“Because he’s wearing a lab coat, he must be the biology teacher, right?” Gui Xiao continued.

“Heh…” Feng Bu Jue chuckled and replied, “That kind of thing… is called a stereotype; it can’t be considered evidence.” He paused for half a second, then added, “The real reason I’m sure he’s the thing from the biology lab is… the birthmark on the back of his hand.”

As he spoke, his teammates all instinctively looked at the photo. Because the group photo was large, the details were clearly visible – the man in the lab coat did indeed have a patch of differently colored skin on the back of his hand.

“You’re really something…” Gui Xiao muttered. “At the music room door, facing a suddenly appearing upside-down ghost, you could remember the person’s appearance clearly; in the biology lab, while wrestling with the monster’s arm, you could still notice the mark on the back of its hand.”

“Yeah… a normal person usually wouldn’t notice those kinds of details in that situation,” Feng Bu Jue replied.

“You’re going out of your way to say you’re not normal, aren’t you…” Gui Xiao retorted.

“Humph… never mind the details.” Jue Ge smiled and continued, pointing at the photo, “Let’s focus our attention back on the picture…” He moved his finger away from the surface of the photo, then said, “There are thirteen people in this group photo, nine children and four adults. Now, we’ve already identified two adults and one child, as for the rest… how about we all make some reasonable deductions?”

“The two adults shouldn’t be hard to guess, right?” Ruo Yu immediately replied. “In my opinion, the younger man is very likely the homeroom teacher of Class 2-A, and the remaining fat uncle is undoubtedly the principal of this school.”

“Yeah, I agree,” An Yueqin said. “In terms of status, it’s reasonable for the principal and the homeroom teacher to be in the photo.”

“But… is it possible that the homeroom teacher of this class is the biology or music teacher?” Gui Xiao then offered a guess.

“That’s right,” Feng Bu Jue replied. “Although in our country, it seems obvious that a teacher of a main subject would be the homeroom teacher, this script is set in Japan during the Showa era, so we can’t just apply that kind of thinking. Besides… this is a rural elementary school, so their teaching staff must be relatively small, and it’s possible for a teacher of any subject to be the homeroom teacher.” He raised his hand and pointed to the younger adult male in the photo. “However…” The next second, he changed the subject. “To be honest, whether this person is the homeroom teacher or not… makes no difference to us. Since he appears in this group photo, that means he was also considered a member of this class. Judging by the nature of this script, we might see him in some kind of plot later… and he’s probably already dead. So, whether he teaches math or teaches sports, even if he’s a math teacher who teaches sports, it doesn’t matter to us. What we need to focus on is his ‘whereabouts,’ or rather, his ‘fate.’”

“Then according to you…” Gui Xiao followed Jue Ge’s train of thought and looked at the oldest fat uncle in the photo. “We don’t need to pay too much attention to whether this uncle is really the principal or not?”

“He is the principal.” At this moment, Xiao Tan suddenly interjected, stating this with a very certain tone.

“Oh? How did you determine that?” Hearing this, Feng Bu Jue turned to look at Xiao Tan and asked with an interested expression.

“Isn’t it already obvious?” Xiao Tan looked down at the photo and replied. “Look… at the moment the photo was taken, he was adjusting his tie, wasn’t he?”

“You mean…” Upon his reminder, Xiao Ling stared at the photo for two seconds and also realized, “He’s left-handed?”

“That’s right,” Xiao Tan said. “Judging from his standing position, it would obviously be more convenient to use his right hand to adjust his tie, right? But he used his left hand, so it’s clearly a matter of habit…” He paused, then looked at the telephone on the desk again. “Then, let’s look at the layout of this office… The desk is placed with its right side against the wall, and the phone is placed on the left side of the desk. The light switch in the room… although we can’t turn it on now… is also installed on the left side after entering the door. In addition, the way the documents are arranged on the bookcase, and the wear and tear on the lower track of the sliding glass door (a horizontally sliding double-layer glass door) of the bookcase, all show that the person using this ‘Chairman’s Office’… that is, the principal, is left-handed.”

“Whoa~” After listening to this, Gui Xiao widened his eyes and exclaimed, “It seems like everyone in Hell Frontline is a great detective, with all kinds of keen observation and godlike reasoning?”

“Hehe… it’s okay,” Xiao Tan said with an embarrassed smile. “Jue Ge taught me this level of reasoning when I was in elementary school.” As he spoke, he pointed to the chair behind the desk. “By the way, from the wear and tear on various parts of that chair, we can also tell that the person sitting on it is a fat person who is used to using his left hand.”

“Not bad,” Feng Bu Jue said. “Then… you’ve also checked the keyholes of those drawers, right?”

“Yeah,” Xiao Tan nodded. “I checked them, there are a lot of scratches.”

“What can a lot of scratches tell us?” Gui Xiao asked curiously.

“It means this person’s hands are always shaking,” Feng Bu Jue replied.

“Parkinson’s?” Gui Xiao continued.

“He’s a drunkard!” Xiao Ling corrected, and glanced at the slow-witted Gui Xiao with a look of disdain.

“Oh… right, right, there was a hint when we opened the door.” Gui Xiao was also a little embarrassed; he was indeed too hopeless when it came to reasoning.

“Okay, let’s temporarily end the discussion about the identities of the adults here,” Feng Bu Jue also changed the subject at the right time, and continued, “Let’s look at the nine children…” As he spoke, he glanced around at his teammates. “There are a total of six boys and three girls… Fortunately, all three girls are already here, so the problem at hand is concentrated on those six boys… or rather, the five boys other than Noguchi Eiji.”

“What can be determined is… among these five people, three are the Yamada, Sawada, and Tomigashi that we are playing,” Gui Xiao said at this time. “And the other two, one is the class monitor Watanabe, and the other is Suzuki.” He paused. “The problem is… how do we distinguish these five people?”

“That’s right, Jue Ge,” Xiao Tan also remembered something at this moment. “Does that old newspaper have any more specific information? Like a physical description or something?”

“If it did… I would have analyzed their identities long ago,” Feng Bu Jue replied. “Obviously, the system deliberately didn’t leave any information about personal characteristics in the newspaper, but…” As he spoke, he shifted his gaze to another photo on the desk. “The identity of this unlucky fellow seems to be quite clear.”

“He’s Suzuki, right?” Ruo Yu was the first to reply. “Based on the known information so far, the plot of the previous fire was roughly this – because the principal was an alcoholic, he was drunk in broad daylight, so he didn’t even notice that the warehouse across the street was on fire… which led to Suzuki Takayuki being burned to death alive. After the incident, the principal was either condemned by his conscience or haunted by vengeful spirits, and finally hanged himself at home.”

“Yeah… that makes sense,” Xiao Ling also nodded in agreement. “Whether it’s condemnation by his conscience or being haunted by vengeful spirits, it’s not strange for this photo to appear in his drawer; the difference is… in the former case, he put the photo in himself; in the latter case, the photo is a gh…”

Drrrring drrrring drrrring—

Just as Xiao Ling said the word "ghoul," suddenly! The telephone on the desk rang.

It has to be said that this plot point… was truly full of malice.

First of all, the telephone’s ringtone was particularly loud, far exceeding the decibels produced by the players’ normal conversations.

Secondly, at this moment, all the players were gathered around the desk, and their attention was focused on the two photos on the desk, with almost no mental preparation.

Third, after the initial wave of shock and surprise, the fact that "this telephone is not even connected to a telephone line" would naturally float to the players’ minds, creating a further sense of terror.

In summary, although this plot did not include any visual shock, under the mutual influence of multiple factors… this sudden burst of ringing still frightened the surrounding players quite a bit.

“Tch…” Even An Yueqin blushed and pressed her hand against her heaving chest, spitting out a sentence, “This is really hard to guard against!”

“Holy crap…” Gui Xiao, who had been frightened back a few steps, happened to sit down on a chair on the outside of the desk. “Just now, I felt like my heart stopped for several seconds…”

“Yeah… in those few seconds, I forgot the pain of my injury,” Xiao Tan also added.

Drrrring drrrring drrrring—Drrrring drrrring drrrring—

As they spoke, the telephone’s ringing did not stop.

At this time, Feng Bu Jue, who was still standing at the table and had not been frightened at all, looked around to the left and right. After confirming that no teammate had been scared offline, he casually pressed the “speakerphone” button on the telephone.

“Moshi moshi~” After pressing the button, Jue Ge also stretched out his voice and said a sentence in Japanese in a lazy tone.

“Damn it! Answer the phone!” What came from the other side of the telephone was a man’s shout. Judging from the speed of speech and the sound, this should be a young man. “Principal! Are you drinking in the daytime again! Wake up! The warehouse across from the Chairman’s Office is on fire! I know you have a secret wine cellar; if the fire spreads there…”

The shouting in the telephone stopped abruptly at this point.

There was no busy signal, nor a sound of hanging up; it just ended so abruptly.

“If there are no surprises…” After a few seconds, Feng Bu Jue looked at Ruo Yu and said, “…your analysis just now triggered this plot point.”

“That means… Suzuki’s appearance can also be confirmed,” Ruo Yu replied.

“That’s right,” Feng Bu Jue nodded, then said, “Moreover, that telephone call just now has also very clearly told us the next clue.”

“A secret wine cellar…” Even Gui Xiao could hear what the keywords were in that sentence. “But… we just searched very carefully; we didn’t find any entrance to a wine cellar.”

“Yeah, I moved everything in the bookcase,” An Yueqin replied.

“I also checked the top, bottom, left, and right of the desk; there was nothing like a switch,” Xiao Tan also said.

“Hmm…” Feng Bu Jue pondered upon hearing this. “So… the only method left is to knock on the walls and the floor inch by inch…”

“No need!” At this instant, Xiao Ling suddenly spoke. “I can find the entrance soon.”

Having said that, she turned on her flashlight and shone it on the floor, revealing a very focused expression.

Seeing this, everyone cooperated by keeping silent and not disturbing her.

“Found it…” Xiao Ling also did what she said; after only twenty seconds, she pointed the flashlight at a piece of flooring in the corner of the room. “It’s here.”

As she spoke, she had already walked to that area and stomped on the piece of flooring twice with moderate force.

Thump—thump—

The feedback sound showed that the underside of this piece of flooring was hollow.

And in the same second that she stepped on that piece of flooring, a “click” sound was heard, and the second small drawer of the three drawers on the inside of the desk made a sound, as if… it had been unlocked.

Xiao Tan, who was closer to the desk, took out the three items from that drawer – a slip of paper, a calculator, and a remote control.

“This is… a puzzle, right?” Gui Xiao, who was bad at solving puzzles, said a sentence of nonsense in a deep voice when he saw the props that had no item descriptions at all.

“Alright, you don’t need to solve it,” Feng Bu Jue smiled at him. “Let Bei Ling handle the puzzles here.”

Xiao Ling had also walked back to the table at this time. She first looked at the slip of paper, which had a string of numbers written on it: 231568, 6, 3, 8, 5, 11, 9, 6, 4, 616512.

Then, there was the calculator. Although it was not yet turned on, it could be known by visual inspection that this was a standard calculator that could display twelve digits.

Finally, there was the remote control… In addition to a red and a green button, there were ten number keys and a clear key on this remote control.

“The remote control must be used to open the secret wine cellar,” Xiao Ling said after confirming all of this. “But you need to enter an eight-digit password.”

“Eh? The small numbers on the slip of paper are exactly eight, right?” Gui Xiao immediately replied upon hearing this.

“However, 11 takes up two digits,” Feng Bu Jue poured a basin of cold water on him before anyone else could.

“Uh…” Gui Xiao was deeply affected. “Okay, okay… I won’t speak, okay?”

“Heh… it’s actually very simple.” On the other hand, Xiao Ling smiled and said after thinking for a few seconds, “Even without a calculator, I can solve this level of puzzle with mental arithmetic.”

“Oh! I understand,” Xiao Tan suddenly realized when he heard this sentence. “Is it necessary to use the calculator to calculate these ten numbers in order to get an eight-digit number?”