The Red-robed BOSS Says I Killed Him - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

In the end, I left the Dean’s Office.

It wasn’t because I didn’t want to stay.

It was because after Li Shuheng stuffed the access card into my pocket, he said, “You can’t exactly move in with me on your first day.”

I nearly choked on my own spit.

“Who said anything about moving in with you?”

“Then why is your face so red?”

“It’s not.”

“It is.”

He looked at me, a faint trace of a smile lingering at the corners of his eyes.

“Just like before.”

I was so stifled by his words that I couldn’t find a single comeback.

The moment the door opened, the people outside scrambled backward in unison.

The man with the crew cut was the first to rush forward.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m Jiang Yichuan.”

“What did he do to you?”

I remained silent for two seconds.

“He peeled grapes for me.”

The entire floor fell into a heavy silence.

Jiang Yichuan’s expression was so twisted it looked like he’d seen a ghost.

The short-haired girl beside him was the first to snap out of it.

“I’m Ji Qingyan.”

“Forget the grapes for a second. The real point is, how are you still alive?”

Another man wearing glasses spoke up slowly.

“And carrying the Dean’s authorization card, no less.”

His gaze fell on the black card peeking out from the edge of my pocket, a polite, refined smile playing on his lips.

“Lin Xizhe.”

“Pleasure to meet you.”

Instinctively, I didn’t like him.

That dislike came without any rhyme or reason.

It was as if my body had made a judgment before my brain could even process it.

Even stranger was his posture; he stood very loosely, yet his eyes looked as if they were examining a specimen.

He wasn’t looking at a living person.

He was looking at an experimental result that had finally shown a reaction.

“Can you tell us now?” Jiang Yichuan stared at me. “Why didn’t he kill you?”

“He said he knows me.”

“And you believe that?”

“I don’t know.”

Jiang Yichuan frowned, looking like he wanted to press further.

However, Ji Qingyan stopped him.

“Let’s head downstairs first. Room inspections are starting soon.”

On the way, they gave me a rough breakdown of the Instance rules.

During the day, we follow the patient protocol. At night, there are room inspections every three hours.

A new ID number appears on the roster each time. Whoever encounters it dies.

And that number is 0719.

Only then did I fully understand the situation.

They were Players just like me, caught by the System for this round.

The only difference was that they had arrived a few hours earlier than I had, and half of them were already dead.

I was the last newcomer to be thrown into this batch.

Hearing that string of digits, the black card in my pocket seemed to turn searing hot.

“Why do you look so pale?” Ji Qingyan asked.

I shook my head.

“It’s nothing.”

“Who is 0719?”

Jiang Yichuan glanced at me, his voice kept very low.

“There’s no name on the medical records.”

“Only a single sentence.”

“‘Extremely high-risk Emotional Core. Contact prohibited.'”

My heart skipped a violent beat.

“Emotional Core?”

Lin Xizhe chimed in, “It’s a term for the core of an Instance.”

“In other words, 0719 might be the Red-robed Judge.”

“Which means he was likely a human once.”

“Before he was turned into the very Core of this Instance.”

Ji Qingyan immediately looked at me.

“Then why did he give you that card? What is he trying to do?”

Subconsciously, I recalled what Li Shuheng had said back then.

*To make it easier for you to come in and kill me whenever you want.*

I didn’t say those words out loud.

I simply whispered, “I don’t know.”

“But the way he looked at me… it didn’t seem like it was the first time we’d met.”

“What did it look like?” Jiang Yichuan asked.

I paused for two seconds.

“Like he hates me.”

“And like he’s been waiting for me.”