Ch. 13 - Campus Horrors (5)

Ding, ding, dong, dong...

As the school bell echoed through the halls, Fu Yan made his second entrance into the classroom.

Upon realizing it was him walking through the door, expressions of pure agony washed over the students' faces.

"Mr. Fu, this is supposed to be math class!"

"P.E. isn't until the next period..."

Taking large strides up to the podium, Fu Yan announced, "The math teacher is sick. We're doing a double period of P.E."

Indecipherable internal screaming echoed in the students' minds while the livestream chat burst into laughter.

[PE class is great! Why do the students look so unhappy? Lol!]

[Yo! Get a grip! You're supposed to be man-eating NPCs!]

[Don't roast them too hard, or GOAT Fu Yan will give you guys a lesson next.]

[Honestly, I don't even know who the previous comment is throwing shade at!]

Within the Instance Dungeon, the students wore pale, green-tinged faces.

"Mr. Fu, we really don't want to play Hot Potato again..."

Fu Yan nodded, understanding that the kids were tired from climbing the stairs.

"That's fine. Mr. Fu has plenty of other options, like Head Toss... oh, wait, I mean Sandbag Toss, Drop the Handkerchief, or Eagle Catches the Chicks."

TL/N: These are all children's games similar to Duck, Duck, Goose.

"No... please, no!"

[Ding! Fear Points +10]

[Ding! Fear Points +10]

[Ding! Fear Points +10]

[Ding! Fear Points +10]

By the end of the two periods, the students had been beaten half to death—or worse—under Fu Yan's enthusiastic teaching, and Fu Yan walked away with his well-earned 960 Fear Points.

Time flies while farming Fear Points. Once again, it was already time to bid his students farewell.

After this class came the lunch break, and neither he nor He Shuyang had any lessons scheduled for the afternoon.

Fu Yan bid the students a highly reluctant farewell, while the class looked completely drained of the will to live.

Just leave already! We're begging you! Please never let us see you again!

Once class ended, Fu Yan led He Shuyang out of the academic building, making a beeline for the archives.

Inside the Instance Dungeon, they had no biological urges; they didn't need to eat, nor did they need to rest.

"Why are we at the archives?" He Shuyang inquired.

"To find clues," came Fu Yan's simple answer.

Fu Yan dug out the historical student files for Senior Class 4 and began flipping through them. There weren't many, only a dozen or so stacks.

He Shuyang came over to join the search.

The appearances of the students back then were a far cry from how they looked now. After turning a few pages and finding absolutely no one familiar, He Shuyang complained, "How are we supposed to find anything in all this?"

He turned to look at Fu Yan, only to see him skimming through the files with a mere glance, breezing through two or three stacks in no time.

He Shuyang: "You can speed-read?"

Fu Yan: "Yeah. Can't you?"

He Shuyang was rendered speechless. He really shouldn't have asked.

Grumbling internally, He Shuyang returned to flipping through the materials.

Suddenly, Fu Yan tapped the file in his hand.

"Found it."

"Already?!"

He Shuyang leaned in, staring at the file in Fu Yan's hands and flipping it back and forth. To call them identical would be absurd; they looked completely unrelated.

"These are those ridiculous hair-dye punks? No way!"

The photos depicted students in tidy uniforms; the boys had short hair above their brows, and the girls had their hair pinned behind their ears.

Devoid of weird, wacky colors, every face wore a radiant, youthful smile.

"No way, absolutely no way!"

Fu Yan had anticipated this exact reaction. He pointed to a girl with a black birthmark covering half her face.

"No matter how much their appearances change, some traits are permanent."

He Shuyang looked at the girl in the file.

"Senior Class 4, Gu Ling?"

Thinking back, he remembered a girl matching that description in the classroom. She had sat in the corner with her head lowered silently.

Most of her face was rotted away, but a faint trace of a black birthmark was still visible.

Fu Yan flipped through the files and noticed that these students had enrolled in 211. That meant they would have reached their senior year in 213.

This group of students died before they ever had the chance to graduate.

In other words, their time of death fell somewhere between September 213 and June 214.

A mass student death of this scale would undoubtedly have made the news.

All they had to do was find the newspapers from that year, and they'd uncover exactly how this class met their demise.

"Huh? The file says there were 50 students in this class during their senior year, but there were only 49 people in the classroom just now!"

He Shuyang recounted the files, realizing the cover page listed 50 students, but there were only 49 records; one student's file had clearly been removed.

Fu Yan nodded.

"Mhm."

There were 49 people in the class, yet only 48 of them had contributed Fear Points to him.

It was simply unacceptable!

After wrapping up his review of the student records, Fu Yan took He Shuyang along to the library.

It was there that they crossed paths with Chen Sheng and his group; the couple had since teamed up with them.

They were also rummaging through newspapers.

Despite visiting the archives earlier, they had failed to find any information on the students.

As a result, they were left with no choice but to comb through piles of newspapers, hoping to spot any reports concerning the students' collective demise.

Upon arriving at the library, Fu Yan moved with clear purpose, locating the newspapers from September 2*13 onward.

He scanned through them issue by issue, discovering that the dates abruptly stopped at March 2*14.

Any papers published beyond that date were completely missing.

Furthermore, there were no reported cases of student deaths within that timeframe.

Turning up empty-handed, Fu Yan prepared to leave.

Chen Sheng's group, however, abruptly stepped into his path.

"Do you need something?" Fu Yan asked.

"What leads did you find?" Chen Sheng demanded.

"And why exactly would I tell you?" Fu Yan countered.

Chen Sheng raised his chin haughtily.

"This is a new Instance Dungeon we're in, and new ones always have a massive death rate. Partnering up with me would work out well for both of us."

"Oh! I get it."

Fu Yan nodded.

"You just want to leech our clues off us."

An ugly, ashen color washed over Chen Sheng's face.

He was the vice chief of Floating Dreams, for god's sake! People threw themselves at his feet all the time.

Here he was, deigning to scout this rookie, and yet this guy had the audacity to act all high and mighty instead of getting down on his knees in gratitude.

Chen Sheng shot a meaningful glance at Blondie and the guy in the baseball uniform.

Since this fresh meat was spitting on his charity, he'd be glad to teach him exactly what the rules were.

The two men rapidly moved in to box them in.

The blond's heart was still fluttering with residual fear from the morning's incident, yet defying Chen Sheng was out of the question.

He had, after all, pleaded with Chen Sheng to carry him through this Instance Dungeon.

Forcing himself forward, the blond knew his choices were either death or a fate worse than it.

On the other hand, the guy in the baseball uniform was entirely unafraid, emboldened by Chen Sheng's backing.

He even harbored hopes that, after the Dungeon ended, he might snag a spot in Floating Dreams.

Crossing his arms, Chen Sheng retreated half a step, looking every bit the part of someone enjoying the show.

Fu Yan quipped, "What's this? Destroying what you can't attain?"

Chen Sheng scoffed.

"Looks like you're new to the game and blind to how things work. I happen to have some spare time, so I'll teach you a lesson in rules."

The guy in the baseball uniform slowly advanced on Fu Yan.

The man was built like a brick house, muscle packed tightly across his burly frame.

Stepping right up to Fu Yan, he rolled up his sleeve to flex a bulging bicep.

"Kiddo, the fact that GOAT Chen Sheng is asking you a question is an honor you should cherish. Don't push your luck and spit on his generosity."

Blondie trailed a half-step behind the burly guy, staying on high alert.

Whipping out his dagger, He Shuyang positioned himself in front of Fu Yan. Despite his pallid complexion, his eyes burned with unwavering resolve.

Even if he wasn't indebted to Fu Yan, there was no way he'd just stand by and watch these scumbags assault someone.

Yet Fu Yan showed absolutely zero appreciation, simply saying, "Move aside."

Pushing He Shuyang out of the way, Fu Yan instantly planted a kick on Blondie, launching him several meters backward.

In a flash, he grabbed the burly man's arm and drove his elbow down into the man's shoulder, ripping it clean out of its socket.

It all happened in a split second.

By the time Chen Sheng finally processed what had occurred, Fu Yan was already standing directly in front of him.

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