Chapter 99

Chapter 99: Chapter 98: "Come to Hell with Me"You are yourself, no need to live for anyone else." Su Ming’an nodded, his tightly clenched hand also gradually loosened.

He faintly saw the barrage of comments surging in the top right corner of his field of view, but at this moment, he no longer wanted to care about what these people were persuading.

He looked straight into the eyes of the girl in front of him, smiling, "I understand. Since this is your choice, then the next pass..."

"--Shen Yue, stop pretending like you don’t care!"

Suddenly, a thunderous voice erupted.

Shen Xue pushed Wang Zhenzhen aside and stood up, leaning against the wall, her hand clutching a handful of threads, her expression exceedingly grim: "--You’re clearly the luckiest one, you were with him from the beginning, accompanying him all the way... You even have the right to die for him, while I dare not even get close..."

"Then why don’t you die for Ming’an?" Cloning sneered at her from the side, "Didn’t you say you wanted to die for him? He is right here; your death would give him a Perfect Pass, why don’t you try?"

Shen Xue’s expression darkened even more, her entire body shaking, the threads in her hands making a crackling friction sound.

"A borrowed shell, a fallen Alice, a foul admirer." Shen Yue lifted her eyelids to look at her: "Your love is so naïve it makes me laugh, even though we are both made Eternal by becoming Observers, both waiting in the instance, you have always been indulging in a fairy tale before the game begins... Alice will grow up, but you won’t, you naïve little girl."

Shen Xue, furious with embarrassment, her hand turned pale and knuckling with tension.

"Damn..." Wang Xingkong at the side was dumbfounded: "...now I believe she and Ming’an are cut from the same cloth, cursing so fiercely without a single dirty word."

"What did I do wrong!" Shen Xue raised her hand, her already furious emotions violently exploding: "I just like him, I’m not willing to like him through a screen, not willing to just watch him from afar, not willing to see him only in the comments section... and even now, I don’t want us to become people from two different worlds, unable to touch him ever again... There’s nothing wrong with what I am doing! For him, I even sacrificed my future—!"

"That’s why," Su Ming’an spoke indifferently: "I dislike people with no future."

Shen Xue’s expression froze.

She opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but in the end, she said nothing.

Like suddenly drained of all strength, she lowered her head, leaning against the wall without a word.

"I’ve almost completed my deduction, if this were a peaceful route, we would have already passed it." Su Ming’an paid no attention to this inexplicable woman and looked away: "... but now it’s a hidden route, what is still missing..."

"Lack...your descent to Hell with me." Shen Xue’s expression suddenly became terrifying.

Like a flame that abruptly ignited from the bottom of her heart, setting herself ablaze, her glass bead-like eyes were filled with a maniacal desire to incinerate everything.

Her hand tightened—

"Hiss—" The threads made a grating sound, shining brightly under the auditorium’s overhead lights in an instant.

"Be careful—" Lv Shu felt a tightness all over, as if an invisible hand had gripped his whole body and squeezed tightly in an instant, accompanied by an acutely painful sting.

In that instant, he looked at Su Ming’an to make sure there were no threads on him and then he eased his worries.

But what followed was not the death that comes from being torn apart.

Shen Yue’s black hair fluttered lightly, the blade in her hand swift like the wind and unclear to the eye.

With a "swish".

The delicate and pale palm dropped to the ground.

Shen Yue sheathed her sword, and invisible threads were severed and fell to the floor in an instant.

The barrage was lively.

Meanwhile, on the stage, Shen Xue, whose palm was cut off, did not scream in agony.

She just stared blankly at her own beautiful pale hand on the ground as if she couldn’t feel any pain.

Then, in the next instant, the hand suddenly decayed as if it had rotted away, grey and white spreading swiftly like creeping moss, turning the young palm into something that only an old woman could possess, wrinkled and saggy.

"Ahhh—" Only then did Shen Xue scream as if she finally felt the pain, covering her stump as blood spilled all over. Looking at the hand that seemed to lose the Blessing of Time, the craziness in her eyes was alarming: "—Shen Yue! How dare you!"

"I won’t kill you." Shen Yue pointed her sword at her forehead, but did not thrust it, "Shen Zhuo took care of me for twelve years, never laid a hand on me, and even though he is not my biological father, he made me feel much closer than a real father ever could. You are the person he wants to protect, his daughter, I will not touch you—but please, leave this school."

"--If I leave this school, all the students will die." Shen Xue clung to this like a drowning person grasping at her last lifebuoy, crying out as she looked at Su Ming’an, with a mad fire burning in her eyes: "Ming’an, didn’t you enter the hidden route? Don’t you want a Perfect Pass? Come on, kill me, drive me away, once I disappear from this school, all the students will die—your Radiance Line, let’s see how you complete it then!"

Su Ming’an looked at her with an aloof expression, as if looking at an inanimate object.

That made her even more angry and sorrowful. She opened her eyes wide, trying to find even the slightest trace of emotional fluctuation on his face due to her actions... but there was nothing.

She, like a true clown performing before an audience... had really become an actor on the stage.

"Are there any puzzles left unsolved? How come the completion is only 65%?" Even Lv Shu didn’t pay attention to Shen Xue. He brushed off the remaining threads on his body and frowned, "No, that’s not right. It looks like everything has been resolved..."

"It’s because it’s not the most authentic Perfect Pass, I guess." Xiao Xiao pondered nearby, "I’ve seen the Perfect Pass route of the Number One Player in the Second World. It’s an ending completely different from both the Peace and Force routes. The true essence of this world... probably hasn’t been fully revealed yet..."

"Damn! What else is hidden here!" Wang Xingkong slapped his forehead, "If I had known, I would have taken the Peace route. Who’s the bastard that triggered this hidden route? It’s so difficult..."

He met everyone’s gaze once again.

"Uh, oh!" Realizing something, he waved his hands repeatedly, "It was Ming An’an, yeah. Forget what I said..."

"It’s probably not possible to go out and gather more evidence now." Xiao Xiao glanced at the completely sealed hall, "This side-instance isn’t showing signs of ending. The game wants us to solve the puzzles with just the current clues... but there clearly are no more clues..."

Shen Xue slowly walked over from the wall, looking at them with a smile, as if her hand wasn’t hurting anymore.

"So, what do you say, Ming’an?" She seemed to reignite her hope, looking at Su Ming’an again with deep expectation, "As long as you promise to be with me forever, to stay and be by my side, I’ll tell you all the truths. I’ll let the others go, allowing them to Perfect Pass... You want to cooperate with them, right? You want everyone to move forward together, so then..."

Then she noticed that everyone was looking at her as if she was an idiot.

The bullet comments were almost hysterical with laughter:

"What to do, what to do, what to do..." Wang Xingkong hopped anxiously on the spot, then suddenly glanced at Shen Xue over there. His expression changed, and he came forward with a suggestion, "Why don’t we start with this woman—she said she knows everything, right? Then let’s beat her, interrogate her, torture her! I don’t believe she won’t talk!"

Xiao Xiao looked at him with some surprise, not expecting such a lively and exuberant person to come up with such a suggestion so quickly.

...Nevertheless, this method... might not be a bad idea...

"..." Su Ming’an, however, was not surprised, "There are still clues, what are you rushing for?"

"There are?" Wang Xingkong looked at him, puzzled.

"Lv Shu, the thing I asked you to do earlier, you did it, right?" Su Ming’an said to Lv Shu nearby.

Lv Shu nodded and then took something out of his backpack slot.

At the sight of that thing, everyone’s face drastically changed.

...It was a complete human skin.

When Lv Shu produced it, the skin slowly erected itself, its hollow features stuffed with random organs, wrinkly, but very intact, and it looked like the skin of a young person.

"..." Xiao Xiao took a few steps back, forcing herself to hide her fear. She had never expected Lv Shu to bring out something so eerily otherworldly.

"...This is too cruel. Comrade Lv Shu, where is this from?" Yang Changxu, who had been silent, watched the skin with a grave expression, his fists gradually clenching: "How can there be people who do such things, actually flaying the skin of their own kind, no matter the reason... Indeed, such acts are absolutely unforgivable..."

"I... Damn." Wang Xingkong’s face contorted: "This is too disgusting. At least give us a heads-up before bringing it out. I almost threw up the meal I had in the cafeteria earlier..."

"Su Ming’an, this is what you asked me to do," said Lv Shu, cutting him off.

The faces of several people looked somewhat unpleasant. Xiao Xiao turned her head to look at Su Ming’an: "Number One Player, what did you have him do? How did he end up with a piece of human skin...?"

Su Ming’an faced everyone.

He paid attention to each person’s expression.

"—Actually, from the very beginning, I’ve always had my suspicions about one of us," he spoke softly:

"His actions seem those of a normal player... He knows everything a player should know, does what a player should do, his every behavior, there is no difference from a regular player..."

The faces of the others shifted slightly, seeming to have thought of something too.

As Su Ming’an watched everyone’s expressions, he continued: "—But then I noticed. His obsession, it was astoundingly intense. He kept repeating an action, day after day, ceaselessly... His behavior reminded me of a roommate I had who constantly mopped the floor, they were both engaged in a repetitive and pathological act... Even when problems arose, he would persistently keep doing the same thing every day—just like those students who had been transformed."

"You mean, there’s a traitor among us?" Xiao Xiao looked confused: "Who is he? What did he do? How come I haven’t noticed anyone doing something so repetitively?"

Su Ming’an did not directly answer Xiao Xiao’s question, but instead expressed his suspicions:

"Moreover, on the second day of the game... Shen Xue asked me why I smelled of roses. I told her it was because I had been to that person’s dorm room to solve a problem for him. Shen Xue didn’t express any confusion, as if she had received the correct answer—so that means there really is the fragrance of roses in his dorm... So, what kind of place, under what kind of circumstances, would there be the scent of roses?"

Several people’s expressions changed for a moment.

The answer was actually quite clear.

...On top of the human skin.

On top of the transformed, the husks.

"So, well before I entered the office on the second floor with Shen Zhuo, I had sent a private message to Lv Shu to come to the office to help me within an hour, and I had also asked Lv Shu to search his dorm room..." Su Ming’an sighed softly: "While entering the office, Shen Zhuo said something that confirmed what I was thinking."

"...What did he say?" Wang Xingkong looked at him.

"He looked at me and said... ," Su Ming’an spread his hands: "So, besides me, everyone else is , the same kind of people as those transformed students."

"Who is it... who entered the office with you?" Yang Changxu asked with a stern face.