Chapter 42: Shen Quan

"Xiao Qin, what are you doing?!"

Seeing Xiao Qin walking over with a gloomy expression, Xiaowei looked terrified and backed away repeatedly.

Xiao Qin was out of his mind now. Completely devoid of fear, he walked straight past the ghost students and suddenly lunged behind the departing players.

Indeed, he was mad.

Since he was going to die anyway, and he knew that being terrified by the ghosts had exposed his flaws, he was doomed to die soon.

If death was inevitable, why not throw caution to the wind and go crazy?

At this moment, he had temporarily lost his fear of the ghosts, leaving behind only hatred for his companions.

"...What am I doing? Aren't we companions? Aren't we a collective? Why didn't you save me?"

Xiao Qin's question received no direct answer.

Xiaowei and the others were unwilling to be associated with Xiao Qin.

The ghost students were still watching from the side, and they just wanted to escape the cafeteria as quickly as possible.

"You were the one who violated the cafeteria rules. It wasn't me who knocked over your food tray."

Having said that, Xiaowei continued to put distance between herself and Xiao Qin.

She felt that she had the worst luck today, and right now she desperately hoped the freckled ghosts would kill Xiao Qin quickly. In case this madman forced her to violate the rules, wouldn't she die a most unjust death?

Xiao Qin clenched his fists, stopped wasting words, and rushed toward Xiaowei, intending to kick her food tray to the ground.

Xiaowei's heart tightened, and she quickly ran behind Zhang Si.

Regardless of where she hid, Xiao Qin pursued her relentlessly and tangled with her.

"Kid, do you really think you can threaten me just because you're risking your life?"

Zhang Si looked at Xiao Qin with utter disdain. Although he didn't want to save the woman who had intentionally cowered behind him, Xiao Qin was showing him far too little respect.

Since this woman was hiding behind him, Xiao Qin should have found someone else to vent his anger on—wasn't Lin Long, with his miserable expression over there, an easier target? Why did he have to target him, Zhang Si?

"I don't care, all of you must die with me!"

Xiao Qin could no longer care about such things; he had completely lost his sanity.

He lunged at Zhang Si in a chaotic manner, intent on dragging others down with him.

At that moment, Huan Xiao walked in from outside.

She had originally not planned to enter the cafeteria, but Teacher Chen had deliberately turned back earlier to tell her there was a human-only serving window in the cafeteria.

Her very first reaction was not joy, but a profound soul-deep question:

"Teacher, why does our school have a dining window for humans?"

Wasn't this a ghost school? Could it be that there were ghosts among them who enjoyed eating human food?

Was the cafeteria so considerate? Were ghosts perhaps a bit too inclusive of one another?

"It's not prepared by the cafeteria, it's the rules."

Teacher Chen explained patiently, pausing for a moment before saying with some hesitation:

"However, that food... never mind, it's fine if you prefer to eat outside."

With that, Teacher Chen turned and left without looking back.

This time he truly left and did not return.

Hearing Teacher Chen's words, Huan Xiao could not curb her curiosity and wanted to see for herself what kind of food had caused Teacher Chen to trail off and leave things unsaid.

Thus, having finished her lunch, Huan Xiao leisurely followed the ghost students toward the cafeteria.

Who would have thought that the moment she stepped inside, she would see one man punch another man, sending him flying.

The frail man had barely hit the ground when a twin-tailed ghost, waiting eagerly on the side, neatly dismembered his thigh.

Then, a dozen ghosts swarmed over to take action against the man. The man was brutally dismembered, and chunks of his flesh entered countless ghost mouths.

Huan Xiao thought: What kind of murder scene have I accidentally stumbled into?

"Ah, you're a player too!"

At that moment, a woman walked up to Huan Xiao, as if she had finally found her backbone.

She said to Huan Xiao:

"Join us! There is a Qi Controller in our team—Shen Quan, Big Boss Shen. He can carry us through."

The freckled ghosts dining on the ground glanced toward Huan Xiao's side upon hearing this.

Seeing a human actually taking the initiative to approach their classmate with such an enthusiastic expression, the twin-tailed ghost dropped the leg bone in its hand onto the floor.

Sob, sob, sob. There was actually a ghost smarter than the monitor, managing to infiltrate the humans? Was their class going to get a new monitor?

Huan Xiao looked bewildered and asked:

"How do you know I'm a player?"

"I saw it. You were sneaking glances at your phone earlier. You must have been checking your tasks! Besides, you're different from these ghosts; you must be human!"

Xiaowei's face radiated utter confidence.

Although Huan Xiao indeed was human, she felt that this particular player's judgment was a bit rash.

In a world full of malevolent ghosts, shouldn't one be a bit more cautious?

"Stupid woman, do you think this is playing house?"

Zhang Si sneered at Xiaowei, then turned to Shen Quan and asked:

"Brother Shen, I think we should be careful. What if she's a ghost in disguise? Wouldn't that add a ticking time bomb to our team? How do you think we should verify her identity?"

Casually dumping the human hands, human brains, and human eyeballs from his food tray into Lin Long's tray, Shen Quan replied:

"Make her take out her phone and show us her game task."

"Brother Shen's idea is brilliant. As expected of Brother Shen."

Zhang Si despised Shen Quan, yet because of Shen Quan's status as a Qi Controller, he still hovered around him like a sycophant.

Seeing Shen Quan dump that pile of disgusting human tissue into Lin Long's tray, he followed suit and dumped the contents of his own tray into Lin Long's as well.

Throughout this, Lin Long watched silently, not daring to resist.

Xiaowei, standing beside Huan Xiao, had originally wanted to say a few more words to her—having another female in the team would make her feel less vulnerable.

However, seeing the other two men dump human meat onto Lin Long, Xiaowei felt a surge of anger, thinking they were bullying the weak.

Yet in the end, with a pang of guilt, Xiaowei cast an apologetic glance at Lin Long and likewise dumped the entire contents of her food tray into his.

One could only wonder what emotions stirred within Lin Long as he watched the very people he had once kindly helped treat him this way.

Lin Long merely kept his head down, appearing indifferent to it all, or perhaps simply so accustomed to oppression that he bore it silently.

From beginning to end, he uttered not a word. The other three players also acted as though nothing had happened, casually ignoring Lin Long entirely.

"Your name is Xiao Huan. I remember it."

Shen Quan walked over and casually tossed his food tray to Zhang Si.

Zhang Si caught the hint and placed both food trays into the collection bin.

If not for the restriction against violating this school's chaotic rules, he would never have bothered to neatly put away the food trays.

Xiaowei had originally wanted to hand her tray to Zhang Si as well, but the fierce glare he shot her told her that nothing good would come of bossing him around.

Helpless, Xiaowei had no choice but to go put away her tray herself.

The mere thought of having to interact with ghosts while returning the tray made her heart race with tension.

Meanwhile, Huan Xiao was unsurprised that this man knew her name.

She had seen Shen Quan glancing at the seating chart earlier, so he must have learned her name then.

Huan Xiao only found it strange that Shen Quan could remember her. Did he memorize the faces and names of everyone in the class? Such memory was terrifying.

"Yes, I am Xiao Huan, but I don't want to join your group."

Huan Xiao took the initiative to state her stance clearly.