The Lock on the Window

"Squeak"

When Yu Xing moved to the area directly below the dormitory supervisor's office, he could clearly hear the squeaking of mice from the other side of the wall. The sound was not high, about knee-high to the supervisor.

He became even more careful, inching his way in. The girls' dormitory was next to the boys' dormitory, facing the same direction. The duty room was a small room set up separately in front of the boys' dormitory gate, essentially protruding outwards. From the angle of the duty room, one could see the girls' dormitory gate at the same time.

Therefore, Yu Xing wanted to sneak in, he had to go around to the back of the dormitory building and then climb through a window into the girls' dormitory building.

He knew how sensitive rats' hearing and smell were, so even when mobilizing the power of the curse, he remained extremely cautious, constantly watching the female dorm supervisor's movements.

Two minutes later, he successfully reached the corner of the duty room at almost zero decibels, changed from squatting to standing, and bent down to move away from the dormitory building area.

Only when they were far enough away did Yu Xing sigh, hands on her hips, "Phew..."

For him, concealment is more difficult than intimidation and combat. This isn't his forte; the main problem is that he's not in good condition. He has to conserve his curse power, otherwise he'll inevitably die while using it.

For a fleeting moment, he thought he felt the female dorm supervisor's gnawing sounds stop, but it was only a brief pause, and everything went back to normal.

Yu Xing glanced back, a thoughtful look flashing in her eyes.

What are the chances that the female dorm supervisor deliberately pretended not to notice him?

He silently remembered this and moved on.

Behind the dormitory building is a small grove of trees, which are short and not very dense. Zhao Mou was in charge of scouting it before. According to Zhao Mou, there are no ghosts in this grove, but there are rope loops hanging on many of the low branches.

I don't know who put it there.

Among the students from many previous years, quite a few chose to end their lives in the woods due to pressure and other issues. Strangely, none of these souls harbored resentment and disappeared without a trace.

Yu Xing now had to cross the woods, essentially taking a large detour, just to be safe. He stepped into the woods, and sure enough, after walking for a short while, he saw a pale white rope hanging from a branch ahead.

He sensed that there was no presence nearby, so he stepped forward, looked up and stared for a while, then reached out to touch it.

The person who hanged the person had thoughtfully tied a slipknot. As soon as someone put their neck in the noose and their body was suspended in the air, the slipknot would shrink instantly, tightly constricting the neck. Because of the weight of the body, no matter whether the person regretted it or not, they would never be able to untie the noose and could only struggle and suffocate.

The sight of trees and hangings evoked a sense of déjà vu for Yu Xing.

In the deduction of the tomb, before officially entering the tomb palace, their group also saw a scene of hanging in the forest with bird corpses hanging there, with trees and rope loops. And at the bottom of the tomb palace, the Ghost Tree growing in the abyss was covered with human heads.

Could this be proof that the Ghost Tree exists underground? Yu Xing's expression was slightly strange. He couldn't understand what kind of hobby the Ghost Tree had, that it liked to collect human heads so much.

Just as he was criticizing Ghost Tree's aesthetic sense, his pupils suddenly contracted as he remembered something.

Actually, there are more.

In the Rookie Tournament instance, he and Carlos were both there. Trees with rope loops hanging from them had also appeared on that island, though it was just a fleeting illusion, it was strangely similar.

Not only were there rope circles, but there were also several grave mounds and tombstones on the island where the Rookie Tournament was held. It was even an isolated island at sea. He still remembered the strange feeling that suddenly arose from the bottom of his heart when he carried the camera and looked out at the sea.

That sea area was too similar to the sea area of Dead Silent Island. At the time, because it was being broadcast live and the time was limited, although he knew that there was another storyline hidden in the island of the Rookie Tournament, he was unable to continue exploring. Instead, he thought that there would probably be a high-level deducer to complete the subsequent deduction.

But now that I think about it, did he miss out... miss out on one of the earliest Ghost Tree he could have accessed?

This realization came somewhat belatedly, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Before this, Yu Xing had no clue about the patterns of the Ghost Tree's appearance, but now that he suddenly discovered it, he was immediately intrigued.

Hanging ropes, forests, cemeteries, islands in a Cthulhu-style world... Ghost Tree seems to have a particular fondness for these things.

Oh, speaking of which, there's another very coincidental thing: Carlos was present in both of the deductions that have already confirmed the existence of the Ghost Tree and the deduction that may Ghost Tree.

"Hmm, it would be great if I could go back to the Dead Spirit Island instance. I wonder if there's a way to specify a world, and if I can trade with the system after reaching the Despair level?" Yu Xing fiddled with the rope loop in her hand for a moment, then lost interest in the white rope, suppressed her thoughts, and continued to circle around to the back of the girls' dormitory building.

He walked for a few more minutes before standing behind the girls' dormitory building. He needed to be careful of the rats that were easy to hide in. He focused his senses and then opened his eyes with some surprise, only to find that there were no rats in the girls' dormitory building.

Or perhaps the only thing not distributed were rats, because he had already sensed many auras within the building that were far more powerful and sinister than rats.

It wasn't a ghostly figure, it was a real entity, somewhat similar to the red armbands he had seen inside the teaching building.

In the dead of night, after lights out and room checks, so many strange things were still active in the hallway. No wonder the female dorm supervisor didn't let the rats into the girls' dormitory; there was no need for them. If the rats went in, they would simply become food.

I tried to sense the girls' dormitory building during the day, but received no feedback.

Yu Xing looked at the nearest second-floor window, which was a window in the stairwell. It was quite large, big enough for him to squeeze through, but strangely, every window, like a door, had a large lock on the joint.

The lock was on from the outside, not the inside. It didn't look like it was for preventing thieves; instead, it gave the impression that something inside the dormitory was locked up and not allowed to leave.

A smile appeared on his lips. This lock actually made things easier for him. Yu Xing nimbly climbed onto the protruding part of the wall, and with a few light leaps, he reached the window. He grabbed the window frame with one hand and pulled out a brand-new wire from his pants pocket with the other. He had finally found it in the dormitory.

He was used to picking locks with a wire, let alone the old-fashioned locks in the St. Johnis Middle School building system. In just a few seconds, the padlock opened.

If these windows were simply locked from the inside, he wouldn't be able to get in; he'd have to climb over someone's balcony. This redundant window locking not only simplified his infiltration but also revealed a crucial piece of information to him.

The situation in the girls' dormitories is much worse than in the boys' dormitories, and it has reached a very dangerous point.