After the Evil God Pretends to Be a Player [Infinite] - Chapter 9

Inside the empty art studio, the masks that had been hanging from the ceiling were gone. A few easels were scattered across the floor, surrounded by half-finished drawings and several sheets of paper that had been violently crumpled into balls.

Creeeak—

The door to the art studio was pushed open.

A frail young girl, head bowed, was shoved into the room by several others.

Lalae was about to hide behind the curtains when she realized that the people entering acted as if she weren’t there at all. She instantly understood that this was a scene from the past that had occurred in this very studio.

However, she didn’t know how long ago it had been.

The people pushing the girl were two boys and two girls, all wearing the uniforms of Pretty Middle School.

The frail girl was weeping. “It wasn’t my fault… why are you doing this to me… I didn’t do it on purpose…”

A slap to her face cut her words short.

The leading girl shouted in a loud voice, “Not your fault? Then why was it you? Speak! Why was it you, of all people, who spread such rumors and brought shame to the school!”

The frail girl continued to cry, repeating over and over: “I didn’t do anything… I really didn’t do anything… I really, really didn’t do anything…”

She was answered by a relentless barrage of kicks and punches from the four students.

Finally, she choked out, “I’m sorry… it’s my fault… I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have damaged the school’s reputation… it’s all my fault… please… can you please let me go…”

The leading girl stopped her movements. The frail girl thought she was saved, a glimmer of hope appearing in her eyes. But in the next second, she heard the leader ask in a slow, deliberate tone, “Then where exactly do you think you went wrong?”

“I…” The frail girl’s voice faltered. “My mistake was…” she said in a low whisper, “my mistake was that I shouldn’t have been born looking like this.”

The leading girl said with satisfaction, “As long as you know.”

In the next moment, she cast a glance at the boy helping her. To the frail girl’s horror, the boy pulled out a fruit knife, the silver blade reflecting her pale face.

“Since you believe your mistake lies in looking like this, then I shall personally remove the root of your trouble. Shouldn’t you be grateful? Who are you putting on this pitiful act for? I’m not like those men who are infatuated with you.”

Having said that, the leading girl took the sharp knife and prepared to slash the girl’s face! Her accomplices pinned the frail girl’s limbs down firmly to ensure she couldn’t struggle.

Just as the tip of the blade was about to pierce the girl’s porcelain-white face—the door to the art studio was thrown open once again.

An angry male voice rang out: “What are you doing?”

The newcomer flipped the switch on the wall, and the art studio was instantly flooded with bright light.

“Cui Jin, what are you doing? Do you still remember your status and responsibilities as the Vice President of the Student Council?”

Earlier, the sky outside had darkened, and many details were blurred in the evening haze. Now that the lights were on, Lalae noticed that all four students had Student Council badges pinned to their sleeves.

The knife in the leading girl’s hand hit the floor with a clatter. She waved her hands frantically, trying to explain, “President, I was just…”

“Enough!” the Student Council President interrupted her. When he spoke again, his tone was even more severe: “No matter how you explain it, I will report your actions truthfully to the School Management Committee. You can explain yourselves to them!”

Unable to argue, the four left dejectedly. The door opened and closed again, leaving only the Student Council President and the frail girl in the room.

The Student Council President was tall with handsome features. He pulled out a tissue and gently wiped away the tears from the eyes of the bullied girl. Standing together, they looked like a match made in heaven. The girl, who had kept her head down the entire time, finally looked up and whispered a “thank you” to the senior who had saved her.

Hidden in the shadows, Lalae’s pupils constricted.

This would have been a perfectly ordinary scene, if not for the fact that she had just seen the girl’s face it was identical to the very first mask displayed at the end of the second floor in the School History Museum!

The world before her eyes turned pitch black once more.

When Lalae opened her eyes again, she was back in the familiar art studio with her teammates.

The expressions on Meng Luo, the female streamer, and Wang Kai were clearly unsettled. The punk (Shamate) and Zhou Wen looked completely oblivious, while Li Zhu showed no outward sign of abnormality.

Meng Luo spoke tentatively, “Did you all just see…”

The punk looked bewildered. “See what?”

The few who had passed the Inspiration check helplessly recounted the scene they had witnessed to the others.

Wang Kai hesitated. “But what does it mean? Is this the reason for the strange occurrences at this school? But that group didn’t actually cut her face, and she was saved… everything should have been fine after that, right?”

Lalae said coldly, “If she had been fine, her face wouldn’t be in the School History Museum.”

The female streamer questioned, “But that was just a mask…”

A second later, she realized what Lalae was implying. “Wait, you don’t mean…” She looked up at the masks hanging in order like wind chimes from the ceiling and said blankly, “But if the masks are actual human faces…”

She looked at the pile of blank masks on the desk and finally connected the dots to the most terrifying possibility. She said in a state of collapse, “Then if the Keeper makes us make masks, what will we turn into?”

No one knew the true consequences of making the masks, but everyone knew that the result of defying the Keeper would be far worse. Thus, after a period of psychological struggle, everyone took a blank mask. The only comfort was that the blank masks felt no different from ordinary paper they didn’t have the texture of human skin.

Li Zhu twirled his paintbrush listlessly. After a while, he drew a square outline on his mask. As details were filled in bit by bit, the square sketch became clear—it was a hundred-sided die (d100).

Although a hundred faces could not be fully represented on such a small mask, the drawing was extremely vivid, looking exactly like the dice they threw during their tabletop sessions.

Li Zhu put down his pen and looked around. Most people were hesitating to start, but Lalae had her head lowered, drawing something with a serious expression. From his angle, her eyelashes were long and elegant, obscuring the look in her eyes. Her face was uncharacteristically less cold, possessing a rare touch of softness.

As if sensing his gaze, Lalae looked up at him. In that instant, her expression reverted to its cold state, like a hedgehog bristling its quills upon encountering an enemy.

Li Zhu recalled what had happened on the second floor of the School History Museum when they entered the final cubicle. Aside from the Keeper, no one knew that at the exact second Lalae lowered her voice, he had rolled a Listen check.

[Listen] Check/Result: 70/14  Success

“No, if you temporarily submit to Him, He won’t make things difficult for you.” “Why?” “Because in this game, what They want is not your life, but your faith.”

Li Zhu withdrew his gaze and flipped the mask on his desk over and over. When his movements reached a certain speed, it looked as if he were toggling a die.

He stared at that “die” and thought to himself: What kind of secret does this game hold? And you who exactly are you, and what are you hiding?