87: Chapter 87 Teacher Qin, Don't Be Late

Jiang Ning's tone was a mix of anger and confusion, carrying the exhaustion of having just escaped death.

"What the f—... where is this?"

From deep within the corridor came the sound of students reciting a text in unison. Sunlight streamed in from the windows. The scene before them was too normal—so normal that it made one's skin crawl.

Fang Che pushed himself up from the floor with his elbows. The impact of his back hitting the tiles caused a tightness in his chest, and his internal organs ached faintly.

He ignored the pain in his body and narrowed his eyes, surveying his surroundings. The light green walls and windows were spotless, not even a speck of dust on them. The surface of the tiles reflected the light, and the air smelled of grass mixed with sunlight. This place was far too clean; there were no remains of flesh and blood, no stench of rot. The disgusting slaughter in the passageway just now felt as if it had never happened.

Mu Waner steadied herself against the wall and slowly stood up, looking at the clean, bright corridor in a daze. The successive bloody battles had pushed her to her limit. Now, suddenly seeing this peaceful scene, her eyes reddened, and she almost burst into tears.

"Does this... count as having cleared the level?"

Fang Che was still half-sitting on the floor, but his muscles had instinctively tensed, ready to spring into action at any moment.

"Nobody move!"

Jiang Ning scrambled up from the floor, brushed the dust off herself, and looked at him, completely puzzled.

"Fang Che, what are you doing? Everyone barely managed to escape that hellhole, and you're still standing there with a straight face. Can't you let people catch their breath first?"

Su Qingxue and Teacher Qin Bing also stood up one after another. Neither of them spoke, but they turned to look at Fang Che. The continuous crises had made them accustomed to waiting for him to make the call the moment something happened.

Fang Che then slowly stood up, enduring the pain in his back as he moved his shoulders. There was no sign of relaxation in his eyes; instead, his expression grew increasingly grave.

"Don't you realize that it's too quiet here?"

Everyone was stunned by his question.

Jiang Ning looked baffled. "How is it quiet? Isn't there the sound of reading? And the wind is blowing, the curtains are moving, too."

Reminded by Fang Che, the girls carefully listened to those sounds, and the color drained from their faces instantly.

The surroundings were indeed too quiet. Those recitations were lifeless, the tone and speed maintaining a mechanical loop, devoid of any emotional fluctuation characteristic of living people.

Apart from this rigid sound, not a single other noise could be found in the entire Teaching Building. No students were playing in the hallways, no teachers were walking about. Even though the group of them had just crashed onto the tiles with such a loud noise, no one had come out of any room to check.

The place was left with nothing but a layer of stiff, artificial background noise.

Fang Che stared fixedly at the empty corridor. The place reeked of something sinister everywhere, and his intuition told him that it was even more dangerous than the flesh-filled passageways packed with monsters just moments ago.

"This place isn't right." He turned directly to look at Mu Waner beside him. "Hurry up and use your skill to see if there's anything hidden around here or any hidden clues."

Mu Waner took a deep breath and immediately concentrated. But the moment a faint glimmer lit up in her eyes, her pupils constricted sharply, and she froze in place.

"Ah!" A shrill scream suddenly escaped her lips as she clutched her head tightly and squatted down.

Two streams of glaring blood spilled from the corners of her tightly closed eyes, leaving two red trails down her pale cheeks.

Mu Waner rolled on the ground in pain, her voice filled with the sobbing tone of extreme terror. "It hurts so much! My eyes, they hurt!"

"I can't see at all! I can't see anything here! I was backlashed the moment I used my skill. The contamination level is too terrifying!"

Teacher Qin Bing's expression changed drastically. She immediately rushed forward and knelt beside Mu Waner, her palms lighting up with a white healing glow as she covered those bleeding eyes.

Fang Che's brow furrowed tightly. This situation clearly indicated that there was a high-level entity hiding nearby, or perhaps even the underlying rules of this space were forcibly suppressing Mu Waner's skill.

As the healing energy seeped into her skin, the blood at the corners of Mu Waner's eyes finally stopped, and her body stopped convulsing violently. However, she was completely exhausted, and could only slump limply in Teacher Qin Bing's arms, gasping for air.

The stone that had just settled in everyone's heart was instantly lifted back into their throats.

Just at this critical moment, a steady, brisk sound of footsteps suddenly came from the end of the corridor. Tap, tap, tap.

The sound carried an air of leisure, sounding like a student wearing flat shoes strolling down the hallway.

Everyone instantly held their breath, their movements surprisingly synchronized as they gripped their weapons and assumed a defensive stance.

Fang Che and Jiang Ning stood at the very front with tacit understanding. Su Qingxue stood in the middle, frost already gathering in her hands, while Teacher Qin Bing half-held the still-recovering Mu Waner and backed toward the corner.

Everyone's gaze was fixed on the corner where the sound was coming from.

A few seconds later, a girl with a high ponytail, wearing a summer school uniform and holding a few books, walked out from behind the corner.

The girl's complexion was rosy, radiating the vitality of a living person, and her eyes were clear.

Seeing this group of strangers covered in blood and holding weapons in the corridor, she only showed a hint of curiosity on her face; there was absolutely no reaction of fear.

No matter how one thought about it, the situation was extremely incongruous. Any normal student encountering this scene would have screamed and run away long ago.

The girl's gaze swept over them and finally landed precisely on Teacher Qin Bing, who was full of shock and suspicion.

She curled her lips into a very bright smile. "Oh, Teacher Qin, why are you still wasting time here? The principal has been waiting for you in the fourth-floor conference room for a long time."

As soon as these words were spoken, Teacher Qin Bing's mind went blank, and her vision went black for a few seconds before she could see her surroundings clearly again.

She froze on the spot, trembling uncontrollably. Her legs, completely beyond her brain's control, took a sharp step back until her back slammed heavily against the wall with a dull thud.

Teacher Qin Bing covered her mouth tightly with both hands, her eyes wide as if they were about to pop out, desperately swallowing the scream that had reached her throat.

She was all too familiar with the girl in front of her.

This student who was smiling at her and calling her Teacher Qin—she knew her very well in reality.

About a year ago, this very student, named Zhou Xiaoyue, had jumped directly from the top floor of this Teaching Building in front of a crowd of people. When she hit the ground, she was smashed into a mess of red and white, and she died on the spot.

To this day, that incident remained a psychological trauma that could wake Teacher Qin Bing up from her dreams in a fright.

Because she was close by, Mu Waner also recognized the face that had once caused such a stir in the school, and she immediately shrank behind Fang Che.

"This... this is like seeing a ghost. How could a person who is dead and gone pop out like this!"

"This is too absurd. This is a survival instance; why would someone who died in reality be standing here alive!"

Su Qingxue's face turned completely grim, her knuckles gripping her staff turning faintly white from the force.

Even when facing those disgusting deformed monsters earlier, they had never felt this creeped out.

Yet, this student, who should have died in reality long ago, was now standing there, calm and quiet under the bright sun, smiling at them with the body of a living person. That was the most bone-chilling part of it all.