The Administrator was enraged by Ji Xun's taunts. The Electric Baton in his hand crackled nonstop with electricity.
"You're asking to die." He swung the Electric Baton at Ji Xun.
Ji Xun dodged, and the Electric Baton struck the tree beside him instead.
Sparks flew, and the tree, as thick as a person's waist, was scorched black by the electric shock.
"Holy shit! That's way too overpowered." Su Rang stared, dumbfounded.
"Put your sword away!" Ji Xun shouted.
Yuan Ci obediently put his sword away, then laughed. "Didn't you say you weren't going to talk to me?"
Ji Xun shot him a fierce glare, and Yuan Ci hastily said, "I was wrong."
Seeing that the two still had the leisure to chat, the Administrator's eyes reddened with rage. Like an enraged bull, he seemed determined not to stop until he had bitten his prey to death.
Su Rang barely dodged the blows raining down on him, feeling close to tears. "Could you two spare a glance for me?"
Yuan Ci shouted to Ji Xun, "Go to the Small Auditorium! I've got this!"
They understood each other without another word. Ji Xun broke into a run toward the Small Auditorium without hesitation.
The Administrator knew things were going wrong when he saw this and tried to stop Ji Xun, but Yuan Ci abandoned his cat-and-mouse games and began fighting him bare-handed.
Every punch struck flesh, leaving the Administrator struggling desperately to defend himself.
The Electric Baton struck Yuan Ci, but he didn't even blink, as though he felt no pain.
The Administrator wiped the blood from his mouth and grinned viciously. "Interesting. But you're destined to stay here as a snack to go with my drinks."
He swept his hand through the air. As though receiving a signal, the Proxy Ghosts hunting players and NPC students across campus all headed toward the sports field.
Su Rang pouted at his guild leader and complained, "You and Ji Xun really are a match made in troublemaking heaven. You just had to provoke him into going berserk."
Yuan Ci replied cheerfully, "Are we? You've got a good eye."
Su Rang: Could you have a little self-awareness? Did that sound like a compliment?
Yuan Ci's gaze sharpened slightly. "Go help him!"
The instance in the Small Auditorium had been sealed away after the Principal was killed. All that remained now was its rebuilt shell and the ruins left inside by the fire all those years ago.
By the time Ji Xun arrived, thick smoke was already pouring through the gaps around the Small Auditorium's doors.
Su Rang caught up just then, panting.
"Ci sent me to help you."
Ji Xun looked toward Yuan Ci, but all he could see was a dense mass of Proxy Ghosts.
"It's fine. Wei Lin and the others are all there." Assuming Ji Xun was worried about Yuan Ci's safety, Su Rang reassured him before asking, "What do we do? Put out the fire?"
The Small Auditorium's doors were already hot to the touch. Clearly, the fire had started inside.
Ji Xun shook his head and pointed at the classroom building near the Small Auditorium. "Follow me."
Su Rang didn't know why he trusted Ji Xun so much, but he obediently followed him.
They reached the east side of the first floor, which had originally been part of the area searched by the Abyss.
Through the window at the end of the East Building, they could look through the Small Auditorium's windows and see what was happening inside.
Sure enough, just as Ji Xun had seen in the fire, flames climbed the curtains, engulfing the entire Small Auditorium in a sea of fire.
"Is this a reenactment of what happened back then?" Su Rang had been unconscious earlier, so he had missed the scene in the Small Auditorium where the Principal and the Administrator plotted the murders.
Ji Xun asked, "Do you have anything that can fuel a fire?"
Although Su Rang didn't know what he intended to do, he took some gasoline out of his inventory. "This is left over from the last Apocalypse Instance I entered."
Ji Xun took the gasoline and poured it down along the windowsill.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Su Rang hastily tried to stop him. "Won't that bring the fire in here?"
Ji Xun said gravely, "The bodies of Class Twelve are in the classroom building. Or rather, this entire building is their burial ground. We can't find them all. The only way is to let them come out themselves."
Only by destroying what trapped them could they freely leave the classroom building.
Just like Deng Wen and Jiang Yao.
Su Rang gritted his teeth. "All right! I'll go pour the gasoline!"
These items could be bought in the shop, but Ji Xun was broke. Without the slightest qualm, he held out his hand and had Su Rang buy them.
To make sure they didn't miss a single spot, Ji Xun also had Deng Wen call over every ghost who could help burn the classroom building.
Su Rang looked at the Failing Student Ghost in despair. "Why is even his skull missing this time?"
He had only just adjusted to the Failing Student Ghost's appearance when something grabbed his leg. Looking down, he saw a grayish-blue child baring teeth and giggling at him.
"Ji Xun, save me!" Su Rang cried.
Ji Xun sighed, picked up the Baby, and soothed the child. "Ignore him. This big brother is a scaredy-cat."
The child clapped and laughed. Su Rang patted his wildly pounding chest, only for an eerie voice to sound behind him. "Sorry for frightening you. I apologize on behalf of my child."
"It's all ri-" Su Rang turned with a stiff neck. The Red-Dress Ghost's face was almost touching the tip of his nose.
The deathly chill washing over him sent a shiver down his spine.
After those three consecutive shocks, Su Rang almost thought he was about to depart this beautiful world.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and crouched in a corner, silently reciting the Ghost-Repelling Charm.
As long as he didn't look, listen, or think about them, there were no ghosts in this world.
Doctor Zhai, who hadn't gotten the chance to deliver the fourth shock, adjusted his glasses. "You owe me another favor."
Behind him stood Deng Wen and the other students from "Straighten Your Clothes."
They picked up the gasoline cans from the floor, divided up the work, and ran toward different floors.
Ji Xun spread his hands, then nudged Su Rang, who was pretending to be a mushroom in the corner, with his foot. "Get up and do some work too."
Su Rang opened his eyes pitifully. Only after seeing that all the ghosts had gone to pour gasoline did he dare stand up.
The flames spread smoothly into the classroom building. The gasoline on the floor acted like a fuse, and within moments, all six floors were engulfed in fire.
Ji Xun and Su Rang went down to the first floor and stopped in front of Straighten Your Clothes. Ji Xun clenched his fist and smashed the Mirror covering the entire wall.
As the Mirror shattered and fell, six curled-up human figures appeared clearly on the wall.
"Are they students from Class Twelve?" Su Rang asked.
Ji Xun nodded and walked out of the classroom building in silence.
Blood covered the sports field, along with fragments of bodies whose origins were impossible to identify.
Ji Xun saw the Administrator's corpse, almost sliced into mincemeat.
When he had dismembered the students all those years ago, had he ever imagined that he would meet the same end one day?
Figures emerged from the classroom building one after another. Deng Wen and Jiang Yao stood at the front, both with tears filling their eyes.
This was the first time they had walked onto the sports field in their own bodies.
One youthful, radiant face after another appeared behind Deng Wen.
Their bodies shed the wounds and suffering they had endured in life, returning to the moment when they had looked their best.
The classroom building wailed continuously amid the sea of flames. Things kept falling from its windows, vanishing into nothing the instant they hit the ground.
"Ji Xun, thank you." Jiang Yao looked back at the sea of fire.
The tragedy of Class Twelve had begun with a great fire and ended with one.
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