This time, Zuo Lin'an looked around openly, completely ignoring Ming Ruofeng who was still trailing behind him. Fortunately, he still didn't discuss the player count with Xu Youyou.
He could still maintain that basic bottom line.
After some observation, Zuo Lin'an found that the number of surviving players, combined with the 100 NPC students, totaled three hundred and fifty-four people!
Based on fifty students per class, there were eight classes in total.
The last class, Class Eight, had only four students.
Three players and one NPC.
After confirming the headcount, Zuo Lin'an was in a good mood. He walked up to Class One on the top floor with light steps.
The moment he stepped into the classroom, numerous gazes landed on them. This was especially true for Xuan Jingyuan, whose eyes looked drastically different from when they first met.
Of course, Xuan Jingyuan was mostly looking at Xu Youyou.
Unfortunately, Xu Youyou acted completely unfazed, as if nothing had happened.
Seeing his son's killer still acting so cheerful, Xuan Jingyuan's hidden murderous intent surged rapidly.
For the rest of the day, Zuo Lin'an remained on guard against Xuan Jingyuan making a move. However, the man proved to be incredibly patient, enduring it all without acting throughout the entire day.
By nightfall, Xuan Jingyuan's murderous intent had actually vanished instead of intensifying. Perhaps he had given up after failing to find a way to deal with them.
Since that was the case, they were more than happy to enjoy the peace.
However, from morning until they returned to the dormitory at night, Xuan Jingyuan and his group did not say a single word to Zuo Lin'an and Xu Youyou.
Even Ming Ruofeng, who had been constantly sticking to them, spoke very little and simply followed them around silently.
Soon, Wednesday night's Scarlet Dream began once again.
Zuo Lin'an and Xu Youyou materialized inside the dormitory together.
Xu Youyou abruptly stood up. Only the two of them were in this dormitory; the others hadn't entered.
He quickly sensed the situation in the dormitory area.
“Huh? I only sense two living auras in total.”
Zuo Lin'an said, “Go kill them.”
Xu Youyou nodded. “Sure, I'll handle it. Go to the campus shop and grab a deck of cards first. We can play later.”
Zuo Lin'an replied, “Alright.”
After Xu Youyou left, Zuo Lin'an patted his pockets and actually found the nineteen cards.
He hadn't expected that even though he had handed the cards to the principal, they would still appear on his person upon entering the Scarlet Dream.
Perhaps it was because the principal wasn't a Human-Specter Symbiont?
Whatever.
In any case, no player could steal the cards from him now.
He just didn't know whether these cards would remain with him or return to the principal once this Scarlet Dream ended.
“I'll find out tomorrow morning. There's no point overthinking it now.”
Zuo Lin'an slowly pocketed the cards, then got up and headed toward the campus shop.
During the first three days of the Scarlet Dream, the players had either died or already used up their three entries. Thus, from this point until the very end...
The number of players appearing in the dream would only continue to dwindle.
This meant the two-hour Scarlet Dream sessions every night would become quite boring.
Xu Youyou returned in less than five minutes, arriving at the campus shop drenched in blood.
Seeing the brand-new deck of cards in Zuo Lin'an's hands, he grinned.
“Come on, let's play cards. These boring two hours will pass in no time.”
Right then, several specters drifted over from other parts of the dormitory.
“Hey, count me in! How can just two people play cards?”
Before long, twenty to thirty specters were sitting on the ground near the campus shop, mostly gathered in groups of four.
Those who couldn't find a group for the moment wandered around, waiting to yank away anyone who lost so they could take their spot.
The principal even wandered by at one point.
Seeing them playing cards so enthusiastically, he didn't disturb them. Instead, he quickly scurried off on all fours, likely heading out to hunt down the few remaining players.
Even though there wasn't much point in hunting them down anymore, he had nothing better to do anyway.
Zuo Lin'an said, “Pair of fours.”
Xu Youyou said, “Pass.”
“Pair of sixes.”
Zuo Lin'an suddenly asked, “Do any of you know a player named Yan San?”
“Yan San? No. What about him?”
Zuo Lin'an recalled how Yan San had previously killed the principal and taken the 【Talent Advancement Stone】.
Speaking of which, he had run into Yan San once before and tried to hunt him down. Coincidentally, however, the man's talent was 【Freeze】, which managed to temporarily immobilize him.
Due to a momentary lapse of vigilance, the guy had actually escaped!
“That player took the 【Talent Advancement Stone】. I wanted to kill him and reclaim it, but he escaped, and I haven't seen him since.”
Xu Youyou also remembered.
“I have no recollection of him. Don't think I've seen him.”
The other specters present also chimed in, saying they hadn't noticed him.
However, someone did know of Yan San. After all, they were also students who attended classes with the players during the day, so some of them were bound to be in the same class.
“Yan San is in my class. He has already entered the dream three times, so there's no chance of killing him. But it doesn't matter; he doesn't have either of the remaining two cards, so he won't be able to clear the dungeon anyway.”
Zuo Lin'an said, “He got off easy not dying in the Scarlet Dream.”
“Alright, Yan San isn't anyone important. Let's keep playing. Single four.”
This Scarlet Dream session passed in such a relaxed atmosphere.
Thursday and Friday went by just as peacefully. It was so uneventful that even Zuo Lin'an and the other NPCs found it quite surprising.
But considering most players could no longer enter the Scarlet Dream, the specters had no reason to go wild. Spending the remaining days in peace was indeed their best option.
Zuo Lin'an observed the players closely and noticed that almost all of them had been studying diligently over the past few days. They had even self-taught all the material from the classes they had slacked off on during the first two days.
As for Zuo Lin'an and the other NPCs, they were naturally extremely relaxed.
During the day, they slept, spaced out, and slacked off. At night in the Scarlet Dream, they played cards, sang, and performed shamanic dances.
As for the shamanic dancing, Zuo Lin'an wasn't just speaking metaphorically; he had actually witnessed it.
During Friday night's Scarlet Dream, dozens of specters gathered at the sports field and began dancing under the blood-red moonlight.
But because none of them really knew how to dance, Zuo Lin'an simply watched as those dozens of specters formed several circles on the sports field, performing bizarre and grotesque movements.
It looked as if they were conducting a ritual to some evil god. Afterward, they even asked him if their dancing looked good.
Zuo Lin'an was utterly speechless on the spot, but he still silently gave them a thumbs-up. Sometimes, a white lie was a virtue.
Time flew, and Saturday morning soon arrived.
Early in the morning, all the players and NPCs sat waiting in their classrooms.
Today was the final day.
Zuo Lin'an had done a count before arriving: the number of players who had actually survived to this point totaled two hundred and twenty-eight.
Rate on N.U.
