"You're not…" Ren Yifei turned his head to look, but behind him was a door, only a fist's distance away, not enough to fit another person.
"What?" His roommate looked him over, frowning as he asked, "Why have you been acting so strangely these past few days?"
'Things have been acting strangely these past few days...'
How many days has it been? And does your roommate know about his role in this?
"No, it's nothing." Ren Yifei touched his forehead and found it was covered in cold sweat. Although there was an element of acting involved, he had indeed felt the 'terror'.
Terror stems primarily from the unknown and the uncontrollable.
If the opponent is truly a higher-dimensional life form, then he, in his current 'human' identity, should feel fear. That is a direction that humanity cannot and should not explore.
He had come into close contact with high-dimensional life forms that transcended human civilization. To these beings, thousands of years of human civilization were nothing more than sandcastles casually piled up on the beach.
He too had been qualified to be one of them. But humans are just too interesting, and so is being human.
Unfortunately, because of his past experiences, he lost something, so he can only feel that captivating taste of 'being alive' when he is acting.
If he couldn't act, it seemed to make no difference whether he lived or died. That's why Ren Yifei appeared here, as an insignificant 'ant'.
Ren Yifei felt as if he had been split into two parts: one part transformed into 'Zhang Zhengyuan' to experience the purest fear, and the other part was like a wooden sculpture, absorbing the 'fear' from others and urging 'more'.
He paused, allowing himself to return to his purest 'Zhang Zhengyuan' state.
In the dormitory, Ren Yifei was restless. He sat in a chair, but instead of immediately packing his bag, he just sat there blankly. He also secretly glanced at his roommate, his eyes filled with doubt and self-doubt.
He had been suspicious of his roommate, but what if those things that made him feel uneasy were just illusions or other means that were causing him to have wrong thoughts?
He pressed his hands to his forehead, his elbows on the table, his back hunched, like a defeated man who had lost all will to fight.
The feeling of my soul leaving my body and sinking into the deep sea was so vivid that I couldn't deceive myself.
Can he really fight against this power?
At this moment, he was like an insect struggling in a spider web. Although he could still move, he could not escape the web no matter what, and he had no idea what fate awaited him.
Behind him, he heard sounds of folding clothes, opening the closet, stuffing clothes in, closing the closet, getting into bed, zipping up, going inside, and zipping up again. He knew what his roommate was doing without even turning around.
This made Ren Yifei doubt himself even more; this was clearly an ordinary person.
"I'll turn off the light for you," came the roommate's voice from inside the tent.
"Hmm," Ren Yifei responded softly, watching his roommate's shadow flash across the tent. He then forced himself to stay awake, rubbed his face, and took his laptop, along with "Legendary Incredible Architecture" and other odds and ends, out of his bag.
It must be said that the architectural style of Atlantis really resembles the deep-sea architecture he saw in his fantasy world. But isn't this a ritual practice of some tribe in Yunnan?
As far as he knew, people in Yunnan mostly worshipped mountains, forests, the earth, birds, and beasts... and rarely worshipped any monsters in the water. Moreover, he had never heard of any continent or island sinking into the sea there.
He turned on his computer and searched for "Yunnan, human sacrifice". The first page that came up was "Ancient Dian Kingdom human sacrifice shell container, national treasure, not allowed to be exhibited abroad".
He examined the bronze artifacts in the picture closely; they did indeed depict a human sacrifice, and they were remarkably similar to the rituals performed during team building activities. But…
Not exactly the same. The cowrie shell container has only one bronze pillar, the sacrificial offerings are tied to a bronze stele, and other livestock such as cattle are also included, which is a sacrifice of both humans and animals.
However, the team-building rituals at the school were entirely human sacrifices. People were tied to pillars, and the number of offerings was enormous, with six people surrounding the central bonfire.
In addition, the pillars on the bronze vessel have two snakes coiled around them, a tiger on top, and a crocodile lying on the base. These are all real animals whose origins can be traced.
However, the pillars used in the school club's rituals depicted monstrous figures. Because the images were too small, Ren Yifei didn't obtain a complete diagram of the pillars, but he was certain it depicted a monster, not a crocodile or tiger.
Unable to find a clue, Ren Yifei turned to the internet again: Was this the only kind of sacrifice in the ancient Dian Kingdom? Is it possible that there were even more evil gods who required more special sacrifices?
With this in mind, he began researching the human sacrifice practices of the ancient Dian Kingdom. However, the content of the first webpage that appeared filled him with dread.
This actually says:
"Those who destroy other tribes, tamper with others' rituals, and wantonly modify others' sacred objects deserve to be executed." This is followed by a curse, the gist of which is that those who arbitrarily alter their rituals should be offered as sacrifices to cleanse their sins with blood.
He then researched the ancient Dian Kingdom and discovered that its first king was a subordinate of King Qingxiang of Chu, a general who led troops into battle. After this general led his soldiers to Yunnan, he was unable to return to Chu for various reasons, so he simply declared himself King of Dian.
After that, the Dian Kingdom, which had a history of more than 300 years, came into being.
"If the Dian Kingdom only came into existence after this person conquered the indigenous people of this region, is it possible that this sacrificial ceremony during the school's team building activity was actually a recreation of the most primitive scene?"
He wanted to know which regions and tribes this person had conquered. However, due to the passage of time, he could not find the defeated tribes, nor could he learn about their sacrificial practices.
In the past, people took their tribe's rituals very seriously and rarely allowed outsiders to enter, let alone tamper with them.
Therefore, if they are indeed descendants of that small group of people and identify with their ancestors, they might go to extremes, such as holding primitive rituals in schools.
These priests or shamans hold the key to communicating with mysterious and unknown life forms. What would happen if they conducted a perfectly regulated ritual within a school?
Will their gods and rulers in the distance respond?
Thinking about this, Ren Yifei trembled: Yes!
He extracted two words from ancient books, from the deaths of others, and from his own experiences: cannibalism.
The one who is drawn in, the one awakened by the believer, is like a cat that has discovered a fun game and finds pleasure in killing passing ants.
For a school club to be able to organize this kind of activity and even have a say in it...
He opened the school website and searched for "Mysterious Life Research Society". He found that the society was a young society that had been established for less than five years. The original purpose of the society was to study various religious cultures around the world.
But now, this community has become a paradise for cult enthusiasts.
Why do I say that?
If you're a normal enthusiast, and your 'activity application' is rejected by the student council, you might have some private gossip, but you would never go against the grain: the school may say no, but I'll do it anyway.
Yes, the chilling cult ritual restoration was conducted without the student council's permission. They organized it secretly on their own. Therefore, the club didn't publicize the event; they were just having fun internally.
At most, this process only attracted the curiosity of some non-members.
He saw a report about a team-building event held a month ago for an evil ritual, in which some people were thanking the community for allowing them, who were interested, to witness the ritual as bystanders.
They praised the ceremony as extremely solemn and dignified, and entirely believable. They also affirmed that the students' acting skills far surpassed those of some boy bands in the entertainment industry who rely solely on their looks.
This comment was followed by many similar comments from people who were enthusiasts of this subculture and had a positive view of the worship of evil gods.
Ren Yifei's expression remained calm, but he had actually become very serious: besides his own people, how could so many other people have participated in that sacrificial ceremony?
If the members of the community are priests, participants in the sacrifice, and offerings, then the onlookers are simply the onlookers of the sacrifice.
They all 'participated' in this ritual, and they all became potential victims. Those with vivid imaginations and active minds were the first to be affected.
He closed the page and went to search for the classmate who fell down the stairs and died.
This information has already been provided, but because the official assessment is that it was an 'accident,' there hasn't been much discussion about it, and it hasn't generated much buzz.
Among the hottest topics at school right now, suicides are far ahead of the rest, leaving everyone else in the dust.
Looking at the blurred image, Ren Yifei felt slightly uncomfortable. He rubbed his arm, trying to relieve the goosebumps that had risen on his skin. So many unexpected things had happened today; would it end here?
It's unclear whether they're facing human priests or evil gods to be sacrificed.
If it's the former, that's fine; if it's the latter...
A new notification popped up in the right corner of the campus network, indicating that there was news, followed by the sentence: "During evening class today, a boy stabbed several classmates with a knife..."
The next part really was an ellipsis. Ren Yifei thought to himself that it had worked. He was indeed captivated and wanted to see the whole story.
Is this yet another unlucky person affected? What are the specific manifestations of this person being affected?
Just as Ren Yifei was about to click to watch, he suddenly noticed that the mouse cursor was moving on its own.
"!" Ren Yifei, who had been slumped over the table, instantly straightened up. He let go of his hand and instinctively took a step back, along with his chair. His eyes were fixed on the screen, watching a text-based page pop up.
He wanted to see it as a hacker prank, but he couldn't.
The cursor on the screen moved slowly and steadily, as if something had passed through his physical body and was now held in the mouse.
He couldn't help but have an absurd thought: beyond this dimension, he might be sitting in the same chair as another being.
As he stared intently, the keyboard clicked, a key was pressed right in front of him. There was nothing on the keyboard, not even a blurry hand or claw.
However, the unknown is the most frightening thing.
The cursor moved, and the keyboard was played like a piano... Two breaths of cold air entered his nostrils, freezing him into a block of ice.
Layers of fear piled up, his mind was on edge, and when he reached his limit, Ren Yifei did something no one expected: he trembled as he reached out and typed on the keyboard.
Who are you?