The next day at school, morning reading was relatively safe. The discipline monitor was still in charge of supervising it, and teachers rarely dropped by the classroom.
So, taking advantage of this rare opportunity, they shared what had happened to them the day before amid the sound of morning reading.
"I... I don't know what came over me either. I just felt that the female ghost here was strangely attractive, and some ghostly force drew me closer. I couldn't resist touching her a few more times, and then she suddenly turned into a skeleton," a male player said ruefully.
Another male player chimed in, "Tell me about it. I almost died in a haven of soft arms and warm embraces."
He stole a glance at Wang Long, and seeing that he wasn't paying attention, whispered to the others, "If I'd known, I wouldn't have followed him to experience a different kind of Guixu. I would've stayed put in the boys' dorm."
"Yeah, I heard the two who didn't join the mixed dorm were especially safe in the boys' dorm," the other male players who had gone to the girls' dorm the previous night agreed.
Someone changed the subject and asked, puzzled, "Did you notice? Two people didn't show up. Do you think they might have..."
His words sent a ripple of panic through the group. A wisp of cold air blew against someone's neck, and he shivered, interrupting, "Don't talk nonsense. Who dies in Guixu nowadays?"
"That's only because of the guide, though." Some people still couldn't help worrying. "The guide specifically said students must never be late for morning study."
"Ah! F*ck!"
The curse burst out of the male player sitting at the very back. He jolted all over, and his chair tipped backward, sending him tumbling miserably to the floor.
Clutching his back, he scrambled to right the chair, but his eyes never left the face that had suddenly appeared on his desk.
It was the face of the discipline monitor on the podium, staring coldly at him.
The players who had been huddled together whispering heard his cry and instantly sat up straight, picked up their books, and began reading aloud in an attempt to cover up what they had just been doing.
"You, were you talking?" The discipline monitor's face on the desk opened and closed its mouth, its tone stern.
The male player swallowed. This situation hadn't appeared in the guide, and for a moment he didn't know how to answer.
His silence made the discipline monitor angry.
Cold words came out: "Anyone who disrupts morning reading dies."
The unlucky player's eyes went wide and his body went rigid. Just like that, he died—died in Guixu, died inside what they had thought was a game they could freeload off.
How could anyone die in Guixu...?
The question hung over the players' minds.
At that moment, the same thing was happening in Guixu examination halls everywhere.
Among the players who used morning reading to share information, there was always one unlucky soul whom the discipline monitor discovered, and who died before their eyes.
Sitting in his office, Fan Daoyi contentedly received the vast amount of fear gathering around him and converted it into Origin Source.
It seemed his instructions to the discipline monitor had worked well.
He laid a hand lightly against the wall, and mysterious plant patterns immediately appeared on it. As he channeled some of the newly gathered Origin Source into them, the patterns began spreading across the wall at an accelerating pace.
"Now then, you're next."
In the classroom, morning reading ended. After hastily wolfing down the bread they had stored in their desks, the players gathered again.
"This game has already strayed from the guide. None of this was mentioned in it at all!"
Without the guide to rely on, they had lost the confidence they'd had when they first entered the game.
"So the two who didn't show up this morning are dead too, right? It's still the early stage, and only seven of the ten are left..."
"Not seven." While they were talking, Fan Daoyi had appeared behind them at some point.
He had walked without a sound and was simply staring at them.
His sudden interruption startled the group.
They turned to see the familiar face and exchanged looks. Only after checking several times did they say, "You're not dead? Could you not scare us like that?"
"I was only correcting your mistake."
Just as the class bell rang, Fan Daoyi walked past them and onto the podium. Bracing both hands on the lectern, he smiled as he waited for the students rushing into the classroom.
A moment later, he swept his gaze around the classroom and nodded. "Everyone's here."
Below, Wang Long frowned as he watched Fan Daoyi on the podium. A faint sense of foreboding rose in his heart, and he instinctively formed a hand seal to activate a defensive item.
A female player near the podium quietly reminded Fan Daoyi, "Classmate, come down quickly. The teacher will be here soon."
Fan Daoyi turned toward her voice, looking thoughtful.
She was the player who had chosen to leave Wang Long's group at the beginning and had detested their behavior.
Her character was pretty good; she was just a little foolish, foolish enough to be somewhat naive.
Fan Daoyi gave her a faint smile, then turned his gaze back to the whole class.
"Jiang Lin, close the doors."
Jiang Lin entered through the classroom's back door. Expressionless and brisk in his movements, he quickly shut it with a soft thud.
He walked up the aisle and closed the front door as well.
Now, all the players were shut inside the classroom.
"All right, students." Facing the restless players, Fan Daoyi spoke. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the teacher for this class."
"There's no need to open your books. When I teach, I generally like to have my students practice firsthand."
Hearing Fan Daoyi's introduction, the NPCs quickly accepted this setting, but the players' eyes were filled more with confusion and bewilderment.
Wang Long in particular wondered why someone else could become a teacher when he was still only a student despite having connections with the principal.
He felt somewhat indignant.
Fan Daoyi picked up a prepared lesson plan, and in an instant, those strange patterns quietly appeared on the walls all around the classroom. Black-and-white vines and flowers intertwined, twisting into shape.
"Today's lesson is poetry appreciation. The poem is 'Wild Rose.'"
As Fan Daoyi recited, some players suddenly felt an itching sensation along their spines.
They reached behind themselves to scratch, only to jerk their hands back as if shocked. Tiny beads of blood welled up on their fingertips.
The patterns on the walls changed as well, tiny thorns sprouting from their vines.
As the poem reached its middle section, some of the male players slumped over their desks, veins bulging on their foreheads. Their hands clenched into fists, and an unknown pain came from their backs.
As the poem progressed, thorns took root in their skin and pierced their clothes, and blood flowed without stopping.
The black-and-white patterns gained a bright scarlet hue, bewitching and beautiful.
"Interrupt his lesson!" Wang Long suddenly shouted, his voice reaching the players' ears.
The suffering players forced themselves to endure the pain in their backs and charged at Fan Daoyi.
Holding a short blade, Jiang Lin blocked their way.
"You're murdering people! The authorities won't let you off!" a player who had lost his senses from the pain shouted. "The surveillance footage from Guixu will all be sent back!"
Fan Daoyi stopped reciting and raised his hand. The flying insect emerged from his sleeve, its flashing red light recording the miserable state of these players.
"Come on, say cheese."
His voice was mocking, treating their plight as inconsequential.
Thorns pierced through their backs and out of their abdomens, reaching down to the ground and up to the sky, with the corpses hanging in between.
The corpses' eyes remained open in death. Blood dripped down the vines, gathering on the floor in a shocking pool.