Military stance training was scheduled for the afternoon. It had been extended by an hour, making it four hours long.
Beneath the blazing sun, the Players were drenched in sweat.
After enduring three hours of it yesterday, Hua Huai found it less grueling today.
She had even gotten used to the half-cooked rice in the cafeteria, and felt no discomfort at all.
By the time training ended, she was in the best condition of all the Players.
Xiang Lu and Sun Sui were in good physical shape and had not been injured, so they, too, steadily completed their military stance training.
Zhang Mingxuan was not so lucky. His face was bloodless, and blood had congealed on his School Uniform, sticking to his flesh. Even the slightest tug made him suck in a breath from the pain.
Perhaps driven by his desire to survive, he gritted his teeth and endured the training, completing the Mission as well.
The Instructor walked over, clapping his hands. His Anomalous gaze lingered on them as he said, “Not bad. Everyone completed training again today. Then tomorrow, we’ll add another hour.”
A smile played at the corners of his mouth, cruel and gloating as he pushed their limits step by step.
As soon as the Instructor left, Zhang Mingxuan grabbed Xiang Lu by the sleeve and asked, “Did you find the landline telephone? I can’t last until tomorrow. I have to leave today.”
Xiang Lu shook him off without mercy. “What does that have to do with me? I wasn’t the one who killed anyone.”
Since she hadn’t killed anyone, she wouldn’t suffer the backlash of the game rules.
Zhang Mingxuan said with difficulty, “You haven’t already found the landline telephone and deliberately held off on completing the Mission, hoping to watch me die, have you?”
Right, so that was another way to play!
It had to be said: Xiang Lu understood the Game’s hidden rules better than the other Players.
Take the Hidden Mission Objective, for example. If she hadn’t mentioned it, none of the other Players would have known.
With death either way, Zhang Mingxuan suddenly lunged, clamping both hands around Xiang Lu’s throat. “I’ll drag you to Hell with me!”
The two were standing close together, and when Zhang Mingxuan suddenly attacked, no one could stop him in time.
The veins on the backs of his hands bulged as his fingers tightened, choking Xiang Lu until her cheeks turned red. She looked as if she might stop breathing at any moment.
Xiang Lu showed no sign of panic. Instead, she laughed. “You win. I know where it is, and I can give you the advertisement flyer too.”
“Whether you live or die depends on your own ability.”
Half an advertisement flyer fluttered from her hand to the ground. The other Players stared at it greedily.
Zhang Mingxuan didn’t dare waste time. He quickly released Xiang Lu and bent to pick up the flyer, lest someone else beat him to it.
Once he had it, he felt a little more at ease. His tone was still just as defiant. “Where’s the landline telephone?”
Xiang Lu pointed to the teaching building behind her. “Top Floor, teachers' office.”
Zhang Mingxuan started to leave, but seemed to remember something and returned.
He looked around at the Players, then finally fixed his gaze on Hua Huai and pointed at her. “You. Come here!”
Hua Huai didn’t go to him, so he walked over himself.
“Do you want to live?”
What a stupid question. Of course she wanted to live.
Hua Huai nodded.
He continued, “Help me lure the teachers out of their office. Find a way to keep them occupied for half an hour, and I can figure out the password. Then everyone can live.”
His tone abruptly changed as he grabbed her by the collar. “Otherwise, I’ll kill you right now.”
“You know that if I stay in this instance, I’m as good as dead. I don’t care if I take one more person down with me.”
Zhang Mingxuan was capable of it. He had just proved as much through his actions.
Although he was injured, he was still an adult man. It wouldn’t take much effort for him to kill her.
The other Players showed no intention of helping her, either.
If she didn’t want to die, she had no choice but to agree.
She asked nervously, “How am I supposed to lure the teachers out?”
Zhang Mingxuan wasn’t clever enough to come up with an idea, so he answered carelessly, “Whatever.”
“I don’t care. Figure it out yourself.”
Damn it!
“It’ll be dark soon. You have half an hour to come up with something.”
If he showed her no mercy, she wouldn’t show him any, either.
She smiled innocently. “I’ve got an idea.”
A dozen minutes later, a piercing alarm rang on the third floor of the teaching building.
Hearing the noise, the teachers in the teachers' office hurried out to investigate.
While the teachers were away from the office, Zhang Mingxuan slipped inside and tried to make a call.
Hua Huai stood at the stairwell landing, watching the teachers head to the floor where the alarm had sounded.
She counted silently. About five minutes later, she ran in a panic to where the teachers were, panting as she said, “Teachers, you’ve been tricked! Someone sneaked into your office!”
Inside the room, several books burned in a brazier. Smoke drifted up to the sensor, setting off the alarm.
There was no fire. Someone had deliberately triggered the alarm.
Hua Huai’s accusation matched the situation, so the teachers didn’t suspect anything and hurried back to the office.
She didn’t follow them inside. Standing outside the door, hearing Zhang Mingxuan scream was enough.
The fire alarm system at this school was set up by floor. If a sensor on the first floor was triggered, the alarm would sound on the first floor; the same went for the second and third floors.
Hua Huai had agreed in advance with him to place braziers on different floors at different times.
By removing each brazier before the teachers arrived and moving it to another floor, she could make them search every room in the building in confusion, easily buying half an hour.
Zhang Mingxuan never would have guessed why the alarm was still ringing when the teachers came back.
A strong smell of blood filled the air. The Player Faction had lost another member.
Just as she was about to leave, a familiar voice came from behind her. “Why did you betray your friend?”
Hua Huai turned around. A boy came into view, with delicate features and a clean School Uniform that carried the fresh scent of laundry detergent.
“Zhao Ling?”
He said nothing else, only repeated the question in a harsher tone. “Why did you betray your friend?”
Did he really think the person inside was her friend?
What was he going to do now?
Kill her?!
Because she had violated the killing rule.
The boy’s bones gave a sickening crack as they shifted out of place. His head split open, and brains and blood trickled down, staining his clean School Uniform.
Yet he could still blink as he came closer, repeating over and over, “Why did you betray your friend?”
It was the first time she had seen anything like this: a corpse that could still move.
Though Hua Huai had guessed he was an Anomaly, seeing one in person still left her mind blank for a moment.
She couldn’t just stand there doing nothing. He would kill her.
Tears welled in her eyes. Forcing down her fear, she shot back, “Have you ever seen a friend who wanted to kill you?”
“He knew exactly what those teachers were like, yet he still told me to lure them away.”
“Did he think I was an easy target because I’m young? Out of all those adults, he picked me because he thought I’d be easy to bully!”
“I’m not someone who gives up. Even if a thousand or ten thousand people wanted me dead, I’d find a way to live on.”
“Unlike you, you coward. You had the chance to stay home during the monthly break, but because of one thing your mother said, you didn’t dare tell her what the school was really like. Was it really all your mother’s fault?”
“You were responsible too. Don’t try to shift all the blame onto someone else.”
“In the end, you chose to jump to your death. The school barely suffered any consequences, while you lost your life. Was it worth it?”
By this point, Hua Huai was angrier than ever, with a trace of frustration at Zhao Ling for failing to stand up for himself.