Chapter 8 Chapter 8 "...Joker?"...
How did things turn out like this.
Jiang Shizao stood in a corner of the dimly lit activity room. To his right lay the closed double sliding doors of the 7-14 activity room. To his left lay a round table covered with a white cloth.
The tablecloth on the round table hung to the ground, spreading out in the dim light.
At this moment, in this activity room belonging to the Surrealism Research Society, there are four such round tables, which are arranged in the four corners of the room.
A white candle was burning on the candlestick on each table, and the orange-yellow light from the four corners was one of the few sources of light in this dim space.
All the curtains in the room had been drawn in advance.
In the center of this activity room, four full-length mirrors face the four corners of the room. There is a distance between the mirrors, but from the overall layout, it can be seen that they are placed to form a diamond shape.
Jiang Shizao in the corner was tense. After confirming the rules of the game and the participants, he almost focused on the situation in the room.
At this moment, in front of each of the four full-length mirrors stood a boy wearing the Lingcheng High School uniform.
Starting from the mirror facing Jiang Shizao, the people standing in front of the full-length mirrors counterclockwise are: Lin Xi, He Tianyi, Cao Qing, the president of the Surrealism Research Society, and Shan Hao, a junior in the first year of high school.
"So shall we begin?"
Lin Xi's voice, a mixture of nervousness and excitement, echoed in the center of the room. This guy had indeed been looking forward to this mirror game all day.
"Let's start." President Cao Qing said.
The senior president, who wore black-framed glasses and had slightly long hair, stood in front of the mirror diagonally opposite Jiang Shizao.
Jiang Shizao's limited field of vision prevented him from seeing Cao Qing. However, another "game observer"—Wen Xu, a new transfer student who had just joined the club—was standing diagonally opposite Jiang Shizao.
Therefore, Wen Xu, who was standing at the round table in another corner, could just see Cao Qing in front of the full-length mirror, and the silhouettes of He Tianyi and Shan Hao in front of the other two mirrors.
However, compared to Jiang Shizao who was seriously acting as the "game observer", Wen Xu's sight actually crossed the entire game space and fell on another observer without bias, taking advantage of the dim environment.
Gloom and stickiness grew in the darkness. On this May afternoon, Jiang Shizao in the corner got goose bumps all over his arms.
This environment is really scary - Jiang Shizao thought as he touched his arm.
As for the current situation...it all started about half an hour ago.
…
Half an hour ago.
After the bell rang for the second class in the afternoon, Lin Xi mobilized everyone to come to the activity room 7-14 of the Surrealism Research Society in the second complex building.
The 7-14 activity room is located on the seventh floor of the second complex building, which is the highest floor of the building, and above it is the rooftop.
When Jiang Shizao and his friends arrived at the club, the president Cao Qing and Shan Hao had already set up the scene for the "Mirror Game".
Their original plan was for six people to participate in the game, and one of the club members was Li Shengning, a senior student in the same class as Cao Qing.
Unfortunately, my senior sister has taken a leave today.
Coincidentally, Wen Xu joined.
The game is played in a participant-observer format, with the participants being the four people who actually stand in front of the mirror and play the spirit summoning game.
The observer stood at the round table in the corner, guarding against any unexpected events.
"It's a good thing you came. Otherwise we would only have one observer." This is what President Cao Qing said to the new member at the time.
In theory, the observer would be the first to notice an anomaly.
After knowing the rules of the game, Jiang Shi had long realized the necessity of two observers. After all, if only one person stood in the corner, that person's field of vision would be greatly limited.
Especially in such a dim environment.
Cao Qing said: Two observers will stand at the two diagonal corners of the round table. If they find any danger or emergency during the game, the observers can blow out the candles on the round table to destroy the integrity of the ceremony and interrupt the game.
Note that the president said that the game will be interrupted only when there is a danger or emergency, not that it will be interrupted immediately when an abnormality is discovered.
In fact, the game they were about to play was a relatively classic spirit summoning game, which could also be called a 'ghost game' or a 'game of communicating with ghosts'.
...So everyone came here to see a ghost, except Jiang Shizao.
And hell, for the friends at Bell City High School, seeing a ghost wasn't considered an emergency or dangerous situation.
Jiang Shizao was speechless. The moment he stepped into the activity room, he took a deep breath.
Although he had prepared himself mentally before coming, Jiang Shizao still closed his eyes after being immersed in the situation and tried to take a deep breath to adjust his state... He was completely unable to adjust himself!
Based on his years of experience reading novels and watching dramas, participating in this kind of game will definitely cause trouble...
Jiang Shizao's emotions were complicated. It wasn't just because of the system's initial prompt asking him to maintain his persona. This prompt practically implied that he had to participate in club activities.
Maintaining his persona would keep him in a relatively safe state, but participating in community activities itself was dangerous.
Besides these, while sensing danger, Jiang Shizao also had a very strong premonition:
Everything that happened today was not an accident, but a sign!
He always felt that a plot related to himself, the book traveler, was about to begin.
It could be a mission from the book traveler, or it could be a chance for him to return to his original world... This was an intuition that had never appeared in the past few days, but no matter what it was, now because of the system failure, he didn't get any hint!
system!
Thinking of this, Jiang Shizao could only shout "faulty system" loudly in his heart.
"How early is it?"
At the entrance of the activity room, Wen Xu looked at Jiang Shizao, whose expression was slightly stiff, and asked with concern: "Are you okay?"
Jiang Shizao looked at Wen Xu. The dim light blurred the surrounding environment, but the person in front of him was very close to him. Jiang Shizao could see Wen Xu's facial features and outline clearly, and the other person's expression was as gentle as his voice.
"It's time to rest. You seem to be restless today. Do you want to take a rest?" Wen Xu suggested.
For a moment, Jiang Shizao did have the idea of retreating.
Now everything is just his guess and his intuition. He cannot be sure that playing the game is the breakthrough for him to leave the world in the book.
Should he hide a little longer...? But Jiang Shizao wasn't sure if avoiding the game would lead to other dangers.
Just when Jiang Shizao felt that his left and right brains were about to fight each other, that was when—
A familiar sound of electricity flashed through Jiang Shizao's consciousness.
Zi——
Zizi—zizi—
Zi——
Jiang Shizao's eyes widened for a moment when he heard the series of crackling sounds that seemed like a malfunction or an unstable signal.
system? !
The system that had been malfunctioning for a long time suddenly appeared at this moment.
【Play the game.】
The system is concise and to the point.
But he didn't know if it was an illusion, but Jiang Shizao actually heard a sense of weakness in this mechanical voice.
"System? You're back—?"
After finally waiting for the system to recover, Jiang Shizao immediately had a flood of questions. However, now didn't seem like a good time, so to avoid being noticed, he first answered Wen Xu beside him:
"I'm fine."
After waiting for several seconds, the mechanical voice in my mind sounded again:
[…Play…the game…and it…can…help you return…to the real world.]
real? !
Jiang Shizao was overjoyed to get the exact answer.
However, the system's voice seemed even weaker. Jiang Shizao was worried. As he walked towards the center of the activity room, he asked himself, "What happened to you before?"
Is it really broken? ...What's the cause?
This time, the system did not respond for a long time.
It wasn't until the crackling sound of electric current appeared again that Jiang Shizao suddenly felt a strong sense of unease.
[Zizi—enter—zizi—swim—zizi—]
[Zizi—zizi—]
…
When the system disappeared again, Jiang Shi and the other members of the club were already standing in front of a mirror in the middle of the room.
He Tianyi walked at the back. After he closed the sliding door of the activity room, the light from the outside was completely isolated. The only lights left in the entire activity room were the candlelight in the four corners - and the shadows and light reflected in the mirrors facing the corners.
In front of the mirror, Cao Qing pushed up his glasses and said, "Everyone should be clear about the rules of the game."
Lin Xi was the first to respond: "Understood! Four people stand in front of four mirrors! Then, walk counterclockwise to create a spiritual field. The people standing in front of the mirrors need to keep their eyes down, preferably looking at their toes, and not looking directly at the mirror!"
"Then the first person walks counterclockwise towards the next person, patting their shoulder and coughing to remind them to move on... until the person walking finds that there are 'people' standing in front of all the mirrors. At that point, the coughing will stop, and the extra 'person' is the ghost who can communicate with us!"
Lin Xi can even memorize this rule!
Cao Qing nodded and said, "When the coughing sound disappears, the rest of the people standing in front of the mirror need to remain calm and not move in order to maintain this spiritual ritual."
"As long as the person in front of the mirror doesn't look into the mirror, theoretically there will be no danger."
"As for the person walking around, they can use the reflection in the mirror to find the extra 'person'. They can look at the mirror that the 'person' is facing and ask questions to the reflection. With luck, the other person will also look in the mirror and answer the question."
When Cao Qing said this, he looked at the vice president Jiang Shizao who was listening extremely attentively... Shizao seemed to be particularly focused today?
Cao Qing continued, "If you're unlucky, an observer will need to interrupt the game. For example, the 'person' who should be facing the mirror isn't facing the mirror... but is facing the participant instead."
"Or this 'person' starts walking around the room."
…
...Jiang Shizao's heart was already hanging in his throat as the president spoke.
Lin Xi, standing by, nodded repeatedly, indicating his understanding. "In short, as long as the extra 'person' isn't facing the mirror, it's a dangerous situation, right everyone?"
"That's right." Cao Qing nodded.
Jiang Shizao took a deep breath. He almost forgot that Lingcheng was a city full of strange legends.
People living here are no longer surprised by psychic communication, and the success rate is even quite high.
Is that why his classmates can chat so easily...?
He Tianyi was still okay, but on the other side, Lin Xi and Shan Hao were clearly full of confidence and anticipation for the summoning game.
This made Jiang Shizao suspicious. Could it be that the club had successfully conducted other spirit-summoning games before?
At this moment, Jiang Shizao, who was wearing a school uniform, could only silently strengthen his faith in his heart.
…playing games can help me return to the real world.
He repeated it silently to steady himself - mainly to control his legs that wanted to run away.
At this time, Cao Qing took out a few cards from his school uniform pocket and said, "This kind of game depends on luck."
After saying that, Cao Qing held up the six cards with the backs facing up to everyone.
"There are two joker cards among these six cards. Whoever draws the joker card becomes the observer. You draw first, and the remaining one is mine."
"That's reasonable." Wen Xu responded with a faint smile.
Then everyone saw the new transfer student draw the first card from the president's hand.
"Joker."
When Wen Xu saw the cards clearly, he quietly read out the identity of the cards in his hand. Then, with a flick of his finger, he turned the black joker card over and showed it to everyone in the room.
"Huh..." The moment he saw the cards clearly, Lin Xi was the first to breathe a sigh of relief. "Haha, Wen Xu is the observer, so my chances of picking a player have increased."
At this time, the president turned to Jiang Shizao who was standing next to Wen Xu, "Shizao, it's your turn."
Hearing this, Jiang Shizao also raised his right hand and did not refuse the president's kindness.
Although theoretically, the person who draws the card first is more likely to become a participant in the game, Jiang Shizao is now almost certain that no matter when he draws, he will draw a participant card.
When he looked at the cards clearly, the red joker on the cards was smiling brightly at him.
"...Joker?"
He actually drew the observer's ID card?
For a moment, Jiang Shizao cheered in his heart and could not believe that he had such good luck.
After all, compared to direct game participants, observers are actually a safer identity in this game...
Isn’t it?
……etc.
Looking at the red joker card in his hand with a bright smile.
Suddenly, Jiang Shizao became a little uncertain.
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