Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The key could only open the locker at the end of the hallway.

As we pushed the door open and stepped out, the hallway lights flickered on one by one. The walls were plastered with photos of honor students, but every single one had their eyes circled in red ink, their mouths stretched in a grin that reached their ears.

The other players began to emerge as well.

Some chose to follow us.

The reason was practical: Jiang Xu looked like the type of person who could survive until the very end.

I had no objection to this.

A crowd didn’t necessarily mean safety, but it did provide more targets to distract the ghosts.

The locker was stuffed with old school uniforms. At the very bottom, buried under the fabric, was a tin box. It wouldn’t budge, but a line of text was engraved on the lid.

[Please write down the person you love most.]

The hallway fell deathly silent.

Zhao Mingyuan had a breakdown on the spot. “Isn’t this just a death trap?”

Another girl sobbed, “Can we write someone fake?”

Jiang Xu crouched down and glanced at the scratches along the edge of the lid.

“This isn’t a confession prompt; it’s a verification prompt.”

I crouched down beside him. “How do we verify it?”

“It asks for the person you love most, but it doesn’t specify romantic love.”

“Family?”

“It could also be yourself.”

My eyes lit up.

Zhao Mingyuan snatched the pen and scribbled his own name on the lid.

The tin box didn’t react.

Three seconds later, the eyes of every photo on the wall swiveled in unison to stare at him.

A broadcast rang out: “Narcissism is still a form of love.”

Zhao Mingyuan’s danger level spiked to 89%.

Terrified, he hurled the pen away. “No! Even loving myself doesn’t work? Is this damn game even going to let us live?”

Jiang Xu picked the pen back up and handed it to me.

“You write.”

I was wary. “Why me?”

“Because earlier, the thing you regretted losing was a ham sausage, not a person.”

I actually had no rebuttal for that.

I wrote three words on the lid.

[Fried Chicken Leg]

The tin box opened with a click.

Everyone looked at me with very complicated expressions.

The System remained silent for two seconds.

[Detected that player Shen Zhi’s emotional target is a non-living entity.]

[Danger level: 0%.]

I handed the pen back to Jiang Xu. “See that? The end point of human evolution is carbohydrates and protein.”

Inside the tin box was half of a photograph.

It showed the Graduation Ceremony at Mingde Middle School. A girl stood beneath the Bell Tower, clutching a bouquet of flowers. There should have been someone else beside her, but that half of the photo had been torn away.

On the back of the photo, it was written:

[After Lin Xia confessed to Gu Wenzhou, the entire class heard the bell toll.]

Beside the names was another line of very faint text.

[Seventh failed confession.]

I frowned. “The seventh time?”

Jiang Xu said, “This isn’t just a single ghost story; it’s a repeating cycle.”

Just then, footsteps echoed from the end of the hallway.

A girl wearing an old school uniform stepped out from the shadows, holding a bouquet of withered Gardenias. She had no eyes, only two black, hollow pits where tear tracks stained her face.

She asked, “Has anyone seen Gu Wenzhou?”

No one spoke.

She asked again.

The boy closest to her trembled and backed away, accidentally bumping into me.

My foot slipped, and I pitched forward.

Jiang Xu reached out and grabbed me, pulling me behind him.

The bouquet of withered flowers brushed past his shoulder, and a bloody gash was instantly corroded into his white shirt.

Bright red text from the System popped up.

[Detected that player Jiang Xu has developed protective tendencies toward player Shen Zhi.]

[Danger level: 34%.]

My heart tightened suddenly.

Jiang Xu acted as if he hadn’t seen it, whispering to me, “Don’t look back. Run.”

My danger level began to rise as well.

[21%.]

[26%.]

I bit the tip of my tongue, using the pain to suppress that ill-timed surge of panic.

I couldn’t worry about him.

Worry is love’s most cunning disguise.