Night had quietly fallen. It was exactly eleven-thirty at night. Thick, dark clouds obscured the sky. There was no starlight or moonlight tonight; the darkness of the night was terrifying.
It was Friday. Zhao Mingyue would be on holiday tomorrow, so going to sleep a little later tonight wouldn’t affect anything. She set out practically the moment she got home from work, after simply eating a dinner and grabbing her tools.
A large backpack containing her Magic Staff, some food, and bottled water. If it were possible, she would have loved to dismantle the wind chime from the convenience store and take it with her. That item would be a divine artifact at the mission location; the wind chime would ring whenever a Ghostly Monster approached her.
Unfortunately, it belonged to the convenience store, and she was just a lowly employee.
“Sigh, this place really is hard to find.”
It was called the eastern outskirts of the city, but in reality, it was the outskirts of the outskirts. There were no paved roads, and the roadsides were overgrown with weeds. Clearly, just a bit further out were fields and villages. This place seemed like somewhere no one wanted to come, jarringly out of place compared to its surroundings.
Zhao Mingyue stood on the dirt path, steadying her bicycle with one hand as she gazed into the distance. Within the thick night, the outline of a school appeared in her line of sight.
In terms of pure horror atmosphere, Dongcheng Thirteenth High School was far more terrifying than Sunshine Apartment.
Around Sunshine Apartment, at least there were people living nearby, a bit of human activity, and she had originally lived there. But here at Dongcheng Thirteenth High School, the nearest village was at least five kilometers away.
Because it wasn’t right by the main road, you couldn’t even see a single taxi here.
“Sister Yu, we’re here. Should we go in?”
After riding her bicycle for over forty minutes, Zhao Mingyue’s chest heaved slightly, and her forehead was covered in sweat.
“Let’s look at the mission first.”
“Okay.”
Leaving her bicycle in the weeds, Zhao Mingyue took the black phone from her pocket.
【You have accepted the Quest: Dongcheng Thirteenth High School】
【Quest Requirement: Arrive at Dongcheng Thirteenth High School before midnight and survive until dawn.】
【Dongcheng Thirteenth High School】
【Do you know? This place was once a privately founded orphanage, which at its peak housed one hundred and three children aged three to twelve.】
【Whether disabled, orphaned, or suffering from mental illness, if you were to tally the reasons these children came to the orphanage, there would be roughly twelve situations. The most common reason, however, was the death of both parents.】
【For the Old Dean, who still insisted on adopting orphans despite being over sixty, people seemed to have nothing but praise left for him. So people couldn’t understand why the Dean was so determined to transform the orphanage into a school.】
【Dead, all dead. That special class formed by the orphans.】
【Shh, don’t speak. Don’t make any sound. You must hide well. You absolutely must not let her find you. Otherwise, you will join us too.】
【Hehe, found our little darling. Why are you looking at me like that? Are you scared? Come here. Yes, come closer. I have something I want to say to you.】
【Back then, I hid better than you.】
The quest description for Dongcheng Thirteenth High School was very long. Compared to the single line introduction for Sunshine Apartment, this description was terrifyingly long.
Zhao Mingyue read it over several times without extracting any particularly useful information. All she knew for now was that Dongcheng Thirteenth High School was once an orphanage, later transformed into a school for some reason. The Old Dean was a good man, and then a class in this school formed by orphans was completely wiped out.
And this person, it seemed, had some grudge against these orphans, was somewhat mentally unstable, and now that they had power, they had come back for revenge.
“Do you understand it, Sister Yu?” Zhao Mingyue even purposely held Miss Rabbit up in front of the phone so Bai Yu could see more clearly.
“The Ghost inside has a problem,” Bai Yu only replied with that one sentence.
“A problem? Can you elaborate?”
“We’ll know once we go in.”
Regarding what the specific problem was, Bai Yu couldn’t quite put her finger on it at the moment. The only thing she could be certain of was that this Old Dean was definitely not a good person.
“Alright, let me check the sub-quests first.”
Zhao Mingyue swiped the screen; the mission details were below.
【Mission Details: The Headless Statue, The Aroma of Meat from the Midnight Canteen, Under the Bed, Front and Back Door, The Eyes in the Toilet Stall, The Red Dancing Shoes】
【Note: For ‘Under the Bed’ and ‘The Eyes in the Toilet Stall,’ only one needs to be completed.】
After reading all the information in the quest details, Zhao Mingyue couldn’t honestly say she wasn’t feeling a chill.
Her main mission was only one thing: to stay within the school and wait until dawn. The problem was, doing just that wouldn’t bring her many benefits. The real key to the quest lay in the “sub-quests” corresponding to these mission details.
Only by completing the sub-quests could she obtain extra rewards after the quest ended.
But these sub-quests were truly not easy to complete. Take, for example, 【The Aroma of Meat from the Midnight Canteen】.
The specifics of this quest were:
【Quest Requirement: After midnight, enter the cafeteria of Dongcheng Thirteenth High School.】
【Fragrant, so fragrant. Classmate, you must be hungry, right? With meat soup this fragrant, are you sure you don’t want a bowl? It’s the taste of love.】
There was a meat fragrance in the cafeteria at midnight. What kind of meat was it? What kind of damn Ghostly thing was cooking the meat? Zhao Mingyue didn’t dare to think too deeply about it.
She took a deep breath, then another. Zhao Mingyue had been a little scared, but after hugging the rabbit doll tightly with both hands, the fear in her heart was mostly dispelled. This feeling was very noticeable, a stark contrast.
However, the courage brought by Miss Rabbit wasn’t her own, but Bai Yu.
Yes, Bai Yu.
After hugging Miss Rabbit tightly, that inexplicable surge of immense courage came from Bai Yu. When the terrifying thoughts originally surfaced in her mind, she couldn’t help but subconsciously think: Bai Yu was right behind her, she had nothing to fear, her sister was there for everything.
This courage made Zhao Mingyue sigh with emotion.
It was less about courage and more about trust.
That young girl named Bai Sisi, she must have trusted her sister just like this, right?
Bai Yu, at that moment, was unaware of Zhao Mingyue’s thoughts. Just a moment ago, from her perspective, a change had appeared on the black phone.
She was very certain Zhao Mingyue couldn’t see this line of text.
【Quest: Weak Maiden】
【Your nickname is “Doctor”, and your methods of treating patients are often to sever their heads or pierce their throats and hearts.】
【Doctor, everyone has their own past and memories. Even the “Lunatics” you speak of have feelings. It’s just that the fragile and soft side of their hearts isn’t easily shown.】
【Tonight, your mission is to help Number 652 recover her memories.】
【Quest Reward: ???】
