A short while later, on the cafeteria's second floor.
"Hello. Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Fang Tian, a first-year freshman in the Information Technology Department."
Once the two of them had set their trays on the table, Fang Tian made a fresh round of introductions.
As a show of sincerity, he'd treated her to lunch.
Potato-braised beef, dry-fried green beans, clear-stewed radish, plus tomato-and-egg soup, all for a little over ten yuan; he himself had two meat dishes and one vegetable.
"Su Xiao."
The girl sized up Fang Tian with a cold eye, set down her tray, and laid her chopsticks aside. The two of them sat there glaring at each other across the table. She was riding a wave of anger right now, and the cause of that anger happened to involve Fang Tian —— before coming for lunch, she'd been lectured for over an hour in the academic advisor's office, all because the gatekeeper had told the advisor about her breaking the rules the night before, sneaking into Building C in the dead of night.
And so, on the very first day of school, she'd been slapped with the labels of "troublemaker" and "restless."
What galled her more was that Fang Tian, who'd run into Building C a step ahead of her, had escaped punishment entirely!
"Let me ask you — after you went into Building C last night, where did you hide?"
Watching Su Xiao's taut face, Fang Tian was suddenly struck by the illusion that he was undergoing an interrogation. Still, he could guess why she'd ask.
When he'd first seen her yesterday, she'd been on the third floor filming a video on the theme of Qingkong University's Seven Wonders — and Basement Level 3 of Building C happened to be one of those Seven Wonders.
"Honestly, I'm not too sure myself." Fang Tian was deliberately vague. "I ran a loop upstairs and then circled back around."
"Really?"
"Of course it's true."
Fang Tian's flat, certain tone still left Su Xiao half believing, half doubting.
She'd chased him relentlessly last night; the two had never opened up any distance between them. If he hadn't suddenly bolted into Building C, she was confident she'd have caught him within a minute. As for what she'd have done after that — naturally, let him have a good taste of a maiden's iron fist.
But after she charged into Building C, something strange happened.
Fang Tian, who by all rights had only just stepped through the door ahead of her, had vanished without a trace; even his footsteps had gone silent. That was why she didn't believe his answer.
In so quiet an environment, if Fang Tian had really charged straight up to the second floor as he claimed, she'd certainly have heard his footsteps clearly — and as it turned out, the old gatekeeper who later came into Building C on patrol with a flashlight did make footsteps.
Before she found Fang Tian, she'd half thought he'd fallen victim to the legend of Building C's third basement level.
"Think hard again — were you really running up, not down? And did you hear any strange sounds, or see any strange figures?"
"No. You were chasing me the whole time — what mind did I have to spare for any of that?"
Fang Tian put on a show of bewilderment. "Besides, I was just playing a little joke on you. Who'd have thought you'd grab a tripod and try to beat me with it?"
"So now it's my fault?"
Su Xiao was so angry she almost laughed. Was there really such a brazen, shameless person in this world!
But she studied Fang Tian a good while longer and, in the end, still couldn't find any flaw in his face.
Su Xiao sighed. Maybe, this time, she really had read too much into it?
"I'll take you at your word for now. But I'm warning you — don't go wandering around the school in the dead of night. Watch out you don't run into a ghost."
With that, not waiting for Fang Tian to reply, Su Xiao gracefully picked up her tray, turned, and went downstairs.
What a good girl.
Fang Tian watched Su Xiao's retreating back, lost in thought. After all those misunderstandings, she was still worried for his safety. Lying to Su Xiao had stirred, for the first time in ages, a pang of guilt in him — but the moment he recalled the scene he'd glimpsed at that classroom's back door, the guilt vanished.
He didn't know what would happen when that black mist drifted into a person's body, but he guessed nothing good.
Fang Tian drew back his gaze and looked at his favorite fried chicken drumstick. In this monster-ridden world, only a fried drumstick could give him any warmth.
......
A good meal eaten, it was time to launch into the afternoon's training.
Fang Tian read the heavens at noon: outside the window the sky was a vast, clear blue, the sun bright — the perfect time to play horror games.
In the realm of horror games, Fang Tian was an out-and-out rookie. Waiting until dark to play horror games would be a touch too terrifying.
Back from lunch, his roommate had finally woken. The instant Fang Tian pushed open the door, he was hit by the smell of chili filling the dorm — fire chicken ramen had an exceptionally far-reaching aroma. Seeing Fang Tian, his roommate set down his chopsticks and greeted him first.
"Hi, I'm Chu Lun, first-year in Information Technology."
"Fang Tian."
The young man at the computer wore his hair long, tied into a little braid at the back. At first glance he looked the type with a strong artistic streak who'd been through five-plus relationships.
But Fang Tian soon dropped his "five-plus relationships" theory, because he caught sight of the cartoon-girl print on the other's white short-sleeve, while the laptop screen showed a chibi beauty rolling around in front of a TV hugging a cushion — and add to that the half-eaten fire chicken ramen in Chu Lun's hands, and these details combined into a thoroughly classic shut-in otaku.
Between two otaku, Fang Tian felt, not many words were needed; a single glance was enough to understand each other.
He sat down at his own computer desk. The game he'd downloaded before leaving had finished. Looking at the horror icon on the screen, he drew a deep breath.
This was a classic of a game, extremely high in horror and gore, a landmark work even in the history of horror games.
So......
Fang Tian resolutely picked the 2D pixel-art horror mini-game beside it instead. These pixel-style games had horror elements too, but were mostly story-driven, without the staged scares of 3D horror games — for a green rookie, this level of horror was just right.
Even with games, you had to take it step by step. This wasn't cowardice; it was strategy.
He put on his headphones. The loading screen played a sweet, music-box melody. Fang Tian selected the option to begin. The screen went black, then cut to a forest, where the heroine seemed to be waking from sleep; not far off, a black cat watched her with eager eyes.
All right, let's get paddling.
Oh, wait, wrong word — let's get playing.
『You have started the game. Today's play time: 0 minutes 1 second.』
When Fang Tian moved his 2D character a single step, a semi-transparent timer appeared before his eyes. He tentatively stopped, and when the character stopped, the timer stopped counting too.
This system was pretty smart — it even had a real-time timer.
Fang Tian had no choice but to drop his plan of idling in the game while watching a show, and settled in to play in earnest.
The heroine in the game passed down a thorn-choked path and arrived before a Western-style mansion.