Gu Mian stared at Chu Changge's mobile screen for a while, then turned his head to look at his own screen.

The big treasure box was still lying horizontally in front of him, clearly meant to be opened.

Gu Mian had noted the time while searching the classroom earlier. It was now past ten after twelve, and Fatty and Zi Liang had left quite some time ago. Musing on this, Gu Mian glanced at Willow not supporting wind beside him. "Do you want to open this invincible treasure box?"

Clearly, it was a creepy, broken box in a supernatural game, but Gu Mian's tone made it sound like a treasure box that could contain the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.

The temperature on the stairs was very high, yet Willow not supporting wind felt chilly standing next to the Doctor; it was almost more effective than standing under an air conditioner.

She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and shook her head. "No, no. Whenever I play games and open equipment, I never get anything good. I'm unlucky…"

Upon hearing this, Gu Mian opened his mouth but eventually suppressed the desire to tell her about his tragic life.

He didn't say much, took a step down, and moved his character closer to the treasure box.

As expected, an option appeared on the screen.

[You have found a treasure box. Do you want to open it?]

[Yes][No]

Of course, Gu Mian chose [Yes].

Immediately after, the lid of the treasure box in the game suddenly flipped open with a BANG, as if a corpse inside had suddenly pushed open its coffin lid.

Although the way the treasure box opened was identical to a coffin lid being pushed open, there was no corpse inside that might jump out and reanimate.

[Gu Gu: Ah, it's a good thing. It might change when the game is cleared.]

[Gu Gu: It seems there is also jam on it?]

[Received item - 'Watermelon Knife Covered in Cream', placed in the backpack.]

A watermelon knife covered in cream, and jam too?

One could easily guess the item's description would be something like: "A watermelon knife covered in cream, with something red mixed in. It seems someone used this watermelon knife instead of a cake knife."

Unfortunately, when this item appeared, there was only an icon and the item name below it; the description couldn't be accessed.

Gu Mian closed his backpack. At this point, the box blocking the way in the game had disappeared, so he quickly descended the stairs to the building's entrance.

With the teaching building no longer obstructing them, the nearly boiling heat finally swallowed the three of them whole. Just standing for a few seconds made them sweat profusely, making one wish to immediately find a cool place to crawl into.

"Do you know which way the laboratory building is?" Gu Mian asked the two beside him.

A few beads of sweat trickled down Willow not supporting wind's forehead. She shook her head; apparently, she didn't know.

But Chu Changge nodded. "I noticed the surroundings when I came downstairs. A building over there looks somewhat like the laboratory building."

Gu Mian looked in the direction Chu Changge indicated. He saw a slightly shorter building faintly visible there, which didn't resemble a teaching building, nor a dormitory, dining hall, or the like.

Since it wasn't very far, they decided to head over and take a look first.

Gu Mian started walking in that direction. Chu Changge kept his eyes on the game screen, seeing that both [Chu Changge] and [Willow not supporting wind] were moving towards the laboratory building in the game; only [Gu Gu] remained in place.

[Gu Gu: They've all left. Well then, I'll go to the cafeteria to eat. Still, I'm a bit uneasy… Never mind, I'll follow them and see.]

Gu Mian saw that the character he had created was following them; it hadn't given up on going to the laboratory building despite its previous choice.

However, the [Gu Gu] character always maintained a certain distance from the two characters ahead, as if it couldn't catch up…

「Meanwhile, Fatty and Zi Liang had already slipped into the somewhat spooky laboratory building.」

"What the hell!" Fatty muttered, staring at his screen. "This thing can automatically recognize other players and even meet up with characters created by other players!"

Zi Liang tried to hide the two large iron bracelets he still wore on his wrists. "Actually, I didn't want to meet up with you here either…"

Fatty glanced at the bracelets on Zi Liang's hands. "Stop hiding them; I saw. Say, kid, are you some kind of outlaw? Why do you have handcuffs on?"

Zi Liang stammered, a little flustered, "I'm no outlaw."

Fatty continued to mutter to himself, "Don't tell me you were cuffed by the anti-vice squad?"

Zi Liang's face began to flush slightly. "For scholarly matters, how can you call it lewd? Besides, I wasn't…"

Before he could finish, Fatty interrupted him, "Wait, don't make a sound."

Zi Liang looked somewhat frightened. "What's wrong?"

Fatty was frowning, staring at his game screen. Both of them had followed their in-game characters, which had suddenly started moving on their own, to this location.

Their characters had run to the middle of the first-floor corridor before stopping, and Fatty and Zi Liang had followed them there.

The lighting in the laboratory building wasn't good. Since no students were in class, not a single light was on. The two now stood in a dim, very long first-floor corridor, lined with laboratories on both sides.

The poor light made it difficult for them to see the end of the corridor. They could only vaguely perceive something there, though it also seemed like nothing was there at all.

The two in-game characters who had run into the laboratory building now began to converse in the dim environment.

[Wang Panzi: Did you hear? Two upperclassmen disappeared right here before. I heard from an older female student from a previous year that someone saw them come in here in the middle of the night, and the next day, news of their disappearance broke.]

[Liang'er: Then we must be careful.]

[Wang Panzi: I heard there might be some clues about the upperclassmen in this laboratory building. Why don't we look for them?]

[Liang'er: Okay.]

The dialogue ended there.

Then, a line of text appeared at the bottom of the screen:

[Side quest triggered: 'The Mysteriously Missing Upperclassmen'. Please explore this map.]

Fatty stared at the screen. "Can I run out of this damn laboratory building right now?"

"I'm afraid not," Zi Liang said, rubbing his handcuffs as he looked at the main door not far behind them. "That door… it closed on its own. Not only did it close, but it also locked!"

Fatty immediately turned to look at the main door.

A somewhat rusty chain had, at some point, been tightly wound around the main door, binding it shut. The atmosphere here was already very eerie; now that the door was closed and locked, it became even more unsettling.

But then, Zi Liang noticed something even more terrifying.

"Hey—" he suddenly grabbed Fatty, who was about to go and check the door. "Don't you think something's off?"

Fatty froze.

Something off?

This whole place seems off.

But then, he understood what Zi Liang meant…

It really is… far too off…

The door… was locked from the inside.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.