Chapter 49

Beiwan No. 2 Middle School.

There are two teaching buildings in this school. They are located on the north and south sides of the artificial lake. In the middle, besides the lake surrounded by fences, there is also a small bamboo forest with wisteria flower stands and stone tables and chairs.

Because of the remote location and the class time, there are almost no people here at this time - except Xu Ming and her friends.

Xu Ming is sitting on one of the small stone benches, opposite the tall girl, and on the right is a baby-faced girl with a princess cut.

Big Guo, Little Guo...Xu Ming silently repeated the self-introduction of the two not long ago in his heart. He was expressionless, carrying his schoolbag, with his hands on the stone table, sitting upright as if he was going to class.

"Okay." She slowly glanced at the two people in front of her, "There's no one else here, please continue."

"..." I don't know if it's because her expression is too adaptable that makes the other two people a little uncomfortable. After a pause, the two girls exchanged glances again.

Xu Ming didn't care, just waited quietly by the side. His eyes swept over the two faces again as if nothing had happened. There was no expression on their faces, only some thoughts flashed through their eyes.

——Not long ago, these two girls suddenly came to me, looking like they had something to say. It's a pity that just after I finished introducing myself and mentioned the mutual aid box in the bathroom, I heard the teacher's voice not far away asking them why they didn't go to class.

They were so scared that they ran away, not forgetting to take Xu Ming with them.

Xu Ming didn't know whether she should tell them that she was different from them. She had a formal leave note.

But then again... who are these two? Are

they from An Xin Gardening? It doesn't seem like it. Although they have the temperament of "experienced people", their words and actions are not like those of insiders. At least it doesn't make people feel reassured.

Or are they from another unit? What is it called, weeding vigorously?

It is also possible that they are just ordinary people who were unfortunately involved... If so, whether they are dead or alive, this is another point that needs attention.

The worst possibility is another form of trap in the ghost story, a "companion" disguised as a monster who deliberately approaches... But there is also a possibility that it is Hu Yang who is trapped in this area and tries to provide help.

Anyway, no matter what, let's try it first. It's always good to get more information. If possible, play a card and enrich the vocabulary...

Xu Ming thought silently, but he made up his mind in a moment. On the other side, the other two girls finally stopped looking at each other, and then one of them coughed lightly:

"Okay, then you just listen to me calmly. I know that what I'm going to say next may be a little difficult for you to accept..."

"Excuse me, what do you mean specifically? Do you mean that we are all forced to become Guo Shuyi, or that there is a monster in the toilet?"

Based on the principle of efficient conversation, Xu Ming first stated his attitude, trying to hint that the other party should skip the dispensable mat-laying process: "If it's these two aspects, I have already experienced it and fully accepted it."

The tall girl: "..."

Ah, you accepted it quite quickly.

However, the result of Xu Ming accepting it too quickly was that the tall girl's prepared speech was scrapped again. She had to rephrase it, and pondered for a long time before speaking again:

"Well, okay. Just accept it... Of course, I'm not referring to those two aspects, there are other things..."

Xu Ming: "?"

"You may not believe it when I tell you." The tall girl said seriously again, "There are more monsters in this world than the one in the toilet."

Xu Ming: "..."

Xu Ming: "Are you referring to the one in the artificial lake?"

"Yes... um?" The tall girl nodded subconsciously, and then was stunned, "Wait, how do you know, have you seen it?"

"No, I guessed." Xu Ming said, and turned the schoolbag to his chest, unzipped it, and continued while taking things out:

"I first encountered the monster in the toilet, but there were no relevant warnings near the toilet, but there were warnings in the dormitory and the artificial lake. So I boldly guessed that the dangers mentioned in the two rules were not the same as the one in the toilet. And you just said that there was more than one monster, and since I mentioned the toilet monster, it was most likely the artificial lake."

The tall girl: "Hmm..."

"Of course, it's just a guess." Xu Ming added. What really made her sure of this was the tall girl's previous words and her unconscious response just now.

Then she frowned again:

"And the appearance of that monster should have conditions? The sign next to the artificial lake is stern, indicating that the relevant rules should have little flexibility. Once violated, it is likely to trigger a terrorist incident...

"At the same time, there are previous signs of related strange incidents in the dormitory, indicating that violating the rules of the artificial lake is not the only way to cause terrorist incidents. Strange things will spread further in other ways..." Xu Ming continued to mutter.

The tall girl's expression became more and more subtle: "Ah, this..."

"In addition, from the information in the mutual aid box, there is more than one place similar to the school, and they all have transmission points. The transmission points are all in the bathroom and can only be opened at fixed locations and fixed times. "

Xu Ming said, flipping open the notebook he took out from his bag, with a pen in his hand:

"So, what is the function of this 'point transmission'? Exit?

"And there are the two monsters in the toilet and the artificial lake... The monster in the toilet is estimated to be a domain lord level, at least it has its own roots. Anyway, it is definitely not a small monster. And the existence of the artificial lake, judging from the degree to which it is feared by school rules, if it is an independent force, it is at least a dodder... Assuming that the statement that there are different monsters in the toilet and the artificial lake is true, what is the specific distribution of the camps? Following the convention of monster talks, one is a domain lord and the other is a dodder?

"But the toilet monster's style is not in line with the normal behavior pattern of the domain lord. Instead, it is more like a dodder. In this case, the one who should be the domain master is the one in the artificial lake? Then the school rules that show jealousy towards him have to be questioned. It is likely that the domain master is directing and acting on his own...

"Or is it that there can be two camps of dodder in one domain at the same time... but I have never encountered this. Or maybe the one in the artificial lake is Hu Yang..."

Xu Ming said to himself, and while talking, he seriously took notes on his thoughts in the notebook. After a while, he stopped writing and looked up at the two people again.

"The current intelligence is limited, and my thoughts end here." She sighed and sat up again, "Can you two see if there are any mistakes or omissions? Or is there anything that needs to be supplemented?"

Tall girl & Princess Cut: "..."

So...what is dodder, what is Hu Yang? What is a domain master? Why did the school suddenly direct and act itself...

The two looked at each other again, and saw deep confusion in each other's eyes.

On the other side, Xu Ming, who was quietly observing the expressions of the two, saw this and sighed imperceptibly.

Fortunately. She thought silently.

Calmed down.

*

It's better to say "test" than to say "calm down".

After a lot of analysis, whether it is right or wrong, according to the attitude of the other party, some preliminary recognition can always be made:

if the other party is an insider, after hearing so many terms, at least they can recognize each other as colleagues first, and then the status of intelligence exchange will be more equal; if he is not an insider, he naturally doesn't understand the terms, and Xu Ming can also use this opportunity to pretend and gain an advantage in status.

The most important thing is, no matter who the other party is, living or dead, Hu Yang or a monster, can understand or not, first give the other party some small professional shock, and then bring out the name of the Weird Talk Demolition Office, it will always be more convincing - put aside the issue of license plate, at least expand some popularity first, what if you are lucky and can climb to the second level this time?

Don't be guilty because of big lies, and don't be unwilling to fight because of small points. These are all the experiences accumulated bit by bit before.

Moreover, if the other party is a good person, it will be safer to communicate with him after giving the name of the "Weird Talk Demolition Office" first. After all, as the basis of the third-level rules, the "Weird Talk Demolition Office" still has the basic function of information reinforcement.

After finishing his calculations, Xu Ming looked up at the two girls again. Seeing that they were still confused, he immediately showed a slightly surprised expression and added a question at the right time:

"Wait, your expressions...

" "Did you get dragged into this place by mistake?"

...? !!

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the two girls changed again. Seeing this, Xu Ming also widened his eyes slightly, and after a moment, his expression became serious again.

"If that's the case, then the problem is a bit serious. "

As she spoke, she reached into her bag and quickly took out an ID card with "Xu Ming" written on it. She placed it on the stone table and gently pushed it forward.

The ID card was prepared before leaving the dormitory. It used a semi-finished template, but the position was changed to "Senior Salesperson." It was just a backup, but she didn't expect it to come in handy so soon.

"Strange Talk Demolition and Relocation Office, Xu Ming."

Noticing the increasingly obvious confusion and astonishment in the other party's eyes, Xu Ming tried to speak as calmly as possible: "I'm sorry, I made a mistake before... When I entered this 'world', the information I got was that insiders were already conducting internal surveys. I just happened to come in and you guys came to talk to me, so I thought you were in the same industry..."

Having said this, she paused appropriately, then pursed her lips, as if she was thinking about her next move. Seeing this, the tall girl couldn't help but asked half curiously and half tentatively:

"Excuse me, what exactly is the 'Haunted Story Removal Office' you mentioned..."

"Oh, as the name suggests, it's a unit dedicated to the world of ghost stories. We will find out the ghost stories that are a threat to humans, conduct certain investigations, and then based on the results of the investigation, require the ghost stories to be rectified or directly apply for demolition. "Xu Ming was waiting for her to ask this, and he asked right away. It

was not known whether the tall girl understood or not, but her expression was a little stunned. Gongzhu Qi quickly grasped another key point and suddenly said:

"Wait a minute, the world of monster stories you are talking about... is the world we live in, right?"

As she spoke, her speech speed unconsciously increased: "You are professionals, which means you know how to escape from this place?"

After she finished speaking, as if afraid that Xu Ming would misunderstand, she quickly added: "I mean, escape from here completely. Not just escape from school, but..."

"I know what you mean." Xu Ming nodded slightly, "You mean, completely escape from this multi-environment grid-type monster story matrix formed by transmission points. "

Princess Cut: "..."

Multi-environment grid-type ghost story matrix...what is that?

I haven't heard of it but I seem to understand something.

Anyway, it sounds very professional! "That's about it..." Princess Cut said softly, looking at Xu Ming with some expectation, "So, you know how to escape, right?"

...

Xu Ming knew that if she nodded at this time, at least in the hearts of these two girls, her position would be stable.

After a moment of hesitation, she shook her head lightly.

"Sorry." She said seriously.

"..." Princess Cut's eyes darkened, and then she heard Xu Ming say:

"There was an error in the handover when I came in, and I failed to get all the information about this ghost story world. So I can't deduce the correct way to leave here.

"But I promise that I will try my best. If I have enough information, I will try my best to find the correct escape exit and send you all out..."

Xu Ming said, and pushed the ID card on the table forward again.

"Apologies again. I was too prejudiced before and talked to myself. Next, let's talk about you. If it's convenient, can you tell me how you got here... and how you have persisted until now? Talk to me in detail, okay?"

"..."

Xu Ming asked sincerely. The other two girls did not answer for a while. They

just looked at each other again in front of Xu Ming. After a few seconds, they heard Gongzhu Qi exhale again.

"When I saw the traces you left in the bathroom before, I was wondering how the newcomer here could be so powerful."

She whispered, but her eyes gradually became smart again.

"Now it seems that coming to find you may be the best decision we have made since entering this school."

*

According to the princess cut - or in other words, what Xiao Guo said, she and Da Guo both entered this strange area in a daze. The specific memory has long been vague. The only thing she remembers is that she went to the public toilet once before entering. After coming out, the outside world was completely different.

This is also the only common point among all the trapped girls she knows so far.

Well, excluding the name "Guo Shuyi" that was forcibly given.

"All 'Guo Shuyi' have reasonable identities in every world. We can't deviate from this identity too much, otherwise those 'people'... I mean, 'people' other than us, will become very strange and weird in their attitudes. And they will be chased and arrested as suspicious elements...

"But at the same time, if you really think of yourself as 'Guo Shuyi', your mind will sometimes become very strange. So will your personality. You will even have memories that don't belong to you, which is very scary. So we will remind each other to give ourselves another name to keep ourselves awake at all times... Of course, this is usually not enough. So we will also try to give ourselves another nickname so that passers-by can call us, which will be safer..." When

Gongzhu Qie said this, she seemed to think of something and raised her head abruptly: "Wait, Ms. Xu, Ms. Xu, then your name..."

"Just call me classmate. "Don't worry about me," said Xu Ming as he recorded. "I have solved this problem. You continue."

"Oh...oh." Princess Qi nodded in confusion and continued, "As for the way to survive, it mainly depends on one thing. Before the red light comes, use the transmission point in the bathroom to leave..." "

?" Xu Ming paused with his pen tip and raised his eyes slightly, "Red light?"

"That's the time when the monster starts killing." Princess Qi whispered, "When the monster can kill indiscriminately, the color of this world will change, as if it is covered with a layer of red light, so we usually call it that. "

And the monsters here specifically refer to monsters outside the bathroom - or, as they call it, strange story monsters.

There must be two kinds of monsters in each small world. In their words, they are "toilet monsters" and "strange story monsters."

"Toilet boss... I mean toilet monsters, which basically only appear in public bathrooms, and will only appear after certain conditions are met. For example, in this world, the condition for the appearance of the toilet boss is 'Guo Shuyi exists in the bathroom'... and this kind of monster cannot appear outside the bathroom."

Princess Qi explained to Xu Ming seriously: "The second kind is the strange story monster unique to each small world, and each world is different... We generally call it a strange story boss."

"Like the one in the artificial lake? "Xu Ming asked, and the recording action did not stop. Princess Qie nodded quickly. Xu Ming thought for a moment and asked again: "Has there ever been an accident of a girl drowning in this world?"

"Yes, yes!"

This time, it was the tall girl next to him who nodded: "At least that's what we heard!"

In other words, the accident in the "small world" became a ghost story, and the protagonist of the accident became a murderous ghost story monster...

Xu Ming sorted it out in his mind, trying to substitute this conclusion into the triangle template of "Domain Lord-Dodder-Hu Yang", but he couldn't substitute it for a while, so he just ignored it and asked: "What about the'red light'? What are the conditions for it to appear?"

"'Guo Shuyi' seriously violated the rules. "Gongzhu Qie's face became serious," or a passerby who is not Guo Shuyi triggered the rules and was killed by it... If the cumulative number of dead passersby reaches three, they will directly enter the 'red light'." A red light

that covers everything. When this scene appears, the whole world will be emptied, leaving only all the "Guo Shuyi" and the monster from the accident legend.

The monster will be free from any constraints and can move freely on the ground, chasing them like prey. The only way for them to save their lives is to enter the transmission point and escape into another world before being caught and killed by it.

"Like you said before, the transmission point will only be opened at specific intervals and times. These two numbers are said to be able to be cracked by finding clues by ourselves... Of course, none of us have succeeded. "

When Princess Qie said this, she couldn't help but look worried.

This was the third world she had arrived at so far, and the tall girl had lived in one less world than her. However, the two of them were able to survive before, it can be said that it was all thanks to the mutual aid box in the bathroom. Someone directly shared the exit of the world they were in, so they were able to survive.

But this time, the time for the school's transmission point was not found in the mutual aid box, so they could only rely on themselves to crack it. What's worse is that just before Xu Ming arrived, a boy in this school was found drowned in the bathhouse.

"He must have been killed by the existence in the artificial lake because he violated the rules." Princess Qie said, and couldn't help but raise her hand to cover her mouth, "That kind of monster moves very quickly. One person has been killed, and soon there will be a second and a third... Once the number is reached, we're done."

"That's indeed urgent." Xu Ming couldn't help but frowned when he heard her say that, but he still tried his best to keep calm, "What about the method to crack it? Any ideas?"

"Generally speaking, there are two possibilities." The tall girl said, "Either you look for clues in this world to crack it. This is the most difficult. Another possibility is that when you are in world A, you happen to see content related to the ghost stories in world B. This part of the content may also contain information about the transmission point in world A... and compared to this world, this cross-border cracking is said to be simpler. "

So sometimes, some "Guo Shuyi" are obviously in another world far away, but they can find life-saving answers for the "Guo Shuyi" in other worlds - of course, it is hard to say whether these answers can be accurately transmitted to other worlds through the mutual aid box in the bathroom.

"...Wait." Xu Ming paused when he heard this, "In other words, the contents of the mutual aid box are not transmitted in a targeted manner..."

"Yes." Gongzhu Qi nodded seriously, "It is drifting randomly."

"A hint is placed in the mutual aid box. It may be there today, and drift to an unknown world tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow, it changes to another world... If you get a hint that is not from this world, it is very likely that something will happen. "

So now when she writes a reminder, she will remember to indicate the location; if she finds a transmission point information that does not belong to this world in the mutual aid box, she will also deliberately copy a few more copies and put them in the mutual aid box to increase the probability of those in need getting it.

... Of course, this was all before she entered this school.

The appearance mechanism of the toilet boss in this school is too weird, so that she has not been able to touch the mutual aid box many times until now.

"..." Xu Ming listened silently, but his brows couldn't help but wrinkled again.

"Sorry to interrupt." She thought for a while, put down the pen, "Before you continue, can I ask you two questions first?"

"Uh-huh." Princess Qi immediately sat up straight, "You go in."

"Well, the first question. "Xu Ming chose his words carefully," You said, the toilet in this world... the toilet monster appears because 'Guo Shuyi' stays there. How is this rule confirmed? Also, if there are passers-by accompanying you, will the monster still appear?"

"The initial hint was obtained from the mutual aid box. As for confirmation..." Princess Qie looked thoughtful.

The tall girl at the side raised her hand in agreement: "I have a say in this matter. It is confirmed that I did it. I have also encountered the situation later."

"Huh?" Xu Ming looked over immediately.

"What a coincidence." Meeting her gaze, the tall girl couldn't help but touch her neck, and her fingers ran over the gauze on her neck, "Actually, these two things happened at the same time."

At that time, she was also curious whether the monster would appear if there were passers-by accompanying her, so she deliberately dragged a classmate to accompany her to the toilet - according to their experience, the monster in the toilet would not attack passers-by. This is also the reason why she wanted to try.

However, not long after she entered with her classmates, she felt something was wrong. The half-meter range around her seemed to darken, and the bathroom was instantly empty. The classmate who was still talking to her just now suddenly disappeared.

What's worse, she also heard a sound - the sound of the monster emerging bit by bit from a corner.

"...and then?" Xu Ming leaned forward slightly, and asked involuntarily, "How did you escape from under its nose?"

"Look at what you said, eyelids!" The tall girl couldn't help but shouted, "I was right under its nose, how could I escape."

"Before it officially comes out, there will always be a long period of shaking... I mean the signs. The first time I found the signs, I hurried to the door, but I didn't get out, and I fell. What a coincidence, I fell on the classmate who accompanied me-of course, I didn't see her at that time, but she could see me.

"She saw that something was wrong with me, so she called me loudly. I heard her voice, woke up suddenly, and found that I was back to a normal bathroom. "

It's a pity that she didn't find any useful information when she touched the mutual aid box again. Later, because she was not sure whether she could get away, she didn't have the courage to replicate the scene at that time, so the matter ended.

The tall girl still felt a little regretful when she talked about this. Xu Ming listened, and his heart moved again.

"Okay, thank you for the answer." She said, lowering her head and pretending to flip through the book again, "Then, another question-"

*

"So, this is what I don't understand."

On the other side. In the cinema.

Lu Yueling folded her arms and looked at the girl in front of her, not hiding her doubts. Almost at the same time, she and Xu Ming, who was far away in another space, asked similar questions:

"What are you sure about, that the information in the mutual aid box must be true? "