Ch113 – Burn Down the Damn School

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In fact, the question of when to start was also a matter of great debate.

Their main task in this instance was to survive, and the instance closed precisely at noon on the 120th day. 

As it was the day of an exam, lights-out yesterday was brought forward, and the wake-up bell was as well.
It took less than half an hour to mark the papers for ten classes when the instance started; it would be even quicker for six classes, fifteen minutes maximum for the results to be fresh out of the oven, with more than enough leeway to carry out the execution.
The system must have factored all this in before deciding to set noon as the closing time.

It was general knowledge that there would be teaching assistants watching them during the examination.
As long as they were on the quadrangle, they’d lose their special props, becoming lambs up for slaughter.

 

 

Therefore, they naturally couldn’t choose to do it after the start of the exam.
They had to act first to get a head start, winning some ground.

The bullet chat had long been camping, anxiously watching the first trainee since No.
1 who had the audacity to openly challenge destroying an instance. 

[There’s nothing more to be said since it’s already come this far.
Good luck to Class 9, and good luck to all the B-ranks!]

 

[Jiayou! Everyone in my party is watching it at base now.
/nervous.jpg]

At Zong Jiu’s command, the nine columns in the class neatly filed out of the front and back doors of the classroom.

There was no need for more words, for the day’s plan had long been engraved in the hearts of every Class 9 trainee, and their grief at the loss of their two companions had turned into a blazing anger that would destroy the instance to accompany them in death.

 

Before long, Class 9 trainees cleared out of the hallway, leaving two lines of people following behind him.

The neighbouring classes looked over.

Class 9 was adamant about this.
They prepared an alternative and informed their own plans to the other classes.
But they demanded that the most vital part had to be done by Class 9, even if they were more likely to get injured in the middle.

 

Everyone understood what spurred them. 

It was truly rare for such camaraderie to emerge in a collective instance like this.
Since someone was rushing up to take positions on the frontline, would anyone snatch it from them? So they naturally went along with Class 9.

A team moved ahead.
When Zong Jiu nodded at them, they hurried down the stairs.

They had to reach the vicinity of the iron door a little earlier to intercept teaching assistants that might be summoned by the warning siren.

Tsuchimikado followed behind Zong Jiu, poised to strike with the Yin-Yang talisman in his hand.
On the other side of him, Black Shaman looked unconcerned whereas Van Zhou looked forbidding. 

Zong Jiu would thank his lucky stars if Black Shaman, under No.
1’s control, didn’t pull any tricks.
He didn’t expect anything of him whatsoever.
As for Van Zhuo, he’d previously discussed with Zong Jiu about another mission, and now marshalled half-vampires towards the quadrangle.

Everyone had their own missions.
There was really no need for further communication at the crunch time.

Zong Jiu hurriedly nodded at them, then led the second team down the stairs, heading straight for the iron door.

Four teaching assistants were already standing in front of the iron door, and other faceless people were coming in and out. 

Seeing the extraneous people heading towards the iron door, the teaching assistants warily tightened their grips around the whip in their hands.

“This is a secure area of the school.
Non-personnel are to leave immediately.
It is prohibited to loiter here!”

 

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It wasn’t that they were down on their luck, but that at this time, many teaching assistants were moving the exam packets out from behind the iron door.

But it wasn’t possible for them to leave earlier from the hostel either.
It had to be at this time. 

Fortunately, they had anticipated the situation today.

Every trainee whipped out their special props at lightning speed.

The trainees in the second team were handpicked by Zong Jiu due to their physical enhancements, and quite a few half-vampires were among them.
With brute force, they directly stopped those few teaching assistants from intervening.

The Yin-Yang Master dodged and swiftly made a seal with his hands, the talisman in his hands glowing blue with spiritual energy that shot past the teaching assistants, striking the iron door behind them. 

“Boom—”

The next second, the iron door burst open under the tremendous assault, revealing a dark tunnel behind it.
A gust of chilly wind billowed from within.

“Go!”

Their faces flushed with joy as they charged over in unison. 

At the same time, an ear-splitting siren rang throughout the campus of First High School.

“Wee-woo-wee-woo-wee-woo—”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection.
If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Ciwbra rlweiajcfberis, fnfgs afjmtlcu jrrlrajca lc Mlgra Llut Vmtbbi qjerfv, atfc oibmxfv abkjgvr atf lgbc vbbg, yjgyfv ktlqr lc tjcv.

Vfnfgji afjwr bo agjlcffr rajalbcfv bearlvf lwwfvljafis rkjgwfv eq ab yibmx fnfgs qjat atja ifv abkjgvr atf lgbc vbbg. 

Pcrlvf atf fzjw qjqfg rabgjuf gbbw, atf afjmtlcu vlgfmabg gbjgfv klat jcufg, “Efyfiilbc! Ktf raevfcar jgf jmaejiis gfyfiilcu!”

Zong Jiu led the charge, breaking through the siege with Tsuchimikado and two other trainees.

At the very moment that the siren resounded, everyone noticed something amiss.

Because all special props in their hands immediately became ineffective. 

Here it was.

Zong Jiu and the Yin-Yang Master exchanged a look.
Without further delay, they threw caution to the wind, charging forth.

 

They’d been prepared for this ever since the special props of the trainees sentenced to execution were sealed.
Therefore, when this became their reality, though all hearts sank, they didn’t fluster nor make any grievous missteps.

They were just one step away from the entrance of the Corpse Pit.
Zong Jiu kicked it, but didn’t expect the impact that shot up his sole.
Even he was startled, bursting out with an expletive. 

“Fuck.”

The Corpse Pit was actually locked!

When all was said and done, this was the first time that they were entering the Corpse Pit.
Paper shikigami couldn’t push open doors to check if it was locked, so this was a variable beyond their control even with meticulous planning.

Nevertheless, they couldn’t afford to fixate on this now. 

Zong Jiu fished out a ballpoint pen from his pocket, jabbing it into the lock hole.

Watching this, Tsuchimikado swiftly pulled out two paper clips from his pocket, handing them over.
“Use this!”

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It was to their fortune that picking locks didn’t pose any challenge for magicians.
After all, many extravagant stunts on grand stages involved a magician being locked in the middle of the stage, then escaping through a secret passageway.

To prevent errors under such risky circumstances, magicians would practice their lock picking skills beforehand, warding against stage accidents. 

The only problem was that—it took more time to pick a lock that one was unfamiliar with.

Zong Jiu quickly undid the paper clip into a long wire-like strip, reaching it into the lock hole.

The bullet chat was beside themselves with anxiety.

[Oh snap.
The door’s locked.
Did the antics of the two class monitors cause the school to step up their security?] 

[What now? Their special props are useless; without them, there’s no doubt that the instance’s NPCs force will crush the trainees eek.]

[Even if the Magician picks open the lock, it’ll still take time for them to open the door to the Corpse Pit as well.
Coming back to this, why must they open the gates to the Corpse Pit? Is there some demon in there that can raze the world if they let it out?]

[That’s rather plausible given how many lives have been lost in this school.
By the usual routine of horror instances, I still don’t believe that there aren’t any supernatural elements.]

While Zong Jiu’s attention was on picking the lock, a new development surfaced in the cramped tunnel behind the iron door. 

There were still many faceless people in the exam paper storage room.
After special abilities were voided, Tsuchimikado and other trainees tugged hard at the handle, keeping the door tightly closed and preventing the teaching staff that were shut inside from coming out.

Without special abilities, everyone was merely mortal.
Who could stand against the faceless teaching assistants?

 

It wasn’t only outside the Corpse Pit.
The situation outside the iron door was chaos.

First High School had too many teaching assistants.
Before, when there were still ten whole classes, an invigilator stood every few metres or so, eliminating any chance of cheating. 

The number of teaching assistants was almost as many as six classes of trainees.

Now that special props were suddenly deactivated, the situation outside changed drastically.

An NPC’s might was far too great for trainees to match with their bare hands.

Luckily, everyone had listened to the command before.
They had at least one book in hand, which could minimally be used to ward off the barbed whips slicing through the air. 

Even so, step by step, they were pressed back.

“No, we have to buy time for Jiu-ge!”

Seeing the teaching assistants push the battlefront to the iron gate, about to break through the defence line, the trainees of Class 9 yelled.
“Come on, brothers, what are you waiting for! Every minute counts! Avenge index 15 and index 99!”

The next moment, trainees from other classes watched slack-jawed as Class 9 surged forward. 

They ignored the whips and held hands.
With their backs facing the teaching assistants, they formed a long wall of people, resolutely blocking the stairs.

Whistling barbed whips hurtled through the air, landing on the backs of the trainees.

Almost immediately, the bone-chilling ripping of blood and flesh rang out.

Blood and flesh clung to the barbs of the iron whip, dripping down onto the ground, the crimson startlingly vivid against the greenish-grey. 

Class 9 shuddered, cold sweat pouring from their temples.
But it was as though roots had grown from the soles of their feet; they refused to yield a single step.

Lash after lash rained down, and muffled groans were breathed out.

Yet not one retreated.

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The trainees barricading the four teaching assistants at the iron door clung desperately to their waists, not making a sound in spite of the tattered flesh on their backs. 

“We… must… avenge… 15 and 99.”

This scene came to rest at the bottom of the hearts of trainees from other classes.
It stirred complicated emotions.

 

They examined their conscience.
It was impossible for them to put themselves in the same position just to avenge a dead man.
It was precisely for this reason that the impact and shock on their hearts and minds were all the more intense at the sight of the present scene.

[I’ve burst into tears wuwuwu.] 

[I’m panicking, I’m panicking so hard, this is too moving.]

[When they said that they wanted to avenge index 99 and index 15, my tears came pouring down.]

[C’mon, jiayou! I really hope they can wreck this instance.
Perseverance will prevail!]

On the other side, the stubborn struggle next to the Corpse Pit didn’t last long. 

The door to the exam paper storage room opened from the inside with a nasty thud.

Tsuchimikado’s pupils constricted.
He couldn’t even get a word out before he was hit from behind, causing him to stagger and be pushed aside.

Three Class 9 trainees from the second team, at this time, as though connected in spirit, made the same choice as the Class 9 trainees outside without any prior communication, who were holding hands and forming a human wall.

They rushed up and barricaded the doorway with their bodies, also acting as a human wall, the pain eliciting quiet shouts from them. 

The teaching director’s roar echoed through the narrow tunnel.

Zong Jiu was crouching down.
Though appearing unfazed by the storm, his palms had worked up a bit of a sweat.

He was just picking a lock; it wasn’t as if he was deaf.
The cries and howls filling the air outside; the audible ripping of flesh from the flogging behind him—all of it told him how this precious time was gained.

He abandoned all thought, composing his heart to wrangle with the lock in his hand. 

He didn’t know how long it took.
It could have been very long; long enough such that when he reached the inner mechanism of the lock hole and needed only a little more fiddling to open it…

A weak voice carried over from behind Zong Jiu.

“Hurry… please hurry, we can’t hold on anymore.”

And right after that, the person who spoke collapsed to the ground. 

A shadow shrouded Zong Jiu from overhead.
In the darkness, the first teaching assistant to break through the formation grabbed the Magician’s collar, forcing him back.

It was at this instant that the lock hanging in front of the Corpse Pit’s door finally fell.

 

As Zong Jiu was pulled back, he sent a kick forward, and with his other hand he grabbed the collapsed but still breathing Class 9 trainees, yelling, “All retreat!”

When he said this, like a cicada sloughing its skin, he escaped by unzipping and struggling out of the measly blue and white school jacket, shoving the few trainees in front of him out. 

The trainees guarding the doorway had long been waiting for the order.
When Zong Jiu pushed them, they took charge of pulling and tugging the second team members blocking the doors out of there.

Like removing a seal, everyone who heard Zong Jiu’s order shouted in unison, spreading the signal, retreating outwards.
The battered trainees who had formed a human wall also released their hands and ran towards an open area that was previously marked out on the map.

The heavy door of the Corpse Pit slowly opened.

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A nauseating miasma of corpses mixed with the smell of putrefied deposits and grease instantly emanated from within the deep darkness behind the door. 

Tsuchimikado also made a break for it.
As he left, he glanced inside under the dim light of the tunnel.

The true face of the Corpse Pit was a sinkhole almost as wide as a quarter of the quadrangle.

A human finger that had yet to decompose was floating on the murky brown and moss-green pool surface, as well as ghastly white bones that were buttered with black blood, and the occasional human head with half a brain exposed and had writhing white maggots.

The most common object on the pool surface was floating clumps of black hair, for they, like bones, had to be dredged up every so often after they had been degraded.
The wall of black hair piled to the side was so dense that it filled virtually every empty corner outside the Corpse Pit. 

Even someone as used to gore as the Yin-Yang Master still felt discomfited at the sight.

The next second, he was also pushed by Zong Jiu and was successfully whisked out.

Then, Zong Jiu was the only trainee left in the tunnel.

He fished out the B-rank rose prop and, without a single look, pointed it behind him. 

The teaching director, who was still in the exam paper storage room, was shoving people to get out, swearing noisily, determined to make an example of these students who dared to make trouble on the day of the final exam.

However, in the very next moment, he suddenly found himself unable to move.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t move, but that the first teaching assistant to leave the exam paper storage room, about to shut the iron door, was fixed in place.

Taking advantage of this hard-fought respite, Zong Jiu dodged the other hand blocking him and rolled to the ground, agilely making it to the iron door in a blink. 

During this stunt, he took out a paper plane previously prepared from his pocket.

The Magician crouched to the ground.
With one hand holding the paper plane and another hand holding a lighter, he brought the lighter to the nose of the paper plane.

 

Backlit, a flame was lit from the mouth of the lighter, licking the paper, and golden-red hues sprung out like the harrowing approach of the grim reaper.

The moment the paper plane was lit, the white-haired young man stood slowly, his expression apathetic and ruthless. 

All of a sudden, the paper plane flew from the slender hand into the underground tunnel, which had long been filled with gas from the Corpse Pit.

Instantaneously, the flames that were merely burning on paper suddenly crackled.
It became brighter and brighter, and it grew bigger and bigger, transforming into a ferocious fire dragon in the air, swooping straight towards the sinkhole.

[Holyshitholyshit, how did the fire suddenly become so big.
Omg what the heck is happening.]

[Wait, I know this!!! The Corpse Pit is also a septic tank, and what kind of gas does that produce? Sisters, just use your brains!] 

[CH4, methane! It’s methane! Anyone who has studied high school chemistry knows that it’s a flammable gas.
WTF, they were actually prepared for it! Too awesome!]

In the nick of time, Zong Jiu deftly flipped over the railing of the stairs and shouted, “Get down.”

The paper plane was only the fuse; after all, the true festivities had yet to come.

A spark in a mixture of methane and air was extremely prone to explosion. 

“Rumble—”

All at once, the earth heaved savagely.

A blazing inferno scuttled skyward from the narrow space like hellfire, swirling around and engulfing everything.

Class 9’s trainees laughed heartily in the face of the fire.
They threw books prepared beforehand at the flame-covered door, while some others even torched their books, happily running around the school to spread the fire. 

They’d successfully set off a fire with a torch, and with ninety-seven vengeful hearts, burning down the damn school.