[With me, you will no longer need the protection of the gods]
[Welcome, players, to Hexi No. 1 High School. This is the best high school in our city. We have the brightest, most spacious classrooms and an excellent faculty. We welcome all new students.]
[The Hexi No. 1 High School Student Handbook is as follows. All new students must strictly follow the school's rules and regulations.]
1. Our school has three classroom buildings: Building One, which you will see after entering from the tree-lined avenue, Building Two, and Building Three. There is no Building Four on campus. If you accidentally find yourself at Building Four, turn around and leave immediately. Find the duty teacher wearing blue and report what happened. Do not enter Building Four alone.
2. Our school has exactly two cafeterias, both located behind the Moral Education Building. All food at our school is free. If anyone asks you to pay, ignore them and report it to a cafeteria worker wearing a blue uniform.
Also, Hexi No. 1 High School's cafeterias do not serve rabbit or goat meat. If you see either of these meats being sold at a food counter, put down your tray and leave the cafeteria immediately. Do not linger. If an emergency prevents you from escaping, remember not to eat any food they give you. Remember!
3. Classes at our school strictly follow the timetable. The first class is always Chinese with Teacher Li. If you find that the first class is not Chinese, or that the teacher is not Teacher Li, take out your Chinese textbook and read aloud immediately. If they try to talk to you, ignore them and keep reading until you hear the bell or the teacher dismisses the class early.
Remember, the duty teacher wears blue. Do not believe anything said by the duty teacher in red or the head of discipline in black, especially if they try to lead you to the laboratory building.
Our school does not have a laboratory building.
The handbook went on for more than a dozen rules.
But Yan Hua remembered that Hexi No. 1 High School had been shut down and demolished three years ago after a series of strange incidents: students vanishing without a trace, the boys' dormitory jumping to their deaths as a group, and piano music coming from the abandoned practice room at midnight. Hadn't the site since been turned into an office building?
Ever since Yan Hua boarded that strange Number Three bus, his life had been turned upside down.
The old Yan Hua: believed in science and upheld materialism.
The current Yan Hua: Don't say something so unlucky! Quick, knock on wood and spit three times!
*
As the Nine Dragons Carry the Coffin ritual teetered between life and death, everyone's selfish desires swelled to their limits.
The Gate of Life and Death could only let six people through. Out of the seven of them, one would have to stay behind in the dark, waiting to die.
Everyone looked at Yan Hua, the most even-tempered and softhearted among them, and said with feigned sincerity, "Someone has to sacrifice themselves. Your sacrifice could save all of us. You wouldn't be so selfish, would you?"
Yan Hua lowered his head and murmured, "Oh. All right, then..."
Everyone rejoiced.
The next second, Yan Hua's usually gentle, easygoing expression changed. His smile turned sinister. "Then I'll just have to slaughter all of you, so you'll have company on the road to the underworld."
Question: What's scarier than a dungeon boss?
Answer: Yan Hua after his personality splits.
*
During a ritual to worship an evil god, Yan Hua and several teammates became offerings to the deity, waiting for death to come.
His teammates were crying and pleading to be spared. Faced with the scene, Yan Hua's survival instinct kicked in. He worked himself up, his eyes reddening, and was just about to drop to his knees and wail.
A pair of cold, pale hands pulled him into an embrace. A familiar face curled into a smile.
"Big brother, instead of praying to a god, why not pray to me?"
Yan Hua asked: Why was I the only one who ended up as an offering?
"I feed on people's wicked thoughts and desires, yet I willingly let you imprison me until death."
*
Dark-skinned, dark-haired, green-eyed bottom x fair-skinned, white-haired, light-eyed top
Upright young man x someone with no moral compass
[Reading Guide]
1. This is a rules-based horror story.
2. The male lead truly has dissociative identity disorder. If you encounter someone like this in real life, leave immediately.
3. Please do not spoil the free chapters.
4. The protagonist has a protagonist's halo and is extremely lucky.
5. This book's reading guide has rules 1, 2, 3, and 5. There is no rule 4.
Theme: The sacred must not be violated.
