022
"Tick-tock—"
Another drop of liquid landed at Jiang Huali's feet, and Jiang Huali froze completely.
She wasn't afraid of ghosts, she was just afraid of the ghosts that came to take her life.
Jiang Huali checked the time when she went down the stairs; it was only 9:43. Even if she moved little by little, it wouldn't take her more than seven minutes to go from the fourth floor to the first floor.
Jiang Huali looked at the large iron gate of the dormitory building, next to the latch, a bright red scarf was tied.
The red scarf fluttered in the moonlight, seemingly stained with blood.
There wasn't this red scarf just now.
When did it appear?
Jiang Huali mentally called out to the system: "System, quickly check if anyone is behind me!"
The system was also somewhat frightened. It glanced at it and said, "No."
Jiang Huali stared at the drop of blood on the ground. "What about my head?"
The system remained silent for a long while before saying tremblingly, "[...It seems so.]"
Jiang Huali stood rooted to the spot, her heart pounding. [Quickly check my backpack for any useful items.]
Half a minute later, both Yi Renyi and Yi Tong fell silent.
Perhaps it's because the original owner was always carried to safety by the main characters and was always dedicated to causing trouble, so all the items were used up and the backpack was empty.
Jiang Huali was not giving up and searched carefully again, and actually found one that was barely usable.
[Rainy and Foggy Doll: Be careful when going out in rainy and foggy weather!]
Item function: Simulates a heavy rain and fog environment within a certain space. During the use of the item, ghosts and monsters will be unable to locate you.
Item duration: Three minutes.
The system said the ghost was motionless on the ceiling above her head, and she dared not turn around, fearing she would encounter a classic scene.
Click on the prop, and a small rag doll appears in her hand. She grabs the prop and throws it over her head.
In an instant, a torrential downpour began, and the thick fog blurred everything around her. Jiang Huali lowered her head and rushed towards the dormitory entrance.
After rushing out of the dormitory, Jiang Huali did not stop. Following the route she remembered, she ran wildly towards the teachers' dormitory.
Large raindrops pelted her face and body, surrounded by a thick, impenetrable fog.
Strangely, even though the school wasn't very big, she had been running for two minutes and still couldn't see the teachers' dormitories clearly.
The props were running out of time, the rain was gradually lessening, and the fog was starting to dissipate. Jiang Huali wiped the water off her face, looked ahead, and was startled.
The cafeteria is right in front of her, so why is she here?
She didn't run in the wrong direction, did she?
Jiang Huali's gaze froze. In the flower bed not far ahead, there was a white figure. The figure stretched out a hand and was pulling at the flowers in the flower bed.
Petals fell to the ground.
Jiang Huali stopped running. She stood still, her breathing rapid from the intense exercise, and looked around.
The surrounding buildings are indeed still Hope Primary School, but they seem a bit too old.
The fog is about to dissipate.
[Host, that ghost is chasing you, it's behind you!]
Jiang Huali turned around and finally saw the ghost. It was wearing the school uniform of Hope Primary School, covered in blood, and its dark eyes were staring at her as it approached her step by step.
There's a ghost behind me, and I don't know if the one in front is a human or a ghost.
Jiang Huali tried to take out another prop from her backpack, but suddenly felt a pain in the back of her head and lost consciousness.
"Teacher Jiang? Teacher Jiang?"
Jiang Huali heard someone calling her, opened her eyes, and found herself back in the teachers' dormitory.
Zhao Yu looked at Jiang Huali with some concern, and only breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Jiang Huali had woken up.
"Teacher Jiang, you went to check the dorms last night, how did you faint at the cafeteria entrance?" Zhao Yu pursed her lips. "You had a fever. I should have talked to Director Luo again."
"Did I faint at the entrance of the cafeteria?" Jiang Huali asked.
Zhao Yu nodded. "Last night I noticed you hadn't come back for a long time. Coincidentally, Teacher Qi came looking for you, so I went with Teacher Qi to look for you. But we didn't find you in the student dormitory. When we came back, we saw someone lying on the ground in front of the cafeteria. We rushed over and saw that you had fainted on the ground."
Teacher Qi? Qi Man came to see her?
Jiang Huali shifted her gaze. "Really? Maybe I was too dizzy yesterday and fainted after going the wrong way. Thank you so much, Teacher Qi."
Zhao Yu waved her hand, "It's okay. I gave you fever-reducing medicine again last night. The thermometer is on the bedside table. I have to go to class later. You should get some rest."
Zhao Yu got up to leave, but then remembered something and said, "Teacher Qi said she would come to see you this morning, it seems she has something to tell you."
Jiang Huali: "Okay, I understand, thank you."
After Zhao Yu left, Jiang Huali glanced at the time; it was already eight o'clock in the morning.
Who knocked her unconscious last night? Why didn't that ghost kill her? And who was that white figure?
Jiang Huali fell into deep thought.
She stayed in the room alone for a while when there was a sudden knock on the door.
The door made a rhythmic "knock, knock, knock" sound, then fell silent after three knocks, as if waiting for a response.
Jiang Huali called out towards the door, "Come in."
"Squeak—" The door opened, revealing a girl with short, ear-length hair.
It's Qi Man.
Jiang Huali had a momentary hallucination of Xiaotian.
Qi Man walked in, carrying a white plastic bag containing still-warm steamed buns and soy milk.
She placed the breakfast on the bedside table, noticing the unusual expression on Jiang Huali's face, and paused for a moment. "What's wrong?"
"No," Jiang Huali shook her head, "You came to see me yesterday?"
Qi Man moved a stool over and sat down. Hearing Jiang Huali's words, she nodded. Her skin was very fair, and her expression was indifferent. "You haven't come out since you picked up the teaching materials yesterday morning. I came to see if you're dead."
Jiang Huali: ...
There's no need to be so direct.
"I had a fever yesterday, so thank you for bringing me back."
Qi Man took out two steamed buns from the plastic bag, took a bite of one, and handed the other to Jiang Huali.
Jiang Huali refused, saying, "I haven't brushed my teeth yet."
Qi Man didn't react to what he said. She just put the steamed bun back into the plastic bag and tied the opening of the plastic bag.
Jiang Huali sat on the bed, moved closer to Qi Man, and whispered, "I went to check the dorms yesterday and encountered a ghost."
Qi Man glanced at her while chewing on her steamed bun and said, "Cun Ke also went to check the dorms yesterday, but he didn't find anything unusual."
Jiang Huali said thoughtfully, "I used a prop to run out of the student dormitory building, but for some reason I ran in the wrong direction. I think I saw another ghost near the cafeteria."
As she spoke, Jiang Huali felt a lingering pain in the back of her head. "The ghost from that dormitory came after me, and then I was knocked unconscious."
Qi Man said, "When Zhao Yu and I went to find you yesterday, everything was normal, there were no ghosts."
Qi Man glanced at Jiang Huali, "I still have some props here, I'll give you some."
She glanced at Jiang Huali again, "But you have to take it easy."
Jiang Huali looked at the props that had become plentiful in her backpack again, and touched her nose when she heard what Qi Man was referring to.
When the original owner was controlled by the plot, she often attacked the main characters, and Qi Man, as the main character, was the first to be hit.
"I will try to control myself next time."
Upon hearing this, Qi Man only let out a soft "hmm" through her nose.
There are clearly doubts about the credibility of her words.
After finishing her steamed bun, Qi Man clapped her hands and said, "I'm going back now. You and Qi Feng both have classes this afternoon, so prepare in advance. Also, remember to find us at the cafeteria at noon."
Qi Man stood up and walked to the door when Jiang Huali suddenly called her back.
"Thanks."
Qi Man's hand rested on the doorknob. She didn't turn around, and her voice was devoid of emotion. "There's nothing to thank me for."
The door closed, and Qi Man disappeared. Jiang Huali got out of bed to brush her teeth.
The system appeared while I was brushing my teeth.
[Host, I just watched a lot of horror movies, I'll definitely be able to help next time!]
Jiang Huali laughed.
She opened the task panel and saw that a new task had indeed been added.
Side Quest 4: Complete the teaching of a math lesson.
Not knowing if they would encounter ghosts again in the afternoon, Qi Man told her to go to them at noon, probably to exchange some information.
This task involved more than just a few of them. According to the original owner's memories, there were more than twenty taskers in this instance, including some who, like them, were in teams to run the instance.
In this horror game, apart from some special dungeons, most dungeons can be completed in a team.
However, forming a team requires a team ticket, which is rare, expensive, and a one-time use item.
Each time a team goes to the next dungeon, they need to use a team ticket, so teams don't usually use them frequently.
The instance is currently calm, so the quest takers haven't encountered each other much. Apart from necessary communication, everyone is quietly completing side quests and searching for clues.
For Jiang Huali, dungeons are a challenge, and there's also the issue of... freedom.
She had a fever last night and went to check the dormitories, so she didn't have time to properly examine the original owner's memories. It wasn't until she woke up this morning that she carefully considered the meaning of this mission.
"Regaining freedom".
The original owner was just an ordinary college student with a somewhat introverted personality, living a mundane life, until one day she was pulled into a horror game, and everything changed.
She began to be controlled by an unknown force, and when she was playing dungeons with others, she would always betray them at crucial moments.
She didn't want it to be like this... Despite her best efforts to regain control of her body, some people were still injured or put in danger because of her.
One day, she discovered that she was actually a "vicious female supporting character" in a novel. She had committed many vicious acts in the early stages. After meeting the main characters, she began to focus on framing them. In the end, she got her just deserts and her fate was unknown.
She was scared and somewhat unwilling, so she went to the main characters and unexpectedly discovered Qi Man, who was her classmate in college.
Qi Man is a very observant person. She noticed that something was wrong with her and guessed that she might be being controlled by something. So Qi Man kept the original owner with her, despite her friends' objections. Fortunately, the original owner never gave up fighting for control of her body. Although she would occasionally become a "vicious female supporting character", she never really put others in a life-threatening situation.
This is one of the reasons why the other members of the main character group can still tolerate the original owner remaining in the team.
Therefore, the mission in this dimension should have two conditions for completion: first, to escape this horror game, and second, to break free from the control of the so-called "plot".
However, since the original owner was only controlled by the plot after entering the game, the plot should have reached a happy ending after she left the game, at which point she should no longer be controlled.
Jiang Huali washed her face, dried it, and lifted her head. As she put down the towel, a shadow suddenly flashed by the window.
Jiang Huali was startled, threw down the towel, and leaned out the window to look.
It's a little bird.
You're scaring yourself.
Jiang Huali breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the towel again, wiped her sweat, closed the window, left the bathroom, and decided to have breakfast first.
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