Accepting the admonition of the director of teaching, who was the man with thinning hair, both Rong Yi, sneaking a smoke, and Ice, sneaking eyeliner, were standing outside the door of the classroom, backed against the windows as a punishment.
Ice, still in shock, muttered, “Lucky Carnival? Game? How did I suddenly go back to high school?”
“I heard a voice… It said as long as I can earn enough points, my dream can come true!”
“Hmm,” Rong Yi replied, opening a floating screen while the others were few.
Unlike the previous two instances, the floating screen didn’t display mission introductions or failure penalties this time. Instead, there was a yellow prompt box:
[Player Identity: Senior Sister of Class 2 (3), Leader of the Senior Class]
[Attention: Please quickly meet up with your teammates and start the instance mission]
Followed by the team’s numbers (2/4).
Previously grouped with Luo Huayue and Zhang Haiyang, there were only three of them. Where did the fourth person come from?
Could it be that this so-called team was not the same as the team they had formed themselves?
Curiously, Rong Yi opened the team list and found an additional player named “He Yongqiang,” showing that the team had been successfully formed.
Who is He Yongqiang?
From the gym to the teaching office, and then from the teaching office to the classroom, she encountered numerous teachers and students along the way, unable to distinguish between players and NPCs.
While Ice was still lost in thoughts, Rong Yi didn’t want to leave him hanging and asked, “So what is your dream?”
“I want to go back to being a professional athlete.”
Ice looked down at his vintage sneakers and started rolling up his pant legs. After straightening up and fixing his hair in the window glass, he lamented, “The heavens are jealous of beautiful women.”
Rong Yi sighed. This wish overlapped with the physical aspect of their desires and Zhong Zhiming’s wish, indicating that the wish items in the store that Zhong Zhiming could never afford might increase in price again.
On the other side of the glass, a Chinese class was in progress.
“In class sleeping,” Teacher Wang paced back to the platform, “If you understand everything, I’ll set up a bed for you to sleep on!”
“Luo Huayue!” Teacher Wang called Zhang Haiyang’s desk mate again, “You, speak!”
Outside the classroom, Rong Yi sweated nervously for the bewildered girl.
“Stars divide wings, land joins Heng and Lu…” Luo Huayue murmured dreamily:
“It means the former county government of Yuzhang, the current governor’s mansion of Hongdu, correspond to the division of two constellations, wings, and Zhen, in the celestial sphere, geographically connecting Hengshan and Lushan. That’s it.”
Teacher Wang: “Hmm. Sit down.”
Her mood eased a lot, she added in a mild tone, “Do not sleep in class in the future. Zhang Haiyang, if you don’t understand, ask your desk mate.”
Luo Huayue nodded obediently and pulled the vacant Zhang Haiyang to sit down.
Finally, as the class ended, Rong Yi and Ice finally met with Luo and Zhang.
Zhang Haiyang looked at Luo Huayue with newfound respect, “Aren’t you a fine arts student? I didn’t realize!”
Luo Huayue frowned, “Do you have prejudices against fine arts students? I want to apply to the Central Academy of Fine Arts because I love painting, not because I’m bad at cultural studies. I’m in the top three of my class every semester!”
Zhang Haiyang: “Wow, so confident. If you’re so good, why not apply to Qinghua University?”
Luo Huayue: “Because I don’t like it.”
Rong Yi: …
Luo Huayue: “This reminds me, I can apply to Qinghua first, then transfer to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, a clever move!”
Rong Yi: “…No, that probably won’t work.”
Luo Huayue: “True. My destiny is the Central Academy of Fine Arts. I can’t settle for less.”
The atmosphere of the nostalgic and relaxed school, the bright sunlight outside the teaching building, and the high school students laughing and chatting around made the tense gamers relax unconsciously, leaning on the corridor railings chatting casually like regular high school students.
He pulled out a pack of makeup remover wipes from his pocket and threw it into Ice’s arms, saying, “Go to the bathroom and remove your eyeliner! Youth is the most beautiful time, why bother with adult makeup!”
He then turned to look at Rong Yi squatting on the ground. Rong Yi immediately raised his hands innocently, “Teacher, I didn’t smoke.”
The head of discipline responded with a grunt and walked away.
Luo Huayue’s gaze shifted to Ice, who looked embarrassed.
“…He Yongqiang?”
Rong Yi replied, “…the fourth member of our spy team?”
Ice had just learned to open the holographic screen and had just realized he was part of the team.
But what he was more concerned about at the moment was—
“Don’t call me by my real name! That name is too outdated!”
Zhang Haiyang scratched his head, “It’s not bad. You have a righteous aura, which suits this ‘haunted house’ instance.”
Ice retorted with a “straight male aesthetic,” and finally learned how to use the holographic screen with Rong Yi’s help, getting a rough idea of the instance and his mission.
During this time, Rong Yi also figured out that according to the general rules of the game, newcomers should start with simpler instances like e or d levels. However, because Ice and she entered the game through the same entrance and knew each other, to avoid exposing the spy too early, the game forcefully pulled Ice, who knew nothing, into the more difficult spy team.
She looked at Ice with a hint of guilt in her eyes, thinking, “Sorry, partner, I’ve dragged you into this.”
“It’s a bit like a murder mystery script,” Ice, who was unaware of all this, analyzed enthusiastically, “We and the other players are clearly not on the same side, and we can’t expose our identities. Are we supposed to stabilize the student character, pretending to be NPCs?”
Rong Yi nodded, “I’m familiar with that.”
“It’s more than that. The mission description is ambiguous,” Rong Yi added, “It doesn’t state how many players are in this particular instance.”
“Right,” Luo Huayue chimed in, “It’s unlikely that all the students in this huge school are players!”
Zhang Haiyang, checking the holographic screen, clarified, “Look, the mission mention ‘students (players) who play horror games in the teaching building every night.’”
“Are all the students playing horror games players, or do the players include some of those students? If we scare the wrong person, we won’t earn points and risk exposing our identities.”
Rong Yi suggested, “Or maybe there are players who are not students among them?”
Zhang Haiyang groaned, “Oh, my head hurts… I don’t want points anymore. Can we skip scaring other players tonight?”
Not taking action meant they wouldn’t be discovered, but that also meant failure for the spy faction. It seemed that not taking any action was not an option.
Rong Yi patted his shoulder, “Let’s keep observing.”
They had just entered the instance, and the situation wasn’t clear yet. They could only proceed step by step.
Their current mission was to keep their characters stable and in-character.
As the “big sister” of the second and third year class, when Rong Yi passed by the corridor, the students would make way for her, showing respect, fear, and gossiping eyes.
It was somewhat similar to her situation at work, so she adapted well.
She instructed the other three to blend in with the students to gather information about the players.
She slipped out of half a class and wandered around the teaching building, familiarizing herself with the surroundings, ready for mischief at night.
Even if she got caught by the teacher, it wouldn’t matter. She was a delinquent girl, skipping class was no big deal.
But she forgot that even though the character in the game was a dominant figure on campus, in reality, Rong Yi was still someone who would get lost after taking a few wrong turns.
Lost in her supposed dominion over the campus, she opened the communication system in desperation, only to find a message from her boyfriend:
x: Ahhh – I messaged you on WeChat and you ignored me!!! The time to enter the game is uncertain! It could be anytime in the 24 hours of a day! Don’t be overconfident!
x: [crazy frog head.jpg]
x: Have you entered… Reply when you do… I couldn’t find the livestream and I don’t know which copy you’re in…
x: Ah, I hacked the system a bit and found out, what is Seven Nights’ Tales, as long as it’s not the traitor’s camp, it’s not difficult to get through! Rong Rong, fighting!
x: Disaster! My mentor suddenly asked me to participate in a government confidential project, I probably won’t be able to communicate with the outside world for about a week!
x: [crying cat head.jpg]
After that, there was no more sound.
Rong Yi leaned against the door of the biology laboratory and sighed. She had been wandering in the deserted laboratory area for a long time, still unable to find a way out.
She wondered if the headmaster was patrolling during class time, or if any student or teacher passing by would bring her back.
She impatiently took out a lollipop from her pocket, only to remember that she had run out of cigarettes.
Lucky Carnival, your only option for forced smoking cessation.
She comforted herself by popping the strawberry-flavored lollipop into her mouth, the candy ball swelling round on her cheek.
Outside the corridor, the afternoon sun was excessively bright, casting a deep shadow over the staircase entrance.
“Tread, tread, tread…”
The slow and steady footsteps echoed through the empty floors.
As she listened, the lollipop in her mouth stopped moving, Rong Yi focused on the unnaturally calm footfalls drawing closer.
Though she knew the rumored “hauntings” in the game were likely the doings of insiders, the cold and tense atmosphere brought by these footsteps still triggered an adrenaline rush in Rong Yi.
She involuntarily stood up straight, took a step back, and stared intently at the staircase entrance.
Suddenly, she felt something behind her.
Soft yet firm, tall and cold, like a wall that had appeared out of nowhere.
Rong Yi took a deep breath, then abruptly turned around!
A tall and pale boy stood straight behind her, head lowered, his pitch-black eyes fixed unwaveringly on her!
Rong Yi’s heart raced, cold sweat involuntarily dampening her back!
Where did he come from? She distinctly heard footsteps coming from the staircase, didn’t she?!
Could it be the emptiness of the floor creating an auditory illusion?
Though the way he appeared was eerie, he was still a person after all. Asking him to take her back to the teaching area should be fine.
Rong Yi assessed the boy’s stature and appearance; he seemed to be a senior student. Just as she was about to say “hello, senior,” she remembered her own character setting.
As the big sister of the class in her second year (or third year), how could she use the polite greeting of “hello, senior”?
So she stood defiantly, swaying her hips, legs trembling, the lollipop stick swaying in her mouth, and raised her head towards the boy:
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
The boy continued to stare at her intently, a hint of a subtle smile appeared on his lips.
But upon closer look, he remained pale-faced and expressionless.
“Rong Yi is talking to you! Are you mute or something?” Rong Yi frowned, clicked her tongue, then spoke in a tone that was a true reflection of a delinquent girl: “Forget it, you seem clueless.”
“Alright, if you take me back to the second year (or third year) class, Rong Yi will let you be my little brother, follow me around in style, how about that?”
Upon hearing such arrogant and deserving-of-a-beating words, how could the senior high school student not utter a couple of scolding remarks to her?
Unexpectedly, the boy didn’t say a word and just nodded, then actually lead the way forward.
Rong Yi was puzzled, is this guy a masochist?
Masochist though he may be, he led the way excellently.
He always maintained a distance of two steps from Rong Yi, occasionally checking if she was keeping up. At intersections, he would wait and signal a direction for both of them to go together, ensuring that he stayed within her line of sight to prevent her from panicking due to losing sight of the guide.
As they continued, Rong Yi began to feel a sense of familiarity.
This step-by-step, meticulous, and constantly guiding style —
Just like being with her in-game boyfriend through real-time text guidance!
Although one is physically leading the way, and the other is providing real-time text navigation through WeChat, the subtle rhythm of guiding and caring for each step of the way —
Just like being with her in-game boyfriend!
Rong Yi looked at the boy in front of her, wearing a blue-pocket school uniform that couldn’t hide his upright figure, and she couldn’t help but start to have wild thoughts —
Could it be that her boyfriend lied about being assigned a secretive government project by his mentor and actually sneaked into the game to accompany her?
Rong Yi shook her head again.
It’s probably not possible. If he could do that, then why did he come to accompany her in the previous two instances? Why not just reveal himself to her directly?
Besides, her boyfriend always claims he’s ugly, but this boy —
Rong Yi raised her head, the sunlight shining on the boy’s overly fair skin, casting sharp shadows from his prominent nose…
He is too handsome, almost resembling Fan Xingze ten years younger and without glasses.
Impossible. She told herself it’s just a feeling that he’s like an NPC or player similar to Ames in the game.
Blame it on Ames, always avoiding meeting her in person, making her reminisce about him whenever she meets someone randomly.
Amidst these wild thoughts, the voices around her gradually became lively, and the tall senior had already brought her to the entrance of the sophomore (junior) class, still gazing at her with somewhat penetrating eyes, slightly nodding as if signaling her to go in.
It’s now time after class, and students were coming in and out, curiously eyeing the senior male student brought by their class leader.
Luo Huayue hurried over, pulling on her sleeve, “Rong Yi, you finally made it!”
Rong Yi stumbled as she was pulled, and when she raised her head again, the boy had already walked away, leaving behind a lone tall figure.
She couldn’t hold back in the end:
“Hey!”
Rong Yi shouted at his back:
“Which class are you in, and what’s your name?”
The corridor was bustling. The boy seemed to hear, yet at the same time, it was as if he hadn’t heard.
He paused slightly in his steps, turned at the corner of the corridor, and disappeared from Rong Yi’s view.
The author has something to say: The tall senior: I’m not called Hey, I’m called Chu Yuqian.
The boyfriend just wanted to have a campus romance (dog head).
Posting two chapters in advance! I’ll try my best to post three chapters before midnight! Love you all, muah!
Raymond will also make an appearance in this instance… And I’m thinking of a “stunning” debut for him hehehe.
