A traitor!
Before Yuan Ci could react, the three surviving players erupted. "What do you mean? Are you saying we're traitors?"
Su Rang frowned. "Nobody said you were traitors. Why are you so nervous?"
The player named Chen He sneered. "Captain Wei wouldn't accuse someone from Abyss of being a traitor. Unless it's someone from your Dawn?"
Su Rang snapped, "Chen He, what are you throwing accusations around for?"
Another player chimed in. "Then it's that Ji Xun? I said it all along. How could a rookie who isn't even on the Top 100 Ranking end up in the same instance as us? He must be the traitor."
"Enough!" They had lost a teammate without making any progress on the main quest, leaving Wei Lin deeply frustrated. His tone was anything but polite. "Where's Wang Kaile?"
The three players exchanged guilty looks, then shook their heads. "We didn't see him this morning."
Ji Xun asked, "Does this have something to do with Wang Kaile?"
Wei Lin's expression was grave. "Yesterday, Qian Fang died in the girls' restroom on the third floor. Something forcibly dragged him into the drain. When we went in to look, all we found were two messy characters he'd written in blood beside it: Wang Qi."
Wei Lin's voice was cold and vicious. His hawklike gaze swept over the three players, searching for any change in their expressions.
None of the players was named Wang Qi, but the character for Qi was the left half of the character for Kai. No wonder he suspected Wang Kaile.
Chen He hung his head, all his earlier aggression gone. "Wang Kaile... Wang Kaile said you wouldn't care whether we lived or died. He also said that as long as we followed behind you, we could easily clear the instance with you."
"So you went to the teaching building last night too?" Yuan Ci's voice betrayed no emotion.
Chen He nodded. "Everyone except the three of us went. We were afraid the supervisor would catch us, so we didn't dare go out."
He had wanted to find Wang Kaile and ask exactly what had happened in the teaching building the night before, but he couldn't find him anywhere.
Then he had heard the morning announcement. Nine people had died last night, and Wang Kaile was among them.
"Wang Kaile was killed by the ghost on the stairs. We saw his head. He shouldn't have had any chance to appear in the girls' restroom on the third floor," Yuan Ci said gravely.
Wang Kaile had already been dead when Qian Fang died in the third-floor girls' restroom. The bloody writing must have pointed to someone else.
Ji Xun had been quietly listening to their conversation when he suddenly snapped, "What are you doing!"
Having just accused Ji Xun of being the traitor, Chen He and the others were feeling guilty. Thinking he was lashing out at them, they all shuddered.
They quickly realized Ji Xun wasn't talking to them.
Then everyone saw something deeply unsettling.
Hao Wei wore a faint smile, but her gaze was stiff and vacant.
She held a small mirror, adjusting its angle from time to time as though admiring her own reflection.
Yuan Ci reacted instantly and knocked the mirror from her hand.
Hao Wei seemed to wake from a deep dream. Her limbs went weak, and she nearly fell to her knees. Fortunately, Si Qi caught her.
She wasn't a rookie either, and she knew something must have gone wrong with her just now.
"What happened to you?" Su Rang asked.
Hao Wei looked bewildered. "I... I don't remember. The bell rang for the end of class, and I was going to come find you. Then... then what happened?"
Her face was troubled and a little frightened.
Yuan Ci said, "From now on, don't go anywhere alone."
Hao Wei pressed her lips together and nodded, tears glistening in her eyes.
Lin Lin went to her side and gently reassured her. "Weiwei, we'll stay together at night. During the day, you'll have President Yuan. You'll be fine."
Ji Xun crouched down and picked up the mirror.
It was only the size of his palm and looked perfectly ordinary, like the sort of mirror any girl who cared about her appearance might keep in her desk.
"A mirror," Ji Xun said, looking up at Yuan Ci and enunciating each word. "To straighten your clothes."
As soon as classes ended at noon, the students sprinted toward the cafeteria as though running a hundred-meter dash.
By the time they reached the cafeteria, it was almost packed shoulder to shoulder. Every student looked as though they were holding not a bowl of noodles, but a bowl of dragon meat.
The boy with glasses whom Su Rang had spoken to earlier was there too. He impatiently picked up a meatball with his chopsticks and stuffed it into his mouth, then wore an expression of utter bliss.
The meatballs were tender and springy, the broth clear and tempting. Even the air was filled with an indescribable fragrance.
The players' appetites surged, and Su Rang's stomach began growling incessantly.
He got bowls of meatball noodles for Ji Xun and Yuan Ci too, carrying them over one trip at a time like a busy little bee.
"Eat up." Su Rang wiped his chopsticks, gazing excitedly at the noodles in his bowl. "I wasn't even hungry a moment ago. Why am I suddenly hungry now?"
He was just about to pick up some noodles when another pair of chopsticks clamped down on his.
"What is it? Ji Xun, you've got your own. Why are you trying to steal mine?" Su Rang looked aggrieved.
Ji Xun tapped the rim of his bowl with his chopsticks and asked, "Why do you think there weren't any meatball noodles yesterday?"
Su Rang gave him a look that said, You don't get it, do you? "It's called scarcity marketing. If they had them every day, they wouldn't be special. Stop getting in my way. I'm starving."
He tried to pick up the noodles again, and Ji Xun stopped him once more.
This time, Su Rang was truly angry. He slapped the table, stood up, and demanded, "What do you want!"
Yuan Ci said coldly, "Sit down!"
"Oh."
Swallowing his anger, Su Rang sat back down and gave Yuan Ci a resentful look.
Having nearly fallen victim to the mirror, Hao Wei now found everything suspicious. "President, something's wrong with Su Rang."
Su Rang was the same sort of person as Tang Cha. Though he could be a little temperamental, he wasn't someone who threw tantrums for no reason.
"Something's wrong with you!" Su Rang retorted. "I want to eat my noodles, and he keeps stopping me."
Ji Xun asked, "Why do you want noodles? Isn't there chicken drumstick rice too?"
"I don't want chicken drumstick rice. I want noodles. I want-"
As soon as he said it, he realized something was wrong. Why did he insist on eating the noodles?
The bowl seemed to have some sort of magic. The moment he looked at it, he couldn't control himself.
Seeing that he had caught on, Ji Xun asked again, "Tell me, why weren't there any meatball noodles yesterday?"
Su Rang looked up in shock. "Why? Could it be..."
"Ah!"
Chen He cried out, jumped up from his seat, and stumbled backward.
Seeing him staring at the bowl in front of him in terror, Su Rang couldn't help leaning over for a curious look.
Su Rang screamed, "Ah!"
Curiosity killed the cat!
There was a human eyeball in the bowl. Through the brown broth, it stared straight at Chen He.
It was as though its owner couldn't rest in death.
Drawn by the screams, the boy with glasses came over. At the sight, he swallowed. "Why aren't you eating anymore?"
Chen He looked at the boy with glasses as though he were an evil spirit. The boy rubbed his hands sheepishly. "I'm still hungry. If you aren't eating it, I'll have it."
Without waiting for Chen He's answer, he sat in Chen He's seat and began wolfing down the food as though he hadn't eaten in days.
Ji Xun narrowed his eyes and watched as the boy with glasses put the eyeball in his mouth as though savoring a delicacy, then bit down hard.
He could almost hear the eyeball bursting in the boy's mouth.
Unable to hold it back, Su Rang began retching violently.
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