My name is... Su Bai

If you want to survive, play your role well.

The words the boy in black had spoken kept echoing in Feng Ling's ears.

Feng Ling's thoughts drifted through her head until only one remained-if that boy had wanted to hurt her, he could simply have let the female ghost strangle her. Why go to all that trouble?

After wiping the blood off her glasses with her clothes, Feng Ling paid no attention to her disheveled appearance and hurried back to Building 3 as quickly and quietly as she could.

Compared with the ghosts that might be inside Building 3, the unknown dark corners in the landscaped grounds outside frightened Feng Ling even more.

Once she returned to Building 3, the lights in the first-floor lobby helped calm her a little. In the glass doors of the lobby, Feng Ling saw blood smeared across her face and clothes. At first glance, she looked even more terrifying than the horrors here.

While Feng Ling was examining her reflection in the glass, she noticed the reflection of the digital clock in the first-floor lobby.

When she had first come "home," Feng Ling had complained about the lobby's digital clock, thinking that the black wall clock with its red digits completely clashed with the decor.

But now, there was something strange about the digital clock reflected in the glass.

Puzzled, Feng Ling turned to look and discovered that the time displayed on the wall clock was actually-

98:100

"What's going on?" Feng Ling remembered that the last time she had seen this clock, the time displayed had definitely been normal. But now, no matter how she looked at them, those numbers were no longer a time.

Feng Ling moved a little closer. The display did not change, but she spotted a small white sticky note beside the digital clock. Unless someone deliberately came closer to look, it would have been hard to notice the white note against the white wall.

A line was written on the white sticky note-

"If the clock you see isn't a clock, come find us in 204."

Beside the words, someone had drawn a little cartoon figure playing a video game, like some of the memes Feng Ling had seen online. In these circumstances, though, Feng Ling felt that the little gaming figure seemed to indicate that whoever had left the note was a "player."

The person who had left the note also told anyone who noticed something strange about the clock to find "them" in Room 204. If "they" really were players, perhaps only players who had regained their memories would notice what was wrong with the clock.

There might even be at least two players already gathered in Room 204.

Could it be a trap?

Although Feng Ling was deeply conflicted, the contents of the sticky note left her unable to settle down. The boy in black had told her to play her role well, but Feng Ling knew she was in a terrible state of mind, and her acting was even worse. Even if she went "home" now, she would surely give herself away eventually.

If she did not go take a look at Room 204, she would definitely regret it.

Having made up her mind, Feng Ling once again decided against taking the elevator. She avoided the stairwell on the right, where she had encountered the hanging ghost in a red dress, and went up through the emergency stairwell on the left. Before long, she reached the door to Room 204.

The corridor on the second floor looked much like the one on the sixth. The wall and floor tiles were a clean cream color, and the incandescent lights made the entire corridor as bright as day. Standing there, it was genuinely hard to imagine that this was the Nightmare World.

From the outside, the door to Room 204 looked ordinary, and she could hear nothing inside.

As Feng Ling stood hesitantly outside Room 204, her hand raised as she wondered whether to knock, the people inside seemed to have already noticed their visitor. A man's quiet question came from behind the door-

"What time is it?"

"I..." Feng Ling had no watch, and her phone had disappeared when she entered the Nightmare World. Although the jewelry and clothes people wore remained unchanged when they entered, things like phones could not be brought in.

But Feng Ling soon realized that the person in Room 204 was not actually asking for the time.

"The numbers on that clock are 98 and 100." Feng Ling gave the two numbers that did not look remotely like a time.

"98?" For a moment, the man sounded confused. "It's actually gone down by two?"

Before Feng Ling could make sense of what he meant, a young woman's voice quietly asked her, "You sound young. Are you still in school? High school or university? Which school?"

"Honghuai Normal University." After hearing the question, Feng Ling felt a little more at ease, with a sense that she had finally found her own people. Without a doubt, they were asking about information from the real world because, however similar the Nightmare World and the real world might be, there were still gaps in what each knew.

"What a coincidence. I'm from Honghuai Normal University too." The woman behind the door continued, "Do you remember which instructor's class was the most popular among the first-year PE electives?"

"Swordsmanship," Feng Ling answered without hesitation. "I know Teacher Xuan's class is really popular, but it's impossible to get a spot."

"How many games have you cleared?" Another question came from inside.

"One. Just one," Feng Ling answered honestly.

"Sigh." The people inside seemed a little disappointed, but they still accepted Feng Ling's answer. Before long, the door to Room 204 opened a crack, revealing a man and a woman standing inside.

The man looked quite mild-mannered, but as he opened the door, he held a fruit knife pointed at Feng Ling. On the other side stood Feng Ling's fellow student, a rather pretty young woman. Yet the way she looked Feng Ling up and down made Feng Ling inexplicably uncomfortable.

Especially when the young woman withdrew her gaze-the final look in her eyes held a trace of contempt.

"Another newbie." Although the young woman sounded as if she were talking to herself, she spoke loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear. "What's with the blood on you?"

"I ran into some trouble." For the moment, Feng Ling had no idea how to briefly describe what she had experienced, or the sword-wielding boy in black.

Although this fellow student was a little strange, seeing any human player in the Nightmare World gave Feng Ling the warmth of meeting someone from her hometown. She even thought it was normal for someone she had just met to have a few odd attitudes.

"You're all players, right?" Feng Ling gave what she thought was a friendly smile.

"Of course." The young woman sighed. "Come in. We already have one newbie, so one more won't make much difference."

The mild-mannered young man beside her also put away his fruit knife and opened the door to let Feng Ling inside.

"Ning Yan." The young woman introduced herself. "I'm also the resident of Room 204. I live here alone, with none of those other nasty things around, so I'm letting you use it as a player safe house for now. I didn't expect to meet someone from my university here. And a newbie, by the looks of it."

"..." Feng Ling wished she could find a mirror and check whether the word "newbie" was written across her face.

"My name is Fang Xiujie. I'm a student at Chenghai University in the neighboring city." The young man closed the door after Feng Ling entered. "I originally lived in Room 304, but there's a... thing there claiming to be my 'grandmother.'"

Looking past Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie, Feng Ling noticed that there was a third person in Room 204.

He stood quietly behind the other two, a young man dressed about as casually as Feng Ling. His exposed skin was a little dark, and his messy hair covered almost half his face. Combined with his black-framed glasses, it made his face difficult to see clearly.

Noticing Feng Ling's gaze, he gave a slightly shy smile and said, "Hello. I'm the other newbie. My name is... Su Bai."

His voice was a little hoarse, but for some reason, Feng Ling kept feeling as though she had heard it somewhere before.