Chapter 143: The Nightmare Returns

"Xin-what High School?" Huang Xue gripped the hem of my shirt, so nervous she could barely speak.

"You don't need to worry about the name. You only need to know that every student here is dead!" I stepped out, but a sound caught my ear—laughter from the end of the corridor.

"Crap!" I dragged Huang Xue back into the room and pressed flat against the wall. It was too late to close the door.

Huang Xue opened her mouth to speak, but I quickly signaled for her to stay quiet.

Approaching footsteps echoed down the hall. They were shuffled and chaotic—more than one person.

I turned my phone's brightness all the way down, angled it just past the doorframe, and used the screen to check outside.

Three high schoolers were chatting and laughing, carrying textbooks and stationery.

At a glance, there was nothing terrifying about them, but as they got closer, both Huang Xue and I recoiled.

The three students' bodies were mutilated, much like the nurse we saw earlier. Their arms and joints were either missing entirely or twisted at grotesque angles—deformations impossible for a living human.

Moreover, these monsters—if they could even be called human—had faces drained of all blood. Their terrifying expressions stood out starkly in the pitch-black corridor.

Fortunately, they hadn't noticed us. They were probably just passing by.

"Walk faster! I heard Xue Fei is teaching that midget from Class Three a lesson again!"

"Haha, love to see it. Wonder how Xue Fei is going to mess with him this time."

"Last time, Xue Fei cornered him in the boys' bathroom and almost shoved his head into a toilet. I thought that went a bit far."

"Serves him right! Why'd that midget try stealing Xue Fei's girlfriend? And he keeps opening his fucking mouth about 'true love.' Makes me sick just hearing it!"

The three students chatted back and forth, drawing closer and closer to our room.

"Huh? Why is the infirmary door open? Is the health teacher inside?"

At the student's question, the footsteps outside came to an abrupt halt.

"Should I go take a look?"

"Mind your own business. What's there to see in this busted room? Besides, if someone is inside, what if it's the health teacher doing it with the principal? You'd be in deep shit!"

"Now that you say that, I kind of want to look even more."

"Look if you want. We're leaving."

"Hey, hey, I was just joking! Wait for me!"

The three drifted further down the hall. Only when their footsteps completely faded did I pull my phone back in. "We're clear. Get ready to run."

Huang Xue was rigid. The successive waves of terror had driven her to the brink of collapse.

"Run where? It's full of monsters out there. What if we get caught? We're better off hiding here until dawn..."

"Dawn?" I grabbed Huang Xue's shoulders. "Stop talking like that. Dawn is never coming to this place."

Only now did Huang Xue realize how terrifying it was to be trapped in a Nightmare of endless reincarnation. Her frail body trembled, and her grip on my shirt tightened.

Once we were certain it was safe, Huang Xue and I slipped out of the room and headed down the pitch-black corridor. "First, we escape the Laboratory Building. Then, Xinhu High School. After that, we look for your memory node."

My thoughts were clear. I wouldn't give up until the very end.

"Don't go that way. Let's change directions." Huang Xue gripped my clothes and pointed down the hall. "If we walk in the direction those three monsters came from, we should be able to avoid them."

I nodded, but as I recalled the students' conversation, something struck me as wrong. "Did they mention the name Xue Fei just now?"

"Yeah, I heard it too."

I had seen Xue Fei before when I was livestreaming at Xinhu High School. He and Shen Meng were a couple.

'When I first entered the dream, I was pulled into the Middle Dream Layer by the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends, where I saw his twisted childhood. Now he's dragged me to Xinhu High School. Does he want to show me his miserable high school life? What's the point?' The Primal Destiny Divine Fiends seemed to want me to understand the cause and effect of the situation. He was recreating his painful, bleak life through the dream and countless yin souls and malicious ghosts.

'Did the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends go to such great lengths just to mess with me? To vent his resentment?' The more I thought about it, the stranger it felt. 'When the task began, the one who called the Underworld Live Show was the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends. What was he trying to tell me with those few sentences? And how am I supposed to complete this commission from the Underworld?'

"We often think that forgiveness is simple, but sometimes, pardoning someone is harder than dying."

"Please remember this: the people you have hurt will eventually become your Nightmare!"

The text messages in my phone's inbox hadn't disappeared. Rereading them gave me a crazy idea. 'Everything has a cause and an effect. I need to uncover the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends' past.'

Looking down the pitch-black corridor, I waved at Huang Xue. "Let's follow those three students and see exactly what they're up to."

"A-are you serious?" Huang Xue's face was as white as paper. "Wouldn't following them be walking right into a trap?"

"We'll just watch from a distance. They won't spot us."

I must have looked like a madman to Huang Xue, but she had no choice but to humor my madness to the bitter end.

Following the three students to the stairwell, I pressed flat against the wall. Moving slowly, I could faintly hear the sound of an argument.

Calling it an argument wasn't quite accurate. It was more like one-sided cursing, accompanied by the ruthless laughter of bystanders.

Edging our way down step by step, Huang Xue and I reached the next floor. The shouting and cursing grew much clearer.

Standing inside the fire escape, I signaled for Huang Xue to run back immediately if she noticed anything wrong.

Then I stepped to the doorway and peeked out into the corridor.

The three-meter-wide corridor was packed with mutilated students. Pale faces crowded the entrance of a classroom, their expressions malevolent as they let out bizarre, cackling laughter.

"Beat him up, Xue Fei! This bastard dared to try stealing your woman!"

"Take a piss and look at your reflection! You think Shen Mengting would take a liking to a scrawny midget like you? Stop flattering yourself."

"Broke-ass transfer student. You think a piece of trash like you belongs at Xinhu High School?"

"Don't say that. Who can blame him when his daddy's so good in bed?"

"True. I heard his dad and the literature teacher have something going on. This kid even called her 'little mom' before."

"'Little mom'? Just hearing it sounds cheap!"

Even an adult like me found the harsh insults unbearable, let alone the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends, who was still so young back then. 'Xinhu High School is an aristocratic private school. The kids who study here are from the families of tycoons and mega-rich bigshots. It makes sense for them to be arrogant and domineering, but targeting one person like this is taking it a bit too far.'

Through the gaps in the crowd, I could faintly see the scene inside.

Just inside the classroom door, a malnourished, extremely scrawny boy was cornered against the wall by the crowd.

His body was pressed tightly against the wall. A plastic mannequin from the art classroom lay at his feet.

"Guo Junjie, was the lesson I taught you last time not deep enough? Or are you just thirsty? You want to drink toilet water again?" A tall, strong boy stood in the center of the crowd. Handsome and upright, he stood in stark contrast to the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends—they were complete opposites.

As soon as he spoke, I knew his identity. 'Xue Fei! That's the exact same voice I heard when I livestreamed at Xinhu High School!'

Xue Fei was surrounded by the crowd. He waved an envelope in his hand. "You still have the nerve to write love letters? Come on, read out loud to everyone what you wrote."

With that, Xue Fei tore open the envelope in front of everyone and whipped the paper right at Guo Junjie's face.

The letter, brimming with sincere feelings, fluttered to the ground. Guo Junjie slowly lowered his head, obscuring his expression.

"Can't understand human words? I fucking told you to read it!" Xue Fei had a violent temper, and he kicked Guo Junjie viciously in the stomach.

The frail Guo Junjie crumpled to the ground in intense pain. He clutched his stomach, not daring to talk back.

"Read it!" The surrounding students began to openly jeer as well. Xue Fei seemed to relish the thrill of everyone answering to his lead. He stepped on the love letter, grabbed Guo Junjie by the hair, and forced his face down next to his shoe.

"Read it for me! Let's hear how a stinking bastard like you confesses his love!"