A Thriller Academy (Transmigration) - Chapter 1

“Looking out across the area below the altar, it was a sea of blood. Corpses lay strewn everywhere in crimson pools.

Shoshana pressed her hand against her gushing abdomen, feeling her blood and her life draining away together. Yet, she struggled to remain standing, trying to distinguish the familiar faces of her former classmates and teachers among the bodies below the altar.

Dorothy, Catherine, Hannah, Emilia—these friends of Shoshana’s, these beautiful girls in the prime of their youth, now lay dead in a sea of blood. Their faces were either bruised purple or deathly pale, their eyes wide open as if unable to rest in peace.

Shoshana’s gaze shifted slightly. To the side of the altar, her teacher—and the principal of this school—Madam Hilda Stan, stood frozen in death against the stone wall like a pillar of salt. Even as death descended, she maintained her upright and elegant posture.

Why… why did the ritual fail… They had put in so much effort, every sacrifice had been meticulously selected. Why, when the Goddess finally descended, did she not grant them a joyous reward, but instead a bloody massacre…

Shoshana coughed up a mouthful of blood and lifted her eyes. What she saw would be the final scene of her life. Not far from the altar, before the deep red velvet curtains, a black figure appeared—a true demon. That was the ‘Goddess’ they had sought to summon, a demonic, evil deity—

Hecate, the Goddess of Darkness.

End.”

Tao Lesi held the book, frowning. When she saw that “End,” she felt like she had suffered a critical hit of a million points.

The End? Why is it the end? How can it just end like this?

Does the novel just stop because all the main characters kicked the bucket?

Unwilling to accept it, she flipped through a few more pages, hoping for an extra chapter or a brief note from the author along the lines of, “There’s a Part Two, stay tuned.” However, the back of the book contained nothing but the publishing data. The entire story had come to a screeching halt immediately after the total party wipeout.

Tao Lesi flipped to the back cover, staring at the large “Price: 38 RMB” text, and couldn’t help but wail.

“I actually paid full price for a piece of trash novel!”

To put it simply, while Tao Lesi was out shopping a few days ago, she passed a bookstore and saw them promoting a horror novel titled Thriller Academy.

The book was the latest work by a rising star in horror fiction, Mr. S.B. Aisibi. The cover was exquisite, the design alluring, and the promotional band around the book boldly claimed that a deceased horror master had recently given the work his highest recommendation… Well, that part was certainly horrifying enough.

And so, seduced by false advertising, Tao Lesi shelled out the money for the novel.

The story was fairly cliché. Set around the 1990s, it took place in a tiny music academy in Europe.

On the surface, the academy was responsible for teaching, offering only two majors: Instrumental Performance and Dance. The female lead, Shoshana, was a dance student, while her best friend Dorothy was a piano student. However, undercurrents surged within the school; it seemed an invisible demon lurked in every corner of the campus.

Students disappeared and died one by one, yet the faculty’s attitude toward this was exceptionally cold. When Shoshana dragged her friend Dorothy along to investigate the disappearances, the Academy Principal, Madam Hilda, stepped in to obstruct them at every turn.

During the first half of the story, Tao Lesi had quite a liking for the Dorothy who shared her name. Dorothy was sharp and intelligent; she was the first to discover many of the key clues. Soon, through their investigation, Shoshana and Dorothy concluded that all the faculty members in the academy were witches, and their leader was Principal Hilda.

Hilda’s goal was to use a continuous stream of blood sacrifices to awaken the Goddess they worshipped, Hecate, who was currently slumbering in the abyss.

The author made a point to note that this Hecate wasn’t exactly the Goddess of the Night from Greek mythology; as a deity worshipped by witches, she was meant to be some sort of evil god.

Subsequently, because she had uncovered too many secrets, Dorothy was silenced by Principal Hilda, and her body was hidden in a secret chamber beneath the academy.

Even though Hilda was a villain, Tao Lesi actually liked her quite a bit. she always felt Hilda was incredibly mysterious and possessed a powerful spiritual strength. As a fan of both Dorothy and Hilda, Tao Lesi felt rather sad.

Then, the plot took a sharp turn. The witches sensed that Hecate was about to wake up, so they rushed the ritual in a grab for power, killing all the students. They even piled up the bodies of those who were already dead—everyone except the female lead, Shoshana. This wasn’t due to Shoshana’s “protagonist aura,” but because the witches hoped Hecate would possess Shoshana to descend into the mortal realm.

At the ritual, Hecate finally appeared. She was a black, hideous, indescribable image of an evil god—she didn’t look like a goddess at all, but something very Lovecraftian. Then, the Goddess swiftly killed everyone at the altar, including the sacrifices and the believers—including the cult leader, Hilda. Shoshana, too, waited in terror for the Goddess’s death to claim her. The end.

Now she didn’t even have to worry about being a fan of two different characters; they were all dead anyway.

Tao Lesi held the book, feeling an impulse to chuck it into the trash. But then she remembered she’d spent money on it, so she granted it the sacred duty of serving as a lid for her instant noodles from now on.

Tao Lesi went online to search for reviews of Thriller Academy on a reading app. As expected, it was a sea of insults. The most upvoted comment was: “The ending is a middle finger to society; it makes no sense.” Tao Lesi instinctively gave it a “like.”

Just as Tao Lesi happily ordered a cup of milk tea, prepared to forget this novel that had caused her such severe emotional damage, her phone chimed. A message had arrived. She tapped it open; it was a private message on the reading app from a stranger.

Aisibi: Thank you for your support of my work! As a reward, the system has randomly selected you to go on an immersive plot experience within “Thriller Academy”! Since you like the character Dorothy, you will receive the [Dorothy] skin!

Tao Lesi: ?

Aisibi: Your fantasy journey will begin in ten minutes. Please be prepared!

Tao Lesi: Stop.

Tao Lesi didn’t take it seriously at first, assuming it was targeted advertising based on keywords captured by the system. A moment later, she heard a thump-thump at her door. A voice outside said, “Your milk tea! I’ve hung it on the door handle!”

“So fast?” Tao Lesi stood up to get the tea when suddenly her vision went black and her body collapsed.

When she regained consciousness, she felt someone supporting her arm. A gentle but unfamiliar female voice spoke in her ear: “Dorothy, are you alright? Is it low blood sugar? Do you need me to go ask Mr. Judith for a leave of absence for you?”

The first thing Tao Lesi noticed was that the girl wasn’t speaking Chinese. But strangely, she could very clearly understand the meaning of every word, ogni vowel, and consonant the girl spoke, and fully comprehend what she wanted to express.

Suddenly, two beeps sounded in Tao Lesi’s mind, followed by an electronic voice with a very eerie, “underworld” sound effect.

“Hello, Miss Dorothy. Congratulations, you have now transmigrated into the world of Thriller Academy. You are currently Dorothy Engel, a student in the piano department of the academy. Your goal is: survive even after the Goddess Hecate is summoned. It is currently 8:00 AM, and you are preparing to go to class. The person supporting you is your friend, Miss Shoshana.”

Tao Lesi: “And who are you?”

Electronic Voice: “I am Aisibi, your smart little assistant in this world.”

Tao Lesi blinked. Slowly, her vision returned to normal, and she could see her surroundings clearly.

A dark, narrow corridor.

That was the first thing she saw. She was in a hallway with rooms on both sides. There was no light; this must be the academy dormitory mentioned in the novel. Due to the dim lighting, it looked even more aged, giving off a damp, musty smell. At the end of the corridor was a narrow window with a clothesline strung in front of it, draped with a few garments.

With Shoshana’s support, Tao Lesi stood up and took the opportunity to look at her.

Shoshana looked exactly like the description in the novel—a typical European girl, about twenty years old, slender and tall, with a few freckles on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her hair was light blonde, so pale it almost looked silver-white. She dressed simply and wasn’t stunningly beautiful, but she was pleasant to look at.

“I’m fine, just a bit dizzy,” Tao Lesi said as she stood up.

She realized the words coming out of her mouth weren’t Chinese either.

“Hello, you are currently speaking English,” Aisibi replied in her mind. “Additionally, according to the original setting, you also speak German and a small amount of French and Spanish.”

“Dorothy?” Shoshana said. “You look quite pale.”

“It’s okay,” Tao Lesi forced a smile at Shoshana. “Go to class first, alright? It doesn’t matter if I’m a little late.”

Shoshana gave her a worried look but eventually left at a jog, her footsteps echoing in the corridor and stairwell. She probably really was about to be late.

Now, Tao Lesi was the only one left in the dark hallway. She took a deep breath, calculating how to drag this “Aisibi” out and give it a sound thrashing.

“Hello, instead of thinking about how to beat me up, shouldn’t you first consider how to stay alive? If you die in this world, it’s a real death—you won’t return to the real world,” Aisibi said timely.

Tao Lesi calmed down slightly. Aisibi seemed to have a point.

“Where are we in the story right now?” Tao Lesi asked coldly.

“Your classmate and roommate Anastasia has been missing for exactly two days, though most people in the academy don’t know yet,” Aisibi replied.

Tao Lesi thought for a moment. This plot point was near the very beginning of the novel.

The full name of this music academy was the “Conrad Academy of Music and Art.” Its scale was incredibly small—so small it defied Tao Lesi’s expectations. The school’s teaching system was also very simple: it was divided only by major, not by grade level. There were no GPAs, credits, or assessments. Students came and went as they pleased. Rather than a school, it was more like an art troupe.

The entire faculty, including the dorm lady and the cafeteria workers, totaled only about twenty people. There were only about thirty to fifty students. The academy’s income mainly came from regular performances, and the Dance Department had the most students. The Instrumental Department had a pitifully small number of students; within that, the Piano Department had only two: Dorothy and Anastasia.

In the original novel, shortly after the start, Anastasia got a boyfriend. Their love was supposedly world-shaking and inseparable, and they eventually eloped. But the truth was that shortly after her disappearance, Anastasia died in a secret room beneath the academy, and her death was gruesome beyond description.

Anastasia had originally shared a room with Dorothy. After her disappearance, Dorothy moved into Shoshana’s room out of fear, which was when their friendship began to blossom.

Actually, surviving should be simple, Tao Lesi thought. These witches can only kill people within the academy. I’ll just pack my bags and run away. I’ll flee all the way back to China. I speak English and German—I’m a rare linguistic talent. I’ll just find a job as a translator or something. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

“Please don’t think like that, Miss Dorothy,” Aisibi said. “The setting of this book is that anyone who tries to escape the academy will be killed in an exceptionally cruel manner. Think of Anastasia; think of Emilia. Want to escape? Don’t make me laugh. It’s simply impossible.”

Tao Lesi now truly felt that Aisibi was annoying. Truly, truly, deeply annoying.