Yan Wei was lying on the ground.
At this moment, he had completely forgotten about his cleanliness obsession, holding a stone from the ground in his hand, pondering as he sketched some ideas on the earth.
Since entering the instance, he had taken out all the information obtained from the archive room, which was now scattered in a pile to one side, with some corners stained with Yu Feizhou’s blood.
In the small grove, some players had been completely torn apart by the Ghost/Monster due to a moment of carelessness, while others even attempted to attack Yan Wei to snatch the Punishment Notice from his hands. After being stopped by Yan Mingguang, they cursed angrily, “Are you trying to get us killed by not destroying the Punishment Notice!?”
Yan Wei didn’t even glance at them, completely focused.
Time passed slowly.
Minutes quickly went by, and Yu Feizhou was now covered in blood, his complexion pale from blood loss. Yan Wei concentrated on the clues, sweat slowly sliding down his cheek, hanging for a moment on his chin before silently dripping onto the documents.
In the midst of chaos, seven players not wearing school uniforms suddenly appeared. They didn’t make a sound; as soon as they entered the instance, they roughly surrounded the area where Yan Wei was, confronting the Ghost/Monster and those trying to snatch the Punishment Notice.
Yan Wei snapped out of his thoughts, only to hear Yu Feizhou weakly say, “Don’t worry, they’re from Blackbird.”
Yan Wei was taken aback, didn’t ask further, and sank back into all the information.
He murmured, “I know where it went wrong.”
“Hmm?”
“We subconsciously accepted a premise, one that poses no problem from our perspective, but is actually a huge issue from the Ghost/Monster’s perspective. He Luo is indeed clever; from the very beginning, he pretended to be a player to use us to get him the Punishment Notice, and now he’s letting us obtain the Punishment Notice to trade it for Lin Zhen, which has to some extent grasped our way of acting. But what if we change to his perspective?”
Yan Wei raised his gaze to Yu Feizhou, lightly tapping the stone in his hand against the ground, speaking rapidly: “We would make concessions for Lin Zhen, but why does the Ghost/Monster think we would? He Luo is a ghost with great Resentment; shouldn’t such a ghost be the least likely to trust human nature? What gives him the confidence that we would willingly hand over the Punishment Notice? If we were ruthless enough to disregard Lin Zhen’s life and choose to prioritize the bigger picture at that moment…”
He raised his hand, shaking the two Punishment Notices he was tightly gripping, then continued, “I would tear these two Punishment Notices apart, ending the source of He Luo and Qian Xuanxuan’s Resentment. For those uninvolved, it would just mean the death of one Lin Zhen, and the instance at Morning Light High School would end—why wouldn’t I do it?”
Yu Feizhou was momentarily stunned, his lips trembling slightly, hesitantly saying, “You mean… he’s not afraid of us tearing up the Punishment Notice?”
Yan Wei whispered, “Not only is he not afraid, but he’s also using a method to torment Lin Zhen bit by bit to urge us to make a decision quickly—he is indeed forcing us to hand over the Punishment Notice, but if we are people who disregard morality, he is also forcing us to destroy the Punishment Notice. Why is he not afraid that we would disregard Lin Zhen’s life? If we only look at the result without considering the process, there can only be one reason: no matter how we choose, it’s the result He Luo wants. Whether the Punishment Notice is given to him or destroyed by us, it’s something he would be pleased to see.”
In the chaos, He Luo stood behind the Ghost/Monster, a pale face twisted in a sinister smile, raising his hand to grab Lin Zhen’s left shoulder.
Yu Feizhou, who had been watching He Luo’s movements, almost immediately stabbed his own left shoulder the moment He Luo made his move. His action was so quick that it seemed Lin Zhen didn’t even feel any pain; the wound was transferred to Yu Feizhou’s body.
Yu Feizhou swallowed a groan of pain, saying, “But this is too unreasonable. The Punishment Notice is key; this instance has fully acknowledged that, and the expelled Punishment Notice is the source of Qian Xuanxuan and He Luo’s Resentment. Generally speaking, if the source of Resentment disappears, even the most vengeful Ghost/Monster cannot linger and can only dissipate. If what you say is true, he seems to be using Lin Zhen to exchange for the Punishment Notice, but he’s actually forcing us to destroy the Punishment Notice. Isn’t that suicidal?”
Yan Wei frowned.
He nodded, “That’s the biggest problem. I always thought that destroying the Punishment Notice wasn’t a way to break the deadlock; it turns out the reason lies here…”
At this moment, Yan Mingguang wielded his Long Whip, already fighting fiercely against a surge of Ghost/Monsters and the starving ghost. In another turn, Yan Mingguang glanced back at Yan Wei, his cold voice calling out, “Behind you.”
Yan Wei instinctively turned to look behind him.
In the dark grove behind him, a long-haired girl in a school uniform had unknowingly approached. She stood two meters behind Yan Wei, not taking a single step forward, nor joining the chaotic scene, simply remaining silent, her blood-stained pale Ghost face revealing no expression.
That was Qian Xuanxuan.
She did not attack them.
“Why is Qian Xuanxuan just watching like this?” Yu Feizhou, his brow furrowed in pain, was concerned about Lin Zhen’s condition, speaking urgently, “If your guess is correct, He Luo isn’t afraid of the Punishment Notice being destroyed, but she isn’t afraid either?”
“It’s normal for her not to be afraid because she has regrets. But He Luo not being afraid completely overturns all my previous speculations.”
When Yan Wei broke Qian Xuanxuan’s Retrospective Illusion, he felt he had unraveled all the logic.
Two children adopted by Tang Yizhuo entered an elite school like Morning Light High School. After the school started, all the bad deeds Tang Yizhuo had secretly done were pushed onto them. They dared not speak out, silently enduring, and it was precisely because of their submission that the pranks and jokes from other students at Morning Light High School became increasingly excessive, gradually crossing the line. This excessive bullying ultimately crushed He Luo and Qian Xuanxuan, leading them to seek revenge.
But ordinary revenge was ineffective, and soon after, they received the expulsion Punishment Notice from Morning Light High School. Completely broken, the two went further astray, killing all those who had bullied them, even luring Tang Yizhuo to a small storage room on the second floor and starving him to death inside.
However, after doing all this, Qian Xuanxuan suddenly realized on a clear day with light snow, while in the dormitory, that her roommates, though disgusted, still subconsciously hoped she would live. She finally understood—she had gone down the wrong path. There were many ways to seek justice for herself, yet she had become just like those who bullied her.
This sudden awakening filled her with regret; she met He Luo on the rooftop of the dormitory, urging him to give up, which led to a quarrel between them. Qian Xuanxuan didn’t want He Luo to make another mistake and chose to pull him down from the rooftop.
Subsequently, the Resentment in the campus grew stronger, ultimately leading to the situation they faced after entering the instance.
Yan Wei quickly articulated these speculations, his expression growing increasingly serious: “…this is what I speculated earlier, but now I feel there’s a link that’s wrong.” He held the Punishment Notice in one hand, quickly flipping through the documents and materials he had gone through countless times, murmuring, “Qian Xuanxuan isn’t afraid of the Punishment Notice being destroyed, and He Luo isn’t afraid of the Punishment Notice being destroyed…”
There was no time left.
Yu Feizhou was now also covered in wounds, Lin Zhen was on the verge of collapse, and other players were eyeing the Punishment Notice in his hands. This brief stability was maintained by Yan Mingguang, Zhou Tian, Gao Ming, and the seven newly arrived Blackbird players.
But if this continued, in just a few minutes, not only would Lin Zhen die, but Yu Feizhou, who had been bearing the damage for Lin Zhen, would also be in imminent danger.
Which link in the logic was problematic?
Yan Wei glanced at Qian Xuanxuan, swept over the starving ghost that had been knocked down by Yan Mingguang several times yet quickly recovered and jumped up to attack, and finally looked deeply at He Luo before returning his gaze to the documents in front of him.
Suddenly, his gaze landed on the last line of the duty roster.
—November 30, Monday, clean the blackboard, Qian Xuanxuan. … December 1, Tuesday, sweep the floor, He Luo. … December 4, Friday, clean the blackboard, Tang Yizhuo. …
Before this last duty arrangement, most of the time followed the order of Qian Xuanxuan first, then Tang Yizhuo, and finally He Luo. However, in this last instance, He Luo and Tang Yizhuo had swapped their arrangements.
At first, he had noticed that He Luo and Tang Yizhuo had switched their duty arrangements, but before this last arrangement, He Luo, Tang Yizhuo, and Qian Xuanxuan had also swapped several times. Although the last duty had changed, it wasn’t unusual.
But what if…
Yan Wei’s expression paused, a flash of light in his amber eyes, all confusion swept away, his gaze shining as if clouds had parted to reveal the moon.
He tightly gripped the expulsion Punishment Notices of He Luo and Qian Xuanxuan, his other hand’s fingertip moved lightly, and finally, he heavily pointed at this last duty arrangement.
Inside the building world.
In the projected image, Lin Qing, through Yu Feizhou’s perspective, saw Yan Wei half-sitting on the ground, his long fingers moving slightly, ultimately pointing at the duty roster. The youth’s expression had lost the previous urgency and subtle tension, his eyes changing, filled with brilliance.
Lin Qing said lightly, “He has found the answer; hold the umbrella for me.”
The nearby Blackbird players, though they didn’t understand what Lin Qing was saying, hurriedly stepped forward to take the umbrella and hold it up.
Lin Qing closed his eyes.
A few seconds later, he slowly opened his eyes, his originally dark eyes suddenly turning an exceptionally enchanting dark red.
He spoke to the empty space before him in a deep voice, “…let go of your dirty hands.”
Inside the instance.
Lin Zhen, caught in the grasp of a well-dressed Ghost/Monster in a school uniform, was already in a semi-conscious state.
But just as that pale Ghost Hand was about to reach for him again, he suddenly opened his eyes, a pair of dark red pupils particularly eerie in the pitch-black night. He swiftly raised his bloodied hand, fiercely grabbing the outstretched Ghost Hand, his voice serious like never before: “…let go of your dirty hands.”
At the same time, Yan Wei quickly stood up with the report card, saying, “Teacher Yan, don’t stop that starving ghost; let it come over. You and Yu Feizhou don’t need to worry about anything else, just go save Lin Zhen. As for the Punishment Notice…”
The incomplete Moon Wheel reappeared before him. The surrounding air fluctuated for a moment, and the barrier dividing the space vanished with the light of the Moon Wheel.
In the next moment, Yan Wei’s lips curled up slightly, letting out a light laugh, and with a wave of his hand—he directly threw the two Punishment Notices out of his hands.
The cool breeze blew, and the thin Punishment Notices fluttered in the rustling wind.
In the blink of an eye, Qian Xuanxuan, who had been standing motionless behind Yan Wei, suddenly moved forward, her pale hand grasping one of the Punishment Notices. And at that moment, the starving ghost, no longer blocked by Yan Mingguang, lunged forward, not even glancing at Yan Wei, leaping up in an instant to bite down on the other Punishment Notice!
