Chapter 23

"Bro, usually it’s me telling horror stories to scare others—now you’re flipping heaven and earth on me?"

Wu Wang sighed and turned back.

As a madman who could calmly stab his own temple with a dagger, he had no room for such a boring emotion as fear.

Yet when he turned, he saw nothing.

He raised an eyebrow and asked Liu Yang: "Are you usually this funny?"

But the next second, he noticed Liu Yang’s expression had turned extremely unnatural—he opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it, his fingers rising and falling several times.

【What did he see?】

The words appeared on Liu Yang’s forehead.

The red vertical pupil pulsed—this time, Wu Wang believed him.

"You… really can’t see that person? He’s walking toward us—he’s almost at your side now," Liu Yang said, watching the figure move slowly.

But no matter how hard Wu Wang strained his eyes, he saw no one in the dim corridor.

After a moment’s thought, he rolled up his sleeve.

The red vertical pupil was exposed, its strange iris darting around, as if a curious child fascinated by the world.

As time passed, gradually…

Wu Wang saw it too.

A blurred human silhouette appeared about two or three meters in front of him.

As his vision sharpened…

A boy, roughly one meter seventy, slightly round in build, wearing the Gaoshan High School uniform, stared curiously at the two of them.

His face was plump—the kind of chubby kid every high school class seemed to have—with a hint of shyness in his eyes.

He asked cautiously: "You… are you a new student in the building? Which class?"

"!"

Wu Wang immediately sensed something was wrong.

The moment the kid spoke, everything around them grew brighter, clearer.

The once pitch-dark corridor now revealed dirt stains on the floor tiles; the haphazardly piled debris vanished, replaced by neatly arranged objects along the walls.

Most bizarrely, several students stood atop desks, painting colors onto the walls—as if creating some kind of print art.

Everyone was cheerful.

Laughter and playfulness echoed occasionally; many students dipped brushes in paint to decorate their uniforms, sketching childish yet vibrant images.

Some girls quietly wrote the names of their crushes on the left chest of their uniforms, adding hearts; others, mischievous boys, drew grotesque faces on their cheeks to scare people.

"What the fuck? Where the hell did you guys come from?"

"Is this even still China?"

Wu Wang cursed under his breath.

The situation inside this art building was far more complicated than he’d imagined!

Abnormal places, populated by normal people.

That was the most abnormal thing of all!

The chubby boy finally gathered courage and stepped forward to comfort them: "You can’t remember your class either, right? Don’t worry—we’re the same."

Saying that, he walked toward a girl standing on a desk, tiptoeing to sketch a Catbus on the wall, and whispered: "Class monitor, new students have arrived—could you assign them?"

The girl turned around.

Even without makeup, she was clearly a beauty—a delicate oval face, lips like cherry blossoms, naturally glossy as if dripping with moisture.

A smudge of blue paint on her cheek gave her an air of playfulness.

She jumped down from the desk with ease.

She extended her hand with a bright smile: "Hi, I’m Chen Nan, head monitor of all classes in this art building. Come with me—I’ll explain the situation."

Wu Wang reached out and shook her hand.

"Chu Yuxun. Nice to meet you."

The warmth of her palm made him momentarily dazed.

Body temperature? Are these people real?

They’re not ghosts?

No, too hasty—I need to observe more.

They walked forward in a line.

After a few steps, two boys pushing each other accidentally knocked over a basin of paint water, and a flood of black-red sludge splashed straight toward Wu Wang.

Even with his quick reflexes, he still got splattered across his abdomen.

"Li Hua! Wang Ming! Didn’t you see the new student? Behave yourselves!" Chen Nan grabbed the two boys’ ears and scolded them.

"Sorry, sorry! Class Monitor, let go—I’m gonna lose my ears…"

The boys laughed as they begged.

The chubby boy noticed Wu Wang standing frozen, stepped forward, and said: "Splashed? I’ve got an old uniform—I’ll go get it for you to change into."

Wu Wang didn’t answer.

He merely frowned, gently wiping the paint stains from his body—the familiar pain stimulated his nerves, jolting him fully awake.

He opened his palm.

There was no paint stain—only thick, black-red viscous fluid.

His vision blurred.

The surroundings returned to darkness.

Before him stood a steel pipe, thick as a finger, its tip broken, revealing a jagged, rust-covered edge sharper than a blade.

He had walked straight into it—the pipe had pierced clean through his abdomen from front to back.

His bulletproof vest had done nothing—clearly, this wasn’t mere physical damage.

The so-called paint stains were his own blood—black-red because his internal organs had been punctured!

"Cough cough cough… Now this is more like it…"

A mad grin spread across Wu Wang’s face.

"A warm, cozy class in this ghost school? What absolute bullshit for an otherworld!"

He grabbed the pipe and slowly pulled it forward—each millimeter of movement tore at his internal wounds, the agony making his forehead veins bulge.

Plop—

The pipe was fully withdrawn.

A finger-thick wound in his abdomen gushed blood like a ruptured dam.

He paid it no mind—only gasped, gripping the pipe tightly, slowly aiming its sharp tip at his temple.

"Second loop… Initiate!"

Flash—

Without surprise, Wu Wang drove the pipe through his own skull—letting the abdominal wound kill him slowly was too slow, and it hampered his movement.

Better to cut the knot cleanly!

Die first!

"Huh… Ha! Huh ha!"

The instant he revived and opened his eyes, he saw everyone staring at him with strange expressions.

He looked down—he was holding a basin of dirty water, scrubbing his face violently.

His entire face was smeared beyond recognition.

Even his skin was raw from the scrubbing—his force was so intense it was astonishing.

"Uh, Chu? Do you… maybe have a slight, uh… mental issue?" Chen Nan asked cautiously, then quickly added: "Of course, I’m not discriminating against the mentally ill—I’m just asking for the safety of other students."

Anyone would think something was wrong if they saw someone suddenly freeze mid-walk, then snatch a basin of dirty water and scrub their face like that!

He was nearly scraping off his own skin!

Who the hell does that to themselves?

"I suppose I’m ill," Wu Wang said, his smeared face twisting into a grotesque smile. "But I think—"

"It’s your world that’s insane."