Zuo Lin'an put away his phone.
“It's said that after the principal turns into a specter, even if he's repelled, he can recover in a very short time. According to the information, it's five seconds.”
“Let's say it takes two to three minutes for the principal to hunt down players, plus the time spent confronting them and the recovery time. To be generous, let's treat the entire process as taking five minutes.”
“After all, there are too many players in the Scarlet Dream. Once the principal recovers after being repelled, he won't rest; he'll head straight to kill players, so there won't be any delay in between.”
“Therefore, completing one cycle every five minutes is highly reasonable.”
“In that case, based on a two-hour duration, wouldn't the players have to repel the principal twenty-four times during each Scarlet Dream?”
“And if we count all six Scarlet Dreams, that would be over a hundred and forty times?”
Xu Youyou quickly shook his head.
“Once every five minutes? I actually don't think it takes that long at all!”
“The principal's speed increases drastically after turning into a specter. It only takes him a few seconds to get from the administrative building to the academic building.”
“And those veteran players have plenty of tricks up their sleeves and act decisively. I bet the principal will be repelled in less than a few seconds after contacting them. Adding the five-second recovery time, the whole process might not even take half a minute.”
Hearing this, Zuo Lin'an fell into a rare silence.
Although Xu Youyou made sense, surely the confrontation between the principal and the players could last at least two or three minutes, right?”
Xu Youyou wasn't entirely sure either. After speaking, he began to doubt his own line of thinking.
“Brother An, did I say something wrong?”
Just then, a voice rang out from nearby.
“You're not wrong.”
The two deactivated their Concealment status and looked toward the principal, who was crawling on the ceiling not far away.
By now, he had already turned into a specter.
He now had two heads, his body had become incredibly emaciated, and his limbs had stretched to twice their original length. Crawling on the ceiling, he looked like a giant spider.
“Principal?”
The principal nodded at them.
“If I move fast and the players possess the means to repel specters, the entire process might indeed take less than half a minute.”
Zuo Lin'an did the math. “If we calculate it at once every half minute, wouldn't that be two hundred and forty times in two hours? Calculated over six days, wouldn't that be over a thousand times?”
“At this rate, you could deal with all these players by yourself, Principal. Wouldn't our existence be completely pointless then?”
The principal replied, “That is not correct.”
Zuo Lin'an instantly realized.
“I see! You can't be sure when these players will kill you. After all, you can only turn into a specter once you're killed by a player.”
The principal did not deny it.
“That is indeed one of the reasons.”
Xu Youyou quickly followed up, “Are there other reasons?”
The principal crawled forward a few steps, then landed softly on the floor, standing right before them.
His elongated limbs, his two heads, and his glowing red eyes would terrify any normal person.
Right now, he was in no hurry to kill the players. Instead, he explained another reason—the most important one.
“If I truly recovered in five seconds every time I was repelled, the path of survival in this National War Dungeon would be extremely slim, or even nonexistent.”
“Therefore, there are limits on both the number of recoveries and the recovery time, though this point was not written in the materials.”
“The first five recoveries only take five seconds. The sixth to tenth recoveries require five minutes. However, starting from the eleventh, every subsequent recovery takes ten minutes.”
Xu Youyou counted on his fingers. “Even if we use the entire two hours and keep recovering non-stop, we can only recover... uh, nineteen times?”
Accounting for the time spent hunting down players, the principal could probably only recover about ten times during each Scarlet Dream?
Plus their hundred specters, that would be a total of a hundred and ten times?
As for the other specters, like the teachers in the academic buildings, there were specialized specter items that could repel them.
These specter items only existed in the Scarlet Dream and could only be used within the dream. Each could only repel one specific specter, and they were single-use.
For instance, in their homeroom teacher's desk in the sixth-floor office, players could find a one-time specter item that could only repel her.
Of course, this was limited to the teachers. For the grade director and the principal, there was no such shortcut.
Excluding them, over the course of six Scarlet Dreams, the players would need to repel specters a total of six hundred and sixty times!
Furthermore, this was the number of times required if players were to repel every single specter. In reality, they didn't need to repel nearly that many.
Not to mention that today's Scarlet Dream was already almost half over.
The principal said, “Correct.”
“Moreover, the players this time are not only highly experienced, but many of them have also banded together, making them extremely troublesome. Therefore, I need to gather all the remaining specters now.”
“We will choose one of three locations: Academic Building No. 5, the cafeteria, or the dormitory area. I will charge in first to scatter the players, and you will hunt them down from behind.”
“Once I am repelled, you must temporarily retreat. Do not get greedy; wait for me to recover.”
Zuo Lin'an thought for a moment and nodded silently.
“That works. However, I think it's best not to go to Academic Building No. 5 for now.”
“His Majesty the Emperor is over there, and he is surrounded by a vast number of Xiantian Rank martial artists, as well as many court ministers, imperial guards, and so on.”
“They are mostly veteran players.”
The principal did not reject his suggestion.
“Your suggestion is excellent.”
“Judging by the current number of Death Locks, the cafeteria has the fewest players—about fifty or so. We will head to the cafeteria first, slaughter the players inside, and then move to the dormitory area.”
Xu Youyou asked, “Then how do we gather the other specters?”
The principal said, “Aside from those three locations, there are other places hiding scattered players, such as those on the first floor of this administrative building.”
“We can gather the other specters while hunting down isolated players.”
Zuo Lin'an suddenly asked.
“How many specters are left now?”
The principal fell silent for a moment before saying, “Counting the three of us, there are fifteen in total.”
Zuo Lin'an was taken aback. “Only that many left?”
It had only been an hour, right?
These players were way too fierce! They had almost wiped out so many specters!
The principal climbed back onto the wall.
“Let's go. We'll clean up the players on the first floor first.”
Zuo Lin'an watched his seemingly eager departure and suddenly remembered the player who had slapped the principal earlier.
Could the principal be in such a hurry because... he held a grudge?
Xu Youyou had clearly thought of this as well. However, neither of them planned to speak it aloud to avoid embarrassing the principal. After all, he was an elder and the principal; he had a reputation to maintain.
The two quickly followed him down. As for Yan San, who was lying on the second floor?
Neither of them paid him any mind.
With his limbs gripping the walls, the principal crawled down to the first floor in a bizarre manner. His specter aura tightly enveloped the entire administrative building, cutting off the Perception of every player inside.
This way, even if a player died right next to them, the other players wouldn't notice.
Rate on N.U.
