Back in the classroom.
Su Ming lay flat on the ground, limbs spread out, staring blankly at the ceiling. Although each death increased his mental resilience by one point, the exhaustion was real and tangible.
His mental extremities were filled with fatigue.
The Hengan Middle School instance was very peculiar.
Whether it was ghosts or traps, touching them meant certain death.
The most crucial part was, it was damn eerie.
Every step could be the end, making it impossible to guard against.
Closing his eyes, his mind was filled with images of being tricked to death.
At that moment, a shadow gently enveloped him.
He opened his eyes.
It was the Ghost School Belle.
She stood beside him, slightly bent over, her eyes lowered as she looked at him.
While Su Ming was exploring Hengan Middle School, the Ghost School Belle was taking a shower.
Unfortunately, her black hair covered her completely, impenetrable.
Now, she had just finished bathing, her wet black hair cascading like a waterfall, droplets still dripping from the ends, landing beside Su Ming's face, cold yet carrying a faint fragrance.
Su Ming sniffed.
It was the scent of the shower gel he had bought.
The freshly bathed Ghost School Belle looked even more beautiful than before.
Her skin was as white and tender as the finest porcelain, yet beneath it, blackish-blue veins were visible, like cracks on a fragile object.
Her pure black eyes didn't bleed, they simply reflected Su Ming's image quietly.
She was smiling.
The smile was gentle, like a breeze, with a hint of closeness that was easy to overlook.
Su Ming just stared at the Ghost School Belle.
How could a ghost be this beautiful?
Beautiful enough to be breathtaking, beautiful enough to be terrifying, beautiful enough to make one stand in awe.
Then he thought of the Jumper Ghost.
They were both ghosts, why was there such a big difference?
At that moment, the Ghost School Belle squatted down.
She reached out her cold fingers, gently brushing aside the sweat-dampened strands of hair on Su Ming's forehead.
What was in those eyes?
Curiosity?
Exploration?
And a barely noticeable hint of... reverence?
Su Ming couldn't quite understand.
But at that moment, most of his fatigue vanished instantly.
With a dashing move, he got up, stylishly flicked the hair on his forehead, and turned to wave at the Ghost School Belle, "Wait for me, I'll be right back."
With that, he pushed open the classroom door with a snap.
Then, without hesitation, he walked out.
Space twisted and reassembled.
Soon, the hallway of Hengan Middle School reappeared before Su Ming's eyes.
Dim, cold.
The air was filled with the smell of mold and blood.
Su Ming had been down this hallway dozens of times.
Every corner was stained with his blood.
Every trap held his corpse.
But so what.
Charge.
Three steps forward, a slide, precisely dodging the shadow falling from the ceiling.
The shadow swept past his back with a foul wind, crashing into the opposite wall with a dull thud.
Slide followed by a roll, dodging the suddenly collapsing floor.
He stood up, back pressed against the wall, avoiding the sticky blood droplets occasionally dripping from the ceiling.
After walking seven or eight steps along the wall, Su Ming suddenly dropped to the ground, beginning to crawl forward.
On the wall ahead, pale, swollen ghost hands suddenly appeared.
These ghost hands silently emerged from the wall, fingers spread, grasping at nothing.
Crawling through the narrow space beneath the ghost hands, Su Ming crouched at the door of another classroom.
Inside the classroom, it was filled with indistinct black shadows, densely packed, silent.
On the podium, a hunched teacher faced away from the door, scraping the blackboard with long nails, producing a teeth-grating screech.
Suddenly, it paused.
Its neck twisted 180 degrees like a jointless snake, its ghastly white face facing the door.
The neck extended, and a terrifying head smashed the door open, peering into the hallway.
Su Ming's position was just blocked by the suddenly opened door.
He held his breath, squatting motionless behind the door.
The head hovered in mid-air, its eye sockets two dark holes.
It slowly turned left, then right, its neck stretching and twisting like a rubber band.
After a while, it seemed to find nothing, and slowly retracted.
The classroom door slammed shut, and the sound of chalk scraping the blackboard resumed.
All of this was something Su Ming had risked his life to figure out step by step.
In this instance, a single mistake meant death.
Only zero errors could lead to success.
Continue forward.
Stopping again at the back door of the next classroom.
Three seconds later, with a bang, a desk flew out, crashing hard into the hallway, splintered wood scattering.
Then came the sounds of frenzied shouting, fighting, and crashing from the classroom.
You could see the ghost students inside were fighting, and it was intense.
This stretch was extremely dangerous.
Desks, chairs, books, knives, and other objects would occasionally fly out.
If any hit Su Ming, he would die.
Just as he was about to pass this chaotic classroom, Su Ming suddenly stopped again, even quickly retreating two steps.
A few seconds later, two fighting ghosts crashed through the wall, tumbling into the hallway, and soon fell through the gap in the hallway railing.
Immediately, a wave of ghosts rushed out, all crowding at the gap to peer outside.
Su Ming held his breath.
This was an extremely high-risk section.
Instead of advancing while the ghost students were distracted, he slipped through the newly broken gap and hid under a desk.
Sure enough, heavy footsteps soon echoed in the hallway.
A massive figure, like a mountain of flesh, appeared in the hallway.
It wore a tight, stained suit, its head nearly touching the ceiling.
Its face was piled with layers of fat, and its small eyes glowed with a violent red light.
As soon as it appeared, it roared, "All~of~you~get~back~inside~"
The deafening roar echoed in the hallway.
The ghost students screamed in terror.
Some hurriedly scrambled back into the classroom, while others screamed and fled down the hallway.
According to Su Ming's judgment, it should be the Dean of Discipline of Hengan Middle School.
At this moment, the "Dean of Discipline" grew even angrier, stomping heavily as it chased after them.
Once the "Dean of Discipline's" footsteps faded, Su Ming returned to the hallway through the gap, then sprinted with all his might.
Sidestepping a ghost that suddenly emerged through the wall.
Sliding to avoid a noose that suddenly dropped from the ceiling.
Leaping over the blood that gushed from the ground as it cracked open.
When he was about ten meters from the staircase, he picked up a broken brick from the hallway and hurled it at the window of a nearby classroom.
Crash~shatter!
The glass shattered with a loud noise.
The ghost teacher's head in the last classroom shot out like a spring.
Su Ming pushed his speed to the limit, dashing beneath its extended neck.
The door to this classroom was open.
Without drawing the ghost teacher's attention, Su Ming couldn't pass.
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But he had to be quick.
Now was a race against time.
As the ghost teacher began to look around, Su Ming successfully reached the stairwell.
The stairwell was even darker than the hallway, the steps covered in slippery moss and suspicious dark red stains.
Here, Su Ming had only reached three times, lacking experience.
Barely half a flight down, dragging footsteps suddenly echoed from the corner.
It was a ghost student in a tattered school uniform, head lowered, body unnaturally twisted, wobbling up the stairs.
The moment Su Ming saw it, it also raised its head.
A face mostly rotted, maggots wriggling.
It let out a hoarse howl, lunging at Su Ming!
Too fast!
Su Ming only had time to lean back, as the decayed hand reached for his face.
Everything went black.
Cold, familiar darkness swallowed everything.
[Game Over]
Consciousness returned.
Su Ming was back in the classroom with the Ghost School Belle.
He could never get past the stairwell.
With the ghost teacher watching from behind and the ghost student coming up ahead, he was trapped with no way out.
Glancing at the Ghost School Belle, he sprang up from the ground like a carp.
Dusting off his clothes, he wagged his finger at the Ghost School Belle, "Wait, I'll be right back."
The Ghost School Belle took a step back.
That look.
Once, when she had pushed Su Ming to the brink, he had that look.
Fatigue mixed with madness, violence rolling beneath the surface with obsession.
Looking closely, tiny cracks seemed to spread in the depths of Su Ming's pupils, like glass beads scorched and cracked.
His eyes were bloodshot, red enough to scare ghosts.
Leaving those words behind, he flung open the classroom door and dashed out again.
He refused to believe it.
He could revive endlessly.
How could mere Hengan Middle School stop his desire to reach the top?