Hengan Middle School corridor.
Su Ming had walked this corridor dozens of times.
Each death was like a red-hot iron pen, etching every inch of this corridor's details deep into his bones, his soul, his flesh and blood.
The arc of the peeling wall paint, the direction of the floor tile cracks, the frequency of blood droplets falling, the timing of ghostly hands reaching out.
He knew it all like the back of his hand.
But this time was different.
Su Ming came with a towering rage.
The fiery expert was online once again.
It was a fire that could turn even death into nourishment.
It was the frozen, solidified madness in his eyes.
Just like when he was first driven to madness by the Ghost School Belle, left only with pure excitement and frenzy.
At this moment, this state surged within him in an even more extreme, twisted, and uncontrollable way.
When death was no longer the end.
When one became accustomed to the process of flesh flying and consciousness vanishing.
The boundary between life and death began to blur, dissolve, and finally merge into a sticky, trample-worthy mire.
Su Ming stood in the corridor.
He didn't sprint immediately.
Instead, he slowly turned his neck, scanning the corridor that had swallowed him dozens of times.
Those bloodshot eyes, veined like a spider's web, were more intense and terrifying than the Ghost Bride's blood-red wedding dress.
Those pupils, filled with countless tiny cracks like glass about to shatter, emitted an eerie light as if from the other side.
Were those human eyes?
Probably not anymore.
This time, Su Ming didn't choose to rush out.
Instead, he walked forward step by step.
His steps lacked the previous caution, replaced by a calm on the verge of eruption.
After a few steps, a twisted shadow suddenly descended from the ceiling, carrying a familiar stench of decay.
Su Ming didn't slide or dodge.
Instead, he reached out towards the shadow, fingers spread wide, as if to embrace that foul darkness, eyes gleaming with excitement bordering on distortion.
With a tearing sound.
The shadow collided with Su Ming, merging into him.
That familiar, soul-rending pain exploded instantly.
But this time, he didn't lose consciousness.
Instead, he widened those cracked pupils, staring intently at the shadow devouring his flesh.
"You think you can kill me?"
It was a roar squeezed from his throat.
The ultimate exhaustion and ultimate madness completely fused and boiled, the tiny cracks in his pupils emitting an even more intense eerie light.
As if something was awakening, roaring!
The game window that had appeared before him originally displayed [Game Over].
However, with Su Ming's roar, the window trembled violently, as if subjected to massive signal interference.
The words [Game Over] and [Game Start] began to switch frantically, stuttering, and finally twisting into a jumble of garbled characters.
The garbled text, like a living plague, spread from the edges of the window, eroding the entire space.
The corridor began to flicker and twist wildly.
The classroom started to reassemble and collapse like a slideshow.
Countless colorful lines appeared and disappeared out of thin air.
The floor rose and dissipated like dust.
The railings were erased bit by bit by an invisible hand.
The wandering aberrations in the corridor began to blur, becoming transparent until they vanished.
Pure darkness pressed in from all directions, as if to obliterate the chaotic everything.
Darkness descended.
Darkness disappeared.
Su Ming was back in the classroom.
Only, he hadn't lost consciousness in this "death."
Looking down at his palm, his fingertips still retained the sensation of merging with the darkness.
Cold!
Sticky!
Yet carrying a strange sense of reality.
He grinned, striding towards the classroom door.
The door opened.
The corridor reappeared.
This corridor seemed to have become the proving ground for his insane consciousness.
It became the stage for his madness to prove "what can death do to me."
After a few steps, the shadow from the ceiling fell again.
This time, Su Ming actively approached, arms wide open.
"If you want to merge with me, I'll oblige."
It was a whisper filled with boundless excitement.
In an instant, the shadow enveloped him.
Flesh began to erode and merge, even the soul was torn apart and then reassembled.
The game window stuttered again.
Darkness descended.
Su Ming was back in the classroom.
He cruelly licked his lips, eyes filled with a look called "satisfaction."
He pushed the door open and left.
The Ghost School Belle watched Su Ming return again and again, pushing the door open each time.
His state was even more extreme, even more insane than before.
The intervals between his returns grew shorter.
Sometimes, he would reappear in the classroom just seconds after leaving.
That madness was something even the Ghost School Belle could clearly feel.
The entire classroom's atmosphere was oppressively thick, the air so dense it seemed it could drip water.
Su Ming's state was all wrong.
What was wrong?
The Ghost School Belle didn't know.
But her ghostly intuition told her she had to stop Su Ming.
She had to.
She had to do it as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, something big would happen.
So when Su Ming returned to the classroom again, ready to push the door open and leave.
The Ghost School Belle blocked the door, grabbing his wrist as he reached for the door, and uttered a single word: "Enough."
Su Ming slowly turned his head to look at her.
It was clear that the cracks in Su Ming's pupils had multiplied, densely packed, as if his eyes would shatter at any moment.
There seemed to be something indescribable brewing inside.
Unknown what it was.
But once it solidified, even the Ghost School Belle's spine began to chill.
Was this guy really human?
For the first time, the Ghost School Belle doubted Su Ming's identity.
Conversely, Su Ming laughed.
It was a smile mixed with extreme exhaustion and extreme excitement.
"You can't keep going."
The Ghost School Belle tightly held his hand, her pure black eyes gazing into his shattered pupils.
Seeing the aura Su Ming emitted grow stronger, almost distorting the surrounding space.
The Ghost School Belle hesitated no longer.
She stepped forward and pressed her cracked lips against Su Ming's without hesitation.
This kiss was not tender.
It was an awakening.
After a full thirty seconds.
Su Ming's body went limp, falling straight back as if all the supporting soul had been instantly drained.
Endless exhaustion washed over him like a tidal wave, drowning his consciousness in an instant.
Watching Su Ming fall into a deep coma, the Ghost School Belle raised her hand to gently wipe her lips.
On her fingertip was a trace of blood.
It was her blood.
Red to the point of blackness.
"You really are a pervert." She looked down at Su Ming: "Even in a coma, you have to bite me."
At this moment, at the very moment Su Ming was unconscious.
The Ghost School Belle showed an expression he had never seen before.
She obsessively and morbidly caressed Su Ming's face.
The long-hidden calm in her eyes was completely shattered, surging with emotions so intense they were suffocating.
It was a mad possessiveness, an extreme desire to disassemble, devour, and merge every inch of his flesh, every strand of his soul!
Two abnormal blushes rose on her pale face, exhaling cold breaths.
"But."
Her voice carried a chilling pleasure, "I really like it."
The next second, she leaned down, almost lying on top of Su Ming, wrapping her arms tightly around him.
Obsessively cradling Su Ming's sleeping face.
Then opened her mouth.
Not to kiss.
But to bite down.
Sharp teeth pierced the skin, cut into flesh, snapped soft bones, crushed the skeleton.
Warm blood flowed, greedily sucked and swallowed by her.
The classroom was left with only the chilling sound of gnawing.
Squish... squish...
The sound echoed in the silent classroom, circulating.
Chewing flesh, snapping bones, sucking blood.
Bit by bit.
Inch by inch.
Devouring him.
Into her stomach.
When Su Ming woke up again.
He lay in bed, parched.
His mind's memory lingered at Hengan Middle School.
At that time, he had only one thought, which was to confront that shadow head-on.
You can't kill me, I'll kill you.
What happened afterward.
Su Ming forgot, it was all a blur.
He only felt like his body was hollowed out, like a female ghost had sucked away his vitality.
The Jumper Ghost had been waiting nearby.
Seeing Su Ming open his eyes, it quickly handed over water: "Great King, drink some water."
Su Ming drank several gulps before feeling somewhat comfortable.
After finishing the water, Su Ming irritably scratched his head.
He had prepared so thoroughly yesterday.
Who knew there would be a favorability upgrade task.
It's utterly ridiculous.
Seeing Su Ming lying on the bed looking exhausted.
The Jumper Ghost thought it should do something to relieve its master's worries.
So it rubbed its hands and approached Su Ming, asking in a fawning tone: "Great King, what's wrong?"
"Is there anything I can help with?"
Su Ming glanced at the Jumper Ghost, seeing its face written with "praise me for being sensible," he let out a long, deep sigh.
"Go play somewhere else."
"Okay." The Jumper Ghost nodded quickly and dashed off with a swish.
After lying for a few more minutes, Su Ming finally opened the game page, looking at the Ghost School Belle in the classroom.
In the image, the Ghost School Belle wasn't sitting quietly at her seat as usual.
She stood in front of the classroom curtains, back to the image, motionless, with only her long black hair cascading down like a waterfall.
She seemed to be pondering something.