Depressed Chapter 12

At school, on the rooftop of the teaching building, the cold wind howled.

That person in black stood at the edge of the rooftop. Beside him was a chair, and Shen Lian was tied to it, unable to break free.

Yet Shen Lian smiled.

“Hello, Teacher,” he greeted politely.

The math teacher smiled as well. “No one is coming to save you.”

“That’s right, even if I scream myself hoarse, no one will come to save me.”

The wind pressed in, biting cold.

“Teacher, am I about to die?”

“Yes, good child, you are about to die.”

“Then could you tell me why you chose us?”

“382, 27, 117, 86, 5… Your student number is 5, isn’t it?”

“Sorry, Teacher, I can’t see any connection between these numbers.”

“Page 58 of the math workbook.”

“Hm?”

“It’s obvious you never paid attention in class. There’s a random number table on page 58.”

The wind grew colder still.

Shen Lian admired his teacher. After all, he once again found himself in a situation with so many flaws that he didn’t know where to begin complaining.

“In the past, when the police investigated a case, they’d try to deduce the killer’s motive. But what if the killer had no motive and just killed at random? Like a homeless person by the roadside—if one dies, no one even notices, right? As it turns out, the police really are useless.”

“What about the surveillance cameras?”

“Of course I hacked them.”

Shen Lian agreed with the math teacher’s assessment—at least in this matter, the police really were useless.

The math teacher observed Shen Lian’s expression and found him calm, even comfortable.

“Do you know what it will be like when you fall from here?”

“Of course I do. Splat—” Shen Lian made an exaggerated sound effect. If he hadn’t been tied up, he probably would have gestured with his hands as well.

“‘Splat’—if I land on my head, I’ll die instantly. If not, even if my organs are injured, I’ll still go through two or three minutes of pain.”

“Good child, aren’t you afraid?”

Shen Lian lazily lifted his eyelids. “Death is the way home.”

He paused, then added, “I’m going to hell to kiss Satan’s forehead.”

“I jump, you jump.” He even had the leisure to cosplay that tragic ship from Titanic.

The cold wind cut like knives across his face, stinging sharply.

“If you’re not afraid, I can’t get excited. You’re not a proper lamb.”

“I never thought of myself as a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.”

“You are now.”

“Dear child, are you ready to fall into Death’s embrace?”

Shen Lian wasn’t ready.

Because the executioner fell into Death’s embrace before he did.

A bullet pierced the teacher’s temple, and then he fell from the rooftop.

Shen Lian sighed, a little regretfully, and saw the doctor holding a poetry collection in one hand and a gun in the other.

The doctor recited a stanza:

“Just then, a plank in reason broke
and hit a world at every plunge
and finished knowing then.”

[Lost all support, reason began to collapse.
I fell from a great height,
plunging into world after world,
and finally, I saw clearly.]

The killer’s death plan was interrupted, just like a few days earlier when Shen Lian was late and a single “Reporting in” interrupted the math teacher’s hand as he drew a circle.

It should have been a perfect circle.

Shen Lian looked at Zheng Qing and asked, “Emily Dickinson?”

Zheng Qing smiled. “Emily Dickinson.”

Footprints, trampling, ritual, pounding, everyone taking their seats, heavy footsteps, coffin… all of these could be matched to a poem by the female poet.

“How did you find this place?”

“The fourth body was found. You should have been the fifth. The last stanza of the poem is about falling, and this is the highest place in the school.”

“How did you know I was tied up?”

“You said that if I called and couldn’t get through, it meant you had heroically sacrificed yourself for the cause of the Lord God.”

“Doctor, I was joking.” Shen Lian was helpless.

“Better safe than sorry. I don’t want to build a monument for someone I barely know.”

As Zheng Qing answered, he untied Shen Lian and draped a coat over his shoulders.

“Doctor, I’m not a lady, and I don’t want to wear a stranger’s coat.”

Zheng Qing adjusted his glasses. “You just looked so pitiful, tied up like that.”

“A great favor needs no thanks, but thank you anyway.”

Zheng Qing couldn’t help but laugh.

The two of them walked side by side in the moonlight.

As for the body at the foot of the teaching building—who cared?

“Beep—Random Task One completed.”

“Beep—System has generated a new program. Random Task Two initiated. If the task is not completed, the system will deem the player dead.”

“Beep—Random Task Two instance: More Dangerous Than the River—”

“Beep—Random Task Two: Kill everyone you want to kill—”