Ghosts and being trapped in a maze
The first companion disappeared so easily before Jin Can's eyes.
“Xiao Xiao…” Jin Can subconsciously took a step forward, wanting to reach out and open the door, but was stopped by Shi Yanxi.
"Forget it, it's already like this. Maybe she can get back to the dormitory by going with the teacher. Let's think about how we can get out of the school and go home first."
Shi Yanxi's voice became a little hoarse due to nervousness.
"Then what do we do? Go to the chemistry lab?" Jin Can felt his teeth chattering.
"Let's go back to the teaching building first," Chao Ningning said decisively.
"Go back to the classroom, where our schoolbags are still there. We can take them with us, and the relatively familiar environment will help us calm down and rest."
"Moreover, we must replan our route; we can't keep wandering around like headless flies." Shi Yanxi pushed up her glasses, acknowledging Chao Ningning's suggestion.
Jin Can nodded in agreement, while Zhou Yu remained silent, following quietly behind the others.
They dared not linger any longer and fled from the eerie and strange administration building as if they were escaping, quickly running towards the teaching building.
The night grew deeper, the moon was obscured by thick, dark clouds, and the entire campus was shrouded in an indelible darkness.
Back in the familiar teaching building, the four felt a little more at ease.
However, the real nightmare has only just begun.
The stairwell was empty, save for the monotonous sound of their four slightly hurried footsteps, tap, tap, tap...
Everything was normal from the first floor to the second floor, and the white sign with black lettering indicating "2F" on the wall at the stairwell entrance was clearly visible.
But as they continued upwards, preparing to step onto the stairs leading to their classroom on the third floor, the words on the sign on the wall ahead remained the same—
"2F".
Everyone was stunned.
"What's going on? Are we seeing things?" Chao Ningning said incredulously.
"Impossible, all four of us saw it." Shi Yanxi's face turned deathly pale instantly.
They did indeed go up to the third floor.
"Maybe the sign is broken? Let's go up one more floor and take a look," Jin Can said, clinging to a sliver of hope.
With trepidation, the four of them took another step.
They climbed slowly, their steps heavy, their panting echoing in the stairwell.
As soon as Jin Can stepped onto the new platform, he looked up and his heart sank—
The wall still displays that familiar yet glaring "2F".
"Could this be the legendary ghost wall...?" Jin Can's voice trembled with a hint of tears.
[Current mental breakdown level: 36.]
They tried to go down.
Logically, going down one more floor from this eerie second-floor platform should have brought them back to the first floor. However, when they arrived at the platform below, all they saw were signs pointing to the second floor.
Shi Yanxi took a deep breath: "We're trapped in this spatial loop. It's a... labyrinth of infinite staircases."
Whether they go up or down, they are forever trapped in this stairwell between the second and third floors, unable to move forward or backward.
Time seems to lose its meaning here, with only endless, repetitive staircases.
They tried running and shouting, but the stairs seemed endless, and their voices were swallowed up by the eerie space and couldn't get out.
After an unknown amount of time, when everyone was exhausted and slumped on the cold steps, a faint voice came from above them without warning.
"Heh, you guys... can't solve it either?"
The four of them looked up abruptly and saw a thin figure appear at the corner of the stairs.
He was a boy wearing the uniform of No. 2 Middle School. His face was as pale as paper, and his eyes were hidden behind thick glasses, which were empty and lifeless. There were heavy dark circles under his eyes.
He clutched a worn-out copy of "High School Mathematics Olympiad Course" tightly in his hands, exuding an aura of gloom and despair.
His translucent body proved that he was an unidentifiable ghost.
"Who are you?" Shi Yanxi immediately stood up alertly, shielding the others behind her.
The ghost student didn't answer. He slowly floated down the stairs, his empty gaze sweeping over each of them, and said in a flat, dreamlike tone:
"Why...why can't I solve it? I've memorized the formulas, I've done tons of practice problems...why can't I figure it out?"
His words were filled with endless pain and obsession.
Jin Can suddenly remembered a legend about No. 2 Middle School.
It is said that several years ago, a senior who had just entered his senior year of high school lost his chance to be admitted to a top university due to a crucial failure in a math competition. Unable to bear the pressure, he jumped off the teaching building.
Could it be... him? A ghost driven to death by mathematics.
"Do you want to leave here?" the ghost student suddenly asked.
"We need to get out!" Jin Can asked anxiously.
The ghost student wore a strange, ambiguous smile.
He pointed to the blank wall beside him. The wall plaster rippled like melting candle wax, and lines of chalk writing, emitting a pale white fluorescence, appeared out of thin air.
That was a math problem.
"Solve it!" The ghost student's voice became shrill and fanatical. "If you can solve this problem, I'll let you leave. If you can't... then stay here forever and solve it with me! Until the end of time!!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire stairwell began to shake violently. Countless dense mathematical formulas and drafts appeared on the surrounding walls, spinning and swirling, forming a huge vortex that seemed to want to completely engulf them.
"A function problem?" Chao Ningning glanced at it and immediately felt a chill run down her spine. "What are these? I can't see them at all while flying!"
Jin Can also frowned. This was clearly beyond the scope of regular high school mathematics; it was an absolute competition problem.
Holy crap!
As soon as Shi Yanxi spoke, everyone's eyes turned to her.
Shi Yanxi stared intently at the question for a full minute, then her face turned even paler than the ghost's.
Cold sweat streamed down her forehead.
"What's wrong, Shi Yanxi?" Jin Can noticed that something was wrong with her.
"I..." Shi Yanxi's voice trembled as she leaned against the wall, her body swaying precariously. "I can't... I definitely can't solve this..."
She took a deep breath, and almost in tears, said something that shocked everyone: "I'm more into humanities, and my math... has always been terrible!"
What? !
Jin Can was stunned, and even Chao Ningning and Zhou Yu seemed speechless.
They're all from science classes!
Jin Can never imagined that Shi Yanxi would have such a fatal weakness. Thinking about it carefully, she had always tutored him in Chinese and English, and had never touched science subjects.
Jin Can was momentarily dumbfounded.
"No?" The ghost student seemed to be provoked by this answer, and his voice became sharp and shrill.
"How could you not know! This is just the most basic function equation! Why can't you understand it! Useless! You're all useless!"
With his roar, the rotating mathematical formulas on the surrounding walls seemed to come alive, turning into black chains that lashed out at them.
At the same time, countless oppressive voices rang in their ears.
"You can't even do such a simple question? You still want to go to university?"
"Look at other kids, they always get first place in exams, what about you?"
"We've sacrificed so much for you, and this is how you repay us?"
These voices are probably not just the ghost boy, but also the deepest nightmare in the hearts of all students.
"ah--!"
Shi Yanxi was the first to be hit. She clutched her head in pain, knelt on the ground, and let out a shrill scream.
[Warning: Teammate Shi Yanxi has suffered a severe mental shock, and her stability has dropped drastically!]
"Hold on!" Jin Can tried to rush over to pull her up, but was pushed away by an invisible force.
"I'm sorry... Jin Can..." Shi Yanxi raised her head, tears streaming down her face, and looked at her one last time, her eyes filled with resentment and regret.
The next second, her body flashed violently and then turned into countless points of light, which were sucked into the wildly spinning formula vortex on the wall.
[Teammate Shi Yanxi has suffered a mental breakdown and has been forcibly removed from the instance.]
The second companion also disappeared.
Jin Can stood there, completely stunned.
She never imagined that the second person among them to fall would be Shi Yanxi, and in such an unexpected and somewhat ridiculous way.
[Warning: The player has suffered a psychological shock after witnessing their teammate's breakdown.]
[Current mental breakdown level: 55/100.]
The system notification sound brought Jin Can back to reality.
Her mental breakdown threshold spiked dramatically due to this sudden turn of events.
"Ahhh, Jin Can! What do we do!" Chao Ningning looked completely terrified and gripped Jin Can's arm tightly.
Zhou Yu, who had been silent all along, was now pale and tense.
Now, only the three of them are left.
The mathematical ghost grew increasingly violent due to Shi Yanxi's failure, causing the entire staircase maze to twist and deform. The steps beneath their feet sometimes tilted and sometimes vanished, as if they might devour them at any moment.
We have to find a way! We have to solve this problem!
Jin Can forced himself to turn his head and stare intently at the function problem on the wall, trying to understand the problem amidst the chaos.
what to do?
She had never systematically studied this kind of knowledge and didn't know where to start.
Her mind raced as she considered a solution.
Tutoring...that's right, tutoring!
To prepare for their midterm exams, they have been studying together almost every day.
She desperately searched her mind for those fragments of memory.
A vague fragment of memory suddenly struck her.
Previously, Ge Ouchen had explained a math problem to her over the phone over the weekend. After he finished explaining it, he seemed to have a sudden inspiration and, as an extension of her thinking, told her a similar interesting problem about functions.
That question...it seems very similar to the question in front of us!
"This kind of functional equation looks like it only has one expression, and it cannot be solved directly."
"But you can try 'substitution' and use its structure itself to create new equations."
"See, that gives us the second formula. Still not enough? Let's try another one..."
Ge Ouchen's clear and magnetic voice seemed to transcend time and space, echoing clearly in Jin Can's ears.
On the draft paper with the photo he sent, every step was written clearly and fluently. At this moment, those handwritings seemed to appear one by one in her mind, so clear that they made her heart race.
A brilliant solution was slowly taking shape in Jin Can's mind.
Those seemingly casual tips and unintentional expansions have now become the only hope for survival!
In Jin Can's eyes, the flame of hope was rekindled.
For her missing companion, for the person outside who is utterly disappointed in her, and for herself, she must solve this puzzle!
She cannot collapse here.
Jin Can resolutely took a step forward, stretched out his hand, as if he had grasped an invisible pen.
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