Forty-three!
Most of them were downstairs, with a smaller portion upstairs—about ten or so.
Xu Youyou frowned. “Forty-three? Why are there so many?”
Zuo Lin'an said, “Numbers don't mean much. The most critical ones are the dozen or so players on the second floor. Besides, seeing how quiet it is here, it means the principal isn't dead yet.”
Once the principal was killed and turned into a specter, the administrative building would have turned into a living hell long ago.
Zuo Lin'an circled the administrative building several times.
He focused on observing whether there were any players with the 【Spirit Vision】 talent. Only after confirming there were none did he breathe a sigh of relief. Carefully concealing all of their auras, he and Xu Youyou quietly slipped inside together.
The players on the first floor were mostly hiding in small rooms, with not a single soul to be seen in the corridors outside.
This made things convenient for them.
The two of them made their way smoothly up to the second floor, only to hear voices conversing not far away the moment they arrived.
“Hey! You old geezer, my patience is wearing thin. If you repeat those words again, believe it or not, I'll smash your head in!”
“Young man, as a student, you must not be so rude. I am the principal of Lingyang First High School, you all...”
Before the principal could finish speaking, Zuo Lin'an heard a sharp slap.
Obviously, the principal had been slapped hard by a player!
Zuo Lin'an and Xu Youyou exchanged a look, both seeing the awkwardness in each other's eyes.
Although there were ten dungeon lines, the school NPCs in each dungeon were indeed their actual selves. This meant that the slap had literally landed on the real principal's face.
The expressions on both of their faces turned somewhat strange.
Moreover, after that slap just now, the principal seemed to have stopped talking.
Just as they were hesitating, the principal's voice rang out once more.
“I am the principal. The entire school is under my control. Anyone who can kill me will be able to seize that control...
“Anyone who can kill me will be able to seize control...
“Anyone who...”
Following that, the principal began to repeat those words over and over again.
Hearing the principal's flat, emotionless tone, Zuo Lin'an and Xu Youyou knew he was angry.
So, what should they do now?
How could they get the players in the principal's office to make a move and kill the principal?
The players weren't fools. If they were, the principal would have been killed long ago instead of surviving up until now.
Furthermore, the players inside the administrative building had been here ever since they entered the Scarlet Dream, so they didn't know that repelling specters would result in item drops.
Zuo Lin'an looked at the slip of paper in his hand with the writing on it.
“It feels a bit too ordinary.”
Xu Youyou asked, “What's ordinary?”
Zuo Lin'an didn't explain. “Wait for me here a moment.”
With that, he left the administrative building. He didn't go far, though—he simply found a few corpses outside, got some of their blood, and randomly splattered it onto the slip of paper.
“Hmm, now it looks much more convincing.”
Returning to the second floor of the administrative building, Zuo Lin'an casually dropped the piece of paper on the floor near a window in the corridor.
The crimson moonlight shone through the window, falling right upon the paper.
Xu Youyou stroked his chin, studying it closely. “It really has that look now. I just wonder when the players inside will discover this slip of paper.”
Zuo Lin'an didn't know either. He planned to wait for a bit first. If they didn't come out for a long time, he would make some noise outside; that would surely draw the players out.
Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long. After about ten minutes, a man walked out of the office. He didn't go far, simply standing near the doorway.
Zuo Lin'an watched him from the shadows, but the man showed absolutely no intention of looking toward the window at the end of the corridor.
Xu Youyou was also getting anxious. Just as he was about to lose his patience and make some noise to guide the player's gaze toward the paper, the man happened to turn his head.
“Huh?
“What's that?”
Yan San had originally stepped out because he felt a bit stifled inside and wanted to get some fresh air. He hadn't expected to spot something unusual.
He looked around warily. Finding no specters and sensing no chilly aura, he felt slightly relieved and took a few steps forward.
“A piece of paper?”
He didn't rashly pick it up, nor did he turn back to call for the others. Instead, he slowly approached, leaning in to stare at the writing on it for a long while.
“Kill... the principal... to... obtain... Tal...”
At this point, his eyes suddenly widened, and he hurriedly clamped a hand tightly over his mouth.
No!
I absolutely cannot say this out loud!
Looking left and right to confirm he was completely alone, he quickly snatched up the paper, tore it to shreds, threw it away, and then returned to the principal's office, acting as if nothing had happened.
Seeing this, Zuo Lin'an let out a smirk of satisfaction.
Although this player had shredded the paper to prevent others from seeing it, this action proved that he believed what was written.
He was likely even preparing to kill the principal himself to monopolize the 【Talent Advancement Stone】.
Zuo Lin'an was no longer in a hurry now. He settled down with Xu Youyou in the shadows to watch the show.
Meanwhile, as if sensing something, the principal wore a stiff, eerie smile on his rigid face, which still bore the faint marks of the slap.
“Kill me... and you can control the entire school... Kill me... and you will obtain everything...
“Kill me...”
The principal kept repeating this sentence. However, because of this, any player with a functioning brain would never actually make a move to kill him.
But Yan San, having seen that paper, no longer thought that way.
He felt that the principal's words were actually reverse psychology, designed to mislead them into thinking he couldn't be killed, when in reality, he could.
And by killing him, one could obtain a 【Talent Advancement Stone】.
Standing at the office doorway, he coldly glanced at the other players who had formed a temporary team inside. He had absolutely no intention of sharing this secret.
In this Scarlet Dream, all the natives had turned into specters.
Only the principal hadn't. This meant that the principal in the dream would not turn into a specter, so killing him would be perfectly fine.
Otherwise, Yan San wouldn't even know how he was supposed to get his hands on the 【Talent Advancement Stone】.
After all, if the principal turned into an unsolvable specter upon death, "unsolvable" meant certain death, which meant the player who killed him would surely die.
That wouldn't make sense.
Yan San was only half right. The principal indeed wouldn't turn into an unsolvable specter after being killed, but he would turn into a regular specter.
This would still leave a slim path of survival for the player who killed him.
It was just a matter of whether the player had the ability to seize it.
“This old geezer is really bizarre. No matter what we ask, he won't talk, just constantly repeating the same thing. What should we do? Should we really kill him?”
Hearing this, Yan San grew anxious. If they killed the principal, what would happen to his Talent Advancement Stone?
He was only at the Second-Rate Rank, while the person who had just spoken was a First-Rate expert.
If the item fell into that person's hands, there would be nothing left for him.
Yet, he remained calm on the surface.
His mind raced as he desperately thought of a solution. Finally, he spoke up in a calm tone:
“This is the Scarlet Dream. Aside from us players, all of the natives are bound to be specters, and the principal before us is likely no exception.
“If we kill him, something extremely terrifying might happen. I suggest we don't act rashly.”
Rate on N.U.
