WTNL Chapter 6.2

 Decai Middle School
Chapter 6.2: The target of hatred

Leaving only that last sentence drifting and floating, dissipating into the air.

Wen Jianyan gazed at the empty duty room, his eyelashes slightly lowered, no expression visible on his face.

He turned around and picked up that photo from the drawer’s hidden compartment.

In the photo, the mother and daughter, one large and one small, stood in an amusement park, smiling happily at the camera.

Right at this moment, a notification sound rang by his ear:

[Ding! Your chase battle has been automatically cleared; the hidden side quest is completed!]

The instant the voice fell, Wen Jianyan felt a wave of dizziness. The next second, when he opened his eyes again, he found that he had already returned to the cafeteria entrance.

The commotion inside the cafeteria was still ongoing, and the clinking system sounds by his ears were incessant.

[Ding! Live broadcast special task completed, special route unlocked: Reward Points: 5000]

[Live broadcast task rewards are being calculated for you:]

[Instance Exploration Degree: 50% Reward Points: 5000]

[Current Stage Plot Modification Degree: 62% Reward Points: 20000]

[Remaining Points in Account: 30900]

[Wow, congratulations on becoming the richest streamer in the entire instance!]

[Achievement Unlocked: With all due respect, everyone sitting here is broke.]

Wen Jianyan was just flat broke a moment ago, and now he had suddenly struck it rich, becoming the streamer with the most points in the entire instance. He was a bit dizzy from being hit by this news.

Amidst the pleasant surprise, Wen Jianyan also felt somewhat unsettled.

Could there be some kind of trap in this…?

[Detected that the points in the streamer’s account exceed 1000, now unlocking the system shop for you…]

[Do you wish to open the system shop?]

Wen Jianyan composed himself: “Open.”

The shop interface for E-rank streamers unfolded before him. The shops for the other several ranks were all greyed out in an unlocked state. Wen Jianyan tried tapping on them. Although the other interfaces could be opened, all the items and points inside were in a “???” state.

However, at the very top of the highest-level S-rank streamer shop interface, a dazzling golden voucher was displayed.

“Soul Contract Cancellation Agreement.”

The exchange method below was still locked.

Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered on the golden voucher for a few seconds before he switched back to his own E-rank streamer shop interface.

Although only a limited area was open, the variety of items here was still very extensive.

“Cloak of Concealment: Will not be discovered by any monsters for one minute,” “Substitute Puppet: Creates a puppet carrying your aura, duration one minute,” “Hand of Guidance: Points out the location of a hidden item for you (Rank Limit: Normal),” “Book of Contracts,” “Amulet”… and so on and so forth.

The effects noted under each item were eye-catching.

Wen Jianyan swept his gaze over the price list, and his vision instantly went dark:

“…”

Good heavens, any random small life-saving item cost at least 5000 points!

Isn’t this just slaughtering people!

He had completely seen through the profiteering face of this live broadcast room!

Wen Jianyan expressionlessly closed the system shop.

He exchanged for three and a half hours of survival time, and then saved the remaining 9900 points in his account.

There must be a reason why the system shop offered so many life-saving items.

Wen Jianyan keenly detected the dangerous signal within it.

Therefore, he didn’t use up all his points this time. After all, there might be critical moments later on where he must exchange for shop items to survive.

Just before he was about to close the light screen, his gaze inadvertently swept over the upper right corner again.

Wen Jianyan froze.

This time it was absolutely not his illusion.

A spot of green brightly popped up in the center of the flower pot icon, exceptionally conspicuous against the dusty grey background.

…It sprouted?

He reached out and poked the icon.

A line of text popped up.

[Item Name: Apple Seedling]

Wen Jianyan: “…”

I already know this, thank you.

He wasn’t sure what he had done to cause this apple seedling to sprout. After all, he rarely opened the light screen, much less used extra points to irrigate and fertilize it.

However, based on the nature of this live broadcast room, Wen Jianyan dared to conclude that the growth of this apple seedling definitely didn’t have much relationship with the passage of time.

As for its function, it was even more unknown.

He could only continue to wait and see for now.

Soon, the disturbance in the cafeteria finally subsided.

The streamers sat back in their seats with lingering fear. This time, no one dared to disdain the slop-like food anymore. The streamers, with sickly pale faces, struggled to eat everything in their bowls completely clean, so clean you could see your reflection in them.

After washing the food basins clean and returning them to their original places, the streamers hurried back to the dormitory building before the 9:30 PM curfew.

“Clang—”

The sound of frantic rummaging rang out from inside the duty room.

All the drawers were impatiently pulled out and flipped open. The wardrobe doors were banged loudly. The mattress, bedsheets, and pillows were all messily thrown on the floor; everywhere was a complete mess.

The streamers exchanged somewhat panicked glances, standing at the entrance of the dormitory building, not daring to move forward.

Until the door of the duty room was viciously pushed open with a “bang,” and the old witch’s tall figure appeared in the doorway.

Everyone shuddered in fright.

The old witch’s hair was disheveled, and her eyes were densely covered in blood vessels. Her expression was crazed and furious, veins bulging on her twisted face, looking just like a malicious spirit. She gritted her teeth, staring deadly at the streamers standing at the door:

“…Did any of you enter my room?”

The woman swept her terrifying gaze over the streamers. The crazed aura exuding from her body was frightening:

“There was a small red cloth pouch, which one of you took it?”

“N-No.”

“No!”

The streamers hurriedly shook their heads in panic, deeply afraid of being targeted by the other party.

“Thieves…”

The old witch’s teeth clenched, grinding with a creak: “There is a thief among you…”

A neurotic giggling sound emitted from her throat: “If I catch them, I’ll make them pay the price for their actions—”

Suddenly, the old witch seemed to recall something.

The woman glared, scanning the room with a crazed gaze: “Where’s Xiao Wen? That intern teacher? Which one of you saw him?”

The streamers huddled together in panic, shaking their heads vigorously in unison.

Kong Shixing boldly spoke up:

“We saw him in the cafeteria just now. Later, he followed the cafeteria auntie who served us food to the back kitchen, and then we never saw him again.”

The old witch’s gaze landed on Kong Shixing. Those murky, bulging eyes didn’t blink, as if contemplating the authenticity of his words.

Finally, the skin on her face twitched:

“I have to go out for a bit. You guys stay inside the dormitory building and are not allowed to go out. Lights out is at 10 PM. After lights out, I will come back for inspection. If I see any of you still outside your own rooms, you’ll be in for it.”

Saying that, the old witch turned around and walked out without looking back.

The streamers stood in place, still in shock.

“What’s going on…? That NPC’s things were stolen?”

“It seems so…”

“Who stole it? A player or an NPC?”

Whispering voices sounded in front of the lobby.

Kong Shixing and his two teammates stood to the side, the three of them discussing in low voices.

“That NPC named Xiao Wen is highly suspicious.”

“Indeed.” Kong Shixing revealed a thoughtful expression: “Moreover, what he took might be some very important item. Anyway, later we should also try to find that NPC within our capabilities and see if we can obtain the item from him. At worst, we can also tell that crazy woman about his whereabouts. It might earn us a chance of survival.”

“Anyway, let’s go back to the dorms for now. The identity cards haven’t been completely unlocked successfully yet.”

The players walked into the dormitory building and quickly disappeared.

The air fell into a deathly silence.

In a blind spot enveloped by shadows outside the dormitory building, the young man crouched down, quietly poked out half his head, and cautiously looked around.

Great, no one is here.

Wen Jianyan walked out from the corner lightly, letting out a long sigh of relief.

Fortunately, his brain worked fast just now. When he came back and saw the anomaly in the duty room, he nimbly hid away.

If he had been caught red-handed on the spot, who knows what would have happened!

Right at this moment, the familiar mechanical voice sounded by his ear again:

[Ding, detected that the plot deviation degree has reached the threshold; the instance is generating uncontrollable changes!]

[New plot opening…]

[NPC Teacher Yang’s mutation countdown: 00:30:00]

[Aggro concentrated target: Xiao Wen]

Wen Jianyan: “…”

The barrage in live broadcast room 789326qwk was spammed with “Hahaha.”

[Hahahahahahaha aggro target, I’m dying of laughter.]

[Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha overturned your car now didn’t you!]

[I don’t get it. Streamers have taken this item before in the “Decai Middle School” instance, but I’ve never seen the old witch have such a huge reaction!]

[Because the plot modification degree is too high, duh.]

[Speaking of which, I’ve watched this instance quite a few times, but I’ve really never heard of this current plot at all…]

[!!! Fuck! A new route! I’m shocked!]

[If the streamer can really clear this new run, he’ll probably make a fortune.]

[Hehe, whether he can clear it is another story. I think the streamer is already close to being dead. Being wanted by an NPC and other streamers together, isn’t this 100% finished!]

At the same time, the sign outside the live broadcast hall changed once again.

[Decai Middle School]
Hall difficulty level: D
Historical highest unlock progress: 72%
Viewing value: D+
The difficulty level had risen to D+.

The viewing value flashed, slowly changing from D+ to C.

In the live broadcast plaza, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the quick access portal for the [Decai Middle School] instance abruptly shot up again, entering the first page of the recommendation leaderboard.

The viewers outside: ???

What’s going on?

What exactly happened in this low-difficulty simple instance!

__

Author’s note:

When a player who breaks the game balance is ruthlessly sanctioned by the system be like

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