Time flies.
The player with the oval face spent the whole morning in fear. He followed the bell to the cafeteria and looked at Lin Zhi's back not far ahead.
Lin Zhi did not enter the cafeteria, but kept walking forward.
He hesitated for a moment, then made up his mind to chase after him.
The only character explicitly mentioned in the game's synopsis is the "cursed student", and if you do a little research and listen to some gossip, you'll know that the person everyone in the school believes to be cursed is Lin Zhi.
Yesterday was just the first day, and others might not have noticed, but he noticed: his roommate who died in the morning was Lin Zhi’s deskmate.
He happened to be sitting two seats behind him and could see clearly.
——Whoever gets close to her will be in trouble.
This was what he heard from other students' gossip. His roommate got into trouble because he sat next to Lin Zhi.
He firmly believed that Lin Zhi was related to his roommate's accident.
No other players came to see Lin Zhi the whole morning, which meant that as long as he could confirm this personally, he would be far ahead in the final evaluation of the game.
The oval-faced man's heart was pounding as he chased the girl to the end of the corridor, completely disappearing into the shadow of the hallway.
The two were already very close to each other, and he suddenly reached out and grabbed the girl's shoulders.
Lin Zhi turned around.
She had short hair with long bangs, and her eyes were cold and dead in the shadows.
The temperature around was very low, and the oval face shivered for no reason, but at this moment he didn't have the extra energy to care about this abnormality: "Did you harm Zhang Ling?"
Zhang Ling was the player who almost died face to face with him in the morning.
Lin Zhi lowered his head and wanted to leave without saying a word.
But how could a girl like her be as strong as an adult man? The oval-faced man grabbed her arms tightly with both hands: "It's you who did it, right? Because of your curse, he became your deskmate and died!"
Lin Zhi suddenly trembled all over, and fiercely struggled to break free from the other party's shackles: "Get out!"
The girl with the oval face didn't expect that she could burst out with such great strength at once. She was caught off guard and pushed back several steps. Just as she was about to move forward, the door behind the girl suddenly opened.
The school doctor held the door open: "What are you arguing about?"
The oval-faced man stopped.
They had character requirements and could not do anything that was too inconsistent with their identities. If they aroused suspicion from the NPC in the game, they would be the ones who would suffer in the end. They could only watch Lin Zhi enter the infirmary and did not chase after him.
Lin Zhi went to the infirmary to change the dressing.
Her foot, which was injured at the sports meeting yesterday, was still swollen and had been injured for a day. The school doctor applied some medicine and bandaged her foot, then gave her a few very meaningless instructions and let her go.
As soon as Lin Zhi left the infirmary, he once again saw Shang Xia leaning against the wall and watching the butterflies outside the corridor. Hearing her voice, he turned around and asked, "Alright? Are we going to the cafeteria or back to the classroom?"
"The cafeteria." Lin Zhi answered subconsciously before realizing the problem. "Why are you here?"
Shang Xia helped her all the way to the cafeteria before answering, "Cen Biexi asked me to come here."
Lin Zhi's eyes suddenly widened: "...Is it him?"
Of course not.
He couldn't possibly admit that he was the one who followed her to the infirmary. Fortunately, there was Cen Biesi as a cover, which was just enough for Shang Xia to use as an excuse: "What else? Did you have a fight with him?"
Lin Zhi: “No.”
Shang Xia: "Then why did you deny it so quickly?"
Lin Zhi hung his head and said nothing.
Shang Xia glanced at her inconspicuously.
The game had just started and the rules were not yet known, but I heard a lot of gossip. Although I had not figured out what the gossip had to do with the name of the dungeon, "Listening", it was enough to test me: "Actually, I have never understood what is going on between you two."
"Anyone can see how Cen Biesi treats you. Besides, the school is full of rumors about your affair. Even the teacher has heard about it. You don't have to tell me you don't know. But now that you know, why do you have this reaction?"
The cafeteria was at its busiest time of the day, and it was unknown whether intentional or unintentional, but the two of them happened to be staying in a corner of the seats. The comings and goings of people around them made the sounds in this area even clearer:
"You said you were interested in him, but you obviously didn't want to be with him, didn't like others mentioning the things between you and him, and even wanted to draw a line between you and him so that he would never get close to you. But you said you were not interested in him," Shang Xia bent down and whispered, "Can you say this yourself?"
Lin Zhi clenched the hem of her clothes with his fingers.
"It seems like I can't tell." Shang Xia narrowed his eyes, "Lin Zhi, you don't hate him."
"Then why do you hate him being near you so much?"
※
Shi Yu sat in the classroom, concentrating on opening a milk carton.
At noon, almost everyone in the classroom ran away. Shang Xia's narration stopped at the part after the oval-faced man ran to confront Lin Zhi, as if waiting for the other party to speak, but the other party was so focused on opening the milk carton that all he got was a long silence.
Finally, Lin Chenghuan broke the silence: "The dead player and Lin Zhi were at the same table?"
Shang Xia sat in the seat vacated by the female player in front of Shi Yu and answered naturally, "Yes."
He raised his lips in amusement, "He suddenly confronted a key NPC of Lin Zhi. It should be for the progress of the game or the overall ranking. He insisted on approaching the NPC when he knew that he would be in bad luck. I don't know if he wanted to die or not."
[Xia Xia, do you still remember that you approached her intentionally just now? ]
[You not only tried to get close to her, you also flirted with her. ]
[He still doesn't admit his mistake after flirting with her, what a scumbag. 】
Shang Xia recounted what happened in the cafeteria later, omitting his own remarks and focusing on the girl's reaction after hearing the question: "I can't repeat her exact words, but the general meaning was, 'If Cen Biexi can't stand her, he can just stay away from her. After all, she is not Su Lingque.'"
When Lin Chenghuan heard this, he frowned subconsciously.
Shang Xia: "I stopped a few people on the road and asked them about the name Su Lingque, but they all said they didn't know this person."
Lin Chenghuan: "From the name, Su Lingque sounds like a girl. The students in the school said they didn't know her, which means she is not from this school. But it is obvious that Lin Zhi knows her, and Cen Biexi obviously knows her too."
Shang Xia: "Assuming that there was a person named Su Lingque in both of their pasts, and that this person had a close relationship with Cen Biexi, then the most likely possibility is that Su Lingque was Cen Biexi's former elementary or junior high school classmate or childhood sweetheart, and they only separated when they were in high school. An irresponsible guess is that Su Lingque may still be his white moonlight, and Lin Zhi is a latecomer, or even a substitute who is not the same as the original."
Lin Chenghuan: "These are actually not important. The system's summary clearly mentioned the cursed student, which is equivalent to the explicit question stem. From what other people said, the cursed person refers to Lin Zhi. We need to figure out what this so-called curse is and why Lin Zhi has to be cursed, so that we have a chance to complete the main task."
Shang Xia: "The score is too low if you only complete the main mission. Background exploration is the highlight."
Lin Chenghuan: "You can only leave alive after completing the main mission."
Shang Xia raised his eyelids: "Who discussed with you whether he could survive?"
Lin Chenghuan's tone became heavy, and there was a hint of the commanding tone of a teacher lecturing a student in his voice: "You can't even save your life, so your score is too high."
Shang Xia had been resting his chin on his hand and poking at the three-headed paper crane on the corner of the table. Upon hearing what he said, he pinched the paper crane in his hand with two fingers and folded it in half, and then folded it in half again.
The thousand paper cranes were just crushed into a ball. He still had a smile on his face, but a hint of sneer flashed through his eyes: "Not everyone is a loser who can't even save their lives."
[So cool... but also so arrogant and conceited. It's obvious that he has never experienced the harsh beatings of society. ]
[Shang Xia has the courage and strength to not be afraid of those ghosts in the dungeon, so why should he fight with a bunch of ordinary players who are only concerned about their lives? What's wrong with him pursuing a high score? If everyone is like Lin Chenghuan, then there's no point in watching the live broadcast. ]
[I came here to watch a campus-themed horror story, why did they reveal a bloody love story now? ]
[Who says that there are only horror-themed games in God's Domain? Isn't it better to take a relaxing route? ]
[Two people died in less than a day. You told me this is an easy route. I am really confused.]
[Sorry for the off topic, everyone. At this point, their plastic alliance relationship is about to collapse. 】
Shi Yu slowly poked the straw into the seal of the milk carton. When he looked up, he saw the paper crane that had been bitten horribly. He was silent for a few seconds, but couldn't help but said, "It can be saved."
Shang Xia paused: "Hmm?"
"The only clue the system gives about the character is 'the cursed student', which matches the information provided by the student in the dungeon. Anyone who gets close to Lin Zhi will suffer a bloody disaster, which is also reflected in the dead players."
"The guy in the dormitory next door who was strangled to death with bruises on his neck?" Shang Xia said, "As Lin Zhi's deskmate, he was indeed close to Lin Zhi, but he was the only one who was too random."
Shi Yu: "Yi Shengsheng's roommate."
Shang Xia couldn't remember who this name was for a moment, then he turned around and looked at the desk behind him: "The girl who sat in front of you this morning and wanted to team up with you? What happened to her?"
"There are ten players in this game, three from Cen Biexi's dormitory, four from the dormitory next door, and the remaining three are all girls. I guess they should all be in the same dormitory as Lin Zhi. What Yi Shengsheng said this morning also confirmed this. Someone in their dormitory also died. Since they used to sleep in the same dormitory, it means that the deceased was also very close to Lin Zhi."
Shi Yu looked at Lin Chenghuan: "You said yesterday that you had been to the infirmary because of Lin Zhi, and that you were only separated from Lin Zhi by a wall."
Lin Chenghuan said subconsciously: "Yes."
"You three have all been close to Lin Zhi before. The fact that you'll get into trouble if you get close to her is real. This should also be the most obvious death condition in this game."
Lin Chenghuan subconsciously said: "But I'm not dead."
Shi Yu bit the straw and replied, "Because the ghost is a shadow."
Lin Chenghuan was stunned.
Shi Yu said, "Three people were attacked and they all died, but you survived. This shows that your experience in this game must be different from the other two people. From your description, the only obvious difference is that Shang Xia was with you at the time. The bodies of the other two people were found by their roommates in the morning, which means that no one else was with them when the accident happened; only you made a noise and Shang Xia rushed over, so you didn't die."
"You didn't have a direct conflict with the ghost during the whole process. This doesn't necessarily mean that the ghost is not strong. Otherwise, it is unlikely that it would kill two people without alerting others, and it would be so easy to leave you without any resistance. But the game has just begun, and it is also unlikely that you will die. Since the ghost is powerful, it means that its limitations are also very large. It is easy to force it back. It is so easy that Shang Xia rushed over and the ghost disappeared before he could do anything."
"Shang Xia was holding a lamp in his hand when he passed by. With the light, the ghosts whose main bodies were shadows disappeared of course."
Shang Xia stroked the edge of the table thoughtfully, but what he was thinking about was what happened yesterday when he passed by the infirmary to help Lin Zhi back to the classroom.
——The dormitory had a night light on at night, so he had also had close contact with Lin Zhi. However, the ghost did not attack him at night, which also explained it.
Lin Chenghuan: "But what does this have to do with the curse?"
Shi Yu saw that Shang Xia had finally given up on torturing the paper cranes, so he lowered his eyes and said, "Put another way to ask it. What is the relationship between it and Lin Zhi?"
"What is it?"
"Su Lingque."
Lin Chenghuan couldn't keep up with the speed of his thoughts: "That girl who might have had a past with Cen Biexi? What does this have to do with her?"
Shi Yu bit the straw for a while, his eyes fell to the window and the teaching building opposite: "Su Lingque may be gone."
【？ ？ ？】
[What does "gone away" mean? ? ]
At the same time, Lin Chenghuan also asked this question.
Shi Yu sipped the milk from the carton: "Have you noticed the distribution of classrooms in the three teaching buildings? The senior high school building only has ten classes, but the senior high school buildings both have twenty."
Lin Chenghuan was slightly startled: "Why is there such a big difference in the number of people?"
A difference of ten classes means that there is a difference of nearly five or six hundred students between the two grades.
"There are five floors of classrooms, and leaving three floors empty is a waste, so the problem lies with the senior year." Shang Xia reacted quickly, "Could it be that half of the students who are going from sophomores to seniors in this school are going to die?"
Lin Chenghuan: "...If there really is such a school, it would be impossible for it to continue operating and should have closed down long ago."
Shi Yu withdrew his gaze from the window and said, "Change your thinking. It doesn't necessarily have to be something that happened in the middle of the session that caused the number of people to drop sharply. It could also be that there were few people in that session from the beginning."
"For example, there was a shortage of students when we enrolled three years ago."
Both of them were stunned.
Shi Yu: "To cause a high school's enrollment to drop significantly the following year, apart from subjective factors of the school, either the school's college entrance examination scores had a serious decline the previous year, or something happened during the school year that caused parents to have a serious crisis of trust in the school and thus gave up sending their children to the school."
There were no extra people in the classroom, and he did not lower his voice deliberately, but it fell quietly in front of the afternoon window.
"Criminal cases, such as the melting pot; social news, such as the collapse of a shoddy building causing mass casualties among students; political issues, such as the revelation that the school staff were involved in shady transactions; bizarre remarks, such as a student who once jumped off a building and committed suicide on campus."
He raised his eyes to look at the two people who were frozen in place. "It only took a year to recover, which means the degree of the disease was not serious. The impact was not sensational, but parents would not be too scared when they think about it later, so they would be willing to send their children here. The first and third possibilities are ruled out, and there is no evidence to prove the existence of the second possibility. The only possibility is the fourth possibility, that a student committed suicide by jumping off a building in the school."
After a while, Shang Xia was the first to speak up and break the silence: "Why do you have to use the example of a student jumping off a building to commit suicide?"
In other words, why are you so sure that such a jumping incident has occurred in this school?
Shi Yu threw the empty milk carton into the nearby trash can, picked up the three-headed paper crane on the corner of the table, slowly unfolded it, and words appeared on the folds.
Shang Xia looked at the watermark in the corner and suddenly remembered that the school magazine he picked up from the dusty pile in the corner of the dormitory when he was bored last night also had this watermark.
This is the content torn from an unknown page. The names of the schools and people involved are all heavily coded, and the title on the paper is in boldface, reading: "Strengthen students' mental health education to prevent the tragedy of jumping from buildings from happening again."
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