Yan Wei said, raising his hand, and directly tore off the School Card that had the words “Luo He” written on it.
“Luo He,” who was firmly held down by Yan Mingguang, looked astonished, staring at the dagger in Yan Wei’s hand, which was close to his brow. In a moment of instinctive panic, he struggled even harder. Yan Wei raised his hand, lightly poked Yan Mingguang’s wrist, and said, “Let go. If you hold him, he reacts fine. But when I say I want to kill him, he gets scared. It seems he won’t run away.”
Yan Mingguang released his grip.
Sure enough, after Yan Mingguang let go, Luo He—rather, He Luo’s first reaction was to step back a bit, trying to avoid the dagger that could inflict real damage on Ghosts/Monsters. After adjusting his school uniform collar, he simply sat down on the bench on the lawn.
In the early morning of the night, Morning Light High School was still filled with a chilling breeze, rustling the trees in the greenbelt, the leaves brushing against each other.
Suddenly, a piercing scream echoed from the dormitory building. Mixed with the scream were faint sounds of flesh being torn— the starving ghost had found its target and, just like the previous nights, began to feast on humans.
Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang simultaneously raised their eyes to look at each other, exchanging a glance in the darkness.
This had actually become an instinctive habit for them after going through several instances. Whenever they encountered a situation in the instance, Yan Wei would always glance at Yan Mingguang first. This glance had no clear purpose; it was merely a subconscious action.
But at this moment, he suddenly realized that this action, which he had never paid extra attention to, was actually a signal seeking a sense of security during times of danger. He would involuntarily confirm Yan Mingguang’s safety first, ensuring that this person was still by his side.
His expression flickered for a moment, and Yan Mingguang had already calmly withdrawn his gaze from the scream, refocusing on He Luo.
Yan Wei also pulled his thoughts back.
The two of them and one ghost were surprisingly silent on the dark outdoor lawn, with the piercing screams and the rustling wind behind them.
Meanwhile, the identity-revealed He Luo gradually returned to his original Ghost/Monster form—his school uniform remained clean and tidy, likely changed later, but a part of his head had cracked open, dried blood spreading from that area, covering his already pale face. His once normal eyes had transformed into their true appearance, with completely white eyeballs devoid of any pupil color, standing out starkly in the darkness.
But both Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang had long since become accustomed to such scenes.
He Luo sat on the bench, pondering for a moment, and only after the screams ceased did he say, “How did you guess?”
This time, his voice held almost no surprise, but rather a sense of resignation.
Yan Wei raised an eyebrow.
After He Luo asked, he chuckled self-deprecatingly, “No, actually, I revealed quite a few flaws. It was easy to guess me; I just reversed my name. You already noticed the issue on the second floor this morning. The location of the second-floor storage room is the same as the first floor. I exposed my knowledge of the storage room’s location with the school uniforms I gave you, and when you think about it, it really is easy to guess—”
“You’re wrong.” Yan Wei suddenly interrupted He Luo, “It’s not that you revealed many flaws that led me to guess, but rather that I made you reveal many flaws.”
He turned around and sat beside He Luo, casually saying as if they were chatting, “I didn’t know there was a problem on the second floor. Or rather, from the very beginning, I knew nothing at all; it was all based on what you told me.”
He leaned back against the bench, slightly swinging his legs, one hand in his pocket, the other tossing a coin, his expression calm.
The dim moonlight couldn’t illuminate their expressions clearly. Yan Mingguang stood in the shadow under the tree, looking directly at Yan Wei from this unseen angle.
Hearing Yan Wei’s words, He Luo was momentarily stunned. Whether he was pretending to be the nonexistent Luo He or had now reverted to his Ghost/Monster form, he exhibited behaviors and speech akin to a normal player, far more vivid than those numb NPCs that served only a functional purpose.
“You’re too anxious,” Yan Wei said.
“Was it when I invited you to cooperate on the second floor this morning that you figured it out?”
Another scream echoed from the dormitory, indicating that some player had been attacked by a Ghost/Monster.
“Not that late; that would make me too foolish.” Yan Wei chuckled lightly, “It was when we first saw you—when you handed us the school uniforms.”
In the Ghost Hand Space, to break the deadlock, Yan Wei discovered the function of the school uniforms and, along with Yan Mingguang, Lin Zhen, and Yu Feizhou, threw the uniforms into the Ghost Hand Space. Morning Light High School required students to wear uniforms during class, and although there was no other explicit information, everyone knew that in such places, no one dared to try to break the rules.
Yan Wei was not someone who would knowingly leave hidden dangers when aware of risks.
Yet at that time, he said to return to the dormitory first, wait until other matters were resolved, and consider the school uniform issue the next day when classes resumed.
Everyone thought there was no problem, but only Yan Wei knew that from that moment on, it was a trap he had deliberately set.
Since one side had released goodwill towards the players, and Ghosts/Monsters were everywhere in Morning Light High School, their perspective must be much broader than those players who needed to explore everywhere. Other players might not know what situation they were in, but wouldn’t the more experienced Ghosts/Monsters know?
Yan Wei was certain that both sides of Ghosts/Monsters, whether good or bad, must have some understanding of their abilities. So, wouldn’t the good side have some thoughts after knowing their strength? Seeing these “Students” with certain abilities without uniforms could lead to trouble; wouldn’t the good side want to do something?
They would.
Thus, Yan Wei deliberately delayed the search for the school uniforms, intending to draw out those who hoped they would survive.
So, at the moment Luo He led Yan Wei and the others to find the school uniforms, Yan Wei had already shifted his attention to Luo He, who claimed to be a new student.
However, this was merely a baseless guess and suspicion; Luo He could also have stumbled upon this and genuinely be an ordinary “Student” just helping out.
But the next day, when Yan Wei walked out of dormitory 407 and saw the traces left by Yue Wenxing, who had died at the door of 406 that night, he completely formulated a further plan and clue.
Yue Wenxing was killed by a Ghost/Monster at the door of 406, and at that time, there were traces of dragged limbs on the ground, as if the starving ghost had killed Yue Wenxing and dragged some limbs to the second floor to eat. And the next morning, when they arrived on the second floor, they indeed saw some of Yue Wenxing’s remains.
Subsequently, he had everyone split up to search for clues, combining all the notes everyone had written, claiming he had discovered something wrong. Then “Luo He” appeared, verifying and sharing clues with Yan Wei, reaching a consensus to cooperate against the man-eating entity. By nightfall, when Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang reached the second floor, they directly encountered the starving ghost. Yan Mingguang was “overwhelmed,” and just when the two were on the brink of death, “Luo He” appeared, telling them to jump down from the dormitory building, and the three escaped together.
“From your perspective, this should be no problem, right?” Yan Wei grasped the Swallow Coin that had fallen back into his hand, lightly rubbing the uneven patterns on the coin with his fingertips, his voice calm and rational, “But in reality, we didn’t discover any issues on the second floor at all; all the clues about the starving ghost were provided by you.”
“When you took us to the first-floor storage room to get the school uniforms, I was just keeping an eye on you. But the next day, when I found Yue Wenxing’s remains on the second floor, I knew there had to be someone behind this—or rather, a ghost guiding me. A creature that eats people, even if it kills and drags away human remains to eat, why would it drag extra, uneaten remains? Bodies disappear every day; it’s not like it would drag them downstairs for the next day’s rations, right? Having drag marks is normal, but there shouldn’t be any parts of Yue Wenxing’s body left on the second floor. The starving ghost indeed dragged limbs downstairs, but what it dragged down had already been fully consumed; as for the parts we saw that hadn’t been eaten, those were actually dragged down by you.”
“Then why were the remains dragged downstairs and placed there? It can’t be for the ghosts to see; it must be for us ‘Students’ to see. This means that the place where Yue Wenxing’s remains were found is where you wanted to guide us to look for the problem—that is, the entrance to the small storage room where the starving ghost is locked up.”
He Luo’s completely white pupils stared intently at Yan Wei, and he slowly began to understand: “This morning, when you said you found clues, it was actually to trick me out.”
“Exactly. I deliberately had Yan Mingguang and the others split up to search for clues, then wrote it down on notes for me to see instead of directly telling me, just to pretend we had found some clues. In reality, I knew very well that I wouldn’t find anything, and neither would Yan Mingguang, Lin Zhen, or the others. As expected, none of us discovered anything; every note given to me had no information—we found nothing at all.
“But I still claimed that someone had found information on the notes, acting as if there were clues. This scene was staged for you to see, making you think we had found clues.”
“The only thing I knew was that there was a problem with the placement of Yue Wenxing’s body parts. So after collecting all the notes that actually had nothing written on them, I said I found clues, but then I said I wouldn’t investigate further—you got anxious.
“You didn’t want to expose yourself, didn’t want to be in danger, yet wanted us to discover and solve it, so you deliberately dragged Yue Wenxing’s body parts to the entrance of the second-floor storage room. But I was clearly on the verge of finding clues and unwilling to continue investigating; you put in so much effort, yet it seemed to be in vain, so you hurriedly came out. Then, I merely pointed in the direction of Yue Wenxing’s body parts and said I discovered something, and you couldn’t wait to divulge information about the second-floor small storage room and this starving ghost. In truth, I knew nothing; all the information was provided by you.”
He initially pretended to know everything but didn’t want to take risks and thus abandoned action, leading to these clues. After pulling off this trick, what he needed to confirm was who this “Luo He,” whose allegiance was unknown, truly was.
Yan Wei first flipped through the player’s Student files, confirming that he couldn’t find a file for “Luo He,” verifying that this was a Ghost/Monster mixed in with the new student enrollment. Subsequently, Yu Feizhou and others investigated He Luo and Qian Xuanxuan’s past, confirming that these two suicidal transfer students were different from ordinary Ghosts/Monsters.
Just now, he and Yan Mingguang had deliberately acted as if they were about to be killed by a Ghost/Monster, drawing out “Luo He” and confirming that “Luo He” was aware of many rules that surpassed ordinary Ghosts/Monsters, knowing that jumping down from the dormitory could temporarily evade the starving ghost and that they could speak in the dark, confirming that “Luo He” was also a ghost different from ordinary Ghosts/Monsters.
With two lines of confirmation, at the moment they jumped down from the dormitory, they completely affirmed that “Luo He” was undoubtedly an important Ghost/Monster related to the campus bullying incident from three years ago.
Luo He—He Luo.
From the moment it was discovered that there might be two sides to Ghosts/Monsters, Yan Wei had quietly woven a web.
He grasped the psychology of the Ghost/Monster behind it—all of which was now fully exposed before them, He Luo—while He Luo thought he was in control, guiding the “new students” to do what he wanted them to do, Yan Wei was truly taking the initiative step by step, making He Luo unknowingly walk into his web, providing him with clues and information.
At this moment, He Luo clearly understood as well. He stared blankly and said, “…You are indeed quite clever.”
“So now, I think you should consider how to provide me with satisfactory information—what exactly happened back then? What do you plan to do now?”
