After a long and messy ordeal that left him covered in soot and grime, Qi Si finally managed to get all the ingredients... cooked.
He pulled a few greasy plates from the cupboard and began ladling a suspicious-looking paste from the pot onto them. He then arranged the plates neatly on the countertop.
Gazing at the rows of utterly unappetizing dishes, Qi Si felt an inexplicable twinge of guilt.
Considering Ms. Medina hadn't asked him to serve the meal, he simply left the kitchen in a complete mess, clasped his hands behind his back, and strode away.
Halfway out, he remembered something. He turned back, went to the door, took a towel from his backpack, and wrapped it around his hand. He then plucked three mushrooms growing in a corner and carefully bundled them in the towel.
With that done, he calmly strolled back to the concrete building, carrying the bundle of mushrooms as he retraced his steps.
...
In the school's ground-floor cafeteria, several rusty iron tables stood in neat rows. Their surfaces were a mottled mess of uneven color, with large brown patches that looked chillingly like caked-on bloodstains.
If it weren't for the dozens of plates set out on them, each accompanied by a bowl and chopsticks, one would hardly guess they were dining tables. Instead, they brought to mind factory machine lathes or, even more sinister, operating tables in some illicit laboratory.
The players were all gathered here, cramming the small space until it was overflowing.
Just five minutes earlier, everyone had received a system prompt—
[Please return to the ground-floor dining hall immediately for your meal.]
Not daring to delay, they had all halted their explorations and headed downstairs.
Jiang Junjue, his expression grim, descended with the flow of people.
The moment he'd encountered the singing skeletons, he had been certain his illustrious record was about to end in this godforsaken place. But to his surprise, the skeletons had merely watched him from a distance, and after finishing their song, they did nothing else.
What was that all about? Were they just putting on a show for him?
Jiang Junjue couldn't make heads or tails of it.
He leaned toward the theory that it was because they were still in the instance's first-day grace period. Not only would breaking school rules go unpunished, but even triggering a death trap wouldn't result in an immediate game over.
Of course, "not immediate" didn't mean "never." Having studied hundreds of instances, Jiang Junjue knew that the Weird Game kept a tally of every reckless, death-defying act, ready to exact its price tenfold once the grace period was over.
—unless one found a way to break the deadlock ahead of time, or someone else did something even more suicidally stupid.
In an unnoticed corner, a grimy Filid had also rushed back to the concrete building. His expression was foul as his eyes scanned the crowd of players.
He had wandered through the maple forest in a daze all afternoon, eventually forgetting what he was even searching for.
The system prompt had jolted him awake, and he had scrambled back, frantically retracing his own footprints.
The entire time, he never caught so much as a glimpse of the NPC named "47."
As he calmed down, scratching his itchy back, the realization finally dawned on Filid—he'd been played by that player in the white shirt!
He must have been possessed to have fallen for a stranger's lies so easily, plunging headfirst into the depths of that bizarre forest!
Filid gritted his teeth, his eyes darting through the crowd, searching for the trickster. But everyone's face blurred into one another, and now that they were all in school uniforms, the figure in the white shirt was nowhere to be seen...
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a slender figure—it was Qi Si, who had put his Human Skin Mask back on.
Filid had finally found the whereabouts of the NPC boy he'd been desperately searching for.
'Good, I still have a chance...'
He reassured himself and started to move toward the "boy," but the latter quickly ducked down, hiding behind a player who looked like he wasn't to be trifled with.
Elsewhere, Chen Lidong spotted Zhou Datong in the crowd. He quickly strode over and pulled him into a squat in a nearby corner. "Zhou, what's the situation on the second floor? Tell me everything that happened after you went up."
To the other players, the two seemed like old friends from the same hometown who had hit it off instantly, but they had no deeper connection. They hadn't made any special requests when the teams were formed, so they'd been assigned to different floors.
Zhou Datong had gone to the second floor, while Chen Lidong was sent to the third.
"The second floor is all classrooms," Zhou Datong recalled. "We went into every one we could open. Desks, lecterns, blackboards—all the usual stuff. It seemed pretty normal..." He suddenly smacked his forehead. "But there were two rooms sealed shut with concrete. We couldn't get through with our regular items, and since none of us have any special weapons, we had to leave them."
Chen Lidong nodded grimly, his mind made up. "Those two sealed rooms must be the key. You just wait, you'll see what your Brother Chen can do. We haven't even had a chance to properly test the 'White Blade' the boss gave us."
Zhou Datong gave a simple-minded grin. "The boss is really thoughtful, lending us the White Blade ahead of time."
"Of course! How else would he be the boss?" Chen Lidong knew the Sila Guild could monitor its members' every move inside an instance, so he laid the praise on thick. "We'll probably need weapons a lot in this place. The entire third floor where I was is just dorm rooms, and every single one has bloodstains. It looks like a lot of people died there—I suspect we'll be in for some chase sequences at night."
"Ch-chase sequences? Then what are we supposed to do?"
"What's there to be afraid of? Brother Chen's got your back!"
After exchanging a few more words of caution, they separated and melted back into the crowd.
Chen Lidong had only taken a few steps before he felt someone trailing him. The footsteps were incredibly light, almost imperceptible unless one listened closely.
Without changing his expression, he rested a hand on the White Blade at his hip and spun around. Qi Si had appeared out of nowhere, standing like a ghost just a few feet behind him.
Chen Lidong knew better than to openly antagonize an NPC. He quickly hid the blade behind his back and forced a friendly smile. "47, is there something I can help you with?"
Qi Si lowered his head, looking lost. "N-no, it's nothing."
"It's not good for kids to lie, you know." Chen Lidong adopted a patronizing tone, as if lecturing a child. "I was the one who let you out of solitary, and I even gave you something to eat. Is this how you repay me, with lies?"
Qi Si fell silent for a long moment, as if wrestling with a decision. Finally, he seemed to make up his mind and said through gritted teeth, "Mr. Chen, it's... on my way to the maple forest to pick mushrooms, I overheard Ms. Medina talking with a strange man. She was plotting with him... about how to kill you without you realizing it, and then bury your body in the forest to stop you from reporting what's happening at this school to the foundation..."
Chen Lidong's eyes narrowed.
He knew it. The "Philanthropist" identity, with its exemption from school rules and freedom to roam unchallenged, was far too advantageous. How could the Weird Game possibly be so generous?
So, this was the catch—
While he wasn't bound by the rules, he now faced the full hostility of the main NPCs. Once the grace period ended, he would likely become the primary target for every monster in the instance!
His unease and worry lasted only a moment before dissipating, replaced by a surge of fierce determination.
The Weird Game never presented an impossible scenario; crisis and opportunity always went hand in hand.
With his ample supply of items, he was perfectly positioned to seek greater rewards amid the danger. This could even be his chance to earn the Sila Guild's recognition...
At this thought, Chen Lidong's gaze toward Qi Si grew serious. "47, thank you for this information. I'll be on my guard. If you learn anything else, please, make sure you tell me immediately."
"I'm sure you want to change things here as much as I do, to save your classmates from this hell. As long as I make it out of here alive, I swear I will expose the dark secrets of Red Maple Boarding School to the foundation!"
He spoke with utter sincerity, fully embracing his role as the "Philanthropist."
Watching Chen Lidong weave this grand drama in his head, Qi Si put on a suitably moved expression and nodded earnestly.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
A set of footsteps approached, growing closer. They weren't loud, yet they cut through the clamor of the room with perfect clarity.
The players, who had been whispering amongst themselves, fell silent in unison and turned toward the sound. Ms. Medina stood in the doorway, dressed all in black. The wrinkled corners of her eyes drooped in a perpetual frown, and her cold, grey eyes swept over each player. "It is ten minutes past the dinner hour," she declared. "Why have you not begun eating? As this is the first day, I will overlook it. But from tomorrow onward, if you are late again, you can forget about eating ever again!"
The way she said "forget about eating ever again" sounded no different from "drop dead."
The players scrambled toward the tables, each finding an empty seat and picking up their bowl and chopsticks.
Staring at the unidentifiable, pasty slurry on the plates before them, they all froze, chopsticks hovering in mid-air.
Who would dare eat this stuff? Forgetting the taste for a moment, just the sight of it looked like it could kill a person several times over...
Qi Si also took a seat at one of the tables, staring thoughtfully at the results of his first culinary attempt.
He had picked a seat right next to Zhou Datong. He remembered that guy had plenty of snacks in his backpack...
Seeing that everyone was obediently seated, Ms. Medina nodded in satisfaction. "You all come from the outside world, so you understand how precious food is. Therefore, I expect you not to waste any. Every plate must be eaten clean."
At the same time, a notification appeared for all the players:
[Rules Updated]
[5. Students must arrive at the ground-floor dining hall on time for meals and must finish all food on their plates.]
Well, that settled it. It seemed there was no choice but to eat the stuff on their plates.
The faces of several players visibly contorted in dismay.
After two seconds of dead silence, everyone, their faces screwed up in constipated agony, reached for the plates of unidentifiable matter with their chopsticks.
Since the rules explicitly demanded they eat, the food probably wasn't lethal.
When your life was on the line, things like taste buds and appetite were irrelevant. To put it crudely, if it meant survival, they would have eaten a pile of shit if it were served to them.
Qi Si took a bite of the potato, tomato, and cabbage mixture, shoved it into his mouth without batting an eye, and swallowed.
It really didn't taste great, he thought, but in the Weird Game, you couldn't afford to be picky.
Qi Si had always believed in taking responsibility for his own messes. Under the watchful eyes of the others, he scooped up another clump of the mush and put it in his mouth.
The other players watched Qi Si's calm expression and felt an unexpected flicker of hope. The NPC ate it, and he seems fine, right?
Maybe the food just looked awful but wasn't actually that bad?
They tried to convince themselves of this as they braced themselves and, with the grim determination of martyrs, brought the mush to their lips.
The vegetables had the texture of rotting meat. They almost gagged.
But under Ms. Medina's hawkish glare, no one dared to spit it out.
The players could only pinch their noses, force the contents of their mouths down their throats, and go back for another bite.
At that moment, their resentment toward Ms. Medina climbed to a new peak. A single thought even began to form in their minds: *When this instance is over, I'm going to use the three-minute waiting period to stab that woman a few times.*
Finally, all the players finished their portions of dinner and left the tables, feeling as though their will to live had been completely extinguished.
Ms. Medina squinted at them, her eyes slanting. She pointed to a row of faucets on the west side of the cafeteria. "Wash your bowls and utensils and put them back where you found them. Then go to the washrooms and clean yourselves. After that, you may return to your dormitories to rest."
She turned and departed, leaving them with a final, dream-like whisper: "Get to bed early tonight. Rest well. And don't wander about..."
The players watched Ms. Medina's figure disappear through the doorway and collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
It was still early, so there was no rush to wash the dishes or themselves.
Zhou Datong rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a spicy sausage. He took a bite and swallowed, finally managing to suppress the wave of nausea the dinner had induced.
He glanced at Qi Si, who looked as if he were completely accustomed to such terrible food. A sudden wave of pity washed over him, and he pulled out another sausage, offering it to the boy.
Qi Si accepted it without the slightest hesitation, offering a smile in thanks.
Meanwhile, under Jiang Junjue's direction, the others began to pool the clues they'd discovered on their respective floors.
The ground floor had four key locations: the cafeteria, the washrooms, the office, and a records room. Ms. Medina was in the office, so no one had dared to search it. The records room was filled with textbooks and other documents—a massive amount of text that the players who found it hadn't yet had time to go through.
The second floor consisted mostly of classrooms, along with two inaccessible rooms. The third floor held the dormitories, which was presumably where the players would be sleeping.
The rooms on the fourth floor also appeared to be classrooms, but they felt different from those on the second floor, and their exact purpose was unclear.
In the course of their explorations, the players had managed to piece together more of the rules:
[1. Students must respect their teachers at all times. They must greet teachers upon seeing them and must knock before entering the office.]
[2. Students are not permitted to enter the dormitories during daylight hours without a teacher's permission.]
[3. Students must wear their school uniform on school grounds.]
[5. Students must arrive at the ground-floor dining hall on time for meals and must finish all food on their plates.]
Whether there were rules six, seven, or eight remained unknown, but for now, it was clear that rule number four was missing.
Jiang Junjue then turned his attention to Qi Si, who was still hiding behind Zhou Datong, his gaze landing on the cloth bundle in the boy's hands.
Before Jiang Junjue could even speak, Qi Si opened the bundle and poured several mushrooms of various sizes onto the table. "I only found the 'poisonous mushrooms,'" he said, looking a little sheepish. "We'll have to wait a bit longer for the rest."
With one of the items from the nursery rhyme now accounted for, the players grew even more certain that Qi Si was a key NPC, a living clue provided by the instance. Their attitudes toward him softened, a hint of friendliness replacing their earlier caution.
Filid sensed the shift in the atmosphere and grew increasingly dejected. His plan to steal the NPC's uniform was now almost certainly impossible...
He scratched at his neck, anxiety gnawing at him. What was he going to do tomorrow? He didn't want to break the rules. He didn't want to die...
No one here was going to care whether the unlucky schmuck without a uniform lived or died.
Jiang Junjue pulled a pair of gloves from his sack, put them on, and picked up one of the mushrooms, holding it up to examine it.
Zhang Yiyu stood beside him, her eyes also fixed on the mushroom.
The instant her gaze fell upon the mushroom, lines of text appeared on the system interface in the upper-left corner of her vision:
[Dear Miss Witch, congratulations on finding one of the ritual's ingredients: the "Poisonous Mushroom."]
[Identity Side Quest Triggered]
[Side Quest (Mandatory): Gather all the ingredients and complete the ritual.]
[Side Quest (Optional): Sacrifice the "bad children" to the evil god.]