The bullet chat was momentarily speechless, and it was a long time before someone haltingly spoke.
[Oh my god, index 99…]
[Sigh, I was right after all. It couldn’t have been anything good for him to have disappeared at a time like this, but I never expected that he’d chosen suicide. Even turning into a faceless person would have been better.]
[I guess he had no choice. The incident with index 15 really hit him too hard. Moreover, it takes time to turn into a faceless person; everyone only found out after coming to class in the morning. Alas, it isn’t possible for anyone to transform with only half an hour to go before the start of the examination.]
Upon seeing the bloody trail dripping from the bags onto the ground, the remaining trainees of Class 9 were finally unable to suppress their tears.
In all of the horror instances that they’d experienced, there was probably never a time when sorrow struck as deeply as it did now. Even the live broadcast, which had hundreds of thousands of viewers, was utterly silent. Like they were all standing before a grave, attending a mournful funeral.
“This student is jinxed. He jumped from the roof and instantly got cleaved into several chunks by the reinforced wire mesh and high-voltage barbed wires. We’ll even have to mop the area after this, what a pain.”
“Nevermind, just double back and clean up until the blood spray outside is almost gone. The weather forecast says that it’ll rain in the afternoon. That’ll save us a bit of time.”
The teaching assistants’ conversation faded into the distance.
Index 98 howled, wanting to rush up and retrieve the bag containing index 99’s head.
But Zong Jiu’s voice crashed coldly overhead. “Do you want index 99 to have died in vain?”
His shoulders restrained, index 98 could only crouch down, devastated, bawling.
They couldn’t even retrieve index 99’s pulverised corpse.
802 marks, no more than 3 marks above 799. Yet, it lit a lamp for the other ninety-eight people trudging onwards in the darkness.
And he who lit the lamp smiled and waved at them. He followed behind index 15, who had departed long before, turning away from them and vanishing forever into endless darkness, never to look back.
—
Before the execution, the teaching director announced the target for the final exam.
“Congratulations for making ninety days in First High School. Soon, the final sprint will be upon us, the last thirty days to the end of the semester.”
The teaching director’s voice was impassioned. “In another thirty days, First High School will create another year of myths in the university entrance exams. After these thirty days, you will be able to meet your parents, who are waiting for you with high hopes outside the school campus. These are the last thirty days; you only have to gruel through these last thirty days. And then when you look back in the future, you will definitely thank yourselves for all that you’re doing now. If you don’t suffer now, then when will you learn to? On a construction site? Work hard now and you can spend your life in comfort. I hope that you can grasp this and be responsible for your own life.”
There were only six classes left on the quadrangle, which was half of where they started out with ten, let alone the numerous faceless people among them.
Everyone was silent. Deep exhaustion rolled in the depths of their hearts.
This was an instance that was both physically and mentally torturous. There were clearly no ghosts or monsters, yet it was far more terrifying than that.
But finally, finally, the last round would be upon them.
Ycmf atfs kfgf atgbeut atf ijra atlgas vjsr, atfs kbeiv tla atf 120-vjs ajrx jrrlucfv ab atfw, jcv atfc gfaegc ab atf agjlcff vbgwlabglfr.
Ycis ja atf nfgs fcv vlv atf afjmtlcu vlgfmabg vfmijgf atf ajgufa.
“Ktf mea-boo rmbgf obg atf olcji fzjw lr 1000 wjgxr. P jkjla sbeg aglewqt.”
Rb bcf rqbxf. Ktfgf kjr cba j mbwwfca bc atlr fzagjbgvlcjglis tlut rmbgf. Rb. 2, obg fzjwqif, jmmfqafv atlr klat cjgs jcs regqglrf ja jii.
A thousand marks. When converted to a full mark of 750 on the gaokao, this was tantamount to getting 650, which was a shoo-in for any prestigious university in China. Now, in First High School, not only was this merely the cut-off score for the final exam, but Olympiad questions were also included within, ramping up the difficulty.
After the second monthly exam, heavy gloom weighed down on the entire year.
In the afternoon after the examination, no one was able to focus on studying. Trainees everywhere were breaking down at their seats, disconsolate from being suppressed to the extreme.
Zong Jiu even told everyone in Class 9 to take the afternoon off. Go back to the hostel and get a good night’s sleep; they’d discuss everything the next day.
Only six people were left in room 101, the monitors’ room.
No. 2 Van Zhuo, No. 8 Dark Warlock, Class 2’s monitor, Class 6’s monitor, the outsider Tsuchimikado, and Zong Jiu.
Room 101 convened for a long-overdue meeting after the second monthly exam.
Only, the person who called for it this time wasn’t Van Zhuo, but Class 9’s monitor.
The night was silent, and only six of the ten small lamps that had been lit in the past still glowed.
The white-haired Magician sat at the table. His ten fingers rested on the table surface, and under the flickering incandescent light, his ethereal countenance seemed cold and untouched by emotion.
Zong Jiu went straight to the point. “Since we’ve come to the last examination, I won’t beat around the bush. I believe that deep down, everyone knows what the simplest solution to this instance is.”
Indeed.
The easiest way to break through this instance was what they had thought of long ago, back before the first monthly exam started.
—To unite as a whole.
If there hadn’t been the accidental leak and consequent snitch, they would have been able to pass the first monthly exam by submitting blank papers en-masse long ago. After all, the law doesn’t punish the majority. No matter how cruel the system was, it wouldn’t exterminate all B-rank trainees at the outset. The rule that First High School subsequently added upon finding out their ploy seemed more as though it was mending the pen after the sheep were lost.
Class 6’s monitor rolled his eyes at the Magician’s words. “So what? It’s useless to talk about unity when you’ve come this far. Be real, it’s class average that’s being looked at now. Do you seriously plan to unite and pull up every class average to the thousand needed for the final?”
It wasn’t just him. Class 2’s monitor shared his opinion, nodding. “It’s not that we want to, but from the way the situation looks, only by converting enough faceless people can we have any chance of surviving.”
The present outlook was grim.
If it was 600 marks, or even the earlier 800, there would still be a chance for them to fight. But 1000 was an insurmountable block for everyone.
If they followed what the two class monitors were suggesting, an average score of 1000 would require almost four-fifths of the trainees in the class to transform into faceless people, and even then, the remaining one-fifth couldn’t drag their feet.
This meant that the remaining who survived would only be around the size of a class, which incidentally matched the system’s intent to drastically eliminate the trainees. This was also the only way they could think of to survive now.
However, after witnessing the fiasco with Class 5’s underachievers, Class 2, 6, and 7, which had initially planned to follow suit, were scared out of their wits. The top students of the two classes now had their tails between their legs, not daring to give the weak students a hard time, fearing that they would band together, repeating the tragedy of Class 5.
After all, there were only a few faceless people in all three classes. If the underachievers had the courage to go for indiscriminate destruction, they would share Class 5’s fate—the top five occupied by faceless trainees, and no one left alive.
“That’s because you have chosen the worst path from the beginning.”
Zong Jiu said coldly, “Since it’s come to this, I’ll say it straight. I hope that you can be absolutely subservient to me for the next twenty days.”
The words were biting and harsh, shredding the mask and revealing the dangerous fangs behind it.
Tsuchimikado watched him, secretly concerned.
Ever since two from Class 9, one willingly turning faceless for the class and one willingly jumping to his death for the class, the Magician seemed to have become a different person.
It was hard to describe the feeling, but it was as though he had been wandering absently along the edge before, but now… a certain cage fettering him had finally been opened.
And what this Pandora’s box contained, no one could be sure.
The words were utterly unforgiving; the two class monitors flushed.
They sneered, jumping to their feet, disdain on their faces. “You’re just a B-rank like the rest of us. What right do you have to order me around?”
Class 6’s monitor even spat, pointing at the three seated S-ranks.
“The S-ranks have yet to speak, and here you are, going at it alone. Are you kidding me?”
Van Zhuo, who had maintained his silence all this while, finally spoke. “I concur with the Magician.”
Tsuchimikado also halted his contemplative gaze, seconding him as well.
Even the aloof Dark Warlock, who had been indifferent in stance, also nodded slightly, expressing his agreement.
With the light behind him, all that could be seen under the hood was a pair of looming green eyes, like a lone wolf in the night on a snowy white plain.
Only Zong Jiu, on whom the line of sight fell, could feel the other’s pleasure and interest brimming beneath the puppet shell.
“Satisfied?”
The white-haired young man scoffed, his voice dripping with palpable sarcasm.
Being publicly ‘slapped’ in the face had the two monitors’ mien oscillate sharply between green and red. Their expressions were downright foul.
But at the end of the day, they were only two B-ranks; neither dared to express their discontent when under pressure from the three S-ranks. Even if they were completely reluctant on the inside, they could only hold their noses and bear with it.
Though Class 6’s monitor had conceded, he was still fuming with frustration.
“Fine. If you want us to obey you, then you have to tell us what your plan is. What solution have you found to keep everyone alive? If you’re just writing blank cheques here, it doesn’t matter if we do as you say; you won’t be able to convince us.”
Not only them, even the other three S-ranks looked over in unison.
No. 2 obviously had his own motivations for supporting Zong Jiu, and it was probable that there was even some element of taking him under his wing whether or not the latter was right.
Tsuchimikado, on the other hand, was one of those who listened to intuition. He felt that though the Magician’s attitude and temperament were wholly different from before, his innate bad-luck danger radar told him that this wasn’t necessarily an unwelcome change, so he chose to trust the other without hesitation.
As for Dark Warlock, under No. 1’s manipulations… the Devil simply wanted to watch the play unfold.
The Magician looked so delectable when he got serious—he couldn’t help but get excited.
In response to Class 6’s monitor’s query, Zong Jiu curled his finger, tapping the tabletop.
Rapt. Rapt. Rapt.
One following the next, sounding the death knell towards the decimation and end of this instance.
Zong Jiu loathed to admit it.
But what was undeniable was that this time, he was well and truly mad.
A blazing fire was aflame in the depths of the white-haired young man’s eyes.
“My plan is to… destroy this instance.”
The bullet chat was momentarily speechless, and it was a long time before someone haltingly spoke.
[Oh my god, index 99…]
[Sigh, I was right after all. It couldn’t have been anything good for him to have disappeared at a time like this, but I never expected that he’d chosen suicide. Even turning into a faceless person would have been better.]
[I guess he had no choice. The incident with index 15 really hit him too hard. Moreover, it takes time to turn into a faceless person; everyone only found out after coming to class in the morning. Alas, it isn’t possible for anyone to transform with only half an hour to go before the start of the examination.]
Upon seeing the bloody trail dripping from the bags onto the ground, the remaining trainees of Class 9 were finally unable to suppress their tears.
In all of the horror instances that they’d experienced, there was probably never a time when sorrow struck as deeply as it did now. Even the live broadcast, which had hundreds of thousands of viewers, was utterly silent. Like they were all standing before a grave, attending a mournful funeral.
“This student is jinxed. He jumped from the roof and instantly got cleaved into several chunks by the reinforced wire mesh and high-voltage barbed wires. We’ll even have to mop the area after this, what a pain.”
“Nevermind, just double back and clean up until the blood spray outside is almost gone. The weather forecast says that it’ll rain in the afternoon. That’ll save us a bit of time.”
The teaching assistants’ conversation faded into the distance.
Index 98 howled, wanting to rush up and retrieve the bag containing index 99’s head.
But Zong Jiu’s voice crashed coldly overhead. “Do you want index 99 to have died in vain?”
His shoulders restrained, index 98 could only crouch down, devastated, bawling.
They couldn’t even retrieve index 99’s pulverised corpse.
802 marks, no more than 3 marks above 799. Yet, it lit a lamp for the other ninety-eight people trudging onwards in the darkness.
And he who lit the lamp smiled and waved at them. He followed behind index 15, who had departed long before, turning away from them and vanishing forever into endless darkness, never to look back.
—
Before the execution, the teaching director announced the target for the final exam.
“Congratulations for making ninety days in First High School. Soon, the final sprint will be upon us, the last thirty days to the end of the semester.”
The teaching director’s voice was impassioned. “In another thirty days, First High School will create another year of myths in the university entrance exams. After these thirty days, you will be able to meet your parents, who are waiting for you with high hopes outside the school campus. These are the last thirty days; you only have to gruel through these last thirty days. And then when you look back in the future, you will definitely thank yourselves for all that you’re doing now. If you don’t suffer now, then when will you learn to? On a construction site? Work hard now and you can spend your life in comfort. I hope that you can grasp this and be responsible for your own life.”
There were only six classes left on the quadrangle, which was half of where they started out with ten, let alone the numerous faceless people among them.
Everyone was silent. Deep exhaustion rolled in the depths of their hearts.
This was an instance that was both physically and mentally torturous. There were clearly no ghosts or monsters, yet it was far more terrifying than that.
But finally, finally, the last round would be upon them.
Ycmf atfs kfgf atgbeut atf ijra atlgas vjsr, atfs kbeiv tla atf 120-vjs ajrx jrrlucfv ab atfw, jcv atfc gfaegc ab atf agjlcff vbgwlabglfr.
Ycis ja atf nfgs fcv vlv atf afjmtlcu vlgfmabg vfmijgf atf ajgufa.
“Ktf mea-boo rmbgf obg atf olcji fzjw lr 1000 wjgxr. P jkjla sbeg aglewqt.”
Rb bcf rqbxf. Ktfgf kjr cba j mbwwfca bc atlr fzagjbgvlcjglis tlut rmbgf. Rb. 2, obg fzjwqif, jmmfqafv atlr klat cjgs jcs regqglrf ja jii.
A thousand marks. When converted to a full mark of 750 on the gaokao, this was tantamount to getting 650, which was a shoo-in for any prestigious university in China. Now, in First High School, not only was this merely the cut-off score for the final exam, but Olympiad questions were also included within, ramping up the difficulty.
After the second monthly exam, heavy gloom weighed down on the entire year.
In the afternoon after the examination, no one was able to focus on studying. Trainees everywhere were breaking down at their seats, disconsolate from being suppressed to the extreme.
Zong Jiu even told everyone in Class 9 to take the afternoon off. Go back to the hostel and get a good night’s sleep; they’d discuss everything the next day.
Only six people were left in room 101, the monitors’ room.
No. 2 Van Zhuo, No. 8 Dark Warlock, Class 2’s monitor, Class 6’s monitor, the outsider Tsuchimikado, and Zong Jiu.
Room 101 convened for a long-overdue meeting after the second monthly exam.
Only, the person who called for it this time wasn’t Van Zhuo, but Class 9’s monitor.
The night was silent, and only six of the ten small lamps that had been lit in the past still glowed.
The white-haired Magician sat at the table. His ten fingers rested on the table surface, and under the flickering incandescent light, his ethereal countenance seemed cold and untouched by emotion.
Zong Jiu went straight to the point. “Since we’ve come to the last examination, I won’t beat around the bush. I believe that deep down, everyone knows what the simplest solution to this instance is.”
Indeed.
The easiest way to break through this instance was what they had thought of long ago, back before the first monthly exam started.
—To unite as a whole.
If there hadn’t been the accidental leak and consequent snitch, they would have been able to pass the first monthly exam by submitting blank papers en-masse long ago. After all, the law doesn’t punish the majority. No matter how cruel the system was, it wouldn’t exterminate all B-rank trainees at the outset. The rule that First High School subsequently added upon finding out their ploy seemed more as though it was mending the pen after the sheep were lost.
Class 6’s monitor rolled his eyes at the Magician’s words. “So what? It’s useless to talk about unity when you’ve come this far. Be real, it’s class average that’s being looked at now. Do you seriously plan to unite and pull up every class average to the thousand needed for the final?”
It wasn’t just him. Class 2’s monitor shared his opinion, nodding. “It’s not that we want to, but from the way the situation looks, only by converting enough faceless people can we have any chance of surviving.”
The present outlook was grim.
If it was 600 marks, or even the earlier 800, there would still be a chance for them to fight. But 1000 was an insurmountable block for everyone.
If they followed what the two class monitors were suggesting, an average score of 1000 would require almost four-fifths of the trainees in the class to transform into faceless people, and even then, the remaining one-fifth couldn’t drag their feet.
This meant that the remaining who survived would only be around the size of a class, which incidentally matched the system’s intent to drastically eliminate the trainees. This was also the only way they could think of to survive now.
However, after witnessing the fiasco with Class 5’s underachievers, Class 2, 6, and 7, which had initially planned to follow suit, were scared out of their wits. The top students of the two classes now had their tails between their legs, not daring to give the weak students a hard time, fearing that they would band together, repeating the tragedy of Class 5.
After all, there were only a few faceless people in all three classes. If the underachievers had the courage to go for indiscriminate destruction, they would share Class 5’s fate—the top five occupied by faceless trainees, and no one left alive.
“That’s because you have chosen the worst path from the beginning.”
Zong Jiu said coldly, “Since it’s come to this, I’ll say it straight. I hope that you can be absolutely subservient to me for the next twenty days.”
The words were biting and harsh, shredding the mask and revealing the dangerous fangs behind it.
Tsuchimikado watched him, secretly concerned.
Ever since two from Class 9, one willingly turning faceless for the class and one willingly jumping to his death for the class, the Magician seemed to have become a different person.
It was hard to describe the feeling, but it was as though he had been wandering absently along the edge before, but now… a certain cage fettering him had finally been opened.
And what this Pandora’s box contained, no one could be sure.
The words were utterly unforgiving; the two class monitors flushed.
They sneered, jumping to their feet, disdain on their faces. “You’re just a B-rank like the rest of us. What right do you have to order me around?”
Class 6’s monitor even spat, pointing at the three seated S-ranks.
“The S-ranks have yet to speak, and here you are, going at it alone. Are you kidding me?”
Van Zhuo, who had maintained his silence all this while, finally spoke. “I concur with the Magician.”
Tsuchimikado also halted his contemplative gaze, seconding him as well.
Even the aloof Dark Warlock, who had been indifferent in stance, also nodded slightly, expressing his agreement.
With the light behind him, all that could be seen under the hood was a pair of looming green eyes, like a lone wolf in the night on a snowy white plain.
Only Zong Jiu, on whom the line of sight fell, could feel the other’s pleasure and interest brimming beneath the puppet shell.
“Satisfied?”
The white-haired young man scoffed, his voice dripping with palpable sarcasm.
Being publicly ‘slapped’ in the face had the two monitors’ mien oscillate sharply between green and red. Their expressions were downright foul.
But at the end of the day, they were only two B-ranks; neither dared to express their discontent when under pressure from the three S-ranks. Even if they were completely reluctant on the inside, they could only hold their noses and bear with it.
Though Class 6’s monitor had conceded, he was still fuming with frustration.
“Fine. If you want us to obey you, then you have to tell us what your plan is. What solution have you found to keep everyone alive? If you’re just writing blank cheques here, it doesn’t matter if we do as you say; you won’t be able to convince us.”
Not only them, even the other three S-ranks looked over in unison.
No. 2 obviously had his own motivations for supporting Zong Jiu, and it was probable that there was even some element of taking him under his wing whether or not the latter was right.
Tsuchimikado, on the other hand, was one of those who listened to intuition. He felt that though the Magician’s attitude and temperament were wholly different from before, his innate bad-luck danger radar told him that this wasn’t necessarily an unwelcome change, so he chose to trust the other without hesitation.
As for Dark Warlock, under No. 1’s manipulations… the Devil simply wanted to watch the play unfold.
The Magician looked so delectable when he got serious—he couldn’t help but get excited.
In response to Class 6’s monitor’s query, Zong Jiu curled his finger, tapping the tabletop.
Rapt. Rapt. Rapt.
One following the next, sounding the death knell towards the decimation and end of this instance.
Zong Jiu loathed to admit it.
But what was undeniable was that this time, he was well and truly mad.
A blazing fire was aflame in the depths of the white-haired young man’s eyes.
“My plan is to… destroy this instance.”
