Chapter 77

Chapter 77

"Why? To protect you fools!"

Seeing those questioning comments, a hot-tempered staff member of the Black Tower nearly exploded with anger.

Given the state of the sheep-headed doll, it was clearly in a 'severely dangerous' mental condition, either self-destructive or destructive to others, leaving no room for communication. How could there be any cooperation?

Unlike previous NPCs encountered, the doll was positioned as a student, a child, an infant.

Humans instinctively pity infants, and the doll's dire situation seemed to make people forget its true nature, even evoking empathy from some.

So, some students chose to extend an olive branch, hoping to cooperate with the doll.

This made Ji Xinghai appear even more cold-hearted and cruel.

Of course, there were many who felt sympathy but could control their emotions, while only a few openly questioned this in the live stream. Thus, before the Command Unit's public opinion team could intervene, other relatively rational viewers had already driven them away.

"The country has fed them too well."

"Fools."

"Is the Hungry Academy doing this on purpose? Or did it go somewhere to study, learning how to test human nature on both the students and the audience?"

"The most impressive part is the environment they've set up—it exerts a powerful influence on both those educated through elite education and those through rote learning. They might as well name it 'elite students.'"

The Hungry Academy has evolved; not only does it target elite students within the rules, but it also stirs up emotions between elite students and the audience.

Look, it's just the first day, yet there are already disagreements between students and viewers.

Under the premise of shared interests, this rarely happens.

"At least our students' personas aren't supposed to be all good and kind. Those who complain after eating are just a minority."

"You're right. Choosing to drag the entire nation into high-risk situations for the sake of one's own 'kindness' is irresponsible."

For humanity, the benefits of cooperating with the dolls do not outweigh the risks they pose. The latter implies a high degree of freedom and exploration.

Ji Xinghai's choice aligns perfectly with the Black Tower's expectations. He is a man of firm will, unswayed by external influences. It's the students who haven't grasped the essence of the dolls and rashly choose to cooperate with them who face significant risks.

In the simulation, cleaning personnel came to remove the debris and clean up the mess.

The backpacks, torn homework books, and other items were all treated as garbage and discarded.

The death of the sheep-headed doll and the NPC teacher was like a breeze that left no trace.

"Now I am your new teacher," a new NPC teacher quickly arrived, smiling. "Everyone, take out your summer homework."

The terrified students obediently submitted their homework without any extra actions.

Some viewers outside found this unsettling.

These viewers weren't sympathetic towards the dead dolls and NPC teachers; rather, they felt a kind of terror beyond visual effects.

It was a spiritual terror, akin to standing before an abnormal creature.

Despite no gruesome scenes, the scene looked particularly mundane, yet their spirits were strongly affected.

Many viewers chose to log off to recover, and the live stream host tried to soothe the audience's emotions.

After math class, there was a language and literature course. The teacher was of a different style but had a highly adaptable metallic body designed for reinforced structures. They emphasized classroom efficiency—students must fully grasp new knowledge points without any distractions.

"So they're collecting children's focus? Something feels off," the outside world analyzed.

Watching those 'excellent students' maintain intense focus for forty-five minutes, the JiuZhou people felt a sense of déjà vu, recalling similar factory-like schools before the Great Pollution era.

Those who experienced that era were momentarily dazed. When they refocused, they noticed Ji Xinghai had already fallen asleep in a corner.

Just like that, he fell asleep?

Viewers were surprised. Even knowing that information was limited in such situations, few would choose to sleep so decisively to restore their energy.

"Brother Hai looks crazy, but he might be the most rational one."

He is already the fastest progressing one in the simulation.

The school monitored the students closely, and no one had managed to explore the plot yet. Those at home were still struggling with drawers. As for those on the shelves... they were truly hopeless.

A day felt both slow and fast. The 'children' spent the entire day in their seats. Their food, a thick porridge, was delivered by dedicated personnel and consumed quickly.

Even then, the teachers patrolling during lunch complained about the slowness, saying it would be better if it could be injected directly.

As for urgent needs, they seemed to have vanished due to lowered learning efficiency.

By six o'clock in the evening, the NPC teachers left through a special passage, and the door on one side of the metal building opened. The 'children' were mechanically lifted down as they were brought up.

Viewers noticed that the mechanical arm hovered over the empty seat where the sheep-headed doll once sat, evoking some indescribable feelings. Fortunately, Ji Xinghai's awakening interrupted these sentiments.

Once everyone left, the classroom became quiet. Ji Xinghai, who had taken a nap, kicked open the metal lid and crawled out.

He rubbed his face and stretched. "It's dark? I'm so hungry."

At this moment, the simulation time was 6:15 PM.

The exam had been ongoing for twelve hours and fifteen minutes, with thirty-six deaths. Seventeen died at the start, six at the school gate, and thirteen in the classroom due to various reasons.

NPC death count: 2.

"These two heads should be credited to Hai Ge. Tsk, in an environment like this, if it weren't for Hai Ge's playful nature and reluctance to kill, he wouldn't have stopped."

"This scenario isn't about mindless killing; it's more important to push the main storyline forward. It would be great just to get out and see what's happening."

The workers on the Black Tower summarized the previous information while arguing.

"Based on the current information, the main plot seems to take place at the school, so that's where we need to focus our attention.

"Most of the students have already been taken back by the NPC dolls, leaving only thirteen students still in the school.

"Of these thirteen, five were sealed in special boxes as 'discovered contraband.' Their situation is currently unknown, so we can only refer to the remaining eight students."

Observing the seemingly ordinary scenario, which was filled with hidden dangers, the students had to be extremely cautious, causing their exploration progress to be abnormally slow.

Moreover, the oppressive atmosphere of the entire scenario affected the students. Even though they were not from JiuZhou, they felt the suffocating pressure in this environment, leading to generally low morale.

The only thing that slightly cheered up the people from JiuZhou was that Zhang Ziqing, a student from the Federation, was heavily affected by the scenario's atmosphere. This environment seemed to trigger some of his nightmares or fears.

Clearly, Zhang Ziqing had similar profound experiences, even psychological traumas.

Now, forget about calmly exploring the scenario; it was impressive enough that he could face the extreme NPC parents normally—this guy actually tried to blow up the house along with the NPC parents.

Of course, he failed—because he couldn't find any gas cylinders or explosive materials. But this was enough to show how abnormal his mental state was.

Many students were affected by the scenario, and the proportion of elite students among them was disproportionately high.

Even a fool could see that the Hungry Academy was targeting the official elite students. Thus, Ji Xinghai, who managed to force an NPC to commit suicide and take one down with them, once again caught everyone's attention.

"Maintaining absolute rationality is really cool and sexy." A foreign friend gave a peculiar evaluation.

What was the much-discussed Ji Xinghai doing right now?

He was happily tightrope walking in an empty classroom.

Humming a tune and smiling, wasn't that happiness? Five-centimeter stilettos didn't affect his relaxed steps at all.

He still had that heavily painted clown face, which was initially quite unconventional, but after looking at it for a while, it actually seemed quite nice. Especially since Ji Xinghai always smiled, his long dark golden eyes shimmered, blending perfectly with his overall attire.

"Here it is."

He found a new paper airplane under the seat next to him—the same one the clay doll played with during the day.

During break time, when he woke up, all the children were doing homework, except the clay doll, who tore pages from the workbook to fold paper airplanes. He vaguely saw there were words on it.

Ji Xinghai jumped down, found the paper airplane on the glass, opened it, and saw only one line: "I wish I could become a paper airplane and leave here freely."

He laughed, refolded the paper airplane, and pushed it under the clay doll's seat with effort, then jumped up with both the paper airplane and himself, grabbing the steel bars.

He gently placed the paper airplane in a corner of the seat where it wouldn't fall off again.

Although these things weren't useful for exploring the scenario, and the clay doll was just a passerby NPC, Ji Xinghai still chose to jump down and pick it up, perhaps because he also liked folding paper airplanes.

"Really small."

Ji Xinghai looked up at the classroom and sighed.

Compared to his current size, this place was huge. Steel bars, metal plates, and shards of glass made the classroom appear even sharper and colder. The tiny clown doll stood alone, seemingly abandoned in a steel jungle, yet his gaze seemed to look down upon everything.

As the children and teachers left, the door on one side of the classroom had long been closed, and the passage connecting the cylinder, accessible only to teachers, had also been sealed.

Now it was a sealed environment.

The only valuable things in this environment were the rows of seats resembling torture devices.

For Ji Xinghai, such a classroom was indeed "small and barren."

No matter how barren, exploration was still necessary. Ji Xinghai prepared to climb onto a table to look around. Conveniently, the clay doll's table was nearby.

These tables and seats were fixed to the steel bars, mostly covered in smooth metal. He reached out to test it, but his ceramic-like fingers couldn't grip the nearly vertical metal surface.

The audience thought he was out of options and needed to rely on the anomalous creatures from the Food Manual, but unexpectedly, he bent his fingers into claws, pressed them against the metal, and left five finger marks.

Everyone in the live stream was stunned.

Did Hai Ge go to replenish himself in the last scenario? His fingers can even dent steel!

With his superhuman strength, Ji Xinghai easily climbed onto the table.

This was the clay doll's table, still covered with uncleaned eraser shavings, and the tabletop was filled with hidden pencil drawings. Those crooked little airplanes and various toys seemed to represent the trapped soul within a confined body.

From this, it was clear that the clay doll was far from the "obedient child" expected by this world.

Growing up rebellious, such a child would have better stress resistance than the obedient sheep dolls, but only slightly better.

In an environment that aimed to kill, no one could escape.

"The table is fine; the secret lies in those helmets." After checking the table, Ji Xinghai walked towards the seats.

After a short run-up, he jumped over and quickly climbed onto the chair back.

The helmet hung above the seat, a certain distance away, but Ji Xinghai leaped up effortlessly and grabbed the edge of the helmet.

From the audience's perspective, a colorful clown doll dangled there.

It was unclear how the Hunger Academy designed the clothes, but Ji Xinghai's clown outfit was short and tight. Normally it looked fine, but when he raised his hands, a section of his waist, tightly cinched by a belt, and faintly defined abs were revealed.

"..."

Could this instance be giving them some perks?

The audience was dazed, their faces flushing with a suspicious tinge of red.

Meanwhile, Ji Xinghai effortlessly performed a pull-up and climbed onto the helmet, finally getting a view of what was above.

Made from an unknown metal, the helmet looked crude. Even the display showing the 'Contribution Value' had a cheap, mass-produced feel to it, with protruding edges that hadn’t been smoothed out properly.

However, he couldn’t find any way to open it; all the mechanisms were tightly enclosed by grayish-black metal, including the telescopic pipes attached to it.

Ji Xinghai scratched at the metal surface with his nails. These colorful nails could easily gouge through the iron skin of a table, but they only left a shallow mark on the helmet.

Despite its crude appearance, it wasn’t easy to damage.

His gaze followed the long, curved metal pipes extending up to the ceiling of the metal room. Beyond that, they were covered by another layer of opaque metal, sealed tight.

He recalled a world where he had to pry open valuable safes. Those safes were also made of solid metal, requiring half an hour even with a cutting machine. Using the mechanisms was even more troublesome, needing simultaneous activation of two points.

But the reward for success was priceless gems and confidential documents.

Creatures in this world are like that: the more precious something is, the more layers of protection it has. And the more layers there are, the more he wanted to pry it open to see what’s inside.

Three minutes later.

"Woohoo—"

As the alarm blared across the school, the other seven students were still struggling to climb the tall tables. They saw something flying past the window and quickly gathered somewhere safe.

Red light swept outside, occasionally passing over their classroom.

The students were startled and hid quickly, fearing involvement.

After a day of observation, analysis, and practice, they had figured out that toys were the lowest level of this instance, accessible to everyone. Gaining freedom from their roles seemed imminent.

But who could have caused such a commotion?

Within thirty seconds of the alarm being triggered, the patrol drones, equipped with flight capabilities and high-heat beams, blasted open the sealed classroom door and squeezed in.

At the same time, light focused from outside, illuminating the classroom clearly—revealing both the newly entered patrol drones and the stolen helmet and pipe.

"There’s no one in the classroom; they’ve already run away."

"Pursue!"