“Protect the thirty children and don’t let any of them die!” Han Fei felt like he was trying hard to grasp something but the thing still slipped through his fingers.
He opened his eyes and tears stained his face. The sadness of the Unmentionable filled his heart. He couldn’t speak. The smell of disinfectant filled his nostrils. Han Fei felt pain in his body. It tried to separate his mind from his body. Han Fei looked around. He was lying on the bed in the school infirmary. Everything felt so real.
“Where is this?” He used a long time before he could remember his name.
“Han Fei….” Han Fei slowly sat up in bed. Han Fei wore very normal clothes. There was a bag of cheap cigarettes and a wrinkled class result report in his pocket. Footsteps came from the corridor before Han Fei could take a closer look. The sound of high heels against the tiles could be heard miles away. The door was pushed open. A normal-looking woman entered the room. When she saw that Han Fei was awake, she sat beside Han Fei. “Teacher Gao Cheng, I suggest that you stop working here. Your physical conditions are bad and your persona is collapsing. You need to rest.” She handed a physical report to Han Fei. The words were hard for Han Fei to understand.
“Name: Gao Cheng.
“Male, 28, Teacher of Class Seven.
“Basic greed persona. 31 percent of collapse. Appears to have an undetected hidden persona.
“Mental corruption 39 points. Close to the danger zone!
“Born with personality defects like heavy depression and temporary anger issues.
“Suggestion: This teacher is already not suitable for his job. If his conditions don’t improve in three days, he will be kicked out of school.”
The pain came from Han Fei’s brain. He held the report. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with this world?”
“Your brain is refusing to accept the reality. But I didn’t expect someone as determined as you to fall under mental corruption.” The school nurse sighed. She pulled back the curtains. “It has been 22 years since Xin Lu’s fall. Your beautiful childhood is just a memory. It’s gone forever.” Every word the nurse said seemed to be a hint of something. Han Fei tried very hard to think. He looked out the window and his eyes focused on the city outside the window.
Dark clouds covered the sky. High walls surrounded the edge of the city. The windows and doors of familiar buildings were sealed by wooden boards. The whole city was lifeless. Seeing the confused Han Fei, the nurse shook her head. She placed a bottle of medicine on the table and left.
“Has Xin Lu fallen? Is the city outside Xin Lu?” Han Fei sat on the bed. He slowly pieced together the memory in his mind before some pieces came to him. “Mad Laughter and the thirty children used Usurpation to force entry into the garden owner’s altar world. They burned away all their memories. However, my memory is still intact.” Han Fei looked out the window. He was confused. “Dead Gods usually have altar worlds featuring the past. Does this mean that existing Unmentionables will have their altar worlds feature a world they wish for in the future?”
Han Fei put the bottle in his pocket and exited the infirmary. He was at a school. This area hadn’t been boarded up. The school looked no different from a school in real life.
“None of the thirty kids can die…” Han Fei moved down the corridor. He tried to analyze the info on the report. “I’m the teacher of Class Seven. Where is Class Seven?”
Han Fei walked down the corridor. The classes were still ongoing in the rooms on both sides.
“Every one of us has our own persona. That is the crystallization of one’s value in life. It’s also the key for you to resist mental corruption.
“To kill these unknown things, you have to protect your heart so that you are not shaken by them!
“Two-thirds of this city has been taken over by ghosts and monsters. The boarded-up buildings are filled with ghosts! We need to cleanse them building by building until we chase them all out! Some of us might be sacrificed but remember that death is not the end. The more afraid you are, the more you’ll be hounded by death!
“The most precious thing in this era is hope and you are hope!”
The teacher wrote on the board. His voice carried a barely concealable sadness. He seemed to know he was lying but he had to say so.
“There are five categories of sealed buildings in Xin Lu. The easiest buildings are white buildings. Animated Regrets and Normal Lingering Spirits leave there; Red Buildings are medium in difficulty. They have Lingering Spirits and objects with Pure Hatred’s influence; Then, it’s the Black Buildings. Entry into the Black Buildings means death!
“Above the three are two unique buildings. The first is the unexplored Strange Buildings, no one knows what’s inside; the other is the Unmentionable Buildings. Don’t ask and don’t talk about the Unmentionable Buildings!
“Most of you are orphans. Many people are sick due to the influence of tragedy. The world is unfair to you. If you want to change this horrible situation, exploring those sealed buildings is the easiest path.
“If some of you can clean a building, you’ll gain the respect of everyone in that zone. Of course, even the simplest White Buildings are too dangerous for you.
“Other than cleansing these buildings, you’ll be heavily rewarded if you carry out cursed objects from the sealed buildings. The objects will be used by us to defend against ghosts.”
The teacher touched his glasses. The image of a student hanging from the ceiling appeared in his glasses. “Based on the school requirement, you’ll have to go out to explore the building on your own in three days. I hope you’ll find something. And I hope we’ll not have any empty seats in our class.” The teacher continued the class. This provided Han Fei with a basic understanding of the garden owner’s altar world. This world was different from the ones Han Fei had experienced. The garden owner was still alive. His altar world represented his wishes for the future. This ghost world would be Xin Lu 22 years later if no one stopped him.
“Class is over!” The classroom door was pushed open. The bespectacled male teacher exited the classroom. He was shocked to see Han Fei. “Teacher Gao, why are you here?”
“There’s something wrong with my body. I felt uncomfortable when going down the lobby. So I leaned against the wall to rest.” Han Fei was indeed very weak.
“I have no idea what happened to you in that Strange Building that your mental corruption drops from 71 to 39.” The teacher felt sad for Han Fei but he didn’t get close to Han Fei. “The headmaster is looking for me. I’ll be going.” The bespectacled young teacher was Ma Jing. His teacher id showed that he was the teacher for Class Three. However, that was not what Han Fei paid attention to. In his memory, there was a crazed murderer with the name Ma Jing in Xin Lu. He was one of the ghost cards. The bell rang for a long time but no students came out to play. Everyone stayed in the classrooms. Han Fei came to the second floor. After he passed by many abandoned classrooms, he finally found Class Seven. He entered the classroom. The children looked familiar yet strange. They seemed to have appeared in his memory before.
“1, 2… 29, 30.” There were 30 students in total, just as the system mentioned. However, Han Fei was worried. “There are 30 children in class but what about Mad Laughter who followed the children?”
Just the thought caused Han Fei to have breathing difficulties. He opened his mouth to gasp for air.
“Sir, why don’t you rest? We can study on our own?” Han Fei still didn’t know the names of these students. He needed time.
“I’m fine.” Han Fei picked up the chalk and repeated the important points he heard from Ma Jing. From the moment he opened his eyes, he decided to try his best to ensure the survival of all the children. His brain was dizzy. The more he tried to focus, the faster his mental corruption spread. He felt there was a monster growing in his body, slowly corrupting his persona. When he wrote down the last useful info, Han Fei’s sight started to blur. Half of the world was consumed by shadow.
“Teacher, you should take your medicine.” A student appeared beside the lectern. He took out the bottle from Han Fei’s pocket. He studied it and then tossed out a smelly pill. This bottle was left behind by the nurse. Han Fei had no idea if the pills were problematic or not. He didn’t eat the medicine but told everything to study. He decided to get more info before trying anything in this world. After Han Fei left the classroom, the student’s smiling face was gone. He glanced at Han Fei’s board and then took the lectern himself.
“Do you see the city outside the window? Even though I’ve forgotten many things, I still remember the basics. We do not belong here.” The student took up his notebook. “The name here is Zhou Qi but I have no impression of this name. Instead, I remember a number. Number 5.”
Everyone in the class had their own name. They couldn’t resonate with the names but each of them had its own number.
“Concluding the clues, we’ve arrived at this city and became students at this orphanage school. The teachers here treat us like hope but actually, we’re their disposable tools.” No. 5 wiped away Han Fei’s lesson and wrote down self-preservation. “What do you think?”
“My thoughts are more pessimistic.” A student who had lost both legs sat in the corner of the room. “The students here are either orphans or abandoned children. Look outside the window. There are sealed buildings near the school. So many living people are here, so why aren’t the ghosts attacking the school?” He folded a paper plane and tossed it out the window. The plane was made wet by the rain and landed on the mud land before the education block.
“I think we’re less than tools. We’re just the feeds for the ghosts.” The male student nudged his body to face the other students. “The teacher said that we’ll be going out on our own three days later. These three days might be our last chance.”
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