Malicious Scoring

The pieced together Duke actually still had blood flowing in his body.

When the last knife pierced through, blood splattered everywhere.

You Huo turned his head to avoid the blood but a few landed on his neck.

Bright red blood flowed down, tracing along his thin neckline. It was eye catching, and it also carried a strange hint of attractiveness.

After Qin Jiu held down the struggling Duke's hands and suppressed it with his knee, he looked up and was met with this scene.

The fire on the wall flickered. They stood very close together.

So close, they could feel each other's body heat whenever the other party moved.

Qin Jiu stared at the two winding trails of blood for a few seconds. He then pointed at his own neck: "Here...."

"Hm?" You Huo who heard him looked up. His light-coloured eyes carried a questioning look, but his hands plunged the knife deeper in without any hesitation.

As he did that sort of action, he carried a cold and dangerous temperament. Together with the red streaks along his pale porcelain neck, it was bewitching.

Qin Jiu stopped speaking and stared at it for a while under the flickering flames: "It's nothing. The blood almost stained your collar."

As he said that, he reached out to wipe the blood off.

The glove fabric was thicker and rougher than silk. As it rubbed across the skin, you could almost feel its distinct texture.

For a moment, You Huo's neck stiffened. He however didn't avoid it.

He just turned his head slightly and briefly narrowed his eyes. His eyes then fell onto Qin Jiu's hand.

The gloves didn't fit perfectly. It wrapped loosely around his fingers.

"It's gone." Qin Jiu rubbed his fingertips and showed him the stains on his blood and index finger, "But...Did I use too much force just now, or is Big Invigilator's skin too thin?"

He glanced at the side of You Huo's neck: "Your neck here is a little red."

Gao Qi who also contributed was cleaning the battlefield.

After rummaging through the Duke's room, he wanted to say something to You Huo and Qin Jiu but he instinctively withdrew the foot he had stepped out with.

The Duke was still twitching on the ground, but there was a strange atmosphere between those two.

It was hard to say why it was strange, but he just couldn't take that step.

Maybe that circle of candles has a barrier function.

Gao Qi internally thought this.

***

The Duke's movements grew smaller and smaller. After a few final twitches of his finger, the eyes under the mask widened and his pupils slowly dilated.

You Huo loosed his grip, pulled out the knife and stood up. As he touched his neck, he kicked his calf and said: "Finally dead."

"He's really dead?" Gao Qi only now came over. He circled around the Duke's stiff body, pried off his mask and used the tip of his knife to open his shirt collar.

Fine lines that resembled stitches formed a dividing line separating different skins. Seeing it at such a close range made one feel chilling nausea.

"Fuck...….He's really pieced together." Gao Qi quietly cursed.

As soon as he finished saying this, a voice that had been absent for a while suddenly spoke up——-

[Point acquirement detected.]

[Examinees You Huo, Qin Jiu and Gao Qi has triggered a total of 1 factor.]

[1. Stopped the Duke's heart.]

[The scores are calculated as follows:]

[A total of 9 points for killing the Duke which are distributed according to contribution and 1 point for the last blow.]

[The points of each examinee have been recalculated.]

Gao Qi received 2 points.

Qin Jiu received 4 points.

You Huo received 3 points. The last blow accounted for one point.

Gao Qi was stunned for a moment before mumbling: "I let myself go too far when I'm with you two. I almost forgot about earning points."

Not to mention him, even You Huo and Qin Jiu were surprised.

The examination system had been quiet throughout this exam and they had almost forgotten about its existence.

"But it's a bit strange." Gao Qi said, "The Duke is dead so shouldn't those patients be freed? We should've met the conditions so why didn't the exam end?"

"Maybe the patients need time to recover." Qin Jiu said.

Gao Qi nodded: "Then that shouldn't be long. They might recover by tomorrow morning."

Just the thought of this pleased him.

He straightened up but he then saw You Huo staring at the Duke's face lost in thought.

"What's wrong?" Gao Qi asked.

You Huo answered: "His face looks a little familiar." 

"You know him?" Qin Jiu also looked over.

You Huo shook his head.

This sense of familiarity wasn't to the extent of knowing. He felt that it was a face he had probably seen on passing recently. It didn't leave him with a strong impression.

It wasn't until Gao Qi pulled out his phone with the intention to take a photo of commemoration that You Huo finally remembered.

"Zhou Qi's boyfriend."

"Who?"

Gao Qi and Qin Jiu were both surprised.

"How do you know what Xiao Zhou's boyfriend looks like?" Gao Qi wondered.

"Phone screensaver." You Huo explained.

Zhou Qi's phone screensaver was a photo of her boyfriend. Whenever she was lost in thought during dinner or taking her phone out to take a photo, that face would constantly light up and darken in Zhou Qi's hand.

When they were assigned to the same room, Zhou Qi had briefly mentioned this to You Huo to avoid awkwardness.

As she mentioned it, her face and ears were completely red. Her expression was mostly filled with worry, but it also carried a hint of happiness that couldn't be concealed.

It was very obvious that this young couple got along very well.

Zhou Qi had mentioned that if she could get out of here alive, the first thing she wanted to do was to drag her boyfriend to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

"Now that you mentioned it, I remember!"

Gao Qi's face instantly changed. He squatted down and stared at the face for a long time before murmuring: "Seems to really be.....that Xiao Zhou's——-"

His words stopped there. He let out a long sigh: "If she knows, my god...…"

The bedroom fell into silence.

The three of them looked at the Duke's pale face with complicated emotions.

As soon as the room fell silent, the sounds outside became more obvious.

Gao Qi couldn't help but look up at the door. He said with a frown: "What's going on? What's happening outside?"

They suddenly realised that the other examinees should have already left their rooms. According to their plans, they should arrive only a few minutes after them.

Even if they crawled...they should've already reached the door. Why wasn't anyone around?

Booom———

There was another sound outside. It sounded like someone lifting something heavy and smashing it against the wall.

Soon following that were some faint voices which were mixed with shouts.

It sounded horribly chaotic.

"Take a look." Qin Jiu said.

You Huo flicked off the blood on the knife and walked to the door.

After just taking two steps, he remembered something and walked back.

He picked up the mask on the ground and placed it back onto the Duke's face.

He didn't know if Zhou Qi would come downstairs.

Although she should take another look at this young man's face, it shouldn't be done like this nor in this situation.

***

As soon as the three of them exited the bedroom, they were greeted with cries and shouts ringing throughout the castle.

They didn't expect the soundproofing of the room to be so good.

Along the long and dim corridor, the oil paintings shook causing its wooden frames to knock against the stone wall. It looked like it would fall off any moment.

Their first thought was that an earthquake had struck causing the entire castle to shake.

But in reality, the floor under their feet was very stable. The only thing shaking were the tall, damp walls.

The cries came from inside the walls.

It was as if....there were countless people sealed inside those thick stone walls.

As the fire on the walls swayed, the shadows cast onto the walls looked like they were alive and struggling to break away. Following the damp corridor, they made their way towards the others.

The examinees had been thrown into chaos.

Wall smashing, throwing punches, tumbling...

Some were evading, others…..looked like they were possessed.

The three of them rushed over without any hesitation. They each held a knife and in a blink of an eye knocked down a bunch of them.

When they reached the second floor, Gao Qi saw that two of the bedroom doors were open. He immediately shouted: "Old Zhao!!! Are you awake?! Wake up and knock them out——"

Zhao Jiatong and Yang Shu looked out at the same time. Yang Shu took in the situation and bent down.

You Huo guessed that she was probably taking off her heels.

Sure enough, the next second a shoe flew out smashing into someone's face.

Zhao Jiatong on the other hand held up her large dress and sent out a flying kick.

She didn't even forget to retort: "Get rid of that old!"

"Xiao Zhao!! Nice!" Gao Qi shouted this as he knocked out another two.

"What's going on—–?!" Zhao Jiatong shouted: "Xiao Zhou has a fever again. Should I bring her down?"

"Don't!" Gao Qi thought of the Duke's face and immediately said, "Not now. It's even more crazy downstairs. There are fewer people upstairs. Go and lock doors. Leave the rest to us!"

You Huo slashed across a dark shadow but the knife went through it like it was plunged into water.

The shadow sank in, and then quickly climbed up his arm.

You Huo clicked his tongue in disgust. He pulled his knife out and jumped to the side to avoid it.

Along the way, he pulled back an examinee who was about to jump out castle window. When he turned to look back, he found himself blinded by bright light.

It was the torch light from Qin Jiu's phone.

Everywhere the light swept across, the shadows scattered and retreated.

"......"

After a few seconds of speechlessness, You Huo also took out his phone.

"You can do something like that?" Gao Qi dragged an examinee away from the wall and similarly turned on the flashlight function on his phone. He held his phone like it was a lightsaber.

The shadow moved swiftly along the parts of the walls that were still in the dark. Just as it was about to come out, it was pushed back by Gao Qi with his light.

When it was about to come out again, it was pushed back by You Huo.

In another attempt, Qin Jiu was waiting on the other end.

Shadow: "...….."

In the end, Gao Qi stood in the corridor sweeping his phone back and forth.

Miss Yang's crisp voice floated down from upstairs: "I dare you to lift my skirt! I dare you!"

"So annoying——-How do you fight——-this thing!" Zhao Jiatong dragged her dress along as she fought.

Miss Yang avoided a sneak attack before turning around and rushing over to the other end of the corridor. When she looked down, she saw Gao Qi standing there calmly waving his phone around.

"....Who are you cheering for?"

As soon as she asked that, Miss Yang suddenly understood. She knocked her head: "I became dumb at a critical moment."

Very soon, under the cheering lights....Ahem, under the bright lights, the shadows escaped.

On the stone walls, they twisted and writhed around, disgusting the two ladies.

The mixture of men and women's' cries were very harsh to the ears. It continued on for a while.

A bell suddenly rang from somewhere in the tower. The cries came to an abrupt halt and the shadows instantly scattered across the wall. Looking at it now, it looked like it had turned back into normal shadows.

The earthquake-like shaking also subsided. You Huo pried off the examinee who almost jumped out the castle.

It was a short man.

Thanks to his short legs, it made it difficult for him to climb the stone railing. If not for that, You Huo wouldn't have been able to catch him in time.

He was in shock for a moment. He violently shook his head to wake himself up. As soon as he returned to his senses he slid down the stone railing and crumpled onto the ground in fear: "I...I.....Did I almost fall off just now?"

You Huo comforted him: "Yes."

The young man leaned against the wall fearfully for a while before saying: "Thank you. That scared me...."

"What happened?" Gao Qi and Qin Jiu came over to ask.

"I don't know. We set an alarm and followed you down when we saw that you've reached the first floor." The man pointed in the direction of the west tower: "At that time there were many servants outside. Seeing that there were more of us, we tried to get through by force."

"We originally wanted to enter after knocking them out but for some reason those servants suddenly turned around and ran."

"Ran?" Qin Jiu asked.

The man thought for a moment and said: "You can't really call that running, I guess. They went to the main entrance and then…..disappeared. I thought they looked a little scared. The walls then started to shake. We thought the castle was going to collapse and even got ready to get you guys out of the room. As soon as we rushed over, those shadows on the walls came alive and even started crying!"

He rubbed his arm nervously: "Those cries made me feel dizzy. I felt like I was dreaming…..I saw...saw someone being beheaded. The Duke was standing there with one hand grabbing that person's hair and holding a knife in the other hand…..That man struggled desperately to escape and I was also escaping but someone had grabbed my collar to stop me from moving."

The man shot You Huo a glance: "And then you know what happened afterwards."

This sounded familiar.

You Huo and Qin Jiu looked at Gao Qi at the same time. Gao Qi scratched his cheek: "It's similar to my first day."

It likely wasn't just the two of them. All those examinees that looked like they were possessed were probably in the same situation.

"So, the person I saw was an examinee who was cut up?" Gao Qi didn't have a good expression.

He thought of the woman on the bed who suddenly crumbled into pieces and then he thought of Xiao Qi's boyfriend's head. He felt a little sick inside.

"With so many deaths, it's normal to be haunted." Gao Qi sighed.

Who would be willing to be cut up like that and pieced together with other body parts?

He turned his head and saw You Huo staring at the wall. He wondered: "But why was the wall reacting so strongly? Is there a problem with the paintings?"

When it came to the walls, the first thing that came to everyone's mind were the paintings.

With a picture of the strange Duke and his family hung up every few metres, it indeed looked very strange at night.

The examinees gradually woke up one after another. They started discussing the earlier incident.

Several braver examinees entered the Duke's bedroom to see how the Duke died.

You Huo stood by the wall. Just as he was about to reach out and touch it, he suddenly heard noise from nearby. 

He turned to look and saw a group of examinees escaping out of the Duke's bedroom like a tide. They looked like they saw something terrifying.

The next second, he understood.

One examinee exclaimed: "Isn't the Duke dead?"

You Huo and Qin Jiu exchanged glances.

The other party frowned and said: "Is this what I'm thinking it is?"

You Huo: "....Take a look."

They hurried to the Duke's room. Candlelight leaked out through the half-open door.

Examinees standing next to the door gestured wildly. You Huo went over to the door and looked through the opening ———– The Duke who was killed earlier was standing in front of the mirror flexing his neck while buttoning his collar.

He finally understood why the system didn't directly end the exam.

It was because the exam hadn't ended. That bastard Duke was alive again.

It was as if everything that had happened earlier hadn't happened at all.

If it wasn't for the system saying [Stopped the Duke's heart], he would have even suspected that everything earlier was an illusion.

Qin Jiu pulled his gloves up and tilted his head towards the door: "Go again?"

You Huo expressed his agreement to this practical suggestion——-

Holding their knives, they pushed the door and entered.

Everything played out like it was being replayed.

The Duke arranged his hair, picked up the knife on the table and turned around...

And was met with three men standing in a row.

Duke: "...….."

This time the Duke only lasted 3 minutes. While pinned to the ground by a knife, he slowly convulsed to his death.

The system's voice again sounded. They each gained another set of points.

And then......

The Duke was alive again.

This time the three of them stood there in silence for a few seconds. They then handed a knife to a more courageous examinee, gave them some instructions and stepped aside.

...….

One hour.

One full hour.

The Duke refreshed eight times during that time. The examinees didn't fight and took turns.

They basically took on a 'progress together, prosper together' attitude.

After those eight times, all the examinees present had gained a satisfactory amount of points.

***

At the top of Carlton Mountain, a small cabin with a pointed roof stood alone in the night.

The cabin consisted of two floors; the ground floor and a basement.

Carrying an oil lamp, 154 emerged from the basement and said to the other two: "It's late. You two don't plan on sleeping?"

021 crossed her long legs: "Is the basement flooded yet?"

"It's okay. There was some water in one of the confinement rooms, but I've cleaned it up." 154 said.

922 laid on the floor shaking his leg: "Haa....."

154 asked with annoyance: "What are you sighing for? You've already sighed ten times tonight."

"But," 922 continued to shake his leg, "don't you think this exam has been particularly quiet? I'm used to the confinement room constantly being used now. Boss and A....ah, that person shouldn't be like this. I can't even sleep."

He almost let slip but fortunately he reacted quickly and saved it in time.

021 shot him a glance: "Don't you think there's a problem with your way of thinking? No one is breaking the rules yet your sighing."

In fact, 021 was also sighing inside but she had to stay in character.

154 thought for a moment and said: "It's nice that it's quiet. Anyway, it's boss that's getting punished each time a rule is broken. I hope that they can quietly get through this one."

As soon as he finished saying that, the system sent a timely notice.

Half a minute later, they each held a notice with a look of shock.

The notice wrote:

Examinees You Huo, Qin Jiu and Gao Qi led 16 examinees to score points maliciously. A total of 19 examinees have violated the rules. Invigilators, please address this immediately!

922: "...."

021: "...….."

154: "......….."

The invigilators were about to go bald.

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