wore strange, contented smiles.
The woman with the buzz cut clearly felt the same way but still chided, "Quiet down. Aren't you afraid they'll hear you?"
Yue Du was about to say something when she suddenly realized Ah Jiu was still holding her hand. She tugged discreetly a couple of times but couldn't pull it back, so she let it be for the time being. "What those kids see and what we see are probably not the same."
"You mean..."
Instead of answering, Yue Du asked, "Is your Spirituality high?"
The two cousins looked at each other and shook their heads. The woman with the buzz cut immediately said, "I'll ask the other players with high Spirituality later."
The burly man was still out of the loop. "Why ask? What are you asking?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt his cousin's exasperated glare. Without her even needing to hit him, he obediently shut his mouth, though his expression was still clearly bewildered.
Yue Du couldn't help but chuckle. She waved. "I'm heading off."
"Hey, wait. Let's exchange names first. I'm Tang Ying, and this is my younger brother, Song Zhan."
"I'm Yue Du, and this is my younger sister, Yue Jiu." As the words left her mouth, Yue Du froze for a moment, suddenly feeling as if she had said those exact same words before.
This feeling had occurred several times since she entered the game. Wasn't this déjà vu happening a bit too frequently?
After parting ways with the Tang and Song siblings, the two returned to their dorm for a quick shower and then headed toward the academic building. On the way, they ran into the young man with the small braid and his teammate, a man who looked rather nervous.
"Are you also going to the disciplinary room to get your phones?" the young man with the braid asked.
Yue Du smiled. "Yes. It's better to know the mission sooner to put our minds at ease."
"Why don't we go together? We can watch each other's backs if something happens."
Yue Du nodded, so the four of them headed to the first-floor disciplinary room together. On the way, they discussed their thoughts on this instance. After chatting for a bit, Yue Du asked the young man with the braid, "By the way, how are your Spirituality levels?"
"My Spirituality and Rationality are relatively balanced, but my teammate's Spirituality is very high. Is there something you think we should be paying attention to?"
"It's nothing much. We just spent the whole afternoon getting baked in the meditation room for nothing, and I was curious if players with high Spirituality might have sensed something different."
"Well..." The young man with the braid looked at his teammate.
The man glanced nervously at Yue Du, cleared his throat, and said, "I did feel something a little strange, but I can't be sure if it was a spiritual sensation. It might have just been a hallucination from the heat."
"It was about half an hour after the meditation started. My vision suddenly turned red, as if I were looking at everything through a red lens. I'm not sure how long it lasted; my consciousness was hazy at the time."
Yue Du was lost in thought.
If Spirituality was triggered, it would inevitably consume Rationality, but this man didn't seem to be having any abnormal reactions...
But it was also possible the spiritual trigger was too small to reach the critical point for an abnormal reaction.
As they spoke, the group arrived at the disciplinary room. After they knocked, there was a long silence before the sound of approaching footsteps came from inside.
The door was opened by an expressionless woman in a red dress. The dark circles under her eyes were much deeper than those of the students or any teacher Yue Du had seen so far, and her figure was gaunt.
"What are you here for?" her tone was faint and drifting.
The young man with the braid stepped forward. "We'd like to use our phones to talk to our families."
The woman's eyes moved sluggishly. After a long moment, she said, "Come in."
The electronic devices confiscated from the students were piled messily in a cabinet. The group quickly found their phones, but Ah Jiu didn't move. The young man with the braid cast a questioning glance but didn't dare ask in front of the woman in red, so he suppressed his doubts for the time being.
The woman said slowly, "I'm here, so there's no need to have the class monitor come supervise. Timing starts now. You have ten minutes."
The players all held up their phones and quickly opened the app. Yue Du already knew the mission content and was just confirming it again. The message displayed on the app was indeed just as Ah Jiu had said.
Next, Yue Du tried searching for Duming Academy but found nothing. So, she pretended to dial a number and talk to her parents, pressing the phone to her ear and praising to the empty air how wonderful the academy's environment was and how enthusiastic the students were. She kept up the act for nearly ten minutes.
Before the time limit was up, Yue Du turned off her phone and put it back in the cabinet. Under the woman's watchful eye, the young man with the braid and his teammate also put their phones away with grave expressions.
"If you're done, then leave," the woman said coldly, her gaze forcing them out of the room. The door slammed shut, just brushing the tip of the braided young man's nose.
The group walked to a secluded spot. The young man with the braid rubbed his reddened nose. "What are your missions? Let's say it together on three, two, one."
"Survive," the three said in unison.
Yue Du said, "It seems everyone's mission is the same."
The young man with the braid agreed, then hesitated for a moment before asking, "Why didn't your sister get her phone just now?"
Why didn't she get her phone? Of course, it's because a System doesn't have a phone in the first place!
Of course, she couldn't say that. Yue Du explained, "We're saving her chance for later. If the situation changes, she can still log into the app to check for new hints."
The young man with the braid thought about it. "That's great."
Then, he frowned. "Since the mission is to survive, it means this academy is more than just a simple training ground for believers."
Recalling how the students had appeared in the classroom without any warning that morning, the ominous feeling in his heart grew heavier.
I hope it's not some kind of unmanageable situation.
Starting from 4 PM, students had self-study in the classroom, but they didn't need to be quiet, as recitation was part of the activity.
Yue Du had already basically memorized the two pages of text assigned by the old man that morning. The tricky part wasn't memorization, but how to perform the recitation with the same effect as the other students.
The student who had been sent to the disciplinary room that morning was sitting at his desk with his head down.
Yue Du tried to talk to him, but he was as silent as a clam, his eyes wary. He refused to reveal anything. The visible parts of his skin showed no bruises or wounds, making it impossible to guess what the disciplinary room was like.
After sitting at her desk for a moment, Yue Du picked up her book and walked over to the class monitor.
"What is it?" the class monitor asked without looking up.
"I used to be addicted to the internet and didn't study properly, so I'm having some trouble with the recitation. I was curious if you could help me," Yue Du said shyly. "After all, you're the class monitor. Even the teacher this morning said your recitation was the best."
Upon hearing this, the class monitor finally looked up, a hint of pride in her eyes. "In that case, I'll give you a demonstration. Listen carefully, I'm only doing this once."
Similar to the morning recitation, the class monitor began to distort her tone and pronunciation midway through, her face filled with fanaticism. It wasn't particularly scary, though. It even had a strange, chaotic energy to it.
It made sense. After listening to an entire class of students go crazy one by one, how could she still be scared?
After finishing the recitation, the class monitor cut the flesh on her hand as usual. Her eyes were bloodshot. After calming down for a moment, she asked, "How was that?"
Yue Du secretly memorized the points where her intonation became distorted and acted quite confident. "I think I get it now. Listen and tell me if I'm doing it right."
So, she copied her example and began to recite in a crazed, rambling manner.
The class monitor listened intently, a satisfied expression gradually appearing on her face. However, when Yue Du reached the end, she didn't immediately take out a knife to cut her flesh. This made her very unhappy. "Why aren't you offering your blood to the Lord of the Flame?"
Yue Du sighed and said with feigned difficulty, "I also want to show my faith to the Lord of the Flame, but..."
"But what?"
Yue Du glanced at the class monitor's hand. The fresh wound was already healing at a rapid pace. If I could heal that fast, I'd do it too, she thought.
"To be honest, I have a blood clotting disorder. If I get injured, the bleeding won't stop, and it could be life-threatening. If I'm to offer my blood to the Lord, it would be best to call an ambulance first."
The class monitor was speechless.
What blood clotting disorder? What ambulance?
The class monitor, who had never received a normal education and knew almost nothing about the outside world, was completely bewildered.
But there was one thing she did understand: this newcomer couldn't bleed, or she might die.
Death itself didn't matter, but this person had just transferred here today. If she died too quickly and her family became suspicious, it wouldn't be good for the academy. What's more, she seemed to have some connection with Headmaster Xuan.
I'll just observe her for a few days and see.
After figuring this out, the class monitor's expression remained sour, but she said, "Well, it can't be helped. It is your tragedy that you cannot offer your blood to the Lord of the Flame."
Yue Du also put on a look of regret and self-blame. "Indeed."
Heh. She was perfectly fine with giving 400cc at a blood drive, but she wouldn't give a single drop to an evil god. Of course, if her life was in danger, she would have to sacrifice some blood to survive.
Yue Du returned to her seat and asked Ah Jiu in a low voice, "I never got around to asking, but now that you have a body, do you have to participate in the game like a player?"
Ah Jiu tapped her chin and mused for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe."
"Then the recitation..."
"We'll see. Worst case, I'll take a trip to the disciplinary room."
Yue Du gave her a disapproving look.
"Just kidding," Ah Jiu said. She suddenly leaned closer and chuckled softly. "So concerned about me, are you?"
Yue Du was slightly taken aback, then said unhurriedly, "We're teammates now. Besides, you're also my personal cheat system. Isn't it normal to be concerned?"
Ah Jiu raised a hand to cover her eyes and let out a soft sigh, which had the same dramatic effect as Xuan Jiu's sigh in the meditation room.
Yue Du couldn't help but laugh. She immediately lowered her eyes, pretending to flip through her book to hide the fluttering in her heart.
Everything had felt off since she entered this game. Her heart actually raced at the sight of someone's smile—and a person of the same sex, at that. That had never happened before.
The two chatted idly for a long time. When the hands of the wall clock pointed to six o'clock sharp, the dismissal bell rang.
At that very moment, something strange happened.
As a melodious tune mixed with strange whispers began to play, the forms of all the students in the classroom distorted and vanished into thin air in the blink of an eye, just as they had suddenly appeared when the morning bell rang.
The classroom, which had just been filled with the sounds of recitation and discussion, was instantly plunged into dead silence. The only sound was the second hand of the wall clock ticking, one space at a time.
Yue Du was startled, a chill running up her spine.
She slowly put down her textbook and looked around. The room was clearly empty, yet she felt countless gazes in the air watching her, their presence palpable.
Ah Jiu immediately squeezed her hand and called her name softly.
"I'm fine. It just caught me off guard," Yue Du said, standing up. "Let's go out into the hallway."
Outside, she saw the other players emerging from their classrooms as expected, their faces showing confusion, solemnity, or lingering fear.
"What on earth is going on?" someone asked fearfully. "I've never encountered a situation like this before!"
But no one could answer him. Yue Du knew that the God of All Undead had a hand in this, but she couldn't just blurt it out. Instead, she suggested, "Since all the students have disappeared, what about the teachers?"
The young man with the braid's eyes lit up. "Right! Let's go to the disciplinary room. If there are no teachers there, we can grab our phones and check for new hints."
So, the group of ten rushed to the disciplinary room. They knocked, but there was no answer. The burly man pounded on the door, but still nothing. Finally, an experienced player stepped forward and picked the lock.
The room was empty but clean and tidy, with no dust on the floor, as if its occupants had just packed up and left a short while ago.
Yue Du found her phone and opened the message.
It was a short line of text.
【Instance Authority Changed: God of All Undead.】
The timestamp was 6:00 PM sharp.
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