"Do you remember how many points you scored on this exam?”
Xiao Ming couldn’t lift his head under the scolding and mumbled, “Fifty… over fifty points…”
Gu Zhan’s expression remained unchanged as he continued to sternly look at Xiao Ming.
Xiao Ming’s head sank lower and lower as he quietly said, “That’s the total for all subjects…”
Gu Zhan asked again, “How much did you score last time?”
Xiao Ming muttered, “Ten points short of full marks.”
“Why did your grades drop so severely?! What have you been doing every day? Have you studied seriously? Have you considered your future? Do you think your grades are just for the teachers to learn from?!”
With this barrage of questions, Xiao Ming couldn’t say a word, and his face visibly darkened.
There was no longer the ferocity from the last round when he tore them apart.
Yu Yezhou finally realized what Gu Zhan meant by “the copy has left a possibility.”
They had to use their identity to fulfill the story from the Q&A at the beginning!
They had said that Xiao Ming committed suicide because of his poor grades after seeing the teachers come for a home visit, so he had to be made to commit suicide!
Otherwise, he would come out of the room and kill them.
Understanding this point, Yu Yezhou joined the camp criticizing Xiao Ming.
“Your mother worked hard to raise you just so you could score over fifty points? Do you know how many points the beggars outside would score in school? Definitely more than you! Even if they threw their answer sheets on the ground and stepped on them, they’d still score higher than you. What have you been doing at school all day? Sleeping with your eyes open?”
Sang Yue: “…” Yu Yezhou was cursing so harshly.
Even she felt uncomfortable hearing it.
Even though the target wasn’t herself, such negative pressure would still make her feel uneasy.
Xiao Ming couldn’t raise his head either, overwhelmed by the scolding.
The mother sat beside them, helplessly watching the teachers and Xiao Ming.
She felt a bit heartbroken for her son but was also afraid of the teachers, looking as if she wanted to speak but didn't dare to.
Yu Yezhou cursed countless times in one breath before finally stopping to take a sip of water.
He cast a glance at Gu Zhan, leaving the battlefield to him.
Gu Zhan didn't say anything more; he just looked at Xiaoming with a stern and disappointed expression.
It was as if Xiaoming's actions were truly unforgivable.
In this world, there was no longer a place for him to belong.
Xiaoming let out a cry and ran into the room.
After he left, his mother stood up helplessly and said, “I’ll go check on him.”
Sang Yue quietly asked Yu Yezhou, “Can we really do this to others?”
Yu Yezhou sighed, “I don't want to either, but I want to avoid him killing us again even more.”
Sang Yue fell silent.
Yu Yezhou was right.
When there were no choices, the only option left was the path they could take.
After Xiaoming went in, he didn't come out for a long time, and their mother didn't follow him either.
Seeing this, Sang Yue sighed in relief and said, “I guess we’ve passed one ordeal, right?”
However, Gu Zhan's expression didn’t relax. According to the previous developments, after “Xiaoming's suicide,” there was still a more intense event, which was the corpses they had seen scattered everywhere.
They were now playing the role of the female teacher, but who exactly were the people they saw dismembered in the living room?
The female teacher? Or the mother?
In their earlier answers, the one who killed was the mother, and the deceased was the female teacher.
If it really was as it seemed, then they were doomed...
Because the role they were playing was precisely that of the female teacher herself.
---
After a while, the mother came out.
She looked even weaker and more troubled than before.
She sat across from the coffee table, looking worriedly at the “teachers.”
Even though these teachers had just insulted her child, she still maintained a friendly demeanor, softly saying, “He won’t come out, teachers. Thank you for your hard work. Xiaoming... is a bit rebellious.”
Now the mother was no longer their target.
To prevent her from going berserk, Gu Zhan comforted her, saying, “This isn't your fault, nor Xiaoming's. We believe he must want to study hard. Maybe he’s just been too tired recently. The talk earlier was for his own good; exams are coming up, and he needs to pick up his spirits.”
The mother nodded, seeming to understand.
Sang Yue was almost moved to tears.
They had just scolded the child so harshly and claimed it was for his own good.
Gu Zhan said, “How about we end things here for today... We can continue another day...”
“Teachers, don’t go!” The mother suddenly stood up and smiled at them, saying, “It’s not easy for you to come here, and you’ve worked hard to teach Xiaoming. You can’t just leave... wait a moment, I’ll get some fruit for you.”
Her smile abruptly turned sinister.
She seemed like a completely different person from the worried mother just moments before.
Sang Yue looked at the untouched fruit on the table, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Fruit?
Wasn’t it still there? Why go cut fruit?
Cutting fruit was obviously not about cutting fruit; it was just about keeping them in this house.
As for what would happen next...
Sang Yue felt a chill.
“Are we going to treat it the same way we did with Xiaoming...”
Before she could finish her sentence, she suddenly felt the surroundings blur, as if the world had flipped in an instant.
Wait a minute.
After a while, Sang Yue realized she had collapsed from the sofa onto the floor.
She glanced beside her and saw that everyone was either unconscious or sprawled out on the ground.
Gu Zhan and An Heyan were still awake; one looked calm, while the other was furious.
Then, footsteps came from the kitchen.
Something cold pressed against her forehead, and her mother’s dazed voice echoed above her.
“With so many people, it should be enough…”
“……”
Immediately after, Sang Yue fell unconscious.
When she awoke again, the positions of everyone had changed.
She was still in the living room but closer to the dining area.
She shifted slightly and heard a muffled sound from beneath her feet. She struggled to lift her head and saw that An Heyan was lying at her feet. The mother was carelessly positioning the hostages, and Sang Yue’s foot was almost on top of An Heyan's head.
Sang Yue quickly apologized, “I’m sorry!”
An Heyan forced a smile, signaling for Sang Yue to look at his feet.
His feet were in an even more exaggerated position; probably due to a lack of space, his knees were bent, with Yu Yezhou's head resting on his knees.
The two of them looked quite uncomfortable.
Yu Yezhou had also woken up and was giving Sang Yue a wry smile.
Everyone was more or less in the same situation, lying in strange positions in the living room.
Only Gu Zhan was spared; he was actually sitting.
Although he was tied to a chair, it was placed neatly in the center of the living room, among them all.
At that moment, he still had his head bowed, not yet awake.
The sound of machinery roared from the kitchen, resembling an electric saw.
Sang Yue forced a smile and said, “We’re not going to die again, are we?”
If they were to die, could they at least avoid such a brutal death in this scenario?
Yu Yezhou looked equally troubled.
They didn’t even know how they had fallen into the trap.
The monsters in this scenario possessed abilities far beyond those of the players.
Once they confronted each other, the chances of winning were nearly nonexistent.
They couldn’t even guard against it.
Gu Zhan was still unconscious, and their mother had already emerged from the kitchen, holding a chainsaw...
---
Once again in that pure white room, several people's expressions were a bit vacant.
Even Gu Zhan felt a buzzing in his head.
Who can have such a miraculous experience of being dismembered twice in a single day?
Yu Yezhou said in confusion, "According to the plot, it was the female teacher who was killed. Why are we back here?"
Gu Zhan felt that his words hadn’t been thought through at all.
They were dead.
If they were back here, then they were truly dead.
But looking at his state, it made sense that he wasn't thinking straight.
Gu Zhan said, "Let's not discuss the instance's content for now. Check your sanity levels and see how much you have left."
The normal human sanity level is between 80 and 99; too high is no good, and too low is also bad.
Fifty points might already mean madness; with thirty points, one would start developing monstrous traits, and at zero... the instance might end immediately, and the person would turn into a monster.
They all glanced at their sanity levels.
Some had thirty, some had twenty...
They were only a step away from becoming monsters.
Sang Yue nervously touched her hair and ears, doubting that gills were growing behind her ears, as if she was about to turn into a fish.
She couldn't help but lie on the ground, mimicking a fish.
However, perhaps because the monsters in this instance also looked human, their appearances had not changed.
Yet the low sanity levels still instilled a sense of despair that they were about to die.
Yu Yezhou couldn’t help but say, "We’ve really fallen into the trap."
Sang Yue glanced at him and suddenly smiled.
Yu Yezhou felt a chill watching her.
Sang Yue's smile just now was eerily identical to the mother's!
She was on the brink of madness.
There was a moment of silence in the room when the damned system appeared again.
In a calm, even cheerful tone, it seemed to reminisce like an old friend catching up.
But... who was the old friend? Who was reminiscing with it?
The system didn’t care about everyone’s emotions and giggled, "It seems that the female teacher can’t be killed? So, who was the person killed in the living room?"
Sang Yue’s slow-thinking mind couldn't help but ponder: who could it be?
Could it be the mother?
Indeed... the mother's clothes were exactly like those of the deceased.
Had they guessed wrong before?
Sang Yue was dazed, about to speak, when Gu Zhan preemptively answered, "It was the female teacher."
"What?"
Sang Yue was stunned.
She looked at Gu Zhan, only to see that his expression remained calm.
Sang Yue said, "But if it was the female teacher..."
Wouldn't that mean they would be killed again?
Everyone’s sanity was at rock bottom; if they died once more, they would truly die.
Gu Zhan, however, said, "But to cover up her crimes, the mother swapped her clothes onto the female teacher, staging the scene as if she had been killed."
The system was silent for a moment before regretfully saying, "Correct answer. You are rewarded with ten minutes of sanity recovery time."
"Sanity recovery!" Sang Yue exclaimed in delight!
She had never found the phrase "sanity recovery" to be so delightful.
However, the recovery was very slow; they had lost far too much, and completely returning to normal was nearly impossible.
Their only hope was to get out of this instance as soon as possible.
Immediately afterward, the surroundings changed again, and they found themselves back in the living room.
Just like before, everyone was crowded on the sofa.
"…"
This time, everyone was silent.
Their identities were still that of the female teacher, and it was true that they would be killed by the mother.
How would they... survive?
In the the dead silence, the mother appeared again.
With a cheerful smile, she carried a plate of fruit and said, "Thank you for teaching Xiaoming earlier. If it weren't for the teacher's hard work, that child would still be so careless."
"You all sit tight; I’ll go to the kitchen to prepare some fruit for you."
Upon hearing this, everyone turned pale.
They understood that the mother wasn’t going to prepare fruit, but rather the chainsaw for murder.
It seemed they had passed Xiaoming's trial; no matter how it began, it would only start from the mother.
Did this mean they were about to enter the sacrificial phase?
The people sitting on the sofa looked at each other and finally snapped out of their dazed state caused by their low sanity levels. They began to use what little brainpower they had left to think of a solution.
"Stop her? Don’t let her act?"
"But this plot can’t be changed. If we stop her, won’t we still fail because the plot has changed?"
"At least that way we won’t get killed."
"But our sanity will still drop."
A group of people began to argue without a conclusion.
After a long while, An Heyan suddenly said, "Can we find someone to replace?"
"??"
Everyone expressed their confusion.
An Heyan explained, "Since we must die, but we can’t die, why not find a substitute? The corpse originally had no head; who would know if it's real or fake?"
"…"
What he said made a lot of sense.
But who should they find to replace?
Moreover, would they really have to kill someone?
"I have a way," Gu Zhan suddenly spoke up during the silence, "but I don’t know if it will work."
"What way?" Everyone looked up together.
He said, "I have an item that can summon a substitute, but it requires a lot of water, and I don’t know if this place restricts the use of that item..."
He glanced up; the monsters all had inhuman strength, indicating that this was an unreal world. But players couldn’t use powerful items... what about ghostly ones?
If he summoned a ghost that was like the monsters, would that ability be restricted?
That’s right, he wanted to summon Xiaoxiu to try.
Yu Yezhou and the others were already at a loss; their physical conditions didn’t allow them to delay for too long.
Yu Yezhou said, “Let’s give it a try; a dead horse is treated as a live one.”
“Alright.” Gu Zhan answered straightforwardly, “If it doesn’t work, we’ll talk then.”
He turned to look at the bathroom and said, “I’m going to the restroom.”
As he passed the kitchen door, the loud “thumping” sounds from inside suddenly stopped.
The mother asked, “Where are you going?”
Her tone had changed from earlier, now carrying a sense of danger.
Gu Zhan replied calmly, “Xiaoming's mother, we set out early to visit Xiaoming. We got stuck in traffic and drank a lot of water; is it not okay for me to use the bathroom?”
“…” The kitchen fell silent for a moment; even ghosts wouldn’t do something as unreasonable as preventing someone from using the restroom. She finally said, “You can go.”
Gu Zhan successfully pushed open the bathroom door.
The people in the living room breathed a sigh of relief.
---
The mother stood in the kitchen, staring blankly at the chainsaw in front of her.
Because of the interruption from that young man earlier, she hadn’t been able to turn on the chainsaw.
At this moment, she fixated on the chainsaw, seemingly lost in thought.
Suddenly, the kitchen darkened, and the turned-off faucet had mysteriously turned on by itself, water gushing out.
The mother paused for a moment, then walked dazedly toward the sink to turn off the faucet.
But even as she turned it off, the water kept flowing.
Clear water quickly accumulated in the sink, the rippling surface seemingly reflecting someone’s figure…
Unfortunately, the mother was a monster; she didn’t understand fear.
If it had been a person here, they would have noticed that the reflection in the water was different from themselves and was “smiling” at them.
That smile was filled with malice, chilling to the bone.
The mother paused again, reaching out to stir the water, but the reflection didn’t disappear because of her actions; instead, it rippled even more, climbing up her fingers.
In that moment, she felt something cold and rigid grasping her fingers.
“Ehee… Do I look good?”
A soft female voice suddenly echoed in the kitchen, making the mother feel a sudden chill in her heart.
What’s happening?
She looked down again, wide-eyed, watching a long-haired woman crawl out of the sink.
The mother asked, “Who are you?”
The woman yawned languidly, “Me? I’m your son’s teacher. Uh… Have you forgotten?”
She stared intently at the mother, and a memory indeed surfaced in the mother’s mind.
Perhaps, she was right?
She did seem to be Xiaoming’s teacher.
The mother, somewhat confused, nodded, “You’re the teacher… But why are you here?”
The woman suddenly smiled, her grin matching the eerie demeanor of the other woman, “You should be waiting in the living room; hurry up, let’s go to the living room.”
The mother turned around, taking a step forward, as if recalling something. She suddenly turned back, picked up the chainsaw beside her, and smiled, “Hurry and follow me.”
The woman sat by the sink, bored, yawning. She crawled out of the sink, leaning down, dragging water all over, and headed to the living room.
The living room was already empty.
The mother looked at the sofa, feeling it was odd.
There… should have been a few people sitting there.
But where were they?
She looked around; the living room was quiet, not like there were any people.
Maybe she remembered incorrectly.
The mother turned her head, smiling at the newly arrived female teacher, and said, “Please sit, teacher. I’ll go get you some fruit.”
“No need, just hurry up.” The woman stared into the mother’s eyes and said, “Whatever you want to do, just get it done quickly.”
The mother: “…”
Her expression became blank, and she nodded dazedly.
---
On the balcony, Yu Yezhou, Gu Zhan, and the other six stood lined up behind the curtains.
Fortunately, Xiaoming’s family had heavy blackout curtains that could conceal them.
But they were also precarious; after all, this place was too small, and a slight gust of wind could expose them.
The mother’s attention was focused on the newly appeared female teacher, not noticing the others.
Yu Yezhou glanced outside, revealing an expression of sympathy. “How can you bear to let her go…”
He didn’t know about Xiaoxiu’s identity but was aware of what was going to happen next.
Having witnessed Xiaoxiu’s actions, Sang Yue stood expressionlessly beside him, her mind seemingly elsewhere.
Gu Zhan said, “She wanted to go herself.”
He had only been discussing with Xiaoxiu, but she had performed a dismemberment of herself right in front of him.
Seeing her so unconcerned, he let her go.
In the living room, Xiaoxiu was performing acrobatics.
According to the mother’s usual routine, she should have gone to the kitchen to fetch fruit before drugging the people in the living room for dismemberment.
But now, Xiaoxiu had drugged the mother, and she began to mindlessly draw a formation on the floor.
Moreover, Xiaoxiu performed an “immediate dismemberment,” throwing herself into various corners of the formation.
“…” After the mother finished drawing the formation, she turned around to find that what she was supposed to do had somehow been completed, leaving her completely stunned.
Yu Yezhou, who had just been concerned about Xiaoxiu behind the curtains, also wore a face of disbelief.
What… exactly is this monster?
At that moment, Sang Yue could no longer watch, whispering, “This is a BOSS from a side quest; she’s a monster.”
“…” Yu Yezhou couldn’t help but look at Gu Zhan, “How did you summon this monster?”
Gu Zhan replied nonchalantly, “She’s now a part of my props.”
An Heyan looked at Gu Zhan curiously, “How did you turn a monster into a prop?”
Just as Gu Zhan was about to respond, the system’s voice sounded.
“Congratulations, you’ve found the correct answer; that’s right, the female teacher came to teach Xiaoming but was brutally murdered by the mother.”
"You are rewarded with 50 sanity points."
It congratulated them, but its tone held no joy; instead, it sounded quite dejected.
Everyone’s vision went white as they returned to the white room.
The system fell silent again.
Gu Zhan paused for a moment before continuing with the previous topic: “After clearing the last dungeon, the system treated her physical form and the river of her birth as an item and gave it to me. When I opened the item, she was already inside.”
“A river…” An Heyan said, her expression difficult to read. Is that something that can really be turned into an item?
“In any case, we cleared this level,” Yu Yezhou stated.
The points rewarded by the system stabilized their situation quite a bit; at least they could think clearly now.
“We don’t know what we’re going to face next… While we still have time, let’s discuss this quickly.”
Yu Yezhou rubbed his temples, trying to regain a sense of clarity: “This dungeon is divided into three parts. One involves Xiao Ming, which we’ve already resolved. The second involves the mother, which we’ve also dealt with… According to the order from our first loop, the next part is…”
The “addict father,” a character of great personal power, who they could only run away from upon encountering him.
But last time they met, they had fled in terror.
Yu Yezhou rubbed his forehead: “What do you remember about the story of the father?”
Sang Yue said, “It seems we didn’t answer the story. After all, he showed up as soon as we entered the hallway, giving us no chance.”
“Doesn’t that mean we have to answer the story again?” An Heyan asked.
Just as he finished speaking, the system asked:
“There was a man who hadn’t returned home for three years. One day, he suddenly returned home. Why?”
Everyone hesitated to answer, as the story was already quite clear.
They exchanged glances, and Gu Zhan was the first to speak: “The father became addicted to drugs. The female teacher who liked the mother didn’t want him to continue being with her, so she used drugs to lure him and imprisoned him in her home. Xiao Ming had poor grades, and the female teacher used this as an excuse to visit their home. The trapped father took the opportunity to escape.”
The system then asked: “When the man returned home, he found his wife dead. Why?”
“…” This was completely out of everyone’s field of knowledge.
His wife was dead?
Wasn’t it the female teacher who died?
Sang Yue asked, “Was the wife’s cause of death dismemberment?”
The system replied, “Yes.”
“………………” She couldn’t help but ask, “Was the person dismembered in the living room the female teacher or the mother?”
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