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Chapter 639 Damn it, I almost skipped it!

"Since she's already dead, let's torture her brother instead."
"Let him discover that the fire that killed his loved ones was not an accident, let him realize that the murderer was right beside him, and let him fall into shock and resentment;

“We not only bought this butterfly hair clip, but also the same ornaments as those in their home, and the same clothes as his father that we wore. We even directly implied to him that we were the murderers.”
"But what can he do?"

Li Shu then revealed a sad expression, seemingly genuinely feeling the emotions involved.

Bai Lu looked at the expression on his face, her clenched hands trembling uncontrollably.

“The items were all newly bought, we have evidence, they weren’t stolen from his house before the arson.”

“It’s all just a coincidence. We didn’t leave him any leverage at all.”
"Then he became like a madman, frantically following us. We knew he was going crazy, and the more he did that, the more excited we became."

"He hates us madly, but he can't do anything about it, which is really delightful;
"Isn't it most enjoyable to see people raging in helplessness?"

Li Shu revealed a smug expression: "While we're happy, we still need to be safety conscious. I specifically installed a surveillance camera right across from the entrance to scare him and tell him not to do anything reckless."

"But I never expected him to have such audacity, barging into my home despite the security cameras and killing my two poor roommates."

As he said this, he reached up and wiped his eyes, seemingly genuinely weeping for his deceased roommate.

But then he put on a gleeful expression: "But thanks to him killing my two poor roommates, I had the chance to see that impotent rage expression again."

As he spoke, he looked up at Gu Mian, his eyes filled with malice: "That's the truth. We set the fire, we killed people, we provoked Yuan Haotian, and we deserve to die."

"Yuan Haotian is just a pitiful, innocent person who lost his mind in the pursuit of revenge, but what can you do? Do you dare to acquit him?"

He grinned, unable to contain his smile any longer: "My two dead roommates are watching you closely. If you make a decision that doesn't suit them, I can't guarantee what they might do."
"Yes, we are utterly wicked and deserve to die. Yuan Haotian was an innocent victim, completely innocent."
"But do you dare to make a fair judgment?"
"Do you dare to risk your lives to clear Yuan Haotian's name?"
As he spoke, his expression became increasingly distorted, completely obscuring his original handsome appearance. He grinned widely and let out a ferocious laugh.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha--"

After laughing, he raised his chin and said smugly, "You wouldn't dare."

"If you want justice, you must die! If you want to live, you must obey our will!"

Just as he raised his chin and made a smug sound, Gu Mian suddenly leaned closer and grabbed his collar.

Then Li Shu saw the judge's face getting closer and closer until it almost filled his entire field of vision.

He saw an incomprehensible, eerie smile appear on that face, followed by a devilish voice in his ear: "I want them all."

“This is the storage room,” Ye Weiwei said, looking at the large vermilion door in front of her. Above the door was an aluminum plaque with the words “Storage Room” written on it. “The prisoners’ belongings should all be stored here… Should we… go in?”

Wang Youcai and the other two have returned to the court.

They were standing at the door of the storage room, hesitating.

They were unwilling to follow the path to survival provided by the game, but it seemed they had no other choice.

"Let's... go in and take a look," Ye Qiqi suddenly said, walking to the door. "We'll decide after we've seen it."

Although they had already vaguely made up their minds, they still delayed and were unwilling to take action soon.

Wang Youcai nodded and pushed open the door in front of him.

There is a large space behind the door.

Like a school library, rows of bookshelves were placed inside, but instead of books, they were filled with a jumble of random items, such as keys, cell phones, and lipsticks.

Each pile of items had a name attached to it, indicating that this was indeed a temporary storage area for the prisoners' belongings.

Ye Qiqi walked to the nearest bookshelf and looked down at the name next to one of the items—"Zhao Huanhuan".

She looked up at the other shelves and saw that they were full of items.

"Are there really that many prisoners in the courthouse?" she asked, looking at the bookshelves with a puzzled expression. "But when we first entered the dungeon, didn't we see the other courtrooms? They were all empty."

Ye Weiwei shook her head in confusion: "Prisoners have to stay in the courtroom from the time they are arrested until they are sentenced. There are indeed no prisoners in other courtrooms... Let's not worry about that for now. Let's go find Liu Ben's phone. There are so many shelves here, it won't be easy to find his name."

Ye Qiqi nodded hesitantly and began searching the bookshelf in front of her.

Ye Weiwei and Wang Youcai also went to the nearby bookshelves and began searching.

"Sister," Ye Qiqi and Ye Weiwei were searching the adjacent bookshelf when Ye Qiqi called out to Ye Weiwei, who was not far away, "After we find the phone, we'll make a judgment, right?"

A soft "Mmm" came from Ye Weiwei's end.

There's no need to look for the phone anymore; they already know the answer in their hearts.

They didn't want to risk their lives for a dungeon.

Right now, they're just stalling, delaying the arrival of the final judgment.

"Actually, this instance doesn't have an absolute death mechanism. If we find Liu Ben innocent, the ghost will come to kill us immediately... But what if we survive until the court session ends? As long as we leave the courtroom alive, we can leave the instance immediately..." Ye Qiqi muttered to herself.

Ye Weiwei's voice came through: "But we can't hold on."

Ye Qiqi fell silent, silently searching the items on the bookshelf. Suddenly, a worn-out cell phone caught her eye. A picture of a boy was pasted on the back of the phone.

She shifted her gaze to the name posted next to her; it was Liu Ben.

“Sister,” Ye Qiqi immediately picked up the phone from the shelf, “I found it.”

"Found it?" Ye Weiwei stopped searching and walked over.

This is a very worn-out gray phone. The edges of the phone case have many bumps and scratches, showing that it has been dropped on the ground countless times.

Due to prolonged use, the phone screen has separated slightly from the body, with several cracks spreading from one broken corner to the entire screen. A small piece of transparent tape was pasted on the broken corner; the tape looked quite old, and some dust had accumulated around it.

Ye Qiqi quickly went to press the home screen.

The phone lit up; it still had power.

Liu Ben's phone wasn't locked, and she easily swiped to access the app page.

There were no extra apps on the desktop, so she found the photo album at a glance.

“I guess Liu Ben might have discovered something at school. He probably took pictures or recorded his discovery. Let’s take a look at his photo album first.” Ye Qiqi said as she clicked on the photo album.

The phone had been used for too long, and it was laggy when you tapped the screen. It took three seconds for the phone to respond to Ye Qiqi's tap and slowly open the photo album.

The top of the album is a video.

Judging from the video cover, this looks like a corridor in a student dormitory.

Moreover, the video appears to be a surveillance video from a computer.

The two hesitated for a moment, then clicked on the video.

The phone froze for a few seconds before slowly starting to play the video.

The two men watched the video playing on their phones, their expressions gradually becoming serious.

The light emanating from the screen shone on their faces, but it only made their faces appear more gloomy.

As the video played, Ye Qiqi bit her lip harder and harder until the video ended. Then, with red eyes, she opened her mouth. She looked at the screen in her hand, seemingly wanting to say something, but remained silent. Finally, her slightly open mouth uttered only a hoarse word: "Sister..."

"Mmm," Ye Weiwei replied with a sigh of relief.

Ye Qiqi gripped her phone tightly: "We really have to..."

But before she could finish speaking, she suddenly felt a chill on the back of her head.

Ye Qiqi has always had a strong sense of danger, and she knew that something was right behind her!

She shoved Ye Weiwei hard, sending her flying, and then tried to run away.

But it was too late.

She felt a pair of cold hands encircle her neck, and a tremendous force came from behind her.

Ye Qiqi fell to the ground, being dragged backward by the hand around her neck. Her vision blurred, and all she could see was the ceiling with the chandelier and the bookshelves that had fallen over in the chaos.

Breathing suddenly became difficult.

"Sister!" She vaguely heard Ye Weiwei's voice calling out.

Hearing the sound, she used her last bit of strength to raise her hand and throw the phone outwards with all her might.

"Sister!" Ye Weiwei chased after Ye Qiqi, who was being dragged by the ghostly hand, but she couldn't stop her.

She watched helplessly as Ye Qiqi was dragged behind the door by the ghostly hand and disappeared.

She knew that Ye Qiqi was dead.

All that remained on the ground was Ye Qiqi's phone, which she had thrown with her last bit of strength.

Hearing the noise, Wang Youcai ran over, but all he saw was a mess and Ye Weiwei holding her phone with tears in her eyes.

“Ye Qiqi, she…” Wang Youcai took a step forward, but as soon as he took a step, he suddenly found a ghostly hand on Ye Weiwei’s shoulder.

"Run!" Wang Youcai's voice trembled with anxiety.

But still slow.

He saw the ghostly hand drag Ye Weiwei into the collapsed bookshelf behind it.

The last thing Ye Weiwei did before she died was to throw her phone away violently, as if she was afraid that she would take the phone with her.

"Snapped"

The phone bounced a few times on the ground before finally landing at Wang Youcai's feet.

He looked at the phone at his feet, which was already cracked from being dropped, his face covered in cold sweat.

Now he understood somewhat that the deaths of the two female players were most likely caused by this phone.

They found important clues on the phone, which is why they were killed by the ghost.

And were they protecting the phone even as they died, trying to pass on evidence to the judge?

Wang Youcai looked down and stared intently at the phone.

Picking it up might kill you too.

An eerie silence fell over the room. The only survivor stood there silently, staring down at his phone at his feet.

He finally made his choice.

Wang Youcai gently bent down to pick up the phone from the ground, then quickly fled the room.

He didn't stop running after he ran out the door. It wasn't until half a minute later that he stopped, panting, and huddled in a corner to look at his phone.

The first thing you see when you turn on the screen is a video—surveillance footage from the dormitory corridor.

At one end of the corridor are several handwashing sinks, and next to the sinks is a water heater where students get water.

He couldn't see what was at the other end of the corridor because the camera was in the middle of the corridor, so it could only record the scene at one end.

But that's enough.

Just a few seconds into the video, he saw a familiar figure on the screen.

The boy pictured on the back of the phone is Liu Baoma.

He was carrying several thermos flasks as he walked out of a dormitory. After a few steps, he seemed to be stopped by someone in the dormitory. Then, someone came out of the dormitory and stuffed another thermos flask into his hand.

Liu Baoma nodded slightly, as if agreeing to something.

The person who came out of the dormitory slapped him hard on the back of the head again before staggering back to the dormitory.

The skinny boy carried five or six thermos flasks and walked awkwardly toward the water heater, filling each flask with water.

He couldn't lift too many water bottles filled with water, and it took him several trips to carry the five or six thermos flasks back to his dormitory.

Because the recording was played at double speed, this period of time is not long in the video.

After getting the water, Liu Baoma didn't rest. He had just returned to his dormitory when someone pushed him out the door and stuffed a basin of clothes into his arms. Liu Baoma shook his head as if to refuse, but instead got a kick to the stomach.

The thin boy staggered a few steps after being kicked, then silently carried the clothes in his hands to the sink and began to wash them by hand.

During this time, several more boys came out of the dormitory and threw a lot of food into Liu Baoma's basin. One of them even threw his clothes directly at the boy's head and then left laughing.

Liu Baoma silently scrubbed the clothes in the basin.

I rubbed it for a long time.

Meanwhile, the other students in the dormitory seemed to have come up with some fun ideas. They tiptoed out of the dormitory and quietly approached Liu Baoma, who was bending over to wash clothes.

Then a tall roommate suddenly jumped up and sat on the back of the boy's head.

Liu Baoma's entire head was pressed into the foamy basin. He waved his hands and struggled violently, perhaps even screaming in terror, but the person sitting on the back of his head remained unmoved, laughing loudly, which made the other roommates laugh as well.

The other people in the corridor seemed to be infected by the laughter, clutching their stomachs and laughing at the boy who had been pushed into the sink.

Wang Youcai saw that everyone's mouth was wide open, and he seemed to hear maniacal laughter coming from those empty mouths. The laughter filled the entire corridor and even seemed to overflow the screen.

After having enough fun, the roommate finally jumped down from Liu Baoma's head.

The boy in the pool didn't move. After a few seconds, he straightened up amidst the laughter and turned to look at the people who were roaring with laughter.

He looked at the smiling people filling the corridor, his mouth agape, but he said nothing.

After a long while, Wang Youcai saw the boy force a smile, a smile that was both contrived and desperate, on his wet face.

I'm so hungry from typing this late at night, I want some pigeon soup!

The typo helper is so useful! I found 11 typos in one chapter. Does GuGu really make that many typos normally?
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(End of this chapter)