CH 70

“You can’t leave even after death, so pay attention.”

The old doorman’s declaration was imposing, but unfortunately it wasn’t targeting the right people.

Ge Tingting was so nervous that she didn’t even take out her phone, so she couldn’t understand what he was saying, while Huang Jin had killed someone before and traversed the shadows for many years. This kind of intimidation was like calluses in his ears.

Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo heard what he said, but it was a pity that one had a rich experience in death while the other was so courageous that his emotions didn’t fluctuate at all. Yin Ren smiled at the old man and waved his hand, indicating he heard it.

The old doorman slowly retracted his head, and there was a trace of loneliness when he closed the window. The rusted sliding door started again and slowly closed.

The moment it was completely closed, the scene on the campus suddenly changed…

The black vortex in the sky was gone, and only a gloomy normal sky was left above them. A more complex and realistic mixture of smells suddenly appeared in the breeze, and the colors were much richer than on the street.

It was like pulling back a layer on a veil; the scenery inside the campus was so detailed that it was almost as if they were in the real world.

Yin Ren stopped under a pomegranate tree by a flower bed and looked around curiously.

The campus wasn’t big. The main teaching building was facing the gate, and there were labs and libraries on either side. A corner of the playground was faintly exposed behind the teaching building, and the playground was next to several old, small buildings. However, Mr. Ghost King wasn’t really familiar with school so he couldn’t tell whether it was a teaching building or a student dorm.

The main teaching building was closest to them, with five floors. It had neatly arranged windows, and there wasn’t any deformation. The exterior wall of the teaching building was also painted with cement stones, and the white gravel was embedded with dark red and light gray embellishments.

On the nearby lawn, there was a warning sign displaying “Keep off the grass” with a cartoon pattern that was particularly clear.

The faces of the students who moved about were slightly blurred, but the school uniforms they were wearing were vivid. As long as they didn’t look closely, everything could be considered normal.

“Xiao Zhong’s judgment is correct. This is indeed a special place, and there are strong signs of autonomous closure. Pay attention. Guo Laifu’s ‘cause’ is definitely nearby.”

Lu Xiaohe’s voice rang in everyone’s ears. Her words were intermittent and broken.

“Wait, it’s a bit weird… evil… value… here…”

“This is Qingjiang No. 16 High School. Hey, can you hear me? …Can you hear me?”

There was a sharp noise on the audio, and a young voice rang through the campus. Lu Xiaohe’s voice was completely suppressed and turned into static noises.

Guo Wei, Guo Laifu’s son, had been studying at No. 16 High School in Qingjiang before he was killed.

The school was divided between a junior high school and a high school. It was an average school and wasn’t well known in the local area. These materials were clearly written in Guo Laifu’s file, and Lu Xiaohe had looked over them before they left.

However, Guo Wei had been dead for more than half a year.

A ghost couldn’t be summoned into a human brain, so it wasn’t some trick by any ghost master. Assuming that Guo Laifu was possessed by his own son’s ghost, there should be obvious evil qi on him, which Shian couldn’t possibly miss.

Yin Ren closed his eyes. The vague hostility was still around him. At this distance, even he couldn’t feel the traces of any ghosts or evil spirits. He seemed to smell a bit of Evil Force, but after sniffing carefully, that smell had disappeared, which made it quite confusing.

This environment was too different from the real world, which made Yin Ren a bit confused about the situation.

…What exactly was the thing that was talking now?

“Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me?”

Seeing that everyone didn’t answer, the voice kept asking. The distorted voice was mixed with an unbearable howling whine.

“I can hear you,” Zhong Chengshuo straightforwardly answered. “May I ask what you want?”

In the face of the strange campus and the voice that shouldn’t exist, Comrade Zhong Chengshuo was as steady as Mount Tai. Huang Jin glanced at him with a trace of admiration.

After receiving an unexpected response, the radio went silent for a moment.

The next moment, an electronic screen outside the main teaching building lit up, and a young figure appeared on it.

The young man was sitting in an office chair with a mess of debris piled up on the desk. Behind him was a wall, and on the wall hung a string of words saying: “Qingjiang No. 16 High School Campus Radio Station”. The environment was the same as outside.

The young man had a square face and thick lips; his appearance was ordinary to below average. Unlike Huang Jin’s upright gloom, this child gave off an uncomfortably dreadful feeling. His face was unusually clear, and his eyes were similar to Guo Laifu’s—single eyelids with slightly protruding eyes that were large and dull.

Unlike Guo Laifu, those eyes were dull and bloodshot. There didn’t seem to be any life in them, just like the eyes of a corpse.

The young man was wearing the same blue and white school uniform as Ge Tingting, and there was a school badge labeled “Guo Wei” pinned on his chest. His eyes were fixed on the screen, and he was fiddling with a black ballpoint pen in his hand.

“Welcome to Qingjiang No. 16 High School,” he said slowly. “Welcome to the last day of my life.”

After saying this, the electronic screen snapped off, leaving only the rustling sound of the loudspeakers.

……

When Yin Ren recovered, a group of people were standing in front of the staff dormitory.

This dormitory only had two floors and was close to the main teaching building. The decorations were unassuming, and the stairwell had a strange smell of moldy wallpaper.

The headache was that there was only one room in the dorm on the second floor that was vacant. They confirmed it as they moved along the corridor; the other rooms were either locked or there were people moving around. Not to mention checking in, when they knocked on the door, there was no response.

The door of the only vacant room was left wide open, as if it were waiting for them.

The room was empty and less than twenty square meters in size. There were only two single wooden beds in the room and a set of desks and chairs that were full of scratches. The wooden floor underneath them was severely worn. Huang Jin found two blankets in the closet and barely scraped together two floor beds.

An old clock on the wall ticked, making a particularly annoying sound.

Everyone’s luggage was stacked against the wall, making the already small space even more cramped. However, as a temporary stronghold, this barely qualified. After finishing their arrangements, it was already past 6:00 p.m..

When Zhong Chengshuo finished unpacking, he cautiously checked the window.

It was still a gloomy day outside, and the laughter of students floated in from time to time through the cracks of the window. Luckily, the window was sealed enough and the view wasn’t bad—from this dorm room, he could see the vestibule of the main teaching building and also half of the campus gate.

“Guo Wei has a lot of thoughts flowing in his body. I can’t understand them, but he’s definitely not human.” Huang Jin sat on the ground and wiped his face wearily. “But his thinking is too heavy for a ghost… Yin Ren, you’re a ghost master. Did you notice anything?”

Yin Ren shook his head subconsciously. “No, I’ve never seen that type.”

He wasn’t prevaricating. Since Lord Ghost King had never visited the inside of someone’s head before, he was truly inexperienced this time.

Ge Tingting didn’t express any opinions; most likely, she didn’t notice anything. After being frightened in an unfamiliar environment, her face was faintly tired. She had barely finished eating her compressed food before she leaned against a chair and fell asleep.

The four’s headsets were still staticky. It seemed they couldn’t connect with Lu Xiaohe.

Since they had lost contact, they didn’t know if a senior investigation team would come. Yin Ren put away the headset and pondered casually. Having said that, if neither he nor Zhong Chengshuo could cope with the situation, the senior investigation team would do something about it.

This scavenger hunt was more exciting than he had imagined.

Time passed slowly. After a short discussion, everyone decided to divide into two groups—Ge Tingting and Huang Jin slept from 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., while Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo slept from 1:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.. Such vigils were taken in turns, so each group was guaranteed to get at least six hours of sleep.

In this weird situation, even without Lu Xiaohe’s instructions in their ears, everyone knew they needed to recharge their batteries. Fortunately, the day and night here were completely chaotic, and the lighting was irregular, so there wasn’t a bad time to rest.

Ge Tingting and Huang Jin lay on the single beds. As soon as their tense nerves relaxed, they quickly fell asleep.

Yin Ren consciously laid down on the floor and skillfully took out some snacks and his tablet. He was just about to greet Zhong Chengshuo but found that the other party had already gone into the bathroom and that his pajamas were gone.

Yin Ren was speechless.

Even a bizarre workplace like the “human mind” couldn’t distort Comrade Xiao Zhong’s sleeping habits or prevent him from changing into his pajamas. Unfortunately, the world had obviously distorted other things—when Zhong Chengshuo walked out again, the relaxation on his face disappeared without a trace.

He was still wearing his formal suit, which didn’t match the pompom nightcap on his head. Zhong Chengshuo’s gaze was straight, showing a bit of loss.

“I just changed into my pajamas.” Zhong Chengshuo tried hard to unbutton his suit as he spoke. “Then it changed by itself.”

Yin Ren stared at the nightcap in silence. At least the world retained some tenderness, leaving Zhong Chengshuo his nightcap—perhaps it didn’t quite understand the existence of the nightcap itself and couldn’t convert it into other impressions.

After five minutes of fighting, Zhong Chengshuo lost his battle to the suit and accepted his fate. He lay down on the floor in his formal suit; the nightcap on his head looked a bit sluggish.

Yin Ren sniffed. There was a refreshing, moist smell on Zhong Chengshuo’s body. He must have scrubbed himself carefully in the bathroom just now.

It seemed that his cleaning wipes were temporarily useless, which made Lord Ghost King quite regretful.

“You can go to bed first and get more sleep.” Yin Ren made room for his partner. “I’ll keep watch. It’s enough for me alone.”

Zhong Chengshuo took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s better not to do it alone.”

Yin Ren’s long hair was coiled like a dark spring on his pillow. Zhong Chengshuo moved his arm, seemingly unintentionally putting the back of his hand on it. This evil thing’s hair was cold and slippery, and he didn’t find any hidden teeth.

“Don’t worry. I know my heart.” Yin Ren acquiesced to his small gesture.

“Huang Jin said that he and Ge Tingting had no communication for a long time and developed a cognitive abnormality.” Zhong Chengshuo regretfully withdrew his hand. “If you’re alone, it’s not possible to stay—”

Yin Ren put down the tablet. He fixed his gaze on a point in the void; his expression suspiciously restrained. “I have good hearing.”

Zhong Chengshuo: “?”

“Go to sleep. It’s rare you have a chance to get some good rest,” Yin Ren whispered. “Trust me.”

“Okay.” Zhong Chengshuo closed his eyes. His voice was a little muffled, but he was still trying to speak. “I feel like this task… isn’t C Level anymore…”

“Indeed.” Yin Ren couldn’t help but lower his face bitterly. “Human calculations aren’t as good as those of the heavens, but we can’t do anything about it.”

As an Evil Spirit, Lord Ghost King’s luck was still in tatters.

Fang Yuanyuan said that this job “doesn’t require business trips in the early stage”. Objectively speaking, they indeed had never been out of Haigu. This time, they were even working on Shian’s campus, but they were brought into someone else’s mind.

Yin Ren’s goal of being lazy was also seriously hindered—he finally turned into a regular employee and encountered a task that wasn’t dangerous, but it took place in a weird place where there was no food or drink. Being over on this side in less than a day, he had already begun missing the night market next to the community.

As another example… He had misjudged his partner, thinking Zhong Chengshuo was just some foolish kid.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too late to make amends. He could still work hard and try his best to turn Zhong Chengshuo into an “accomplice”. Who would have thought that not only did they develop a relationship that restrained each other, but the restraint was actually a bit too much.

Yin Ren got rid of his distraction, relaxed his body, and continued to chat in a low voice. “Zhong Chengshuo, do you think this counts as a business trip?”

No answer.

Zhong Chengshuo had already fallen asleep. His heartbeat was low, and his breathing was steady.

Zhong Chengshuo’s sleeping posture was quite good. He breathed lightly, and his lips were slightly open. He looked extremely harmless—completely different from “King Yama” who rushed in and killed that group of monsters. It was just this person’s brows were slightly furrowed. Yin Ren wondered if he was worried about “communication” or something of that nature.

Yin Ren hesitated for a few seconds and put away the tablet. He lay back beside Zhong Chengshuo and stared at his sleeping face. A strand of long hair quietly climbed onto the pillow and slipped onto Zhong Chengshuo’s cheek. The warm breath stroked the tips of his hair, shaking it like the waves in a sea.

Yin Ren stretched out his hand and gently pressed Zhong Chengshuo’s frowning brows.

“I can hear your heartbeat like my own.”

Yin Ren could hear the steady, powerful heartbeat with vigorous vitality. The other person’s presence was so obvious that it constantly drew his attention.

They were far from a “long period of no communication”.

“…As long as you’re here, I’m not alone.” Yin Ren stared at the man’s sleeping face and moved his lips silently.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Amidst the harsh sound of the clock, the other party’s heartbeat was velvety and soft to his ears. Yin Ren closed his eyes and listened carefully…

Wait, something’s not right.

Like a pot of ice water being poured over his head, Yin Ren suddenly woke up.

Why did they come to the faculty dormitory?

They obviously entered the school at 3:00 p.m., so how could it be 6:00 p.m. after only unpacking?

They saw Guo Wei, but they didn’t investigate further, and they didn’t try to leave but went straight to the staff dormitory. Even the matter of losing contact with Lu Xiaohe was gently discarded. Even if the “cause” was nearby, such a judgment would be too hasty and reckless.

The behavior of the four of them was quite strange. Even Zhong Chengshuo, who was a science post, didn’t notice these issues.

Yin Ren was good at memory spells. He was pretty clear that this definitely wasn’t the effect of some memory technique. To be able to handle Zhong Chengshuo and himself, this had to be a more complex and broader environmental influence. Although it didn’t cause direct harm to them, it couldn’t be considered less dangerous.

Yin Ren patted his face and got up. He tiptoed out of the bunk and looked around.

Huang Jin and Ge Tingting were sleeping soundly, and there wasn’t anything abnormal around their bodies. Zhong Chengshuo was curled up, and his chest was rising and falling with his breath.

Unlike a few hours ago, the air was filled with a peculiar smell of mud before the heavy rain. Yin Ren opened the curtains and looked out. The night outside the window was like ink—it was better to say that the window seemed to be painted with ink; nothing could be seen.

There were no vortex, no monsters, no sounds. In this extraordinarily realistic dormitory, the boundary between reality and fantasy blurred for a moment.

Yin Ren completely lost his sleepiness.

As a C-Level investigation team, they had endured too much work that they shouldn’t have to bear.

It seemed it wasn’t just a simple mental illness that surrounded Guo Laifu but there was also another mystery in this person’s mind. Not to mention Shian, even he didn’t notice the abnormality himself, which meant the situation wasn’t something easy to deal with.

Waking up the three humans at once would only waste their energy. If there was a chance, the attacker would use him as a test case first.

Lord Ghost King kept his standing posture. He pinched his fingers with his hands and vigilantly guarded the center of the room.

At the same time, his hair stretched out into the shadows. They quietly drilled under the floor, extended out of the faculty dormitory, and gently touched the boundary of the campus. However, just like when they first tried to come in, the tips of Yin Ren’s hair were blocked by an invisible barrier and couldn’t move even an inch forward.

Sure enough.

Yin Ren’s test was over as soon as he touched it. He let out a sigh of relief and took Dog Thing from his pocket.

Currently, Yin Ren’s phone typing speed was just as good as any modern person’s: [Do you know what’s going on here?]

[Siren: No impression.]

[Siren: Nothing to eat.]

[Siren: It’s boring.] Dog Thing came at him with a three-response combo without giving Yin Ren any face.

[Cooperate well, and I’ll take you out to eat the weak.] Yin Ren responded patiently. [Are there any so-called strong or weak people nearby?]

Dog Thing’s screen flashed for a while. It was obvious it was weighing the costs and benefits.

[Siren: I don’t know. Smells like home here, but it’s not home.]

[Siren: Be careful.]

Yin Ren: [Be careful of what?]

[Siren: Be careful of yourself.]

[Siren: It’s different here. Don’t use your powers casually.]

After displaying this ambiguous text, Dog Thing’s screen went out. It was still the same familiar way of explaining things. Yin Ren felt bitterness in his heart. He stuffed the phone back into his pocket and continued to guard the door and windows.

After the shimmer of the screen disappeared, the room returned to darkness. The hour hand moved a bit from “7” to “12”.

The second hand of the old clock toggled for the last time. The three hands completely overlapped, and the distorted class bell sounded outside the window.

What followed immediately was the voice they had just heard not long ago.

“Welcome to Qingjiang No. 16 High School.” Accompanied by the harsh noise of the speakers, Guo Wei’s voice resounded across the campus in the same tone as in the afternoon. “Welcome to the last day of my life.”

But this time, he paused and slowly added another sentence.

“Teachers, family members, faculty, and students, you still have four chances left. Please work hard to leave the school.”

The author has something to say:

Xiao Yin: It’s really good to enter Shian. C-Level tasks won’t be troublesome. I can fish, and there’s even a cafeteria! The field service is also reimbursed.

Xiao Yin: (Gao Mengyu’s case)… Wait, this seems a bit dangerous.

Xiao Yin: (Feng Qi’s case) Why does it seem that I’m really going to die?

Xiao Yin: (Bai Yongji’s case) I’m going to die!!!

Xiao Yin: (Guo Laifu’s case) Fuck, it’s a dead person I’ve never seen before.

Xiao Zhong had already seen through it, but Xiao Zhong kept silent (.