Chapter 62 Old Campus "That was...me?"...
"【Deng Dayun】In order to escape from one ghost, he chose to be captured by another ghost??"
"【Deng Dayun】You know what, it wouldn't be surprising if it were Xue Chao, lol..."
The women's restroom was filmed the entire time. The footage being played was of Xue Chao coming out and Deng Dayun approaching with the camera. There was nothing in the fourth stall.
The scene gradually zooms in until Xue Chao leaves and turns around. Everything in the cubicle is normal, but a pale human head falls out of the cubicle in the mirror. The head has messy short hair and only the whites of the eyes are visible. It stares directly at the camera, and then the scene flips and goes black.
Deng Dayun, however, looked strange: "There's nothing there."
Xue Chao observed his expression and, noting it didn't seem like he was lying, took out a roll of white film, held it up in front of the screen, and played it again. This time, Deng Dayun was genuinely startled.
Looks like I've seen it. "Does it look familiar?"
Xue Chao's words immediately struck a chord with Deng Dayun's sense of unease beyond his initial shock. Xue Chao then went back to the beginning and observed again: "I also feel like I've seen this before."
As the initial shock subsided, the strange sense of familiarity grew even stronger. Deng Dayun froze for a moment before sitting down next to Xue Chao. Xue Chao leaned over and shared his seat with him.
Deng Dayun stared at the video recording behind the film and asked, "Do you know who this is?"
"I have a guess, but let's confirm it again... eh?"
Deng Dayun's face grew even uglier: "Where are the heads?"
In the video, Xue Chao turns around as he leaves the house, but no head "falls down" in the mirror as expected; the head remains perfectly clean until the camera stops recording due to slipping from his hand. It's so ordinary that it's unsettling.
A chilling atmosphere, too intense to bear, permeated the already dimly lit stairwell. Xue Chao's expression changed as well. Rewinding the film, the two stared intently at the image behind the roll, afraid of missing a single frame or second, but the head still hadn't appeared.
...This is even more terrifying than when it first appeared.
Deng Dayun: "How many times did you watch it before I came?"
Xue Chao: "Four times, each time."
Deng Dayun unconsciously twisted the hem of his clothes: "...Although I don't know what you want to verify, I noticed something unusual after just one look. You should have a conclusion by now. What is it?"
"That's a boy's head, or even a human head," Xue Chao casually suggested, his hands still busy, flipping the container again, but still nothing.
He had no choice but to switch back to recording mode. Just as the red dot "REC" appeared in the upper right corner, a magnified ghost face suddenly appeared in the camera's view. It was deathly pale and stared intently at Xue Chao with wide-open white eyes. A wound on its left cheek was bleeding profusely. It coldly and angrily said, "Looking for me?"
As Deng Dayun stood up, he happened to be looking down and was so startled that he stumbled and lost his footing. Xue Chao grabbed him, and the camera screen and the voice-activated light went dark. Deng Dayun gripped the handrail tightly, his heart pounding so hard he felt like he was going to vomit.
In the darkness, in a flash, Deng Dayun recalled Xue Chao's words, his pupils shrinking slightly: "That was... me?"
As soon as he spoke, the motion-activated lights came on again, and the stairwell, which had been as smooth as a corridor, returned to its original state. Step by step, they were standing on the 13th step. The boy who had been tied up was gone, replaced by a human sculpture lying on the ground.
Deng Dayun, however, was not optimistic: "I remember the corridors and stairwells in the footage were normal... We didn't get caught on camera..."
"It's highly likely, but there's another point: the world shown in the video might be the real Ninth Middle School, which is the 'original world' before we entered the alternate dimension."
“So the camera was just a portal to another space? ...We’ve come back.” Deng Dayun murmured, “So that ghost...that ‘me’ was in the same space as us from the beginning...the ‘sixth person’ who followed you in.”
Upon hearing this, Xue Chao felt a toothache, but also a sense of coolness: "Who knows?"
In fact, he became suspicious the moment he saw the human head. It wasn't that he recognized the distorted, ghostly face that flashed by, but rather that the instant the camera slammed into his other hand, he gleaned a more terrifying logic from behind the fear.
The reason he was both frightened and somewhat resentful was that a real human head suddenly appeared in a dungeon full of alternate heads.
Even players from previous or later units will become aliens.
In the instance, only two people are normal characters: one is the host, and the other is the protagonist of the current segment.
Once he had a clue, he didn't even need to rewind the video; he could confirm it was Deng Dayun just by recalling it.
"...Aren't you afraid I'm a ghost?" Deng Dayun suddenly spoke, a blinding white light hitting the back of the boy's head, his lowered head completely buried in shadow, like a distorted ball of light and shadow.
Xue Chao glanced at him, seemingly asking, "So what?"
Deng Dayun, realizing he had made a fool of himself, belatedly felt a little embarrassed and asked about another matter that bothered him: "The words in the cubicle were written before you were captured by the ghost. How did you know where you would end up?"
Aren't you afraid of being dragged into the sewers and torn to pieces?
"You're making up this about 'you'?" Xue Chao laughed. "The ghost looks just like you. If it's not an imposter, then this episode already has you playing the lead role. There's no need to bring out the original character again, unless it's not the current you."
"The 'me' in the future timeline." Deng Dayun pursed his lips. "So how did 'I' die later... decapitated... the first ghost story, the person who broke their neck on the 13th floor was 'me'?"
Xue Chao: "I initially had my doubts, but after watching the video several times, I noticed that the neck was cut very cleanly. It wasn't broken from a fall; it was severed by a single, ruthless cut. So, compared to the first ghost story, I'm more inclined to believe the seventh one—that the stairwell on the east side automatically closes off in the middle of the night because of the rumor that there are sounds of a cleaver chopping meat inside."
It's called "role-playing," but it's not like playing a web game on a screen. In a real experience, you can't just treat the character as a character. Hearing about "your" gruesome death is like hearing the worst possible outcome, or a prophecy that fate will inevitably bring.
Deng Dayun: "...There's another possibility: these two ghost stories are about the same thing. No matter whether the future 'me' breaks his neck or has his neck chopped off by someone, 'I' will eventually die in this stairwell. So you guessed that the missing person would be brought here?"
"The ghost stories say that the spirits of the dead are here, grabbing people and taking them into another dimension. The ghost in the women's restroom also grabs people, and people on both sides will disappear into thin air. In addition, the stairwell is sealed off, so people are very likely to be tossed around like balls." Xue Chao pointed to the camera. "The art club's photo wall is missing the photos of the activities on the second to last day. The photos of the day after that are of cleaning, and they happen to show the garbage being sorted at the entrance of the restroom. If 'you' weren't killed for peeping, and since your head was chopped off in the stairwell, there's no reason for you to hide in the women's restroom. The spirits of the dead 'crawled' over there through the camera."
Moreover, the cameras and video cameras were all cleared out... The second to last day of the activity month was likely the day "Deng Dayun" had his accident. A student used this camera to film "his" death. The ghost entered the camera, and on the last day, when filming the toilet, the head hid inside.
Deng Dayun: "...So what was left on the 13th level to capture people was actually the remaining part of 'my' torso?"
At this moment, they were standing on the 13th step.
Deng Dayun quickly jumped onto the middle platform. No wonder he felt cold... The headless ghosts wouldn't just stand side by side and listen to their disrespectful nonsense, would they?
Xue Chao: "Don't worry, as long as you're there, the other one can't come out. Unless you use film, you and he can't appear on the same 'layer'."
Deng Dayun gave him a slightly gloomy look: "You lured me here because... the ghost can't appear when I'm here."
Otherwise, why would they care whether he lives or dies?
Xue Chao smiled casually and didn't refute: "You can't say that. You're the main character of this episode, it would be troublesome if you died... Let's go?"
For a fleeting moment, Deng Dayun displayed a clear emotion—a sense of "I knew it" disgust and resistance—which he concealed by lowering his head further. Xue Chao pondered this; he hadn't offended him, so perhaps he was being targeted because of his position as a host?
"Alright, stop pulling on that door on the first floor, the props are pretty expensive... Don't rush to run out from the second floor either, go to the top floor first, ancestor, did you check the popularity bar?" Xue Chao raised his eyebrows at Deng Dayun's oblivious back, "The shop might be there."
Deng Dayun, who was walking briskly with his head down, paused.
As Xue Chao said, apart from the first and second floors which are one-way, the other floors were sealed off, with only the road leading to the rooftop open.
Xue Chao made sure that "Heaven" or "Hell" wasn't written on the door before pushing it open. A fence separated the rooftop from them. The half away from them was lined with stalls, like the playground setup for Club Month. The area was covered in colorful spray paint from the All-Seeing Eye. The shops had changed their style again, incorporating new story segments.
A plastic alarm clock shaped like a blue-gray bird stands at the nearest stall, used to wake students up at 8 a.m.
Deng Dayun already had a target in mind, but hesitated to act because Xue Chao was present. Xue Chao also looked around, but there were no props he particularly wanted, nor any bastards willing to pay for his services. He tactfully strolled to the edge of the rooftop, where a cluster of red roses, as tall as his waist, was placed in front of the railing.
He had always loved flowers. He bent down to smell them, and suddenly caught a glimpse of bright yellow amidst the vibrant red. He cautiously stepped back, and sure enough, a sunflower head emerged from the bushes. The surrounding red roses were uprooted, gathered into a bunch, and presented to Xue Chao: "Did you miss me, my dear—"
Xue Chao grabbed Jiang Ming's petals and pressed his head against the railing: "I've thought about it, I want to hit you."
The flowerpot got stuck in the wire mesh, and Jiang Ming wailed insincerely, "Hitting is a sign of affection... Ah!"
Suddenly, the screws on the fence snapped open, and the door swung open outwards. Jiang Ming fell out, but Xue Chao pulled him back. Xue Chao then showered the rooftop with red roses, sending out a blood-red rain of petals. The wind blew across the rooftop, bringing some more red petals back, which landed on Xue Chao.
Jiang Ming turned pale and exaggeratedly hugged Xue Chao, crying out. Xue Chao happened to be squatting down to inspect the fence and dodged his hand: "The screws have been tampered with. Did you do it?"
"If I were to throw myself at you while I'm at it, it might actually work," Jiang Ming said with a strange excitement. "The fence's gone, and you're just exposing your back to me like this, aren't you afraid I'll push you off?"
Xue Chao: "Don't you love me?"
Jiang Ming: "I love you, so after pushing you down, I jumped down too, to become a pair of doomed lovers."
Xue Chao: "I think so too. If you dare to push me, I'll drag you down with me."
Jiang Ming was moved: "We really are a match made in heaven."
Deng Dayun, who was alerted and rushed over, was speechless.
Are you really on the same wavelength?
Xue Chao: "Finished buying?"
Deng Dayun: "No, no one collected the money, and the props didn't come over either."
Xue Chao frowned at the blue-gray bird alarm clock. Jiang Ming raised the flower plate, displaying an imposing "straight back," and jogged over to tap the bird's head on the alarm clock. The fence opened, and he entered the stall area, took out the prop, and Deng Dayun's game points were automatically deducted.
He can get in, but Xue Chao and Deng Dayun can't.
Xue Chao: "What's going on with you?"
Jiang Ming: "A part-time job, working to support yourself while studying? Don't you feel bad about it?"
Xue Chao immediately recalled the recruitment advertisements plastered all over the kindergarten's exterior walls; it must be for a role.
Jiang Ming and Pu Fengchun have only completed the second main quest, "Memoirs." To enter other units, they still need to complete the first main quest, "Role-Playing," and cannot break their character settings with the dungeon natives other than the players and the host.
But working for a game store...
Xue Chao: "Sounds good. How about the pay?"
"You can have one B-grade item. Which one do you want?" Jiang Ming, like a tyrannical emperor who would spend a fortune just to make a beauty smile, waved his hand and said, "Choose whatever you like."
Xue Chao didn't mince words with him: "What's the use of that kaleidoscope?"
The specific details will only be unlocked after purchasing items from the shop. To buy the items you want, you need to guess based on the dungeon style, the item's appearance, and its name. It's a brain-teasing task, but Xue Chao plans to use a back door.
Jiang Ming actually knew, and he actually told him: "It can break through an illusion or delusion once, and it is effective against illusions imposed on reality and mental disorders caused by the life form itself."
"This one will do."
"Okay."
Deng Dayun overheard their conversation and concluded that they were in cahoots. He put the props into his backpack and left silently.
As soon as the rooftop door opened, the school bell rang throughout the building, reaching the ears of the three students.
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