"Burn them!!" Lu Sha roared.
As soon as his voice fell, the surroundings instantly began to distort.
The entire dining hall started melting like wax, then dissolved like paint being poured into water, spreading layer upon layer. The floor beneath their feet rippled like water waves, making everyone unsteady.
The players quickly stabilized themselves.
"What... what’s happening?" the middle-aged man asked in panic, holding onto the arm of the braided boy beside him.
No one could answer him.
Roses fluttered through the air, colors reassembled in the ripples, then splashed onto the canvas, smearing and spreading again.
"Burn them, burn them, burn them..."
Lu Sha appeared to be in a frenzy. No matter how the environment around him changed, he kept glaring viciously at Jiang Yan, repeatedly chanting those two words.
The colors on the canvas gradually outlined a scene, crude like a child’s doodle. Jiang Yan’s vision grew hazy.
He could no longer see the other players, hear their voices, or even sense their presence. Even Yu Xiu’s figure in front of him blurred into the chaos.
The world plunged into a deathly silence.
Thankfully, Jiang Yan could still feel himself being held tightly in the giant’s embrace. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around Yu Xiu’s neck—the only tangible "reality" he could grasp.
All of a sudden, the previously silent world turned chaotic again. Countless unfamiliar voices erupted from all directions:
"Burn him! Burn him!"
"Burn him! The impure one!!"
"Burn him! Burn him!! Burn him...!"
The accusatory voices surged like waves, leaving Jiang Yan dazed. Before he could regain his composure, the strong arms around his waist suddenly released him!
"Yu Xiu!!" Jiang Yan cried out instinctively.
"Yan Yan, don’t be scared, don’t be scared..."
Jiang Yan felt those familiar, comforting hands brush across his face, then disappear into the wind.
"Husband!!"
Jiang Yan panicked, instinctively reaching out to grab the person beside him, but all around him were splashes of chaotic color—he couldn’t see anything.
At that moment, something or someone delivered a heavy kick to his back.
Jiang Yan cried out in pain and fell forward with a loud thud.
The moment he hit the ground, the world became clear—
DONG—
DONG—
DONG—
Accompanied by the solemn chimes of a massive clock, Jiang Yan realized he was sitting on a vast green lawn. Surrounding him was a circle of seventeen- or eighteen-year-old boys and girls dressed in white-and-gold robes.
Giants, elves, dwarves, centaurs... all kinds of races were present.
There were no players, no real NPCs, and no Yu Xiu.
He was also wearing the same white-and-gold robe as the others. From the emblem on the robe and the intricate Gothic spires of the white-and-gold buildings in the distance, it was clear.
This was... a school?
Jiang Yan stared at the unfamiliar faces around him, all filled with malice.
Had he arrived at a school?
Or... was this actually part of his forgotten memories?
"This is not a memory," 663 suddenly said.
663’s voice had just fallen when the main system's voice echoed in the air:
“Ding!
【Congratulations! You have triggered the side quest: The Disappearing White Sheep】【Quest Hint: Find the killer who persecuted and killed the white sheep】
【Instance Progress: 80%】
【Total Players: 10, Remaining Players: 7】
【Real NPCs: 4, Uncontaminated NPCs: 4】
【Side Quest: Vote for a killer every night at midnight who killed the king, and eliminate them.】
【Side Quest: Find the killer who persecuted and killed the white sheep.】
White sheep?
“Boom!”
A stone struck Jiang Yan’s forehead.
“Hiss…”
Blood instantly flowed down Jiang Yan’s porcelain-like face. Jiang Yan squinted his blue eyes in pain, and in the glass-like depths of his eyes, reflected the malicious faces of young people.
“Burn him!! Burn him!!”
“Who brought a lighter?”
“Shameless! I spit on you!!”
“Boom! Boom, boom…”
Several more stones were thrown at him, one after another.
Jiang Yan curled up, hugging his head, but the stones continued to fall on him like rain.
Jiang Yan instinctively tried to summon his items, but noticed that the “Use” icon in his inventory had turned gray. He couldn’t use them at all.
“663!!” Jiang Yan cried out in pain, “What’s going on?! Has your broken system bugged out again?!”
“This time, there’s no bug!” 663 explained. “It’s because using items is restricted in secondary instances.”
“What?!”
663 continued: “To put it simply, side quests like the one in Jiekhe Town, which take place in the original world of the instance, are called primary instances. But side quests that take place in another world within the instance are called secondary instances.”
“This is what I was telling you, this isn’t implanted memory, and it’s not something you’ve forgotten. This is a secondary world within the instance, a secondary instance.”
“In secondary instances, the effectiveness of items is greatly reduced, or even completely unusable, depending on the item and the player’s or NPC’s rank.”
“Your item, ‘Lost Rose,’ is an S-rank item, but you are not an S-rank NPC, so in this secondary world of the instance, you can’t use the item.”
Damn…
The pain from the stones kept intensifying. The warm blood blurred his vision, and Jiang Yan was certain that his head was already bleeding heavily.
If this continues... if this continues...
Jiang Yan realized he was trapped, with no way to deal with the situation.
“How can you say the main system isn’t trying to kill me... I’m going to be crushed to death soon!” Jiang Yan said, in pain.
663 replied: “As a real NPC, you need to follow the script of the instance, Host!”
“Script... Script my ass!!”
The stones kept falling on him, one after another, dense as rain...
Pain...
Painful, torturous pain.
“Crush him!! Crush him!!”
“Shameless!! Aren’t you good at pretending? Pretend more!”
“You’re nothing but a thief who steals answers!”
“I saw it with my own eyes!”
In the haze of pain, Jiang Yan seemed to hear a familiar girl’s voice.
No...
Jiang Yan didn’t know what they were talking about, but he curled up on the ground like a cat, trying to protect himself, and instinctively retorted, “I... I didn’t…”
“Still denying it!!”
“Crush him!!”
“Why won’t you apologize?! Apologize!”
Jiang Yan bit his lip, not knowing what he had done wrong, or why he had to apologize. His rational mind told him that these were just children, and apologizing or softening up might solve the problem.
But a stubborn voice echoed in his heart: “I’m not wrong.”
“Apologize!!”
“A thief who steals answers and takes others’ grades!”
“Thief! Crook!!”
Jiang Yan felt his consciousness growing hazy. The pain, once sharp and overwhelming, now turned into a dull, numbing ache. He felt his awareness slipping away from his body.
“Damn it…”
“Crush him!!”
“Apologize! Damn thief!”
“Did you tell the teacher? Did you tell the teacher?”
In the moment when his consciousness detached from his body, Jiang Yan felt the pain disappear instantly. He found that his perspective was pulled into the air, and everything around him felt as if it were separated by a layer of glass.
He saw himself curled up in the center of the crowd, surrounded by stones of all sizes. Blood had soaked his black hair into messy strands, and he looked like a broken, stray black cat.
“He... why isn’t he moving?”, Someone asked carefully.
“Pretending! Get up!!”
A young centaur kicked Jiang Yan, who was curled on the ground, with his hind hooves!
Jiang Yan was knocked over, his face slamming against the ground, and then he lay motionless.
Under the violent actions of the crowd, Jiang Yan lost his breath...
Jiang Yan’s pupils shrank suddenly!
He... died?!
The face of the boy with black satin-like hair, and pale skin, reflected in Jiang Yan’s blue eyes.
No!
This isn’t him?!
It certainly looked similar.
A handsome, black-haired, pale-skinned teenage boy, it really resembled him.
Jiang Yan stared into the boy’s dim amber eyes and instinctively looked at the Divine System. On the system panel, the boy with black hair and amber eyes was smiling at him.
Jiang Yan hesitated, still unsure whether the boy who had lost his breath and lay in the grass was Divine System's main character.
“Die... What now...?”
A familiar, crying voice of a girl suddenly drew Jiang Yan’s attention.
Jiang Yan turned toward the source of the voice.
In the center of the crowd, there stood a short-haired girl in a pink puffy skirt and round black-rimmed glasses. She looked cute and timid.
However, “standing” may not be the right word, as beneath her puffy skirt, her lower body was not human legs but a long, soft, worm-like body.
Geng Hui?!
Jiang Yan was shocked.
This must be Geng Hui, directly assimilated into the system as an NPC after being contaminated by the main system.
“How... How could this be?”
Seeing this, the young centaur panicked and said, “We all threw small stones... How could such tiny stones kill him?”
“It wasn’t me! I didn’t throw anything!” The gnome quickly distanced himself from blame.
“Neither was it me! I only cursed at him a bit…”
“I only threw a paper ball…”
“No! How could a paper ball kill him?”
“I didn’t throw anything…”
“Bullshit!! I saw you throw! You even threw two!”
“I threw small ones! How could tiny stones kill someone? I even saw you throw them! You threw eggs as big as that stone... It must have been your stone that killed him!”
“That’s not true!! When I threw it, he was still screaming in pain!”
“...”
For a moment, the young boys and girls fell into internal confusion.
And "Jiang Yan's" body lay quietly in the center of the playground, his amber pupils reflecting the pale, sunlit sky above.
“What do we do now... Should we tell the teacher? Will... will we go to jail? I... I don’t want to go to jail... Wuwu…”
After the internal confusion, everything descended into chaos.
“What’s going on?”
A familiar, cold voice echoed from outside the crowd, and the crowd quickly parted, making way for the figure to pass through.
Jiang Yan froze.
He saw himself walking in from the edge of the crowd.
Black hair, blue eyes, and a pale face — this was indeed himself!
“Senior Jiang Yan...”
“Senior...”
The students respectfully and nervously addressed him.
What’s going on?!
Before Jiang Yan could fully process this, Geng Hui said something even more shocking:
“Senior Jiang Yan... Jiang Yan... it seems like he... he’s dead.”