Thick smoke billowed, and within moments, visibility inside the Small Auditorium dropped drastically. The entire hall was unbearably hot.
Ji Xun could no longer even see Su Rang and Li Anmeng beside him. All he could hear was their desperate coughing.
"Su Rang! Li Anmeng!"
Ji Xun shouted, but no one answered. All he could hear were sobs and screams from people he couldn't identify.
Covering his nose and mouth, Ji Xun reached out and felt around beside him, but found nothing.
Su Rang and Li Anmeng had vanished.
That ghostly singing started again, so Ji Xun simply followed it.
When he reached the stage, the singing stopped, and the smoke filling the Small Auditorium dispersed.
Flames swept across the stage curtains, while more than a dozen students lay sprawled in front of the stage.
Every one of them was injured to some degree. Some had blood streaming from their heads; others had blood all over their chests.
Though they could no longer move properly, none of them were dead. They were even struggling desperately to crawl toward the doors.
Four people stood beside them, their faces utterly indifferent.
One was the boys' dormitory supervisor, except his face lacked that hideous, terrifying burn scar.
The other three had not appeared before now.
They seemed unable to see Ji Xun and ignored his presence completely. Ji Xun heard the supervisor ask a fat man fearfully, "Principal, what do we do now?"
The principal gritted his teeth, his expression vicious. "We've already gone this far. As long as they're dead, no one can reveal our secret."
The supervisor showed none of his nighttime ferocity now. Looking completely at a loss, he said, "B-but once the police perform autopsies, they'll find traces of drugs. They'll definitely track us down."
The principal's expression turned cold. "Then we make sure no one ever finds them, dead or alive."
The other two men, who looked like hired thugs, joined the supervisor in carrying the students away.
Ji Xun wanted to follow them, but when he tried pushing the Small Auditorium's doors, he still couldn't get out.
He also realized the fire wasn't as large as he had imagined. At least, it wasn't enough to reduce the entire Small Auditorium to ruins.
He tried putting out the burning curtains, but it had no effect.
Before long, the principal reappeared. Together with the supervisor, he poured large amounts of an unidentified liquid around the Small Auditorium. Flames soared, instantly engulfing the entire hall.
So this was how Class Twelve had "disappeared."
He just didn't know where the supervisor had taken them afterward.
[Main quest: collect and verify four Campus Ghost Stories (2/4)]
The fire was still spreading. Ji Xun coughed twice as the smoke choked him. He searched the hall, but aside from its doors, the Small Auditorium didn't even have a window.
The roof beams were already showing signs of collapse, and debris kept falling from the ceiling. Ji Xun could only dodge it while searching for Su Rang and Li Anmeng.
The fire raged fiercely. The seats in front of the stage had warped from the heat, and flames covered almost all the walls.
Ji Xun suddenly kicked something. He crouched to look and could just barely make out human shapes.
It was Su Rang and Li Anmeng!
They seemed to have passed out from the smoke. Su Rang's brows were tightly knitted, and soot covered his face.
Grabbing one by each arm, Ji Xun dragged them toward the doors.
Amid the crackling flames came a faint, sharp sound of snapping metal.
Oh no!
Ji Xun abruptly looked up. The mounting that secured the glittering crystal chandelier to the wall had burned through.
The crystal chandelier hung in midair, then plunged toward Su Rang directly beneath it.
There's no time!
Ji Xun barely had time to draw his blade. All he could do was try to knock the chandelier aside with his bare hand.
The chandelier's glass ornaments had already melted in the intense heat. Agonizing pain shot through Ji Xun's palm, but he didn't hesitate. He immediately grabbed both men's arms and ran toward the doors.
The flames pursued them like snakes. Chandeliers fell one after another, scattering sparks everywhere. The Small Auditorium was on the verge of collapse.
Ji Xun let go of their arms and drew his blade to slash at the talisman on the doors. But whatever the talisman was made of, it didn't budge.
His brows drew tight. He couldn't afford any more delays.
Even if they didn't burn to death, the two men behind him were about to suffocate.
[Ding-dong-] [Congratulations! The player has successfully defeated the special BOSS. Players will no longer be affected by the BOSS's negative effects.]
"You bastard!"
Ji Xun cursed furiously. As the system notification sounded, the talisman before him shattered like glass, and cool, refreshing air rushed in.
They finally made it out through the Small Auditorium's doors. Ji Xun looked back, but the flames and thick smoke were gone.
It was as though everything had been an illusion, but the pain in his palm clearly reminded him that it had all really happened.
Looking in from outside the Small Auditorium, he could see only pitch-black darkness. The doors could no longer be pushed open at all.
Su Rang's complexion had improved considerably. He opened his eyes and groaned, "Ji Xun, you saved me again."
He braced himself against the ground and sat up, his voice hoarse. "I'm sorry. Ci even told me not to drag you down..."
"Did you hear that system announcement just now?" Ji Xun asked.
Su Rang's expression froze, guilt written all over his face. "It's not what you think."
Ji Xun folded his arms, looking perfectly composed. "He sent me away because of that BOSS?"
"You can ask me."
Before Su Rang could work out how to explain, he saw his guild leader walking over.
Yuan Ci and Wei Lin were covered in blood. Clearly, they hadn't fared much better than he had.
Wei Lin in particular had a deep wound in his neck, and his face was frighteningly pale from blood loss.
Si Qi and the two girls also looked exhausted. They simply dropped down beside Su Rang, panting as they rested.
"Are you all right?" Yuan Ci asked.
Ji Xun didn't answer. He stared at the severed head in Yuan Ci's hand.
Fat bulged around the head's face. It appeared to belong to an overweight man.
Ji Xun wiped the blood from its face. It was the principal from the fire.
Yuan Ci tossed the principal's head to Wei Lin, then took Ji Xun by the wrist and led him to an unoccupied spot.
"What happened to your hand?" Yuan Ci frowned and took medicine out of his inventory to treat it, but Ji Xun pulled his hand away, his expression cold.
Yuan Ci could only tuck the medicine into the pocket of his long coat. "Are you really angry with me?" he asked quietly.
"Su Rang nearly died just now," Ji Xun said coldly. "If you'd been a few minutes later, we'd all have been grilled skewers."
Yuan Ci shook his head and patted his shoulder. "No. I wouldn't let you die."
This was the second time he had patted his shoulder. Ji Xun looked down at it in puzzlement, then asked, "What's this?"
A butterfly the size of his thumb sat on his shoulder, looking like an ornament.
"A special item. It can pull you into the space I'm in." Yuan Ci smiled.
That was also why he had felt comfortable letting Ji Xun go to the Small Auditorium.
"What exactly is a special BOSS?" Ji Xun asked.
"There aren't many BOSSes like this," Yuan Ci said. "They can appear in different instances and affect whether other instances can be cleared."
"I ran the Experimental Middle School instance ten times trying to kill the principal," Yuan Ci continued. "Later, we discovered that the principal only appears in his office once the Small Auditorium ghost story has been triggered. And once the principal dies, the Small Auditorium instance is sealed off as well."
"So the Small Auditorium and the principal's office have to be completed at the same time?" Ji Xun asked.
Yuan Ci nodded. "If you want the true ending, you have to go to the Small Auditorium."
"Then where did the principal take the students from Class Twelve?" Ji Xun asked.
"I genuinely don't know that. The main quest in the same instance isn't always identical. Otherwise, wouldn't players be able to clear it without any effort?"
"But..." Yuan Ci paused, his gaze deepening. "There are some discrepancies in the information we obtained about the school renovations."
"The school wasn't being renovated because of the fire. To be precise, the fire happened during summer vacation. The school had received a large donation from a student's parents, so the principal planned to renovate the teaching building."
"That's why there were piles of construction materials on campus when the fire broke out, including a concrete mixer truck."
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