"Yikes..."
Feeling the slick touch on top of his head, Guo Shuai grimaced in pain.
The dead baby was clutching his hair, giggling.
"Come on, man... Why am I so unlucky?"
Guo Shuai felt as bitter as if he'd swallowed a pound of bitter herbs.
Of everyone who'd made it this far, he was unquestionably the unluckiest.
Even though he'd managed to escape danger each time, the process had felt like his heart was being toyed with.
He had no time to complain. He could only turn pleading eyes toward Jiangnan beside him.
"Boss! Save me! I think this thing just pooped on my head!"
Jiangnan remained motionless, still holding a note over his face.
Or, rather, he didn't need to do anything.
The next moment.
The Eyeless Female Ghost standing behind Guo Shuai moved.
She slowly extended her deathly pale hand and gently lifted the Ghost Infant from Guo Shuai's head.
Then...
Under the horrified stares of everyone present, the Eyeless Female Ghost lifted her tattered sailor uniform,
revealing a dry, sunken belly covered in stretch marks.
She reached out with both hands and actually tore open the gaping hole in her belly!
Squelch!
Then, tenderly, she tucked the Ghost Infant back inside.
As naturally as putting a book back in a schoolbag.
When she was done, she even bowed deeply to Guo Shuai, as if apologizing for her child's mischief.
Then she turned and returned to her seat, near the back door in the fourth row.
"Uh..."
Guo Shuai touched his still-chilly scalp, looking utterly bewildered. "That Eyeless Ghost... is pretty polite?"
But before he could finish speaking,
the Eyeless Female Ghost, who had just sat down, suddenly crouched and began anxiously feeling around on the floor.
At the lectern, Kujo Ran had recovered considerably after Hoshino treated her. She stood up and asked in confusion,
"What's she doing?"
Lu Shiyan, leaning in the corner and smoking, glanced over coldly.
"She's looking for something."
"Looking for something?"
Kujo Ran looked closer, and her pupils instantly shrank.
She realized that the Eyeless Female Ghost's spot had a chair, but no desk.
In an instant, she recalled the announcement from earlier.
"If any desks or chairs go missing, the Dean of Students will lock you in the Isolation Room."
"She's looking for a desk!"
Kujo Ran had a terrifying suspicion.
There were only sixteen designated seats in this classroom, but only thirteen sets of desks and chairs.
Those without desks...
Would take them from those who had one!
There was no doubt about her target...
Kujo Ran whipped her head toward the student sitting in front of the Eyeless Female Ghost.
He was a Cherry Blossom Country boy with an extremely lecherous face, like a goblin wearing a human disguise. His name was Xiang Nu Ji Er.
At that moment, he was curled up in his seat, trembling. "Don't kill me... Don't kill me..."
But the next moment—
Whoosh!
The Eyeless Female Ghost's deathly pale face appeared beside his, without warning.
Xiang Nu Ji Er instinctively turned to look.
Those hollow eye sockets were fixed on him.
At that moment, he remembered a famous saying.
"When you gaze into the Abyss, the Abyss gazes back at you."
"And when you don't gaze into the Abyss, the Abyss still damn well gazes back at you!"
"Ah!!"
Xiang Nu Ji Er's legs gave way, and he slid right off his chair, collapsing onto the floor.
Whether he'd been scared mad or stupid, he dropped to the ground, triggered his bloodline memories, and began furiously kowtowing in dogeza.
"Sumimasen! Sumimasen! Please don't kill me!"
The Eyeless Female Ghost's hand was already reaching out.
Just as everyone thought Xiang Nu Ji Er was about to be torn apart,
her deathly pale hand didn't touch him. Instead, it gripped the edge of the desk beside him.
Then...
The Eyeless Female Ghost politely nodded and stepped over Xiang Nu Ji Er, who was sprawled on the floor.
Then she sat in his chair and claimed his desk.
She even smiled and patted the desk, showing her satisfaction.
"?"
The whole class was baffled.
"Why?" Kujo Ran asked, puzzled. "He didn't die?"
Seeing what had happened, Xiang Nu Ji Er first froze, then burst with joy!
He scrambled over to the Eyeless Ghost's former seat, unable to hide his excitement.
"Haha! I'm alive! I'm alive!"
"I really am the Chosen Son of Heaven! I'm the protagonist of an isekai novel! That ghost was cowed by my King's Overlord Aura!"
He clenched his fists, whether trying to convince himself or simply being a fool.
"What's going on?" Kujo Ran frowned. "The ghost isn't killing people? Does it not like killing?"
"Idiot."
Lu Shiyan blew out a ring of smoke, mocking her without the slightest mercy.
"I really don't know how you've managed to stay alive this long."
"No wonder your own superior sold you out. Is your head full of mush?"
"It isn't killing anyone because the rule is 'class is in session.'"
"Once someone gives up their desk and it has a seat, naturally, it won't trigger its killing mechanism."
Lu Shiyan shook his head.
"I'd planned to get rid of you as soon as possible, but I suppose not."
"You can't even notice a detail like that. A fool like you doesn't deserve my attention. You'll get yourself killed on your own."
"You!"
Humiliated, Kujo Ran's face flushed as she tried to retort.
But just then...
The third ghost, the Flat-headed Ghost with half its head sliced off, moved too.
It slowly rose to its feet, fixing its gaze on the student in front of it.
Everyone followed its line of sight.
Sitting in the row ahead of it was the already half-mad Natsuki.
After having brain matter splattered across her face twice in a row, Natsuki's mental defenses had collapsed.
Now she was grinning foolishly and drooling, her face smeared with black filth.
"Heh heh... Brain matter... So much brain matter..."
Seeing this, no one felt sorry for her. If anything, they were rather glad it was happening to her.
Especially the bespectacled man sitting directly in front of Natsuki.
He nudged his gold-rimmed glasses up his nose, the corner of his mouth curling into a sneer.
His name was Kamiya Konan.
He was recognized as the biggest brain at Rose Middle School, but his name had never appeared on the school Rankings.
That was because he was an incredibly arrogant master of manipulating his grades, always keeping them right at the passing mark!
He relished the thrill of playing the fool to catch the tiger.
Whenever a teacher called him a stupid pig, Kamiya Konan felt like he was floating on air!
Besides that... he wasn't an ordinary person.
He was, in fact, a Chosen of God who'd kept his identity deeply hidden!
That's right! He had a Sequence Supernatural Ability!
[Sequence 099: Answer Analysis (support type)]
Once a day, his ability could force the "correct answer" or "optimal solution" to any question to reveal itself.
In other words, he could get the answers to any test paper outright.
For someone already blessed with exceptional intelligence, this ability was like a tiger growing wings.
However...
The arrogant Kamiya Konan disdained relying on such external help. He enjoyed the process more.
At that moment, his mind was racing. He'd already finished Disassembly of all the information on the blackboard and in the announcement.
Desk-and-chair rule: Ghosts without desks would demand them from the people in front. Refuse, and you died. Give one up, and you lived.
Seating arrangement: Three ghosts and one person in the back; three people and one ghost in the front. This seemed to suggest a pattern.
The key threat: The announcement said, "The Dean of Students will come to inspect the class." Anyone without a desk would be taken to the Isolation Room.
Deduction: Anyone chosen by a ghost would lose their desk. Even if they didn't die now, they'd surely die when the class was inspected!
Conclusion: That madwoman named Natsuki was doomed.
Meanwhile, the Huaxia Person who acted so cocky was actually the safest!
Because he was in the very last row!
The ghosts couldn't even sit in the same row as him to take his seat!
And then there was the curse of the number four.
Four rows and four columns.
Four classes.
4:44 a.m.
Four teachers.
There was only one inconsistency.
The number of ghosts was wrong.
The Eyeless Ghost and the Ghost Infant were one entity, so they counted as one.
The Flat-headed Ghost counted as one.
Add in the missing teacher, Fujino Juro, and that made only three.
Where had the fourth ghost gone?
Could it be the two fakes who'd been killed?
No, they were outsiders.
And parasites, too.
"I must be missing something..."
Kamiya Konan scratched his head. The imbalance of information made him uneasy.
"Fine. I'll use that."
He closed his eyes and silently recited in his mind,
"Answer Analysis!"
"Question: Where did the fourth ghost that should have been in this classroom go?"
Buzz!
A voice only he could hear echoed in his mind.
A few seconds later,
Kamiya Konan's eyes flew open, his pupils widening with delight.
"So that's it!!"
"I know! So it was 'him'!"
He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Guo Shuai, sitting in the corner of the last row, and sneered.
"Poor unlucky bastard..."
"So you're the one who threw off the count!"
"You're actually occupying the fourth ghost's spot!"
"But you don't even know it. Someone's using you as a pawn, and you think you're just lucky!"
"Hahaha! This is really interesting!"
"I never would've guessed there was an invisible hand constantly meddling with the course of the future!"
"And it's right here among us!"
After getting his answer, Kamiya Konan stopped thinking and looked behind him with complete confidence.
By the rules, that Flat-headed Ghost would definitely go after Natsuki's desk.
Once Natsuki lost her desk, the Dean of Students would take her away in a little while.
And since he was sitting in front of Natsuki, with a whole row between them, he was absolutely safe!
However.
The next moment.
The smile on Kamiya Konan's face froze stiff, as if doused in liquid nitrogen.
Because...
The Flat-headed Ghost walked up to Natsuki.
It lowered the half of its head that remained and leaned in to sniff her.
Then.
It actually reached out, pinched its half-nose, and made a look of utter disgust!
"Ugh..."
The Flat-headed Ghost jerked backward as if it had seen something filthy, then went right around Natsuki's spot!
It didn't take Natsuki's desk!
Its target... had become the row in front of Natsuki!
In other words, Kamiya Konan!
"Huh?!"
Kamiya Konan was dumbstruck.
He watched helplessly as the Flat-headed Ghost stopped in front of him and pointed at his desk.
Then it spread its mouth into an expectant grin.
Kamiya Konan's mind went completely blank.
He instinctively looked behind him at Natsuki.
That crazy woman's face was smeared with the black brain matter of the fake Yayu Jiangnan had previously blown apart.
The stench was so foul it made your eyes water.
"Masaka... How could this be..."
Kamiya Konan looked at the Flat-headed Ghost pinching its nose, then at his own spotless, tidy desk.
He laughed and cried at once; in his daze, he felt as if a single thought could turn Gods into Devils.
"I'd accounted for everything..."
"How did I fail to consider... that ghosts could be germaphobes?!"
Before you continue