Yuying University
Chapter 492.2: Wen Jianyan, you have done all the bad things!
Wait a minute.
Wen Jianyan frowned. Was it really a mirror image?
He remembered seeing a similar scene in the illusion with the fake “Hugo”—Richard and Wang Ni kissing by the pool.
The problem was, according to the rules of the illusion, all supernatural presences were eliminated.
If he reasoned based on that logic, then the “Wang Ni” in the pool now was actually the real person…?
While Wen Jianyan was confused, the previously open door was suddenly pulled by some invisible force and slammed shut with a “bang,” startling him.
He blinked, looking blankly at the closed iron door in front of him.
…What’s happening?
Wen Jianyan walked forward, tentatively reaching for the doorknob, trying to open it again. But despite his forceful shaking, the iron door in front of him was like cast copper and iron, showing no sign of reopening.
He looked up, suspiciously at the gymnasium in front of him.
If the plot continued according to the movie, Richard would strangle Wang Ni by the pool… and then what?
How did Wang Ni’s body end up stuffed in the locker in the changing room?
Suddenly, the doorknob under his palm began to grow scorching hot.
Wen Jianyan was startled by the heat and abruptly let go.
He took a few steps back and looked up at the top of the gymnasium. Through the narrow glass of the skylight, he could see a strange firelight soaring into the sky, burning fiercely inside the gymnasium, gnawing at the steel and concrete, metal and glass like a living creature.
Wen Jianyan’s heart went cold, and he continued to retreat.
—No one knew better than him how terrifying this fire was.
In almost the blink of an eye, the flames spread from the gymnasium windows, crawling down the walls. The steel melted into molten iron, trickling down. Through the damaged door, he could vaguely see the apocalyptic scene of the gymnasium’s interior being eroded into black char by the flames.
The dome of the gymnasium made a cracking sound, and flames erupted from the top, burning the sky a terrifying red.
Wen Jianyan held his breath, watching all of this.
He knew that this “round” was about to end.
Wen Jianyan turned his head and looked behind him.
He was suddenly stunned.
What appeared behind him was not the familiar, normal campus from memory—a strange black and red sky, an empty path, dark buildings like dead spirits, their windows empty, with not a single person in sight.
It’s the instance!
No, that’s not right, it’s the mirror world behind the mirror on the first floor of the administration building!!
The one they were supposed to enter after jumping into the pool.
Wen Jianyan felt the hair on his back stand up. He subconsciously took a step forward—
But before he could, his vision went black.
“Splash!”
Wen Jianyan once again fell into the cold swimming pool, becoming a drenched chicken.
He coughed and choked as he surfaced from the water and climbed onto the bank.
Although he hadn’t had time to do anything, at least this time, through that brief moment just now, Wen Jianyan had vaguely glimpsed a way to leave.
Wen Jianyan, completely soaked, sneezed.
He looked up, turned his head to look around, and was suddenly stunned.
—The gymnasium was empty.
His teammates, who should have appeared with him in the gymnasium after the last round ended, were not by his side this time as they had been before.
Wen Jianyan’s heart skipped a beat, sensing something was wrong.
…Could it be?
Even after one round had ended, he still hadn’t left that abnormal space from before??
In the “Integrity First” live room:
“Ah, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know? I just went to the other anchors’ livestreams, they’re also by the pool now, but they just can’t see our anchor…”
“Tsk tsk tsk, I didn’t expect that separation by the invisible wall was permanent. It’s going to be difficult to reunite with his teammates now.”
The young man stood there alone, shivering from the water, his wet hair clinging to his cheeks, water dripping down, looking quite pitiful.
He hung his head, lost in thought.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[And if I remember correctly, their communication methods are all blocked now, right?]
[Sigh, their situation was already passive enough, and now it’s just adding insult to injury…]
[Huh? Wait a minute? What is the anchor trying to do?]
The previously still, lonely, and pitiful-looking Wen Jianyan by the pool suddenly moved.
He turned around and rushed out of the gymnasium.
The scene outside the gymnasium was no different from the memory.
Bright sunlight, a clean campus, ordinary students.
Wen Jianyan sprinted forward.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[? Where is the anchor going?]
[The main thing is, in this situation, it doesn’t matter where he goes…]
Finally, Wen Jianyan stopped, slightly out of breath. He looked up at the familiar building in front of him—
The Administration Building.
He stood at the entrance, thought for a moment, then picked out half a brick from a nearby flower bed and placed it in a corner around the bend.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[?]
Wen Jianyan tilted his head, thoughtfully examining the brick’s position, as if considering something.
He walked forward and carefully moved the brick by a small angle.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[???]
[Brothers, I’m completely lost… What is the anchor doing?]
Next, Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and walked straight in.
Since there was no Hugo to escort him this time, strange looks were cast at him from all around.
“Hey, classmate, what are you—”
A teacher-like person stopped him.
Wen Jianyan turned his head. Although he was still soaking wet and looked disheveled, his two eloquent lips were already wearing a pleasing smile.
“Hello, teacher. I was just helping the gymnasium’s janitor aunty clean the pool and just accidentally fell in.”
He blinked: “Anyway, the PE teacher asked me to find the principal. It seems there’s some safety issue with our newly built gymnasium?”
In just a few words, Wen Jianyan was easily allowed to pass.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[…]
“Hugo: ?”
“You wouldn’t have guessed it, no item needed at all, just a deceitful mouth is enough. LMAO!”
After getting rid of the person who stopped him, Wen Jianyan successfully made his way up to the door of the principal’s office.
He carefully opened the door to the principal’s office.
The room was empty.
Wen Jianyan went straight to the desk and opened a drawer.
Like every time before, the drawer was empty.
No black box, no oil lamp. Nothing.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[Too naive, something so important can’t be obtained so easily.]
[If it were really here, wouldn’t Hugo have found it long ago?]
But strangely, Wen Jianyan didn’t look very surprised. He squinted his eyes and let out a short laugh.
He closed the drawer, restored everything to its original state, then turned and walked out of the office.
But Wen Jianyan did not continue to leave.
He found a hidden spot in the corridor, sat on the floor, leaned against the wall, propped up his chin, closed his eyes, and began to wait.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[?]
[Can any expert explain what the anchor is trying to do now?]
[He should be waiting for ‘Wang Ni’. I remember in the last round, the anchor originally wanted to follow Wang Ni, but because the badge’s side effect flared up, he missed a part of the plot… I feel the key to breaking the situation is probably here.]
However, no matter how many directions the audience in the livestream guessed, Wen Jianyan remained as still as a mountain. He leaned against the wall, eyes closed, waiting for time to pass.
After an unknown amount of time, a familiar footstep sound came from the stairwell.
Wen Jianyan lifted his eyelids and looked over.
“Wang Ni,” with a familiar face, arrived on the third floor of the administration building and reached out to push open the door to the principal’s office.
Everything was no different from the previous round.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[Oh oh oh! It’s just as I thought!!]
But before the audience could get excited, Wen Jianyan’s eyelids drooped, and he leaned back into his original position, looking somewhat uninterested.
[?]
A few minutes later, “Wang Ni,” holding the key item, left the office. Wen Jianyan made no further movements until her back completely disappeared down the corridor.
[???]
Ten minutes later.
Richard appeared.
Up to now, everything that had happened was exactly the same as the previous round.
Wen Jianyan stood up, stretched his legs, and unsteadily followed Richard who was coming out of the principal’s office.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[??????]
[No, dude, I can understand you following Wang Ni, but why are you following Richard? Didn’t you already try that last round? What’s the damn use!]
Wen Jianyan was oblivious to the comments in the livestream—of course, even if he knew, he probably wouldn’t care.
He just followed Richard from a distance, leaving the administration building with him.
Richard rushed out of the administration building, running wildly in a daze. He rounded the corner next to the building, suddenly staggered, and almost fell.
He looked down.
Blocking his path was half a brick.
Richard shook his head, preparing to move forward again, but before he could run two steps, a gust of wind sounded from behind him.
The next second, with a “thwack,”
Richard swayed and fell to the ground with a thud.
—The other half of the brick had been swiftly and accurately applied to the back of his head.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[…]
[………………]
[Huh?!]
The audience stared blankly at Wen Jianyan on the screen. They saw him drop the brick in his hand, take a step forward, step over the other’s body without any guilt, bend down, pick up the oil lamp from the ground, and then start running.
The whole process was smooth and natural, whether it was the sneak attack or the knockout blow, there was no hesitation or delay, so smooth it was as if it had been practiced a million times.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh what are you doing, you punk!]
[I’m having a breakdown, why did you hit Richard!!]
[What the hell!!!]
As Wen Jianyan quickly ran away, the shadow cast by Richard’s body on the ground flowed and was pulled up by some invisible force, gradually detaching from the ground.
It looked very similar to the dark shadow in the principal’s office… equally cold, terrifying, and out of place with the entire normal memory world.
It slowly turned its head, ‘looked’ in the direction Wen Jianyan had disappeared, and then slowly began to walk.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[…]
[Damn.]
[I finally get why the anchor was smiling when he opened the drawer earlier…
Before an NPC gets their hands on it, the item doesn’t exist. Which means, if the anchor wants to get the item, he has to snatch it from the NPC’s hands.
Damn it, you punk, you were planning to rob an NPC from the very beginning, weren’t you!!]
[And I figured out how he did it…]
[Huh? What?]
[In this memory world, all NPCs related to the key plot can’t see the anchor. As long as he’s in a scene involving the key plot, surrounded by an invisible wall, this kind of black shadow will appear to prevent the anchor from participating.
But the problem is, other than that, the anchor can interact with anything else—doors, the aunty in the swimming hall, the teachers in the administration building, including bricks…
So you guys get what I mean?]
[…………Damn.]
[Ahhhhhhh I get it too ahhhhhh!]
[Uh, I didn’t follow…]
[In short, the anchor exploited a bug in the rules again.]
[Because the key plot takes place in locations protected by invisible walls where the black shadow exists, and even getting close will get you targeted.
So, he chose to act after leaving the first scene and before entering the second.
And the brick the anchor placed was to test if he could indirectly affect the NPC’s actions by changing the environment without directly contacting the NPC—the answer is obviously yes.]
What happened next was self-evident.
—After getting an affirmative answer, he picked up a brick, which was also part of the campus environment, and knocked the person out with it.
[…Wen Jianyan, you’ve done every evil thing imaginable.]
[Done every evil thing!!!]
[Uh… but I still don’t get one thing. Even though he went through all this trouble, he didn’t actually change anything, did he?]
Even though Wen Jianyan snatched the oil lamp, the terrifying black shadow that could penetrate the barrier of memory and reality still appeared.
And, the closer it gets to the time of the fixed plot event, the stronger it will become.
And its terror level is based on the strength of the instance’s rules—which means, unless he has a 3S-level item, even if Wen Jianyan has successfully snatched the oil lamp from Richard, there is absolutely no possibility of changing the plot.
As soon as this was said, the livestream went silent for a moment.
[…Damn, that’s true.]
While the discussion in the livestream was raging, Wen Jianyan finally stopped his full-speed sprint. He looked up at the building in front of him.
The Academic Building.
He panted and turned to look behind him.
Under the sunlight, the dark shadow exuding a cold aura advanced step by step. Although it looked slow, it still kept up with Wen Jianyan, who had been running with all his might.
Even though there was still a distance of more than ten meters, Wen Jianyan’s hair stood on end.
He could feel that he was no longer just being watched.
That intense, endlessly malicious gaze was locked on him. A boundless sense of threat came from all directions, making the soul inside his body shrink and fear.
That was killing intent.
Every cell in his body was screaming—run, run!
Drop the source of danger and run!
Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth, the veins on the back of his hand bulging, forcefully suppressing his urge to flee.
In fact, before he knocked Richard out with the brick, he had already anticipated this step.
Although he had exploited some small bugs in the instance to snatch the item from the NPC, the instance would absolutely not allow this behavior.
【What has happened cannot be changed】.
In other words, Wen Jianyan versus the black shadow was like a tiny individual fighting against the entire set of rules of the instance. It was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, an act of overestimation.
He could never win.
Wen Jianyan lowered his head and carefully examined the oil lamp in his hand.
It had a simple and old-fashioned design, looking unremarkable and very ordinary. Below the wick was a small dish of solid lamp oil, emitting a sweet, rotten smell.
Like corpse oil rendered from something unknown.
Wen Jianyan looked up, watching the black shadow that was only ten steps away from him, and slowly took a deep breath.
—However, his original goal was not to win.
From beginning to end, all he needed was a gap.
A gap to bring the lamp to the academic building.
Wen Jianyan took out the match he had prepared from his pocket, struck it lightly, and a flame rose.
The black shadow was only seven steps away from him.
The cold breath of death was almost upon him, but Wen Jianyan’s fingers were still calm and steady, without a hint of trembling.
He brought the match close to the wick. With a soft “hiss,” the oil lamp was lit.
But the moment the oil lamp was lit, a strong burning pain rose from the palm holding the lamp. Wen Jianyan could clearly feel his skin becoming dry and charred, his moisture and life force being squeezed out together.
—The black shadow was only five steps away from him.
Cold sweat trickled down Wen Jianyan’s back, his pupils dilated in fear.
He raised his hand and threw the oil lamp toward the academic building on the side.
The next second, a strange flame surged. It gnawed at the stone blocks and metal, releasing infinite heat, and expanded at a speed that couldn’t be explained by common sense. In almost the blink of an eye, the entire building was engulfed in a sea of fire.
And at the same time the academic building was engulfed in flames, the sky was also torn apart by the firelight.
The fake blue sky was melted and dissolved, revealing the black and red firmament beneath.
At the same time.
Inside the library.
“Hey! Look!” Wei Cheng suddenly exclaimed in surprise.
The others were startled and turned to look in the direction Wei Cheng was pointing—
Through the library window, they could see that a corner of the sky not far away had been dyed a crimson red.
“Has it been six hours?” Tian Ye was surprised.
Yun Bilan shook her head: “No.”
Tian Ye: “Then why…”
“No.” Suddenly, Hugo squinted his eyes and shook his head: “The direction is wrong.”
He stared at the crimson sky and said slowly, “The gymnasium is not there.”
—This time, a new area was ignited.
—The black shadow was only five steps away from him.
The cold, terrifying aura was almost upon him. Wen Jianyan could almost smell the rotten scent of death.
He didn’t even have time to think. Only one final thought remained in his mind:
Run!!!!
Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth and charged desperately toward the corner torn by the flames.
He had almost never run so fast in his life. Every muscle was screaming, and he could even taste the blood welling up in his throat.
Three meters, two meters, one meter.
The rift between reality and memory was right before his eyes.
Wen Jianyan steeled his heart, closed his eyes, and threw himself forward—
Then, the world turned upside down.
Wen Jianyan fell heavily to the ground, his injured palm scraping harshly against the rough surface, but he could hardly feel the pain. His back was tense, his whole body like a bowstring stretched to its limit, trembling under extreme pressure.
A full twenty seconds passed before the darkness in front of him finally faded.
Wen Jianyan shakily got up from the ground and turned to look.
Behind him was the empty, silent academic building.
The flames, the black shadow… all had disappeared.
In their place was an old building submerged in a black and red sky. It was clearly a nightmarish scene, but in Wen Jianyan’s eyes, it was like a wonderland.
Wen Jianyan panted heavily, feeling dizzy.
He… succeeded?
In the previous round, outside the gymnasium, Wen Jianyan had seen the flames tear the sky apart, stripping away the false peace and revealing the original mirror image.
Although it was only a brief glimpse and the round restarted the next second, Wen Jianyan still understood one thing:
This fire could not only burn through the buildings in the instance, but it could also tear apart the false memory, revealing the true mirror space.
So, to leave the Memory and return to the Instance, he had to wait for the moment the fire burned.
Of course, it wasn’t impossible to wait until the end of the next round when the gymnasium burned, but he still chose the most difficult option.
Wen Jianyan turned to look at the building behind him. Even though he was already out of danger, his breathing was still trembling and rapid.
—He and his teammates were separated by an invisible wall.
The purpose of the invisible wall was to prevent anchors from affecting the plot.
Due to an accident, Wen Jianyan was trapped inside the invisible wall.
Even though he had later left the area where the key plot was taking place, he still couldn’t reunite with his teammates. But theoretically, they were still in the same space, just separated by the invisible wall.
If he remembered correctly, Hugo had once told him…
In the memory, there were invisible walls around the “library,” “cafeteria,” and “gymnasium,” but not the academic building.
The academic building was not protected.
This meant that if Wen Jianyan set the academic building on fire… as long as Hugo and the others saw it and came to investigate, they wouldn’t be blocked by an invisible wall. They could also find the rift to leave the memory.
More importantly, the change Wen Jianyan made to the building happened inside the invisible wall.
This meant he had created a new plot that could cycle with each round.
Even if Hugo and the others didn’t make it this round, they could wait for the next round, and the round after that.
—In other words, he had completely destroyed the prison built by the memory.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[…]
[Wait, this place looks so familiar. Isn’t this the world connected to the mirror on the first floor of the administration building?]
[That’s right, this is it.]
[!!! From here, you can go to the third floor of the administration building, and through the cabinet in the vice principal’s office, you can get to the principal’s office, right?]
[Yes, yes, yes!]
[Damn, I’ve finally straightened it out. Holy shit, the anchor didn’t just kill two birds with one stone, but three birds with one stone!!]
[Without any way to communicate with his teammates, he not only escaped on his own but also left a spark of hope for his still-trapped teammates, and even returned to the mirror world they were originally supposed to enter but couldn’t due to an accident… This is truly awesome.]
[Really, so damn awesome.]
[Filled with awe, brothers. Is this the high-end operation of a high-end anchor?]
[I really didn’t expect that he could actually pull the derailed plan back on track!!]
And the young man who caused all this shakily turned around. He was covered in dust, soaking wet, looking extremely pathetic, his expression listless, as if he had been beaten up badly.
He took two steps forward, stopped by the academic building, then leaned against the wall and slowly bent over.
“Retch—”
__
Author’s note:
Wen Jianyan: Let me perform a traditional skill of this livestream for everyone—handsome guy dry heaving.
