Towards the Devil’s warm invitation, Zong Jiu’s response was concise—it only took him all of one word.
“Scram.” DzMX79
In the face of such a ruthless rejection, No. 1’s abstruse dark golden eyes slowly narrowed.
After a moment, as though thinking of something, a smile was restored to the corners of his lips.
Please support our translators at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com
“No matter. You don’t have to respond to me so soon.”
That being said, the man’s gloved fingers continued to mercilessly put pressure at the end of the eye, tracing the narrow tail of the Magician’s eye. The other hand was locked around the slender, pale wrists of the white-haired young man, pressing him against the back of the metal door, caging him in the narrow space. Zu6EQn
The Devil’s exhale was as cold as his body temperature, without the slightest iota of warmth.
He lovingly drew back his fingers, inadvertently brushing across the young man’s rolling Adam’s apple as he did.
The displeasure in Zong Jiu’s eyes deepened.
No. 1 was obnoxiously gambolling across his minefield, and still now he was talking cooperation? Dream on.
BO0tvL
Yet the Devil, in a show of magnanimity, slowly released the hand shackling his opponent.
The next second, Zong Jiu immediately flipped his body over, bending his knee and delivering a front kick.
The white edge of the poker card between his fingers glinted coldly in the dim stairwell like the swiftly approaching footsteps of the grim reaper, engulfed in frigidity, sweeping across forcefully.
No. 1 had long anticipated this attack, so he took large strides backwards, retreating to the third floor landing of the stairs, evading Zong Jiu’s attack range like a phantom. jhJdGQ
“I’ll await your final response in the trainee dormitories. Feel free to change your mind any time.”
He inclined his head, dodging the three poker cards that swept at his scalp. Thereafter, the man in the suit smiled and gentlemanly bowed to him, his silhouette dissolving like an apparition, melting into the shadows behind him.
This was the second time that Zong Jiu had seen the Devil activate his ability to traverse shadows. Just like the previous time, he was utterly unable to discern any conditions restricting this ability.
The white-haired young man didn’t move but held his stance with the poker cards in his hands for a long time before slowly lowering his right hand, rubbing the wrist that had reddened from the other man’s grip. He snorted. Qs8zRP
Any ordinary man would probably have accepted No. 1’s offer of cooperation without hesitation. That was No. 1 after all.
A man whose name no one knew, a man so feared and longed for that everyone simply referred to him as ‘The Devil’.
Such absolute strength undoubtedly stood at the pinnacle of the entire infinite loop. This strength was the reason that allowed the Devil, despite knowing the prophecy, to remain careless, never taking it to heart, always holding himself with lofty arrogance.
Unquestionably, it was foolish to make an enemy of this man. fy2lrO
Zong Jiu had a hunch that those previous bouts were merely petty scuffles. The Devil had never been serious, let alone truly had the intent to put him to death. Though, of course, this short-lived ‘kindness’ might be nothing more than him killing time, and nothing more than simple amusement.
A madman like the Devil, should he really have murder on his mind, would never waste this much time on words—with just a few puppet strings, he could manipulate anyone towards their deaths without a beat. Even the rules and regulations specified by the system wouldn’t be able to stop him.
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
Which was why Zong Jiu laughed.
Of No. 1’s many sentences, there was only one that Zong Jiu gave heartfelt affirmation. RWY5ZU
The Devil took the universe of the infinite loop as his playground. He manipulated his puppets to stir up mischief and wreckage, watching the show from backstage, admiring the ugliness of the contenders in desperation. With no effort at all, he stirred up the deepest, darkest pits of the human heart.
The Magician, on the other hand, had made this his most extravagant show ever. He had a penchant for deceit and disguise, and enjoyed using words to play everyone on the palm of his hand. It wasn’t only the deception of his mole identity in the Famine Mountain Village, or the trickery he leveraged to make a killing in Las Vegas. Even in the days as a master magician in the real world, Zong Jiu had mastered this art to perfection.
This world of terror and despair had simply given him more room to play.
They were indeed birds of a feather, through and through. iajItQ
Many times, others were unable to fathom No. 1’s behaviour, but it was effortless for Zong Jiu.
He could even put himself in the other’s shoes and simulate the deeper meaning behind his actions.
A madman’s logic was simple—merely divided into interesting or uninteresting, fun or not fun. Unlike ordinary people, it wasn’t driven by self-interest or other motives, nor did it pass through moral concepts.
They were unfettered by anything. jdPWNA
And it was because of this that Zong Jiu would laugh so mockingly.
To the two of them, this word ‘cooperation’ was a paradox in and of itself.
They would never allow another to share the glory of each other’s thrones, let alone cooperate to win like the weaklings would.
Just imagine it. If Zong Jiu were the Devil, there were most probably only two situations in which he would speak of ‘cooperation’ with someone. M3rOko
One was that the other party currently had something useful, so, with this word, he would bluff the other and then throw them away like garbage when they lost their value.
The second was that he found the other party interesting and would use cooperation to confuse them, then, when there came an opportunity, stab them in the back and admire their dismayed expressions.
If he changed the other party to someone like himself, then the word ‘cooperation’ would only be more amusing.
Zong Jiu was 100% certain that if he agreed to the Devil’s offer of cooperation, he would most likely not survive this copy. 7SbLTk
Because then, the level of interest attached to the person ‘Zong Jiu’ would be massively discounted in No. 1’s eyes.
And, naturally, there was no need for uninteresting people to exist.
Chrysanthemum Garden.
Furthermore, it was impossible for them to place their trust in someone other than themselves.
Therefore, Zong Jiu not only had to ruthlessly reject the Devil, but he also had to deliver the other a grand gift. 3X5hHF
As for the consequences of declaring war with No. 1?
What did he care, it wasn’t as if this was the first time that he had done so.
Zong Jiu wasn’t in a rush to return to class. He first went into a surveillance blindspot in a toilet cubicle to open the clue that Van Zhuo gave him.
This was a letter that had seen the years, like the tattered diary. It was not immediately apparent which one dated further back. FdYPl4
The school had organised a cleaning exercise last week, or it wouldn’t have been so easy to discover so many clues. In contrast, Zong Jiu was more inclined to think that this was arranged by the system, because the plot had progressed to the approach of the mid-term exam. After getting used to the cruel rhythm of this collective instance, it was about time to start digging for deeper information. It was unlikely that they had dumped them in an impossible situation with no way out.
The letter wasn’t long.
Unexpectedly, it was a suicide note.
[To everyone who sees this letter: By the time you read this, I should already be dead.] thvZLV
[A month before the midterms, the first ‘Mutant’ had appeared in the grade, who immediately established himself as the top scorer… The subsequent exams are each harsher than the next. And now, with the inflated cut-off score and cruel competition, all classes have made a choice.]
[Everyone in class has been shunning me, attempting to have me change into a Mutant so that they may live on.]
[A classmate falsely accused me of puppy love. Because his grades are better than mine, I received a demerit. Maybe that was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. I feel disgusted looking at those selfish faces… For the sake of their survival, to raise the class average, they have forced the person in the bunk above me to become a Mutant. Whereas I carve words on my wrist with a pocket knife every night, telling myself over and over again that I can’t become that kind of depersonified being.]
[In the end, I’m still choosing suicide. Haha. Because I’m an exactly that kind of incompetent coward.] 6S5hns
[I didn’t have any last words to leave behind. My parents are entrenched in their own mediocre lives, yet always ignoring my wishes and trying to control my life, to make me the successful person they dream for me to become—as if they are living it once over themselves.]
[All people are demons wrapped in human skin. The blood in their veins runs cold. No one cares about whether I survive; no one has asked for my opinion, nor has anyone asked if I want to become the so-called ‘useful people to society’.]
[I can only use my own destruction to complete my revenge on this world. Because I cannot control anything else but my existence anymore. Haha.]
After the ‘haha’, the letter reached its end, with no further follow-up. Sq4Wbn
Zong Jiu was clear that this letter might really have walked towards the conclusion that it spoke of. The person who wrote this committed suicide, using the most extreme method to express his wish not to become faceless, also depriving his parents of the child that they had spent so many years nurturing, completing what he believed was his ‘revenge on the world’.
The emergence of faceless beings had already made Zong Jiu aware of what the Mutant in this letter and the diary referred to.
Chrysanthemum Garden.
Although the circumstances of the two classes were very different, unfailingly, both ended up with the same resolution.
The class recorded in the diary had a good environment, with harmony and friendship between classmates who would cheer each other on. xa5sfK
Eventually, the marks required for the exams in First High School rose higher and higher, and the class even successively became faceless of their own accord to raise the class average.
Which was why in the end, on July 4th, the girl who wrote the diary said: ‘If no one among us three changes, the whole class will die.’
However, upon taking the graduation photo on July 5th, the remaining three students unequivocally chose to become faceless, including that girl with only half a face left. As a whole, everyone was striving to do their best for the class.
Ultimately, in the conclusion of the diary, she said—’They sacrificed themselves to save the class. They saved me.’ and ‘It’s my turn now.’ 2ZdDxU
These words forebode the final ending of the whole class becoming faceless people.
While these two clues didn’t seem to have much in common at first glance, careful study would reveal one conclusion.
The two subsequent exams must be extremely demanding, difficult, and the required passing score would be far beyond anything they could imagine.
Especially the final exam. That girl had done well in her own studies. While she was unable to match up to the near-perfect scores of the faceless students, she wasn’t lacking whatsoever. Yet despite this, being unable to find a way for a non-faceless student to survive was quite telling that the final exam was a dead end. PShb3B
This meant that if they couldn’t find a way to break the game before the final exam, then they’d either die under the lash or transform into faceless people without self-awareness.
Zong Jiu folded the letter again and slipped it back into his pocket.
He recalled a precious clue in the diary, and thought that he might have the inklings of a method to do so.
But the trouble was that this method could probably only be executed for the final exam. 2mXx4J
And before that, they’d first have to survive the mid-term and the second monthly exams.
—
Soon, under the fervid rush of panicked studying, the midterms swiftly arrived.
This time around, the nervousness on the faces of the trainees could not be hidden. 4vSs9
Last time, at least only the last place was eliminated; the top few classes could rest easy. But this time, a line was drawn. It wasn’t uncommon for one’s performance to fluctuate at the exam venue. Many classes were just hovering around the 600-mark line. If they slipped up now, it would result in the death of the whole class.
Class 9’s bottom-rung students all had sweaty palms during the exam. They were beyond nervous.
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
Before the midterms, the class had spent two periods of evening self-study to do test runs, and the final class average just barely crossed 600.
Therefore, perform poorly now and a disastrous ending would come upon them. tekXYJ
On the contrary, Zong Jiu didn’t panic at all.
Because before the exam, he had divined the future with the Tarot Deck, so he wrote his paper with calm and composure, without the least bit of trepidation.
O’ the wonders of the Tarot Deck.
Towards the Devil’s warm invitation, Zong Jiu’s response was concise—it only took him all of one word.
“Scram.” DzMX79
In the face of such a ruthless rejection, No. 1’s abstruse dark golden eyes slowly narrowed.
After a moment, as though thinking of something, a smile was restored to the corners of his lips.
Please support our translators at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com
“No matter. You don’t have to respond to me so soon.”
That being said, the man’s gloved fingers continued to mercilessly put pressure at the end of the eye, tracing the narrow tail of the Magician’s eye. The other hand was locked around the slender, pale wrists of the white-haired young man, pressing him against the back of the metal door, caging him in the narrow space. Zu6EQn
The Devil’s exhale was as cold as his body temperature, without the slightest iota of warmth.
He lovingly drew back his fingers, inadvertently brushing across the young man’s rolling Adam’s apple as he did.
The displeasure in Zong Jiu’s eyes deepened.
No. 1 was obnoxiously gambolling across his minefield, and still now he was talking cooperation? Dream on.
BO0tvL
Yet the Devil, in a show of magnanimity, slowly released the hand shackling his opponent.
The next second, Zong Jiu immediately flipped his body over, bending his knee and delivering a front kick.
The white edge of the poker card between his fingers glinted coldly in the dim stairwell like the swiftly approaching footsteps of the grim reaper, engulfed in frigidity, sweeping across forcefully.
No. 1 had long anticipated this attack, so he took large strides backwards, retreating to the third floor landing of the stairs, evading Zong Jiu’s attack range like a phantom. jhJdGQ
“I’ll await your final response in the trainee dormitories. Feel free to change your mind any time.”
He inclined his head, dodging the three poker cards that swept at his scalp. Thereafter, the man in the suit smiled and gentlemanly bowed to him, his silhouette dissolving like an apparition, melting into the shadows behind him.
This was the second time that Zong Jiu had seen the Devil activate his ability to traverse shadows. Just like the previous time, he was utterly unable to discern any conditions restricting this ability.
The white-haired young man didn’t move but held his stance with the poker cards in his hands for a long time before slowly lowering his right hand, rubbing the wrist that had reddened from the other man’s grip. He snorted. Qs8zRP
Any ordinary man would probably have accepted No. 1’s offer of cooperation without hesitation. That was No. 1 after all.
A man whose name no one knew, a man so feared and longed for that everyone simply referred to him as ‘The Devil’.
Such absolute strength undoubtedly stood at the pinnacle of the entire infinite loop. This strength was the reason that allowed the Devil, despite knowing the prophecy, to remain careless, never taking it to heart, always holding himself with lofty arrogance.
Unquestionably, it was foolish to make an enemy of this man. fy2lrO
Zong Jiu had a hunch that those previous bouts were merely petty scuffles. The Devil had never been serious, let alone truly had the intent to put him to death. Though, of course, this short-lived ‘kindness’ might be nothing more than him killing time, and nothing more than simple amusement.
A madman like the Devil, should he really have murder on his mind, would never waste this much time on words—with just a few puppet strings, he could manipulate anyone towards their deaths without a beat. Even the rules and regulations specified by the system wouldn’t be able to stop him.
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
Which was why Zong Jiu laughed.
Of No. 1’s many sentences, there was only one that Zong Jiu gave heartfelt affirmation. RWY5ZU
The Devil took the universe of the infinite loop as his playground. He manipulated his puppets to stir up mischief and wreckage, watching the show from backstage, admiring the ugliness of the contenders in desperation. With no effort at all, he stirred up the deepest, darkest pits of the human heart.
The Magician, on the other hand, had made this his most extravagant show ever. He had a penchant for deceit and disguise, and enjoyed using words to play everyone on the palm of his hand. It wasn’t only the deception of his mole identity in the Famine Mountain Village, or the trickery he leveraged to make a killing in Las Vegas. Even in the days as a master magician in the real world, Zong Jiu had mastered this art to perfection.
This world of terror and despair had simply given him more room to play.
They were indeed birds of a feather, through and through. iajItQ
Many times, others were unable to fathom No. 1’s behaviour, but it was effortless for Zong Jiu.
He could even put himself in the other’s shoes and simulate the deeper meaning behind his actions.
A madman’s logic was simple—merely divided into interesting or uninteresting, fun or not fun. Unlike ordinary people, it wasn’t driven by self-interest or other motives, nor did it pass through moral concepts.
They were unfettered by anything. jdPWNA
And it was because of this that Zong Jiu would laugh so mockingly.
To the two of them, this word ‘cooperation’ was a paradox in and of itself.
They would never allow another to share the glory of each other’s thrones, let alone cooperate to win like the weaklings would.
Just imagine it. If Zong Jiu were the Devil, there were most probably only two situations in which he would speak of ‘cooperation’ with someone. M3rOko
One was that the other party currently had something useful, so, with this word, he would bluff the other and then throw them away like garbage when they lost their value.
The second was that he found the other party interesting and would use cooperation to confuse them, then, when there came an opportunity, stab them in the back and admire their dismayed expressions.
If he changed the other party to someone like himself, then the word ‘cooperation’ would only be more amusing.
Zong Jiu was 100% certain that if he agreed to the Devil’s offer of cooperation, he would most likely not survive this copy. 7SbLTk
Because then, the level of interest attached to the person ‘Zong Jiu’ would be massively discounted in No. 1’s eyes.
And, naturally, there was no need for uninteresting people to exist.
Chrysanthemum Garden.
Furthermore, it was impossible for them to place their trust in someone other than themselves.
Therefore, Zong Jiu not only had to ruthlessly reject the Devil, but he also had to deliver the other a grand gift. 3X5hHF
As for the consequences of declaring war with No. 1?
What did he care, it wasn’t as if this was the first time that he had done so.
Zong Jiu wasn’t in a rush to return to class. He first went into a surveillance blindspot in a toilet cubicle to open the clue that Van Zhuo gave him.
This was a letter that had seen the years, like the tattered diary. It was not immediately apparent which one dated further back. FdYPl4
The school had organised a cleaning exercise last week, or it wouldn’t have been so easy to discover so many clues. In contrast, Zong Jiu was more inclined to think that this was arranged by the system, because the plot had progressed to the approach of the mid-term exam. After getting used to the cruel rhythm of this collective instance, it was about time to start digging for deeper information. It was unlikely that they had dumped them in an impossible situation with no way out.
The letter wasn’t long.
Unexpectedly, it was a suicide note.
[To everyone who sees this letter: By the time you read this, I should already be dead.] thvZLV
[A month before the midterms, the first ‘Mutant’ had appeared in the grade, who immediately established himself as the top scorer… The subsequent exams are each harsher than the next. And now, with the inflated cut-off score and cruel competition, all classes have made a choice.]
[Everyone in class has been shunning me, attempting to have me change into a Mutant so that they may live on.]
[A classmate falsely accused me of puppy love. Because his grades are better than mine, I received a demerit. Maybe that was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. I feel disgusted looking at those selfish faces… For the sake of their survival, to raise the class average, they have forced the person in the bunk above me to become a Mutant. Whereas I carve words on my wrist with a pocket knife every night, telling myself over and over again that I can’t become that kind of depersonified being.]
[In the end, I’m still choosing suicide. Haha. Because I’m an exactly that kind of incompetent coward.] 6S5hns
[I didn’t have any last words to leave behind. My parents are entrenched in their own mediocre lives, yet always ignoring my wishes and trying to control my life, to make me the successful person they dream for me to become—as if they are living it once over themselves.]
[All people are demons wrapped in human skin. The blood in their veins runs cold. No one cares about whether I survive; no one has asked for my opinion, nor has anyone asked if I want to become the so-called ‘useful people to society’.]
[I can only use my own destruction to complete my revenge on this world. Because I cannot control anything else but my existence anymore. Haha.]
After the ‘haha’, the letter reached its end, with no further follow-up. Sq4Wbn
Zong Jiu was clear that this letter might really have walked towards the conclusion that it spoke of. The person who wrote this committed suicide, using the most extreme method to express his wish not to become faceless, also depriving his parents of the child that they had spent so many years nurturing, completing what he believed was his ‘revenge on the world’.
The emergence of faceless beings had already made Zong Jiu aware of what the Mutant in this letter and the diary referred to.
Chrysanthemum Garden.
Although the circumstances of the two classes were very different, unfailingly, both ended up with the same resolution.
The class recorded in the diary had a good environment, with harmony and friendship between classmates who would cheer each other on. xa5sfK
Eventually, the marks required for the exams in First High School rose higher and higher, and the class even successively became faceless of their own accord to raise the class average.
Which was why in the end, on July 4th, the girl who wrote the diary said: ‘If no one among us three changes, the whole class will die.’
However, upon taking the graduation photo on July 5th, the remaining three students unequivocally chose to become faceless, including that girl with only half a face left. As a whole, everyone was striving to do their best for the class.
Ultimately, in the conclusion of the diary, she said—’They sacrificed themselves to save the class. They saved me.’ and ‘It’s my turn now.’ 2ZdDxU
These words forebode the final ending of the whole class becoming faceless people.
While these two clues didn’t seem to have much in common at first glance, careful study would reveal one conclusion.
The two subsequent exams must be extremely demanding, difficult, and the required passing score would be far beyond anything they could imagine.
Especially the final exam. That girl had done well in her own studies. While she was unable to match up to the near-perfect scores of the faceless students, she wasn’t lacking whatsoever. Yet despite this, being unable to find a way for a non-faceless student to survive was quite telling that the final exam was a dead end. PShb3B
This meant that if they couldn’t find a way to break the game before the final exam, then they’d either die under the lash or transform into faceless people without self-awareness.
Zong Jiu folded the letter again and slipped it back into his pocket.
He recalled a precious clue in the diary, and thought that he might have the inklings of a method to do so.
But the trouble was that this method could probably only be executed for the final exam. 2mXx4J
And before that, they’d first have to survive the mid-term and the second monthly exams.
—
Soon, under the fervid rush of panicked studying, the midterms swiftly arrived.
This time around, the nervousness on the faces of the trainees could not be hidden. 4vSs9
Last time, at least only the last place was eliminated; the top few classes could rest easy. But this time, a line was drawn. It wasn’t uncommon for one’s performance to fluctuate at the exam venue. Many classes were just hovering around the 600-mark line. If they slipped up now, it would result in the death of the whole class.
Class 9’s bottom-rung students all had sweaty palms during the exam. They were beyond nervous.
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
Before the midterms, the class had spent two periods of evening self-study to do test runs, and the final class average just barely crossed 600.
Therefore, perform poorly now and a disastrous ending would come upon them. tekXYJ
On the contrary, Zong Jiu didn’t panic at all.
Because before the exam, he had divined the future with the Tarot Deck, so he wrote his paper with calm and composure, without the least bit of trepidation.
O’ the wonders of the Tarot Deck.
