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Ch90 - A Graduation Photo From Ago
It happened in Class 7.
Class 7 was Tsuchimikado’s class, which came ninth in the last exam’s class placements.
Although everyone in the year was noobs standing in the same line, there was still a gap between the first and last placing classes.
For Class 1 to raise their score to 600 easier. For Class 7 to achieve the same, not so much. It was under such circumstances that the atmosphere in Class 7 became all the more oppressive.
On top of this, the worst student in Class 7 just had to be an S-rank hotshot. If it were any other trainee, they’d have started to tyrannise him, but with his S-rank armour in place, no one had any way to confront Tsuchimikado and could only regard him with indifference.
The underachievers in the year were all having a hard time. Not only did they have to put their best foot forward in their studies, but also endure sneers from their classmates—unless, of course, they were in Van Zhuo’s Class 1, Black Shaman’s Class 3, and Zong Jiu’s Class 9.
After all, these classes had a clear leader. Though other classes elected class monitors, many of them didn’t feel capable of issuing orders to other trainees as they were all B-ranked. Even if they studied together, discrimination within classes was rampant.
Of course, those who had it the hardest were room 404, who betrayed all trainees in the previous monthly exam.
Ever since they caved under the teaching assistant’s flogging and spilled the plan for the entire cohort to unite, they were viewed as traitors.
As fate would have it, the penultimate placing in Class 7 happened to be from room 404.
And it was also this penultimate student who became faceless.
The development was discovered this morning.
At 6:50 a.m. sharp, the hostel played the wake-up bell, and all trainees clambered from their beds to freshen up.
All B-rank trainees were sure to see much of each other. After room 404 snitched, other trainees were reluctant to interact with them, so only the people within room 404 could only hang out with those others in their room.
A trainee from room 404, Liang Mingde, had brought his cup to the washroom to fetch some hot water and happened to see one of his roommates standing in front of a tap upon a turn of his head.
So, Liang Mingde walked over and patted the other on the shoulder. “So early today? Didn’t you stay up studying last night?”
The other didn’t reply but continued to brush his teeth. The only sound filling the washroom was the swishing of hard bristles scratching across teeth.
Liang Mingde didn’t mind his lack of response, lowering his head as well to fill his cup with water, squeezed some toothpaste, and began to brush his teeth.
As he brushed his teeth with his head lowered, he continued to speak in a muffled voice, “I’d say, you have it tough being in the same class as Tsuchimikado. He’s the worst in class, yet no one dares to bully him and only targets you instead. How the hell is that fair.”
“Who doesn’t want to live? If they seriously piss us off, just wait for the next exam. We’ll hand in blank scripts and drag all of them to the grave with us.”
Despite saying this, Liang Mingde kept his voice so low that others brushing their teeth wouldn’t overhear him.
Fortunately, it was still early in the morning. The bell only just rang, so there were only three others spaced a distance away from them in the washroom.
His roommate, though, never gave a response.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
As he continued to brush his teeth, Liang Mingde abruptly felt something amiss.
Pc atf qjra, atf qfceialwjaf raevfca bo Jijrr 7 kjr atf wbra lcvlucjca jcv kbeiv ygfjx bea lcab megrfr ja atf wfcalbc bo atlr abqlm.
Vb tbk mbeiv tf yf rb jycbgwjiis delfa jr tf kjr abvjs?
Lbivlcu tlr abbatygert, Oljcu Zlcuvf gjlrfv tlr tfjv, ibbxlcu eq ogbw atf kjafg lc atf rlcx.
Just this one look had the trainee scared out of his wits. The cup in his hand knocked to the ground, rolling rapidly down the drain.
“Wh-Where did your face go?”
Even Liang Mingde’s voice was trembling. He retreated several steps, taking out his special prop.
The awkward thing was his special prop was only effective against supernatural beings. It wouldn’t have any reaction to living things.
The penultimate student, whose back was towards him, turned his head over.
His face was smooth and sleek. All the places where his facial features should have been being blurred into a flesh-coloured background.
The faceless student didn’t respond, nor did he even spare Liang Mingde a second glance. He left the room like a robot operating according to a program, every step at a seemingly measured stride.
Without a doubt, this incident caused a big stir among the trainees.
“How did a living, breathing person suddenly become faceless?”
In room 101, a new round of meetings was underway. All class monitors were congregated.
“There must be some kind of catalyst or contaminant which can cause even a trainee to transform.”
They’d gone to observe the now faceless trainee in class seven together during the interval between morning classes. What was scary was no matter what they said to that trainee, even calling his name, the other still wouldn’t display the slightest response. He simply sat quietly in his seat, drilling practice questions.
No matter how noisy the outside world became, or even if someone wrested his pen away, the faceless trainee would sit frozen in his seat, face eerily blank.
Just as if… his soul had been plucked from his body.
Tsuchimikado gave more clues with regards to this.
“No, he still responds. For example, he’d get up to answer when teachers call on him to answer questions in class. In today’s weekly quiz, he still filled in the paper. This… this shows becoming faceless won’t affect one’s ability to think.”
Now, this was even scarier.
In this instance, only NPCs in the teaching faculty were faceless. Now this phenomenon even appeared among trainees, did that mean in the time to come, more and more trainees would undergo such a transformation?
Class 4’s monitor shuddered. “Wait, it’s not just the teachers in this school. Weren’t the parents whom we saw in the plot introduction faceless too?”
“You’re right. There’s got to be something in common.”
“Do you guys think someone can revert after turning faceless?”
Only Zong Jiu didn’t speak.
He considered silently, but still didn’t disclose Class 9’s discovery of the diary.
It wasn’t that he was unwilling to share information, but even within room 101, there existed those with differing opinions.
For example, Class 5’s monitor seemed more interested in achieving the objective of the collective instance and wasn’t concerned by the death toll.
There were so many variables that even the slightest carelessness could result in the recurrence of a situation like the leak in the first monthly exam. Naturally, it was wiser to remain prudent.
Black Shaman, seated across from him, imperceptibly glanced at Zong Jiu from under his hood.
A pity he was too engrossed in his thoughts to meet those green eyes.
—
Soon, just as the fear of the faceless trainee started to spread among trainees, the school authorities gave them an answer during morning assembly the next day.
The headmaster, who only appeared to make a speech at the first placement exam of the collective instance, had once again stepped on the flag-raising platform. His featureless face carried palpable delight and his tone was impassioned.
“Never in a million years would I have thought our school would receive such heartening news on the eve of the midterm exam! If it were in previous years, students of this calibre would only appear en-masse after midterms. This shows this year’s batch is exceptionally gifted with a promising future ahead!”
He waved his hand towards someone in front of the flag-raising platform. “Come, good boy. Come over here.”
The first faceless trainee strode to the platform like a marionette on strings.
The headmaster patted him on the shoulder, satisfied. “This is the type of outstanding students our school cultivates, and the type of high-calibre talent we deliver to society every year.”
“As long as they have this awakening in high school, well! Not to mention being able to take their pick from the nation’s higher education institutions after graduation and enjoying the best educational resources, they will also become the pillars of our society in the future, bringing glory to their alma mater!”
“Come!”
The headmaster warmly called to the teachers standing next to the platform, especially Class 7’s homeroom teacher. “Come take a group photo with our first outstanding student of the year!”
Soon, people filled the flag-raising platform.
The faceless homeroom teacher in his work attire smiled with ardent anticipation, a replica of the faceless trainee’s smile; even the angle of flesh on their faces scrunched up the same way. Simply a pair of perfect products constructed out of an assembly line.
These were, as the teachers and parents proudly declared, the “people” that would contribute to society in the future.
Deathly silence flooded the quadrangle.
Students were not permitted to talk during assembly, but there was no question about it—the expression on every trainees’ face wasn’t pretty.
Just that morning, the results for the latest weekly quiz were released.
The faceless trainee, who was penultimate in his class before, leapt to the top of his class, surpassing even Van Zhuo, the top student of the year. He had gotten an almost-perfect score.
What could this be likened to? It wouldn’t even be overboard to call it a miracle.
Let alone the trainees, even the hearts of those in bullet chat chilled.
[Is it exceptionally gifted to become this in high school? My god, is the purpose of this school to train their students into good and obedient faceless people? Just like the parents and teachers in the plot introduction?]
[Holy shit, this instance is too dreadful. No wonder we can’t find any traces of previous students left behind, no wonder the university acceptance rate is 100%. With this tactic, those who didn’t become faceless were all killed in the brutal strife. Those who lived studied hard not to be eliminated, and under the stress eventually turned into faceless people?]
[I suspect this is the ultimate goal of the school. Haha. “To only cultivate people useful to society”.]
After the photo was taken, the headmaster proudly watched that outstanding student walk down the platform before turning his gaze upon the student population.
“Your parents and teachers are doing this for your own good. You might not understand and even hate us now, but when you grow up and enter society, you’ll learn.”
“I hope, in the three upcoming exams, more of such outstanding talents will appear. Become like these students, who can abandon distractions and concentrate all their thoughts and efforts on studies.”
Zong Jiu followed the silent procession back to their classroom.
He mulled it over for several days before finally figuring out why the handwriting in the diary felt familiar to him.
Before the teacher started the lesson, the white-haired Magician lifted the thin tabletop of his desk.
Behind the tabletop, precisely what he found during the placement exam, were words etched across the entire surface—”Save me.”
Zong Jiu carefully ran his fingers along the back of the wooden table and, sure enough, found a slim interval between two layers.
He pulled out the yellowed piece of paper from the seam.
It was a graduation photo.
Everyone was in blue and white uniforms, looking straight at the lens. An entire class of students, all faceless—except for the girl standing in the last row.
Her appearance was a picture of dejection.
For she, too, only had half an intact face left.