This mission that suddenly popped up from the Scumbag Game left Bai Yu quite puzzled.
Yes, puzzled. She had never seen this side of the Scumbag Game before. To give an example, if she and the remaining game participants were Death Warriors in a gladiatorial arena, entertaining the spectating lords with blood and life, then the Scumbag Game was the boss behind the arena.
He would only think of ways to make your death more entertaining to watch. And how to achieve that? Naturally, through all sorts of quests.
So today’s mission truly baffled her.
Why exactly was this happening?
What was the meaning behind this quest?
Instinctively, she thought about whether she should just eliminate Number 652. It would be simple and quick. But the problem was, the information disclosed in the mission hinted in every way that she should complete the mission another way—at the very least, she couldn’t kill the target.
And the mission itself wasn’t even the most puzzling part. What baffled her most was actually one line within the mission information.
Even those lunatics have feelings, and their hearts also have a fragile and soft side.
That sentence seemed simple on the surface. Was it that, despite their acts of murder and arson, they were actually good people inside, worthy of being saved?
For a male lead in a manga, that kind of psychology might appear. But the problem was, the Scumbag Game didn’t play that game with you. You either killed others, or you were killed by them. What happened in the past wasn’t important. From the moment you entered the Scumbag Game, you were a completely new self.
And, speaking of which, Bai Yu herself was wondering: was someone like her also worthy of Redemption?
And who would come to redeem her?
A lunatic whose hands were drenched in blood. If she truly met someone trying to guide her towards redemption one day, her first reaction would probably be to slash them with her Blade.
‘To redeem these lunatics, the prerequisite is to make them obediently listen. That’s much harder than killing them… Wait…’
Bai Yu frowned. She seemed to vaguely think of something.
Putting aside whatever fit the Scumbag Game was throwing, just considering this mission being assigned to her, could it be because they valued her strength?
As everyone knew, preaching with muscle was often far more efficient than persuasion through love.
While Bai Yu was pondering the quest issued by the Scumbag Game, Zhao Mingyue had already followed a path overgrown with weeds—clearly untraveled for a long time—and arrived at the outer wall of Dongcheng Thirteenth High School.
Standing outside, one could only see the school’s outline hidden in darkness. After getting closer, the general view became clearer. At first glance, there was nothing special. Parts of the school wall were cracked, and large patches of white wall plaster had peeled off.
The school playground was overgrown with various weeds, as was the empty space in front of the Teaching Building. Weeds of all sizes sprouted from the cracked gaps in the ground.
Following the perimeter wall to the school gate, the gate was covered in rust. A black, rusted Iron Chain locked the gate shut. The good news was that the hollow gate design made it relatively easy to climb.
The total area of the school wasn’t very large, with only four buildings in total: a four-story Teaching Building, a three-story Children’s Palace, a Cafeteria, and a student dormitory.
After all, this place was converted from an orphanage. The funds for building the school originally weren’t much, and considering the geographical location, not many students would come here to study—mostly children from the surrounding villages.
“That Old Dean was truly a good man. Building a school here would only result in a loss, losing money every year. They say that towards the end, the school was supported entirely by donations from caring people in society.”
“The key is, this place was still a private school. Later, because the school couldn’t afford to pay the teachers’ salaries, there wasn’t enough teaching staff, and coupled with the Old Dean’s passing, that’s what ultimately led to the school being abandoned.”
Zhao Mingyue muttered to herself in front of the school gate. The beam of her flashlight shone onto the outer wall of one of the buildings.
Unfortunately, the flashlight’s beam was a bit weak, not as powerful as a high-intensity Flashlight. But it still allowed her to discover some problems.
Due to prolonged exposure to wind and rain without maintenance, it was normal for the outer wall of this building to turn yellow, slightly crack, and peel. However, in a certain spot, she actually saw wall blackening that only occurred from fire damage.
Sunshine Apartment had once experienced a fire, so she was very familiar with this. She was certain that part of this building had absolutely been in a fire.
“A fire…”
The information she found and the quest information hadn’t mentioned the word “fire” at all. They only spoke of a poisoning case, and then all the children in a certain class died.
Thinking about it now, that really was problematic.
In this small school, everyone ate in the Cafeteria. If it were poisoning, how could only one class die while the other students were fine?
If it were a fire, then it made sense. Because the students in that class would definitely gather together for lessons. If, at that time, the windows and doors had been sealed shut, and something like gasoline had been poured inside the Classroom, then it could have been done.
But it was only a possibility. The amount of combustible material in a Classroom was too little, not like a dormitory…
‘Dormitory!?’
Zhao Mingyue abruptly turned her head, the beam of the flashlight shining towards the other buildings.
This class that was wiped out was a special class. Assuming these orphans all rested in one dormitory, could the murderer have set the fire there?
The flashlight swept around but couldn’t make anything out clearly. Helplessly, she could only look back.
“This probably isn’t the Teaching Building, but the dormitory.”
“I can’t really make out the big picture from here. I still need to go inside.”
Zhao Mingyue was the type to act immediately upon deciding. Muttering continuously, she held the flashlight in her mouth. Rubbing her hands together, unafraid of the dirt, she firmly grasped the rusty school gate. Using both hands and feet, without a trace of a lady’s grace, and not caring at all about her image, she flipped over the gate and into the school in a few swift moves, her actions clean and decisive.
Landing, she clapped her hands, dusted the rust flakes off her body, and carefully walked along the concrete path deeper into the school, holding the flashlight.
“Bai Yu, Sister Yu, are you still there!” Zhao Mingyue called out softly for Bai Yu in her heart. Hunched over, she looked left and right carefully, her pace slow, each step seemingly taken on thin ice.
“I’m here.”
“Mm, good that you’re here. I’ve come in now. What should I do? Which quest should I complete first?”
She hadn’t walked far before arriving in front of the building she had looked at earlier. Just as she had thought, this building wasn’t the Teaching Building at all; it was the dormitory. It was her fault for not looking closely earlier. The two characters for ‘Dormitory’ were painted so large in red paint right in front of the building.
She had to admit, everything in this school looked quite worn down everywhere, except for these two large red painted characters. They were bright, glossy red, as if they had just been painted recently.
But, unlike the neat characters elsewhere, these two words were written somewhat twistedly. You couldn’t say they were written badly, but they just gave off a feeling of not being quite “right.”
