Chapter 78: Death Class 7 (Part 2)

Warning: Contains graphic depictions of a dead body.

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Xiao Muyu opened the rooftop access door and quickly descended the stairs. When she reached the fourth floor, she saw a swarm of panicking students rushing downstairs. Others gathered along the corridors, leaning over to look down. Shouts rose among the throng.

“Someone jumped off the building!”

“Huh, who was it? How could this happen?”

Xiao Muyu headed downstairs with the crowd. Beside her, two girls were whispering about the incident.

“I don’t know…” a short-haired girl said with a fear-stricken face. “It couldn’t… it couldn’t be Class 3-7 again, could it?”

Xiao Muyu’s keen ears caught the words. Class 3-7—again?

As she mulled over the comment, a girl suddenly tapped her shoulder.

“Muyu, where have you been?” she asked, deeply worried.

Xiao Muyu looked at her wordlessly. So, she had an assigned role in this instance—student. However, she had none of her character’s memories, much less knowledge of who she supposedly knew. She couldn’t answer rashly.

The anxious-looking girl didn’t wait for her response before firing off more words: “I just heard someone jumped off the building. Then we realized you and Luo Zihao were missing. We were worried sick!”

Xiao Muyu’s face instantly turned pale, as if she had been scared out of her wits. She shook her head without answering.

They soon followed the crowd down to the ground floor.

The student who had jumped was already discovered. Security guards and teachers had arrived. They cordoned off the scene and forbade students from getting close.

Wave after wave of people surrounded that area. Through the gaps in the jostling crowd, Xiao Muyu glimpsed the fallen student.

He had fallen headfirst, so his skull shattered on impact. Blood and brain matter had splattered everywhere around him.

The spectating students turned ghastly pale. Some couldn’t bear it and vomited to the side. Many of the girls screamed. It was bedlam.

“Is that Luo Zihao from Class 3-7?”

“Looks like it is. Class 7 again? What’s going on?”

Luo Zihao? The girl mentioned earlier she and Luo Zihao were missing. That meant, in the scenario, she had gone to the rooftop with him, and then he jumped.

Xiao Muyu had witnessed the tragic end of such a young life as soon as she entered the instance. It still unsettled her despite knowing it was part of the instance’s setup.

While lost in thought, Xiao Muyu suddenly felt an icy gaze on her. It cut through the bustling crowd to land precisely on her.

Xiao Muyu’s back went cold. She scanned her surroundings, frowned, and finally looked upward.

The rooftop stood five stories up, about sixteen or seventeen meters. One couldn’t clearly discern things at that distance. Yet, Xiao Muyu spotted a red figure hovering at the rooftop’s edge, head tilted down to stare directly at her.

The figure clad in a flashy, firey red outfit smiled at her.

She couldn’t make out the figure’s face. But for some inexplicable reason, Xiao Muyu could tell she was smiling. And that smile gave her goosebumps. When she tried to observe in detail, the red figure vanished.

Xiao Muyu searched her surroundings. Her gaze settled on the lifeless body on the ground. Her face turned grave. The boy mysteriously jumped off the building, and she was a witness. What did it all mean? And who was that ghost woman in red?

The boy hadn’t jumped of his own volition. Could it be the ghost’s revenge?

What about Shen Qingqiu and the others? As Xiao Muyu thought of Shen Qingqiu, she suddenly felt another gaze on her from among the crowd. She quickly raised her head and locked eyes with a girl. A similar school uniform draped her form, her hair falling loosely to her shoulders.

Xiao Muyu stared at the girl for several seconds. It was hardly an appropriate time or place to smile. Yet, Xiao Muyu couldn’t keep her lips from curving briefly before resuming her somber expression.

When Shen Qingqiu saw her, she froze in place. That delicate, pretty face was undeniably Xiao Muyu’s. However, the girl before her wore her hair in a neat ponytail, revealing a fair, unblemished forehead. Her features exuded the youthfulness of a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girl, indescribably graceful.

Her tiny smile just now stripped away the maturity that seemed out of place on someone her age. At that moment, she looked radiant, pure, and irresistibly endearing.

The recognition that this was sixteen-year-old Xiao Muyu swept away any discomfort Shen Qingqiu felt about her own outfit.

Xiao Muyu, however, had smiled because of Shen Qingqiu’s appearance. Her sloppily worn school uniform, untied hair, and ear cuffs gave her campus alpha female vibes.

Original, grown-up Shen Qingqiu would’ve looked charming and cool in the get-up. However, that woman had reverted to a seventeen-year-old. Her maturity now made her seem pretentious and incongruous, like a chuuni girl.

Shen Qingqiu caught her amusement and immediately stepped forward. The people nearby backed away in terror, averting their eyes as though they dared not look at her. Xiao Muyu found it odd until her eyes fell on Shen Qingqiu’s legs.

Earlier, the crowd had obscured Shen Qingqiu’s lower body. As she stepped out now, Xiao Muyu saw blood and faint white spots on her school uniform pants.

No wonder everyone around her looked so horrified. When the boy hit the ground, his blood and whatever else had splattered onto Shen Qingqiu.

Xiao Muyu hurried over as well. The girl beside her reached out to stop her but to no avail.

“Are you okay? Did anything happen?” Xiao Muyu scrutinized Shen Qingqiu from head to toe.

Shen Qingqiu didn’t respond immediately. She looked at her, then shook her head, smiling faintly. She liked Xiao Muyu’s unintentional worry and care.

“I’m fine,” Shen Qingqiu whispered in her ear. “He just happened to fall right next to me.” She glanced around and added, “You look great like this. And adorable. Under different circumstances, I wouldn’t be able to take my eyes off you.”

Xiao Muyu: “……”

She’d thought Shen Qingqiu was about to say something serious. Instead, she had to endure this shameless remark. Xiao Muyu almost rolled her eyes.

“All students, return to your classrooms immediately. Don’t watch, and don’t panic! Homeroom teachers, escort your students back!” The principal’s voice repeated this through the school broadcast system. Students began to disperse in an uproar.

The girl who had come down with Xiao Muyu began calling out to her. Xiao Muyu didn’t respond. Then, a man who appeared to be in his forties walked over. “Muyu, hurry back to class. Don’t linger here,” he ordered in a raised voice. “And you, Shen Qingqiu. Don’t get involved in this commotion. Go back now.”

Anxiety lined his wan face. He looked utterly exhausted, as if he hadn’t rested well in a long time.

He reached out to tug Xiao Muyu away, seeming displeased to see her standing with Shen Qingqiu. He then turned around in a hurry to deal with the incident. A student from his class had jumped off the building. Such a grave matter was already enough to overwhelm him.

“Teacher, her clothes got dirty. She needs to change,” Xiao Muyu interjected. She didn’t recognize the man but assumed he must be her homeroom teacher. She hoped this excuse could let Shen Qingqiu leave for a moment.

The man’s gaze finally fell on Shen Qingqiu’s clothes. His face instantly lost all color. “You—what happened to you?”

“He fell next to me when I passed by,” answered Shen Qingqiu.

The homeroom teacher’s expression went through several stages. He opened his mouth to say something but hesitated. Xiao Muyu dropped another bombshell. “I was on the rooftop when Luo Zihao jumped.”

There was no way she could hide it. It would inevitably come out that she and Luo Zihao had been on the rooftop together. She had to say it now, or more issues would arise once others found out.

Oddly, Class 7’s homeroom teacher paused after the revelation. He stared at Xiaou Muyu with a perplexing expression. In a daze, he muttered, “It’s happening again. It’s starting.”

He turned and walked away, as if Xiao Muyu’s words hadn’t registered with him.

That was an abnormal reaction. One of his students had jumped, and another was a witness. Shouldn’t his first response have been to have her cooperate with the investigation?

Xiao Muyu glanced at Shen Qingqiu. Both of them had confusion in their eyes, but this wasn’t the place to talk. The two excused themselves, saying they needed to change Shen Qingqiu’s clothes.

“Well, we’re in a weird one.” Xiao Muyu shared her conjecture from what she had analyzed. “From what I can tell, we have to role-play as students. So far, I haven’t noticed any other players or seen Su Jin and the others. But our team is likely the only ones here.”

Shen Qingqiu gave her a blank look before asking, “So you’re saying this is a team instance?” Was getting a Level A team instance right off the bat bad luck or good luck for them?

“It’s a high possibility,” said Xiao Muyu. “I’m not sure how much our roles will limit us. But it’s going to be more troublesome than Level B. I was on the rooftop with the deceased as soon as I entered. Before I could say anything to him, he said something strange and jumped off.”

Shen Qingqiu tensed. “Why were you on the rooftop?” That wasn’t a good sign. In a supernatural instance, death ruled as a suicide might not actually be a suicide. Or, even if it was, the spirit wouldn’t rest in peace. Xiao Muyu’s involvement with him meant nothing good.

“I’d like to know that, too.” Xiao Muyu frowned. “I have no memory of why I was there. When I entered the instance, Luo Zihao was already sitting on the railing.”

“So what did he say?” Shen Qingqiu’s sharp instincts rivaled Xiao Muyu’s. She quickly caught onto the key detail.

“I told him it was windy to get him to come down.” Xiao Muyu distinctly recalled every expression Luo Zihai made, each word he had spoken. “He replied, ‘Windy, huh? That day, the wind was much stronger, colder.’ Then he started rambling, saying it wasn’t cold—it was hot. He said I couldn’t save him.”

“That day? Cold and hot?” Shen Qingqiu muttered in bemusement. “Looks like this boy has a story.”

“Yeah. Also, a ghost probably possessed or controlled Luo Zihai when he jumped. After he fell, I saw a woman in red on the rooftop. She stood on nothing. Definitely not human.”

Xiao Muyu shared all the information she had with Shen Qingqiu. Although the situation was still unclear, given the scenario, it could be another revenge plot or just an evil spirit at work.

“And another thing.” Xiao Muyu observed their surroundings as she talked. “As I headed downstairs, I overheard some students talking. One said, ‘It couldn’t be Class 3-7 again, could it?’ And I’ve confirmed Luo Zihao was from Class 7. You and I are probably part of that class, too, and that teacher we saw earlier is Class 7’s homeroom teacher. It appears this instance revolves around Class 3-7.”

Shen Qingqiu listened intently, then couldn’t hold back a sigh. “Are we in the same instance? How do you already know so much after just one encounter?”

Xiao Muyu glanced at her sidelong. “Every storyline should follow logic. It’s not that I know more, but the instance has provided more information. What about you? Haven’t you had the chance to pick up on anything?”

Shen Qingqiu looked sullen. “When I arrived, I was just passing by this school building. Since I couldn’t figure out the situation, I stopped. That’s when the student fell from the sky and died right in front of me.” She glanced down at herself. “Then I noticed this mismatched outfit I’m wearing. Other than that, I know nothing.”

He would’ve landed on her if she hadn’t stopped. And the railing that fell right after would have hit her if she hadn’t taken a few steps back.

Xiao Muyu’s movements froze for a moment. She glanced at Shen Qingqiu, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly. “It’s pretty cool. But you look like some school bully.”

Shen Qingqiu snorted. “The system knows me well.”

“Mm. If you’re indecent as a grown-up, you were probably indecent as a student,” Xiao Muyu joked, then walked off without waiting for a reply.

Shen Qingqiu choked. Xiao Muyu was getting better at teasing her.

“What am I supposed to do about these clothes?” Shen Qingqiu chased after her. While she’d seen her fair share of bloody scenes, no sane person would want to be stuck in something like this.

Xiao Muyu narrowed her eyes, giving Shen Qingqiu a once-over.

“Nothing I can do. From what I’ve observed, this seems to be a boarding school. It has two dormitory buildings, each five stories tall, with clothes and bedding hanging out to dry. But I don’t know which dorm you live in or where your clothes might be.” This was the truth and also an inconvenient reality.

Shen Qingqiu was silent. She swept her eyes around the area and spotted a group of girls in the distance. She quickly walked over to them.

Xiao Muyu watched from afar. The girls covered their faces and trembled as they said something before bolting away.

“You asked them?” Xiao Muyu glanced at the fleeing girls. Their uniforms were the same color and style as hers and Shen Qingqiu’s. They were likely in the same grade.

“Yep. I’m in 312.”

“They didn’t think you were weird?”

Shen Qingqiu slid her hands into her uniform pockets, looking indifferent. “I told them I got so scared that I forgot where I live.”

“……”

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Author had something to say:

Author: I know you’re impatient for romance, but consider the place.
Xiao Shen: If ghosts can be betrothal gifts, flirting in an instance is similar to a proposal. There’s no place better.

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