WTNL Chapter 499

Yuying University
Chapter 499: “…What score do you think my dance should get?”

On the other side.

Inside the library.

Under Hugo’s leadership, the group methodically sorted through an entire section of the library. Even though the text in the books and materials was still unreadable, they managed to filter out all useful pictorial information as much as possible.

Pages were torn out and placed on the clean floor. The group piled the useless papers to one side and arranged the remaining content in chronological order.

“Is this one in the wrong place?”

Wei Cheng picked up a sheet.

Yun Bilan scanned the area and reached out: “Give it to me, it should be here.”

Just like that, they used the few clues they had to start sorting the scattered information. Soon, a clear timeline began to emerge.

“To make it easier to understand, let’s call the specific event that turned the school into an instance the ‘Origin’.”

Wei Cheng’s gaze swept over the papers arranged before him as he organized his words.

“Principal Zhang Yunsheng started working at Yuying Comprehensive School five years before the ‘Origin’ event. And before he took office, this school probably wasn’t called by its current name.”

He pointed to the first picture at the very beginning.

It was the main entrance of Yuying Comprehensive University, but the school name on it was blacked out. Judging from the stone material below, the current school name had clearly been replaced.

The group nodded.

“It seems that one month after he became principal,” Tian Ye pointed to an engineering drawing not far away in the middle and said, “he immediately started renovating the gymnasium, along with more related projects.”

“The ‘Origin’ event happened a few days before the gymnasium was officially completed.”

Yun Bilan added.

—Based on the Memory content they were currently experiencing, this conclusion could be easily drawn.

“Then that’s pretty much it.”

Hugo lit a cigarette, ignoring the sideways glances from others in the library, and held it between his lips without changing his expression.

Although Wen Jianyan, the team’s brain, was temporarily separated from them, everyone present was, after all, a senior anchor. The information they had gathered was now sufficient. With just the few of them, they could piece together the basic plot of the instance.

The beginning of everything was the principal who had never shown his face, Zhang Yunsheng.

He clearly wanted to use this school for something, so he immediately started this “project” after becoming principal.

And he was only one step away from success.

However, an accident happened. Before the gymnasium was officially put into use, Richard and Chu Chu sneaked into the gymnasium. They triggered the mirror mechanism and thus became the first sacrifices.

And in their life-and-death crisis, their strong desire to survive was induced. They found clues, found a way to break the game, and finally set the gymnasium on fire, ultimately perishing together with the principal’s conspiracy.

It was also because of this that reality could maintain a semblance of peace on the surface after the “Origin” event occurred.

Although fragile and false, it could still be considered peace.

And this “school” was taken into “Nightmare” as a semi-finished product of the conspiracy, becoming a repeatedly opened instance.

Sure enough, after the group had sorted out the clues, the system prompt sounded in their ears, indicating an increase in the instance exploration rate.

This time, they had increased the instance exploration rate by…

A full 1%.

“…Huh? How much?” Hearing the system broadcast in his ear, Tian Ye’s eyes widened slightly, almost unable to believe his ears. “No way? We’ve already pulled out the entire timeline of the instance, and even matched it with the plot in the film appreciation class, and it only gave us a one percent increase?? Seriously?”

Wei Cheng frowned and looked down at the papers in front of him again: “Is there something wrong with our reasoning?”

“No,” Hugo said, “If we were wrong, the exploration rate wouldn’t have increased.”

Wei Cheng was a little annoyed: “…Right, that’s true.”

Hugo: “So, there’s only one possibility.”

He rubbed the cigarette between his fingertips thoughtfully and said, “Although we’ve found the right storyline, there’s still a crucial piece of information missing that hasn’t been filled in.”

As they discussed, Su Cheng remained silent at the side.

His gaze wandered aimlessly over the pile of useless papers, as if instinctively searching for something, but not entirely sure what he was looking for.

Unknowingly, the time was approaching the end of this cycle.

In three more minutes, it would restart.

Hugo looked up: “Let’s take pictures first.”

They weren’t sure if these things could be brought with them into the next cycle. Just in case, they would take pictures for safekeeping while also taking the pages with them.

Everyone nodded and began to take pictures of the pages one by one in chronological order.

Su Cheng stood up and started walking towards the pile of waste paper.

“What are you looking for?”

Yun Bilan noticed his direction and asked.

“…” Su Cheng shook his head, not answering.

Yun Bilan gave him a deep look, seeming to have guessed something. So, she didn’t interfere but turned to help the others take pictures of the papers.

One minute left until the end of the cycle.

Su Cheng’s gaze suddenly fixed on a corner of the paper pile. He was startled, bent down, and picked up the paper.

Hugo had been paying attention to his actions from the very beginning.

He walked over, his gaze sweeping over the paper Su Cheng had picked up—its content was unremarkable, with almost no value, which was why it had been filtered out and placed in the pile of useless information.

Su Cheng’s gaze was fixed on the paper, his breathing becoming slightly rapid.

He turned to look at Hugo and said:

“—We must hurry and meet up with the President.”

“Why?” Hugo stared at him intently.

Su Cheng took a deep breath, closed his eyes, his voice seeming to be squeezed out from between his teeth:

“Otherwise, there’s going to be a big problem.”

In the dance studio.

After hearing Wen Jianyan’s question, the “Integrity First” live stream room fell into a brief silence. For a full five seconds, no one posted in the chat.

[…]

[…?]

[????]

[Wait, did I hear that right? What did the anchor just say??? What dance is he going to do???]

The audience suddenly exploded. The live stream, which was already always among the top in online viewers, saw its audience activity soar to a new high. A dense, thick curtain of comments scrolled across the screen, almost completely obscuring the face.

Because of this, almost no viewers noticed that the moment Wen Jianyan’s words fell, the live stream screen once again showed static, as if the interference had become stronger.

The dance studio was dark, and no sound came from the speaker for a long time.

Wen Jianyan stood where he was, waiting patiently.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, with a “bang”, a lonely beam of light lit up in the dark classroom. The beam shone straight down, happening to envelop Wen Jianyan within it.

Seeing this, the corners of Wen Jianyan’s lips curled up.

He knew this meant “yes”.

Wen Jianyan swept his sweat-dampened hair back, lifted his eyelids slightly, and looked into the darkness. The corners of his eyes appeared long and slanted upwards: “But, do you have any suitable music?”

“…”

The speaker fell silent, then quickly began to play distorted music.

Perhaps because it was in an instance, the track being played did not exist in reality. Even a more passionate and cheerful tune sounded somewhat eerie.

In between the seemingly passionate main melody, a few dissonant notes were interspersed, making one’s hair stand on end.

Wen Jianyan: “…”

A little scary, to be honest.

Forget dancing; it would be good enough if he wasn’t scared to death himself.

He pondered for a while, then looked up: “Do you have anything hotter?”

Instantly, the live stream room was shocked into a brief silence.

[?]

[?]

[What? What did you say? Hotter what??]

[Ahhhhhhh what kind of wild words are you saying? Ahhhh, you stop it, Mommy doesn’t allow you to talk like that!]

[Tsk tsk tsk, the ones in front haven’t watched enough. This isn’t the first or second time the anchor has said wild things. For a pointer, check the Ping’an asylum recording. Please call me a kind person.]

[Thank you, kind person, you are my father.]

[Fuck, fuck, fuck, find it for him! Find it for him quickly!!!]

Perhaps startled by Wen Jianyan’s unfiltered comment, this time, the silence from the speaker was longer than the last.

It was silent in the darkness.

Wen Jianyan didn’t mind, just stood under the beam of light with his arms crossed, waiting patiently.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, a melody reluctantly flowed from the speaker.

In the “Integrity First” live room:

[…………]

[I don’t know which is more shocking now, the anchor’s request just now or the fact that this instance actually has music that matches his request…]

[Is this a proper instance?? Is this a proper dance class???]

[Yes! Yes! We proper people want to watch this kind of proper live stream!! Start!! Quickly!! This is the content we paying viewers want to see!]

Wen Jianyan closed his eyes slightly, swaying nonchalantly to the melody, his feet tapping to the beat.

“Zzz… zzz…”

Under the screen covered by the audience’s enthusiasm, the static seemed to appear more frequently, as if some non-existent interference was growing and expanding.

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes and smiled slightly.

“That’s more like it.”

After receiving affirmation, the sound of the melody gradually grew louder, soon filling the entire dance studio.

Wen Jianyan raised his hand, slicking his sweat-dampened hair back, revealing his forehead.

He looked at the mirror not far away, watching his reflection, bent his finger, brought the Ouroboros ring at the base of his ring finger to his lips, and kissed it with a smile.

Let’s make a bet, shall we?

Three minutes.

Will you wake up?

In the “Integrity First” live room:

[…Damn, the anchor hasn’t even done anything yet, why am I already blushing?]

[So skilled, so skilled, is this eye fucking…]

[Ahhhhhhh me too, ahhhhhh, save me!! Anchor, can you control yourself? I really feel violated through the screen!!]

[Prohibit exuding charm! Prohibit exuding charm!]

The music in the background gradually became louder. Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze. He swayed his body with a grin, the movement not large. Rather than dancing, it was more like a casual performance in time with the music.

He kicked off his shoes and socks.

Freed from restraint, his fair, smooth feet stepped on the ground, the arch of his foot beautiful, the blue veins winding under his skin like mountains.

The light above made a “zzz” sound. The light pillar, which had been very stable just now, now began to flicker intermittently.

He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but the surrounding darkness became thicker and more viscous, as if something more dangerous was breeding and awakening within it—

Wen Jianyan seemed completely unaware of this.

He stepped barefoot on the ground, his eyes lowered, his expression relaxed and at ease. It was clearly a dance meant to please and flatter, but with him, it didn’t seem like he was pleasing anyone. Instead, it was as if he was waiting for the whole world to come and kiss and worship him.

As if feeling hot, the young man raised his hand and flirtatiously undid a button.

During the Basic Skills assessment just now, to prevent his movements from being hindered, he had already undone the first two buttons. The one he was undoing now was already the third.

His fingers moved nimbly. In just a moment, the already loose front of his shirt immediately opened to both sides.

In the “Integrity First” live room:

[Ahhhhhh!]

[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!]

[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!]

In the frame, although the young man was still wearing a shirt and pants, he looked inexplicably disheveled.

He tilted his head back slightly, his skin an excessively delicate, cold white under the light. The curve from his jaw to his Adam’s apple was smooth and beautiful. The light from above chased the sweat, flowing all the way to his gleaming chest and abdomen, almost dazzling.

His skin was covered with fine red lines.

As if a shattered piece of porcelain had been carefully pieced back together, but with just a slight touch, it would fall apart again, giving off a strange sense of fragility.

“Zzz zzz zzz…”

In the “Integrity First” live stream room, the signal source suddenly seemed to become unstable.

[???]

[What’s wrong with the picture? Why is it a bit distorted?]

[Damn damn damn, Nightmare, are you trying to die!! Don’t give me static at this critical moment!!]

[Ahhhhhhh, fucking report it for repair immediately. If I miss even one second, I’ll tear you apart!!!]

—One minute and forty-seven seconds left.

Perhaps affected, the music from the speaker began to distort again, becoming sharp and high-pitched.

However, in the music that was half passionate and half eerie, Wen Jianyan seemed to be enjoying it to the extreme. He swayed his body, humming along to the melody out of tune.

The shirt buttons were undone one by one.

The dizzying, terrifying heat continued to rise.

Both in the dance studio and in the live stream room.

In just a few short seconds, the popularity of the Integrity First live stream leaped to number one, hanging high in the most conspicuous position.

However, just before undoing the last button, Wen Jianyan suddenly stopped.

He looked up and stared deep into the distance, as if making eye contact with some existence in the darkness.

The young man smiled slightly and lazily changed his movement.

Already free from the restraint of the belt, the pants were just hanging loosely on his hips. With just a slight force, they slanted and slid down a few inches.

Golden evil patterns grew on his skin, dark light flowing.

Along with his movement, the darkness suddenly and uncontrollably rolled violently.

A subtle sound of something cracking appeared in the darkness. Under the mirror, something seemed to be uncontrollably awakening, trying to break free from its restraints.

In the “Integrity First” live room:

[???]

[Ahhhhhh damn damn damn, why is the screen black ahhhhhhh!!]

[Nightmare, you deserve to die a thousand deaths.   Ahhhh, I haven’t seen anything yet!!]

pWhat the hell is going on?? If it’s not repaired within three seconds, I’m gonna fucking riot!!! We give you so many points usually, what do you eat? You can’t even maintain a signal?]

The thick darkness grew, like an invisible barrier. In an instant, even the music from the speaker moved away, becoming faint and distant, almost hard to catch.

Through the heavy barrier, Wen Jianyan vaguely heard a panicked voice.

“…What… is happening… You shouldn’t…”

The voice gradually grew smaller.

As if a cover had been placed over it, it instantly became distant.

—One minute left.

“…Haha.”

Wen Jianyan laughed out loud.

In the darkness, he stood under the single beam of light, his hair wet and messy, his shirt wide open, revealing a strip of slender white waist and the dark golden, grotesque curse marks on it.

The young man pressed his hand on the brand, feeling the heat gradually churning under his skin. He stared at the bottomless darkness before him and asked with a grin:

“You can feel it, can’t you?”

The brand was not just a brand.

It was an anchor point.

As long as he was there, Wu Zhu existed.

The young man tilted his head back, standing under the beam of light in the darkness, a smile on his face. He was clearly just a human of flesh and blood, but he looked like the ruler of this place, the sole king of a lonely kingdom.

—Thirty seconds left.

Almost there.

But, just almost.

Wen Jianyan did not continue.

He took a deep breath, calming his breathing, and looked up.

His messy hair fell down, landing on his clear forehead. His gaze passed over his hair, looking straight into the darkness. With a smile on his lips, he slowly and deliberately pulled open the leftmost side of his shirt.

There, a crimson, not-yet-healed bite mark was printed.

Wen Jianyan: “You bit me.”

“You used too much force,” he described in a very calm, emotionless tone.

Wen Jianyan’s fingers unintentionally brushed against the wound. He frowned and hissed:

“It hurts.”

The entire world began to tremble.

“Crack!”

A crack split the mirror from top to bottom. The next second, countless dark and terrifying tentacles surged out from within the mirror like a tidal wave, whistling and roaring as they rushed forward.

“Hahahaha!”

Watching the mirror fall apart, Wen Jianyan laughed out loud.

He opened his arms, letting himself be swept into it.

Even though his hands and feet were shackled, he still did not stop. Instead, he was as delighted as if a prank had succeeded.

He looked up, staring at the endless darkness before him, a look of pleasure on his face. He was clearly human, but his smile was far more evil than a real demon’s:

“Be good, let me see your human form.”

“If I’m in a good mood, I’ll let you bite me again in the original spot.”

The darkness stopped rolling, but it was still stirring, as if considering something.

It seemed a little confused, as if it didn’t know why the human exuding a wonderful scent would make—dare to make—such a request. But clearly…

Some instinct it couldn’t control wanted to obey.

The darkness gradually coalesced.

A god with black hair, golden eyes, and a body full of evil curse marks appeared.

He looked much weaker than Wen Jianyan remembered—his body flickered in and out of existence, as if it would return to the darkness in the next second. He had only barely managed to condense a physical form.

“…Wu Zhu.”

Wen Jianyan called his name with a smile, greeting him familiarly.

The strange god slowly blinked his pure golden eyes, but a bottomless desire was in their depths.

He embraced the slender waist of the human before him, his cold palm pressing against the other’s skin.

The flesh and blood under his palm were warm and resilient, giving him the urge to imprint his fingerprints deep into it. He stared at the other’s excessively beautiful body, his canine teeth stirring.

But for some reason, Wu Zhu did nothing, just looked up at the other.

And he himself seemed very puzzled.

Why was he enduring and waiting, instead of taking what he wanted under the influence of instinct?

And Wen Jianyan liked this scene.

His mood had indeed improved.

“So good.”

He pulled Wu Zhu over, lowered his head, pressed his forehead against the other’s, and whispered in his ear:

“Don’t bite… just heal the wound you made.”

His voice was like a switch, arousing endless joy and fervor in the surrounding darkness.

The strange god bent down, his ice-cold tongue licking the wound that tasted of blood. The next second, the skin automatically healed and grew—the tingling and itching from the healing wound made Wen Jianyan reflexively arch his back.

He didn’t know if it was because the darkness was too deep, and everything had become crazed.

Wen Jianyan felt as if his own body temperature was also burning up.

He tilted his head up, his Adam’s apple bobbing, his fingers sinking into the other’s cold, long hair.

However, before the other’s actions became excessive, Wen Jianyan tightened his fingers fiercely, forcing the other to look up at him.

Wu Zhu’s pale lips were stained with blood, his golden eyes filled with endless frenzy and obsession.

Wen Jianyan’s eyes were dark. He lowered his head and licked the blood from the other’s lips: “Examiner-teacher…”

“Do you like my performance?”

Wu Zhu had not yet mastered the skill of speaking. He could only chase Wen Jianyan’s kisses by instinct.

Wen Jianyan also let him kiss.

He panted, his eyes lowered, his moist eyes twinkling with a bewitching light.

“…What score do you think my dance should get?”

The newly awakened, memory-less god kissed the other’s lips, mesmerized by the human’s scent and proximity, having long lost the bottom line and principles he should have had as an examiner.

—If such things had ever existed.

Behind him, on the shattered mirror, blood-red letters appeared.

【SSS】

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