Index 99 was still crouching outside the washroom, carefully sequestered in a blindspot of the surveillance, pressing the communication talisman to his ear.
There was a small hiccup just now.
According to their original plan, they definitely wouldn’t allow this valiant half-vampire to actually be tossed into the Corpse Pit. Therefore, the plan was for the half-vampire to enact a sudden resurrection just before he was thrown into the Corpse Pit.
Given the bloodline suppression, half-vampires were absolutely loyal to Van Zhuo as his henchman, unable to revolt in any manner. Even if Anthony was violent and irascible, he would still have to obediently follow every command to the tee.
And so, the half-vampire followed the script very faithfully. After the stretcher carried by the teaching assistants was brought to the iron door, he performed the miraculous act of resurrection on the spot.
The faceless teaching assistants were stunned silly by this corpse that had suddenly resurrected from the dead.
The end result was just as they predicted. No matter how indifferent they were to life, even faceless people wouldn’t directly throw a living person into the Corpse Pit to become fertiliser. As such, after a bit of wrangling, they booted the half-vampire out.
Index 99 had been waiting for him at the washroom. When the half-vampire came out, he finally sighed in relief.
“How did it go?”
The two of them squeezed into the corner.
“It won’t do. There’s something wrong in there. It doesn’t lead directly to the Corpse Pit; there’s a tunnel behind the iron door and a few other doors on both sides of the passage.”
The half-vampire said cautiously, “But I’ve already planted the paper shikigami that Tsuchimikado had handed to me inside. It’s pitch-black inside and there’s usually no one, so the paper shikigami should be able to move freely.”
Paper shikigamis were a specialty of the Yin-Yang Master, who regularly flaunted this trick. Although he was similar to the Exorcist in that he didn’t belong to any organisation, many still constantly sought his help. After all, this move didn’t cause any bother nor leave any taint. It was a phenomenal skill for reconnaissance.
AD
“That’s good.”
Index 99 nodded. “Then let’s hurry back now.”
Meanwhile, on the basketball court, the basketball match had reached a fever pitch.
No one cared about the initially proposed exhibition match anymore.
From the time that Black Shaman deliberately stole the ball from Zong Jiu, also from the time that Zong Jiu felt more than one puppet string above the other’s head, the battle between the two sides heated up.
Gradually, the bullet chat glimpsed inklings of it.
[Holy. How is this like an exhibition match mandated by the school, it’s more like NBA live.]
[I’m stunned. Didn’t someone say in the bullet chat before that No. 2, No. 8, and the Magician had formed an alliance? Why do they look like they’re duking it out to death now?]
[I’m screaming. The plot has gone all the way from a horror instance to a Slam Dunk chapter.]
Ofa jibcf atf yeiifa mtja, fnfc atf agjlcffr, obgmfv ab rla bc atf ysilcf yea lcnjgljyis tjv atflg wlcvr jvgloa wfcajiis gfnlfklcu atf rsiijyer, kfgf cbk kjamtlcu klat wbeatr jujqf, mbwqifafis vewyobecvfv.
“Qtja lr atlr… Pr atf Zjulmljc tjnlcu j rqja klat Rb. 8?”
“P vbeya atja. Po atfgf kfgf gfjiis jcs gewbegr bo yjv yibbv yfakffc atfw, tbk mbeiv atfs tjnf ilnfv qfjmfoeiis lc gbbw 101 abufatfg yfobgf? Dfrlvfr, P’nf cfnfg tfjgv j atlcu.”
“But check this—” A trainee pointed to the court, whispering heatedly, “Does this look like they’re taking a stroll in the park?”
Backing in and breaking past the mark, fakes, passing, sudden intercedes, blocks and swats… The small reddish-brown ball was flung around the basketball court. At one moment, the white-haired young man leapt high into the air and then stayed low; the next moment, Black Shaman would block him almost superhumanly, and the ball would draw a parabola in the air.
Occasionally, when the pale pink eyes locked onto Black Shaman’s dark green gaze, even from a distance, the surging strife was palpable.
Besides the captains, the two teams on the basketball court seemed to become irrelevant nobodies. They watched the match develop on the court, neither side knowing how to handle this.
A 5v5 basketball match had been advanced into an intense solo showdown.
Zong Jiu mentally reflected on his past carelessness.
As Black Shaman wasn’t yet No. 1’s puppet during the King’s Game, he had lowered his guard after that, never suspecting once.
…But when he thought closely about it, reasonably speaking, he only had one Tarot draw every day. People usually wouldn’t test the same thing time and time again, else even a hundred draws a day wouldn’t be enough for someone as suspicious as Zong Jiu.
In the final analysis, it was mainly due to how unthinkable that No. 8 could have fallen this quickly into the Devil’s hands. And it was even deeply embedded, so seamlessly that knowledge of this evoked shivers.
But now it looked like No. 1 had not a lick of interest in keeping it hidden.
At the other end of the quadrangle, the man in the suit still stood in his original spot, and Zong Jiu could distinctively sense the other’s dangerous gaze on his spine, sending jolts of adrenaline through his body.
And in front, Black Shaman’s lower jawline was angular under the sunlight and his lips were tightly pursed. Dark golden slowly seeped from the deep recesses of his eyes.
Zong Jiu sneered in his head.
Amazing. The real guy watched the play unfold from the byline whereas the puppet was sent up for the fight. Dare I pay my compliments on how beautifully this side gig was juggled.
The white-haired young man bent down slightly, his eyes fixed on the basket before him like a wild wolf ready to strike.
He initially wanted to take the chance to tear away the puppet strings, but No. 8’s physical strength caught him off-guard. Although he was a spindly shaman, he didn’t forget to enhance his body, and his stationary jump easily reached a height of three metres, able to dunk a ball from the three-pointer line.
Van Zhuo, who had just concluded his match, stood aside with deeply furrowed brows.
The half-vampire next to him whispered, “Your Lordship, didn’t No. 8 agree to cooperate with us…”
“It doesn’t matter as long as he doesn’t get in the way.”
The Night Clan leader imperceptibly shook his head, looking out of his peripheral vision at the trainees seated on the ground.
So far, many classes threw their lot with No. 2 after he expressed his desire to have as many people survive this collective instance as possible.
No. 2’s reputation deterred everyone from openly opposing him. Even the arrogance that Class 5’s monitor had previously displayed was no more than a veiled objection, small actions on the sly.
But Van Zhuo knew that the rallying power brought by Night Clan’s authority was far from enough to offset the high-pressure environment of this instance.
When lives were at stake, no one would care about who they offended. They’d definitely save their own skins first. That was the reason behind the failure of the first revolt.
Before rising to his position of No. 2, Van Zhuo was a competent leader who knew how to measure pros and cons and maximise benefits.
Black Shaman had always been a low-key and mysterious person; the Witch Society he was involved in was as well.
His image in the infinite loop wasn’t that of a man as good as Messiah, but neither was it as insidious as Zhuge An, much less malicious than the Devil.
In short, Van Zhuo could turn a blind eye to his actions as long as he didn’t directly interfere with them. The plan had already been accomplished, after all. As it was now, even as trainees each harboured their own schemes, they were still accommodating on the surface, and that was enough.
—
The competition concluded.
The educators who had come to visit the school were ushered to their cars, backdropped by applause from all the trainees.
Once again, the school gates were shut and cement was poured into the lock of chains as thick as arms.
Within these short few days, the number of faceless trainees had increased again, most dramatically in classes that advocated shunning and putting pressure on the weaker students.
By now, it was general knowledge that the transformation into faceless people in this environment was so unnoticeable that even the affected trainee didn’t feel it.
For this mechanical and repetitiveness of studying, studying, and studying and the indoctrination of the warped ideas of this world was at its essence no different from a pyramid scheme.
Worst of all, it didn’t kill them outright, but destroyed their sense of self.
The human heart, protected within the chest cavity, was more fragile than the human body.
The trainees who had been made to sit on the quadrangle all afternoon were finally dismissed, and they anxiously strode back to the classrooms to revise.
On the other hand, Zong Jiu tossed the ball and stayed behind on the quadrangle, patiently waiting with Van Zhuo and Tsuchimikado for index 99 and the half-vampire to come over and report on the situation.
After listening, Tsuchimikado gave a conservative estimate. “It’ll probably take about three days for the paper shikigami to excavate the situation inside.”
The remote location of the Corpse Pit was so strictly guarded that nobody dared to break in. Fortunately, they had found an interval during today’s observation by the Education Board to plant the paper shikigami inside, thereafter only had to wait for the results of this reconnaissance.
“Okay, then we’ll convene again when there’s news.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
After the meeting, Zong Jiu hurried towards the hostel.
His chest was now stuffy with thick displeasure that he desperately needed to vent.
As luck would have it, Zong Jiu found the target of his ire right after turning the corner into a corridor.
Having showered in the morning, at this time, no trainee wanted to waste time. Almost everyone went to the classrooms, with only a handful choosing to return to the hostel.
The hostel’s white corridors were empty, save for the rope dangling from the ceiling in the lobby, the sight sending chills across the scalp.
Black Shaman stood in the shadows of the stairs, one hand loosely raised. He had changed back into his mysterious hooded black robes.
Zong Jiu sneered. He set aside the upright Devil tarot card that symbolised that the other had long been wholly controlled, and a poker card mercilessly sliced through the air.
His movements were fast. When it came to combat, though Black Shaman had the upper hand in enhancements, his fighting techniques were not up to par, and thus lost out to Zong Jiu’s fighting technique gained from the instruction of world-class experts he’d paid to receive in his previous world.
They exchanged blows in the shadows at the bottom of the stairs, a fist matching a kick. There were no security cameras that captured this area, and it was so poorly illuminated that even the hostel caretaker might not notice them even if she entered the lobby.
For some reason, the other actually didn’t leverage on his black magic, and a slip-up caused him to be pinned to the wall by Zong Jiu, the face partially revealed under the hood cold and sharp.
Zong Jiu arched a brow, scoffing. “How’s that for a surprise, No. 1?”
To prevent any tricks, the Magician purposefully brought his hand above Black Shaman’s head; should anything seem amiss, he’d pluck off the second-stage puppet strings without further ado.
In the shadows, a white-gloved hand slowly raised.
A wry voice emerged from the shadows, intimately close to the white-haired young man’s ear. “Oh, hey there. Surprise.”
Index 99 was still crouching outside the washroom, carefully sequestered in a blindspot of the surveillance, pressing the communication talisman to his ear.
There was a small hiccup just now.
According to their original plan, they definitely wouldn’t allow this valiant half-vampire to actually be tossed into the Corpse Pit. Therefore, the plan was for the half-vampire to enact a sudden resurrection just before he was thrown into the Corpse Pit.
Given the bloodline suppression, half-vampires were absolutely loyal to Van Zhuo as his henchman, unable to revolt in any manner. Even if Anthony was violent and irascible, he would still have to obediently follow every command to the tee.
And so, the half-vampire followed the script very faithfully. After the stretcher carried by the teaching assistants was brought to the iron door, he performed the miraculous act of resurrection on the spot.
The faceless teaching assistants were stunned silly by this corpse that had suddenly resurrected from the dead.
The end result was just as they predicted. No matter how indifferent they were to life, even faceless people wouldn’t directly throw a living person into the Corpse Pit to become fertiliser. As such, after a bit of wrangling, they booted the half-vampire out.
Index 99 had been waiting for him at the washroom. When the half-vampire came out, he finally sighed in relief.
“How did it go?”
The two of them squeezed into the corner.
“It won’t do. There’s something wrong in there. It doesn’t lead directly to the Corpse Pit; there’s a tunnel behind the iron door and a few other doors on both sides of the passage.”
The half-vampire said cautiously, “But I’ve already planted the paper shikigami that Tsuchimikado had handed to me inside. It’s pitch-black inside and there’s usually no one, so the paper shikigami should be able to move freely.”
Paper shikigamis were a specialty of the Yin-Yang Master, who regularly flaunted this trick. Although he was similar to the Exorcist in that he didn’t belong to any organisation, many still constantly sought his help. After all, this move didn’t cause any bother nor leave any taint. It was a phenomenal skill for reconnaissance.
AD
“That’s good.”
Index 99 nodded. “Then let’s hurry back now.”
Meanwhile, on the basketball court, the basketball match had reached a fever pitch.
No one cared about the initially proposed exhibition match anymore.
From the time that Black Shaman deliberately stole the ball from Zong Jiu, also from the time that Zong Jiu felt more than one puppet string above the other’s head, the battle between the two sides heated up.
Gradually, the bullet chat glimpsed inklings of it.
[Holy. How is this like an exhibition match mandated by the school, it’s more like NBA live.]
[I’m stunned. Didn’t someone say in the bullet chat before that No. 2, No. 8, and the Magician had formed an alliance? Why do they look like they’re duking it out to death now?]
[I’m screaming. The plot has gone all the way from a horror instance to a Slam Dunk chapter.]
Ofa jibcf atf yeiifa mtja, fnfc atf agjlcffr, obgmfv ab rla bc atf ysilcf yea lcnjgljyis tjv atflg wlcvr jvgloa wfcajiis gfnlfklcu atf rsiijyer, kfgf cbk kjamtlcu klat wbeatr jujqf, mbwqifafis vewyobecvfv.
“Qtja lr atlr… Pr atf Zjulmljc tjnlcu j rqja klat Rb. 8?”
“P vbeya atja. Po atfgf kfgf gfjiis jcs gewbegr bo yjv yibbv yfakffc atfw, tbk mbeiv atfs tjnf ilnfv qfjmfoeiis lc gbbw 101 abufatfg yfobgf? Dfrlvfr, P’nf cfnfg tfjgv j atlcu.”
“But check this—” A trainee pointed to the court, whispering heatedly, “Does this look like they’re taking a stroll in the park?”
Backing in and breaking past the mark, fakes, passing, sudden intercedes, blocks and swats… The small reddish-brown ball was flung around the basketball court. At one moment, the white-haired young man leapt high into the air and then stayed low; the next moment, Black Shaman would block him almost superhumanly, and the ball would draw a parabola in the air.
Occasionally, when the pale pink eyes locked onto Black Shaman’s dark green gaze, even from a distance, the surging strife was palpable.
Besides the captains, the two teams on the basketball court seemed to become irrelevant nobodies. They watched the match develop on the court, neither side knowing how to handle this.
A 5v5 basketball match had been advanced into an intense solo showdown.
Zong Jiu mentally reflected on his past carelessness.
As Black Shaman wasn’t yet No. 1’s puppet during the King’s Game, he had lowered his guard after that, never suspecting once.
…But when he thought closely about it, reasonably speaking, he only had one Tarot draw every day. People usually wouldn’t test the same thing time and time again, else even a hundred draws a day wouldn’t be enough for someone as suspicious as Zong Jiu.
In the final analysis, it was mainly due to how unthinkable that No. 8 could have fallen this quickly into the Devil’s hands. And it was even deeply embedded, so seamlessly that knowledge of this evoked shivers.
But now it looked like No. 1 had not a lick of interest in keeping it hidden.
At the other end of the quadrangle, the man in the suit still stood in his original spot, and Zong Jiu could distinctively sense the other’s dangerous gaze on his spine, sending jolts of adrenaline through his body.
And in front, Black Shaman’s lower jawline was angular under the sunlight and his lips were tightly pursed. Dark golden slowly seeped from the deep recesses of his eyes.
Zong Jiu sneered in his head.
Amazing. The real guy watched the play unfold from the byline whereas the puppet was sent up for the fight. Dare I pay my compliments on how beautifully this side gig was juggled.
The white-haired young man bent down slightly, his eyes fixed on the basket before him like a wild wolf ready to strike.
He initially wanted to take the chance to tear away the puppet strings, but No. 8’s physical strength caught him off-guard. Although he was a spindly shaman, he didn’t forget to enhance his body, and his stationary jump easily reached a height of three metres, able to dunk a ball from the three-pointer line.
Van Zhuo, who had just concluded his match, stood aside with deeply furrowed brows.
The half-vampire next to him whispered, “Your Lordship, didn’t No. 8 agree to cooperate with us…”
“It doesn’t matter as long as he doesn’t get in the way.”
The Night Clan leader imperceptibly shook his head, looking out of his peripheral vision at the trainees seated on the ground.
So far, many classes threw their lot with No. 2 after he expressed his desire to have as many people survive this collective instance as possible.
No. 2’s reputation deterred everyone from openly opposing him. Even the arrogance that Class 5’s monitor had previously displayed was no more than a veiled objection, small actions on the sly.
But Van Zhuo knew that the rallying power brought by Night Clan’s authority was far from enough to offset the high-pressure environment of this instance.
When lives were at stake, no one would care about who they offended. They’d definitely save their own skins first. That was the reason behind the failure of the first revolt.
Before rising to his position of No. 2, Van Zhuo was a competent leader who knew how to measure pros and cons and maximise benefits.
Black Shaman had always been a low-key and mysterious person; the Witch Society he was involved in was as well.
His image in the infinite loop wasn’t that of a man as good as Messiah, but neither was it as insidious as Zhuge An, much less malicious than the Devil.
In short, Van Zhuo could turn a blind eye to his actions as long as he didn’t directly interfere with them. The plan had already been accomplished, after all. As it was now, even as trainees each harboured their own schemes, they were still accommodating on the surface, and that was enough.
—
The competition concluded.
The educators who had come to visit the school were ushered to their cars, backdropped by applause from all the trainees.
Once again, the school gates were shut and cement was poured into the lock of chains as thick as arms.
Within these short few days, the number of faceless trainees had increased again, most dramatically in classes that advocated shunning and putting pressure on the weaker students.
By now, it was general knowledge that the transformation into faceless people in this environment was so unnoticeable that even the affected trainee didn’t feel it.
For this mechanical and repetitiveness of studying, studying, and studying and the indoctrination of the warped ideas of this world was at its essence no different from a pyramid scheme.
Worst of all, it didn’t kill them outright, but destroyed their sense of self.
The human heart, protected within the chest cavity, was more fragile than the human body.
The trainees who had been made to sit on the quadrangle all afternoon were finally dismissed, and they anxiously strode back to the classrooms to revise.
On the other hand, Zong Jiu tossed the ball and stayed behind on the quadrangle, patiently waiting with Van Zhuo and Tsuchimikado for index 99 and the half-vampire to come over and report on the situation.
After listening, Tsuchimikado gave a conservative estimate. “It’ll probably take about three days for the paper shikigami to excavate the situation inside.”
The remote location of the Corpse Pit was so strictly guarded that nobody dared to break in. Fortunately, they had found an interval during today’s observation by the Education Board to plant the paper shikigami inside, thereafter only had to wait for the results of this reconnaissance.
“Okay, then we’ll convene again when there’s news.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
After the meeting, Zong Jiu hurried towards the hostel.
His chest was now stuffy with thick displeasure that he desperately needed to vent.
As luck would have it, Zong Jiu found the target of his ire right after turning the corner into a corridor.
Having showered in the morning, at this time, no trainee wanted to waste time. Almost everyone went to the classrooms, with only a handful choosing to return to the hostel.
The hostel’s white corridors were empty, save for the rope dangling from the ceiling in the lobby, the sight sending chills across the scalp.
Black Shaman stood in the shadows of the stairs, one hand loosely raised. He had changed back into his mysterious hooded black robes.
Zong Jiu sneered. He set aside the upright Devil tarot card that symbolised that the other had long been wholly controlled, and a poker card mercilessly sliced through the air.
His movements were fast. When it came to combat, though Black Shaman had the upper hand in enhancements, his fighting techniques were not up to par, and thus lost out to Zong Jiu’s fighting technique gained from the instruction of world-class experts he’d paid to receive in his previous world.
They exchanged blows in the shadows at the bottom of the stairs, a fist matching a kick. There were no security cameras that captured this area, and it was so poorly illuminated that even the hostel caretaker might not notice them even if she entered the lobby.
For some reason, the other actually didn’t leverage on his black magic, and a slip-up caused him to be pinned to the wall by Zong Jiu, the face partially revealed under the hood cold and sharp.
Zong Jiu arched a brow, scoffing. “How’s that for a surprise, No. 1?”
To prevent any tricks, the Magician purposefully brought his hand above Black Shaman’s head; should anything seem amiss, he’d pluck off the second-stage puppet strings without further ado.
In the shadows, a white-gloved hand slowly raised.
A wry voice emerged from the shadows, intimately close to the white-haired young man’s ear. “Oh, hey there. Surprise.”
