[June 1, 1869. Mr. Thorson took the good children—those who learned English and history quickly—to the church for baptism. When the children returned, they showed varying degrees of listlessness and chills, which the teachers attributed to exhaustion from the journey.]
[June 2. The children developed high fevers and fell into a strange state of excitement, unable to sleep. Some began to hallucinate, seeing incomprehensible sights and muttering gibberish. After consulting various texts, the teachers identified it as an infectious disease called "Insomnia." Those infected are unable to sleep at all; instead, they dream while wide awake and develop dirt-like smudges on their bodies.]
[The teachers found smudges of various sizes and shapes in different places on the sick children's bodies, confirming the arrival of the terrible plague known as "Insomnia." Even among the children who hadn't yet shown symptoms, a few had clumps of dirt on their ankles. Strangely, the disease seemed to spread only among the indigenous children; none of the other teachers, aside from Ms. Medina, were affected.]
[Mr. Barron claimed it was a curse—a curse from an evil god worshipped by the indigenous people themselves. He insisted that they should be left to find their own cure, while the teachers should do nothing but observe and record. This sounded preposterous, but this land had always been steeped in magic and strangeness. The many bizarre phenomena witnessed during the war were proof enough that these backward peoples could indeed practice some form of witchcraft.]
[June 4. All the children were now showing symptoms of "Insomnia." The first to fall ill began to show signs of "forgetfulness," starting to lose their past experiences, including the names and concepts of certain things. The doctor brought in from outside could offer no definitive treatment, and the teachers began to think the answer might lie, as Mr. Barron had suggested, in the knowledge passed down orally among the indigenous people.]
[Unfortunately, the indigenous written texts and historical records had been burned the day before. Mr. Thorson, who had always disagreed with Mr. Barron, believed those harmful things should be eradicated to prevent them from spreading like a plague to the wider imperial territories. And now, to treat the "Insomnia," perhaps the only option was to start with the "witch" who had brought it. But who was the "witch"?]
[June 5. The children's condition worsened. Their hallucinations began to intersect; each child could see not only their own visions but also the illusions seen by others. These hallucinations seemed to affect healthy people as well. Several teachers who had not yet contracted "Insomnia" also began seeing dead spirits within the children's visions.]
[Chaos swept through the entire school. Mr. Thorson advocated for locking down the school and leaving the sick to their fate, to prevent the disease from spreading to the healthy. The teachers who were still well evacuated one after another, and the students were locked away in solitary confinement. Ms. Medina stayed behind to dispose of the bodies promptly.]
[June 6. The scale of the children's hallucinations expanded until the entire school was enveloped in their visions. As if by agreement, the content of their individual hallucinations connected seamlessly, forming a collective illusion with a meticulous logic of its own. On the grounds of the school, they constructed an entirely new one.]
[June 7. The children's "forgetfulness" worsened. Some died in their confinement rooms. The survivors forgot their own identities, even lost their sense of self, and were reduced to mindless shells with no past. Everyone was trapped in a waking dream, living in a daze like the walking dead. The whole school was sick, about to rot away.]
[June 8. Mr. Thorson sent people to deal with the school's plague once again, as the irresponsible actions of the Red Maple Boarding School had drawn widespread international condemnation. But the new doctors remained helpless.]
Here, the first record came to an abrupt end.
The term "indigenous people" and the descriptions in the record reminded Qi Si of a real historical event from Maple County.
Two hundred years ago, European settlers landed on the American continent, drove out and massacred the native population, and seized their land. This was the precursor to Maple County.
Soon after, they established indigenous residential schools, forcibly taking native children and forbidding them from speaking their languages or engaging in cultural activities. The goal was to sever their ties to their communities and instill in them an identity aligned with European cultural traditions.
Abuse and humiliation were commonplace in these schools. Many children died for various reasons and were buried without a trace...
This piece of history could no longer be found in official records. Anyone who dared to mention it was accused of slander and defamation.
Indigenous peoples living in the Americas had organized to petition the Federal Government, demanding that history be restored and their rights be protected. Unfortunately, due to a lack of historical records and concrete evidence, their efforts ultimately failed to make significant waves.
Fortunately, Qi Si had always possessed excellent information-gathering and analytical skills, as well as a sharp memory. Thus, even after so many years, he could still dredge up the record he had only glanced at once from the depths of his mind.
Back then, seeing those words that chronicled such evil on a scrap of paper, he had thought with a thrill of excitement that this was the perfect soil for a horror story. It would be no surprise if an immensely powerful supernatural entity were born from it.
It seemed that, when it came to aesthetics, he and the Weird Game were in perfect agreement.
Qi Si didn't have much of a sense of justice for punishing evil and promoting good, but he always delighted in kicking someone when they were down.
He stroked his chin with great interest, his eyes gleaming with malice. "This is practically screaming that the instance is tied to the real world. I wonder if I can trigger another Weird Invasion event after getting the True End?"
"Unleashing this weirdness onto a continent across the ocean... the Weird Investigation Bureau would have a hard time tracing it back to me. So neat and tidy..."
"I just wonder what kind of weirdness it will be. A disease?"
Qi Si slowly crouched down and touched the rough, dirt-like stain on his own ankle.
He had undoubtedly been infected.
It must have happened in the bathroom. The dirt that washed off had spread to everyone's feet through the water and begun to creep upwards.
At first, the dirt had only coated the soles of his feet, but now it had crawled up to his ankles as if alive, and it was still climbing higher.
The progression of the disease was a process: first fever, then insomnia and hallucinations, followed by memory loss.
The hallucinations and forgetfulness would deepen over time. He would slowly lose his sense of self, drowning in visions until he became a creature of pure instinct, driven only by the need to eat, drink, and defecate.
No one was coming to save him. He was trapped in this school alone, left to wait for death, to rot...
"Will the players' infections follow the same progression?"
Qi Si pressed the back of his hand to his forehead. It was ice-cold.
He didn't have a fever, yet the insomnia had already set in. Why was the order of the symptoms reversed?
And the player who died in the bathroom... it was only his first day in the instance, so why was the affected area on his back so large?
When and how would the hallucinations and memory loss appear? Or... had they already begun?
Qi Si went back to Shanchuan Xinhong's corpse and examined it from head to toe.
A gray, earth-textured patch, as large as a man's palm, was imprinted on the corpse's sallow abdomen. It was smaller than the stain on the dead man's back, but much larger than the one on Qi Si's ankle.
At that moment, dense clusters of mushrooms were sprouting from the gray patch, covering the corpse's skin like a layer of insect eggs.
"Is it because our bodies are different, or was he infected earlier than me? For instance... was he infected before dinner?"
Qi Si speculated idly as he casually searched the dead man's pockets.
They were empty.
Aside from a lighter, the man had nothing of value on him. Qi Si pocketed the lighter with a distinct lack of interest, then returned to the bookshelf and crouched down to continue examining the files in the iron box.
The next file was a more rigorous scientific report documenting research on Insomnia.
[Scientific Name: Insomnia]
[Characteristics: The pathogenic bacteria are highly contagious and can be transmitted between individuals through water, food, physical contact, and respiration. After the patient's death, the bacteria will sprout fungi that disperse pathogenic spores, which can persist in the environment for up to a century. The bacteria appear to be harmful only to the indigenous population; outsiders possess natural antibodies and are not susceptible to infection through the aforementioned methods, though other modes of transmission cannot be ruled out.]
[Recommended Action: Quarantine the affected area. If necessary, patients may be killed on-site and buried to prevent the spread of the disease.]
Qi Si took a pen and paper from his backpack and, by the flickering light of the lighter, transcribed the key information from the file onto a blank sheet.
His gaze lingered on the words "killed on-site" under the "Recommended Action" section, then shifted back to the record of the timeline that had ended so abruptly.
The "Mr. Thorson" and "Mr. Barron" mentioned in the records were likely the de facto leaders of the school.
It was obvious they held no goodwill toward the children. One could easily imagine the decision they would make after discovering that doctors were helpless against the plague.
Of course, at this moment, Ms. Medina was still alive and well, and the students played by the players were not yet terminally ill. The current timeline was most likely set before June 8th, meaning the records described future events.
"I don't know the principle behind it, but based on what happened to Shanchuan Xinhong, the players' fates will likely mirror those of the indigenous children in the records..."
"Instances usually have a hidden time limit. Assuming the worst, all players will face a scripted death on June 8th. Who triggers the minimum death count mechanic will be a matter of luck."
"The question is, what's today's date?"
The records indicated that Ms. Medina was also indigenous and had been infected with Insomnia, which was why she had stayed behind at the Red Maple Boarding School.
The worst-case scenario was that it was already after June 5th. The other teachers would have evacuated, leaving the players with less than three days.
But judging by Ms. Medina's behavior and the other players' symptoms, the current situation was clearly not a perfect reenactment of the records. It felt more like a simulation of past events, staged by resentful spirits.
If so, there was still a chance to turn things around.
"Can Insomnia be cured? If I can find a way to cure it before June 8th, will the scripted deaths still happen?"
As Qi Si pondered, his gaze fell upon a passage from the June 4th entry—
The indigenous written texts and historical records had been burned the day before... Mr. Thorson believed Insomnia was a curse from the indigenous people's evil god... The cure lay in their oral traditions...
Thinking it over, there was a grim irony to it all: the "bad children" burning the outsiders' textbooks, and the outsiders burning the indigenous records.
Unfortunately, Qi Si was in no mood to laugh.
The records were destroyed on June 3rd. He had to find them before then to learn how to treat Insomnia.
Even if there were no scripted deaths on June 8th, he had to cure his Insomnia if he wanted any hope of clearing this instance.
The memory loss and hallucinations would be a massive hindrance to exploration and puzzle-solving, making an already baffling instance even worse.
Qi Si put the paper covered in notes back into his backpack. He stared at the yellowed files for a moment, but in the end, decided not to burn them with his lighter.
He placed the files back in the iron box, locked it, and returned it to its original spot.
His fingertips brushed against something uneven. He flipped the box over and saw two lines of English engraved on the bottom—
[Eade Thorson]
[Indigenous Love Foundation]
Qi Si frowned.
What did this mean? Wasn't the "Indigenous Love Foundation" where Chen Lidong's "Philanthropist" identity came from? And what was the connection to "Thorson"?
The narrator's voice, deep and sinister, echoed in his ear:
[You rule-breaking little rascal. Congratulations. While playing with fire, you've discovered a secret that was never truly hidden.]
[The foundation that so loudly proclaims its mission to protect the rights of indigenous people is, in fact, the true culprit behind all the abuse and slaughter.]
[They do not love children. Their charity and kindness are not born from compassion, but from ulterior motives.]
[You don't know what their scheme is, but you want to do everything in your power to make them pay.]
At the same time, lines of text appeared in the top-left corner of his system interface:
[Identity side quest triggered]
[Side Quest (Mandatory): Uncover the scheme of the Indigenous Love Foundation]
[Side Quest (Optional): Kill the "Philanthropist"]
..................
[Note] The "Insomnia" ailment in this chapter is inspired by Gabriel García Márquez's novel *One Hundred Years of Solitude*. Any resemblance is not a coincidence.
Thank you to Tangchao Lizi for the egg pancake for Si Qi! Thanks to Lisi for the 100 points! Thanks to Zhibu de Shijian for the 4 monthly tickets! Thanks to Moyu di Xianyu, NByang, and Xuefengfeng for the 2 monthly tickets! And thanks to Donglin|Xiaochun, User20210618091216414, full_stop, User20220811092447860, Ci Yaoyao, Meiwei Tuxing, Chunchun Ai Zhanshen, and Shiju for their monthly tickets!
(Finally finished my commissioned work today. I'm getting a wisdom tooth pulled tomorrow morning, so I should be able to write in the afternoon. I should be able to catch up on some of the chapters I owe.)
(End of this chapter)