Chapter 1

The moment the door closed, the probe light at the front of the catapult made a strange “zzzz” sound, then began to flicker erratically…

“Hey, hey… this thing is supposed to have infinite energy…” Feng Bujue casually muttered, then proceeded to use the Russian method of repair (hitting the malfunctioning object to restore normal operation) on the catapult, but… it didn’t work.

At the same time, in the intermittent light, the "white shadow" that had flashed by earlier appeared again.

“Uh…” A groan sounded again. The surrounding space also became dazed, distorted, and ferocious.

This scene was clearly a "scare scene" set up by the system. Under normal circumstances… the first player to enter the room would definitely be terrified.

But… Feng Bujue was not one to conform to normal circumstances.

“Is this a ‘reliving of a death scene’… or some kind of illusion-based mental attack…” Jue-ge looked calmly at the approaching white horror, and said in a calm tone, “Speaking of which… this guy is floating over a bit slowly… is it to create some kind of oppressive feeling…” He yawned with a bored expression and casually threw out a [Baseball Fist].

A dozen seconds later, the white shadow finally arrived in front of Jue-ge, and “it’s” image gradually became clear.

It was a semi-transparent female ghost wearing a long white dress. Her exposed face, neck, and hands… all had a certain degree of disfigurement, as if they had been gnawed by wild beasts. She had a pair of round, uncloseable white eyeballs… the pupil-less eyes emitted a cold light in the flickering darkness, making one's scalp tingle.

“Save me…” The female ghost came to Feng Bujue and uttered her first line besides the groan, “It’s so dark here… so painful…”

“That’s what I’m saying…” Feng Bujue shook his head and sighed softly, replying earnestly, “If you have cataracts, you should get treatment as soon as possible…”

“That child is a monster…” the female ghost continued, “A demon… a cursed abomination…”

“‘That child’… who are you referring to?” Feng Bujue keenly caught something and asked tentatively.

“No… I can’t say ‘it’s’ name…” At this moment, the female ghost’s tone revealed obvious fear, “No one can say ‘it’s’ name…”

Before she finished speaking, a strange rustling sound suddenly rang out, pouring into Feng Bujue’s ears.

Jue-ge knew that this symbolized that some kind of “foreign object” had invaded the space he was in…

“Where is it?” Feng Bujue immediately asked, “Is it already here?”

“Save me!” In the next second, the female ghost suddenly raised her voice, roared, and reached out her hands to grab Jue-ge’s neck.

“Hmm… it doesn’t hurt to be strangled like this…” Although Feng Bujue was being shaken back and forth by the other party, his face remained calm, and he murmured, “But there’s no need to shake my head back and forth, right…”

However, two seconds later, Jue-ge’s expression suddenly changed. Because… he glanced at the game menu and found that his survival value was dropping at a rate of “5% with each shake.”

“Holy crap!” Feng Bujue shouted immediately upon seeing this, and slapped the female ghost.

But when his palm passed through, the white shadow dissipated like smoke.

Clatter clatter…

Immediately afterward, the door behind him made a series of trembling sounds and, after a few seconds… was opened.

As soon as the light from outside the door shone in, the dazed, distorted space around Jue-ge disappeared, and the probe light on the catapult returned to normal.

“Are you okay?” Ruo Yu was the first to rush in from outside the door, and she almost blurted out the question.

“I’m fine…” Feng Bujue replied, turning to look at his teammates, “Did you guys hear anything outside just now?”

“No.” Xiao Tan, who was the second to enter the room, replied, “The door was only closed for five seconds…”

Ruo Yu added, “That’s right, I saw you trapped in the door and immediately came forward to push it open. It only took a few pushes to open it.”

“Oh…” Feng Bujue slightly raised his eyebrows and murmured, “I see…”

“What’s wrong?” Ruo Yu asked again, “Did you hear something inside the door?”

At this time, Xiao Ling, Buu, and Ou Bu also entered the room one after another. So, Jue-ge simply told them the whole story of his interaction with the white ghost.

After he finished speaking, Buu took the lead and said, “Teacher Jue… could ‘it’ that the female ghost mentioned… be the ‘me’ that the main quest wants us to find?”

“Oh? What makes you say that?” Feng Bujue replied.

In fact… Jue-ge didn’t need to ask this question at all, because he completely understood Buu’s logic. But he still asked, because he hoped that Buu could do the explaining as well, so he wouldn’t have to waste his breath.

“Well… that’s what I think…” Buu didn’t know this, and he replied very seriously, “The shadow in the opening CG that sang the nursery rhyme looked like a child, and the first line of the nursery rhyme is… ‘Mommy killed me.’” He paused for a moment. “I speculate… the female ghost you encountered, Teacher Jue, is likely the ‘mommy’ in the nursery rhyme, and the ‘me’ we are looking for is the child who sings the nursery rhyme. According to this hypothesis, the plot should be… ‘Mommy’ killed ‘me’, and ‘me’s wronged soul came back to kill ‘mommy’ and is torturing her ghost, so… ‘mommy’ is asking us to ‘save her’.”

“Very good.” Feng Bujue smiled and said after listening, “I have nothing to add.”

“Hehe… a small trick.” Buu was overjoyed by his praise, and his bright eyes narrowed into two slits.

“Let’s put the analysis of the plot on hold for now…” Xiao Ling interrupted their conversation again, because while they were talking, she had found another clue, “Everyone… come and take a look at this.”

At this moment, Xiao Ling was standing in front of the wall corresponding to the door, holding a flashlight (she had taken one out of her knapsack after entering the room) and said, “As you can see, this room is empty (this room doesn’t even have a table or oil lamp), and there are no other exits besides the door we’ve already opened.” She paused slightly for half a second, “While the team leader was recounting his ghost experience, I scanned the room from top to bottom and only found one relatively abnormal area…” As she said this, she pointed to the wall in front of her, “…Do you see the spots on the wall?”