Chapter 1 The Newspaper's Hidden Message

"...I believe that since this newspaper appeared here, the 'Takayuki Suzuki' who was burned to death and the 'Suzuki' in this class are very likely the same person," Feng Bujue continued. "Extending from this... we can reasonably speculate that the situation might be like this – back then, Suzuki's death was actually related to the class monitor of this class, but nothing happened at the time; many years later, this class monitor returned to the school for some reason, triggering the wronged soul's life-reaping fLAG, and then kicked the bucket. After he died, he turned into a ghost and prepared to drag the rest of the class down with him. So... the opening scene of this script appeared."

"I don't know why... this is supposed to be a terrifying thing, but after you said it, it doesn't feel scary at all." After listening to Brother Jue's words, An Yueqin's scare value did drop a lot.

"After all that..." Gui Xiao said, "You still haven't determined anything, and the main quest hasn't been triggered either."

"I told you to be patient." Feng Bujue said leisurely, "First, go through all the known information in your mind and make some reasonable deductions, so that you can deal with any sudden situations more easily."

He finished speaking in the tone of a schoolteacher, not hurried or slow, and then spread out the newspaper, showing it to everyone.

"Let's talk about the other reports in the newspaper..." Brother Jue continued, "There are three other reports related to this school, namely... 'Principal Miyamoto Commits Suicide at Home', 'Teacher Sato Suffers Mental Breakdown in the Toilet', and 'Student Noguchi Eiji Goes Missing'. There are also two other reports, one about the shrine in this small town holding a Sanja Matsuri a few days ago; the other about the United States returning Okinawa to Japan... The last one takes up the most space, spreading over several pages, but it has basically nothing to do with the plot of this script."

"What kind of newspaper is this..." Xiao Tan commented with a dry laugh when he heard this, "It wrote a bunch of things about this school, and then it added a national event, isn't the range of content a bit too big..."

"This should be a 'village newspaper'." Feng Bujue had naturally already thought about this question, "That is, the kind of newspaper that is self-run by a small town... From writing, printing, to distribution, it is all done locally, and the content of the report is mainly local news, with a little bit of well-known national events added in."

"Can such a publication really survive?" An Yueqin interjected when she heard this, "How much news can there be in a small town?"

"Hehe... you're right." Feng Bujue laughed, "So what they make is a 'weekly'."

"Oh~" An Yueqin immediately understood when he said that.

"The things I just said happened at different times, spanning from one to seven days." Feng Bujue continued, "Suzuki was burned to death on May 13th; Noguchi Eiji went missing on May 14th; May 15th was the Sanja Matsuri and also the day the US military returned Okinawa; Sato's mental breakdown was on May 16th, and the principal hanged himself at home on the 18th, and finally... the newspaper came out on the 19th."

"This week was really a rough one." Xiao Tan couldn't help but complain after hearing this.

"It's okay, as far as this school is concerned, only two died, one went crazy, and one went missing." Feng Bujue continued, "If we consider the 'supernatural' setting, these things probably still have some causal relationship, so... not many people died, not even the average number of deaths in a horror movie."

"If you include the six of us, the number should be enough." Ruo Yu, who hadn't spoken for a long time, suddenly made a joke in her cold tone.

But in the end... only Feng Bujue was laughing.

The others couldn't find the joke at all, and were even a little more scared by what she said.

"Alright, the known information has been explained, and next is the puzzle-solving part." Feng Bujue said, and then took back the newspaper in his hand and folded it up, "Before I told you about Suzuki, I had already cracked the hidden information on the newspaper, it's actually not difficult... just find a complete sentence according to the original folds on the newspaper."

"Wait, wait, wait..." Gui Xiao asked immediately when he heard this, "Couldn't you have solved the puzzle first, and then told us about those things just now?"

"You don't understand, do you? I deliberately finished explaining the information first." Feng Bujue replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "So far, the main quest has not been triggered, and the system hasn't given us any time limit, so... why don't we make good use of this 'unlimited time'?" He paused and added, "Think about it... If the main quest is triggered and a rule like 'you must complete the script within a certain amount of time' pops up... then you may not be in the mood or have the time to study the plot."

"Okay, okay, you're right." Gui Xiao narrowed his eyes and replied in a drawn-out voice, "I, your little brother, have been taught~"

While the two were talking, Feng Bujue didn't stop his hands, he quickly restored the newspaper to its original state on the podium, then turned it sideways and pointed to a fold, "Okay, everyone, look... this edge happens to put two different reports together, and the words on both sides of the fold can be read continuously from top to bottom, left to right."

"Is... right... in... front... of... you... but... you... can't... see." Xiao Ling was really amazing, she was looking at the newspaper upside down at this moment, but she quickly read out the Japanese kana on the paper.

"Ho~ As expected of someone who studies liberal arts, amazing, amazing." Feng Bujue immediately praised her.

"Hmm... but what does this sentence mean?" Xiao Ling said, lowering her head to think after reading it.

"Hey, hey... why does this sentence sound so creepy?" After hearing those ten words, Gui Xiao instinctively took half a step towards Xiao Tan, who was closest to him, and his face also showed a bit of nervousness.

He was quite straightforward in this regard, scared is scared, nothing to be embarrassed about.

"It's useless for you to lean over, I'm also scared..." Xiao Tan also admitted his cowardice very frankly when he saw this.

"Do you two want to find a corner to hug each other, and then we'll call you when we've solved the puzzle?" How could Brother Jue, a man with his taunt skill maxed out, miss such an opportunity, trash talk just came out of his mouth.

Just as Gui Xiao was preparing to return a few words of trash talk...

"I know!" Suddenly, An Yueqin exclaimed softly, and continued, "Right in 'front', refers to sitting in the classroom, facing forward." As she spoke, she quickly walked to the blackboard, "As for why you 'can't see'..." She took a few steps closer and looked closely at the blackboard, "Heh... I see..."

In the next second, she picked up a white chalk head from the chalk tray and began to smear it back and forth on the blackboard.

Before long, a section in the middle of the blackboard was painted into a patch of light white, and in that whitened area, there were a few stain-like things that did not change color due to the chalk passing over them...

In this way... by the time An Yueqin put down the chalk, the two words "Rotate" appeared on the blackboard.

"Rotate?" Xiao Tan read, "Rotate what?" He said this sentence just as he raised his head, "Could it be that turning the light tube above can trigger some kind of mechanism?"

"I think... moving the desks and chairs is more reliable, right?" Gui Xiao wasn't just complaining there, he had actually been thinking all along.

"You two..." Feng Bujue took out that old driver tone again, clipped the newspaper under his arm, and walked towards the painting on the wall as if he were taking a stroll, "Turning your brains more is better than anything else."

As he said this, he had already reached out and held the frame of the painting. A second later, he used a little force with one hand, and heard a "click" sound from behind the painting, and then the entire painting rotated one hundred and eighty degrees.

The huge face in the painting was originally in a very abstract state, but after such a turn, looking at it upside down... it was actually a grinning monster face.

Zzzzzzz...

At the moment when the painting was finished rotating, the fluorescent light tube directly above the classroom... that is, the only source of light in this space... flickered twice and went out.

"Hey--no way... what's going on? Did you turn the light switch?" Gui Xiao's speaking speed became very fast, and his voice was also a little trembling, it was obvious that his scare value was rising rapidly.

"Brother... Brother Jue... is everything okay?" A second later, Xiao Tan also asked a dispensable question in his cowardly voice.

Their reactions were both common reactions of humans when they are afraid...

When people feel scared and helpless, they will urgently communicate with the kindred around them in order to alleviate their inner unease. And the way of communication... is to ask questions.

However, people at this time often fall into a state of mental sluggishness or even complete stagnation, so the questions they ask will also lack logic, be meaningless, or even be incoherent.

"Shh--don't talk." Feng Bujue quickly gave a response, keeping those two guys who were more cowardly than the girls quiet.

Thump—

Almost at the same time as Brother Jue's "word" came out, another strange noise came from another corner of the classroom.

"What... what was that?" Although Brother Jue had told them not to speak, Gui Xiao couldn't help but ask a question after hearing the sound.

"It should be the wooden bookcase to the right of the podium that opened." Immediately afterwards, Ruo Yu's still relatively calm voice sounded in the darkness.

"Don't move, I'll go take a look." Feng Bujue said, already walking towards the source of that voice.

It should be noted here that Brother Jue does not have "data vision" at this time, because in limited-ability scripts, "data observation ability" will also be limited.

Gui Xiao is undoubtedly in a similar situation, so he often fails when he encounters restrictive scripts...

However, for Feng Bujue, not being able to use data vision doesn't mean that he can't act in the dark; our Brother Jue is a well-trained man, and his sense of time and space has always been extremely accurate.

Taking this classroom as an example, it's roughly a rectangular space, not large, and the furnishings inside also have a certain regularity; in such an environment... Brother Jue only needs to observe for a minute or two, and it won't be a problem for him to act inside with his eyes closed.

"Be careful, maybe that sound is some kind of monster crawling out of the cabinet." Ruo Yu couldn't act in the dark either, but she could still manage to give a reminder.

"Sis! Can you stop saying such scary things!" Before Brother Jue could respond, Gui Xiao on the other side had already shouted excitedly.

"It's okay, I'll improvise." Feng Bujue was calm, and when he replied to this sentence, he had already walked to the front of the wooden bookcase.

After all, he is a man without fear, in this pitch-black environment, in this terrifying atmosphere... he actually reached out into the cabinet without hesitation, and quickly groped around.

However, at this moment, another anomaly occurred!

Tap, tap, tap...

Suddenly, a burst of footsteps came from the corridor outside the window.

The sound was not loud, but it was enough for the six players surrounded by darkness and silence to hear it clearly.

Moreover... it wasn't just the sound that came; along with the footsteps, there was also a strong smell of blood.

Many people know that when one sense is restricted, the other senses become more acute. Just like at this moment, the players who were blindfolded could clearly feel the approach of some unknown creature from their sense of hearing and smell.

This feeling... is undoubtedly very bad, even worse than a monster with a terrible face appearing directly in front of you.

"Brother... Brother Jue..." Xiao Tan's voice sounded again, he lowered his voice and said tremblingly, "This is getting a little out of hand..."

After a short two seconds of silence.

"Stay calm, I found the flashlight." Feng Bujue's reply sounded, and gave a welcome message in a very firm and calm tone.

Click—

Before the voice fell, Brother Jue had already turned on the switch of the flashlight in his hand, and aimed the light at the direction of the corridor without thinking.

At that moment, all six players clearly saw that a pale face was pressed against the window glass of the corridor, staring at the people in the classroom with a pair of hollow pupils that were overflowing with blood...

At the moment when the light from the flashlight was projected over, the face twisted and let out a shrill scream, and retreated backwards.

In the blink of an eye, accompanied by another burst of rapid footsteps, the face disappeared back into the darkness outside the corridor, and was hard to find...

This scene was truly thrilling and extremely terrifying.

Not to mention Xiao Tan and Gui Xiao, who were relatively timid, even Ruo Yu and the other three were frightened and their heartbeats accelerated and their hairs stood on end.

"It's conceivable... in this place, if the action of finding and turning on the flashlight is slow, it might come in." Only Feng Bujue, with a calm demeanor, was still saying some words that made people feel scared afterward.

"Can you stop talking? Your words are more terrifying than the ghosts themselves!" At this moment, Gui Xiao had entered a state of anger from extreme fear, turned his head and replied unhappily.

"How do you know it's a ghost?" Feng Bujue replied calmly, "Judging from the sound of footsteps... I think it's more likely to be a physical monster."