The Silent and Eerie School (Twenty-Seven)

Huang Chenchuan held his breath, watching the circle made up of many small dots still spinning, while the countdown in the upper right corner had reached zero.

At the last moment, a mechanical voice announced: "[Congratulations to player Huang Chenchuan for successfully purchasing the item "Shovel".]"

The moment Huang Chenchuan heard the system voice, he almost cried. He had never thought the voice was so beautiful.

"I've bought it." Wang Fan was also shocked and broke out in a cold sweat. He opened his palm, revealing a red, transparent lighter.

Li Su looked at the instant camera in her palm, turned it over, and opened the back cover.

The space that should have held the photographic paper was empty.

Huang Chenchuan was so stunned that he forgot to ask Li Su why she bought the instant camera. He wished he could bury his head in the instant camera in Li Su's hand: "Huh?! This camera doesn't have any film?"

Huang Chenchuan's voice attracted the attention of the two security guards outside the door. The two men stepped into the boiler room, seemingly dissatisfied with the results of their long-term work. Their faces turned extremely ugly. "You unruly students! Go back and put yourselves in solitary confinement!"

While the security guards were focused on the unburnt bones, Li Su discreetly slipped her Polaroid camera into the large pocket of her school uniform.

The two security guards escorted them back to the original cabin.

"This is so unruly! Students who break the rules should be punished!"

"They must be severely punished!"

The two security guards seemed to be warning them, or perhaps talking to themselves.

The moment the wooden door of the cabin was locked, Huang Chenchuan immediately leaned close to Li Su and whispered, "What's the point of taking photos without photographic paper?"

With a not-so-gentle touch, one hand pushed Huang Chenchuan's head away, and then Qi Ye placed a small bag of photographic paper into Li Su's hand.

Li Su looked up and met Qi Ye's gaze.

"I bought photographic paper."

He and Qi Zui are neither players nor NPCs, so they can't earn task points or audience reward points like ordinary players. However, it's not difficult for them to buy something from the store.

As the main system of the entire horror game, when he gets close to each instance system, he can control the subsystems within each instance. Of course, at most he can only guide Li Su to discover some key information or provide him with some small props, but he cannot directly lead him to complete the game. Those tasks still need to be completed by Li Su himself. Once he takes action, there is a risk of being discovered by the game's main AI, and then what awaits him and Li Su is only the main AI's elimination.

However, things will be different once he gains full access...

"SuSu, you really bought a camera? It's so expensive..." Huang Chenchuan ruffled his hair, which Qi Ye had messed up, and then, forgetting his mistake, leaned closer to Li Su, his eyes glistening with tears: "I didn't expect SuSu to be so reluctant to part with us, still thinking about taking pictures with us to remember this moment..."

Huang Chenchuan's unfinished words were ultimately choked back in his throat as he felt Qi Ge's gaze fixed on him.

Li Su bought this camera because she was attracted by a line of small print at the bottom.

The small print read: "Take a photo instantly, magically revealed—guess if what you see is real?"

Li Su took the Polaroid camera out of her school uniform pocket and, using the dim light, put the photo paper Qi Ye had given her in it, explaining, "Since it's on the system shop, I think it must be useful. Let's buy it and see."

“Su Su thinks the same way I do.” Qi Zui held up the gasoline he was carrying and leaned closer with a smile.

But the curve of her lips instantly vanished as Huang Chenchuan's head approached Li Su's so close, and she asked coldly, "What did you buy?"

"Hehe, I think the same as you guys, my points are only enough to buy a shovel..." Huang Chenchuan said as he lowered his head, his smile freezing on his face.

Huang Chenchuan opened his eyes wide.

"Where's the shovel I just bought!"

Wang Fan walked over, frowning, and asked, "Are you sure you bought it?"

"I'm sure! I bought it right on time, and I even heard the system notification!" Huang Chenchuan looked around, still unwilling to give up.

Seeing him sweating profusely with anxiety, Li Su comforted him, "Don't worry, it's too dark here. Maybe you just didn't see it. Let's look more carefully."

With no other options, the group had no choice but to search the cabin.

After searching around, they found nothing in the end.

"Could it have fallen into the boiler room we just left? After all, we bought all our stuff there."

However, they had just come out of the boiler room. Although they were sent back by the security guards, Huang Chenchuan did not see any shovels in the boiler room when they left.

Among a pile of bones, the shovel was still quite conspicuous. If he had been there, he shouldn't have missed it, right? Could his eyesight really be that bad?

Wang Fan spoke up, "Forget about the shovel for now. Putting aside whether it's even useful, we're always being watched. Let's take advantage of the NPCs being away and hurry up and find the corpse."

Li Su nodded. "But how are we going to get out?"

Although the security guards were no longer on duty, they didn't have the key to the cabin door lock.

"Bang--"

The wooden plank in front of me broke.

Huang Chenchuan blinked, looking completely bewildered: "Brother Qi?"

The two Qi brothers casually withdrew their feet, as if they hadn't been the ones to kick them.

"Let's go, before they come back. Once they do, we won't be able to leave."

Huang Chenchuan looked at the hole in front of him, barely big enough for one person to pass through, with some hesitation on his face: "What if we get caught...?"

Qi smiled and was the first to crawl out of the cave. He turned back to the others in the room and said, "Let's go. It's not a good idea to stay passive. The longer we stay in this instance, the greater the danger. We might as well take the initiative."

Huang Chenchuan hesitated for only a second before popping out, his cheeks flushed with excitement: "I'll listen to Brother Qi! There's always a risk involved; a short pain is worse than a long one!"

Inside the house, Qi Zui looked down at Li Su and stretched out a hand to her: "Su Su, are you coming with us? I won't let you get hurt."

Li Su grasped the hand with its distinct knuckles, his heart skipping a beat. He wasn't sure where his trust in the person before him came from, but he was willing to believe Qi Zui. If he said he wouldn't let him get hurt, he definitely wouldn't let him get hurt.

"Um."

They don't belong in this instance, so why should they be held back by the rules of the school? They can leave this instance as long as the truth is revealed.

The four stood outside the cave, looking at Wang Fan, who was still struggling with his decision.

"Brother Fan, let's go, come with us." Huang Chenchuan waved from outside the cave.

Huang Chenchuan thought of his wife and his toddler daughter who were still inside the house, gritted his teeth and crawled out of the hole.

I need to end all this quickly so I can go home.

The area is completely empty, with the only building being this old-fashioned wooden cabin.

As the group searched for their way, they were surprised to find that Shengze Middle School was much larger than they had imagined. Various teaching buildings stood in rows on the campus, like thick city walls, making the paths even narrower.

After going around several corners, they finally arrived at a huge open space.

Huang Chenchuan squinted at the distance and asked curiously, "What are those big red things?"

Qi Zui narrowed his eyes: "Since we're already here, let's go take a look."

They arrived quickly.

Before them stretched a vast sea of ​​roses, more vibrant than any variety they had ever seen, with large, layered petals and an intensely sweet fragrance that was almost intoxicating. The rose branches were deeply embedded in the soil, their roots thick and robust.

"I found it!"

Because he was in a hurry, Huang Chenchuan, who was walking at the front, walked half a circle around the flower bed, but unexpectedly saw a shovel lying on the ground, which looked particularly out of place in the sea of ​​flowers. Huang Chenchuan excitedly turned around and waved to the others.

"This should be my shovel, right?" Huang Chenchuan muttered. "How did it fall here? It gave me quite a fright. If we hadn't come over, we would have never found it again."

Wang Fan didn't understand the system at all. He looked at the flower bed in front of him, then at the shovel in Huang Chenchuan's hand. "Don't you guys think it's strange that this shovel fell into the flower bed?"

Huang Chenchuan stared at the sea of ​​red flowers in silence: "..."

"You can't expect me to plant flowers, can you?" Huang Chenchuan picked up a shovel and shoveled it into the ground. Half of the sharp shovel was instantly buried in the soil.

Li Su silently observed the flowers.

He had never seen roses bloom so beautifully before.

It's like...

It looked as if it had been stained with blood...

The sudden thought that popped into her mind sent a chill down Li Su's spine.

The system cannot randomly drop items. Just like how their items all appeared in their own hands, the fact that Huang Chenchuan's item fell in the flowerbed means that this place must have some kind of connection with the secret of Shengze Middle School that they have not yet discovered.

A terrible thought suddenly occurred to him, and his hands instantly turned icy cold.

"What's wrong?" Qi Zui held his hand tightly, the warmth of his skin transmitting heat.

Li Su pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, and then voiced her guess: "Perhaps... this is a place where corpses and flesh are buried..."

"Holy crap! Sususususu, don't scare me like that..." Huang Chenchuan was so startled that he broke out in a cold sweat and his words became incoherent.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Su finally spoke up: "May I dig this soil out and take a look?"

Huang Chenchuan subconsciously moved away from the rose bushes, his voice trembling slightly as he said, "I...I'll dig them up..."

He planted the shovel into the dark black soil, but as he was about to pull it up, he couldn't help but swallow hard. "I'll do it..."

Huang Chenchuan closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, shoveled up the soil, and held the shovel in mid-air, asking rapidly, "W-how is it? Are...are those things there?"