After editing the roster, the old witch snapped shut her wrinkly notebook and tossed it to Grace:
"Okay, hand this in. But first, make a copy for me."
The youth hurriedly caught the roster, straightening his slightly skewed glasses as he awkwardly replied:
"Sure, ma'am. No problem."
"Intern teacher... Humph."
"It's almost time for roll call, perfect timing. After you've delivered the roster, come back here. I'm short-staffed."
"Damn it, every time it's a pile of crappy tasks dumped on me, a bunch of shameless jerks..."
The woman spat as she cursed, turning to walk away with her tall, bulging figure vanishing outside the door.
"Bang!"
The duty room door was rudely slammed shut.
Through the door, Grace heard the eerie singing resume, its sound accompanied by the woman's heavy footsteps, which gradually faded away until swallowed by the dark shadows.
It was only a few short seconds, yet it felt as long as a century.
Finally, all was silent.
"...?"
Almost immediately, the young man's face, previously wearing a naive and bashful smile, now showed no emotion, revealing no hint of his feelings.
The chat fell silent for a few seconds.
"...?"
"The way he looks... it's like he's plotting something..."
"He seems pretty familiar with the process from the start, could he be some big shot's alt account? After all, the host can exchange points for a new body."
"And if I'm not mistaken, this host hit the jackpot with a starting survival time on hell difficulty right at the first mission. How could anyone be this unlucky unless it's rigged by the system?"
"Yeah, I agree, it's highly likely he's using an alt account."
"But I follow most S-rank hosts and big guilds, and this streaming style... it doesn't really match anyone, does it?"
Just then, the previously still host suddenly stood up.
"!"
The live viewers got quite a scare.
They instinctively held their breath, staring intensely at the youth on the screen, half surprised, half excitedly anticipating his next move—
"Ugh—"
Grace dashed to the desk, bending over the trash can and began retching.
His slender fingers gripped the edge of the desk tightly, turning his knuckles white, and along with the echoing sound of retching, it didn't seem fake at all.
"..."
"..."
The chat fell into deathly silence.
After a few seconds, a slow stream of "…?" started appearing.
"...What just happened?"
"...After all those deep and inscrutable expressions, he shows me this?"
"So, the host is really a newbie, huh? Otherwise, why such a big reaction..."
"Maybe it's an act…? I'm not sure anymore..."
Half a minute later, Grace stood up, pale, supporting himself on the desk.
Apparently not having eaten for a while, he hadn't actually vomited anything.
Wiping his mouth corner, his eyes wet, and his long lashes misted with physiological tears.
Damn it...
That really scared the hell out of me!
Sweat drenched Grace's shirt against his skin, his palms also sweaty. A breeze made him shiver.
Ah, what on earth is this place?!
That terrifying smile right behind me! Right behind me! So close! I almost threw up!!
Grace's expression twisted slightly.
Lucky for him, the NPC that entered looked at least human; otherwise, he suspected he might've dropped dead on the spot.
And more importantly...
While Grace wasn't sure how much longer he had to live, he was painfully aware that his situation was dire—probably seconds away from game over!
He hadn't even had the chance to spend his newly-acquired two billion! He hadn't had the chance to enjoy the finer things in life yet!
Not taken out by a crime syndicate, but to die an inexplicable death via a horror streaming app...
No way!
Grace was desperate.
Just as he was freaking out, suddenly, a "ding" sound by his ear, followed by the system's mechanical voice:
[Congratulations to the host on unlocking a new way to earn points!]
[Plot Deviation: 31% Bonus Points: 10000
As deviation increases, so do the points. Beware, increasing plot alteration may cause uncontrollable changes to the scenario!
Keep up the good work and unlock new narratives!]
[Calculating live mission rewards...
Exploration Completion: 20% Bonus Points: 2000]
[Warning, system detection indicates the host's remaining survival time is about to drop below one minute, your broadcast room will soon close! To cater to your starving loyal fans, would you like to convert all your points into survival time?]
!!!
That's what I've been waiting for!
Grace could almost cry from joy:
"Exchange!"
[Ding! Points have been successfully converted. Please check your ID card for the updated balance!]
Grace took a deep breath to calm himself.
He then pulled out his ID card from his pocket, noticing the text had changed at some point.
[ID Card]
Name: Tyler (Changed to: Grace)
Age: 16 (Changed to: ???)
Occupation: Talent Middle School, First Year Student (Changed to: Talent Middle School, First Year Intern Teacher)
Relevant Plot: Yet to Unlock (Changed to: ???)
All "Changed to" texts were in a faint grey, nearly impossible to read under dim light, as if they might vanish the next second.
Grace pondered for a few seconds before flipping the card over.
There was a blood-red countdown on the back.
His survival time leaped from a terrifying single-digit to 120 minutes.
Only two hours, but at least he could live until the first point calculation.
Grace took a deep breath.
He looked at the remaining survival time displayed on the card, lost in thought.
It seems, points to survival time conversion is at a hundred to one ratio.
The rewards for exploring the scenario are too meager, even at a hundred percent, it's just ten thousand points.
Of course, there might be more live missions later, but whether he can make it that far is another matter.
Grace stroked his chin.
As for plot deviation...
The points are indeed plentiful, but the risks implied by the system's warning are too great.
So, there's only one way left to earn points—
Grace looked down and tapped once in the void, reopening the live broadcast interface.
The chat exploded with activity.
"!!!"
"Whoa, he's opened the chat!"
"Thinking of turning on the chat now, huh? Figured you need more points to survive, didn't you?"
Grace glanced over the excited, malicious, sarcastically mocking, and schadenfreude-filled comments, his gaze lightly landing on the upper right corner of the screen.
[Online Viewers: 364]
Although the numbers fluctuated by the second, the overall change wasn't significant.
"Hi, everyone."
The young man's head was slightly bowed, the dim light accentuating his pallid complexion and sharp features.
He smiled warmly.
Perhaps it was due to his profession, but Grace had exceptionally attractive lips; his lower lip was soft and plump, and the corners sharp. When he smiled, he could effortlessly convey a spectrum of emotions, whether intimidating or friendly.
"I didn't have a chance to greet you before because things were pretty hectic, sorry about that."
Grace's lashes drooped slightly, his light amber eyes clear and sincere, though his voice was slightly husky from the retching, the apology genuine.
"..."
The chat went silent for a moment.
Indeed, considering how urgent the situation was, it made sense for the host to block the chat.
It wasn't intentional!
Seeing the host's honest and handsome face, some viewers began to reflect, wondering if they had been too harsh on the new host.
Thus, a wave of friendly comments emerged.
"No worries, it's understandable."
"For a newbie host to handle it this well is impressive."
Some even sent small gifts to the live stream as a gesture of consolation.
Watching the points increase in his backstage balance, Grace's eyes crinkled almost imperceptibly with a fleeting smile.
He picked a few questions from the chat to answer casually.
"How do I feel? Hard to describe, of course, there's some fear, but I have you guys, right?"
"Of course, I hope to make it out alive."
"Hahaha, yes, I am single."
Finally, Grace's gaze landed on a particular comment, as if unconsciously reading it out:
"Is the host really a first-timer? Are you sure he's not an alt of someone—"
He abruptly stopped talking.
The young man laughed towards the screen, saying with a nonchalantly confident attitude, "Ah, sorry, I've been off for too long, got to continue now."
Without waiting for the chat to react, Grace swiftly blocked the live broadcast again.
"???"
"!!!???"
"Wait! I feel like I've noticed something!"
"Can someone check if any high-ranking hosts from the major guilds haven't started their broadcast today!"
"That retching had to be an act! Definitely!"
The chat furiously speculated, and the number of live viewers soared, jumping from a few hundred to nearly eight hundred in just a few minutes, and it kept climbing.
Although Grace had blocked the chat, he didn't shut off the display.
Listening to the live gift notification sounds, he narrowed his eyes, a hint of a smile fleeting across his lips.
Humans...
All have a desire to pry.
But for now, both the online viewer count and the rewarded points were too low. Best to fatten them up before the slaughter.
Suddenly, Grace's gaze landed on a corner of the display, pausing slightly.
There sat a miniature pot icon.
It was the apple seedling the system had given him, supposedly useless.
However, he couldn't shake off the feeling... the soil in the pot seemed slightly bulged.
Grace stared for a long while, frowning.
The icon was too small; maybe he was seeing things.
He shook his head and turned off the display completely.
Grace stood up, although his legs still felt a bit weak, he was much better than before.
Before leaving, he couldn't help but glance towards the mirror.
Even though the incident had passed, remembering what had just happened still left him feeling a bit shaken.
In the half-broken mirror, the pale ghostly smile from earlier had vanished, leaving only the wardrobe slightly ajar.
...The wardrobe?
Grace's expression turned pensive.
Thinking back, the class roster was also found here, so... could there be some important clues here?
Grace approached and bent down to search through the cluttered wardrobe.
Since he had been in a life-threatening situation earlier and had not been focused on a specific goal, he had only done a rough search. Now, he finally had the chance to thoroughly go through the entire contents of the wardrobe.
*Click.*
A small hidden drawer popped open from the bottom of the wardrobe.
Just as expected.
Grace pursed his lips, concealing his excitement, and bent down to inspect the miscellaneous items in the drawer.
The drawer was full of dust, piled with useless odds and ends: yellowed old photos, a few wrinkled coins, a half-broken red comb, scraps of paper, cloth scraps, and some small glass trinkets, nothing significant.
Except for...
Grace's eyes shifted, pausing briefly in a corner of the drawer.
There lay a small package wrapped in red fabric.
Against the dusty background, the blood-red fabric stood out excessively, almost blindingly bright, like a wound oozing with blood.
He hesitated for a moment, carefully reaching out to pick up the small wrapped bundle.
The bundle was small, no larger than a thumbnail, tightly bound with black thread, emitting an inexplicable ominous feeling.
Grace unwrapped the bundle.
The blood-red fabric silently unraveled, revealing a small segment of shiny black hair tied with a red string, and...
A molar.
The stark white tooth, stark against the red fabric background, looked eerie and unsettling.
Grace felt the air around him suddenly drop in temperature.
Just then, a crisp "ding" sounded in his ear: "Congratulations, the broadcaster has obtained a hidden item in the copy (difficult)!"
[Collection progress: 1/3]
Grace asked in his mind, "Is there any reward for finding hidden items? Like being able to exchange them for survival points?"
The system's calm female voice replied, "More rewards are waiting to be unlocked."
Grace: "..."
Oh well.
It seemed like no points this time.
He sighed and carefully rewrapped the red fabric, tucking it back into his pocket before closing the drawer.
In a place where the broadcaster couldn't see, the barrage had heated up with chatter:
"If I'm not mistaken, among the three hidden items in this newbie copy, one is simple, one is difficult, and one is epic, right?"
"Damn, other broadcasters have to struggle hard to get those items by nearly exhausting themselves... and this one just casually finds them?"
"Wow, the first hidden item for this newbie is difficult level, this broadcaster is extraordinary."
"That one just came in, right? This broadcaster doesn't seem like a newbie at all, just not sure whose alt account it is."
Grace left the duty room and headed towards the dormitory entrance.
He took a deep breath and gently pushed the door open with his fingertip, stealing a glance outside.
The sky was dark, casting heavy shadows over the campus.
As expected, the school campus was small, with a four-story academic building not far away. From this angle, he could faintly see a crooked little playground nearby and a small artificial lake.
The lights in the academic building were all off.
Just as Grace was about to look away, he suddenly noticed— a figure standing silently in front of a window on the fourth floor.
In the darkness, the thicker shadows outlined a human figure.
The figure stood still by the window, silent and unmoving.
For some reason, Grace felt as if it was staring at him.
A chilling sensation ran down his spine, raising goosebumps.
Creepy...
At that moment, the figure raised a hand and gently pressed it against the window, a pale, blurry face emerged from the darkness, slowly and firmly pressed against the window—
*Thud!*
The next second, a clear sound of a door slamming suddenly rang out, almost exploding right in front of Grace.
"Oh my god!!"
Instantly, Grace's scalp tingled, feeling a sudden chill, as the door in front of him was forcefully pushed open, gaping wide in the dark night.
A tall, hulking figure appeared in the darkness, wiping her hands on her greasy skirt, looking somewhat surprised at Grace. "Intern, have you delivered the list?"
Grace's heart raced, but his face reflexively put on a smile:
"Yes, yes."
"So quickly?"
"Because you needed help...," the young man shyly scratched the back of his head, "so I came back as quickly as possible."
The hulking woman looked over Grace for a few seconds, then finally let out a cold snort:
"At least you're clever."
She walked past Grace: "Follow me."
The dormitory door closed behind the hulking woman.
Grace instinctively looked back in the direction of the fourth-floor window in the academic building— empty, devoid of anything.
He swallowed nervously.
Even though he shouldn't think this way... but thankfully, this NPC arrived.
At least presentable.
Grace repeated the phrase "presentable" in his mind several times before mustering up the courage to turn around and briskly follow the hulking woman.
The hulking woman stood at the staircase, looking up.
The narrow staircase extended into deep shadows, and through the thin walls, faint noises from above could be heard:
"These new students have no manners."
After speaking, she suddenly chuckled twice.
Her voice was rough, yet the tone was girlish, and her malicious gaze from the depths of her gray eyes was both malevolent and gleeful, sending shivers down one's spine:
"They need to be disciplined..."
The large woman took a step, humming an eerie yet cheerful tune, each step taking her up the stairs.
After a series of hysteria and denial, all new broadcasters were temporarily forced to accept their situation— their lives hanging by a thread, with no way out except to comply with the rules.
Although not intentionally helping each other's competitors, veteran broadcasters would still explain the rules within the copy.
The difficulty of this D-level copy wasn't too high, so as newcomers without much of an audience base, the first thing they needed to do was unlock the hidden information on their identity cards.
The more they understood their role in the copy, the better they could handle various situations, increasing their chances of survival.
Each person searched through their room feverishly, looking for any personal information related to their identity card.
Madelyn tightly clutched his identity card, rummaging under his bed, gasping for air.
His survival time was only four hours, the shortest among his companions.
No matter how he spoke to the live area, the barrage and viewer count remained cold, showing no signs of growth.
So, if he didn't find something successful... he wouldn't survive tonight.
The feeling that he could see the Grim Reaper approaching made Madelyn feel extremely panicked, almost breathless.
Cold sweat trickled down his flushed and feverish face, dropping onto the dusty floor with a *plink*.
The ground beneath his palm vibrated.
"Thud, thud, thud."
It seemed like heavy footsteps were drawing near.
Along with it, a woman's humming drifted through the corridor.
The melody was lively yet simple, intermittent, hauntingly swirling in the gloomy hallway, growing clearer alongside the approaching footsteps.
Madelyn broke into a cold sweat.
The footsteps and humming ceased simultaneously.
*Cough cough cough.* After deliberately clearing her throat, a malicious, rough voice suddenly echoed through the dark, narrow corridor: "Assemble!"
The post-clamor silence became exceedingly hard to bear.
"... "
The broadcasters looked at each other, frozen in place.
Finally, under the guidance of a few experienced broadcasters, the remaining broadcasters, still half in doubt, tentatively left their rooms.
At the end of the corridor stood a tall and hulking woman, her wide shoulders illuminated by the twinkling lights above, casting light on her fleshy face packed with muscles and congested features.
She gazed at the sparse "freshmen" in front of her with those small evil eyes, malicious and sticky, like a venomous snake curling up the leg:
"Too slow."
An insidious smile emerged on her fleshy face:
"Entering Dayton Academy is your luck. Each and every one of you, yet you're still so lax, don't know your place."
"Not following the rules warrants punishment."
Her voice gradually lowered, growing increasingly eerie, almost making one's skin crawl and body shiver in coldness.
After seeing the NPC, each broadcaster's live stream barrage became lively.
"Impressive, the Elder Witch still commands such authority!"
"Giggles, so intriguing!"
"I wonder which broadcaster will be the first to be punished this time!"
The Elder Witch's eyes scanned the group, and with a satisfied smile, she intensified her tone:
"But, since this is your first time and you're unclear about the school rules, I won't do anything now. Next time won't be as fortunate. Do you understand?"
She emphasized her words.
Anxious and feeble responses echoed, sporadically rebounding in the corridor:
"Und-understood..."
"Under-understood!" The broadcasters unanimously shouted, taken aback by the sudden increase in volume.
"Very well."
The Elder Witch nodded in satisfaction: "Starting today, you can call me Teacher Aaliyah."
"It's almost time for dinner. Once the headcount is done, I'll show you around."
Seeing the current situation, the barrage in each broadcaster's livestream was somewhat regretful.
"Oh, looks like they're not planning to strike right out the gate this time..."
"Boring, I'm out."
As the barrage buzzed with excitement, the Elder Witch made an unprecedented move.
She turned around and called out, "Grace!"
The barrage fell silent for a moment.
"... "
"... "
A tall, handsome young man emerged from the shadows behind the Elder Witch, his hair tousled, and even with those askew glasses, his superior facial features weren't hidden, adding a touch of youthful scholarly air.
His shy and gentle demeanor came forth:
"Uh, Teacher Aaliyah, you called?"
"Is the recopied list in your possession? Tally the headcount."
The barrage in each broadcaster's channel exploded with question marks:
"???"
"Wait a minute? I've seen this copy of Dayton Academy a few times, never seen this NPC!"
"Isn't this supposed to be a D-level copy? Why are there last-minute changes?"
"Haha, lurking from the neighboring room, I'm enjoying your confusion!"
"Hahaha, I'm from the next room too!"
"In room 789326qwk, watch and you'll come back to thank me!"
During the chaos in the "Dayton Academy" livestream hall, an insignia outside the hall had quietly changed at some point.
Hall Difficulty Level: D
Historical Highest Unlock Progress: 72%
Viewing Value: E
The letter E flickered slowly, then transformed into D+.