Chapter 151
Lin Yi’s breathing became exaggeratedly drawn out. The others were so frightened by the eyes that suddenly appeared behind the small window on the door that they forgot to breathe all together.
Those eyes were transfixed on the steamed bun in Ah Hao’s hand. After staring at it, the eyes swept across the room.
Who was behind the door? Why did those eyes suddenly appear? Others might still be hoping that it was simply a child, who, like them, had been sent to Xiushen Academy.
But Lin Yi knew very well that that was not the case.
The small window hadn’t been positioned somewhere near the middle, but rather, it had been position higher, almost right to the top of the door.
With a child’s height, it would have been impossible for him to reach. And even if there had been a footrest that enabled him to reach, the look in those eyes when looking at the steamed bun should have been longing; not excitement and anticipation… like a malicious gossiper, excited to witness misfortune about to befall others.
The eyes then disappeared, replaced by the sound of running.
Everyone in the room knew what the ‘eyes’ went off to do.
Ah Hao was so frightened that he peed his pants. He squeezed the steamed bun in his hand and looked blankly at the small window on the door. Then he looked at everyone, gulped a few times before he managed to get out, “I… I’m going to die, aren’t I?”
He was almost certain he was going to die. Those eyes had stared at him for a long time. He’d been caught red handed.
The others didn’t speak. They all looked at Ah Hao with fear in their eyes. They then turned pleading eyes to their pillar.
They also knew that Ah Hao wasn’t the only one who was going to die. They were all probably going to die too.
In the beginning, in that room, not everyone had complained; but the eight bald men’s keel whips made no discrimination. The eight bald men treated them all “equally”.
Lin Yi thought quickly and approached Qin Zhou, wanting to tell Qin Zhou what he was thinking.
Before he could speak, he was interrupted by one participant who finally couldn’t hold back any longer.
“Qin…Qin Zhou, what should we do?” Hua Hua asked. She was the boldest among the girls present and bolder than many of the boys. But her voice trembled at this time.
Lin Yi was about to open his mouth again but Qin Zhou moved first and said quickly, “The one who looked in wasn’t any of the bald men. But he’s probably off informing them.”
The smarter ones of the bunch had already figured as much but since it was Qin Zhou saying it, it must have some sort of meaning. They didn’t think Qin Zhou would waste time talking nonsense at this time.
Everyone looked at Qin Zhou with even more anticipation. In their eyes, Qin Zhou was undoubtedly a piece of driftwood in this vast sea. Their only choice was to grab on tight, eyes closed, in order to survive.
Lin Yi closed his mouth. Like everyone else, he knew full well that Qin Zhou wouldn’t be talking nonsense.
“The door will open. The moment it opens…,” Qin Zhou said in a serious and solemn tone, “Run!”
Lin Yi looked at Qin Zhou. This was what he himself had wanted to tell Qin Zhou. Everyone in this room had already made a mistake, so they were locked up and starved. Now that the ‘eyes’ have discovered that they were also hiding steamed buns, this was an additional crime.
Those eight baldies definitely won’t let them go easily and they will definitely die.
Since they were destined to be tortured to death, better to run.
Lin Yi knew very well that the probability that everyone would be able to escape from the Xiushen Academy was low. They would definitely be in for a restart in the future. But a restart won’t erase their previous memories. As they escape, they will be able to see more of this Xiushen Academy, so after the restart, they won’t be as passive as before.
Lin Yi turned around and looked at the door. The iron door was narrow. It was impossible for all twenty-six people in the room to squeeze out at once.
Qin Zhou made arrangements. “You, you, and you. You follow me and rush out immediately.”
The people Qin Zhou named were all boys and they were the taller ones among the boys. Qin Zhou said, “Hold back whoever comes. Hua Hua, during the confusion, you take the girls to run. You and he will take care of the girls.”
When Qin Zhou said ‘you’, he looked at Lin Yi.
By ‘he’, he meant Ah Hao.
Ah Hao had been spooked and would no longer be able to undertake any dangerous tasks.
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.
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At this time, the remaining people needed to join them.
Everyone was surprised by Qin Zhou’s plan. Resisting hadn’t occurred to any of them, but not Qin Zhou. Not only that, while they were still immersed in fear, Qin Zhou already had this plan, arranged as best it could be given the current situation.
“Once you leave the room, split up. Don’t…”
Before Qin Zhou could finish the rest of his words, there came footsteps from outside the dorm room.
Everyone’s breath caught in their throats. Qin Zhou stressed, “Remember what I said.”
Lin Yi glanced at everyone. The boy who’d been whipped to death and the boy who’d slipped to the bottom of the pool were still vivid in his mind. No one knew whether they would be the next to die. Those thugs hadn’t appeared yet but just the sound of footsteps was enough to make them go cold, their limbs going weak.
Seeing this situation, Lin Yi knew that he had no time to discuss with Qin Zhou about staying to help. He could only raise his voice and say, “Do you understand?”
His words brought everyone back to their senses. Hua Hua got hold of her emotions and immediately said, “Yes!”
In fact, it would be best for the boys to simply swarm and suppress whoever were coming but Qin Zhou created this arrangement to let the second group, the girls, get away. Hua Hua knew that Qin Zhou’s arrangement had been made for their sake. Girls had no advantage in either height or body shape. They needed more time to escape if they wanted to leave Xiushen Academy.
Qin Zhou was fighting for them.
With Lin Yi and Hua Hua joining them, the fear of the others slowly dissipated, replaced by an unprecedented sense of tension.
It had to be done according to Qin Zhou’s arrangement. There could be no mistake in the chain, otherwise, it would result in a restart.
Every restart meant that some of them would die. When their numbers go smaller and smaller, how long could they survive by luck?
‘Clatter’——
The footsteps stopped outside the door. The sound of the door unlocking hit everyone’s heart. For some, cold sweat erupted from their foreheads and backs. They were all so wound up that they forgot all about their hunger. All they could remember were Qin Zhou’s instructions.
Pounce on the attackers; suppress the attackers; let the girls escape; when the girls have escaped, help the first group to break away…
They were all focused on the door lock. Lin Yi pulled Ah Hao up from the ground and asked him, “Can you do this?”
Ah Hao wiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded stiffly, “I… I can.”
Lin Yi glanced at Qin Zhou. He had no time to say ‘be careful’ to Qin Zhou. He was also unwilling to say ‘I’ll wait for you’. Doing so would be akin to planting a death flag. He walked to Hua Hua; with a turn of his head, he signaled for the girls to group together as they looked for the proper position to allow them to rush out.
Just before they could find the perfect spot, ‘Bang’——
The door was kicked open. The iron door hit the wall with such force that it bounced back a few times.
All twenty-six people in the room looked out the door. Sure enough, the eight bald men had come, their keel whips in hand. It wasn’t just them eight. Next to the thugs was a man who looked like a bamboo punt-pole. He had sinister brows and rat-like eyes. His were the ‘eyes’ that had looked in through the small window of the iron door.
At this time, ‘Eyes’ was holding the door.
Nine people in total.
Lin Yi couldn’t help turning to look at Qin Zhou. Then, he took a deep breath.
Just when Lin Yi turned around to signal the girls to get ready, Qin Zhou suddenly rushed out.
Lin Yi was afraid that others would have a delayed reaction, so he shouted out, “Quick!”
The boys first assigned by Qin Zhou snapped out of their stupor. Perhaps Qin Zhou’s decisive rush, setting an example by pressing the bald thug with the black dragon tattoo against the window sill outside, spurred them all and they immediately rushed at the attackers.
Before the nine assailants outside could react, they were already upon them.
Lin Yi quickly said to the girls. “Let’s go.”
Among the second group, he was the first to rush to the door. As he left, he gave the surprised ‘Eyes’ a hard push, making him fall flat to the ground. Lin Yi then sat on top of ‘Eyes’.
Hua Hua grabbed a girl and ran out. Seeing this, the rest of the girls tried their best to keep up.
Lin Yi shouted to Ah Hao, “I’ll bring up the rear. Leave first.”
Ah Hao reacted and left quickly.
Lin Yi restrained ‘Eyes’ to prevent him from closing the door. All his attention was on the girls escaping. Even when he heard Qin Zhou yelling “Don’t attack them”, he couldn’t turn his head to see how Qin Zhou and the others were faring.
In the Rule World, participants cannot attack NPCs. Otherwise, the Monster will directly punish the offending participant.
Here, they didn’t know if the same rule applied but they couldn’t try it at the risk of their lives.
You can’t attack NPCs but you also have to suppress them. It was obvious how difficult this was.
Once all the girls were out, Lin Yi stood up and ran. When he reached a corner, he couldn’t help but look back.
He saw the other boys rush at the thugs but by then, the eight bald men had also reacted. The thugs who’d broken free from the boys’ suppression raised their keel whips. The sound of the whips resounded throughout the corridor.
Those who were whipped immediately lost their fighting power. Lin Yi had also been beaten with those keel whips before. Where they hit, it felt like the bones broke along with the skin.
Lin Yi didn’t dare dally too long. He turned his head and continued running onwards, catching up with the girls running in front of him.
“Separate and run.” Lin Yi said, “We can’t all stay together.”
There were too many of them and they made too big a target. Together, they were easy to destroy and too big to hide.
Xixi said, “But… I can’t go alone.”
Hua Hua couldn’t help nodding in agreement.
They had already escaped the room. They were now able to get a glimpse of Xiuxian Academy.
They didn’t need to look far to see the mountains against the night sky. This meant that Xiushen Academy was located deep in the mountains. Moreover, Xiushen Academy was much bigger than they imagined. The building where they’d been locked up wasn’t the only one in the compound. There was another one about four or five hundred meters away and another one four or five hundred meters beyond that.
And behind their building was a vast flat land, endless as far as the eye could see.
They couldn’t even tell which direction the gates of Xiushen Academy were.
Moreover, there were dogs barking in the night as well as strange sounds made by unknown things, so strange that these sounds were difficult to describe.
Lin Yi thought for a while and said, “Divide into two groups.”
“Ah Hao, take them to the front.” He stretched out his hand and pointed in the direction in front of them.
Ah Hao nodded nervously. Lin Yi said to the other five girls, “Let’s head to the back.”
Giving out this assignment had cost time. Immediately afterwards, Lin Yi went down the corridor.
They quickly walked down a set of stairs, which led them to the first floor of the building. He and Ah Hao separated with five girls each.
What Lin Yi was referring to was the flat land behind Xiushen Academy.
Actually, he should have gone to the front. He knew very well that they couldn’t escape, so he needed to take this chance to know more of the terrain and to understand more about their situation before the restart happens. However, generally speaking, few people would leave a large piece of flat land in front of the gate so the location of the gate was more likely to be in front, in Ah Hao’s direction. Lin Yi thought that although there were likely to be people guarding the gate, other places wouldn’t be safe either. So long as Ah Hao and the others manage to make it out, they would be safe outside the boundaries of Xiushen Academy.
And so, he handed the front to Ah Hao.
After Ah Hao and the others left, Lin Yi led his five girls to the back.
This was his chance to examine that flat land. If this flat land had no purpose, there would have been no need for Xiushen Academy to enclose it within its premises.
Let’s not even talk about how technically difficult it is to create flat lands in the deep mountains. Even if it were originally flat land, building a wall around the flat land would have required funds.
The flat land wasn’t far from their building. Lin Yi and the girls, the six of them, got there after about a ten minute jog.
As he got closer, Lin Yi then realized why Xiushen Academy had enclosed this land. With this land, Xiushen Academy might as well not have spent money to build a wall. Even if the children were to escape in this direction, they wouldn’t dare to continue on ahead.
This flat land was——
A massive gravesite.
The crooked tombstones were placed about haphazardly. Each had a protruding earth mound in front.
“Why…why are there so many graves here?…” Xixi staggered.
A girl said, “What should we do…?”
Another girl said, “Maybe we should head to the front too?”
Someone else chimed in, “Can we still get there now?”
And yet another girl said, “But the front might not be safe…if we are caught…”
The sixth girl shivered and said, “I heard that a lot of schools…were built on top of huge cemeteries.”
This was Xiushen Academy, which could be considered half a school so explaining the presence of this gravesite this way made some sense.
Lin Yi pursed his lips. It was indeed the case. Now that cities are expanding, rural areas or previously uncultivated lands are slowly being made part of the city. In the past, there was no such thing as a cemetery. There were very few cremations. The dead were basically simply buried in the ground.
Demolishing uncultivated land and barren mountains was much easier than demolishing rural areas. There might even be no need to pay compensation. At the time, there was no family planning policy in place; the amount the developer would need to pay in compensation would be quite sizable. So mountainous areas were the real estate developers’ prime choice at the time.
But the paradox was that the real estate industry attaches great importance to Feng Shui and believes in certain taboos. Digging graves and building over them is seen as ominous, which would also affect housing prices. Therefore, building a school was the best choice for these lots. The developer would then simply build residential buildings around the school. Doing it this way could even push up housing prices as it could now be marketed as being in a school district.
Therefore, rumors of schools previously being burial sites wasn’t surprising.
But it was different here. Lin Yi stared at the scene in front of him.
Mountain tops were just around the corner, which proved that Xiushen Academy was located deep in the mountains. Since this place was still deep in the mountains, this couldn’t be part of some city’s expansion. There would have been no need for real estate developers to transform this burial site into a school.
Xiushen Academy covered a large area and had more than one building. Building such an academy in the mountains would have been costly. Even if it were something a developer would be willing to put up, investors wouldn’t have been willing to pay for it.
Therefore, the location of Xiushen Academy seemed contradictory. It shouldn’t have been located in the mountains.
But there was no mistaking Xiushen Academy’s location. They were indeed deep in the mountains. This was because this is a world created by the Monster. This entire setting was fabricated by the Monster.
Lin Yi knew why the Monster made it like this.
Xiushen Academy was in such a remote location because the Monster had felt cut off from the world during its lifetime.
The deep mountains reflected its isolation from the world.
Why was there a mass gravesite in front of them?
Lin Yi’s guess was that the thugs in Xiushen Academy had deliberately threatened and imprisoned the children. There was a burial ground in the school. If they were disobedient and attempted to escape, they would be thrown into a grave.
And so the Monster create a burial site here.
Why had he only brought five girls with him, but now there were six girls talking?
Because in the mind of the Monster, if there’s a burial site, there must be——
Ghosts.
Oh snap! I feel bad for the monster.
Thank you for the chapter! I hadn’t considered there would be ghosts on top of everything else….