The graduation photo was nothing special.
Everyone was standing in a neat row. The face of the faceless man was twisted into a weird smile that sent chills down one's spine.
The girl in the last row only had one eye, half of her nose, and half of her mouth left.
She looked at the camera and pretended to be happy, but her eyes were filled with sadness and despair.
The Zong Jiu also noticed that the girl's wrists were full of shocking scars. Some were old and some were new. It was obvious that she had cut her own wrists.
Combined with the diary he had obtained earlier, this photo was undoubtedly a valuable clue.
The white-haired magician's slender fingers slowly moved across the yellowed graduation photo.
He didn't say anything and didn't inform anyone. Instead, he silently put the photo into his pocket.
####
The appearance of the faceless man put all the grade B trainees into a tense state.
Especially after the main system confirmed that the faceless man couldn't return to the horror trainees' dormitory, everyone understood the significance of this change.
As long as they had one last breath left in the horror dungeon, even if they were mentally unstable, the main system could drag them into the dormitory for forced electroshock treatment.
The main system's treatment was much better than the real world's treatment, especially for the insane. Basically, with a sweep of electricity, the messed up tendons in the brain could be reconnected. For example, the grade D trainee who was cured in the punishment dungeon.
But now, facing the trainee who had turned into a faceless man, the main system indicated that it refused to accept him.
This situation could only happen if the trainee was no longer considered a trainee.
For example, in a horror dungeon with the theme of zombies and the apocalypse, if the trainee didn't have time to inject the serum and completely turned into a zombie, the main system wouldn't let them return to the infinite loop.
The one thing they all had in common was that they had been classified as "human" by the main system.
This was undoubtedly a very scary piece of news.
But no one knew how the faceless trainee came to be.
This was the only trainee who had turned into a faceless man. They lacked a variable that could be used as a control group. The only possibilities that could be distilled were "poor academic performance", "seemingly isolated", and "studying day and night".
In just one day, the faceless trainee had only skimmed through all the textbook questions. He had rocketed from the second last in class seven to the top of the grade. It was close to a perfect score in every subject. It was not an exaggeration to say that it was a miracle.
To this trainee, he had undoubtedly lost himself. He had become a "perfect machine" cultivated by the First Middle School. He was an existence that the principal would not hesitate to praise in front of the rostrum. However, he had also lost his personality.
But from the perspective of the class's interests, there was no doubt that this was a good thing.
The trainee's score was double that of the grade's number one Fan Zhuo.
From the second from the bottom of the class to the top scorer of the entire grade, this had raised the average score of the entire Class 7 by an unknown amount. In a short while, Class 7 had been pulled from the bottom of the nine classes to the middle.
Moreover, Faceless's performance was very stable. He had been able to stabilize his level in two consecutive weekly tests. There was absolutely no situation where he performed abnormally.
Gradually, not only in the grade, but also in class seven, there were not many discussions.
The faceless trainee had been treated coldly and unwelcome in the class. He had no organization and his strength was barely there. The only one who was slightly familiar with him was Liang Mingde, who was the first to discover his abnormality. But it was only limited to talking.
Even if something happened to such a person, no one would really feel sorry for him. It was even more impossible to find a way to reverse the situation.
Although the reason was cruel, it was also irreproachable.
Compared to all of this, the exam that was just around the corner was even more urgent.
Time passed quietly.
Finally, after the third week of the month, there were only eight days left until the mid-term exam.
Every class was anxious.
Even if all the trainees studied as if their lives depended on it, it was still difficult to achieve such a score in such a short time.
All the trainees had already studied to the point of madness.
Not only did they walk with books in their hands, they also slept with books in their hands. Twenty-four hours a day, excluding the time to sleep, were all used to do test papers and check the answers.
What if there was not enough time? They could only infinitely reduce the time to sleep. Except for the half-vampires, most of the trainees had dark circles under their eyes. They were like pandas.
No one cared if they were caught by the dormitory auntie. Even if they were caught, they had to take their test papers and pens and stand in the dormitory corridor in their underpants. They were not willing to waste a minute and a second.
Of the nine classes in the grade, there were still six classes that were still short of 600 points.
Among these six classes, Class 9 was nearly 50 points away from 600 points.
There were only eight days left until the mid-term exam, but there were still so many classes that had not reached the standard. The fear and despair in the trainees' hearts could be imagined.
If it were a trainee with a slightly lower level, they would probably collapse directly.
What was even more frightening was that during the flag-raising ceremony this week, the dean even smiled and praised them, saying that the quality of this year's students was really good. Not only did the students make the right choice so early, but until now, there was not a single student who did not pass the psychological test and chose to commit suicide.
The Class B trainees were all veterans who had experienced the winds and waves of the infinite loop. But at this moment, they all felt that although there were no supernatural existences in this group dungeon, it was the most terrifying and depressing dungeon they had ever experienced.
The next day was the last weekly test before the mid-term exam.
Zong Jiu returned to the dormitory to take a shower. After he finished, he inadvertently heard the conversation between the class monitor of Class 5 and another monitor.
"Not only is there no longer a hindrance, but Class 7 even has a thigh that is close to full marks. Isn't it a good thing to become a faceless person?"
"If you ask me, I can't wait for the trash in our class to become faceless."
Zong Jiu frowned.
Among all the monitors in Class 101, the monitor of Class 5 was the most extreme.
He was not the strongest in terms of overall strength among the Class B trainees, but he had the best test results. In his heart, he was still thinking of taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to eliminate more of his future competitors.
High-level trainees were generally more far-sighted.
Since there were only 100 trainees who could debut in the future, this meant that the main system would either eliminate all the trainees in the previous dungeon until there were only 100 trainees left, or it would refine the score to rank the top 100 and then eliminate the trainees who were not in the top 100.
In this way, other than himself, the other trainees were all competitors. Rather than fighting for the top 100 in the future, it was better to take advantage of this perfect opportunity to gain the upper hand.
From the beginning when the blank test papers were handed in, the monitor of Class 5 showed obvious signs of slacking off.
It was also during this gap that the monitor of Class 5 saw the white-haired youth who had just walked out of the bathroom not far away.
Because Zong Jiu had washed his hair, his long white hair was wet and draped over his shoulder. The towel on his shoulder was soaked and there were patches of slightly darker water stains.
The youth's body was slender and thin, as if there was not much flesh on his body. However, because of the lack of pigment, his skin was so white that it almost reflected the light.
Perhaps it was because the water temperature was too hot, but her face, which was usually excessively beautiful, was stained with a shocking shade of red. It was as if an artist had dipped his brush in red, and then reluctantly put down his brush after a smear of red.
The monitor of Class 5 stared straight at him. He only reacted when Zong Jiu's face was filled with disgust.
As if to cover up his momentary absent-mindedness, he muttered angrily, "What are you looking at? I didn't say anything wrong. We're already in the infinite loop. Why are you still acting like a saint?"
After saying this, the monitor finally reacted. He could not help but shrink back a little.
Magician was a newcomer who was in the limelight recently. He was also on good terms with No.2 Fan Zhuo, was favored by No.1, and received an invitation to Night people. He was definitely not an existence that a low-level B-level like him could afford to offend.
Zong Jiu said coldly, "I'm not looking at you, but you're disturbing my ears."
The initial shrinking back instantly disappeared. This contemptuous and disdainful expression completely ignited the monitor of Class 5.
"Who do you think you are? How dare you be so arrogant as a newcomer? Don't think that you can do whatever you want just because that person favors you. "
In the next second, the sound of a poker card slicing through the air and the spine of a book being placed on the table rang out at the same time.
The poker card sliced through the air and left a shallow but long wound on the face of the monitor of Class 5.
The moment it stabbed into the wall behind him, a cold and flat male voice sounded. "So noisy."
Not far away, The Dark Wizard in a black robe was pressing down on the book in his hands. His handsome side profile looked particularly unfriendly under the dim light.
His green eyes were long and narrow. It was easy to associate them with the hazy aurora of the cold Arctic. But for some reason, in Zong Jiu's mind, his eyes gradually overlapped with another pair of dark golden eyes.
Zong Jiu felt that he was being overly paranoid.
Not long ago in the King's Game, he had tested with tarot cards and eliminated the possibility that The Dark Wizard was being controlled by a demon.
On that day, No.5, the black-clothed Ah Zan, was controlled by the cunning demon. He borrowed Lin Guoxing's body and lured the enemy in. He deliberately acted pitiful and implanted the puppet strings in No.5.
The Dark Wizard hadn't been injured in this instance. Moreover, it had only been a month. No.1 shouldn't have been so resourceful.
More importantly, Zong Jiu firmly believed that No.1 wouldn't be so kind as to help him out of this situation.
Although he didn't know why the demon had suddenly given up on killing him, he wasn't naive enough to think that the demon wouldn't kill him in the future.
In fact, Zong Jiu was even more annoyed by No.1's current attitude compared to before.
Every day, it didn't hurt or itch. It was just looking for something to annoy him. Although No.1 had restrained his killing intent, his actions were clearly like he was teasing his pet. From beginning to end, he had a condescending look of affection.
With Zong Jiu's arrogance, it would be a wonder if he could tolerate this.
As someone who held grudges, he had already put the demon's death on his agenda. In the future, he would definitely let No.1 feel what it was like to be slapped in the face and beaten up.
As soon as The Dark Wizard spoke, the Class Rep of Class Five immediately cowered. He didn't dare say anything and left the dorm.
Zong Jiu lazily wiped his hair. Only then did he turn around and whisper a word of thanks.
No.8 didn't express his gratitude.
His dark green eyes swept past him emotionlessly before falling back onto the book in his hand.
Feeling the familiar indifferent gaze, Zong Jiu felt even more relieved. He didn't feel the need to waste another chance to draw a card.
The dorm returned to silence. Strangely, there was no rustling of pages.
The white-haired magician who was wiping his hair with his back facing The Dark Wizard didn't realize that he had missed out on an important piece of information.
Zhuge An had once told him that after the demon's fifth puppet thread was implanted into a person's soul, it wouldn't completely transform them into the demon himself. For the sake of rationality, these completely manipulated people were allowed to retain their own characteristics. After being manipulated, the person's behavior and personality would still be the same as the original person's. It was just that the person's inner consciousness would be eroded and manipulated by a higher level of authority. Because of this, the person's personality wouldn't change too much and reveal any flaws.
This was also why No.1's ability was so unfathomable. Unless the manipulated puppet gave itself away, it would be very difficult for others to detect any abnormalities, let alone the person being manipulated.
It was just like Messiah.
However, Zong Jiu didn't know if it was because he had been too busy with his studies or because his brain hadn't processed the situation.