WTNL Chapter 474

Yuying University
Chapter 474: Can we really still get out?

Wen Jianyan: “…”

Why are you being so sarcastic?

He straightened up, cleared his throat, and said with a straight face, “Of course. We’re good friends, how could I not ask for your help at a time like this?”

It was probably during his conversation with the Student Council member, after he had put on the armband, that Wen Jianyan had figured out what to do next.

Brother Hu and the others had already broken the rules. Their presence could not be concealed. Therefore, to buy them time to escape, he had to take the risk of luring more Student Council members over.

Getting into the dorm after curfew wasn’t that easy, but… if someone was on the inside to receive them, everything would be different.

So, after turning around, Wen Jianyan had immediately sent a message to Su Cheng. The message was very brief, only five words:

[Open the main dorm door.]

He didn’t specify a time, nor did he explain the method. It could be said that he had essentially handed over the decryption and all the corresponding burden to Su Cheng alone.

In that situation, Wen Jianyan had no other choice.

“Mainly,”

Wen Jianyan leaned in closer, patting Su Cheng’s shoulder like a good buddy, and said slyly:

“It’s because I believe in your abilities!”

“…”

Hearing this, although Su Cheng didn’t say anything, the expression on his face softened slightly.

In the “Integrity First” live room chat:

[…?]

[You’re too easy to coax, kid?!]

[Big brother, wake up! How can you be so easily deceived by your president’s sweet talk! This guy is full of lies and will never change!]

“Alright, let’s go.”

Su Cheng glanced at Wen Jianyan, sighed, and instantly reverted to the gentle and scholarly prophet from before.

“Although the dorm manager has been lured away for now, it’s not clear when he’ll be back. We’d better take this chance to leave here quickly and not linger.”

With that, he turned and walked up the stairs.

Wen Jianyan nodded and also followed.

Behind them, the three from Zhao Ze’s group looked on with suspicion, their gazes shifting between the two men.

They couldn’t have misheard just now, right?

That person called him President…?

Could it be that this seemingly harmless young man was actually a big shot with a hidden identity?

Wen Jianyan stopped and turned his head to look back. “Hey, what are you waiting for?”

He glanced upstairs furtively and beckoned:

“If you don’t hurry up, it’ll be too late!”

Looking at the young man’s demeanor, the three fell silent.

It must have been an illusion.

Probably just the president of some small guild?

After all, based on the strength he had shown, he was more than qualified to be the president of a small guild.

As for anything higher…

Probably not?

The three averted their gazes and followed him up the stairs.

The stairwell was pitch black, shrouded in a deathly silence, as if the entire world had fallen into a sleep from which it could not awaken.

All they could hear were their own heartbeats and the deliberately lightened footsteps of their companions.

Soon, they reached the second floor.

Su Cheng suddenly stopped.

He raised his head, his dark eyes staring at the staircase before him. He thoughtfully closed his hand, as if enclosing something in the empty air.

“What’s wrong?” Wen Jianyan asked.

“Nothing,” Su Cheng retracted his gaze, lowered his hand, and pointed in the opposite direction. “We’ll go that way.”

Like the administrative building, the dormitory building had two staircases on the same floor, located at either end of the corridor.

Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered on Su Cheng for a moment, then he turned to look at the stairwell in front of them.

The stairwell above was dead silent. There was no sound, nor any sign of danger.

He paused, but still followed.

The group went to the second floor and took the stairs up to the third.

Wen Jianyan turned his head and looked in the opposite direction—

Through his lenses, he saw a dark, bloated figure slowly walking toward the stairwell over there. Even in the faint light, Wen Jianyan sharply perceived the eerie, terrifying, and inhuman nature of the figure.

His heart couldn’t help but sink.

This was probably the dorm manager that Su Cheng had mentioned was “lured away.”

Su Cheng was already continuing up the stairs.

Wen Jianyan retracted his gaze, quickened his pace, and walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him. “Hey.”

Su Cheng, seemingly unaware, uttered a single syllable:

“Hm?”

Wen Jianyan tilted his head slightly to look at him, his pair of light-colored eyes shimmering in the darkness. His voice was calm, but it carried an inexplicably chilling undertone:

“Up until now, do you still remember how many times you’ve used your talent?”

Several instances ago, he had already warned Su Cheng about his talent, about the Nightmare.

Talents were like poisoned wine that quenched thirst. The more you used it, the stronger your talent became, but the deeper your entanglement with the Nightmare would be, and the more you would be influenced, alienated, and distorted.

The top ten in Nightmare all showed some signs of alienation, but Su Cheng was different.

He had entered the instance at the same time as Wen Jianyan, and the number of instances he had completed was not as many as Wen Jianyan. Even if he didn’t deliberately reduce the use of his talent like Wen Jianyan, he shouldn’t have been affected so deeply.

After entering this instance, Wen Jianyan had already noticed the change in Su Cheng. However, as a mature guild president and his longest-standing partner and friend, he politely chose not to press the matter.

But the problem was, the abilities Su Cheng was now displaying were far beyond imagination.

As a prophet with the [Tarot] talent, he could predict the course of events without even touching his cards… This left Wen Jianyan feeling alarmed.

Su Cheng’s steps faltered slightly, but he quickly continued walking.

“Not many.”

He said.

“I wouldn’t advise you to lie in front of me,” Wen Jianyan chuckled lightly, but there was no smile in his eyes. “It’s easy to be exposed.”

Su Cheng turned his head, his strangely dark eyes flashing in the darkness. He looked at Wen Jianyan but didn’t speak.

“Don’t use any talent for the rest of this instance, you hear me?”

Wen Jianyan had already averted his gaze.

As he walked upstairs, he said in a flat tone.

“This is not a warning from a friend.” The young man turned his head and glanced at him. His pale face wore a smile, but beneath the smile was the iron fist of cold, hard compulsion.

“It’s an order from the President.”

“If you don’t comply, I will kick you out.” Wen Jianyan gave him a smiling glance, his voice soft, as if joking, but it inexplicably made one’s heart tremble.

“Understood?”

Su Cheng looked at him.

In the darkness, the expression on his face was hard to discern.

After a long time, the Tarot prophet slowly nodded and said softly, “Understood.”

“That’s my good brother.” Wen Jianyan patted his shoulder, his expression light and cheerful, changing faster than flipping through a book. “Let’s go. After we get out of this instance, I’ll treat you to a good meal.”

Su Cheng: “You say that after every instance.”

He seemed a little nostalgic.

Before Wen Jianyan could answer, Su Cheng added with a deadpan expression, “But after getting out, I’ve never once seen you make good on it.”

Wen Jianyan: “…”

In the “Integrity First” live room chat:

[?]

[…Ah, this?]

[You kid?? You ghost people on meals?]

[Dying of laughter, just how many meals do you owe him! That’s not cool!]

“Ahem.” Wen Jianyan cleared his throat dryly, his gaze wandering. “I promise, I’ll definitely make good on it this time when we get out. We’ll pick the best restaurant, alright?”

After the crisis with the dorm manager was easily resolved, Brother Hu, A-Bao, and the others also returned to their respective dorms.

Zhao Ze, who was about to go up to the same dorm as Wen Jianyan, turned to look back. Seeing that the other hadn’t followed, he was taken aback and asked:

“You… you’re not coming back with me?”

“No, I have other things to do.”

Wen Jianyan shook his head and followed Su Cheng.

There were only five minutes left until twelve o’clock, which meant that for Weasel, the price for losing all his badges was about to manifest.

And Wen Jianyan had some related conjectures that needed to be verified.

After three cautious, rhythmic knocks, the dormitory door opened from the inside.

The person behind the door was Wei Cheng.

“You got them?” he asked in a low voice.

Wen Jianyan poked his head out from behind Su Cheng. “Hi.”

“That’s good then.” Wei Cheng breathed a sigh of relief.

The three walked into the dormitory.

The lights in the dorm were off.

Under the instance’s compulsory force, everyone was sound asleep, their even breathing echoing in the dark room. Only the four of them, the club members, were awake.

Wen Jianyan scanned the room… there weren’t many people left in the dorm.

After being reassigned, the dorm should have been full, but at this moment, the vast majority of the bunks were empty. Only a small half of the beds still had people lying on them.

…Oh, of course, there was still one person lying on the floor.

Weasel was curled up in a very strange posture in the center of the dorm. That pale, inhumanly long and thin face was now contorted with fear.

It was unknown what Orange Candy had done to him. Although there were no ropes on his limbs and no gag in his mouth, he couldn’t move or make a sound.

“Mmph, mmph!”

Seeing Wen Jianyan look over, Weasel began to struggle, his bloodshot, cloudy eyes overflowing with pleading.

“…”

Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered on him for a moment, then shifted away lightly.

Although he wasn’t as bloodthirsty as Orange Candy and had no particularly strong obsession with traitors, unfortunately, for someone who had already been given a chance but failed to grasp it, Wen Jianyan had no sympathy.

—Besides, this was his idea in the first place.

“What time is it?”

Wen Jianyan asked.

Su Cheng looked down at his phone. “Two minutes to twelve.”

The time was almost up.

The night was dark and dead silent.

The gazes of the four people present fell on Weasel on the floor in the center of the room. They held their breath and waited quietly.

Time passed, drop by drop.

One minute left.

Thirty seconds.

Ten seconds.

Three, two, one.

The second hand moved on the clock face, silently pointing to 12.

The last day of the second school year had arrived.

At that exact moment, Wen Jianyan hissed. He looked down, subconsciously looking at his palm.

On the web of his thumb, the mark that had faded away suddenly intensified at this moment. A purplish-red mark spread out from the bite marks, looking particularly shocking on the pale back of his hand.

His heart sank.

As expected, just as he had guessed, this “mark” that allowed the club to locate him was time-limited. After being used once, it would fade.

Until twelve o’clock the next day, it would appear again.

This also meant that from now on, he would no longer be safe.

Just then, a sound that didn’t seem human came from the center of the dorm.

It was as if it was being forcefully stifled in the throat, yet it was mixed with infinite fear.

Wen Jianyan didn’t have time to think further and looked up in the direction of the sound.

In the center of the dorm, Weasel was curled up like a shrimp, his pale face contorted. Then, he began to convulse violently.

But suddenly, the convulsions stopped.

His skin began to cave in. His flesh, blood, and bones began to be drawn out by some invisible force, like a bag being gradually squeezed flat.

Right before their eyes, the originally normal human form began to shrink rapidly.

Crack, crack.

Crack, crack.

The bones, already drained of moisture, let out explosive sounds, as if being broken, crushed, and then kneaded into shape by some invisible force.

Finally…

He completely disappeared.

“Ding.”

With a flash of silver light, the faint sound of something falling to the ground was heard in the darkness.

The dorm was dead silent; only the sounds of high and low breathing could be heard.

Wen Jianyan was the first to move.

He stood at the spot where Weasel had disappeared, then lowered his eyes.

The ground was clean. A living person had just vanished, leaving no trace, as if he had never existed.

And in the very center of that spot lay a small, round, silver metal piece.

Wen Jianyan bent down and picked it up.

“That’s…” Tian Ye’s hesitant voice came from behind.

Wen Jianyan finished his sentence calmly:

“Yes, a badge.”

That’s right, this was a club badge.

The real deal.

The surface of the badge was a grayish-white, blurry human face. Although it had no expression, it inexplicably gave people the illusion of a living person screaming.

“So…”

Wei Cheng seemed to have finally recovered. He walked forward, stared at the badge in Wen Jianyan’s hand, and said slowly, “All the badges here are actually made from living people?”

Wen Jianyan: “Yes.”

He tightened his fingers, gripping the metal badge in his palm, and said slowly:

“But also no.”

“What?” The few of them were stunned.

The club’s badges were made from living people. This point was easy to understand. But they couldn’t understand the next sentence Wen Jianyan said…

“But also no”?

What did that mean?

Wen Jianyan said slowly, “To be precise, it’s the souls of living people.”

As club members, they could also find similar badges on the anchors they killed. However, the bodies of the dead anchors did not disappear. So, what did the badges taken from them represent?

Not flesh and blood, then it was…

The soul.

“Then his body?” Su Cheng frowned and asked.

Wen Jianyan raised his eyes and said thoughtfully, “Perhaps, it was absorbed.”

…”Absorbed.”

The word was used too vividly, as if the process of Weasel’s disappearance just now had replayed in everyone’s minds.

Wen Jianyan had once witnessed the death of a club member. It was bitten by a Student Council member, its body rapidly shriveling, leaving only an empty husk.

Wen Jianyan had also personally orchestrated the death of a Student Council member. An endless stream of black liquid flowed from the rupture in its body until it lay like a popped balloon under the grave soil.

And in the Ideological and Moral Education class, he had seen “blood vessels” extending down from the infinite darkness, ultimately connecting to the Student Council members.

Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but shiver.

He had a feeling that he might have touched upon something very deep, very primal.

“…”

The young man stood transfixed in the center of the dorm, silently lowering his eyes, lost in thought.

Tian Ye stood to the side, seemingly about to speak, but was stopped by Su Cheng.

He shook his head, signaling the other to be quiet.

Suddenly, Wen Jianyan raised his eyes, a strange light flickering in their depths. “Where are your admission notices?”

What?

The question came out of nowhere. The others were stunned, not reacting for a moment.

“The one that was in our suitcases before the instance even started!” Wen Jianyan added.

“Uh… it should still be in the suitcase?” Tian Ye said.

Ever since the instance began and they used the admission notice to register at the school gate, the notice had lost its function and was naturally stuffed back into the suitcase, never to be taken out again.

Wei Cheng: “You need it?”

Wen Jianyan nodded and followed him. “Yes.”

Wei Cheng dragged the suitcase out from under the bed. Soon, after some rummaging, he took out a familiar piece of paper.

In the darkness, the paper seemed to faintly glow red.

Wen Jianyan took the admission notice from the other’s hand and looked down.

Under the light of a flashlight, the admission notice bore familiar words.

[Student Wei Cheng: 

Congratulations on your admission to Yuying Comprehensive University. Please bring this notice to report to our school before 9:00 PM on ■th day of ■th month of ■th year.

Principal: Zhang Yunsheng
Yuying Comprehensive University
■th day of ■th month of ■th year]

Except for the name, all the other content was identical to Wen Jianyan’s admission notice.

The others should be the same as well.

“What’s wrong?” Su Cheng walked over and looked down. “Did you discover something?”

Wen Jianyan shook his head and said nothing.

He handed the admission notice to Su Cheng to hold, then took out the two eyeballs that had once belonged to a dead person from his pocket.

The dizzying sensation of a decreasing SAN value hit him, and the distorted, blood-colored vision appeared once again.

“…”

Wen Jianyan’s movements clearly faltered.

A few seconds later, he spoke.

“[I I pledge, I willingly offer my flesh and blood.]
[I I pledge, I willingly offer my spirit.]
[I I pledge, I willingly offer my life.]”

Wen Jianyan’s voice was very calm, almost without any fluctuation, echoing in the dark and silent dormitory, making it inexplicably eerie.

“…”

Hearing this, the other three felt a chill rise up their backs.

“What? What’s going on?” Tian Ye swallowed and pressed on.

“This is the true content of the admission notice.”

Wen Jianyan put down the dead man’s eyeballs, took a deep breath, and continued, “—And it’s also what we recited in the Ideological and Moral Education class last semester.”

He said it lightly, but the others were far from as calm as he was.

“Wait, wait, wait?” Tian Ye’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

Wei Cheng also had a look of shock.

“But the content on the paper we read wasn’t—”

“Your SAN value was very low at the time…” Su Cheng was startled at first, then seemed to realize something. He looked at Wen Jianyan. “You saw something different?”

“Yes.”

Wen Jianyan let out a laugh and said, “Below the content we recited, there was another layer of text, but at the time, I wasn’t sure if it was my own hallucination.”

There were too many things to see and hear after one’s SAN value dropped. It was too difficult to distinguish what was real from what were real clues hidden by the instance. Even Wen Jianyan couldn’t make a choice in that situation.

Wen Jianyan looked down at the admission notice in his hand and said slowly:

“Now it seems they weren’t hallucinations.”

But… in that situation, even if they had realized there was a trap in the text, what could they have done?

The vice-principal was watching from the podium, and the Student Council was eyeing them menacingly from the side.

Fail to read, and you die.

Even if they knew this thing was fishy, they could only, due to the circumstances, read its contents out loud.

“So… everyone of us who has survived until now has actually already been voluntarily sacrificed, is that right?”

Wei Cheng’s face was grim.

Tian Ye, on the other hand, noticed another problem. He asked doubtfully, “But, since our admission notices already had this content, why did they make us recite it again in the Ideological and Moral Education class?”

This was indeed a very crucial question.

Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, seeming to suddenly remember something, and was slightly taken aback.

“Do you still remember, last school year, when we were in the enrollment office on the second floor of the administrative building?”

The group nodded.

In the enrollment office, they had encountered the teacher in charge of enrollment and the vice-principal. If it hadn’t been for Wen Jianyan finding a way to advance to the next year in time, they might have lost more than half of their members there.

“At that time, when Orange Candy was being controlled by the vice-principal, she used her talent, right?” Wen Jianyan said.

“Yes…”

But in front of the vice-principal, the talent had failed.

This showed just how terrifying this NPC was.

But Wen Jianyan shook his head. “What if the reason Orange Candy’s talent failed had nothing to do with the NPC’s level of terror?”

“…”

Hearing this, the few of them were all stunned.

In fact, Wen Jianyan had already felt it was strange when he learned that Orange Candy’s talent had failed.

Logically speaking, a talent shouldn’t fail so easily.

A “talent,” which used one’s own soul as nourishment, had a priority level far surpassing any other item.

What’s more, this was a top-ten Nightmare anchor. Given Orange Candy’s current level of alienation, her talent shouldn’t have been limited by any instance of any difficulty.

But… it had happened.

What if the real problem wasn’t the vice-principal, but Orange Candy herself?

Although Wen Jianyan didn’t finish his sentence, the others had all realized his implication.

They all gasped:

“You mean to say—”

Wen Jianyan scanned the group and said slowly, “Since we have already ‘promised’ to sacrifice our spirits, then our talents, which are derived from our souls, will naturally be slowly subordinated to the instance itself.”

“And from the looks of it, with each contact with the ‘oath,’ the level of contamination deepens.”

This was also why the first step of the Yuying Comprehensive University instance was to have the anchors find the [Admission Notice].

Only the contaminated could enter the school.

Similarly, this was also why, even though the length of the school year had been halved, there was still an [Ideological and Moral Education Class] every school year.

“We have class this afternoon,” Wei Cheng said slowly.

Hearing this, everyone’s heart sank.

That’s right. Today was the last day of this school year. The afternoon’s Ideological and Moral Education class was unavoidable.

“There’s one more problem.”

Wen Jianyan paused, raised his eyes, and said softly, “Our clearance condition is to graduate [from Yuying Comprehensive University].”

“But generally speaking, to graduate from a normal university, you need at least four academic years.”

There was no emotional fluctuation in his voice, but as Wen Jianyan’s words fell, everyone couldn’t help but get goosebumps.

“In other words…
if we really stay in this instance for four academic years, after swearing the oath five times and being contaminated five times,”

Wen Jianyan scanned the group and asked a question that was utterly chilling.

“—can we really still get out?”

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