The battle situation had reached a stalemate. Luo Xingxing’s anxious fingers couldn’t control their strength and pressed down hard on the swollen part of Xin Meng’s arm. Xin Meng shivered, and Luo Xingxing came to her senses, quickly letting go. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, did I hurt you?”
“It’s fine,” Xin Meng shook his head, glancing over there just in time to see You Yi grab the other child’s arm, causing the child’s movements to pause slightly. The face that had been too fast to see before was now exposed to everyone.
Xin Meng was startled, and almost immediately recognized the child’s identity!
This little boy was precisely the strong ghost child they had encountered before, who had been scared away by a pillow. According to his guess, it was very likely that he was the child mentioned in the news report who had been suffocated to death by other children in this very nap room!
The pillow!
Xin Meng quickly realized, and You Yi also saw the child’s face, moving even faster than Xin Meng. He let go of the child and handed him over to Jie Zi and Li Wenjun, while he pulled a pillow out of his backpack and threw it directly at the little boy.
Seeing something coming at him, the little boy nimbly dodged, but when he saw the white pillow, he froze, and his body instantly stiffened.
“Ahhhhhh—” He suddenly hugged his head and let out a terrifying, piercing scream!
The ghost child’s eyes widened, the red veins in the whites of his eyes increased, and many red bruises and bleeding spots appeared around his nose and lips. His bare arms and legs were covered in large areas of corpse spots.
He had transformed into the appearance he had when he died.
The screams continued unabated, shaking the eardrums of those nearby, especially unbearable for those closest. The three men quickly stepped back a bit.
The child continued to scream while curling up on the ground.
Gradually, his body became more and more transparent, and his screams began to weaken. In less than a minute, the child completely disappeared from everyone’s sight.
“Did he… disappear?” Xin Meng lowered his hands from his ears. There was still some ringing, but he couldn’t care less. This time, the other party unexpectedly did not run away but vanished. Did that mean the enemy was down one?
It turned out that to truly eliminate the opponent, relying on brute force was useless; it required the corresponding props instead?
Because he had been killed by a certain object, even after becoming a malevolent ghost, he would still harbor fear towards that object. Just seeing it was enough to scare him to death?
A few people were momentarily speechless, partly due to the aftereffects of the ear ringing and partly because they were at a loss for words at this bizarre development.
In the end, they still entered the nap room again because Xin Meng wanted to verify his previous guess, so they returned to bed number eighteen.
However, this time, as soon as they got close, they were astonished to find that a new newspaper had appeared on the bed!
It hadn’t been there just a moment ago!
You Yi picked up the newspaper and looked. At the top was a photo, capturing the very moment the ghost child had just died!
But there was a difference from before; it didn’t look as sinister as when he had turned into a ghost, but it was still enough to be heart-wrenching. The stiff corpse and pale skin, even in black and white, could not hide the tragic state.
Below the photo was a bold, enlarged headline: “Child Crime Requires More Attention!”
Further down was a smaller photo, depicting a scene in a cemetery, where many people dressed in black held flowers, surrounding a small coffin, bowing their heads in silence.
The faces of these people were still pixelated, making it impossible to see their features, but there were a few smaller texts below, some parts blacked out, leaving only fragmented content visible.
“Recently, a case occurred at a kindergarten in our city where a child suddenly suffocated to death during naptime. After days of tireless investigation by the public security department, the case has been successfully solved… It was not an accident, but rather suffocated to death by classmates… According to interviews… it was not intentional murder, but rather a playful mishap… According to our country’s laws… minors… do not bear criminal responsibility… orphans… without guardians… unable to compensate…”
Most of the latter content was unreadable, but the last paragraph was clean and unobscured.
“Kind-hearted individuals in society spontaneously donated to hold a small funeral for the victimized child, hoping that in heaven, there is no evil.”
“It really makes one feel uneasy,” Luo Xingxing said. “I don’t know what to say. If an adult had killed this child, there would be someone to blame, but when a child kills another child, the murderer is still an orphan without parents… I really don’t know who to blame or who to feel sorry for.”
The others were all big men, and although they didn’t have Luo Xingxing’s delicate thoughts, they felt heavy-hearted as well.
“Forget it, let’s think positively; this can be seen as a way to help them move on?” Dou Dou couldn’t stand the oppressive atmosphere and was the first to try to lighten the mood. “The case has been solved, and a funeral has been held. We accidentally did a good deed. It seems the game encourages us to continue finding props to help them move on.”
“Now is not the time to pity them,” Jie Zi poured cold water on him. “We are the ones who could die at any moment. They died, and there are kind-hearted people to hold funerals for them. If we die… heh, probably no one will even remember we existed, let alone come back as ghosts.”
“Hey!” Dou Dou was frustrated; he had just managed to lighten the mood a bit, and now Jie Zi’s words made it worse!
However, his words, though harsh, were true, and no one could refute them.
“Let’s look for any other props,” Luo Xingxing quickly tried to mediate. “To save them and to save ourselves.”
Everyone agreed to this, and Xin Meng signaled You Yi to help him.
His arm was still swollen, so You Yi took over the task. He lifted the bed sheet, looked under the bed, and shook his head at Xin Meng.
“The pillow is gone too?” Xin Meng confirmed again.
“Yeah,” You Yi replied.
“What’s going on? Where are the props?” Dou Dou scratched his head. “Could it be that after helping one move on, the corresponding prop disappears?”
“No,” Xin Meng took the pillow out of his item slot and placed it on the bed. “It should be that it’s nighttime, and the items disappear.”
“No way…” Luo Xingxing and Li Wenjun exchanged glances, their faces pale. Luo Xingxing dared not mention the passageway, “Does that mean we can only look for props during the day? But we already have to hide to avoid being caught, and now we have to find things? If we wander around, won’t it be even easier to get caught?!”
“That’s exactly how it is,” Jie Zi raised an eyebrow and grinned maliciously. “Are you all playing this game for the first time? Have you forgotten this is a horror game where you could die at any moment, not some escape room where you just walk around collecting props to open doors? How could it be that simple, allowing players to gather all the props risk-free at night and just wait to clear the game during the day? Dream on!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Xingxing’s face turned even worse, and Dou Dou kicked Jie Zi. “You should just shut up!”
Jie Zi pouted, unconcerned, and looked elsewhere, not continuing to speak.
“Alright, since that’s the case, the situation is too dire because we currently only have two props, and one has already been used, leaving us with just one,” Xin Meng said. “We can at most find the child who was beaten to death with a stick and help him move on, but for the other children, even if we find them, we can’t kill them, nor can we search for other props.”
“In other words, we’ve wasted another night,” he sighed.
“Is there really no other way?” Luo Xingxing was very anxious. Wasting this night meant they would have to continue hiding tomorrow, and the danger would be extended accordingly. Who knew when they would be discovered!
“Let’s find that child first; one less is one less,” Xin Meng could only say. “At the same time, let’s search the entire building to see if there are any props. I hope I’m wrong in my deductions.”
Although he said this, the others knew the chances were slim.
“Should we still split up?” Li Wenjun asked.
“Yes, otherwise we won’t finish searching before dawn,” Xin Meng said. “Let’s stick to the plan we set before. We’ll go left, and you three go right. Let’s meet outside the first-floor door before dawn.”
Since they were already on the third floor, they decided not to search downwards anymore but to go down to the first floor, splitting into groups of three, searching upwards.
The situation in Xin Meng’s group was quite interesting. Xin Meng was diligently searching for clues, opening every door and not missing the gaps behind the cabinets, working meticulously, while You Yi just glanced around and followed behind Xin Meng like a bodyguard.
Jie Zi leaned casually against something, watching the two with great interest, as if he were watching some entertainment program.
Xin Meng couldn’t stand being watched like that. “If you don’t want to search, please go watch in the hallway. If you see anyone passing by, just let us know.”
“I want to search; why wouldn’t I want to?” Jie Zi immediately replied, then walked to a table, pinching a book with two fingers and playfully tossing it aside.
Xin Meng couldn’t bear to watch anymore, but he was too lazy to say anything else. As long as the other party didn’t hinder him, he simply chose to ignore him.
As a result, Jie Zi didn’t behave for long before he came over again. “Hey, little brother, seeing how skillfully you search through things, what did you do before?”
Xin Meng almost slapped him in the face!
What was this? Was he mocking him, suggesting he used to be a thief or a burglar?
“I’m still a student!” Xin Meng suppressed his anger and said stiffly.
“Oh, a student…” Jie Zi chuckled. “So you and your husband were together before? Students can date, or is it with the same sex? Didn’t the school expel you?”
Xin Meng’s hands itched to hit him.
But he also keenly noticed that the other party seemed to be trying to provoke him with these annoying words, wanting him to say something. Was this… also a way to extract information from him?
Dou Dou couldn’t handle it, so Jie Zi came to help him? What exactly were these two trying to do?
Xin Meng was suspicious internally but kept a calm exterior, wanting to see what the other party was up to. He deliberately showed an angry expression and said, “I met him in the game! Besides, whether I was expelled or not is none of your business! What did you do before?”
“Me?” Jie Zi winked at him. “I’m a fitness coach.”
“…” Xin Meng gritted his teeth. “You still say you’re not Jie Zi!”
Jie Zi feigned surprise. “I never said I wasn’t Jie Zi. Didn’t I introduce myself earlier? My name is Jie Zi.”
It was pointless to argue over trivial matters, so Xin Meng simply turned away and stopped engaging with him.
However, Jie Zi stuck to him, continuing, “Little brother, you haven’t finished yet. You were a student before, and then what? How did you end up here?”
