Wu Tianjin always joked with a grin, saying that their dormitory had good feng shui, and with Xiao Jin in charge, no little ghosts dared to bother them.
Little did he know that the very night he said those words, trouble would strike.
As dawn broke, Han Chuan slowly opened his eyes and habitually looked at the bed opposite him, only to find that Wu Tianjin's bed was still in disarray.
Han Chuan was slightly puzzled; this was indeed rare.
He looked up at the two big shots on the upper bunk; they seemed to be still fast asleep. He checked his phone; it was 5:30 in the morning. Han Chuan never slept well in the game, and neither did Wu Tianjin.
For the past week, the two had been going to the cafeteria together, or taking a walk around campus. Usually, Wu Tianjin would call him, but today, for some reason...
Did I stay up all night?
With a hint of doubt and confusion, Han Chuan got up quietly, yawning as he slowly walked to Wu Tianjin's bedside, his fingertips lightly touching the slightly cool blanket.
"Brother Wu, wake up, you should..." Before he could finish speaking, a strange chill rose from the bottom of his heart. He was shocked to find that there was no warm response under his palm as expected, but only emptiness.
Startled, Han Chuan abruptly threw off the covers, and the sight before him caused his expression to change drastically—the place where someone should have been lying was now completely empty.
Even though Wu Tianjin went to the toilet, his shoes were still lying there perfectly fine not far from the bed.
This sudden turn of events froze the air. As if realizing something, Han Chuan's exclamation caught in his throat and finally turned into a series of rapid breaths.
Han Chuan's reaction was quite strong, instantly waking Lu Jing and Xiao Jin from their slumber. Lu Jing rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked at Han Chuan blankly: "What happened?"
He then turned pale, his finger trembling as he pointed to the empty bed, his eyes filled with terror: "Brother Wu... is gone..."
After a while, Xiao Jin pinched the bridge of her nose and broke the silence. She tidied herself up and then got out of bed to go to Wu Tianjin's bedside.
Her gaze swept over the empty space, and a serious expression settled between her brows: "We just discovered that the person is missing?" Her voice was soft, but it was exceptionally clear in the quiet dormitory.
Han Chuan immediately replied, "Yes, just now."
Xiao Jin asked again, "Did you hear any noises last night?"
After thinking for a moment, Han Chuan gritted his teeth and replied, "No..." Lu Jing, who was standing next to him, also shook his head.
Xiao Jin hadn't held out much hope when she asked the question, and the final result was exactly as she expected. Not only did Han Chuan and the other person not hear any noise, but Xiao Jin herself hadn't noticed anything unusual last night.
Every night, the rhythmic, dull knocking would sound precisely on time, relentlessly knocking on the door of room 414 for what seemed like forever. However, after a week, Han Chuan and the others had learned that as long as they didn't respond, the ghost outside the door couldn't do anything to them.
To avoid being disturbed by the ghost peering through the window, Wu Tianjin even found a piece of cloth to use as a curtain, so he wouldn't be scared to death by a ghost clinging to his window in the middle of the night.
The group had long been used to the ghosts knocking on their doors, so they went to bed very early every night.
For a moment, an indescribable tension and unease filled the dormitory. Lu Jing and Han Chuan looked at each other, and seeing that the other was so nervous that he was about to faint, he quickly comforted him.
"Don't panic, things might not be that bad yet." Lu Jing finished speaking and looked at Xiao Jin: "Have you thought of anything?"
"Han Chuan." Xiao Jin's voice was low and urgent.
"What did you say, boss?" Han Chuan quickly looked back.
Then, Xiao Jin's words struck the silent air like heavy hammer blows: "You two have been together almost all week. Where did you two go yesterday? Did you encounter anything unusual?"
Upon hearing this, Han Chuan trembled slightly. He tried desperately to recall what had happened yesterday, but his mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts, and he couldn't find anything amiss.
He looked up at Xiao Jin, his eyes filled with fear and confusion: "I...I really don't know." His voice was hoarse and trembling.
"We've been living the same routine as always, going back and forth between the dorm, the classroom, and the cafeteria. We haven't gone anywhere else, and we haven't encountered any strange people or things. It's been like this for a whole week. Logically speaking, if something were going to happen, it would have happened by now..."
Han Chuan gradually began to speak incoherently, and his words became rambling and disjointed.
A moment later, Han Chuan's face suddenly turned deathly pale, and fear surged in his eyes like a tidal wave. He abruptly looked up at Xiao Jin: "Boss, I'm with Brother Wu every day. Now that he's disappeared, am I next?"
His voice trembled, and his eyes were urgent, as if he were trying to find a glimmer of answer in the darkness.
Xiao Jin stared at him, her eyes deep and serious: "I don't know, but I can tell you that the clue lies in some inconspicuous detail in your memory."
"Han Chuan, I need you to think about this more carefully, even if it's just a momentary abnormality."
Upon hearing this, Han Chuan's throat bobbed involuntarily. He closed his eyes, letting his thoughts drift like leaves in a storm, trying to capture that fleeting fragment of memory. A moment later, his eyes snapped open, gleaming with an unusual light, as if he had discovered some crucial secret.
Upon seeing this, Xiao Jin's spirits lifted.
"I've got it!" Han Chuan's voice trembled slightly with excitement. "I remember now, we saw a statue of a deity on the first floor of the men's dormitory yesterday!"
"A statue?" Xiao Jin frowned. She thought carefully and found the information about the statue that Han Chuan had mentioned deep in her mind.
Previously, in order to find the remaining fragments of Yu Ling's body, Xiao Jin almost turned Linhai High School upside down. She had indeed seen the statues, and more than one of them.
At the time, Xiao Jin did not sense any strange aura from the statue, so he ignored it afterward.
Looking back now, the appearance of a deity statue in the school was already very strange, so how could she have ignored it at the time? It must be that the statue itself was peculiar.
It's trying to block Xiao Jin's senses!
Looking at the time, Xiao Jin frowned slightly and said to Han Chuan beside her, "Alright, it's almost time for class. Let's go to the teaching building first. We can talk about Wu Tianjin's matter at noon."
Upon hearing this, Han Chuan nodded, his face pale; he knew the gravity of the situation.
As Xiao Jin and the other two stepped into the classroom of Class 3, the originally noisy classroom seemed to be instantly frozen by an invisible force.
The conversation abruptly stopped, and all the players' eyes focused on the group of people, their faces filled with astonishment and unease.
A week later, only a few players remained, so the absence of any one of them was particularly noticeable. However, they never expected that the missing person this time would be Wu Tianjin.
An extremely oppressive atmosphere filled the classroom. The players exchanged knowing glances, thinking to themselves: We're doomed! Even the big shots couldn't save people, so what are we small fry going to do even faster?
Wu Tianjin's sudden disappearance was undoubtedly a bombshell dropped on this already perilous game world, and the players' fear spread like wildfire.
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