MMORPG: Rebirth of the Mortal Online - Chapter 165

Chapter 165: The Dormitory Party
Tap, tap, tap.

Renard, dragging the young man behind him, walked down the hallway of a floor that looked nice with its ornate square-shaped windows and long carpet leading to a grand staircase.

“Where did you find the body? Where?!” Renard shouted.

“Up the staircase,” the young man whispered.

“Why were you here, huh?” Renard asked. “This is a teacher-only area.”

“I-I am Johnson’s assistant!” The young man shouted. “I was told to bring him the books from his class!”

“Hmph, fine.” Renard pushed aside the young man, who stumbled and crashed against the wall.

As Renard reached the staircase, he saw that the steps of the stairs had a trail of blood trickling down them, almost like the staircase was an arm that had been cut open.

While avoiding the blood, he made his way up the stairs and soon saw an arm dangling lifelessly off the edge of the stairs, its fingers cold to touch.

After reaching the top of the stairs, he saw a light brown-haired young man, his arms sprawled out and his eyes staring up at the ceiling, a look of horror frozen on his face.

It looked like he had been dead for days, but that couldn’t be true as teachers used this place every day.

However, the dead in the Mortal Online world rotted quicker; the corpses turned cold and lifeless within minutes.

The blood pooled around the corpse of the young man and even touched Renard’s shoes, staining them with a gruesome reminder of the violent act.

“Tch, dirty.” Renard stepped aside, took out a handkerchief, and wiped the blood off his shoes.

After a short while, more teachers arrived at the scene and felt their blood run cold as they saw the dead student.

It happened right in front of their office.

It was like the killer was making fun of them.

“Who could do this?”

“This was a statement. The killer’s arrogance knows no bounds.

“Last murders usually happened after the dinner when everyone was leaving to do their own things, so it was nearly impossible to track the killer.

“Now, it happened during the dinner when everyone should be present there. Is he really that confident of not getting caught?”

“It could also be a she.” Renard said. “We need to consider all possibilities before making any assumptions.”

“O-of course.”

“Don’t let anyone leave the dinner hall. Write down everyone who was present there, and we’ll narrow it down to the ones who weren’t.”

“What about him?” A teacher looked down at the upstairs at the scared-looking student. “Should we question him?”

“Johnson.” Renard looked at the bushy-bearded teacher. “He is your assistant, yes?”

“Yes, sir.” Johnson nodded. “He was here to bring my books, which I left in my classroom.”

“He is our main suspect, for now.” Renard said. “For now, get the list of everyone that was in the dinner hall and who was not. We’ll go from there.”

“Yes, headmaster.”

“This student was…” Irene recognized him. “He’s class B’s student, is he not?”

“So what?”

“His potential rank was B.” Irene said. “There’s been five murders, and each one of them was B-ranked.”

“The killer is targeting potentially talented individuals?” Renard asked. “If so, why don’t go for A-rankers?”

At that moment, one teacher walked up the stairs.

She was the class B’s teacher.

“It’s because his talent was much more,” she said with a hurt expression. “I was planning to recommend him to take the A-ranker test.”

Renard’s eyes widened in surprise. “What about the other four?”

“A same situation with them. I was talking with the teachers of the students who got killed, and they were also planning on recommending them to A-rank.”

“Why not go after A-rankers, then?” one of the teachers asked.

“He is practicing,” Irene said. “This is not some professional hitman. This must be one of the students. All the murders seem clumsy, like this one’s throat was cut in a very crude manner.”

“A-rankers also have more eyes on them,” one teacher said. “They’re also rarely alone and are with their friends. The killer most likely is practicing until they can confidently approach and attack an A-ranker.”

“How come this ‘amateur’ is able to kill everyone without being detected?” Renard asked. “Well, answer that question, detectives.”

His voice was annoyingly sarcistic.

“He could be using a skill,” one teacher said. “An invisible skill or something else.”

“So, you mean the killer could be one of the tutorial-takers?” Renard asked. “That would narrow it down even further, but you must be sure.”

“Before I came here, I was approached by my students.” A teacher, who’d been silent so far, spoke out. “Apparently, one of my students, Dylan, was missing from the dinner.”

“And?”

“He’s a very reserved person. He always seems to disappear like a fart in the wind. He is also from the New World, so he has done his tutorial and came here to learn more.”

“Sounds like someone that could’ve done this.” Renard said. “Bring him to my office; I’d like to speak to him personally.”

“Yes, headmaster.”

…

In the dormitory of the Young Ones.

All the doors were slung open, and the students mingled with their friends in their rooms. It was like a big sleepover party.

While they were having fun, playing cards, and some were even sneaking in snacks they weren’t supposed to have, the idea of the murder slowly faded away from their memory.

Terry leaned out of his room, looking around the hallway of the dormitory, and then he saw something that made his heart stop.

A group of pretty girls were laughing and chatting in front of one of the rooms. One of them happened to be Terry’s crush.

They were living one floor above, at the girls dormitory, but they were allowed to come down to the boys dormitory.

“Sigh…” Terry let out a deep, emotional sigh and walked back inside, where Adam was scrolling through an invisible screen, which he couldn’t see as it might be his system interface.

“What are you looking at?”

“Auction window.” Adam said. “I put an item for sale, and it seems to finally garner some traction.”

“Oh, how much you’re getting?” Terry asked curiously.

“55,555 Shinecoins, so far.” Adam said with a chuckle.

“That much?!” Terry exclaimed. “It must be an amazing item.”

“It’s pretty good, but I want a little bit more.” Adam said and then closed the auction window.

He planned to let the auction go for another few days before ending the auction.

‘It’s just 5,555 E-dollars; I want way more…’ Adam sighed.

It was a decent weapon, as it was a legendary weapon, but there weren’t many dagger-wielders at the top echelon of the mercenary world.

He wanted enough money to buy good armor and then have some money left for real life, as there were those installment payments that were eating into his earnings.

‘It’s hard to make good money in the institute. One of the main money revenues I planned for myself is to go get treasure hunting and then sell some of those items.

‘I need to use my future knowledge to the best of my ability, but I am yet too weak to go any of those treasure places.’

Knock, knock.

At this moment, someone knocked on the open door.

“Yo.”

“Lucas?” Terry looked over to the broad-shouldered young man whose hair was as silver as a moonlit night.

He was one of the most popular students in the Young Ones, and he had captured many hearts during his time at the institute.

“Adam, was it?” Lucas showed a pearly-white smile.

“Mm, who’re you?” Adam nodded and asked.

“Name’s Lucas; nice to meet’cha.” Lucas pointed at the hallway with his thumb and said, “Others like to meet you, as you’re a new classmate of ours, wanna come?”

“I don’t mind.” Adam stood up and patted Terry on the shoulder. “Terry, let’s go.”

“Me too?” Terry asked in surprise.

“Yeah, you too.”