Chapter 8

The instant he saw the photograph, Ning Buwen understood that he had finally obtained the key item for clearing this game.

Sure enough, it had been in School Doctor Cheng's hands.

"Xiaoxin, let's go." Ning Buwen patted his dumb dog's head. "We'll head straight for the school gate. Staying here means death anyway. If we get lucky, we might even be able to leave this game early."

There were three ways to clear a Pandora's Box game.

First, fulfill the Pandora game's requirements. For instance, Ning Buwen's requirement this time was to survive ten days. As long as he used every means at his disposal to stay alive until the tenth day, even if he did nothing else, he could still clear the game safely with a D-rank evaluation.

Second, use a special instance-clearance card. Such item cards were practically rare-grade; sometimes not even one would appear in an entire year. They could only possibly be found in legions with single-digit designations, and they were for saving lives. These cards were only used in special game instances where death was all but certain, so this method of clearing could be disregarded.

The third method was also one of the important standards by which every legion selected talent. It was said to be the fastest way to clear a game and the most profitable: uncover the worldview and truth of the level you were in. That would allow you to clear it early, and the resulting evaluation was guaranteed to be at least B-rank. The exact evaluation was calculated according to how completely you had unraveled the worldview.

Generally speaking, players who had cleared only three levels were considered newcomers. Expectations for newcomers were low; all they needed to do was survive by the first method. Those who rashly tried the third usually died miserable deaths. Ning Buwen had considered using the third method too, but his Newcomer Starter Pack had not yielded any useful items, so he could only play it safe.

But in this game instance, Ning Buwen had neither the right timing, the right place, nor the right people. He had reached the point where he could not clear it at all unless he took risks.

-

Take now, for instance. He had obtained the key item, but that did not mean he could escape tonight's pursuit. Zhao Shudong alone was enough to crush him, not to mention the classroom held a monster obviously stronger than Zhao Shudong. Even if Zhao Shudong could not kill him because of the diary, once she moved him into the classroom, even his will would be ground away. How could he possibly force her back as he had during the day?

So in truth, Ning Buwen had only this one road left.

Xiaoxin understood nothing. He simply followed his master foolishly toward the school gate.

It was only eight o'clock. There were still nearly two hours until evening self-study ended.

Two hours was more than enough to reach the school gate.

The idea was lovely, but reality had no intention of humoring him.

Ning Buwen had barely left the infirmary with his dog when he saw every remaining classmate blocking his way.

There had not been many students left in the class to begin with—only ten or twenty altogether—and nearly every last one of them was here.

In any other situation, Ning Buwen might have thought his popularity was through the roof.

"Student Ning, you haven't attended class for two consecutive days. The homeroom teacher asked us to bring you back to class." The speaker was an utterly ordinary-looking boy. Ning Buwen could not even be sure whether he was actually in their class.

"I'm preparing to go abroad, so I won't be coming to school lately, much less evening self-study. Please move aside." Ning Buwen spoke as he tried to walk forward.

"No. You have to attend evening self-study!"

"How can a student not attend class? I'll take you there right now."

"Come on, Student Ning."

The other students crowded around him one by one, all reaching out in concert to drag Ning Buwen away.

Some grabbed at his hands, some at his feet. It did not look as though they wanted to take him back to the classroom at all. It looked more like they were trying to pull him apart with five horses.

Ning Buwen was in no hurry. Instead, he studied the students with interest.

Judging by their vacant eyes, they had most likely been controlled.

Then again, the school's only living person, School Doctor Cheng, was already dead. The rest were merely moving corpses. There was not much difference.

"Do you all know you're actually dead?" Ning Buwen suddenly asked.

The students' expressions changed abruptly at those words.

"What are you talking about?"

"Student Ning, let's go back to self-study."

"Go."

Ning Buwen kicked away the classmate closest to him, aiming directly for the face without the slightest intention of holding back.

Then, within minutes, he knocked down the students on both sides of him.

Without any pressure at all.

"I can't beat those inhuman things, but that doesn't mean I can't deal with ordinary students like you." Ning Buwen clapped his hands and could not help whistling. "I'm a professional, you know."

Xiaoxin bit down on one student's pant leg as well.

"Don't bite." Ning Buwen hurriedly scooped the foolish little dog up. "They're all dead. What are you biting for? Don't come near me after you bite one."

"Woof—"

"Walk on your own. Follow me."

These students were nothing but mobile roadblocks. Clearly, Zhao Shudong had sent them to delay him, but she had not expected Ning Buwen to be quite good at fighting.

After all, he had fought Chen Ying while she was holding an axe—and won.

For a while afterward, all sorts of obstacles appeared along the way, but on the whole they did not delay Ning Buwen by much.

At around nine, Ning Buwen and Xiaoxin had reached the school gate.

Zhao Shudong was waiting there.

At that moment, she looked no different from a vicious ghost.

When Ning Buwen looked at her again, she felt like a completely different person from the one she had been during the day.

Looking at the woman before him, he almost pitied her.

But pitiful people must have something hateful about them. At the thought of her possessing and killing School Doctor Cheng, Ning Buwen crushed that faint sympathy in his heart.

"Let's talk." Ning Buwen put a hand in his pocket, his fingers gripping the yellowed photograph as he tried to stall a little longer. "I can return this urn to you first."

Ning Buwen set the urn from his arms on the ground, then took two steps back. "Consider that my good faith."

Zhao Shudong's fingernails instantly lengthened, and she caught the urn securely in her hands.

"I found a photograph in School Doctor Cheng's diary." Ning Buwen looked calmly at Zhao Shudong. "There's only a picture of one woman teaching in it. Who do you think that woman is?"

Cradling the urn, Zhao Shudong said nothing for a long while.

"I always thought you became this way because of your older sister. I was wrong." Ning Buwen slowly pulled the photograph out of his pocket. "Because even you don't know."

When Zhao Shudong saw the photograph, not only did she not come to snatch it, terror instead surfaced in her eyes.

Fear and anticipation, both at once.

A striking contradiction.

"Just like the students in this school who have already died. Some of them may look alive, but they're actually dead. That's true for me, and it's true for you. Earlier, you said, 'School Doctor Cheng is the only living person in this school.' I thought that was strange. At the very least, daytime you was no different from a normal person. I never expected that when you said that, you were including yourself too."

Ning Buwen turned the front of the photograph toward Zhao Shudong and slowly approached her.

Zhao Shudong stared at the photograph as if her gaze had been glued to it, utterly motionless.

There was only one woman in the yellowed photograph.

The woman was teaching, a bright smile on her face. She looked beautiful and captivating.

Aside from seeming a little younger and a little more human than the current Zhao Shudong, she was no different at all.

Ning Buwen immediately ruled out the possibility of twins.

The possibility could not stand up. A female teacher had died at this school—how could they possibly hire her nearly identical twin sister to teach the very same class?

That left only one possibility.

There had never been an older sister of Zhao Shudong in this school. Zhao Shudong had no older sister at all.

The dead female teacher was Zhao Shudong herself.

She was the true dead female teacher summoned by the "original owner" Ning Buwen was playing and several students.

Only Zhao Shudong herself had forgotten it.

She had fabricated the fact that she was "not yet dead," turning herself into her own "younger sister."

But she had not changed her name.

That was a major flaw.

Which was why, when Ning Buwen had asked Chen Ying for the dead female teacher's name, Chen Ying had instantly gone mad.

Because in that instant, Chen Ying had realized that the homeroom teacher she spent every day with was actually the dead female teacher.

"You wanted to kill School Doctor Cheng because he was the only one who might recognize you. You wanted his diary because you knew he had a photograph of you, and he had your urn too. Using my hand, you killed the only person in the world who might have known who you were, who could have made you remember the truth."

Holding the photograph, Ning Buwen pressed forward step by step, drawing ever closer to Zhao Shudong.

Zhao Shudong tried to raise her hand and kill Ning Buwen, but her body seemed to have been frozen in place.

"I drilled a hole in the bottom of the urn with a knife and kept it sealed with wax. When I gave it to you just now, I picked the wax out." Ning Buwen spread his palm, revealing a piece of white wax. "How does it feel to be covered in your own ashes?"

Zhao Shudong's face changed rapidly. That demonic visage was gradually beginning to return to a human one.

"The photograph is yours too." Ning Buwen pressed it against Zhao Shudong's face and said each word distinctly, "You're already dead. Leave this place."

Zhao Shudong jolted, her eyes blank. "I... I'm already dead? Yes, I... I already..."

Several months earlier.

Four students had secretly climbed up to the old school building with a small booklet.

"Teacher Zhao was so good to us. We can definitely bring her back to life."

"Are you ready?"

"I'm ready."

"I'm ready too."

...

"Teacher Zhao, you're really alive!"

"Teacher Zhao!"

"I... what's wrong with me?"

"Blood?"

"It hurts so much. It hurts so much."

...

There was a price for bringing back the dead.

The original host and the students who performed the summoning all died, as did every student in Zhao Shudong's class.

Perhaps the curse had even spread to the entire school, creating this bizarre place.

Ning Buwen watched Zhao Shudong's body turn to ashes bit by bit. At the same time, a gentle female voice rang out.

"Congratulations, player, on clearing the 'Spirit-Summoning Instance' early. The exit has opened. Please leave within two hours."

A large, glittering golden box suddenly appeared at the school gate.

Its patterns and appearance were exactly the same as the Pandora's Box Ning Buwen had received in the real world, only many times larger.

The box stood open. As long as he stepped inside and closed the lid, he could immediately return to the real world.

Ning Buwen walked toward it. Xiaoxin had already jumped into the box ahead of him, wagging his tail as he waited for his master to come in too.

"You go back first." One of Ning Buwen's feet was already in the air, but he lowered it again. "I'm going to get something. I'll be right back."

"Woof."

"The first person I ever fell for—I should bring something back with me." Ning Buwen laughed softly, though he looked more like he was crying. "How ridiculous. School Doctor Cheng died so unfairly. After I get out, I may even have to see a psychologist."

"Woof." Xiaoxin could not understand at all and merely wagged his tail happily.

Ning Buwen turned and ran toward the infirmary.

He only needed to bring School Doctor Cheng's framed solo portrait back. The rules allowed that.

In fact, after every game instance ended, Pandora's Box gave players anywhere from one to twenty-four hours to remain behind. If a player was skilled and bold enough, they could use that time to continue searching the instance. Whatever they found was theirs.

Of course, some people had risen to prominence in one stroke that way, while others had dug up another Boss's item and died.

Ning Buwen was not greedy.

Since he had cleared this instance early, his evaluation was guaranteed to be B-rank or above—perhaps even A-rank. He did not need any reward. He only wanted to take back a memento.

The route back was completely clear.

He quickly reached the infirmary.

"Let it be in memory of my dead first—" Ning Buwen picked up the picture frame and was talking to himself when an unhurried set of footsteps sounded at the door.

At this hour, why would there still be someone here?

Ning Buwen grabbed the scissors from the table and hid by the door. The moment someone entered, he raised the scissors and stabbed at them.

The other person was obviously faster than he was.

The world spun.

A sharp pain from hitting the ground shot through him. Ning Buwen had been thrown directly to the floor by the newcomer.

The scissors also fell to the ground with a clear clatter.

"If you want to kill someone with scissors, you can't aim at my chest." The newcomer picked up the scissors and aimed their point at his own temple. "Stab here. That's how you kill me in one go."

It was still that beautiful face, completely out of step with everything around it.

Only, he had taken off his white coat and changed into an ordinary black trench coat.

He looked like a completely different person from before.

School Doctor Cheng?!

— Author's note —

If Doctor Cheng weren't the top, I couldn't possibly have spent so much ink on him. Though his personality may have just a tiny little problem, hehe.