Horror games? Whatever, I'll die.

When Liang Zaibing was taken off the rack, her senses were in disarray. It felt like an eternity had passed, yet also like only a fleeting moment.

After laying him flat on the ground, Number 11 left the punishment room, slamming the door shut. The room was pitch black.

Liang Zaibing lay on her back, taking several deep breaths before she could catch her breath.

"System, announce the time."

The time difference in the instance is currently 21:21.

There was still more than half an hour before the dormitory curfew.

Last time, Zhao Hui was dragged back to the dormitory after he stepped on the access control. Is this half hour allotted for him to find clues? He seems like a pretty nice guy.

Liang Zaibing's enthusiasm immediately returned. He stopped lying there and slowly got up by bending over.

Ouch, I got several slaps on my waist, and it hurts whenever I move.

Despite the burning pain, Liang Zaibing exchanged the flashlight from the mall for a new one and carefully examined the furnishings in the room.

The torture instruments weren't anything to worry about; Liang Zaibing focused her attention on the crooked graffiti on the wall.

The marks on the wall were numerous and varied, with different handwriting, and were likely left by students who were locked in a dark room.

Besides the marks made with knife tips and stones, there are also hundreds of marks directly dipped in blood. Moreover, because they were written blindly in the dark, they are even more difficult to decipher. It would be a pipe dream to read them all within half an hour.

Moreover, these messages are unsigned, and it's possible that even if someone sees them, they wouldn't recognize them.

Liang Zaibing tapped his forehead with a headache, and with a powerful flashlight in one hand and a camera in the other, he took pictures of the wall with words on it one by one, planning to think about them slowly when he got back.

When he finished taking all the photos and leaned against the iron frame to rest, there were still seven or eight minutes left until 10 o'clock. I guess the 11th would come and drag him back to the dormitory later.

Once you relax your efforts, your mind will also become scattered.

Liang Zaibing felt her eyelids getting heavier and heavier, and her body felt heavy, as if she might fall asleep at any moment, but she still didn't forget to curse Number 11 in her heart.

You have such a bad temper. When you get back, I'll have that old geezer teach you a lesson about what a child should be like.

Mischievousness, climbing on roofs, and slacking off are all things children can do, but this lifeless wooden puppet is an exception.

It's been a long time since I've seen the old man...

-----

Liang Zaibing was awakened at the same time by a dull pain in her forehead and the sound of the door opening.

He slept so badly that he slid right off the shelf and slammed his head hard onto the floor.

Liang Zaibing blinked as if she hadn't recovered from her shock, staring blankly at the wall in front of her.

By the dim light coming in from behind the door, he could barely make out the writing on the wall, which was clearer and neater than the other messages.

—If I die, please call your mother; she would be very happy.

This sentence is followed by two short vertical dots, resembling the beady eyes of a simple sketch, and a phone number is appended below.

Almost instantly, Liang Zaibing knew that this was the one he was looking for.

After returning to the dormitory building, Mo Qiuping waited at the entrance of the lobby.

Mo Qiuping glanced down at her watch; there were only three minutes left until ten o'clock.

When I looked up again, a staggering figure emerged from the pitch-black night. As he got closer, I could see Liang Zaibing's tired and weary pale face.

I was mentally prepared to see a second crime scene, but I didn't expect Liang Zaibing to walk back. Apart from grimacing a little in pain, she seemed to be fine.

Mo Qiuping remained calm, stepped forward and pulled him along, "You should be glad you came back in time, otherwise I wouldn't have waited for you."

"Understood, Dr. Mo."

Liang Zaibing held onto the handrail as she walked up the stairs. "Luckily, they only lost about twenty lives. It seems we don't need your first aid."

Mo Qiuping showed no impatience from waiting in vain, and simply responded with a faint "Mm".

-----

Lying in bed, Liang Zaibing finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Everything is ready now, the cursed object is within reach, all that's left is to wait until tomorrow.

Sheng Jingyu irritably threw a pillow at his face. "Shut up, stop laughing like an idiot."

Damn it, I'm already so annoyed by that guy who jumped off a building, and he's still laughing and joking here.

Liang Zaibing threw the pillow back at him. "Sorry, I was thinking about something happy."

Sheng Jingyu sat up and glared at him, "How can you still laugh at a time like this? Does that ghost who jumped off the building make you so happy?"

"No matter what I think, he should still jump off the building. Why not cheer up and stop looking so gloomy, young master?"

Seeing his even more sour expression, Liang Zaibing felt a secret satisfaction, as if she had successfully pulled off a prank.

She ignored him and took a nap before the "jumping ghost" arrived for work.

The dormitory rooftop was simply paved with cement, without even railings on all four sides. The evening breeze blew up clouds of dust, and every corner exuded desolation and loneliness.

Not a single star could be seen in the dome, and the enormous blood moon that seemed about to fall last night was completely obscured by dark clouds.

The tall, thin, faceless man walked stiffly step by step to the edge of the rooftop, climbed onto the platform, and then jumped off.

Number 11 sat to the side, watching everything with a blank expression, a crumpled and then smoothed-out piece of paper clutched in his hand.

The note that the liar slipped to him before class.

"No matter the cost, I will save you, and I will prove it to you."

You're really good at saying nice things.

No one can save him, and he doesn't need anyone to save him.

In the still of the night, where only the chirping of insects could be heard, the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground could be heard again and again.

11 gently swung her legs, which were dangling outside the building, and stared blankly into space.

What did he mean by giving me candy?

The faceless male ghost did not answer him. It gathered the human-shaped corpse again, climbed back onto the rooftop, and jumped off.

"boom--"

Why did he say I wasn't a sinner?

"boom--"

He said he would take me away from here.

"boom--"

Is he a fraud?

"boom--"

no answer.

-----

Despite not getting much sleep that night and having his mental energy level plummet to only 45, Liang Zaibing got up the next day full of energy.

Liu Ying and Feng Peng both survived last night's mental attack, but due to their extremely low mental strength, their thinking and mental state were severely affected.

Liu Ying felt almost identical to the numb students in the academy, lost in a daze, unable to respond to the outside world, only muttering, "Home...home...I can go home if I make a phone call..."

The smile on Liang Zaibing's face vanished instantly. He calmed himself down and said, "Let's go."

There were only two public telephones in the entire academy. A phone book with parents' numbers was placed on the table next to it for people to look up. Each person could only make one call.

There were long lines in front of each telephone; there was no choice but to wait.

They were just one step away from success; if they were killed by the teacher for cutting in line, they would have nowhere to turn for help.

As we got closer, the voice of the student in front of us talking on the phone became clearer and clearer.

"Mom, I beg you, sob sob sob," the lifeless voice cried, its tone eerily chilling. "The teachers at the academy are punishing us. They beat me with steel rulers, and they broke one of my legs..."

Before he could finish complaining, the teacher appeared out of nowhere, her face contorted with rage, and kicked him to the ground.

"Do you know what you should and shouldn't say? Have you learned to tattle on your parents?"

The teacher grabbed his hair and slammed his head into the ground, causing dark blood to splatter and hit Feng Peng's feet, who was staring blankly.