Chapter 51

Chapter 51

The sudden darkness plunged the classroom into chaos.

"What's going on?"

"Why did it suddenly get dark?"

"The lights? Can someone turn on the lights?"

Questions erupted from all sides. Zhou Ping, being close to the switch, fumbled for it and pressed it.

The lights flickered a few times before dying completely.

"Am I seeing things? For a moment, it looked like a different classroom."

"I saw it too! When the lights flickered, the classroom looked dilapidated and run-down—completely different from the one we were just in."

"What’s happening? Is this some kind of paranormal event?"

"Watch what you're saying! Don’t say that—I’m scared."

This time, their voices were a mix of fear, shock, curiosity, and even excitement.

The braver students, especially, were burning with curiosity. Why had the classroom suddenly changed? No matter how bizarre, it shouldn’t transform in a split second—unless they had all lost their memories and been moved from one place to another.

Was that even possible?

After ruling out all possibilities, the most unlikely scenario might just be the truth.

"I remember, Lin Juan showed something to the proctor just now, and then it turned dark."

"Wait, do we even have a classmate with the surname Lin?"

A heavy silence fell in the darkness.

Yes, in their memories, there had never been a classmate named Lin—especially one with such striking long hair and exceptionally good looks.

If there had been someone like that in their class, he would have made an impression.

Outside the window was pitch black as well. The darkness was feeding their fear. At first, it was manageable, but slowly, the more timid students couldn’t take it anymore.

"I want to leave here! I want to go home!"

The moment the word "home" was uttered, it was as if a switch had been flipped.

"Home!"

"Yes, we should go home!"

Something flashed through Shi Haochen’s mind, and he felt a brief wave of confusion. When he regained clarity, it was as if a fog had cleared from his mind.

"I remember now—we’re trapped in an endless cycle. Why did my grades suddenly improve? Because I’ve been through countless cycles, constantly grinding through problems, over and over again. Anyone would improve under such intense drill."

He spoke softly, and only those nearby heard him. Their doubts grew.

"What do you mean, 'we’re trapped in a cycle'?"

Shi Haochen didn’t answer. Instead, relying on memory, he groped forward in the dark. "Lin Juan!"

"Over here!" Zhou Ping called out. "To your left, straight ahead, under the lectern."

After taking two steps, Shi Haochen bumped into something. He steadied himself against a nearby desk, and his hand felt sticky.

The sensation was thicker than water. Shi Haochen’s first thought was blood.

He caught a faint scent of blood.

Once the idea took hold that he had touched blood, the smell clung to him relentlessly. It felt as if he were at a murder scene, surrounded by blood.

Blood splattered on the walls, flowing across the floor. Someone was hacking at something with a knife, and droplets of blood splashed onto his face and clothes.

In that short distance, Shi Haochen broke out in a cold sweat.

In reality, only a few seconds had passed.

"Shi Haochen!"

His arm was grabbed firmly, jolting him out of his hallucination. He shuddered. "I just..."

"You were really out of it just now," Zhou Ping frowned.

Coming back to his senses, Shi Haochen was surprised to find that the pitch blackness was gone.

A faint green light spilled through the windows. The once noisy classroom was now eerily silent. He looked around and saw dilapidated desks and chairs, rusted windows, and peeling walls...

There was no blood, no man hacking at anything.

Only the faint smell of blood lingered.

"Where are the other classmates? Why are they all gone?" What had happened while he was groping in the dark?

"The moment the green moon rose, they all disappeared." Zhou Ping had originally intended to search for them, but seeing Shi Haochen drenched in cold sweat and struggling to move even a few steps, he decided to call out to him first.

"What happened to you just now?"

"I smelled blood, and it was like I saw someone hacking at something. There was blood everywhere. Where’s Lin Juan?" Shi Haochen remembered he had something important to tell Lin Juan.

"Wasn’t he next to me..." Zhou Ping turned his head and found no one beside him. "Shit!" he exclaimed, panicking. "Where’s Lin Juan?"

Zhou Ping had only stayed calm because he knew Lin Juan was nearby. Without Lin Juan, it was hard for him not to feel fear.

On this campus filled with dangers.

"What should we do now?"

The two stared at each other.

Zhou Ping’s eyes widened in terror as he saw something. "Behind you..."

"What’s behind me?" Shi Haochen asked, turning his head as he spoke.

Halfway through turning, Shi Haochen froze.

Behind him, a massive shadow was cast. The shadow held a cleaver, its arm raised high, swinging down hard.

"Thud—thud—thud—"

A dull thud of chopping meat echoed in Shi Haochen’s ears.

It was exactly the scene he had seen in his hallucination!

Shi Haochen’s scalp crawled with dread—could what he just saw have been real?

The monster gave them little time to react. The massive shadow detached itself from the wall as if coming to life, materializing into solid form.

That was no ordinary shadow—it was clearly a monster in the shape of a shadow!

“More prey,” the monster sneered, swinging its massive blade toward them.

Shi Haochen and Zhou Ping dodged quickly. Without a word, they both bolted out of the classroom.

The shadow monster pursued them.

Not daring to pause even for a moment, they reached the stairwell, uncertain whether to ascend or descend.

Shi Haochen made a quick decision: “I’ll go up, you go down. Whoever finds Lin Juan first, return as quickly as possible to rescue!”

“No, I’ll go up,” Zhou Ping objected. Going up meant heading to the rooftop—if the shadow monster didn’t follow, it might be safe, but if it did, it would mean certain death.

“There’s no time,” Shi Haochen shoved Zhou Ping toward the descending staircase. In those few seconds, the shadow monster was nearly upon them. “Run!”

With that, Shi Haochen turned and sprinted upstairs.

Heavy footsteps echoed behind him.

He didn’t dare stop. The staircase upward appeared infinite—he ran for what felt like an eternity, yet the light above hadn't gotten any closer.

Even someone obtuse would have sensed something wrong, let alone Shi Haochen, who was anything but dull.

The stairs might literally have no end!

Should he stop?

No, he couldn’t just wait to die.

Taking a deep breath, Shi Haochen pushed forward.

The footsteps behind him grew closer.

He felt something chilling and malevolent press into his back.

“Got you!” the shadow monster’s excited voice rang out from above.

Shi Haochen was lifted high into the air, hoisted by the monster behind him.

His collar choked him, his face turning red from lack of oxygen.

Eyes bulging, Shi Haochen reached back, trying to break the monster’s grip.

He was suffocating.

As the massive blade swung upward, time seemed to slow to a crawl in that final moment.

Under the threat of death, beyond the fear, a fierce defiance of fate surged within Shi Haochen.

It was just a shadow! Why should he be killed by a shadow?!

Overwhelmed by intense defiance, Shi Haochen mustered a surge of tremendous strength. He twisted his head bit by bit, gripping the shadow monster’s arm: “If I die, you’re going down with me!!!”

His grip tightened relentlessly, forehead veins bulging as he glared fiercely at the shadow monster. Unnoticed by him, something profound began to change. Under the eerie, sickly green moonlight, his own shadow started to distort.

The shadow writhed free from his form, climbing onto the shadow monster, coiling around it tightly until it finally crushed the monster, cleaving it in half.

Shi Haochen fell from the height, hitting the ground with a thud, feeling utterly drained.

It was a weariness born from the depths of his soul, incomparable to physical exhaustion. Forcing himself up, he dragged his heavy body forward.

He saw the shadow monster, severed in the middle, gradually fading until it disappeared entirely, leaving only an elongated gray shadow.

His heart pounded like a drum. Black spots danced before Shi Haochen’s eyes. He steadied himself, closing and reopening his eyes.

The elongated gray shadow remained, slowly crawling toward him.

It reached his feet and reverted to being his shadow.

Darkness clouded Shi Haochen’s vision, and he nearly collapsed.

Bracing against the stair railing to catch his breath, he felt overwhelmingly tired, his eyelids heavy as if they would never lift again. But he knew he couldn’t sleep—Zhou Ping was downstairs, and he had to find him.

And Lin Juan, and the other classmates.

Shi Haochen didn't have the mental space to ponder the abnormality with his shadow. After resting briefly, some strength returned, and he began descending the stairs.

The upward stairs that had seemed endless now brought him to the first floor almost immediately.

Zhou Ping had rushed downward, determined not to waste the opportunity Shi Haochen had given him. He soon reached the first floor and stood before the empty teaching building, looking up.

A green moon hung large and round in the sky. Was he imagining things, or did he see another, fainter moon beside it?

Two moons hung high in the sky like a pair of giant eyes, watching the school’s every move.

Zhou Ping shivered with horror.

Suppressing his fear, he gritted his teeth and dashed out of the teaching building area.

Faster, he needed to move faster. He needed to find Lin Juan quickly and return to save Shi Haochen.

Lin Juan was investigating the moon phenomenon.

Night had fallen abruptly. One moment he was in the classroom, the next, he found himself in a familiar infirmary.

Unlike the infirmary he had seen during the day, the nighttime version contained a partially destroyed operating theater. A red light above the door glowed, indicating “Surgery in Progress.”

The documents he'd been carrying had vanished. Lin Juan had a suspicion. Ignoring the red light, he forced the door open.

Inside, a group of doctors surrounded an operating table, performing surgery. Lin Juan’s entrance went unnoticed.

He was like an observer—no one acknowledged his presence. Moving forward, as if clipping through the game world, he passed through the doctors and saw the patient on the table.

It matched the subject of the anachronistic file in the archives.

The young man on the table had been cut open, his organs removed one by one. Lin Juan recalled the culture dishes from the previous lab illusion.

The difference was, here the boy was being used as an organ incubator, while in the earlier illusion, people had been turned into grotesque culture vessels.

Frowning, Lin Juan wanted to interrupt the surgery, but he and the people in the operating room existed in different dimensions. His actions had no effect on them.

Frustrated, he kicked the thing at his feet, and the scene before him changed again.

This time, he saw a hospital room.

Inside the room, a teenager with a shaved head, noticeably thinner than in the photo, was quietly doing problems in an exercise book, head bowed.

What he was seeing was merely a huge projection.

Knowing he couldn't change anything, Lin Juan turned and left without hesitation.

He returned to the familiar classroom.

The classroom was in disarray, as if it had been struck by chaos. Lin Juan touched a desk and pushed it aside.

This time, it wasn’t a projection.

Lin Juan decided to look for people.

Unable to make contact, he had no choice but to rely on himself to search the vast campus.

Stepping out of the classroom, Lin Juan noticed chop marks on the wall. The marks led upward, so he went up the stairs.

After searching that floor without finding anyone, he went back down.

Unafraid of attracting monsters, Lin Juan used the simplest method—shouting.

Zhou Ping was hiding in a collapsed equipment room. After descending the stairs, a thick fog had suddenly rolled in across the campus. The last time monsters appeared, fog had appeared too. Though terrified, Zhou Ping knew finding Lin Juan was the top priority.

They only had a chance if they found Lin Juan.

Zhou Ping prayed to himself that no monsters would appear, but things rarely go as hoped. When visibility dropped to less than five meters in the dense fog, monsters emerged.

Zhou Ping fled in a panic.

He ran all the way to the familiar equipment room and, without a second thought, hid inside, barricading the door with heavy objects.

Cracking open a window, he peered outside.

Monsters were prowling around.

Zhou Ping wondered if it was his imagination, but the monsters emerging from the fog seemed much more aggressive than the ones they had encountered before.

The impatient monsters began slamming into the equipment room.

The room, long abandoned, was much less sturdy than a normal building. After a few impacts, it collapsed.

Zhou Ping crouched in a corner, hardly daring to breathe.

Fear, panic, and despair gripped him. The relentless impacts outside continued; at this rate, his hiding spot wouldn’t last long.

What to do?

There wasn’t just one monster outside. Like sharks drawn to blood, more and more gathered around.

Lin Juan searched around but encountered no monsters and received no responses.

Just then, he noticed a group of figures crowding around something. Without hesitation, he changed direction and headed toward them.

So this was where all the monsters had gone—no wonder he hadn’t run into any elsewhere.

Having searched for so long without finding anyone, Lin Juan was simmering with frustration. Since the monsters were throwing themselves at him, he wouldn’t hold back.

Lin Juan dashed forward, striking out with hands and feet, sending a swarm of monsters flying.

Thinking direct fighting was too much work, he grabbed a particularly large monster and wielded it as a weapon, hurling it at the others.

The monsters let out deafening shrieks.

Zhou Ping, on the verge of despair, jerked his head up and scrambled to his feet, cautiously peering outside.

A long-haired young man stood amid the fallen monsters, like a god coming down from heaven.

Zhou Ping nearly cried out, "Lin Juan!"

Huh? Someone’s here?

Lin Juan flexed his wrist and tossed the monster aside.

The half-dead monster groaned softly, cautiously lifting its head to check if Lin Juan had noticed before pressing its face back to the ground.

Damn it, where did this freak come from? How is he so strong?!

Lin Juan approached the nearly ruined equipment room. "Zhou Ping?"

"It’s me," Zhou Ping replied, pushing aside a large boulder blocking his way, tears of relief in his eyes. "Lin Juan, I finally found you!"

Lin Juan pulled him out. "How did you end up here? Where are the others?"

"Shi Haochen and I encountered a shadow creature that chases people and attacks. Shi Haochen lured it upstairs. Lin Juan, we have to save him!" Zhou Ping, not thinking about himself, immediately ran toward the teaching building.

"I’ve been upstairs. I didn’t see anyone," Lin Juan called out to stop him.

"How is that possible?" Zhou Ping froze, afraid to consider the worst. "Then where do we look?"

Shi Haochen must be okay.

The boy who had held back tears during the monster ambush now reddened, panicked. "Lin Juan, we have to save him. He went upstairs so I could escape. I can’t just abandon him…"

"I won’t abandon him. Calm down first," Lin Juan soothed, as Zhou Ping began to ramble incoherently. "Before finding you, I searched many places in the school and didn’t encounter any monsters. He should be safe."

"He must be safe," Zhou Ping muttered, trying to convince himself and strengthen his resolve.

Shi Haochen must be okay!

Lin Juan led the distraught Zhou Ping to continue the search.

The school was too vast, and the thick fog obscured distant views, making the search extremely difficult.

"Over there—it looks like someone," Lin Juan halted, squinting upward.

The teaching building was only six stories high at most. Without the fog, the rooftop would be easy to see.

But the fog blocked the view, and Lin Juan couldn’t be sure if the figure on the roof was Shi Haochen.

Or something else.

Zhou Ping looked up and said, "The fog is too thick. Should we go up and check it out?"

"Let's move." Since they couldn't find anyone below, whoever it was might be up there. Even if it wasn't a person—some monster—Lin Juan wasn't afraid.

Getting closer, they realized this was the same teaching building where they'd had their exam.

They hadn’t encountered anyone on their earlier trips up and down, so how could there be someone on the rooftop now?

Lin Juan and Zhou Ping began climbing the stairs.

Twenty minutes passed, and they were still going in circles on the stairs.

"Wait," Lin Juan stopped, "it shouldn't take this long to go upstairs."

It had never taken him this long before.

Zhou Ping gripped the railing, gasping for breath: "We must have climbed more than six floors."

Lin Juan peered upward; about two or three floors above them, there was a bright light.

Zhou Ping was about to say something when, with a "CRACK," Lin Juan kicked the wall beside the staircase.

The wall caved in, revealing a hole, and beyond it was the rooftop.

The staircase also showed what it really was.

It turned out they hadn’t been climbing upward but going in circles in the same spot.

Lin Juan and Zhou Ping climbed through the hole.

At some point, the moon above had split into two, equally bright and aligned horizontally, resembling a pair of eyes.

Zhou Ping had the intense feeling he was being watched.

A malicious gaze, as if observing a lab rat, sent chills down his spine.

He forgot his purpose and walked forward without thinking.

In seconds, he reached the edge of the rooftop.

"Zhou Ping!"

Zhou Ping snapped back to reality and saw one foot hovering over the void, breaking into a cold sweat.

If Lin Juan hadn’t called out, he might have fallen without even realizing it.

The thought filled him with dread. He stumbled backward, collapsing to the ground, scrambling away until he reached Lin Juan’s legs before stopping.

This time, he didn’t dare look up at the moons again. Those moons felt demonic, too eerie.

Lin Juan started walking forward, and Zhou Ping stood up, keeping his head down as he followed closely behind.

Remembering the earlier close call, Zhou Ping worried: "Classmate Lin, was that person we saw in the same kind of trance I was in just now?"

If so, without anyone to stop them, would that person have fallen?

Could that person be Shi Haochen?

Zhou Ping’s heart raced, and his desire to find him quickly grew stronger.

"He should be over here," Lin Juan estimated the direction.

After a few steps forward, they indeed saw someone hanging from the edge of the rooftop.

Without a second thought, Zhou Ping rushed over, grabbed the person’s arm, and pulled hard.

"Zhou Ping, why are you here?"

A familiar voice.

It was Shi Haochen!

Overjoyed, Zhou Ping shouted: "Lin Juan! Shi Haochen's here!"

Lin Juan strode over, grabbed Zhou Ping’s wrist, and pulled upward, effortlessly lifting the six-foot-tall teenager to safety.

"Is the shadow monster still following you?" Zhou Ping stepped aside, spotting a shadow crawling ominously along the rooftop’s edge, and gasped.

"No, it’s not." Unusually, Shi Haochen’s voice faltered.

Zhou Ping watched as the shadow slowly crawled to Shi Haochen’s feet, turning into a normal shadow and staying still.

Stunned, he exclaimed: "It... it’s your shadow?!"

"Yes," Shi Haochen didn’t want to hide it from his friends. "I don’t know how it happened. Have I turned into a monster?"

Shi Haochen, who had been terrified for so long, relaxed upon seeing Lin Juan and Zhou Ping and couldn’t help but ramble.

He first recounted being chased by the shadow monster and the sudden mutation of his shadow.

"If it weren’t for it, I might have been killed already," Shi Haochen said bitterly.

Hearing that his friend had nearly died, Zhou Ping’s voice choked up: "I shouldn’t have let you go upstairs alone."

"But I’m fine now, aren’t I?" Shi Haochen feigned ease. "And I even gained such a useful shadow."

"Zhou Ping ran downstairs. After dealing with the shadow monster, why did you go upstairs?"

"I was heading downstairs, but a thick fog rolled in, and I couldn’t see anything except two green moons in the sky, growing clearer and clearer."

"I thought it was flat ground and didn’t pay attention. I only realized I was on the rooftop when I stepped into emptiness."

Thanks to his shadow acting in time, he might not have survived until Lin Juan and the others arrived.

Though Shi Haochen spoke lightly, only he knew the true peril of the situation.

"Have you noticed those eyes are getting closer to us?" Lin Juan had initially thought they were just seeing the moon larger from a higher vantage point, but now he realized the moons were actually moving toward them.

The moons' size remained unchanged; what changed was their distance.

Coincidentally, Lin Juan had been worried about not being able to reach the moons to take action.

The pair of moons, like enormous beastly pupils, glowed with an eerie green light, clearly abnormal.

Lin Juan initially considered having them go downstairs first but then realized that since whatever it was had lured them here, it likely wouldn’t let them leave easily.

As Lin Juan suspected, the fog obscured everything. Between heaven and earth, it seemed only the growing green moons remained. All paths of arrival and departure vanished, leaving them with nothing but the sight of the green moons drawing nearer and nearer.

As it got closer, it looked even more like a pair of giant eyes.

An overwhelming, eerie aura surged forth, but Lin Juan stood frozen, as if frightened.

A smug glint crossed the green eyes.

It was fed up with this troublemaker in the school—students who didn’t follow the rules deserved punishment!

Punishment!

Countless buzzing sounds filled the air. Zhou Ping and Shi Haochen covered their ears as a dull ache throbbed deep in their heads.

It was as if they saw a massive, invisible beast approaching them step by step, leaving them with nowhere to run.

Their gazes grew unfocused, their thoughts chaotic.

Suddenly, a voice broke through, snapping them back to their senses.

"Have you ever tried beating up the moon?"

"What?" The two men were bewildered.

Lin Juan pointed ahead. "I'll show you."

Lin Juan charged forward. To its surprise, Lin Juan easily broke free from its mental control, and a flicker of astonishment crossed the enormous green eyes.

Lin Juan wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip away. In a flash, he dashed right up to the green eye.

A single green eye was nearly three meters tall, making Lin Juan seem small and insignificant in comparison. Yet, it was this seemingly weak and harmless figure who landed punch after punch, directly shattering one of the green eyes.

"ROAR!!!!!"

The invisible creature clutched its eye, writhing in pain on the ground.

At the same time, the earth shook violently, and the entire school began to tremble.

The ground churned, buildings were buried beneath the soil, and everything turned upside down. The true form of the monster was now clear.

This anomaly was none other than the school itself!

I hope I don’t have to pay for this, Lin Juan thought as he continued to pummel it.

Well, I’ll deal with that later.

Zhou Ping and Shi Haochen watched in stunned silence the entire time.

Even though they knew Lin Juan was strong, the sheer, terrifying power he displayed left them utterly shocked.

So powerful!

Is this a power a human could possess?

Outside.

Two days had passed with no sign of activity. Lu Yanzhou would come to keep watch after finishing work. Lu Mingxuan, unaware of the situation but bored during the holiday, thought Lin Juan was genuinely attending school and insisted on tagging along.

Without warning, the ground began to shake violently. The superpower holders guarding the outside watched in astonishment as the entire school collapsed without any apparent cause.

Everyone rushed forward to check the situation.

"Mr. Lin?!"

A surprised voice called out. Lu Yanzhou didn’t hesitate, sprinting over in long strides.

Lin Juan had just climbed out of the rubble, covered in dust, when Lu Yanzhou pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Dirty," Lin Juan muttered, pushing lightly but failing to break free.

The superpower holders used their abilities to rescue Shi Haochen and Zhou Ping, who were buried beneath the debris.

Director Liu came over to get a report, forcing Lu Yanzhou to reluctantly let go. Lin Juan gave a brief summary of what had happened.

Lu Mingxuan stumbled over, his expression one of sheer disbelief.

Remembering something, he whispered to Lin Juan, "Uncle, you’ve done what countless students have only dreamed of."

Lin Juan asked, "What?"

Lu Mingxuan replied with feigned solemnity, "Blowing up the school."

Lin Juan: "..."