In Virtual Reality 38 ☆ Death Notice (22/25)

Long Xiao Hui looked confused. "No, that's not what I meant."

Lu Er Er prepared to fight, her hands raised. "Then what do you mean?! We 502 aren't easy to mess with!"

Cao Ya sighed and covered her forehead before grabbing Lu Er Er's collar and pulling her back. "With your small build, who can you fight? You can even knock yourself down with your own left hook." She looked at Long Xiao Hui, who seemed lost. "Classmate Long, let's be clear. We're not Liu Xin and won't tolerate your unreasonable arrogance."

Long Xiao Hui hesitated. "I'm not being arrogant..."

"Then what do you mean?!" Lu Er Er prepared to fight again but was stopped by Cao Ya.

"I think you may be confused about my situation and want to discuss it," Long Xiao Hui explained, feeling uncomfortable. "So, I can go downstairs, and you can talk more freely."

Lu Er Er: "...Huh?"

Ah Ma: "..."

Qian Qin: "Oh my..."

Cao Ya said coldly, "Compared to someone like Lu Er Er, who doesn't use her brain, I dislike people who beat around the bush even more."

With people like that, beating with a stick wouldn't produce a fart. You need to use missiles to bomb them to get even one true word out.

Long Xiao Hui asked, "Why do you think that way? I didn't mean to be arrogant."

Lu Er Er turned to Cao Ya, grinding her teeth. "I...I really want to beat her up."

"Let me remind you, you suggested letting her in at the beginning."

Lu Er Er deflated. "I'm not regretting it. I just understand why Liu Xin became like that."

Zhou Xiao Han was busy and didn't pay much attention to her roommates' relationships. Although Long Xiao Hui may not have had bad intentions, her words could affect someone like Liu Xin, who was sensitive to criticism.

Lian Lin was a mediator who didn't care much about anything. Still, she was wary of offending Long Xiao Hui, who had a temper. Unconsciously, Lian Lin had hurt Liu Xin.

The girls in the neighbouring dormitory kept to themselves, except for Zhou Xiao Han.

Cao Ya disagreed, "I don't care about Liu Xin's personality, but when she tries to prevent others from leaving this school, she becomes my enemy. Remember that Liu Xin indirectly caused the deaths of Zhou Xiao Han and Lian Lin, her roommates, regardless of her motives. If Lian Lin's case was due to personal grudges, what about Zhou Xiao Han? She was protecting our dormitory. I discovered that, except for Zhou Xiao Han, the other three people in Room 503 were previously roommates. Even if there were any past grudges, Zhou Xiao Han was at least nice to Liu Xin, right? But what happened in reality? Zhou Xiao Han trusted Liu Xin, but Liu Xin betrayed her by reporting her to the broadcast station, which caused her public execution. I'd rather think Liu Xin became insane now," Cao Ya glared at Long Xiao Hui, who looked shocked and sat down. "Otherwise, Zhou Xiao Han was just blinded by the trust. Her trust was worthless."

Room 502 fell silent.

"Alright, alright," Lu Er Er eventually broke the silence. She scratched her head and tried to lighten the mood. "As for cleanliness, let Ah Ma decide. She's the dorm leader and knows more about the dorm's situation."

Lu Er Er turned to Long Xiao Hui, who was still quiet. "As for you, I don't care about your temperament, but I don't like how you speak. You need to change it!" She became stern. "We don't want anyone to die because of improper speech during this tense moment. That's not what we want to see, nor is it what you want to see."

**

After selling coffee for three days and using the last pack of coffee powder from the vending machine, they finally earned enough study credits. With the credits, they completed the application for the early final exam with the required stamp and ink.

Xu Jinyi stood before the teaching building lobby, smiling at the NPCs.

"So, good luck to you all on the exam~!"

"Wait a moment... Shh, senior!" a male student interrupted. "So, how exactly do we pass the exam?"

Xu Jinyi asked, "Have you all looked at the materials shared by Zhou Xiao Han?"

"We have, but..."

"Then that's all you need! It's getting late now. Bring your campus card and head to your respective exam rooms."

Without any more words, she walked towards her own exam room.

"Is this reliable?"

"I'm not sure..."

"Trust Senior Silence! After all, she's a third-year student!"

Some people confidently walked into the exam room, trusting Silence. In contrast, others hesitatedly walked towards the exam room, looking back three times.

Shen Jia stood in the lobby of the teaching building and entered the exam room after a glance at the empty space in front of the building. The stairs shone in the daylight, and the blood was long gone. The traces of Zhou Xiao Han's existence were also nowhere to be found.

"Aren't you going in yet, Shen Jia?"

A female voice sounded behind him, and Shen Jia turned around. It was Ah Ma.

"It's all or nothing now," Ah Ma comforted him with a smile. Her gaze passed Shen Jia and also looked at the stairs. "Don't disappoint her."

"I won't," Shen Jia smiled lightly, took a deep breath, and his eyes shone. "Definitely not."

**

"The final exam is now starting. Please bring your campus card and necessary stationery. During the exam, you are not allowed to look around, cheat, or talk to others."

"——The exam starts now."

To Shen Jia's surprise, the final exam at Dark Virtue University was very regular. There was no massacre or headless ghosts, just a simple test paper.

Shen Jia picked up a black pen and looked at the exam paper. As expected, he didn't know the answers to many of the questions related to Mechanical Engineering. However, there were also several campus information questions that Zhou Xiao Han mentioned.

After thirty minutes of careful consideration, Shen Jia managed to answer a few questions. However, he knew that his score wouldn't exceed 30 points even with his best effort. He turned to the second page, which was mostly blank except for one daunting question worth 60 points: "Please write the name of the teacher in this major."

Shen Jia felt his heart race. How was he supposed to know the answer to this question? And why was it worth so many points?

He took a deep breath and tried to calm down. He may have heard the name of the Mechanical Engineering teacher somewhere before. Shen Jia closed his eyes, trying to recall any relevant memories.

["Dear Teacher Sophora..."]

["Sophora Sophora Sophora Teacher..."]

["...you seem to be doing very well in your studies?"]

["Of course, Teacher Autumn, your lectures are especially engaging..."]

Autumn.

Teacher Autumn.

Autumn Autumn Autumn!

He suddenly remembered a conversation with Silence, who had mentioned the teacher's name in passing. It was Teacher Autumn! Shen Jia quickly wrote down the name.

Meanwhile, in other exam rooms, students were equally stressed out, sweating and staring at the last question with despair.

"Knock knock."

Suddenly, a person in a pink hoodie entered one of the exam rooms. They tilted their head and flashed a cute smile at the subject teacher. In their hand, they held a recording phone and a notebook. "Hello, teacher," they said politely. "Can I interview you? It's for our Dark Virtue University's recruitment and excellent teacher article."

The ghost being interviewed went from being impatient to pleasantly surprised. "Hey! You want to interview me for an outstanding teacher article?!" the ghost exclaimed.

The person in the hoodie nodded and repeatedly smiled, "Yes, yes. It's you, this teacher... um, please introduce yourself first~."

The ghost was overjoyed, "Me? I'm Soul Soul Soul (魂魂魂); just call me Teacher Soul."

The living students, caught off guard, quickly wrote down the details, but this didn't work in all the exam rooms.

"I'm Nightmare Nightmare Nightmare (魘魘魘), just call me Teacher Nightmare~" the second ghost introduced themselves.

Xu Jin Yi's smile froze as she struggled to recall the Chinese character for "Nightmare." She scanned the living students in the exam room, but none knew. However, the pink hoodie saviour walked up to the podium, picked up the chalk, and wrote distorted big characters on the blackboard—"Is it this 'Nightmare,' dear Teacher Nightmare?"

Teacher Nightmare was pleased and acknowledged Xu Jin Yi's efforts, "Yes, yes, very good, Silence. You are truly worthy of being a third-year student interviewing outstanding teachers! That's the character, but you need to practice more."

Xu Jin Yi, who struggled to write well in the game, maintained a polite smile. "...Okay, Teacher, I will practice harder :D."

**

With Xu Jin Yi's help, all living students finally escaped the exam's hell, one after another. The students who barely passed the exam were pale and almost simultaneously began to condemn the ghost who gave them the final question, secretly rejoicing in their hearts that Silence helped them.

As the lobby's crowd gradually increased, Xu Jin Yi scanned the area and said, "So, now there's only one final exam left."

"——Physical fitness test, 1500 meters sprint."

With a swoosh, everyone's face turned pale.

"1500?" Lu Erer's face turned white, and she barely stood with the support of Cao Ya. "I don't think the 1500m at Dark Virtue University is quite the same as the 1500m we took in our freshman year."

"It's not like all the ghosts and ghouls are coming after us, right?"

Xu Jin Yi exclaimed with surprise. "Correct! Great that you already know!"

"..."

This was not surprising! This was terrifying!!

"So, Shen, please distribute the printed application forms to everyone," Xu Jin Yi explained while holding an application form with the official seal of Dark Virtue University. "This 1500 meters is the final exam all freshmen must pass. You can only leave school after all exams are over. But the distance from the teaching building to the gate of Dark Virtue University is about 1600 meters. The difficulty will be slightly reduced if we start at the exam building. Although it's still a full-speed death sprint, 1500 is better than 1500+1600, right? Okay, dear students," Xu Jin Yi looked at all the students with different expressions after they received the application form, clapped her hands, and brought their attention back, then slowly revealed a brilliant and excited smile. "Let's start the last——"

"Escape exam!"

——— Translator's Notes ———

The two teacher names, "Teacher Soul" (魂老师) and "Teacher Yan" (魘老师), are both puns that play off of the shared phonetic component, "soul." "Teacher Soul" literally means "Teacher Soul" or "Teacher Spirit," while "Teacher Yan" literally means "Teacher Nightmare."

The Chinese characters for "soul" (魂) and "nightmare" (魘) share the same phonetic component (魂), which means "soul." The only difference between the two characters is the radical on the left side, which is different for each character. The character for "soul" has the radical for "bone" (骨), while the character for "nightmare" has the radical for "evil spirit" or "demon" (妖).

The pun is clever because it uses the shared phonetic component to create two teacher names that sound similar but have very different meanings. This adds a layer of humor to the story.