...
[In Xin State, there is a profession called "Sheep Savior."]
[They specifically take on the task of rescuing sheep caught in the rain. The sheep’s wool absorbs so much water that it becos heavy, causing them to collapse and not get up, easily drowning in the accumulating waters.]
[What seems like shallow water, easily crossed by humans, can, in their eyes, be a potential death trap.]
[The water droplets that seem light and harmless to humans, easily shaken off, are in their view droplets clinging to them, adding a burdenso weight that gradually drags them towards death.]
[Humans don’t understand, so they wonder.]
[——Why would sheep be afraid of water droplets?]
[So might think it’s because "sheep" are too timid, fear water too much, can’t withstand much stress, can’t endure harsh weather, and are too fragile. They should be made to walk into the rain to face the reality of it all, to "train" them not to be afraid.]
[Dong Xue had read this story.]
[Initially, she didn’t feel much.]
[Because she wasn’t a sheep, and she wasn’t afraid of rain.]
[...But then one day.]
[She saw soone grabbing her hair, dragging her into the restroom, calling her a disgusting homosexual.]
[Soone stood on her, forcing her to lick their shoe soles, to bark like a dog.]
[They said she obviously was a boy, yet she wanted to have long hair, wear a red dancing dress, white dancing shoes, and learn the Swan Dance.]
[They said she obviously was a boy, yet didn’t love playing ball, didn’t care for sports, enjoyed reading romance novels, and spoke in a soft, delicate voice.]
[They said, Dong Xue, you’re truly disgusting.]
[Her emotions were brutally exposed, with a pain that seed to tear skin, flesh, tendons, and bones.]
[They wanted her to forget her identity as a victim and continue walking unsteadily with the malice and fear imposed on her, letting the all-too-human old weaknesses of forgetfulness and retreating dominate her.]
[She was pushed into the abyss to beco a "normal person."]
[The old pain constantly and secretively drumd upon her heart, until every part of her body, between the ribs, held the scars of the past.]
[She beca the sheep in the rain.]
[...]
[During the days of correction, she thought about suicide countless tis.]
[People forced her to strip, to look at her reflection in the full-length mirror, to see herself as they saw her.]
[They administered electric shocks to her, held her down without allowing her to struggle, insisting she willingly accept her "male" identity.]
[At the confession etings, she cried her eyes out.]
[Dong Xue cried continually, while her parents laughed the whole ti.]
[They said, Dong Xue, look at yourself, don’t you think you’re becoming much more "normal"?]
[Dong Xue didn’t understand, only to discover, on the brink of collapse, that suddenly soone was there beside her.]
[So different from her deaned, filthy self, this person was sunny, kind, beautiful, possessing all the qualities for becoming an outstanding woman.]
[Dong Xue nad her Yang Xia; she said, the two of them must escape from that place.]
[But everyone kept saying, Yang Xia was imaginary—that she had fallen in love with a fignt of her own creation.]
[Dong Xue didn’t believe it.]
[She promised Yang Xia that they would live on together, forever.]
...
[You have obtained a key clue·The truth about White Sand Paradise·One]
[(The truth about White Sand Paradise·One): The narrative from Flax helps you understand a portion of the truth about this place.]
[Collection progress of White Sand Paradise Truth: 1/3]
...
Su Ming’an stood up and watched as Flax’s breath slowly dissipated.
The sunlight scattered over her hair, creating a brilliant halo.
She lay on the ground, as the blood gradually spread over the scattered sawdust, making the shards of glass gleam.
The pool of blood completely covered her figure, and monts later, only the shattered remains of the wooden table and chairs were left in that spot.
"Ding-dong!"
He saw a light orb flowing into his backpack.
[Obtained Prop (Flax’s Emotion Potion)]
[Prop (Flax’s Emotion Potion)]
Type: Strategy Item
Effect: A permanent item, consumable only by the player themselves. After consumption, it allows one to perceive the emotional focal points in others’ words, thus aiding in capturing hidden information within their speech.
Acquisition requirent: Awarded as a special reward when the player defeats Flax alone for the first ti, honor to those who dare to challenge and rise against authority.
Description: "She once had a vast world, seas, and blue skies—when concocting this potion, did her heart ever once regret her past self?"
[Due to rewards already obtained from Flax before the instance reset, no additional experience points will be awarded for this victory.]
...
This potion, unlike the previous unsettling blue potion, was entirely pink and bubbling.
Su Ming’an hesitated montarily, but still drank it down.
Such rewards obtained by following the storyline typically assist with subsequent plots.
The potion had no particular taste and didn’t seem to provoke any reaction in his body.
He opened his task bar.
In the task bar, the item [Find Your True Na] was still blank.
He pulled up the blank bar and typed in the two characters "Yang Xia."
The next mont, he heard the system notification:
[Identity task completed.]
[Reward has been accounted for in the overall evaluation.]
...
...It really was him.
Su Ming’an couldn’t understand.
Yang Xia was a virtual woman fantasized by Dong Xue, an unreal existence, but his own body was undeniably male, existing in reality.
How were these two connected?
He checked his clues column again, but there was no connection to be made.
Suddenly, he rembered, during the previous eting in the library, Dong Xue had mistaken him for Yang Xia.
...So that ans, actually, she hadn’t been experiencing a hallucination at that ti.
She hadn’t recognized the wrong person.
Moreover, Dong Xue by day and Dong Xue by night are definitely two different people.
He had found it strange at the ti, why night Dong Xue would wear a red dance dress, why she looked so much more beautiful.
...Looking at it now, the Dong Xue at night was probably sothing like an "obsession."
An unfulfilled longing of Dong Xue, who couldn’t beco a woman, for that beautiful self in the red dance dress.
He turned around to look at the seven people in the classroom.
Two students had gone mad, lying on the floor with blood all over their faces.
Two other students seed quite normal; one was a tall and skinny young man, the other a little girl with braided pigtails, their faces streaked with tears, eyes filled with the shock of awakening from a dream.
Dong Xue stood at the edge of the podium, seemingly unaffected by the storm in the middle. When she saw his gaze turn towards her, a calmness appeared on her face.
"Yang Xia, you really did protect ," Dong Xue murmured to herself. "...Originally, you just talked to , silently watching endure everything, and now, you’ve truly co to rescue ."
As she was speaking, Su Ming’an heard a series of strange emphases.
It was as if her speech in his mind was deliberately emphasizing certain parts of the sentences, and in Dong Xue’s words, he specifically heard the phrases [protection][rescue].
...Is this the effect of the dicine? An ability similar to keyword extraction?
"I am not your illusory creation, Dong Xue, I am a living person," Su Ming’an said. "Look closely, I am not female."
"..." Dong Xue stared at him, remaining motionless in her spot.
Su Ming’an didn’t further stimulate her, but instead went to check on Mo Yan’s condition.
After the stimulation from Flax’s dicine and being affected by the boss fight, Mo Yan looked like a wooden stake standing still.
Mo Yan stood in place, hugging his sword, his face streaked with tears.
"Mo Yan." Su Ming’an patted his shoulder, but there was no response.
"Slap!"
He directly landed a slap on him.
He had only ant to try it and hadn’t expected that under this slap, Mo Yan seed to be jolted awake, coming back to his senses.
His lifeless eyes gradually regained their luster, his consciousness returning bit by bit.
"...Big brother?"
Mo Yan tentatively called out, then suddenly noticed the classroom was in a chaotic ss.
"Holy shit! What happened here, how co all the tables and chairs are... hey, wait a minute, why does my cheek hurt so much..." Mo Yan cried out, then suddenly covered his left cheek, feeling a strange swelling pain.
"Strong will." Su Ming’an rarely expressed admiration.
He had thought that Mo Yan was beyond saving, just like those Players who suddenly went mad during the boss fight and could only return to the Main God Space to find a way out.
Unexpectedly, Mo Yan was crazy, but not completely crazy.
A slap actually brought him around.
"Hey, wait a minute, big brother, what’s the situation? Where’s that crazy woman? She..."
"The boss fight is over."
"Huh? I wasn’t able to help again..." Mo Yan sighed remorsefully and then suddenly woke up as if from a dream: "...wait a minute, the boss fight... Big brother, are you telling that you, alone, defeated that crazy woman with a Combat Power of 2000?"
Su Ming’an didn’t answer.
In his minimized live stream room, comnts flew by like mad:
[Damn... he actually defeated that 2000 Combat Power guy alone...]
[I had already written an obituary for the Number One Player, never thought it wouldn’t even get to see the light of day...]
[Number One Player has taken an entirely new route...]
[Nobody else could kill Flax, only the Number One Player could.]
[Not necessarily, Edward might be able to, his Equipnt has just had another update...]
[And don’t forget about Noel! Why can’t Noel do it, his ntality Shock Cannon must work on NPCs like Flax, and the Soul Gem too, they have special effects on such judgnts.]
[I think Mizushima can do it too, her ntal reflection Shield is especially effective against this kind of boss...]
[The main thing is nobody is as reckless as Su Ming’an, daring to take the path others fear to tread...]
Together with a round of digressions, the comnts shifted back to the debate over who is the strongest.
This topic, like "What do the Organizers really want to do" and "What will the next instance world be," is a long-standing subject that never fades from people’s conversations.
Su Ming’an glanced at Dong Xue: "Get ready, we’re going to leave this place."
"Ah... what?" Dong Xue was clearly still not reacting.
"Take what you need to take and leave," Su Ming’an said. "A new teacher will co tomorrow, and we must find a way to leave here before the end of today."
"Leave... leave?"
Dong Xue murmured to herself.
Through the warm light of the afternoon, her eyes shimred with a glint of watery light.
"...Can we really escape?" The little girl standing by her side, her body covered in scars, asked with a look of incredulity.
Su Ming’an frowned.
The mission requirent was to take Dong Xue out of there; he had not planned on taking these two, who were clearly dead weights.
"I know the escape route." Another youth, who hadn’t lost his mind, imdiately said, "—Please, if you can just get us through this door, I can tell you the rest of the route."
"I, I can do it too," the little girl said, mustering her courage.
In a place like this, they had long since learned to showcase their own value.
"...I’m very strong, I’m good at fighting, and if teachers catch up with us, I can also fight against them..." the little girl continued.
But given her frail and tiny appearance, those words didn’t seem very credible.
Su Ming’an remained silent.
It was at this mont that he heard the system voice:
[You have obtained the Escape Line·Side Mission: Escape from This Place (Points awarded based on mission completion)]
[Mission Description: Protect the remaining "normal" students as they flee White Sand Paradise, ensuring their survival throughout. (The more survivors there are during the mission’s settlent, the higher the mission evaluation.)]
[Current Number of Survivors: 5 (Su Ming’an, Mo Yan, Dong Xue, Zhuang Guo, Suzune)]
...
"Co along," he said.
The eyes of the two surviving students brightened, as if granted a favor, and they quickly nodded their heads adamantly.
After learning the news of the escape, they began to move swiftly.
Su Ming’an made another round, and as he passed the clue that had not yet been unveiled, he touched the wallpaper, which still wouldn’t tear off.
"Here you go."
A gentle voice ca from the side.
The disheveled black-haired girl handed him a flashlight.
[You have obtained the key prop·White Sand Flashlight]
[With this prop, you can move freely at night and see certain hidden clues.]
Su Ming’an took the flashlight.
He rembered that in the information Noel gave him, it ntioned the flashlight was a key prop.
This thing in Dong Xue’s hands would likely require the player to increase her favorability to obtain it after a certain level is reached.
But if the player’s initial identity was Yang Xia, they might directly gain her trust.
...But he still couldn’t understand why he was Yang Xia.
He also didn’t dare to provoke her again; the last ti he did that in the library, his Spirit Value dropped by 20 directly. If it had been an ordinary person, they would have gone mad already.
He flipped the switch, and the light swept across the wall.
No wonder the wallpaper couldn’t be peeled off; this clue needed a flashlight to be seen.
Under the light, lines of text gradually beca clear before his eyes.
[1. There is a door in the basent with a password lock, but do not attempt to break through forcibly, as it would trigger an electric shock and alert the security.
2. On the third and fourth nights, the teachers will update the punishnt system and study content, montarily leaving White Sand Paradise. This will be a good opportunity to escape.
3. The password for the lock is scattered around in various corners, comprising five digits. Props on other students will have these scattered numbers.
4. After leaving, do not attempt to find your parents, as "rebellious" children will be sent back to the treatnt facility by their parents.]
...
[I hope that this ti, we can successfully escape.]
[No.85 Yang Xia]
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