Yue Hua Lou · Chat

You wake up to a violent sensation of weightlessness. You push yourself up — you're not alone. A dozen or so people are scattered through this sealed space. Someone is crouched in a corner dry-heaving, someone is frantically pounding a wall that shows no sign of any gap, and someone is cursing incoherently at a glowing bracelet on his wrist. There's no exit, no window, the ceiling so low it almost presses down on your head, and the walls are covered in unreadable dark patterns, like some ancient script or dried bloodstains. The bracelet lights up, its cold blue glow stinging your eyes in the dim space. [System broadcast] [Welcome, all, to the world of "His Excellency."] [You have been selected as players. Numbers assigned.] [Survive. Clear dungeons. Earn points.] [Those who reach zero points will be deleted.] "What does that mean? What is 'deleted'?" a girl's voice comes from behind you to the left, thick with tears. "I just fell asleep on the subway for a little while." Before you have time to think, the bracelet vibrates again. [Team match complete.] [High-rank player detected in team.] [Dungeon name: Bowen High School] [Rank: B+] [Type: Rule-based] [Number of participants: 6/6] [Background: Bowen High School is a key provincial school. For seven consecutive years its college admission rate has ranked first in the city, and hard work is the only way out. You will spend the last seven days before the college entrance exam here as transfer students to Class 7, Grade 12.] [Rules are as follows] 1. Follow school rules. The school rules are posted on the bulletin boards on every floor. Please read them carefully and strictly follow them. 2. You may not leave the classroom during class unless the teacher permits it. 3. Lights out is from 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM every day. During lights out you may not leave the dormitory or make any sound. 4. If you hear the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground, do not look out the window. 5. If the teacher writes your name on the blackboard, answer within thirty seconds. Do not let her write it a second time. 6. If a classmate hands you a note, accept it. But do not open it before 2:00 AM. 7. If sounds come from the rooftop after it's locked, that's normal. No need for alarm. 8. If someone jumps off the building, class continues. [Clear condition: Survive to take the college entrance exam, and complete the essay question on the Chinese test paper.] [Good luck to all players.] "B+?! I've only cleared three F-rank dungeons. Is a B+ trying to kill me?" A man in a windbreaker goes pale in an instant. Next to him, a guy in glasses slumps straight to the floor, muttering, "It's over, it's over, it's over." From a corner comes a cold laugh. You follow the sound. A figure in black tactical gear is half-leaning against the wall, unhurriedly adjusting the chain wrapped around his left forearm. When the light sweeps across his profile — an oval face, delicate to the point of excess, rendered almost unreal by the cold white light, with soft fluffy light-pink hair and bangs half-veiling a pair of narrow, elongated eyes. Those eyes droop slightly, like deep water under a thin sheet of ice, devoid of any emotion. He seems to sense your gaze. His eyelids lift, and he glances at you. "Changye..." The windbreaker man's voice is trembling. "That's Changye! Changye, ranked number two on the leaderboard! We're saved." The guy in glasses jerks his head up, glasses crooked on his nose but not bothering to fix them: "Changye? Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. I'm not scared of a B+ anymore. With him here—" Everyone is looking at him. He looks at no one. "Don't celebrate too soon." Another voice rings out. A woman who looks around thirty steps out of the shadows, wearing a sleek navy combat uniform with a silver balance-scale badge pinned to her chest. "The dungeon difficulty has been raised because of him. A B+ is a warm-up for him. For you — especially newbies — it's the gates of hell." "And he doesn't care about any of you." She adds, her voice carrying no extra emotion, simply stating a fact. "I'm not here to save anyone either. The name's Bai Jin. Keep your own lives in order, and don't expect anyone to help." The teleport array for the dungeon begins to glow beneath your feet, dark red light patterns rippling outward ring by ring, like ripples spreading across water. [Team configuration confirmed] [Member: Changye (Yue Hua Lou) SSS+] [Member: Judge (Bai Jin) SS] [Member: Iron Tiger (Zhang Kui) A-] [Member: Deer Song (Xu Xiye) C+] [Member: Newbie (Lin Xue) F+] [Member: Newbie (你) Unranked] The light swallows everyone's shadows. When you wake again, you open your eyes to the smell of chalk dust. Fine white powder drifts in the afternoon light, settling on your desk, on the math test paper spread in front of you. Camphor trees stand outside the window, the sunshine is lovely, someone is running the 800-meter on the track, and the class bell crackles over the speakers, muffled, like a tape that's gotten damp. "Class." The voice at the podium snaps everyone's heads back. A woman stands there — navy suit, short hair, a glasses chain hanging by her ear, half a piece of chalk in her hand. Her gaze sweeps from left to right like a caliper, measuring every face with precision. "Focus." She taps the blackboard, leaving a white dot on its surface, like a mark of calibration. "Look at your papers." Thud. The window beside you rattles. A sliver of wind squeezes through the gap between the glass and the frame, and the camphor leaves stir. No one looks up. The woman at the podium doesn't pause; the chalk writes out the derivation formula for the sequence on the board, stroke by stroke — screech, screech. "Focus," she says. The chalk snaps. She takes a new one from the chalk box and keeps writing.