After the Evil God Pretends to Be a Player [Infinite] - Chapter 19

Li Zhu suddenly spoke up, “February 14th? Isn’t that Valentine’s Day?”

Lale asked in confusion, “Valentine’s Day?”

“How can you not even know that?” Li Zhu asked.

Lale replied calmly, “I have never celebrated it.”

However, she could roughly deduce the meaning of the holiday from its name. She countered, “Why? Have you?”

Li Zhu smiled and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I haven’t either. It’s just that every year at this time, my Moments feed is flooded with posts, and shopping platforms are covered in overwhelming advertisements.”

Lale didn’t ask what “Moments” or “shopping platforms” were. She thought for a moment and said, “Valentine’s Day… that was the day Yingzi’s mask was born.”

A bizarre theory suddenly leaped into her mind. She abruptly looked at Li Zhu and asked, “Where is Yingzi now?”

Ever since Yingzi left their sight, they were no longer automatically tethered to her location. The last time they saw her, she was being comforted by the Senior as they walked away.

The ominous premonition in Lale’s heart grew stronger. When she and Li Zhu stepped out of the student dormitory, this feeling reached its peak.

She saw that everything before her eyes seemed to have been placed on fast-forward:

It was night when they entered the dormitory, but now the sky was blindingly bright. In just a few seconds, students moved from classrooms to the cafeteria, and ten seconds later, the sky turned dark as the students bustled back to their dorms.

One minute it was a sweltering summer day; the next, lush green leaves turned withered and yellow, fluttering down around their feet.

At that moment, a slip of paper drifted lightly out of Lale’s sleeve.

Lale lowered her eyes and bent down to catch it before the autumn wind could sweep it away.

The handwriting on the slip was very familiar it was the same script they had seen in the diary just fifteen minutes ago. The person who wrote these words seemed to be in a great hurry, as the pencil marks were exceptionally frantic:

The laboratory… go to the laboratory quickly.

Fifteen minutes ago, under the pressure exerted by Lale, Yingzi’s roommate had repeatedly insisted she acted alone. Yet, just as Lale and the others were about to leave, she had left behind such a note…

It was like a struggle and a compromise between her reason and her conscience.

Lale was about to turn and leave when she saw Li Zhu putting on a school uniform jacket. The jacket looked a bit small on him, wrapped tight around his frame; when he zipped it up, a hint of his abdominal muscles even protruded slightly.

Lale asked suspiciously, “Where did you get that?”

“I snatched it from the wardrobe just before we left,” Li Zhu replied. He lifted a plastic bag he was still holding in his other hand and explained, “It’s brand new.”

Lale stopped in her tracks and asked, somewhat incredulously, “Why would you take clothes from someone else’s wardrobe?”

Li Zhu looked even more innocent than her. “Isn’t it because you frown the moment you see me without a shirt? I had no choice but to find one quickly, otherwise, you wouldn’t even dare look at me.”

Lale thought expressionlessly:

Very good. I feel I have successfully confirmed his identity.

If this person were a disguise by Him, she would currently be driving a tractor to plow over His ancestral grave for having such a “pitted” brain.

Fortunately, Pretty High School was merely a middle-and-high school and did not have an independent laboratory building. Otherwise, finding the specific laboratory mentioned in the note by searching room by room would have been quite difficult.

The laboratory was right next to the computer room. On the way there, Li Zhu had already explained its purpose to Lale:

“It’s the place where they have chemistry and biology classes.”

By the time they reached the laboratory, the seasons had shifted from autumn to winter and then back to spring.

The moment they stood before the laboratory door, the flow of time returned to normal, as if the torrential rush of the river of time had been solely for the purpose of reaching this exact moment.

Li Zhu glanced at his game panel and nodded toward Lale. The time displayed was February 14, 2000.

It was the beginning and the origin of all events.

Li Zhu reached out to push the door, but to his surprise, it wouldn’t open. Just as he was about to practice his proud lock-picking skills again, he saw Lale point to the keypad on the wall.

Ah, so it was a code lock. This school was actually quite high-end.

[Computer Use] Check/Result: 60/36 – Success

Li Zhu’s skill once again did not fail him. He cracked the lock in a few moves and pushed open the laboratory’s steel door.

However, the laboratory was not empty.

Normally, a high school laboratory should look like a regular classroom, but here, the ordinary tables, chairs, and equipment had all been pushed aside. In their place stood a white bed.

In the center of the bed lay a girl. Her hands were folded over her abdomen, her eyes were tightly closed, and her expression was remarkably serene. She held a large bouquet of fiery red roses in her arms, and the soft petals were scattered all over the bed and the floor beside it.

It was Yingzi.

Lale stepped forward and surveyed the surroundings.

[Spot Hidden] Check/Result: 70/94 – Failure

Lale expressionlessly shot Li Zhu a look.

Li Zhu: “…”

[Spot Hidden] Check/Result: 60/76 – Failure

Lale: “…”

Li Zhu felt that the gaze Lale leveled at him was filled with the words: “What use are you?”

Just as they were about to find another way, a faint sound of footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.

When they entered earlier, they hadn’t expected anyone to be inside, nor had they expected anyone to come from outside, so they hadn’t considered closing the door at all!

As a result, as soon as the person outside entered, they would find that the code lock had been opened. Even if the newcomer couldn’t see them, it could cause unnecessary trouble.

As the footsteps in the corridor grew closer, they suddenly heard a female voice: “Senior.”

The footsteps stopped abruptly.

Li Zhu and Lale tiptoed behind the laboratory door. They saw two people talking about three meters away.

One person only showed his back, but Lale could tell he was the Senior who had “saved” Yingzi.

The other person… though her hair had changed from loose to tied up, Lale could still recognize her from that overbearing profile. She was the Student Council Vice President who had led the bullying of Yingzi in the art room.

Lale vaguely remembered her name was Cui Jin.

However, at this very moment, her overbearing demeanor had vanished completely. She appeared exceptionally cautious—and if Lale wasn’t mistaken, she seemed to be trembling slightly.

She handed an object to the Student Council President and said softly, “This is what you asked for.”

The Student Council President took the item but asked, “You seem to be afraid of me.”

Cui Jin trembled even more violently, but she forced a painful-looking smile. “No… You’ve planned this so meticulously for so long… No, no, I mean, she has a face like that, she deserves this. I meant to say, this is her honor…”

The Student Council President let out a low chuckle. “No, it’s not because of her face.”

Cui Jin’s eyes widened in shock.

“For an offering used in a sacrifice, the Ba-Zi (birth date and time) is what matters most. As for her extraordinary beauty, that is merely a small personal hobby of mine.”

Lale silently closed the code-locked door and stood by the curtains with Li Zhu.

Soon, the door was opened again, and the Student Council President walked in alone.

The expression on his face was extremely relaxed, and his steps were light. He walked several paces to the side of the reclining Yingzi, leaned down to watch her for a while, and a look of unsettling pity appeared in his eyes. “You seem to really like roses this red.”

Having said that, he took the bouquet from her hands, set it aside, and gently placed a hand on Yingzi’s smooth face. He traced her features meticulously—from her brow bone to the bridge of her nose, from her cheek to her lips.

He muttered to himself, “To awaken that deity, the sacrifice must fulfill three conditions.”

“First: a girl with the correct Ba-Zi. Second: she must love the person sacrificing her with all her heart, without a shred of doubt or hesitation. Third”

Previously, due to the angle, Lale and Li Zhu couldn’t see exactly what Cui Jin had handed him. It was only now, as the Student Council President placed it on the table, that it was finally revealed.

It was a dagger, entirely deep blue in color.

Its scabbard and hilt were exquisitely crafted, carved with countless winding, serpentine patterns that resembled pairs of elegant, blurred eyes.

As the Student Council President unsheathed it, Li Zhu was surprised to find that even the blade shimmered with a strange sea-blue hue beautiful yet evil.

The Student Council President continued, “Third: her face must be completely flayed using a special dagger.”

Li Zhu turned to say something to Lale, but he saw her eyes fixed dead on the dagger; she had almost stopped breathing.

He called her name several times before waking her from her trance.

Li Zhu asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Before Lale could answer, they saw the Student Council President prepare to use the dagger to cut Yingzi’s face!

However, there was no way for them to stop this. The NPCs here could not see them, and they could not exert any substantial influence on the direction of events; they could only let the tragic past repeat itself…

Just as Li Zhu was thinking this, he saw Lale reach out her hand.

As if an attractive force existed in the air, the dagger flew straight toward her the moment she extended her hand!

Seconds later, the dagger landed perfectly in Lale’s palm.

The Student Council President was still frozen in shock. He looked toward the direction the dagger had flown, but he couldn’t understand how it could have vanished into an empty corner. After some mental preparation, he took a step toward that spot, intending to retrieve the dagger.

Only to feel a chill at his throat. Looking down, he saw the dagger pressed right against his collarbone.

A beautiful woman had appeared out of thin air. Her long, tea-colored hair reached her waist, and every inch of her skin and features was exquisitely refined, as if meticulously carved by the Creator. She looked at him with an indifferent expression, as if he were a piece of dead matter.

She spoke: “This dagger… where did you get it?”