Chapter 204: “Private Qingteng High School” Rollback (Patreon)

"Let me out!"

Junho, the Korean player, scrambled across the floor to the window sealed shut with flesh and pounded the wall with his fists in a frenzy.

Bang!

The wall of flesh bulged inward, and a rebounding force threw Junho back at once.

On the other side of the room, the mutated Mark had become a pure killing machine. His tentacles lashed wildly through the cramped classroom. Mitsuhashi tumbled away in an ungainly roll, barely dodging a sweeping strike, and the desk behind him was smashed to splinters.

"Damn it! How are we supposed to fight this?!" Mitsuhashi's companion roared.

"It's no use!" Lin's voice rang out through the chaos, blood still smeared at the corner of his mouth. "The rules have gone berserk! We have to hold out!"

His eyes were fixed on the clock on the wall. Ten more minutes. If they could last until the bell rang, they might have a chance!

"Stop hiding your cards, damn it! Use your trump cards!"

Lin pulled something from inside his coat: a battered black umbrella that looked ready to fall apart at any moment.

[Ghost Item: Tattered Umbrella]

Lin threw it open. A translucent golden barrier spread out from beneath it and enveloped him and two other players. Bone spikes thrust from the walls struck the barrier and sent ripples across it, but none could pierce it.

"Get over here!" Lin shouted at Shido Makoto, Mitsuhashi and the others nearby.

But he had badly underestimated how ruthless this Full Moon-class dungeon was in its purge. Or rather, he had overestimated the strength of his ghost item.

The proctor teacher hovering in midair let out a cold laugh from her split mouth. She slowly extended a single finger and, from across the room, lightly tapped the golden barrier. A black speck flew from her fingertip and landed on it.

The instant it made contact, the golden barrier burst apart with a roar!

"Gah!"

Lin took the blow like a hammer to the chest. He coughed up a huge mouthful of blood, flew backward, and slammed into the floor, unconscious.

With their hope shattered, every surviving player's expression went rigid.

Under the terrifying mental contamination, Yukino's consciousness was already blurring. Blood seeped from the corners of her eyes, her nose, and her ears. She bit down hard on her lip, propping herself up on sheer stubborn willpower, but she was about to give out.

Shido Makoto swept the room with his Glasses and reached a conclusion: in this berserk-rule state, the monster was invincible. In theory, short of overpowering it by brute force, the only way to survive was to never break the rules. But thinking about that now was pointless.

Bone spikes poured down like a rainstorm, covering all three hundred and sixty degrees with no gap to dodge through. The two outermost players were ground into pulp mid-scream. Yukino weakly clutched the hem of Shido Makoto's clothes. She wanted to say something, but only rasping gurgles came from her throat, and her vision had turned completely red.

Shido Makoto didn't look at the players being torn apart around him. There was no chance left. Lin had blacked out, and Mitsuhashi and his companion stood back to back, smiling bitterly in resignation.

Just as the bone spikes were about to pierce flesh, Shido Makoto's eyes went flat and indifferent.

The next second.

A low hum rang out.

When the soul-rending agony finally ebbed and Shido Makoto's vision refocused, everything around him had returned to normal.

He instinctively glanced at the wall clock. Seven thirty in the morning. Sixty minutes ago. The very moment morning study session began.

"Hey, what are you spacing out for?"

An impatient voice came from beside him. Shido Makoto turned and saw the Japanese Veteran Mitsuhashi frowning at him.

Everything was back. He looked down and touched his chest, which was unharmed. Then he looked to the other side. Yukinoshita Yukino sat quietly, head bowed over an open reference book, with no trace of the bloody, ruined state she had been in before.

"Classmate, your books aren't arranged neatly. Under Article Sixteen of the Student Code of Conduct, I'm going to report you to the teacher."

From not far away, that hateful voice sounded again. Frank, holding the little notebook he used to record violations, was strutting toward Yukino's desk, smug and self-satisfied.

Watching the familiar scene unfold, the corner of Shido Makoto's mouth curled up. A dead end? Only for other people.

This time, Shido Makoto didn't waste a single word. Before anyone could react, he rose straight from his seat.

"Classmate, your..."

Frank never finished his irritating line. His vision blurred, and a black shadow flashed in front of him. He didn't even see who it was, only felt a gust of wind hit his face.

Bang!

Shido Makoto's heavy, powerful kick landed squarely in Frank's lower abdomen. The smug grin froze on Frank's face. He was launched like he'd been hit by a speeding truck, and he and the desk behind him flew a full three meters.

Boom!

He and the poor desk smashed into the blackboard at the front of the classroom, then slid to the floor.

"Urgh!"

Frank lay face-down, clutching his stomach, and vomited up a huge mouthful of filth.

The players stared at Shido Makoto, dumbstruck, then at Frank sprawled on the ground, alive or dead they couldn't tell. Their minds had completely shut down.

What just happened? Why had he suddenly attacked?

"Fang Si! Have you lost your mind?"

Lin, sitting in the back row, was the first to react. His hand slipped instinctively into his coat toward his weapon, his face full of bewilderment.

"It's morning study time! You'll draw the Dean! Do you want to get all of us killed?!"

In another corner, Mitsuhashi also shot to his feet, watching Shido Makoto warily.

"What the hell are you trying to do? Give us an explanation!"

But Shido Makoto ignored every one of their questions. With the first source of trouble dealt with, he didn't stop. He turned on his heel and reached back toward his next target: Mark, sitting in the back row with a trace of gloating on his face, ready to enjoy the show.

Mark was startled by the sudden turn of events. When he saw Shido Makoto lock onto him, he blurted out, "You... what do you think you're doing?!"

He was about to leap from his seat, but Shido Makoto was far faster. A large hand clamped onto the back of his neck. A tremendous force bore down, and Mark felt as though his neck bones were about to be crushed.

"What are you doing?! Let go of me! Help!"

Mark screamed in terror at the sudden assault. His mind was already on the edge of collapse at any moment.

"If your mind is so fragile, then you shouldn't be awake."

Shido Makoto looked down at Mark struggling in vain in his grip. His other hand rose, and a knife-edge chop landed squarely on Mark's carotid artery.

"Ugh..."

Mark's eyes rolled upward. Before he even had the chance to trigger his mutation, he slumped limply onto his desk, completely unconscious. Knocked out cold, the plain physical way.

With that done, Shido Makoto casually pulled a tissue from his desk and wiped his hands without hurry. Calm and unruffled, he walked back to his seat and sat down again.

Yukinoshita Yukino was stunned too. She opened her mouth, looking at this man, unsure what to say. She didn't understand why Shido Makoto had suddenly done this, but instinct told her he must have his reasons.

Mitsuhashi, his companion, and the Korean player Junho stared at Shido Makoto as if he were a monster. They couldn't comprehend it at all. Frank and Mark might be annoying, but they were Honor Students, the very picture of strict rule-following. Attacking them so violently at this moment was openly provoking the dungeon's rules, wasn't it? Was he courting death?

"You'd better pray the Dean doesn't come," Lin said, glaring at Shido Makoto and forcing the words through gritted teeth. He had already braced himself to respond to anything.

Shido Makoto spoke calmly. "The bell's about to ring. Everyone sit down and behave."

They had no choice. Every player still standing, Mitsuhashi included, found themselves sitting back down in their seats.

The moment he finished speaking...

"Ring-a-ling-a-ling..."

The class bell rang right on time. At almost the same instant, the front door of the classroom was pushed open a crack from outside. The eerie teacher, a rope noose around her neck and her whole body floating in midair, drifted in once again.

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