Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 55 Tide
Inside the cafeteria, Liu Yan held her tray, smiled gently, and looked at Li Hua and Cheng Mi.

"Hello, Teacher Liu." Cheng Mi hurriedly moved her schoolbag aside.

As Liu Yan sat down, her long black hair slipped down from behind her ears.

"How did today's PE class go?" Liu Yan asked, sipping the yogurt the school had given her.

"It's fine," Li Hua said. "It's just... the equipment room is a bit stuffy."

"Equipment room?"

"First there was a power outage, and then the door wouldn't open. At that moment, I definitely thought... someone was blocking the door from the outside."

"Do you really think someone's covering for you from the outside?"

The cafeteria lights dimmed for a moment. Li Hua looked up at the ceiling, then at the gaps in the louvers of the ventilation vents.

Liu Yan also looked over.

Almost instantly, the gray nematodes that she had planted in the cafeteria moved there.

Then, the gray nematode actually saw a wisp of black hair stuck there, swaying gently with the airflow!

"By the way, there will be a monthly Chinese exam next week, so remember to prepare well. Memorizing classical poems is a key point."

"I know," Li Hua rubbed his head. "Ancient poems are too hard to memorize."

“The class representative for Chinese hasn’t been chosen yet,” Liu Yan said, looking at Li Hua and Cheng Mi. “I’ll give you a chance. On Wednesday during class, I’ll select a few of you to come up on stage and summarize the central idea of ​​‘Blessing.’ Whoever does it best will be chosen as the class representative for Chinese.”

"Huh?" Li Hua quickly waved his hand, "I definitely can't do it!"

Cheng Mi said with great interest, "Hey, that's interesting. I've never been a class representative before!"

"Then you guys should work harder."

After finishing her meal, Liu Yan left with her tray.

She recalled the conversation between the two of them.

The "abnormalities" had already begun on the first day of school.

She opened the teaching notes that the academic affairs office had issued to her so that she could adapt to her role as a Chinese language teacher as soon as possible.

On the second page of the notebook, a triangle was drawn in red pen.

noon.

Under the scorching sun, Jiang Jin lowered the brim of his security guard hat and patrolled along the shaded area at the edge of the playground.

Boning knives, rusty crossbows, and even the mournful hunting rifles can all be retrieved from the Reincarnator's Watch at any time.

The process of cutting the meat wasn't going smoothly. He discovered that the meat would wriggle and regenerate after being cut. Liu Yan insisted that he must cut until the meat stopped regenerating.

The death knell followed him silently.

Students were scattered around the playground, some playing ball, others eating lunch under the shade of trees.

Jiang Jin's gaze swept over the flagpole, which was empty except for the flag rope swaying gently in the wind.

The death knell suddenly stopped, and the eyeless head turned toward the flagpole.

Jiang Jin frowned. The hunting instinct brought by the hunting cursed blade made him look at the bushes below the flagpole. At the same time, his hand unconsciously reached for the walkie-talkie at his waist.

"Deathstroke, go and take a look."

The death knell marched silently toward the grass beneath the flagpole.

A few seconds later, Deathstroke disappeared into the dense grass.

Jiang Jin stood still and waited, his fingers gently tapping the casing of the walkie-talkie.

A minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

The death knell did not return.

Jiang Jin's breathing quickened slightly. He stared at the patch of grass and could vaguely hear a faint sound, like fingernails scratching.

Sudden--

The bushes rustled, and Deathstroke reappeared.

It slowly walked back to Jiang Jin's side, its pace much slower than usual.

Jiang Jin looked down, his pupils shrinking slightly.

On Deathstroke's bare, hairless red fascia, there was a bluish-black handprint!
Tiny, like a baby's hand!

The death knell seemed completely oblivious; it simply bowed its head, emitting a silent wail from its throat.

"Deathstroke, on you!" Deathstroke immediately turned around and looked, and clearly, he really hadn't noticed anything!

Then, ash-like substances began to appear on its surface, seemingly the ash-black runes that had merged into its body. The ash slowly spread, covering the bluish-black handprint, and finally completely engulfed and dissipated.

But Deathstroke's condition has clearly deteriorated.

Its limbs trembled slightly, and it began to lose its balance.

Jiang Jin crouched down, his fingers hovering above Deathstroke's head—he could feel the chilling, undead aura emanating from Deathstroke's body weakening.

"You have no idea what you've encountered?" he asked in a low voice.

Deathstroke raised his head, his empty eye sockets facing him, as if conveying some kind of warning.

Jiang Jin's gaze returned to the flagpole.

In the sunlight, the shadow of the flagpole was slightly distorted, as if something was slowly crawling out from under the ground.

He stood up and pressed the call button on the walkie-talkie.

"Monitoring room, pull up the footage of the playground from a few minutes ago, and focus on the area under the flagpole."

A hissing sound came from the walkie-talkie, and a few seconds later, a tense voice replied:

"Xiao Jiang, there's nothing under the flagpole."

Jiang Jin narrowed his eyes.

He glanced down at Deathstroke and saw that the ashes were slowly dissipating, but Deathstroke's condition had not recovered.

It's as if something... has drained some of its power.

Jiang Jin remained silent for a moment, then finally pressed the button on the walkie-talkie:

"Notify headquarters that there is something unusual on the playground."

Shortly after, a voice came through the walkie-talkie: "Professor Wang replied, saying that it's not yet the 'tidal' period, so there's no need to be too nervous. Just focus on preparing for tonight."

"Tides"? What is that?
The death knell followed behind him, its steps heavy.

In the grass under the flagpole, a few blades of grass slowly closed up, as if something had just crawled over them.

The afternoon math class was uneventful.

Li Hua forced himself to concentrate, but the formulas on the blackboard always made him drowsy.

As the bell rang to signal the end of get out of class, Cheng Mi suddenly grabbed Li Hua's wrist: "Come with me to the library. I just heard that the library got a batch of new books, including a newly published mystery novel by Keigo Higashino. I want to go and take a look!"

Li Hua perked up immediately: "Really? Okay! Let's go then!"

Cheng Mi pulled Li Hua along and quickly walked towards the library.

Li Hua recalled that the student handbook stated that if a student had to stay at school for any reason, they must wear their school badge and go to the library.

Why is that?
Stepping into the library, I was struck by how unusually cold it was.

The librarian was an old man wearing thick glasses, who was repeatedly wiping the black stains on the lending desk with a dirty rag.

"Where are the new books that arrived this time?"

"Third floor, west section," the old man replied. "It's on the top floor of the foreign literature section."

The wooden staircase groaned underfoot, unable to bear the weight. The third floor was dimly lit, and the passageways between the bookshelves were so narrow that one could only pass sideways.

Li Hua's arm brushed against the edge of a bookshelf, leaving a faint red mark.

“Found it.” Cheng Mi stood in front of the bookshelf and pulled out a novel by Keigo Higashino from the top shelf.

Just as he took out the book, a soft "thump" came from the bookshelf next door, as if someone had accidentally bumped into it.

"Is someone there?" Li Hua turned towards the source of the sound.

At the end of a narrow passageway in the distance, a short figure was squatting on the ground arranging books. Only his back could be seen, but the curve of his shoulders was unusually stiff.

Strangely, even though it was summer, the person was wearing a high collar and long sleeves, completely covering their skin.

The instant Li Hua blinked, he felt as if the figure had shifted half a meter to the side, without making any move to get up!
Cheng Mi slammed the book shut: "Let's go, let's borrow this one first."

"Um, okay... alright."

at this time……

On the ceiling, gray nematodes began to slowly droop.

Meanwhile, Jiang Jin, who was inside the guardhouse, received a call from Liu Yan.

"Quick! Jiang Jin! Come to the library and meet me! Get there as fast as you can!"

(End of this chapter)