Shi Xin looked at the "bright bridge" made of pixel blocks on the screen and had an idea: "I don't care whether it breaks the rules or not, I just want to go in and be with him."

He sat on a small stool, resting his elbows on his knees, shaking the game controller in his hand.

If only these things hadn't happened.

He will still meet Mingqiao when he comes to the school for an interview, will still fall in love with him at first sight, and will still continue to be attracted to him.

By then, he and Mingqiao will definitely have a decent and comfortable start, and they will not be tied to the same life and death line as now, worrying about whether they will die or when they will die.

There was a countdown in the upper right corner of the screen, and the jumping numbers were like a time bomb, pressing on everyone's nerves.

There are still seventeen minutes until the library loses power.

Mingqiao had a layer of sweat on his forehead, and the originally tiny drops of water gradually gathered together and then dripped down together.

He put the last building block in his hand together, carefully checked the joints, and after making sure there was no obvious looseness, he placed the ladder on the ground.

The ladder was only four meters long and was barely placed on the hole left after the stairs collapsed, almost vertically upwards.

Although Mingqiao intended to make the ladder longer, time waits for no one and he could only solve the problem quickly in the shortest time possible.

He shouldered the backpack on the table, stuffed the pink block inside, and climbed the stairs.

The stairs built with building blocks are not very stable. There is a soft elasticity when stepping on them, forcing people to be very careful.

After climbing two or three steps, Mingqiao slowed down his breathing. He climbed the stairs very quickly, holding on to both sides of the stairs and pulling upwards with force. His feet only stayed on one step for less than a second before he immediately reached the next step.

The whole process took less than a minute, and Mingqiao had already reached the second floor of the library.

The situation on the second floor is similar to that on the first floor. Everywhere you look, you can see colorful blocks. However, the layout of the second floor is slightly different from that of the first floor. There are more than a dozen tables for four people, all neatly arranged on one side of the wall. The bookshelf is divided into only two areas, and you can see the end at a glance.

Mingqiao brushed the dust off his clothes, took out wet wipes from his backpack, wiped the nearest table clean, and then put down his schoolbag.

He found the pink building block book.

"Shi Xin." Ming Qiao walked towards the bookshelf and asked, "Where exactly should this book be placed?"

"There's a vacancy on the third shelf of bookshelf No. 2 in Area A. You should be able to see it."

"Okay." Mingqiao walked to the bookshelf and saw a tiny gap suddenly appeared between the blocks that were originally close together.

He held the books around him with one hand and inserted the pink piece with the other.

The block went in smoothly, but there was no response.

"The task has failed." Shi Xin's voice reached Ming Qiao's ears: "Try changing direction?"

Mingqiao took out the pink building block again, turned it over, and put it back in.

At the moment the building blocks were put back in place, all the lights in the library were turned off, and the humming sound of the air conditioner and the crackling sound of electricity passing through the light tubes also disappeared.

Mingqiao reached out to the bookshelf next to him, and after finding support, he called out tentatively: "Shi Xin? Can you still hear me?"

He was answered with silence.

This situation was completely within Mingqiao's expectations. He had experienced darkness and silence many times before. However, after the disconnection, he was really alone. He felt a little uneasy without a companion.

It was not five o'clock yet, and the power outage in advance only meant that the first task given by Shi Xin was completed. He only needed to wait until the library called tomorrow to contact Shi Xin again for the next linear task. Now it seemed that compared with the previous tasks in the cafeteria and the playground, the library's tasks were a bit easier for him. With the experience he had accumulated, he should be able to pass them faster than the previous two times.

Mingqiao returned to his backpack, took out his cell phone, turned on the flashlight, and held it in his hand.

The bright and dazzling light swept through every corner of the library as he swung back and forth. Mingqiao originally wanted to find out if there were any other traps, but when he scanned the last bookshelf, he found a female student.

The student stood straight between two rows of bookshelves. When Mingqiao's light swept over her, she just closed her eyes briefly, and then continued to look at him with her eyes open.

Ming Qiao was frightened by her stare. Anyone who saw such a sudden appearance would be startled, and this female student did not behave like a normal person.

"Are you a teacher?" the female student spoke slowly. Her voice was light and ethereal. Mingqiao didn't even see her mouth move, but the voice came out.

This reminded Mingqiao of a female ghost he had seen in a movie before. Although she looked like a human, her voice was terrifying and scary when she spoke.

"Yes." Mingqiao took a few tentative steps forward: "You are a student, right? Are you okay?"

"Not bad." The girl said, "I'm hungry."

"I brought some food." When Mingqiao heard her say she was hungry, his first reaction was to help her, no matter if she was a human or a ghost. He took the girl to his backpack and gave her a piece of bread and a bottle of water.

"Thank you." The girl took it, tore open the package and started eating in small bites. Although each bite was very small, she ate quickly and finished the bread as big as her face in a short while. It seemed that she had been hungry for a long time.

During this time, Mingqiao had been observing her from the side. After making sure that there was nothing unusual, he asked, "Are you alone here?"

"No." The girl hesitated when she said this, and her eyes dodged twice: "There are others."

Mingqiao looked at her and asked silently.

The girl did not continue to answer him. Instead, she took the bottle of mineral water and wanted to drink it, but she twisted the cap twice and it didn't open.

Mingqiao took it, helped her unscrew the bottle cap and then handed it to her.

The girl stared at Mingqiao's hand for a while before taking the water and taking a small sip.

"You can call me Fendi." The girl looked at Mingqiao: "What about you?"

"Mingqiao."

"Mr. Ming." Fendi whispered, "Can I ask what time it is now?"

Mingqiao turned on his cell phone and checked the time, then answered her, "Five twenty-three in the afternoon."

"The lights were turned off three minutes early today." Fundy said, "What did you do?"

"Yes." Mingqiao was surprised at her accurate counting of time and waited for her to answer his question.

Fendi then took several sips of water and said, "The others are eliminated."

"disuse?"

"Yeah." Fundy nodded: "Because there is a competition. It will be held in the library after the power goes out every day. This is the tradition of the student union."

Ming Qiao asked, "Today too?"

"Yes." Fendi said, "Today is the architectural competition. It hasn't started yet. It's at six o'clock."

“What happens if we’re eliminated?”

"I don't know." Fundy looked up at him, "It will disappear, but I guess it will also die."

Ming Qiao followed her speculation and said, "Those student council members who were originally with you were eliminated because they lost the game? And the way they were eliminated was by disappearing. As for where they went after they disappeared, or whether they were already dead, you don't know."

"Yeah." Fendi gave an affirmative answer.

"What other games do you have besides the building competition?"

"Yesterday it was hide-and-seek, the day before yesterday it was skipping rope, and the day before yesterday it was paper cutting." Fendi tried hard to recall: "I can't quite remember what happened before that. I played a tower defense game once, and I lost a lot of people in that game."

These games involve various types, and Mingqiao can't see any pattern. He can only be sure that they are games that students can access in daily life, and do not include virtual ones such as holographic online games.

He checked the time.

It was five thirty-four in the afternoon. It was less than half an hour until the six o'clock Fendi had said.

“Can you tell me about the rules of the architecture competition?”

Fendi finished the last sip of water and screwed the cap on the bottle: "Build blocks and see how much you can bear."

“How do you test the endurance?”

"There are earthquakes, once every two hours."

Mingqiao narrowed his eyes slightly. If what Fendi said was true, then the stair collapse he encountered on the first floor was most likely caused by an earthquake. It was about 4:30 at that time. According to what Fendi said, there was an earthquake every two hours, so the next earthquake would be at 6:30.

That is to say, after the game started, he only had half an hour to build a building to hide in.

This was a very awkward time. According to the time he had taken to build the ladder, half an hour would barely be enough to build a small space that could accommodate only one person. But the awkward part was that it was still a question whether the small space could withstand the so-called "earthquake".

Building blocks are not like ordinary building materials. They are soft, have unstable joints, are small and numerous. Mingqiao was clearly aware of this when he was building the ladder.

"Teacher Ming." Fendi smiled lightly, and the creepy voice crawled through Ming Qiao's ears like a bug, making him tremble all over.

"Mr. Ming, actually if you didn't come in, I wouldn't have to compete on my own."

Mingqiao was stunned for a moment when he heard her speak, but he soon figured out something was wrong.

If Fendi was the only one, she would have eliminated everyone and would be the winner, so she certainly didn't need to continue the game to decide the winner. Mingqiao joined in, allowing the game to continue. After today's game, one of him and Fendi would definitely be eliminated.

"Mr. Ming, why did you come in?"

Mingqiao turned off the flashlight, and the surroundings fell into darkness again. He said to where Fendi was just now, "I'll come in and save people."

"How are you going to save her?" Fendi asked with a hint of amusement in his tone.

"Find them and get them out."

Fendi laughed again: "Then Teacher Ming, will you save me?"

"…Save." Ming Qiao said, "As long as you are a human being."

"I am." Fendi lowered his voice, "But if you eliminate me in the game later, you haven't saved me."

Mingqiao said nothing.

"But if I eliminate you, you might not be able to find anyone else, and you might even lose your life." Fendi's eyes fell on Ming Qiao. She was examining the frail man in front of her: "What will Mr. Ming choose?"

Ming Qiao looked back intuitively: "I'll tell you when the game starts."