Chapter 47
Chapter 47
At noon the next day, the three met at the Guesthouse front desk. Cheng Miao had intended to store the remaining instant noodles in her Space Backpack, but Brother Parrot stopped her.
“Food and water can’t enter an instance. If the instance can’t provide them, anything you bring will still be inedible. If food and water are readily available, then the rules require you to consume what the instance provides.”
Cheng Miao stacked the remaining three cups of noodles on the counter and told Brother Parrot she would retrieve them when she returned. Lin Zhu had already registered and handed her an Instance Pass bearing all three names.
“Come back alive, or I won’t have anyone to chat with again.” Brother Parrot yawned and perched with its slender claws on the glass door handle as it watched them leave.
Cheng Miao’s group followed the dirt road toward the mountains. By the time the Guesthouse faded from sight behind them, the air had grown viscous, making every step feel like wading through water.
The world darkened. When light returned, the Instance Pass had disappeared from Cheng Miao’s hand, and they stood outside a school’s front gate.
“Guesthouses really are different. Every transmission from a Dormitory made me dizzy,” Qi Jiajia muttered. Lin Zhu quietly agreed.
Cheng Miao’s team had arrived first. The iron gate was tightly closed, probably because the other participants had not yet gathered.
Over time, more people appeared. Cheng Miao counted eighteen in total, an unusually large group.
New players were easy to identify. They looked panicked and suspicious, and some had collapsed into tears.
Not every Dormitory Front Desk attendant would explain the rules carefully. Some players might have been thrown directly into an instance.
A man in his thirties or forties stepped forward to calm the newcomers and explain the situation. He stood well over six feet tall with a fit, solid build. His bearing suggested military experience, while his eyes carried a resolve seldom found in ordinary people, one that had endured blood and death without dimming.
His name was Qin Musong. He explained their circumstances succinctly and did not waste time on newcomers who still refused to accept reality.
Cheng Miao raised a brow. Compassion without indiscriminate pity was rare.
With newcomers and veteran teams all shouting over one another, proper introductions were impossible.
[Ding! Welcome, players, to the instance Tan Tao’s School Life. Survive for four days to clear the instance.]
[Hints: 1. The moon in the mirror, the flower in the water. 2. When false becomes true, truth becomes false.]
A sudden rush of voices made a short woman release a small scream.
Students laughed, roughhoused, and complained about poor exam results. The ordinary school noises helped many players relax.
Cheng Miao’s expression did not ease. “Instances like this usually involve supernatural events. Stay alert.”
Qi Jiajia twirled a lock of hair around one finger. “Violence, spirit-summoning games, or ghost-invoking games. Those are the usual themes.”
Lin Zhu, who knew nothing but studying, felt thoroughly educated.
A middle-aged woman dressed as a Dean emerged. When she saw Qin Musong at the front, she offered a bitter smile. “You’ve arrived. Come inside quickly.”
Qin Musong strode forward. Cheng Miao followed with her teammates. Once the others saw that nothing happened to those who entered, they reluctantly trailed after them.
The Dean opened a classroom for the group. “I’m sorry. We didn’t expect so many of you, and there aren’t enough prepared rooms. We’ll have to ask you to stay in the student dormitories.”
No one dared object. The players who had whispered among themselves earlier fell silent.
Qin Musong was preparing to probe for the instance’s background when a cool voice spoke first. “There’s no need to apologize, Dean. Arrange things as you see fit. We also want to begin our work as soon as possible, so please tell us directly what you need.”
Qin Musong glanced toward the young woman who had spoken. Her clothes were neat, and fair skin set off her already attractive features. Most striking were her brown eyes, bright with reflected light yet cold as ice.
The Dean shook her head bitterly at Cheng Miao. “We wouldn’t have invited you if there were any other choice. More than ten students have died already. The principal doesn’t want the situation publicized, so he reached an understanding with the police and asked all of you to investigate first.”
Lin Zhu saw Cheng Miao lower her eyes and touched his nose. “You don’t have any leads?”
The Dean took a stack of student files from her bag and gave them to Cheng Miao. “Here are the relevant records. You could call them natural deaths, perhaps, but who encounters accidents this bizarre? And so many have died in a single month.”
Cheng Miao skimmed the pages. A compass driven through a temple. A skull crushed by a shot put. Someone drowned in a sink…
She handed the files to Qi Jiajia, who took out the phone and photographed each page. Several veteran players looked toward Cheng Miao.
The combination was peculiar: a young woman leading one older child and one little girl. Stranger still, the three worked together with remarkable harmony.
Qi Jiajia rotated the phone, verified that each picture was clear, then passed the files backward. Qin Musong watched the girl for a moment before lowering his sharp, wolf-like eyes.
“Dean, did any student die unjustly before these incidents began?” Cheng Miao tapped the desk and closely observed the woman’s expression.
“Die unjustly?” Confusion flashed across the Dean’s face. “No. Our school was perfectly normal before these events.”
“Bullying? Or did someone try something stupid after reading too many ghost stories?” Remembering their initial guesses, Lin Zhu leaned forward to join the conversation.
The Dean’s face turned stern. Beneath her black-framed glasses, her lined eyes looked rigid and old-fashioned. “Young man, I don’t know why you would imagine such a thing, but bullying has never occurred among our students. We maintain strict discipline, and those activities have never happened either.”
Lin Zhu was still a student himself. One glare from the Dean made him panic. As if sensing it, Cheng Miao turned and looked at him.
Her cool gaze steadied him. Lin Zhu apologized awkwardly. Qi Jiajia clicked her tongue under her breath. “Coward. Afraid of even that.”
Lin Zhu felt embarrassed and did not think she was wrong. He scratched his hair and grinned.
Qi Jiajia’s expression darkened instead, and she turned away in annoyance.
Other players asked questions in turn. Some missed the point; others touched information the NPC could not reveal, prompting evasive answers.
When the Dean rose to leave, Cheng Miao hurriedly asked one final question. “Dean, has any student truly died at this school recently?”
“What? Didn’t she ask that at the beginning?”
“Exactly. She’s wasting a question.”
Cheng Miao ignored the newcomers whispering behind her. Only a few experienced players recognized the subtle distinction between her two questions.
“Oh…” The Dean adjusted her glasses and slowly turned back. Her eyes had gone unfocused. “There was one. He was a good child. He died of an illness.”