Wan Jie Hospice Care Company

Xiang Yu wandered through the lobby on the first floor of the high school teaching building, like a fish swimming upstream.

The sirens outside the window blared incessantly, one, two, three... Xiang Yu couldn't count them all, but judging from the sound, there were at least five or more.

"Help!!!"

"Where are the police...? Someone's dead!!!"

"Waaaaah..."

The surrounding area was filled with crying, screaming, and hysterical shouts. Students were fleeing in panic down the corridors, as if some great terror existed in the school.

The expressionless Xiang Yu blended in like an oddity.

It's not that Xiang Yu isn't afraid; he is afraid of ghosts, but only a little.

He's especially afraid of those alluring female ghosts, the kind who are good at using seduction... He's terrified of these kinds of ghosts, so much so that he hopes they'll come and scare him a lot, preferably so much so that he'll have nightmares, one after another, without stopping.

Given the current situation, it's highly likely that something strange has happened inside the school as well, just like the two kissing corpses he saw outside the school before.

Xiang Yu walked against the flow of people, constantly glancing at the fleeing students around him, looking for anyone with an unusual appearance.

Unfortunately, I saw a few ugly ones, but only averagely ugly, not quite reaching the level of an ancient god; I saw a few pretty ones, but they were just average class beauties, probably not good enough to enter the film and television industry.

It's a pity there aren't any that look like aliens...

"Run! What are you standing there for?" a high school boy shouted at Xiang Yu as he passed by. "The school is haunted! People are dying!!!"

Xiang Yu turned his head, looked at the kind high school student, and smiled very calmly: "Ah, I am a Taoist priest from Maoshan invited by the school. Don't worry about me, you can just go your own way."

The high school boy was taken aback, his expression somewhat bewildered by these words, but he didn't ask.

It's probably because at times like these, anyone who doesn't run seems a bit abnormal, and it's best not to ask too many questions about someone who seems abnormal.

So he grabbed the hand of the girl next to him whose legs were trembling with fear: "Xiao Nan, let's go quickly!"

The girl called "Xiao Nan" nodded tremblingly, and then the two of them ran together toward the entrance of the teaching building.

"What a tragic couple," Xiang Yu sighed.

"Bang!!!"

Before they could take more than a few steps, the two of them seemed to see something terrifying and froze on the spot. Then their bodies began to swell, their skin was stretched open and became transparent, and even the blue blood vessels underneath could be seen.

"Bang!"

The two people exploded from the neck up, like blood-red roses blooming, their bodies as branches and waves of blood as petals, opening in an instant and then quickly disappearing, a fleeting moment.

Blood-red raindrops fell around the hall, making the fleeing students even more desperate; the cries and screams around them now drowned out the screams.

"Damn... that's so fucking cruel." Xiang Yu couldn't help but gasp when he saw the scene.

So what was the cause of death? Was this thing killing people randomly?

Xiang Yu could actually muster the last bit of energy to ask one more question, but he'd probably just collapse unconscious after that.

If he's unconscious, he can't withstand anything, let alone be slaughtered by monsters; he wouldn't even be able to withstand a stampede.

So Xiangyu could only struggle against the flow of people, observing the students' faces while pondering the patterns of the dead.

This thing must have a pattern to killing people... otherwise why are all the students who ran away unharmed, while all the dead are couples?

From the kissing corpse at the school gate to the people running away hand in hand...

Is the pattern of murders that only target couples?

That murderer must have harbored quite a deep grudge.

However, he cannot be certain about this at the moment, and it would be too hasty to make a judgment based on just two examples.

Thinking of this, Xiang Yu continued walking against the flow of people, occasionally gently pushing the crowd aside with his elbow.

"Um?"

Xiang Yu sensed something was wrong.

He seemed to see duplicates.

—Even though those people had already run out of the teaching building, Xiang Yu saw them again among the crowd fleeing from upstairs.

He had been silently memorizing the faces of all the students, and then selected those with distinctive features to deepen his memory of them, thus remembering a few special faces.

Although these people's faces were only slightly unusual and did not meet the standard of "extraordinary people and strange appearances", Xiang Yu still frowned when they reappeared.

He hurriedly stopped one of the boys with a big nose. His nose was so big that it was exaggerated. According to traditional Chinese medicine, such people have strong sexual ability.

Of course, when danger strikes, even the largest X won't help.

Xiang Yu grabbed his arm and said, "Didn't you just run away? Why are you back?"

"What are you talking about?! I just came downstairs!" The big-nosed boy struggled free from Xiangyu's hand and continued running towards the entrance of the teaching building.

"..."

Seeing the other person's unwavering certainty, Xiang Yu even thought she had misremembered the face.

But he soon saw the man again in the fleeing crowd.

"Hey classmate, didn't you just...?"

"Get out of here!"

The boy with the big nose ran away again.

Ten minutes later, the boy ran down the stairs again.

This time, Xiang Yu didn't stop him. He just stood there, watching the big-nosed man run past him like a video on a loop.

However, no matter how many cycles it went through, the couple who died before never reappeared.

Is it a case of being trapped in a maze?

Xiang Yu immediately thought of a possibility.

But if it's a case of being trapped in a loop, the person trapped should be aware that they're caught in some kind of cycle, but these students seem to have no idea what's going on.

"These students are all prey of that being," Xiang Yu quickly concluded. "Even though sirens are blaring outside, I haven't seen a single policeman... People outside this school building can't get in, and people inside can't get out."

By that logic, I'm probably trapped here too.

Although he hasn't tried it, given the current situation, even if he could get out, he wouldn't leave until he finds the Child of the World.

Without hesitation, Xiang Yu quickly squeezed to the vicinity of the stairs and headed towards the second floor.

Since he's stuck in a loop, it means he's already looked through all the students who escaped from the entire school building, but hasn't triggered the "mission complete" notification.

This either proves that "The World's Child" is not a high school student, or it proves that "The World's Child" did not run away, but was trapped somewhere.

If it's the former, then for Xiang Yu, who is already unable to leave the teaching building, it is undoubtedly a rather desperate situation.

So he tried to believe the latter.

Once you step into the second-floor corridor, the area instantly becomes much quieter, as the students have all rushed down the stairs and no one wants to stay in the classroom.

The dim, old incandescent light illuminated the corridor. Xiang Yu walked slowly forward, the light flickering on and off. The gray walls trembled with the footsteps of the fleeing students, and pieces of plaster fell from time to time.

"Bang."

A light bulb behind Xiangyu suddenly exploded, and then the area was quietly swallowed by darkness.

Xiang Yu's pace quickened abruptly. The environment around him was cyclical for ordinary people, but for that strange being, everything was developing according to its will.

After the student council members went downstairs, they forgot about the situation and reappeared upstairs, but the broken incandescent light bulb remained broken, showing no signs of turning back on.

Xiang Yu began to review the rules he had encountered so far.

"Death may be related to couples, or perhaps there is a force that prefers to kill couples."

"The cycle only applies to living things; the dead cannot be reborn. Once dead, they are dead."

Xiang Yu silently memorized these two rules, then looked up at the end of the corridor, his pupils shrinking.

At the end of the corridor was a girl hugging her legs. She was covered in blood, her eyes were empty, her lips were pale, and she kept muttering something.

And it's very beautiful.

Without a doubt, she was the most beautiful girl in the entire school. In the later era of the booming entertainment industry, her looks were more than enough to make her a star.

Moreover, this is just a high school student, and to achieve this level of beauty without any makeup... truly deserving of the title of extraordinary person, stunningly beautiful.

But Xiangyu was very disappointed.

He had originally thought he would be able to work with teammates who looked like ancient gods.

If the World's Chosen One is so ugly it makes people lose their sanity, then it might be able to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune when facing bizarre enemies, and it would be quite a sight to behold.

She's just a pretty girl, that's not interesting.

An Ling slowly raised her head and looked at Xiang Yu at the other end of the corridor.

Their gazes met, and Xiangyu's figure, with his back to the incandescent light, cast an extremely long shadow.

An Ling's expression changed from fear to confusion, and then from confusion to excitement. She tried to stand up, but her legs suddenly gave way and she fell to the ground.

But she didn't cry out in pain. She just struggled to sit up and, with tears in her eyes, called out to Xiang Yu:

"...You, are you the man from the diary?!"

Xiang Yu did not answer, but walked forward and came to An Ling's side.

Hope ignited in Anling's fearful eyes, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

She tried to grab onto Xiang Yu's clothes; he was her last hope.

But Xiang Yu suddenly stepped back, dodging An Ling's hand, and then calmly said, "Stay away from me."