Chapter 12Arc 1.
Something dragged Xu Ziyue out of his sleepy daze. When he opened his eyes, he saw Sun Mo standing beside his table, and Zhang Jin with the rest of the players standing a little further to the side. When they saw that Xu Ziyue had awoken, the players gave him a little wave, signaling that they were leaving first. Xu Ziyue nodded at them and then moved his gaze to Sun Mo who had been silently staring at him all this time.
Xu Ziyue ran a hand through his hair and then tried to subtly rub the sleep out from his eyes. “What time is it right now?”
“Lunch break.” Sun Mo turned around, ready to leave the cla.s.sroom.
Xu Ziyue quickly followed, getting up and saying happily, “You’ve made progress today ah, yesterday after cla.s.s let out you had completely ignored me and just left.”
Sun Mo glanced at Xu Ziyue, and then stated, “Don’t come to cla.s.s this afternoon.”
“Wait, why?” Xu Ziyue looked confusedly at Sun Mo, “If we skip cla.s.s, we will be scolded by the teacher. If things get really bad, they might even invite our parents in for a chat.” To ordinary students, the most terrifying punishment is to have their parents called in. However, Xu Ziyue also had no idea whether – if things came to that extent – he would have any parents in this world to be invited.
“Don’t worry.” Sun Mo did not provide any explanation.
“Alright, skipping cla.s.s is okay, but only if you accompany me on date ah.” Xu Ziyue clasped his hands behind his back, making all kinds of calculations in his heart.
Anyways, Sun Mo already knew that he likes him – Xu Ziyue hadn’t tried to hide anything. Therefore, it was better to just lay things out upfront.
“All right.”
Sun Mo agreed unexpectedly easily.
Xu Ziyue narrowed his eyes – his intuition told him that something was wrong.
The two people reached the bottom of the stairs, and Xu Ziyue readied himself to drag Sun Mo past the grove of trees and into the canteen so that they could eat.
However, the reality was that as soon as they came to the edge of the woods, Sun Mo came to a stop.
Xu Ziyue looked at Sun Mo, rather perplexed. “What’s the matter?”
“You should go.”
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
Sun Mo shook his head and turned to walk away.
Xu Ziyue shouted after him twice, and Sun Mo did not stop. Just as Xu Ziyue was about to physically go after the other, a thought came to his mind.
Sun Mo.. It couldn’t be that he can’t leave this place?
Yesterday after he’d finished his lunch, he had seen Sun Mo standing at the edge of the woods, looking at the 6th floor of the lecture hall.
Then, in the afternoon, that incident had happened on the 6th floor.
Xu Ziyue quickly shook his head – thinking about that scene was too scary! He can’t think about it again. Not again.
But sometimes, once a thought has appeared, it’s very difficult for it disappear again.
Throughout lunchtime, Xu Ziyue kept thinking about yesterday’s events, and by the end of the meal he had only eaten half of his bowl, not being able to finish the rest.
“Xu Ziyue.” Zhang Jin came over, frowning and his eyebrows creased in worry. “We’ve discussed the matter of Sun Xuebao in the mirror, and also about that NPC who keeps following you around…”
“Big Brother Zhang, it’s Xu Ziyue who keeps following that NPC around.” Someone corrected from the side.
Zhang Jin leveled the speaker a stare, “Who asked for your input? You think I don’t know who’s following who? I was just leaving some face for Xu Ziyue!”
“Hey… I’m still here, can hear everything… “Xu Ziyue poked at the rice with his chopsticks, his face speechless. =_=
Zhang Jin coughed and said, “Well, cough… Anyway, there’s a problem with that NPC. And if you’re not going to find out what his secret is, then we are going to investigate ourselves.”
“I think Sun Mo is very good, there’s no problem.” Xu Ziyue lied through his teeth. “You’ve all seen that I’ve been with him for two days now – if there was a problem, wouldn’t I have died a long time ago?”
“This is your first game, what do you know?” Zhang Jin irritably scratched his head, then touched his empty pocket and cursed under his breath, “What a s.h.i.tty game, doesn’t even provide a pack of cigarettes.”
“There are times when you’re all over the place, and yet ghosts will leave you to die last, you know why? It’s because you’re probably going to be exposed to something harmful and will die soon anyways. So ghosts in this situation just sensibly leave things be.”
“That Sun Xuebao you were talking about, didn’t you say he seemed pretty crazy? If he were a ghost, and appeared through a mirror, then it’s interesting why we weren’t all just exterminated. In my opinion, it’s these people who seem half crazy that are rather believable. If you look at Sun Mo, he doesn’t talk and doesn’t smile, and you can’t tell what he’s thinking. Also, didn’t he take you up to the 6th floor of the dormitories? That’s very suspicious in and of itself.”
As Zhang Jin gave his spiel, Xu Ziyue halfhearted pushed around the cabbages and potatoes in his lunch box.
“Don’t go to cla.s.s in the afternoon.” Xu Ziyue was a little annoyed, but Zhang Jin seemed very self-confident and it was obvious that all the other players agreed with him. Letting it go, Xu Ziyue decided to be the bigger person and just pa.s.s along what Sun Mo had instructed him earlier.
Zhang Jin frowned, “Don’t go to cla.s.s? Why?”
“Aiya why do you have so many questions!” Xu Ziyue pushed away his lunch box and stood up, “Just listen to me and you’ll be okay.” Having hung around Sun Mo for so long, he was very certain that Sun Mo had no bad intentions towards him. Although Xu Ziyue was a little dumb when it came to interacting with others, he was still quite confident in his ability to judge other’s emotions.
Sun Mo sometimes doesn’t talk to him, but that’s just his character so…
Xu Ziyue doesn’t know what the consequences of not attending cla.s.s were, but if he were to go to cla.s.s… Xu Ziyue wasn’t too clever, but the feeling of that old ceiling fan had left a strong impression on him.
With such an impression, there was always a lingering feeling that the cla.s.sroom is not safe. Since Sun Mo had deliberately warned him, then he’ll just play it safe and hang out with Sun Mo instead.
“I’ve done my part and reminded you. Whether you listen or not is up to you. Don’t look for me, don’t ask me any questions, I don’t know anything.” He really didn’t know any answers, but intuition told him to pa.s.s along Sun Mo’s warning.
Xu Ziyue then left to get another lunch packed to-go for Sun Mo. Along the way, he also bought a bag of White Rabbit candies and two bottles of water. The other snacks here didn’t catch his fancy at all, they didn’t even have any spicy sticks….
As Zhang Jin and the others watched Xu Ziyue walk further and further away, they thought pensively about what he had just said.
“Do you really think he’s that kind? Ever since the beginning, he’s been doing his own thing and not sticking with us. In my opinion, he’s discovered something and now he wants someone to be a cannon fodder and test it out for him.” An experienced player named Xu Yimin said.
Zhang Jin frowned and asked, “What do you mean?”
“I mean, perhaps he discovered something, but isn’t sure whether it’s the clear condition for this stage or a death flag, so he wants us to try. Don’t you think it’s strange that he’s telling us to go against our settings in this world? We are students, so we are supposed to be diligently attending cla.s.s.”
“It shouldn’t be… He’s actually not that bad. ” Lu Renjia voice became smaller and smaller under Xu Yimin’s penetrating stare.
“Alright, I understand what you mean.” Zhang Jin didn’t say whether he agreed with Xu Yimin or not. “Let’s take a vote. Who wants to go to cla.s.s, and who wants to listen to Xu Ziyue and skip cla.s.s this afternoon?”
Xu Yimin raised his hand, “Well, I’m going to cla.s.s.”
The other were still uncertain and took quite a while to make a decision.
“There’s only 12 of us left standing here. Every decision can affect whether we clear the game or not, so you have to think about it carefully for yourself. After all, you all know the consequences of choosing incorrectly. There will be no regrets.” Zhang Jin looked at his wrist watch and continued, “There are 18 minutes left until lunch time ends. Who’s going back to the cla.s.sroom, and who’s going to follow me and hide somewhere?”
Xu Yimin stared at Zhang Jin in disbelief. “You want to die?!”
Zhang Jin replied, “Of course not. I want to clear this stage, but sometimes, you can’t escape disaster just by doing nothing.”
In the end, two people followed Xu Yimin back to the cla.s.sroom, and the other eight followed after Zhang Jin to hide in the forest grove.
At the lecture hall, with less than 10 minutes till cla.s.s begins, Xu Ziyue dragged Sun Mo out of the cla.s.sroom.
The other had clearly told him not go to cla.s.s, and yet Xu Ziyue had found Sun Mo sitting motionless in the cla.s.sroom.
On their way out the doors, Xu Ziyue ran into the oncoming Xu Yimin.
“Ah!!!!! You’re…. ah… ” Xu Ziyue mumbled “ah” and “uh” quite a few more times, but he couldn’t remember the other’s name. It’s just that he had seen the other around, so Xu Ziyue knew that he was a player as well.
“Xu Yimin!” Xu Yimin angrily emphasized his own name.
“Oh, Xu Yimin. Didn’t I tell you guys to…” Xu Ziyue sneaked a glance at Sun Mo beside him, “didn’t I tell you guys to skip cla.s.s?”
“Who knows what your intentions are,” Xu Yimin sneered, and then turned to the two players behind him, “Let’s go. Don’t talk to him.”
Xu Ziyue’s opened his mouth and he blinked a bit, staring at the three people’s retreating backs.
“Wow… Good intentions really aren’t well received. ” Xu Ziyue looked again at Sun Mo and carefully asked, “Are you angry I also told the others to not come to cla.s.s?”
“That’s your business.” Sun Mo replied dismissively, and then raised his head to glance at the top of the stairs.
Xu Ziyue didn’t know why, but he felt that Sun Mo’s expression right now seemed a little scary. Therefore, he hurriedly pulled at Sun Mo’s wrist, “Let’s go, let’s go. We’ll head back to the dormitory.”
Sun Mo couldn’t go past the woods, and they had to avoid the lecture hall. Therefore, Xu Ziyue decided that they’ll have their date inside the dorms.
Alas…… What an unbelievable thing, to have his first date ever inside a residential dormitory!
If only he could directly score a home run in the dorms… That wouldn’t be too bad either. Xu Ziyue turned his head to look Sun Mo.
Sun Mo’s clean profile shone under the afternoon sun, to the point that he almost looked a little translucent. His fine features were the epitome of a handsome young adult… It’s just a pity that his eyes weren’t bright with youth, but those eyes were still pretty – dark, like a whirlpool.
Translator: Lone Wolf Translations