WTNL Chapter 517

Yuying University
Chapter 517: Graduation Ceremony 8

“10, 9, 8…”

The thesis had passed, and the countdown to leave the scene was nearing its end.

A red sky, a black lake.

The entire world was dead silent, as if sleeping in a mother’s womb.

Two figures of the same height and similar build stood by the black lake.

Wen Jianyan stood his ground, silently looking forward.

Ahead, just a step away, was a figure with a cold aura. Its shoulders were straight, but its neck was twisted at a grotesque angle, topped with a face identical to his own, as if carved from the same mold.

“Crick, crack.”

“Crick, crack.”

The head was still turning.

Only one last inch remained before he and his mirror image would be face to face.

Nose to nose, eye to eye, their gazes reflecting each other’s faces, and then completely—
merging into one.

In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:

[Ahhhhhhhhhh! Why isn’t the anchor moving?!!]

[Wait, if I’m understanding this correctly, doesn’t this mean that once the mirror image’s face completely turns around, the anchor will be devoured by his new identity and be trapped here forever?]

[Yes, that’s right. The principal’s identity has always been a vacant black hole. It’s been chasing the anchor to make him fill this position. Once it’s filled, the process is irreversible.]

[Ahhhh, run! Run! Weren’t you running so fast before? Why are you not moving now, ahhhh! This is killing me!]

The countdown continued.

“5, 4, 3…”

Suddenly, Wen Jianyan’s eyes crinkled into a smile, and he let out a soft laugh.

“Ha.”

[Use Fruit of Lies?]

Yes.

[Fruit of Lies has been consumed.]

Staring at the face that was a carbon copy of his own, Wen Jianyan said with a grin, enunciating each word:
—”I am already your principal.”

In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:

 […]

 […]

 [Huh?]

 [Huh???]

 [No? What does that mean? Has the anchor not figured out the situation yet? What’s the point of telling this lie at this time?]

Gurgle.

In the void, the ten-sided die began to spin.

[12/99]

[Success]

“Crick.”

The mirror image’s face, which had almost completely turned, suddenly stopped moving, as if frozen in place.

Time was frozen.

The entire world seemed to fall into a dead silence.

Wen Jianyan leaned forward slightly, his dark eyes staring at the face that was his own, and chuckled softly:
“Thank you.”

In the “Integrity First” livestream chat, after a brief pause, the comments exploded. Countless comments flooded the screen, a sea of screams.

[Ahhhh!]

[Ahhhhh holy crap holy crap holy crap! The anchor didn’t not know his situation, he knew his situation perfectly!!! He has now become the ‘principal’ through a lie, so the mirror image can no longer bestow the principal identity upon him again. This is a crisis averted in an instant!]

 [Right… The anchor used his talent before to turn fakes into reality, but this time, it was to conceptually establish it as a ‘lie’! Damn, that’s brilliant.]

 [And more importantly, he was actually only one step away from the ‘principal’s’ throne. So, if he told such a lie at this moment, the success rate would be very, very, very high. That’s why the dice gave a success range of 99. As long as he’s within that range, he succeeds. He basically calculated every possibility to death!!]

[Awesome… truly awesome. I have nothing to say, really.]

 [Wen Jianyan, the eternal god of logic games!]

“—2, 1.”

The countdown ended.

In that instant, all the scenery rushed backward, and an endless darkness enveloped him.

The [Movie] was over.

---

At the same time.

Outside the instance.

Under a pitch-black sky lay an endless tomb, cold, silent, and oppressive.

This was the land of the dead at the end of the world.

In the silent depths surrounded by darkness.

A man, as if sensing something, slowly raised his eyes and looked in a certain direction in the darkness. A strange light flickered in his golden eyes.

---

At the graduation ceremony.

Although the proceedings were nearing their end, the venue was already a wreck.

The air was filled with the thick stench of rot and blood. Half of the dark red curtain was covered in blood, dripping viscously. Half of the chairs had been overturned by some unknown force, pinning broken limbs beneath them.

Everyone present seemed to turn a blind eye to this.

Apparently…
Not everyone was willing to be “rehired” by the instance.

When signing the contracts, the students were under an irresistible control. However, once the contract was signed, that unknown force disappeared.

And so, they began to resist.

With blood flowing freely, the entire gymnasium was on the brink of war.

On one side were the anchors trying to get their contracts back, and on the other, the vast number of student council and club members.

A cold aura of death spread.

Although the student council side had an overwhelming numerical advantage, the anchors who had survived this long were no pushovers. What’s more, among them were several god-like killing machines.

Hugo stood in a pool of blood, his eyelids drooping wearily. He held a cigarette between his lips, and a wisp of grayish-white smoke diffused around him like silk. At his feet lay several mangled, motionless corpses.

Yun Bilan’s eyes were a strange crimson, her face stern. Thorns coiled around her, and no one dared to come within a three-meter radius.

On the other side, Chen Cheng fought alone with a strangely shaped, pitch-black Tang knife. His profile was stained with blood, his eyes fierce.

The side with fewer people was gradually starting to gain the upper hand.

But unfortunately…
Gaining the upper hand in battle could not fundamentally change the situation.

In a corner far from the battlefield, the vice-principal, as if completely unaware of the chaos behind him, continued the proceedings without batting an eye.

With a smile, he handed the last [Contract] to the anchor in front of him. The anchor’s face was ashen, his expression ugly. But under the invisible control, he still slowly raised his hand and pressed his handprint on the contract.

Watching the other obediently press his handprint, the smile on the vice-principal’s face deepened.

“Very good.”

He extended his hand.

“After the graduation ceremony, you will officially join our teaching staff. Welcome, welcome.”

The last contract was placed in the hands of a student council member nearby, stacked with the others.

The vice-principal turned around, looked at the students before him, his hollow eyes narrowing in satisfaction, and a grotesquely exaggerated smile appeared on his bluish-white face:
“Alright, next we should—”

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by a sharp, explosive sound.

“BZZZZ—”

An old speaker emitted a monotonous noise, amplified by the gymnasium’s dome, echoing in everyone’s ears. The sound was so piercing, like a knife scraping against their eardrums. Not just the anchors sitting below the stage, but even the student council members couldn’t help but cover their ears.

Everyone subconsciously looked toward the source of the sound.

On the stage.

A young man had appeared behind the microphone at some point.

He was half-bent over, his head tilted, patting the microphone with his palm, making it emit that monotonous noise.

Seemingly aware that all eyes were on him, the young man looked up, his dark eyes looking down from above, and then he smiled.

In an instant, everyone’s breath caught.

His pale, five fingers closed, moving the microphone in front of him.

His voice was gentle, with even a hint of a smile. Amplified by the microphone, it sounded a bit distorted as it echoed through the gymnasium:
“Good evening.”

In the Nightmare Livestream rooms.

As an instance that had mutated from A-rank to SS-rank, and one that had gathered three of the Nightmare’s top ten, as well as several popular anchors, with over a thousand participating anchors, [Yuying Comprehensive University] had absorbed more than half of the Nightmare’s entire audience. They were all gathered in front of their screens, watching the end of this instance with rapt attention.

The moment Wen Jianyan appeared, the number of comments in the entire livestream almost broke records.

[Holy crap, holy crap, what’s going on?]

 [How did he get out?]

The anchors below the stage quickly recognized the person on stage as the one who had just spoken as the “outstanding graduate”—except that he had disappeared sometime after the re-hiring began, only to reappear now without a sound, like a phantom without a trace.

It’s just that…
They weren’t sure if it was an illusion, but although it was the same familiar face, the same familiar movements, the same familiar gaze, and everything seemed unchanged, something felt different.

Wen Jianyan held the microphone and said with a smile:
“First, let me introduce myself. I am your principal.”

What?!
Principal?!
Everyone was stunned.

Having survived this long, all the anchors present more or less understood the operating mode of this instance. Although this instance had a clear hierarchy, with NPCs of different levels having different authorities, and higher-level NPCs being overwhelmingly powerful.

In this system, the one at the highest level was clearly the vice-principal.

Although in theory, the principal’s status was higher, for four whole academic years, apart from seeing his name, “Zhang Yunsheng,” on the admission notice at the beginning, the principal was practically invisible.

Every anchor had already accepted the fact that “the principal does not exist.”

And now…
Someone suddenly popped up and said he was the principal??

Taking advantage of the anchors’ distraction, the student council members who had just been suppressed regained the upper hand. In just a few moments, several anchors were grabbed by the throat, their lives in danger.

The battle situation deteriorated at once.

“My time is limited, so I’ll make it quick,” the young man’s gentle voice came from the stage.

“First, stop the attack.”

How could something like that be done just by talking—

The next second, a scene that made everyone’s jaws drop occurred. The student council and club members, who had just been as ferocious as demons, actually obeyed his command, obediently stopping all their actions and even taking a step back in unison.

The anchors who had nearly lost their lives didn’t have time to think. They immediately scrambled up from the ground and retreated, still shaken.

To the side, Chen Cheng panted slightly, standing with his sword sheathed. His gaze swept over the student council members nearby, and his heart suddenly tightened.

These NPCs…
Their expressions had changed.

One after another, their pale faces turned up, all looking toward the stage without exception. The faces that had just been cold, terrifying, and full of malice were now replaced by a strange, even more hair-raising expression.

Like…
Love.

Endless respect, adoration, fear, and a fanaticism that came from the heart.

The only one who was different was the vice-principal.

The corners of his mouth, which had been raised high just moments ago, had now drooped.

His unnervingly white face was expressionless. He just stared fixedly at the stage not far away.

Startled, Chen Cheng couldn’t help but look up at the stage again.

Wen Jianyan stood there, his expression calm, as if he was not surprised by anything.

Chen Cheng’s brow furrowed. For the first time, he began to consider the truth of what the other had just said.

Could it be that…
The word [Principal] was not an empty boast?

“Second,” Wen Jianyan spoke again from the stage, his light voice capturing everyone’s attention.

“Tear up all the reappointment contracts.”

Wh—?!
Below, the anchors, who hadn’t yet recovered from their initial shock, felt their pupils constrict sharply the moment they heard this demand.

Not far away, the vice-principal’s expressionless face twitched twice, and he once again raised a smile.

He slowly took a step forward. “But—”

On the stage, the young man’s eyes moved, slowly falling on the vice-principal.

His voice was still calm.
“There are no buts.”

The vice-principal’s face twisted for a moment, but in the end, he slowly lowered his head. “…Yes.”

All the livestream rooms following this instance exploded:

 [Huh?]

 [Ahhhhhhhh???]

 [Holy crap holy crap holy crap, what is this move!!! This vice-principal just obeyed like that???]

 [Damn damn damn, you’re not actually the principal, are you?]

 [Ahhhh pointing the way to “Integrity First” livestream! All of you, go watch it!!! I’m going crazy, I won’t allow anyone to have missed the recording of that stream!]

 [Ahhhhhh! Go watch!]

 [This is what the ascension of a true new god looks like!]

The moment the vice-principal nodded, the contracts held in the palms of the student council members began to turn blood-red and moist, dripping like liquid until they completely pooled on the ground and disappeared.

“Finally,” Wen Jianyan spoke again from the stage.

“I want the graduation ceremony to end immediately.”

Unexpectedly, this time, the vice-principal snapped his head up and retorted in a cold tone, “That’s not possible!”

“I said,” the young man said calmly.

“My time is limited.”

The lie’s one-minute validity.
Everything had to be done within this time.
Less than twenty seconds remained.
It had to be quick.

The next second, an endless pressure spread out, crashing down from above like a mountain and a tsunami. All the anchors present couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat. Although there was only one person on the stage, for some reason, they had the illusion… that they were staring into a bottomless abyss, looking up at an endless wave about to devour them.

It felt like countless sharp knives were pressed against their backs. Every cell in their bodies screamed to run.

This is not a danger you can overcome.
This is not a creature you can deal with.
Run run run run!

Below, the anchors were pale, their faces filled with terror.

What… what is happening?
Why, after only a dozen minutes, does the “outstanding graduate” who was just speaking now exude such a terrifying aura?
And how did he go from a graduate to the [Principal]??
No one knew the answer.

Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes.

The entire world began to shake.

In the shadows behind him, countless ghost infants with bluish-purple bodies crawled out, endless, like a tsunami. They wrapped their small arms around Wen Jianyan’s arms, some hanging on his body, some clinging to his feet. They let out giggling laughs, one overlapping the other, a howling wave of sound that made one’s scalp tingle and break out in a cold sweat.

“Mama, Mama,” “Mama, Mama”…

The ghost infants looked up, their faces filled with the same fanaticism as the monsters below, staring at Wen Jianyan.

Love.
Endless, crazy love.
The love of the created for their creator.
The love of a believer for their god.
The love of a child for its mother.

Mama, Mama, what do you want us to do?
Mama, Mama, who do you want us to kill?
Just give the order, Mama.

“The graduation ceremony ends immediately.”

The young man, surrounded, said with a calm expression:
“I will not say it a third time.”

In all the livestream rooms, all the viewers were stunned.

The comments were dead silent.

At this moment, they finally realized what that comment that had just flashed across the screen meant.

This is what a true…

 [Ascension of a new god]
looks like.

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