Bab 9: No.408
Su Cheng really didn't expect that it would be so easy to get out of the old witch's patrolling range by using the time difference and blind spots.
The young man who was traveling with him seemed to know the internal structure of the place very well. Even in the dark, they could go in and out freely from the rooms they could enter and from the rooms they couldn't. Every point in time was just right, and it seemed that they could always find a hiding place before they were discovered.
Soon, the two came to the first floor without any danger.
Standing in the empty hall on the first floor, Su Cheng suddenly couldn't help but feel a little amazed.
We… just came down like this?
Isn't it a little unreal?
He followed Wen Jianyan in a trance and walked through the hall toward the closed door of the dormitory building.
The young man in front of him suddenly stopped on his steps.
"What's wrong?"
Su Cheng was stunned, he stepped forward and tried to push the door.
The iron gate didn't move.
He squeezed the handle tightly and pressed it down again, but the handle was stuck in place.
It was locked.
"No, it doesn't matter, the key must be nearby." Su Cheng stared at the door, took a few steps back, and said calmly.
Although he was still a newcomer, he has played a lot of horror mystery games. According to the routine, a locked door would always have a corresponding key, but the player had to find it.
It must be so.
"I'll go look over there. Officer Xu, you…"
As Su Cheng spoke, he turned his head to look at the young man standing beside him——
Halfway through, the words got stuck in his throat.
"Click."
The door lock made a crisp sound, and then slowly opened.
"..."
Su Cheng became stunned and stared at the young man standing beside him speechlessly.
"Ah, the key."
Wen Jianyan seemed to notice the horrified look in the other's eyes. He casually put the wire back into his pocket, turned his face slightly, and said nonchalantly, "It's not needed now."
The young man smiled slightly, standing upright between light and dark with a slender and straight figure, his eyes clear and magnanimous.
"….."
Su Cheng opened his mouth and said dryly, "Haha, you… your police academy teaches this too."
The live broadcast room was filled with a happy atmosphere.
[Hahahahahaha laughing to death.]
[Hahahahahahahaha I knew it.]
[Come on, the game has begun. Let's bet whether the other party can figure out the anchor's scam.]
[I think It should be possible. How can the police academy teach such things? He is not a good person at first glance!]
Wen Jianyan did not change his expression:
"We are trained to deal with every possible circumstance."
He pointed to the stairs behind him, and changed the subject:
"—including always being alert to the surrounding environment."
The dim light flickered in the stairwell, the walls were vaguely imprinted with shadows that were silently changing their shapes, and the sound of faint footsteps could also be heard.
"!"
Su Cheng was shocked, he subconsciously turned his head and grabbed Wen Jianyan's arm: "Someone is coming, hurry up!"
Wen Jianyan smiled silently: "Hmm"
The two quickly left the dormitory building and restored the door behind them to its original appearance.
At this moment, a "ding" sounded in their ears at the same time:
[Congratulations to the anchor for leaving the dormitory building!]
[Main line task: Leave the dormitory after the lights are turned off and explore the campus.
Completion Degree: 50%, Reward Points: 5000]
Su Cheng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Great, it looks like he made the right choice.
He turned his head and glanced at Wen Jianyan not far away, and a trace of happiness and gratitude flashed in his heart.
It was all thanks to meeting this important NPC and entering this seemingly crucial plotline, otherwise, he would have been in danger long ago ― either being chased by monsters or struggling with the approaching countdown.
He looked directly at the young man in front of him and asked cautiously, "Officer Xu, where are we going next?"
"The fourth floor of the teaching building."
The key that Xu Yuan had left for him pointed there.
Wen Jianyan look at Su Cheng seriously and said softly:
"Also, I originally sneaked in as an ordinary person, so you don't need to call me Officer Xu. You are the same age as my sister, so you can call me Brother XiaoWen from now on."
Although his tone was calm, his voice was very heavy, as if there was some kind of complicated emotion hidden deeply.
Even if he knew that the other party was an NPC, Su Cheng still couldn't help but be touched. At this moment, the backstory that the other party just briefly told him seemed to have become vivid and concrete.
Ah! What a touching sibling relationship!
However, according to the horror film routine, I'm afraid… alas.
Su Cheng's face flashed with a trace of intolerance.
"Okay, Brother XiaoWen."
Su Cheng took a deep breath and said solemnly, "Don't worry, I will definitely help you find your sister."
The barrage was filled with floating ellipses.
[...]
[My God! he actually messed with him again.]
[I thought he was going to be suspicious, I didn't expect him to be more convinced… It's beyond reasonable!]
[Where's the sister! There is no Sister! Anchor, wake up, these are all made up by that liar! Crash jpg.]
[…Technique, it's all technique.]
The first floor of the dormitory building.
The shadows printed on the walls gradually solidified, and the sound of messy footsteps sounded in the stairwell.
Several somewhat embarrassed figures appeared in the hall.
"Oh, shit..."
One of the anchors said with lingering fear: "This monster is too fierce. If I didn't throw a prop in time, I'm afraid I would have capsized."
Another person looked equally embarrassed:
"If I remember correctly, this is a D-level instance, right? Isn't it a bit too difficult?"
"The difficulty is really a bit high."
One of the anchors guessed: "Speaking of… Could this be related to the NPC that the old witch was looking for?"
Kong Shixing frowned and interrupted the conversation between the two: "Let's not mention this, the most important thing now is to find the key to the door."
The three spread out and began to look for the key on the first floor of the dormitory building.
One of the anchors was looking under the table, and when he raised his head, he was so frightened by the figure that suddenly crashed into view that he almost had a heart attack.
A lonely human-shaped silhouette stood in the stairwell, surrounded by the dim and pale light, and it looked like a ghost at first glance.
The figure slowly took two steps forward, exposing his entire face to the light.
"…It's you?"
The anchor couldn't help but stare.
The other party's body and facial features were very familiar, he was a rookie anchor who had been seen more than once in the instance.
When Kong Shixing heard the movement, he walked out of the duty room, and narrowed his eyes slightly when his eyes fell on the uninvited guest:
"What's wrong?"
"I, I want to team up with you." The man said.
The fear on his face did not disappear, his face was pale, and his voice was trembling: "Let me join you."
The anchor who just talked with the man gave Kong Shixing a look.
Kong Shixing said without changing his face: "You can act with us if you want, but you must obey our orders unconditionally and don't drag us back."
The man hurriedly nodded: "Okay… Okay!"
Inside an instance, the basic survival time was very valuable. Not only the person with more survival time had more opportunities for trial and error, but he could also transfer the time to other anchors, that is to say, time could be plundered, traded, and deceived.
Experienced anchors generally keep their initial survival time strictly confidential.
If a person had too much time, he was likely to be targeted, but with too little time he would be in danger, and it would be easier to be alerted and alienated.
The reason why they have an impression of this anchor was that as a novice anchor with the highest survival time, he was too high-profile.
If it was just an ordinary D-level instance, they generally wouldn't consider this method. After all, if the other party was not killed in the end, they would definitely forge a deep hatred.
However, now this instance…
It always felt like something was beyond their expectations and grasp.
Well, it was always good to have a health pack on the team.
A trace of greed flashed in Kong Shixing's eyes.
"What's your name?"
The man's figure was vaguely reflected on the dirty glass of the duty room.
His face was pale and stiff, and the corners of his mouth slowly cracked and lifted, revealing a twisted and exaggerated smile.
"Cheng Huaquan."
The man answered.
It was already completely dark.
The thick darkness was like a living creature, swallowing the entire campus into its belly.
The street lamps were flickering, illuminating only a small pale area. The edges of the buildings were blurred and distant, and the shadows were long and silent, living silently at the edge of the line of sight.
After the night came, the current campus seemed to have fallen into another dimension.
Wen Jianyan looked up at the teaching building in front of him.
There was not a trace of light in the dark window, and it was lifelessly immersed in the darkness of the night, as if something was wiggling in the shadows, peeking out from one side of the window.
There was no one in the building, and the inexplicable sense of oppression was chilling.
Su Cheng couldn't help swallowing his saliva. Holding the last ray of unrealistic hope, he asked with a trembling voice:
"This, here?"
Wen Jianyan: "..."
Although he really didn't want to admit it―
He nodded expressionlessly.
After getting a positive answer, the last glimmer of hope in Su Cheng's heart was also shattered. He stared at the teaching building in front of him with a sad face, and the cold sweat on his back came out layer after layer.
This ghost place, you could see at a glance that there was nothing good in it!
Wen Jianyan felt the same way.
But the task was in hand, and there was no way to retreat, so he had to bite the bullet and step forward. With a calm and well-trained voice, he said, "Let's go."
Su Cheng looked at his companion's suddenly taller back, and couldn't help but awe.
As expected of a righteous public servant, even in the horror live broadcast he can give people such a strong sense of security!
He took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to follow.
It was so quiet in the teaching building that only the footsteps of two people could be heard in the empty and dead corridor.
Su Cheng followed closely behind Wen Jianyan, and his eyes couldn't help drifting to both sides.
Suddenly, he froze.
In the dark classroom, the dim light of the street lamps in the distance could be vaguely seen.
The lights outlined several black silhouettes which stood silently side by side, motionlessly.
With a pale face, Su Cheng stepped up to Wen Jianyan's side, stretched out his hand and tugged at the other's sleeve, and said in a low voice:
"Class, there seems to be someone in the classroom."
"Not necessarily people."
Wen Jian didn't raise his head and said hurriedly: "Don't look, lower your head, and walk forward quickly."
Su Cheng's scalp tingled and he nodded hastily.
The two men continued to move forward, accompanied by the beating of their heartbeats, and the sound of their gradually fastening footsteps echoed in the empty corridor.
Soon, the classroom was left far behind.
Before Su Cheng could breathe a sigh of relief, in the next classroom, those shadows appeared again. They were still side by side, but closer this time.
Then again in the next room.
And again in the next.
With each step they took, the shadows would also take a step forward, and the strange shadows gradually enlarged, as if slowly approaching.
There were vague weird rustling sounds in the ears, like a low laugh, or a malicious whisper. Those meaningless syllables came from the far side of the corridor, approaching little by little——
"Run!"
Wen Jianyan shouted.
The moment the voice fell, the two of them ran desperately.
The edge of the line of sight became blurred, but they could still see the dark shadows relentlessly chasing after them. As those shadows continue to chase the distance between them decreased little by little.
In the end, the shadow, which had been fully enlarged to its normal height, clung to the window near the corridor, as if it would leave the classroom and come into the corridor in the next second.
Those rustling and eerie human voices were amplified, again and again, circling in the empty corridor, attacking from all directions. The source of the sound could not be found at all, but it can make people feel inexplicably chilling and trembling.
"This way!"
The young man running in front made a sharp turn and dragged Su Cheng into the stairwell.
The stairwell was dark and cramped, the green paint had been peeled off, revealing a mess of scribbled graffiti, and the overhead lights flickered and squeaked.
Other than that, it was dead silence.
The whispers disappeared.
Those gradually approaching shadows also did not seem to catch up.
Su Cheng leaned against the wall in shock, his voice changed: "What the hell are those things?!"
Wen Jianyan didn't answer.
He raised his head and looked up at the stairs that stretched upwards in front of him.
The top of the stairs were engulfed in darkness and seemed endless.
The adrenaline generated during the run just now had disappeared, and the icy chill began to rise from the soles of his feet.
Although his face still maintained a well-trained calm and composed expression, Wen Jianyan's heart began to feel weak.
…if he could, he really didn't want to go up at all.
Remembering the time limit of the task, he squeezed the hard outline of the key in his pocket, gritted his teeth, and squeezed out a few words:
"…Let's go, go upstairs."
Su Cheng looked at the young man beside him in shock.
This NPC, are you not afraid at all?
"You… your psychological quality is really strong." He opened his mouth and sincerely praised.
Wen Jianyan: "..."
Hehe.
Strong my ass.
I don't have any choice but to be headstrong, okay!
The corners of his mouth twitched, and he replied without a smile: "Don't praise."
The barrage laughed madly.
[Hahahahahahahahaha why is it so funny?]
[What kind of weird comedy effect is this!]
[In a sense, the opposite side did say the truth. The anchor's psychological quality is indeed very strong, but it is all in the direction of telling lies without blinking.]
[But the fear of ghosts is also true, hahaha!]
After entering the stairwell there were no more strange sounds and images.
However, once they leave the stairwell and enter the corridor on the second and third floors, they fall into the previous predicament again.
The shadows became clear and imminent, swarming in the darkness of corridors and classrooms, watching them greedily and eagerly, waiting to drag them into the darkness.
Su Cheng secretly took out his ID card during the process and took a look.
He found that every time he entered the realm of the shadows, his remaining survival time would be eaten up a lot. It was only a few minutes ago that he entered the teaching building, but the survival time on the card had been dropped by nearly half an hour.
His back felt cold, and he gave up his thought of exploring the second and third floors.
Soon, the fourth floor was already in sight.
"4".
The bright red digital lacquer print had faded and peeled off, illumined by the flickering lights in the corridor, looking more and more ominous.
Wen Jianyan slowly took a deep breath, stepped forward carefully, and walked out of the stairwell little by little.
It was very quiet in the ear, without any weird whispers and low laughter.
The voice-activated lights lit up one by one, illuminating the empty corridor.
No shadows.
To be precise, after leaving the stairwell, nothing happened. Compared with the other three floors, it was simply too peaceful and simple.
But Wen Jianyan didn't feel any relief.
There were only two possibilities for it to be so quiet here. One was that the shadows were originally designed to drive them to the fourth floor, and the other was that there was something more vicious here, and even they didn't dare to approach here.
Either way, it was not easy to deal with.
The icy light overhead was steady and continuous.
The empty corridor stretched out to both sides, and the end was engulfed by darkness. The classrooms on both sides had no obvious signs, so they could only go and check them one by one.
Wen Jianyan turned to look at Su Cheng:
"Let's split up and find classroom 408. If you encounter something unusual, don't act rashly and call me loudly."
Su Cheng was startled for a while, and then nodded quickly: "No problem."
To be honest, in such a weird place, splitting up was the last thing he wanted to do.
After all, acting alone was the death rule in horror movies.
But now Su Cheng had to quickly check the remaining points and survival time on his ID card, and then buy life-saving props from the store, so the other party's proposal was just right.
After parting with Wen Jianyan, Su Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and walked toward the side corridor.
Great, what he was going to do next couldn't be seen by that NPC, which was not only difficult to explain but also likely to lead to suspicion.
As he thought, he opened the live broadcast interface.
But what Su Cheng didn't know was that in a place he couldn't see, the "NPC" himself was doing exactly the same thing as him——
Opening the live broadcast interface.
It has been a long time since the live broadcast interface was opened here. As soon as Wen Jianyan entered, he saw the overwhelming barrage, and he was overwhelmed for a while.
[Oh, oh, the anchor has opened the barrage!]
[!!! (50 reward points)]
[The anchor is here!]
[Aaaaaahhhhhh, I love the anchor's style. The front-row confession!]
He took time to look at the number of people online in the live room.
Oh God, last time there were only more than 2,000 people, and now it has doubled, almost approaching 6,000 people!
Wen Jianyan glanced at the barrage a few times.
After a moment, the previous wave of enthusiasm had passed, and the remaining content of the barrage had become more clear.
Some were enthusiastic, some were indifferent, some were malicious, and some were doubtful. Of course, most of them were watching the play with great interest, and no particularly effective information could be extracted from it.
This time the barrage was of no use.
There was no need for any interaction anymore, but… he couldn't be too perfunctory.
"Thank you."
The handsome young man smiled and lowered his eyes, letting his long eyelashes cover the shimmering light under his eyes. He lightly pressed his fingertips on his curved lips, gently threw a kiss over, and said:
"…I also confess to you."
The previous indifferent and upright disguise was torn apart, revealing a bit of frivolity and cynicism that did not belong to that fake character.
But it was not serious, instead, it has a casual sense of distance. It seemed to be just a random teasing, but it was…
inexplicably very skillful.
Immediately afterward, the interface was closed without hesitation.
The barrage fell into a brief silence.
[…F*ck, he really understands. (50 reward points)]
[D@mn, this anchor is too skilled at cheating and getting rewards! Fellows, don't be deceived! (50 reward points)]
[Generally speaking, I rarely give a tip to such a new live broadcast room, but… (50 reward points)]
[The anchor's mouth, a deceitful ghost! (100 reward points)]
Listening to the sound of the points being credited, Wen Jianyan happily opened the store interface.
Perhaps because the saved points had increased, this time the store had more open interfaces.
After careful selection, Wen Jianyan added a life-saving prop to the shopping cart. After all, there might be dangers in the future, so it was necessary to have insurance in advance.
He stared at the store interface for a moment, and then added another item to the cart.
Hand of Guidance.
Although the price of this thing was not cheap, it had become more and more necessary as time went by.
Wen Jianyan had now collected a difficult-level hidden item, and the legendary hidden item task was also in progress. Seeing that victory was in sight, there was only one hidden item of ordinary level left.
In this case, if he didn't collect all the hidden items in this instance, it would be a pity for him who was desperately trying to survive.
Wen Jianyan clicked to place an order.
[The item has been put into the backpack.]
The system prompt sounded, looking at the 7,000 points that were quickly being debited from his account, his heart couldn't help but faintly ache.
The process was fast, and there were still dozens of minutes left until the next point settlement.
Wen Jianyan comforted himself in his heart.
At this moment, Su Cheng's shout came from behind:
"Here, 408 is here!"
Wen Jianyan came back to his senses, he closed the interface, turned around, and walked towards Su Cheng's location.
Su Cheng pointed to a faded iron sheet on the closed door in front of him.
Sure enough, this was the room he was looking for.
Wen Jianyan nodded, stepped forward, and pressed his hand on the doorknob.
The cold metallic touch came from the palm of his hand, and a chill spread, causing him to shiver slightly.
He took a deep breath and was about to press his palm down when suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind like lightning.
Wen Jianyan was startled, his eyes widened slightly.
Wait…
He turned his head to look.
This was the fourth floor… the second room on the right.
That's right, what he saw from the dormitory building, the terrifying figure standing in the teaching building with his face on the window seemed to be in the same room…
The second room from the right side on the fourth floor.
Wen Jianyan's eyes fell on the door in front of him, the bright red lacquer print on the iron sheet had faded slightly.
It was here.
408.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone