Yuying University
Chapter 516: Graduation Ceremony 7
In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:
[Huh?]
[Huh??]
[Wait, wait, my CPU is fried. So the mirror image that crawled out of Richard’s body is actually the owner of that convenience store from before??]
[From the looks of it, it seems so??]
[Richard didn’t dare to drink the school’s water supply before he died because he knew the truth, and in the end, his mirror image became the NPC who sells bottled water in the instance… What a hellish setup.]
Wen Jianyan stared intently at the events unfolding by the lake, his breathing slightly quickened, his mind spinning rapidly.
He could think of everything the viewers in the livestream chat thought of, and even more.
Since the NPC in the convenience store was actually the mirror image that crawled out of Richard’s abdomen, could the other NPCs in this instance also be…?
After all, Wen Jianyan had long since concluded that anchors who died in this instance had a chance to be converted into permanent NPCs… and not just monsters.
Both the method for joining the clubs and the conditions for entering the student council clearly hinted that this was a viable path.
Even knowing this, their method of conversion was still unclear.
Until now.
And the reason the convenience store owner’s appearance was so different from other NPCs was that it didn’t actively burst out of its host’s abdomen like other mirror images. Instead, it was nearly suppressed by the host’s strong emotional resistance and was ultimately cut out alive, which is why it had such a primitive and crude appearance.
As Wen Jianyan’s mind was storming, the scene before him suddenly began to fade again. Everything was as if a pause button had been pressed, losing its original color bit by bit like a film reel.
“?!”
Seeing this, Wen Jianyan was startled.
This is bad, this scene is about to end! But I haven’t finished the questions yet!
As if he thought of something, he looked down at the report card in his hand.
In the top right corner, a score gradually appeared.
11 out of 20. For someone who hadn’t watched the entire movie, getting such a score was already very impressive.
The current score on the paper was 51, just nine points short of 60.
At the same time, there was still one last question on the report card that had not been answered.
[2. In the film, why does the protagonist express gratitude to the teacher? (20 points)]
—If he could just get five more points, he would pass.
The movie’s background was fading, leaving Wen Jianyan with little time.
As the sky lost its color, the shadow representing the “principal” in the distance deepened. Wen Jianyan had no time to think. He lowered his head and wrote furiously at top speed.
Why express gratitude to the teacher?
Combining the plots of the other two movies, the answer to this question was not hard to guess.
The reason they expressed gratitude to the principal who had harmed them was that the principal had given them a chance to be together again—even if this chance was built on grotesque horror and bewitched death.
Soon, the last stroke was finished.
As Wen Jianyan put down his pen, a score gradually appeared in the top right corner of the question.
In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:
[…?]
[Huh? Zero? What the hell?]
[That’s weird, isn’t that the answer? What else could it be, thank you for killing us?]
[Could it be that the anchor is being targeted?]
[That shouldn’t be it. If he was being targeted, they would have messed with the subjective question. This is the last objective question, there’s no need.]
Looking at the abrupt score, Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but be stunned.
…Zero points?
Wen Jianyan had expected that the score he would get on the objective questions wouldn’t be too high, especially the first one—after all, he had never really seen this movie once. In this situation, it was very possible to make mistakes on the details. But he hadn’t expected that the question he would score the lowest on would be the second one, the one he was most confident about??
What was going on?
“…”
There’s no time to answer again.
Cold sweat beaded on Wen Jianyan’s forehead as he looked up.
The world had faded to monochrome. In the distance, the shadow representing the “principal” was still there.
But strangely, the faded world didn’t turn into the eerie blood-red from before. On the contrary, all the color around him had been drained away, and the scene before him was like a black-and-white frame from a movie.
And the back view didn’t emerge from the black void as it had last time, but remained in place.
Wen Jianyan’s gaze fell on the artificial lake in front of him, and he was taken aback.
At some point, the water in the artificial lake had completely disappeared, turning it into an empty, deep pit—unlike the bottomless depth in Wen Jianyan’s memory, it now seemed to be less than three meters deep, and he could see the muddy bottom at a glance.
The moment he saw the empty artificial lake, Wen Jianyan seemed to have a sudden realization.
…The movie isn’t over yet.
Apparently, this movie was not told in chronological order, and what was happening now was probably a “flashback.”
That’s why all the surrounding colors had disappeared, and everything had become a monotonous black and white.
The black shadow stood in place, motionless.
“————.”
It seemed to be saying something, but Wen Jianyan couldn’t understand the content.
However, figuring out what it was saying didn’t matter to Wen Jianyan right now. As long as the scene continued and the back view didn’t appear, it was enough for him.
He just needed to answer the last question to get his ticket out of this scene.
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, his gaze once again focusing on the paper, his brows furrowing uncontrollably.
He quickly went over the plots of the first two movies in his mind, but he felt even more confused than before.
There might be other ways to answer the first question, but the second one clearly didn’t… its answer was singular and definite.
Strange, it shouldn’t have any other answer.
Could it be that he had missed something?
Wen Jianyan unconsciously rubbed his fingertips, his expression anxious.
Suddenly, his gaze inadvertently swept downward and paused.
On the ground by his feet, a piece of paper lay quietly in the grass. The paper was small and inconspicuous, easy to miss if one wasn’t paying attention. But since everything had turned a monotonous black and white, the blood-red words on the paper became very clear and distinct.
Wen Jianyan was taken aback.
He recognized it. It was the paper Su Cheng had thrown on the ground during the graduation ceremony to pass him a message.
It must have been accidentally brought out and dropped from his pocket when he was taking out the thesis report card just now.
Due to the urgency when it was written, Su Cheng’s handwriting was very messy. The paper was crumpled, making the text difficult to read.
“…?”
As if guided by a strange impulse, Wen Jianyan bent down and picked up the paper from the ground.
He unfolded the crumpled paper. The two words [TAPE] were as messy and glaring as when he first saw them. The entire surface of the paper was clean, with no other information besides these two words.
But…
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes and gently brushed his fingers over the edge of the paper.
The edge was very rough and irregular, causing a slight pain as it scraped against the pad of his finger.
Like… torn from a book?
As if he had thought of something, Wen Jianyan slowly flipped the paper over.
In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:
[?]
[Wait… what is this?]
[Holy crap, isn’t this the paper Su Cheng and the others found in the ‘Memory’?!]
[Huh? What?]
[After the anchor escaped from the memory through the crack created by the fire, I squatted in the prophet’s livestream room for a while. Before they left that memory, they were searching the library for possible clues. I remember the prophet found this paper in one of the many books, and his expression changed instantly. He said they had to find Wen Jianyan immediately…]
[Damn, that happened! No wonder Su Cheng used this method to pass the message to the anchor. He was actually trying to get this paper into the anchor’s hands!]
[Holy crap, holy crap, I’ve got goosebumps. So what’s on this paper?]
The crumpled half-sheet of paper appeared on the livestream’s big screen. It looked like a file, but the text on it was unreadable, strange symbols that were completely illegible. Only a very old-looking photo in the top corner showed a very ordinary-looking middle-aged man standing in front of a blurry building.
His face was very familiar; his features were identical to the person in the photo in the principal’s office.
He should be this school’s principal, Zhang Yunsheng.
In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:
[…]
[…?]
[Isn’t this just a photo of the principal? We already saw one in the principal’s office… what’s so important about this?]
[I don’t know!!!!]
Wen Jianyan stared at the paper in his hand, a look of confusion on his face, seemingly as puzzled as the viewers in the livestream.
His gaze lingered on the photo in the top right corner, as if lost in thought.
Suddenly, as if recalling something, Wen Jianyan’s pupils shrank, and he sucked in a sharp, cold breath.
In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:
[Huh??]
[Huh??]
[What did he see??]
[I don’t know!! Are we seeing something different? Isn’t this all just gibberish? What can you even make out from this.]
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, suppressing the trembling in his fingertips. He once again pulled the three damp papers from his pocket and unfolded them as quickly as possible.
The first was the school’s construction map.
The lines on it were messy and sprawling, ultimately converging on the artificial lake in the center.
The second was Wang Ni’s personal file.
It detailed her personal history from childhood to adulthood. The most striking parts were her former name and the name of the community she once lived in as a child.
These two were unrelated.
And they shouldn’t be related.
Cold sweat broke out on Wen Jianyan’s back. He slowly removed the first two sheets, revealing the third and final paper underneath.
It was a report cut from an old newspaper.
It was a small, block-sized personal interview.
[A Talented and Erudite Scholar Reborn from the Ashes: Zhang Yunsheng]
And in the top right corner was a person covered in bandages lying on a hospital bed. The few short lines below told the inspirational story of how the talented protagonist of this interview survived a tragic lab accident, overcame his injuries, stood up again, and eventually became the principal of a university.
Damn it.
So that’s how it is.
Wen Jianyan stood there, feeling a shiver slowly crawl up his spine, his heart pounding wildly in his chest.
He looked at Wang Ni’s file. The former address marked on it was shocking.
Antai Community.
However, Wang Ni herself should have no connection to Antai Community. Calculating from the dates on the file, she and her family had already moved out before the community was eroded by supernatural forces and became an instance. Her name change should have also started from that moment.
In a room in Antai Community, Wen Jianyan had found the medical records of the female owner of the house giving birth. The hospital that issued the records was the previous instance he had entered.
Fukang General Hospital. ①
All instances have their corresponding real-world locations.
Since a medical record from Fukang General Hospital could be found in Antai Community, it meant that the spatial locations of these two places should be very close… very close.
“…”
Wen Jianyan’s fingers tightened abruptly. His gaze shifted down and once again fell on the photo on the paper Su Cheng had given him.
Due to the age of the photo, the building behind the bandaged person was very blurry, but if one looked closely, one could still make out a familiar outline.
Wen Jianyan would never forget, even in death, the outer wall of which place this was.
It was Fukang General Hospital.
A terrifying instance that tampered with pregnant women to gestate ghost infants.
And in the basement of Fukang General Hospital, Wen Jianyan had been tied to an operating table by the hospital director, who was covered in bandages and had an unclear face. He had nearly died in that conflict. ②
Recalling the unpleasant experience, Wen Jianyan’s stomach churned uncomfortably.
In the “Integrity First” livestream chat, most of the newer viewers were still confused, not knowing what was happening.
But there were also many viewers here who had been following Wen Jianyan since his previous few instances. As they looked at the familiar photos and irrefutable evidence, the memories finally resurfaced.
[Holy… crap… holy crap!!!! The principal of this Yuying Comprehensive University, Zhang Yunsheng, is the former director of Fukang General Hospital???]
[There’s no doubt about it. Looking at the interview cut from the newspaper and the photo from the file together, there can be no other conclusion.]
[Ahhhhh what the hell is going on, what the hell is going on, ahhh?]
[Crap, I think I suddenly get it. Do you guys remember? Wang Ni mentioned in her diary that she really disliked this new principal, as if she knew something about his past, but she didn’t directly state the reason.]
[Yes, that’s right!]
[And I thought it was strange before. For two ignorant university students to find the weakness of a huge conspiracy in a week is very difficult, unless… one of them knew something from the beginning and knew where to look for clues!!] ③
[Wang Ni not only came from the same place as Zhang Yunsheng, but she might have even been an experimental subject who accidentally escaped! How else can you explain that she and Richard entered the swimming pool together, but she became the only one to be invaded by a mirror image? —Of course it’s because she had almost become a victim of the same conspiracy before!]
Just then, Wen Jianyan suddenly noticed that the sound from not far away was gradually becoming clearer.
He looked up in astonishment toward the source of the sound.
By the dry artificial lake, the dark, hollow shadow was still motionless, but for some reason, the darkness surrounding it seemed to be slowly dissipating, and Wen Jianyan could gradually hear its voice more clearly.
“…Is this the place?”
The voice was very muffled, as if the signal was being interfered with, mixed with a strange “static” sound. Wen Jianyan could only barely make out the content of the words, but not the tone of his voice.
“…Zhu… is gone. Where did It go?”
The “shadow” faced the void, seemingly conversing with some unknown entity.
After listening quietly for a while, he spoke again:
“It doesn’t matter. But as long as It’s remaining aura is here… it’s enough.”
“Yes, I’m abandoning the previous plan.”
“My previous direction was wrong. A perfect mother does not exist in this world. No human has such qualifications. It’s impossible to use a human as a mother… It needs something bigger, more stable… more food.”
“Yes, I will not fail this time.”
“My Mother.”
The voice became clear, steady… familiar.
Listening to those words, Wen Jianyan felt his scalp tingle. A terrifying chill washed over him, almost freezing his blood.
As the words ended, the monotonous black and white colors began to fade, revealing the blood-red sky and the dark, calm lake surface underneath.
The lake surface was too calm.
It reminded Wen Jianyan of his experience when he was beneath it.
The lake water was clean and clear, but upon entering it, one could feel that it wasn’t real “water,” but rather the living bodily fluid of some creature.
In the bottomless lake, countless tethers extended from the darkness below, connecting to one human cocoon after another, as if they were sleeping, or silently incubating.
Ah, that’s right.
It all made sense.
“…”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze fell on the air.
The blood-red sky, countless blood-red flesh tubes intertwined, and at the end of the tubes were connected one NPC after another, one monster after another.
They were nourished by the bodies of the living, gestated from the lake water.
Those fleshy tubes were not blood vessels; they were umbilical cords.
And what filled the artificial lake was definitely not lake water, but amniotic fluid.
The experiment of using a human as a mother had already been proven impossible in Fukang General Hospital. So, the direction of research changed—if using a single individual as a mother was impossible, then what about using an entire world as a mother?
Could it become the womb for gestating a new god?
And so, the experiment began.
So that’s why those so-called “mirror images” would burst out of the abdomens of the living. It was less that they were mirror images, and more that they had become a new, grotesque species.
New ghost infants created in Yuying Comprehensive University.
Ah, could it be that this was the reason for changing the school’s name?
Fukang General Hospital. [福康, Fúkāng]
Yuying Comprehensive University. [育英, Yùyīng]
Or rather… Yuying? [育嬰, Yùyīng – to raise an infant]
Wen Jianyan felt a shiver climb up his spine and couldn’t help but tremble.
The black and white background had completely faded.
Wen Jianyan saw that familiar, cold back view reappear where the black hole had just been. It had its back to Wen Jianyan, showing him only the back of a dark head. Silently, it began to retreat again.
“…”
Wen Jianyan stared intently at the back view. This time, he didn’t move away.
Indeed, the experiment of using a human as a mother had been proven impossible, but that wasn’t accurate—because after Fukang General Hospital became an instance, a new, more perfect mother appeared here.
Wen Jianyan recalled that back in the library, after everyone had fallen for the trap, only he and Orange Candy had survived.
Orange Candy survived because she had a library card. And him?
He had activated an item, [Holy Infant’s Remains], and was given the identity of “Mother of the World.”
[World ??? Identity acquired, Duration: ???]
That’s why, in the end, only Wen Jianyan’s item had worked—it was because this instance existed for It. ④
So, after that, when they all jumped into the swimming pool and sank into the water, only he was drawn by the invisible force below, feeling an endless… peace and familiarity. ⑤
Similarly, this was why when he and Orange Candy were in the artificial lake together and were both somewhat forced to drink the lake water, only Orange Candy was affected, while he was not affected at all.
Wen Jianyan looked down and opened the test paper again.
His gaze fell on the second question.
[2. In the film, why does the protagonist express gratitude to the teacher? (20 points)]
“Tap, tap, tap, tap.”
The back view was still retreating.
Wen Jianyan crossed out his previous answer and began to write.
[Because only in this way can they be gestated again by the womb of the Mother of the World and be born into this world in a nobler way.]
As the last stroke was written, a blood-red score appeared in the top right corner.
Full marks.
At the same time, a familiar system sound came from his ear:
[Ding! Instance Exploration Rate: 100%. Reward Points: 200,000]
[Congratulations to the anchor for achieving the server-unique achievement: King of Insight!
You are the only anchor on this server to achieve a 100% exploration rate in a double-S instance! Please continue your efforts to create more exciting and novel livestreaming experiences for the audience!]
The system’s cheerful announcement spread throughout the entire space, whether it was the ongoing livestreams or the crowded anchor hall—everyone looked up in astonishment at the giant screen that had suddenly changed color.
What?
Did they hear that right?
A 100% exploration rate in an SS-rank instance???
How is that possible?!
“Calculating thesis paper score…”
A familiar system prompt sounded in his ear.
“Congratulations to the candidate for completing the graduation thesis. Your grad… static… thesis score is 71. You will leave the examination hall after a sixty-second countdown. Please be prepared.”
“Tap, tap.”
The footsteps that were close by had stopped.
Wen Jianyan looked up. His face was a deathly white, making his eyes appear even darker and more eerie. He slowly looked forward.
The back view had stopped in front of him.
Only a step away.
At such a close distance, Wen Jianyan could almost feel the cold aura coming from the other. An instinctive fear began to rise in his bones, and the hair on his arms stood on end. But he still didn’t move. He stood firmly in place, not retreating, not fleeing, as if waiting for something.
“Crick, crack.”
The sound of grinding bones was heard.
The back view in front of him began to turn its head.
Wen Jianyan knew that this shadow belonged to the principal. It had been following him like his own shadow. If he was caught, he might face an unknown fate worse than death.
But he still didn’t move.
Every cell in his body was screaming to escape, but his willpower forced him to stay put.
Wen Jianyan’s hanging fingers tightly gripped the few damp pieces of paper. The force in his fingers kept increasing, the veins on the back of his pale hand bulged. Because he was using too much force, cold water even overflowed from between his fingers, dripping onto the ground and creating small pits in the wet, sticky mud.
—Why was the communication cut off?
Because Su Cheng was trying to contact him.
It was obvious that the moment he saw that photo, Su Cheng’s same memories were awakened—after all, he and Wen Jianyan had experienced that instance together.
He knew the plot of Fukang General Hospital and knew about the Mother of the World. So, as soon as he left the [Memory], Su Cheng would definitely try to contact him immediately to inform him of this information.
Why did the three papers Suo Suo gave him only contain the first one, but not the latter two?
Because the latter two were important clues that revealed the connection between [Yuying Comprehensive University] and [Fukang General Hospital]. If they fell into Wen Jianyan’s hands, the conspiracy might be revealed ahead of time.
And the first one was the construction map.
If the construction map fell into Wen Jianyan’s hands, it would lead him to the artificial lake, where he would see Orange Candy wrapped in a human cocoon, not yet successfully “hatched.” If he wanted to save her, the only thing he could do was use the [Diploma] to get his third identity.
[Academic Advisor]
And so, at this point, Wen Jianyan became the only person in the entire instance to have obtained all the identities.
Student.
Club Member.
Student Council.
Teacher.
Like a continuously ascending staircase, Wen Jianyan climbed step by step, getting closer to the top.
This instance was a meticulously designed setup.
A trap.
“Crick, crack.”
The sound of grinding bones continued.
Amidst the ear-piercing, chilling sound, the back view that had been haunting him like a persistent disease slowly turned its head.
The “principal” turned its head, revealing a familiar face.
It was Wen Jianyan’s own face.
Cold, grayish-blue skin, hollow amber eyes, a cold and eerie smile.
Not long ago.
In the library, the mirror image that couldn’t replace Wen Jianyan looked at him, a mysterious smile slowly appearing on its face, and said to him, word by word:
[We should be seeing each other again soon.]
A self-fulfilling prophecy.
In this instance, the mirror image gestates and hatches from the host’s abdomen, eventually killing and replacing the host.
Only Wen Jianyan’s mirror image was different.
Its purpose was not to kill its own host, but to be replaced by its host, and then—
Create the next principal.
__
Author’s Note:
A search for some foreshadowing:
① Chapter 52
② Chapter 36
③ Chapter 504
④ Chapter 481
⑤ Chapter 488
I won’t mark the foreshadowing from more recent chapters, only the ones that are further back.
Holyyy shit
Omygod
caralho