Chapter 71

After Gu Yi'an got a clear look, the words on the draft paper twisted into ink blots before sinking into the paper and vanishing.
Gu Yi'an vaguely sensed that this might be a game related to her, just like her fourth game.
It was highly likely that she was once again a key figure in the game.
Was she playing the game, or was the game playing her?
Gu Yi'an was genuinely a little tempted to hit the god.
What else did that guy do besides playing games and messing with people?
Of course, Gu Yi'an didn't dare hit Lu Zize in his human form, she only dared to lay hands on the notebook version of him.
If the notebook dared to appear before her now, she would definitely pile all her textbooks on top of it.
Gu Yi'an glanced at the test paper, calmed herself down, and started solving the problems again.
She remembered the earlier questions, her thoughts flowing smoothly as she filled in the answers.
Focused on the test, she ignored the intermittent sighs around her.
A little over an hour later, the exam ended.
All the students remained seated as the teacher came down to collect the papers.
Gu Yi'an, still in her seat, casually glanced back at Lu Zize in the last row of the classroom.
A male student in front of Lu Zize was chatting with him. Lu Zize seemed to have a good temper, sitting there and attentively listening to the other, playing the role of an excellent listener.
The moment Gu Yi'an looked over, Lu Zize noticed.
A flicker of amusement instantly appeared in his eyes.
It was clear he was in a good mood.
A good mood could be contagious.
Gu Yi'an had been a little annoyed earlier about being dragged into the game by the god once again.
But now, thinking about it, her irritation faded.
For the god, it was all just playing games.
With Little Girl and the others by her side, she wouldn't get hurt.
Fine, she might as well treat it as playing games with the god.
Gu Yi'an withdrew her gaze.
Just then, the proctor collected her test paper.
Gu Yi'an immediately packed her pencil case and stood up to leave.
She felt that if she didn't leave soon, Lu Zize might follow her.
Of the two proctors in the exam hall, only one was collecting the papers; the other was the teacher who had set the questions.
He took a sip of tea and chatted casually with the students, mentioning that he had written the questions himself this time, so even if someone tried to copy answers, it wouldn't help, the only place with the correct answers was in his own mind.
At this, most of the students in the class looked crestfallen.
They weren't top students like Gu Yi'an; they had been completely lost looking at the questions and had sighed their way through the exam.
Hearing the teacher's words, they grew worried about whether they would fail this time.
The teacher collecting the papers was taking his time, having only gathered the papers from the students on the right side of the classroom.
The male student chatting with Lu Zize, seeing that it would still be a while before their papers were collected, glanced at Lu Zize's test paper.
"Wow, you're amazing! You actually solved all of them? Come on, before the teacher notices, give me the answers for the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions."
Lu Zize was watching Gu Yi'an's figure disappear through the classroom door.
A trace of disappointment crept into his expression.
The male student in the front row followed Lu Zize's gaze toward the door. Although he could no longer see anyone, there was only one person in their class who would leave the exam hall so early.
The male student said, "Do you like the one who just left? Let me tell you, don’t chase her, absolutely don’t. Your life matters more. She’s just too eerie. If she weren’t so strange, I’d have gone after her long ago. Who wouldn’t like a girl who’s aloof, beautiful, and has a great figure? Sigh, I want to, but I don’t dare."
Lu Zize’s gaze fell on the male student. His expression was unreadable, but his tone remained gentle.
"Didn’t you just ask me about the questions? You can take my answer sheet. Be careful not to let the teacher catch you."
Hearing this, the male student replied, "You’re a real bro. I thought you didn’t hear me."
He gleefully picked up Lu Zize’s answer sheet and prepared to turn back.
But as he turned around, he froze.
The exam proctor was standing right beside his seat, staring at him expressionlessly.
Trembling, the male student tried to place the answer sheet back on Lu Zize’s desk.
The proctor reached out and grabbed one end of the paper.
Too scared to make any sudden moves, the male student could only let the teacher effortlessly take the sheet from his hand.
The proctor glanced at the answer sheet and gave Lu Zize an approving look.
Not bad, a good student.
Even after taking a year off from school, he had clearly kept up with his studies.
The paper was neat and tidy; just the presentation alone deserved full marks.
The teacher then shifted his gaze to the male student in the front row.
"This year’s students sure have nerve, openly snatching someone else’s paper to copy? What’s your name?"
"No, teacher, I didn’t copy yet."
The male student tried to defend himself.
But the proctor wasn’t having it, he had seen the student grab the other’s answer sheet.
"You stay. If I hadn’t caught you in time, you would’ve copied."
He turned to Lu Zize and said in a tone of disappointment, "You’re too soft-hearted. Next time something like this happens, report it to us directly. Snatching someone’s paper to copy, utterly lawless."
As the proctor spoke, the male student who had been caught red-handed watched the teacher misunderstand Lu Zize and could only mouth a silent apology: "Sorry, bro."
Even at this point, the male student still believed it was just his bad luck, getting caught by the teacher and dragging Lu Zize into it, which filled him with guilt.
Lu Zize lowered his head slightly, appearing to take the teacher’s advice to heart.
He said, "Teacher, I won't do this again next time."
The teacher liked obedient, good-looking students like him.
He glanced at Lu Zize's test paper again. Since he had written the questions himself, he naturally knew the answers like the back of his hand. The answers on the paper were mostly correct, though he’d need to examine them more closely for details.
He felt even more satisfied with Lu Zize.
"You’ve reviewed well. Taking time off didn’t hold you back."
The teacher’s gaze shifted away from Lu Zize, and when he saw the male student sitting in front of him, his expression immediately darkened again.
The teacher didn’t want to waste words on a hopeless student like that, so he turned and left.
Gu Yi'an had left early and didn’t know about this incident in the exam hall.
She found a small pavilion in the garden to rest and placed the notebook from her backpack on the stone table.
It was 11 a.m., and while the sun wasn’t scorching, it was still quite hot.
Vines climbed around the edges of the pavilion, and a tall tree nearby provided shade, making the pavilion pleasantly cool.
Gu Yi'an looked at the notebook on the stone table and said, "Lu Zize, I know you’re here."
With so many identities at his disposal, Gu Yi'an didn’t believe that a god couldn’t exist in two forms at once.
The Lu Zize in the exam hall was the god.
The notebook should also be the god, likely still carrying his consciousness.
The notebook didn’t respond.
Gu Yi'an paused for a moment, then asked, "Why did you suddenly decide to take human form?"
She had been genuinely surprised to see Lu Zize in the exam hall.
Was Lu Zize planning to use his human form from now on?
The notebook opened on its own, revealing a line of bold black text.
"I regret it."
Regret it?
Gu Yi'an didn’t quite understand why the notebook would say that.
Slowly, another line of text appeared on the notebook.
"You seem to prefer objects over people."
Gu Yi'an: "..."
Was it saying that she preferred its notebook form?
Aren’t you the same person either way?
Gu Yi'an stared at the words in the notebook and seriously considered it. She did feel more comfortable with Lu Zize in his notebook form.
Probably because she had spent more time with it that way.
Wait a minute.
It took Gu Yi'an a moment to realize that Lu Zize had taken human form for her sake.
Gu Yi'an closed the notebook.
She felt she shouldn’t have tried to chat with it.
Gu Yi'an looked for something to distract herself.
She took out her phone and noticed a missed call from her brother, Gu Tianjing, along with a text message from him.
Gu Yi'an read the message.
It said that Gu Tianjing wouldn’t have time to visit her in the coming days and asked if he could share her contact information with the portly Taoist priest who had gone through hardships with him and Old Zheng.
Gu Yi'an remembered the portly Taoist, the chubby uncle who had sold her the protective talisman.
The portly uncle was a good person, principled, willing to do almost anything for money, and very perceptive.
He probably wanted her contact information for a reason.
Since Gu Yi'an was now somewhat involved in raising spirits, she hesitated for a moment before replying to Gu Tianjing that he could share her contact details.
She also wanted to connect with people from the cultivation world.
Meanwhile, eight players followed a villager along a mountain path.
They had been walking for over an hour, and beads of sweat had formed on their foreheads.
One of the female players, who had a sharp and unkind face, seemed unable to bear the mountain path any longer. She tugged at the arm of a male player beside her, who looked honest and simple.
"Brother Wei, I can't go on anymore."
The male player, addressed as Brother Wei, glanced at her and patiently explained, "Xiao Cheng, this game requires us to follow the initial storyline characters. This villager came up to talk to us on his own, he’s likely a key character. Just hang in there a little longer. We should reach the village soon."
Xiao Cheng was not at all pleased by his words. "Brother Wei, even though I’m a new player, it’s just too strange to blindly follow some villager who showed up out of nowhere. I don’t want to go up the mountain anymore. It’s not even that high, but we’ve been walking for so long without reaching the top. Could it be we’ve run into a ghost wall?"
Her voice wasn’t hushed, and the villager leading the way paused briefly before continuing as if nothing had happened.
Hearing her words, another player chimed in, "Could it really be a ghost wall?"
"This path does look a bit familiar."
"With all these trees, of course it looks familiar."
Everyone had been walking for over an hour and was genuinely exhausted.
Brother Wei couldn’t help but look at Xiao Cheng with newfound respect. "Xiao Cheng, you’re adapting quite well. If I didn’t know you were a new player, I’d think you were a veteran."
At his words, a flicker of stiffness crossed Xiao Cheng’s face.
"Brother Wei, you’re too kind. I was just complaining a little."
Brother Wei didn’t notice her reaction.
He gathered the other three veteran players, and the four of them stepped aside, away from the villager, to discuss sending one person back to test the path. If anything seemed off, they would immediately turn back.
Since there was only one visible mountain path, there was no worry about getting lost.
Brother Wei volunteered to go himself.
The other players had no objections and agreed to let him go.
The new players couldn’t join the discussion among the four veterans.
They glanced at the veterans and, following their cues, continued walking with the villager.
Xiao Cheng, an outlier among the new players, looked back and saw Brother Wei suddenly stop at a bend in the path. She immediately ran to his side.
Brother Wei was taken aback.
In the next moment, the villager and the figures of the other six players vanished from his sight.
Brother Wei asked with a stern face, "Why did you follow me?"
Xiao Cheng seemed startled by his attitude. Her eyes blinked, welling up with tears. "Brother Wei, I don’t trust them. I just want to follow you."
Brother Wei felt helpless. He thought it might be because he had promised to protect Xiao Cheng earlier in exchange for some beginner tips, which had made her trust him so much.
New players often relied on experienced players like this.
Brother Wei didn’t find anything unusual about it.
He said, "Then follow me."
He believed there wouldn’t be any danger on the way back, so he agreed to let Xiao Cheng come along.
Xiao Cheng seemed moved by his decision. "Brother Wei, you’re a good person."
Brother Wei’s mouth twitched. "Don’t hand out 'good person' cards so casually."
The two of them started walking back.
Surprisingly, the mountain path back seemed unusually short. After walking for a while, they could already see farmland and houses.
Xiao Cheng tentatively asked, "Brother Wei, do you think you might have made a mistake? Do we really have to follow that villager who appeared earlier in the game?"
Brother Wei pondered, "Generally, after entering the game, we quickly encounter characters related to the storyline and trigger corresponding events. We had just finished introducing ourselves when that villager showed up and asked if we were tourists. Of course, we assumed he was a plot-related character."
Xiao Cheng said, "But we’re not tourists."
Brother Wei replied, "Of course we’re not. It’s just a role we assumed to blend into this world seamlessly. Could it be that our gaming habits have made us blind to the deception of the people in this world?"
Under Xiao Cheng’s subtle hints, Brother Wei’s brow furrowed deeply.
Xiao Cheng glanced at him and asked, as if unintentionally, "What if that villager isn’t a plot character?"
Brother Wei frowned. "That’s impossible. If he isn’t…"
He didn’t finish his sentence.
Xiao Cheng deliberately pressed further, "What if he isn’t?"
Brother Wei said, "Then they’re in danger."
By "they," Brother Wei meant the other six players.
Xiao Cheng gasped, "Oh no, what should we do?"
She looked genuinely frightened.
Brother Wei could understand the feelings of a new player like her. "It’s not certain yet. Let’s find someone to ask about the situation on the mountain."
They walked for over ten minutes and were lucky enough to encounter a villager passing by on a motorcycle.
The villager had a bitter, melon-like face.
After being stopped, he listened with a pained expression to Brother Wei’s questions.
When Brother Wei finished, the villager said, "Oh, the mountain? There’s a mountain temple up there… Ah, you shouldn’t go. Last year, an entire class of students went camping on the mountain and ended up offending the mountain god. The whole class died."
The bitter-faced villager thought for a moment and added, "Well, not the entire class. I heard there was one girl in that class who was sick that day or something. She didn’t participate and never went up the mountain. She was the only survivor from the whole class. You really shouldn’t go if you can avoid it."
Having said that, the villager rode off on his motorcycle.
Brother Wei and Xiao Cheng exchanged a glance and spoke almost simultaneously.
Brother Wei said, "Let’s go back and bring them down."
Xiao Cheng said, "Let’s go find that survivor."