But no matter how reluctant Chen Bingwen felt, as Ming Po turned his gaze toward him, the green diamond hovering in front of him finally began to flash.
Recalling the unsettling, dangerous atmosphere that had surfaced just monts ago when Miss Naless refused to answer, Chen Bingwen knew he could no longer remain silent.
However...
He could neither lie, nor could he reveal that he had been caught cheating red-handed and singled out as the culprit.
Forced to speak, he rapidly formulated his thoughts while saying at a asured pace:
"I... found myself in an examination room. It was also a math test, very similar to the one we were in at the very beginning, just far more normal than that bloody nightmare.
"When I woke up from my sleep, I realized my exam paper was almost completely filled out.
"I wanted to look up to check the ti, but for so reason, the invigilator beca incredibly agitated. I only lifted my head—I hadn't even seen the ti yet—when she demanded, 'Are you trying to cheat?'
"Of course, I said 'I'm not.' After all, my paper was already done. Looking at anyone else's test would have been pointless... besides, I didn't even know whose paper was worth copying."
The excuse Chen Bingwen fabricated was actually quite good. It was perfectly reasonable.
Even if soone were going to cheat, they would naturally want to copy a top student. Otherwise, they might end up changing their own correct answers to wrong ones.
If he didn't know the other students—which he logically didn't—how could he be sure anyone else's grades were better than his own?
He pushed up his gold-rimd glasses and swallowed hard.
Imdiately after, his hands instinctively clasped together, fingers interlacing like a wrung-out rag.
It looked as though if he squeezed any harder, water would drip out, or as if he were trying to snap his own bones—
"And right then..."
He seed to be deep in thought, his eyes moving toward the upper left.
Chen Bingwen knew of a theory: when people recall a mory, their eyes shift to the upper left; if they shift to the upper right, they are fabricating a story.
Whether this theory held any scientific weight was beside the point... after all, he didn't study the subject. But he knew how to use this trick to make his lie far more convincing.
"Perhaps due to stress or terror, I started hallucinating: the other students suddenly seed unnaturally large, the classroom grew incredibly dim, and I started hyperventilating.
"Ti felt stretched out, and that was exactly when the teacher marched up to , harshly interrogating , 'Are you trying to cheat!'
"I definitely wasn't cheating—I had just woken up, and the answers on my sheet were already filled in. But I was terrified at the ti, so all I could do was say, 'I'm not, I'm not.' Yet the invigilator lood over like a furious ghost, repeatedly roaring, 'Are you trying to cheat?' Her voice kept getting louder and louder...
"Eventually, I just passed out."
Having finished his tale, Chen Bingwen pressed his lips together, fear lingering in his expression.
Then, he looked toward Naless and asked softly, "Student Bai... what about the information on your end?"
'I should be in the clear.'
Chen Bingwen let out a silent sigh of relief as he thought this.
Under the strict condition that he could only speak the truth, he had successfully concealed the fact that all the students had been staring at him, as well as the voice of the girl who had pointed him out. In his narrative, he sounded like nothing more than an innocent student trapped in a paranormal event or a severe hallucination.
Naless only hesitated for a brief second before speaking up: "What I experienced... was completely different from you guys."
Oh?
Hearing this, Ming Po shifted his gaze from Chen Bingwen over to Naless.
"Student Xiao Bai" began to recount her ordeal:
"Just like the situation before being chased by the security guard, I appeared in an empty classroom right around dusk.
"Except that classroom... was filled with filth and curses. Thick, blackish-red smoke perated the room, congealed blood stained the desks, and black shadowy figures whispered vicious things.
"At the ti, I was holding a glowing white jade orb in my left hand. Whenever I threw it, it shattered those shadowy figures and then flew right back into my hand. Once all the shadows were scattered, the jade orb flew up and struck the overhead light, leaving a brand before the room lit up.
"After every light was turned on, the classroom beca clean. So, I moved on to the second classroom and repeated the process.
"There were nine classrooms in total on the first floor. After purifying all of them, I headed up to the second floor.
"The first few classrooms on the second floor weren't too bad, but the curse in Class 13 was incredibly stubborn. Every single desk was covered in filth. It took ages to cleanse them all... but right then, a monster appeared outside.
"Its entire body looked like lting black sludge, and beneath the flowing mud hid countless glowing red eyes. It was horrifying! Just like that security guard who chased earlier! Except it was exceptionally massive, making it completely impossible to fight. I tried picking up a stool to smash it, but it caught the stool in an instant. It caught everything I threw at it. Once I realized I couldn't beat it, all I could do was run.
"Luckily, it was slow—much slower than that guard. But escaping was difficult... I kited it around for ages and still couldn't shake it off.
"Right then, a little girl suddenly appeared to guide . She led to the top floor and told to stall the monster for a bit.
"But we were so high up. If I jumped, I'd almost certainly fall to my death. I didn't have a parachute, nor anything I could make one out of...
"So, I had a flash of inspiration. I took off my shoes, placed them right by the edge of the rooftop, and hid nearby.
"That monster tracked my scent all the way up... and just as it bent down to inspect my shoes, I rushed out from my hiding spot to shove it off the edge!"
'And then what?'
Gao Fan listened with rapt attention, leaning his upper body forward.
However, Xiao Bai paused to catch her breath before giving a faint shake of her head. "But even with a sneak attack from behind, I still couldn't knock it over.
"You must be thinking I was done for right then, aren't you? I had no shoes and my position was exposed.
"But that's not what happened... because right after that, it suddenly transitioned into a cutscene."
An odd expression crossed Xiao Bai's face: "It was like a scripted kill. The jade orb in my hand suddenly flew up and slamd into that pitch-black monster!
"It dragged the monster straight down off the roof—
"Then, looking down from above, I saw that the monster stopped moving almost imdiately."
Hearing this, Gao Fan let out a sigh of relief.
However, Xiao Bai's account wasn't finished:
"...But right at that mont, I suddenly felt a pair of hands on my back, giving a gentle push.
"I lost my footing...
"And ended up falling down too."
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