As soon as the words fell, there was immediate small commotion in the student group.
“Really wrong?!”
“Then what do we do?… Does that mean we wasted our time today?”
“How can this be! Who inserted the wrong flag?!”
“Lin Zihang, was it you? You said earlier that you weren’t sure about one place!”
“What nonsense?! Didn’t you also say you weren’t confident?!”
…
The students started arguing.
Zhang Tianyang walked to his tent with a dark expression, entered the tent without a word, and ignored everyone.
Tu Dan’s heart was also in chaos, but she was the teacher and had to step forward to soothe the students’ emotions.
“Everyone stop arguing, stop arguing! When errors are discovered, we correct them. Blaming each other won’t solve the problem!” Tu Dan’s tone was slightly stern. “Now everyone pack up and prepare to rest!”
A student raised their hand and asked: “But teacher, now that our walking method isn’t right, shouldn’t we solve this problem first?”
“What good method can you argue out by bickering now?” Tu Dan said solemnly. “There’s nothing wrong with the walking method itself. It’s because everyone was careless that this situation occurred. Just be more careful tomorrow. Now everyone go to sleep, and don’t let this matter cause conflicts anymore!”
They were all fifteen or sixteen-year-old kids—quick to start trouble, quick to quiet down.
Bai Youwei watched the commotion from a distance. Seeing they had stopped arguing, she felt bored and lightly pursed her lips.
Teacher Cheng was a worrier and asked Shen Mo: “Should we help them out a bit?”
Shen Mo shook his head. “Too many people.”
Not only were there many of them, but each one was an adolescent boy or girl. This age group was between children and adults—they had personality, they had drive, but at the same time couldn’t escape childishness. They were very difficult to manage.
Teacher Cheng worried on Tu Dan’s behalf: “Teacher Tu shouldn’t have brought all the students in. If something happens, how can they escape? Alas…”
“That, um…” Tan Xiao interjected. “It seems like, because only half the people got the frog’s item, they were afraid of missing the maze’s reward item too, so they all came in.”
Bai Youwei looked at him curiously: “How do you know that?”
Tan Xiao: “Just now I went over there to use the bathroom and heard a few students saying that originally Teacher Tu divided people into two teams. The first team successfully got the mud, but before the second team could enter, the game disappeared. They said it… activated an anti-farming system.”
“Pff!” Bai Youwei laughed, taking pleasure in their misfortune. “No wonder their expressions were so complex when they came in. This is about not worrying about scarcity but inequality! Haha!”
“These students are too opinionated. Tu Dan probably can’t control them for much longer.” Shen Mo said.
Tu Dan herself wasn’t a strong-willed person.
Perhaps when doomsday first descended, the students, out of fear and instinct, habitually sought help from their teacher. But when they delved deeper into this world and accepted the rules and cognition of the game, they would definitely no longer obey the teacher’s every word.
This wasn’t a bad thing—it could even be considered an inevitable process of growth. It was just that during this process, there would definitely be advantages and disadvantages.
Shen Mo didn’t care about other people’s business. After setting up the tent, he carried Bai Youwei inside, then took back her rabbit that had been charging all afternoon and stuffed it in her hands.
“Look, is it fully charged?” he asked.
Bai Youwei felt the rabbit and shook her head.
Shen Mo: “About how much has it charged?”
“Hard to say…” Bai Youwei sensed for a moment and answered lazily. “Anyway, the charge isn’t much.”
Shen Mo replied: “Then continue charging tomorrow.”
Bai Youwei made an affirmative sound.
After a while, she looked up at him, somehow seeming a bit unhappy. “You seem to care a lot about this item. What, do you think that with this item to rely on, you don’t need to look after me anymore?”