"Uh...where...am I?"
"What the hell happened?"
Guo Shuai held his throbbing head.
He braced his hands against the floor and tried to get up, but his palms met something sticky and slick.
"What the hell is this?"
He looked down in confusion.
His pupils instantly shrank.
He found himself sitting in a pool of blood that had almost congealed!
"Holy shit!"
Guo Shuai jumped in fright, scrambling to his feet and instinctively backing away.
Thud.
His back hit what should have been a wall.
But...
The surface wasn't hard like a wall. Instead, it felt...
Soft, slightly warm, and springy.
"?"
Guo Shuai swallowed and turned around with a trembling neck.
"Ah!!"
The next second, he nearly slipped and fell.
Behind him, a bloody corpse hung upside down from the ceiling by an Iron Hook.
Its skin had been completely peeled off!
The scarlet fibers of its muscles were clearly visible.
And its eyeballs, unprotected by eyelids, bulged out horribly, staring straight into Guo Shuai's face as he turned!
The eyes seemed to still hold the sheer terror of its final moments.
"Huff...huff..."
Guo Shuai leaned against an iron cabinet and gasped for breath.
Even after surviving the Watcher Scarecrow, a horrifying sight with this much visceral impact still scared him badly.
"Heh heh..."
Just then, that familiar mocking voice rang out in his mind.
"Looks like you're not so brave after all, brat."
"You can't handle a little scene like this? How are you supposed to keep following your perverted boss around?"
It was Albert.
Guo Shuai wasn't in the mood to trade barbs. He wiped the cold sweat from his brow and asked inwardly,
"Cut the crap! What the hell is going on?!"
"We were at the school gate. Why did we suddenly end up here? Where are the boss and the others?"
"Because...you've been pulled into the [Ghost Realm]."
Albert's voice took on an unusual note of seriousness.
"Or, in your words, a dungeon."
"The Ghost Realm?!"
Guo Shuai's heart clenched. "Is it an independent space like the Watcher Scarecrow from before?"
He thought back to the Death Wheat Field's bizarre time mechanics. Which meant...
There was something in this school as powerful as the S-class Scarecrow, or perhaps even more powerful!
"Heh heh, scared now?"
Albert seemed to be enjoying Guo Shuai's surprise.
"The moment you set foot through this school's gates, 'it' had already set its sights on you."
"Then some unlucky fool broke one of its 'School Rules,' and it dragged all of you into its game."
Guo Shuai was furious when he heard that. "If you knew, why didn't you say anything?! Can't you scan things?"
"Why should I?"
Albert shot back, completely unapologetic.
"That thing doesn't have any direct ill will toward you."
"Or rather...it just wants to run a school."
"It's just that this school isn't for people. It's for ghosts."
"Think about it. What is a school for?"
"Isn't it created to cultivate 'smart people' and 'strong people' through selection and trials?"
"This school is no different."
"Only the people or ghosts who follow the rules and pass the exams can survive."
As he spoke, Albert's voice began to grow faint and distant.
"All right, I'm tired too."
"A Ghost Realm of this level will suppress my Spirit Body."
"I'm going to fall asleep now."
"Make good use of the [new ability] I just gave you and turn in an excellent answer sheet."
"Don't let me down, and don't die...brat..."
His voice grew quieter and quieter, then disappeared completely.
"Hey! Hey! Old man?!"
Guo Shuai called out twice, but there was no response.
Looks like the guy really had fallen asleep—or was hiding from some kind of detection.
"Smart people and strong people, huh..."
Guo Shuai mulled over Albert's words and couldn't help grumbling.
"Then what does that make the boss?"
"Knowing his personality, he won't just refuse to take the test. He'll tear the paper to shreds."
"Then he'll charge into the Principal's office and kick the Principal to death!"
As he was thinking, a drop of blood fell.
Drip.
He suddenly noticed a line of blood-red numbers appearing on the Black Ghost Face Mark on the back of his hand.
[06:31]
[06:30]
"A countdown?"
Guo Shuai's heart tightened. "Does it mean something? Is it a Death Countdown?"
Not daring to waste time, he quickly surveyed his surroundings.
He was in a locker room.
Two rows of red metal cabinets lined the room, and the floor was strewn with blood and scattered clothes.
It looked just like the Gym Locker Room at a school in Cherry Blossom Country, like the ones he'd seen in anime.
"So this place is inside that middle school in Cherry Blossom Country?"
Muttering to himself, Guo Shuai began checking the lockers one by one.
Nameplates were stuck to their doors:
[Tanaka Natsuki]...
[Yekaterina]...
[Mikami Masayuu]...
"They're all women's names. So this is the Girls' Locker Room."
Guo Shuai went to the door and cautiously leaned out to look around.
But the moment he poked half his head out, he pulled it back like a turtle retracting into its shell.
In the hallway outside the locker room,
a group of male students in Black Stand-up Collar School Uniforms, their eyeballs bulging out, were gathered around something on the floor.
They were ravenously eating the corpse of a girl in a sailor uniform.
The sound of them chewing made his scalp crawl.
"Am I really this unlucky?"
Guo Shuai leaned against the door, the corners of his mouth twitching. "I step outside and walk right into a feeding frenzy?"
He clenched his fists, considering whether to fight his way out or lie low.
Just then,
a broad hand suddenly landed on his shoulder from behind!
Slap!
"Ah!!"
Guo Shuai's nerves were stretched taut. He didn't even have time to think—his body reacted on instinct before his mind could catch up!
He grabbed the wrist, twisted his hips, and threw the person over his shoulder!
"Get over here!!"
Whoosh—crash!
A heavy figure slammed onto the locker room floor, making the metal cabinets rattle.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Was it a Wandering Corpse?!"
Guo Shuai panted and immediately assumed a fighting stance, ready to finish it off at any moment.
But in the next instant, the lightning flashing outside illuminated the face of the "monster" on the floor, and he froze.
It wasn't a Wandering Corpse.
It was a fat man in a too-tight Black Stand-up Collar School Uniform, wearing an expression of pure agony...
"Ho...ly shit?"
"Brother Wang?!"
Guo Shuai stared in disbelief. "Why is it you, Brother Wang?!"
At that moment, Wang Meng wore a uniform that was clearly a size too small, making him look like a meat dumpling wrapped in a bamboo leaf.
Clutching his lower back, he grimaced as he got up and pointed at Guo Shuai.
"Damn it, Guo Shuai...you idiot!"
"Ow, my back...I can't believe you did that to me!"
"Damn it, I waited here for ages, risking my life because I was worried something might happen to you! And the first thing you do is attack me?!"
Wang Meng rubbed his lower back, looking aggrieved.
"If I didn't have my severe fatty liver to protect me, that fall would've broken something!"
"I'm...I'm sorry, Brother Wang!"
Guo Shuai hurried over to help him up, looking guilty.
"I thought a Wandering Corpse had snuck up behind me! You scared the hell out of me!"
"But, Brother Wang, what did you mean just now?"
"Why were you waiting for me? Did I get here really late?"
Wang Meng wasn't truly angry. After grumbling for a bit, his expression turned serious.
"Yeah!"
"The Big Boss and the others met up ages ago. They're in Class 3-2!"
"A male teacher and a female student came to meet us earlier, but when we counted everyone, you were the only one missing!"
"The Big Boss was worried you'd gotten lost or run into trouble, so he had me wait here on the only way through."
"I was just wandering around nearby, hoping to find something useful to fight with."
"Then a bunch of Wandering Corpses came along, carrying a weak female student and looking like they were going to have a picnic. They blocked the path and trapped me in this locker room."
Wang Meng pointed to the countdown on the back of his hand.
"None of that matters! The rules are what matter!"
"We have to get to [Class 3-2] and check in before the countdown ends! They said we have to attend morning self-study!"
"If we don't go or we're late..."
"I don't know what'll happen, but it'll probably be bad! The Big Boss said we might get erased on the spot!"
With that, Wang Meng picked up a Black Male School Uniform that had clearly been taken off someone and tossed it to Guo Shuai.
"Quick! Put this on!"
"The two NPCs gave it to us and said it was an 'Admission Ticket.' If we don't wear the uniform, we'll be treated as intruders and attacked by all the School Monsters!"
Guo Shuai caught the uniform, realizing how serious things were.
He'd probably arrived late because that old bastard Albert had pulled some stunt when the Ghost Realm descended.
Or maybe passing on that new ability had taken extra time.
"Got it, Brother Wang!"
Guo Shuai didn't waste any words. He quickly pulled on the musty uniform.
After putting them on, he flexed his wrists and spoke confidently.
"Brother Wang, in that case, let's fight our way through!"
"I'll lead the way and take care of those Wandering Corpses! Then you can show me the way, and we'll go to Class 3-2 to find the boss!"
As it happened, he also wanted to see just how powerful the "new ability" Albert had left him before falling asleep really was.
"Sure! I trust you!"
Wang Meng looked at Guo Shuai's confident expression and grinned.
He turned and walked over to the row of battered, twisted metal lockers, then braced himself and pulled.
Creeeak!
He ripped the two heavy metal Cabinet Doors clean off!
Then he expertly bent the doors, making use of their hinges and the wire.
In an instant, he had fashioned two simple but sturdy bracers.
"Here. Put these on!"
Wang Meng handed the bracers to Guo Shuai.
"Don't let them bite you."
"The movies got it right: these zombies all have poison in their mouths. If you get infected, I won't be able to save you."
"Thanks, Brother Wang!"
Guo Shuai felt a warmth in his heart.
As expected of a B-Class Mechanic. That trick of turning scrap into gear with his bare hands was incredible.
He strapped on the bracers, took a deep breath, and picked up the cleaver he'd dropped earlier.
"Let's go!"
One after the other, they walked out the door and faced the Evil Ghosts feeding in the corridor.
Before you continue