[Instance Name: Red Maple Boarding School]
[Instance Type: Team Survival]
[Forewarning: Disaster repeats endlessly. Survival is a struggle. Living is a matter of luck; death is the only certainty.]
In a vast, empty concrete room, Chen Lidong opened his eyes. A turn of his head revealed his bargain-bin teammate, Zhou Datong, standing beside him with a foolish grin. A headache immediately set in.
Chen Lidong was twenty-nine. He'd spent years knocking around in society, honing his demeanor until it was slick and polished. In a black suit and sunglasses, he had the distinct air of a local tough.
In the real world, he was well-off, with money to spare. In the instances, he had amassed a decent collection of powerful items. Even compared to the top-ranked players on the stone tablet in the player plaza, he could be called "competitive."
For this instance, Chen Lidong had teamed up with Zhou Datong.
Both were new recruits to the Sila Guild, still in their probationary period, and hadn't even met the guild leader, the Puppet Master.
The core member who recruited them had tossed each a Teaming Ring and told them to do as they saw fit. It was Chen Lidong who spent a thousand points on a piece of information, learning that all members had to pass a three-instance trial before their eligibility for full membership would be decided.
Becoming a full member came with many benefits. Protection was secondary; the main draw was the ability to borrow points from the guild, getting enough to fulfill some of their wishes ahead of time.
As for the trial's criteria, the first was ruthlessness—bleeding-heart saints with a conscience weren't welcome. The second was instance performance scores. You had to excel in either intelligence or combat prowess. Sila had no use for mindless grunts who were good for nothing but following orders and hacking away.
Chen Lidong had worked as a construction foreman for a while and had dealt with his fair share of troublesome migrant workers. When it came to being ruthless, he was second to none.
As for intelligence, he had a high opinion of himself. In the slang of his hometown, he was a "slick operator"—give him a bottle of wine and a pack of cigarettes, and there wasn't a situation he couldn't smooth his way through.
His only headache was Zhou Datong, the teammate Sila had saddled him with.
Whether it was fate or just bad luck, Zhou Datong happened to be a migrant worker—the exact type Chen Lidong despised most: slow on the uptake and indecisive.
They had met in their seventh instance. Both being from Yuzhou province, they were considered old hometown friends and naturally teamed up. Then, somehow, they both managed to survive.
A core member of Sila in charge of recruitment was also in that instance. Impressed by Chen Lidong's ruthlessness in killing, he extended an olive branch. Zhou Datong ended up getting dragged along for the ride onto Sila's pirate ship.
Then, through a twist of fate, the core member assumed Chen Lidong and Zhou Datong were close and officially registered them as a pair.
By the time Chen Lidong realized the mistake, it was too late. The Teaming Rings had already been made, and changing the pairing would cost a ten-thousand-point processing fee.
Staring at his meticulously managed account balance, Chen Lidong could only swallow his pride and bear the injustice.
He had no objections, and neither did Zhou Datong. After all, "Brother Chen" seemed insightful and was willing to share his experience with him.
This was the third instance Chen Lidong and Zhou Datong had tackled together.
As long as they completed this instance and passed Sila's trial, their bond would be severed, and they could go their separate ways.
Back in the concrete room, more and more players were slowly coming to. A quick glance revealed over twenty people, and that didn't even count those who might have loaded into the instance elsewhere and hadn't joined them yet.
Chen Lidong discreetly slid the black ring on his right pinky finger down to the base, setting it to hidden mode. Leaving Zhou Datong standing there dumbfounded, he slipped into the now-bustling crowd.
The players exchanged names, and a few even announced their guild affiliations: one from Kyushu, three from Listening Wind.
Chen Lidong, of course, didn't dare reveal his identity. He played dumb to get by and then started trying to pry information from the other players.
Before he could glean anything useful, a middle-aged woman calling herself "Ms. Medina" appeared and delivered a threatening speech along the lines of "Do not break the school rules, or the consequences will be severe."
One outspoken player immediately asked what the school rules were.
To everyone's surprise, Ms. Medina flew into a rage, accusing the player of not paying attention and sentencing him to solitary confinement.
Upon hearing the verdict, the unfortunate player began to move as if possessed by a malevolent spirit. His limbs contorted as he walked into a corridor, apparently heading to the confinement room on his own.
A confinement room in an instance was almost certainly a death trap, and the sight of his uncontrolled, contorting limbs was utterly bizarre.
The player's face instantly turned as white as a sheet.
He struggled to turn his head, his eyes pleading for help, but his body continued its jerky, deliberate march away from them until he vanished into the depths of the corridor.
Not a single player dared to help him. After he had served as a grim example, no one else was brave enough to ask about the school rules.
Chen Lidong immediately understood why the instance had started with so many players.
The rules of death were hidden, and it seemed they could only be discovered by sacrificing one life after another...
After punishing the player, Ms. Medina turned and left, leaving the rest of them standing there.
The players didn't dare make a move. They sat on the floor of the unfurnished concrete room, waiting for the plot to advance.
Chen Lidong waited for a while at first, but he quickly realized that waiting passively was not a solution.
The clues to clearing the instance weren't going to grow legs and walk over to them. Even if not for the sake of others, he had to take the initiative simply to boost his own performance score.
Chen Lidong had originally planned to convince a female player from the Kyushu Guild to go with him. In his eyes, Kyushu was the number one guild, so she was bound to have plenty of life-saving trinkets.
Unfortunately, she regarded him with a wary expression and looked ready to scream for help at any moment, as if he were some kind of child trafficker.
Having no other choice, Chen Lidong left the group with his dead weight, Zhou Datong, in tow.
It turned out the old saying was true: "Fortune favors the bold, while the timid starve."
He had only taken a few steps down the corridor leading to the confinement room when a system notification sounded.
[You have been detected leaving the student group. A suitable identity is being assigned to you.]
[Identity: "Philanthropist" has been loaded.]
From the text, Chen Lidong learned that he was now playing the role of a philanthropist dedicated to promoting peace and improving the lives of children.
He had come to Red Maple Boarding School on behalf of an organization called the "Indigenous Love Foundation" to conduct an inspection and determine if the school's facilities met "social welfare standards."
In other words, he no longer had to obey the school rules. Even the instance's main NPC, Ms. Medina, would have to be polite to him.
This gave Chen Lidong a surge of confidence. A philanthropist inspecting a school—what was there to fear?
The only fly in the ointment was that Zhou Datong hadn't triggered a system notification; his identity remained "Student."
Chen Lidong didn't think much of it. He had been looking out for Zhou Datong all this time; what was there to be afraid of in a school-themed instance?
So, while boasting to Zhou Datong, Chen Lidong continued to explore deeper into the corridor. Soon, he heard a cry for help from behind an iron door.
"Students, please, go tell Ms. Medina I know I was wrong... I haven't eaten in three days. I'm so hungry... I'm going to die if this keeps up..." The dark gray iron door was set coldly into the wall, and the moan coming from behind it was as faint as a thread, sounding like someone on the verge of death.
Zhou Datong jumped. "B-Brother Chen, did we trigger an event? Is... is that a person or a ghost back there?"
"I'm here, what are you afraid of? We left the main group precisely to trigger events like this, didn't we?" Chen Lidong patted Zhou Datong's shoulder, strode to the door, and pulled a hammer from his inventory, bringing it down on the lock.
"It's probably an NPC who can give us clues. If it's human, we save them. If it's a ghost, we kill it. The boss lent me that [White Blade] before the instance for exactly this kind of situation, right?"
Chen Lidong was absolutely certain that this was most likely a personal mission tied to his new identity.
He was here to inspect the school for violations and had stumbled upon Ms. Medina abusing a child—it all fit together perfectly.
With this in mind, Chen Lidong began hammering the lock with renewed vigor.
The lock was unusually sturdy. He struck it a dozen times, but not even a hairline crack appeared.
"Brother Chen, maybe we should go find Ms. Medina? The NPC did say to go get her and pass on the message, right?" Zhou Datong suggested timidly.
Chen Lidong's face fell, and his tone turned sharp. "Are you stupid? First of all, where would we even find that Medina woman? And second, if we did bring her here and she took him away, who would we ask about the school rules?"
Realization dawned on Zhou Datong. "You're right, Brother Chen, you think of everything!"
Chen Lidong took the [White Blade] from his inventory and held it up to the lock, sizing it up.
The listless voice from inside the room spoke again. "Students, the door isn't locked. There's just no handle on the inside, so I can't get out..."
Chen Lidong was speechless.
He put away the [White Blade], reached out, turned the handle, and gave the door a tentative pull.
The iron door swung open effortlessly, and a boy in a gray short-sleeved shirt stumbled out.
The boy had light brown skin, a high-bridged nose, and deep-set eyes, clearly of the same ethnicity as Ms. Medina. Due to malnutrition, he was as thin as a coat hanger.
Intent on earning some goodwill from the NPC, Chen Lidong quickly pulled a compressed biscuit from his backpack and offered it to the boy.
"Thank you." The boy took the biscuit with a trembling hand, looked up at the two of them, and said hesitantly, "Rule number three of the school regulations: students must wear their school uniforms on campus. If Miss Medina sees you without them, she'll get angry."
[Rules have been updated]
[Red Maple Boarding School has the following regulations. As a student, you must comply:]
[3. Students must wear their school uniforms on campus.]
The three lines of text appeared on their system interfaces. Chen Lidong and Zhou Datong exchanged a look, and both saw the pleasant surprise in each other's eyes.
They had learned a rule without anyone having to die for it. They had struck gold!
Chen Lidong turned to the boy, forcing a benevolent smile. "Don't be afraid, son. I'm a philanthropist, an observer from the 'Indigenous Love Foundation.' I'm here to help you. Things like corporal punishment, being starved—you can tell me all about it. I'll report it to the foundation and make sure you get justice!"
He was fully embracing his "philanthropist" role, reaching out a loving hand to pat the boy's head.
The boy subtly dodged the touch and began to nibble on the biscuit.
Noticing the boy's chapped lips, Zhou Datong, who was standing nearby, pulled a bottle of water from his backpack and handed it over. The boy accepted it without hesitation.
Chen Lidong waited until the boy had finished eating, alternating between sips of water and bites of the biscuit, before asking with a tender expression, "What's your name, son?"
"Name?" The boy's eyes went vacant, a clear look of bewilderment in them. "I've forgotten my old name. My number is 47. You can just call me '47,' sir."
Chen Lidong guessed that Red Maple Boarding School must be some kind of concentration camp. Why else would they use numbers for names?
He asked again, "Can you tell me about the school rules here? That way, I'll have something to report to the foundation."
The boy shook his head, looking ashamed. "I'm sorry. I forgot a lot of things after I woke up. Besides what I just told you, I can't remember anything else."
Zhou Datong glanced over and muttered, "How come this NPC doesn't know anything?"
"This is normal. Do you think an instance would just dump all the rules on us at once?" Chen Lidong paused, spittle flying as he spoke. "Let me teach you something else. The NPC says he has amnesia. That detail is most likely related to the instance's lore. The confinement room probably messes with your memory."
"Oh, is that how it is? Haha, I never would have thought of that if you hadn't said so, Brother Chen."
"Enough with the flattery. Let's take the NPC and head back for now. It's time to seize control of the narrative."
The two spoke freely in front of the boy, assuming that any sentences containing words like "NPC," "player," or "instance" would be automatically filtered out, unheard by him.
Unfortunately, the boy was not a real NPC, but Qi Si wearing a Human Skin Mask.
After solving his food problem and seeing the [Side Quest Completed] notification, he shed his half-dead demeanor, stood up, and openly listened to the two players' conversation—
—all while maintaining an expression of innocent confusion, pretending he couldn't hear a thing.
Chen Lidong and Zhou Datong finished their boasting, and when they turned around, they saw that the "NPC boy" had gotten to his feet at some point. He looked to be about six feet tall.
He grumbled inwardly, *How can he be so tall if he's malnourished?* but his outward smile remained pleasant. "Come with us, son. Didn't you say you wanted to apologize to Ms. Medina? We were just on our way to see her and ask her a few questions."
Qi Si nodded, lowering his gaze. "Are you both philanthropists here for an inspection?"
"I am," Chen Lidong said, then pointed to Zhou Datong beside him. "He isn't."
Qi Si continued, "Since this is our first time meeting, may I ask your names?"
Zhou Datong gave a simple-minded laugh. "My name's Zhou Datong, and this is my Brother Chen, Chen Lidong."
Qi Si smiled at Chen Lidong and greeted him softly, "A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Chen."
Chen Lidong, quite pleased, nodded back. He thought the NPC was very polite—a good kid. He couldn't imagine how he had managed to get on Ms. Medina's bad side.
Then again, recalling Ms. Medina's volatile temper, he figured being punished for no reason wasn't so strange after all. His gaze toward Qi Si softened with a touch of sympathy.
It was getting late. Chen Lidong took the lead, heading back the way they came, with Zhou Datong following close behind.
Qi Si trailed far behind them, a slight curve playing on his lips.
Ever since he received the prompt about the [Scarlet High Priest] card, his objectives had diverged from those of the other players.
"A force of calamity, not redemption. A power behind the scenes, not on the stage"—he already had an idea of how to play his part.
Damn, only after posting did I realize I'd already updated today... Should we count this chapter as a bonus? (Adding a new winter break bonus chapter rule: one extra chapter for every 100 monthly tickets, not counting the complimentary tickets from updates.)
(End of this chapter)