The arrow didn't enter the room. It stayed, almost trying to hide in the dark hallway, peeking its non-existent eye through the narrow door slit.
Amelia seemed to have not noticed this. "Xiao Bai? What's up with you, really?"
Chen Mo didn't think walking right now would be safe.
Extending the mysterious arrow's profile:
[Name: Jack.]
[Threat: C rank]
That's it. That was all the information Chen Mo was allowed to know.
He reduced Jack's uninformative profile, but not only did the profile disappear, the arrow vanished with it too. It was clear to Chen Mo that Jack was supposed to be an invisible entity, and the arrow would've ruined this purpose.
Jack was three entire ranks higher than Chen Mo. Pair that with invisibility, Chen Mo knew a direct combat would end in him ultimately losing. Whilst he didn't know what would happen after a loss in this game, he certainly didn't want to find out.
"I just really miss this classroom." Chen Mo made up a bad pretext to keep himself and Amelia in the classroom. He might not be able to see Jack anymore, but the door slit wasn't wide enough for the average human body; Jack shouldn't have entered yet.
Amelia bought Chen Mo's excuse, then elucidated, "Yeah... Crazy how they actually just straight up never used this class after our year."
Never? Amelia was twenty-one, and most students would leave high school at eighteen. Chen Mo's eyes darted around his surroundings and realised just how crooked the desks were, and how thick a layer of dust had settled upon everything.
This place was dilapidated for three straight years; the last batch of students was theirs. Chen Mo was determined to find out why, but he didn't think directly asking Amelia was the way to go; that would be self-report, exposing the fact that Chen Mo wasn't whatever character he's supposed to be playing.
So instead, he paced around, barely worried that an invisible threat was imminent. "Yeah, I have lots of fond memories here."
"Pfft." Amelia crossed her arms while Chen Mo scrutinised the class. She spat, "Fond? Aside from you and all those times we skipped class together, I don't find much of this class fond."
Chen Mo went straight for the class notice board first. He searched for the name list, then skimmed through it. He found his own name, Amelia Cunningham, a line darkened with permanent marker, and no Jack.
One could put two and two together.
Chen Mo decided to find Jack's desk next. None of the wooden desks had names labelled on them, but a particular one caught attention, practically screaming to be inspected.
It was placed in a horrible corner near the reeking trash can. Whoever sat at that desk would also have to endure the wafting curtains slapping their face during a windy day of class. On top of that desk: a very eye-catching notebook, black soft cover.
"You really like clinging to the past, eh?" Amelia continued with impatient thumping feet. "Come on, I wanna swim."
"I just wanna reminisce about our times together here." Chen Mo blurted, not with much care, but Amelia still blushed.
He picked up the notebook and flipped it open. The first page was a rough shape of a human, formed by frantic scribbles with a blunt pencil. It had eyes larger than its hands but no eyeballs.
Second page, two black dots within two blank circles made the eyes, then the paper was cut poorly with scissors into a sharp, unnaturally wide smile.
Chen Mo thought for a while and went straight to the last page of the notebook. On it: names, names that Chen Mo would find familiar as they were from the class's name list.
Katerine Mangle. Isaac Tatum. Faith Hanningst. Arden Lionsworth. Hans Kahnwald. Mrs. Smith.
No mentions of Amelia Cunningham.
But the final name was 'Xiao Bai'.
He glanced over the notebook and onto the desk itself.
Faint, dusty marks from chalk fired a barrage of insulting words. It was barely visible due to the three years of neglect, but Chen Mo was still able to decipher most of the messages through their few remnants.
JUMP! JUST JUMP!
ROT IN HELL, DUMBFUCK!
SNITCH!
"This place is so dirty." Chen Mo remarked simply.
"Ha, of course it is..." Amelia took a seat on the teacher's desk. She turned her gaze to Chen Mo, "... wait, what are you doing?"
He was unbuttoning his shirt. "We brought water, right?"
Amelia watched as his collarbones slowly unravelled. Her cheeks would flush red without her permission. "Uh... Uh... Yeah, of course. What do you want to do?"
Amelia twirled her fingers, bit her lip. But unfortunately, Chen Mo was about to shatter her expectations.
"I want to clean up the fond memories." Chen Mo said flatly, but then decided to add one flirt. "I want the place where we meet to be better than it actually is."
He looked around the classroom until spotting the only item in there that wasn't covered in dust: their dufflebag.
Chen Mo took off his white collared shirt, leaving no other clothing on his slender torso. He might not have much muscle to show, but his complexions were still well-toned, aesthetic enough to make it difficult for Amelia to look without embarrassment assaulting her.
He folded his shirt into a neat rectangle before scouring the dufflebag for a cheap, single-use plastic bottle of water.
"You..." Amelia covered her flustered expression the best she could with her two tiny palms. "... You look really good..."
"Thanks." Chen Mo wasn't reciprocating the compliment while Jack was active.
He dampened his shirt with water without hesitation, then used it as a towel to wipe the chalk marks off what he presumed to be Jack's desk.
He rubbed it as clean as the wet cloth could, until the white uniform was dirtied with gray from the dust and alabaster from the chalk, until not a single word could still be spelled on that desk.
After that, he turned to the back door, still ajar with a slit that wouldn't fit a man.
"I'm sorry." Chen Mo apologised.
Amelia didn't understand it. "No... No, don't be. You look great."
Chen Mo flipped open the notebook again, straight to the last page.
His username 'Xiao Bai' disappeared from the list. The neon lime system returned,
[First task completed!]
[Reward: 20 Sapphires.]
[Second task: Have fun in the pool! (Spend ten minutes in the gym's pool)]
———
In a near-empty cinema hall, with crooked cushioned chairs that were spilling cotton and a low-quality, dull big screen, Sean Anthony Teo, or sean_069, was watching Chen Mo's POV with a raven-haired lady leaning on his shoulder.
"He's not that bad actually, for an F rank." Sean commented. "Not sure about the table wiping part though..."
"Why not?" The raven-haired lady inquired politely.
Sean was more than happy to explain while munching on popcorn. "Well, I mean I'm no expert, I'm just some guy who enjoys watching new players suffer. But if I'm not mistaken: the dumb walk out of the classroom and fight with Jack. The dumber erase their name on the kill list and fight with an enraged Jack. The smart apologise and pacify him.
This level is egregious because of that; two out of three story progression routes leads to a beginner fighting a C rank monster. I mean, that's just unfair. To defeat a C rank, a player must be C rank, and to be C rank or higher right off the bat is very rare, at most five percent chance.
Well, then again, starting with F rank is probably one percent.
This F rank's a smart one though, he understood to apologise. But wiping the table wasn't necessary."
On the bottom right of Chen Mo's POV in the big screen was his username: [XiaoBai]
"Alright, XiaoBai." Sean stretched his back before summoning a holographic keyboard in front of himself out of nowhere.
He clacked:
———
A new live chat message popped up at the bottom left of Chen Mo's field of sight:
[not bad bro.]
Chen Mo turned to face Amelia, but the briefest eye contact had Amelia averting her gaze.
Her cheeks were redder than a tomato, so Chen Mo didn't have to be a genius to figure out what the NPC felt about him. He simply suggested, "Let's head to the pool now."
"Y-yeah! Sure!" Amelia hopped down from the tall teacher's desk and skipped towards the classroom exit.
Chen Mo didn't stop her this time. He merely followed with his filthy shirt still folded tidily in his right palm, and Jack's notebook in his left — he believed this would still be useful.
Amelia waited for him outside in the dark hallway. She was much shorter than Chen Mo, so she had to look up to meet his eyes. "Your shirt..."
"It's okay, we're swimming anyway." Chen Mo justified, then laid his shirt flat on the floor of the hallway.
"Oh! We forgot our bag!" Amelia rushed back into class.
Chen Mo summoned the system again as he didn't quite catch his second task when it flashed succinctly before.
[Second task: Have fun in the pool! (Spend ten minutes in the gym's pool)]
It wouldn't be that easy. Chen Mo thought as he tapped his chin.
Scrolling up, Chen Mo found another system message worth checking.
[Reward: 20 Sapphires.]
It sounded like a currency. Chen Mo spelled the word 'Store' in his head.
[Sorry, Store is only unlocked after the player obtains 50 or more Sapphires.]