Chapter 35: Club Recruitment (XII)
Jiang Shuyue shuddered at that moment and came to his senses instantly.
He threw the bowl and called Wang Haiyang, but Wang Haiyang seemed to be completely deaf to him.
His back was very straight, and it seemed that the only thing in his eyes was the bowl of rice in front of him. His throat never stopped swallowing, and more and more food was pouring out of his stomach.
Jiang Shuyue was so anxious that he tried to grab the bowl of rice, but was suddenly knocked to the ground by Wang Haiyang. He could do nothing and could only watch Wang Haiyang gradually twitching, falling to the ground, shrunken, his internal organs pouring out of his stomach, and completely losing his breath.
As soon as Wang Haiyang died, Jiang Shuyue came out of the illusion. He returned to the community union office, a terrifying place that seemed deserted.
Wang Haiyang's body did not come out with them, probably left in the illusion forever.
Jiang Shuyue was the only one in the office at that time. He slowly felt the bloating pain in his stomach and began to vomit, throwing up all the rice he had eaten until he vomited blood and his consciousness became blurred.
"I didn't know if we had passed the review, so I crawled over to try to get the seal on the table, but I couldn't. There was something blocking the three tables. I couldn't get over the three tables to check the cabinets behind them, so I must have failed the assessment..."
Finally, he used up his remaining strength to run out of the community union office and fainted at the stairs to the second floor.
These words contained a lot of information, and Mu Yu and the others were silent for a while.
Lu Zhongnian was the first to ask him, "There were no monsters on those three chairs from beginning to end?"
"No," Jiang Shuyue tried to cheer himself up and said hoarsely, "In fact, I feel that we should not care about those three chairs. They should be just symbols, telling you that there are three examiners here, but it is not them that will really kill the players, but the death mechanism that is born in the office during the assessment."
"So, it's still the room's problem," Mu Yu murmured in a low voice, "There are monsters in this copy, but monsters are not the most troublesome."
All dangers are hidden in the "room".
Brother Bird was worried: "Will the assessment for all our groups be like this?"
Jiang Shuyue looked tired: "I don't know, but different clubs have different activities, so there will always be some differences in the assessment..."
But this requires a second group of players to go up and explore to find out.
Fu Xiaoju clenched his fists and said, "...I'll go ask Senior Li Ke. If he's okay with that, we'll go up now!"
After saying that, he ran to the next door.
Li Ke quickly agreed, and the two of them planned to go upstairs now.
Mu Yu didn't expect Fu Xiaoju to be so brave when he got up, but if their cosplay club wanted to go for the assessment, they still had to make some final preparations. Only the handicraft club could set off immediately.
He pulled Fu Xiaoju and wanted to give him his demon coin. Fu Xiaoju hesitated and said, "No, I feel that the assessments of each of our groups are similar. The Literature Club doesn't need those props, and we probably don't need them either. So why waste another coin to exchange for props? You and Brother Lu should save some money."
Mu Yu looked at Fu Xiaoju and asked seriously, "Are you scared?"
Fu Xiaoju was stunned.
He was silent for a moment, then said, "...Of course I am afraid... But for such a difficult dungeon, are we going to rely solely on you and Brother Lu to clear it? No one would want that. And aren't you afraid?"
This seemed to be the first time he spoke so frankly to Mu Yu.
After saying it, he didn't seem to feel embarrassed.
The emotions of contempt and ridicule that he had imagined did not appear on Mu Yu's face at all. It seemed that Mu Yu simply wanted to make him relax by having this kind of frank talk with each other, and Fu Xiaoju indeed relaxed.
He even felt particularly good.
He has wanted to say this for a long time, and has wanted to be this way for a long time!
Hearing this, Mu Yu nodded and said, "I still think that Lu Chongnian's previous guess makes sense. Your group's assessment shouldn't be as difficult as the Literature Club's."
At the beginning of the copy, the "club goals" filled in by the players will be screened, probably to balance the difficulty of passing each classroom.
Of course, no one can guarantee that this will happen, but at this time what Mu Yu should do is to relieve Fu Xiaoju's pressure, rather than make him more frightened.
"Well, then don't worry about it," Fu Xiaoju said uncomfortably, "Then, I'll go upstairs, okay?"
"Go ahead," Mu Yu pressed his shoulder, and after thinking for a while, he didn't know what else to say, so he just said solemnly, "Come back alive."
Fu Xiaoju went to classroom 204 and carried Li Ke out, carrying him like a princess. Li Ke smiled awkwardly and waved at them, holding the wooden plane they had put together in his arms.
The two quickly disappeared from their sight.
As time goes by, dangers and mysteries appear before them one after another.
Mu Yu temporarily put aside his worries about Fu Xiaoju and the others, walked back and frowned as he said to Lu Zhongnian and Jiang Shuyue, "Your group may need to think about which poem is safer. Do poems praising friendship or family affection seem feasible?"
Ye Sui pondered: "If "Mercy for the Peasants" can make them like this, I feel that no matter which poem is replaced, it will be terrible. It's just a matter of whether the copy wants to kill them."
Brother Bird said anxiously, "Is classroom 205 a dead end? Can we change to another club? Still in classroom 205, but change to another club?"
Lu Zhongnian said, "Let's talk about this later. Did you hear a knock on the door in your two classrooms at around 8:12?"
Mu Yu was stunned.
When he heard Fu Xiaoju talking about the death mechanism in classroom 204 just now, he seemed to have heard him mention something about knocking on the door, but he didn't pay much attention to it at the time.
"No, what's wrong?"
Ye Sui also said: "There is no one in our classroom either. You are the only one who knocked once."
"There were two knocks on the door of classroom 204 at 8:12. They came from the ceiling, in the northeast corner. One knock was three times, and the other knock was four times. I went to check and found a very thin gap on the ceiling. It should be a small door that can be pushed open, but it can't be pushed open. There is a suction behind the door. If you really push it, you might be sucked into the gap."
Mu Yu and the others looked serious.
There's a door on the ceiling?
"Let's go back and check again." Mu Yu said.
He, Bird Brother, and Ye Sui walked back quickly. Before Ye Sui stepped into Room 203, Mu Yu patted his shoulder and asked in a low voice: "How is your classroom? Is there a death mechanism?"
Ye Sui turned around and opened his mouth to speak, but Mu Yu noticed something. He pinched his chin and pulled it down, and found that all of Ye Sui's teeth had become pointed. His face changed!
Ye Sui pulled his hand down and said calmly, "It's what you see, but it's only this far, it won't develop further."
A few minutes ago, he confirmed through testing that "call time" was the key to the operation of their classroom death mechanism.
The transformation into a beast actually begins the moment the phone call is answered, but at first the change is very slow, until the call lasts more than two minutes - then the change suddenly becomes rapid.
But once you know where the problem lies, it is easy to avoid it.
No matter how "Uncle Zhang" tried to change the topic, they would hang up the phone after two minutes and then call again, so that they could retain their consciousness to the greatest extent.
"We have three tickets in hand. Hao Jia and I will make some final preparations. Once Fu Xiaoju and the others come down, we should be able to go up for the test," Ye Sui said to Mu Yu. "Don't worry about us. How about your group? Is everything going well?"
"There's no big problem for now," Mu Yu frowned and said, "Then you guys should be more careful. If you have any questions, feel free to knock on the door."
"Um."
*
On the other side, Fu Xiaoju bravely ran up the stairs holding Li Ke in his arms. However, just as he turned the corner and looked forward, his steps stopped abruptly.
Li Ke was almost shaken off and quickly hugged his neck: "What—"
Fu Xiaoju: "Hush! Hush!"
Li Ke immediately fell silent.
He realized something, turned his head fearfully and followed Fu Xiaoju's gaze towards the top of the stairs, then froze.
…A hand stretched out from the left side of the stairs on the third floor.
The light was dim, and the hand was just lying alone on the ground, which was terrifying no matter how you looked at it.
Li Ke suddenly felt numb and hugged Fu Xiaoju's neck tightly.
...That seems to be Jin Sheng’s hand!
Is it Jin Sheng, or the monster who peeled off one of Jin Sheng’s hands… ?
Was it Jinsheng's left hand or right hand that was peeled?
They froze there for several seconds. Fu Xiaoju gritted his teeth and tried to take a step forward, trembling with fear.
The hand didn't move.
Take another step.
The hand still didn't move.
Fu Xiaoju and Li Ke held their breath and walked up carefully step by step.
Until there was only the last step left in front of them...the hand suddenly floated up, moved diagonally in front of them, and hovered in the air, as if examining them.
...It only has one hand and no body, so it’s not Jin Sheng, it’s that teacher monster!
Fu Xiaoju suddenly felt that his and Li Ke’s hearts began to beat in a symphony.
He suddenly remembered a rule.
Article 6 of the Activity Center Rules of Use: Please respect your instructor and be a polite student.
Be polite, be polite...
...Fu Xiaoju said stiffly to the hand: "Hello, teacher...?"
hand:"……"
Fu Xiaoju: “……?”
He added a stiff and respectful bow, his posture fixed there, his eyes glancing forward.
The hand was shaking and drifting left and right in front of them, like a monster pacing.
Fu Xiaoju swallowed hard, cold sweat pouring down his face. He began to consider whether he should turn around and run now, as there was still time to retreat... Then he saw the hand pause, then floated away.
It floated toward the patio corridor on the third floor and seemed to begin its daily patrol.
...Fu Xiaoju and Li Ke breathed a sigh of relief.
They quickly ran in the opposite direction into the straight corridor, and all the way to the door of the community union office at the end, where Fu Xiaoju put Li Ke down.
The door of the community union office was closed and both of them were very nervous.
Fu Xiaoju wiped his sweaty hands on his trouser legs and said, "Senior, then, then I'll open the door?"
Li Ke held the wooden plane and took a deep breath: "Open it, open it!"
Fu Xiaoju grasped the door handle, let out a long breath, and turned it.
With a click.
He slowly pushed the door open.
A sense of oppression more terrifying than the feeling of being on the verge of death came over them, and the two almost suffocated on the spot.
In the community union office, three empty chairs were facing them, as if inviting them to come in.
*
After Mu Yu and Niao Ge returned to the classroom, they checked with Yu Hui and found that there were no small doors on the ceiling of their classroom, nor in the corners of the four directions.
Ye Sui and Hao Jia found a small door in the southwest corner of the ceiling of classroom 203.
But Lu Zhongnian searched alone in classroom 205 and couldn't find the small door.
That's strange.
Why do some classrooms have small doors and some don’t?
Where does this small door lead to? And what is knocking on the door behind it?
While they were studying this problem, Fu Xiaoju and Li Ke came back unexpectedly. It only took them a few minutes!
Li Ke was still carried down. He seemed a little weaker than before, but judging from his complexion, nothing serious should be wrong.
Fu Xiaoju put Li Ke back into classroom 204 and ran out, saying excitedly and annoyedly: "Our test is very simple, we just need to demonstrate how to fly a wooden plane and that's it!"
“Is that it?” Jiang Shuyue, who had recovered a lot, was shocked when he heard this in classroom 205 with the door open.
"Yes, there was no illusion. Nothing happened when my senior and I entered. We then tried to put the wooden planes on the three tables, and it turned out to be successful!"
Fu Xiaoju was also shocked at the time.
Since they were able to touch the three tables successfully, it meant that they could probably touch the seal as well.
Fu Xiaoju tried again and successfully stamped his and Li Ke’s application forms. It was incredibly easy.
The stamp produced a QR code.
Li Ke felt weak from the oppressive feeling in the community union office, so Fu Xiaoju took his application form and his own, and scanned them one by one in front of the scanning screen of the lottery box, but only one key came out.
The words "Master Key" were engraved on the key.
The problem is, the rules of the community union office clearly state "do not rummage through cabinets and drawers", and the master key clearly does not give them any additional clues, so which drawer or cabinet should they open?
The two of them struggled for a long time, and finally chose to take the keys and leave the community union office, planning to come back and discuss it with them.
But the moment he left the community union office, the master key disappeared!
"Disappeared?!" Jiang Shuyue was shocked again, and he looked like he wanted to vomit blood.
"Yes," Fu Xiaoju said with some annoyance, "If I had known, I might as well have just picked a random chest of drawers and tried it out on the spot."
"No, your choice is right," Mu Yu thought deeply, "but it seems that the key clue is not in the community office..."
Before, they had thought about the problem of which drawer or cabinet to open after getting the key, but they thought that after the player passed the assessment, in addition to the key, they might be able to get some additional clues.
But now it seems that is not the case.
The only reward for the levels in the Society Union Office is the "Master Key", but they still have no idea how to use this key...
etc.
Mu Yu suddenly thought of something and exchanged glances with Lu Chongnian.
——Having no clues seems to be a clue too!
If I remember correctly, all the cabinets and drawers in the Society Union Office were unnumbered.
Then the only factors that can be used to distinguish these drawers and cabinets from each other are "location" and "contents".
Before this, their main consideration had always been the "position" factor, that is, how to determine which drawer or cabinet they needed to open.
Imagine if the key clue is inside the community union office, then the clue can easily give them hints, whether it is a laser beam or some other strange way, it can directly point the player in a clear direction.
But if the key clue is not in the community association office, how can it guide them?
If they still need to be given a hint of the "location", then the clues seem to only be able to tell them that they need to open the first row of drawers of the first cabinet against the wall on the left after entering the office.
But how to present such clues? It seems hard to imagine.
Then maybe they can find something, take that thing into the community union office, and that thing will float directly to the corresponding cabinet or drawer and tell them the correct answer?
This possibility also seems small.
After much thought, it seems difficult to provide any "location" related hints once the key clue leaves the community association office.
So, is “content” what should really be considered?
Before this, they had not considered the "contents" factor much because almost no one knew what was hidden in the community union office.
But is there something that players know exactly where it is, but have been ignoring it?
——The clues have actually begun to emerge here!
Mu Yu thought of this, and immediately remembered that the day when the copy covered the student activity center was today, when the recruitment of new members for the club had not yet ended!
The copy started at seven o'clock sharp. At that time, many stalls had not been closed yet, and most of the people wandering around the student activity center were students participating in clubs.
Among these students there are freshmen, seniors, and some may even be presidents of student clubs, such as Qi Shan, or people in student organizations, such as Ye Sui.
There may be a certain amount of randomness in the process of selecting players for a dungeon, but is it really completely random? !
Mu Yu immediately asked Ye Sui: "Try to think carefully about what is in the cabinets and drawers of the Society Union Office? Be more specific. If it is documents, what documents are there? Just tell me what you can remember!"
Ye Sui was stunned, frowned and said, "There is little overlap between our department and the Society Association, and I was just recruited, so I have no chance to look at their documents."
Mu Yu asked again: "Is Qi Shan still awake now?"
Ye Sui shook his head: "I am still a little conscious, but I can't speak."
Lu Zhongnian suddenly asked, "Besides the documents, what else is in their office? Anything will do, as long as you have an impression and can recall it."
"There's nothing else except files, just some office supplies and equipment needed for student club activities—"
Ye Sui was also thinking hard. At this point, he suddenly thought of a corner that they had ignored for a long time - or, in other words, they had touched upon it before but found nothing unusual, and therefore indirectly excluded and ignored it!
His tone dropped: "—There's a school newspaper!"
"They will collect every issue of the school newspaper that contains the club activities pages and store them!"
School newspaper?!
Mu Yu quickly recalled, but they had checked the school newspapers in the corridor on the third floor, and there was nothing unusual in the content.
Or is there something else that they haven't noticed?
Jiang Shuyue asked Ye Sui: "Do you know which cabinet the school newspapers are kept in?"
Ye Sui quickly recalled: "Enter the main entrance of the club office. On the wall opposite, the bottom row of drawers of the first cabinet from the left. There are eight drawers in total. Every issue of the school newspaper from January to August this year is placed in them!"
Mu Yu ran towards the stairs: "I'm going to pick up those school newspapers on the corridor on the third floor first!"
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