Chapter 581: Complete Collapse

Lu Dou's next offense came faster than the Investigation Bureau had anticipated, much faster.

Outside Qiu Ce Yuan.

6:17 p. m.

The electronic turnstile at the school gate operated normally; in the guard room, two security staff watched the monitors.

Today's shift was boring.

So boring that one of them had secretly opened a shopping app, researching what to eat tonight.

A notification popped up on the screen.

Nearby restaurants offered a discount of twenty off when you spend a hundred.

The security guard was about to click on it when a person holding an umbrella appeared outside the school gate.

White Umbrella.

White clothing.

His long hair was tied back with a white cord.

The man stood outside the restricted line, his cuffs and soles clean. He didn't look up at the identification camera above the gate, just stood there waiting.

The security guard frowned.

"Qiu Ce Yuan is not open to the public."

The man in white lifted his head and glanced at the guard room.

"I'm not here to visit."

"Then what are you here for?"

Lu Dou looked toward the campus interior.

Students were training on the field.

Lights were still on in the teaching building.

Some were rushing to finish reports, some were running to the cafeteria with documents, some sat on benches making calls, saying they wouldn't return to the dorm tonight.

These people were still worried about their own matters.

Exams, promotions, rent, breakups, sick family members, criticism from superiors.

They thought this was life.

Lu Dou lightly stroked the handle of the white umbrella.

"Come, let's do a treatment."

The security guard hadn't reacted yet.

Warning lights on both sides of the gate's metal posts all lit up.

They were not red.

They were grayish-white.

An invisible boundary rose from the outskirts of Qiu Ce Yuan, covering the entire academy.

The guard room's windows were shrouded in gray mist.

The security guard rushed to the door and pounded on the glass.

"What's going on?"

Lu Dou stood in place.

"Don't be afraid."

"Soon, you won't be afraid anymore."

The next second.

Above Qiu Ce Yuan, the campus broadcast turned on by itself.

A harsh electrical screech swept through every classroom, every corridor, every restroom.

The professor who was teaching stopped writing.

The cafeteria attendant lifted her head while holding a tray.

On the training field, several trainees clapped their hands over their ears.

A gentle male voice came from the broadcast.

"Teachers and students."

"Sorry to disturb you at this time."

"Please don't panic."

"Panic is the beginning of suffering."

"Anger, fear, disappointment, loneliness, jealousy—these emotions make people hurt each other, break families, and make the world worse."

"I once tried to understand them."

"Later I realized the problem isn't whether humans are kind enough."

"The problem lies in humans having a choice."

The broadcast paused for half a second.

Lu Dou walked toward the gate, umbrella in hand.

A gray barrier before him split open to form an entrance.

"Starting today."

"Qiu Ce Yuan will become the first place without pain."

"You will be happy."

"Forever happy."

Teaching building third floor.

A female student taking notes in class had her pen tip resting on the paper.

After hearing the broadcast, she was first stunned.

Someone nearby swore: "Who pulled a prank? The broadcast room was hacked?"

The girl didn't answer.

She lowered her head to look at her notebook.

Four words were written on the paper.

Rule analysis.

She stared for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed.

She laughed very lightly.

Her desk mate pushed her.

"Liang Nian, what are you laughing at?"

Liang Nian raised her head.

The corners of her mouth pulled to both sides, becoming increasingly exaggerated.

"I've figured it out."

"Turns out I don't need to work hard at all."

Her desk mate's face turned pale.

"What did you say?"

"Working hard is tiring."

Liang Nian laughed as she grabbed her hand.

"You're tired too, right?"

"Don't hold it in."

"Just laugh it out."

Her desk mate tried to shake her off.

But at the moment their wrists touched, grayish-white fine lines crawled onto the skin.

She opened her mouth.

A short burst of laughter burst from her throat.

Then.

The laughter grew louder.

In a classroom, seventeen students raised their heads one after another.

Someone laughed while crying.

Someone laughed while tearing open their own sleeve.

Someone else overturned a desk, stepped on it, and spread their arms toward the window.

"No more pain!"

"I'm so happy!"

"Turns out living is this simple!"

The professor on the lectern turned pale and pressed the desk alarm button.

The button had no response.

He took out his communicator, intending to contact the security department.

But a smiling face popped up on the screen.

His facial features were pulled into exaggerated arcs.

The professor's hand shook, and the communicator fell to the ground.

The back door of the classroom was pushed open.

In the corridor, there was only laughter.

Cafeteria.

A male student holding a bowl of hot soup had just sat down when the female student behind him tapped his shoulder.

"Classmate, why aren't you happy?"

The male student turned his head.

The female student wore a smile on her face, but her eyes showed no normal human emotion.

"I'm not unhappy."

"Then why are you frowning?"

"I'm just hungry."

The female student laughed even more intensely.

"Being hungry is also pain."

"It's okay, I'll help you."

She reached out and pressed her hand onto the male student's face.

The male student struggled to retreat, knocking over the desks and chairs.

The hot soup spilled all over the floor.

The people around watched this scene, none of them fleeing.

They all laughed.

Someone picked up a table knife.

Someone embraced the companion beside them.

"Happiness!"

The campus alarm system was fully activated.

But the alarm sounded only three seconds before being drowned out by the broadcast.

Lu Dou walked into the main teaching building.

People ran out of the classrooms on both sides.

Their clothes were disheveled, blood stained their hands, and they wore the same smile on their faces.

Lu Dou passed through the crowd.

No one attacked him.

Someone knelt on the ground, looking up at him.

"Teacher."

"I'm so happy."

Lu Dou stopped.

He reached out and touched that person's hair.

"This has only just begun."

"You will be even happier."

Outside the school gate.

Black armored vehicles came to a stop one after another.

Jiang Yuan jumped down from the vehicle and looked up at Qiu Ce Yuan shrouded in gray mist.

From the communicator, L's report came through quickly.

"Confirmed the target is inside the school."

"The contamination spread rate is over three times that of the New Order Square incident."

"The current number of infected inside the school is expected to exceed one hundred people."

Jiang Yuan's face darkened. "What's the blockade strength?"

"Unknown."

Su Ming crouched, pressing his fingers to the ground.

The Time Marrow Worm stirred in his palm.

He lifted his gaze toward the school gate.

"It's not an ordinary barrier."

Qin Zhixia had already raised her mechanical prosthetic arm.

"Then let's dismantle it."

Liang Wen drew his long blade, his black windcoat flaring behind him.

"Finally, it's my turn to take the stage."

"A mere gray wall dares to block the path of an Abyss Walker?"

L remained silent for two seconds.

"I advise you not to cut."

Liang Wen lifted his head.

"Why?"

"Because cutting will kill people."

Liang Wen's blade hung suspended in midair.

"Can you finish what you're saying?"

L projected a set of data as a holographic image before everyone.

At the base of the gray barrier, countless faint life signals flickered.

One line connected to the interior of the school.

Another line connected to the outside.

Jiang Yuan looked toward both ends of the street.

The crowd was drawing near.

The first to appear was an old man wearing a patient gown.

The old man walked over smiling, an IV tube still hanging from his hand.

Next came off‑duty office workers, delivery riders, mothers with children, and shop clerks from nearby stores.

They were all smiling.

Their expressions were no different from those of the infected in the square.

Their numbers kept growing.

One thousand.

Two thousand.

The street entrance was completely blocked.

L's fingers flew over the keyboard.

"The barrier's cornerstone has been confirmed."

"There are 3,716 infected outside."

Everyone shares damage with the barrier.

Attack the barrier, and damage will be transferred simultaneously into their bodies.

Qin Zhixia stared at the data.

"Ratio."

"Currently it's one-to-one."

Liang Wen cursed.

"That bastard got smart."

Jiang Yuan's card bag was already open.

Dark playing cards hovered between his fingers, but they didn't fly out.

The old man in a patient gown walked up to the blockade line.

He reached out his hand and pressed it against the gray barrier.

Where his palm made contact, rings of gray-white patterns rose.

The old man laughed and said, "Don't save us anymore."

"We're very happy."

Jiang Yuan's hand stopped.

The scene at New Order Square appeared before his eyes again.

Lu Dou didn't run far.

He just changed locations, swapping in more people.

Su Ming stood up.

"He deliberately chose Qiu Ce Yuan."

"Here there are students, teachers, researchers, and a containment zone."

"If this place collapses, the Federation will lose its training system, also fall to the largest heartland, and won't win people's hearts."

Qin Zhixia said in a low voice, "He still wants to force us to kill."

"Whether we fire or not, we lose."

Liang Wen sheathed his long blade, unusually refraining from joking.

L added, "Lu Dou is using the barrier to absorb the infected's cognitive fluctuations."

"At the current speed, he will complete the second-stage cluster loop within ten minutes."

Jiang Yuan asked, "What is the second stage?"

L watched the screen.

"The infected will no longer rely on contact transmission."

"Their language, expressions, and video calls could all become vectors of contamination."

Su Ming lifted his head.

"By then, anyone in Qiu Ce Yuan who sends out a distress signal will cause the outside to keep getting infected."

"He intends to turn this place into a new source."

Qin Zhixia held down the communicator.

"Headquarters, request to use suppress-spook bullets to attack the barrier."

Wei Gong's reply came quickly.

"Can't use it yet."

"All external infected are linked with the internal cluster."

"Using suppress-spook bullets would disrupt the rule balance; whether it would cause mass death lacks data support."

"Await analysis from technical personnel."

Qin Zhixia clenched her teeth.

"Then are we just going to stand here and watch?"

Wei Gong paused for a few seconds.

"L, give me the internal footage, remember to first remove memetic contamination."

"Received."

Headquarters Deliberation Hall.

The holographic screen lit up.

The footage came from the last few uncontaminated fixed cameras in Qiu Ce Yuan.

Inside the corridor, students held hands, forming a long line.

Someone sang loudly.

Someone embraced each other.

Someone pressed a companion to the ground, laughing as they infected them.

No one shouted for help.

They were all laughing.

They laughed happily.

They laughed in a way that chilled the onlookers.

Wei Gong sat in the seat of honor, holding a teacup.

The tea in the cup had long gone cold.

On the screen, Lu Dou walked through the laughing crowd, holding up a white umbrella.

He walked very slowly.

A student lunged to his feet, hugging his pant leg.

Lu Dou lowered his head, looking at that student.

"Are you still in pain?"

The student shook his head desperately.

"Not painful."

"I'm not afraid of anything anymore."

Lu Dou nodded.

"Very good."

"This is what humanity should be like."

No one spoke in the council hall.

The academy most valued by humanity.

The tightest defense line.

In Lu Dou's words "no pain," everything has completely collapsed.