The location of the confinement room was not mentioned in the school rules, but Yu Suheng had a clue.
“Lin Zhuanghong talked to the cafeteria lady at noon.” Yu Suheng recalled the scene from earlier, his eyes thoughtful. “He asked which rooms were on the fifth floor, and the answer he got was twelve.”
“Twelve?” Li Xin was a bit surprised. “The faculty dormitory is concentrated on the fifth floor. The school rules state there are nine faculty members. Even if the Dean isn’t included in that count, there are still two extra rooms.”
“One of them should be the confinement room; it’s hard to say about the other one.” Yu Suheng looked ahead, his brow furrowing slightly. “But this place doesn’t look like it has twelve rooms.”
“Seven,” Li Xin provided the exact number.
The two looked at each other, both thinking the same thing: A hidden door.
Li Xin smiled and looked away, his voice still devoid of any urgency: “Among the NPCs we’ve seen so far—the Rabbit Teacher, the Dean, the school doctor, the cafeteria lady you saw, the gardener at the classroom door… Hmm, I heard your little pathetic friend with the missing screw in his head encountered a janitor this morning?”
Yu Suheng had clearly checked on this, answering concisely: “Fake. He had a work ID.”
“I see…” Li Xin tapped his finger against the wall, walking slowly forward. His voice echoed in the empty corridor. “Then, including me and that black shadow from the first day, there have been six in total.”
Hearing him mention the shadow, Yu Suheng looked up at him: “You think it’s one of them too?”
Li Xin didn’t hold back, straightforwardly stating: “It definitely is.”
Yu Suheng glanced at him without asking for the reason.
Neither of them spoke again, leaving only the sound of rhythmic tapping in the hallway.
As they passed the stairwell, Yu Suheng paused, suddenly placing a hand on the railing and looking down.
Noticing his action, Li Xin instinctively moved closer: “What’s wrong?”
“They encountered something,” Yu Suheng said flatly.
Li Xin, who hadn’t heard anything, let out an “Oh” and asked casually: “What’s the situation?”
Yu Suheng didn’t answer immediately.
Those three people must have been somewhere on the third floor. He could hear chaotic noises, including a slow, lingering voice that didn’t sound like it belonged to a living person: “Good evening. My legs are failing me; could you trouble yourselves to take me to the first floor?”
One of them gathered the courage to ask: “Old man, who are you…”
“I’m the security guard here. Don’t dawdle; the sun is going down,” the slow voice continued, though Yu Suheng could detect a trace of greed mixed within it.
It was luring them.
At the stairwell on the third floor, the group didn’t immediately agree to the old man’s request. They were veteran players who had already completed three or four instances. After afternoon classes finished, Li Feng had been the first to realize something was wrong with his own state.
After gathering together, they had tested every “purification” item they had, which barely managed to alleviate their condition. Now, they didn’t dare to act rashly.
Lin Zhuanghong gritted his teeth: “He doesn’t have a work ID… He’s a dungeon NPC. This is very likely a clue the dungeon is giving us.”
“No one has been to the first floor yet, and the school rules don’t mention it either,” Liu Heng said with a grim expression. “Do you guys still have any items left?”
They didn’t have many items left, but if they couldn’t find a breakthrough, no one could guarantee they would be able to open their eyes tomorrow morning.
“We have to take a gamble. Those willing to follow me, come along. Those who aren’t, go find other clues.” Finally, Lin Zhuanghong made the decision. After speaking, he turned to the security guard: “I’ll take you there.”
The voices gradually faded away.
Yu Suheng withdrew his gaze and summarized unhurriedly: “The security guard has appeared, and they’re heading to the first floor. Do you want to go take a look?”
“I’d rather not,” Li Xin said with a strange tone. Following his gaze, Yu Suheng instinctively turned his head and saw a figure that had appeared from nowhere in the distance.
The person was wearing a white robe, like a funeral shroud. Their face was pale as a ghost, covered in overlapping wrinkles.
That person had no work ID.
Li Xin watched, frowning. He hadn’t noticed when this person appeared either.
Neither spoke, until the sensor light extinguished after a long silence, and the white shadow in the darkness vanished at the same time.
Li Xin instantly realized something was wrong. Feeling a chill behind him, he spun around, using the utility knife he had been hiding in his sleeve to block the scissors aimed at him.
With a clang, the utility knife shattered upon impact, but it bought Li Xin time. He retreated rapidly, standing beside Yu Suheng.
This person was clearly abnormal. Li Xin still held the status of a dungeon NPC; under no circumstances should they be attacking him randomly.
Unless one of his actions had triggered the NPC’s murderous intent.
While his thoughts raced, on the surface, he just shook his numb hand and said with feigned lingering fear: “Can you beat her, Great Master Yu?”
The “Great Master” rolled his eyes and stepped forward, annoyed: “When did you steal that utility knife?”
Li Xin coughed guiltily, pretending not to hear.
With an external enemy present, the two tacitly put their internal conflict aside.
However, the woman who had missed her first strike did not attack again. Her resentful gaze pierced through her hair, landing fixedly on Yu Suheng’s face. Angry yet incredulous, she asked: “You want to protect him?”
Li Xin blinked behind the “Great Master,” feeling a sense of déjà vu. He poked Yu Suheng in the waist and whispered: “Your lover?”
Yu Suheng remained expressionless: “…I’ll kill you faster than she will.”
Their unfazed behavior clearly irritated the woman. Her hoarse voice sounded as if it were soaked in venom, her teeth chattering as she spoke, bordering on madness: “He is a member of the devil! He is the Dean’s lapdog! Have you been bewitched by them too? How can you stand in front of him?!”
This statement made Li Xin narrow his eyes. He looked up and down at the madwoman, observing her thoughtfully for a moment, before suddenly saying: “You know Chen Dan?”
“Shut up! How dare you mention him?!”
This was like poking a sore spot; the scissors in the woman’s hand clattered, and the way she looked at Li Xin suggested she wanted to eat him alive.
After a long pause, as if realizing something, she turned to look at Yu Suheng, looking truly exasperated: “Don’t you understand?! A-Chen is a secret kept by this locked-down school! Without the Dean’s permission, no one has the right to access it!”
“He’s been in collusion with the Dean for a long time! Don’t you understand?!”
Yu Suheng didn’t comment on her words, only asking calmly: “Who are you?”
“I am…” the woman murmured. She seemed a bit confused, but still answered quickly: “I am… the janitor here.”
“What is your relationship with Chen Dan?”
“We are…” The woman covered her face with her hands, her voice filled with an indescribable confusion: “We are… siblings…”
“Siblings?” Li Xin rested a hand on Yu Suheng’s shoulder, his tone filled with undisguised doubt: “The information the school doctor gave me didn’t mention Chen Dan having a sister.”
“School doctor?” The woman was stunned. She stared at Li Xin in disbelief: “You mean, the information was given to you by the school doctor?”
“Yes,” Li Xin said with a smile. “It took a lot of effort to get that old fossil to talk, but since he hates the Dean, he was ultimately willing to… no, we were willing to…” He paused for a moment, looking straight into the woman’s eyes, and uttered two words: “Cooperate.”
A flicker of hesitation crossed the woman’s eyes, but she instinctively retorted: “That’s impossible. The doctor refused me before… He said…”
“He said the Dean is invincible,” Li Xin took over, suddenly walking toward the woman.
The scissors, flashing with cold light, were still pointed straight at his chest, but the man acted as if he didn’t see them. His eyes remained filled with calm amusement.
Yet, inexplicably, the woman detected danger. It was a sense of oppression she couldn’t name, coming from nowhere, merely screaming in her subconscious.
It was as if… she were being stared at by a viper lurking in the shadows.
In the end, heart palpitating, the woman instinctively stepped back half a step, raising the scissors higher and higher, almost shrieking fiercely: “Stop!”
Li Xin tilted his head as if he didn’t understand, but he stopped. Seeing the woman’s nervousness, he even stepped back thoughtfully and said in a helpless, half-joking tone: “Do I look like a bad guy?”
Yu Suheng: …How can you even ask that.
Seeing that Li Xin really had no intention of approaching, the woman let out a long breath. She didn’t fully believe Li Xin’s words, but this was the first time she had seen a teacher acting together with students.
She bit her lip and finally made up her mind: “How can you prove what you said?”
“Is data from a perfect case enough?” Li Xin observed the change in the janitor’s expression and continued: “Your brother is the only perfect case. We need to find the reason he survived to use as a justification for approaching the Dean.”
A cold light flashed in his eyes, but it quickly melted back into his usual smile: “Only by approaching can you kill.”
“But my brother has been gone for a long time,” the janitor frowned. “Ever since the perfect case was announced, he disappeared completely. I’ve been looking for his tracks, but I’ve found nothing.”
Regarding this question, Li Xin already had an answer: “I suspect he is in the Dean’s hands.”
“The Dean and the school doctor have disliked each other for a long time, but neither has made any big moves, which means they are both wary of each other. Since the doctor’s bargaining chip is the perfect data, then the perfect case subject himself is likely in the Dean’s possession.”
The janitor took a deep breath and fell silent.
Looking at the silent woman before him, Li Xin stepped forward. This time, the janitor did not retreat, allowing him to easily break through the safety distance she had set.
Li Xin sighed with pity, his lowered voice filled with soothing tones: “You still want to see your brother, don’t you? But as long as the Dean lives, you will never be able to.”
“He is still waiting for you…” Li Xin curled his lips, coaxing softly: “How long have you been looking here? Ten years, twenty years, or thirty years? You followed your own judgment to find allies, but what was the result? No progress.”
He looked at the woman’s trembling hands, his words hitting home like daggers: “Now another opportunity is placed before you. Are you going to let it pass again? If you miss this chance, how many thirty-year periods do you have left? And… how much longer can he wait for you?”
“Opportunities like this are rare. Can you afford to gamble?”
The janitor retreated sharply. She covered her face and wept; his gentle words were like nails, forcibly prying open her final line of defense.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t had this hunch over the years, but she was isolated and helpless here. She could only attempt to contact other victims, but without exception, they had all failed and turned into members of the shadows.
Li Xin was the only outsider who had nothing to do with the experiments; she couldn’t convince herself not to try.
Just as he said, this might be the only chance…
And Li Xin just watched her despair, without saying another word.
A long time later, she finally made up her mind. The hesitation in her eyes vanished, leaving only bone-deep hatred: “What do you want to know?”
Li Xin smiled with satisfaction. He reached out and used a hairclip to tuck the stray hair away from her face. Under her confused gaze, he stepped back, staring into her pale pupils, and said gently:
“Tell me the location of the confinement room. We suspect that’s where the secret to making the shadows collapse lies, and we also have a… friend inside.”
“The confinement room?” The janitor frowned, and finally shook her head: “I’m sorry, I can’t take you there. It doesn’t exist; only those permitted by the Dean can find it.”
“However, if you want to know about what’s inside the confinement room, I have some clues.” As she spoke, she took something out of her pocket and placed it in Li Xin’s hand.
It was a lump of pitch-black slime, looking like a glob of crude oil that wouldn’t dissipate.
“I am also a failed experiment. That day, my brother took me with him to run away,” the janitor said with disgust: “This is something that stained me when I left the confinement room. Its purpose is… memory wiping and data injection.”