A special identity? So, there were players with special roles in this instance?
Upon hearing the system prompt, the players’ gazes turned calculating. A few even cast wary glances at their companions, likely trying to discern from their expressions who might hold a special identity.
It wasn't a matter of scarcity, but of inequality. Even if the special identity offered no extra benefits, the word "special" alone was enough to sign their death warrant.
After all, this was an instance where the rules had to be tested with human lives. Someone always had to die.
Moreover, the fact that the players assigned a special identity hadn't immediately revealed themselves spoke volumes. These roles either greatly increased their chances of survival, or they were positioned as enemies to the majority...
Zhang Yiyu stared at the word "Witch" on her system interface, a flicker of confusion in her mind. Wasn't this a school-themed instance? Why would there be a witch?
But just before entering the instance, Ning Xu had drilled a mountain of information into her, so she knew better than to let on that she’d received a special identity.
For now, she continued to empty her mind, mentally reciting classic poetry, but her eyes couldn't help but dart back toward Qi Si, who was standing by the door.
Ugh, why was there such a terrifying creature right at the start, and one putting on such an innocent, harmless face?
Amid the silence, a hoarse female voice began to speak, slow and deliberate:
[This is a land drenched in blood, a land of dark and wondrous magic, where hunger, plague, and slaughter run rampant.]
[They were brought here when the maple groves thrived, and buried beneath the soil when the red leaves fell like snow upon the mountains.]
[Great ships set sail for distant shores, cannons roared in brutal wars, and statues of glorious gods rose in terrible majesty.]
[Primeval prayers, frozen despair, and a horrifying evil god descending upon the whine of buzzing gnats.]
[Children, welcome to the Red Maple Boarding School.]
The narrator's voice was gentle and slow, like a grandmother whispering stories by the hearth. But the rattling sound of thick phlegm in her throat added a sinister, terrifying edge, evoking images of a forest witch spinning a gruesome fairy tale.
As she spoke, the gray walls faded away, piece by piece, as if being erased, and the scene instantly opened up.
When her voice fell silent, the players found themselves standing on black earth, surrounded by a seemingly endless maple forest. The palm-shaped leaves were a tender green, overlapping in a dense, vibrant mass.
The air was hot and humid, and the ground underfoot was so soft you could practically wring water from it. Ferns and palm-like plants filled the gaps between the maples, and looking up revealed nothing but a dense, oppressive canopy of green.
The colors of the scene grew increasingly vivid—the brilliant green of the maple leaves, the pitch-black soil, the deep brown tree trunks—as if they might dissolve and drip away like watercolor paint at any moment.
The chirping of insects and the calls of birds grew more distinct, mingling with the earthy scent of decay to create an almost unnervingly vivid sense of reality.
A rustle of footsteps echoed from the woods, drawing nearer.
As the players watched with the intensity of those facing a formidable foe, a gaunt woman slowly emerged and walked into their midst.
The woman wore a strange outfit made of black gauze. A long robe that dragged on the ground and a crooked hood covered almost every inch of her skin, revealing only a pair of falcon-like gray eyes that surveyed the crowd.
She appeared to be very old; her skin hung in folds like drapes, so loose one could practically pinch a handful. Her voice was raspy and muffled when she spoke. "Welcome to the Red Maple Boarding School. I am your teacher. You can call me Ms. Medina."
Qi Si found himself studying the woman for a moment longer.
For him, the name "Ms. Medina" had existed only in the narration. He was rather curious to see what kind of creature this NPC was—the one who had locked him in confinement and nearly left him to starve at the very start of the instance.
The other players were also sizing up Ms. Medina, their expressions a mixture of clear confusion and deep thought.
A few players opened their mouths to ask something, but after noticing their companions were as quiet as mice, they pursed their lips and said nothing.
Ms. Medina continued, "I expect you to abide by the school rules, earnestly accept your re-education, and leave your backward habits behind. Do not attempt any of your damned little tricks. If you break the rules, you will face the most severe punishment."
None of the players said a word. Observing their expressions, Qi Si wisely decided against asking questions like, "What exactly are the school rules?"
Ms. Medina seemed very satisfied with this, and her voice softened. "Come with me. The students have prepared a welcoming ceremony for you in the assembly hall."
She turned her back to the players and walked slowly into the depths of the maple forest. The players didn't dare to linger and hurried to follow.
As they walked, the maple forest on both sides began to thin. Looking around, they could see several dusty gray crosses standing in the distance, with something seemingly nailed to them.
A sharp-eyed female player saw clearly what was nailed to the crosses and cried out.
Trembling, she pointed at the crosses, her voice shaking. "Th-there are bodies on them..."
Ms. Medina turned her head, revealing a sinister smile. "Those are the naughty children who used witchcraft to harm others. If any of you harbor wicked thoughts, you'll meet the same end."
Witchcraft... so this instance had a fantasy element to it?
Qi Si narrowed his eyes slightly, his mind drifting back to a scene from many years ago.
The other children had surrounded him, listing his supposed crimes. "I fell down on my way home yesterday! You You has a cold and didn't come to school today! We've all had such bad luck lately. Qi Si must be cursing us with witchcraft!"
Twelve-year-old Qi Si, sitting quietly at his desk and fiddling with a specimen tube containing an eyeball, was so astounded by their stupidity that he wearily lifted his eyelids. "That's right, I can do witchcraft. Bother me again, and I'll curse every last one of you."
The children looked at each other, then began chattering all at once. "You finally admitted it! We're going to tell the teacher!" "And the teacher trusted you so much! You're nothing but a big liar!"
"You'd better hurry, then—" Qi Si smiled, revealing a row of gleaming white teeth. "Otherwise, I might not be able to stop myself from killing you and feeding you to the monsters."
...
"Once you're on the grounds of the Red Maple Boarding School, do not use witchcraft. Otherwise, your end will be very, very miserable..." Ms. Medina's cold gaze swept over every player, sending a chill down their spines.
The players hurriedly chorused, "We won't."
Only then did Ms. Medina nod in satisfaction, turning back to continue walking. "As long as you don't break the school rules, I won't make things difficult for you. Be obedient, be good children, and you just might survive."
The group walked on in silence. After a short while, a four-story concrete building came into view. This must be the Red Maple Boarding School.
The building had very few windows, only two per floor. From the outside, they were pitch-black, like eye sockets without eyeballs. The iron gate stood wide open, revealing a bottomless black hole, like the gaping maw of a monster.
The sky was clear. Although the sun was not visible, its azure hue was proof enough.
But strangely, the entire concrete building was terrifyingly gloomy, as if separated from its surroundings by an invisible barrier, occupying a space of its own, one of loneliness and oblivion.
The players simultaneously lightened their steps, following closely behind Ms. Medina into the building. When they saw the scene inside, their breath caught in their throats.
About a hundred emaciated children stood in several dense rows, each wearing a dusty gray uniform. They stared blankly in the direction of the entrance, their cloudy, lifeless eyes not seeming to belong to the living.
In the dim light of the ground floor, the children's faces were all ashen, looking very much like funeral portraits on a tombstone, or even the tomb itself.
Once all the players were standing still on the ground floor, the children began to chant a nursery rhyme in unison:
"Good children who don't want to eat can only eat dirt, Bad children have poisonous mushrooms sprouting from them.
A god grows within the rotting vegetables, Yellow flower buds bloom at the head of the dead.
After the day the yellow butterflies came, Everyone died and was buried in the earth.
On the children's graves, not a single blade of grass grows, This is all the witch's curse."
Every line of the nursery rhyme oozed an inexplicable strangeness. Combined with the children's half-dead tone, it sounded like a vicious curse or a prophecy of disaster.
As they recited the last line, all the children shifted their eyes, their gazes sweeping over every player, as if certain that the "witch" who brought the curse and disaster was among them. Qi Si had already retreated to a corner after entering the ground floor, his hands behind his back, hidden in the cover of the shadows.
He discreetly took out his recorder from his inventory and recorded the nursery rhyme.
—No telling if it'll be useful, but better to save it just in case.
The children only recited the nursery rhyme once before stopping, and the specific words did not appear on the system interface.
A few players who hadn't managed to memorize it couldn't help but look panicked, though they quickly suppressed it and feigned composure.
Ms. Medina made a gesture, and a child dragged a huge cardboard box from a corner and pushed it in front of the players.
"Please change into your school uniforms before dinner. At the Red Maple Boarding School, you must wear the uniform."
The players already knew this rule. They rushed to crowd around the cardboard box, grabbing clothes from inside without even looking and pulling them on.
In the chaos, Qi Si quietly approached Ms. Medina and said with his head lowered, "Ms. Medina, I know I was wrong. I'll never do those things again."
Ms. Medina paused for a moment, her small eyes looking Qi Si up and down as if trying to recall the context.
After a long moment, she finally remembered the identity of the person before her and said coldly, "Number 47, why did you leave the confinement room without permission? Did I allow you to come out?"
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come out without your permission..." Qi Si quickly drew on his middle school experience of dealing with teachers, putting on an act of terrified silence as his voice grew quieter. "But... I haven't eaten in three days. I'll starve to death if I don't eat..."
Ms. Medina's small eyes narrowed, glinting with a probing light, but her voice remained cold. "So, you took it upon yourself to run out?"
"Ms. Medina, I just wanted to ask a gentleman to help me get you, but he insisted on taking me with him..." Qi Si pointed to Chen Lidong, who was struggling to pull on his uniform in the crowd, and said with a sincere voice, "That gentleman said he's a philanthropist, here to inspect our school on behalf of the 'Indigenous Love Foundation.' He also said he was going to report everything you've done..."
Ms. Medina turned her head and stared fixedly at Chen Lidong in the crowd, a vicious glint in her eyes.
She looked back at Qi Si and asked, "You didn't say anything you shouldn't have, did you?"
"No," Qi Si shook his head. "I told him I don't remember anything."
Medina stared into Qi Si's eyes, then grinned. "Very good. You didn't lie this time. I must reward you properly."
Qi Si keenly sensed that something was wrong, and then he heard the NPC pronounce his fate: "Today, you will take Number 16's place and help cook in the kitchen."
Qi Si fell silent, wanting badly to ask, "Are you sure?"
"What, are you unwilling?" Ms. Medina's brows furrowed, and she looked like she was about to fly into a rage.
Qi Si could only lower his eyes and offer up a pure, flawless smile. "Thank you, Ms. Medina. I will not betray your trust."
Meanwhile, the players had finished distributing the uniforms from the box.
There were only twenty-eight uniforms. A short, mixed-race boy who hadn't managed to grab one was resentfully clutching the corner of his own shirt, looking over in Qi Si's direction.
He had undoubtedly set his sights on the uniform Qi Si was wearing, but Qi Si was sticking too close to Ms. Medina, making it difficult for him to make a move.
Qi Si noticed his covetous gaze and gave him a gentle smile.
The mixed-race boy: ...Fuck!
Ms. Medina walked over, her gaze sweeping across the players. "Since it's your first day and you've just arrived, I will not punish any rule violations for now. You may move about freely and familiarize yourselves with this place—I won't be so good-tempered tomorrow."
She leisurely strolled toward the back of the floor.
The children who had been standing in neat rows chanting the rhyme also scattered, disappearing into various crevices like phantoms.
Qi Si, keenly aware of his status as an "NPC with no rights," hurriedly followed Ms. Medina.
She stopped and turned back to order, "Number 47, you stay here and explain the rules to the new students. Someone will take you to the kitchen after sunset."
Qi Si: "Yes, Ms. Medina!"
With Ms. Medina's backing, at least the players wouldn't dare make a move on him.
Qi Si didn't know any of the Red Maple Boarding School's rules, and he was well aware that the more lies one tells, the easier they are to expose.
Facing the expectant gazes of the players, he recited the nursery rhyme the children had chanted earlier, then said solemnly, "All the rules are in there. Please make sure you remember them."
No one dared to take his words lightly. A few players who hadn't heard the rhyme clearly before even borrowed pens from each other to write it down on their palms.
After they finished writing, they were completely baffled. What was this nursery rhyme even about? Where were the rules?
Qi Si leaned against the doorframe, calm and composed, dutifully playing the part of an NPC who had completed his task and entered standby mode.
The players had witnessed his "familiarity" with Ms. Medina firsthand, so they didn't dare approach him to ask more about the school rules.
Jiang Junjue, being the most famous and experienced player among them, took on the role of leader at the opportune moment. Squinting his sleepy eyes, he announced, "This instance... I've already noticed a few things that are off..."
The players gradually gathered around, but Chen Lidong had no intention of joining the crowd.
He saw Qi Si standing alone to the side and immediately moved closer, asking in a low voice, "47, have you told anyone else about my identity?"
Given that Ms. Medina didn't count as a person, Qi Si shook his head honestly. "No. Mr. Chen, what's wrong?"
Chen Lidong breathed a sigh of relief and said sternly, "If anyone asks you who I am, just say you don't know. Got it?"
Qi Si lifted his eyelids to look at him, a confused expression on his face. "But... I know you're not just a philanthropist, Mr. Chen. You're also an observer for the 'Indigenous Love Foundation'..."
"Just say what I told you to say," Chen Lidong quickly interrupted. "And don't call me 'Mr. Chen' out here. Just call me Brother Chen."
Seemingly realizing his tone was off, he added, "I have enemies among them. If my identity is exposed, I'll be killed. I helped you before, you wouldn't want to see me get killed by them, would you?"
Qi Si nodded obediently. "I understand, Brother... Chen."
He paused, then asked with a worried expression, "Brother Chen, who are your enemies? I wonder if there's anything I can do to help..."
"That's none of your business. Just worry about protecting yourself," Chen Lidong said, waving his hand with a feigned air of gravity. He could finally relax.
Zhou Datong, who knew his identity, was on his side. The NPC called "47" was set up to be sensible and grateful. And he himself was quite confident in his ability to control his expression.
Unless he revealed his identity himself, how could the other players possibly find out?
Qi Si watched the now-reassured Chen Lidong, his eyes curving into a smile.
He was now almost certain that his "Bad Child" role and Chen Lidong's "Philanthropist" role were both special identities.
There was at least one other special identity that had been loaded in after he joined the other players, and he had his suspicions about who it was.
—Number 47 is just a poor, helpless little NPC. What bad intentions could he possibly have?
—Number 47 just wants to help the players eliminate their barriers and build trust.
(This chapter is finished)