After returning to their respective rooms, Qi Dengzui said drunkenly, “Guan Si, go check out the shop.”
Guan Si was the only one in this exam who had broken away from the rules, making him the best rule-tester.
Guan Si naturally understood this reasoning, but he still teased, “Brother Qi, aren’t you afraid something will happen to me?”
The young man before him blinked, a smile melting across his cold, clear features, with a soft tuft of hair drooping over his forehead. Qi Dengzui seemed to see that little white ball in his sea of consciousness, and he couldn’t help but laugh, “You’re my sub-personality. I trust your abilities.”
“Brother Qi.” Guan Si’s heart stirred, “I’ll complete the mission perfectly!”
Qi Dengzui was genuinely amused by his expression, raised an eyebrow, and waved his hand, saying, “Alright, go on. Don’t look so determined like you’re about to join the Party.”
Guan Si was stunned for a moment.
His Brother Qi could actually make jokes like this now.
A long time ago, Guan Si had wished that Qi Dengzui would acknowledge him, appreciate him, praise him. He had always followed in Qi Dengzui’s footsteps, longing for Qi Dengzui to turn around and look at him.
He wanted to say it so badly.
He wasn’t weak.
Really, he wasn’t weak at all. Even if he fell a little short, he could definitely make up for it.
Suppressing the thoughts in his heart, Guan Si smiled as usual and said, “Brother Qi, I’m off.”
“Yeah,” Qi Dengzui said. “Go early, come back early.”
His voice was very calm, as if Guan Si were just going out to buy something, completely lacking the tension of being in an exam.
Guan Si drifted toward the shop. Passing by Chu Yang’s room, he noticed that Chu Yang’s door was being scratched, but when he looked closely, he couldn’t see any ghost at all.
<There really is an invisible ghost!>
<Doesn’t Guan Si coming out mean trouble? Why isn’t the ghost attacking him?>
<Maybe this invisible ghost can’t see the examinees either?>
<What is this? Cross-dimensional?>
Guan Si took note of this and continued flying toward the shop.
He entered the shop, and sure enough, there was no obstruction. There was no one inside, but various items were displayed, all priced in terms of cultivation level. Among them were various tools to ward off vengeful ghosts, such as ghost-binding nets, defensive formations, and so on.
After a brief look around, Guan Si returned to the room and said, “The shop can be entered. There really are items, and no ghosts. It matches Rule Five. Could the rules actually be correct? Then how do we explain the announcement?”
Qi Dengzui said, “Did you see anything unusual on the way?”
Guan Si nodded, pointing at Chu Yang’s room, and said, “He seems to have been attacked by a vengeful ghost, but I didn’t see the ghost.”
Qi Dengzui said, “Just as I thought. There’s more than one ghost in this exam. At least one black-suited vengeful ghost that attacked me and Meng Shu, and one invisible ghost. If we’re unlucky, there might even be a third, a fourth, countless ghosts.”
<You can’t even see them, so how do you fight? This feels really hard.>
<Doesn’t that shop have items? You can go buy items to deal with the ghosts.>
Qi Dengzui said, “Let’s change our approach. Who do you think the liar is?”
Guan Si recalled the behavior of the other three since entering the instance and said, “I can’t guess for now. Meng Shu was the first to encounter a ghost, and she’s very timid. If she’s the liar in disguise, it’s indeed hard to tell.”
“Ji Mi is Meng Shu’s boyfriend. If the two of them can vouch for each other, their credibility is indeed a bit higher. That would make Chu Yang the most suspicious. But I actually think Chu Yang doesn’t seem like the liar. His behavior is too obvious and too attention-grabbing. If he were the liar, he’d stand out a bit too much.”
Qi Dengzui said, “We still don’t know what the liar’s lie is about or what its purpose is. In fact, the rules don’t even say the liar is human. The liar could be anything a ghost, the announcement writer, the rule publisher. the scope is huge. If the system is cunning enough, there’s a lot of room to manipulate in this exam, and plenty of word games to play.”
“Brother Qi, the ghost is here.”
Outside the door, the black-suited vengeful ghost began scratching at the door again.
Guan Si said softly, “Brother Qi, he, seems to have no footsteps. This form of his is somewhat familiar, like.”
“Soul spirit,” Qi Dengzui said. “He seems to be a soul spirit.”
Guan Si suddenly understood, “When he first came, he had footsteps, but this time he doesn’t.”
Qi Dengzui nodded, “So, when he first came to the doors of my room and Meng Shu’s, there were other ghosts with him. They were attacking us together.”
“And this time, it’s only him, one ghost.”
Qi Dengzui said, “When I entered the exam, the system told me that the Day-Night Campus exam had been accidentally destroyed, so I couldn’t take that exam. The system then swapped me to an exam similar to Day-Night Campus. Following that logic, the Haunted Inn is likely similar in mechanics to Day-Night Campus.”
Before one monthly exam, the system had once published the exam materials for “Day-Night Campus”:
[The Day-Night Campus strictly follows two sets of rules for day and night. During the day, students must absolutely obey their teachers’ commands. At night, students become the masters of the campus. However, one day, the time order of the Day-Night Campus suddenly fell into chaos.]
Could it be that the Haunted Inn exam venue also has a similar time-switching mechanism where day and night alternate and rules change?
<This exam venue seems to be opening for the first time. If it really works like the Day-Night Campus, that’d be pretty interesting. I remember that exam venue had about 100 examinees. During the day, it was complete chaos, teachers fighting students, students fighting students. It was hilarious.>
<The Day-Night Campus is still a bit different. Compared to rule-based horror exams, the Day-Night Campus feels more like a battle royale exam 100 people killing each other on campus, fighting to determine the winner.>
<Pretty brutal. Only about 7 out of 100 survived that venue in the end. Mainly because of the day-night cycle, before you could even figure out the rules during the day, night would come. It was really hard to survive.>
<That exam was quite exciting. I remember Xie Jun and Lian Zhuo were in that venue too, right? Xie Jun had the highest score in that exam.>
<Yeah, Xie Jun performed incredibly well there. Before he even left the exam venue, people on the academy forum had already created a dedicated thread and fan page for him, following him in real time. There were even people placing bets next door.>
Qi Dengzui said drunkenly, “After this time pause, once we exchange clues, we can go investigate the characteristics of the resentful ghosts and see which rules are useful.”
At the same time, another scream came from Meng Shu’s side.
The resentful ghost was back!
Meng Shu pressed desperately against the door, but the ghost’s attacks grew stronger and stronger. She channeled all her cultivation into repairing the barrier, and her cultivation instantly dropped from 100% to 0%, slowly recovering.
However, this time the repair barrier was completely useless. The door continued to break apart, wood chips flying everywhere.
Through the gap, Meng Shu saw a ghost completely different from the black-suited resentful ghost outside the door.
“Why is this happening.”
<Holy shit, is there a third ghost?>
<No way, when did this ghost show up?>
Meng Shu’s heart leaped to her throat. Her hands and feet began trembling involuntarily, and she started feeling dizzy.
“Save me, I don’t want to die.”
She murmured. The next second, the ghost broke through the door.
“Ah,”
A bloodcurdling scream echoed throughout the entire inn.
“Meng Shu’s in trouble!” Qi Dengzui said. “Let’s go check it out.”
The group drifted one by one to Meng Shu’s room, but they didn’t see anyone. No ghost, no person nothing at all, as if nothing had ever existed.
<? Why can’t they seem to see anything?>
<Right, but Meng Shu is right there. Damn, this is really unsettling.>
<I’m scared. Help.>
<There really might be a dimensional wall. Their reaction is genuinely terrifying.>
<Ugh, I’m going to throw up. Meng Shu’s death is too disgusting. I can’t take it. I’m logging off first.>
Qi Dengzui surveyed Meng Shu’s room when he suddenly heard a faint sound of footsteps.
He made a hand gesture, signaling: There’s a ghost.
Guan Si understood his meaning. Meng Shu had indeed met with trouble, but not in this place or rather, not in this dimension.
She was in another place, a place they couldn’t see.
“Xiao Shu!”
“Where are you? Xiao Shu?”
Ji Mi called out, but no one responded to him.
Chu Yang watched coldly and said, “See that? Ghosts kill easily. Rules can hardly restrain them. Recklessly breaking rules will only get you killed more horribly. You fools.”
Qi Dengzui frowned and said, “Shut up. Let’s assess the situation first.”
“Assess the situation?” Chu Yang said. “What, you want to go keep her company?”