Edited by Jules
Soaking in the students’ gazes, Xiao Lan felt it was a little novel.
He had always been a top student in school, a godly student, even. Although he often received attention from his classmates, their eyes back then were either reverent or envious.
He never thought he would now be able to experience the treatment of a rebellious school slag.
At that moment, the students were looking at him with curiosity mixed with some envy; it seemed it was human nature to be interested in rebels, and there was also a sort of vague anticipation.
Not to mention, being a bad student occasionally… was quite refreshing.
In this way, Xiao Lan followed Luo to his office once more.
This place was like their secret base. Xiao Lan was already very familiar with this place. He casually leaned against the side of the table. There were teaching plans in Luo’s strong and distinct handwriting spread over the surface. It looked like Luo was a lot more dutiful as a teacher than Xiao Lan was as a student.
“Did you find anything, sir?” Luo shut the door, then turned his head to ask Xiao Lan.
Xiao Lan told him about what he had seen in the headmistress’s office, and described Mister Wilder’s state in particular, and what was recorded in the headmistress’s personal journal.
“Cursed puppet. This is an interesting thing.” Luo sat down. “We were clearly in close contact with Mister Wilder previously, but we didn’t notice that he wasn’t alive at all.”
Xiao Lan: “Now, I’m planning to wait until nightfall to go to the northern tower again. I have to meet Adeline this time.”
Although there was the danger of Lady Red Moon at night, there were still quite a lot of students in school during the day. Teenagers also liked to explore places with nobody around, and it was very easy to find traces of them going to the tower.
The two of them were now moving together. Even if they met Lady Red Moon, they were certain to escape without a scratch.
“I will go with you,” Luo said with a smile. “But there’s still some time left before nightfall. Want to do something to pass the time?”
Xiao Lan was a little curious. “What do you want to do?”
Could it be that the two of them were seriously going to clean this place up?
They didn’t need to go all out like that ba?
He then saw Luo reach into a row of books on the table and take out a book which was extremely familiar to Xiao Lan —
It was the archeology record book which Xiao Lan had used to choose the name ‘Luo’.
Luo gestured at the book. “I borrowed this book from Lawrence. It’s rare to come here; want to take a look together?”
Xiao Lan: “…”
To be honest, he still felt a little guilty about the Luoyang shovel thing.
Young Xiao Lan back then was really courageous and also unorthodox. If the person in front of him had had a bad temper, Xiao Lan might have already long died at fifteen.
Unexpectedly, Luo actually accepted this name.
Even after forgetting everything about himself, he still remembered this.
Luo had already opened the book in a good mood. His reading posture was very relaxed, as if the content was extremely interesting.
The light of dusk shone through the window and highlighted the perfect outline of his face which didn’t seem mortal, limning him in a beautiful, golden light. Even the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose glinted with a warm and gentle light in the setting sun.
Seeing this, Xiao Lan couldn’t help drawing closer and reading with him.
The content of the book was honestly rather boring. It was all professional records and analyses, with a lot of hard-to-pronounce jargon mixed in as well.
But the two people who were reading didn’t say much. They read the book word by word with nostalgic looks in their eyes.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The room was silent with only the light rustle of pages being flipped.
Ycf ectegglfvis oilqqfv atf qjufr jcv bcf kjamtfv rlifcais, jr lo atfs tjv j rbga bo ajmla ecvfgrajcvlcu atja kjr tjgv ab vfrmglyf.
Rba ibcu joafg, atf rxs olcjiis aegcfv vjgx.
Ktf ojlca gfv wbbciluta fcnfibqfv atf fcalgf lcralaeaf bcmf wbgf.
Oeb’r rifcvfg olcufgr qjerfv lc oilqqlcu j qjuf.
He lifted his eyes and looked at the red moon outside the window, and said softly, “Sir, it’s time.”
Xiao Lan also raised his head, a bright light in his eyes. “Let’s go.”
They stood up and stepped into the red territory immersed with danger.
•
Carefully hiding their tracks, the two arrived at the northern tower once more.
Today, the tower was still in its untended state.
Xiao Lan carefully listened for activity inside, but strangely, he didn’t hear sounds of scales scraping over the ground today, nor did he hear murmurs in a child’s voice.
Everything was extremely quiet, so much so it was like there was nothing inside at all.
The two found the door at the bottom of the tower.
Unsurprisingly, there was a heavy and large lock on it.
Unlike the wild overgrowth all over the tower, there wasn’t much rust on this lock. Even when Xiao Lan opened it, he could feel that it was smooth inside the lock, like it was opened frequently.
Entering the tower.
There was a damp and moldy smell, and water stains and moss on the surrounding walls.
It was extremely spacious inside the tower. Although the building was still in the gorgeous gothic style, there was no furniture inside, and it gave off an empty and worn-down feeling.
Xiao Lan turned on 【Nuclear energy flashlight】 and observed his surroundings.
Up ahead were two flights of stairs. One flight went up, and the higher up it went, the drier the surrounding environment.
The stairs leading down, on the other hand, were heavy with damp and had more moss around it than elsewhere, as if there was a water source below.
“Sir.” Luo pointed at the mossy ground under their feet. “There are signs that this place has been stepped on repeatedly, and all of them head down and back. There should be someone who frequently goes down there.”
Xiao Lan looked at where Luo was pointing. There truly were some footprints on them, but because of the rapid growth of the moss, most were covered.
It seemed that not only wasn’t the rumoured monster in the tower two snakes, but it might not live in the tower at all.
Sure enough, campus legends were filled with inaccuracies.
The two walked down the pitch-black and damp stairs. The further they went, the more moist the air became. They could also gradually smell the odour of fishy water.
Occasionally, the sounds of dripping and running water could be heard.
After walking for a while, they finally reached the bottom of the steps.
But strangely, it was just an empty space. There was nothing to be seen, and only moisture from an unknown source pervaded the air.
“Could it be a mechanism?” Xiao Lan speculated.
The water vapour here was so dense it was practically like they were on a riverbank, but there was no water source to be seen. It was very odd.
“Leave it to me.” Luo pressed his fingers to the wall. Instantly, black shadows spread outwards to search the entire space.
Soon, he withdrew his hand and walked to a brick in one corner which looked no different from the rest of the space.
He reached out and accurately pressed the edge of the brick hard. Following his movement, the entire brick rotated, revealing a stone switch behind it.
Luo flipped the switch. The next moment, a tunnel going down appeared on the originally empty floor.
Xiao Lan couldn’t help giving Luo’s efficiency a like. “Every time I watch you look for clues, it always feels magical.”
Luo just smiled. “It’s my honour.”
After that, the two entered this new passage which had just appeared.
The passage was narrow and cramped, and a single person could barely walk through it. The surface was also very damp and it wasn’t easy to walk through. Moreover, this passage was long, as if it would take them all the way down to hell.
After walking for a good while, the two arrived at yet another open space.
This was an enormous and spacious room. All around were stone walls, and there was a layer of water on the ground. There were no decorations, and it looked eerie and terrifying.
It turned out that this place was hidden this deeply.
No wonder they could only just faintly hear the noise outside. It was probably because that monster imprisoned inside just so happened to be moving about closer to the stairs then. If it had been a little further in, it wouldn’t be noticeable outside at all.
Xiao Lan’s flashlight swept over the walls in search of clues.
Suddenly, he saw some scribbles on a very high section of the wall. The writing was juvenile, and looked like the work of a small child.
But this height was something even an ordinary adult person was unable to reach. Xiao Lan’s gaze swept over his surroundings, and he didn’t see any climbing equipment.
So, how were these scribbles drawn up there?
Putting his suspicions aside for the moment, he studied these scribbles.
It was at a much higher level than Luo’s work; at least, it could be seen that they were human figures.
On the far left was a woman in red clothes.
The child’s drawing was unable to convey the clothing details; only a long and puffy skirt could be seen, as well as a large black lump on the head that seemed to represent hair.
The woman was surrounded by red, and the drawing was very weird.
On the other side, a human figure was lying down close to the woman.
From the clothes, it looked to be a man. He had flax-coloured, slightly long hair, and a large red mass was on his chest to show that this person had died from a serious injury.
Next to it was also a child’s immature writing:
【Mummy has gone mad…】
【Mummy is so scary】
Xiao Lan used his flashlight to indicate the woman on the left. “Doesn’t this look like Lady Red Moon?”
He then shifted the light to the side. “This is very much like Mister Wilder. I saw his chest and it has a wound in roughly that area.”
“So these scrawls are trying to say that the one who killed Mister Wilder is actually Lady Red Moon,” Luo said.
Xiao Lan said, “Lady Red Moon is actually Madam Wilder ba. But for some reason, she herself doesn’t know this, and doesn’t even remember killing her own husband.
“If it’s like that, then how did Adeline die?” Xiao Lan looked at the scribbles on the wall and couldn’t help frowning. “Could she also have been killed by the headmistress’s Lady Red Moon persona?”
Luo knew that Xiao Lan was just pondering and wasn’t looking for him to explain. He stood in place and silently watched Xiao Lan’s every move, as if unwilling to miss a single detail.
Xiao Lan thought about the headmistress who had recorded her own anguish and struggle in her journal. If Madam Wilder found out that the source of all her sorrow and pain was herself, who knew what she would think.
But… who was the one who drew these?
The resurrected Adeline?
If it was Adeline, then what form was she in now?
And whether it was the rumours or the headmistress’s journal, both said that she would attack people.
This seemed hard to handle ah.
Xiao Lan quietly said, “Looks like we still have to find Adeline.”
He began surveying his surroundings.
When his flashlight swept over his surroundings, there were no signs of the woman with two snake tails.
The two walked forward, and up ahead was a cave filled with water.
The cave had a large surface area, which could hold several adults.
But it was dark inside; even the flashlight couldn’t shine through it, making it hard to guess where it led.
Xiao Lan put away his flashlight. “Looks like ‘whoever goes in will die’ ah…”
Although players’ physiques were enhanced and they were very tenacious, that didn’t mean that they could survive underwater.
With this sort of black aqueduct, who knew where it led, how long it was, or even if there were any unknown dangers hidden inside.
If they ran into a fight and they couldn’t come up for air in time, they would just pass on serenely.
Luo said, “Need me to scout ahead, sir?”
As a nonhuman who didn’t need to breathe, he was qualified for such a task.
Although the quality of the water looked rather sorry, if it was Xiao Lan’s wish, Luo wouldn’t be hindered mentally at all.
Xiao Lan shook his head. “Who knows what’s in the water.”
He couldn’t allow Luo to face danger alone and then reap the rewards with a clear conscience.
He walked forward and dipped his finger in the water before bringing it to his nose for a whiff. “This scent is very similar to the water stains that appear on the ceiling every morning.”
Then, the one who was leaving tips for the players was probably Adeline.
Where on earth was she now?
At this time, Luo pointed at the algae on the water surface. “From what the school teachers have said, this type of algae is a very unique breed. It grows in the institute’s forest lake.”
Xiao Lan turned his head to ask, “There’s a lake in the forest?”
Luo smiled. “As a teacher, I can naturally learn a little more.
“From what the teachers have said, there are many wild carnivorous animals in the forest outside the school. There was once a non-superstitious teacher who went for a walk at night and was attacked. After escaping and coming back, it wasn’t long before he resigned.
“From what that teacher said, there’s a lake in the forest which isn’t small. He also touched this algae before.”
Xiao Lan: “…”
Truly a nation’s teacher full of the spirit of exploration.
For a time, he actually didn’t know whether he should be moved by this teacher who was brave enough to take a stroll in such a dark forest, or moved by how stubborn a life this hard-headed human actually had.
To actually be able to survive while practically courting death; this teacher was also quite amazing.
Thank you for update ❤️❤️❤️
I think Little girl that time is Adeline
I feel so bad for Adeline. Her mom went crazy and doesn’t even realize it.
thanks for the chapter <3
It seems like they’re getting closer to finish this game.
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
Translation Baobaomei & Editor Jules, Thanks for the new chapter! I suspected that it was the headmistress but didn’t want to put it in the comments as there’s no way to hide a guess that might be a spoiler. I’m so glad my guess was correct. This novel is so good, I’m always exited to read what happens next. 😁
theories are always fine! it’s fun to share and discuss your theories with other people, as long as it’s not a spoiler (eg. you read ahead via mtl and is now commenting on it in this chapter)
Thx for the chappy
what a brave teacher~
thanks for the chapter~
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
“Unexpectedly, Luo actually accepted this name.
Even after forgetting everything about himself, he still remembered this. ”
AHHHHHHHHHH 😍
💜💜💜
So Madam Wilder and Lady Red Moon are like Jackal and Hide!