Ch44 - Sha, Sha, Sha

Room 403.

The atmosphere was frozen for a while. Everyone unanimously thought of the last few messages of the man hiding in the cabinet, afraid and trembling. 

“We shouldn’t have gone there. That place doesn’t exist so we can’t exist—”

The so-called ‘place that doesn’t exist’…

Did Room 403 open up another space that night? In their ignorance, they unknowingly entered a world completely misplaced from reality. They continued the party until late at night and returned to reality without knowing anything. This violated the rules of that other world so there was an unknown force trying to pull them back?

Imagining terror was the most detrimental thing to a person’s willpower. The Longtan trio chose to occupy the closest position to the door but this didn’t stop a chill rising up from the soles of their feet. They would’ve escaped if it weren’t for the possible clues in Room 403. Even the woman who was in Cube Boat stood right in front of 403 and looked right and left, not daring to investigate any further. 

In contrast, Nan Zhou seemed unconcerned about the horrors and unknowns of Room 403. He walked repeatedly up and down the lecture stairs a few times, his expression cold as he touched and observed the room. He was like a bold cat in a strange space.

…He wasn’t like a human at all.

Sun Guojing was taken aback by his own thoughts and secretly criticized himself. Wasn’t it just being beaten up? Why intimidate himself so much? Moreover…

He glanced at Jiang Fang and Nan Zhou who both had no fear. To tell the truth, neither person was much like a human being. They were a perfect match.

After walking several times and determining that he couldn’t accidentally enter a different space or world by walking around, Nan Zhou stopped. He told Jiang Fang from across the table, “It is weird.”

Jiang Fang nodded. “So far, there is no campus legend pointing to this matter.”

The East Fifth Building was remote and few people came here. Management was strict since it was an ordinary teaching building and they often locked up everywhere. If young couples wanted to have a tryst, there were the romantic groves and rooftops or the cost-effective, empty dormitories. Who would want to sit in a lecture theater on a date?

In addition, this was the dedicated teaching building for the physical education department and it naturally gave people a strong yang feeling. Therefore, the East Fifth Building didn’t even have a haunted legend. 

So what were they facing here? Was it a wandering soul who wanted them to help fulfill its wishes? Or was it pure, chaotic malice?

Nan Zhou murmured, “Ah, you were thinking about this.”

Jiang Fang wondered, “What are you thinking about?”

“Many things.” 

First, the relationship chain. There were nine people at the party that day but at the moment, the relationship between the seven of them was broken. Hu Li and the person who left the death recording seemed to have completely evaporated from this relationship chain. In this way, Nan Zhou couldn’t judge what the power intended. Perhaps the power was directed at one of them and it was taking its anger out on the others?

Second, what was the sequence behind the terrifying incidents? At present, Sun Guojing, Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang had all experienced an incident. The clue was that it would trigger once they heard the sound three times. However, they couldn’t find the mechanism for this event.

Third, that ‘power’ didn’t appear as a physical entity. Sun Guojing felt something drill into his quilt. Nan Zhou saw his distorted reflection in a mirror. Li Yinhang had the same message repeatedly appear on her screen. There was little in common. The only thing in common was that the ‘power’ might not have a physical form or perhaps it didn’t intend to show itself in front of them for the time being.

Fourth—this was the part that Nan Zhou cared most about. Why weren’t any distress signals sent by the person who left the death recording? According to common sense, they should have a relationship if they could meet up. They were all present at the party on the 21st. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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***

Nan Zhou spoke in a very organized manner, sorting out the messy clues bit by bit and putting them in front of everyone. However, it was useless. It just added a layer of coldness to the empty brains of the trio.

“Oh, now we know the problem.” 

Sun Guojing had seen the ghost once and he found it the hardest to remain calm out of the trio. He was anxious and couldn’t hide his bitterness. “Then what? Do we have to wait for the ghost to come find us?”

Nan Zhou found a nearby table to sit at and his fingertips tapped on the table. Now all the clues, long or short, were tangled together in a messy ball of yarn. They had to find the deeply buried beginning thread within the ball of yarn.

Nan Zhou reflected on the requirements of the task. Their task was to live for 120 hours and to not go crazy. Nan Zhou knew very well that no matter how difficult the instance, it would still have certain limits on the survival chances to increase playability.

The principle was simple. From the perspective of an instance designer, too high a mortality rate would weaken the player’s gaming experience. In order to increase playability, restrictions on that ‘power’ were inevitable. If they followed this, the exploration of the task would be reduced and they wouldn’t get the S-grade rewards. In PVE, a teammate’s meaningless death would definitely pull down the score. In this way, he would be one step further from realizing his wish. 

Wait. The requirements of the task…

Nan Zhou raised his eyes and gave a keyword. “The elevator.”

Sun Guojing was chatting with his companions to try and dispel his fear. He heard this word and was stunned for a moment. “Huh?”

The confusing death recording left more than just a verbal message behind. In order to escape from the rustling, the person who left the message pressed the elevator button to try and induce the pursuer away from him. In other words, there was an elevator where he was. 

Nan Zhou inquired, “In this school, which buildings have an elevator?”

In other words, there was an elevator in the building where the man had hid.

Nan Zhou determined the next direction and was decisive. “Go.” Go to the elevator.

Jiang Fang also intended to respond. Yet the moment he moved, his actions became obviously sluggish. He faced Nan Zhou and gestured to his ear. It was his turn. The first ‘sha’ sound appeared clearly in Jiang Fang’s ears. 

Nan Zhou looked at Jiang Fang and suddenly felt uncomfortable in his heart. He hadn’t felt so uncomfortable yesterday when he saw his distorted self in the mirror tilting his head on the edge of the frame. Nan Zhou regarded it as a physical problem and raised a hand to press against his chest. Then he told Jiang Fang again, “Go.”

He wanted to find out the reason and prevent the rustling sound from continuing to… affect people.

Jiang Fang accepted it very well. He followed Nan Zhou and passed by the Longtan team, first politely opening the door for Li Yinhang and gesturing for her to go out first. After sending Li Yinhang out, only Jiang Fang and the trio stayed in 403.

Jiang Fang glanced at Qi Tianyun. Out of the three, he was the only one who tried to effectively defend when Jiang Fang launched the verbal offensive against them. Therefore, perhaps he would listen best. Jiang Fang whispered to Qi Tianyun, “If it was me, I wouldn’t listen to the man with the surname Xie too much. You might’ve tried to rob us in the beginning but we have no conflict of interest now. Don’t forget. In the original worldview, you bullied Xie Xiangyu. The roles you play essentially have conflicts with him.” 

His words awakened them. Jiang Fang saw the three people becoming suspicious due to his words and he smiled. It had to be said that without the aggressiveness just now, the affinity he gave off was amazing.

Jiang Fang raised his mobile phone. “If you trust him then regard it as me not saying anything. In any case, our ultimate goal is to pass the instance. If you have any worries or troubles then just come to me… don’t worry about any opposition from Teacher Nan. Our Teacher Nan is actually very nice.”

The Longtan trio, “……”

Fuck. Was he coaxing fools? 

Jiang Fang had previously dug out the hearts of the three people but now he seemed to be unable to understand the complex expressions of the three people. He smiled and handed out a sticky note while continuing to release kindness. “Let’s exchange phone numbers.”

The trio, “…..”

It didn’t seem to matter if they left their numbers. Since they couldn’t write down phone numbers like Jiang Fang, Qi Tianyun took the initiative to take out his phone and call the number provided by Jiang Fang.

As he focused on entering the number, Jiang Fang naturally took a step forward. He made an action of leaning over to confirm the phone number but his right hand moved under Qi Tianyun’s dark blue sweater collar. He moved so fast that Qi Tianyun didn’t even realize what he had done. 

Jiang Fang withdrew in time before Qi Tianyun felt uncomfortable with him being too close. He bowed to them and signaled goodbye before turning around and leaving Room 403. After turning around, the friendly smile on Jiang Fang’s face gradually faded.

He wasn’t lying. Relatively speaking, Nan Zhou’s character and personality were really much better than his own. None of these three people were particularly clever and they obviously had no experience with supernatural instances. They could only be regarded as a pawn or shield.

So why have them give up on Xie Xiangyu, driving him away or even wasting him? It was better for their lives and death to be controlled by him rather than by an unpredictable person. At least for him, their lives represented points. There was a certain protection value.

Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang waited for him outside Room 403. The moment he met Nan Zhou’s eyes, Jiang Fang put away all the calculations in his heart. He took out a small object that was like a thin button battery and shook it in front of Nan Zhou. 

Nan Zhou asked with his eyes, ‘What is it?’

Jiang Fang handed it to him and mouthed, ‘Squeeze it.’

Nan Zhou, “???”

Nan Zhou mouthed, ‘Why?’ 

‘Squeeze it and I’ll tell you.’

Nan Zhou squeezed the little thing between his fingers, twisting it and exerting force. The iron button that was originally a few millimeters thick was instantly pressed into a thin sheet.

Nan Zhou returned it to Jiang Fang. “What is this?”

Jiang Fang smiled happily. 

***

At this moment, Xie Xiangyu was sitting alone in a corner of the classroom, listening to the teacher talking about ideological and moral cultivation and legal foundations. He was even taking notes for himself. It could be said that he was perfectly executing his character’s setting. As for the three sports students who listened to his advice, took time off and skipped their daily training…

It wouldn’t be bad to let them go to Room 403 first to do some experiments.

This morning, he stuck the eavesdropping item he exchanged for with points onto Qi Tianyun so as to monitor the movements of the three test products. Of course, he succeeded in noticing Nan Zhou’s speculation. Several issues that Nan Zhou noticed weren’t much different from what he had summarized. The next investigation direction, the ‘elevator’ found by Nan Zhou, was also recorded in Xie Xiangyu’s notebook. 

However, Xie Xiangyu seemed more interested in Nan Zhou than in solving the puzzle. In the upper left corner of the notebook, the word ‘Nan Zhou’ was circled four or five times. Yet somehow, the receiver on the other end of the eavesdropping item had changed slightly.

Xie Xiangyu put down his pen, frowned and touched his ears, trying to hear what had happened. Was it discovered by Qi Tianyun? Or…

Soon, the sound of the eavesdropping item being broken crossed thousands of meters and pierced directly into his tympanic membrane! Xie Xiangyu almost threw the pen in his hand. He lay on the table and rested for a while. He felt like a gong that had been struck by a hammer. His brain was buzzing.

He rested his head on his arms. He wasn’t angry or annoyed. Rather, he couldn’t help laughing hoarsely. Ah, he was discovered. However, it shouldn’t be by the trio or they would’ve cursed first before destroying it. So was it Jiang Fang? Or was it Nan Zhou? 

He was pondering on it with interest when his overstimulated eardrums heard a sound again.

“Buzz—”

“Boom—”

“Sha—” 

“Sha—”

At first, Xie Xiangyu didn’t care too much. He just gently pinched his ears to ease the ringing. Then he realized what happened and didn’t move. He heard an intermittent, hurried voice.

“Don’t come here! Don’t come here!”

Sha— 

“What on earth do you want? I’ll give you everything. Don’t kill me!”

Sha—

“Is there anyone? Is there anyone?”

The cries for help continued along with constant knocking on the door and futile gasps. No one responded. It was dead silent apart from the muffled sound that was unwilling to stop. 

“Sha—”

It wasn’t difficult to recognize that this was Xie Xiangyu’s own voice. He heard his dying moans and cries for help. This was accompanied by the approaching, chilling ‘sha sha’ sound.

Sure enough, he couldn’t avoid it even if he played his role seriously. Xie Xiangyu had heard the sound twice before. He had expected what would happen and wasn’t very surprised. He waited for his frantic heartbeat to recover as he lowered his head and ticked a box somewhere in his notebook. His experience proved once again that the ‘power’ wasn’t physical yet.

The marker between Xie Xiangyu’s fingertips moved, spinning constantly in his hand. It seemed that he had to hurry and act. 

…Also, his ears hurt.