Yuying University
Chapter 504: Backhand
This time, Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered a little longer.
—This should be the content written the day before they went to the gym.
And from this day on, everything changed.
He continued to flip.
Further on, there were large blank spaces, no more handwriting. After all… what happened in the following week was too terrifying. Such diary exchanges would naturally come to an abrupt end.
But, was that all?
Wen Jianyan flipped through the pages rapidly. After a dozen or twenty blank pages, suddenly, new handwriting appeared.
What should have been delicate, neat script was now crooked and chaotic, slanting across the center of the page.
[I’m returning the diary to you. Don’t send it to me again.]
Cold, without a trace of emotion.
“…”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze paused for a few seconds, then he slowly turned to the next page.
This time, it was Richard’s handwriting.
Crossed out, rewritten, smeared, in the end, only two or three lines remained.
I now know what you sent me tucked in the diary. I finally know why you never liked our new principal…
I saw you at school, but the look in your eyes was different.
Because you’re already gone, aren’t you?]
Below the question mark was a deep ink dot, as if the pen had paused there for a long, long time.
[All your previous thoughts were correct. I finally understand now. I know what you were planning to do. I will continue, but…]
The text that followed was blotted out.
[That day at the swimming pool, I was going to confess. I wanted to ask if you would be with]—
The writer didn’t continue. After the word “with,” there was a large blank space.
Perhaps he didn’t want to, or perhaps he didn’t dare.
Wen Jianyan paused, then continued to flip.
One page, two pages, three pages… all blank.
Wen Jianyan looked thoughtful.
Similar to the letter, the diary didn’t contain much new information—after all, for Wen Jianyan, with his current exploration rate, there wasn’t much new information to be found—
The most important function of this diary was [completion] and [connection].
Up to now, the broken timeline was finally completely sorted out, and many previous questions had finally found their answers.
For example…
Why the two of them had suddenly decided, on a whim, to go to the unopened gym.
Because they were about to graduate. They were about to leave this school, and young people always want to find a romantic, meaningful place to confess… so naive.
More importantly, based on the contents of this diary, Wen Jianyan was now certain that the mysterious principal had played a much larger role than he had imagined.
For some reason, Wang Ni seemed to have learned some rumors about the principal’s past through some channel and had always been wary of him. Perhaps it was precisely because of this that Wang Ni was able to find clues—whether they were related to the truth or to how to solve the instance.
She had known how to end it all, but Richard had failed.
No, that wasn’t accurate.
Strictly speaking, Richard hadn’t failed; he had only half-succeeded.
He had successfully stopped the conspiracy, but he hadn’t completely destroyed it.
Based on Wen Jianyan’s previous experience with instances, all the instances in Nightmare were “unfinished products.”
They were unfinished conspiracies, seeds waiting to sprout, ongoing plans.
—In other words, if Richard had succeeded, the [Yuying Comprehensive University] instance would never have existed in the first place.
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan’s movements paused.
Without realizing it, he had flipped to the last page of the diary.
And on this page, there was something written.
[I’m sorry]
Three large words.
The handwriting had become frantic and sorrowful, so forceful that it had torn through the paper, even leaving an imprint on the back cover of the diary.
[I couldn’t, I couldn’t just let you die like that.
Everyone was right, I’m not as good as you.
I’m not as strong, upright, or brave as you… I’m a coward, so I can’t let you die. I’m sorry, I can’t, I’m sorry.]
The handwriting became more and more chaotic, until it was almost illegible.
[I broke our promise, I’m sorry]
The contents of the diary ended here.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[Wait? Wait? ‘Save you’?? What does that mean?]
[Give me a second, I need to process this.]
[Holy shit! I just realized, do you guys remember before when the anchor was in the illusion with the fake Hugo?—At the end of that illusion, Richard and Wang Ni were kissing by the pool!!!]
[Uh, I remember, what about it?]
[That illusion was a normal plot with all the supernatural elements removed!! If the one kissing Richard was the mirror image, the anchor wouldn’t have seen her—just like in the lecture hall, Richard’s side was blank.]
[!!!]
[Holy shit, so the one kissing Richard back then was the real Wang Ni?!]
Wen Jianyan stared at the heart-wrenching “I’m sorry”s, his breathing slightly quickened.
He now finally understood why Richard was the last one to die.
Why he hadn’t perished in the fire, but his body was found in the washroom.
And why, even though he had already found a way to destroy the entire nightmare, this school still remained as a instance.
Because Richard wanted too much.
So the fire only burned down one gym and didn’t destroy the entire campus. So, the seeds of evil had a chance to be preserved by Nightmare.
And the [Yuying Comprehensive University] instance came into existence.
[Ding! instance Exploration Rate 96%. Reward points: 100,000]
“Congratulations on once again breaking the exploration record for [Yuying Comprehensive University]. You have made history…”
But Wen Jianyan had no interest in his newly refreshed exploration rate. His gaze lingered on the words “save you” for a long time, his breathing slightly quickened.
How did Wang Ni die?
Replaced by a mirror image.
And Richard had succeeded. He had successfully brought back the person who had been replaced by a mirror image—although he too had died a tragic death in the end, that wasn’t Wen Jianyan’s concern right now.
Right now, he only cared about one thing:
If Wang Ni, whose abdomen had been cut open, could be saved, then what about…
Orange Candy.
Someone replaced by a mirror image could be brought back.
And Richard knew how to do it.
Wen Jianyan felt his heart begin to pound in his chest.
He put away the diary and took out the second item Suo Suo had retrieved.
It was a crumpled roll of paper, folded tightly into a small square, damp and reeking of a musty, rotten smell, with a lot of dark, dirty hair tangled around it.
This was the real main event.
The evidence Wang Ni had obtained, and the method to save someone from a mirror image, were most likely in here.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, then held a corner of it with his fingers and carefully, patiently, began to unfold it.
As black droplets of water dripped down, the rolled-up paper slowly unfurled.
The moment the paper was unfolded, Wen Jianyan looked at it with almost desperate urgency.
“…”
Wen Jianyan froze.
Not far away, Suo Suo had been keeping an eye on Wen Jianyan’s movements. He couldn’t help but ask, “What’s inside?”
Wen Jianyan didn’t answer immediately. He flipped through the pages in his hand, looking them over repeatedly. After a long while, he finally looked up, his brow slightly furrowed, and confirmed with Suo Suo:
“This is what you found in the second sink by the window in the washroom?”
Suo Suo was puzzled. “Yes.”
Wen Jianyan held up the item in his hand and pressed on:
“Was this the only thing in there?”
“Of course.” Seeming to sense the implication in Wen Jianyan’s words, Suo Suo looked offended. “You don’t think I’d fake something in a place like this, do you?”
“…”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered on his face for a moment.
The other was not a person of high principles; he had known this from the start.
But…
He wasn’t talking this time.
“So, what’s going on?”
Suo Suo sensed something was wrong from Wen Jianyan’s unusual attitude. He frowned and leaned over to look at the crumpled, damp roll of paper in Wen Jianyan’s hand.
It was a few sheets of paper stacked together, of different shades and sizes. The edges were jagged and uneven, as if torn from different books. The surfaces were densely covered with text.
However, all this text was composed of strange, unreadable symbols, arranged like gibberish on the paper, with no meaning at all.
This time, even Suo Suo was stunned:
“…How could this be?”
Hadn’t the letter from before become readable text?
Suo Suo hurriedly looked at Wen Jianyan, trying to explain:
“Uh, big shot, I really did as you said—”
“Mm, I know.”
Wen Jianyan nodded calmly, stopping him.
Compared to just now, his attitude seemed a little too calm.
Suo Suo looked at him suspiciously, not quite understanding why Wen Jianyan seemed so unfazed—hard-won information turning into useless wastepaper should not have elicited such a placid reaction from anyone.
“You… why is it like this?”
Suo Suo asked tentatively.
“More or less.”
Wen Jianyan folded the papers back up and put them in his pocket.
He looked at Suo Suo. “Have you noticed that the two pieces of information that could be read have one thing in common?”
Suo Suo was blank. “…What?”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze was deep. He said, word by word, “We have both seen the original.”
“!” Suo Suo was startled, as if he had realized something. His eyes slowly widened. “Ah, that seems to be the case—”
Actually, back at the cafeteria entrance, Wen Jianyan had already had his suspicions.
If the originals of the “letter” and the “diary” were hidden in the graduation thesis process, then how were the anchors, without an “auditor” participating, supposed to find these few small, fixed items in such a vast map?
Purely by luck? That would be too imprecise.
And now, Wen Jianyan was finally beginning to understand the rule.
Only those who had obtained the original of this “information” in the instance, during the process of completing the graduation thesis, could obtain the decrypted content.
Those who had found the original had, in fact, already received a “hint.”
Just like Suo Suo in the cafeteria before, even if Wen Jianyan hadn’t told him what to look for, just by marking out a general area, he was still able to find it with the fastest speed.
And those who hadn’t found the original, even if they stumbled upon this information by accident during the graduation thesis process, they wouldn’t be able to decipher its contents because they hadn’t completed the prerequisite task.
“So, what are you going to do now?”
Suo Suo asked.
Wen Jianyan: “Very simple.”
He looked up, his gaze falling on the back of the protagonist in the distance, and said softly:
“Go out, get the original first, then we’ll talk.”
With Wen Jianyan’s help, Suo Suo completed the “Q&A” much faster than last time.
As darkness fell, he once again returned to that empty movie theater.
“Second round of playback has ended. Will you answer?”
Suo Suo composed himself. “No.”
“Begin the third round of playback?”
“No.”
As he spoke, his vision went black. The next second, everything around him dissipated in an instant. In its place was the black and red sky above, the cold, towering gym behind him, and the icy, blood-soaked running track.
…He was out.
Suo Suo let out a slow, deep breath. The nerves that had been constantly on edge finally relaxed. He began to feel his hands and feet go numb.
Beside him, Wen Jianyan checked his pockets.
The letter and the diary were both brought out, but the few sheets of paper that had been stuffed in the drainpipe were gone from his pocket—it seemed that only items that had an “original” could be brought out of the graduation thesis exam room.
But that didn’t matter.
After all, Wen Jianyan now knew how to solve it.
He took out his phone and glanced at the chat window, frowning slightly.
—Hugo and the others still hadn’t replied.
By all rights, they should have been out by now.
Was there a delay somewhere?
Wen Jianyan shook his head, put his phone back in his pocket, and turned to Suo Suo.
“Let’s go, to the men’s dorm.”
Suo Suo sat on the steps, his face a mess of black and white. He hadn’t even had a chance to catch his breath when he heard those words that made his vision go dark.
“…”
So the person being chased around by zombies earlier wasn’t you, huh?!
He sighed in despair, but in the end, he resignedly stood up and followed Wen Jianyan’s pace.
Under Wen Jianyan’s lead, the two of them left the gym. Stopping and starting just as they had on the way there, they soon arrived at the student dormitory again.
He looked up at the familiar building in front of him, a hint of lament in his eyes.
To think that in the end, he would come back here.
Wen Jianyan looked away, walked towards the dormitory entrance, and reached for the door—
“Hiss!”
He frowned and quickly pulled his hand back.
Suo Suo was startled. “What’s wrong?”
Wen Jianyan looked down at his slightly singed fingertips and winced.
“… An anchor has set up defenses here.”
And more than one.
He had shot himself in the foot.
He had advised Chen Cheng and the others to come here to complete their graduation thesis, and to prevent monsters or NPCs from invading, they would definitely set up defenses around the area.
If Wen Jianyan were an anchor, this might not have affected him too much.
But the problem was…
Compared to a human, he was now closer to an alienated being, the very type they were defending against.
“Then what do we do?” Suo Suo’s eyes suddenly lit up. “How about, just like last time, I go in for you—”
That way he might be able to run…
“No need.”
Wen Jianyan thought for a moment and refused.
He blinked, a thoughtful expression on his face. “To be honest… I actually have a backup plan.”
Although when he had left it…
He had never imagined it would be used like this.
Fourth floor, room 404.
The room was pitch black, a faint smell of decay lingering in the air.
At the edge of the lower bunk, the bedding against the wall suddenly moved.
And moved again.
The next second, a small bear sticker laboriously crawled up from underneath, wobbled to its feet, and silently clenched its fist.
—Success!
__
Author’s Note:
Diary: Chapter 401
Drainpipe: Chapter 398
Bear Sticker: Chapter 414
Movie protagonists kissing in the world where the supernatural disappeared: Chapter 461
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