As the words faded, bright lights flared to life inside the dormitory building, and sounds began to echo through the previously lifeless structure.
Immediately after, they watched helplessly as numerous students walked out of the dorms, chatting and laughing as they headed toward the teaching building.
“???”
“They…”
The students’ words and actions were completely normal.
There were no signs of shadow manipulation, and the bracelets on the squad members’ wrists didn’t sound any red-alert alarms for dangerous Deceit concentration.
Everyone on the rooftop fell silent.
“Is…
isn’t that Li Jiao?”
“I recognize him too!
That’s Zhao Fangdong!”
“What’s going on…
Didn’t they run outside?”
The surviving students gradually recognized the people below.
They were the ones who couldn’t handle being trapped in the dorms and had fled.
At the time, the corridors had been filled with their agonized, venting shouts, which had turned into terrified screams a second later.
Then, they had all vanished without a trace.
Yet now, here they were, heading to class as if nothing had happened.
Beneath their calmness lay a chilling trace of Deceit.
“Were they all students who violated the school rules?” Bian Ying turned her head and asked.
The students behind her hastily nodded.
She recalled the newly added school rule: Students who violate the rules must enter the Reflection Room for reformation.
So, had all these students been reformed?
They knew the Deceit’s method of reformation couldn’t possibly be that kind.
Yu Chi reminded them, “Captain, according to the school rules, the students need to head to class now.”
The rules forbade students from being late or asking for leave; otherwise, the monitors scattered in every corner of the campus would seize the opportunity to strike.
Tan Linyan also thought of this.
His gaze fell upon the group of pale, panicked, and terrified students.
“Go…
go to class?!”
“I-I-I don’t want to go…”
“Who knows if they’re human or Deceit now!
I don’t want to be anywhere near them!”
Hearing that they still had to go to class made the students even more anxious and uneasy.
Tan Linyan frowned slightly.
He was just about to advise the students to follow the rules when Bian Ying’s cool voice rang out, “You must go.”
The students looked at her with a mix of fear and anger.
Perhaps because they had been protected this entire time, they had gradually grown bolder.
After all, most people were the type to bully the weak and cower before the strong.
“Dealing with the Deceit is your job.
What does it have to do with us!”
“Yeah!
Instead of getting rid of the Deceit, you’re telling us to go to class? Get faster updates on g.com.
I’ve had enough of this!”
“What’s the point of your Investigation Bureau…”
Listening to the students’ complaints, the members of the Operations Department remained silent.
They were long used to this.
Even Zhou Haizhi, who was usually smooth and tactful, chose to stay quiet.
In the twenty-plus years since the Deceit descended, humanity had faced not only the challenge of survival but also the ultimate test of human nature.
The World Federation once conducted a survey revealing that during Deceit incidents, the casualties caused by the dark side of human nature were actually much higher than those directly caused by the Deceit.
Under the corruption of high Deceit concentrations, the negative shadows in human hearts were magnified infinitely.
The Deceit didn’t even need to lift a finger; humans were perfectly capable of destroying themselves.
“Fine.” Bian Ying crossed her arms, nodding without a change in expression.
“Then stay here.
You’ll be joining your classmates down there very soon.”
The moment she said this, the students’ complaints grew even louder.
“You guys hog so many resources and benefits, yet you’re telling us to go die?
I’m going to report you!”
“Aren’t you supposed to protect us?!”
“Heh.”
Bian Ying’s cold scoff was clearly audible on the rooftop.
Pointing at a heavily injured member of the first squad, she said, “Tell me, did he not protect you?”
That squad member was so severely injured that the Healing Spray barely had any effect on him, yet he still stubbornly carried out his orders.
“If not for their protection along the way, you would have long been reformed into things that are neither human nor Deceit.”
Otherwise, how would they still have the energy to stand here throwing a fit?
Bian Ying mocked them coldly, enunciating every word.
“The Deceit Investigation Bureau exists to fight for the survival of human civilization’s spark, but the ones worthy of his life-risking protection are definitely not you bunch of idiots.”
The students were rendered completely speechless by her retort, their expressions stiffening.
The eyes of the first squad members behind her brightened as they looked at Bian Ying.
After experiencing so many Deceit incidents, this was the first time someone had spoken up for them.
They were so accustomed to being misunderstood and knew that defending themselves was useless, so they had resigned themselves to total silence.
“To fight for the spark of human civilization.”
That was the text on the first page of the Deceit Investigation Bureau’s general charter.
In fact, it was the only line on that entire page.
When they joined the Operations Department, they were already prepared to sacrifice themselves.
However, not everyone was worth that sacrifice.
“Teacher, we’re willing to go.” Right at that moment, Xu Xinrong stepped forward, pulling her roommate along.
She had wanted to step up earlier, but the others’ complaints were so loud she couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
As soon as Xu Xinrong stepped out, the students who had followed Bian Ying from the very beginning also came forward.
“Teacher, we’re willing too!”
Under Bian Ying’s surprised gaze, Xu Xinrong turned around and spoke with conviction to the students behind her.
“Did you think the teacher was sending you to die?
No, following the school rules is what will keep us safe.
They are protecting us.”
Now, with Xu Xinrong’s explanation, they stammered and didn’t dare say another word.
“Let’s go, we’re going to be late.” Xu Xinrong shook her head and said no more.
She nodded at Bian Ying before hurriedly leading the students behind her off the rooftop.
“Being late counts as a rule violation too!”
“Hurry, let’s go!”
The other students finally reacted, scrambling to leave the rooftop in a panic.
“Captain, we need to find the principal as soon as possible, or else the students won’t snap out of it so easily next time,” Xiao Zhibing, a member of the first squad, said with a frown.
It was true that the students harbored resentment and panic in their hearts, but their behavior was largely because they had been in the Deceit Domain for too long.
The influence of the Deceit concentration on them was growing deeper by the minute.
“I know,” Tan Linyan replied.
“You and Yu Chi go search for the principal’s whereabouts.
I’ll take the others to find those students who came out of the Reflection Room.”
They needed to first confirm whether those reformed students were human or Deceit.
“Yes, sir.” Xiao Zhibing and Yu Chi complied.
But in the very next second, Bian Ying slowly raised her hand.
“Captain Tan, how about letting me go find the principal?”
Hearing this, everyone looked at her.
Tan Linyan’s focus, however, was elsewhere.
He frowned slightly and said abruptly, “I’m not your captain.”
Everyone else just stared at them.
“???”
They wondered why their captain’s tone sounded so strange.
Bian Ying didn’t think too much of it.
After all, what Tan Linyan said was a fact.
She smoothly changed her form of address.
“Senior.”
“Mm.” Tan Linyan’s expression softened.
But in the eyes of the first squad members who were intimately familiar with his temperament, this was a sign that their captain was in a rather good mood.
A single “Senior” was enough to make the captain happy.
They wondered why they had never heard about the relationship between these two before.
“It seems you have a lead.”
“I suppose you could say that.” Bian Ying didn’t deny it.
She grabbed the leader and pulled him over.
“Leader Zhou will come with me.”
Zhou Haizhi: “…”
Under everyone’s watchful gaze, Zhou Haizhi obviously couldn’t say no.
He could only bite the bullet and nod.
“Rest assured, everyone.
Bian Ying and I will definitely find the principal.”