「The Horror of the Haunted School」The Math Test

The warm sunlight streamed into the classroom through the glass windows, casting a glow on Linda's pretty profile. A beautiful woman with a commendable performance was more than enough to attract a large number of fans, especially male ones. Thus, shortly after Linda entered this dungeon, her live streaming room was quickly filled with thousands of viewers.

Although she had only gone through four dungeons, her growth was evident to all. Transforming from a seemingly useless wealthy woman who was just a pretty face to a newbie player who now knew how to think and be tolerant, her progress had won her a great many fans.

After waking up at the spawn point of the dungeon, Linda's face instantly turned ashen. The four words "Hell Difficulty" on the system made her go weak in the knees. This was only her fourth dungeon! Why was she so unlucky as to encounter a hell-level difficulty? The previous dungeon, which was of normal difficulty, had already tortured her to the brink. She couldn't even begin to imagine what awaited her in this hell-level dungeon.

She was level 4 now, with a total of 25 hit points. Having died three times in previous dungeons, 15 hit points had been deducted, leaving her with only 10. If she died again, the pressure of entering the next dungeon would be enormous! You see, once a player's hit points reached zero, they would no longer be resurrected at the guild's base!

She stood there, stunned for a few seconds, then turned her head in a panic and saw that only about half of the seats in the classroom were occupied, and the occupants were sitting in a rather disorganized manner. Among them, there were obvious markings on the heads of three individuals. These were the players who had been matched with her.

Looking at these three guys, Linda felt a pang of despair. Their levels were even lower than hers, and they were the greenest of newbies. There was simply no way she could count on them! Were they really going to be easily defeated today?

And that guy named Leo didn't seem to realize the horror of this dungeon at all. He actually had the nerve to look around with such nonchalance! Linda closed her eyes in pain and let out a sigh. There was nothing else she could do but take things one step at a time.

It was the lunch break now. The students in the classroom were either whispering softly or taking a nap. She checked the class schedule and the large wall clock. There were still ten minutes until the first math class in the afternoon! This was a perfect opportunity! They could take this chance to discuss with each other and exchange their information.

So, at Linda's invitation, the four of them went to a lawn beside the classroom. "Listen up, we're facing unprecedented difficulties and dangers right now!" "In the next seven days, we absolutely have to work together and cooperate if we want to stand a chance of surviving!" "Now, what do you guys think about this dungeon?"

Zhentao and Lubai spread their hands, looking utterly helpless. Just having entered the game, what on earth could they think? Leo, with one hand in his pocket, stood outside the window and carefully observed the classrooms on the first floor. In each classroom, the number of people was less than half of the total number of seats. For instance, if a classroom had forty-six seats, then the number of people in that classroom would not exceed twenty-three. This was the case for eight consecutive classes. It was a rather intriguing phenomenon, but... what did it portend? Leo became wary.

"Hey —— Leo, why aren't you saying anything?" "I just said we need to stick together. Didn't you hear me?" "We really need to communicate more and exchange useful information if we want to make it out of this alive!" Linda looked at Leo walking around on his own and ignoring them, and she couldn't help but feel anxious. The dungeon was already extremely difficult, and if her teammates didn't cooperate, it would only get harder.

"Leo... I feel like I've seen this name somewhere before..." Zhentao mumbled to himself, and then suddenly he raised his head sharply. "Are you the newbie who ranked first on the Newcomer Ranking List and got an s+ rating in the newbie dungeon 'Colossus Hospital' with hell-level difficulty?"

The other two were also taken aback when they heard this. Soon, they learned about Leo through the system. The top-ranked newbie on the Newcomer Ranking List! That's amazing! This was someone who had truly emerged as a powerhouse from among thousands of people!

Leo looked at the three of them with their eager eyes, stroked his chin, and said, "Do you still remember your seats?" Linda replied, "Of course I do. Why?" Leo didn't answer but instead gave a meaningful glance at the classroom on the third floor. "It's nothing." "It's almost time for class. Let's go back to the classroom." "If nothing unexpected happens... quite a few people in our classroom are likely to die today." "Oh —— by the way, make sure you sit in your own seats... and don't sit in the wrong one under any circumstances!"

The tone of the last sentence was so chilling that it made the three of them look at each other in dismay, and Zhentao's face gradually turned pale. "Zhentao, what's wrong with you?" "I... I seem to have forgotten where my seat is!" After saying that, he looked at Leo. "Brother Leo, is this... is this really that important?!"

Leo rolled his eyes and said, "I'm not sure if there's any danger in other seats, but our spawn points are definitely safe for the time being." "If you really can't remember, try to think back to some reference points that you do remember."

Live Streaming Barrage:

"As expected of the top-ranked player! His thinking is so clear!"

"After leaving the newbie recommendation platform, Brother Leo's popularity has dropped significantly. There are only a little over three hundred people in his live streaming room."

"Come on, which newbie's live streaming room that has just entered the game has this kind of popularity? Over three hundred viewers is actually a lot, okay?"

"Wow! It's another dungeon with hell-level difficulty. Leo is really out of luck!"

"For capable people, the higher the difficulty of the dungeon, the better. It's impossible to get an s or above rating in dungeons with a difficulty level lower than Nightmare."

"This time, there's no system to help weaken the power of the ghosts. He won't be able to play his little tricks! I can't wait to see how he gets out of this!"

"Come on, surely no one actually thinks he could reach the top of the ranking list just by using some 小聪明 (petty tricks)?"

...

Ding-dong ——

The class bell rang. The melody was still familiar, but there was so much static in the sound that one could faintly hear a kind of wailing, which sent shivers down one's spine! All the students in Class 8, Grade 1 sat up straight, awaiting the arrival of the teacher. It was clear that they were very nervous.

Leo's gaze swept over all the students in the classroom. In that instant, his pupils turned a terrifying scarlet, swirling like the Kaleidoscope Sharingan. He took in all the data of the students in the classroom. In this classroom... they were all ghosts! Not a single human! Fortunately, these "students" were all neutral units and wouldn't harm them, the players, without any reason.

The door was pushed open, and a female teacher dressed in a proper professional outfit entered the classroom.

[Female Teacher: Triggered Neutral]

[Note: When the hunting condition is not triggered, this unit will remain in a neutral state at all times. Once the hunting condition is triggered, the power of this unit will surge dramatically and will return to normal after killing the target.]

Triggered neutral? Leo seemed to have an inkling of something and glanced at the test papers in her hand. Was the trigger point related to the test papers in her hand, or to their seats? Or... was it related to both?

"We're having a test in this class," the female teacher said calmly. After she said this, Leo clearly noticed that the chubby ghost sitting in front of him... was trembling!

The female teacher explained the test rules and then personally distributed the test papers, starting from the first student on the right and ending with the last student on the left. Even for the empty seats where there were no students, the female teacher still patiently placed the test papers and scratch papers on those seats.

Leo glanced at an empty seat close to him. Both the test paper and the scratch paper on it were pure white. There were no words on the test paper. However, on some of the few empty seats, there were words on the test papers.

Leo looked at his own test paper, which had some extremely basic and simple math problems on it. For example —— Please prove Goldbach's conjecture. Great! He had no clue how to solve it. Leo quickly wrote down his name and student number. For the rest, he left it to the eraser.

The test discipline was in shambles. Many people were looking around, and some even took out their phones to search for answers. But the female teacher didn't seem to care much. She opened the class register on the podium and carefully checked the students in the classroom.

And Leo keenly noticed that the ghost sitting in front of him... was trembling even more violently! He seemed... to be terrified!