Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Amidst the NPC teacher's roaring background noise, Ji Xinghai landed steadily. He stood firmly on the steel bar, reaching out to touch his slicked-back hair with gel, his eyes still squinted, the heavy makeup unable to hide his mischievous and playful demeanor.

Everyone watched with bated breath, fearing he would be discovered, but Ji Xinghai calmly strutted along the narrow steel bar in his clown shoes with built-in heels, even winking at the clay doll peeking its head out in surprise.

The commotion caused by the sheep-headed doll drew everyone's attention away, allowing Ji Xinghai to walk straight to the side of a seat. On the smooth side of the chair was a small metal cover of the same color, with a keyhole on it.

He stretched out his hand, his slender fingers tensing as he inserted them directly into the lock. Somehow, he managed to open the lock on the cover, revealing a space inside that was neither too big nor too small.

Inside was something resembling a battery box, with some empty space left over.

They saw him crawl in and close the cover again. Perhaps finding it too dark, Ji Xinghai broke off one corner of the cover, leaving a triangular opening.

Meanwhile, the sheep-headed doll was still staring intently at the line of words Ji Xinghai had 'written' with a craft knife blade. Something had shaken its mental world, causing several large cracks to appear in its already fragile little 'house,' where it huddled into a tiny ball.

"Baa, why are you always looking here? Do you think something has damaged your workbook? At this point, you're still trying to blame others; you're truly disappointing."

The NPC teacher approached from the other side, and through Ji Xinghai's perspective, the audience finally saw the NPC teacher's appearance, their mouths agape in astonishment.

They had thought the half-metallic fish-headed and pig-headed creatures checking at the entrance were peculiar enough, but the NPC teacher was even more 'outstanding.'

The audience couldn't find the words to describe it—it seemed almost beyond being a living creature—a metallic monster designed for steel structures.

It resembled a spider, but its upper half was a semi-mechanical human body, with an electronic screen covering its eyes, displaying red electronic expressions. Coupled with four clawing mechanical arms, it appeared very angry.

Below were six thin legs with gripping claws, allowing it to firmly latch onto the steel bars.

"Is it a professional teacher? Is there no room for change once a profession is chosen in this world?" Ji Xinghai wondered. With such a form, what else could it do besides climb steel bars?

Of course, he was more concerned about another matter.

Parents, teachers—these adults who had already appeared, were they advanced versions of the students? Did they have some controlling relationship? How could he exploit this?

Humans are easily deceived by appearances, and within a short hour, some viewers had forgotten that these 'children' were vicious NPCs, antagonistic to the trainees.

But Ji Xinghai was different. He was impervious to such illusions. No matter how much the doll-headed NPCs resembled human children, to him, they were merely 'tools' with a precise role.

Why show mercy to tools? Tools should be used fully and reasonably.

To act alone, his first step was to create a small disturbance, helping him leave the sheep-headed doll and escape the 'prison' the Hungry Academy had set for the trainees.

With limited resources, creating chaos meant exploiting the sheep-headed doll's weakness.

What was the sheep-headed doll's weakness?

Broadly speaking, it was academics, and specifically, homework.

The replica rarely provided useless information. While hiding in the darkness, Ji Xinghai had been listening to the outside noises, naturally overhearing the sheep-headed doll's mother's repeated instructions about studying and homework.

For a student in a JiuZhou educational setting, homework was paramount, especially during summer break.

The NPC teacher was already enraged, feeling its authority challenged, making it impossible to maintain its previous amiable facade.

Seeing the destroyed workbook, the sheep-headed doll finally understood the source of its earlier bad premonition.

The clown wasn't blowing kisses; he was aiming.

The bullet was fatal.

The sheep-headed doll didn't explain or struggle, knowing that no matter how it tried, the NPC teacher wouldn't believe it. The teacher's electronic face displayed a volcanic eruption diagram, symbolizing its fury.

"Such an attitude after doing wrong! Call the parents! Immediately, call the parents!"

The audience watching from afar couldn't help but think, "Teachers are the same everywhere, always calling the parents." It was truly pitiful.

"Trash breeds trash," the NPC teacher sneered at the unresisting and helpless doll.

Enraged adults shed their false gentleness.

The sheep-headed doll suddenly lifted its head, its skin swelling red.

"What's that look?" The NPC teacher was initially startled, then grew even angrier. "Did I say something wrong? From two temporary workers' families, the lowest of the low, I don't know how you got into this school—you should be swept into the trash like the rest of the garbage."

"...Oh, right, I remember now."

Its malicious gaze fixed on the sheep-headed doll: "I remember how you got into this school. Your trash parents knelt down and begged the school... You haven't seen them in their pitiful state, have you? Truly pathetic, ha."

The sheep-headed doll looked at the furious teacher, its body trembling slightly.

"If you knew the world was like this, would you still want to exist?"

"In such a world."

"Would you want to?"

"You're expelled. Trash like you shouldn't be in this school," the NPC teacher continued to berate, using this opportunity to warn others. "See? This is the consequence of not completing your work, breaking rules, and disrespecting teachers."

"I don't want to!" The sheep-headed doll covered its face, revealing only its blood-red eyes. "If I knew the world was like this, I'd rather never have existed!"

Its flesh-colored limbs swelled, veins bulging on its surface. It saw many hallucinations, overlapping images of family scolding, teachers mocking, and the clown doll's blood-red grin.

It felt something burning inside, continuously burning, threatening to consume it entirely.

The sheep-headed doll realized it was heading towards destruction, yet it felt unprecedentedly relieved. The oppressive force that had suffocated it was shattering.

It remembered the wooden doll exploding in the morning.

"Not suicide, but murder."

"Even the way you die can't be decided by yourself. How pathetic."

"This knife is left for you; who it's aimed at is your choice."

The clown's laughing voice cut through the cold reality with the knife, and the sheep-headed doll suddenly stopped, its boiling blood rushing to its brain in an instant.

It was going to be killed by this world.

Even without this incident, it would have happened sooner or later.

But why should the perpetrator live?

"Ahhh—"

The sheep-headed doll held the craft knife, its tip dripping with dark red blood. The entire doll had swollen into a twisted and grotesque shape. The previously enraged teacher had its throat slit, revealing the bloody flesh inside.

"Teacher, if you were alive, you would harm others and kill others, so let's die together."

The sheep-headed doll was still tightly bound to the chair, but murderous intent cannot be restrained by steel.

It laughed heartily, the helmet on its head emitting warning beeps: "Danger, danger, contamination level..."

The NPC teacher's electronic eye flickered once, and the next second, the screen went dark.

Its claws, which had been firmly gripping the rebar, loosened, and it collapsed with a loud thud onto the rebar floor.

The classroom fell eerily silent. The dolls bound to their seats were pale and motionless, unable to see what had happened, but they knew something terrible had occurred.

The air carried a sweet, metallic scent of blood.

Even the viewers in Ji Xinghai's livestream were shaken by this tragic scene. Those quick-witted enough had already identified the mastermind behind it, and their preconceived notions began to crack, becoming more complex and nuanced.

A timeless dilemma now faced them: morality or self-interest, which do you choose?

"You did well." Ji Xinghai, perhaps the biggest villain behind the scenes, smiled widely and clapped lightly.

What would happen next?

Was the teacher controlling the doll?

What happens when a controlled doll kills its controller?

Under the watchful eyes of Ji Xinghai and countless viewers, the sheep-headed doll's fur began to fall off, its skin slowly transforming from rubber to something more realistic, complete with pores.

The cartoon cotton horns on its head dropped off, replaced by black hair sprouting from its scalp.

Its eyes, nose, face... seemed about to change into something else, but it had already swollen and burned to the point of resembling a ball.

"Pity," Ji Xinghai sensed something, took a step back, and leaned against the metal lid.

The livestream's perspective suddenly shifted from the sheep-headed doll to the dark metal hole. Before the viewers realized what was happening, there was a loud explosion from inside.

Tiny pieces of skin and debris were carried by the blast and stuck to the walls.

It exploded.

The sheep-headed doll exploded, and the NPC teacher died.

Silence filled the livestream, but Ji Xinghai remained calm and indifferent.

'Do I not bear any responsibility? The people at the Hungry Academy are quite nice,' he thought.

His body showed no changes, so the sheep-headed doll's self-destruction was deemed 'suicide' rather than an act by Ji Xinghai, thus not triggering the condition of 'killing the controller.'

"This isn't silicone skin," he said, picking up a piece of skin that had splattered onto the metal wall and rubbing it between his fingers. The texture wasn't silicone, nor was it real flesh, but something in between, somewhat like artificial leather.

It was a pity they couldn't witness the full transformation after the doll killed its controller.

If the sheep-headed doll's self-destruction had been delayed by a few seconds, he might have gathered more evidence to support his theory.

Ji Xinghai felt regretful, and so did the analysts from official organizations like the Black Tower.

The sheep-headed doll died too quickly, only partially revealing its transformation. A little more time might have revealed what happens when a doll rebels against and kills a higher-level NPC.

However, this incident did confirm that the teacher was indeed the controller, or one of the controllers.

These rational beings among humans still had emotional sides. They understood the value of the sheep-headed doll's death but felt some sympathy.

Some very emotional individuals could not accept Ji Xinghai's choice.

"Did the doll NPC have to die? Why not cooperate with the doll children like the neighboring students?"