WTNL Chapter 13.1

Decai Middle School
Chapter 13.1

“…”

The moment Wen Jianyan’s voice fell, the air instantly plunged into a dead silence.

The smile on the person in the mirror had vanished at some point. Wearing a face identical to Wen Jianyan’s, his expression was cold and terrifying.

He slowly repeated, “What?”

The young man before him was deathly pale. The wound on the back of his hand was a mangled mess of flesh and blood, still dripping blood patter by patter.

Even though he was at a disadvantage, he still smiled with perfect composure. His lips, pale from blood loss, were stained a stark crimson by fresh blood, looking almost bewitching in the darkness.

“The most valuable thing a person has is their soul, isn’t it?”

Wen Jianyan stared intently at himself in the mirror. “Obviously, proactively making a deal with you and handing over my soul yields a greater profit than you snatching it by force.”

He smiled faintly:

“What’s more, it’s a soul of such excellent quality as mine, right?”

Years of professional experience had given Wen Jianyan a good habit.

The more critical the situation, the calmer his thinking became.

Although it had been a matter of life and death just now, his brain was still turning non-stop, meticulously reviewing everything that had happened since he entered the room.

The two 408s in the dorms and the teaching building clearly had a mirrored relationship. Many of the rules inside were interconnected.

After careful reflection, Wen Jianyan was certain that he hadn’t taken a single wrong step.

He should have left this place smoothly.

After all, this was ultimately a D-rank instance. It shouldn’t present a certain-death level for newbies like them.

Yet, a certain-death level had clearly appeared.

Even though Wen Jianyan had been playing the game according to the rules all along, this time, the “mirror” didn’t follow the rules.

After he explicitly destroyed the transaction, the “mirror” still didn’t give up. Instead, it lured him over and, without reaching an agreement, actually tried to forcefully “eat” him.

This was highly illogical.

Unless…

He possessed something incredibly precious, something the other party wanted so badly that it would even break the rules to get it.

Based on the contents of the manual he found in locker 368, this most likely referred to his soul.

Although Wen Jianyan himself didn’t think his soul was anything special, even if there was only a 1% chance this guess was true, he had to treat it as a 100% certainty to make it work.

The person in the mirror stared back at him expressionlessly, remaining silent.

Piecing together the fragmented phrases he heard before being pulled into the mirror, Wen Jianyan made a bold conjecture.

This “mirror” might be trying to awaken the “Father God,” which was why it needed to sacrifice human souls to him and why it resorted to any means to seize more souls.

If that was the case, it would absolutely never use its “Father God” as a bargaining chip, which was why Wen Jianyan made this massive gamble on this option.

However, he had no intention of voicing these conjectures.

The young man lazily narrowed his eyes:

“Hmm… As for the reason…”

He cast a glance at the phantom within the mirror. The soft, wet tip of his tongue lightly swiped across his lips, licking away the thick, crimson blood at the corner of his mouth. His pale face looked somewhat devilish in the darkness. Wen Jianyan smiled and said flirtatiously:

“Probably love at first sight?”

The live broadcast room 789326qwk suddenly became restless.

[He is so good at this, he is so good at this, he is so good at this!!]

[So… so sexy (clutching chest)]

[Hello everyone, I announce that I am the object of the streamer’s love at first sight. Thank you all for your blessings.]

[The previous few, how many dishes did you have to get this drunk?]

[If you had just eaten a single peanut…]

[Wait? Clearly no streamer has ever unlocked this segment before, but why is no one paying attention to the plot at all?! Isn’t your focus a bit off?]

[…]

The already gloomy expression of the person in the mirror now looked almost twisted.

Wen Jianyan sighed, his faintly smiling face looking exceptionally punchable:

“Sigh, don’t use my face to make that expression; it’s really ugly.”

“Your guess is correct.”

However, that gloomy look quickly faded from the face of the person in the mirror:

“I cannot fulfill this transaction.”

He revealed his usual smile again: “Clearly, you realized that I must also abide by the rules. If a human makes a wish I cannot fulfill, I cannot collect their soul.”

The “Wen Jianyan” in the mirror clapped his hands, praising:

“Brilliant.”

But Wen Jianyan himself didn’t feel pleased by this compliment. Instead, he subconsciously narrowed his eyes, staring warily at himself in the mirror.

The other party had a backup plan.

The curve of the person in the mirror’s mouth slowly widened:

“But what you don’t know is that while breaking the rules comes with a certain price, it’s not entirely impossible to achieve.”

Only a “crack” was heard.

A fine fissure appeared on the mirror’s surface, running exactly across the face of the “Wen Jianyan” in the mirror. That proper and handsome face was split by the crack, actually making it look somewhat bizarrely twisted.

He smiled and said:

“I can still forcefully seize your soul. Of course, the toll might be a bit higher, but I can withstand this necessary loss.”

The moment his voice fell, the devouring process that had been halted restarted. The young man’s body once again began to continuously sink downwards.

However, the next second, the victorious expression on the person in the mirror’s face abruptly vanished:

“Wait, this—”

His voice was sharp and high-pitched, but it was violently cut off the very next second!

Wen Jianyan only felt his vision blur, and the scene before him abruptly changed.

His entire body fell backward uncontrollably—

The next second, his back slammed hard against the ground. It felt as if his bones were about to be knocked apart. A heavy, dull pain spread from the point of impact, causing him to suck in a sharp breath of cold air with a “hiss.”

“Brother Xiao Wen, are you alright?!”

Su Cheng rushed up anxiously, supporting Wen Jianyan’s shoulders.

Wen Jianyan was dizzy and seeing stars from the fall. He waved his hand, signaling that he was fine, and using the other’s strength, slowly scrambled up.

Whether it was the maze, the mirrors, or the slumbering phantom inside that mirror, everything had vanished without a trace.

Before him was the familiar corridor and tightly shut doors.

That bizarre 408 had also disappeared.

“I came out of 408 a while ago and couldn’t find you, so I…”

Su Cheng organized his words, then said somewhat vaguely: “Brother Xiao Wen, you should still remember those supernatural items I told you about before, right?”

Of course Wen Jianyan remembered.

The reason he kept beating around the bush with that mirror just now was to stall for time, waiting for the live stream system to come online. But unexpectedly, the moment the live stream system came online, before he even had time to use an item, he was yanked straight out by Su Cheng’s item.

Wen Jianyan glanced at Su Cheng in slight surprise and nodded.

If he remembered correctly, the item Su Cheng used wasn’t cheap. He truly hadn’t expected the other party to be willing to use it on an “NPC” like him.

Su Cheng patted his chest: “Didn’t I tell you earlier? If any accident happened, I would definitely protect you.”

Wen Jianyan took another look at him: “Thanks.”

He straightened up and took his hand off the other. Only then did Su Cheng notice the wound on Wen Jianyan’s hand and was startled: “You’re hurt?”

Only then did Wen Jianyan feel the pain.

He looked down at his mangled palm, his face pale. Stiffening his throat, he feigned calmness:

“…It’s nothing.”

Bullshit!

This was a piece of flesh he had forcefully bitten off with his own teeth! How could it be nothing!

It hurt like hell!

Although Wen Jianyan was an extreme hedonist in his everyday life, at critical moments of life and death, he could be incredibly ruthless to himself, capable of doing almost anything.

He was intimately familiar with the distribution of meridians and muscles in the human hand. Even when biting down, he deliberately avoided crucial areas to ensure normal mobility afterward.

Gritting his teeth, Wen Jianyan tore a strip of fabric from the hem of his shirt and skillfully bandaged the wound to stop the bleeding.

The fresh blood soaked through the fabric, looking shocking.

After treating the wound, Wen Jianyan turned to look at Su Cheng. Seemingly remembering something, he asked, “408, you went inside?”

“Yeah.”

Su Cheng shook his head in confusion: “But there was nothing inside.”

All he saw was an empty dorm room, narrow in size, without beds or desks, possessing nothing but a thick layer of dust accumulated on the floor. After circling the room and finding nothing, he turned and returned to the corridor, only to find Wen Jianyan was gone.

Su Cheng waited anxiously for a long time, but still didn’t see a trace of the other party. Only then did he grit his teeth and use the item.

Wen Jianyan revealed a thoughtful expression.

It seemed that although Su Cheng pushed the door open, he hadn’t walked into the real 408.

So, the condition for entering 408 was selective?

“What about you?”

Su Cheng glanced down at the blood-stained strip of cloth on Wen Jianyan’s hand, furrowed his brows in worry, and asked:

“Did you run into some danger in the corridor?”

Danger.

The moment he heard this word, what flashed through Wen Jianyan’s mind wasn’t that mirror trying to forcefully steal his soul, but rather the male phantom with the blurred face inside that mirror.

He didn’t know why, but even though it hadn’t done anything to harm him, the oppressive feeling it brought was far heavier than that mirror.

Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, gripped his wrist, and carefully moved the injured area. He opened his mouth to reply:

“I—”

He had only just uttered a short syllable when a series of footsteps suddenly echoed from the corridor to the side, cutting off the rest of his sentence.

Su Cheng jolted and turned his head to look in that direction.

Wen Jianyan also abruptly sprang up.

His eyes shone brightly, staring fixedly at the place where the sound came from. His injured arm hung by his side, his slender figure tense and slightly arched, like some graceful feline predator.

The footsteps drew closer, becoming more rapid and chaotic, as if several people were sprinting madly in this direction.

A swaying beam of light pierced through the darkness, shining over from a distance.

The other side also seemed to have noticed the two uninvited guests. They abruptly stopped their steps, maintaining a distance:

“Who’s there?”

Across the heavy darkness, the other party’s voice sounded incredibly tense, revealing a thick sense of vigilance.

This voice… sounded a bit familiar.

Wen Jianyan froze slightly.

Su Cheng widened his eyes: “Wait, are you…?”

The beam of light carefully swept across the two people’s faces, illuminating their features in minute detail.

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