Jiang Junjue fiddled with the mushroom for a long while but ultimately couldn't make heads or tails of it.
A few of the bolder players put on gloves and approached, poking and prodding it from all angles.
Still... nothing happened.
Qi Si stood by for a moment before picking up his bowl and utensils and walking over to the wash basins on the west side of the dining hall.
The faucets over the sinks were an ancient design, like something from the seventies or eighties.
The cast-iron spout was mottled with rust, and the cross-shaped handle was stiff and heavy. Qi Si had to use considerable effort just to turn it on.
Cold water gushed out, the bone-chilling cold stinging his fingertips. He had no idea how a tropical climate could produce water this frigid.
Qi Si glanced around but couldn't find any rags or soap, so he had to make do with just his hands.
He expected the bowl to be difficult to clean, but to his surprise, after just half a minute of rinsing, the inside was as sparkling as new.
Seeing the "NPC" Qi Si lead by example, the other players didn't dare to slack off. They each grabbed their dishes and gathered at the wash basins.
Qi Si mechanically returned to the dining table and placed his clean bowl and utensils back where they belonged.
About half a minute later, the other players, having finished washing their own dishes, returned to the table as well.
The sky outside the building had turned completely black. Peering out the entrance revealed a pitch-black darkness where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, without a single glimmer of light. No stars, no moon—it was as if a massive black curtain had been draped over the world.
Strangely, the light inside the concrete building remained unchanged. Though still dim, it was enough to make out the immediate surroundings, perfectly calibrated to a brightness that could fuel a player's terrifying imagination without actually hindering their movement.
Qi Si had initially assumed the light inside came from the natural light outside, but now it was clear that wasn't the case.
Jiang Junjue glanced at the sky outside the door. "Night has fallen," he announced. "Let's head to the bathroom to wash up, then go back to the dorms together. Who knows what dangers the night holds in this instance."
No one objected. The consensus was that nighttime was dangerous, especially since Ms. Medina had specifically told them to "get to bed early" before she left.
The group started toward the bathroom. Qi Si fell to the back of the line and, under the cover of the dim light, discreetly tucked the mushroom away, first into his hiking pack, then into his item inventory.
In the gloom, no one noticed his small movement.
Everyone's attention was focused on their surroundings, vigilantly scanning the walls and ceiling, afraid something might leap out in a classic horror movie jump scare.
The bathroom was located deep within the building, at the very end of the corridor. The distance didn't look far, yet it felt like they would never reach it.
In the silence, only the sound of the players' shuffling footsteps could be heard, a rhythm punctuated by a few faint, suspicious noises.
A low laugh echoed from the right, as faint as a ghostly whisper.
Qi Si shifted his gaze. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two water stains appear on the right-hand wall without warning, slowly bleeding into the shape of two human figures.
The figures drifted unsteadily across the wall, their heads twitching oddly from time to time, as if whispering to each other as they walked.
"I hear there are ghosts in the bathroom. They cling to the ceiling and pick people who are showering, turning the children they choose into dirt..."
The voice was a thin, sinister whisper, the tone of someone telling a ghost story. "Lots of people have seen the ghosts of the dead. Once they set their sights on you, you'll see them everywhere."
"That's right. They all disappeared. Everyone who went into the bathroom died..." another voice giggled in agreement. "You have to die when you get sick. We all died, every single one of us, buried in the dirt..."
Qi Si stopped in his tracks.
He noticed the other players had also frozen, their expressions stiff as their eyes followed the water stains on the wall.
It seemed this was an anomaly everyone could see, not something exclusive to him.
The two voices were still talking, but the topic had changed.
"47 was the first to die. We all thought he was taken away by the evil god."
"After all, he's the worst child among us, always messing with those strange things."
Qi Si, having been suddenly called out, was speechless.
While it was true he had a connection to a certain evil god, and he did sort of want to kill everyone, and he certainly wasn't a good person, did they have to cast him in such a universally despised role right from the start?
He hadn't even done anything yet. Thinking about doing something wasn't the same as actually doing it.
Qi Si coolly observed his surroundings.
The players exchanged uneasy glances, but none of them looked at him. It seemed the content they were hearing was different from what he was.
Qi Si stroked his chin and continued to listen to the two water stains converse.
Their voices grew fainter, almost a mumble, like words spoken in a dream.
"It's all his fault. He brought all the evil gods, the ghosts, the plague. He brought death..."
"Yeah, it's because he was always messing with those forbidden writings that we were punished, that we got sick..."
"If it weren't for him, nothing would have gone wrong. We would have all grown up and died properly at the school..."
The last few words were nearly inaudible as the water stains faded back into the color of the wall, and the surroundings returned to their initial silence.
A phantom wind blew intermittently. Though warm, it sent shivers down many of the players' spines.
After a long silence, one player finally spoke up. "Are we still going to the bathroom? It said 'everyone who went into the bathroom died.' The death flag is so obvious..."
The cold voice of the system promptly cut him off:
[Rules have been updated.]
[4. Students must maintain personal hygiene. You must wash up in the bathroom before entering the dormitory.]
Well, that settled it. They had to enter the bathroom now.
"What's there to be afraid of? Who doesn't die in this world? I could just as well say 'everyone who has breathed air has died'," Chen Lidong boomed, though it sounded less like he was comforting the others and more like he was psyching himself up.
Jiang Junjue strode to the front of the group and waved a hand with feigned nonchalance. "It's just an illusion meant to scare us. Our guild has studied this. A lot of instances with magical elements feature prophetic-like visions, but they don't always come true. I'm planning to check out the bathroom. If any of you are scared, you can go straight back to the dorms."
With a high-level player making the decision, the others stopped hesitating.
The group started moving again, continuing along the path to the bathroom.
A rule written in black and white on the system interface undoubtedly took precedence over a vague, ghostly vision.
Besides, even if everyone was going to die, there was an order to it. Each player felt they wouldn't be so unlucky as to die before anyone else.
They just had to figure out the rules and clear the instance before death came for them...
But what was the main quest, anyway?
After walking a little further, Jiang Junjue stopped in front of a room.
They had arrived at the bathroom.
While most of the facilities at Red Maple Boarding School were crude, the bathroom was surprisingly large. From the outside, they could see a dense cluster of showerheads hanging ominously overhead.
The bathroom had no door, just strips of filthy cloth hanging from the frame, tied back to iron rings on either side. Untied, they would conceal the scene within.
There seemed to be no division between men's and women's facilities, nor were there any stalls inside. If they wanted any privacy, the male and female players would have to take turns.
Among the twenty-nine people, there were only six female players.
Someone muttered, "Ladies first." Jiang Junjue shot the person a tired look and said, "Let's forget about that for the women. If something goes sideways in there, the other five won't be much help. We can't afford to lose anyone so early on." "Nine of us men will go in first. The rest will stand guard outside. That way, we can respond if anything happens."
He led the way into the bathroom.
Considering the floor would get filthy once more people had showered, Qi Si decided to go in as well.
The players weren't sure if an NPC counted as a person, but not everyone was willing to be the first to test the waters. It took another five minutes before seven more men reluctantly joined them.
It wasn't that they weren't afraid; they just figured that sticking with a player from a major guild like Jiang Junjue might offer some degree of safety.
Qi Si quickly claimed a showerhead closest to the door, his eyes half-closed as he surveyed the entire room.
Even though the curtain hadn't been drawn, the light in the bathroom was a shade dimmer than outside. Combined with the uneven walls, it created a greasy, grimy feeling.
The floor was dry, with no footprints, suggesting it had been a long time since anyone had washed here.
Qi Si scuffed the concrete floor with the sole of his shoe and felt a slightly gritty texture. It seemed to be covered in a thin layer of soil—not the damp earth of the maple forest, but something more like coarse dust.
The players all chose their showerheads, standing in a tight row.
The spouts were extremely close together. The warmth of nine men crowded in the space was thick, making any potential ghosts lurking in the shadows seem a little less terrifying.
Jiang Junjue was the first to strip off his clothes, revealing a body crisscrossed with scars, and turned on the water valve.
The sound of rushing water filled the room, and the cold spray gave off a palpable chill.
"There's no hot water here," Jiang Junjue concluded after fiddling with the valve for a moment.
One player laughed nonchalantly. "We'll just have to make do. It's not cold out. A cold shower won't kill us."
The players turned on their showers one by one. Qi Si also removed his uniform and shoes, hanging them to the side, and stepped barefoot onto the concrete floor under the cool stream of water.
Someone had drawn the curtain, sealing the vast space off from the outside world. The nine men inside now seemed rather small.
Qi Si scrubbed every part of his body under the cold water, his gaze fixed on the floor beneath his feet.
He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he felt the wastewater on the bathroom floor was pooling remarkably fast. And by a strange coincidence, it was all gathering right where the players stood, already a centimeter deep.
In the dim light, the floating skin cells and dust looked like some kind of disgusting grease. Even when he stood on his toes, it clung to his skin relentlessly, making Qi Si feel slightly nauseous.
The water from the showerhead grew even colder. He decided to turn it off, ending his wash abruptly.
With everyone watching, he couldn't very well take a towel out of his pack, so he shook his body like an animal, hoping to fling off the water droplets.
"What's on your back?" Jiang Junjue's voice cut through the noise, his half-lidded eyes fixed on a player next to him.
That player had been rubbing his back with his hands, occasionally bending his fingers to scratch at it, as if it were very itchy.
All nine men turned to look. The man said, slightly embarrassed, "It's dirt. I leaned against the wall and got some mud on me."
He turned around, his back now facing Qi Si.
Qi Si noticed a large, gray smudge on his back. Its outline resembled a giant mushroom.
Qi Si wasn't the only one who saw the abnormality. A short white man next to him blurted out, "A mushroom! The dirt on your back looks like a mushroom!"
"I'll wash it off," the player said, twisting his arms behind him to cover the gray mark with his palms. He began to scrub even more vigorously. "It'll come clean soon..."
"Good luck with that," Jiang Junjue said. He turned off his water, pulled a towel from a sack in his item inventory, dried himself off, and put on his clothes.
He walked past the player and headed for the entrance. Seeing Qi Si standing there trying to air-dry, he kindly offered him the towel.
Qi Si paused for two seconds before accepting the used towel. He bent down to dry his feet, put on his socks and shoes, and then found a clean spot to stand.
In just a few short minutes, the standing water had risen past the players' ankles. The floating grime had formed a ring around the parts of everyone's bodies submerged in the water.
The player with the gray stain on his back was still scrubbing, but it seemed he couldn't get it clean no matter how hard he tried.
The stain was even spreading with the flow of water. Murky, dirty water streamed down his back and into the pool at their feet, clearly the source of the grime in the water.
Even the slowest among them should have realized something was wrong by now.
The few players still showering quickly turned off their water, hastily threw on their clothes, and moved toward the entrance, leaving only that one player still futilely clawing at his back.
Hearing the chaotic footsteps of the others, the player's voice was filled with fear and pleading. "Wait for me, I'm almost done..."
"Stop washing," Jiang Junjue said. "Let's go. We're not waiting for you."
The player seemed not to hear, continuing to stand under the cold water, rubbing his back.
Jiang Junjue stared at him for a long moment, his expression growing grave. "When did you come in here?"
Qi Si counted. At some point, an extra person had appeared in the bathroom.
Nine people had entered, but now, including that player, there were ten.
The atmosphere froze. Seeing everyone staring at him as if he were a ghost, the player panicked. "I... I came in with you guys."
Jiang Junjue didn't speak, but another man beside him seemed to remember something and shouted, "Weren't you put in solitary confinement by Ms. Medina? How did you get back?"
"I... I came back after I was done..."
No one said a word.
Suddenly, the standing water on the floor began to churn, then solidified into several numb, expressionless human faces that stared intently at the player.
In a matter of seconds, all the faces became three-dimensional. They rose from the ground, flew onto the player's back, and began to ravenously devour the mushroom-shaped stain.
The player cried out in pain, throwing his head back in a piercing scream. He flailed his arms, looking around frantically.
He seemed unable to see the faces, unaware of what was happening. Acting on pure instinct, he reached out for Jiang Junjue as if grabbing a life raft. "Help me... help me!"
No one moved forward, not only for fear of being caught in the crossfire, but also because they had no idea how to save him.
Under everyone's cold gaze, the player's body shrank inch by inch. His skin cracked like parched earth, and handfuls of dirt spilled from the wounds.
The faces licked up the dirt with greed and obsession, swallowing every last bit.
In just two minutes, the player was devoured completely, the remains dissolving into the standing water as filthy mud.
At the same time, all the players heard a system notification.
[Main quest has been updated.]
[Main Quest: Kill Ms. Medina.]