Love, death, and false man

Chapter 27, Section 27: The Tip of the Iceberg

It felt as if I were in the frozen warehouse of a hellish oil tanker.

Psychological suggestion, self-pressure, fermenting suspicion and murderous intent.

Future viruses, thought Trojans...web games?
Is "Ultimate Despair" some kind of lame joke?
Hunting down fake people...

That's enough. Are there really such terrifying online games? Beads of sweat trickled down Fang Yan's forehead, and his lips twitched.

"I mainly noticed that you're quite unique, not like someone who's afraid of pain. To make sure the stitches are precise and don't tear again, I was a little slower than usual. Are you alright?"

The middle-aged school doctor asked with concern.

Fang Yan simply shook his head.

He looked at Weng Qing. The text message jumping above this woman's head indicated that this was not a joke she had created, but an urban legend that was widely circulated in all the universities in the city. She had also gone up there and cast her precious vote for a pretentious girl in her class.

Men have fire escape routes and Earth defense bases as ways to relieve stress, and women naturally need a certain degree of rebellion to relieve stress as well.

Fang Yan then noticed that Weng Qing, who looked like a well-behaved girl, wore her school uniform and trousers, but the black ribbon with a chain was used to tie her high ponytail. He didn't know if she was wearing makeup or not. Couldn't he tell that beneath her quiet exterior, she also harbored a curiosity about horror and the supernatural?

"That means all the information about us, Class 2 of Grade 11, is also on that website."

"Yes, it's amazing. All the students' information is there, the basic information is complete, photos are the bare minimum, all passport photos, and age, height, and weight are also included. Real-time dynamic information... well, it's hard to say. It seems like it's all made up, just a bunch of meaningless, tedious adjectives piled up, all randomly generated. Maybe some genius hacked the student information system and played a prank. Everyone's just having fun, but too many people are judging by appearances, which I don't think is good. Of course, those unpopular and annoying people need to be marked!"

"Is there anyone in our class suspected of being a fake, like me?"

"You? I last logged in the day before yesterday, I've forgotten a bit, I think I glanced at it, but I don't think so."

Although I hadn't spoken to Fang Yan before, I'd always been quite concerned about this strange guy. "However, there is indeed one person in our Class Two who has received a lot of votes as a suspected imposter."

Weng Qing had also looked at her own information. She was rarely suspected, probably because she was considered good-looking. There were a few boys in her class who were quite a nuisance. How could she get rid of these annoying guys?

"who is it?"

"He was the one with the thick glasses, tall and thin, surnamed Qian, and had excellent grades."

"It's actually him?"

Fang Yan realized something was true; it was Class 2 of the second year of high school, the only person whose thoughts he couldn't read.

"Fang Yan, why do you look so serious and tense? You're just a lazy, crazy person messing around. To me, you look more like a super-high-level murderer."

Weng Qing said half-jokingly that once you get to know someone, you'll become familiar with them very quickly, especially since you'll need to ask this strange person for help on the 25th.

"Haha, it doesn't look like it at all."

Fang Yan felt that he had been too relaxed during this period and had even done a lot of outrageous things at school. Was he being watched?

"Tch...you're so boring."

Weng Qing continued scrolling through her phone, feeling that this person had absolutely no sense of humor.

After the final disinfection was completed, the school doctor reminded Fang Yan, "Don't follow the movie example and use high-proof liquor for disinfection. It's useful but not much, it doesn't meet the standards of medical alcohol, and it will irritate your skin. Your other wounds still have some inflammation, I'll prescribe some medicine for you."

"Ok."

Fang Yan put his school uniform jacket back on. Today is Saturday, and tomorrow is a single day off. After school, he will go to the internet cafe to see what the so-called "Ultimate Despair" is all about.

I took the packaged tablets, put them in a bag, and went back to the classroom with Weng Qing. The school clinic was quite a roundabout way from the teaching building.

Fang Yan pondered: if the website was real, then the so-called surviving Super High School level figures had been exposed? Exposure is equivalent to death, so what exactly is the logic behind this?

"Does our school have any super-high level characters?"

Although the question was stupid, and the four words themselves were a bit silly, Fang Yan still asked it.

"It seems there were a few. I remember there were photographers, martial artists, models, and what else?"

"Who are they, and which class are they in?"

"That's the eerie aspect of urban legends. For example, the Ultimate Model, the people she kills will vanish into thin air, and the world will lose all memories of the victims, as well as of her. But... the imposter hidden in the high school is being tortured and executed without anyone knowing. Isn't that terrifying?"

"Things that can't be disproven are really boring..."

Fang Yan didn't know if it was true or not, but if it was, then the rules of the game should be like this. The so-called Ultimate Despair doesn't refer to one person, but to a group of people, and fake people are also hidden among these so-called Ultimate characters.

The false people together constitute despair.

The rest of the people were either soldiers or charlatans.

The three parties are suspicious of each other. Since they are all classified personnel, they are all fighting their own battles. If anyone is exposed, they will be left to fight alone and without any support. The chance of death is very high unless they kill the person who discovers them, and then the organization behind them will take care of all the trouble.

Without the "true will" to continuously lock onto exposed targets, hackers can easily overwrite the data on the other party's server. This is the [Hunter Channel]. The other two factions have similar things.

There are temporary servers and a primary server.

Temporary servers need to be connected to the world around the clock, inevitably making them vulnerable to attacks from hostile forces. In a three-way battle, they rely primarily on the living "free will".

The main server stores crucial battle results that must never be leaked. Fang Yan naturally doesn't know what they are, but they might be what Xia Bing mentioned: a historical timeline, or similar top-secret information.

I've heard there are other forces, but they're negligible compared to the other three. They're just minor players in the future, driven by short-term gains. Their servers are terrible; they're hit-and-run, unable to get into a game. But that doesn't mean the Soul-Sucker won't eliminate them; they're the easiest to deal with.

Just as Fang Yan was lost in thought, he and Weng Qing walked to a place not far from the teaching building.

But then I heard a commotion throughout the entire teaching building, as if it were the eruption of long-suppressed unease and restlessness. It was a kind of decadent sound that came from afar, and it lingered in my ears.

Heads popped out of the windows, their longing eyes scanning the area below.

Was it an earthquake?

Fang Yan, however, didn't realize that it was still class time.

A cold wind whistled through the dusty garden, carrying a musty smell in the air.

A seemingly inconspicuous cement area below the teaching building was surrounded by teachers and some school staff, completely blocking the way. The teachers, arranged in a semi-circle, were maintaining order, telling the students who had run out to behave themselves and not crowd together to watch the commotion, completely unaware of what was happening over there.

Fang Yan vaguely saw a teacher holding a phone as if calling the police, and the sound of an ambulance could be heard outside the school.

Without hesitation, Weng Qing picked up her phone and asked her best friend what was going on.

Such a shocking story prompted a reply from her best friend instantly.

Upon seeing the message, Weng Qing was stunned for a moment.

"It's Qian, a student from our class, who fell off the rooftop. It seems we don't have to have class this afternoon... The homeroom teacher has already announced that we'll have a holiday early."

She stared blankly at her phone, somewhat incredulous.

"The one in our class? The one with the thick glasses?"

"right……"

"The urban legend is true! Didn't you say he was suspected of being a fake? He got a lot of votes!"

"what are you saying?"

Weng Qing looked at Fang Yan with surprise, thinking that this person was a bit bad. The person was dead, and this was not the time to joke about such things. Besides, there was no such thing as what he said. Qian Tongxue had always been a very good person... What kind of person was he? She seemed to have forgotten.

I was able to read Weng Qing's thought process.

Fang Yan glanced at the rooftop of the teaching building but didn't see anyone.

Their gaze returned to the ground, where they saw only bright red blood spilling out and flowing to their feet, causing one of the teachers maintaining order to stumble back a few steps.

Suddenly...

It was late autumn, but a chilling cold arose from the spine, penetrating the body and reaching the crown of the head.

A cruel, absurd, incomprehensible game; fingers bleeding, throat hoarse, soul parched, mechanically stiff, body shackled, mind imprisoned, eyes blue—a brutal lesson.

The physics exam's standard answers are an inescapable cycle, correcting, copying, reciting, implanting, and desperately trying to capture the future, the timetable, mineral oil, vitamins, deep-sea fish, and daily routines. It's like fighting to the ends of the earth with silver, weakness, and icy reprimands, urban legends, grades, and death.

This is……

Is this just the tip of the iceberg of the ultimate despair?

(End of this chapter)