I wonder if my appearance has changed... Che Quan thought.
On the upper left of his school uniform, near his heart, was a gold nameplate.
Che Quan took it off to look. Written clearly on it was-Class (4), Che Quan.
It seemed that his identity at this "Yunliang Academy" was very likely the same as his instance identity: the class's "invisible student."
What about the others?
Had they entered this place too, temporarily becoming the people their "instance identities" corresponded to?
With those questions in mind, Che Quan scanned the vast, empty, silent campus again. There was no sign of anyone else coming through the school gates.
He simply entered the classroom building and headed toward Class (4).
The classroom's back door was closed, so Che Quan went straight in through the front.
Whether it was the influence of his instance identity or the students of Class (4) really were that absorbed in their studies, not a single person looked up as Che Quan passed the lectern and walked to the class's only empty seat.
Even the teacher lecturing at the front showed no reaction.
It was as though Che Quan truly was "invisible," and no one could sense his existence.
Che Quan sat down, narrowing his eyes in thought.
His was an isolated seat at the very back of the classroom, in its most inconspicuous spot.
It was also the best position for keeping track of the situation.
Che Quan first looked toward the lectern. The person teaching there was none other than Chang Jianfeng, the so-called "Teacher Chang."
Chalk in hand and fashionable, expensive glasses perched on his broad nose, he lectured with spittle flying, as though he had blended perfectly into the scene and truly become "Teacher Chang."
Che Quan's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
That same eerie sense of dissonance he had felt upon seeing the graduation photo brimming with youthful vitality surfaced again.
Below the lectern-
Yuan Zhou sat in the front row.
He, too, had lost his earlier air of abject terror. His face was now full of cunning and flattery.
His slightly pointed head was held high. Like "Teacher Chang's" most devoted supporter, he loudly responded to every statement and every question the teacher uttered.
Needless to say, that utterly natural performance was not something Yuan Zhou could have acted out.
Behind Yuan Zhou was Miao Rouning, seated in the center of the class.
Miao Rouning was much the same. She was preening in a small mirror, a faint air of malice and viciousness lurking in her pretty, almost vulgar features.
Although she wore a school uniform, she had deliberately loosened it to expose both shoulders and the camisole underneath, making her especially eye-catching.
After seeing Miao Rouning, Che Quan had already begun to draw a tentative conclusion.
Then he found Chen Yuxiang's seat.
He had assumed Chen Yuxiang would have been assimilated just like those three, but to his slight surprise-
Although Chen Yuxiang wore thick, black-framed glasses and plain, unremarkable clothes, keeping her head lowered as she tried desperately to minimize her presence,
she had secretly scrawled a large "SOS" on her desk behind the cover of a tall stack of books, almost like a prank, as a signal.
Chen Yuxiang's deskmate was "Qiao Qiao," who would later transform into a monster consumed by resentment.
Che Quan pressed his lips together, his fingertips unconsciously tapping the desktop.
Very softly, almost without a sound.
Then Che Quan suddenly noticed something.
There was no Jiang Cong in Class (4).
Every seat was occupied, but none of them held Jiang Cong...
So he really was a liar through and through. Better that he's not here.
Che Quan gave a silent scoff.
But what he heard next plunged him into profound silence and fury.
[Alert, alert! Player 002, Che Quan, please be advised! The skin hunger syndrome buff will remain at 100% intensity. Three minutes remain until the first episode! Please find your "crush" promptly to alleviate the symptoms!]
Che Quan: "..."
He really wanted to tear all of this apart with his bare hands.
Fortunately, class ended a minute later.
Unable to spare any attention for Chen Yuxiang's pleading gaze, Che Quan strode out of the classroom with a grim expression.
He had no idea what identity Jiang Cong held.
As he searched, Che Quan caught sight of a somewhat familiar figure in the neighboring Class (3) classroom.
Ning Dantong.
She seemed to retain a little of her self-awareness as well. Rather than treating him as invisible like everyone else, she kept staring at him with a fearful gaze, as though she wanted to say something but could not bring herself to.
But Che Quan had no time to deal with her now.
In theory, with the skin hunger syndrome buff at only 100% intensity, he should have been able to endure it effortlessly.
But he was "human" now.
Che Quan had absolutely no intention of gambling on how intense an episode a human could withstand.
As the three minutes ticked away, his gaze grew colder and colder.
He could only head to the deserted top floor of the classroom building, intending to endure this episode in silence.
There was an abandoned storage room on the top floor. It was pitch-black inside, and Che Quan stepped in without a second thought.
Just as he began to feel something amiss within his body and could barely stay on his feet, someone suddenly reached for him in the darkness.
With a gentle tug, the person drew him into his arms.
Che Quan's entire body was weak. Though his gaze was fierce, he could not strike a heavy blow.
He gritted his teeth, knowing perfectly well who it was, and tried his hardest to clench his trembling fingers.
No one but Jiang Cong could alleviate his symptoms so completely with even the slightest skin contact.
That was precisely what infuriated Che Quan most.
He secretly swore he would find an opportunity to kill Jiang Cong later.
Che Quan focused on steadying his ragged breathing. Suddenly, Jiang Cong leaned toward his neck, his warm breath making Che Quan shudder uncontrollably.
Che Quan's brow immediately tightened at Jiang Cong's sudden approach. He opened his mouth to snap at him, only to hear Jiang Cong ask in a low, resonant voice, "Is this how vampires bite people?"
As he spoke, Jiang Cong brought his lips and teeth even closer to Che Quan, intruding further as though he meant to demonstrate.
Che Quan clenched his teeth harder.
Fortunately, Jiang Cong had spoken softly enough that only the two of them could hear.
Otherwise, the live chat would have exploded in an instant.
Of course, it was hardly calm now, either. Half the comments were furiously cursing the blacked-out stream, while the other half were deep in heated discussion.
[Goddammit, again?! We finally get to see the little beauty in school-uniform roleplay, and you pull this blackout crap?!]
[Could the streaming platform please hurry up and introduce a night mode that works in any situation?! I really want to see the little beauty!]
[I'm illiterate, so I'll go first: streaming platform, fuck your mother.]
[Just to be clear, I haven't seen anything about the "Haunting" instance, so I'm still completely lost. An earnest question: is this part of the instance? Why did the scene suddenly change?]
[It is. They need to resolve "Qiao Qiao's" resentment at its source. I've watched other streams of this instance. I remember a few teams getting this far, too. But none of them managed to come up with a solution that completely satisfied "Qiao Qiao," so they still got wiped out.]
[Then where did that 0.79% survival rate come from? Someone must have cleared it, right?]
[Nope. That's not the actual survival rate. It's the theoretical survival rate calculated by the Instance System. Right now... the actual survival rate for the "Haunting" instance is 0.00%.]
Before you continue