“The second time I woke up, I thought I'd just had a nightmare, but I was truly terrified deep down, so I stayed in the classroom and didn't go anywhere. But once the six o'clock bells finished ringing, everyone in this building turned into monsters. I hadn't even made it down the stairs before they pounced on me...”
Le Jun paused there, the lingering terror of death still churning in his heart, making him tremble uncontrollably.
He took a deep breath to steady his emotions before continuing, “When I woke up the third time, I didn't know what to do either. After zoning out in the classroom for a while, I thought I'd find an empty place to hide. But as soon as I ran downstairs, I saw you jump...”
“Wait!” Ye Li suddenly interrupted him. “So including this time, you've looped four times?”
“Yeah!” Le Jun nodded. “Why?”
Ye Li frowned slightly.
He had looped once more than she had; including this time, it was only her third loop.
Was there something suspicious about this discrepancy?
Then again, since the original host's memories were missing, it was entirely possible that her memories of a first loop had been wiped.
Unable to confirm anything for now, Ye Li didn't say more. “Nothing. Go on!”
Le Jun continued, “After you jumped, it caused a massive commotion. A lot of people crowded around to watch. I heard people saying you were from Arts Class 11 and named Ningning, so I remembered it. At the time, I thought since that happened to you, everything that followed would change. But when six o'clock arrived, everyone still turned into monsters, and I couldn't escape either... So when I woke up again, I waited for you the whole time. You know the rest!”
“Yeah, I know.” Ye Li's gaze was indifferent. “Seeing that I wasn't dead, you came running over especially to ask if I wanted to go die!”
Catching the mockery in her tone, Le Jun gave a bitter smile.
The experiences of the past few days were truly driving him insane. If Ye Li's abnormal behavior hadn't given him a glimmer of hope, he probably would have completely broken down by now, which was why he had lost his composure and spoken without thinking.
After listening to Le Jun's account, Ye Li sorted through her thoughts and asked, “What time do you wake up each time?”
“Five-thirty!” Le Jun answered with certainty. “Every time I regain consciousness, the dismissal bell is just ringing.”
School dismissed at a fixed 5:30.
Ye Li nodded.
She remembered that the first time she woke up, when she walked out of the classroom, she had checked the bell tower clock and it had been around 5:40.
Subtracting the time she had delayed in the classroom, she had probably awakened around 5:35.
Ye Li shared her own timing as well, then asked, “Aside from me, have you noticed any other suspicious people these past few days?”
If there was one, there could be two; perhaps someone else was trapped in this looping space as well.
If they could find them, more people meant more clues.
“Probably... not.”
Le Jun shook his head hesitantly. “Usually, I head straight to the gymnasium to train after school, and I rarely interact with my classmates, so I wouldn't really notice anything strange about them.”
If Ye Li's leap hadn't caused such a massive scene, he might not have noticed her so quickly either.
“You're a student athlete?” Ye Li asked.
She had heard him mention the gymnasium twice already; the only seniors still training at the gymnasium in their third year of high school were student athletes.
“Yeah!” Le Jun looked a bit puzzled. “You don't know who I am?”
“Nope!” Ye Li kept a straight face, bullshitting with utter solemnity. “I'm a new transfer student. I don't know many people.”
“Oh.” Le Jun didn't doubt her in the slightest, even taking the initiative to introduce himself. “I'm Le Jun, Science Class 3, student athlete. I swim.”
Ye Li raised an eyebrow upon hearing that.
This school's senior year had fourteen classes in total: nine science classes, from Class 1 to Class 9, and five arts classes, from Class 10 to Class 14.
Classes were arranged by academic performance, so Science Classes 1 through 4 and Arts Classes 10 and 11 were honors classes, while the rest were standard classes.
Generally speaking, specialty students had to dedicate vast amounts of time to training, leaving them with limited study time, so their academic grades were usually mediocre, and almost all of them were placed into standard classes.
Yet Le Jun was in an honors class, which meant his academic performance was quite good.
No wonder he had found it strange when she asked him just now.
Someone like him—good-looking, strong academically, and athletic to boot—was typically a prominent figure on campus, the center of attention wherever he went. There were probably few people in school who didn't recognize him.
But that had nothing to do with Ye Li. She cut straight to the chase and asked, “How much do you know about that girl who jumped from the school building earlier?”
Since he had already bought into the persona that she was a newcomer who knew little about school affairs, there was no need for her to beat around the bush.
“The girl who jumped...” Le Jun frowned, trying hard to recall. “That happened a month ago. The girl seemed to be named Wen Xue, from Science Class 2. When it happened, I was away competing in a meet. By the time I returned, the matter had already been resolved, so I don't know the specifics. I only heard that she got into a dispute with some classmates and jumped out of spite.”
Ye Li asked, “Who did she have a dispute with?”
Le Jun shook his head. “I have no idea about that.”
“Then do you know what time she jumped?” Ye Li asked.
“It seemed to be in the evening.” Le Jun thought for a moment. “Right, it was also in the evening after school!”
Also in the evening after school?!
Ye Li narrowed her eyes slightly.
“What?” Le Jun sensed something and asked, “Do you think our being trapped here is related to her?”
“I don't know!” Ye Li shook her head.
Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't; the current clues couldn't directly prove a connection between the two.
“Dong...”
As they spoke, a crisp bell chime suddenly rang out across the campus.
Both of them looked down at the bell tower simultaneously, only to see that the clock's slender minute hand was now pointing squarely at the number 12.
“It's six o'clock!” Le Jun's expression changed instantly, clear panic surging onto his face.
To him, each crisp chime of the bell sounded like a death knell.
Sure enough, as the sixth chime faded, all the surrounding light vanished in an instant.
It was as though a thick sheet of black satin had draped across heaven and earth—pitch-black, gloomy, and suffocating. The buildings standing in the darkness resembled hideous beasts, biding their time with bloody, gaping maws ready to devour anyone in sight.
At that moment, the entire school was like an isolated island drifting in boundless darkness.
And upon that isolated island, decay reigned supreme, with rotting corpses everywhere.
Ye Li leaned forward and peered down, spotting countless stumbling, swaying figures converging like a tide, frantically swarming into the building.
“Bang!”
Right at that moment, a heavy crash echoed from the rust-covered iron door.
Rate on N.U.
