Chapter 1: The Words of a Dying Man  

The shaking from the desk woke Lin Yu, who was catching up on sleep.  

Half-squinting his eyes, he slightly lifted his head from his pillowed arm, with several red marks of varying shades imprinted on his face, looking somewhat comical.  

“Ah, sorry, I woke you up.”  

An apology from a male classmate came from above.  

Lin Yu, just waking up, his mind still sluggish, gave a perfunctory hum in response, saying nothing more.  

Was class over?  

How long had he slept—ten minutes, twenty minutes?  

Hearing the noisy chatter around him, Lin Yu raised his gaze toward the front of the classroom, intending to glance at the clock hanging next to the slogan.  

The classroom was clearly noisy during the break, but the area near the podium was oddly empty.  

Only a girl in an intricate black-and-red dress stood in front of the multimedia machine.  

She tilted her head slightly, her back to Lin Yu, the sunlight from the window slanting across her shoulders, making her light blonde hair appear almost transparent.  

Hm?  

Where was her school uniform, and had she dyed her hair?  

Was there such a person in their class?  

A sense of unease surged in his heart, unclear and indescribable.  

Lin Yu furrowed his brow, but a moment later, he relaxed as if relieved, realizing where that strange feeling came from.  

Whether it was the neatly arranged desks and chairs, the curtains half-lifted by the wind, or the floor, all cast faint shadows.  

Yet, the girl standing at the podium had nothing beneath her.  

“Where’s her shadow?”  

He muttered to himself, puzzled.  

As soon as the words left his mouth, the noisy classroom suddenly fell silent, as if someone had pressed the pause button on a video.  

The sound of the wind, voices, and insect chirps all vanished from the world in an instant, leaving only a frozen scene.  

No, there was still Lin Yu, left behind.  

Why was it suddenly so quiet?  

Lin Yu instinctively swallowed that strange unease filling every bit of the air, making his skin crawl.  

He turned his head, intending to say something to the boy who had woken him earlier.  

As he turned, he was met with a face, eyes wide open to their limit, expression frozen.  

And that face was just ten centimeters away from him!  

Lin Yu instinctively stood up, trying to put distance between them.  

The desk collided with the back of the chair in front of it, making a loud clatter.  

The male classmate didn’t move closer or back away despite Lin Yu’s actions.  

He just kept staring at Lin Yu with those bell-like eyes.  

What the hell?!  

Lin Yu cursed inwardly, his gaze shifting past the boy to the rest of the room.  

The entire classroom, whether sitting or standing, all twenty-something students, male and female, were doing the same thing: stretching their necks to the limit, eyes wide, faces blank, staring in his direction.  

A chill ran down Lin Yu’s spine, his body stiffening with discomfort, but his mind was clearer than ever, racing to find a reasonable explanation for this eerie scene.  

A prank? 

A dream?  

Neither seemed likely—so what was this?  

Regardless, he needed to see if he could get away from these “people.”  

Lin Yu slowed his breathing, not acting rashly.  

He reached one hand behind him, gripping the wooden frame of the chair, while closely watching the boy in front of him.  

The boy’s face was stiff, like a soulless puppet, with no extra movements.  

Alright, three, two, one…  

Lin Yu counted down silently in his mind, then cautiously sidestepped, taking a step forward.  

His hand behind him gripped the chair tightly; if the other made any move, he’d swing the chair without hesitation.  

Fortunately, the boy didn’t react, though his eyes shifted slightly with Lin Yu’s movement.  

It wasn’t just him—every person in the classroom, as if sharing a single command, had their eyes flicker in unison.  

Damn it!  

The usually refined Lin Yu couldn’t help but curse inwardly again.  

He sidestepped around the boy, standing in the aisle.  

As he moved, the students left in the classroom grew even more bizarre.  

They didn’t move their legs or raise their hands; they just stretched their necks longer, and longer, and longer…  

Click.  

In Lin Yu’s line of sight, a girl with her back to him had her neck twisted 180 degrees, limply drooping over her shoulder.  

Her head, soft like a rotten tomato, hung precariously on her protruding spine, swaying as if it might fall, with only her bloodshot, bell-like eyes still fixed on him.  

This scene brought Lin Yu intense discomfort, his stomach churning with nausea.  

He forced himself not to vomit, clenching his teeth, maintaining his stance facing the crowd, and stepping backward.  

Whatever was happening, after witnessing that, Lin Yu could no longer associate these classmates he’d spent so much time with as human.  

And there was no way he’d turn his back on them.  

One step, two steps, three steps…  

Lin Yu gradually distanced himself from his “classmates,” who remained as still as before, making no extra movements.  

First, get out of the classroom, then find someone outside for help.  

But what if the abnormality wasn’t just in the classroom, but the entire school, or even worse…  

His emotions plummeted with these thoughts, but before he could pull himself together, his steps suddenly halted.  

Tap, tap, tap. 

Footsteps sounded from behind him!  

It was the girl from the podium, the start of all this strangeness!  

Lin Yu finally understood what it meant to be caught between a rock and a hard place.  

He glanced at the classmates with their necks craned, faces blank, then listened to the approaching footsteps from behind.  

Gritting his teeth, he knew he had to make a decision.  

Adrenaline surging, Lin Yu moved quickly.  

He grabbed the nearest chair, switching from one hand to two, gripping the wooden frame, turning, and swinging it hard behind him.  

Crack! 

The chair didn’t even touch the woman before it was sliced into uneven pieces in midair.  

Along with it, fragmented human tissue and bone shards were mixed in a mist of blood.  

No pain—Lin Yu only felt his perspective shifting, getting lower and lower.  

His gaze fell on the woman’s face.  

She was beautiful, almost unrealistically so.  

Soft, light blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders, her skin as smooth and radiant as moonlight.  

Beneath her high nose bridge was a pair of pale lips, slightly pursed, looking both cold and alluring.  

The only flaw was her eyes—beneath her curled lashes were two pitch-black voids, bottomless, harboring a deep darkness.  

Terror and beauty combined, creating an eerie aesthetic.  

Like a doll, like a painting, but not like a living person.  

Lin Yu stared at the woman who had killed him, fixating on her face.  

With his last strength, his lips moved, slowly uttering a few words.  

“…Damn…it…”