(2)
Yuying University
Chapter 480: Library North Area
Whether it was because the third school year was about to begin, even though it was only the afternoon, the sky had already become extremely dim. The gloomy sky pressed down from above, appearing quite ominous.
Wen Jianyan raised his head and looked at the building in front of him.
Like all the other buildings in Yuying Comprehensive University, the library walls were also a dull gray.
The windows were narrow and the insides were pitch-black, looking very oppressive. The main entrance was a glass door, similar to the one at the administration building, but it wasn’t tightly shut. Instead, it was wide open, as if waiting for them to enter.
—Orange Candy’s suggestion was indeed very reasonable.
As a building that only opened in the second school year, the library’s danger and importance would not be low.
Moreover, there was the “hallucination” Wen Jianyan had seen when passing by the library near the end of the last school year…
Although he no longer remembered the specific details, he could never forget that terrifying, bone-chilling feeling.
Because of this, the possibility that one of the four doors in the warehouse led to the library was very high.
Since they could no longer directly enter the principal’s office from the vice-principal’s office in the mirror world, entering the warehouse through another path and then finding the principal’s office in reverse had become their best option.
“Let’s go?” Orange Candy tilted her head and looked over.
“…Yeah.”
Wen Jianyan retracted his gaze, took a deep breath, and nodded.
The group walked forward.
The library doors were open, and a cold, gloomy aura slowly drifted out. However, Wen Jianyan did not smell the scent of old paper that should have been in a library. Instead, it was that familiar sweet and metallic smell.
Inside the library door was a rusty gate covered in dust.
As someone who had been here once before, Orange Candy went forward first, took out her student ID from her pocket, and gently swiped it on the gate.
The gate began to rotate.
Orange Candy smoothly walked in.
She turned her head to look at the others. “Hurry up.”
Wen Jianyan followed her example, also swiping his student ID. With a soft “beep,” he pushed the gate open and followed her inside.
The entire group quickly entered the library.
Wen Jianyan stood behind the gate, raising his eyes to survey the surroundings.
Perhaps because the venue was enclosed, the sky outside was already dark enough, but the inside of the library was like the dead of night.
It was old and dim. The lights on the ceiling were covered with a thick layer of dust, emitting a buzzing electrical sound. The weak light could only illuminate a small area beneath the bulbs, while the areas far from the light were pitch-black, with only some undulating shadows barely visible.
The venue was dead silent; you could almost hear your own breathing.
“…”
Wen Jianyan turned on his flashlight and shone it on the wall.
A metal map was nailed to the wall, covered in rust spots. The original text was almost illegible, and only some blurry patterns could be faintly seen.
“There are four districts in total: East, South, West, and North,” Orange Candy said as she sauntered over to stand beside him. She pointed to the bottom right corner of the map.
“Look, we’re in the South District now.”
Unlike the other buildings in Yuying Comprehensive University, the library actually had only one floor.
However, its total area was very large.
“Which district is the librarian’s office in?” Wen Jianyan asked.
He remembered Orange Candy had said that the two library borrowing slips she had were snatched from the librarian’s office.
“None of them,” Orange Candy said, tilting her head.
“Strictly speaking, it’s in the middle of the four districts.”
Wen Jianyan looked where she described.
Sure enough, in the middle of the East, South, West, and North districts, there was a sizable blank area.
Su Cheng came forward from behind and explained, “Each district in the library has its own reading area, but there aren’t many seats. So, in the very center of the four districts, there’s a large area of individual tables and chairs, which serves as a study hall. The librarian’s office is located there.”
Wen Jianyan glanced at him, seeming to have thought of something. “Speaking of which, I remember you, Yun Bilan, and Tian Ye entered a library scene during the film appreciation class?”
In the second session of the film appreciation class, Wen Jianyan, Wei Cheng, and Orange Candy had switched to A Day in the Life of Wang Ni, while Su Cheng, Yun Bilan, and Tian Ye had remained in Brave Richard.
And the first scene of that movie was in the library.
“Yes,” Su Cheng nodded.
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, a thoughtful expression on his face.
After he and Orange Candy entered the movie A Day in the Life of Wang Ni, they had met another team of anchors.
The leader of that team, Suo Suo, had told them that the last time he entered this movie, the first scene was not the dormitory building, but the library.
He turned his head to look at Su Cheng and said, “Tell me again what you guys experienced in the library before. Don’t leave out any details.”
Su Cheng paused, nodded, and began to recount from the beginning.
Just as he was talking about Richard throwing a tantrum in the library and the scar-faced anchor finding them, Wen Jianyan suddenly interrupted him.
“Wait, do you remember which district Richard was in at that time?”
Su Cheng thought for a moment and said, “I think… the North District?”
Orange Candy blinked. “Huh? Wait a minute, didn’t that other guy also say—”
“Yes.”
Wen Jianyan nodded and slowly recited the contents from his memory.
“He said, ‘The library is very large, and we couldn’t find the main character, so we had to search table by table. But before we could find him, a girl in the North District suddenly put down her book and quickly ran out of the library.'”
This was exactly what Suo Suo had told them, not a single word was different.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[Whoa!!]
[Damn, it’s all connected now.]
[So Wang Ni and Richard both went to the North District of the library to find a book on the day they died, right? What could it be?]
[I don’t know, but I bet it’s related to the secret of this instance.]
“Actually, I was also planning to check out the North District before,” Orange Candy said, blinking. “But then I saw the librarian’s office… and forgot.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
Right, that was very Orange Candy.
“Let’s go,” Wen Jianyan made a swift decision. “We’ll go check out the North District.”
Although their purpose for coming in was to find the door, based on the currently known information, it was highly likely that the North District of the library hid a very important truth.
The others nodded, having no objections.
After confirming their next course of action, the group began to move deeper into the library.
The South District was vast. Rows of bookshelves extended from the center to both sides, arranged neatly in the darkness. Except for a single narrow line of overhead lights that were on, all other areas were pitch-black, looking extremely unsettling.
Along the long tables that were supposed to be for self-study, every seat was empty, without a single soul in sight.
Although there was no obvious danger, looking at it for a long time made one’s heart race.
Wen Jianyan averted his gaze and quietly quickened his pace.
Soon, the number of single-row lights began to increase. The bookshelves disappeared, replaced by an open area for self-study. Empty tables and chairs were neatly arranged. Under the pale light, large, incomplete characters could be seen pasted on the wall.
[NO LOUD NOISES]
This should be the central area Orange Candy had mentioned earlier.
“Over there,” Orange Candy’s voice was deliberately lowered, “is the librarian’s office.”
Wen Jianyan looked in the direction Orange Candy was pointing.
To one side of the reading room was an empty, circular front desk, presumably where the teacher supervising students’ self-study would sit. Behind the front desk was a small office. The office door was tightly closed, and there were no lights on inside; it was pitch-black.
“So, does the librarian actually exist?” Wen Jianyan asked in the same low voice.
“Can’t see it,” Orange Candy shrugged, “but it exists.”
She thought for a moment and added, “Hmm, a bit like the security guard from last school year?”
With her explanation, Wen Jianyan immediately understood.
Before they advanced to the second school year, the security guard had no physical form and could not be caught by the naked eye. Even after advancing to the second school year, the guard’s form was semi-corporeal; only a blurry silhouette could be seen in the dark, and it would disappear once light shone on it. It only truly existed in the mirror world.
“Is the terror level similar to the security guard’s?”
Wen Jianyan was a little worried.
Orange Candy pouted and answered reluctantly, “Hmm… about the same.”
After receiving a positive reply, Wen Jianyan’s heart sank slightly.
As the rule-enforcer of an entire area, the administration building’s security guard was terrifying to an outrageous degree. A direct confrontation meant almost no chance of survival. The only advantage they had was that its movement speed wasn’t very fast.
If the librarian’s terror level was similar to the security guard’s, then they would have to be extremely cautious in their next actions.
“However,” Orange Candy tilted her head and added, “what’s different from the security guard is that the conditions for this librarian to appear… are quite vague?”
Wen Jianyan: “What do you mean?”
“It means that when we explored the library last time, we basically didn’t feel its presence,” Orange Candy thought for a moment and said. “Of course, breaking into the office almost got us killed, but after we escaped from the office, we weren’t pursued… Anyway, the rules are very different from the security guard’s.”
“…I understand.”
Wen Jianyan nodded thoughtfully.
If it was really as Orange Candy described, then although the librarian’s terror level was similar to the security guard’s, its threat was much smaller. This was somewhat of a comfort to them.
He took out the pair of dead man’s eyeballs from his pocket and held them before his eyes.
Soon, Wen Jianyan lowered his hand.
Orange Candy: “See anything?”
Wen Jianyan shook his head: “Nothing at all.”
In the vision of the dead man’s eyeballs, the reading room and the librarian’s office were merely covered in a reddish filter; no hints appeared.
“Let’s go, we’re going to the North District.”
The group passed through the empty tables and chairs in the reading room and headed towards the North District.
“!!!”
Before he had taken more than a few steps, Wen Jianyan suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.
His action startled everyone around him. “What’s wrong?”
Wen Jianyan stared straight ahead, subconsciously swallowing. His voice trembled slightly.
“Hey, is that…”
The tables and chairs in front of them… were not completely empty.
Several dark figures were scattered at the tables. Some faced them, some had their backs to them, but the one thing they had in common was that all these figures were completely motionless, not making a single sound. They sat there stiffly like silhouettes, a sight that made one’s hair stand on end at first glance.
“Oh, these.”
Orange Candy glanced nonchalantly in the direction Wen Jianyan was staring, then said with a grin, “Don’t worry, they don’t bite.”
The others’ reactions were also calm, as if they didn’t care about these shadows at all, which made Wen Jianyan seem like he was overreacting.
Wen Jianyan blinked and suddenly realized.
“Wait, these… were they here last time you came?”
“Yeah,” Orange Candy shrugged. “But don’t worry, they’re not dangerous. They won’t suddenly attack people.”
“However,”
Wei Cheng, at the side, frowned, seeming to have noticed something.
After slowly scanning the area, he said, “The number doesn’t seem to be this high last time.”
When they came last time, there were indeed such motionless, eerie figures sitting in the reading room, but there were only about a dozen. This time, the number of these figures had doubled, with a rough count of nearly twenty to thirty.
These extra figures seemed to have appeared out of thin air, without any warning.
“Looks like quite a few people came in after us.”
Orange Candy raised an eyebrow.
Wen Jianyan blinked. “So, these people are…?”
Orange Candy: “Yes, you’re thinking correctly.”
She shook her head with a grin. “They are all anchors who failed the challenge.”
Wen Jianyan: “How did they die?”
Orange Candy pouted. “Don’t know.”
Su Cheng, at the side, added, “We didn’t stay long last time we came. We didn’t have time to explore the library. After forcing our way into the librarian’s office, we left immediately to avoid further complications.”
They hadn’t stayed long in the library last time, so naturally, they didn’t have the chance to figure out how the other anchors died.
After a slow scan of the area, Wen Jianyan’s gaze suddenly froze, as if he had seen something.
“You guys wait here for me.”
He dropped that sentence and then walked forward with hurried steps.
The figures remained motionless.
They just sat quietly at the tables, like some kind of inanimate, dead objects.
Wen Jianyan’s approach did not seem to cause any change in the current situation. The entire reading room remained deathly silent, but it was precisely because of this excessive calmness that it felt particularly unsettling.
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan stopped abruptly.
He raised his head, his expression grave.
Seeing Wen Jianyan’s unusual expression, the others’ gazes also sharpened, and their nerves subconsciously tensed up.
Generally speaking, clues that Wen Jianyan noticed would not be anything ordinary.
So… what did he discover?
“Um…”
Wen Jianyan dragged out his voice slightly.
“What is it?” Su Cheng frowned.
The young man looked over hesitantly and asked in a low voice, “So… you’re sure they definitely won’t suddenly jump up, right?”
Everyone: “…”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…]
[Ahhhh!]
[Bro, can you be any more embarrassing?]
“About that,” Orange Candy narrowed her eyes and suddenly smiled. “I can’t guarantee that.”
Wen Jianyan: “?!”
“After all, we didn’t get that close to them last time,” Orange Candy’s smile widened, her eyes flashing with mischievous light. “Who knows what will happen when you get close? They might suddenly come alive as a vengeful ghost, you know.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
His face turned pale.
He turned his head slightly, looking at the figure only a few steps away from him at the table. His eyes flickered, and his expression was conflicted, as if he were being pulled in opposite directions by two different forces.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[Hahahaha, I’m dying of laughter.]
[Hahahaha, Sister Candy, stop scaring the kid. If you scare him anymore, he won’t dare to move forward.]
[Ahhh, anchor, you really can be more shameless, can’t you? If word gets out about how you’re acting, who would believe you’re actually a top ten Nightmare anchor!]
Finally, Wei Cheng couldn’t watch anymore.
“Don’t worry. As long as your actions aren’t too excessive, there shouldn’t be too much risk for now.”
As a medium who could sense mortal danger, he had a lot of say in this situation.
Hearing Su Cheng’s words, Wen Jianyan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank God, I feel much more relieved now.”
Orange Candy, at the side, snorted coldly, as if very dissatisfied that Wei Cheng had disrupted her plan, and kicked him petulantly.
Wei Cheng’s brow twitched uncontrollably.
Soon, Wen Jianyan stopped in front of one of the tables.
He mustered his courage and cautiously leaned closer.
The figure sat at the table, its back ramrod straight, as if propped up by some invisible force. But its head was bowed low, its neck bent at an almost right-angle arc.
A cold, gloomy aura of a corpse emanated from it. Even just standing nearby was enough to make one’s hair stand on end and feel very uneasy.
Wen Jianyan’s heart pounded wildly.
He took a deep breath, mentally prepared himself, and then lowered his head to look down in the direction of the corpse’s line of sight.
In front of the figure, there was an open book.
The corners of the yellowed pages were slightly curled, and they were covered with densely packed, tiny characters. But on closer inspection, they were all unknown, garbled characters, like a book from heaven.
Wen Jianyan didn’t dare to touch the book.
He retracted his gaze, placed one hand on the table, and then slowly leaned to the side, tilting his head to look at the person’s lowered face—
The moment he saw the person’s face clearly, he abruptly took a step back and straightened up.
“What is it?”
Noticing Wen Jianyan’s abrupt movement, Orange Candy asked.
“I…” Wen Jianyan composed himself and said, “…I remember this face.”
What?
The others were all stunned.
Wen Jianyan lowered his head, looking at the figure sitting stiffly at the table, his eyes flickering slightly.
From a distance, he had felt that this person’s figure was exceptionally familiar. It wasn’t until he saw the face with his own eyes that his guess was truly confirmed.
—The anchor who had been attacked by the club members during the outdoor practical class and had nearly died in the grave soil.
“You know him?” Su Cheng was a little puzzled. “Who is it?”
“You should all remember that I acted alone for a while at the graveyard, right?” Wen Jianyan thought for a moment and said, “Well… to put it simply, he did me a small favor back then.”
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…Does this ‘small favor’ refer to you using his ‘corpse’ to push away the soil, then climbing into his bag to have him carry you back to the bus?]
[Does he even know about this ‘favor’ you had him do!! You shameless thing!]
“If it’s him…” Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, sweeping his gaze over the stiff “corpse,” and said slowly, “then he shouldn’t be dead yet.”
This anchor’s talent was to feign death.
Like a possum.
He could halt an ongoing attack by entering a death-like state when facing a fatal blow, thereby waiting for a chance to survive.
“Not dead?” Orange Candy tilted her head, a thoughtful look on her face. “Interesting.”
Yun Bilan seemed to have thought of something and suggested, “If we wake him up, won’t we be able to know in advance where the dangers in the library are hidden?”
Wen Jianyan: “Perhaps.”
To them, the library was an unfamiliar map.
They were completely ignorant of both its dangers and its hidden rules.
Only a day had passed since Orange Candy and the others were here last, yet the death toll had already doubled, showing its level of terror.
In this situation, having a “dead” person provide information might help them avoid many risks.
Wen Jianyan tentatively placed his hand on the “corpse’s” shoulder.
The shoulder under his palm was cold and stiff, no different from an ordinary corpse.
He waited with a pounding heart for two seconds—nothing happened.
So, Wen Jianyan began to try to move Arnold off the chair.
Based on his understanding of this anchor’s talent, as long as the attack was interrupted and he was out of the near-death state, the “death” state should automatically be released.
However, the corpse seemed to be welded to the surface of the chair. Even though Wen Jianyan was using all his strength by the end, he couldn’t move it even a millimeter.
Wen Jianyan let go, panting.
Arnold’s corpse sat straight at the table, its head bowed, neck bent at a grotesque angle, looking no different from a few minutes ago.
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan seemed to realize something.
He slowly lowered his eyes, his gaze falling on the open book in front of the corpse.
The twisted lines on the page were dense and looked very strange under the pale light.
He paused, then tentatively reached out his hand and pressed it on the page.
In an instant, a familiar cold sensation rose from the surface of the paper, making Wen Jianyan shiver.
But he didn’t let go.
His pale fingers gripping the edge of the book tightened slightly. The old, yellowed paper curled with his force, revealing a bit of the scarlet cover.
Wen Jianyan slowly, bit by bit, applied force, pulling the book outward.
“Bzz… bzzt.”
The lights overhead flickered slightly, emitting a harsh electrical sound.
The temperature around him began to drop slowly, like fine needles pricking his skin.
In his peripheral vision, Wen Jianyan saw that Arnold’s bowed head seemed to move slightly.
He had guessed right!
It was because of the book!
Suddenly, Wei Cheng, standing not far away, seemed to sense something. He snapped his head around and looked behind him—
Behind the semi-circular front desk was the librarian’s office.
The main door, which should have been tightly closed, had somehow been opened by a small crack. The crack was very narrow, and it was pitch-black inside, without a trace of light, like a glimpse from an abyss.
A bone-chilling aura emanated from it.
“Stop!”
Wei Cheng’s pupils shrank, and he shouted in a low voice.
“Don’t touch that book!”
Wen Jianyan was startled and subconsciously let go.
The moment he released his hand, the book was pulled by some invisible force and was instantly yanked back to its original position.
Arnold, who had shown signs of reviving, now lowered his head again, completely motionless.
Wei Cheng’s eyes were still locked on the office door.
His body was tense, he even forgot to breathe, staring unblinkingly in that direction.
As the book returned to its original position, the office door, which had been open a crack, slowly closed again.
Click.
A sound so faint it was almost inaudible was heard. The narrow, lightless crack disappeared, the lights overhead stopped flickering, and everything returned to calm.
Only then did Wei Cheng finally let out a long breath, his tense shoulders gradually relaxing.
Although Wen Jianyan couldn’t see anything from his angle, he guessed what had happened based on Wei Cheng’s reaction.
Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes. “The librarian? Is that it?”
Wei Cheng nodded.
“Yes…”
“This isn’t good,” Su Cheng’s brow furrowed tightly. “Although we broke into its office last time and were attacked, strictly speaking, we didn’t meet the conditions to activate it.”
But this time, the situation was completely different.
He looked at Wen Jianyan. “We still have to go to the North District. It’s best not to waste time and energy on him.”
Wen Jianyan knew that Su Cheng was right.
The original intention of saving this person was because the information he knew might be beneficial to them. But now, the risk of moving the book was far greater than the reward.
He glanced regretfully at Arnold’s “corpse”, turned around, and walked back to his companions.
After confirming there was no more movement from the librarian’s office, the group left the reading room and walked towards the North District of the library.
Soon, as the overhead lights decreased, the words [North District] appeared not far away.
The rusty iron sheet, the open door, and the pitch-black passage looked particularly ominous.
The group entered the North District.
The difference between here and the South District was not significant. Pitch-black bookshelves stretched into the distance, with a small number of tables and chairs between them.
Everything was cold, dark, and terrifying.
Under Su Cheng’s lead, the group deviated from the area illuminated by the overhead lights. Here, there were only rows of bookshelves. The books on the shelves were arranged neatly, shrouded in a darkness so thick it felt tangible.
Having learned his lesson from before, Wen Jianyan did not dare to touch the books on the shelves casually.
Of course, even if they really took out the books one by one to flip through, they probably wouldn’t find any useful information…
After all, in this instance, all the text in the books was unreadable gibberish. They couldn’t start from the content of the books at all.
He thought for a moment and once again took out the pair of dead man’s eyeballs.
As his SAN value slowly dropped, the reddish vision appeared again.
However, this time, just like last time… there was no change at all.
Wen Jianyan frowned and put away the eyeballs.
He thought for a moment, sidled up to Su Cheng, and asked in a low voice, “Do you still remember where Richard started looking from?”
Su Cheng nodded.
Although this place was very different from the scene in the movie, the basic layout was still the same.
After scanning the surroundings, he pointed in one direction and said, “Here.”
Wen Jianyan moved closer and meticulously inspected the large row of shelves in front of him from top to bottom, checking each layer without missing any clues.
Suddenly, his movement stopped.
In the bottom right corner, near the right side, among several thick, dust-covered books, there was an obvious gap.
A book was missing.
He slowly stepped back a few steps, went around to the side of the bookshelf, and seemed to start looking for something.
Soon, his gaze stopped on the upper part of the bookshelf’s side.
There, a small, rusty metal plate was nailed. The text on it had become blurry and incomplete, but the words could still be barely discerned.
[School History]
Wen Jianyan was stunned, and his heart suddenly felt as if it were floating.
He turned on his flashlight and looked again at the shelf where the book was missing.
Below, in an extremely inconspicuous place, was a small label, almost completely covered in dirt, that would be impossible to find without careful searching.
On it was a line of numbers:
[198■-199■]
As Wen Jianyan was staring at the line of numbers in a daze, suddenly, a cold and terrifying voice sounded in his ear.
“Student, please check out a book.”
Wha—?
Wen Jianyan was startled and subconsciously looked up.
As far as he could see, there was no other figure besides them.
“Bzz… bzzt…”
The lights overhead seemed to have gotten even dimmer.
“You have been in the library for over ten minutes. You must borrow a book.”
Although he didn’t see anyone, Wen Jianyan immediately realized who was speaking—
It was the librarian!
Under the pull of some invisible force, Wen Jianyan’s gaze was forced to rest on the bookshelf once more.
And at this moment, on the spines that were originally blurry and covered in dust, readable text actually appeared.
They were names.
He saw his own name.
—[Wen Jianyan]
The three characters were engraved vertically on the spine, as red as a wound, looking as if they would start bleeding in the next second.
The moment he saw his name, Wen Jianyan was horrified to find that his hand was rising uncontrollably, slowly reaching for the book with his name on it.
In his ear, that cold, emotionless voice sounded again, repeating in the exact same tone:
“Student, please check out a book.”
