Shen Hao stayed up until three or four in the morning and finally finished writing the guide, but he did not feel tired at all. Instead, he felt energized and full of vigor.
Right now, he felt he could stay up for another two nights without any trouble.
It was probably because his spirit had increased by 100 points.
In the game, the Mental Attribute could affect many things.
For example, people with high mental power could stay up all night without feeling tired. A person's mental reaction speed, thinking ability, memory, mental defense, intelligence, and so on were all affected by the Mental Attribute.
His Mental Attribute was now higher than that of the vast majority of Ability Users in the teens, but unfortunately, he had not awakened a corresponding ability.
Although his Mental Attribute was high, he could not use mental power to affect other objects or defend himself with it like a Control-type Ability User.
Nor could he heal people or manipulate the elements of heaven and earth like a Shaman-type Ability User.
Nor could he launch mental attacks and strike at his enemies' souls like a Soul-type Ability User.
He had none of those abilities, so his Mental Attribute could only give him the most basic improvements. It would not increase his combat power by much.
His only ability related to spirit was Possession.
He checked the description of Possession. Nothing had changed, but he was certain that if he used the ability again now, its effects would be stronger.
Thinking of it that way, the increase in his spirit did bring plenty of benefits.
He was confident that he would definitely rank first in his grade on the next exam.
Even so, he would have preferred to put those 100 points of Mental Attribute into constitution. That should have improved his combat ability more.
But none of that could be changed.
A week passed.
Shen Hao did not match with a new instance that entire week, which left him very disappointed.
He could now only match with A-rank instances. They were relatively rare, so it was normal enough not to match with one in a week.
There was one piece of good news, though: the instance guide he had written passed review and was officially added to the Alliance's instance guide database.
And because he had written it in such detail, making it highly valuable as a reference, his guide received the highest rating.
The Alliance Guild would give his instance guide priority when recommending guides to players who matched with Water Sky Paradise.
Although he had not earned a single cent from it yet, it was only a matter of time.
That evening, after evening self-study ended, Shen Hao had just walked out of the classroom when he received a call from Xia Bing.
"Shen Hao, where are you now?"
"I'm at school. Class just ended, and I was about to head home." He could hear the urgency in Xia Bing's voice. Something seemed to have happened.
"Watch your surroundings," Xia Bing said. "I suspect the people from Blood Banquet are about to make their move against you."
"Oh," Shen Hao said calmly.
He did not feel panicked. After all, the Alliance Guild could not possibly sit back and do nothing.
If people were going to die, he would not be the only one.
It would definitely be an extremely serious mass casualty incident.
"We were tricked!" Xia Bing said. "Our informant in the Blood Banquet Guild was discovered a long time ago.
"He fed us misleading information. Our main forces have all left Zhongzhou City and can't get back immediately."
"You left too?"
"Yes. We'll get back as soon as we can. Until then, you have to be careful!"
Only then did Shen Hao feel a sense of danger. He was also somewhat annoyed. These people were way too incompetent. How had they been tricked into going somewhere else?
And at the most critical moment, too.
"So there's no one who can help me?"
"I'm sorry," Xia Bing said. "We didn't expect them to have a spatial extraordinary item either.
"Our main forces were lured to Dongyang City by him, but he used that spatial item to slip away right under our noses.
"We're heading back now, but even at our fastest, it'll take two hours."
"Who's this 'he' you're talking about?" Shen Hao asked.
"Jiang Zhennan, an elder of the Blood Banquet Guild and the head of its Central Plains Branch.
"He came in person this time. He's a bit mysterious and leaves most matters to his only son, Jiang Tao—the man you killed on the bus.
"We don't know his level, and his ability is unknown too."
The more that was the case, the more terrifying the man was.
Shen Hao was speechless. "I'm not even level 10 yet. I'll probably be killed in an instant as soon as I meet him! You might as well not have told me."
"I know, but whatever you do, don't give up. Leave the school immediately.
"Go somewhere you don't usually go and stall for as long as you can.
"You're the main sacrifice they're offering to the evil god. If they can't find you, they won't kill people indiscriminately. We'll get back as soon as possible."
"Okay."
Shen Hao hung up. Xia Bing could not help him now, and neither could anyone else. He could only rely on himself.
He had not expected that, after hunting others in the instances, he would now be the one hunted.
He felt he was a disgrace to Demons.
He was a Demon, yet he was running away with someone on his heels. It was utterly undignified.
But there was no better option now.
Shen Hao decided to leave school immediately, as quickly as possible.
The people from Blood Banquet should know his movements like the back of their hands. They had to know he had just gotten out of school.
If he were one of them, he would come straight to the school too.
Without a doubt, this was the most dangerous place to be right now.
Shen Hao raced downstairs and ran toward the school exit. He was so fast that he passed many people in the blink of an eye, and soon he could see the school gates.
The gates were open, but the area was not bustling as usual. Hardly anyone was in sight. He was about to rush out when he suddenly stopped.
"Something's wrong!"
He looked around, feeling that something was very strange.
There were too few people. Only a scattered few were around him, and that was strange.
School had only just ended. There should have been a lot of people on campus, so how could there be only this handful?
Where had everyone gone? Were they not even eager to leave school?
It suddenly occurred to Shen Hao that perhaps those people had not gone somewhere strange. Perhaps he was the one who had entered some strange place.
He looked up at the sky and could not see a single star, but when he had just left the classroom, the sky had been full of them.
Now he was certain he had been targeted long ago.
The people from Blood Banquet had already found him when Xia Bing called, or even before that.
His opponent was an elder of the Blood Banquet Guild and the head of a branch, after all. Naturally, he was an Ability User who wielded extraordinary power.
But based on what he knew, he still could not tell what his opponent's ability was.
Perhaps the man was an Illusion-type Ability User, and he was now inside an illusion created by that Illusion-type Ability User.
Just then, a startled cry suddenly came from up ahead. He hurriedly looked over and saw a male student whose face had gone pale.
The student shouted, "What's going on? This is freaking creepy! Why can't I get out through this gate?"
The boy's voice also drew the others' attention. They looked around, and fear began to rise in them.
Although they were indeed inside their familiar school, their surroundings were far too abnormal. Why were there only a few of them?
Where had everyone else gone? Or had they ended up somewhere they should not have come?
"It's true! We really can't get out!"
A female student spoke in a voice choked with tears.
"What's happening? What the hell is happening?"
"We can't get out! We can't get out!"
"Were we... were we transported into a Thriller Paradise game?"
"No, please, I don't want to die..."
The few of them gathered at the gate, fear and unease written on every face.
They were all ordinary people. Suddenly confronted with such a bizarre event, they had no idea what to do.
Shen Hao clenched his fists. The people from Blood Banquet not only wanted to kill him, but had also dragged many others in to die with him.