The Silent and Eerie School (Part 20)

"See, see, I knew it. So when Su Su said she wasn't feeling well outside, this male teacher carried her back to his home. He knew Su Su was lying. Now that Su Su is really injured, he still has to go out to find medicine."

"Baby, don't move around! We haven't applied the medicine yet!"

"Oh? You're leaving already? I still feel pain from the sound of that fall. Baby, how about you finish your medicine before you go?"

Li Su stood up and tried to shift her weight onto her left leg, but her face immediately contorted in pain.

It hurts a lot, but it seems bearable.

We need to hurry, otherwise it will be even harder for him to leave once the NPC male teacher returns.

Li Su gritted her teeth and limped toward the door.

Li Su carefully opened the door a crack and quietly observed the situation by pressing her head against the crack.

The area outside the door was empty; there wasn't a single person in sight.

With her heart finally at ease, Li Su limped towards the door, leaning against the wall for support.

Hurry up, faster!

Fortunately, Qi Wujin's place was not far from the school's history museum; it was just a short walk from the building.

However, this short distance left Li Su drenched in sweat. The only consolation was that his knees were a little numb and didn't hurt as much as when he first started walking.

Li Su quickened her pace and soon appeared at the entrance of the school history museum by the moonlight.

There were no lights outside the school history museum, and the protruding eaves blocked most of the moonlight, making the surrounding environment appear even darker and more gloomy.

Li Su opened her mouth, breathing heavily, and took out the key to the archives from the pocket of her school uniform jacket.

"Ugh... I can't open it..." The overly dark environment frightened Li Su.

My hands, already trembling slightly from the pain, couldn't quite make out the iron lock on the school history museum's door.

The air under the eaves circulated from side to side, and the originally light autumn wind became cold and fierce.

A sudden gust of cold wind rushed in around her waist, startling Li Su so much that her hand trembled.

"Clatter".

It's over.

The key fell on the ground.

Li Su groped her way down and slowly squatted down, leaning against the door of the school history museum, searching for the key that she had accidentally dropped on the ground in front of the museum.

The cement floor was extremely rough.

Li Su felt her palms were chafed painfully.

But he couldn't stop.

The male teacher could arrive at any time, so he had to hurry.

Li Su let out a soft sob, blinked hard, and forced back the tears welling up in her eyes.

Finally, her fingertips touched something cold, and the metal made a very faint sound on the rough cement floor. Li Su quickly picked up the key.

After getting the key, Li Su finally breathed a sigh of relief. She gripped the key tightly and prepared to get up, but found that her already injured knee was so sore and weak from squatting down to look for the key that she couldn't stand up.

Li Su bit her lower lip hard, took a deep breath, and stood up despite the pain.

After some fumbling, the key finally fit into the lock.

The moment she heard the lock being opened, Li Su almost burst into tears.

"Squeak—"

The wooden door to the school history museum was exceptionally heavy, and Li Su had to use some force to push it open a crack.

Suddenly a strong wind blew up, making a howling sound in the darkness. Li Su's calves ached and she almost knelt down again.

Fortunately, I managed to grab the door of the school history museum in time, which prevented me from falling to the ground.

He mustered his courage and glanced behind him.

The tall trees cast dark shadows on the ground, swaying and trembling in the autumn wind, as if they were crawling towards the school history museum.

With just one glance, mist filled Li Su's eyes again. The eerie environment almost swallowed him whole. Li Su could only quickly turn around and close the door of the school history museum to block out the chilling wind and the dark scene.

As the doors to the school history museum closed, the entire space was plunged into darkness, as if it had been completely swallowed up.

Li Su, fighting back tears, called out to the system: "System, are you there? Is there a light here?"

The system, which used to respond to the male NPC teacher, now seems to have disappeared, making no sound at all.

Overwhelmed by helplessness, Li Su broke down in sobs: "Waaah..."

He tried looking down at his hands, but found that in the absolute darkness he couldn't even see his own hands, as if they had disappeared.

Li Su struggled to raise her hands and touch her face to confirm that her hands hadn't disappeared, they were just invisible.

"Waaaaah... My heart aches so much..."

"Baby, SuSu baby..."

"I totally empathize. The dark really does amplify fear. I was terrified when the power went out last time TwT..."

"Don't be afraid, baby. We're here with you."

"Sigh, it would be so much better if SuSu could see the comments, but unfortunately, SuSu can't even see them..."

There should be lights.

He silently reassured himself not to be afraid.

Li Su raised her arm and wiped her tears with the sleeve of her school uniform jacket, then began to try to feel her way along the wall.

"Ugh..."

Li Su couldn't help but cry out in pain when her arm hit a sharp object, but she immediately covered her mouth.

Li Su mustered her courage and reached down from the sharp object, touching a metal object that resembled a bookshelf.

Li Su's heart, which had been pounding in her throat, relaxed a little.

It's okay, it's just a frame.

After some searching, Li Su finally found a familiar object on the upper part of the wall.

"Clatter".

Light finally broke through the pitch-black archives room.

After that fumbling around, Li Su was drenched in cold sweat from fear, exhaustion, and the throbbing pain in his knees. Even his hair, which he had just dried, was now sticky and wet with sweat, clinging to his forehead.

Li Su's hands were still trembling slightly, and his thick, long eyelashes were wet with tears, sticking together in strands. A few glistening teardrops hung at the tips of his eyelashes, trembling slightly with the boy's trembling.

Li Su raised her hand and wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, then cautiously observed the structure of the school history museum.

The school history museum is not very big, about the size of a classroom, with rows and rows of iron bookshelves neatly arranged inside.

What Li Su found strange was that the huge school history museum didn't even have a single window.

No wonder it was pitch black inside when the lights were off, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

Li Su strode forward and saw rows of iron frames with the year printed on their sides.

January 3012, February 3012, March 3012...

Each row of shelves represents a new month, so densely packed that you can't see the end.

Li Su walked in and casually picked up the file folder placed on the shelf in front of her.

White thread wrapped around the round clasp on the file folder, and Li Su carefully unwrapped it one loop at a time.

The file folder contained a thick stack of papers.

Li Su reached into the file folder, pulled out a document, and found it contained black and white photographs of both men and women. Below the photographs were small prints. Li Su ran her fingertips over the ink on the paper and murmured, "Are these their names...?"

Unsure, Li Su stuffed the paper back into the file folder and then put the file folder back in its original place.

Li Su walked a few rows of shelves back, picked up the file folder on the shelf again, and opened it. She found that it was the same as the one she had just seen, with black and white photos of men and women, and small print below the photos that looked like names.

The difference is that the portrait photos are different, and each person's name is also different.

The photos in the files all look normal, and their appearances are not as terrifying as those of the NPCs in the game.

Of course, the NPCs he's referring to don't include the school doctor who examined him or the strange male teacher.

The two people looked normal, just like the other players, unlike the classmates and the female teacher, who had completely black eyes and stiff, pale faces.

Li Su couldn't determine whose information was in these files, but she was certain that they were all young and looked like middle school students.

Suddenly, Li Su recalled the system notification she received when she first entered the game: "[Shengze Middle School is a renowned excellent school, yet student disappearances are frequent.]"

A bold conjecture gradually emerged in my mind.

Could the people in these files be the missing students?

Almost the instant Li Su had this thought, the mechanical voice of the system in her mind sounded again.

[Congratulations to player Li Su for successfully uncovering part of the truth about Shengze Middle School. The current main quest progress is 40%. Please continue your efforts.]

Li Su's hands, holding the file folder, trembled uncontrollably.

The people in these files are indeed students, and they have all disappeared from the school.

Why would the school print out all the missing students' photos and names and archive them in the school history museum?

Strict teachers, rigid and inflexible students, almost harsh rules, piles of human bones, students who have disappeared...

What secrets are still hidden in Shengze Middle School?

After learning that they were all students who had disappeared, Li Su could no longer treat these files as casually as before.

These light sheets of paper seemed unusually heavy at this moment.

Li Su carefully put the file back in its original place.

"Squeak—"

A faint sound came from the direction of the school history museum's main entrance, just like the sound he made when he pushed the door open to enter.

Li Su was so startled that she even stopped trying to put the file folder back on the shelf.

What was it? Did the wind blow the door to the archives open?

Li Su's breathing became rapid. He peeked out slightly, trying to observe through the gaps between the file folders on the shelf. However, he had already walked to the very back edge of the shelf, and all he could see through the narrow gaps were rows of iron shelves. He couldn't see the direction of the door at all.

"Squeak—"

Then the exact same sound came through again.

Li Su could no longer comfort herself by thinking it was just a rumor.

When he came in, he pushed open the door to the school history museum. He knew how heavy that door was; the wind outside was simply not enough to open that heavy door.

The school history museum was so quiet that Li Su could even hear her own breathing.

"Da, da, da—"

Even footsteps approached.

Someone has gone inside the school history museum!

Li Su quickly squatted down, her knees throbbing with pain as she did so. She pressed her hands on her knees, trying to relieve the nagging pain.

"Da da—"

The footsteps grew closer.

Li Su's eyes trembled, and they began to turn red because she was too wide open to blink.

Li Su blinked hard, trying to find a place to hide.

Through my blurry vision, I finally saw a desk in the far corner of the back wall of the school history museum.

That should be a good place to hide.

Li Su could only keep crouching and walk as quickly as possible toward the table in the corner, her palms beginning to sweat.

She would often lose her balance while walking, so Li Su simply used one palm to brace herself on the rough cement ground to maintain her balance.

The rough cement ground was occasionally littered with sharp pebbles, and the boy's fair palms had been cut in several places, with drops of blood beginning to seep out.

Finally, Li Su reached the table. Just as he had expected, the table was surrounded on three sides, with a large space in the middle. Since Li Su was very slender, the space under the table was large enough to hide him.

Li Su turned sideways and carefully crawled under the table.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

The footsteps grew closer.

Li Su didn't even dare to breathe loudly, and only dared to take a small breath after a long while.

A pair of leather shoes stopped at the edge of the table.