Yuying University
Chapter 470: Countdown
In the sealed office, Zhao Ze stood alive not far away. The familiar, expressive face was coated in a dark red color by the light. It was clearly a very ordinary scene, but for some reason, it was inexplicably chilling to look at.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[!!!]
[What the?? Zhao Ze??]
[No way, no way, holy shit, then the one outside just now was…?]
Brother Hu’s face was deathly pale, his eyes fixed on Zhao Ze in the distance. The muscles on his body tensed and bulged as if facing a great enemy. “You…”
Before he could finish, Wen Jianyan suddenly raised a hand and pressed it on his arm.
Brother Hu froze and subconsciously turned to look at Wen Jianyan.
Under the ominous red light, the young man’s profile was pale. He calmly looked back at Zhao Ze in the distance, his expression giving nothing away.
Brother Hu jolted and swallowed the rest of his words.
“Yes,” Wen Jianyan looked at Zhao Ze and smiled lightly, “we can all finally act together.”
Seeing this, Brother Hu and A-Bao also forcibly suppressed the horror in their hearts and squeezed out a rather ugly smile.
Fortunately, under the previous crisis-filled circumstances, the others were all more or less injured, and their expressions weren’t relaxed either, so Brother Hu and A-Bao’s clumsy acting could still pass.
Beside them, Bai Qiangwei frowned at Wen Jianyan and asked, “After we separated in the hall, where did you all go? Did you find any information?”
Wen Jianyan: “We did a simple search of all three floors.”
“The first floor has club activity rooms, the second floor has student council offices, and the third floor has the principal’s and vice principal’s offices.”
Hearing Wen Jianyan’s last sentence, the others couldn’t help but be shocked, all straightening their backs.
Bai Qiangwei: “Wait a minute, are you serious? The principal’s and vice principal’s offices?”
“Yes.” Wen Jianyan nodded and sighed, “However, the information we got is limited to this. We didn’t enter any of the rooms… you know, the risk is too great.”
“So, after careful consideration, we decided to return to the first floor, preparing to decide what to do next after meeting up with the main group. But we didn’t expect that when we returned to the first floor, we found you were already gone.”
Every word in Wen Jianyan’s description was true, but he completely concealed the most important information, leaving only some trivial details.
“So, what about you?”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze swept around the office without a trace, finally landing on Zhao Ze. He asked, “What did you encounter? Why did you come here?”
“Hah,” Cheng Can turned his head and spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his expression gloomy. “Don’t even mention it.”
Then, he recounted what they had encountered after Wen Jianyan left.
According to his description, after Wen Jianyan’s group of three left the hall, it was very peaceful for a long time, and nothing happened.
However, just as their guard was gradually lowering, they suddenly noticed something was wrong.
The lights seemed to be getting dimmer.
At first, they thought it was an illusion, but as time went on, they could no longer ignore the changes in their surroundings.
The light in the hall became darker and darker, taking on a strange and ominous red color. And it was at this moment that they suddenly discovered…
The huge floor-to-ceiling mirror in the hall had disappeared at some point.
There was clearly no fourth person, nor did any abnormality occur, but that huge reference object had vanished without any warning, as if it had evaporated into thin air.
Just as they were panicking, the attack in the dark began.
“Attack?” Wen Jianyan pressed. “What kind of attack?”
“Not sure,” Cheng Can shook his head, his face not looking good. “It was too dark, we could barely see anything, but…”
Not knowing what he had recalled, a shudder passed over his face. He gritted his teeth, his voice seeming to squeeze through his teeth, “It was terrifying.”
It was an overwhelming and terrifying power that none of them could contend with. Fortunately, that terrifying presence moved slowly, so they were lucky enough to survive.
After entering the second floor, they faced a similar choice to Wen Jianyan’s group before.
Should they continue upwards or stay on the second floor.
“The third floor is too dangerous, we weren’t prepared to take the risk,” saying this, Cheng Can turned to look at Zhao Ze and said, “Zhao Ze’s prophecy item gave us a clue, so we finally chose to hide in this office.”
This plan was clearly a success.
After entering this office, they gained temporary safety, but they were also trapped inside, not knowing what to do next.
And just as they were caught in a dilemma, there was a knock on the office door.
“Anyway, that’s pretty much what happened,” Cheng Can said with a shrug.
Wen Jianyan listened carefully to the other’s account, his light-colored eyes hidden behind his glasses, showing no emotion.
In the [Integrity First] live room chat:
[Wait a minute, but this is strange. If Zhao Ze already died during the attack just now, how could he activate the so-called ‘prophecy item’? Only living people can activate items!]
[But don’t forget, other anchors can’t verify a prophecy item. For a ‘ghost’ mixed into the crowd, it’s the perfect excuse!]
“So, you don’t know you’re inside a mirror now?”
Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes and suddenly threw out a question.
“…What? A mirror?”
The people in front of him were stunned, showing very confused expressions, as if they didn’t understand what he had just said at all.
Wen Jianyan: “Yes, we passed through the mirror to get here and finally find you.”
His gaze landed on the people before him, lightly sweeping over their faces.
“What, you didn’t notice?”
The group shook their heads with grim expressions.
Clearly, they didn’t seem to know they were currently inside a mirror and had no clue how they got here.
“Before the light dimmed, did you not notice anything strange?” Wen Jianyan pressed. “Any situation is fine.”
“Ah,” Zhao Ze seemed to have suddenly thought of something and said, “It seems there was something…”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze landed on Zhao Ze, and he let out an impassive monosyllable: “Hm?”
“Before things got weird, my SAN value dropped,” Zhao Ze said.
As he said this, the others were all stunned and nodded one after another.
“Right.”
“It seems that’s really…”
“But I don’t know the reason,” Bai Qiangwei frowned slightly and said, “We didn’t encounter any attacks, nor did we see anything strange or terrifying, but our SAN values dropped quite a bit. Before we could find the reason, the surrounding light had already started to dim.”
Wen Jianyan nodded: “I see.”
Based on their previous accounts, he had more or less figured out what had happened in between.
Clearly, on the first floor, the group had been subjected to some kind of attack, and because of this, they were all pulled into the administrative building inside the mirror. The dividing line was the disappearance of the mirror itself.
Although they didn’t know the specific reason, as anchors, they were all well aware that they had fallen into danger.
Because of this, they inevitably began to panic.
Unprepared, they violated the first of the [Rules].
— In the corridors, please speak softly and walk slowly and carefully. Do not disturb the normal work of the staff in the office building.
And in the world inside the mirror, the “security guard” was extremely terrifying, and the judgment for rule violations had also become very strict as a result.
That’s why they were attacked and suffered casualties.
After being attacked, the group fled in a panic and entered the second floor.
They were clearly also wary of the horrors contained on the higher floors, so they hid in a second-floor office. Although they didn’t know the reason, they had accidentally used the rules of this administrative building to avoid the security guard’s attack, until they were found by Wen Jianyan.
“Then… what’s next?” A-Rui asked.
The rest of them looked at each other, unable to answer for a moment.
Zhao Ze suddenly turned to look at Wen Jianyan: “What are you thinking?”
His face was no different from memory, but under the dim red light, it inexplicably carried a bit of strangeness and treachery.
“What should we do next?”
Wen Jianyan turned his head and met his gaze.
This second passed in a flash.
“Sigh.” Wen Jianyan suddenly sighed and averted his gaze.
He spread his hands, showing a somewhat helpless expression: “In here, I don’t know much more than you do.”
“Then…” Bai Qiangwei frowned.
“Give me some time to think.”
Wen Jianyan blinked. “Besides, aren’t you guys injured too? Let’s rest for a bit. There are still two hours until eleven o’clock at night, right?”
The group exchanged glances, and having no other choice, they had to nod.
Wen Jianyan walked further into the office and chose a chair to sit down on, far from the others.
Brother Hu and A-Bao followed closely behind him.
They stood while Wen Jianyan sat. Both were tall and sturdy, like two solid walls, creating a small, semi-enclosed space.
Only after confirming that no one else could hear or see their expressions did the two finally cast aside their false composure from before.
Questions bombarded Wen Jianyan like a machine gun:
“Didn’t that Zhao Ze already die?!”
“He’s not dead? Then what’s the deal with the body outside?”
“Or is it that he really is dead, and this one in here is…?”
“Also… how did the mirror in the hall disappear, and how are we supposed to get out?”
“Right, right, there’s less than two hours left until eleven o’clock at night!”
Wen Jianyan’s head ached from their questions, and he quickly raised his hands: “One question at a time, don’t rush.”
Only then did Brother Hu and A-Bao quiet down, but judging from their flushed faces and eyes full of countless questions, their current silence was clearly the result of great restraint.
“First, regarding whether Zhao Ze is a living person.”
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, spread his hands, and said, “Unfortunately, I’m not sure either.”
Brother Hu and A-Bao: “…”
That answer wasn’t good enough!
The Zhao Ze outside the door was clearly a corpse. One could imagine the shock they felt in their hearts when they saw this living person inside the door.
A ghost mixed into the team.
This was fatal under any circumstances.
“Then, that eyeball item you used before, right? Didn’t you use it to find the mirror?” Brother Hu gestured animatedly, “Look into it one more time, maybe you’ll be able to tell who’s the ghost!”
Wen Jianyan sighed: “It’s not that simple.”
Indeed, these eyeballs could see the “truth.”
Before, outside the mirror, each use would cause a five-point drop in SAN value. It was also under its guidance that Wen Jianyan successfully found the mirror and entered the administrative building within the mirror image.
However, after entering the administrative building within the mirror, when he realized he was very likely about to trigger the security guard’s first rule, Wen Jianyan used the eyeballs again.
The good news was, the eyeballs didn’t fail.
Wen Jianyan did indeed [see] something.
But the problem was, the things he saw…
were no longer just the slightly distorted, red-filtered normal images from before.
Endless blood, horror, and darkness rushed towards him like a tangible hand. Countless blood-red faces seemed to float in the air, with strange, malicious smiles, looking down on him layer by layer. The ceiling was bottomless, shrouded in darkness, while the walls breathed and pulsed like living things.
In this chaotic, nightmarish scene, Wen Jianyan could only barely make out the corridor he was in.
Then, he saw it. Something dark and terrifying was approaching from a distance.
An unknown fear instantly seized his nerves.
—It was the “security guard.”
It had “heard” their voices and was coming from the first floor.
The moment he realized this, a sharp pain stabbed into his eyes without warning, exploding deep within his eye sockets.
In this unbearable, intense pain, Wen Jianyan was forced to stop “watching.”
And when he recovered from the pain, hallucinations and auditory illusions once again came at him like a tidal wave. Only then did he discover that after just that brief glimpse, his SAN value in the upper right corner was only 22.
In other words…
Using the eyeballs outside the mirror cost 5 SAN points per use.
But in the mirror, using it once cost a full 20 points!
This sent a chill down Wen Jianyan’s spine.
He now had only 22 SAN points left. If he used it one last time, his SAN value would drop to the limit.
2 points.
This was an absolutely unbearable number.
It would cause a person to lose their ability to act, to think, unable to struggle, unable to resist, unable to move, only able to let themselves slide despairingly into the abyss of chaos and death.
So, even if the eyeballs could identify whether Zhao Ze was a ghost or not, Wen Jianyan would not use them.
The price was too high; he couldn’t bear it.
However…
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, recalling the scene he had just seen through the vision of the dead man’s eyeballs, and subconsciously frowned.
Because the time was short and the light was dim, in just a few seconds, he had only caught a glimpse, unable to see the full scene at all, but… Wen Jianyan still found a hint of strange familiarity in those few seconds.
It was very similar to the feeling he had when he first saw the sky after leaving the cafeteria while disguised as a chef.
While Wen Jianyan was deep in thought, Brother Hu and A-Bao exchanged a glance and asked hesitantly, “Then… then what do we do?”
Wen Jianyan pulled back his thoughts and looked up: “Let’s take it one step at a time.”
Although it was dangerous to have something non-human mixed in the team… for now, they didn’t have any better options.
Wen Jianyan’s gaze passed over Brother Hu and A-Bao’s shoulders, looking in Zhao Ze’s direction.
The dim red light fell on Zhao Ze, making his profile exceptionally pale. Although he was no different from memory in terms of words, actions, or any other detail, it was precisely for this reason that it made one feel more uneasy.
He seemed to feel the gaze on him and turned his head slightly.
However, before Zhao Ze could look over, Wen Jianyan had already averted his gaze without a trace.
His averted gaze swept lightly over the wall behind Zhao Ze. Suddenly, he seemed to have discovered something, paused slightly, and his gaze shifted back, landing in the middle of that wall.
Wen Jianyan abruptly stood up.
His action was without warning, startling Brother Hu and A-Bao who were standing beside him: “Wh-what’s wrong?”
Wen Jianyan didn’t answer, but walked forward quickly and directly.
“?” Bai Qiangwei’s group noticed Wen Jianyan suddenly walking over and also cast curious glances.
Wen Jianyan got straight to the point.
He pointed to the center of the wall and asked, “When you came in, was it at this number?”
The others followed the direction of his finger.
In the center of the office wall hung a small, unremarkable-looking clock. The hands on the clock face were motionless, seeming to have been broken for a long time.
However…
The position where its hour and minute hands were stopped was exactly 10:45.
Fifteen minutes to eleven.
The group exchanged glances and shook their heads blankly: “This… we don’t know.”
The clock’s position was inconspicuous, the office was large, and since the clock was broken and the hands weren’t moving, most people wouldn’t have noticed the time on it.
“Is that so?”
However, Wen Jianyan tugged at the corner of his mouth and said, “At least when I came in, it wasn’t this number.”
“What?” Brother Hu and A-Bao were shocked and turned to look at Wen Jianyan.
Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes slightly: “I remember very clearly. When I came in, the time on the clock pointed to 10:40.”
“But, we’ve been in for more than five minutes, right?” Brother Hu scratched his head in confusion.
Wen Jianyan smiled: “Exactly.”
Zhao Ze: “Wait a minute, then what you mean is…”
“It means,” Wen Jianyan’s gaze paused on Zhao Ze for a moment, then continued, “the clock is broken, but the countdown is not.”
The entire office was silent, with only the young man’s voice echoing in the dark red space.
In the [Integrity First] live room chat:
[?!]
[Wait a minute… what the hell?]
Wen Jianyan: “This is a word game.”
“Before, on the first floor, the security guard said that the vice principal would give us an award at eleven o’clock at night. However, it didn’t tell us which eleven o’clock it was.”
He looked at the people in front of him and said slowly, “According to the flow of real time, we have more than an hour until eleven o’clock. But in fact… from the moment we entered this space, the countdown to the award ceremony had already begun.”
In the [Integrity First] live room chat:
[Hmm… doesn’t this mean that waiting on the first floor and being pulled into the mirror was actually the correct route?]
[Damn, it really seems so.]
[LOL, I thought the anchor finally got lucky this time, happening to leave the danger zone when others were in peril. Turns out, you brat, you seemed safe, but you actually chose the wrong route again!]
[Hahahahahahahahaha within reason, but beyond expectation.]
[Brother Hu and A-Bao: I really thank you for this.]
“The disappearance of the mirror in the first-floor hall is probably also because of this.”
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes and continued.
“It’s telling us… we can’t leave until the award ceremony is over.”
Brother Hu: “Then… what will happen if we don’t make it to the award ceremony? Does it mean we can never get out?”
Wen Jianyan: “Perhaps.”
Hearing this, everyone sucked in a breath of cold air.
Although Wen Jianyan didn’t say it definitively, everyone knew that according to the habits of instances in the Nightmare, the possibility of not being able to leave after the countdown ended was extremely high.
“Then, what do we do now?” A-Rui was somewhat at a loss.
“We have no choice.”
Wen Jianyan raised his eyes, took a deep breath, and said slowly, “Let’s go up to the third floor.”
If they were still in the real administrative building’s first-floor hall, it was still possible for the vice principal to return from outside the building to present them with awards. But it was different now.
Wen Jianyan had always been good at speculating about rules.
Their current situation was less like entering another dimension and more like triggering a timed “scene.”
The disappearing mirror on the first floor, the blocked path of return, the security guard’s killing “rules,” and the location of the vice principal’s office…
Every single framework, all of them led them to the one and only way to break the situation:
Go to the third floor.
As Wen Jianyan’s words fell, the atmosphere in the office became even more oppressive.
Everyone was silent, the expressions on their faces not looking good.
In the [Integrity First] live room chat:
[Wait, go to the third floor? Isn’t that a rule violation? The security guard here is much more terrifying than the one outside…]
[Yeah… so this instance is really ruthless. To get the award, you have to go to the third floor. It’s practically forcing the anchors to go head-to-head with the security guard’s rules.]
[Hiss, this is really bad now. The anchor was able to escape the security guard’s pursuit last school year because Hugo was in the team, but this time it’s just him. What’s he going to do?]
Wen Jianyan raised his head and glanced at the clock on the wall.
At some point, the hands were already pointing to 10:50.
—There wasn’t much time left for them.
“Let’s go.”
Everyone exchanged glances and nodded.
Wen Jianyan pulled open the office door and glanced outside.
The corridor was extremely quiet.
Both the corpse that had been chasing them earlier and the terrifying security guard were long gone. The dark red light made visibility extremely low, and it was oppressively silent all around.
Wen Jianyan took out the Fortune Beckoning Boy, opened it, and aimed it outside the office.
The Fortune Beckoning Boy was deathly silent.
Clearly, this time, the security guard was not blocking the office door like last school year.
Wen Jianyan turned to look at Bai Qiangwei’s group: “Where did you come upstairs from?”
They didn’t understand why, but pointed in one direction: “Over there.”
Wen Jianyan nodded and pressed his back against the wall.
Even inside the mirror, the “security guard’s” form could not be captured by sight. However, based on the experience from the last school year, Wen Jianyan had long figured out the security guard’s mechanism.
This mechanism was very fixed.
Since it had chased after Bai Qiangwei’s group, even if it was blocked outside the office, it would not leave casually but would stand in place and wait.
That’s why Wen Jianyan’s group hadn’t been caught immediately when they violated the rules on the first floor.
—Because the security guard wasn’t on the first floor at that time.
Fortunately, this time and distance difference gave him a certain margin for error.
But Wen Jianyan wasn’t sure if the security guard had also stopped moving after he stopped violating the rules.
He took a deep breath and took a step.
One step, two steps.
The Fortune Beckoning Boy was deathly silent.
Three steps, four steps…
Ten steps.
With a sizzling electric sound, the Fortune Beckoning Boy emitted a stiff, festive voice:
“Welcome!”
A layer of cold sweat immediately broke out on Wen Jianyan’s back.
He slowly, cautiously lifted his eyelids.
It was completely empty.
The dark red light enveloped the corridor, and there was not a single figure within his line of sight.
But Wen Jianyan knew…
It was right here.
Omg what a cliffhanger!