Chapter 2

Ning Buwen had not reached that conclusion on a whim.

In fact, he kept records every day.

Every day, the students in the last row would disappear, yet the rest of the class acted as though they knew nothing at all.

The way they vanished was strange, too.

Before evening study ended, the students in the last row would all be sitting at their desks, resting.

Ning Buwen had gone over to ask why they were not leaving. Every one of them gave the same answer: "I'm a little tired. I want to put my head down on my desk and rest first."

On the first day, Ning Buwen had been a little suspicious, but he had not spotted anything, so he simply left.

The next day, he discovered that all the students in the last row had vanished. Yet no one in the class seemed to remember them at all, and they even turned a blind eye to the empty desks.

Then, during that evening's study session, the students in the second-to-last row, just like those from the day before, put their heads down on their desks and slept. When Ning Buwen tried to reach out and pull them up, he found that he could not budge them at all. The students he tried to pull even lashed out at him viciously.

Afterward, Ning Buwen had also tried moving the people in the last row to the front. They survived just fine, but the student who had switched seats with them disappeared instead.

Ning Buwen had worked out several rules.

First, never stay overnight in the classroom.

Second, never sit in the last row.

Third, do not leave this school.

Every time Ning Buwen tried to leave this fully enclosed school, a terror rising from the depths of his heart would envelop him, forcing him to stop.

He could not go outside the school.

He could not go outside the school.

He would die!

The school was the only area Ning Buwen could move about in, but he had to survive the next six days.

The information he had now was not enough for Ning Buwen to sit in the last row and court death on purpose.

"Teacher!" Ning Buwen raised his hand high.

"What is it?" The homeroom teacher seemed to dislike Ning Buwen intensely, but he was long used to that and did not think much of it.

"Teacher, I want to change seats." Ning Buwen spoke with blatant nonchalance. "I'm nearsighted. I can't see the blackboard from the back."

"What do you want?" The homeroom teacher glared at him. "This isn't the time to change seats."

"Teacher, if I sit in the back, I'm liable to chat." Ning Buwen said this with a perfectly straight face. "If I sit in front, with you watching me directly, I won't dare pull any little tricks. You don't want me disrupting the other students' studies either, do you?"

"Fine." The homeroom teacher heard the threat hidden in Ning Buwen's words. The homeroom teacher also realized that keeping Ning Buwen close under direct supervision was better than letting him disrupt the other students' lessons.

"Sit beneath the podium," the homeroom teacher said, glaring at him.

"Okay." Ning Buwen immediately stood, picked up his desk, and moved it forward. He did not even intend to wait until class was over.

The homeroom teacher and the students stared at him in surprise, but not a single person stepped forward to stop him.

To be honest, Ning Buwen rather enjoyed the feeling. The homeroom teacher and the students all seemed wary of him, even afraid of him. That was because Ning Buwen's assigned persona feared neither heaven nor earth and would even blurt out the secret the class had been keeping.

Unfortunately, Ning Buwen's setting was that he "knew" this secret, when in fact he did not.

Clearly, if he wanted to clear the instance successfully, he could only uncover that secret. Otherwise, there were only four rows left in the class now. Even if he sat in the very front, he would not make it through the final two days.

He definitely could not take on the thing in this classroom.

Last time, he had merely tried to damage the classroom, and it attacked him. If not for the girl who had jumped off the building blocking one blow for him, he would be dead or half-crippled by now.

That was why supernatural Pandora instances were far too unforgiving to newcomers. If Ning Buwen did not have such exceptional mental fortitude, he might have jumped off a building like that girl before him.

Ning Buwen moved his desk beneath the podium, took out his textbook as if nothing had happened, then looked innocently at the homeroom teacher. "Teacher, it's time for class."

Homeroom teacher: ...

"There have been a lot of infectious diseases lately, so the school will be driving out its stray cats and dogs. Don't go near them. All right, class!" The homeroom teacher said this, then quickly picked up a piece of chalk and began writing the lesson material.

This time, Ning Buwen was the one left dumbfounded.

Wait, hadn't it said his dog had high luck?!

The moment class ended, Ning Buwen ran out.

His dog might indeed be useless, but it was still emergency rations he had his eye on. He couldn't let the mutt just kick the bucket for no reason, could he?

Nothing.

Nothing.

Not here either.

Ning Buwen's eyelid twitched, and his heart gave a jolt.

Could that stupid dog really have been dealt with by the people at this school? For all he knew, it had already become someone's dog-meat hotpot.

Ning Buwen let out an almost imperceptible sigh.

Forget it. He had looked everywhere. He had done right by that stupid dog.

Luckily, he had not gotten around to naming it yet, so he was not too attached...

Just as he turned to go back, someone appeared and called out to him.

"Student, are you looking for this little black dog?"

The speaker was a beautiful man in a white lab coat. In his arms was an astonishingly well-behaved little black dog: the Newcomer Starter Pack Ning Buwen had drawn.

"Xiaoxin, you're here! I've been looking for you everywhere." Ning Buwen's eyes immediately reddened. He rushed over in an instant and seized the hand of the school's famously beautiful doctor. "School Doctor Cheng, thank goodness, thank goodness. Thank you for finding Xiaoxin for me. It was a gift from my mother before she passed away. If it got lost, I really wouldn't know what to do."

Ning Buwen could turn on the tears at will, as though the Oscars owed him several statuettes.

He truly looked pitiful enough to melt anyone's heart, as if this dog were his entire life.

The dog in School Doctor Cheng's arms barked, as though responding to its owner.

The stupid dog was pretty clever. If I ever run out of emergency rations, I'll try to eat you a little later, Ning Buwen thought to himself.

"Is its name Xiaoxin?" School Doctor Cheng smiled faintly and tried to pull his hand free from Ning Buwen's grip. But after a slight tug, he discovered that this student was surprisingly strong. "Which xin is it? The xin in heart, or the xin in new?"

No, actually, it was the xin in Newcomer Starter Pack.

"The xin from Crayon Shin-chan." Ning Buwen answered with complete sincerity. "Don't you think it looks as shameless as Crayon Shin-chan?"

School Doctor Cheng looked down at the stupid dog in his arms, then looked up at its owner. He suddenly felt that the owner might be the one better suited to that name.

"Come to think of it, I never expected you to be the one who found my dog, School Doctor Cheng." Ning Buwen took Xiaoxin from him and finally released the beautiful doctor's hand. Then, putting on an act, he probed, "The school says there have been infectious diseases lately, so it's driving away the cats and dogs. Do you know anything about that?"

"Infectious diseases?" School Doctor Cheng thought for a moment and shook his head. "Maybe it's because I haven't been outside in a long time, but I haven't heard of any recent outbreaks."

"I see." Ning Buwen already had a small idea of what was going on. "School Doctor Cheng, have any students recently come to you to discuss psychological problems?"

The school's beautiful doctor also worked part-time as the psychological counselor.

Generally speaking, to prevent students from falling in love, schools did not allow male or female teachers to dress too attractively. Yet this school doctor seemed to be a complete exception. Even dressed utterly ordinarily, he was still the most popular man in the school.

The kind popular with both boys and girls.

In the few short days since Ning Buwen had arrived at the school, he had heard the doctor's name more than once.

Anything out of the ordinary had something fishy behind it.

In a paranormal school instance like this, there could not possibly be an NPC with such a high profile who was completely useless.

Ning Buwen had originally wanted to find an opportunity to get close to this school doctor. He had not expected that little stupid dog to create such a perfect opportunity for him.

"If you have any psychological issues, you can come ask me about them. Exam week is coming soon, and quite a few students are especially nervous." School Doctor Cheng smiled. "You should find somewhere to keep your dog as soon as possible. I only happened to run into it today by luck. Otherwise, you really may not find it next time."

"Thank you, School Doctor Cheng." Ning Buwen thanked him again. "Maybe I've been a little too nervous lately. I keep feeling as though quite a few classmates are missing. If I still feel that way tomorrow, I'll come see you for a proper talk."

"Fine." School Doctor Cheng nodded and soon left.

The moment the school doctor was gone, Ning Buwen's expression changed at once. "Stupid dog, get off me already. You weigh a ton."

"Woof—"

Xiaoxin jumped down from Ning Buwen's arms.

"Look at you, your paws are covered in dirt." Ning Buwen crouched and poked the dog's head. "Listen closely. As long as you keep following that school doctor for me, not only won't I eat you, I'll even get you dog food. Bark once if you understand."

"Woof."

"Good. It's settled, then. You're a little useful after all." Ning Buwen patted the dog's head with satisfaction. "Go on. I need to work hard at finding clues too."

Ning Buwen mainly suspected three people in this school.

The first was School Doctor Cheng. He seemed out of place in this school, and generally, when students had problems, he should be the first person they sought out. There ought to be some information to find on his side.

Besides, putting a teacher that good-looking in a high school made him completely clash with the setting. Ning Buwen wanted to dedicate the song "Out of Place" to him; making him the number-one suspect was simply a matter of course.

Before entering Pandora's Box, Ning Buwen had diligently studied some of the usual tropes.

Generally, an NPC that conspicuous, even if not the final boss, was bound to have some important clue.

Of course, it could also be simply because Ning Buwen was an unabashed sucker for a pretty face and merely wanted an excuse to get close to a beauty.

The second person Ning Buwen suspected was the class monitor in his class, Chen Ying, the girl who had chatted with him earlier.

Chen Ying seemed to know quite a lot and had a very good relationship with the original owner of this body. Most importantly, even though the students in the class and even the homeroom teacher disliked the original owner, she had always gotten along well with him.

Ning Buwen could even sense that the way she looked at him sometimes was a little off. But calling it "love" did not seem right either.

The final person he suspected was the original owner himself.

The person whose body Ning Buwen possessed was also the greatest source of his confusion at present.

Clearly, the "vengeful spirit" in this school had been brought forth by some reckless students performing a Spirit Summoning, and those reckless students should be connected to his class. After all, aside from his class, the number of students in the other classes did not seem wrong at all.

What was frustrating was that Ning Buwen had inherited none of the original owner's memories.

The original owner had not kept a diary, so he could not find any clues. But judging from the original owner's personality and what he had done, the original owner also bore considerable malice toward this class.

The key was: exactly what was that malice about?

Ning Buwen sorted through his thoughts and decided to start with Chen Ying.

There was no helping it. She was the easiest to find, and time was short. He had to take a risk now and then.

At this time, Chen Ying was usually in the school library.

She was an excellent student in both character and academics. Though her looks were not outstanding, she was dependable, and the students in the class all seemed to accept her as class monitor.

Ning Buwen headed toward the school library.

Naturally, a high school library was not very large.

It was only a short flight of stairs and a room even smaller than an ordinary classroom. Inside were mostly world classics, journals, and newspapers.

As Ning Buwen climbed the stairs, he saw traces of blood on them.

There was some here too?

It had not been there when he came yesterday.

Ning Buwen let out a long breath, forcing himself to calm down.

At least he still had a chance to escape this hellhole, rather than waiting until only a few students remained here while the students themselves still had no idea what was happening.

Nothing was more frightening than the unknown.

Ning Buwen stepped onto the stairs. Suddenly, he sensed a sound behind his back and immediately threw himself forward, rolling to the right.

Thunk.

An axe chopped straight into the spot where he had been standing moments ago.

If he had not moved quickly, he would probably have become another bloodstain on these stairs.

Ning Buwen lifted his head and stared at the attacker in shock.

It was Chen Ying?

How could it be? She had been fine before. What had provoked her?

Was it School Doctor Cheng, or the library?

Ning Buwen had no time to think. As Chen Ying pulled the axe free, he kicked out at her.

He was a true believer in gender equality; even if she was a girl, he would not hesitate to hit her.

Caught off guard by Ning Buwen's kick, Chen Ying did not release the axe. Instead, she used the momentum to wrench it free and chop at Ning Buwen again.

How was that possible?

Even a grown man could not take a direct kick from me like that and be completely fine.

The axe's whistle through the air rang beside Ning Buwen's ear.

Ning Buwen gritted his teeth and lunged, using the height advantage of the stairs to hurl himself at Chen Ying, locking down her limbs tightly.

"Why are you trying to kill me? Tell me!"

Chen Ying gave a somewhat hysterical laugh, her face nearly mad with it. "No, I clearly killed you. Right here. Why are you still alive? Why are you standing right in front of me, alive and kicking?"