Chapter 35
Yu Zhi had guessed that the faceless students were the larval form of the lip-faced monsters… He also had guessed that the lip-faced monsters would eat the students.
But he never expected that the lip-faced monsters would eat and then spit them out.
The way for the faceless students to mature was to be eaten and then spit out by the lip-faced monsters?!
Goosebumps erupted all over his body, a strong sense of disgust rising from the depths of his heart.
If they delayed any longer, all the faceless students outside would turn into lip-faced monsters who wanted to eat them.
He had just uttered a syllable when he saw the faceless student, now transformed into a lip-faced monster, covered in saliva and drooling, rushing towards them.
He immediately pulled out the gun from Lu Liming’s pocket, aimed at its neck and pulled the trigger.
“Bang—”
“Bang, bang—”
He fired several shots in succession, severing its neck.
“I found it,” Zuo Feiyang looked up, saw the lip-faced monster lying on the ground, and frowned, “How did it get out—”
The next second, his voice abruptly stopped.
He saw the lip-faced monster stuck in the mud.
“It, they…” Zuo Feiyang immediately realized what had happened, his face extremely unsightly.
Yu Zhi: “Let’s go.”
They hadn’t run far when the corridor was crowded with faceless students.
A dense mass of smooth faces, a dense mass of mouths.
These mouths were of all sizes, some as small as normal human mouths, others stretching across the entire cheek, the corners reaching close to the ears.
Their common feature was tightly pursed lips, downturned corners, and a deathly stillness.
This corridor was like a lake filled with dead fish, this stagnant water was the buffet table of the scavenger lip-faced monsters, a stretch of the neck could reach the delicacy at their mouths.
Seeing two more faceless students being eaten, Yu Zhi abruptly stopped, shooting at the lip-faced teachers outside the door while quickly scanning both sides of the corridor, searching for an escape route.
More and more faceless students were approaching.
Some squeezed out from the classrooms on the left, others pushed in from the stairs on the right. As they approached, the students at the front, originally closest to the lip-faced teachers, were pushed forward by the crowd and then swallowed whole by the lip-faced teachers.
“We can’t get out the door,” Yu Zhi said quickly to Zuo Feiyang while firing, “The wall on the left, use your ability, the pollutants in the classroom should all be gone.”
Zuo Feiyang rushed to the wall in a single bound and used his ability.
Yu Zhi kept pulling the trigger, three shots breaking the neck of one of the lip-faced monsters, but the other lip-faced monsters spat out head-sized lips like spitting out watermelon seeds.
There were more lip-faced monsters now.
Yu Zhi killed one, and they could spit out four.
The killing speed was far slower than the speed at which the lip-faced monsters ate and spat.
“Crunch, crunch—”
“Crunch, crunch—”
Besides the gunshots, the air was filled with the chewing sounds of the lip-faced monsters. When the gunshots paused, their gnawing sounds became clearer, making one’s scalp tingle.
The lip-faced teachers ate with frenzy, their huge lips swinging wildly, saliva splattering everywhere. Their already extended necks stretched out further, making “crackling” sounds as their neck bones were pulled.
“Go!” Zuo Feiyang shouted.
A hole appeared in the wall, large enough for one person to pass through.
Next to the office was a classroom, there were no pollutants in the classroom, all the faceless students were in the corridor.
Yu Zhi fired while moving closer to the wall. After Lu Liming passed through, he grabbed the office desk beside him, and as he squeezed through the large hole, he abruptly pulled the desk over, blocking the opening.
With a “bang”, the lip-faced monster that was about to bite them slammed into the wall, several white teeth falling to the ground.
Yu Zhi turned around, Zuo Feiyang had already opened a hole in the opposite wall.
Next door was also an empty classroom, this entire row was classrooms.
There were no pollutants in the classroom. Although the faceless students in the corridor noticed their actions, they only turned their heads, their featureless faces facing them.
Zuo Feiyang walked forward quickly, blaming himself: “I should have just eliminated those teachers earlier.”
Yu Zhi: “It’s fine that I asked you to trap them.”
“Compared to the pollutants, the source of pollution is more important.”
Zuo Feiyang walked through the wall and into the next classroom, saying with a wry smile: “If I could eliminate them while trapping them…”
His voice was hoarse and weak, Yu Zhi gave him two more glances, then looked back.
They had passed through three classrooms, and the holes in the wall were getting narrower each time.
Perhaps because he was seriously injured and in poor condition, Zuo Feiyang was no longer the same as when he was freely using his ability on the street.
Physical condition and mental pollution were closely related. The worse the physical condition, the more susceptible one was to mental pollution, and the same applied to mental state.
Yu Zhi seriously doubted whether Zuo Feiyang could hold on until they found the source of pollution.
Zuo Feiyang was still saying: “Speaking of setbacks, if I hadn’t rashly led the team into the school…”
Yu Zhi said casually: “If you think that way, then to take a step back, the one at fault is not you, but—”
Before he could finish the last few words, he heard Zuo Feiyang hurriedly interrupt: “You’re not wrong.”
Yu Zhi looked at him strangely and said matter-of-factly, “Of course, I’m not at fault.”
Zuo Feiyang froze. “?”
Weren’t you just about to take the blame yourself?
Yu Zhi rephrased, “To take a step back, if anyone’s at fault, it’s the pollutants. Without them, none of this mess would exist.”
Zuo Feiyang fell silent. “…”
Well… he’s got a point.
Deeply convinced of the logic that it’s better to blame others than to self-reflect, Yu Zhi continued, “And if we step back even further, can we really say God made no mistakes when he split heaven and earth?”
Zuo Feiyang: “???”
Yu Zhi patted him on the shoulder, stepped past the opening, and headed into the next classroom. “Xiao Zuo, remember this: You’re not wrong. It’s the world that’s wrong!”
Zuo Feiyang: “…” That… that’s so juvenile.
But… somehow, it kind of makes sense?
Inexplicably, Zuo Feiyang felt his previously taut nerves—so strained they ached—begin to relax. Even his ghostly pale face regained a hint of color in the darkness.
They moved through one classroom after another, and when they reached the fifth classroom, Yu Zhi stopped him. “This is the end of the hall. The wall outside leads to the stairwell.”
He strode to the door. In the next second, every Faceless Student turned their heads toward him.
Their bodies were too cramped to move, so only their necks turned. The sound of creaking bones filled the air, as their necks twisted into grotesque, braided patterns.
Though they had no faces, Yu Zhi clearly felt a suffocating sensation of being stared at intently.
He shook himself out of it, forcing himself to ignore their faces and focus on the hallway.
The stairs in this direction were clear of pollutants.
All they had to do was deal with the dozen or so Faceless Students blocking the doorway.
Yu Zhi wiped the sweat from his palms, raised his gun, and aimed at the nearest Faceless Student’s head.
“Bang!”
A single shot to the head dropped the Faceless Student to the ground.
Despite their human-like heads, a headshot was a fatal blow.
Yu Zhi systematically took them out, one shot per Faceless Student. The rest remained as motionless as ever, staring at him blankly without resistance.
In less than half a minute, the path to the stairs was cleared.
Yu Zhi said, “Upstairs. If I remember correctly, Class 2-2 is on the fourth floor.”
As they sprinted up the stairs, Yu Zhi glanced back at the second-year faculty office.
From a distance, he could still see the lip-faced teachers stretching their necks to devour the Faceless Students around them.
Suddenly, the office door shifted.
Faceless Students crammed near the door began to enter one after another, but none of the lip-faced monsters came out.
They only went in—none came out.
Could the office really hold that many?
Time was short, and Yu Zhi pushed down his unease, running upstairs with long strides.
For some reason, the pollutants weren’t following them to the upper floors. It was to their advantage.
The fourth-floor hallway was completely empty. Not a single pollutant was in sight.
Finally, they caught their breath, their bodies relaxing slightly.
Yu Zhi instinctively took a deep breath, but the meaty aroma permeating the air seemed to become tangible, flooding into his mouth.
For a fleeting moment, it was as if he could actually taste the meat.
It wasn’t greasy or heavy; it melted in his mouth, utterly delicious.
Unconsciously, Yu Zhi licked his teeth and blinked, his mind hazy for a second.
Lowering his gaze, his long, thick lashes hid the dazed look in his eyes. The live stream viewers didn’t notice anything unusual, assuming he was deep in thought.
[User “Peace Lover” is curious about your train of thought.]
[User “Gaze of the Abyss” hopes you’ll share your plan.]
[User “Cosmic Romance” asks if you’re thinking of someone.]
[User “Pure Love Warrior” asks if you’re thinking of someone worth 60,000.]
[User “World’s Cutest Girl” reminds you to freely enjoy someone’s nudes in your hand and has tipped you 10 universal coins.]
The comment from Cosmic Romance started a chain reaction, and the barrage of comments grew more frequent, almost spelling out “Admit it, it’s Fu Suxi.”
Yu Zhi habitually ignored the comments, completely unaware of the discussion.
The fluctuation in his universal coin balance snapped him back to reality.
As clarity returned, he silently cursed in his heart.
This mental pollution really was insidious, leaving no gaps to exploit!
He couldn’t let his guard down for even a second!
Yu Zhi immediately looked at Lu Liming and Zuo Feiyang.
Both of them were showing signs of mental contamination, their expressions vacant. Mouths agape, they were unconsciously approaching him, as if to bite him.
Yu Zhi frowned and kicked each of them. “Wake up!”
Zuo Feiyang was the first to snap out of it. Realizing what he had just been about to do, his face grew increasingly pale.
Lu Liming wiped his drool in a panic and stammered, ” Brother Yu, w-what if I can’t hold back and bite someone?”
Yu Zhi thought for a moment and suggested, “How about I knock out all your teeth first? Then biting won’t be a problem.”
Just hearing that made Lu Liming’s teeth ache. He swallowed nervously and said, “I-I think I can hold on for now.”
Zuo Feiyang wiped his face vigorously. “I’m sorry.”
Yu Zhi asked, “What are you sorry for? Did you do something wrong?”
Zuo Feiyang froze for a second. Remembering their earlier conversation, he hesitated before saying, “I-I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Yu Zhi prompted, “And?”
Zuo Feiyang’s lips quivered. His embarrassment was so intense that he stammered as he said, “I-It’s not my fault. It’s the world’s fault.”
The sky was cloaked in thick clouds, so dark it looked like night.
Zuo Feiyang couldn’t see Yu Zhi’s expression clearly, but he distinctly heard a soft chuckle.
“Exactly. You’ve done well,” Yu Zhi said, his voice clear and pleasant, calm and steady. It inexplicably soothed those who heard it.
For a moment, Zuo Feiyang felt as if he were back in his student days, being praised by a teacher.
It felt surprisingly good.
Being complimented felt good.
Not reflecting on his own mistakes and instead blaming the world felt even better—like a heavy burden had been lifted off his shoulders, leaving him feeling light and relaxed.
He couldn’t help but silently repeat to himself: It’s not my fault. It’s the world’s fault. It’s not my fault. It’s the world’s fault… It’s not my fault. It’s the world’s fault!
This floor was devoid of other pollutants and eerily quiet. The silence made the noise outside the school building all the more conspicuous.
Yu Zhi glanced down unintentionally, and a string of expletives exploded in his mind.
At some point, the school’s streetlights had automatically turned on. Under the dim, hazy light, countless pollutants could be seen converging on the teaching building from all directions.
There were only a few Faceless Students among them; most were lip-faced monsters—Lip-faced monsters in blue-and-white school uniforms.
Under one of the streetlights, a parent holding a lunchbox was eating a Faceless Student.
Teachers eating people, parents eating people—
From Yu Zhi’s bird’s-eye view, the dense throngs of oversized mouths looked like an army closing in. Everywhere they passed was left slick with sticky, transparent saliva, making the ground appear as if it had just rained. The wet sheen made the school feel even more eerie and terrifying.
Perhaps influenced by the barrage of comments, Yu Zhi, staring at the overwhelming number of pollutants below, actually found himself missing that lunatic Fu Suxi.
He missed Fu Suxi…
Or rather, he missed Fu Suxi’s explosives ability.
