Yu Xing Poked You

This disgusting apology meeting ended badly—that was the inevitable outcome.

In the end, only five deducers remained in the classroom: Oliver himself, the white-haired girl, and a restless Rebecca.

Rebecca was waiting for an apology. She slowly walked over, standing a distance away from Oliver, and said apologetically, "Although it's no use, I still want to say I'm sorry."

"I was a fool, thinking I was clever by pointing out this and that, but in reality I was just encouraging bullying and evil. I'm sorry, I don't ask for your forgiveness, because what I did is unforgivable."

She never physically bullied Oliver, nor did she verbally insult Oliver, but she knew that her behavior of seemingly being indifferent while actually dissuading anyone from approaching Oliver was a form of bullying.

"I suppose you probably don't care about my apology, and you don't want to see me either, so... I won't waste your time. Goodbye, Oliver, and I wish you a successful graduation." Rebecca stood there, bowed deeply to Oliver, glanced at Yu Xing was no longer surrounding Oliver despite the crowd, showed a guilty look, and turned to leave with her bag.

"She's the only one who looks somewhat presentable." The white-haired girl crossed her legs, snorted coldly, then turned her head, seemingly asking no one in particular, "What do we do next?"

Oliver finally raised his head.

His gaze was gloomy and somber, a far cry from the cowardice and helplessness he had shown in front of his classmates. He picked up his packed bag and prepared to leave without a word.

"Wait a minute." Yu Xing reached out and grabbed Oliver's arm, tilting her head slightly, and asked with a hint of mockery, "It's always like this, you use me and then run away? Am I your deskmate, just a tool?"

"..." Oliver turned around, opened his mouth as if to say something, but for some reason didn't say anything, only managing to utter two words, "Thank you."

"You're welcome~" Yu Xing let go of his hand, stood up, leaned against the desk, and smiled with a hint of seriousness. "Oliver, you've worked so hard all this time."

"It really wasn't easy," Zhao Mou sighed, trying to sound like a straight man. "I wonder if this is the first time you've broken free from the nightmare of being bullied?"

Wen Qinghuai smiled kindly at Oliver: "It seems this matter isn't completely resolved yet; Johnny hasn't been punished, has he?"

Oliver's hands clenched tightly. "What are you talking about?"

His voice was very soft, whether he was protecting himself with a cowardly facade or when it meant that everyone here had partially accepted him, so he could show his true expression.

It was as faint as a drowning person's cry for help, which was blown away by the waves and vanished without a trace.

Yu Xing nudged the white-haired girl. "Aren't you the referee? Should we take care of Johnny?"

Oliver and the white-haired girl were both taken aback, and a clear look of surprise appeared on the white-haired girl's very beautiful oriental face.

"It took two days to find it, which is a bit slow." Qu Xuanqing wasn't in her seat; she had moved to Zhao Yijiu's side at some point. The two of them, who were usually quiet, watched the verbal attack quietly—at most, adding their own jabs.

At this moment, she finally took control of the conversation, saying calmly, "This opportunity was created for us by Roy. If he hadn't intended to create chaos, it would probably have taken us much longer to find you."

"Are you from this school?" Qu Xuanqing looked at the white-haired girl. "Or are you only here to act as a process reminder for this instance—I saw it when you spoke; your ID badge was empty."

The white-haired girl lowered her eyelashes, pondered quietly for a while, then stood up and scratched her hair, which had become a little messy from sleeping.

"Perhaps?"

She looked down at her chest; every student was required to wear an ID badge, and she had one too, but the section below her name, below Class 4 of Grade 3, was empty.

"I don't remember, but I've always been here."

She glanced at Oliver, who was still in a daze, and suddenly realized, "Oh~ maybe it really is what you said, Elizabeth. I've been sleeping, attending class, sleeping, attending class, listening to my classmates insulting Oliver and hearing the sounds of them hitting him. Ugh, I was so sleepy."

"But then, when Winter spoke up for Oliver and started twisting the false memories of these idiot classmates, I suddenly wasn't sleepy anymore, and became incredibly, incredibly... awake."

"It's because you did it!" The white-haired girl, lively and cheerful, skipped over to Wen Qinghuai, making a "one" gesture with her fingers. "You accomplished something!"

"Wait a minute..." She looked at Yu Xing hesitantly, "The school clinic is gone too, which means two things have been accomplished."

"There are... three things left!"

"The cafeteria, the library, the dormitory?" Yu Xing asked.

"You're really clever." The white-haired girl looked on with a look of recollection, then nodded affirmatively. "It's these three items."

Zhao Mou said, "Your memory doesn't seem to be very good."

"It's been so long, it's normal to not remember the beginning," the white-haired girl said dismissively. "I bet some people feel the same way I do."

Yu Xing flexed her fingers.

"Then do you remember what was the point of those two things that were already done?" Zhao Mou didn't press further to find out who shared the same feeling; he knew the answer.

"What's the effect? The effect is that you're one step closer to graduating from school." She hugged Oliver tightly. "Oh dear~ Anyway, as long as Oliver won't hurt you anymore, you'll be allowed to go to the toilet whenever you want during evening self-study sessions from now on!"

Oliver didn't pull away from her hand; instead, he lowered his head sullenly.

"Were those ghostly figures during evening self-study really controlled by Oliver?" Yu Xing felt something was off. "This seems different from what I saw..."

"No," Oliver said softly, "I just can... not drag you in."

Wen Qinghuai: "Where to pull it in?"

"My nightmare," Oliver said, without looking at them, "I'm going back to my dorm."

"Let's go together~" The white-haired girl still followed Oliver. This time, the two were not stopped by the deducers. The cheerful one and the gloomy one gradually disappeared from their sight.

"What a pleasant surprise! I actually figured out the true requirements of the dungeon by accident. Heh, well done, Yu Xing. Don't do it again next time." Zhao Mou pushed up his glasses and gave Yu Xing a smirk.

"I thought you were united, but it turns out you're settling scores later?" Wen Qinghuai's expression was complicated.

"You'll get used to it after a few times," Qu Xuanqing calmly straightened her clothes. "Anyway, Yu Xing. Didn't this prove it again? Not only did he complete the hidden mission for Class Four, but he also seems to have taken on a mission for the school clinic?"

"Emmm..." Zhao Yijiu listened for a long time, seeing that everyone seemed to know the current situation perfectly well, and listening to their uninterrupted conversation, her expression became more and more tense.

Then he decided he couldn't hold back any longer, maintaining his cold demeanor with a blank expression. "What are you talking about?"

Zhao Mou raised an eyebrow. "Oh dear, I forgot my dear brother might not understand. My bad."

Yu Xing: "Brother Jiu, your awareness of rules and problem-solving skills when encountering ghosts are already quite good. What you need to improve next is your ability to deduce the overall rules."

Zhao Yijiu: "..."

Judging from the faint chill emanating from the room, Zhao Yijiu was not in a good mood at the moment.

"Ahem." Wen Qinghuai coughed lightly, his hand loosely clenched into a fist, covering his mouth. "Dead Silent Island doesn't have Absurd Deduction system to give us missions, right? The island environment outside the buildings is irregular, but these instances do have rules. You can actually find that there's someone similar to someone who issues missions in each instance."

"The clown owner in the general store wants us to watch the store for him, and the art gallery is in charge of the exhibition, requiring us to find five fake paintings." Yu Xing strolled over to Zhao Yijiu's seat in front of him, straddled it, and sat down backwards with her arms behind her back. "Although it's not always explicitly stated, we know that after watching the store or after the eight-hour art exhibition ends, we can complete the instance and leave the building."

"This is a summary of the rules. The instances that Qu Xuanqing and Huang Bai pushed through in the construction progress last night were also like this. So even though the school instance is large, there should be a clear point at which we can know when to leave the instance." He teased Zhao Yijiu with a grin, "Does Brother Jiu understand?"

"So at first you thought completing the test was a crucial milestone." Zhao Yijiu leaned back, creating distance between herself and Yu Xing, and turned to look at Zhao Mou. "Why did you deny it then?"

"Because no one has come forward to give us any promises from beginning to end." Zhao Mou usually gives the impression of being shrewd, so he's all too familiar with word Yugi and traps. "The quiz has been brought up repeatedly; its importance is one of the pieces of information you gathered last night—that the St. Johnis Middle School student council's graduation will largely depend on this quiz."

"This was also our initial target, because it was the only one that looked like a mission," Zhao Mou snapped his fingers. "However, the timing is awkward. We came in as transfer students right after the school finished its midterms. At this point, completing the quiz was just a rough selection process; we had to stay until graduation. I think that's stretching things out too far."

"Furthermore, the decision of whether or not we can graduate rests with the school's teachers, but in the past two days we've also noticed an adversarial relationship between the teachers and the ghost. This at least indicates that they are not in complete control of the school. So, are the decisions they make truly the key to whether or not we can leave the school?"

"Furthermore, what's so important to the students of this school might not be so important to us, since we don't need to experience work or university life in this instance," Wen Qinghuai added. "So the test is likely a crucial point, but there are too many traps. We must try to find other possibilities, which is why we're aiming for stability at the start and planning to gather information first."

"That white-haired girl, from initially going unnoticed to revealing various clues after being noticed, was already quite intriguing. After Wen Qinghuai completely disrupted the class order, I've been observing her," Qu Xuanqing, arms crossed. "So I saw her expression when we were defending Oliver."

"And then there's the strange attitude of the students in the class who wouldn't touch her when they were angry, and her name tag."

"She's the most unique, so she's most likely to play a role like a general store owner." Qu Xuanqing observed Zhao Yijiu's expression and smiled faintly. "She's listening very attentively, and she's not angry at herself for lacking experience. That's great, big brother!"

Zhao Yijiu was caught off guard. "... You still remember?"

"I can play for a whole year," Qu Xuanqing emphasized.

Yu Xing sighed, "Little Ququ has such a terrible sense of humor. Who taught her that? It's really too much."