TANH Chapter 34.1: Seminary 10.1

5TH JUL 2023~SV

How pitiful

Bai Tong tilted his head to face Wen Qing and chuckled. “Your analysis is correct.”

“Very clever.”

Bai Tong praised him very sincerely, and Wen Qing couldn’t help but blush. He hadn’t been praised like this for a long time.

It was like being back in high school, being taught a question by the top student, calculating the correct answer, and getting a compliment.

The most important thing was that the “teacher” taught well.

Wen Qing was a little flustered, and softly spoke, “It’s because you reminded me.”

Without Bai Tong’s reminder, he definitely wouldn’t be able to guess it.

Wen Qing thought for a while. It’s also because of that time-limited vitality buff.

Li Jingjing chuckled. “Don’t underestimate yourself.”

“Your reactions are very fast, very strong among newcomers.”

“Many newcomers won’t doubt the system’s prompts at all.”

Wen Qing smiled shyly and quietly said, “Mainly, it’s because the last instance was screwed over by the system.”

A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit.[1]

Li Jingjing was startled, and curiously asked, “Your previous instances were also like this?”

Wen Qing nodded. “Almost like this, deliberately misleading the players.”

Li Jingjing didn’t ask for details. She clicked her tongue and said, “Then it’s also not easy for you to pass the instance.”

“I’ve gone through so many instances. In the beginning, the system is pretty normal. This is the first time I’ve encountered this.”

Wen Qing was stunned. He had thought the system was always like this.

So it was because he was more unlucky?!

Li Jingjing scolded in a low voice, “This rotten system, so it deliberately misled us from the very beginning.”

She looked at Bai Tong, looked him up and down for a while, then asked, “Did you already guess about the school rules early on?”

Bai Tong didn’t hide anything, and told the truth, “Not exactly a guess, just a suspicion.”

“There aren’t any school rules recorded in the school history books, which means that the school rules didn’t exist when the school was founded, but were added by a later party. The system reminded us to pay attention to the school rules from the very beginning.”

“I only confirmed that the school rules had a problem in the beginning, and after that…”

He lowered his head, looked at Zhang Chengrun who was lying soundly asleep in the bathroom, and swallowed the latter half of his sentence.

After that, someone took the initiative to become the test subject.

Bai Tong lowered his eyes and reminded them, “We are players, and the system is different from us. It creates games, and guides games.”

His words were very tactful, and Wen Qing understood.

The system and the player were on opposite sides.

If the players were the fat sheep, the system was the butcher.

Wen Qing couldn’t help but think, what about the assigned personal system?

Was it assistance? Or was it surveillance?

Thinking of this, a chill ran down his spine, and he quickly stopped thinking.

001 knew what he was thinking about.

Bai Tong glanced at Wen Qing. Seeing his head lowered in thought, he questioned with a smile, “Do you have any other ideas?”

Wen Qing raised his eyes. Did he miss any more important information?

He pondered for a while, then tried to analyse, “Chen Qiang and Zhang Chengrun seem to have been brainwashed. Chen Qiang’s situation is much more serious than Zhang Chengrun’s.”

Chen Qiang violated one more school rule than Zhang Chengrun, so he was locked up for six more hours.

Wen Qing blinked. “Maybe the longer you stay in the confinement room, the more dangerous it’ll be?”

Bai Tong had a smile on his face as he hummed.

Li Jingjing continued to ask, “Mr. Bai, now it’s already six o’clock, there’s only one hour left before curfew.”

“Is there anything else you need to hurry up and say?”

Bai Tong cleared his throat. “If you violate the school rules, you only need to be confined for six hours.”

A full six hours.

Wen Qing frowned, a little anxious, “Will nothing happen in the six hours?”

Bai Tong analysed, “Six hours isn’t too long, and should be relatively safe for players. On the other hand, the water here can calm people down.”

Wen Qing was enlightened. It turned out that water was a clue.

No wonder Oz poured water on Zhang Chengrun earlier…

“The difficult part shouldn’t be in the confinement period,” Bai Tong paused, then slowly said, “The difficult part should be the unknown and the fear.”

The most terrifying thing in the world was the unknown.

Even if they knew that there would be hallucinations in the confinement room, they weren’t sure what hallucinations would appear and whether or not they could bear it.

Li Jingjing’s expression changed slightly. “The things I’m scared of are a lot.”

Wen Qing’s view darkened, as he stammered, “I- I’m also scared of a lot of things.”

People and things, there were many people. Zhou Zhou, Ji Yu……

In terms of things, he was afraid of pain, afraid of death……

And there were also lots of flora and fauna. Snakes, worms, rats, ants……

Wen Qing’s view darkened. There were so many terrifying things, he couldn’t be more scared than he already was.

Bai Tong soothed, “You can also pray to God.”

Wen Qing murmured vaguely. He wanted to cry but had no tears. He was still afraid of this god.

What if Yu Xing really appeared?

There was only one hour left before curfew. The three of them carried Zhang Chengrun, who was in the bathroom, to his bed. They changed his clothes casually then left the dormitory building.

At this point in time, most of the students were on their way back to the dormitories. The three of them were leaving in the opposite direction, which attracted the attention of many students.

Jiang Jing was also one of them. After spotting the three of them, she smiled and joked, “I’m still fasting these days. If you go out for ‘field operations’, be careful of getting confined.”

Wen Qing was silent.

Bai Tong casually said, “We’re going to the library.”

Jiang Jing curled her lips. “Come on, the library is closed today.”

She didn’t care about where they were going. After she chatted for a while, she walked into the dormitory building.

Wen Qing looked at the tightly closed front doors of the library and asked, “Are we still going into the library?”

Bai Tong shook his head and lowered his voice, “Go to the teacher’s offices.”

“There might be information on the expelled students.”

It would be too obvious to walk directly from the main tree-lined path, so the three of them took a detour through the path behind a building.

As soon as they walked to the classroom building, they saw two familiar figures coming downstairs behind the window. Teacher Chen and Teacher Sun.

Wen Qing’s eyes widened. The window was very big, and the two teachers were standing on a high place. They could clearly see them from here.

He was wracking his brains to figure out a reason for the appearance of the three of them here, but he didn’t expect Teacher Chen and Teacher Sun to act as if they didn’t see them.

Without turning their eyes, they walked from the second floor to the first floor stiffly. Teacher Chen and Teacher Sun were expressionless, like robots whose batteries were about to run out, revealing a little abnormality.

Bai Tong also noticed this act. He frowned.

When they couldn’t see the figures of the two teachers anymore, Bai Ting quietly said, “Let’s head up first.”

The staircase of the classroom building was extremely quiet. Not a sound could be heard. The three people could clearly hear the others’ breathing.

Wen Qing nervously held his breath, stepped lightly, and followed behind Bai Tonh while tiptoeing.

The teacher’s office was on the second floor. Standing at the top of the staircase and staring from a distance, it was pitch black, no lights turned on.

Bai Tong was the first to walk over. After confirming there was no one there, he made a gesture to Li Jingjing and Wen Qing.

Li Jingjing pushed the door. The door creaked open.

She was stunned for a while. “The door isn’t locked?”

Bai Tong looked at the door lock, pursed his lips and said, “Someone came here before us.”

Wen Qing was stunned. At most, they had spent seven or eight minutes waiting outside the building for the teachers to leave.

When they entered the building, they didn’t see anyone else coming out either.

Whose speed was so quick?

Oz’s name flashed across Wen Ing’s mind. Right now, whoever came before them wasn’t important, so he didn’t continue to think about it,

Bai Tong stood at the door of the office and glanced around, but there was nobody inside.

Li Jingjing took the initiative to say, “Wen Qing, you were here last time. You two go in to search, and I’ll keep watch outside.”

Wen Qing replied. He strode to Teacher Chen’s desk and softly said to Bai Tong, “This is Mr. Chen’s seat.” 

The two quickly opened the desk drawers, but there was nothing in any of them.

No books, no notebooks… it was empty, as if no one was sitting and working in this seat.

Wen Qing blinked and stared at the desk in bewilderment.

On the table, there were papers, pens, books, etc. It looked pretty normal.

Bai Tong walked to another desk and opened the drawer, but there was still nothing.

The whole office was like this. Every desk seemed to have done enough work, but there was nothing inside, like the yearbooks in the library.

Suddenly, a familiar short tune sounded in the school.

On the clock hanging on the office’s wall, the second hand slowly turned to the number seven.

It was seven o’clock sharp. The time for curfew had arrived.

Bai Tong closed all the drawers and told Wen Qing, “Let’s go first. This office is fake.”

Wen Qing nodded.

Li Jingjing stood by the wall to keep watch. Seeing them come out so quickly, she was puzzled. “So fast?”

She lowered her voice and asked, “What did you find? Or what did you not find?”

Bai Tong shook his head. “Nothing whatsoever.”

“Let’s go downstairs.”

The task now was to have a teacher discover that they have violated the third school rule.

Wen Qing exhaled, and walked out with his head raised and his shoulders squared.

Nighttime in the seminary was dark. There were no stars and moons in the sky, and it was as black as death.

Every building was dark, without a ray of light. Except for that building of the High Priest, which was brightly lit, the only illumination in the entire school.

The three of them looked at each other and walked towards the High Priest’s building in unison.

The journey was very quiet. There was only the rustling of the leaves being blown by the wind.

Bai Tong narrowed his eyes. Abruptly, he said, “Wen Qing.”

His voice was at a normal volume, but it seemed very loud in the school grounds.

Wen Qing made a sound of response and turned his head frustratedly.

Bai Tong frowned, and said, “Our movements are so big, but not a single teacher has come out.”

Li Jingjing looked at the pitch dark school and muttered, “It’s too weird. Zhang Chengrun and Chen Qiang were caught right away, weren’t they?”

It stood to reason that they should also be caught immediately.

Was there something different about the night?

Wen Qing was at a loss. “Then should we take the initiative to call for a teacher?”

Bai Tong spoke, “Go to the door and look first.”

Wen Qing walked at Li Jingjing’s side beside the small path. Just as he reached the trail outside the High Priest’s building, a hand suddenly stretched out in the darkness, covered his mouth, and pressed him against the tree.

Wen Qing’s eyes widened as he met a pair of glittering green eyes.

Oz lowered his eyes. His right hand was stroking his waist, and it gently pinched the soft flesh around his waist.

His hand was icy cold. Wen Qing couldn’t help but cry out.

The next second, he felt something moving on his back.

Thin and long, slowly shifting, like a snake, like… vines.

Suddenly, a gloomy voice sounded in their ears. “What are you two doing?”

Teacher Chen stood at a side, expressionlessly staring at Oz.

Wen Qing’s eyelashes trembled, and he stared at Teacher Chen in shock.

There was nobody here earlier.

How did Teacher Chen appear out of nowhere?

Oz lifted his eyelids and lightly said a few words, “Having an affair.”

Wen Qing: ???

Footnotes

[1] – basically means you learn from your mistakes.

SV: hmm, I have a feeling that WQ’s system might be sliiiightly different to other players’ systems. also more free time now \ovo/ so i’ll start posting more on wednesdays until maybe like late august or early september ^^ would very much like to finish translating this under 5 years lol