Chapter 50 Part 1

Lin Juan caught up to one of the monsters.

This monster was relatively small, only a bit taller than an adult woman. When Lin Juan subdued it, it trembled nonstop.

It had some subtle differences from the other monsters.

Lin Juan frowned as he looked at the monster under his hand.

The class monitor and the others caught up, panting for breath. After catching their breath for a moment and seeing that Lin Juan made no move, she spoke up. “Lin, this monster…”

“Wait!” Midway through her words, the class monitor’s eyes widened. “There’s a scratch on its arm. I remember Huimei had one in the exact same spot. Can I take a look?”

Lin Juan shifted to the side, gesturing for the class monitor to come over.

The class monitor swallowed and glanced at the reliable Lin Juan before slowly approaching.

“It’s the same!” The class monitor carefully examined the scratch on the monster’s arm. “After Huimei got injured, she even joked with me about it, saying the scratch looked like a crescent moon. I remember it clearly.”

So, was this monster Huimei?

Why had Huimei turned into a monster?

Countless questions flooded the class monitor’s mind, leaving her dazed. “I came out with Huimei. We left at about the same time, so why did only Huimei turn into this?”

Judging by the time spent, Zhou Ping and the other two had clearly entered the nighttime version of the school much earlier than them. Zhou Ping and his group were normal, she was normal, but Huimei—who had entered right in between—had turned into a monster.

“Huimei, do you still recognize me?”

When she asked this, the class monitor held out little hope. She wasn’t too disappointed when she got no response. Instead, she instinctively turned a pleading gaze toward Lin Juan.

Zhou Ping mustered his courage and circled the monster. “If this monster really is Huimei, then what about the others?”

Everyone fell silent.

Had those monsters turned from people too?

From which people?

Lin Juan spoke up at the right moment. “Only one class is attending remedial summer classes right now. The other classes haven’t started yet. Have you all noticed that the school only has this one class normally?”

The class monitor was stunned for a moment. “You’re right. Lin didn’t mention it, and I’d subconsciously overlooked that point.”

It wasn’t so bad if they didn’t think about it, but once they did, Zhou Ping and the others’ faces filled with horror.

They had thought the school being trapped in eternal night was strange enough. Now it seemed there were even stranger things.

Were they really just attending remedial classes at school?

Shi Haochen was the first to react. He opened his mouth. “Lin, did you come from outside to save me?”

His mind was quick. Since Lin Juan hadn’t spelled it out at first, he didn’t either when asking.

Lin Juan gave him an appreciative glance and nodded. “Get behind me. I’m going to let go of this monster under my hand in a moment. I need to see where it goes.”

The four boys swiftly moved behind Lin Juan.

Lin Juan released his grip. The moment the monster gained its freedom, it bolted outward without stopping.

This time, Lin Juan didn’t chase too closely. He kept a steady distance behind it.

The four boys said nothing. They had subconsciously sensed that what was about to happen would upend their understanding of everything.

The monster ran for a long time. The entire dorm building seemed to turn into a labyrinth without an exit. They passed the same spots countless times, but the monster didn’t stop, and neither did they.

Along the way, they encountered quite a few similar monsters. Those monsters acted as if they couldn’t see them, going about their own business. Their mannerisms and behaviors were very human-like.

A terrifying guess formed in the class monitor’s mind.

After who knew how long—lungs nearly bursting—the monster finally stopped.

Lin Juan sidestepped, and the five of them hid behind the wall together.

The monster pulled out a door card and opened the dorm room door, which was covered in spiderwebs.

The class monitor covered her mouth and whispered, “This is our dorm room. The monster is a bit far, so I can’t see super clearly, but what it’s holding looks just like our door card.”

With that, she pulled her own door card from her pocket. “Look, the color and size are about the same.”

Indeed, Lin Juan lowered his head for a glance. “It’s the same.”

“That means we’ve now reached the dorm building where I live. But from the start until now, we haven’t left this dorm building.”

Upward Middle School’s boys’ dorm and girls’ dorm were separated by some distance. To go from the boys’ dorm to the girls’ dorm, they had to exit the boys’ dorm first. But they’d been circling inside the dorm building the whole time without leaving.

“This school that only has night can’t be judged by the standards of a normal school outside,” Lin Juan said by way of example. “Have you heard of the Surface World and Inner World? You can think of the world we’re in now as the Inner World, and the normal school during the day as the Surface World.”

“In the Surface World, the sun rises and sets, no monsters, everything normal. But in the Inner World, you see the world’s true face. Everything that happens in the Inner World can’t be perceived by the Surface World.”

“If Huimei is a monster in the Inner World, does that mean all our classmates in the Surface World are monsters too?” The thought of possibly spending months in a classroom full of monsters made the class monitor shudder.

“Not necessarily.” Lin Juan refuted that. If they all were, he would have sensed it from the start.

The difference between humans and weird phenomena was very clear.

“If we go open that door now, will we see a room full of monsters?” Zhou Ping’s voice trembled slightly.

Lin Juan said, “You can try.”

“Nah,” Zhou Ping shook his head vigorously. “Novels always say you absolutely shouldn’t get curious when you shouldn’t.”

Lin Juan chuckled. “The sky’s about to brighten soon.”

“Lin, I don’t mean to discourage you, but we’ve been here forever, and the sky hasn’t brightened once. The only light here is that Green Moon.” Shi Haochen’s tone was helpless.

They had tried countless methods to escape the night, all without success.

“That’s because it hasn’t been threatened yet.” Lin Juan looked out the window at the end of the corridor. “Some of you saw a pair of huge green eyes. Let’s assume for now the Green Moon is one of them. So where’s the other?”

Following Lin Juan’s line of thought, Shi Haochen had a realization. “The sun during the day!”

“But the sun’s color is normal,” Zhou Ping mumbled.

Yeah, if the sun was green too, they couldn’t have failed to notice.

“Just a little trick, like how you all during the day couldn’t perceive the entire campus being in an abnormal state.”

Lin Juan didn’t explain further. The four were smart; they got it as soon as he pointed it out.

“So what Lin means is, the normal sun we see is actually because our perception has been deceived?”

“Correct.”

With confirmation, Shi Haochen’s face flushed slightly. Hiding his excitement, he continued with his guess. “Lin wants to use the moon to re-enter the daytime campus?”

“Mm.” Lin Juan nodded.

Now that they knew what to do next, there was no need to stay in the dorm any longer. They headed downstairs together.

Perhaps sensing that its secret had been discovered, the path out became much harder than the way in.

Monsters emerged one after another from behind dorm room doors, lunging at them ferociously as if determined to keep them there forever.

These were fiercer than the ones they’d encountered before.

Lin Juan had to protect the four students, so his movements had to be fast enough.

The class monitor only saw the monster open its mouth agape with fangs, a stench assaulting her nose. Before she could react, Lin Juan flashed in front of her and kicked the mountain-like monster away.

In no time at all, the monsters were either smashed into walls or embedded in the ground. Lin Juan was too powerful—powerful enough to instill fear in these mindless charging beasts, making them shrink back and hesitate.

They only dared to watch from a distance.

Shi Haochen and the others slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

They couldn’t help much. The only thing they could do was not hold him back.

The four stood back-to-back behind Lin Juan, staying vigilant and watching their surroundings to prevent any surprise attacks from monsters.

The monsters had been beaten into submission. The next stretch of road went smoothly.

“The dorm gate is closed?!” The class monitor cried out in shock.

Shi Haochen stepped forward and pushed the door. His face turned ugly. “The door’s locked.”

The entire dorm in the nighttime school was dilapidated, with most doors being half-broken wooden ones. But blocking them now was a metal door gleaming with silver light.

Shi Haochen had tried—it was extremely sturdy. Even with all his strength, the door didn’t budge.

“Zhou Ping, come help me. See if we can ram it open.”

Zhou Ping and Zhu Zhihui, who’d been itching to show off after watching Lin Juan beat the monsters, ran up without a word. The three pushed together, but the door still didn’t move.

“This door’s weird too—no lock or anything.” Zhou Ping rubbed his sore shoulder from the impact and searched around the door.

“No going out at night.”

The sudden raspy voice startled Zhou Ping and the others. “Who?!”

Lin Juan had a vague sense and looked toward the left.

That was the Dorm Supervisor’s Duty Room.

“Creeeak—”

The sound of a door opening, followed by heavy footsteps mixed with the clanging of an iron rod, approached them gradually.

A monster as tall as a small mountain, dressed in a dorm supervisor’s uniform, walked toward them holding an iron rod.

“Whoa, how is there still one?!”

Zhou Ping and the other two hurriedly darted behind Lin Juan.

Lin Juan stared at the monster. This one had subtle differences from the ones they’d met in the dorm earlier—bigger build, thicker limbs, head vaguely outlining a human skull. The only standout feature was the pair of eyes bulging high on its head.

Those eyes rotated three hundred sixty degrees and, in the dim light, emitted a clear green glow.

Green Eyes again.

“Students who don’t follow the rules must be punished.” The dorm supervisor monster grinned, its voice full of malice.

It eyed Lin Juan and the others like a plate of delicious food delivered right to its door.

Shi Haochen and the rest felt their scalps tingle. Relying on Lin Juan’s presence, they glared back defiantly.

What? Just ’cause your eyes are big?

Not expecting this food to have such guts, the dorm supervisor monster paused. Then its mouth cracked open wider. “I like students with personality. They’re the easiest to mess up, and once they do, I can punish them however I want.”

Behind Lin Juan and the group was a horde of small monsters. Ahead was the sturdy gate. The dorm supervisor monster blocked their only escape route, drool practically forming.

“Heh.” Lin Juan sneered. “I’d like to see just how you’ll punish us.”

With that, Lin Juan leaped up, bringing down a leg like thunder from above.

The dorm supervisor monster instinctively crossed its arms over its head.

But how could it block Lin Juan’s strength?

With a boom, the ground shook into a massive crater. The monster sank deep into it without even a scream, passing out cold.

Lin Juan used the momentum to jump aside and looked down at the unknown fate of the dorm supervisor monster. “Thought you were something special.”

His tone full of disdain, like “that’s it?”

Zhou Ping cautiously tugged Lin Juan’s clothes. “Lin, isn’t this pulling aggro a bit too much?”

“It’s fine.” Lin Juan lowered his voice. “I did it on purpose for that thing to see. It’s hiding in the sky, and I can’t easily get up there.”

If only he had a pair of wings.

Shi Haochen walked over and looked down at the dorm supervisor monster stuck in the floor. His tone was shocked. “Lin, you’re way too strong.”

Such a huge monster, taken down with one leg, no chance to fight back.

With Lin Juan making a move, no door was too sturdy.

He kicked it open directly, leading the four out of the dorm.

Outside, the Green Moon hung high overhead, seeming a bit larger than before.

“Too high up.” The class monitor looked up. “What the heck is this thing?”

“Hit it down, and we’ll know.”

As soon as Lin Juan finished speaking, the scenery before them abruptly changed. A blazing sun hung high, the sudden glare forcing them to close their eyes.

When they opened them again, what met their eyes was the all-too-familiar campus.

The daytime campus.