Commander

"Who's the extra person?"

Luo Yi had also spotted the problem by now.

But the girl named Zhang Yinyin was even quicker. She reached for the other camera, her directness drawing everyone's attention.

A moment later.

"No." She lowered the camera, her expression turning grim. But what she said next made everyone deeply uneasy.

Keeping her voice low, she said, "There are only 48 people in this video."

Zhou Taifu, trembling all over, stared fixedly at the camera in Jiang Cheng's hands. His voice rose uncontrollably. "So one of our cameras caught a ghost?!"

Nobody answered.

It was an undeniable fact.

Saying it aloud now served only to ease his anxiety.

As they had suspected from the beginning, these two cameras had a story behind them.

The one given to them by the NPC could capture eerie beings invisible to the naked eye.

No one spoke again.

The atmosphere became frighteningly oppressive.

"All right." Luo Yi stepped forward. First, he exchanged a glance with Zhen Jianren. Seeing that the latter didn't stop him, he continued, "There's no need to be so pessimistic. At least we've found the ghost in the task."

"Next," he paused, "we need to confirm the ghost's identity."

Yu Wen immediately asked, "How do we do that?"

"We can compare the photos to figure out what the ghost looks like. Then, once we have a photo—" Luo Yi looked at Yu Wen, puzzled by her question.

It wasn't hard to understand why. Yu Wen was definitely no newcomer.

Why would she ask something like that?

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Cheng handed him the camera. "Then I'll leave it to you," he said with a nod.

Though somewhat confused, Luo Yi took the camera and began comparing the images to determine who the extra person was.

It wasn't long before Luo Yi seemed to notice something. His expression turned strange.

The Fatty asked what was wrong, but Luo Yi didn't answer. Instead, he took the other camera from Zhang Yinyin.

The other camera was normal.

Its lens had just gotten damp, so the video it captured wasn't very clear.

"How—how could this happen?!"

Yu Wen looked at Luo Yi, who had lost control of his emotions. Her eyes were as calm as Jiang Cheng's.

He paused both cameras on the final group-singing scene, intending to compare them and find the extra person.

But, strangely, he failed.

Luo Yi seemed to go frantic. His eyes reddened as he compared the people one by one, starting with the first row and moving to the last, from left to right. He hadn't missed anyone.

Yet the final result was that everyone who appeared in the first photo could also be found in the other one.

There was no extra person.

But that was impossible. There were clearly 49 people in the first photo.

And only 48 in the second.

Jiang Cheng had quickly picked up on this discrepancy as soon as he noticed the numbers didn't match. He believed it was caused by the restriction in the task.

"That's enough." Zhen Jianren stopped Luo Yi. His mental state was already starting to deteriorate, and there might be other dangers hidden in the photos.

Once he was away from the cameras, Luo Yi visibly wilted, as if all his energy had been drained.

After helping Luo Yi to the bed to rest, Zhen Jianren gritted his teeth and looked at Yu Wen. "What do we do next?"

After all, he was certain that she had the item.

"Mr. Hao." Yu Wen turned to Jiang Cheng. "What do you think?"

Jiang Cheng didn't refuse. After a moment's thought, he said, "Since the ghost appeared this way, I think she must have been a student here, and most likely took part in the choir."

"Of course," he paused, "I mean when she was alive."

"That's why, after her death, she couldn't let go of her obsession and came to the rehearsal to repeat what she'd done before," Zhang Yinyin said with a frown.

Jiang Cheng glanced at her. She already felt different from when he'd first met her. He understood and said, "I think 'resentment' is a better word."

Everyone agreed.

"Do you remember what the woman in charge of the rehearsal said?" Yu Wen looked up, her expression a little odd. "At the time, Long Tao had only been in the restroom a little longer than usual, but she immediately suspected something had happened to him."

The Fatty nodded vigorously. "That's right, I remember too. It scared the hell out of me."

"So she must know something," Zhou Taifu said slowly, stroking his chin. "We can start with her. When we see her again, we can ask around indirectly and find out what she meant by 'something happened.'"

He seemed like a different person now. Not only could he keep up with everyone's train of thought, he was even taking the initiative and offering his own ideas.

Now that they had a clear plan, the rest was simple.

Using the clues they had gathered, everyone pieced together the story behind the task.

The ghost had been a student at the school.

Female.

She had died for some unknown reason.

It was most likely a violent incident; otherwise, her brutal methods of killing would be hard to explain.

Compared with simple slaughter, this seemed more like a long-planned act of revenge.

Yu Wen boldly suggested that the girl might have been dismembered after suffering a violent assault.

Her reasoning was that there were hardly any men in such a large academy. Even the security staff were women, which was highly unusual.

But if the girl's case had put the school under enormous pressure, leading it to fire a large number of male employees and teachers, then that would make sense.

"So our main priority for now should be confirming the girl's identity." Jiang Cheng sat upright in his chair, chin raised, looking every bit like a veteran official. "I'll assign everyone their tasks."

"First," he stressed, "one team should go to the woman in charge of the rehearsal and learn what they can."

"Second, another team should get down among the students and find out if there are any rumors." He paused. "The school will certainly do its best to cover this sort of thing up, but there's no guarantee the students haven't heard something. They're especially curious about things like this."

He took a deep breath and looked around. "Next is the equipment center. After all, that's where the camera that can photograph ghosts came from, so we'll need another team to—"

At this, everyone's expressions darkened.

The first two tasks were still somewhat acceptable. But the last one...

Just thinking of the old man's deathly pale face and sickly appearance made them deeply uncomfortable.

"I agree with your plan." Yu Wen's expression gradually shifted. She looked into Jiang Cheng's eyes. After a moment, her lips moved, but no sound came out.

Zhen Jianren, standing beside her, sneered instead. "You've certainly planned this well. You're using your position as commander to send other people to scout out the equipment center."

Once one person spoke up, others joined in. "Exactly. The equipment center is the most dangerous place. Whoever wants to go can go. I'm not going!"

As if afraid of being shunned, Zhou Taifu raised his voice and pulled the only undershirt he had tighter around himself. "I have no problem with the first two!"