Chapter 40
“I’ll be the dealer, and you all place your bets.”
“I’ve got 60,000 universal coins left. Anyone interested in taking my money?”
The moment he said the second line, the chat exploded.
Joining this betting game meant not only the thrill of gambling but also the chance to watch the host’s struggle and gruesome demise. Plus, they could potentially earn money from Yu Zhi.
Most viewers had only ever spent money on live streams, never earned any. And definitely not from someone like Yu Zhi, who was notorious for scheming against his audience.
Even more enticing, long-time viewers knew exactly how Yu Zhi had amassed those 60,000 coins, and some of his “victims” were even in the chat. The entire audience buzzed with excitement.
[User “Velvet Latte” urges you to start the betting game immediately.]
[User “Scarecrow’s Rage” yearns to reclaim everything that was theirs and questions the fairness of your game.]
[User “Strongest King” doubts the reliability of your betting system.]
[User “Pure Love Warrior” wholeheartedly supports your plan.]
[User “Lord of the Flame” eagerly anticipates the game.]
Occasionally, a few comments questioned the integrity of the betting system, but they were quickly drowned out by others.
Inside, Yu Zhi called out to the system: [Hey, system, want to make some money?]
A moment later, a question mark popped up on his panel.
System: [?]
Yu Zhi blinked and continued: [I want to start a betting game with my dear viewers, but I need an absolutely fair platform.]
System: [You? Want an absolutely fair platform?]
Yu Zhi’s gaze lingered on the word “absolutely,” sensing the system’s sarcasm.
He responded matter-of-factly: [Of course. If it’s not fair, how will I stop those viewers from stealing my money?]
System: […]
System Internally: Who could ever scam money from you?
Fully aware that he wouldn’t be able to keep track of thousands of viewers’ bets on his own, let alone spare the time to manage it, Yu Zhi decided to let the system handle it.
[Can you set up a betting system for us?]
Two seconds later, the system replied: [You can commission the system to act as the dealer. A 50% transaction fee will be deducted from all universal coins exchanged.]
[Proceed?]
Yu Zhi immediately responded: [No.]
System: [?]
Yu Zhi: [You want to earn money as the dealer and also take such a high fee?]
Shaking his head, he added with mock sincerity: [System, how can you, as a system, be so greedy? You’re supposed to have “system integrity.”]
System: […]
After a brief pause, the system offered: [Transaction fee reduced to 30%. Proceed?]
Yu Zhi: [No.]
System: [20%. Proceed?]
Yu Zhi: [No.]
System: [10%. Proceed?]
Yu Zhi: [No.]
System: [1%. Proceed?]
Yu Zhi: [No.]
System: [???]
[Not even 1%? And you dare ask if I want to make money?]
The text on the panel grew noticeably larger, and the polite “you” turned into the informal “you,” as if the system were shouting in exasperation.
Yu Zhi smirked, the smile deepening on his face. [I just wanted to confirm if you were serious about making money.]
[It seems systems like you are fond of universal coins too…]
The panel suddenly went blank, the system falling silent as if embarrassed by its exposure.
Chewing on his gum, Yu Zhi pondered for a moment before speaking again: [I have to be the dealer. After all, they want to take my money, not yours.]
[But for the viewers’ experience, it’d be better if you handled the odds. I’ll give you a 1% cut.]
The system didn’t respond.
Yu Zhi spat out his flavorless gum, stuck it on the desk, and tossed half a pack into his mouth, chewing until his cheeks puffed slightly.
[System, I’m only offering this chance because we have such a good partnership.]
The majority of viewers were thrill-seeking maniacs who wouldn’t miss out on a life-or-death betting game.
Blowing a bubble, Yu Zhi nonchalantly added: [1% is plenty. Let’s try working together this time. It’ll pave the way for long-term cooperation—mutual benefit and all that.]
A moment later, a faint line of text appeared on the translucent panel:
[What if there isn’t enough money to cover the payouts?]
Yu Zhi: [If I owe them money, they’ll stick to my livestream even more.]
The system went quiet for a moment before asking: [What if you die? Who will cover the payouts?]
Yu Zhi chuckled: [If I die… wouldn’t a perfect scapegoat like me be useful to you? All you’d have to do is sit back and collect the profits.]
The system went silent again, seemingly pondering his logic.
Yu Zhi pressed on persuasively: [System, as long as I’m the one hosting the bet, whether it ends in a loss or my death, you’ll still profit from the fees. It’s a win-win for you.]
[See? I’m always thinking of you.]
A minute later, a small betting icon appeared in Yu Zhi’s live stream panel:
Bet 1: Resident of Earth will die within 1 hour — [Odds: 1:2]
Bet 2: Resident of Earth will die within 1-2 hours — [Odds: 1:1.7]
Bet 3: Resident of Earth will die within 2-3 hours — [Odds: 1:1.6]
Bet 4: Resident of Earth will die within 3-24 hours — [Odds: 1:1.4]
Bet 5: Resident of Earth will not die within 24 hours — [Odds: 1:10]
Pop—
The bubble Yu Zhi had been blowing with his gum burst.
His gaze remained fixed on the screen.
There was another critical reason why Yu Zhi needed the system involved in this betting game: the odds.
The system knew everything happening within the scenario.
The lower the odds, the more likely the system considered an event to occur.
By creating odds tailored to the audience, the system unwittingly provided Yu Zhi with valuable information.
The bets all targeted a timeframe within 24 hours. This seemed to confirm what “World’s Cutest Girl” had mentioned—the prophecy likely predicted his death within that time.
The odds for 2 and 3 hours were close…
Yu Zhi spat his gum onto his deskmate’s table, the minty freshness in his mouth replaced by the cloying, nauseating scent of meat.
The revolting walls of flesh surrounding him, the overpowering meat aroma invading his nose and mouth, the unseen contamination source, and the oppressive classroom atmosphere—all conspired to wear down his sanity.
Blinking hard to clear his stinging eyes, Yu Zhi calculated grimly. Given his current physical condition, he could be transformed into a pollutant within an hour.
In this scenario, the danger wasn’t just the contamination source.
The 1% fee he paid the system wasn’t wasted—it had bought him useful intel.
The betting game sent the livestream chat into a frenzy:
[User “Scarecrow’s Rage” bets 20,000 coins on Bet 4.]
[User “Lord of the Flame” bets 1,000 coins on Bet 2.]
[User “World’s Cutest Girl” bets 800 coins on Bet 2.]
[User “Rich Young Master Supreme” bets 0.1 coins on Bet 5.]
[User “momo” is intrigued by your relationship with the system and bets 1,000 coins on Bet 5.]
Yu Zhi ignored the betting details. Instead, he grabbed the pen out of his Faceless deskmate’s hand.
The Faceless Student paused mid-writing, slowly tilting its head toward him.
In the blink of an eye, Yu Zhi shoved his empty gum container into the student’s hand, then widened his eyes, feigning shock.
“Teacher Chen!” he shouted. “My deskmate has been secretly chewing gum and blowing bubbles—it’s so noisy and distracting!”
The Faceless Student froze in place. In its hand was the empty gum container, and several wads of chewed gum were stuck to the edge of its desk.
The evidence was irrefutable.
Yu Zhi could clearly see his deskmate’s lips twitching as if it wanted to say something, but not a single word came out.
Once again, Chen Wan’s angry voice thundered from above: “Stand up!”
The Faceless Student rose slowly, and the massive tongue beneath it carried it to the podium.
Chen Wan’s screeching reprimands descended like a storm:
“How many times do I have to say this?! No eating in the classroom!”
“Is this a place to eat? If you love eating so much, then eat your fill right now!”
The Faceless Student picked up a bag of bread from the podium.
Only then did Yu Zhi notice the pile of confiscated food on the podium—an assortment of items, most of them spoiled.
The bread in the student’s hands was covered in mold.
It tore open the packaging, stuffed the bread into its mouth, and swallowed it in just a few bites before reaching for the next item.
Chen Wan’s voice echoed relentlessly:
“No pain, no gain. How do you expect to succeed in life if you can’t endure a little hardship?”
“Not letting you eat in class is for your own good. Do you think I’d harm you? Study when it’s time to study, eat when it’s time to eat. Everything I do is to teach you discipline so you can get into a good college…”
Yu Zhi watched as the Faceless Student’s lips grew thinner, its mouth drooping downward. Even its head seemed to flatten.
It was transforming into a Lip-face monster.
And that mouth—it looked disturbingly familiar.
Pulling out Chen Wan’s phone, Yu Zhi double-checked.
The Faceless Student’s mouth was gradually taking on Chen Wan’s features.
In this contaminated zone, teachers “ate” students. Parents “ate” students. Even the school itself “ate” students.
Even without being eaten, Faceless Students would eventually evolve into Lip-face monsters.
Contaminated zones operated according to the will of the contamination source.
But up until now, the source hadn’t eaten any students—or him, for that matter.
Yu Zhi recalled the densely packed brainwashing slogans on the school walls and floor tiles.
Rather than consuming people, the source seemed more fixated on reading and studying.
It was as if the obsession with teaching had spiraled into madness—or perhaps it was something even more sinister…
“Ding-ling-ling—”
The sound of the class bell interrupted Yu Zhi’s thoughts.
Chen Wan’s sharp voice rang out: “That’s enough! Grab your textbooks and stand by the wall. Don’t disrupt the others.”
“The rest of you, take out your textbooks. Today, we’re studying Mr. Lu Xun’s Blessing.”
Yu Zhi mimed taking a language textbook from the desk and glanced around.
The fleshy walls showed no reaction. Not studying or disrupting others’ studies would provoke the source into reprimanding them, but it wouldn’t make her appear.
Time to try something else.
“Students in the second group, each take turns reading a section aloud.”
As Chen Wan’s voice echoed, Yu Zhi saw the first Faceless Student in his row stand up.
It began to speak—a faint, mosquito-like female voice.
Yu Zhi could barely make out what it was saying, only managing to discern that it was a girl’s voice.
The Faceless Students in his group took turns reading until the student directly in front of Yu Zhi stood up to read.
For the first time, Yu Zhi could hear the voice clearly—sharp and high-pitched, eerily similar to Chen Wan’s.
“Furthermore, even yesterday’s encounter with Xiang Lin’s Wife made it impossible for me to settle… She was unmistakably a beggar now.”
It was Yu Zhi’s turn.
Standing up, he cleared his throat and began: “February 20th, Tuesday.”
Chen Wan’s angry voice immediately cut in: “What nonsense are you reading?! Do you think your good grades mean you can slack off all the time?!”
“Don’t think that just because you’re doing well now, you’ll stay that way forever. I’ve taught for years—seen more students than you’ve eaten meals—and I know exactly how this ends—”
Yu Zhi ignored her, raising his voice to recite with passion: “After talking with my sister, I finally realized that the past 17 years were a haze.”
“It seems Mom wants to harm me.”
Chen Wan’s tirade came to an abrupt halt, clearly recognizing what he was reciting.
It was Chen Tingting’s diary.
The surrounding fleshy walls heaved violently, and the entire classroom began to tremble and shake.
“You, you—”
Feeling the tongue beneath him shift, Yu Zhi quickly jumped onto the desk, continuing his dramatic reading of Chen Tingting’s diary:
“This morning, I carefully got out of bed and peeked through the door crack. I saw Mom in the living room making a phone call.”
Chen Wan screamed: “Shut up!”
Yu Zhi used his ability to teleport to another student’s desk.
In the same moment, the desk he’d just been on was pierced from above by three rows of sharp teeth, which crushed the desk and chair entirely.
“Her teeth were dazzlingly white, her words full of poison, and her smile, all daggers.”
He read with even greater emphasis: “While she was out, I snuck into her room and opened her computer, trying to figure everything out.”
Chen Wan’s voice rose several octaves, nearly breaking as she shrieked: “I told you to shut up!”
The fleshy walls began sprouting more and more jagged teeth. In the blink of an eye, they grew over a meter long, slamming into each other with nerve-wracking grinding noises.
Yu Zhi continued to teleport rapidly around the classroom, dodging the attacks as he recited:
“After carefully reading her chat logs with the other teachers, I deciphered their code—it’s about eating people!”
“They’re all eating people!”
Each word was forceful, every sentence resounding with conviction.
The sharp, glinting teeth erupted from every corner of the fleshy walls, smashing through desks and impaling several Faceless Students.
Although Yu Zhi hadn’t been bitten, his frantic dodging forced him to breathe deeply. The heavy scent of blood and meat filled his nose and mouth, fraying his nerves and chipping away at his sanity.
The conflicting sensations of intense nausea and overwhelming hunger assaulted him simultaneously.
He felt as though his stomach was being violently torn in two.
So hungry.
So nauseous.
Yu Zhi’s face was deathly pale, devoid of any color. Cold sweat dripped from his forehead and down his neck.
More teeth kept emerging, shrinking his room to maneuver.
Countless rows of jagged teeth protruded, retracted, and protruded again, like an assembly line ceaselessly attacking everything in the classroom.
The Faceless Students bitten by the teeth didn’t die. Instead, they began to mutate, transforming visibly into Lip-face monsters.
As Yu Zhi landed on another desk, the bitten student beneath him exuded an overpowering aroma of meat, momentarily clouding his mind.
The next second, a giant mouth lunged at him from the side.
Yu Zhi’s eyelid twitches, snapping him back to his senses. Without hesitation, he teleported away to another corner of the room.
[User “World’s Cutest Girl” regrets betting incorrectly and hopes you hold out for an hour before dying.]
[User “Velvet Latte” urges you to die quickly.]
[User “National Tactical Humanoid Weapon” praises their own brilliant bet placement.]
Time ticked by. The contamination source still hadn’t appeared, and the number of Lip-face monsters continued to grow.
Yu Zhi’s back was drenched in sweat. Every spasm in his stomach brought a sharp pain, as if a knife were twisting inside him.
He panted heavily, wiping the sweat that dripped into his eyelashes.
If this dragged on, the contamination source wouldn’t need to act—he’d already be transformed into a pollutant himself.
Clenching his teeth, Yu Zhi drew his dagger and slashed his arm.
Fresh blood dripped down onto the massive tongue beneath him.
It was as if the classroom had tasted the most exquisite delicacy. The frenzied environment stilled for a brief moment. The gnashing teeth stopped, and even the Lip Men froze in place.
In the eerie stillness, any faint disturbance stood out clearly.
That’s when Yu Zhi noticed a narrow crack near the blackboard, faintly appearing and disappearing, as if it were breathing.
It was well-hidden.
Yu Zhi dashed toward it and plunged his dagger into the crack.
A soft squelch echoed as the blade pierced the fleshy wall.
Bright, piercing white light spilled from the opening—completely different from the classroom’s dim, yellowish glow.
He had found it.
There was another space inside.
Gripping the dagger tightly, Yu Zhi dragged it sideways, slicing a half-meter-long gash.
Ignoring the disgusting, sticky sensation, he shoved his hands into the opening and pulled it apart with all his strength. Then, without hesitation, he flashed inside.
The ground beneath him was solid concrete.
Hearing the rush of frantic footsteps behind him, Yu Zhi didn’t look back and sprinted forward.
From the classroom behind him, Chen Wan’s voice screeched hysterically:
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I said, shut up!!!”
At the same time, the exact same voice echoed from ahead, overlapping with the one behind.
The contamination source was in front of him.
Gritting his teeth, Yu Zhi pushed himself to run faster.
He found himself in a massive, strange room.
It was divided into three distinct sections: a teacher’s office from Taijiang High School, a classroom, and a normal bedroom.
It seemed like the contamination source’s life revolved around these three areas.
As Yu Zhi entered the bedroom section, he saw a frail, disheveled woman crouched in a corner.
It was Chen Wan.
She was even thinner than she appeared in the phone’s wallpaper, practically skin and bones. Her high cheekbones jutted out, and her thin lips were pulled into a downward scowl. She nervously bit her fingernails, muttering to herself:
“Shut up, shut up, stop talking, stop talking…”
She didn’t look like a Lip-face monster. She had a face, limbs—she appeared to be a completely normal human.
Yu Zhi hesitated briefly, then quickly checked his contamination detector.
[Contamination Level: 100%]
The contamination level exceeded the detector’s threshold, causing a red danger icon to flash incessantly on the screen.
Yu Zhi put the detector away, took a deep breath, and flashed behind Chen Wan.
He raised his dagger, aiming it at her neck, and stabbed down hard.
Crack—
The dagger’s tip snapped off.
Yu Zhi: “…”
Damn it, I should’ve brought Xiao Ming’s gun!
“Yu… Yu… Yu Zhi?”
Chen Wan slowly lifted her head, her hollow, dark eyes locking onto his face.
“You… you’re Yu Zhi…”
Yu Zhi froze for a moment. He’d graduated from high school four years ago. How could the contamination source still recognize him?
Chen Wan seemed to receive some kind of signal and muttered to herself:
“Yu Zhi, the first student from Taijiang High to get into H University. In grades 10 and 11, he was at the bottom of the class, couldn’t even grasp middle school concepts. But in grade 12, his grades suddenly skyrocketed.”
As she spoke, her expression twisted with disdain and harshness. She turned to the air and said:
“He’s the smartest student I’ve ever taught. Look at him and then look at yourselves! You should all learn from him—skip meals to study, stay up all night to study. Only by enduring hardship can you get into the best universities…”
[User “World’s Cutest Girl” is curious about your past.]
[User “Pure Love Warrior” wonders about your relationship with the contamination source.]
[User “momo” is shocked by your entanglement with the contamination source.]
Yu Zhi ignored the chat. Watching Chen Wan babble and lecture like a deranged teacher, a sudden thought struck him.
The contamination source had gone insane.
The contaminated zone was constructed based on the source’s mental state and will.
Students, the lowest tier of the food chain, were the most human-like pollutants. Once consumed, they transformed into Lip Men.
Yu Zhi’s eyelashes trembled as he stared at Chen Wan, still rambling incoherently. His theory was growing clearer.
The contamination source wasn’t the one eating—it was the one being eaten.
Yu Zhi softly called out, “Tingting.”
Chen Wan’s tirade came to an abrupt halt.
She slowly raised her head, her pupils unfocused and her gaze empty.
Meeting her vacant eyes, Yu Zhi didn’t hesitate. He raised his broken dagger again and this time, plunged it directly into the contamination source’s eye.
The blade sank into the socket.
There was no blood. Instead, from the center of her right eye, countless fine cracks began to spread outward, like a spiderweb, covering her entire face.
Crack—
With a faint shattering sound, Chen Wan’s face fragmented and fell away in pieces.
Beneath the surface wasn’t Chen Tingting’s face but that of another unfamiliar middle-aged woman.
Yu Zhi’s heart sank. Without hesitation, he raised the dagger again and stabbed down.
Crack—
The unfamiliar face shattered and fell away.
Still, it wasn’t Chen Tingting underneath. This time, it was the face of a middle-aged man.
His features bore a slight resemblance to Chen Wan, perhaps a relative.
The man’s rough, rugged face juxtaposed against the skeletal, emaciated body created a grotesque image.
Yu Zhi’s already pale complexion turned even whiter.
Those who were consumed would take on the appearance of their devourers.
It wasn’t just her mother, Chen Wan, who had eaten Chen Tingting.
Countless adults had.
Nice