My mom is waiting for treatment, and you're summoning me to be a hero?

As they approached the school, Lin Mo slowed his pace.

The environment here is no different from the ruins outside—dilapidated, desolate, and lifeless.

Only silence.

The roar of engines, the clanging of metal, the maniacal laughter of henchmen, and the screams of survivors outside all vanished here.

When Lin Mo reached the last intersection near the school gate, he deliberately paused for a few seconds.

He looked down at the asphalt road beneath his feet, where the zebra crossings had long since faded. At the end of the zebra crossings was a crooked traffic light pole with a broken bulb.

If I remember correctly, this intersection is where Gao Tiantian was hit and killed.

The driver rushed out from this intersection back then, hit Gao Tiantian who was on her way home from school, and then fled the scene.

Gao Yang held his sister's body and cried in the rain for an unknown amount of time. From that moment on, he was no longer Gao Yang.

Lin Mo's gaze swept across the ground; there was nothing on the zebra crossing except for a thick layer of dust.

Too many years have passed, no, that's not right.

Everything on this floating island is a phantom projected from Gao Yang's emotions and memories.

Buildings will automatically refresh, streets will automatically repair, and even cans on supermarket shelves will be automatically restocked.

If this intersection really was the site of that car accident, then this must be the place on the entire island most deeply imprinted with Gao Yang's emotions.

But there was nothing here.

There was no bloodstain, no tire tracks, and no trace of any remaining laws.

Lin Mo didn't linger and turned to walk towards the school gate.

As soon as I arrived at the school gate, the old iron gate of the security booth creaked open.

A middle-aged man wearing faded sportswear came out and blocked Lin Mo's way.

His gaze swept over Lin Mo's clothes, then he extended his right hand, palm up, speaking in a stiff yet practiced tone, clearly having said the same thing to more than one person.

"Newcomer? Do you know the rules? Hand over all your supplies—food, water, weapons—leave everything before you can go in."

He pointed to the campus behind him, a hint of boasting in his tone.

"This is the safest place on the whole island. Those lunatics outside never dare to come near. If you want to live a safe life, you have to abide by the rules here. Resources belong to the public and are distributed uniformly. This is the principal's rule."

Lin Mo didn't waste any words with him.

The arc of the black sword as it was drawn left only a very thin, eerie blue afterimage in the dim light of the day, the moment the blade sliced ​​through the air.

The man's mouth was still in the shape of the last word, but a neat line of blood had already split open on his neck.

The headless body swayed twice before plopping into the weeds beside the security booth door frame.

Lin Mo stepped over the corpse, pushed open the school gate, and walked into the campus.

The scene on the playground made him frown slightly.

This playground has been converted into a refugee camp.

The sides of the plastic running track were filled with temporary tents pieced together from desks, chairs, waterproof tarpaulins, and old bed sheets.

Clotheslines were strung between the tents, with faded clothes and bandages hanging on them.

A large crowd had gathered on the playground; some were wearing school uniforms, while others were wearing suits.

At this moment, they were all sitting blankly on the playground, doing nothing.

A long line formed at the entrance of the warehouse against the wall, where people were carrying boxes of bottled water and compressed biscuits out of the warehouse in an orderly manner, clearly indicating that a habitual distribution process had been established.

However, everyone's activities were concentrated in the vicinity of the playground and warehouse.

The main entrance to the teaching building was ajar, and the area was clean and tidy; no one approached.

Lin Mo turned around and walked towards the teaching building.

He had just reached the bottom of the steps in front of the teaching building when a figure rushed out from the side corridor and blocked his way.

It was a woman, around thirty years old, wearing a black, tight-fitting bodycon dress that seemed out of place in this apocalyptic world, and a pair of black-rimmed glasses perched on her nose.

She stretched out her arm to shield Lin Mo's chest, her fingers spread wide, her nails still painted with faded red nail polish, her voice sharp and urgent.

What are you doing?

Lin Mo glanced at her indifferently: "Go in and take a look."

The woman took a deep breath, her chest heaving violently beneath her pencil skirt, before she gave a helpless look.

He explained in a low voice.

"Inside is the principal's... palace."

She paused noticeably when she said the word "royal palace".

Perhaps she also felt it was inappropriate, but she still said it anyway.

"No one else is allowed in. You haven't been here long, have you? Let me make this clear... This school is only safe because the principal protects it. Those lunatics outside don't dare to come near it. The principal treats this place like her own kingdom. We are all alive because of her protection, so we must be loyal to her."

Lin Mo snorted coldly, walked around her, and continued towards the teaching building.

If he hadn't seen Gao Yang's memories, he might have asked a few more questions.

But he understood that the blood-grinding was the emotional entity extracted from that anger.

It dared not approach this place, either because it did not want to face the scene of Gao Tiantian's car accident, or because it still felt a trace of guilt towards this intersection, this school, and that dead girl.

That was the emotional residue buried deep within Gao Yang himself, which he hadn't been able to completely remove when he was stripping away his anger.

In short, it absolutely could not be because of some damn principal's protection.

"Stop right there! You don't have the authority! The principal said..."

The female teacher caught up, her high heels clicking rapidly on the concrete.

Her voice echoed in the empty corridor and soon reached the playground.

An old man boiling food by the tent looked up, and students idly pulling weeds on the track stopped what they were doing.

The people queuing to receive supplies all turned to look in this direction.

"What's this new guy up to? He'll get us killed."

"Don't worry, the principal will just throw him out. What does it have to do with us?"

"Exactly, the principal still needs us to be his slaves, sigh."

……

Lin Mo ignored them and continued walking inside.

He walked through the dimly lit corridor on the first floor. All the classroom doors on both sides of the corridor were tightly closed, and the glass windows on the doors were covered from the inside with old newspapers.

Just as he was about to step onto the stairs leading to the second floor, several figures came down from the corner of the stairs and blocked his way.

There were four or five handsome young men, none of them very old, at most sixteen or seventeen.

Each of them was slender and had fair skin, forming a stark contrast to the sallow-faced and emaciated survivors outside.

In a post-apocalyptic world where supplies are scavenged and distributed, these teenagers clearly eat and sleep well, and even have well-maintained skin.

However, their clothing was extremely revealing, consisting of only a few thin black leather strips crisscrossed and tied around their chests and waists.

It barely covered the vital parts, and the seams of the leather straps were connected by bright silver metal rings, which made a soft tinkling sound with each step.

The boy at the front had short, light brown hair and a faded rose tattooed on his collarbone.

He raised his chin and pointed his nostrils at Lin Mo, his voice carrying the youthful impetuosity and arrogant ignorance of the world.

"Who let you in? The teaching building is the principal's private area. Who do you think you are? Get out!"

Lin Mo frowned slightly.

Killing these children doesn't even require drawing a sword; a slight tremor of the domain is enough.

But just a second before he was about to make his move, a languid woman's voice slowly drifted down from above the stairs.

"Who is it? Daring to enter the teaching building without my permission?"

The voice was slow and soft, with a lazy quality, like someone who had just woken up from a nap at noon, and each word had a lingering, sticky ending.

Footsteps descended slowly from the stairs, unhurried and calm, high heels clicking on the terrazzo steps.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, one tap at a time.

The rhythm was so steady, as if they were already used to everyone's waiting.

The person walking down the stairs was a woman, or more precisely, a woman nearing fifty.

She wore a dark red silk robe that draped loosely over her body, tied casually at the waist with a belt. The neckline was wide open, revealing a large expanse of loose yet well-maintained skin below her collarbone.

A slender cigarette was held between her delicate fingers, half of the ash still clinging to the tip, trembling slightly.

She is the principal of this school, or rather, the queen of this "palace".