Chapter 1 Entering the School

After stepping through the school gate, there was a not-so-large sports field on the left, and on the right... was the teaching building.

The door of that teaching building looked very familiar. Taking a few steps closer, they could see that it was the "exit door" they had seen inside the "night version" of the school.

At this time, the door was open, and from seven or eight meters away, Brother Jue and Ruoyu could already smell a bloody stench wafting out from inside...

"Hum... it seems this part of the plot is a bit 'that'," Brother Jue said before entering the teaching building, reminding her, "Although there aren't many combat sections in limited scenarios, the margin for error is actually lower than in normal scenarios... so be careful."

"It's fine," Ruoyu replied calmly. "Anyway, I've already solved the 'mystery that only Yuan can solve,' so even if I die, it won't affect the final clearance." She paused. "It's you who should be careful."

As they spoke, the two had already entered the teaching building.

The scene inside the corridor looked very eerie. If the degree of cruelty at a murder scene could be graded, the current situation would definitely be at the "rivers of blood" level.

Right at the entrance, they could see two corpses... and they were children's corpses.

Without getting closer, they could clearly see that the two young bodies had been left with many horrific wounds, as if they had been attacked by some kind of wild beast in this corridor. Their extremely twisted faces also seemed to be telling the witnesses about the immense pain and fear they had experienced before their deaths.

Further inside, there were many bloodstains dragged across the floor, extending all the way inward...

Feng Bujue naturally did not hesitate because of these sights. He walked in as if nothing had happened, with great strides. Although Ruoyu frowned slightly after seeing these things, she did not say anything, but just followed closely behind Brother Jue.

They soon arrived at the first corner, where Brother Jue's footsteps stopped.

"Hmm..." Feng Bujue looked at the wall and muttered, "The shrine embedded in the wall is gone."

"That's normal, isn't it?" Ruoyu replied. "In the real world, schools don't have shrines."

"This isn't a question of normal or not..." Brother Jue said. "I think this change implies two possibilities... First, the place we were in before was actually the entire 'ghost realm,' and this is the real school. Second, regardless of whether it's true or false, just in terms of time... the place we're in right now might be Chongjiu Elementary School in the 'past'... so at this point in time, the shrine hasn't been placed yet."

"Then is there a third possibility..." Ruoyu thought for a moment, then said, "The 'shrine' we saw before was placed by the system, just like that Tower of Hanoi mechanism, simply to create a puzzle and advance the plot."

"Heh..." Hearing this, Feng Bujue chuckled lightly, "I hope the possibility you mentioned is true, that would be more worry-free..."

"What do you mean?" Ruoyu heard something in his words and asked with a suspicious look.

"Think about it... If this shrine was really placed by the system to advance the plot, a 'treasure chest' of sorts, then it's just a prop, nothing to study," Feng Bujue replied. "But... if it isn't, then it means that this shrine, and the strange puppet inside... is related to some kind of plot."

"I understand..." Ruoyu followed Brother Jue's train of thought and immediately said, "What you're worried about is... the plot has reached this stage, and we still know nothing about the shrine puppet, which is very likely to be a hidden danger."

"That's right." Feng Bujue nodded in agreement, then turned around and continued walking inside. "So I sincerely hope that the plot we encounter next can explain this matter clearly." He smiled. "It would be best if that puppet could jump out and shout, 'I am the Big Boss, let's fight to our hearts' content!'"

"Hmm." Ruoyu replied expressionlessly, "Although I think the possibility of this happening is almost zero, but... I wish you good luck."

As they spoke, they walked further inside and arrived at the corridor between the biology lab and Class 2-B.

At this time, the doors of both classrooms were open, and there were faint sounds coming from the biology lab.

Therefore, Brother Jue and Ruoyu both glanced into the biology lab. As a result, they saw the following scene...

A man in a white coat... or rather... a male corpse, was lying face up on the lab table. His chest was open, several ribs were blooming like petals, and his internal organs and blood had flowed all over the table and floor.

There was also a little boy who looked to be seven or eight years old, kneeling on the corpse's abdomen, holding a pair of pliers and a small knife, burying his head in what looked like some kind of woodworking. Looking at the expression on his face... he seemed to be enjoying it.

"This... is Sawada, right?" Feng Bujue recognized in just one second that the little boy on the lab table had appeared in "that group photo."

However, Brother Jue did not use a tone of certainty to say that the person in front of him was 100% Sawada, because the group photo did not have names written on it, and the adult versions of the Class 2-A students had been loaded into the players' memories and looked like each other in the players' eyes, so it was impossible to use the adult appearances to compare with the childhood ones. This led to... the players being able to confirm that the four boys besides Suzuki and Noguchi were Togashi, Sawada, Yamada, and Watanabe, but they couldn't distinguish who was who...

"This scene... is it a reality that once happened?" On the other hand, Ruoyu was quite surprised by the situation in the biology lab. She asked this question with a tone of disbelief.

"Hmm... this is indeed a bit incomprehensible." Feng Bujue, on the other hand, had already begun to consider the problem from a technical point of view. "Even if we can use 'Sawada was a crazy, perverted murderer when he was eight years old' to explain the motive, objectively speaking... it's very difficult for him to complete this crime. Even if he can successfully poison the biology teacher, with the strength of an eight-year-old child... how could he move the corpse onto the lab table? Did the biology teacher actively lie down for him to dissect?"

Regardless of the different perspectives on the issue... the questions of both of them were answered three seconds later.

At that moment, Brother Jue and Ruoyu simultaneously caught a glimpse of a moving shadow in the distance of the corridor. So, the two of them turned their heads and looked over, and saw... a little girl of seven or eight years old, dragging an adult's corpse with one hand, slowly walking out of the toilet.

"Sanchoin-san is quite strong." Even at this moment, Feng Bujue was still able to joke in a relaxed tone, "This brisk, one-handed corpse-dragging posture can't help but remind me of Pyramid Head (a monster in Silent Hill), of course... the two are so many times different in size."

As with the boys' situation, it was also impossible to distinguish who was who among the three girls in the group photo. The reason Brother Jue speculated that this child was Sanchoin was because he recognized that the corpse being dragged was the music teacher...

"These children..." Ruoyu was still quite serious. She did not pick up on Brother Jue's joke, but said solemnly, "... they must have been possessed by something, right?"

"It's also possible that they're being controlled by some powerful evil being," Feng Bujue replied. "In short... let's keep watching, if nothing else... the guy who's controlling them will show up after this part of the plot."

Brother Jue was obviously very familiar with the routine of nightmare scenarios. He also gradually realized that these were similar to "death scene replays," except that this content was presented not in the form of CG, but in the form of "immersive observation."

"Let's go, let's see the situation in the other rooms." After Sanchoin dragged the female corpse into the music room, Feng Bujue turned his head to look at Ruoyu, signaling her to follow him.

"Should we..." Ruoyu hesitated, then looked into the biology lab again, "... do something about it?"

"It's all 'things that have already happened,' there's nothing to do about it," Feng Bujue replied. "This part of the plot is just for us to 'watch,' and we should be glad... that we only need to 'watch,' because I don't think we can win if we have to 'fight'..."

As he said this, he had already walked forward.

Ruoyu pondered for two seconds, then didn't say anything else, and silently followed Brother Jue.

In short...

In the next ten minutes, the two looked all over the school. Except for the warehouse door opposite the principal's office and the entrance to that secret wine cellar, which were closed, all the other doors were open, and the scenes inside those open rooms were similar – simply put, a certain student from Class 2-A was joyfully handling corpses in a very cruel way.

Those corpses were adults and children... complete and incomplete...

In any case, after going around in a circle, it could basically be determined that there were only seven living people left in the school.

And those seven people were the six Class 2-A members played by the players and the class monitor, Watanabe.

"I understand..." Ten minutes later, Feng Bujue, who had finished exploring the second floor and returned to the first-floor corridor, muttered thoughtfully, "Through this part of the plot, we've grasped two very important pieces of information."

"One is that we've matched the names and faces of the children in the group photo one by one," Ruoyu took over his words and said. "Two, we've learned that there was a massacre in this school, and the perpetrators were the very people we're playing as."

"Correct." Feng Bujue snapped his fingers, then said, "Then the question is... how did these seven little devils escape legal sanctions back then? And... what is the thing that controlled them?"

Just as Brother Jue said these words, suddenly...

"It's 'it'," a strange voice rang out, responding to Feng Bujue.

Brother Jue and Ruoyu looked in the direction of the voice and saw... a figure had appeared at the corner of the corridor at some point.

"You are..." Feng Bujue recognized the man as the one who had been standing on the sports field earlier.

"My name is Tsukamoto Shota, and I am an Onmyoji," Tsukamoto replied.

"Oh." Feng Bujue replied casually, "I see... you're the one who brought us here?"

"Yes," Tsukamoto replied. "With my current strength... I can only do this much."

"What do you mean by current strength?" Feng Bujue said. "What exactly is going on? Can you explain it?"

"Perhaps it will be difficult for you to accept, but... please believe me..." Tsukamoto replied, "The scenes you just saw were all realities that once happened. I know you don't remember... but..."

"We believe you." Feng Bujue interrupted the other party, saying very calmly, "Continue."

"Uh..." Tsukamoto was a little stunned, "The... the thing is... your real bodies are actually all in the Class 2-A classroom right now, but your souls have been brought into a phantom realm by 'it'."

"Are you saying..." Ruoyu picked up, "that the space we were in before was also a phantom realm?"

"That's right!" Tsukamoto responded, "The Chongjiu Elementary School you were in before, and the Chongjiu Elementary School you're in now... are all phantom realms created by 'it.' It wants to use your souls... to unlock its seal again."

"Oh? How does it use our souls?" Feng Bujue said.

"When you were 'over there,' did you see the shrine?" Tsukamoto asked.

"We saw it." Brother Jue's answer was concise and to the point.

"That shrine was a seal created by my master," Tsukamoto said.

"Seal what? It? So what exactly is 'it'? And who is your master?" Brother Jue asked a series of questions.

"That's a long story..." Tsukamoto replied.

"It's okay, take your time, we're not in a hurry," Feng Bujue said.

Tsukamoto nodded, pondered for a moment, and then said, "The story... has to start twenty-six years ago..."

His narration began. The initial description was the same as what the other "Tsukamoto" had said, except that he did not say that Brother Jue and the others were "ghosts."

After talking about "it" and the "520 Massacre," this Tsukamoto continued, "After the massacre, the higher-ups of the Metropolitan Police Department secretly found my master—the Nara Dharma Master—and asked him to deal with the evil things in this school, that is... 'it.'

"Although... my master's cultivation was very high, 'it' was too terrifying...

"On the night of the exorcism, as soon as my master entered this school, he discovered that 'it's' power was far beyond what he had imagined, and he couldn't eliminate it with his own power. But at that time, he couldn't escape either, so my master could only do his best to seal 'it' on the spot.

"After that night, my master, who was not even fifty years old, turned white overnight. His family-inherited 'Seimei Kariginu' (hunting garment) was also contaminated by evil power and was eventually burned by him...

"After that, my master lived in seclusion in the temple, wholeheartedly teaching us disciples, and did not go out to exorcise evil spirits again. Until one night, twenty years later...

"That night, he suddenly summoned me and my senior brothers to his bedside and said to us..."