She Was Sentenced to Life Imprisonment [Unlimited] - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Everything Returned to the Beginning

Perhaps it was all a dream

As dawn broke and the warm sun cast a golden light, we didn’t know if it was a new day or a repetition of the previous one.

Thick curtains blocked out the sunlight, as well as the noise from outside. The dark room was suffocating and silent. The methodical ticking of the clock inspired a sense of inexplicable dread.

The girl on the bed had her eyes tightly shut. Her long eyelashes trembled, and her furrowed brow showed that this was no pleasant dream. She mumbled something, sounding like she was crying, like a broken doll—so helpless and pitiful.

She suddenly opened her eyes to the dim room. She was breathing heavily, her gaze vacant, as if a nightmare still had her in its grip. The dampness in the corners of her eyes told her that she had been crying again.

She pushed herself up on her elbow, slowly sat up, and, after calming herself, she habitually reached for a glass of water on her nightstand. It was cool. She took a sip, and the cold liquid gliding down her throat made her feel much more awake. She frowned slightly again, her downcast eyes hiding an unreadable emotion. She gripped the cup tightly, her voice a little hoarse as she mumbled to herself.

“Has it finally started again…”

A new cycle had begun for her once more. She stepped onto the floor with bare feet and felt the coldness, which made her realize with a jolt that she was back to the moment before her suicide.

She pulled back the thick curtains, and sunlight instantly filled the room. The blinding light forced her to close her eyes for a moment before they gradually adjusted. The moment she opened them, she was met with a sunny, blossoming day—all of which felt incredibly ironic to her.

Is this a dream? she wondered. Ever since she had been saved from her suicide by that person, she found it impossible to tell the difference between reality and dreams. She was like a puppet on a string, following a fixed path. Each cycle, she would go to the top of that academic building to serve as a guide for others. And those people would repeat the same lines, bullying her over and over again.

The sun felt warm, but she drew the curtains shut again, and the room plunged back into darkness. She closed her eyes, repeatedly sketching the person’s face from memory, as if she could smell that familiar jasmine scent again. But when she opened her eyes, the person was not there, and loneliness filled her gaze.

As the number of cycles increased, the face of that person in her memory became more and more blurry. She feared that in a few more cycles, she would forget what they looked like entirely. Yet, the more her memory faded, the stronger her desire to find them became. It was as if they were two familiar strangers, separated by thousands of miles. She wanted to find that person, but no matter how hard she tried, they seemed to be a figment of her imagination, having completely disappeared from her life and the entire world.

When she once again went to the top of the academic building and jumped off, she just wanted one more look at the person who saved her. But until pain spread through her whole body, until bl00d blurred her vision and slowly drained away, until her body became cold, she never saw them. It all remained her wishful thinking.

Later, she would return to the moment before her suicide, and the events would repeat. But she noticed that the people who came up to question her on the roof were different each time. She calmed herself and began to consider the reason. They would always ask her the same question, and her answer seemed to be fixed as well—she just needed to point at the crowd below. She believed in the existence of the person who saved her, so she began to doubt the authenticity of the world.

Suddenly, something flashed in her mind, and she seemed to understand. The one time her suicide had failed, she saw her schoolmates turn into hideous monsters, fighting with the people who had come to question her. She thought, This might not be a real world.

But the moment this thought arose, a sharp pain shot through her head, as if something were trying to stop her from discovering a secret. Her health was poor, and the sudden pain made her unsteady. She fell to the floor and leaned against her bed, trying to get up again.

At that moment, the short knife on her nightstand reflected a cold light that caught her eye, and she noticed its presence. She remembered that person had put a knife in her hand, and this was the same one. She had returned to the moment before her suicide countless times and had seen the knife by her bed, but at that time, she was only thinking of finding that person and hadn’t paid much attention to it.

If there had been any change in her life’s trajectory, one was being saved by that mysterious person, and the other was the appearance of this unknown knife by her side. She took the knife, and the sharp pain in her head disappeared, as if the knife had shielded her from some external force. She finally took a good look at the knife. The blade was exceptionally sharp, looking like a simple fruit knife, but the hilt was intricately crafted with ancient, complex patterns. It resembled the winding vines on the weapon the person had used, and she couldn’t tell what material it was made of.

As she pondered, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in her mind.

[Detecting a host. System is generating.]

“Who is it?”

The unfamiliar voice startled her. She looked around but saw no source. Just as she was about to think it was her imagination, the cold, mechanical voice returned, accompanied by a static sound.

[System has been abnormally invaded…]

The piercing alarm lasted less than twenty seconds, but it made Jiang Nan’s brow furrow. Soon, the static returned to normal, but this time, a frantic female voice spoke.

[System successfully generated. Survival System has been bound to you, Host Jiang Nan.]

[Welcome, Player. This is not a real world. Trust no one. I am Hanas. I will be with you like a shadow from now on. Good luck.]

After confirming that the voice was in her head, Jiang Nan was stunned and looked down, thinking. Survival system? She didn’t notice the name “Hanas” but found the word “survival” deeply ironic, as she was a person who only wished for death.

Although Jiang Nan didn’t know what a system was, after so many cycles, this was the third major change. The appearance of this system might be proof that her world wasn’t real, and if she wanted to find the person who saved her, this might be the breakthrough she needed.

She didn’t know that her thoughts had already been detected by the system, which answered her questions.

[This world is the ‘Evil Ghost Bullying’ instance. Players must leave this instance to further activate the system.]

Jiang Nan later learned that she was a vital NPC in this instance. The players who entered had to find and ask her who the bullies were to confirm who they needed to kill.

Knowing the cause and effect, she looked out the window again, a smile gracing her lips, her eyes filled with an unreadable emotion.

This time, she once again walked to the top of the academic building she had visited countless times, listening to the familiar insults and watching the small figures below yelling for her to die. She sat in the same spot as always, but her expression was clearer than ever before. The black hilt made her hand look even paler and bloodless, and the blade’s reflection showed her indifferent face.

The door opened again, and the people who came out asked her the same questions. But she didn’t turn around or answer. A smile lingered on her lips as her finger traced the blade, a scene both peaceful and grotesque.

The players, growing impatient, didn’t wait for an answer. A big man, an impatient person, stepped forward to grab her and force her to answer their questions. But just as his hand was about to touch her, Jiang Nan turned around and smiled slightly. Her smile was beautiful, but her cold eyes made it seem eerie and terrifying, like a demon from hell coming to claim a life.

The man froze, and in that moment, Jiang Nan’s hand fell, the knife cutting clean. The man’s bl00d gushed out. It stained her dress and her pale, beautiful face. The bl00d on her cheek seemed to be a backdrop for her beauty, as alluring as a deadly poppy.

A black mist came from the wound on the man’s neck. He clutched his bleeding neck, his eyes wide with fear and resentment as he fell to the ground with a thud, his bl00d pooling everywhere.

[Player Zhao Qiang, confirmed dead.]

The mechanical voice echoed on the roof, and the unexpected turn of events stunned the players. And when those people saw her lift her eyes to look at them, her gaze was filled with a smile—cruel, bloodthirsty, and utterly mad. This insignificant guide NPC filled these battle-hardened players with a fear they had never known before.

They panicked, squeezing through the narrow door, desperate to escape. Jiang Nan slowly raised her hand. The bl00d on the knife she used to kill the man still dripped onto the ground, like a blooming Lycoris radiata, vibrant and captivating, a dangerous allure.

She pointed the blade at the players. In that instant, her amber eyes filled with a bloodthirsty crimson, and an unknown, powerful pressure swept over them. She parted her pink lips and spoke, one word at a time.

“It is you.”

Her voice was clear and pleasant, yet it filled them with dread. In this instance, anyone she points to will become a monster, a boss that must be defeated—even players.

The moment she finished speaking, every player’s eyes turned crimson. They roared in pain, watching as their bodies swelled, their skin cracked like tree bark, and they transformed into the very monsters they were supposed to kill.

The new monsters jumped off the roof and began tearing at the students and teachers below. The jeers and insults below were replaced by screams and wails, which became the most beautiful melody Jiang Nan had ever heard. Soon, bodies littered the ground. The screams grew weaker until only the monsters’ heavy breathing and deafening roars remained.

Jiang Nan stood on the roof, her clothes flapping in the wind. She looked down at the wailing ants below. The bl00d-red sky made her look like a vibrant and dangerous flower. She didn’t notice that the knife in her hand seemed to have a life of its own. The bl00d on the blade was gradually absorbed, and cracks appeared on the black hilt, revealing a crimson light.

[Warning! Instance anomaly!]

[Repairing instance… Repair failed.]

[Instance self-destruct initiated. Please, all surviving players, leave the instance as soon as possible.]

[All surviving players, leave the instance immediately…]

The next moment, the surrounding buildings collapsed. The skyscrapers were no more, and the forests and grasslands were swallowed by a tsunami. The world began to twist and fall apart. The wails gradually subsided. Suddenly, a bright light enveloped her. She raised her pale, thin arm to shield her eyes from the blinding light. Her figure then disappeared from the world…

…