Thank you @Renea for the Kofi.
Yuying Univerity
Chapter 475: Many disasters
The question Wen Jianyan raised was too sharp and too terrifying for anyone to answer.
It was like a stone dropped into a bottomless sea, without the slightest echo.
After the incident with Weasel concluded, the group had no reason to linger in Wei Cheng’s dormitory, so they each returned to their own rooms, Wen Jianyan included.
In the darkness, he pushed open the door to his own dorm room.
Under the effect of the instance’s rules, everyone had fallen into a deep sleep, even Zhao Ze, who had returned later.
In the room, which was now more than half empty, the sounds of deep and shallow breathing echoed.
Wen Jianyan tiptoed back to his own bunk and climbed up.
As soon as he lay down, he felt a familiar chill coming from the bedboard beneath him.
His movement as he turned over paused slightly.
“…”
Wait a minute.
Wen Jianyan slowly turned his head, his gaze moving downward to land on the narrow bed he was lying on.
He took a deep breath, once again took the eyeballs out of his pocket, and carefully placed them before his eyes.
In the darkness, the world became distorted once more.
The walls, the bed, and the pillow were all dyed in a strange, vivid red.
Wen Jianyan slowly turned his head, and the moment he saw the scene before him, his heart almost stopped—where his pillow should have been, a cold corpse was now lying.
The corpse lay stiffly on the dormitory bed, its blurry face pale, its eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, motionless, as if it had been dead for a long time.
The distance was so close that Wen Jianyan could almost see the details of the corpse’s skin and smell the cold, rotten stench emanating from it.
As if sensing a gaze that shouldn’t exist, the corpse’s head moved slightly, seeming to want to look in this direction.
“!!!”
Wen Jianyan’s hand trembled, and he abruptly snatched the eyeballs away from his face.
The space beside his pillow was empty. There was no one else beside him.
However, he didn’t know if it was an illusion, but the cold aura coming from beneath him seemed to have grown stronger.
Wen Jianyan lay rigidly in place, his palms clammy with cold sweat, his heart pounding in his chest. He didn’t dare to move an inch.
Fuck… so it’s true.
The entire campus was filled with dead bodies. The classrooms were like this, and the dormitories were the same.
And this cold feeling that emanated from the desks, chairs, and beds at all times was precisely because of the presence of these corpses.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[Fuck, so you’re saying they’ve been living among corpses all this time?]
[Eating, attending class, and sleeping next to dead people… my god, just thinking about it is enough to give you psychological trauma.]
[How is anyone supposed to sleep now!]
[The veteran anchors are probably fine, but Wen Jianyan… haha.]
Just as the bullet comments guessed, Wen Jianyan lay stiffly on the bed, as if lying on a bed of needles.
Although he could no longer perceive the corpse’s presence, the image he had just seen was now permanently etched in his mind. His mind was filled with the dead body lying next to him, shoulder to shoulder, foot to foot. If he accidentally rolled over in his sleep, he might even end up sleeping on top of the corpse.
“…”
The thought of this made Wen Jianyan feel awful.
He stared blankly at the ceiling, not daring to move a muscle from the hair on his head to the tips of his toes. He was regretting it so much he could kick himself.
Why did you have to be so curious!
There, now you can’t sleep, can you!
What was worse, as a club member, Wen Jianyan couldn’t even rely on the instance’s rules to be forced to sleep. And today was the last day of the second school year. What terrible luck.
Wen Jianyan lay on the bed, a look of utter despair on his face.
…He would have been better off not looking.
Wen Jianyan glanced at the empty space on the bed beside him, shivered, and subconsciously squeezed closer to the side. His arm brushed against the railing, and his brow furrowed sharply.
He looked down at his side, where a dull pain was coming from.
Could the painkiller item he had used earlier have worn off?
That shouldn’t be. Not only had the time not run out, but the skin on the rest of his upper body hadn’t started hurting again.
Then what could it be…
Wen Jianyan frowned, reached out, and pulled up his sleeve.
On his arm, where the muscles were slightly defined, a faint red ring was visible, emerging from under the pale skin, looking somewhat shocking.
The surface of the skin wasn’t broken. The edges were distinct, looking like a dye stain.
Wen Jianyan rubbed it with his fingertip.
It didn’t come off.
Where did this come from…?
Wen Jianyan examined the new mark on his arm and suddenly had a flash of insight.
Wait a minute, this… seems to be where the Student Council armband was worn?
Just then, a detail he had long forgotten leaped into his mind.
Not long after he had first gotten the armband, he and Su Cheng had gone to the fifth floor of the boys’ dormitory to investigate clues. They happened to run into the anchor who lived in that dorm returning. At that moment, Wen Jianyan had a stroke of genius and put the Student Council armband on his arm, thereby avoiding further conflict.
However, after the incident was over, he had noticed a faint red mark left on his sleeve, as if it had been stained with blood. But the armband looked no different than before, and there was no blood seeping from it.
So, Wen Jianyan had put the matter aside.
He never thought…
He would be reminded of it again, in such a way.
Staring at the ring-shaped red mark on his arm, Wen Jianyan’s brow furrowed deeply.
After all, a mark on a sleeve and a mark on the skin were two completely different things.
From the looks of it now, the use of the armband clearly had its side effects. It was just that Wen Jianyan didn’t know what they were specifically.
When he had gotten rid of the chef’s uniform earlier, he had checked his upper body. He was sure that at that time, there was absolutely no similar mark on his arm.
The question was… why now?
Had something changed?
As Wen Jianyan was deep in thought, his body involuntarily shifted slightly, and the familiar cold feeling once again came from beneath him.
“…”
Wen Jianyan froze.
Damn, I forgot about you.
He maintained this position, staring at the ceiling in the darkness, and let out a long sigh.
—What a disastrous night.
The next day.
Wen Jianyan came downstairs with a haggard look on his face.
When Wei Cheng and the others saw his face, they were first taken aback, then seemed to understand something, and their expressions immediately became respectful.
Obviously, he had been racking his brains all night to find a way out of the instance. Who would have thought that someone who usually seemed so lackadaisical could be so reliable at a critical moment like this!
“…”
Wen Jianyan turned his head and secretly yawned.
He didn’t know how he had fallen asleep last night. He only knew that when he woke up, he was pressed tightly against the railing, leaving a large empty space in the middle of the bed.
It was as if even in his sleep, his body was subconsciously trying to get away from the edge of the bed.
On the other side, Orange Candy and the others had also come down.
“Whoa,” Orange Candy skipped over to Wen Jianyan and said with a grin, “No missing arms or legs. Not bad.”
Wen Jianyan twitched the corner of his mouth and said dryly:
“…Thanks for your concern.”
“Alright, alright, so what happened yesterday? Tell us.”
Wen Jianyan briefly summarized his experience in the administrative building for the group.
Orange Candy showed a thoughtful expression:
“A second ‘self,’ huh…”
“What’s wrong?” Wen Jianyan noticed the change in her attitude and pressed on, “Did you find anything related to that in the library?”
“Not in the library,” Orange Candy shook her head, her high ponytail swaying with the movement. “But that guy Hugo seemed to have mentioned something related. It seems his disappearance this time was because he was chasing that clue. You can ask him when he shows up again.”
Hearing this, Wen Jianyan could only nod. “I guess that’s the only way.”
“So, what exactly is that thing they awarded you?” Orange Candy showed a very interested expression. “Let me see?”
Wen Jianyan took out the blood-red badge and handed it to Orange Candy.
The badge fell into Orange Candy’s palm, but unlike what happened in Brother Hu’s hand last night, it did not change. It still maintained its original form.
This clearly proved Wen Jianyan’s guess.
Only after becoming a club member would this badge have its effect.
Orange Candy turned it over and examined it for a while but found no clues, so she quickly lost interest.
“Boring.”
She shrugged listlessly, tossed the badge to Wen Jianyan, who hurriedly caught it.
“Here. Back to you.”
“Right, look at this!” Orange Candy took out two library lending coupons, brandishing them proudly in front of Wen Jianyan. “See, this is the really useful stuff!”
Wen Jianyan was indeed very curious about this library-related item.
He took the thin, yellowed piece of paper from Orange Candy’s hand.
The real object looked almost no different from the photo he had seen yesterday.
It was a long, old piece of paper. Although the text on it was very blurry, the content could still be vaguely discerned.
[Library Lending Coupon]
Wen Jianyan flipped the lending coupon over and found four more lines of small text on the back.
Borrower: ——
Book Borrowed: ————
Borrowing Time: ——
Return Time: ——
The space after the text was blank, as if it needed to be filled in.
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, his gaze lingering on it for a moment.
Beside him, Tianye leaned over and asked curiously, “So, how do you use this thing?”
“Who knows,” Orange Candy shrugged nonchalantly. “We’ll probably know once we get there.”
At this, Wen Jianyan looked up at Orange Candy and asked:
“So, how did you guys get this lending coupon?”
“We broke into the librarian’s office. It wasn’t easy. We only managed to snatch two.”
Orange Candy said it lightly, but Wen Jianyan could still sense the unmentioned thrilling and terrifying danger.
“So when are we going to the library? This morning?” Yun Bilan looked at Wen Jianyan and asked.
This morning was a required course.
However, as club members, they could wake up during the required course. This time was completely free for them to use.
“No.”
Unexpectedly, Wen Jianyan shook his head.
Orange Candy raised her eyebrows in surprise and looked over.
“Hm?”
Next, Wen Jianyan stated the conclusion he had just come to last night—placing special emphasis on the admission notice and the content that needed to be recited in the Ideological and Moral Education class.
Upon hearing the reason why her talent had failed, Orange Candy’s expression clearly darkened.
Wen Jianyan said slowly, “I suspect that the longer we stay in this instance, the harder it will be to get out—even if we meet the clearance conditions.”
The Nightmare’s [Clearance Rules] and the instance’s [Potential Contamination] were in irreconcilable conflict.
With each advancing school year, the student’s level of contamination deepened.
However, to leave this instance, one had to obtain a graduation certificate.
Wen Jianyan was not sure if the Nightmare could really take them away from here after they had completed four years of study.
—Based on the extent to which the anchor’s talent had failed in the second school year, he had serious doubts about this.
“That’s very much in the style of this instance.”
Wen Jianyan raised his eyes and said with a hint of mockery, “At A-rank, it was just setting traps for us within the instance’s rules. Now that it’s SS-rank, it’s directly playing tricks with the deep logic of the instance itself.”
“…”
A dead silence fell around them.
The rank of [Yuying Comprehensive University] had been upgraded from A to SS; that was correct.
However, the framework of the instance map was basically still the same. More importantly, it was still an open instance. Anchors who had not yet met the trigger conditions would not feel a particularly urgent sense of mortal danger.
So, even though they had all known for a long time that its difficulty had skyrocketed and had more or less experienced it firsthand, it was only at this moment that they suddenly felt a chill run down their spines—so this level was just the beginning.
So… this was the true difficulty of an SS-rank instance.
Orange Candy squinted her eyes, quietly listening to Wen Jianyan’s conclusion, and did not answer immediately.
“Then…” Yun Bilan’s brow slowly furrowed. “What should we do next?”
“It’s actually quite simple, if you put it simply.”
Wen Jianyan shrugged and said, “Just leave this instance as soon as possible.”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…]
[…………What a simple piece of nonsense.]
[Indeed! Who doesn’t want to leave this instance as soon as possible!! The problem is that it can’t be done, isn’t it!]
Orange Candy seemed to have realized something. She looked up at Wen Jianyan. “What, did you discover something?”
Wen Jianyan smiled and leaned forward. “Does the location of the principal’s office count?”
“?!”
Everyone present was startled and abruptly looked up in Wen Jianyan’s direction.
—What??
The young man blinked, smiling smugly.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[You’ve been holding back this information all this time, waiting for this moment, right?]
[So pretentious. I really want to punch him hard.]
[So cheap. Come here and let me kiss you to death.]
“The principal’s office?”
Orange Candy was the first to react. She took a stride forward and kicked Wen Jianyan in the shin. “You kid, you’ve been hiding this well!”
“Ahem!”
Orange Candy hadn’t held back. Wen Jianyan’s expression management faltered, his face contorting for a moment.
“A-accident!”
It was indeed an accident.
After all, he hadn’t expected to find a clue to the principal’s office while receiving the award.
“Tell us, where is it?” Orange Candy said.
“In the administrative building. Enter the mirror world of the administrative building through the mirror on the first floor. Behind the cabinet in the vice-principal’s office on the third floor.”
That iron door behind it should connect to the mysterious warehouse underground.
Just like the iron door connecting the cafeteria and the warehouse, this iron door also connected the vice-principal’s office and the underground warehouse.
And in this area, hidden, was what they had been looking for since entering the instance: the real principal’s office.
He just didn’t know if this was the door that had once severely injured Hugo, or the one Wen Jianyan had given up approaching because he had smelled danger.
But it didn’t matter. It wasn’t important which door it was.
After all, they had already found the other end of this door. As long as they followed it down, they should be able to find what they were looking for—
The principal’s office.
“But,” Wei Cheng frowned and spoke up from the side, “even if everything goes smoothly and we really get into the principal’s office and get the item we want, it won’t change our current dangerous situation.”
In the end, their real threat now came from the instance itself.
The clearance method for “Yuying Comprehensive University” had been changed. Before, as long as they got the item, they could immediately exchange it for academic credits and leave. But not anymore. Even if they had already gotten the item and completed the bounty, they still had to stay in this instance for a full four “school years.”
But after a few more oaths, they probably wouldn’t be able to get out at all.
Orange Candy: “That doesn’t matter. As long as we find the principal’s office.”
“And…” Wen Jianyan showed a thoughtful expression. “It’s not like there are absolutely no other options.”
The others: “?”
“Strictly speaking—I mean, strictly speaking—” Wen Jianyan drew out his words slightly. “The condition for the Nightmare to let us leave the instance isn’t actually ‘staying here for a full four school years’—it’s ‘getting a graduation certificate,’ right?”
The group: “…”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…Wait a minute.]
[You wait a minute!!!]
[I suddenly have a bad feeling…]
Wen Jianyan continued, “So, strictly speaking, even if we haven’t stayed in the instance for a full four school years, as long as we get a graduation certificate, we’ve met the clearance condition, right?”
“As far as I recall, on the second floor of the administrative building, there is an ‘Enrollment Office’.”
Wen Jianyan blinked, his expression innocent.
“I wonder if she also handles graduation matters?”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…You motherfucker, you’re just going to keep shearing the same sheep, aren’t you?]
“Ahhhhhh I knew it!]
[The red-clothed female teacher forced to work overtime: I’m going to fucking kill you!]
[…A moment of silence.]
Wen Jianyan’s idea was despicable.
But it was perfect.
So, after confirming their destination, they set off immediately.
Soon, they reached the administrative building.
Staring at the familiar three-story gray building before him, Wen Jianyan’s expression was slightly complicated—to be honest, he hadn’t expected to be back so soon.
But fortunately, this time he was with his reliable teammates, not some unfamiliar pickup group.
“So… what about the security guard?”
Tianye peeked at the closed gray glass door in front of them and asked in a low voice.
They had no “appointment” this time, no matter what.
Last time, Hugo was there. His talent had a strong advantage in this kind of situation. But this time he wasn’t here… The terrifying security guard on the first floor was somewhat of a problem.
“Don’t worry,” Wen Jianyan said, as if he had already thought of a solution. “The security guard won’t be alerted before we go upstairs. And its movement speed is limited. Although it’s terrifying, we still have a good chance.”
What’s more, Wen Jianyan had already had at least two close encounters with this guy. Although he still couldn’t face it head-on, he had more or less mastered a way to lure it away.
Besides, this time he had Orange Candy and the others with him, so Wen Jianyan wasn’t too worried about it.
Tianye nodded in a daze.
“Alright, stop dawdling.” Orange Candy was already eager to go, looking at the administrative building. “Let’s go, let’s go!”
Wen Jianyan nodded helplessly. “Alright, alright, let’s set off.”
The group silently arrived in front of the administrative building.
Wen Jianyan raised his hand and pushed open the two gray glass doors.
The moment the doors opened, a familiar cold and sweet, fishy smell hit them. But among it, there seemed to be a hint of…
The smell of rust?
Wen Jianyan’s movements paused. He looked up and sniffed.
Blood?
Orange Candy: “Why didn’t the security guard make us register this time?”
Wen Jianyan was startled and also looked toward the security office.
The security office was pitch black and empty. The silhouette that had always been sitting motionless in the darkness was gone, as if it had never existed in the first place.
“…”
Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but be taken aback.
“Hey.”
Beside him, Su Cheng squatted down.
After wiping the floor with his fingertip, he stood up:
“…Look.”
Wen Jianyan turned his head to look.
Su Cheng’s fingertip still had a trace of blood that hadn’t dried yet, seemingly still warm.
And by his foot were several messy bloody footprints, extending into the darkness.
Wen Jianyan slowly spoke, voicing everyone’s thoughts:
“—It seems we aren’t the only visitors today.”
Someone had come here before them.
And had alerted the security guard.
“And they probably haven’t left yet.”
