WTNL Chapter 10

Thank you ‘Taryn Morgan’ for the Ko-fi~

Decai Middle School
Chapter 10: You’re about to make history!

Wen Jianyan felt a chill rising straight up from the soles of his feet.

“What’s wrong?”

Seeing that he hadn’t moved for a long time, Su Cheng asked somewhat nervously.

Wen Jianyan steadied himself and replied in as flat a voice as possible: “…Nothing.”

No matter what, he still had to go in.

He took a deep breath, applied force to push the doorknob down, and with a crisp click, the lock opened, sliding inward with the momentum.

Inside the room, it was pitch-black.

Heavy shadows flowed irregularly, cloaking everything in the unknown darkness.

The light from the corridor poured in through the gradually widening crack of the door, barely dispersing the dark shadows and illuminating a corner of the room.

Standing still extremely close to the entrance was a dark figure.

Wen Jianyan was startled in horror.

He abruptly took several steps back, getting away from the door.

A trembling gasp escaped Su Cheng’s throat before being abruptly choked back. He stumbled backward, nearly tripping over himself.

Deprived of controlled force, the door creaked softly, swinging slowly open inward.

By the light from the corridor, even more human silhouettes could be seen standing inside the room.

Some tall, some short, some near, some far, completely motionless and soundless amidst the shadows, as if they had long merged into one with the darkness. Glancing at them abruptly sent a chill tingling across one’s scalp.

Su Cheng could hear his own teeth chattering. Cold sweat broke out on his back, his body tensing up, instantly prepared to turn tail and run.

From the corner of his eye, he caught the person beside him suddenly moving.

Su Cheng’s heart leaped into his throat:

“Don’t—”

The young man seemed not to hear him. Without looking back, he took a step and walked straight forward.

His footsteps were very light, making not the slightest sound on the floor. His slender frame was taut and slightly arched, like a feline poised to strike.

He advanced cautiously, closing the distance to the room step by step.

Not far ahead, in the blurry boundary between light and shadow, those human figures stood silently in the depths of the room. Outlines of shadows overlapped into a dark mass, like faces peeking outward, silently gazing at them, patiently waiting for their prey to fall into the trap.

Su Cheng’s mind felt so tense it was on the verge of exploding. He held his breath involuntarily, watching the scene before him on pins and needles.

Soon, Wen Jianyan reached the doorway.

He didn’t recklessly step into the room; instead, he braced the side of his arm against the wall, ensuring the greater part of his body remained outside the room, and reached a hand into the darkness, groping along the interior wall—

Su Cheng heard himself gasp.

Click.

A soft sound.

The lights came on, banishing the heavy darkness and instantly illuminating the entire room.

Under the light, everything was laid bare.

There were no desks or chairs in the spacious classroom, only several easels haphazardly set up. Plaster statues in various postures stood in different corners of the classroom, quiet and motionless.

“…”

Su Cheng froze.

So… those black shadows were plaster statues?

With the terrifying shadows that had crept closer on the first three floors and the unnerving emptiness of the fourth floor, under the suggestion of such an atmosphere, he hadn’t considered a harmless possibility at all.

The sudden reality left him somewhat dazed, his breath caught in his throat.

Wen Jianyan exhaled slowly.

His palms were slick with sweat.

Just now, the moment his body instinctively wanted to turn and flee, his brain had habitually engaged in rational, lucid thought.

If this room was an instant death trap upon opening the door, then this so-called “hidden item activation quest” would be impossible to complete. Furthermore, from certain details in Xu Yuan’s diary, it was evident that she was an art student studying fine arts.

Wen Jianyan had developed a vague hypothesis regarding the dark figures in the room, which was why he had taken decisive action.

Su Cheng recovered his wits.

He stepped forward, raising a hand to pat Wen Jianyan half in awe and half in admiration:

“…Awesome!”

To remain calm enough to observe and judge accurately in such a creepy atmosphere, he truly was a trained professional.

Wen Jianyan nearly stumbled from the pat, almost losing his composure.

“…”

Although he had guessed there shouldn’t be any major danger in the room, that didn’t mean he wasn’t scared!

Even now, his knees still felt a bit weak.

Fortunately, he was still leaning against the wall, preventing his genuine cowardice from showing.

Keeping a straight face, Wen Jianyan said inscrutably, “Let’s go in and take a look.”

Su Cheng nodded.

With the lights on in the room, every corner was in plain sight, and his previous dread finally evaporated.

He took the lead and stepped inside.

Walking ahead, Su Cheng didn’t see that behind him, the young man who had just looked so grave leaned against the wall, shifting his weight between his left and right foot, stealthily working out the numbness in his legs before following behind.

“Brother Xiao Wen, what number is the locker you’re looking for?”

Standing in front of a row of lockers at the end of the room, Su Cheng raised his voice to ask.

“368,” Wen Jianyan replied.

Su Cheng quickly scanned the lockers before him, his eyes lighting up as he pointed to a corner of the room: “Here!”

By now, Wen Jianyan had completely regained his previous aloof, expressionless demeanor.

He walked toward where Su Cheng was pointing, stopped in front of the locker, and pulled the key from his pocket.

The rusted key fit perfectly into the keyhole. With a soft click, the locker door popped open.

Wen Jianyan took a slow, deep breath and pulled the locker door open.

A strange stench of blood rushed out, so pungent that he tilted his face away, instinctively holding his breath.

Once he adjusted to the smell, Wen Jianyan focused his gaze into the locker.

The interior surfaces of the locker were smeared with crude, blackish-red patterns, appearing eerie and sinister under the light from behind.

Inside the locker, pale bone artifacts were arranged in a circle, like some bizarre altar. At the center of the circle lay a limp, furry lump, its brownish-yellow fur encrusted with dark brown scabs of blood—it was the source of that putrid, bloody stench.

It was a cat pelt that had been skinned alive.

Wen Jianyan felt his scalp tingle.

[Holy crap, this is Xu Yuan’s locker?! The stuff inside is way too eerie.]

[No way, it’s probably the locker of whoever stole Xu Yuan’s identity. Look at that cat skin; it was probably skinned by that person.]

[Wait, didn’t Xu Yuan say in that diary that she heard dripping sounds by her bed? Could it be because the person impersonating her was holding a skinned cat, and what she heard was the sound of blood dripping?]

[…My hairs are standing on end, it’s getting thrilling now.]

[Speaking of which, I just spent points to exchange for a plot hint. This storyline took place earlier than anything else in the school, and it involves an S-rank hidden item. This line will probably touch upon the absolute core of the entire instance.]

[Holy shit! He’s not going to get 100% unlock in his very first instance, is he?!]

[Ahhhhh the streamer is insane!]

Just then, Wen Jianyan’s gaze was drawn to a corner deep inside the locker.

It was a crumpled little black leather notebook, very thin, its dog-eared pages curling at the edges, revealing brown bloodstains within.

Wen Jianyan reached inside, took out the notebook, and began flipping through it quickly.

Su Cheng stood to the side, covering his nose with one hand to block the stench.

Intense curiosity drove him forward, poking his head in to look inside the locker.

However, before he could see anything, in his peripheral vision, something in the background seemed to twitch slightly.

“?!”

Like a startled bird, Su Cheng leaped up abruptly and whipped around to look behind him.

The room was deathly quiet.

Bright light spilled down from overhead, illuminating the dried paint on the floor, the white-cloth-covered easels, and the motionless plaster statues.

There were no shadows, nor any place to hide; everything was visible in full detail.

Only the sound of Wen Jianyan turning pages could be heard.

Yet inexplicably, Su Cheng felt his nerves grow taut, cold sweat seeping from his palms. His sense of crisis was not in the least inferior to when they were in the corridor earlier.

No, it was even stronger.

He forced his gaze to sweep across the empty classroom before him.

Wait…

Were those plaster statues in those poses just now?

Those plaster statues, which had been facing in different directions, had at some point…

All turned to face this way.

The cold light poured down from overhead onto the facial contours of the plaster statues, casting deep shadows over them. Pale faces and pupil-less eye sockets gazed silently in this direction.

Although they remained motionless, Su Cheng no longer dared to view them as harmless decorations.

He swallowed hard with difficulty and opened his mouth: “H-hey…”

Su Cheng startled himself with how ridiculously raspy his voice sounded.

Wen Jianyan kept his head lowered, reading the small booklet intently.

The more he read, the tighter his brow furrowed. Turning pages with one hand, he carefully shifted the animal bones encircling the interior with the other, so absorbed that he didn’t hear Su Cheng calling him at all.

In a strained voice, Su Cheng said, “Shouldn’t we get going?”

Wen Jianyan paused, pulling himself out of his absorbed state.

Right at that moment, a distinct sound came from behind his ear—”Drip.”

He froze slightly, instinctively turning to look in the direction of the sound.

From beneath that bundle of cat skin, a large amount of blood had begun seeping out at some point. Crimson, foul-smelling tainted blood slowly overflowed the bony perimeter, dripping along the edge of the locker—

“Drip.”

It seemed the altar had been successfully dismantled.

Although everything was proceeding smoothly according to his plan, still…

Watching the blood dripping onto the floor, Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but feel a chill down his spine.

Whether what he had done was right or wrong could only be judged later.

At this moment, Su Cheng’s strained voice rang out again: “Um—”

Wen Jianyan turned his head to look.

The next second, he almost forgot to breathe, a tingling sensation creeping up his back.

Looking across the room, statue after statue stood motionless, completely blocking the path leading out. Pale faces stared straight in this direction. The door, clearly only a short distance away, suddenly seemed impossibly far.

Were there this many plaster statues before?

Crack…

A faint sound of stone fracturing echoed.

Fine cracks split across the faces of the plaster statues, as if something beneath was trying to break free.

Crack, crack…

Snow-white plaster flakes rustled down. The arms of the plaster statues lifted bit by bit, the fissures at their joints widening as they reached out toward the two men—

Su Cheng’s face was white as a sheet, and he moved his legs to make a reckless dash for the exit.

A sudden burst of force yanked him back from behind: “Wait!”

Su Cheng froze, subconsciously glancing at where he had been about to step—the floor had turned into a soft grayish-white at some point, with something faintly pulsating beneath.

Like molten plaster.

Seeing Su Cheng pull back, an inexplicable look of disappointment appeared on the plaster statues’ faces.

Su Cheng felt cold all over.

He now knew what was sealed inside these plaster statues.

The moment he stepped onto it, he would surely be dragged under and become one of these plaster figures too.

The plaster statues moved with greater range, fine plaster powder raining down. The moment it hit the floor, it instantly dyed that small patch of ground into a soft, grotesque grayish-white.

The floor deformed and squirmed as more plaster statues crawled up from beneath.

More and more, in endless numbers.

The chat sighed in chorus, the earlier passionate praise reversing abruptly into cries of impending doom:

[Tsk tsk tsk, finished, it’s over.]

[They’re getting wiped out on this one.]

[Sigh, what a pity. Although players have reached this classroom before, he was the first to trigger the S-rank item quest for this instance.]

[Tell me about it. Who knows how long it’ll be before another streamer finds these clues.]

[Come on, don’t pity him. If the streamer hadn’t spent so long inspecting the locker, letting so many plaster figures spawn that there’s nowhere left to step, how could they be wiped out?]

[Yeah, the streamer relied on luck to pass the first few hurdles and thought he was some hotshot? More harm than good. I could tell from the start—streamers who show off and try unorthodox paths never live long.]

Wen Jianyan knew nothing of the shifting mood in the chat.

Staring at the gray marsh that was about to spread over the floor, a thoughtful expression crossed his face.

Without warning, he moved, but not toward the front door that was about to be sealed shut.

Taking long strides, the young man abruptly turned and dashed toward the classroom’s back door—

One of the plaster statues noticed his movement and raised its arm with far greater agility than before. More fractures split across its joints, and its pale five fingers reached violently toward Wen Jianyan’s back!

Before it could touch Wen Jianyan—

Snap!

The room’s lights suddenly went out.

With the light source gone, nothing remained before their eyes except dense, pitch-black darkness.

Su Cheng stood helpless in the dark, unable to hear or see anything, with nothing to defend himself and no way to escape, only able to gasp in despair and helplessness, quietly waiting for death to arrive.

Time ticked by.

The darkness was viscous like fluid, like a black cloth draped over his eyes. Only his own erratic heartbeat echoed in his ears; aside from that, it was dead silent.

Su Cheng noticed something was amiss.

The cracking noises that the plaster statues had made when moving had also vanished, as if the moment they lost the light, they lost their source of power.

Thinking this, Su Cheng gathered his courage and raised his voice slightly:

“B-Brother Xiao Wen? Are you over there?”

From far away, a muffled “Mm” came from the other side of the classroom.

“The plaster statues move using light sources?” Su Cheng guessed.

“…It seems so,” Wen Jianyan said, leaning against the back door, slowly letting out a breath.

The chat that had just been predicting Wen Jianyan’s death went silent.

A few seconds later, several bewildered comments drifted across:

[…I don’t get it, how did the streamer figure that out?]

[Just from having to turn on the light when entering? That’s way too few clues!]

[Did he use an item just now? I don’t believe a human could deduce this through normal means!]

Wen Jianyan opened his streamer panel.

Uncharacteristically, he didn’t check the chat first, but opened his inventory instead.

In that critical moment of life and death just now, a voice had sounded in Wen Jianyan’s ear: “Newbie Gift Pack function has taken effect.”

The moment those words fell, his vision had lit up for an instant.

The next second, a line of translucent small text had floated above the nearest plaster statue: [Plaster statue condensed from corpse pieces and resentment. Activation method: Light]

On the translucent virtual screen, that little apple sapling had grown remarkably tall at some point.

The instant it appeared, a pure white apple blossom fluttered down from the top, vanishing into thin air before hitting the ground.

[First Stage of Growth Unlocked]

[Flower of Breaking Illusion -1, Remaining: 0]

Sorry, livestream system, I wronged you.

The Newbie Gift Pack you gave is actually somewhat useful. I swear I’ll never call it a piece of junk again.

Wen Jianyan thought with utmost sincerity.

However… although the plaster statues couldn’t move for now, that didn’t mean the crisis was resolved.

He had already tried just now: the back door couldn’t be opened from the inside, so the only way out was the front door.

Dodging the plaster statues and the marsh on the floor was already extremely difficult with light; in the dark, it was practically an impossible task.

Clearly, Su Cheng had realized this as well.

He nervously raised his voice: “Um… Brother Xiao Wen, what do we do next?”

Wen Jianyan: “…”

Mmh, that’s a great question. I’d love to know the answer to that myself.

Right at that moment, he suddenly felt something wet brush against his ankle—cold, clammy, and sticky, instantly giving Wen Jianyan goosebumps all over.

He shuddered, his body going rigid.

“…Meow.”

A faint meow came from by his feet.

Wen Jianyan froze.

“…Little Orange?” he called out tentatively.

The wet, bloody, skinless little creature rubbed against him even more enthusiastically:

“Meow, meow!”

It clamped onto the hem of Wen Jianyan’s trousers and tugged him in a certain direction.

In an instant, an epiphany struck Wen Jianyan.

Before his eyes lay pitch-black darkness where one couldn’t even see their own fingers, like struggling to poke one’s head out of a suffocating quagmire.

He shifted his footing with utmost care, following that tiny tug beside his feet, taking cautious, deliberate steps forward.

The tip of his shoe bumped into something hard, making a dull thud.

It didn’t feel like plaster but rather a wooden frame.

“Meow, meow.”

The little creature by his feet urged him on.

Wen Jianyan paused, slowly raising his hand to reach into the depths of the darkness ahead.

His fingertips touched rough yet soft fabric.

It seemed to be… an easel?

A faint premonition rose in Wen Jianyan’s heart.

He gripped a corner of the canvas.

The next second, a hideous, piercing shriek sounded behind him. The intense malice and evil caused the air temperature to plummet, like invisible thorns stabbing into his back—

Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth, exerted force in his hands, and violently ripped away the white cloth covering the easel!

The shrill shriek, sounding like fingernails scraping across glass, peaked once again, accompanied by the violent sounds of hard objects exploding and stones crashing to the floor!

An unknown amount of time passed.

With a couple of buzzing sounds, the overhead light flickered twice and slowly came back on.

This time, it was no longer glaringly bright like before but instead like the floors below—dim and pale, flickering with unstable current.

The room was completely empty; all the plaster statues had shattered into fragments across the floor, and white dust carrying a bloody stench hung in the air.

Wen Jianyan looked down at the canvas before him.

On the canvas was painted a young girl—delicate, fair-skinned, with shoulder-length black hair and clear eyes, currently smiling shyly with pursed lips.

He reached out to touch the canvas.

Soft, supple, with an uncomfortably strange texture.

Like human skin.

[System Notification: Ding! Congratulations to the streamer for finding Xu Yuan’s face! Reward points: 5,000!]

[Hidden Item (Epic) Quest Update: Return Xu Yuan’s face to its original owner.]

[Main Mission: Leave the dormitory after lights out and explore the campus.]

[Completion: 100%, Reward points: 5,000]

[Instance Exploration Progress: 71%, Reward points: 5,000]

The moment this number appeared, an elegant, melodious tune sounded in Wen Jianyan’s ear, abruptly yanking him out of his thoughts.

He looked up in bewilderment: “?”

What was going on?

Why was a piano piece suddenly playing?

“Congratulations to Streamer 789326qwk! You are about to break the exploration record for the instance [Decai Middle School]!”

Departing from its usual monotony, the mechanical voice announced jubilantly:

“You are about to make history!”

At this moment, outside in the Plaza, within the instance lobby of [Decai Middle School], one live broadcast room suddenly surged forward, shooting up from the lobby floor and leaping violently onto the tail end of the featured solo recommendation leaderboard.

This position seemed inconspicuous, but it caused the viewers tracking this leaderboard to freeze in unison.

This special leaderboard never promoted instances; it only selected streamers whose performance within an instance was the most outstanding, or those most likely to break an internal instance record, moving them out of the instance lobby and showcasing them across the entire Livestream Plaza.

Curiosity piqued, viewers crowded in to watch, only to be struck dumb when they saw the name of the live broadcast room.

…789326qwk?

What kind of trash name was that?

Or could it be…

The gathered viewers simultaneously realized a possibility and were instantly dumbfounded.

Wait, could it be that this streamer chosen by the system, who was very likely on the verge of breaking the record, was actually a rookie who hadn’t even had time to change his channel name?!

They all looked up at the screen in confusion.

[Channel 789326qwk]

[Live in progress…]

[Instance: Decai Middle School]

Beneath the few lines of text was the face of a young man.

[?? I haven’t seen this face before, definitely a rookie, right?]

[Probably, but he’s pretty good-looking. Could he be an eye-candy streamer?]

[An eye-candy streamer making it onto the special recommendation board? No way, right?]

[Another rookie relying on looks to please the audience and clear instances? Tsk, boring.]

While the crowd buzzed with discussion, the picture on the screen moved.

The young man’s features were handsome and refined. A pair of narrow, amber eyes curved slightly, squinting like a cat’s, while the corners of his lips quirked into a half-smile, carrying an elusive, faint amusement.

He winked at everyone and casually blew a kiss, tinged with a bewitching playfulness and provocation.

Whenever a newcomer made the leaderboard, the system would extract a clip from their live stream and place it on the promo slot to attract more viewers.

And this streamer’s clip wasn’t puzzle-solving, nor was it breaking through a crisis.

It was actually… a blown kiss?!

The viewers clustered before the screen fell silent for a moment.

A few seconds later, the chatter broke out again:

[I—I hear the sound of my heart skipping a beat.]

[Thank you, livestream, I think I’m down bad again.]

[Sorry, I take it back. So what if he’s an eye-candy streamer? I’m diving in!]

[Charge!]

__

Author’s Note:

Xiao Wen, who was inexplicably hyped into an eye-candy streamer: ?

I think there’s something seriously wrong with you people.jpg

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