(3/6)
Yuying University
Chapter 485: Okay, okay, let me go.
The sky was frighteningly dark.
Behind them, the library was still burning with a crackling roar. Faintly mixed in with the sound of the fire were cold, strange shrieks, as if what was burning was not just a building, but something alive.
But even so, the flames that should have lit up the sky failed to illuminate the night.
The pitch-black firmament pressed down on the firelight, confining it to a small, narrow area. Because of this, the student council armbands approaching from the distance appeared all the more sinister and strange.
Even without Su Cheng’s warning, everyone was acutely aware of the peril they were in.
Tense, they cautiously retreated until their backs were against each other.
Yun Bilan lowered her voice, her back taut and slightly arched, asking:
“—What do we do?”
“…”
Wen Jianyan stared intently at the approaching student council members, his mind racing, and did not answer the question immediately.
Escape?
In the dark night, pale, bloodless faces approached from all directions. Although they made no sound, the figures hidden in the darkness were suffocatingly oppressive.
The night was too thick to see the expressions on those faces, but Wen Jianyan could clearly feel the cold gazes fixed on them.
His heart slowly sank.
Clearly, they had been “seen”. In this situation, they had no chance of escape.
Could they fight them head-on?
Don’t be foolish.
Putting aside the fact that their main combat power, Hugo and Orange Candy, were absent, even if they were all here, facing hundreds of student council members head-on would be pure fantasy.
So what then?
What could they do?
Wen Jianyan heard his own voice echoing in his mind, each question more urgent than the last.
As his mind spun wildly, the student council members had already drawn near.
The faces of the student council members were pale, reflecting the crimson firelight. Their deep, bottomless, and cold eyes stared at them. Just being watched sent a chill down the spine.
“You ignited the library. This is a serious violation of school rules.”
One of them spoke.
Its voice was calm and emotionless, icy cold, without a trace of human feeling.
“As punishment, you will face the most severe penalty: expulsion.”
Under these circumstances, no one would be naive enough to think that expulsion simply meant being kicked out of the school.
Moreover, the moment those words were spoken, they all keenly sensed a sudden change in the eyes of the surrounding student council members. Their gazes abruptly became greedy and malicious, filled with supreme joy, as if they had been anticipating this moment for a long time.
That gaze was deeply unsettling, making one’s skin crawl, making it almost impossible to imagine the true meaning behind those words.
After saying this, the leading student council member raised its hand and reached for the person closest to it.
Yun Bilan instinctively wanted to resist, but she failed.
—What?
Her pupils shrank in horror.
This was something she had never experienced in any previous instance. It was as if some invisible, higher-priority rule was being forcibly enacted. It wasn’t so much that her resistance failed, but rather…
She had been stripped of the choice to resist.
Was it because of that “voluntary dedication” oath?
The hair on Yun Bilan’s arms stood on end.
An invisible, cold chill rose from where she was being firmly gripped. The next second, her eyes suddenly went vacant for a moment, her expression becoming blank and茫然.
Under the gaze of countless greedy eyes, more arms with armbands reached out from all directions, unavoidable, inescapable.
“Hey, hey, what you’re doing is against the rules, isn’t it?”
A voice suddenly rang out from not far away.
The student council members paused and looked towards the source of the voice.
It said slowly, “What?”
The young man stood with his back to the firelight, his face hidden in shadow.
“You just said… ‘You ignited the library. This is a serious violation of school rules,’ correct?”
The student council member: “Correct.”
“That’s where you’re against the rules.”
Wen Jianyan stepped forward from the crowd. “What do you mean by ‘you’?”
He held out one of his hands.
Under the firelight, the palm that was originally very fair was now covered in black scorch marks, as if burned by fierce flames. Just looking at it was shocking.
Wen Jianyan spoke softly:
“The lamp was thrown from my hand, and I was the one who burned the library. Why is it ‘you’?”
“You see, while I was burning the library, my classmates were all sitting obediently in their seats reading. They didn’t do anything.”
Wen Jianyan blinked, putting on a contrived look of surprise.
“Wait a minute, you don’t mean to say you didn’t know, do you?”
He suddenly took another step forward.
The leading student council member was forced to retreat slightly.
“If you really didn’t know, it means you don’t understand the current situation. On what grounds do you say we violated the school rules?” Wen Jianyan smiled slightly, drawing out his words. “Or… do you know, and are simply abusing the school rules?”
“…”
The leading student council member’s face was a mixture of uncertainty and anger.
It stared at Wen Jianyan for a long time before finally, slowly, releasing its hand.
The compulsory force brought by the school rules was nullified.
The moment it let go, the blank look on Yun Bilan’s face vanished. She became alert and clear-headed again, snatching her arm back and taking a step away, out of its reach.
In the “Integrity First” Live Room:
[Fuck! So damn sinister!]
[I knew it… this instance wouldn’t punish the whole team for one person’s mistake. Otherwise, when Hugo broke the rules before, the rest of his team would have been hunted down too.]
[So just now, these student council members were planning to pin the anchor’s crime on everyone and dispose of them all for violating school rules!]
[…This instance is full of traps; it’s so toxic. Luckily the anchor found the flaw; otherwise, the whole team would have been wiped out.]
The student council member looked at Wen Jianyan expressionlessly and slowly re-announced:
“You ignited the library. This is a serious violation of school rules. As punishment, you will face the most severe penalty: expulsion.”
In the “Integrity First” Live Room:
[…]
The barrage of comments, which had just been excited about the anchor finding a loophole, was now doused with cold water, falling silent once again.
[Ah, I forgot. Even if the others are fine, the anchor, as the main culprit, can’t escape no matter what!]
[It’s over, it’s over. This is fucking completely over.]
The way the student council member had grabbed them just now was clearly unusual.
For “students” like them who had sworn the oath multiple times and violated school rules, there was a rule-level suppression. Under these circumstances, even when facing mere student council members, they would experience what Orange Candy faced against the vice principal—both items and talents would be nullified.
In other words, not only could Wen Jianyan not use his items, but even his Fruit of Lies could not be activated in this situation.
As the words fell, the student council member extended its pale hand and grabbed Wen Jianyan’s arm.
“Wait—!”
Yun Bilan’s pupils shrank.
The other team members also stirred, rushing forward to try and stop it.
But the problem was, there were too many student council members around.
Even if they could no longer treat the group as rule-breakers to be disposed of together, it was still an easy matter for them to hold them back and prevent them from interfering with the enforcement of the school rules.
Under their watchful eyes, the cold, pale, corpse-like hand gripped Wen Jianyan’s arm tightly.
“…”
The young man lowered his eyes, his expression blank.
“Let’s go,” the student council member said expressionlessly.
It was clearly not satisfied with the result of only taking away one rule-breaker, but at this point, it was powerless to change the outcome.
Behind it, the young man, his arm being pulled, followed obediently with his head lowered, like a soulless puppet.
“Ah! Wait a moment.”
Wen Jianyan suddenly stopped, as if he had thought of something. He looked up.
“There’s something I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet.”
“?!!”
This time, it wasn’t just the anchors present who were stunned; even the student council members were taken aback.
In the “Integrity First” livestream room, the audience was also dumbfounded:
[?]
[Huh?? What’s happening???]
[Wait? What’s going on? How does he still have self-awareness??]
Wen Jianyan raised his free hand. He spread his empty fingers, pausing deliberately in the air as if to show he posed no threat. Then, he slowly reached for the front of his clothes.
His long, nimble fingers deftly lifted the folded collar.
As the fabric was turned up, a blood-red, shiny, human-face badge appeared on his chest.
In the “Integrity First” Live Room:
[!!!]
[!!!]
[Ah… Holy shit!]
[Isn’t that the society badge?? When did he put it on??]
Wen Jianyan gently tapped the surface of the badge with his fingertip. The fair fingertip and the blood-red metal collided, making a faint “ding-ding” sound.
“I only suspected it before, but now I’m sure.”
He looked up at the student council member right in front of him, his expression cunning:
“The Student Council and the Societies can’t govern each other, can they?”
“—Especially when I’m the Society President?”
[Yuying Comprehensive University] was an instance with a clear hierarchy of NPCs. In this instance, different NPCs had insurmountable class divides.
The status of a society member was only slightly higher than that of an ordinary student, but still lower than that of an ordinary student council member.
But…
The president of a society was a different story.
In this instance, this was a position that had remained vacant until now. So, the moment Wen Jianyan put on the badge, he became the one and only president of all societies.
This meant he very likely possessed a higher status than an ordinary student council member, and these student council members in front of him—no matter how many there were—would lose their direct jurisdiction over him.
Before this, it was just a theory.
To avoid alerting the enemy, Wen Jianyan had quietly pinned the badge under his collar.
When the other party grabbed his arm, but he didn’t lose his consciousness like Yun Bilan had, Wen Jianyan knew he had guessed correctly.
He pulled his hand out of the other’s grasp.
And this time, Wen Jianyan met no resistance.
He smiled at the student council member right in front of him:
“If I’m not mistaken, if you want to deal with a ‘Society President’ who has broken school rules, your rank isn’t high enough, is it?”
Looking at the other’s changing expression, Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, chuckled, and said:
“So—if you ask me, the only thing you can do now is probably take me to see the Vice Principal, right?”
The student council member: “…”
Although it remained silent for a long time, its increasingly ugly face showed that Wen Jianyan had guessed correctly.
“Let’s go.”
After a long while, the student council member finally spoke.
The voice was squeezed from between its teeth, hard and fierce, as if it wanted to tear Wen Jianyan apart.
The smile on Wen Jianyan’s face deepened.
Haha.
He turned around and had just taken two steps with the student council member when he seemed to remember something. He turned his head to Su Cheng and said, “By the way, as for the things I didn’t finish telling you, you can ask Arnold.”
He blinked, as if to say.
—I’m counting on you.
After saying this, Wen Jianyan turned and disappeared into the night with the student council members, leaving his teammates standing silently in place.
The library behind them continued to burn fiercely, but even the soaring flames could not dispel the deep chill of the night.
The group tacitly turned their heads, their gazes focusing on Arnold.
Arnold: “…”
He couldn’t help but shiver.
But before he could do anything, Yun Bilan lunged forward, her dark red eyes flashing with an intimidating light, and demanded: “What do you know?”
Arnold was forced back, stammering:
“I… I don’t know either…”
He wasn’t lying; he really didn’t know anything.
As for why Wen Jianyan would leave such a message before being taken away, Arnold was completely baffled.
“You’re scaring him.”
Su Cheng stepped forward and said gently.
Yun Bilan glanced at Su Cheng and released her grip.
Su Cheng looked at Arnold and said:
“I’m sorry, my teammate was too impulsive. But she’s just worried, I’m sure you can understand, right?”
Arnold: “Uh… I can.”
“Alright, now can you tell us everything that happened in the library again?” Su Cheng’s attitude was very sincere. “Don’t leave out any details.”
So, Arnold obediently recounted everything that had happened since he was rescued in the library, down to the last detail.
After listening, Su Cheng looked at Yun Bilan questioningly.
“He’s sensible,” Yun Bilan curled her lips into a smile. “He’s not lying.”
Despite her beautiful features, her smile sent a chill down one’s spine.
Su Cheng’s apology was very polite:
“I’m sorry; it was just a precaution.”
“…”
Arnold immediately understood. The other party had probably used some kind of item to tell if he was telling the truth.
He looked at the group in front of him and couldn’t help but feel a shiver.
Clearly, this was no ordinary team.
Luckily, he had been sensible enough not to foolishly hide any information. Otherwise… he didn’t know what he might have faced next.
Su Cheng’s Livestream Room:
“Damn it, I miss the super-gullible little prophet from before. How did he get so damn cunning now?”
“Lmao, I think our anchor has been tricked by a certain anchor next door too many times. He has PTSD now.”
“You dog liar, how are you going to repay the trust you owe me!”
Arnold gave a dry laugh. “Haha, it’s fine.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to hide some sensitive information, but as an anchor who had survived this long, he had some sense. With his current abilities, trying to clear this double-S instance alone was a fool’s dream. Rather than being secretive, it was better to be open and direct. At least his chances of survival would be higher.
Su Cheng lowered his eyes, lost in thought.
Wei Cheng stepped forward and whispered something in his ear.
Su Cheng nodded, then shook his head.
Yun Bilan also came closer. The three of them discussed in whispers for a long time before finally stopping, seemingly having reached a consensus.
Looking at the group before him, Arnold’s heart was in his throat. “Did you… figure out the message your teammate left you?”
Su Cheng looked at Arnold, the firelight from the distant library reflecting in his eyes. “Yes.”
He paused, then added:
“But we might need your help.”
Although his attitude remained surprisingly good, perhaps because of his dark eyes, he inexplicably exuded an unsettling aura.
In comparison, even the beautiful, sharp-as-a-blade blue-haired woman seemed particularly friendly.
Arnold: “…”
He started to panic a little.
*
On the other side.
Wen Jianyan walked forward with the student council members.
The faces of every student council member were expressionless, grim and cold, the atmosphere heavy and far more terrifying than when they arrived.
Soon, the three-story administration building appeared in the distance.
But unexpectedly, the student council members did not stop. They led Wen Jianyan straight past the nearby administration building and continued forward.
In the “Integrity First” Live Room:
[?]
[Wait a minute, look at the time?]
Reminded, the viewers suddenly realized.
[Crap, I forgot about that. The Moral and Ideological Education Class is about to start, no wonder.]
“Actually, I have a proposal.”
Wen Jianyan suddenly spoke.
His voice broke the silence. It was a light tone, but it carried a strange weight.
“I think none of you are very satisfied, working all night for just this result, are you?”
Satisfaction was, of course, impossible.
Not only had they deployed so many people, but they ended up catching only one rule-breaker—and they still had to take this rule-breaker to the vice principal before he could be dealt with. This was clearly not the outcome the student council members wanted tonight.
However, what’s done is done. No matter how unwilling they were, they had to accept it.
After all, in the [Yuying Comprehensive University] instance, the rules were constant and terrifying, controlling both NPCs and anchors. No matter how scary the monsters here were, they could not defy them.
Wen Jianyan paid no mind to whether anyone was listening and just continued on his own:
“What if I could make it so your work tonight isn’t in vain, and you could even gain more?”
This time, the surrounding student council members finally reacted. The one in the lead turned to look at him.
Under the cold, dark night, those pale faces and black-hole eyes looked particularly creepy, but it was clear that Wen Jianyan had successfully attracted the attention he wanted.
Wen Jianyan’s eyes drooped, looking quite pitiful:
“Anyone who breaks the school rules will definitely die, especially after causing such a big incident. I know that.”
“But I don’t want to die. Besides…”
He paused, then looked up. “There’s still some leeway in this matter, isn’t there?”
If Wen Jianyan weren’t the society president, he might already be dead. But because of his special status, the student council couldn’t deal with him directly and had to take him to the vice principal.
That being the case, there was room to maneuver.
After all, the school rules were dead, but people were alive.
Wen Jianyan looked up at the student council members before him. He smiled faintly. His gentle and handsome features inexplicably carried a frighteningly evil and malicious air:
“If I say I can make everyone break the school rules… could you do me a favor and let me go?”
