Chapter 36: The Deadly Examination

As time drifted by, night fell.

Throughout the entire day, Chen Mu had lost count of how many classmates, teachers, and administrators had come to him, hoping to get on his good side. By dinner time, there were even female students sidling up to him, hinting that they could go home with him that night. Two of them were quite beautiful—the class belles—who, under the crushing pressure of the supernatural apocalypse, had begun throwing themselves at him.

However, Chen Mu had no time for that. According to his memories of his past life, the "Dark Night High School" instance was set to begin at 8:30 PM. Every single student in the school would be forced to participate in the supernatural mission.

Seven o'clock. Seven-thirty. Eight o'clock...

As the time drew near, Chen Mu keenly sensed a faint smell of blood beginning to permeate the air. The sky outside the classroom turned pitch black. The night wind howled; despite it being the height of summer, the temperature plummeted. Students wearing short sleeves began to shiver.

8:30 PM! The Dark Night High School instance had begun!

Simultaneously, every student received a small, blood-red slip of paper:

【Supernatural Mission: The Deadly Exam
Mission Description: The once-tranquil school has suddenly transformed into Dark Night High School...
The students here must take a deadly exam...
Remember, the first rule of survival in Dark Night High School: Pass the exam!
Only honor students who pass the exam have the right to live!
Mission Requirements: The Deadly Exam will begin at 9:00 PM. Before 9:00 PM, all candidates who have received the blood-red slip must arrive at the examination hall on time.
Each person's examination hall is their own classroom. Sit in your designated seat and wait for the exam to begin.
Failure to arrive on time will be considered a failure of the exam, and your life will be forfeited.】

Upon seeing the blood-red slips in their hands, the expressions of all the students changed drastically.

"God, this is a supernatural mission! I’m so unlucky to have been chosen!"
"Damn it, I was chosen too."
"You were all chosen? I got the slip as well."
"I heard everyone in the other classes has to take the Deadly Exam too."
"If nothing else goes wrong, every student in this school is doomed."
"God, save us! I don't want to die!"
"Stop looking for God; Chen Mu is a god! You’d be better off asking Chen Mu to save you than God."

The classroom was in an uproar, and the entire teaching building was filled with chaos. In the corridors outside, students could be seen weeping uncontrollably. Clearly, being selected for a supernatural mission had caused many of them to suffer a mental breakdown. They had never imagined that the supernatural apocalypse would arrive so quickly. They had thought they could watch from the sidelines while others dealt with the missions, remaining unscathed themselves.

Yet, they forgot: this was the apocalypse! In the apocalypse, no one could remain aloof. Death might come knocking in the very next second.

Some students had tried to be clever. After hearing about the "Midnight Canteen" mission yesterday, they had chosen to take leave and stay home, thinking that as long as they left the school, they could avoid being selected for a supernatural mission.

In a residential apartment, a girl lay in her bed, staring at the blood-red slip in her hand, frozen in terror. A moment later, she burst into cries: "Dad, I’ve been chosen for a supernatural mission! Help me, I don't want to die!"

This girl was one of the students who had taken leave. Like Chen Mu and the others, she had received the invitation to the Deadly Exam at 8:30 PM. Seeing the slip in her hand, her parents were terrified.

"Quick, quick! I’m going down to get the car. Put your clothes on; you have to be at school before nine. If we don't go now, it'll be too late. Hurry!"

A few minutes later, parents were frantically driving their private cars, rushing their children toward the school. The school gates were crowded with dozens of cars, as well as motorcycles and electric bikes. Without exception, these were parents returning their children to school.

Standing in the back of the classroom, Chen Mu looked through the window at the panicked parents at the school gate. "Sigh, in a supernatural apocalypse, how can one escape? It is either life or death." He couldn't help but sigh. Anyone who tried to evade a supernatural mission was invariably the first to die. Only by facing the mission head-on was there a chance to survive.

"This Deadly Exam is a challenge for me."

In Chen Mu's memories, he had participated in this mission before. But that time, he had failed. Back then, like these students, he had been panicked and helpless. Faced with the treacherous Deadly Exam, Chen Mu had failed to find the path to life—or rather, he and his classmates had fallen into a path of certain death.

A "path of death," as opposed to a "path of life," was the most perilous route in any supernatural mission. Once you stepped onto the path of death, you would suffer the worst possible outcome. And that was exactly what happened to Chen Mu and the others.

Chen Mu remembered that after the Deadly Exam ended, the entire classroom had become an ocean of bright red. Everywhere he looked, there were severed limbs and spurting blood... A few students had luckily survived, but they had been driven to insanity by the terror. Chen Mu himself had been terrified; he had nearly died there. It was only by pure luck that he had survived.

Now, the Deadly Exam had appeared before him once more. But the Chen Mu of today was no longer the man he had been then. Having endured five years of trials in the supernatural apocalypse, he was incomparably more mature. The difference between him now and his past self was like heaven and earth.

"Five years ago, I failed. Five years later, this time, I will find the path to life!"

Chen Mu secretly resolved that in this Deadly Exam, he would expose the flaws in the rules. This was a challenge for him.

Time ticked away, second by second. Most of the students who had left the school managed to return to their classrooms within twenty minutes. Two students, however, had taken a flight out of the city the day before. At this point, there was no way they could make it back within the thirty-minute window. Their only fate would be death.

9:00 PM! A dull bell rang throughout the school—the end of the first evening study session. The sound, which usually brought excitement to the students, now sounded like the devil’s death knell. Every student sat in their seat, awaiting the start of the exam. They had taken countless exams in their lives, but none had ever filled them with such dread.

The school’s loudspeaker broadcast the examination bell. As the bell rang, the sound of high heels clicking echoed through the corridor outside. It was easy to imagine the proctor approaching.

*Knock, knock, knock!*

Three knocks sounded, and the classroom door was pushed open from the outside. A woman in a uniform walked in, clutching a stack of test papers.

"Hello, students. I am your proctor. The Deadly Exam begins now."