Chapter 215: Life and Death Classroom, Knowledge is Life

Hell Apartment, the current lobby has been converted into a small classroom; half of the largest wall is a screen, and the other half is a blackboard.

Facing the wall are rows of sofa chairs, each with a small desk in front, on which computers and books are placed.

At nine in the morning, the sofa chairs are basically full, and everyone is holding a stack of printed paper, silently memorizing something.

They look even more serious than high school seniors.

This is also normal; if students don't memorize, they lose their grades and their future, but if they don't memorize, they might easily lose their lives.

"Alright, it's about time, let's start the review," Lin Zhengying said, standing in front of the podium, tapping the blackboard to address the residents below.

"The last Blood Character Mission was led by Apartment Manager Zhang Wei; seven people went, and three returned. We tried our best to reconstruct part of the situation at the time based on everyone's accounts. Now, from the perspective of hindsight, let's analyze the situation back then."

"I am the main speaker this morning. As usual, I specialize in Taoist Art and folklore knowledge. I understand a bit of Buddhism, but I basically know nothing about Western ones. If there are any discrepancies in that area, take Lao Die and the others' words as the standard."

Lin Zhengying gave his opening remarks as usual. In fact, there usually wouldn't be any mistakes, because Lao Die and Constantine were sitting below, and everyone would share information with each other normally.

"First, let's look at the pictures. These are some frames from the pinhole camera the Apartment Manager brought back."

Lin Zhengying swiped his right hand across the screen, and an image popped up.

The picture shows a panoramic view of a village. From near to far, there are rows of houses increasing in number. At the only intersection, there is a road sign with a black silk net draped over it.

"We have said that when going to execute a mission, the first thing needed is judgment. You must determine what kind of Strange Talk it belongs to—is it folklore Strange Talk, fierce ghosts and Zombies, strange monsters, evil spirits causing trouble, or something else? Apartment Manager Zhang Wei, please tell us your judgment at that time first."

Zhang Wei scratched his hair and stood up. "When we saw this village, our first reaction was to lean towards folklore Strange Talk. After all, the village's appearance is rather Chinese-style, and it has that kind of ignorant, feudal flavor."

After speaking, Zhang Wei sat down. Having just lost four teammates, even an optimist like him needed a moment to recover.

"Your thinking was correct. This is a very typical old-school Chinese architectural style, and it leans towards the southern style. The roof tiles are stacked in layers; you can see directly into the house once you remove the tiles."

"However, with the benefit of hindsight, look at this road sign."

"'Lu Village.' Besides being commonly used as a surname, 'Lu' is also commonly used to represent the number six. And pay attention: what kind of road sign would label so many things?"

【Recommendation: Wild Fruit Reading is really great for catching up on books. You can download it here at Wild Fruit Reading. Everyone, go try it out.】

Lin Zhengying zoomed in on the road sign. The sign has three lines; from top to bottom, they are: Village Name: Lu Village, Clan: Lu Family, Road Name: Lu Family Ditch.

"The meanings represented by these things are partially repetitive. And, most importantly, as I have emphasized many times, when you see three sixes together, you must consider the meaning of the devil!"

"You only realized it on the second day, which led to one of the Seven Deadly Sins being unsealed on the first day without any pressure."

Zhang Wei lowered his head, feeling very heavy-hearted. His experience was still too lacking; he hadn't been able to react at the fastest speed.

In fact, having half the people die was considered something to be thankful for in the past, but since Lin Zhengying and the others started popularizing teaching and leading teams, the mission mortality rate had been suppressed to below thirty percent.

"Let's put this aside for a moment. I mainly want to talk about the confrontation between the strange entities."

"The forces representing the devil, the architectural style representing folklore—what is this? This is danger, but also an opportunity. It means that in this village, there are two different forces."

"We must utilize this antagonistic situation and find a way to make both sides violate each other's taboos, thereby causing infighting. Apartment Manager Zhang Wei did this very well; it can be called a textbook case. Even if it were me, I might not necessarily be able to achieve this level."

Lin Zhengying sighed slightly and switched the PPT. These were some points that Lin Zhengying and the others had sorted out after the survivors' oral accounts.

"Losing the initiative."

Refers to not discovering that Lu-Lu-Lu equals 666, which equals the devil.

"Initial defense errors, misjudgment of the situation."

Refers to the blind belief in the folklore classification, placing the focus of defense on various folklore taboos, with defensive arrangements based on the Yellow Talisman, Formation, and Taoist Art provided by Lin Zhengying.

"Under the circumstances of continuous major losses."

Refers to the seven-day mission time; three people died in the first three days, a large amount of supplies were lost, and the strange entities were provoked into resurrection.

"Apartment Manager Zhang Wei used reverse thinking to violate folklore taboos, inciting Strange Talk to bring disaster upon themselves, and then, with the help of the Ancestral Hall in the village, broke the balance between the folklore and the devil, making them consume each other, ultimately achieving survival through death."

Lin Zhengying first explained the entire context. He was truly impressed by Zhang Wei's operation; if it were him, he definitely wouldn't have been able to do it.

Because for the first step—touching a serious folklore taboo—unless Lin Zhengying had never even heard of that taboo, he certainly wouldn't have violated it.

"Come, everyone, give the Apartment Manager a round of applause," Lin Zhengying said, taking the lead. Hell Apartment was already cruel enough. Although it was a bit inappropriate since people had died, a positive atmosphere still had to be maintained, otherwise the mindset that everyone had worked so hard to turn around would have problems.

Amidst the applause, Zhang Wei became increasingly embarrassed. "Actually, it was just a lucky strike. If I really had this ability, the first three people wouldn't have..."

Lao Die stood up. "We hope that everyone can return safely, but things don't always go as one wishes. Don't blame yourself too much. Zhengying, you continue. We must hurry; this mission has great review value. We have also made analysis reports from other angles, and we will strive to finish explaining everything today."

"Alright, I will continue. Judgment, judgment is the key point. Starting from the subtle details, seven days, seven people—when we had our analysis meeting before the mission started, we said that this 'seven' is very important."

"And four is a number that serves as a midpoint. The balance maintained by the devil and the folklore could only be relatively easily broken on the fourth day. The Apartment Manager thought of this point, so he chose to provoke the folklore when the fourth of the Seven Deadly Sins revived, triggering a confrontation..."

Lin Zhengying accelerated the progress. In his words, many places in the village full of metaphors, including the incorrect placement of items in the Ancestral Hall, and even the meals provided by the villagers, were analyzed one by one.

Perhaps there was some over-analysis and over-interpretation, but not over-analyzing now would be the problem.

The previous mission covered too many and too messy elements. After Lin Zhengying finished explaining what he had stayed up all night to organize, he had only roughly explained one-third of the entire PPT and analysis report; the rest were reports from Lao Die and the others.

Clap, clap, clap...

Suddenly, applause came from the entrance of the lobby...