Chapter 281 University Town Civility Code (I)
Little Red Riding Hood's head reluctantly returned to the stage, and she puffed out her mouth to blow air into her neck. After a while, her flattened body swelled up again.
However, she accidentally blew too much air, and her body quickly expanded too much, like a giant red balloon, and began to fly uncontrollably into the sky!
"Ahhhhh! My body!"
My head was so anxious that it kept jumping around, trying to get back to my body.
The teacher with the white eyeballs was also anxious: "What are you doing? My classroom! My ceiling!"
I saw the body floating all the way up and soon smashed the ceiling. The camera continued to float upwards with it. The floors of the teaching building continued to rise. One classroom after another flashed across the screen, and from time to time I could see the figures of students inside.
Some looked normal, some were bloody, some were filled with black energy... They sat motionless in front of the desk, their heads lowered so that their expressions could not be seen clearly, just like what Guo Guo had seen in the online love copy.
A voice-over is inserted at the right moment:
[In this happy and beautiful university town, students are studying diligently and getting along well with each other...]
At this time, the body climbed to the 12th floor, but the situation suddenly changed: those students with terrifying looks did not continue to sit at the desks, but stood up and floated away, some even beat each other, and the rest of the ghost students squatted beside them with a greedy look on their faces.
[Students help each other and live in harmony and friendship...]
Something seemed to be wrong in one of the classrooms. First, the black gas from one of the students began to dissipate uncontrollably, and then he screamed and dissolved into a pool of pus in the black gas. Then came the second and third students - not long after, the whole classroom melted!
The remaining ghost students immediately floated to the classroom door and frantically knocked on the door for help, but the door seemed to be locked. The students in other classrooms clearly heard the sound but did not respond, and even the teacher turned a deaf ear.
Everyone strictly abides by classroom rules, staying inside even when faced with danger. Yes, the classroom is my home, and I rely on everyone to take care of it. What a great sense of responsibility...
Bang!
Boom!
Bang!
The students in the abnormal classroom rushed forward and violently dismantled and destroyed the classroom door.
[Um……]
The narrator was momentarily speechless. Then, the students poured into the corridor, their black energy emanating from them quickly rushing towards the other classrooms, wisping into the equally black doors.
A few minutes later, the entire floor was in a state of chaos.
"I've never thought their bloody appearance was so normal..."
Guo Guo stuffed a piece of chicken feet into his mouth to calm himself down.
Those appearances that are very strange and scary to normal humans may be normal for ghosts, just like everyone wears school uniforms when going to school.
But it is obvious that the state of decomposition into black gas and sewage is an extremely fatal blow even for ghosts and monsters. Once they are touched, they will be unable to resist.
From somewhere far away on the screen, the screams from Little Red Riding Hood's head could be heard:
"No—my body—"
Tang Xinjue's eyes sharpened slightly.
The infectiousness of the black gas mutation seems to spread indiscriminately.
Even though Little Red Riding Hood's body was floating upwards, it only stayed on the 12th floor for two or three minutes due to the obstruction of the ceiling. When it flew to other floors, a trace of dissipated black gas appeared on its body.
"Fuck, what's going on?"
In the three-boy dormitory filled with the smell of medicine, one of the boys even dropped the medicine patch in his hand.
"Isn't it a stage play? It's a performance, right?"
"That's what university towns are like, full of truth and falsehood, making you afraid and suspicious at the same time—this potion is ready, who's going to drink it first?"
"It's so bitter, big brother, can you not drink it?"
"If you don't drink it, you'll die." The boy who was boiling the medicine pinched his nose and drank a bowl of brown medicine soup. "We don't have any treatment assistance, and we can't afford a healer like Bai Zhi. We can only endure hardships and hope for survival. Do you understand? Tsk, stop looking!"
He knocked on the other two a few times. "No matter how fancy the TV is, it has nothing to do with us. Only the big guys can understand this. We'll just watch the fun. Anyway, the corpses inside won't fly over here."
As soon as he said this, he saw his two roommates showing strange expressions at the same time.
Following their line of sight, Little Red Riding Hood's body seemed to be struggling to break free from the black air, resulting in her bumping around in the teaching building. After a few times, she was bounced off a door and flew straight towards the camera!
Then they watched with their own eyes as the headless body passed through the screen and half got stuck in the small TV.
?
???
Not to mention the panic impact of the accident on individual dormitories, after all, from the perspective of other dormitories, Little Red Riding Hood's body just temporarily disappeared from the screen.
The narrator immediately responded:
[We are very sorry, but there was a temporary incident during our stage performance. The staff is working hard to handle the situation. We will now insert a segment of daily university town news. Please wait!]
The camera turned and switched back to the studio, where the noseless ghost looked at the one who was tying a bow on his tongue out of boredom.
——So, what exactly happened just now?
606 stopped listening carefully to the noseless ghost's mumbling news report. Zhang You drew the trajectory of Little Red Riding Hood's floating body. Everything from the first to the eleventh floor was normal. The change on the twelfth floor had occurred suddenly and without warning, but judging by the ghosts' reactions, none of them seemed surprised.
Could it be that this kind of mutation is not uncommon in university towns, so they have become accustomed to it?
"Under normal circumstances, the ghosts in the classroom are always in the [class] state." Tang Xin Jue concluded: "Perhaps only before the mutation occurs will they break away from this state and engage in the communication and fighting we saw."
"I don't understand." Zhang You frowned. "But if the ghost students are always in class, then what is disturbing us in the exam copy?"
Guo Guo suddenly had an idea: "Maybe this is their way of [teaching]!"
She slapped her head. "I'm wondering why these ghosts in the classroom appear normal one second, then instantly transform into bloody bodies the next, and then become normal again... Is it possible that what we see on the surface is just a projection, or a clone, or the real body, and they are actually in the dungeon at that moment?"
"That's a similar idea." Tang Xinjue nodded. "If we consider the classrooms as different dungeon partitions, then the cause of the changes could be a problem with the dungeon."
For some reason, some detailed information she had collected before suddenly flashed through her mind.
...Could it be that something went wrong with the "experiment"?
The thought was only fleeting, and the TV screen quickly cut back to the stage.
Dear students, the hiccup has been dealt with. Let us continue to enjoy the stage play "College Life is Wonderful"~
The camera returns to the ground, and Little Red Riding Hood, wearing a red dress, continues to sing with great emotion:
"Ah! College life is so wonderful. I wish I could live here forever and never graduate—"
Tang Xin Jue: "Did you see clearly?"
Zhang You adjusted his glasses and said, "I can see clearly now. My body has been replaced with a new one."
Even though she was still wearing the same red dress, judging from the color of her skin and the features of her limbs, it was obvious that she had a new body attached to her head.
This also means that once contaminated by the black energy, even the University Town TV Station does not have a perfect way to deal with it and can only destroy the body.
If a ghost's body is worn out, it's possible to replace it with a new one. But what about a human?
"What's the song later?"
"It's all the same stuff, just blatant lies, telling people not to choose graduation or something like that. Humph, I actually want a chance to choose."
In the boys' dormitory, which had finally returned to calm, three frightened boys had already hidden on their beds, trying to stay as far away from the TV as possible.
Because of the accident where Little Red Riding Hood almost got through, their counselor even came in person - the three of them were very afraid of the gloomy green eye, but at least this time it did not bring any punishment, but took away the blackened body.
Continuing to watch TV cautiously, one boy couldn't help but feel a little sour: "Do you think there really is a top-ranked dormitory that has found a way to get into the graduation exam?"
Otherwise, why did the TV station suddenly mention graduation?
"Even if there are, they're probably 8- or 16-person dormitories, not something a four-person dorm like ours can achieve, understand?" My roommate sighed deeply. "That's the inherent inequality between dormitories. You can't make up for it by hard work. If only my parents had worked harder and sent me to a 16-person dorm, ah..."
Amidst the lamentations, their phones suddenly vibrated and a new message popped up.
"Damn! Stop watching TV, the next exam assignment is out!"
"Why so early this time?"
The three of them quickly turned on their phones.
In order to survive, they also found a way to "cooperate" with the game, occasionally accepting certain dungeon missions. However, unlike the ghost students who work there, their missions are generally short and not safe, and they can only earn a few points as extra money.
As they were talking, they also saw the name of the next temporary mission.
"...University Town Civility Code?"
At midnight, the boring and long TV program finally ended.
Little Red Riding Hood, who had shaken her head eight hundred times, left the stage in a daze and was dragged away by her agent with her short legs. The TV was filled with the lifeless voice of the host, the noseless ghost.
With the hypnotic sound playing in the background, 606 also hurried to pack up his things.
It's not that the play reveals absolutely nothing, but it certainly doesn't offer much, and most of the time it felt like a waste of time. And if you deduct their sleep time, there's not much left in the basic 24 hours.
Perhaps to coincide with the first graduation exam, the student mall had also released a new wave of merchandise. Zhang You browsed until two in the morning, finally settling on a few large cloth backpacks.
"The product description says that after you pack your things with it and carry it on your back, you can definitely take it into the exam without being restricted by specific exam rules," Zhang You explained.
Some exams allowed the entire dormitory to be loaded, while others only allowed them to be loaded by themselves. A few difficult dungeons were even more demanding, confiscating even basic items like cell phones. With these backpacks, they undoubtedly had enough supplies for the final dungeon .
Guo Guo didn't have any large props, and even tried to negotiate: "Can you bring some hot pot base?"
What if the next dungeon throws them into some doomsday survival world and they have to spend a year or two there... She doesn't want to chew on tree bark!
Zhang You coldly refused: "No."
She packed quickly and meticulously, filling all four backpacks to their maximum capacity by three o'clock. But when she turned back to check, she frowned, "Guo Guo, didn't we agree not to bring hot pot base? How did you sneak it in again?"
Guo Guo was shocked: "I don't have any!"
Zhang You pointed at a backpack that was noticeably bulging and out of shape: "Even hair growth liquid won't work."
"I really didn't move at all!" Guo Guo said aggrievedly, "The eldest lady must have secretly bought some kind of steel glove or something and stuffed it in there."
Zheng Wanqing: “???”
There is only one truth. Zhang You, who enforces the law impartially, solemnly unzips his backpack.
“Chiu!”
A soft, white, round object sensed the light and turned over, revealing its black eyes.
——White dumplings?
"When did you get in?"
Tang Xinjue wanted to fish the elf out, but the white ball that was still unable to move at night began to struggle, chirping and refusing to leave the backpack.
"You want to use this bag as a nest?" Zhang You hesitated. "But no, this bag is too expensive. I'll find you a cheaper alternative tomorrow when I have time."
"Chirp, chirp, chirp!" Baituanzi shook his head.
"So what do you want to do?"
The four of them looked at each other. Tang Xinjue suddenly realized something and lowered his head to ask:
"You want to follow us and enter the dungeon together?"
