At the horrifying sight, Yuan Ci coldly spat out two words: "Proxy Ghost."
Ji Xun said, "You mean the Red-Dress Ghost became a Proxy Ghost after the ghosts from Class Twelve killed her?"
Yuan Ci raised an eyebrow. He had only said two words, yet Ji Xun had guessed what he had left unsaid.
Ji Xun said, "Then we're in trouble."
Su Rang asked in confusion, "Why?"
Yuan Ci looked at the dismembered corpses strewn across the floor. "The killing never stops in this school. There'll only be more and more Proxy Ghosts."
Ji Xun added ominously, "Soon the whole campus will be full of ghosts. Do you think we'll clear the instance, or stay here and fight them over meatball noodles?"
Su Rang's eyes widened. The sound of eyeballs bursting echoed in his ears again, and he shuddered uncontrollably.
Ji Xun thought, Scaring kids. So satisfying.
Yuan Ci finally couldn't hold back his laughter. "Don't worry. I'll find a way to send you instant noodles regularly."
Su Rang was on the verge of tears. "Yuan Ci, I don't want instant noodles. I want Lobster Rice."
Yuan Ci said, "Pretty demanding, aren't you? Just eat your bursting eyeballs."
Ji Xun chuckled, then cleared his throat. "Enough joking around."
Su Rang asked plaintively, "What do we do next? Go to the hall?"
Ji Xun shook his head and spoke at the same time as Yuan Ci.
"The Small Auditorium."
Su Rang looked at them in surprise. "Why? Didn't you say the Small Auditorium was really dangerous?"
Ji Xun nodded slightly. "The students of Class Twelve disappeared after the fire in the Small Auditorium, and every supernatural incident in the school is connected to Class Twelve."
Yuan Ci agreed. "The Small Auditorium must hold the answer to Class Twelve's secret."
Night fell, and the Administrator arrived right on schedule.
The Administrator was unusually quiet that day, giving room 204's door only two light kicks before abandoning it to look for another target.
"So even bosses can be beaten into submission?" Su Rang looked at his fists, deep in thought.
Ji Xun couldn't bring himself to shatter his illusion. With Su Rang's build, he could take on ten of him with one hand.
After meeting up with Si Qi and Hao Wei, they waited for Wei Lin and the others to arrive.
Apart from the three players still hunkering down in the dormitory, everyone was there.
Wei Lin and Yuan Ci exchanged a discreet glance, and Yuan Ci said, "Ji Xun."
"Hm?" Ji Xun looked at him.
"You, Su Rang, and Li Anmeng will go to the Small Auditorium." Yuan Ci paused. "Wei Lin and I will take the others to the first-floor hall."
Ji Xun stared at him without blinking.
A wave of guilt washed over Yuan Ci. He reached out and patted Ji Xun's shoulder. "If you don't like that arrangement, we can discuss it."
Ji Xun knocked his hand away, turned with an icy expression, and left without a word.
Yuan Ci hesitated, then told Su Rang, "Be careful."
Su Rang wore a rare look of seriousness too. "Don't worry. I'll protect him."
"No," Yuan Ci corrected him. "I meant take care of yourself. Don't hold him back."
Su Rang: ...
Once Su Rang and Li Anmeng had gone after Ji Xun, Wei Lin asked meaningfully, "You think that highly of him?"
Yuan Ci was nonchalant. "Don't tell me you don't."
Wei Lin shrugged.
Promising newcomers brought tremendous value to a guild, especially in the Infinite-Flow World, where death played out every day.
Even Wei Lin couldn't guarantee that he would emerge alive from every instance. That was why, whenever they went through an instance, they had to keep an eye out for players they could recruit.
After all, the Infinite-Flow World was falling apart, and newcomers patched it up.
The two high-ranking guild players looked solemn, and Si Qi and the two girls hardly dared to breathe.
They entered the pitch-black classroom building, climbed the stairs, passed countless classrooms haunted by drifting spirits, and arrived at a door on the third floor.
The sign on the door read-Principal's Office.
"Ji Xun, wait for us." Su Rang had to jog the whole way to catch up with him.
Ji Xun didn't know what he was angry about either. He knew Yuan Ci was hiding something from him.
But he didn't understand why that made him angry. They were only teammates who had met by chance.
In the end, the hypocritical Ji Xun decided it was because he didn't like being deceived by Yuan Ci.
He completely forgot that he had concealed his own identity too.
Ji Xun said, "We're here."
Su Rang stopped and looked at the building before him.
As the place where the fire had first broken out during the disaster, the Small Auditorium had suffered extensive damage. The current building was an exact reconstruction of its original appearance.
"A Bagua Mirror." Ji Xun tilted his head up to look at the object hanging above the Small Auditorium's entrance, his brows knitting slightly.
Something's wrong.
"The Small Auditorium's style doesn't match a Chinese Bagua Mirror, either. Unless that mirror isn't just a decoration." Li Anmeng frowned. "Something's fishy."
The Small Auditorium had always been locked. Su Rang had once asked the students of Class Seven about it, and they had all said they hadn't seen its doors open since enrolling.
Li Anmeng picked the lock in moments. Ji Xun went first, pushing open the door that had remained shut for so long.
It was incredibly dusty inside. Apparently, it had never been used again after being rebuilt.
The original Small Auditorium had been used for school performances and meetings, so Ji Xun had expected to see neatly arranged rows of seats.
But he had never expected that, the moment he stepped through its doors, he would be greeted by charred, nearly collapsed walls.
The principal had actually preserved the burned ruins intact inside the new Small Auditorium!
"What... what is this supposed to mean?" Su Rang was dumbfounded.
Once they pushed open the outer door, they could see the entrance to the former Small Auditorium.
Only the frames remained of its glass doors. Li Anmeng didn't even need to pick another lock; they could step straight through.
Su Rang switched on his flashlight and shone it into the pitch-black Small Auditorium.
"Oh my god..." Su Rang didn't know how to describe how he felt. This instance seemed to push the limits of what he could stomach every single second.
Only the soot-blackened walls of the original Small Auditorium remained, showing just how devastating the fire had been.
The seats inside had all burned away too. Countless thin cords crisscrossed the hall that should have been empty, each densely covered with talismans.
These talisman-covered cords were like chains, forever imprisoning the old auditorium and the figures wandering within, never to see daylight again.
Oppressive and absurd.
As they entered, the talismans began to sway gently, as though stirred by a breeze. Then a soft, lilting song rang out, sounding especially desolate amid the ruins.
Ghost Story-Song of the Small Auditorium.
At the same time, they all caught a burning smell. Along with that impossible-to-ignore odor, thick, choking smoke began spreading through the Small Auditorium.
Their previously dark surroundings began to brighten. The blackened walls became pristine again, and the enormous crystal chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling glittered brilliantly.
When Ji Xun looked back, an enormous talisman covered the spot where the entrance had been. Li Anmeng pressed his palms against it and pushed, but it didn't budge.
They couldn't get out.
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