[Welcome players to the super-large dungeon “Who is the Expert.” This dungeon has a total of 56 students, with a difficulty level of D, but considering the large number of participants, the difficulty level will be upgraded to A.]
[You are all exemplary students from the elite class of S City First High School. This school emphasizes students' mental health and comprehensive development in morality, intelligence, physical health, aesthetics, and labor. In addition to regular courses, various activity interest clubs are also offered. As diligent and mentally healthy students, you will surely respond to your teachers' calls and complete various extracurricular tasks from the clubs. After all, life isn't all about studying, right?]
The system's announcement carried a hint of eager inquiry, but combined with its cold tone, it sounded somewhat sarcastic.
Gu Zhan was participating in a dungeon with so many people for the first time, imagining how chaotic it would be soon.
After a brief moment of teleportation, he found himself sitting at a desk in a classroom, in a spot very similar to where he used to sit in high school—at the back by the window.
He had arrived during a break, and students were playing and messing around.
However, since all the players were teleported simultaneously, these "playful" students were all frozen in a moment of pause.
Once Gu Zhan settled into his seat, the scene began to "move." Students who had been running in the hallway suddenly stopped, and those sitting on the windowsill watching the playground stood up, all of them instantly becoming calm and composed.
Gu Zhan realized that all 56 players had completed their teleportation, and the classroom's occupants had transformed from a group of students into a group of adult players.
Everyone reacted similarly, looking around and, after confirming their surroundings, sitting down in their places.
Though it was break time, everyone was tense as if they were in class.
But this break was taking too long; it was a bit strange for so many people to sit together in silence, not saying a word.
Someone couldn't hold back any longer and murmured, "This was originally just a D-level dungeon; it shouldn't be particularly difficult, right?"
As soon as he spoke, all eyes turned toward him.
Unfortunately, the one who spoke happened to be sitting right next to Gu Zhan.
He was a chubby boy who looked quite young.
After speaking rashly, he shrank back into his seat, clearly feeling anxious: "W-why are you all looking at me?"
Someone asked him, "Are you a newbie?"
The chubby boy's nervousness was evident: "N-no… it's not that!"
Everyone clearly didn’t believe him.
The chubby boy grew increasingly flustered and couldn’t help but lean away. But beside him was Gu Zhan, and when he accidentally bumped into him, he noticed his almost motionless deskmate.
Ah... when everyone was looking at him just now, only his deskmate appeared unfazed, quietly organizing his belongings.
It was the same now; after bumping into him, Gu Zhan only slightly frowned without any exaggerated reactions or staring.
The chubby boy seemed to have found a source of confidence and eagerly leaned closer, saying, "My name is Qin Yue. What's yours?"
Gu Zhan was unsure where this newfound ability to attract others came from, but it had been particularly apparent in recent dungeons.
He replied in a calm tone, "Gu Zhan."
Seeing his indifferent attitude, others likely decided not to engage further.
Qin Yue, however, was not an ordinary person; he was able to speak up when everyone else was silent.
He leaned in closer to Gu Zhan and quietly asked, "Have you played many dungeons? What are they like? Can you tell me about them? Will people die in here? How do they die? What happens to the bodies?"
He asked a barrage of questions, but by this time, the atmosphere in the classroom had relaxed, and many people started talking to those around them, hardly paying attention to him anymore.
Of course, it was likely that everyone already knew Qin Yue was a newbie.
Gu Zhan asked coolly, "Didn’t you just say you weren’t entering a dungeon for the first time?"
"Ah..." Qin Yue suddenly remembered his earlier clumsy lie. He scratched his head, feeling embarrassed, and said, "It’s just… I thought in novels, everyone doesn’t like newcomers. But once we’re in the dungeon, we’re all in it together. If I hold you back, maybe you'll suffer too. Just answer these simple questions; maybe I can help you with something!"
Gu Zhan glanced at the chubby boy and found him quite clever.
"Of course, people can die in dungeons, but generally, each dungeon has different rules. You can die if you fail to complete tasks or break the rules... After dying, the body will respawn, and the bodies that remain usually contain some information."
Gu Zhan gave a brief explanation.
Qin Yue immediately perked up and asked, "So in this dungeon..."
Before he could finish, footsteps suddenly echoed in the hallway outside.
It sounded like a woman, the click of high heels.
The sound wasn’t loud, but everyone heard it at the same time. They immediately fell silent, and the classroom became so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
Qin Yue was also startled by the sudden hush and paused his questioning, looking towards the classroom door.
Soon, the teacher's door swung open, revealing a woman dressed in a wine-red professional skirt suit. She wore black-rimmed glasses and had her hair neatly styled, perfectly matching everyone's stereotype of a homeroom teacher.
She walked to the podium, adjusted her glasses, and said in a low voice, "Class time has started. Please return to your seats and remain quiet."
The NPCs in the dungeon were much more effective than real-life homeroom teachers.
The classroom fell silent, with everyone watching the teacher.
Surprisingly, the teacher did not pose any difficult questions but instead said, "This week, our fun lesson is about Ferdinand Milner. His life was incredibly exciting; he was a doctor, a teacher, and even served in the military. In his later years, he fell in love with writing, producing no fewer than twenty books. With the weekend approaching, the task for you this weekend is to borrow books about Ferdinand Milner from the city library, whether they are written by him or others, as long as they relate to him."
"On Monday afternoon, we will gather to study the life of this great author. If you do not borrow a book, you may not be able to participate in this exciting activity, so I hope everyone will be proactive."
At the same time the class teacher said these words, Gu Zhan heard his system announce the task for this instance.
【Congratulations, you have received the main quest <Study the Life of Ferdinand Milner>. According to the teacher, head to the city library and borrow books related to Ferdinand Milner!】
Looking at the expressions of others, they should also be like Gu Zhan, having received the main quest.
Qin Yue whispered to Gu Zhan, "Is the main quest usually assigned so directly? Besides, just reading the main quest doesn’t seem to indicate any danger..."
In an infinite flow instance game, shouldn’t people be dying right from the start?
Gu Zhan glanced at him indifferently and said, "When you can't borrow any books, you won't think it's safe anymore."
"Ah?" Qin Yue was confused; he hadn't considered that there was a possibility of not being able to borrow books.
But thinking carefully, perhaps there would be dangers in the library? The class teacher's specific recommendation for the students to borrow books, instead of buying them at a bookstore, did it imply that there was something fishy about the library?
Qin Yue immediately straightened up and said to Gu Zhan, "Big guy, you have experience; I’ll follow your lead!"
On the podium, after the class teacher announced the task, he began to talk about today’s textbook content, which sounded like very ordinary knowledge.
Everyone wasn't really there to study and had started to zone out.
The class teacher seemed unaware, talking to himself without even calling on anyone to answer questions.
After a while, Qin Yue poked Gu Zhan and quietly asked, "Big guy, I just checked the schedule, and there are still two classes left until school ends. But the last class is physical education. What if the PE teacher isn't sick? What if we skip class?"
Gu Zhan thought for a moment and nodded, "Okay."
The first class soon ended. After class, students from the neighboring class called away the student who had been acting as the sports committee member for a while.
Qin Yue peeked outside and said, "Next class is definitely PE! He’ll come announce for us to go to the playground soon; otherwise, it should be the math class representative or the math teacher coming over at this time... Let’s go, big guy."
Gu Zhan frowned slightly, "Don’t call me that."
"Okay... alright." Qin Yue quickly changed his wording, "Brother, let's go!"
Gu Zhan: "..."
He couldn't decide which was better, 'big guy' or 'brother.'
He was afraid that if he refused again, this chubby kid would call him "dear."
He stood up and said, "Let's go."
The two left the classroom, and the school was built quite realistically.
Compared to the school Gu Zhan had seen in the instance before, the atmosphere here was incredibly relaxed, with the sun shining.
They left the teaching building and arrived at the main gate.
Clearly, walking through the front gate was out of the question, as there were guards there.
Qin Yue nudged Gu Zhan and pointed to the playground beside them.
On one side of the playground, there was a low wall, and in one spot, many unused bricks were piled up. It was obvious that there were footprints on the bricks, indicating that many students had climbed over this wall to skip class.
Qin Yue whispered, "This is just right in the blind spot of the gatekeeper. I guess there are places to tiptoe outside as well, so let’s go this way."
Gu Zhan glanced at him and said, "You seem to be quite good at skipping class."
"Hehe, brother, you don’t know? I’m actually in high school outside. Our boarding school feels like a prison, so knowing how to climb walls and skip class is an essential survival skill for everyone!"
High school student?
Gu Zhan couldn't help but size the kid up; he thought Qin Yue was already in college.
Gu Zhan said, "Then you look quite anxious."
"Hey, brother, what do you mean by that?" Qin Yue complained as he caught up.
Gu Zhan said, "I’m complimenting you for being mature and steady in your actions."
Qin Yue was immediately fooled, "Really?"
He scratched his head in embarrassment, "Hey, if you say that, I feel quite embarrassed."
Gu Zhan also felt a bit awkward; this kid was too easy to trick.
The two of them arrived at the bottom of the wall. Qin Yue looked back and noticed other people walking in this direction.
Qin Yue said, "Hurry, if we attract the attention of the school leaders, we won’t be able to leave."
He skillfully grabbed the protruding spots on the wall and jumped up to the top of the low wall in one leap.
This school was still inexperienced; there wasn’t even any broken glass on the wall.
Qin Yue turned around and reached out his hand to help pull Gu Zhan up, but saw Gu Zhan jump onto the wall with even more agile movements. When he exerted himself, his arm muscles bulged slightly, revealing beautifully toned lines.
He didn't expect this seemingly frail desk mate to be quite strong.
If it weren't for skipping class, he would have wanted to whistle and praise him.
The two quickly jumped down from the wall.
As soon as they landed, they heard the gatekeeper shout from behind the wall, "Which class are you from? Stop! You’ve been marked down!"
Gu Zhan turned back to take a look, and Qin Yue, familiar with the routine, pulled him along, saying, "It’s not us; we weren’t seen. Let’s go."
Gu Zhan followed behind him, running towards the other end of the street.
After sprinting for several hundred meters, Qin Yue finally stopped in a small alley, panting and leaning on his knees.
Looking up, he saw Gu Zhan standing calmly beside him; he hadn’t even broken a sweat or was gasping for air.
He complained, "We all ran the same distance; why do you look like nothing happened?"
Gu Zhan replied, "The system provides attribute bonuses. Once your points accumulate, you’ll be like me."
Qin Yue’s eyes widened in surprise.
At that moment, Gu Zhan was surveying which path would lead to the library.
Strangely enough, he had an innate map of the city in his mind, though it wasn’t very comprehensive...
It felt as if he had lived here his entire life.
The instance can modify the players' memories based on its settings, which he had already experienced in the previous instance.
On the other side, after catching his breath, Qin Yue lifted his head and said, "So where is the library... uh, how would I know where the library is?"
Gu Zhan replied, "Didn't you grow up in this area?"
"Yeah... wait, can that be changed too?" Qin Yue exclaimed in surprise.
Gu Zhan said, "Let's go."
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