Yuying University
Chapter 506: Fourth year
Just as Wen Jianyan was lowering his head to ponder, a rustling sound came from the side, pulling him out of his thoughts.
“Uh… Big Shot?”
Wen Jianyan followed the sound and looked over.
Not far away, Suo Suo seemed to have prepared for the final movie screening.
Holding the tape in his hand, he asked tentatively, “What is it? Is there anything else you need to do?”
“No, nothing.”
Wen Jianyan shook his head, put his phone back in his pocket, and walked over.
Thick, black-red blood dripped onto the magnetic tape, shimmering as it swayed. Soon, scarlet human blood dripped down, and was instantly absorbed by the tape below.
This meant that the third, and final, movie screening was about to begin.
And after this screening, Suo Suo would also have to submit his own graduation thesis as a candidate.
Along with the sound of the film reel turning, a familiar darkness enveloped them.
When the light came on again, Wen Jianyan was shocked to find that he had not appeared in a familiar movie scene.
He turned his head to look around, blinking in astonishment.
He seemed to be sitting in…
A movie theater?
The furnishings here were very old. The red velvet cushions below were dark, and the paint on the armrests on both sides was mottled.
Besides him, the entire movie theater was empty.
Wen Jianyan tried to push himself up from the armrests to stand, but he seemed to be fixed to the chair, unable to move at all. It was as if some invisible force was preventing him from leaving.
This was bad.
Wen Jianyan’s heart couldn’t help but sink.
Like the dance class, the difficulty of these three “movie screenings” was also incremental—the third time was the hardest, but it was the only one he, as an “auditing student,” could not participate in.
Wen Jianyan sat in the movie theater, his brows tightly furrowed, his mind heavy with worry.
To him, Suo Suo was not exactly a trustworthy partner.
Suo Suo was a standard mid-level “Nightmare Streamer.”
He had experience in instances, an eye for judging situations, was slick and worldly, dared to be ruthless, was willing to leave teammates in danger to save his own life, and was also willing to humble himself and submit to the power of someone he had once been at odds with.
All of this meant that Suo Suo himself had no bottom line and was not worthy of trust.
Completing the graduation thesis was already difficult enough, and he also had to go to the dormitory building to get the “clue” that was of no value to him personally… Without his supervision, Wen Jianyan was not optimistic about this.
As Wen Jianyan was deep in thought, the lights above suddenly dimmed.
Along with the subtle sound of the film reel turning, the dark screen in front began to light up, and three large words appeared in the center.
[Act One]
“…!”
Wen Jianyan shuddered and immediately cleared his thoughts.
Now was not the time to think about whether Suo Suo would follow his instructions—
The movie was about to start.
Wen Jianyan’s gaze was fixed on the screen, his back subconsciously tensing.
However, what appeared on the screen was not a movie scene, but…
A black-and-white silhouette animation?
Wen Jianyan was taken aback.
Not far away, the black-and-white animation had already begun to play on its own.
Accompanied by cheerful background music, the small figures of a little boy and a little girl appeared on the screen.
They held hands, swaying their bodies.
Everything looked so cute and beautiful, like an educational cartoon for young children—simple, straightforward, and happy.
They played, laughed, and danced.
It was almost like a simple version of a fairy tale.
Wen Jianyan watched all of this with concentration, involuntarily drawn in.
Suddenly, with a strange “crackle,” the image on the right side of the movie screen seemed to be interfered with by something, and large patches of static appeared.
The silhouette of the little girl suddenly froze. She seemed to have seen something, staring fixedly at the static on the right side of the screen. Then she let go of the little boy’s hand beside her and took a trembling step back, seeming very…
Panicked?
A chill ran down Wen Jianyan’s back.
With the sound of the film reel turning, the screen went black.
In its place were the large word—
[Intermission]
“?”
Wen Jianyan blinked, not quite having recovered.
Act One…
Ended just like that?
Wen Jianyan sat on the dark red seat, staring at the screen not far away, a thoughtful expression on his face.
In fact, when he found himself in the movie theater, he had already guessed what he was about to watch.
Since this was a film appreciation class, it naturally required a film to appreciate.
And although the black-and-white silhouettes that appeared on the screen were unexpected, Wen Jianyan was not too surprised.
After all, Wen Jianyan was not an officially registered participant of this movie—since he couldn’t participate in the whole process before, it was easy to understand that the “movie” shown to him was a simplified version.
But the plot of the first act had indeed exceeded Wen Jianyan’s expectations.
He had thought that the first act of this movie would at least play until the dramatic turn of events, but he hadn’t expected… it would end here?
“Bang!”
A sound came from above, and the movie theater lit up again.
Wen Jianyan suddenly noticed that in the front row of the previously empty movie theater, there was now a cold, dark figure.
The person sat with his back to him, right in the middle of the first row, motionless and silent.
“…”
The movie theater was frighteningly quiet.
For no reason, Wen Jianyan felt a cold sweat break out on his back.
He stared at the seemingly non-threatening back, feeling a strange sense of familiarity.
His mind raced, desperately searching his memories—who was that person? Was it an NPC from the instance? Someone from the student union? Or a teacher?
None of them seemed to match.
Before Wen Jianyan could find the answer, the lights above went out, and the movie theater was plunged into darkness once again.
With the sound of the film reel turning, three words appeared on the screen not far away:
[Act Two]
Wen Jianyan’s gaze was forced away from the figure in the first row and returned to the screen.
The plot of the second act matched his memory.
The silhouette figures held hands and snuck into a tall building. After a brief period of darkness, they left in a panic, and behind them, a wet, ethereal shadow followed from a distance—
And its outline was identical to the little girl in front.
Wen Jianyan watched the two small figures on the screen hide in panic, but his attention involuntarily drifted.
Among the four movies, Wang Ni was not the protagonist in the strict sense.
But in reality, she was the true core character, wasn’t she?
Clearly, Richard and Wang Ni entered the gymnasium together, but the only one who broke the boundary and was invaded by the mirror image was Wang Ni, wasn’t it?
Wen Jianyan had thought this was just a coincidence. Perhaps she had accidentally done something right—or wrong. After all, such things could happen, right?
But while watching the first act just now, Wen Jianyan suddenly realized that it didn’t seem to be the case.
In the diary, Wang Ni had shown discomfort as soon as the new principal took office.
Did she know the principal?
Or…?
But no matter what, she definitely knew something.
Otherwise, Wen Jianyan would find it hard to believe why two university students, who were supposed to be clueless, could find the truth in just one week… and even find a way to destroy the source of everything.
Reversing the logic, was it possible that—
The fact that only Wang Ni’s mirror image was released, while Richard merely developed a fear of water, was not just some coincidence?
Wen Jianyan pondered.
On the screen, a new silhouette hatched from the body of the little girl on the ground, and that silhouette had empty eye sockets.
The little boy curled up in a corner, crying, all alone.
A letter was carried by the wind, fluttering down to his feet—it was the envelope Wang Ni had left in the cafeteria. She hadn’t had time to mail it before she died, but by a stroke of luck, it had been left in the cafeteria.
And it had already been addressed.
The little boy, sobbing, opened the envelope.
—Wen Jianyan had read its contents and remembered every word clearly.
The next second, he stumbled and rushed into the distance.
Act Two ended.
The lights above lit up with a “bang.”
Under the strong light, Wen Jianyan involuntarily closed his eyes, which had grown accustomed to the darkness. After a few short, quick blinks, the distracting halo in front of his eyes finally disappeared.
The word [Intermission] appeared on the screen again.
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan’s hair stood on end.
The figure that had been sitting in the first row had, at some unknown point, moved back a row and was now sitting in the third row.
And Wen Jianyan’s position was in the sixth row.
The suddenly shortened distance allowed Wen Jianyan to clearly see the other’s motionless shoulders and the dark back of his head. His heart began to pound uncontrollably.
W-wait?
It can move??
As an auditing student, he shouldn’t be in mortal danger during someone else’s graduation thesis, right??
After a brief pause, Wen Jianyan began to try to break free from his seat again, only this time he used his items.
The faded armrests clanged, but his body was still fixed to the seat.
Behind him, the sound of the film reel turning started again, signaling the end of the intermission.
No. No, no, no—
Wen Jianyan’s eyes widened.
Unfortunately, things did not go as he wished.
The movie theater went dark again.
On the screen, several large words slowly appeared.
[Act Three].
Perhaps due to some invisible interference, this time, there was even more static on the screen, and the entire picture was somewhat difficult to make out.
And in the mottled mess, was a familiar paper house.
Flames made of paper leaped on the screen, quickly engulfing the house.
—Wen Jianyan had witnessed this scene with his own eyes.
Richard, carrying the lamp he had taken from the principal’s office, rushed to the gymnasium and set everything on fire.
The [Memory] should have ended here.
But the [Movie] did not.
In the flames that almost engulfed the entire screen, the little boy crouched down and picked up the lamp.
After standing quietly for a few seconds, he turned around and walked away into the distance, alone—as if… his work was not yet finished.
And just then, the static that had appeared in the first act once again occupied most of the screen.
The little boy stared blankly in the direction of the darkness, as if mesmerized, and involuntarily took a step forward.
[Really?
Is it really okay?
As long as—?]
The little boy’s silhouette took another step forward. He slowly raised his clenched fists and offered them to the darkness before him.
The next second, the screen went black.
When it lit up again, the picture was already mottled beyond recognition. In this chaotic mess of static, only the lonely silhouette of the little boy could be seen.
He bent down, buried his head in the darkness, and his small body rose and fell rhythmically.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
Wen Jianyan suddenly realized—
He was drinking water.
Wen Jianyan remembered clearly that ever since leaving the swimming pool, Richard no longer drank the school’s water.
And now he was actually drinking water.
In the mottled shadows where the specific image could hardly be discerned, the little boy’s silhouette collapsed on the ground, no longer moving, and his belly was bloated high.
He seemed to be…
Dead.
“…”
Wen Jianyan sat in his spot, feeling his back drenched in cold sweat.
He remembered very clearly when he had first seen Richard’s body.
It was in the dormitory building, on the fifth floor, in the washroom.
All the faucets were turned on full blast, water gushing out, and every sink was overflowing.
Richard’s body lay in the accumulated water on the floor. In his palm lay two freshly gouged-out eyeballs, and his belly was bloated high as if he had drunk his fill of water.
Silence filled his ears.
All the music had disappeared. Only the sound of the film reel turning could be heard, monotonous and piercing, making one feel uncomfortable all over.
Wen Jianyan’s heart was in his throat, but the picture on the screen remained unchanged.
After a few short yet long seconds, suddenly, something moved.
Something seemed to be stirring under the little boy’s bloated belly. The movement grew larger and larger—the whole process was soundless, but it carried a creepy sense of unease.
Finally, a new shadow broke out of the body.
It looked identical in outline to the original little boy. The only difference was the pair of empty eye sockets.
Mottled static crawled all over the screen, and all the images were swallowed by darkness.
Wen Jianyan subconsciously held his breath.
Suddenly, the cheerful music from the first act started again.
The darkness dissipated. The little boy and little girl with empty eye sockets held hands, dancing happily.
[THE END]
The screen went black.
The movie was over.
In the darkness, Wen Jianyan heard his own chaotic heartbeat. His palms were wet and cold.
Many thoughts raced through his mind.
What about Suo Suo? Did he succeed? Did he, like him, know the answer to the objective questions? Did he get the crucial paper scroll from the washroom?
Since the movie was over, could he, as an “auditing student”, leave?
More importantly, that—
With a “bang”, the lights overhead lit up, illuminating the large, old movie theater.
The moment he saw his surroundings clearly, Wen Jianyan almost forgot to breathe.
A person was sitting in the seat directly in front of him.
A cold, dark back, motionless.
“…”
Wen Jianyan stared at the back that was so close. The distance was so short that he could even smell the heavy scent of formalin coming from the other person.
Thick, damp, cloying.
Without warning, the shadow moved.
It slowly, silently, turned its shoulders, which moved its neck, its head, turning around bit by bit.
What to do? What to do, what to do?
Wen Jianyan was so nervous that cold sweat poured down.
While trying to use various items, he stared intently at the figure in front of him. In his peripheral vision, he saw the other’s deathly pale cheek continuously enlarging. His heart almost stopped—
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan’s vision went black.
“?”
Before he could react, his whole body had already lost its balance and fell backward.
Two seconds later, Wen Jianyan found himself lying on the ground, and in his field of vision was the black-red, spinning sky.
“…”
He blinked, taking two seconds to realize that he had already left that strange movie theater and was back at the foot of the dormitory building in the instance.
“Cough, cough, cough, cough!”
A heart-wrenching cough sounded from the side. Wen Jianyan was startled and quickly turned his head to look.
It was Suo Suo.
The other was sprawled on the ground, coughing violently, as if trying to cough up his own heart, liver, spleen, and lungs.
He looked quite wretched. His body was filthy, a mix of black and red blood, making it hard to tell whether it was from a monster or his own. The hand covering his face was charred black, as if it had been roasted by a fierce fire, twisted and deformed. Even his index and middle fingers were stuck together, the torn flesh dripping blood.
Although he looked miserable, at least he had managed to survive.
Wen Jianyan got up and walked over, extending a hand.
“Thesis completed?”
Suo Suo finally managed to stop coughing. He extended a trembling hand and used Wen Jianyan’s strength to stand up, his voice hoarse, almost lost. “Thanks.”
Wen Jianyan looked him up and down. “What score?”
Suo Suo smiled, which seemed to pull at some wound, and his entire face contorted.
“Cough… cough cough!”
Wen Jianyan patted his back.
Suo Suo, with a trembling hand, took out an item stored in a small, pointed-bottom glass vial and drank it in one gulp, finally recovering a little. He wiped his face, which was covered in ash, sweat, and blood, and answered:
“61.”
“Hiss…” Wen Jianyan sucked in a cold breath. “That score is cutting it close.”
Suo Suo gave a bitter smile. “You can say that again.”
As the two were talking, suddenly, a flat system voice came from the air:
“Ding!”
“Yuying Comprehensive University instance’s third academic year is about to end. The fourth academic year is about to begin!”
“The graduation ceremony will begin in one hour at the sports field. Please hurry and complete your graduation theses. If you fail to complete it before the graduation ceremony, you will lose your eligibility to graduate.”
Wen Jianyan was taken aback and quickly looked down at his phone.
It was exactly 23:00. There was still one hour until midnight.
Sure enough, just as he had previously speculated, the duration of Yuying Comprehensive University’s fourth academic year had been shortened again, and the “graduation ceremony” was the only, and most crucial, event of this academic year.
If someone failed to complete their graduation thesis before this, they would not be able to graduate from Yuying Comprehensive University.
Which also meant…
Unable to clear the instance.
Wen Jianyan checked his inbox again. Still no news from anyone else.
This was too wrong.
He frowned, feeling a little unsettled.
The system voice in his ear continued.
“…As of the start of the graduation ceremony, the student with the highest thesis score will be selected as a representative to speak on stage, and will be awarded the outstanding graduate medal by the principal.”
At the same time, on the large screen in the ‘Yuying Comprehensive University ‘ livestream plaza, a brand-new leaderboard appeared.
It was a list of students who had already completed their theses, ranked from top to bottom by score.
Right now, only about ten people had completed their theses, but the number was still continuously increasing.
The names of Chen Cheng, Hugo, and Su Cheng were prominently on the list.
The most eye-catching was inevitably the top of the list—the bright red score was far ahead.
[NO.1 Wen Jianyan]
[Score: S]
“…Please study hard and strive to graduate!”
The system voice disappeared, replaced by a deathly silence.
“Right, right,” Suo Suo’s voice came from the side, breaking the dead silence. “This is for you.”
Wen Jianyan was startled and turned his head to look.
He saw Suo Suo extend a charred hand towards him. In his bloody, mangled palm lay a crumpled, wet piece of paper, its edges curled from being burned. A few strands of dark, filthy hair were wrapped around the edge.
“This is…”
Wen Jianyan was stunned.
“Isn’t this what you wanted? Damn it… I had to forcibly break the drainpipe in the fifth-floor washroom of the dormitory building to get it out—” It seemed that talking for too long had made him cough again. He finally stopped after more than ten seconds. “There were supposed to be three sheets inside, but because of that damned fire, there’s only one left now.”
“…”
Wen Jianyan stood there, not replying immediately.
Suo Suo actually went to get it? And even succeeded? This was simply—
“The reason I was able to complete—cough cough cough!—complete my graduation thesis this time was all thanks to the information you gave me,” Suo Suo handed the paper to Wen Jianyan. “Anyway, thanks.”
Wen Jianyan took the crumpled piece of paper.
Suo Suo turned to leave, then suddenly stopped and turned his head back to confirm, “We’re even, right?”
“Of course,” Wen Jianyan nodded and said slowly, “We’re even.”
Now that Suo Suo had completed his thesis, he naturally couldn’t return to the previous scene.
The outcome could not be changed, so he could only accept it.
After getting a positive answer, Suo Suo breathed a sigh of relief, turned, and quickly disappeared.
Although there were monsters roaming outside the building, for him now… anywhere was safer than being near Wen Jianyan.
Wen Jianyan lowered his head and carefully unfolded the paper, which had been scorched by flames.
Even ignoring the scorch marks and fingerprints, it was already soaked enough to be fragile. The edges also had the imprints of being clamped in a file for a long time.
Wen Jianyan had to be very careful not to tear it in half during this process.
Finally, after a long thirty seconds, he successfully unfolded the soft, wet piece of paper.
Sure enough, this time, the originally blank surface of the paper was covered with dense, small words.
Wen Jianyan tilted his head, examining the paper, trying to distinguish the words and patterns on it. After a few seconds, he seemed to recognize something and was slightly taken aback.
This seems to be…
A map of Yuying Comprehensive University?
That’s right. Wen Jianyan confirmed his guess. This was indeed a map of Yuying Comprehensive University.
Look, here was the dormitory building, over there were the administration building, the teaching building, the gymnasium, the sports field…
Having been in the instance for so long, Wen Jianyan had already memorized the entire campus map, and every location in his mind could find a corresponding simplified cross-section on this paper.
But besides these familiar buildings, there was more on it.
There were strange auxiliary lines.
They were all over the paper, almost completely without logic, dense, and very tortuous, making one’s head spin.
It was precisely because of these messy lines that Wen Jianyan hadn’t recognized at first glance that this was a map of [Yuying Comprehensive University].
So what exactly were these auxiliary lines?
Wen Jianyan frowned, tilting his head to examine the map before him. He carefully smoothed out the paper with his fingers. Suddenly, his sharp eyes found a few blurry words in a corner of the map that had been scorched by flames.
“…Construction… Drawing?”
He murmured.
The moment the words left his mouth, Wen Jianyan froze.
Construction drawing?!
According to the diary, the renovation of the gymnasium began after the new principal arrived. This meant that what he was holding in his hand was actually its construction blueprint?!
Wen Jianyan faintly realized something. He held his breath, and his eyes began to search the paper rapidly. He soon found the location of the gymnasium.
Sure enough, the auxiliary lines on the gymnasium were the most numerous on the entire map.
Wen Jianyan brought the paper closer to his nose and carefully examined the interface of the gymnasium. Suddenly, he was taken aback, his gaze falling on a corner of the gymnasium.
That was the beginning of one of the auxiliary lines.
Here…
In his mind, the flat drawing and the three-dimensional building in his memory finally overlapped.
—The water pipe extending from the locker room was connected to an old valve. When the valve was turned, dark water would fill the swimming pool, becoming the entrance to the ‘Mirror Surface ‘.
Wait a minute.
Water]
In that instant, it was like lightning streaking across the sky, tearing open a corner of the darkness.
Wen Jianyan was frozen in place, almost forgetting to breathe. Only his heart was pounding wildly in his chest, hitting his ribs until they ached.
Why, after leaving the gymnasium, was Richard so afraid of getting water from the school, yet not resistant to bottled water?
Why, in this instance, was the item used to restore SAN points the bottled water sold in the tuck shop?
Why was the back of Richard’s corpse always wet?
Wen Jianyan clutched the book in his hand, his gaze falling on those auxiliary lines. He felt a chill creep up his spine, and the hairs on his arms stood on end.
Why did the principal want to build a swimming pool, and why did the construction time take much longer than anyone had imagined…
Why, when he first entered the locker room, before he was overcome by the illusion, did he hear a strange, empty sound coming from within the water pipes?
Why, when strange things happened, would black water repeatedly fill the swimming pool, with pale corpses floating in it?
These auxiliary lines on the drawing were all water pipes, and the “project” the principal was undertaking was by no means just building a gymnasium with a swimming pool—it was the entire campus’s water pipe system!
The swimming pool was just the tip of the iceberg that was revealed, a concrete and visible presence in the altered pipe network.
And the rest were all hidden underground, with no one able to glimpse the whole picture.
“…”
Wen Jianyan slowly raised his head, his gaze falling on the sky above, and he couldn’t help but feel a shiver.
The black sky, with blood-red veins crisscrossing each other.
It was almost like the complete version of the drawing in his hand.
These pipes were connected to every NPC in the instance—the teachers, the club members, the student union… and inside those skins, wrapped within, was that familiar black water.
Cold sweat formed on Wen Jianyan’s forehead. He lowered his head, his gaze once again falling on the drawing in his hand.
After realizing what these auxiliary lines were, he finally understood this map.
The countless spreading lines were like a huge net, trapping the entire campus firmly. His eyes followed these lines and finally locked on the upper left corner of the drawing.
That was the center of this network, the source and core of every pipe.
It was also where the pipes in the swimming pool led to.
That was…
The artificial lake.
Author’s Note:
Below is a search for foreshadowing:
The empty sound of the water pipes: Chapter 406
Richard’s back: Chapter 403
The rusty valve: Chapter 488
The black water in the skins of the student union and club members: Chapter 451, Chapter 465
The pipes connected to the heads of the student union: Chapter 430
I love you passionately
Deus, deixe esse arco chegar ao fim, por favor
12 more chapters!