Chapter 207: Younger Cousin’s Instance (End)
Xu Shengsheng operated under the mindset of avoiding the spotlight while simultaneously wanting to clear the instance as quickly as possible.
She gestured for Lin Zhenyang to take Li Xuan outside first and wait by the door, stating she had a few words to say to the principal in private.
She was actually feeling a trace of nervous apprehension, fully aware that Bai Cha was watching her stream.
Taking a deep breath, Xu Shengsheng turned her gaze to the principal.
The principal still wore a remarkably accommodating, easygoing facade.
“What do you want to say in private? Go ahead.”
Xu Shengsheng activated her Golden Bell Shield.
Then, using the fountain pen, Xu Shengsheng made several swift strokes across the copy of 5-Year College Entrance Exam, 3-Year Mock Exams.
Slender, jet-black water snakes leaped straight off the paper in an instant.
The immediate instinct of these water snakes was indeed to pounce toward Xu Shengsheng, but with a sharp thud, they collided directly with the barrier. Realizing the obstacle in a flash, they redirected their assault toward the principal instead.
The principal’s complexion paled drastically.
“You, you, YOU!”
He unleashed a blood-curdling shriek of pure terror.
The water snakes wouldn’t persist for long, bound to dissipate in roughly two minutes.
Xu Shengsheng stared at the principal with an utterly cool, detached expression.
“I want to know the truth about what happened back then!”
“If you don’t speak the truth, I will kill you.”
The principal’s face turned completely green.
As the water snakes bit into his skin, icy Yin energy flooded his body, delivering an extreme, bone-chilling cold.
At the same time, it induced vivid hallucinations before his eyes.
Xu Shengsheng’s appearance gradually transformed within his vision.
“No! You can’t kill me… Haven’t all those things passed already?! I gave your family a massive sum of money too, so why bother?!”
“Besides, it was your boyfriend who couldn’t accept it—she was the one who wanted to break up with you! What does any of that have to do with me?!”
A flicker of curiosity stirred deep in Xu Shengsheng’s heart.
Yet she didn’t dare utter a sound, terrified that speaking up might shatter the principal’s current crazed, rambling state.
She simply kept her eyes fixed on the principal, who saw only the Pen Fairy staring back at him with pure, unadulterated resentment.
“I beg you, spare me! Besides, it was mutually agreed upon back then—did you honestly think anyone could just secure a postgraduate recommendation slot?!”
“Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”
The principal struggled frantically, his state deteriorating at an alarming speed.
A faint deduction formed in Xu Shengsheng’s mind.
Unspoken rules—coercive harassment.
Muttering repeatedly, his mouth spewed “don’t kill me” alongside fragmented, disjointed phrases.
Snatches like “None of those other girls reacted like you—isn’t this completely normal?”, “Why bother? It’s been so many years—isn’t letting go of me and letting go of yourself the best choice?”, and “Didn’t your boyfriend accompany you there as well? What else could you possibly be unsatisfied with?!” spilled from his lips.
Xu Shengsheng’s face turned thoroughly unsightly.
Watching the water snakes begin to dissipate, she swept her eyes across the room, grabbed the heavy study guide in her hands, and unloaded a relentless barrage of blows straight onto the principal.
Thump, thump, thump! The study guide slammed repeatedly against the principal’s head, yet Xu Shengsheng still found it difficult to vent her built-up rage.
She abruptly pulled out the fountain pen, dragging a fierce slash across the principal’s skin.
“Bah!”
Having done that, Xu Shengsheng turned and bolted.
Black water snakes burst out directly from inside the principal’s body, forcing a far more blood-curdling shriek from his throat.
Sprinting out the door and pulling it shut behind her, Xu Shengsheng felt a delayed wave of panic and fear wash over her.
Panting heavily, her fingers trembled softly; she wanted to throw the pen away, yet lacked the courage to discard it, ultimately stowing it straight back into her inventory.
That principal indeed deserved to die.
Still… dragging a pen across someone’s skin and causing snakes to burst forth from within their body—what did a gesture like that make her?
Xu Shengsheng felt a bout of chaotic panic.
Say what you will, she was only seventeen this year. In the previous instance, Bai Cha had been by her side all along, constantly soothing her emotions and doing her utmost to keep her from being consumed by horrifying things.
For example, having her solve the study guide wasn’t actually meant to force her to study; it was simply the most familiar comfort object for a high school student like her.
This instance, to a certain extent, was truly her very first independent run.
Before entering, Xu Shengsheng had mentally prepared herself thanks to her prior experience.
Yet her action just now hadn’t been taught by anyone; it was executed purely out of an instantaneous burst of rage, born from an inability to stand idly by.
Deeming the other party deserving of ten thousand deaths was one thing, but taking action herself was an entirely different matter—especially in such an undeniably bizarre, unnatural fashion.
The impulse had flared up in a single split second, and she had acted upon it right then and there.
She hadn’t anticipated that snakes could genuinely burst out from a human body.
The resulting scene looked far more gruesome and pitiable than a direct attack by a snake.
Xu Shengsheng’s face was deathly pale.
Lin Zhenyang and the others had naturally overheard the blood-curdling screams from inside.
Seeing Xu Shengsheng in such a poor state, Lin Zhenyang spoke up, “Let’s go. We’re getting out of here first.”
Panic-stricken, Xu Shengsheng nodded in a hurry.
After walking a considerable distance away, Xu Shengsheng seemed to recover slightly.
Involuntarily, her eyes darted toward the bullet chat, only to find a vast barrage brimming with pure malice.
She was forced to toggle it off once more; she simply couldn’t remain unaffected by those venomous words, and even after telling herself to ignore the drivel of idiots, anger and turmoil continued to churn inside.
This made her already anxious, uneasy emotions spiral into deeper agitation.
Bai Cha naturally noticed all of this, yet she refrained from posting bullet comments to comfort Xu Shengsheng.
When an individual was subjected to external commentary, even if some of those words contained well-meaning encouragement or came from close friends and family, completely erasing the negative impact remained immensely difficult.
After all, if the agony inflicted by malicious verbal abuse were so easily dispelled, so many lives wouldn’t have been claimed by cyberbullying.
Within this game, however, comments of this nature would perpetually flood the live streams.
The only course of action was to turn off the bullet chat if one cared, and refrain from constantly opening it to check.
The viewers in the bullet chat couldn’t be resolved in short order anyway, as new comments would endlessly flood in.
As for Xu Shengsheng’s actions, Bai Cha saw nothing wrong with them in the slightest.
A man like that wasn’t worth pitying even in death; the fact that he could sit comfortably as a principal was an outright insult to the title, and she intended to draft a letter of report the moment she returned to reality.
The overarching plotline had turned completely transparent.
Back when the Pen Fairy was a university student, she was subjected to the principal’s coercive harassment, after which he granted her a so-called postgraduate recommendation slot. Her boyfriend learned of this, leading to a severe misunderstanding between the two.
Drowning in agony, the Pen Fairy chose to take her own life.
Upon learning the truth afterward, her boyfriend died in equal agony within his dormitory room—becoming the president of that Paranormal Club.
Now, all that remained was uncovering the Pen Fairy’s real name.
Throughout the second half of the run, Xu Shengsheng remained in a somewhat passive, despondent state. It was evident that anxiety and distress were gnawing at her mind.
When the Pen Fairy finally materialized before her at the end, she remained completely indifferent to the terror.
Fortunately, the game came to a close.
Bai Cha powered down her computer, stood up, and dispatched a message to Xu Shengsheng:
“Once you step out, walk straight down the game town’s main street. I’ll be waiting at the entrance of the very first internet cafe you see.”
Exiting the settlement screen, Xu Shengsheng caught sight of the friend message sent by Bai Cha.
The constant, lingering feeling of dread and panic in her heart settled down somewhat, though it didn’t disappear entirely.
Walking into the game town, she located the internet cafe Bai Cha had described and caught sight of her elder cousin.
With rimmed, reddened eyes, Xu Shengsheng surged forward to throw her arms around Bai Cha.
“Sis… I feel so terrible, but I don’t know why… I think it might be because of what the bullet chat said, or maybe because of myself…”
In truth, she wasn’t the only player affected; many recruits emerged with utterly ghastly complexions after watching the bullet chat scroll past.
This was completely normal—much like walking down a public street, only for a stranger to suddenly march up, hurl an insult, and walk away. One’s mood would inevitably turn terrible in that instant, and though it would be forgotten over time, the immediate impact was unavoidable.
Then there was the moment Xu Shengsheng had taken action herself.
Her strike this time hadn’t utilized a skill, leaving her completely normal and clear-headed throughout.
Bai Cha patted her back gently.
“I booked an hourly room in the town. Let’s go have a chat.”
With a tearful, choked voice, Xu Shengsheng agreed.
