Chapter 1 A Strong Impact

The scene of Noguchi being torn to shreds and dragged away was a very intense shock to the players, both visually and mentally.

Even Ruo Yu, whose composure was second only to Brother Jue, was breaking out in a cold sweat. The others... were too frightened to speak.

"Tch..." Brother Jue, the only one left who could still speak, muttered in a rather displeased tone, "I wasn't finished asking questions yet."

Just now, the suddenly bursting open locker doors had pushed Noguchi's body out a bit, forcing Feng Bujue to pull his hand back slightly. And at that very moment, those dozens of hands had torn Noguchi into pieces in one fell swoop.

Although Feng Bujue hadn't let go, in the end, he couldn't even keep a scrap of clothing...

[Main Quest Triggered]

Thankfully, after that terrifying spectacle, the main quest for this Nightmare scenario finally refreshed. It was long overdue.

"Hmph... it finally triggered," Feng Bujue said, concentrating as he summoned the game menu and opened the quest log.

The others in the team had instinctively performed the same action almost the instant they heard the system prompt.

Then, the words [Escape from Chong Jiu Elementary School] quickly entered their view.

Actually, the content of this main quest wasn't particularly surprising. In this kind of limited scenario set in a confined environment, nine times out of ten, the goal would be to "escape from such-and-such a location."

However, two seconds later, the system provided a piece of slightly unexpected news: [Hidden Quest Triggered]

As the prompt rang out, the players were still looking at the quest log, so they immediately saw the line [Investigate the Whereabouts of Everyone in Class 2-A] appear in the "Hidden Quest" category.

"This... either there are no quests at all, or they give you a hidden quest along with it," Xiao Tan remarked upon seeing this.

"The hidden quest probably appeared because the team leader fulfilled some specific condition," Xiao Ling, ever clear-headed, immediately added. "Like... deciphering some piece of information within a certain time, or... the act of dragging Noguchi out of the locker."

Xiao Ling's deduction was quite reliable. If the normal storyline were followed, when Noguchi came out of Suzuki's locker to scare people, there would be two possible outcomes—

First, if the player whose wrist was grabbed failed to break free within fifteen seconds, all the lockers would open, and the dozens of hands would dismember that player. Then, all the locker doors would close, and the main quest would trigger.

Second, if any player reacted within fifteen seconds and used the flashlight to drive Noguchi away, Noguchi would let go and run. Subsequently, all the locker doors would close, and the main quest would trigger.

But... Feng Bujue had triggered undoubtedly a third scenario.

While suppressing Noguchi with light, he had instead pulled the monster out. This reaction, which was completely impossible for ordinary people to make, seemed to come naturally to him.

That was why everyone had witnessed the scene of Noguchi being dismembered earlier; that was why... the system had directly thrown a hidden quest at them.

"Whatever about that..." Two seconds later, Gui Xiao picked up on Xiao Ling's words, "The key thing is, what should we do now? The clues seem to have dried up again, haven't they?"

He was right. The lectern key and the Noguchi locker key had both been consumed when they were used to unlock things (turning into white light and disappearing after opening the lock). The only items the players currently had were the [Strange Long Hair] from the lectern, the [Suzuki's Recorder] that Brother Jue had casually stuffed into his coat pocket, and an old newspaper (Brother Jue really had a lot of pockets in that long suit), and none of these items seemed to be of any use at the moment.

"No... it should... be okay," An Yueqin said thoughtfully at this point. "If I'm not mistaken... the doors and windows of the classroom should all be open now."

"Hmm?" Gui Xiao was stunned upon hearing this. After thinking for a few seconds, he suddenly understood. "Oh! I get it! That whole scene we just went through was basically like the 'preparatory time' in a normal difficulty script, right?"

"That's right," An Yueqin replied in a deep voice. "When the words [Main Quest Triggered] rang out, the script officially began... and at that point, the exit will naturally open."

"Very well, since everyone understands," Feng Bujue said, taking his flashlight from Xiao Tan and heading toward the lectern. "Then... let's prepare to depart." He took a few steps and, as he passed by Gui Xiao, turned his head and said, "Oh, right, Gui Xiao, you might as well just leave your flashlight on. Judging from the current situation... there are quite a few jump scares in this script. It's not very safe to have only one flashlight on for a team of six, so after we go out, you'll be responsible for bringing up the rear and monitoring the situation behind us."

"Uh..." Gui Xiao's face showed distress upon hearing this. "To be honest... can I walk in the middle? You can have my flashlight."

"No," Feng Bujue replied very firmly and quickly. "I refuse."

"Hey! You're not my club president, why should I listen to you?" Gui Xiao was clearly unconvinced.

"Yeah, Brother Jue, it feels like you're bullying him a bit," Xiao Tan also chimed in, speaking up for Gui Xiao.

"Bullying? Heh..." Feng Bujue laughed upon hearing this. He had already picked up the wig and walked to the classroom door, but upon hearing those words, he turned back around. "Alright~ I'll be a little more polite then." He walked back to Gui Xiao, looked at the latter, and said, "I'll just ask you one question... will you listen to me or not?"

"I..." Gui Xiao was about to blurt out a "no," but the word caught in his throat, and his expression changed slightly.

"If you don't want to listen to my commands, then I'll really 'carry' you through the scenario from now on," Feng Bujue continued. "If you don't want to bring up the rear, then you don't have to; if you don't want to solve puzzles, then you don't have to; if you don't want to go get anything, then you don't have to... You can just let us do everything you don't want to do, and you can just do what you want to do. How about that?"

Brother Jue wasn't just saying these words casually. From his expression and tone, it was clear that he would do exactly what he said.

"Tch..." But Gui Xiao did not accept this seemingly incredibly easy treatment. "I get it! I'm sorry, alright! I'll bring up the rear!" Not only did he not accept Brother Jue's suggestion, but he also apologized to Brother Jue for the first time ever.

Clearly, he had understood the meaning behind Brother Jue's words, which was why he had such a reaction.

"Good, let's continue then," Feng Bujue gave him a meaningful smile before turning and taking action.

...

The actual situation was consistent with An Yueqin's prediction. After the main quest was triggered, the doors and windows of this classroom could all be opened freely.

After checking the doors and windows, Feng Bujue pulled open the sliding classroom door and stepped into the corridor.

Unlike the classroom, the floor of the corridor was concrete. If you stepped on it forcefully, you would hear a "tap-tap" sound.

Naturally, there were lights on the ceiling here as well, but they weren't on...

Fortunately, with Feng Bujue leading the way, no matter how eerie the environment was, it wouldn't affect the team's pace.

"Let's go through all the places we can go first, and then enter specific areas for a detailed exploration," Brother Jue said to his teammates behind him as he led the way.

Although he could have said nothing, he knew that speaking up from time to time would help stabilize everyone's emotions. Anyway... listening to Brother Jue's calm voice was better than letting fear brew in a long period of silence.

And so... led by Brother Jue, everyone began their exploration of this "Chong Jiu Elementary School."

After walking a few meters to the right from the only door of Class 2-A, they reached Class 2-B. Shining a flashlight through the windows, they could see that Class B's classroom was filled with desks, chairs, and clutter, almost completely packed. When they touched the door handle, the prompt [Cannot be opened] appeared.

Continuing in this direction, they soon reached a corner. On the wall at this corner, there was a very strange shrine embedded.

The shrine was made of stone, small in size and simple in shape, but there was one very strange thing... The shrine did not enshrine any Jizo or Buddha, but rather a Japanese doll.

The doll was about the size of a Western doll, wearing a red kimono, and looked like a girl.

Anyone who has seen this kind of Japanese doll knows that it looks fine in broad daylight, but at night, in a dimly lit environment... it can be inexplicably creepy.

But Feng Bujue didn't care about that. When he saw the shrine, he had his teammates help by shining a flashlight on it, nonchalantly went forward and examined it, and came to the following conclusions—

First, the doll itself was made of wood, but its hair seemed to be real, and the small clothes it wore were also made of good material.

Second, the doll and the shrine were fixed together, and neither could be moved.

Third, after untying the doll's clothes (yes, Brother Jue untied them), you could see that the doll's torso was hollow, and the inside of the torso had many undulating textures, as if it could fit some things into it.

After confirming these things, Feng Bujue started on the road again, leading his teammates around the corner.

After walking a little further, they reached the end of the corridor—a door that looked like a "gate." When they tried to open this door, they heard the prompt [The exit is sealed by a dark power].

In this way, the school's "exit" was also determined.

At this point, the players had basically guessed the way to escape from this script—it was likely that they needed to find one or more specific items and put them into the doll's body, and finally trigger some kind of mechanism or plot to open the exit door.

...

After confirming the "exit," Feng Bujue reversed direction and led his teammates back.

After returning from the corner, they soon arrived at the old place again. Opposite Class A and Class B, across a corridor, was the "Biology Classroom." This classroom had no windows facing the corridor, and the message on its door was "Needs a key."

Further ahead, there was a row of steps leading to the second floor.

Feng Bujue didn't go up for the time being, but just shined a flashlight up and took a look, then continued to walk forward.

Further ahead was the corridor on the "left-hand side" after coming out of the door of Class A; the two sides of this corridor were the "Music Classroom," the "Faculty Office," and the "Toilet."

The door of the music classroom could be pulled open directly, but Feng Bujue stopped pulling the door when he found that it was not locked, because he had to guard against the "door fully opened" action triggering some flag; the door of the faculty office also needed a key to open, and could not be opened for the time being; finally... the toilet, had no door.

There were two entrances to the toilet, leading to the men's toilet and the women's toilet respectively. There was also a sink in the middle of the two entrances; as for what the situation was inside the toilet... it was not clear, because the entrances to toilets are generally made in a zigzag shape, so as to prevent people standing outside the door from seeing the situation inside.

"Okay, we've almost finished looking at the first floor," Feng Bujue said. "The areas that can be explored at this stage are the music classroom and the toilet. Judging from the fact that we got the [Suzuki's Recorder] in the classroom, the normal process should be to go to the music classroom first." He paused, "So... what do you think, are we going to the music classroom next? The toilet? Or go to the second floor for a walk?"

"I suggest going to the music classroom!" Xiao Tan was the first to say, and honestly gave the reason, "It feels like... following the general process might not be so scary."

"I agree too," Gui Xiao said quickly, agreeing with him after hearing this.

In the past ten minutes, Gui Xiao had been responsible for observing the situation behind the team. Although nothing had happened... the feeling of horror that followed him was still undiminished, so he was still chickening out.

"Let's go to the music classroom, that main quest item is already a very obvious hint," Xiao Ling also said at this time, "In a Nightmare difficulty script... try not to go against the storyline, otherwise it's easy to die."

As a result, Ruo Yu and An Yueqin also had similar meanings.

Seeing that his teammates had reached a consensus, Feng Bujue also agreed. Actually... it didn't matter to Brother Jue where they went, it was just a game~

A dozen seconds later, Feng Bujue walked back to the door of the music classroom. He turned his head slightly to greet his teammates: "I'm going to pull the door, everyone be careful of a door kill."

Then... he pulled open the door.

"Gah—"

Just as the door was fully opened, a long-haired female ghost hanging upside down suddenly and without warning fell rapidly from the upper edge of the inner side of the door frame, suspended in the doorway, and let out a piercing scream.

This time... it really came too suddenly; the five people standing behind Brother Jue were all frightened and screamed to varying degrees, and Gui Xiao's legs even softened, staggering back to the other side of the wall, almost sitting on the ground.

"Oh... another one is it?" At this moment, Feng Bujue was closest to the female ghost, the faces of the two were only about three inches apart. This distance was naturally enough for him to attack someone... oh no... attack a ghost, "Hehe... good thing you came~"