Chapter 86: The Haunting Campus, Sunshine Doll (24)

"At a life-or-death moment like this, how can you still only think about others and not yourself?" Kou Yuanliang felt that his "brothers" really did have an overly idealistic view of human relationships.

"I play a 5. Then the poison arrow."

Fan Chao had not expected that, having just "eliminated" Lin Mingxue, he would now find himself eliminated in turn.

Terror flashed across Fan Chao's face.

"Kou Yuanliang! We’re on such good terms! Not only are we bunkmates, we play basketball together every day. And now, at the moment of life and death, this is how you—" treat me?

He never finished his sentence. He was pierced by a thousand arrows and perished.

No one cleaned up his corpse; the teacher simply tossed it onto the lectern and left it there. Even when blood splattered onto the teacher's cheek, the teacher remained expressionless and announced, "Next."

After a brief silence, the players and the students seated below burst into noisy chatter once more.

Some watched with amusement.

Some fretted over their own potential deaths.

Some looked on with calm detachment.

After all, to be admitted to this school, one’s mental resilience had to be exceptional. The primary criterion for the assessment of mental strength was the ability to remain absolutely calm in the face of danger and crisis.

So much so that their composure robbed them of the empathy and emotional fluctuations that normal people should possess.

Now it was Lin Mingxue’s turn again.

She played it smart this time and chose not to play a card.

But as soon as she did, the teacher added to the rules, "To win this game, you must play all your cards just as you reach the 21st space. If you run out of cards before reaching space 21, you’re eliminated. So you can certainly choose to keep skipping your turn, but when someone else reaches 21 first, all of you will be eliminated anyway."

The teacher’s indifferent tone was like he was explaining the most ordinary math problem.

Those with many cards left suddenly felt anxious and tense.

"So it turns out, having a lot of cards isn't much of an advantage!"

"I knew it. If things weren’t absolutely fair, wouldn’t this game just be a slaughter at the hands of the Witch and Warlock?"

"Keep playing! Things are getting interesting!"

Now it was the Seer, Fu Yan’s turn.

Fu Yan glanced at her cards and played a number card.

Everyone was curious about Fu Yan’s cards, since she always kept them face down—no one knew what she held or how far she’d progressed on the board.

But they could see Mao Yeyun’s cards. After playing a 9 and then an 8, Mao Yeyun had jumped to space 17.

"Damn, who would've thought the biggest winner would be Mao Yeyun? He’s already on 17! Most people's cards are between 1 and 9; the rest are either on space 5 or 6, and the fastest after that is only at 7... At this rate, no one can catch up to Mao Yeyun or attack him!"

"Yeah, so does this mean Mao Yeyun is going to win?"

At that moment, the teacher’s cold, ruthless voice echoed from the lectern.

"Don’t just spectate from below. Remember, out of this class of 29, there will be only one winner. That means, if the winner emerges from the first group, everyone else is eliminated without even playing."

The teacher’s icy words rang through the classroom.

Silence fell.

After a long moment, chaos erupted beneath the platform.

"What does this mean? The first group on stage actually has a higher chance of winning? What about us?"

"Damn it, if only I’d drawn first group! But no, I’m in the fourth group! Now we’re finished—if any of them win, we’re all dead!"

"Teacher, can we interfere on stage?"

"No," the teacher replied, cold and stern. "Entering the stage area outside your turn means immediate elimination."

"Can we disrupt them with noise?"

"You may."

That was enough for them.

The students immediately rushed to the back of the classroom, grabbing iron buckets, brooms, and various other objects to create a cacophony of noise.

Clearly, they didn’t want those on stage to have any chance of winning.

Watching the disunity among these NPCs, Tang Mu suddenly felt that perhaps the factors working against her weren’t as overwhelming as she’d thought.

Now it was Lu Xingye’s turn.

Knowing he had no chance of winning, he was determined to take someone down with him. He played a "1," then an attack card—Stone Hammer.

"Yu Wenhao, eliminated."

Yu Wenhao was crushed outright by Stone Hammer.

Yet among the spectators, there was no fear—only greater excitement and cheer.

"Haha, another one’s dead. Watching them clown around and die in front of us is so thrilling!"

"Thrilling? It’ll be our turn soon, won’t it?"

"Ah, what’s to fear? Everyone dies sooner or later. But being able to see others’ terror, helplessness, panic, torment, and confusion before we go—watching them act out this drama for us—well, that’s not something ordinary people experience. Such a spectacle should be for us, the future chosen ones! If we walk out of here alive today, we’ll create our own brilliant destinies!"

"We?" another student sneered. "Don’t forget what the teacher said—only one of us will win."

"Ha! Isn’t that always the way?" he snorted, clearly displeased. "So many of us want to get into top universities, but how many actually make it? Elimination is something we’re used to, isn’t it? I thought you all took it in stride."

The others fell silent. They might be indifferent to "elimination," but when elimination was tied to life and death, perhaps only the coldest could remain unmoved.

Now it was the Warlock, Kou Yuanliang’s turn again.

Assessing the board, he judged that Mao Yeyun was the main competitor.

So he played a spell card: "Swap."

He switched his own position with Mao Yeyun’s. Kou Yuanliang was now on space 17; Mao Yeyun, on space 5.

"The Warlock actually has a Swap card? So each role card must have its own unique cards!"

"The Seer has Empower, the Warlock has Spell—what about the others? Tsk, they died too early; we never found out what their cards were."

"Yeah, if only we’d gotten a better look at the rules from their experience!"

"Sigh..." the students lamented. "A miscalculation, a miscalculation!"