Chapter 25: What to do if you encounter a ghost? Hit it until it dies!

"Hey, Chubby, let's chat. Don't be so scared. Come here, buddy, and I'll give you a candy."

Liu Yang’s mouth twitched slightly. He watched as Wu Wang, standing beside him, coaxed the chubby boy toward a deserted area like a con artist luring a child. What was truly absurd was that the guy actually pulled a piece of candy from his pocket.

Although the chubby boy muttered things like, "Sister Chen says you’re very dangerous," the drool threatening to spill from the corner of his mouth didn't lie. He was genuinely craving it. After all, one couldn't exactly expect a convenience store in the Art Building. In fact, everyone here was subconsciously forgetting the dissonance of the fact that they hadn't eaten in a long time. Dead people don't feel hunger.

"See? That’s better. I’m not some creepy stranger; I just got here and wanted to ask you a few questions." The sight of Wu Wang smiling brightly after the chubby boy approached made Liu Yang want to call the police.

"Wha-wha do you want to ask?" the chubby boy mumbled, his words slurred by the candy in his mouth.

Wu Wang asked casually, "Oh, I just want to know if there’s anywhere in this Art Building that I can't go. I don't want to wander around and make Chen Nan angry."

At these words, the chubby boy froze. His eyes darted away as he mumbled, "No... nothing. Sister Chen won't restrict your freedom."

It was obvious he wasn't very good at lying. For Wu Wang, who had studied *The Actor's Self-Improvement* and *Micro-expression Psychology*, it was easy to catch this anomaly. He narrowed his eyes and said, word for word, "Is that place on the first floor?"

The chubby boy remained unmoved.

"The second floor?"

"The third floor?"

When he mentioned the third floor, although the chubby boy’s expression didn't change, a line of text appeared above his head:

【He is so terrified that he wants to run away.】

Bullseye! I have to say, the red vertical pupil skill for seeing through one's inner thoughts is quite unbeatable.

"Oh~ if Chen Nan has no objections, then I'll just go to the third floor for a stroll~" Wu Wang deliberately drew out his voice, slow and long.

*Bang—*

As soon as he finished speaking, the chubby boy lunged forward and grabbed his collar, his expression tense. "No! You can’t go to the third floor! That place... just, you can't go there!"

"Why? Didn't you say Chen Nan wouldn't restrict my freedom?" Wu Wang narrowed his eyes like a hungry wolf stalking its prey.

The chubby boy didn't answer at first. The two remained in a stalemate for about three minutes. Then, the chubby body slumped like a deflated balloon, and he sighed. "Sister Chen doesn't know how dangerous the third floor is. None of them know. Except for me."

As expected, this chubby kid was not simple. Why was it that when Liu Yang first saw the boy at the entrance of the Art Building, he couldn't see anyone else? In fact, it was only after he spoke to the boy that he could see Chen Nan and the others. And that was while he was under the influence of the red vertical pupils! Wu Wang had suspected the boy was problematic from the start, but he hadn't found concrete evidence until now.

He couldn't keep up the act anymore.

*Boom—*

Before they could continue their conversation, the entire building let out a massive roar. A violent tremor, like an earthquake, sent Liu Yang and the chubby boy tumbling to the ground.

***

About a minute later, the shaking stopped.

Wu Wang frowned and asked, "Setting aside whether this building is a shoddy construction, are all the other students Spider-Man?"

He noticed that the other students nearby were still playing, joking, or doodling on the walls. They didn't seem to have felt the tremor at all; they hadn't moved an inch. Even more bizarrely, the water basins on the tables hadn't shown a single ripple. It was as if the earthquake had targeted only them.

"We aren't on the same layer as them, are we?" Wu Wang couldn't hold it in anymore.

Realizing that Wu Wang and Liu Yang could feel the earthquake, the chubby boy explained, "Get it now? They can't feel the presence of danger at all. The guy who causes these tremors lives in the broadcasting room on the third floor."

Wu Wang finally understood why the kid was so timid. It turned out that while everyone else lived in blissful ignorance, the chubby boy not only had to endure the tremors every so often, but he also lived in constant fear of some horrific entity on the third floor—he probably feared having an accident in his sleep every night. Because he was the only one who could perceive the danger, in the eyes of others, he often appeared to be hiding out of nowhere for no reason.

"Do you mean you've seen that person?" Wu Wang caught the blind spot.

Seeming to recall something, the chubby boy’s rosy face turned deathly pale. He trembled as he said, "That’s not a person! It’s a monster as bloated as a mountain! It wears many strange rings on its hands. Every time it turns a ring, it triggers an earthquake!"

Bloated figure, strange rings. These two keywords made Wu Wang’s expression go strange. He felt like he had heard this description somewhere before.

"Damn it! Is that freaking Principal Wang in the third-floor broadcasting room!?"

No wonder Old Man Yao said the guy wasn't in his office after twelve. He was in the Art Building! The tremor just now meant Principal Wang was using the powerful ability of his rings. According to the description Baili Dao had given him, the rings possessed abilities like pausing time, verifying information, and spatial teleportation. Why would he be using his powers alone on the third floor?

"If he's alone, he's probably using the spatial teleportation ability to leave the Art Building," Wu Wang’s brain spun rapidly. What kind of important matter would force Principal Wang to use the ring’s power to teleport away? Wait, hold on. There actually might be...

***

"Damn it! Didn't you say it would knock them out for half an hour! Where did the other ten minutes go, did a dog eat them?"

"..."

Facing Tu Xingsun’s bickering, Shi Ganzhuang didn't reply. It was indeed a miscalculation on his part. He hadn't expected those ghost security guards to be so bizarre. That item usually worked on any target in a standard instance, excluding the boss. As long as no one touched them or made a sound, anyone would be out for half an hour. But these ghost guards had only slept for twenty minutes! They woke up just as the group was preparing to leave.

"Enough. The item is in our hands now, so there are two choices," Baili Dao analyzed calmly. "Either we go to the Art Building now, or we head back to the dormitory to hide for the night. We haven't been fully exposed yet."

The three were currently fleeing frantically, using all sorts of strange skills. They had managed to put some distance between themselves and the ghost guards. This gave them enough time to discuss their next move.

The former carried high risk. After all, the mission was to catch the truant, and they would still have to search for clues once inside the Art Building. If the ghost guards blocked them inside, they would be finished. The latter seemed like the best choice. The ghost guards hadn't seen their faces. As long as they returned to their dorms and went to sleep, Baili Dao didn't believe they could be found among the thousands of students in the school. They could just take the paint box into the Art Building tomorrow night to investigate.

"I choose to go back to the dorm."

"Me too, sorry."

Tu Xingsun and Shi Ganzhuang lowered their heads as they made their choice. Hearing this, Baili Dao’s clenched fist tightened. The latter was indeed the best choice, but there were more than just the three of them! The Widow was still waiting by the dark room to meet them! The ghost guards had been alerted, and she didn't know that danger was creeping closer. If they went back to the dorms now, they would be completely selling her out.

"Brother Baili, if she gets caught, she can even act as a scapegoat. The school will think they've caught the real culprit, which will cause them to lower their guard, making it easier for us to act tomorrow," Tu Xingsun consoled him.

"What are you talking about!" Baili Dao questioned viciously. "She found the clues, she scouted the dark room, we triggered the danger, and now you want to sell out a newcomer to be our scapegoat?"

But Shi Ganzhuang stepped in front of Tu Xingsun and said quietly to Baili Dao, "Sorry, free players aren't as loyal as you think. Profit is the only truth. I can make a concession; you can take an extra share of the rewards after the instance ends. After all, it was my mistake first."

Yeah... fundamentally, they were just strangers thrown together to start an instance. Besides profit, they had no connection. As long as he could make money, that was all that mattered.

But... damn it, he couldn't do it!

Baili Dao tilted his head and cursed, "Who cares about your stuff! Now, immediately, disappear from my sight!"

The other two looked at each other. "Then what do you plan to..."

Before they could finish, Baili Dao interrupted, "I’m going to the dark room to save the Widow! The worst that happens is I end up lying there with her! You guys go back to the dorms! Cowards!"

Tu Xingsun frowned. "What if you meet a ghost on the way? You wouldn't sell us out, would you?"

"Heh, you think everyone is like you?" Baili Dao said with disdain. "What do I do if I run into a ghost? I’ll just ram right into it until it dies!"

*Bang—*

As soon as he finished speaking, dust filled the air in front of the three. A figure as tall as a mountain appeared in the dust, chilling them to the bone. Principal Wang’s slightly angry voice emerged—

"Who exactly were you planning to ram into?"