Chapter 26

Ranking A

“Can’t you tell? It’s twisting around like crazy, so obviously it wants to leave. I’m walking it back,” You Huo said.

“An initial value… 000?” You Huo asked casually.

“Not exactly,” Qin Jiu replied.

According to the extremely limited information available, the system back then wasn’t like it was now. All proctors were selected through special screening—few in number, but elite.

Among them was one proctor who was exceptionally young and exceptionally capable.

“That was years ago,” Qin Jiu said. “Back then the rankings used letters. That person was ranked A.”

Perhaps it was because the tea in the pot was boiling, steam rising in waves.

When You Huo heard “Ranking A,” his thoughts drifted for a moment.

Qin Jiu rubbed the rim of his cup and raised a brow. “I’ve noticed you seem very interested in my senior.”

You Huo snapped back to attention.

He had long since tossed the bread aside. Resting his fingers against his chin, his expression returned to its usual lazy coldness. “I’m bored waiting for tea. Just asking casually. What happened to the proctor who managed to outrank you?”

“That description isn’t very accurate.” Qin Jiu corrected him half-seriously. “When he was a proctor, I was still an examinee. Later, after I became a proctor myself, we didn’t actually work together for very long. Hard to say who outranked whom.”

You Huo gave a quiet snort.

“As for where he is now…” Qin Jiu said, “Dead, maybe? I’m not very sure. In any case, he’s already been removed from the system.”

You Huo noticed the subtle change in his tone and looked up. “You didn’t like him.”

Qin Jiu let out a short laugh, the corners of his mouth lazily dropping again.

Because of injuries caused by the system, Qin Jiu’s memories were incomplete. He couldn’t clearly remember the people and events from those years, naturally including Proctor A. To conduct system diagnostics, all files related to those years had been sealed away by the system. At present, no one could access them.

Everything he knew about Proctor A came entirely from other people’s accounts.

Supposedly, even when he was an examinee, he was always picking fights with A.

Supposedly, after they became colleagues, their relationship remained terrible—like fire and water.

Supposedly, during that system malfunction, only he and A were present as chief proctors in the affected zone. Even under those circumstances, the two never reconciled. The final losses were devastating. Qin Jiu barely escaped death, while Proctor A was erased from the system.

…

How much of those rumors was true and how much false—there was no way to know.

As for that system malfunction, Qin Jiu had forgotten nearly everything.

Only one scene remained vaguely in his memory.

It seemed to be a wasteland. Around him were twisted protective fences, scattered rusted vehicles and machinery, broken cables…

He sat on a fallen metal pipe with one leg bent, elbow resting on his knee, the front of his shirt soaked in blood.

Coughing, he gave a low laugh.

And there was another person standing before him.

He couldn’t remember that person’s clothes, appearance, or face at all. Instead, what remained in his memory was the endless windbreak forest far behind them.

Judging from all those rumors, that person should have been Proctor A.

This was the only trace left in his mind from those years.

And every time he thought of that scene, his mood became terrible.

Terrible to what extent?

As though… he could never truly feel carefree again.

But if you asked whether he hated that person, it didn’t quite seem to be that either.

…

The scent of old tea gradually spread through the room. It wasn’t especially fragrant, but it was refreshing enough.

You Huo stared at Qin Jiu for a while before standing up and rummaging through the cabinet for a cup that looked acceptable. Without the slightest politeness, he scooped himself a cup of tea from the pot.

After a few mouthfuls, the horrible feeling of dry bread clogging his chest finally eased.

Chatting casually with a proctor earlier had apparently scrambled his brain. Now that he felt better, he returned to normal.

He tossed down the cup and headed into the bedroom.

…

The bedroom was fairly tidy.

Several quilts were stuffed inside the cabinet, specially prepared for guests arriving to meet their deaths together.

You Huo pulled one out, planning to bury himself under it and sleep.

But before closing the door, he glanced at the stiff, upright sofa in the living room and paused.

One minute later, the great boss dragged another cotton quilt over and shoved it toward the sofa. Because he wasn’t remotely gentle about it, it nearly slammed directly into the proctor’s face.

Qin Jiu leaned aside with his teacup to avoid the sneak attack, then looked at the quilt before glancing at You Huo in surprise.

Wearing an expression that practically screamed “Why isn’t this proctor dead yet,” You Huo sleepily returned to the bedroom and shut the door without the slightest courtesy.

Bang!

…

During the first half of the night, the village remained calm.

Neither the expected monster nor the bone-chopping knife appeared.

You Huo forced himself awake for two hours before finally giving up. Pulling the blanket over himself, he rolled over and fell into a deep sleep.

Until sometime past midnight, when the wall clock clicked through its final few marks and struck exactly three o’clock.

The familiar knocking sound returned again…

Knock knock knock.

At first the sound came from outside the wall, but very quickly it moved inside.

Knock knock knock.

Within minutes, it had reached beneath the bed, tapping directly against the underside of the bedframe near You Huo’s back.

You Huo remained completely unaware. Once asleep, he was notoriously difficult to wake.

Knock knock knock.

Still, You Huo didn’t move at all.

Half his face was buried against the pillow. One arm stretched outside the blanket to cover his eyes. He slept peacefully and soundly.

The haunting continued for nearly five minutes, yet nobody paid it any attention.

“…”

The knocking finally stopped.

It seemed extremely confused… and slightly irritated.

The bedroom remained quiet for a long while before a rustling sound suddenly emerged, identical to the noises from the forest the previous night, like something crawling across the wooden floor.

The thing crawled from the bedroom into the living room and found the house’s other living occupant.

Knock knock knock.

The tapping finally resumed…

The very moment the first series ended, the proctor sleeping on the sofa in his clothes stirred slightly.

Without opening his eyes, he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Then, from atop the coffee table, a ghostly female voice asked softly, “I’ve come for the disobedient guest. Did you sew your doll today?”

Proctor: “…”

Had the exam question gone insane?

It was so desperate it had come to chop up a proctor?

Without even opening his eyes, Qin Jiu answered lazily, “Didn’t sew one. So what now?”

“Oh… how unfortunate. I suppose I’ll have to take your head instead.”

The female voice sighed softly, sounding genuinely regretful.

The next second, a deathly pale arm suddenly swung upward, raising a cleaver to chop downward.

But just as it fell, another hand caught it firmly.

It couldn’t advance even an inch.

Qin Jiu grabbed the monster’s arm and sat upright. With his free hand, he even casually switched on the standing lamp.

The instant the light came on, the creature’s appearance became clear.

It couldn’t really be called a monster at all.

It was simply an arm.

No head, no face, no torso, no anything else. Just a single arm.

Judging from the wound, it had been chopped off. Not recently, either—probably a very long time ago.

Thinking of what had happened to Liang Yuanhao last night… this haunted arm very likely belonged to some unfortunate examinee from the past.

Without a body restricting it, the ghost arm was extraordinarily agile.

Wielding the bone cleaver, it twisted and writhed nonstop beneath Qin Jiu’s grip, trying repeatedly to chop off his head.

Qin Jiu quickly lost patience.

With a cold laugh, he pulled a leather strap from beneath the coffee table, tied both the knife and arm together securely, then carried this “gift” over to knock on a certain sleeping god’s door.

…

You Huo was awakened by feathers tickling his face.

Turning his head, he sneezed, grabbed his hair irritably, and sat up—only then noticing someone sitting beside the bed.

“How did you get in here?” You Huo asked unhappily.

Qin Jiu jingled a set of keys between his fingers. “Using the spare key.”

You Huo frowned. “Couldn’t you knock first?”

Qin Jiu: “…”

The nerve of this guy.

“And what’s that in your hand?” You Huo’s gaze landed on Qin Jiu’s other hand.

There, some pale object was writhing frantically.

Qin Jiu lifted the arm in front of him and said flatly, “Surprise. A goodnight gift for you. Like it?”

You Huo: “???”

“This thing came to chop your head off. You ignored it, so it came after me instead,” Qin Jiu said. “Could you please show at least a little awareness as an examinee and deal with it?”

For a full five minutes, You Huo was thoroughly disgusted by this “warm-hearted” midnight delivery.

Then he held out his hand toward Qin Jiu.

“Give it to me.”

Qin Jiu assumed he planned to destroy or bury it. Instead, this endlessly creative examinee loosened the leather strap slightly, holding one end in his hand while placing the ghost arm, still attached to the other end, onto the floor.

“What are you doing?”

“Can’t you tell? It’s twisting around like crazy, so obviously it wants to leave. I’m walking it back,” You Huo said.

Qin Jiu: “???”

    Twenty minutes later, the frozen group waiting in the forest saw, from afar, a certain great boss walking what looked like a dog… no, an arm… directly toward them!