Recap
Xia Jing himself, however, had a friendly smile on his face and asked, “Excuse me, how do I get to the school broadcasting room?”
As soon as he said this, everyone was stunned.
It was also Xia Jing’s question that reminded Song Yang of the place that had also left a question in his mind.
—The source of that demonic, seemingly warning, but actually making people more concerned and more likely to “think” hoarse male voice.
The school broadcasting room.
Thinking of this, everyone’s expressions changed, and they became nervous.
—That’s right, that voice was very strange!
The owner of that voice was also very likely a monster!
During lunch break, the group hurried out of the cafeteria.
The school broadcasting room and the teachers’ office were both in the administration building. The latter was on the first floor of the administration building, and the former was on the top floor.
Xia Jing didn’t ask anyone to go to the broadcasting room with him, but acting alone in the instance was very dangerous.
Song Yang wanted to let Liu Yi go with Xia Jing, but before he could speak, a hand was placed on Xia Jing’s shoulder.
Jin Nan said slowly, “Hey, I’ll go to the broadcasting room with you.”
The others stopped and stared at him with strange looks. This guy didn’t seem like such a kind person.
Jin Nan naturally felt those gazes, his face darkened, and he said fiercely, “Can’t I want to get more points?”
The players who survived in the same instance would get different points. The system would evaluate and assign points based on the players’ performance throughout the process.
So, it wasn’t impossible to lie down and win, but the rule of Smiley City was that only players who accumulated 10,000 points had the chance to completely leave this terrifying world. If they only relied on lying down and winning to get ten points in each instance, how long would it take to get rid of this nightmare?
Jin Nan’s reason was irrefutable.
Of course, they were afraid of monsters, no one wanted to die, but being completely passive was not okay either, otherwise, this instance would be equivalent to coming for nothing.
Song Yang glanced at Xia Jing, waiting for his decision.
The young man only smiled meaningfully and said lightly, “Okay.”
……
After parting with Wang Yueran and the others and stepping into the cool administration building, Song Yang thought for a moment and whispered to Xia Jing, “Call me if anything happens.”
The eight of them had just exchanged their mobile phone contact information in this world.
Hearing Song Yang’s words, Xia Jing looked directly at him and said, “You really are a good person.”
Song Yang: “?”
Having lived for twenty-three years, Song Yang never thought of himself as a bad person, but it was indeed the first time he had been praised as a “good person”. This feeling was quite… strange?
If it were someone else, Song Yang would definitely think he was being mocked at this moment.
But this young man’s words really didn’t have any mocking meaning.
Song Yang raised his eyebrows and said, “So?”
“Nothing,” Xia Jing curled his lips and turned to go upstairs, “I quite like good people.”
Song Yang: “…”
No, these words didn’t make him happy at all, but made him feel even more strange!
*
The administration building was very large.
Glass windows were embedded in the surrounding walls, very far apart, and the bright sunlight outside couldn’t fill the entire space.
Therefore, the temperature inside the entire administration building was very low. Even wearing long-sleeved school uniforms, it still gave people goosebumps.
Besides that, it was quiet, the kind of quietness with no movement at all.
In the hall on each floor, and the two long corridors on either side, there wasn’t a single figure. Light and shadow intertwined on the shiny marble floor, without the slightest disturbance.
Jin Nan nervously scanned his surroundings, holding a dagger, his muscles tense, always feeling that something was quietly staring at them in the dark corners.
The young man walking in front of him, however, had a leisurely gait, as if he wasn’t afraid at all.
Xia Jing was in front, and Jin Nan was behind. This was a relative position formed unconsciously, and neither of them had any objections.
Jin Nan divided a bit of his attention from his nervousness to observe Xia Jing’s back.
His gloomy gaze swept over the back of Xia Jing’s neck and moved to Xia Jing’s wrist, which was faintly visible under the long-sleeved school uniform.
“Hey… you’ve been to the Safe House, right?” he asked casually.
The young man in front tilted his head slightly, as if giving an affirmative answer.
Jin Nan chuckled as if making small talk, “I heard that there are many small props in the Safe House. As long as you have monster body parts that meet the standards of the Safe House shopkeeper, you can exchange them. You only bought a human skin mask, nothing else?”
The young man seemed to smile as well, his voice gentle, “It’s hard for ordinary people to get so many monster body parts, right?”
Jin Nan immediately sneered, “That’s true.”
Although Song Yang seemed to think highly of this fatty, Jin Nan felt that this fatty was just a guy who was good at bluffing.
It was good luck to be able to enter the Safe House. With this fatty’s strength, buying a human skin mask was probably the best he could do. He didn’t know what kind of face it was, so precious that he couldn’t even let people take a look.
Thinking this, Jin Nan was still cautiously paying attention to the parts of Xia Jing’s body exposed outside the school uniform, checking for other small icons that were difficult to find.
—In addition to the icon representing the small props sold by the Safe House, there was also… the points icon.
Smiley City announced the latest player points ranking every week, but—it was anonymous.
Everyone could only see how many points the top 100 players had accumulated, but they didn’t know who those points corresponded to.
Everyone just had a rough guess about the identities of those people at the top.
There was only one way to know everyone’s specific points—find the points icon on their body.
Smiley City would engrave each player’s points on their own body, often appearing on the most important body part for the player.
But everyone knew that no matter how low or high the points were, when facing different players, everyone could be treated as a source of points, so most players would try to hide their points.
Of course, even if someone as high-profile as Song Yang hid his points, those who knew him still knew that his points wouldn’t be low.
However, people like Song Yang and the others had a huge gap in strength compared to ordinary players.
Whether it was intelligence, physical fitness, courage, or other aspects.
Precisely because they knew that Song Yang’s strength was extraordinary, no one dared to treat him as a target for points—this was the reason why that guy didn’t even bother to use a human skin mask.
Because he was strong, he was fearless.
But it was different for others.
Jin Nan licked his lips, judging Xia Jing’s points in his mind.
Suddenly, the piercing sound of a microphone being tested rang out throughout the entire administration building, no, the entire campus!
The two of them stopped.
At the same time, Jia Qing, Liu Yi, and Song Yang, who had already stepped into the teachers’ office and were facing a group of teacher NPCs, feeling their scalps tingling; Wang Yueran, Xu Jin, and the old lady, who were carefully searching for clues in the school, all stopped and looked up.
—The school broadcast was speaking again!
“Hello? Hello?” The hoarse male voice simply tested the microphone.
Just as everyone thought he was going to shout the slogan “Don’t think about it” again and brainwash them, and they couldn’t help but become wary, the hoarse male voice said, “It’s school song request time! Everyone has been looking forward to it for a long time, right? What songs do you want to hear today?”
Everyone was stunned.
School song request?
The hoarse male voice muttered to himself, “Ahhh, but today is still a day when no one requests a song, what should I do?”
After a pause, he laughed loudly, “Hee hee hee hee, then of course I can only choose the song myself!”
“What the hell, is there something wrong with your brain?” Jin Nan cursed inexplicably.
The next second, deafening rock music suddenly blared from the loudspeaker, like a heavy punch, brutally shocking everyone’s ears!
The rapid drumbeat, coupled with the frantic bass, interspersed with the hoarse male voice’s off-key singing, was simply ear-splitting!
For a moment, Jin Nan couldn’t help but cover his ears, feeling his brain under attack, his face turning green.
Was this something a human could listen to??
Xia Jing looked at the broadcast speaker in the corner of the stairs, lost in thought, and continued walking upwards.
The top floor was on the sixth floor, and they were currently on the fifth floor, already very close to the broadcasting room.
Amidst the restless drumbeat and deafening music, Jin Nan was so nervous he almost wanted to vomit.
There was definitely something wrong with the school broadcasting room. Whether there was a problem with the teachers’ office on the first floor or not, something would definitely happen here!
He glanced at Xia Jing’s calm back, gritted his teeth, and followed.
Because of the loud music, it was difficult for them to notice the movements around them—at least footsteps and the like were definitely inaudible. At this moment, they couldn’t even hear each other clearly.
Stepping onto the sixth floor, a dark corridor appeared before them.
Xia Jing only paused slightly before walking forward. After a few steps, they could already see the words “School Broadcasting Room” pasted on the door of an office in the middle.
Jin Nan’s palms were sweating, his heart pounding, the frequency of his heartbeat seeming to synchronize with the rapid drumbeat, as if it would explode from resonance in the next second!
He shouted breathlessly, “Hey!”
He didn’t know if it was because the music was too loud, but Xia Jing in front didn’t pause at all, as if he didn’t hear anything.
Jin Nan tried shouting again, but Xia Jing still didn’t respond.
Jin Nan cursed inwardly. Seeing that Xia Jing had already stopped in front of the broadcasting room door, he thought, forget it.
You brought this upon yourself, you can’t blame me.
His eyes darkened.
Xia Jing stopped in front of the broadcasting room door and glanced sideways at Jin Nan.
Jin Nan pretended to nod at him, indicating that he was ready to rush forward with him.
Xia Jing turned around and raised his hand.
He paused for a second.
And gently knocked on the door of the school broadcasting room.
The two soft “knocks” were instantly drowned out by the frantic rock music.
Jin Nan clenched his teeth, watching Xia Jing’s curled fingers about to knock on the door again—
The rock music suddenly stopped.
An eerie silence descended again over the entire campus, over the entire corridor on the sixth floor of the administration building, over the small corner in front of the broadcasting room door.
Silence.
All that remained were two faint breaths, one steady, one erratic.
With a “click”, the door of the school broadcasting room opened a crack.
Jin Nan jumped and couldn’t help but take a step back. When Xia Jing turned around, he forced a smile and moved forward, indicating that he would always stand on the same front as him.
He swallowed, his muscles tense, his heart continuing to beat rapidly, almost jumping out of his throat.
The crack in the broadcasting room door grew wider and wider, and a faint figure appeared behind the door. The owner of the figure had a smooth voice, but asked coldly, “Who are you…”
“Go to hell,” Jin Nan cursed in a low voice.
The next second, Xia Jing’s figure crashed into the broadcasting room in a strange, unnatural posture.
At the same time, Jin Nan took a step forward and immediately closed the broadcasting room door from the outside, tightly gripping the doorknob, preventing anyone from opening it from the inside!
Screams, fighting sounds, and the sounds of chairs and objects being knocked over came from the broadcasting room, a chaotic mess. Jin Nan stood outside the door, breathing rapidly, his eyes flashing with a startling light, his ears pricked up to listen to the movement inside.
Due to fear and also the excitement of the success of his plan, his palms were sweaty and still trembling slightly.
At this moment, three messy footsteps quickly approached from the end of the corridor!
Song Yang, Jia Qing, and Liu Yi were stunned when they saw only Jin Nan outside the broadcasting room.
Their operation went very smoothly. Although the teacher NPCs gave people a gloomy feeling, they easily gave them the parent-school contact book. Thus, they completely ruled out the teachers as suspects.
And after the music stopped, the three of them immediately rushed up to the sixth floor.
But they didn’t expect to see this scene.
Jia Qing asked in confusion, “Where’s Xia Jing? Why are you the only one here?”
Jin Nan’s mental state was obviously not very stable at the moment. He laughed strangely and said breathlessly, “This is our plan. Fatty went in to deal with the monster, and I’m here to keep watch for him.”
“What kind of bullshit are you talking about?!” Even Jia Qing, a slow-witted guy, cursed.
This was clearly using Xia Jing as a sacrifice, right?
For what?
Wasn’t this guy following them for points? But he wouldn’t get many points this way!
Song Yang’s expression turned cold.
He walked over and kicked Jin Nan, a big guy, with one kick, and said coldly, “Get out of the way!”
Jin Nan was directly kicked two or three meters away, falling on his back. His stomach felt like it had been shattered, the pain making him roll over and curl up on the ground like a shrimp!
Jia Qing and Liu Yi were both startled. Liu Yi reminded weakly, “You will be deducted points for hurting players…” Although it wouldn’t lead to being locked in the little black room.
Of course, Song Yang knew that.
The emotionless system voice had already sounded in his mind: “Player Song Yang, for hurting player Jin Nan, 10 points will be deducted. Remaining points…”
Song Yang sneered disdainfully and reached out to grab the doorknob.
The next second, the doorknob suddenly turned by itself.
It was turning from the inside.
Song Yang was taken aback.
It was also at this moment that the others noticed that the commotion inside the broadcasting room had stopped at some point.
There were no human voices, no sounds of fighting.
There was no sound at all, only a dead silence remained.
Realizing something, Jia Qing immediately stepped forward, his face pale, and grabbed Song Yang’s hand, pulling him back a step.
Liu Yi also took out his knife from the spatial bag and held it in his hand.
Song Yang narrowed his eyes, his fingers twitching slightly, a dagger held in reverse grip in his palm.
Jin Nan, who was not far away, grunted and climbed up from the ground.
He was dizzy from Song Yang’s kick, his face pale, and he couldn’t stand up completely for a while, so he could only kneel on the ground with his knees, his hands tightly gripping the dagger, held in front of his chest.
With a creak, the door of the school broadcasting room was opened again from the inside.
The young man’s figure appeared behind the door.
He was holding a black vertical microphone in his hand, his expression calm and composed, his whole body almost spotless, his school uniform and trousers without even a single extra crease, not even his hair was the slightest bit messy. His whole body was clean and relaxed, as if he hadn’t just fought a monster, but had just gone in for a stroll and come out.
Everyone was stunned.
Seeing Song Yang, Xia Jing was surprised for a moment, then smiled and said, “You’re done over there so soon?”
The young man’s smile was so bright that Song Yang came back to his senses, pulled Xia Jing out, and then completely pushed open the door of the broadcasting room—
—Inside the broadcasting room, it was a mess. Stools were overturned, some documents were scattered on the ground, and brooms and dustpans were lying in a corner.
There was also a student NPC in school uniform, tied up and huddled in a corner, staring at them in horror.
Song Yang paused, “…Not a monster?”
“Hmm?” Xia Jing turned around and looked at the student broadcaster.
The NPC, as if triggered by Xia Jing’s gaze, let out a desperate whimper from his gagged mouth, his eyes welling up with pitiful tears, as if he had been stimulated by something.
Song Yang and the other two: “…………”
Uh, as for what stimulated him, the answer seemed quite obvious.
Author’s note:
Xia Xia: I just tied him up, didn’t do anything else (sincere face)
___
Author’s note:
Microphone monster: I’m very well-behaved .jpg
T/N: Merry Christmas~!
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Update: Monday, Wednesday, Friday
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