Lu Qingjia suddenly leaned in closer, his figure instantly magnifying, those eyes occupying all of Ji Ye’s line of sight.
Lu Qingjia’s eyes were beautiful; if viewed normally, even up close, they wouldn’t seem alarming.
But Ji Ye felt as if he had seen something terrifying, and he instinctively took a step back.
His expression showed unexpected fear.
Lu Qingjia smiled, “Why is the teacher retreating? I think I look decent enough not to be frightening, right? Even the teacher, who remains calm amidst so many living explosions, why are you acting like this now?”
“Or is there something unusual in your view?”
The panic on Ji Ye’s face intensified, but he still lowered his voice and said, “Stop pretending.”
A Player also reacted, asking Lu Qingjia, “So what did you find in the confinement room?”
Lu Qingjia smiled and switched the screen on his notebook to another file.
“If you’re curious, let’s all take a look together; after all, this thing is of no use to me right now.” He then looked at Ji Ye, “That’s why I said, it would have been great if you had just let me graduate earlier.”
Ji Ye’s attitude immediately reversed; he waved his hand to cover the screen projection and quickly said, “I understand.”
“Alright, I agree to your graduation, Lu Qingjia, congratulations on completing all your studies; you are officially graduated from today.”
“Too late!” Lu Qingjia replied, “The choice I offered also has a time limit.”
“Although it’s a bit unpleasant to do work for free, seeing someone who goes back on their word show an expression like Teacher Ji’s right now is quite satisfying.”
As he spoke, he opened a video in a certain file, and Ji Ye wanted to destroy it but was helpless due to the rules.
All the Players present didn’t need a large screen projection to see the images clearly; the notebook’s page was sufficient.
Then they witnessed a shocking scene.
The screen was initially pitch black, as if it were suspended in complete darkness without a hint of light.
Then a bit of crimson appeared, and after the crimson faded, the camera moved upward, revealing that the crimson was the blood flowing from the arms of a strong man.
The camera was cautious, but it quickly realized it didn’t need to be, as once inside the confinement room, the strong man’s attention was drawn to something terrifying, leaving it with no time to notice.
After the strong man illuminated the confinement room with a tool, he discovered that the ground beneath him was transparent, and beyond that layer of transparency were a pair of enormous eyes.
How big were they? The confinement room wasn’t small; it was at least the size of a bedroom, but those eyes nearly filled the entire frame.
Each one was over a meter in diameter, seemingly gazing deeply at the strong man, like a monster revealing its true form from the abyss, its size overwhelmingly despairing.
The strong man was terrified; the visual impact of NPCs and Players exploding before him was nothing compared to this.
He instinctively tensed his body, adopting a defensive posture, not daring to act recklessly.
At that moment, the pair of eyes blinked, and the strong man could even see the blood vessels in them; the other party also didn’t make any sudden moves, just staring at him.
They remained in a stalemate for a long time, during which the air in the confinement room seemed to freeze.
After a few minutes, the scene finally changed, the darkness of the confinement room returning to normal, and the strong man let out a sudden sigh of relief.
He collapsed onto the floor of the confinement room, and shortly after, he lost consciousness, though his body occasionally contorted in pain and struggled.
Meanwhile, a camera that had long slipped into an inconspicuous corner recorded all of this.
The entire scene lasted only a few brief minutes, and when the footage ended, the panic on Ji Ye’s face solidified into something tangible; even those who weren’t skilled at reading expressions could see there was a problem.
But what concerned everyone the most was still the previous footage: “What was that? What kind of eyes could be that big?”
“From the outline and the skin and bone positions around the eyes, they look like human eyes.”
“That can’t be right! How could human eyes appear there? Could it be that there’s a giant buried beneath this school, and we have to fight Godzilla to clear the level?”
Someone broke down, “The difficulty of this level is too high; can’t we stop introducing new bosses one after another? Even if there are more people, it shouldn’t be played like this! Moreover, with so many people, don’t they realize the idea of self-inflicted harm in this game?”
But someone else guessed the edge of the truth: “It might not be that those eyes are too big; it could be that we are too small.”
“Bingo!” Lu Qingjia pointed at the other person: “It’s not that they’re too big; it’s that we are too small.”
“What kind of existence is this school? Why do those rules operate? The outside world seems to exist in reality; we can easily make contact and dig up news information without any sense of incongruity. But why haven’t the parents reacted after an entire senior class of students hasn’t returned home for two days?”
“I guess some of you have also speculated that this instance itself might not belong to a real alternate space, but rather has some connection to reality.”
“Or this is a common reincarnation trap, or a game manipulated by someone.”
A Player said, “So according to what you said earlier, this is undoubtedly a game manipulated by someone?”
The other person referred to his earlier provocation of Ji Ye, where he mentioned the foolishness of the person behind him.
Lu Qingjia nodded, “That’s right. Strictly speaking, here, we are not Players; Teacher Ji is the Player.”
“We, like all the students, are NPCs, just special NPCs.”
“How can you be sure? Just a pair of eyes isn’t enough to support that claim, right?”
Lu Qingjia said, “Of course, and there’s something I forgot to mention. The surveillance footage from the confinement room, although it only lasted a few minutes, I didn’t edit it at all; it’s the full duration captured by the mini camera inside.”
“What?” Everyone was shocked.
“So that means the flow of time inside the confinement room is different from outside.” Lu Qingjia said, producing a slice of apple.
The slice of apple was very fresh, as if it had just been cut, showing no signs of oxidation. You know, once an apple is cut, it will start to oxidize and turn yellow after a while.
Lu Qingjia said, “After noticing this, I specifically went to the interrogation room and slipped a slice of apple through the door crack. Do you know how long I waited outside?”
“An hour.” Lu Qingjia said, “After an hour, I took out the slice of apple, put it in my backpack, and now it’s still fresh.”
In the game backpack, time does not pass; whatever you put in, when you take it out, it remains in the same state as when you put it in.
If you put in a bowl of freshly cooked, steaming snail noodles, and take it out ten years later, it will still be steaming.
The backpack faithfully recorded the state of the apple after leaving the confinement room; for a full hour, a thin slice of apple could not possibly have no signs of yellowing.
If the video of the strong man could still be a false impression caused by various mysterious factors, or if that period of black screen time was deemed unnecessary by the rules and cut out—just like how only necessary edited information is shown after solving a puzzle.
Then Lu Qingjia’s personal experiment standing outside the door negated that possibility.
The flow of time in the confinement room was indeed much faster than the time they had experienced.
What does this resemble? It resembles the difference between reality and the virtual.
Lu Qingjia continued, “And one more thing, I’m very curious about where Teacher Ji went after he left.”
“After all, he was alone. Although we Players understand the power of the rules and know that ambushing him would be futile, other students might not think so.”
“Even NPCs have blood and flesh; they have their own desires and thoughts. With so many people, it’s impossible that no one considered sneaking up on Teacher Ji at night to resolve the current predicament.”
As he spoke, Lu Qingjia looked at Ji Ye: “Teacher Ji, where did you rest at night? I heard that several students went to the teacher’s dormitory to look for you but found no one.”
Ji Ye smiled, twisted: “I naturally have my own means of concealment. If you can guess it, do you think I wouldn’t think of it?”
Lu Qingjia just smiled: “But Teacher Ji didn’t have any self-protection at all; he stood there in the middle of the playground, motionless, until just before this class started, finishing his stone sculpture in the playground.”
Ji Ye looked at him as if he had seen a ghost: “You—”
Lu Qingjia’s eyes lit up: “Oh? Is it true? I just guessed casually, and I didn’t expect to guess right again.”
Damn it, believe you? Not only Ji Ye, but the other Players thought the same, but Lu Qingjia didn’t elaborate further.
He just glanced at Ouyang Bai.
Ouyang Bai immediately understood; when he passed by the playground after class yesterday, and while sitting at the window eating dinner, he had looked several times at the position where Ji Ye stood.
Although he had limited his abilities, he was still an administrator-level Player and had experienced this game, clearly understanding its essence.
Any truth was laid out before him.
Lu Qingjia was suspicious of his reaction, and after piecing together various clues, he restored the essence of this instance, making it easy to guess what he had seen at that time; there were only a few possibilities.
Lu Qingjia chose the one with the highest probability, and Ji Ye’s reaction told him he was right.
The other Players couldn’t help but understand.
There was no escape; this was a nested game, and Ji Ye’s foolish appearance was just like a Player’s character standing still after logging out of the game.
Lu Qingjia turned to Ji Ye, his expression suddenly becoming harsh.
All respect for the teacher vanished from his face, replaced by a desire to see through him and look at the manipulator behind him, with contempt for the other party’s intelligence and abilities.
He made this expression and said, “Teacher Ji, do you still have the face to stay here?”
“From the current situation, not only have you messed up this game, but you’ve also been exposed as an NPC, and the essence of the game has been seen through.”
“The main and side quests that should have been manipulated by you were pulled out before they even started, lacking any sense of mystery; the entire game has been played into a mess because of your foolishness.”
“This is still based on the premise that you have a script, a god’s perspective, and that all NPCs, including us, have no secrets from you, and can even influence the plot to some extent.”
“Even so, you’ve turned the game into a pile of shit. What kind of IQ do you have? I thought such a high-end game, which even has no sense of incongruity with reality, would have some screening for Player qualifications, but it turns out anyone can play?”
“To be honest, being led by such a fool, I feel my character has been insulted.”
Ji Ye was clearly furious; he had lost all composure, his chest heaving violently, glaring at Lu Qingjia as if he had been insulted.
Lu Qingjia quickly said, “Teacher Ji, please don’t be angry; I meant no offense. Remember I said I actually admire your character.”
“If this were a game, your basic setting as the protagonist is quite good, extremely cruel yet fully in control. The aesthetic of your character creation data is also on point; based on Teacher Du’s description of your appearance before the interview, it was just too ordinary.”
“I guess the start time of the entire game was the day you successfully passed the interview and joined the school? Oh, I’ve digressed. In any case, Teacher Ji, believe me, I admire you; I’m only targeting that idiot behind you.”
“After all, I said that if I were in control, I would never let it turn out this way.”
Ji Ye: “…”
Isn’t this just insulting him to his face? What’s the difference between scolding a Player and scolding a character?
“Then why would Teacher Du, a game character, remember these things?” A Player pointed out a flaw.
Lu Qingjia said, “Because outside of this instance’s game, it’s still our horror game, a layer of nesting dolls, and since it allows Players to clear the level, it naturally can’t leave out clues.”
“All the school staff died, yet only Teacher Du survived. Does Teacher Ji really need someone to assist him? Clearly not; even without Teacher Du, the school could still operate normally.”
“So is Teacher Du the only conscience in the teaching staff who escaped a disaster?” Lu Qingjia glanced at the other party: “Clearly not.”
“I’m sure you all know about the school’s previous situation and the role the teachers play here. While Teacher Du isn’t exactly complicit, she certainly doesn’t uphold the teacher’s ethics like Teacher Gao.”
“She may not be doing bad things, but she won’t stand up for injustice either, because she only sees this as a job, following the school’s rules, not causing trouble, and not meddling in others’ affairs.”
“When students are bullied, even to the point of death, she may not inflict more harm, but she also watches coldly, and the indifference of a teacher is also despairing in the eyes of students who need help.”
“According to Teacher Ji—no, according to the game’s setting, Teacher Du clearly has no reason to be spared, yet she survived, so there must be a reason she had to live.”
“So I asked Teacher Du if she knew any unknown secrets, and perhaps because I have good connections, she readily told me.”
Damn it, good connections? The Players were grinding their teeth at those three words.
“These clues add up to enough to uncover the essence of this situation.”
After hearing this, the Players had to admit that even those who were quite confident in their own intelligence had to concede that they were a beat behind Lu Qingjia.
Without him, they might have cleared the level, but they certainly wouldn’t have achieved such a swift and smooth pace.
Clearly, this instance was fraught with danger, with countless threats; any of the twenty-some Players could easily perish here, yet because of Lu Qingjia’s domineering interference, they cleared it as if it were a game.
It made them, who were on high alert, feel as if they were stepping into empty air, completely unaccustomed.
Lu Qingjia’s gaze fell back on Ji Ye: “Aren’t you leaving yet?”
“I didn’t expect your skin to be so thick; do you still want to keep playing? It’s useless; you should be running from the lowest rating on the entire network.”
“If you had any self-respect, you should have committed suicide.”
“Oh, by the way, could you please not talk to me while wearing Teacher Ji’s character skin? I find it disgusting.”
“Because based on the eyes seen in the confinement room, those should be the eyes of someone wearing game glasses or a holographic helmet, right?”
“With drooping eyelids, sagging skin, dry and lifeless eyes with many blood vessels, the skin around the eyes shows signs of poor condition, dark and dull, with acne and rough pores on the forehead, revealing what the whole face looks like, with sunken temples and protruding cheekbones. Even if I don’t know what your other features look like, just these points can determine that you’re a loser with irregular habits, a rough lifestyle, hormonal imbalances, and poor natural conditions.”
“Do you find pleasure in slaughtering NPCs in the game? Setting aside the truly guilty, just in this classroom, there’s not a single person’s quality that you, a mentally challenged ugly loser, can compare to. At this point, shouldn’t you really apologize to Teacher Ji?”
“Do you deserve to operate a character of such high intelligence and elite status? With everyone standing here, why don’t you feel ashamed?”
The more Ji Ye listened, the more his expression crumbled, and finally, he let out a scream, and his entire being lost color, turning grayish-white, just like a Player logging out of the game.
The other Players looked at Lu Qingjia, unable to help but silently give him a thumbs up: “Bro, awesome!”
Though he was a fool, he was still the ‘god’s perspective’ of this instance, and he had directly scared Ji Ye away.
That kind of humiliation was akin to killing someone and destroying their heart.
Lu Qingjia, however, placed his hand on the now gray and wooden Ji Ye, smiling: “Looking like this is much more pleasing; I really can’t stand a clever skin being manipulated by a fool.”
At that moment, all Players received the notification of successfully clearing the level. Although most Players felt that their gains from this round were minimal, surviving what should have been a perilous situation was still somewhat gratifying.
Knowing someone like Lu Qingjia would never stop here, and would eventually become a big shot in the Advanced Zone, everyone, no matter how they looked at him, sincerely thanked him.
After some small talk, just as everyone was about to log out of the game, Lu Qingjia said, “Actually, this game has an invisible benefit; I wonder if you’re interested.”
Those preparing to log out stopped, looking at him in surprise.
Lu Qingjia smiled: “Since this instance is a game in a box, aren’t you curious about what lies outside the game?”
Everyone was taken aback; they had been so focused on receiving the clearance information, thinking the instance was over, that they hadn’t considered this.
Lu Qingjia continued: “Up until now, the game hasn’t given any tasks, right? The task hasn’t been issued yet, and the game has already cleared; of course, perhaps our efficiency is one thing.”
“But generally speaking, even in instances where the name and task release represent important clues, the delayed release of tasks, waiting for Players to trigger certain situations before giving tasks, means that our task has ended; it can’t be that nothing was triggered, right?”
Those with quick minds had already caught on, their eyes lighting up: “You mean—”
Lu Qingjia nodded: “This indicates that the task in this instance is fundamentally unimportant; what matters is the exploration after the task.”
“I see that among the twenty-three Players this time, most are late-stage Intermediate Level Game Players, already possessing the strength to challenge the Advanced Zone, just lacking an opportunity.”
“The difficulty of this task is so high, and it doesn’t announce the instance theme and task, even the clearance didn’t bring it out, which is enough to indicate the problem.”
The remaining Players, after hearing this, were all eager to try; the temptation of advancing to the Advanced Zone was too great for Players.
This not only meant a leap in strength and status, but also because the number of high-level Players was relatively small and important, each one was no longer like Intermediate Level Game Players or below, where losing more wouldn’t be regrettable.
High-level Players had basically detached from the constant threat of death in the horror game; although the tasks were difficult, the death rate was significantly lower, and some big shots had even calculated it.
The death rate in the Advanced Zone is roughly similar to that faced by an ordinary person in reality; entering the Advanced Zone equates to gaining wealth and power while also isolating oneself from the fate of falling at any moment.
It is the ultimate goal of every Player.
But at least some people could barely maintain their rationality; they looked at Lu Qingjia: “Why are you reminding us of this?”
“You could wait until we leave and explore the Advanced Zone by yourself; according to the game’s nature, having a dozen people advance at once definitely doesn’t conform to the usual standards. The more people competing, the smaller your chances.”
