A new Rat-Headed Man was born

"You're Gao Louyu?"

After evening study hall, the petite girl was cornered in a dark part of campus that the surveillance cameras couldn't see.

Zhang Di led the group.

"Tsk, you look even more innocent than in the video. Who would've thought you had such a nice body?"

He looked the trembling girl up and down, his gaze like a cold, foul-smelling venomous snake.

The boys behind him laughed and jeered, their faces full of lechery.

Gao Louyu trembled even harder.

Zhang Di reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder.

Gao Louyu began screaming like a madwoman.

She seemed completely deranged, her once-delicate face smeared with tears and snot, her features contorted.

Zhang Di and the others scowled in disgust.

"Fuck, what a buzzkill. Crazy bitch."

He slapped her hard across the face, sending Gao Louyu stumbling several steps sideways before she fell to the ground.

His lackeys then began punching and kicking her.

Zhang Di stood to one side and lit a cigarette, muttering, "What a waste," with a dark look in his eyes.

They didn't stop until he finished his cigarette.

On the dark campus, only the solar-powered streetlights lining the paths cast a cold, bleak light, with swarms of insects gathering beneath them.

Gao Louyu wiped her bloodied mouth and shakily climbed to her feet.

Yin Chao stood beneath a streetlight, watching her limp toward him.

Her head hung low, her movements stiff and her hair disheveled, like a walking corpse.

He saw that her eyes were wide and her lips kept moving.

Only when she drew closer...

Could he hear what she was saying...

"Die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you, die, all of you..."

The last time he saw Gao Louyu was on the rooftop.

Yin Chao knew she had jumped to her death, so he wasn't surprised.

"You fucking called me here just to tell me this? I thought you had something good for me."

That was Zhang Di.

Gao Louyu said nothing. She merely gazed calmly into the distance as the wind lifted the strands of hair beside her ears.

If being too beautiful was a flower's sin, then the same held true for people.

"I swear to the Devil that I'll kill you all."

That was what Gao Louyu said.

Zhang Di looked utterly impatient. He kicked open the rooftop's iron door, still cursing under his breath. "Fucking idiot."

The instant he finished speaking, a tremendous bang rang out behind him.

Zhang Di stiffly turned around. Gao Louyu was already gone from the rooftop.

The campus loudspeakers suddenly crackled with static.

Gao Louyu's voice came through them. "I swear to the Devil that I'll kill you all."

The loudspeakers kept repeating those eerie words while her bloodied corpse lay on the sports field.

It was just like a horror movie where playing a recording of someone's death brought down a curse.

All of Linmu No. 2 Middle School fell under a curse that exacted its price in lives.

Yin Chao stood still, watching the scene change.

In the days that followed, people at the school died in accidents every so often.

Yang Yu slipped in the cafeteria and had his eyeball pierced by a chopstick.

Xu Qianqian missed a step going downstairs and fell, her limbs twisted and stark white bone protruding from her knee.

Wang Li swallowed the pen she was holding during an exam, piercing her throat on the spot.

And Zhang Di tried to climb over the wall during evening study hall, only to impale his thigh and bleed to death hanging there.

There were fewer and fewer people at the school. Some transferred out; others died.

Until, at last, a fire of unknown origin engulfed all of Linmu No. 2 Middle School.

Everyone escaped except the students in that class.

The fire broke out just as the vice principal and Director He were attending Teacher Li's demonstration lesson.

Every coincidence was terrifyingly precise.

The students waiting for rescue on the sports field heard heart-wrenching screams and sobs coming from the blaze, as though the Devil were passing judgment on sinners.

No one dared go in to save them.

All anyone could think of were the words that had repeated over the loudspeakers for so long: "I swear to the Devil that I'll kill you all."

Only then did the vision end.

Yin Chao's vision went dark again.

He stood where he was, completely unmoved.

"So, Linmu, you're Gao Louyu?"

As soon as he asked, a flash of light appeared before him, and a pale blue figure emerged.

This time, Linmu had a solid form, but his face had changed.

It was Gao Chao's face.

Yin Chao frowned. "You're Gao Chao?"

Linmu suddenly let out a sinister cackle. He didn't answer Yin Chao, merely changed his face again.

Yin Chao didn't recognize this face, but a possibility suddenly occurred to him.

What if Linmu wasn't a person?

Just as he'd asked before, "Your name is Linmu, and this middle school is called Linmu too... Don't tell me... you're the school itself?"

Linmu abruptly stopped laughing and vanished again.

This time, light finally returned to Yin Chao's vision. Everything before had been an illusion. Only now was he back in the actual instance world.

His hands and feet were bound, and there were other people in the room.

"You're awake?"

Liang Chen's voice rang out.

He looked at Liang Chen, whose mouth was bruised and bloodied. He seemed badly hurt.

"How are you?" he asked.

Liang Chen shook his head. "I'm fine."

He stared straight into Liang Chen's slightly rounded eyes. Every time Yin Chao saw them, they reminded him of some small animal.

They were usually moist and bright, but now their outer corners drooped.

Yin Chao narrowed his eyes and said with the hint of a smile, "I don't believe you."

Liang Chen: "..."

When Liang Chen didn't respond again, Yin Chao quickly suppressed his mischievous urge to tease him.

He looked around and discovered there were plenty of other people here. Some he didn't recognize, but one surprised him.

It was the quiet girl.

"Why are you here too?"

He asked.

The quiet girl glanced at him timidly and shrank into the corner without answering.

Yin Chao had no desire to press her further.

He noticed that, besides the bound captives, there was a puddle of blood on the floor of this cramped, gloomy room.

There were also some pink clumps that looked like minced flesh.

Just then, the door opened from outside, and a Rat-Headed Man covered in brown fur walked in.

Yin Chao's eyes widened. He remembered perfectly well that the Rat-Headed Man had died by Liang Chen's gun, and Anna had even eaten his corpse.

Then this one...

Could there be more than one Rat-Headed Man?

He pushed the door open and walked in, casually grabbing a boy beside him.

Ignoring the boy's screams and struggles, the Rat-Headed Man pinned him to the floor and drove his hard, sharp claws into the boy's cheek.

Starting at his temple, he cut downward along the skull.

Like peeling an orange, separating skin from flesh.

The boy's agonized screams echoed through the cramped space, and the heavy stench of blood assaulted everyone's nostrils.

Yin Chao watched the Rat-Headed Man tear off the boy's entire face and toss it aside, then grab the dying boy by the head and drag him away.