Global Collapse

Chapter 6 Go to bed early to prevent sudden death

"The fire started in the warehouse on the sixth floor of the teaching building on the evening of November 26, 2008. The cause of the fire was arson, and the investigation revealed it to be a premeditated arson-murder case."

The death toll in the fire is 29, including 28 students and one teacher.

"All twenty-eight students were from Class 4, Grade 8, and the deceased teacher, Kosaka, was the homeroom teacher of Class 4, Grade 8."

"Besides the 28 students who died, the last survivor of Class 4, Grade 8, went missing that night. If anyone sees this student, please report it to the police immediately."

Below is a photo of a girl with a bob haircut, fair skin, and big eyes; she really looks like a rabbit.

Below the photo is a line of small print: "The person pictured above is the missing student, Li Quanmei."

“Li Quanmei?” Chu Changge stared at the photo: “That’s the student you mentioned.”

Gu Mian nodded: "Yes, it's the one who didn't come to class."

The report did not say that Li Quanmei had died, but that she went missing on the night of the incident, meaning that the fire only killed one teacher and twenty-eight students.

"That's really strange," the fat man said, puzzled. "The dungeon quest is to teach twenty-nine vengeful spirits, so shouldn't twenty-nine students have died?"

Chu Changge pushed up his glasses: "Then there is only one possibility. This Li Quanmei must have died somewhere and then turned into a ghost, but her body was hidden and has not been found to this day."

Moreover, it is highly likely that Li Quanmei died at this school.

“I have two conjectures now—” Chu Changge continued.

"My first guess is that Li Quanmei's death is related to this school. Someone hid her body, and then she became a vengeful ghost and came back for revenge."

"But vengeful ghosts have many ways to kill people, so there's no need to go to such great lengths to gather them together and then burn them. Therefore, I actually lean more towards the second hypothesis."

"The second hypothesis is that the murderer is Li Quanmei, a living person. She was ostracized by everyone, and after suppressing her emotions for a long time, she suddenly exploded, setting fire to the house and burning everyone to death. The dead became vengeful spirits and returned to take revenge, killing Li Quanmei."

"But if it's the second hypothesis, I can't explain why a vengeful spirit would hide the body after committing murder."

"And regardless of which theory it is, I still don't understand the purpose of Kosaka's existence as a teacher."

This dungeon is really brain-taxing; Gu Mian felt like her brain cells were dying off in large numbers.

He rubbed his forehead: "Actually, it doesn't need to be that complicated. We can just grab a student, whip him, and interrogate him. We can probably get the information out of him right away."

Chu Changge didn't even lift his eyelids: "If you're going to die, don't drag me down with you."

The fat man also flinched: "Dr. Gu, are you... serious?"

Of course I'm serious...

However, Gu Mian didn't say this out loud. She just idly tapped the table and asked, "Then you guys continue your deduction. Do you still want me to look for clues?"

Chu Changge took out a pen at some point: "I've searched the entire teaching building, and there's nothing special about it except for the warehouse on the sixth floor. Now I mainly want to look for clues in the dormitories."

The dormitory building is opposite the teaching building, separated by a large playground.

However, Gu Mian had seen that the dormitory building was locked, and there was a schedule posted on the door that it would not open until after 4 p.m.

I don't know who opened the dormitory door, but this is in a dungeon, so there's no need to worry too much about it.

As he thought about it, he glanced at the digital clock on the table; it was 2:30 PM.

Xun Li has already gone to his history class and should be back around 3 PM. I don't know if he'll be back alive.

Meanwhile, the other two female players were sitting side by side on the rubber ground of the playground, seemingly not wanting to enter this strangely atmospheric teaching building.

Time flew by, and soon the history teacher, Xun Li, returned. The fat man had been waiting to see him make a fool of himself, but to his surprise, the six-foot-tall young man wasn't intimidated at all and gave the fat man a good laugh when he got back.

"When I saw you come back this morning looking like you'd pissed your pants, I thought they were really scary. But when I got there, I realized they only dare to bully the weak."

"When I stand on the podium, not a single student dares to make a sound. Forget about playing musical chairs; everyone listens attentively to the lesson."

"I originally thought this horror game would be really scary, but it's not that scary at all!"

It seems this person got through the class quite peacefully.

The fat man blushed crimson from the ridicule, looking like he wanted to disappear into the ground.

Night fell quickly.

I don't know how time is allocated in this instance, but it was already getting dark when it was a little past four o'clock.

By five o'clock, the entire sky had turned a deep, dark blue.

The dormitory building is slightly drier than the teaching building, and at least the windows are still intact.

Upon entering the main gate, there is a deep, dark corridor, like the throat of a monster, with a chandelier hanging from the top emitting a faint orange light that flickers occasionally.

The dormitory corridor is very narrow, about two meters wide, and it feels crowded even when walking side by side with Fatty.

The twenty-odd vengeful spirits returned to their dormitory, but they all lived on the fourth floor.

The teachers' dormitory is on the first floor.

In the narrow corridor, Gu Mian saw the dormitory door with her name on it after only a few steps.

He read out the door number, “104.”

Teachers' dormitories are shared by two people, and Gu Mian's roommate is history teacher Xun Li.

Two female players share a dormitory room, while Chu Changge and Fatty share a dormitory room.

It's worth mentioning that on the door of dormitory number 102, which is right next to Gu Mian's dormitory, there's a familiar name: Kosaka.

But the door was locked, so we couldn't get in.

Gu Mian had no choice but to give up and go to her own dormitory to check first.

The teachers' dormitory was very simple, with a balcony, two beds, and a large table.

A table was placed between the two beds, and two thermos flasks were on the floor.

The curtains were drawn, leaving a gap in the middle through which the inky sky could be seen.

Xun Li plopped down on the bed and yawned loudly: "This experience is so realistic, I'm actually feeling sleepy in here."

As he spoke, he became excited again, as if wanting to show off: "Actually, you were scared when you went to class this morning, weren't you? I heard you were so scared that you ran back before class was over."

"Actually, there's no need to be so afraid. You should learn from me. If you're tougher, they won't dare to do anything. Those ghosts will only suspect you're cowardly..."

Xun Li stopped halfway through his sentence because he realized that Gu Mian wasn't listening to him at all, but was staring thoughtfully in one direction.

He followed Gu Mian's gaze.

Through the gap in the curtains, a pale face was pressed against the window, staring at him.

This one might also be gone.
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(End of this chapter)