Time ticked by, second after second. The chime of the clock echoed again, like a requiem for salvation, oddly comforting.
At precisely 7:00 a.m., everyone in the auditorium was still alive.
"C-can we sleep now… Senior?"
The Valkyries' eyes were puffy, bloodshot, and strained to stay open despite their sheer exhaustion.
"Ugh… I used to pull all-nighters casually, but now my head feels like it's going to explode…"
"Yeah, well, your all-nighters were spent gaming or binge-watching shows. Last night, we almost died—totally different thing."
If even the trained Valkyries were struggling, the valkyrie students were faring far worse.
The horrors they had witnessed—the disembodied heads, the portrait, and all manner of terrors steeped in shenzhou folklore—left a chilling mark on their minds.
Remaining awake and resilient in such an environment drained their spirits completely. Making it through the night was no small feat.
Shaori Heyou shakily stood up, swaying forward as if on the verge of collapse. Her vision blurred, and it took her a moment to steady herself.
Having gone without food and staying tense all night, standing caused her blood pressure to plummet, leaving her lightheaded.
"B-brother, I'll… go with you to look for food," she volunteered, stepping up to Li Mo.
Li Mo glanced at the window, then at the auditorium doors. The two shadowy figures from last night were nowhere to be seen.
"Your mental state is poor. I can't take you with me. If an emergency arises, you'll only become a liability," he said bluntly, shaking his head without a hint of concern for her feelings.
Though the day was relatively safer, Li Mo still had information to verify. He couldn't afford to take along someone who might slow him down.
Nearby, Kira sighed deeply at the interaction, her premonition proving correct.
Ah… such a classic straight man.
Sure, his reasoning was solid, but his complete lack of emotional awareness had already caused him to reject this petite, adorable girl three times in a row. At this rate, he might as well join a monastery.
Even so, cold, rational decisions often were the wisest.
"Alright, looks like I'm the only one left to accompany you," Kira said, standing and stretching with a yawn, her hands clasping her elbows.
Her graceful figure was on full display, yet no one took notice. Those who were awake didn't care, and Li Mo, devoid of desires, paid no attention at all.
This left Kira, a part-time idol, feeling somewhat defeated. Just last month, she'd performed to thunderous applause on a brilliantly lit stage, basking in adoration and praises.
Li Mo cast her a brief glance, pausing for two seconds as if considering making a disgusted face. But his fatigued mind refused to cooperate, leaving him too dazed to respond.
"Fine, you'll do. Let's go," he said curtly.
Turning to the others, he added, "Listen carefully. Leave two or three people on watch. If survivors arrive, don't let them in. If it's unavoidable, don't let them near the black coffin or disturb anything inside the auditorium. That's the bottom line. As Valkyries, this should be easy for you."
"The captain and I will return before 7:00 p.m."
With that, Li Mo headed for the door. Outside, the midsummer sun shone brightly, bathing the world in white light.
Kira pouted and grabbed a student's backpack, following reluctantly.
"Hey, do you even know the layout of this academy? Should I, a person of benevolence, guide you? I used to be a regular at St. Freya Academy," she bragged.
"No need. I memorized the map before coming in," Li Mo replied casually.
Her smile froze. This guy was sharper than she had expected.
He seemed to notice everything. But since St. Freya didn't admit men from shenzhou, Li Mo must be an outsider. Yet, he'd memorized the entire map at a glance?
Before long, Li Mo and Kira reached the perimeter wall.
"Aren't we supposed to be gathering food? Why are we here?" she asked, confused.
But as her eyes adjusted, she gasped in horror.
The walls, several meters high, were lined neatly with blood-soaked human heads. Though the blood had dried, faint traces still stained the walls.
The heads were evenly spaced, about half a meter apart, arranged with disturbing precision.
Fortunately, it was daytime. The heads appeared to be asleep, their eyes shut tight.
"This is bad," Li Mo muttered, stopping ten meters away from the wall.
When he had climbed over it last night, those heads hadn't been there.
Their sudden appearance was clearly intended to prevent anyone from escaping.
"Bad? Why?" Kira asked, still not grasping the gravity of the situation.
Li Mo explained grimly, "A single disembodied head is mindless. It acts purely on instinct, like the ones we encountered yesterday, attacking blindly until subdued by the funeral incense."
"But when I climbed the wall last night, there were no heads. These were placed here after we arrived, specifically to block our escape."
Taking out a peculiar coin, Li Mo watched as the heads began to stir, their eyelids twitching as if about to wake.
He quickly pocketed the coin, breaking their line of sight. Instantly, the heads went still again.
"I had planned to help you all escape by climbing the wall, which would have negated the need for large food supplies. But now it seems someone doesn't want us to leave."
"Many people must have died last night. A lot," he concluded somberly, his voice heavy. His dull eyes grew dimmer, and corpse spots began to mar his hands.
His body was already starting to decay.
Meanwhile, the heads on the wall showed no signs of rot or odor, indicating they'd been freshly placed.
"We were alive last night, weren't we?" Kira asked.
"It wasn't us. It was the others on campus. The disembodied heads took over their bodies, gaining partial intelligence," Li Mo explained.
"Do you remember the shadow by the door last night?"
Kira froze, recalling the humanoid silhouette in the darkness.
"Yes. It stood there, motionless. I thought it was a scared survivor too afraid to approach."
"That was a head ghost using a body," Li Mo clarified. "It saw us."
"That's impossible! The funeral incense should have shielded us from ghosts perception," Kira protested.
"It did. It masked us from the ghost's senses but not from human eyes," Li Mo replied gravely.
The ghost had stood there, watching them all night.
And then there was the inverted head by the window, its spine unnervingly connected to something.
"We were being watched by that ghost the entire night!" Kira exclaimed, her scalp tingling.
She shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if they'd all fallen asleep.
The ghost could have slipped in unnoticed, blending among them until nightfall, when it would have picked them off one by one.
"You're right. It's a good thing no one slept last night," Kira said, her heart racing. She had thought they'd been lucky, but the reality was far more horrifying.
Li Mo, however, wasn't focused on the past. His mind was on the future.
"What worries me now isn't just that. With the incense burning, the ghosts can't sense us. Even if they know where we are, they can't reach us as long as we stay within the light."
"But if that ghost really is intelligent, it might take advantage of the daylight, when the incense has no effect, to infiltrate the auditorium disguised as a survivor."
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