The girl’s eyes held a mixture of shock, vigilance, and a hint of brutal ferocity. Her soul was far from being as pure and lovely as her exterior suggested. Inside that shell dwelled a butcher whose hands were soaked in blood.
The instant she saw Bai Yu, the girl reacted with swift efficiency, pulling a blood-grooved pig-slaughtering knife from her pocket.
Her stance wasn’t textbook or graceful, but it radiated the coiled menace of a venomous snake, ready to deliver a lethal strike with her blade at any moment.
Bai Yu, not intimidated in the slightest, stepped inside.
They were both wearing a disguise; Ghostface couldn’t recognize her.
“How does it feel, being back here?” Bai Yu’s eyes narrowed beneath her bangs, appearing relaxed, but she was ready to strike at a heartbeat’s notice.
She wasn’t foolish enough to assume these lunatics were just a bit stronger after donning the skin of a beautiful girl and that all their other abilities had vanished, making them easy targets. Even if that were the case, she wouldn’t lower her guard. It was a critical lesson she had learned in the scumbag game: Caution saves the careless.
“How did you find out?” Shen Shuyun’s body was taut as a wire. Facing Bai Yu, she slowly retreated behind the principal’s desk.
“That’s none of your concern. All you need to know is that your presence here isn’t a coincidence. I took a quest to help you recover your memories. That’s it.”
Bai Yu stood in the doorway. Her delicate, slender frame exerted pressure on Shen Shuyun that was no less daunting than a Red-Clothed Violent Ghost.
Shen Shuyun’s instincts screamed that this “old friend” of a Fierce Ghost could crush her with laughable ease. The crucial point was, this wasn’t just the intimidating difference between a human and a Fierce Ghost.
In other words, even before this body swap, the other woman’s power was enough to overwhelm her own.
Without a doubt, this had to be someone from the Top 5 of the Assassin Ranking. No, possibly even one of the Top 3.
“Help me recover my memories?” Shen Shuyun gripped the pig-slaughtering knife in one hand, frowning.
She didn’t know why she had returned, only that it was a good thing. At least now, she had a chance to resolve matters she’d never had the opportunity to settle before.
She wanted to know if that human scum regretted what he had done back then.
“No need. You won’t even reveal your identity. How can I trust you? Let me guess who you are.”
“Doctor? Nightmare? Or Dragon Girl?”
Doctor, the Number One Killer. Nightmare, Number Two. And Dragon Girl, Number Three.
“It can’t be Nightmare. That creature wouldn’t speak calmly like you. She always lets out that grating, ‘hehehe’ laugh.”
Before she could finish, Bai Yu cut her off. “Does identity matter? I’m just doing a mission. Whether you live or die directly affects my success. So, for now, I won’t kill you. But if you learn my identity, then after the mission is over, I will definitely slaughter you.”
Shen Shuyun’s expression flickered. The logic was sound. If things were truly as Bai Yu described, then not knowing her identity was better than knowing.
Without knowing each other’s true names, they were all the same—just participants who could stand around chatting in a back alley.
But once true identities were known, it was truly an affair of “one must die.”
“You have two choices. I can break your limbs, sever your tendons, and then help you find your memories before you die. Or, we cooperate.”
Bai Yu was in no mood to waste words. If Ghostface weren’t still a potential threat, and if she didn’t need to extract information from her, she would have snapped the woman’s arms and legs already. Though, dealing with her after that would be a hassle.
If not for the mission constraints, cutting off her head and carrying that around would be the most convenient method.
Ghostface wasn’t the indecisive type either. She hesitated for less than two seconds before nodding in agreement. “There are things I want to understand here. You need to complete your mission. I don’t care who you are. Mutual benefit. We cooperate.”
She made no mention of what would happen after everything was done. That would be foolish.
Once the task was complete, what was there to think about? The other party would definitely try to kill her first.
Better to be killed later than now. She would see how things developed and find an opportunity to flee with Lu Liangting.
Yes, flee with Lu Liangting.
In her eyes, whether it was Doctor or Dragon Girl, the end result would be the same: both her and Lu Liangting would be dead.
Why?
Hadn’t she noticed Zhao Mingyue standing guard outside?!
That girl was the Female Lead. And that woman in the Rabbit Mask had also said: the target for “capture” wasn’t only Lu Liangting. The implication was clear—the Female Lead could be attempted as well.
“I have questions for you. Answer me truthfully. What are those ghosts in this school?”
“You mean the ghosts attracted by sound? Heh heh heh… Those… those are ghosts filled with even more resentment than I am. Why? Did you encounter them?” Shen Shuyun pulled out the principal’s chair and sat down, though her taut nerves showed no sign of relaxing.
“I killed one.”
“K-Killed one?” Shen Shuyun’s face showed a strange expression, but after a moment’s thought, she figured it made sense.
Whether it was Doctor or Dragon Girl, or even the Fourth or Fifth rankers, their strength was absurdly overpowered.
“Those ghosts aren’t from this school. I brought them here. Or rather, my past self did. Their identities aren’t students of this place. They’re the parents of the students here.”
“Parents?” Zhao Mingyue, standing by Bai Yu’s side, was confused by the term.
“Yes. I suspect you two don’t fully grasp the nature of this place. Let me put it this way: the original owner of this position I’m sitting in was a thorough, complete degenerate. He had a taste for human flesh… and a hobby of adopting other people’s children.”
“And this place? It used to be an orphanage, specifically for taking in children.”
“I think you understand now. The old bastard would scout for prey, infiltrate a family, slaughter the parents, and then, under the guise of the Orphanage Dean, ‘adopt’ the now-orphaned child of the very family he’d destroyed.”
“And as luck would have it, I was one of those children.”
“You mean… the Old Dean? Wasn’t he a good man? Why would he kill people and then adopt their children?” Zhao Mingyue couldn’t fathom it. That a man like that could be a cannibal monster.
“Hmph. Why? How could I possibly know why? That day, I tore open his chest and ripped out his heart. I asked him the same question you just asked. Too bad he didn’t give me an answer.”
Shen Shuyun spoke of it as if recounting the most mundane event, her tone eerily detached.
“And it wasn’t just me. Everyone was asking that question. I remember that night, a full one hundred and twenty ghosts surrounded me, all asking the exact same thing.”
“But I had no answer to give them. I couldn’t exactly say: ‘I’m here to kill the old monster, and your worthless children along with him.'”
At this, a different expression finally surfaced on Shen Shuyun’s face. She smiled. A very faint smile, but it looked genuinely happy.
“I never expected I’d come back here. But this is exactly what I wanted.”
“When I was alive, I couldn’t get answers, couldn’t see the truth. But now? Now they’re dead. They’ve become Fierce Ghosts. Surely, they can speak now?”
