I Became a Witch in a World Full of Urban Legends

The library of Huacheng’s University of Science and Technology has undergone renovation twice and quadrupled in size over the decades. It’s unimaginably large, and on normal days, even though many students linger within to study, some areas still seem deserted.

However, when exam season rounds the corner, academic masters and (last-minute) academic masters would crowd inside. No matter how large the library was, it couldn’t accommodate for the sheer insanity that desperate students hold.

It was also as if studying in the library would please the God of Examinations, blessing you to pass your exam.

When Lu Yibei entered the library, he was pleased to see students coming and going.

Just as I thought. Exam season equals to crowded library, a.k.a., a great place to meet the so-called leader of that urban legend group chat…

Taking out his campus card, he scanned it at the library’s electronic gateway system, and entered, looking for an empty seat.

At a glance, there were no seats left for him in the endlessly bright library filled with endlessly bright minds.

He had long anticipated this, so he simply took out his phone, opened the group chat, and scrolled to find for the contact who could not be removed from his friends list even after reporting, blocking, or deleting it.

[VACCARIA: I’m at the library. Where is your boss?]

10 seconds later…[100 2/3 CATS: Our boss will meet you at around 12 o’ clock.]

Glancing at his phone’s clock, it was only seven minutes past ten in the morning – two hours before their fated meeting.

…

Wandering through the endless sea of students, he finally found a few unoccupied seats in a relatively quiet corner at the top floor of the library.

Four tables, surrounded by bookshelves – a conducive environment to study silently.

Generally, this location would be great for studying, with books hastily piled around and on the table. However, no bags were seen, indicating that it was unoccupied.

A thin girl sat near the corridor, farther away from these seats. Looking closely, he could see a layer of dust on the books and table, as if the students were deliberately avoiding this table.

Weird. Why isn’t anybody sitting here?

Stepping forward and placing his bag down, he saw a yellow post-it note pasted on the table.

[Somebody’s here]

As he stared at the post-it note, someone suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.

Turning around in shock, he could see the thin girl, who was wearing a pair of round-rimmed glasses with her hair tied into a pair of braids.

She seems tired. Finals season, perhaps?

“Hello, are you a freshman?” the girl asked. “I advise you not to sit here. It’s bad luck – you should sit next to where I am.”

…really? Is that even a thing? Unlucky seats? I’m not giving up an empty, secluded area for free!

“How so?” he inquired.

The girl glanced at the post-it note still pasted on the table, moved closer, and whispered, “That sticky note was left behind by a senior, and she was killed that very night she left her seat. Rumour has it that her spirit still lingers in the library to return to her seat to finish her studies…”

As he listened, his eyes drifted to the empty seat, and he felt strangely cold and unwelcomed.

It was as if the sticky notes was radiating a warning, sealing the seat with a sinister, unwelcoming aura.

Vaguely, it was as if somebody was sitting there, casting a gloomy, unfriendly face filled with malice towards him.

“And,” she continued. “Students who sit here end up becoming injured or sick – some students even broke up with their partners after sitting here. Nobody who sits here leaves without a bit of bad luck, so no student would sit here willingly.”

“Moreover,” she got closer again to whisper. “A student who worked here part-time was busy organizing books, and she saw the girl after closing hours. She sat there, covered in blood, with nothing above her neck…”

“Oh? Is this the same girl who was murdered by Gate No. 4?” he asked, with a slight frown.

“Oh, so you do know about the rumours!”

“Heard of it,” he responded with no expression. He thanked the girl, found an empty seat in the other corner of the library, and sat down.

Knowledge is power!

As a studious young man striving for knowledge, he originally planned to take advantage of the time to finish his work. However, even with his book spread out in front of him, he found that he couldn’t move his pen to write a single letter.

He couldn’t help but look towards the table where the headless girl had left behind yet another urban legend.

Although he didn’t have much contact with her, he knows that she is shy, and holds deep, emotional ties to this school.

Hence, there was no way such a shy urban legend would make bad luck befall onto a student – something must have forced her hand.

But why?

Thinking through all the possible reasons, an hour passed unknowingly.

When he came to his senses, the time on his phone displayed [11:40], and he hurriedly cleared his table.

Finishing, he looked at the time on his phone again and froze.

[11:55]

He was very sure that cleaning up his books and stationery would not take longer than a minute.

However, the time on his phone was accelerated, making him feel as if he had entered some sort of time dilation area, stealing him of his ten minutes.

Just two books and my charger… and ten minutes has passed?

Something seemed very wrong, and he hurriedly left to go towards a more crowded area. He felt as if a tiny man resembling him popped up in his mind, with the letters and symbols [1s, -1s, 1s, -1s…] beating against his brain.

Many bookshelves towered over students in the library, blocking the office-like lights to cast shadows. The books were all tightly arranged, but left some gaps in between for other books to be put into. From time-to-time, students could be seen passing behind the bookshelves.

He walked between the bookshelves, and a strange idea implanted itself into his mind.

A female protagonist would take a book, and would see the smiling face of the male protagonist behind the bookshelf – but, what happens if the person on the other side of the bookshelf is not human, but an urban legend who spies on students?

If I take a book now, will a pale, scary face jump-scare me?!

Or a bloodied hand holding a knife?! And it’ll stab you as soon as you take the book out!

O-o-or something that cannot be described in human language, flying out from the cracks to devour you?!

He felt incredibly uneasy taking this route, fleeing as he ran straight towards the open area of the library.

There were many tables and chairs, with students who were busy studying or lounging about. The only sounds that could be heard are footsteps, the turning of pages, low, hushed voices, and the tick-tocks of the clock.

Immediately, his tense nerves relaxed.

I love humans! I love students! I love students who study! They are so kind!

Among the vast army of students preparing for war, he found a quiet corner in the open area, and sat his back against a stone pillar of the library. He took out a textbook to pretend to read, spread it open on his knees as he made sure to keep one hand inside of his bag, feeling around for his kitchen knife. When needed, he can draw the knife and deal with whatever jumps on him.

[11:56], four minutes before meeting time.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

A pretty, fashionably-dressed girl started walking towards him. Her eyes were visibly reddened, and her mascara was flowing down her cheeks, as if she had just cried.

Is this her?

He glanced at his phone. Still 11:56.

The girl simply walked past him in a hurry.

When it was 11:57, his phone buzzed and vibrated, and he could see the Jiangli had sent him a message.

[Come to my office a little later than usual today. I have some matters to attend to.]

Yibei simply replied with an [OK], then put down his phone.

Soon, a boy walked over to him.

The young man seemed tall and muscular, with long and messy hair. He donned a pair of black-rimmed glasses – the library’s blinding lights reflected off the lenses, making it hard to see his eyes. He also donned a mask, covering the lower-half of his face.

The young man squatted down next to him, and Yibei raised his head to look at him.

He was immediately greeted with a gloomy face, with big eyes that were surrounded by an unnerving white.

“Hey, buddy, mind if I ask ‘ya somethin’?” he asked with a hoarse voice, as if he has a cold.

“…do I know you?”

“No, but I see that you have the same phone as mine,” he joked. “I wanted to ask if you have a charger, and whether I could lend it to charge mine.”

“…okay! Fifty yuan for one hour of usage, take it or leave it.”

The young man was visibly stunned, and disgust, contempt, and the loss of camaraderie flashed in his eyes. He coughed lightly and left in a hurry.

Glancing down on his phone, it was 11:59. One minute left…

Strangely, he became nervous, glancing about. He made sure to keep his eyes on the fat man with pus-filled pimples, and the young couple flirting with each other, and the janitor who was emptying the trash, and…

Which one of you is the boss of the group chat?

If they don’t disguise themselves as a human, would they really be able to appear in front of me? In front of all these students?

The minute lasted strangely long, and he made sure to check his phone again and again. It was as if time had stopped, and his phone’s clock remained at [11:59].

At the very moment when it jumped to [12:00], his breath hitched, and his surroundings became extremely pin-drop silent.

Even a library couldn’t be this silent.

He couldn’t hear anymore footsteps, or the sound of turning pages, or the hushed whispers of discussion, or the consistent tick-tocks of the clock.

Raising his head, he saw something strange – every single person had their heads lowered, with their gazes affixed onto their phones. No longer were they deep in discussion, or frowning from academic stress, or flirting with one another – they were all deeply engrossed with their phones, as if it was sucking away their very soul.

As he watched all of them in a silent shock, something touched him on the back of his hand.

It was icy-cold, like metal, but it had a soft body, like a ladybug. It was small, light, crawling across the back of his head, sending shivers down his spine.

Bugs?! In my library?!

His brain gave an order as his body stood up immediately. Without looking down, he felt the bug fall from his hand, and immediately, he stomped on it.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Immediately after, the dead-silent library returned to normal.

All the sounds that he once took for granted came flooding back into his ears like music.

He looked around, and saw that activity had went back to normal, as if they weren’t bewitched by their mobile phones just a minute ago.

He frowned at this, fishing out his phone.

12:03. Are they late? Or maybe they already did appear, but I didn’t pay atten-… no, it can’t be.

Bringing his shoe up to him, he frowned slightly – he was sure he had just trampled a bug to death, but he couldn’t see any mucus, or broken insect limbs under the soles of his shoe. Instead, all he saw was black ash that resembled crushed graphite.

Shit.

As he thought about it, his phone vibrated, and it displayed a message sent by Meow Xiaoqi.

[100 2/3 CATS: You did not just kill our boss’ clone. To think that our boss decided to visit you in person…]

[VACCARIA: Your boss… is a bug?]

[100 2/3 CATS: I fucking knew it! You stomped our boss to death, didn’t you?!]

[VACCARIA: Listen! In my defense, I thought a ‘person’ would come to meet me, but I didn’t expect a bug… I’m sorry, okay?! (shibainupensive.jpeg)]

[100 2/3 CATS: You being sorry doesn’t fix the fact that you killed them. (policewomanwithbaton.jpeg)]

[VACCARIA: Trade offer! I won’t report your group chat today! I’m sorry! I truly am!]

Dozens of seconds pass.

[100 2/3 CATS: IDGAF! You shouldn’t have reported us in the first place! 😾 Forget it – our boss sent me a text saying to head over to anywhere with a computer in the library, and they’ll send another clone to meet you.]

A computer… he frowned slightly reading the message. Recalling where he last used a computer to check for information, he put away his phone and walked towards the location.

When he came to the computer, he hastily typed in the title of a random book, and scrolled endlessly while waiting uneasily.

The next moment, the library fell into a dead silence once again.

Turning back, he could see students suddenly being bewitched by their phones again.

He shook his head, turning his head back to the screen.

Strangely, his computer screen seemed to be facing a system error, displaying a blue screen, but with no text on it. All he could see was a white dot in the sea of blue, hovering in the dead centre of the screen.

The white dot then grew gradually, soon occupying the entire screen.

Looks like an egg, he thought. Reminds me of T*modachi.

Finally, the ‘egg’ made of pixels hatched, and a pale bug emerged from it, crawling along the edge of the screen. Its body visibly grew larger among the pixels, as if it was flying towards him, and…

In an instant, the cold, hard display screen was like rippling waves – bright red, green, and blue pixels glitched out of the screen as it dissipated as soon as it came, with a harsh, deafening sound of electric that rang in his ears. The pale bug burst out from its prison, landing on the table with a chirp.

It was a chubby insect with a pale, metallic body, about the size of an index finger. Its eyes resembled mung beans, and a small, arc-shaped mouth formed by pixelated dots. If anything, the face of the bug resembled a smiling emoticon.

Staring at the bug, he felt nervous.

He could feel terrible psychic energy fluctuations radiating from the insect. Though it wasn’t very strong, he could sense that it was part of much, much bigger body, as if it came from an ethereal plane.

It’s a clone, right? That might explain it.

As he was studying the bug, the bug opened its mouth.

“Greetings,” the obviously-metallic voice, resembling a certain virtual singer greeted. “It is pleasant to have finally meet you, dearest Vaccaria, the Witch who has inherited the powers of the Ancient Goddess, Nüba, and the Witch, Lilim. I am pleased to have finally make your acquaintance.”

“Due to inconvenient reasons that have delayed my plans,” the bug continued. “I am unable to meet you in person, so I have chosen this form instead. I deeply apologize.”

Listening to the strangely formal speech, he was obviously stunned, and could only blubber out a response, “Uh, um, I’m sorry, yeah. Sorry for stomping on your clone earlier.”

“It is no matter – clones do not expend much psychic energy,” the bug explained. “Meow Xiaoqi has informed me that you do not trust our organization, and are seeking an alliance contract. Is that correct?”

“Uh, yes?”

“Which fucking stupid bitch gave you such useless advice? Fucking stupid prick with no bitches, fucking-”

?!

“My apologies. My language database is based on vocabulary collected solely from online sources. Sometimes, it may scourge out… unwanted information. I hope you understand.”

“…I understand,” Yibei nodded weakly. “Again, I don’t think I can trust your organization without a contract. Simple as that.”

Facing such a… peculiar person with insurmountable amounts of psychic powers with such an interesting personality, he found that he has to pretend to understand its speech even though he didn’t understand it.

The insect’s face morphed from a 🙂 to a 😀 as it spoke, “I have an alternative, but I am unsure if you are willing to try it.”

TRANSLATOR NOTES:

I would like to apologize for the late chapter – I genuinely did not realize it was Friday yesterday, and placed my head down on the pillow. When I finally woke up, it hit me very, very hard… anyways, doesn’t seem like it’s a Night Division visit just yet, so we have to stay tuned and see what this enigmatic Boss has in store for our Witch…

As always, if you’d like to support what I do, you can do so at https://ko-fi.com/slicedbreadsbakery! Any amount is appreciated!