Chapter 26: Door God? Abyss God!

"Bro, I'm begging you, bro! Don't drag me along to die, okay?"

Little Fatty's round face was nearly scrunched into a ball.

He had already been coaxed and tricked (primarily through the threat of a dagger) by Wu Wang to the landing of the second-floor staircase.

The other party wanted to continue upward, but Little Fatty's calves were already trembling.

"It's fine. That guy definitely isn't in the broadcasting room; he's definitely left," Wu Wang comforted him. "My brothers are outside handling things; they'll hold him off."

Even Li Yang squeezed out a sentence: "Now is actually a good time to break in while the place is empty."

He was also curious about the situation upstairs.

To be precise, he was curious about what secrets were hidden within this Art Building, which had been tucked away by Gaoshan High School.

In the past, he had never possessed such intense curiosity; his mind had been filled with nothing but studying.

Today, he had discovered something outside of academics.

He couldn't help but want to see the truth for himself.

Looking at Little Fatty's expression, which looked like he was about to cry, Wu Wang asked, "Are you really that afraid of it? Did it hurt you or something?"

"Not really..."

"Then did it hurt anyone else in the Art Building?"

"No, they can't see each other..." Little Fatty's voice was as thin as a mosquito's buzz.

This made Wu Wang laugh out of sheer frustration.

"You idiot, then what the hell are you afraid of?" he said, feeling a sense of exasperation.

This question caused Little Fatty to frown in deep thought for nearly ten seconds before answering uncertainly, "I'm afraid of seeing its face? I don't know! I'm just afraid, okay!"

*Swish—*

Just as the two were chatting animatedly, a blackboard eraser covered in white powder flew toward them.

Wu Wang tilted his head to dodge, simultaneously taking a step to the left to avoid a lightbulb that had fallen due to years of neglect.

His stride was somewhat exaggerated.

He happened to step right over a puddle of uncleaned, colorful paint sludge on the floor.

"I've been wanting to ask—Student Chu, isn't your agility a bit excessive? Do you train?" Li Yang couldn't help but complain.

This was already the 14th time during their trek from the first to the second floor that Wu Wang had perfectly dodged something appearing out of nowhere.

Once or twice might be a coincidence.

But so many coincidences in such a short time...

It was clearly wrong.

An invisible giant hand was manipulating everything.

It seemed that if Wu Wang were to get stained with color, something would happen.

"I'm an athlete! Don't underestimate my conditioning! Back in the day, I could take down a tiger with a single sliding tackle!" Wu Wang spoke nonsense with a straight face.

The frequency of the colored filth appearing was increasing, which actually proved his direction was correct.

There had to be something in that broadcasting room!

The closer he got, the more anxious the ghost hiding in the shadows became.

"How about this, Little Fatty? I'll ask you a few questions. If you can answer them, I won't force you to go upstairs," a look of wisdom flashed in Wu Wang's eyes.

"?"

The other boy looked up.

Clearly, he wanted to know what kind of questions Wu Wang intended to ask.

Wu Wang's expression turned serious: "What do you think of Chen Nan?"

Little Fatty clearly hadn't expected Wu Wang's train of thought to jump so wildly to Chen Nan.

He defended himself somewhat helplessly, "Sister Chen is great, of course! Everyone likes her, and she takes special care of me. If I could find a girlfriend like that in this lifetime, I'd wake up smiling from a dream. No, I mean, like, a crush between classmates, you know...?"

"?"

Wu Wang had an epiphany.

He wore an expression that said, *'If you know, you know.'*

In reality, he had just wanted to motivate him to go upstairs and resolve the matter by implying that Principal Wang would eventually harm the people around Little Fatty.

He hadn't expected to land a "critical hit" with a basic attack.

This little tub of a boy definitely liked Chen Nan.

That made things even easier.

"I'll tell you, the guy on the third floor is the current principal of Gaoshan High School. He's planning to demolish the Art Building, and everything you cherish is about to turn to ash," Wu Wang stood up and said coldly. "Are you going to sit around and wait for the day Chen Nan disappears?"

"!"

At these words, Little Fatty froze.

That monster was actually the principal!

If the principal was going to demolish the Art Building...

Then wouldn't Chen Nan's hope—the hope that teachers and students would discover they were missing and come to rescue them—be nothing more than a tragic fantasy?

"Either you come up with me now to find a way to escape the Art Building, or you can let Chen Nan wait for death in her sweet delusions," Wu Wang's tone was quite cold.

With that, he turned and walked toward the stairwell.

One step, two steps, three steps...

"Dammit!" Little Fatty gritted his teeth.

Though his legs were still trembling, he managed to stand up with difficulty, leaning against the wall.

From the side, Li Yang hoped to see an expression of moved emotion or proud recognition on Wu Wang's face.

But as expected, he only saw a sinister smirk of a successful conspiracy.

*This bastard! The demolition thing was definitely made up!*

But he didn't expose Wu Wang.

Since the other guy wanted Little Fatty to come along so badly, he must have his reasons.

They began walking upward side-by-side again.

*Thump, thump—hummm—*

Just as they stepped onto the third floor, before they could even begin searching for the broadcasting station or even see the hallway clearly...

The three of them suddenly felt their heart rates accelerate. They even experienced a slight ringing in their ears, their vision became blurred, and strange, nonsensical whispers echoed in their minds.

Little Fatty and Li Yang nearly collapsed on the spot.

【Sanity: 35—34】

Wu Wang's sanity began to drop.

The speed wasn't very fast; it was still within an acceptable range.

Perhaps it was because he had developed some resistance to this kind of Sanity-draining mental pollution. After all, the owner of the red vertical pupil on his wrist, the Abyss God, was the greatest mental pollution he had encountered so far.

An existence that could cause one to mutate into an explosion just from a single glance—even now, just thinking about it made Wu Wang feel an itch on his skin, as if tentacles were about to grow out.

Unnamable, unspeakable, unviewable.

"Something's wrong... the third floor wasn't like this before..." Little Fatty spoke with a trembling voice while rubbing his head.

In his memory, the source of terror on the third floor was merely that bloated principal monster; there had never been this kind of whispering pollution that caused headaches just by walking up.

But the more it was like this, the more it seemed to prove that what Wu Wang said would happen.

Even if the principal didn't demolish the Art Building, just letting this eerie situation develop meant the building would eventually suffer internal issues, polluting the unsuspecting students below.

"The broadcasting room is at the end of the hallway!"

Li Yang helped Little Fatty up, and the two leaned on each other to shuffle forward slowly.

Wu Wang took the lead, walking at the very front.

*Mental pollution? Come at me head-on!*

But halfway there, he stopped in his tracks.

His expression turned slightly playful. "Oh? Not playing hide-and-seek with me anymore?"

He saw a silhouette standing before a wooden door at the end of the hall. The figure had its back to him, letting out an angry roar that sounded extremely familiar.

It was precisely the ghost that had been trying to kill him on this floor.

Its body was somewhat bloated, and it wore a pitch-black garment of an indistinguishable style, quite tattered, with many parts hanging off in strips.

Upon hearing the sound, it slowly turned around.

This caused the playful expression on Wu Wang's face to freeze.

There were two reasons for the freeze.

First, he saw something familiar on the door that the ghost was blocking—

A simple sketch of a red vertical pupil.

*Holy crap! The Abyss God!*

It was obvious that the highly incongruous tentacles appearing in this dungeon, as well as the whispers heard while going upstairs, originated from here.

Even Principal Wang's nightly presence in this broadcasting room suggested that his ridiculously powerful strength likely came from that red vertical pupil.

That unnamable existence had completely polluted this land with its mere aura; no wonder the [Bloody School Uniform] had guided him to this place.

"Big Brother Abyss God, are you still in here doing MC hype-man stuff in the broadcasting room?" Wu Wang joked, looking at the mark on his wrist.

Second... that was harder to say.

"Little Fatty, I want to ask you something I should have asked a long time ago. It might be a bit impolite to ask now," he turned back, sounding somewhat uncertain.

"Huh? What is it?" Little Fatty frowned.

He felt like his head was about to split open. Even with his hands over his ears, those whispers kept drilling into his brain, as if ants were gnawing at him.

"What is your surname? Or rather, what is your full name?"

*You idiot dragged me along to die, and you don't even know my name until now?*

Though Little Fatty felt dissatisfied, he answered truthfully

"My surname is Wang. My full name is Wang Zhiyong."

As soon as he finished, Little Fatty also froze in place.

Because he had also managed to see the face of the bloated ghost at the end of the hallway.

It was the principal's face.

Only, it was much more youthful.

So youthful that... it looked exactly like his own.

(End of Chapter)