Dead save

Chen Feng's pupils contracted. "How did you find us?"

From planning their escape to putting it into action, then calling for help at the convenience store, Chen Feng felt they had left no openings. If they could still be tracked down, there had to be either a traitor among them or supernatural forces at work.

But this time, Chen Feng had guessed wrong.

Professor Sheep smiled. "Someone reported it to me."

Chen Feng recalled the few lit windows he had seen in the surrounding residential buildings when they went outside.

He understood instantly. "The villagers."

The Fourth Mental Hospital had been built in a secluded urban village. Every villager there was an informant for the monsters.

Under those circumstances, unless they had the Water Ghost's Invisibility Spell, they were bound to be discovered the moment they left the academy.

Yellow Hair couldn't believe it. "Impossible! If that's true, how did Chen Xinran escape?"

Professor Sheep smiled. "Oh, that stubborn little girl? I remember her. I didn't capture her. Her parents brought her here themselves. She spent three years at the academy without being turned into a Model Student. Truly remarkable."

A spark of hope rose in Yellow Hair. "Then she..."

"After she escaped, she killed her parents, then herself." Professor Sheep's sunny smile never faded, but his words chilled them to the bone. "Since this academy was founded, no one has ever. Escaped. From. Here."

With that, Professor Sheep unleashed an arc of electricity. All four instantly felt as though their entire bodies were cramping, their muscles contracting violently beyond their control, tightening, spasming, and going numb.

Thud.

Chen Feng dropped to one knee, while the other three collapsed flat on the ground like dead pigs.

"Oh? You can still stay upright." Professor Sheep pointed at Li Guolong and the other two on the ground and smiled at Chen Feng. "Not bad. You're a little stronger than them, but not by much."

Though Chen Feng couldn't move, he still talked tough. "Fuck you. If you've got the balls, fight me for real without using skills."

Professor Sheep lectured him. "Even now, you're still thinking about games and skills. The internet really has poisoned you."

"Going online makes you a bad child."

Lightning struck Chen Feng again, but he didn't utter a single plea for mercy. He was deliberately violating the bad-child rules to provoke his captor and buy more time.

By his reckoning, it should be about time.

Sirens sounded in the distance.

The fat guy breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh my God, finally."

Professor Sheep paused, only then realizing what they had done. "So you called the police?"

Li Guolong gritted his teeth. "That's right. You're finished."

Professor Sheep looked at them mockingly. "Oh? Am I?"

His brazen confidence gave Chen Feng a bad feeling. Only then did he notice that just one police car was approaching.

Why were there so few of them?

Yellow Hair's heart sank. "They're just coming here to get themselves killed."

Li Guolong shouted toward the police car. "Officers! Officers! Over here!"

Four people got out of the police car.

The male officer leading them introduced himself. "My name is Hu Qing. Were you the ones who called the police?"

"Yes! They kidnapped us!"

"Watch out, Officer Hu! He has a weapon, and he might attack you!"

"Officer Hu, call for backup! Hurry!"

Faced with their accusations, Professor Sheep remained calm. He raised his hands to show that he carried no weapons and said, "Hello, Officer Hu. I'm Professor Yang from the Fourth Mental Hospital's internet addiction school."

Hearing that he was a professor, Officer Hu visibly relaxed his guard. "What exactly happened?"

Professor Sheep struck first with his accusations. "These are troubled youths and psychiatric patients who escaped from our institution."

Li Guolong shouted, "Bullshit! You kidnapped all of us!"

"How can you make up something like that?" Professor Sheep pointed at White Coat on the ground and the unconscious shopkeeper inside. "Look. They resisted violently, injuring not only the convenience store owner but also our caregiver."

Li Guolong grew frantic. "Don't listen to him!"

But Officer Hu ignored Li Guolong and complained instead, "Professor, you need to tighten your supervision in the future."

Professor Sheep looked apologetic. "I'm sorry. We were negligent."

Officer Hu sighed. "Students, your parents sent you to the academy because they want what's best for you. Stop making trouble and go back with the professor. Don't make things difficult for us."

Li Guolong and the others instantly sank into despair.

The fat guy even cursed at him. "Fuck! Is your brain waterlogged?"

"And now you're swearing. You really do need some discipline." Officer Hu turned to Professor Sheep. "We'll leave you to handle them. Let's head back!"

At this point, Yellow Hair couldn't hold back anymore and blurted out the truth. "They're all monsters! Those three on the ground can't talk, and the one with glasses can grow whips out of his back! Ask them if you don't believe me!"

Although every word Yellow Hair said was true, his claim about monsters only convinced Officer Hu that they were talking nonsense. "They really are mentally ill."

And so, under Officer Hu's indifferent gaze, the four were loaded into the van.

Inside the van, looking at the four with nowhere left to turn, Professor Sheep finally burst into peals of unrestrained laughter.

The village roads were rough, so the van didn't return the way it had come. Instead, it looped around and entered through the sanatorium's front gate.

The moment they entered the Fourth Mental Hospital, Professor Sheep's face began to change.

First, his round face distorted into a triangle. Then white fur and a white beard sprouted, his ears grew large and upright, and his black hair gradually shortened, thinned, and turned white. Two large spiral horns emerged.

A goat's face appeared before them. "Welcome back, children."

Then they were taken to the sanatorium.

There, Chen Feng met the fabled Rabbit Nurse.

She was a woman with a rabbit's head, dressed in white from head to toe: a white nurse's cap, white uniform, white stockings, and white rubber shoes. Pointing at them with a finger painted orange-red, she asked the professor, "Professor, who are these?"

Professor Sheep replied respectfully, "Children who escaped. I caught them and brought them back."

Rabbit Nurse gave them an icy look. "So disobedient. Dispose of them."

"You seem to be in a good mood?"

"Yes. The one we captured a week ago has agreed to join us."

"That's wonderful! Dean Ox will certainly be pleased when he hears!"

"Go to the office and the Nurses' Station later to get the keys and let our new colleague out."

"No need. These little bastards already stole my keys for me."

The two monsters chatted back and forth.

Lying on a stretcher, Chen Feng listened with his heart pounding.

Dean Ox? Yellow Hair was right. This hospital really did have a hidden boss.

A new colleague? Then the next escape would have to happen sooner, or there would be another monster to face.

At that moment, Rabbit Nurse took a Logbook and pen out of her clothes. After staring at them for a while, she began drawing circles in it. Chen Feng and the others immediately felt dizzy and drowsy.

Time to see that pighead again.

That was Chen Feng's last thought before he lost consciousness.

But when he regained awareness, he found himself standing on the sports field, rather than back in that dark little room.

The Load Save hadn't loaded?

Chen Feng immediately sensed something was wrong. He tried calling out to the students around him.

"Hey! Hey!"

"Can you hear me?"

"What the hell is going on?"

Although Chen Feng was conscious and could hear the sounds around him and feel the surrounding temperature, he couldn't control his body. It was just like sleep paralysis.

Was this what becoming an Imposter felt like?

Chen Feng hurriedly shouted to the system.

"Load Save! Load Save!"

The system gave no response. After all, Save and Load Save could only be triggered by death, and Chen Feng wasn't dead.

Anyone who died often knew that the average human lifespan was seventy-three years. Chen Feng was twenty-six, which meant these days would continue for another forty-seven years.

That was over seventeen thousand days, more than four hundred thousand hours!!!

And that was the most optimistic scenario. What if Imposters had infinite lifespans?

"Then my save is dead."

Panic crept into Chen Feng's heart. Since transmigrating here, this was the first time he had encountered such a hopeless situation.

He stopped worrying about conserving points and immediately used his Blessing.

[A humble gentleman, gentle as jade.]

[You have activated Lu Xun's Blessing · Humility: the blessed is immune to all spells, magic, sorcery, and status effects.]

A spectral gentleman holding a sword appeared behind Chen Feng, glowing green.

Unfortunately, he had wasted a point. Chen Feng still couldn't control his body. Apparently, being transformed into an Imposter didn't count as a status effect.

"But at least I know I can still use the system even when I can't control my body."

"Fucking amazing. I never thought I'd get backed into a corner with so many lives."

"This world really packs a punch! Brilliant! Brilliant!"

Chen Feng suddenly erupted into wild excitement. If he only had the Save-Load System, then he really would have been finished, just like the transmigrators who had come before him on the third floor of the Happiness Internet Cafe.

But he had more than one system.

And so, on a rainy night a few days later...

A shadowy figure pushed open the dormitory door, walked up to Chen Feng, who had become an Imposter, and snapped his neck.