Gunslinger!

Liu Jialiang seemed to notice his gaze and finally took a bite.

"Thanks. It tastes good."

Time crawled from afternoon into evening.

It grew dark outside even faster. Moonlight shone through the windows, spreading cold white light across the floor, brighter than it had been yesterday.

Perhaps the windows in this classroom were larger, or perhaps the moon in this world was growing bigger.

Before dinner, Lin Yang had led everyone to a new base.

The new classroom was near the middle of the third floor. Its windows were larger than those in the previous room, and moonlight could reach half the classroom.

It had two doors, one at the front and one at the back. The front door faced the corridor, while the back door led to an office. Lin Yang had checked: the office door could be locked from this side.

It was more spacious than the previous room, and safer too.

The rules for keeping watch remained the same.

There were twenty-six people, with five to a group. Lin Yang did not take a turn.

He stayed in the office. It had a peephole through which he could observe what was happening outside.

The lock was still a latch lock. He checked it twice, braced the door with a wooden stick, and moved a metal cabinet behind it.

Liu Yan came and knocked on the door once.

She stood outside, keeping her voice low, with a hint of flirtatiousness that she had deliberately softened.

"Brother Lin, I can't sleep alone. I'm so scared. Could you let me in?"

Lin Yang looked through the peephole, which gave him just enough of a view to see her eyes.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because there's no need."

He closed the door. The instant the door shut, he saw the expression on Liu Yan's face change: it was a frustration she could no longer suppress after being rejected repeatedly!

But the expression lasted less than half a second before she composed herself and replaced it with a slightly aggrieved sob.

The footsteps outside the door gradually faded away.

Night deepened. The people on watch kept their eyes open at their respective posts. Moonlight cast the corridor railing's shadow across the floor in sections, like the bars of a cage.

Now and then, there was the sound of wind outside, but it didn't sound like wind. It sounded more like something breathing far away.

Midnight passed.

A system notification sounded in his mind.

[Midnight has passed. Seer, please begin your prophecy.]

[1. Check someone's identity.]

[2. Receive a random piece of information. It may help you stay alive.]

Lin Yang leaned against the wall and looked out through the peephole.

Liu Jialiang was awake, keeping watch. He sat near the window, facing the corridor with his back to everyone else.

The moonlight cast his shadow long across the floor, its outline sharp.

He sat very straight, straighter than anyone else on watch, his expression resolute as he carefully scanned his surroundings.

Lin Yang watched him and went over every detail of the day in his mind, from beginning to end.

Beside the corpse, he had been unable to say why he had dared to go alone.

He didn't eat, and he had moved while keeping watch. Lin Yang guessed that even if he wasn't a Faceling, there was definitely something wrong with his behavior!

Lin Yang chose to check an identity.

[Please select a target to check.]

Lin Yang's gaze passed through the peephole and settled on the straight-backed figure outside the window.

[Check Liu Jialiang's identity.]

The system fell silent for a second. Then a line of text appeared before his eyes.

[Check successful. Liu Jialiang's identity is...]

[Gunslinger]

Gunslinger?

Lin Yang stared at the line for a long time.

It was a third kind of identity, one he had never heard mentioned in the broadcasts.

The word circled through Lin Yang's mind several times, like a pebble dropped into a deep well. There was no echo, only ripples spreading outward.

He didn't know what Gunslinger meant. Was it a skill? A class? Or some kind of hidden identity?

But he wasn't stupid. The system's judgment was clear: as long as he wasn't a Faceling, it meant his identity was harmless, and might even be helpful.

"So that's why he acts strangely and... dares to face a Faceling alone?"

He gently closed the peephole cover and leaned back against the wall. The corner was cold, and he could feel the cement's chill dampness even through his coat.

He had no intention of exposing Liu Jialiang, at least not now.

Some trump cards had to be kept in hand to be most effective. Once laid on the table, they were worthless.

The night grew deeper.

At some point, the sound of wind outside had stopped, and the entire school building had fallen deathly silent. It was not the quiet of peaceful sleep, but the quiet of held breath.

Lin Yang leaned against the wall, his eyelids heavy as lead, but a thread in his mind remained taut.

He kept feeling that something was watching him.

The feeling of being watched came from behind him.

The vents!

There were two vents high on the office's back wall. Their iron grilles were badly rusted, with gaps about two fingers wide.

He had looked at them during his inspection that day. Beyond them was the exterior wall, and at the height of the third floor, no one could possibly climb in through them, so he hadn't paid them much attention. But now the feeling had returned.

A gaze, sticky and cold, seeped through the gaps in the vent's iron grille and settled on the back of his neck.

It was like a snail crawling slowly over his skin, leaving a wet trail!

Lin Yang didn't turn around immediately.

Clutching a wooden stick, he stayed leaning against the wall and slowed his breathing, making the rise and fall of his shoulders even and drawn out as he pretended to be asleep.

He listened as the sliding sound drew closer... and closer!

Suddenly!!

He whirled around!

An eye was pressed against the outside of the vent's iron grille!