She Was Sentenced to Life Imprisonment [Unlimited] - Chapter 71

Chapter 71: The Art Room [Thirteen] – The End

You’ve been wanting to get rid of her for a long time, haven’t you?

A bleak, cold wind whistled, piercing through the low-quality school uniform and chilling Jiang Nan to the bone. Sitting on the ground, she used a handkerchief to wipe the bl00d from her hand, but there was nothing she could do about the uniform, which was stained with red. She turned her head and looked at the girl beside her who was still trying to persuade her. Jiang Nan didn’t listen to her words, instead, she looked at the clean uniform on the girl. After a while, she looked away and said calmly, “You don’t need to say anything else. She’s already here…” Her voice trailed off, she subtly glanced at the girl who was about to lecture her again, and said, “Fang Yuan is here, too.”

At that name, the girl’s body stiffened visibly. She mumbled to herself, “Can she really appear now?” She then lowered her head, seemingly lost in thought, before asking Jiang Nan, “Do you have a mirror? She’s coming.” In the biting cold wind, even though the sky was dark, her eyes were brighter than ever, with a hint of shyness, like a regular student getting ready for a date.

“You’re a human, so you should have one.” Jiang Nan said, handing over a mirror that could trap ghosts. The girl ignored Jiang Nan’s strange words, took the mirror, politely said “thank you,” and then held it up to check her face. Jiang Nan watched the mirror for a long time and confirmed that the girl was indeed a living person.

“Why did you say that Fang Yuan can really appear now?” The girl was still looking at her reflection, but when she heard Jiang Nan’s question, a strange look flashed in her eyes. She said with a hint of helplessness, “Like I said before, she’s never appeared in front of me, but recently it seems to have loosened up, so she has a chance to appear.”

“It?” Jiang Nan asked, confused. “You’ve seen it, haven’t you? The rules.” “Aren’t you afraid of it finding out if you say that?” Jiang Nan was a bit surprised by the girl’s attitude. But the girl still looked indifferent. She pouted. “If I were talking to those people, of course I’d be punished. But you’re different, and this world is about to disappear. The rules have escaped, so where is ‘it’ going to get the chance to punish me?”

Upon hearing this, something flashed in Jiang Nan’s eyes. The words “you’re different” were constantly present, as if someone was doing it on purpose. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she had hidden that emotion. She clicked a button on the walkie-talkie in her hand and held it tightly, feeling the pain from her still-unhealed palm. Her voice was still unreadable.

“In that case, you should overturn your lie. We need to know the real version of your and Fang Yuan’s story.”

The girl’s movements suddenly stopped. Her eyes slowly looked into the distance, at the falling leaves, which formed a bleak chill in her eyes. “There’s nothing much to say, really. She and I were indeed friends, just a little too close.”

“The person who was chosen to go up to the sixth floor back then was me, but I didn’t know that Fang Yuan was so bold as to swap my name with hers. I only realized it the next day when the teacher called me up, but it was already too late.”

“At first, Fang Yuan lived a normal life up there, but after she helped that person who was taking her place to graduate, those people definitely wouldn’t leave her, a ticking time bomb, alone, for fear of being discovered. When she realized this, she wanted to take me and leave. But when we tried to escape that night, only I managed to climb over the wall. She was caught by a security guard before she could escape.”

Her narration paused for a moment, and a hint of sadness flashed in her eyes, as if she held some regret. “After she was taken back, I was so scared that I hid outside for several days. Later, I heard that she had died.”

When she said this, her emotions became agitated. Tears streamed down her face, and the regret in her reddened eyes intensified. “Those bastards dismembered her body to destroy the evidence. I couldn’t even find her ashes.”

She laughed at herself mockingly, handing the mirror back to Jiang Nan. “I’m so weak, right? I can’t even imagine how desperate she must have been. How much she must have hated me?”

Jiang Nan stared at her for a long time without answering her question. She just said, “My condolences.” A person who has died and become part of the past is not worth dwelling on.

But Jiang Nan faintly noticed something was wrong in the girl’s narration. She tried to grasp it, but it vanished from her mind like an illusion.

Just then, a figure gracefully climbed over the wall. After landing steadily, she smiled and said, “I found you.” The long, bl00d-red hair fluttered in the cold wind like a winter fire, falling on Jiang Nan’s heart without warning, scorching her.

Then, Jiang Nan fell into a warm embrace. The familiar scent filled her senses, dispelling the smell of bl00d and making her feel exceptionally safe.

Jiang Nan was held so tightly that she couldn’t breathe. She pushed the person away and said, “I’m fine. Why are you so nervous?” She then realized that when He Nas was hugging her, her body was trembling slightly. She was scared. Thinking of this, the corner of Jiang Nan’s mouth curled up slightly, and a hint of a smile appeared in her eyes.

This person, it seemed, wasn’t as heartless as she appeared. The girl watched them, not intending to disturb them. She was about to leave when a familiar voice stopped her.

“Xiao Qi, I heard everything. I didn’t think my death would cause you so much pain.”

The girl named Xiao Qi stiffly turned her head and saw a face she hadn’t seen in a long time, a smile exactly as she remembered it. The person’s face was much paler, but her eyes were still as bright as the morning sun.

“Fang Yuan.” Her lips moved, and she spoke the other person’s name with a trembling voice, as if she couldn’t believe it and was afraid it was her imagination.

“I don’t hate you. I’ve always wanted you to live well, and I know you’ve sent a lot of people out of here.” Then, Fang Yuan looked at the distant sky. The black mist was about to spread over to them. She spoke again with a hint of regret. “I’m sorry. This first meeting after so long might be our final goodbye, but I have to do this. You know that, and I believe you’ll understand me.”

“You’re going to save all of them?” Xiao Qi bit her lip, tears streaming down her face as she stared at Fang Yuan blankly.

Fang Yuan nodded, her expression still gentle. “Why should a few more innocent lives be lost in a world that is about to perish?”

Xiao Qi opened her mouth, wanting to tell her to be a little more selfish, but she ended up not saying it. “Go ahead.” Even with so much reluctance, she knew she couldn’t change Fang Yuan’s mind, just like she couldn’t change her mind when she changed their names and took her place on the sixth floor.

A hint of relief showed on Fang Yuan’s face. Before her body disappeared, she mouthed something. However, the person looking at her had her vision blurred by tears and couldn’t make out her few words. She could only recognize that the smile on the other person’s face was still there.

The moment Fang Yuan disappeared, the black mist and the bl00d-red sky in Jiang Nan’s eyes, which had been approaching, stopped as if time had stood still. Fang Yuan couldn’t delay the world’s collapse for long. They still needed to find a way out as soon as possible.

“Hurry back. They’ve already put her body back together.” He Nas held Jiang Nan’s hand and walked back towards the art building. Warm yellow light spilled onto them, making them look like students returning home late after escaping.

“What’s missing?” Jiang Nan asked her. Jiang Nan’s hand from the sixth floor had disappeared somewhere. What He Nas said on the walkie-talkie must have been a part of it. She wondered how much of it they had found in the plaster statues.

“They haven’t found her head yet,” He Nas said.

By the time they arrived at the art building, the dark, tall building was already desolate, like an abandoned floor with no signs of human life. Lin Jia and the others had placed the limbs they found on the ground. When they saw Jiang Nan and her bloody clothes, they looked at her with surprise.

“Are you hurt?” Lin Jia asked. Jiang Nan glanced at the things on the ground before replying, “It’s not my bl00d.” Lin Jia nodded, her brows furrowed as she looked at the items on the ground. She said anxiously, “The entire pile of plaster statues has been destroyed, and we still haven’t found her head.”

“We’ve been looking for so long, and it’s not like the way out is on her,” Yan Xin complained, looking a bit disheveled, with a hint of fatigue in her eyes. The time being moved up meant they no longer had any time to spare. One wrong step, and they would be trapped here forever.

Head… A thought flashed through Jiang Nan’s mind—the gaze she had felt just before she passed out. A frighteningly white skull appeared in her mind. She said, “Her head is on the sixth floor.” After Fang Yuan died, her limbs were scattered, but the head was hard to hide. So, they removed the flesh and used the remaining skull as a teaching tool on the sixth floor.

Hearing her words, everyone looked at her. “Why didn’t you say so earlier? We’ll go get it now, and then we can leave, right?” Yan Xin said.

But no one dared to give her a definitive answer. When she saw the others were silent, Yan Xin’s temper flared up again. Yang Yi quickly spoke up to calm her down. “Let’s go look for it first. Maybe we can get out.” Yang Yi pushed her, and Yan Xin grumbled, “I’m telling you, Yang Yi, if we can’t get out, you have to kill me. I’m not staying here as an NPC.” “Okay, okay. We’re not going to die,” Yang Yi said helplessly.

“Are you putting her body back together?” The girl who had been quiet until now suddenly spoke, looking at the scattered body parts on the ground with a complex expression.

Hearing her words, Yan Xin’s steps faltered. She frowned and looked at her with a hint of wariness. “All the students in the school have disappeared, and the school is abandoned. How are you still here?” Fearing she was a ghost, Yang Yi pulled Yan Xin behind her and looked at the girl.

The girl didn’t care about their stares. She just stared at the corpse on the ground. It wasn’t until she saw a cheap, faded red string bracelet on one of the hands that she couldn’t keep her composure. “Can you give her to me?” the girl asked again. “I’ve already lost her twice.”

The others fell silent, not knowing how to answer.

“Let’s go find her head first,” Jiang Nan said, breaking the silence. The elevator was out of order, so they had to climb the stairs. Jiang Nan looked back at the girl who was still standing there, lost in thought. He Nas pulled her and they went upstairs.

The girl slowly raised her head, looking at who knows what, and said, “We’ll see each other again soon.”

Fortunately, the abandonment of the teaching building didn’t cause the skull to be lost, but they couldn’t be sure which one it was. Looking at the pile of white bones and hundreds of skulls, they sifted through a few, but they couldn’t tell which one was Fang Yuan’s.

“What do we do now? Do we take all of them down?” Yan Xin was getting a bit discouraged.

“We don’t know, but someone can,” He Nas said with narrowed eyes, smiling.

Outside the abandoned art room, footsteps were heard, and they watched the doorway with caution. “Don’t you want Fang Yuan’s body?” He Nas said to the person who hadn’t fully appeared in the doorway yet.

The person’s steps faltered. A hint of joy appeared in her eyes. “You can give her to me?” It was Xiao Qi. She had followed them up. Seeing her, the others looked at each other but didn’t let down their guard.

“Yes, after we find her head, we’ll give her to you,” Su Yue said coldly.

“Okay.” She agreed without hesitation, not even looking at the pile of white bones on the ground. Then, they silently watched the girl digging through the bones, a strange and eerie sight that made them feel a shiver of dread.

“Can she really find it?” Jiang Nan walked over to He Nas, her brows furrowed as she asked.

“Only she can,” He Nas said with certainty.

Jiang Nan looked at the figure in the pile of bones, her eyes narrowed. She felt like she had forgotten something. “She…” Jiang Nan opened her mouth to speak, but the girl on the other side interrupted her. “I found her.”

She held the white skull in her arms, her thin body trembling slightly with excitement. She wanted to smile, but her expression, a mixture of crying and smiling, was a bit ugly.

At that moment, Jiang Nan looked at her deeply and spoke with a certain emotion. “You were the one who made the statues to confuse people after you sent them out. You are the key to the safe exit.” She finally remembered what was wrong with Xiao Qi’s words.

From the beginning, Fang Yuan could be the dungeon boss, but she was definitely not the important NPC the system mentioned. Xiao Qi, as the person who did all of this, was the real important NPC.

“Is it me…” Xiao Qi looked at the shattered window outside. The bl00d-red and black mist were surging again. Fang Yuan had failed. Seeing the scene outside, their pupils constricted. This was the first time they had truly seen the world collapse. It was magnificent, but they were the ones who were about to die.

Xiao Qi stood up, her swaying body standing on the pile of bones, looking fragile. But in the depths of her slightly reddened eyes, there was determination. A smile appeared on her face, as if she had come to terms with everything. “You helped me find her and gave her back to me. I’m already very happy. I still have to thank you.”

“I apologize for lying to you earlier and deliberately misleading you to help me find her body.”

“Fang Yuan was a kind person. She didn’t want you to die, so I don’t want you to die either.”

“I’ve been weak once before. She has been found, and I have no reason to live anymore. As a thank you, I will fulfill her last wish and send you all out.”

“What are you talking about?” Yan Xin’s brows were tightly furrowed. She didn’t believe an unknown NPC would help them, and anyone would be angry after finding out that the thing they had been looking for was useless.

Yang Yi grabbed her hand and shook her head, telling her not to speak. The girl looked at Jiang Nan, the tears in her eyes were moving. She said, “I don’t know your name, but can I borrow your knife?”

“What do you want to do?” Jiang Nan’s hand tightened on the knife. She hesitated to hand it over.

“Send you all out,” she repeated the answer.

Just then, Jiang Nan felt a warm hand on the back of her hand. Before she could react, the knife was taken from her. The smile in He Nas’s eyes remained, captivating like a poppy.

“Thank you.” The knife was handed to the girl. A clanging sound rang out, indicating its unusual excitement. The blade pierced into her flesh, and the gushing bl00d was completely absorbed by the blade.

The girl’s face was deathly pale, but she still stabbed herself with the knife. She smiled at Jiang Nan, the bl00d spilling from the corners of her mouth and staining her lips red. She said, “You don’t need to be sad. This is the only way I’ve been thinking about for a long time to see her again. I’m doing this voluntarily.”

The abandoned high-rise shook the next moment, as if it was about to bury them.

“Jump out the window.” The girl’s eyes widened suddenly, bringing them back to their senses. Without time to think, they had no choice but to listen to her and jump out of the sixth-floor window.

The encroaching black mist disappeared. The bl00d-red sky returned to normal. The morning light spilled from the sky, just like a normal morning.

[Congratulations, players. The important NPC has died, and the safe exit has opened.]

The long-awaited system prompt sounded, and a blinding white light enveloped them. Jiang Nan tightly held He Nas’s hand, as if trying to see her clearly through the dazzling light.

The girl, holding the white skull, watched them leave. Her eyes were gentle, and she didn’t seem afraid of disappearing with time.

Aside from telling a lie, it seemed that Fang Yuan and Xiao Qi had never followed the dungeon’s instructions to kill the people the dungeon wanted them to.

“Because she didn’t kill people, the main god has wanted to get rid of her for a long time, hasn’t it?” Jiang Nan asked her.

“Yes,” He Nas confirmed. Throwing them into this dungeon was indeed the easiest way. Because of Fang Yuan and Xiao Qi’s kindness, they could leave without incident. But the main god could also use their disobedience to deliberately destroy the entire dungeon. This win-win situation was something the main god was capable of.