Camera

"So you mean Sleepwear Woman and Chen Xiaomeng had the same goal?" The Fatty felt he was beginning to follow Jiang Cheng's train of thought.

That was true.

Thinking about it carefully, their actions had indeed been similar. Both of them had used the rules of the task to turn on their teammates.

In the previous task, Chen Xiaomeng had set Fan Li up to be killed.

If Jiang Cheng hadn't been clever, he and the Fatty would have met the same fate as Fan Li.

Now that he thought about it, Sister Nuan's death might also have had some obscure connection to that woman.

Sleepwear Woman, meanwhile, had set up Qipao Woman, her roommate, to be killed.

They had encountered almost identical cases of teammates being set up to die in their only two tasks. That could hardly be explained as coincidence.

Sleepwear Woman was just like Chen Xiaomeng.

They must both have had some kind of motive.

Considering that someone had searched Qipao Woman's body, Jiang Cheng's first thought was that they had been looking for something.

The Fatty realized it too.

For them to be willing to take such a huge risk, the thing had to be very important, and it was probably related to the predicament they were facing.

"Could it be something that can help us escape the nightmare?" the Fatty asked cautiously. "At the start of the task, it's randomly given to one of us. Whoever gets it can survive and eventually leave."

"Like the things that often show up in games."

Jiang Cheng thought for a moment, then nodded. "It's possible, but that's not quite right. It'd be more accurate to say that having this thing would increase our chances of surviving."

At this point, they had no way to verify their guess, so the two of them didn't dwell on it.

They continued toward the equipment room.

With Jiang Cheng leading the way, they soon found it.

It was at the other end of the school, in a relatively secluded spot.

A sign reading "Equipment Management Center" hung on a low, single-story building.

It still had the old-fashioned sliding windows from decades ago. Iron bars stood across the windows, their surfaces mottled with rust.

The metal-clad door was in much the same state, its sheet metal curling up at the corners.

At least it wasn't as rusty as the bars.

A thin layer of zinc had been plated over it.

Time seemed especially fond of this place. Signs of age were everywhere. The Fatty blinked and said that his grandmother's house in the county town had looked just like this when he was very young.

Jiang Cheng looked around without comment, then led the Fatty over.

Just as they were about to step through the door, it suddenly swung open from the inside.

A woman's face appeared before them.

"Come in."

As she spoke, the woman turned and walked back inside, her back to them, as if showing them the way.

She was the Ponytail Woman from Room 406.

Her voice was slightly husky, but not rough.

A strange feeling suddenly welled up inside the Fatty.

He actually felt that the woman somehow belonged in this setting.

Jiang Cheng, walking beside him, glanced sideways at him but said nothing.

The equipment room was larger than Jiang Cheng had expected. They crossed a courtyard covered in fine sand.

Student desks and chairs had been piled carelessly in one corner of the courtyard. They looked abandoned and beyond repair.

Against the wall stood a glass blackboard with one corner broken off. Most of the writing on it had faded, leaving only the first and last characters barely legible.

The character "No."

And the character "Come."

"Doctor," the Fatty called softly, finally pulling Jiang Cheng out of his thoughts.

Jiang Cheng looked away and realized that the rooms in the courtyard were their destination.

The Ponytail Woman, the middle-aged man in a vest who shared her room, and another man were all there.

Sleepwear Woman, whom the Fatty had been thinking about, was hiding behind the others. She looked tense and frightened, tugging at the hem of her pajamas with both hands, her eyes full of theatrics.

But Suit Man and Hat Man were nowhere to be seen.

"It doesn't matter how many of you come. It won't make any difference." A man's voice rang out, old but forceful. It was clearly not one of their teammates in this task.

"I've already told you everything I can. Your equipment was delivered like this. It has nothing to do with me."

The lighting in the room was poor, so the two of them hadn't immediately noticed the person in the darkness.

Jiang Cheng's eyes narrowed abruptly.

It was an elderly man, around sixty-five years old. His skin was an unnatural pale, as though he hadn't seen sunlight in a long time.

His body was hunched over awkwardly, yet there was something in his gaze that couldn't be ignored.

The old man took a step toward Jiang Cheng.

Only then did everyone notice that something seemed to be wrong with his legs. He struggled to walk, and he held a cane carved from wood in his left hand.

"What happened?" Jiang Cheng turned to the Ponytail Woman.

"We said we were here to pick up the equipment, but then we found out there was a problem with the camera," the Ponytail Woman replied succinctly.

Everyone else looked unhappy, especially the middle-aged man in the vest. He was gritting his teeth, as though beating the old man to a pulp was the only thing that would satisfy him.

When the Fatty heard there was a problem with the equipment, he came over. "What's wrong with it?"

The Ponytail Woman gestured for the other man to bring over the equipment.

After opening the camera, the man pointed at the lens. "There's moisture inside."

The Fatty blinked. "Is that serious?"

"Yeah." The man exhaled. From his expression alone, it was clear this wasn't a trivial matter. "It'll seriously affect the footage. A little moisture wouldn't be a problem, but now you can see tiny droplets condensed inside the lens. Usually, when it gets like this, you have to consider buying a new lens."

"Don't you have a spare?"

"We do, but it's in even worse shape than this one." The man lowered his voice. "We already checked them all."

This was bad.

They were here to film the anniversary celebration, but now the camera had a problem.

At that moment, the man bit his lip and leaned closer, speaking in a low voice. "This probably wasn't an accident. Someone must have tampered with it." He took out the camera bag and unzipped it, showing them the inside. "There's moisture-absorbing silica gel in here, and this model of camera bag is moisture-resistant too. There's no way something like this could have happened overnight."

When he finished, he looked at the old man. The implication was clear.

But the old man remained as he was, leaning on his cane, his gaze hazy as if veiled in mist.

"What about those two from Room 405?" Jiang Cheng turned to the Ponytail Woman. "Why aren't they here?"

"I don't know." The Ponytail Woman seemed much calmer than the other three. "They weren't here when we arrived. Maybe they went somewhere else to look for clues."

Whether intentionally or not, she placed a heavy emphasis on the word "clues."