Ming Po gazed at Zhang Leyao and spoke softly, "Still not willing to talk, Yaoyao?"
His voice had grown gentle once more.
Just like that kind, patient 'Senior Brother' from before.
"I..."
Yaoyao opened her mouth to say sothing, but imdiately clamped it shut.
She eyed them warily, taking another half-step back.
"Ring-a-ding-ding, ring-a-ding-ding—"
Right at that mont, the phones of all four people by the desk rang simultaneously.
Whether it was the phones they originally held or the ones looted from that classroom, they were all ringing in unison.
Ming Po did not look down at his own phone, but the other three imdiately pulled theirs out.
Gao Fan was startled upon seeing the incoming ssage.
"Bro, the mission..."
He held his phone up high, showing it to Ming Po. "The mission has changed!"
Ming Po glanced at it from the corner of his eye, realizing it was a new text notification:
[Breaking the worldview...]
[Exit node has been altered]
[Complete the exam (Crossed out)]
[Uncover the truth, release the departed souls]
...So that was it.
Ming Po understood clearly.
Breaking the worldview... So this was how it was done.
Without a doubt, he was now closing in on the truth of the incident.
When the core of this instance appeared before him in such a manner, it clearly wanted to speak with him.
Or rather...
Zhang Leyao had sothing to say.
—It was precisely because she could not speak that she was trapped here.
"Alright," Ming Po said decisively, glancing back at Zhang Leyao. "Then I will start from the beginning—"
Following Ming Po's words, the surrounding world suddenly collapsed.
In an instant, every word from Ming Po birthed a world.
"You took a leave of absence from your previous school due to bullying and psychological illness, and later transferred to this obscure school..."
As he spoke, the entire world suddenly brightened.
Everything seed to transform into a normal campus.
The building was only a few stories high, and the classrooms were chaotic and noisy.
Students were playing and running in the corridors, full of youthful vitality.
Zhang Leyao looked toward the distant classroom with hopeful anticipation.
The sign for [Class 13, Grade 11] hung right at the end of the second-floor corridor.
"But unfortunately, you did not know what kind of class you were about to transfer into..."
As Ming Po's voice fell, the surrounding world vanished and shifted, turning into an examination room.
Phones had to be collected for the exam, and the class monitor had indeed gone to everyone's desk to collect them.
Precisely because the phones had been gathered, the invigilation was not too strict.
However, Zhang Leyao astutely noticed... every phone handed over was turned off, and they were already turned off the mont they were brought out.
This was highly unusual. Generally speaking, when collecting phones, they would at most be set to silent mode... If they were turned off, it would happen right there on the spot.
It could not possibly be that everyone had turned their phones off in advance before entering the exam room, right?
Moreover, everyone was just laughing and joking when their phones were collected, and even the students with the worst grades showed no signs of panic.
Zhang Leyao felt uneasy, yet also curious.
She opened her mouth, hesitating.
She felt that she might be overthinking things, but she could not be certain.
It was not until the invigilator entered the classroom to patrol that Zhang Leyao could not help but say, "Teacher, I want to reply to a ssage from my mom..."
Urged by the teacher's impatient prompting, Zhang Leyao took two steps from the seat closest to the classroom door and ran up to the podium.
She could not suppress her inner curiosity—so instead of picking up her own phone from the basket first, she tried to turn on the other phones.
—But not a single phone would turn on.
She tried three tis in a row, and none of them powered up. Furthermore, the weight of these phones was far lower than normal... as if there were no batteries inside.
For a mont, Zhang Leyao's back was drenched in sweat.
She faintly realized sothing, but it was not entirely clear in her mind.
It was not until she felt an intense wave of unease and malice that she abruptly turned around—
Behind her, the entire classroom of students had raised their heads, watching her in silence.
So looked sinister, so warned her, so pleaded, and so blinked to hint at sothing...
Zhang Leyao finally guessed a part of the truth, her entire body trembling.
She grabbed her own phone, left the classroom, and dashed toward the restroom.
But she did not call her mom, nor did she even turn on her phone. By the ti she ran back, the exam had already started.
She placed the phone back on the podium, buried her head, and ran back to her seat.
If things had stopped at this point, nothing much would probably have happened.
Until...
"Perhaps because your action of checking the phones made the invigilator vigilant, she carried out her patrol seriously this ti.
"To an invigilator, cheating is far too easy to spot—as long as they observe carefully, it is very hard to hide it from a teacher.
"Sure enough... this collective cheating was discovered."
Ming Po's voice echoed.
The world changed accordingly.
Zhang Leyao heard the invigilator's continuous, harsh reprimands from behind, along with the aggrieved, timid, and seemingly tearful murmurs of the students.
—But she did not dare to look back.
She was terrified that if she turned around now, she would once again see the stares of the entire classroom fixed right on her.
She could only pretend to hear nothing and bury herself in answering the questions.
However, as more and more people were caught cheating, things began to take a turn for the worse.
When the third phone was discovered, the invigilator called for more teachers. Soon, the number of teachers exceeded five. Their horoom teacher even brought a tal detector, starting to search from the back to the front.
More and more phones were confiscated, and the teachers' expressions grew increasingly grim.
—But this had nothing to do with her.
Zhang Leyao rejoiced that she had not joined them. Therefore, no matter how they searched, they would not find anything on her.
But right at that mont.
She suddenly heard the piercing sound of a text ssage ringtone coming from inside her desk drawer.
Zhang Leyao was instantly startled.
—Whose phone?
—Why is it in my drawer?
She shuddered violently, instinctively reaching out to press the phone to silent.
But in that instant, she felt as if she had plunged into an icy abyss, realizing she had done sothing she shouldn't have.
And right then.
The invigilator took large strides forward and shouted sternly, "What are you doing!?"
Without thinking, the teacher reached out, plunging her hand into the drawer and pulling out that phone.
The invigilator's furious actions were overly rough, even scratching Zhang Leyao's shoulder. Her sharp nails tore the back of Zhang Leyao's hand, and blood instantly welled up.
She snatched the phone and smashed it fiercely onto the ground. The battery and back cover shattered instantly, and the phone was completely destroyed.
Just like a falling person, torn to pieces.
"—Were you trying to cheat?!"
She scolded harshly.
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