"...Restarted."
Li Mo felt his neck with both hands, then followed it up to his head.
"Head's still on."
"This is... the academy entrance."
Li Mo quickly calmed down, even though he had already guessed the bloody scene that had just transpired.
Time waited for no one; he had to deal with the Anomaly here as soon as possible. Staying here would only lead to more deaths and encountering more dangers.
"So this Anomaly is attached to Kiana. Otherwise, Kiana wouldn't act in ways so inconsistent with a normal person."
"The main gate is fine, but after entering the school's main gate, I'll be forcibly decapitated, completely unable to resist."
"There's definitely something wrong with the broadcast voice. The thermometer showed a reading right after the voice finished speaking. And I wasn't killed immediately after it finished, meaning it's not related to the Anomaly-possessed Kiana; she only appears after I'm dead. So there are two possibilities—"
"One, there are people in the broadcast room, but the person speaking is problematic. A ghost has already mixed into the crowd. This is the worst-case scenario. I currently can't convince others to help me kill that ghostly thing mixed in the crowd."
"Two, there's no one in the broadcast room, and the broadcast itself is problematic. Piercing my eardrums would solve it perfectly. I can just ask Mei to heal me afterward."
"No... there's a third possibility. Both the broadcast and the person speaking through the broadcast are problematic!"
From a single death, Li Mo rapidly analyzed all plausible possibilities.
He looked up at the deathly silent school. The answer had to be inside.
If he wanted to resolve this, he had to enter the teaching building within St. Freya Academy.
Li Mo had already figured out how to deal with the main gate issue, but he had to confirm which of the three situations it was, or his subsequent judgments would be flawed.
"Now it's your turn to be useful."
Although Li Mo was reluctant to use the notebook, it never told you the correct answer for a one-life clear.
Even if it gave an answer that was guaranteed to succeed, if Li Mo completely trusted the notebook and did as it said, he would only die many times over.
Undoubtedly, after dying too many times, Li Mo would be consumed by the Anomaly and completely lose himself.
[...]
"Don't want to say it, huh?"
"I know you can understand human language and logic. Listen up, if you continue to play dead, I don't mind leaving here immediately and ordering a custom-made, high-density, Honkai energy-reinforced sealed box that can withstand immense pressure. The dimensions will be just right to press against you so you can't move an inch."
"Then I'll lock you inside and sink you into the sea."
"After all, you're no Titanic, and no rich person would be willing to spend money to sightsee in such a dangerous place."
"You can only sink into darkness forever, continuing to plot your inevitably unrealizable schemes in endless solitude."
"If you're scared, give me an answer now. I don't mind how many traps you set in it, but I want to see one accurate answer. Otherwise, there's no point in keeping you."
Li Mo made a harsh threat, and as he spoke, he turned and walked towards the outside, as if he really intended to leave.
Perhaps Li Mo's words frightened the notebook. Wavy text gradually appeared on its surface—
[My name is Li Mo. When you read this sentence, I am dying and will soon be reborn.]
"No need to repeat that. You start with that every time. Don't waste time."
[I am now preparing to enter the teaching building, but before entering, I need to determine the exact nature of this dangerous broadcast.]
[Currently, I have three speculations. One, a ghost has mixed into the crowd in the broadcast room, and the ghost is speaking on the broadcast to attract other horrors to kill me.]
[Two, there is no one in the broadcast room; the broadcast itself is a ghost.]
[The third situation is the most serious: the broadcast is a ghost, and a ghost has also mixed into the crowd in the broadcast room.]
[Before I determine which situation it is, entering the school is a dead end, because I absolutely cannot fight a ghost.]
"..." Li Mo coughed guiltily twice. "My brain is enough. Worst case, I'll call my 'Big Waifu' over to beat these guys up." [Calling a character "大老婆" (dà lǎopó) literally means "big wife" or "first wife" and is a common affectionate term in Chinese fan communities for a favorite female character, similar to how "waifu" is used in English-speaking ones.]
[And currently, I have two methods in mind. One is to leave temporarily and ask for Elysia's help. With Elysia's "characteristics," I can easily deal with the ghosts in the school, but this means I cannot completely eradicate the Anomaly in this world. It's a choice made out of helplessness.]
[The second method, and the one I'm most unwilling to use, is to try and get the answer from this bizarre notebook.]
[The answer given by the notebook is: The first situation. A ghost has mixed into the crowd in the broadcast room, and that ghost is using the broadcast to attract horrors in an attempt to kill me.]
Li Mo quickly closed the notebook, sighing in relief.
"Good, it's not the third situation. Although it's not easy to solve, at least there's still a chance."
Li Mo didn't linger and immediately rushed to the school's surrounding wall.
"Can't use the main gate, so I'll just climb the wall."
Li Mo jumped from a standstill and then smoothly…
…fell to the ground.
"Tsk… Forgot I've only died once in this world. My body isn't as strong as when I died twice last time."
Li Mo rubbed his butt, recalling the physical strength he had when he died twice during his last mission.
Each time he finished a task and returned to his original world, the accumulated deaths were cleared.
Dying once allowed him to reach peak human levels: sprinting a hundred meters in just over nine seconds, easily achieving world-class levels in high jump and long jump.
Dying twice was no longer human level. In a sense…
Li Mo felt that his twice-dead self was closer to some kind of Anomaly. As long as it wasn't a fatal wound, it would heal in an instant. Even if his head was split open, as long as his consciousness hadn't registered death, he could recover quickly.
He could smash a large truck with one punch and sprint through a hail of bullets without issue.
Dying three times brought his combat power to a level similar to an ordinary Herrscher. No special skills, just a punch that carried a power similar to the Herrscher of Binding, causing the target's power to be suppressed for a while. Plus, an instantly regenerating physique as long as he wasn't dead.
As for more deaths… Li Mo didn't dare to try anymore. The more he died, the faster he lost himself.
What if one day he couldn't hold on…
"Phew! Don't overthink it… Those lazy gluttons at home are still waiting for me to go back and cook."
Li Mo shook his head vigorously to force himself to stay clear-headed. Good, his head didn't fly off.
Climbing over in one go was definitely unrealistic. He needed a running start.
For Li Mo, who currently possessed peak human physical capabilities, stamina was the least of his worries.
With a running start, he smoothly made it inside the school. The teaching building was ten meters ahead, and directly above was the broadcasting speaker.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but the speaker seemed to stiffly turn its "head" towards Li Mo, making a "zzzz" scraping sound as it rotated. The dark black speaker was like an eye peeking from the darkness.
"No mistake. It's indeed the act of 'entering the door' that's problematic."
Li Mo bit his index finger. This was a human habit; though not everyone had it, ghosts certainly didn't.
After all, most ghosts were beings that merely acted according to rules. Compared to humans with their versatile thinking, they were more like strictly running program code, unless they were special ghosts possessing human consciousness.
"First, go to the broadcast room and find that ghost. Otherwise, it will definitely interfere when dealing with the Anomaly later."
Li Mo confirmed his thoughts, walked to the school's navigation map, and found the location of the broadcast room.
It was in the deepest room on the second floor.
While going upstairs, Li Mo carefully observed his surroundings.
There wasn't a single corpse around, but he could smell a strong odor of rotting flesh.
No bloodstains. It was so clean it was unsettling.
This was a school; even with daily cleaning, it couldn't possibly be this spotless.
And this current situation implied that there had been no human activity here for a long time.
Soon, Li Mo reached the second floor. Looking around, the corridor was a sea of crimson.
"Ugh… This really is… nauseating." Li Mo covered his mouth, the scene before him causing him five degrees of physiological discomfort.
If not for his long experience dealing with Anomalies, seeing the mountain of corpses before him—maggots squirming on decaying skin, insects having devoured the bodies until only pale white bones remained, stained with indistinct blood clots—would have been too much.
"The heads and bodies are separated. The corpses are gathered at the doorways."
"It seems the supernatural phenomenon isn't just at the academy's entrance, but… all doors. Once you open a door and go in, you're instantly decapitated."
"No wonder there are no corpses on the stairs. The stench of death comes from the corridor. Students were in class, died when they opened the doors, so naturally, they couldn't reach the stairs, nor could they escape the Anomaly-occupied St. Freya."
Li Mo looked to both sides of a door. The classrooms had windows, and they had been left open.
Walking over, he found the classroom empty, not even a corpse.
"So, opening a door means certain death, but escaping through a window is fine. The stairs are also fine. Otherwise, there would definitely be corpses in the classrooms and on the stairs."
"Continue forward."
Li Mo stepped on the crimson bones and corpses, walking towards the depths of the corridor. He paused briefly at every classroom he passed.
"Not everyone has the courage to escape."
"There aren't many school bags in the classrooms. The survivors probably took them."
Li Mo's voice was cold, betraying no sympathy.
Death not only strengthened him but also gradually extinguished his emotions.
Soon, Li Mo reached the broadcast room, but there were no windows here.
Li Mo approached the main door but didn't choose to open it. Opening a door meant certain death; he wouldn't be foolish enough to think this door was different…
But he could faintly hear the clamor of many voices from inside, roughly estimating more than ten people.
The academy's broadcast room was usually empty, as everyone would be in class.
Yet, even without windows, this group of people had managed to enter the broadcast room unscathed.
This could only mean one thing.
"Ghosts cannot be killed."
"So the first one to open the door and enter wasn't a person, but a ghost."
Li Mo decisively came to a conclusion.
The ghost lured the survivors into the broadcast room, but… why?
What was the purpose of doing so?
Wait…
Li Mo suddenly realized something. With no windows as an emergency escape route, the only one who could leave the broadcast room was the ghost itself.
Once a living person entered the broadcast room, they could never leave alive, because opening the door to enter or exit meant certain death.
And staying in the broadcast room would lead to various difficulties, such as food, water, emotional breakdowns, violence, and many other problems.
In other words: this was a room where the living must die.
No escape. Escape meant death.