Yuying University
Chapter 471: Rusty iron gate
The air was chilly and grim, making the hairs on one’s arms stand on end.
Before he could fully lift his gaze, Wen Jianyan, as if realizing something, immediately lowered his eyes and pressed the Fortune Beckoning Boy off.
The “Welcome” sound was instantly cut off.
The corridor returned to its deathly silence.
He took a deep breath, turned his head to gauge the depth of the stairwell and the other party’s position, and then, just as he had come, Wen Jianyan cautiously retraced his steps one by one.
The chilly aura gradually receded.
Soon, Wen Jianyan was back at the office door.
Although the others didn’t know what he was doing, they were perceptive enough to remain quiet until his return.
Back under the dim red light, Wen Jianyan let out a long sigh of relief. He looked at Brother Hu and A-bao. “Do you guys trust me?”
“?”
Brother Hu and A-bao were confused, but they still nodded.
“Of course.”
After receiving an affirmative answer, Wen Jianyan shoved the Fortune Beckoning Boy into Brother Hu’s hands and instructed in a low voice:
“You and A-bao go back to the first floor from that way. Place this at the corner of the stairwell, about three meters down, and then make a noise on the first floor.”
His fingertips were icy, but his voice was very calm.
“The moment this thing makes a sound, you stop immediately.”
Just now, Wen Jianyan had realized a crucial point.
The enemy’s aggro rule was likely related to “eye contact.”
Last school year, he had made eye contact with the security guard in the first-floor security office. Wen Jianyan remembered very clearly—the moment their gazes met, he had felt an intense fear and unease.
It was because of this that even when Orange Candy caused trouble later, the “security guard’s” aggro remained locked on him and was never shifted.
But this time was different.
Whether he had been too unlucky before, or everyone else was too lucky this time, not a single person had been focused on.
It was precisely because of this that the security guard didn’t just stand and wait at the office door. It could be drawn away by other sounds and would stop moving after the rule-breaker disappeared.
Unfortunately, Brother Hu and A-bao’s abilities were limited. It was impossible for them to draw fire for as long as Orange Candy had, but as long as they didn’t break the rules within the security guard’s line of sight, they shouldn’t be in too much danger.
The security guard was terrifying, but its movement speed wasn’t fast.
After a rough estimation based on the corridor’s length, the guard’s position, and its movement speed, Wen Jianyan quickly found a blind spot.
“But…” Brother Hu clutched the Fortune Beckoning Boy that Wen Jianyan had given him, a hesitant look on his face. He glanced discreetly towards Zhao Ze’s direction. “What about you?”
Don’t forget, the team didn’t just have living people in it now.
—That was indeed a problem.
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes and sighed inwardly.
“Don’t worry about me,” he quickly raised his eyes and smiled naturally. “After all, I’m not the only one in the team, am I?”
Although he said it simply, Wen Jianyan’s heart was nowhere near as relaxed as his words.
If he had a choice, he wouldn’t want to stay in a team that might contain a ghost.
But the problem was…
This was the only viable plan right now.
Whether to trust them with the Fortune Beckoning Boy was one thing, but more importantly, they had to trust him completely.
The Vice Principal’s office on the third floor and the main hall on the first floor were two completely opposite paths.
No one knew what would happen after the award ceremony on the third floor ended.
If everyone could leave smoothly, that would be wonderful. But what if… it wasn’t like that? What if only those who participated in the award ceremony on the third floor could leave, while those who didn’t make it in time would be trapped here forever?
It was a matter of life and death. Forcing people who were already skeptical to carry out such a task was like building a house on a precarious cliff. The instance was a delicate balance; if there was the slightest disturbance and morale wavered, the entire plan could collapse.
And Brother Hu and A-bao, they were simple-minded, easy to control, loyal, and had a moral compass.
And Wen Jianyan had always been good at reading people.
He knew what kind of character they liked, so he would habitually put on a mask and play the role that was most conducive to gaining their trust.
And that trust was perfect for a situation like this.
Wen Jianyan looked at them and asked, “How about it?”
“…”
Brother Hu and A-bao looked at each other and nodded.
After Wen Jianyan gave them a few simple instructions, they took the Fortune Beckoning Boy from his hand and went downstairs in the direction he pointed.
Soon, their figures disappeared into the dim, reddish corridor.
After watching them leave, Wen Jianyan turned his head slightly and looked in the direction where the “security guard” was.
There was not a single figure in the depths of the corridor, only a heart-pounding, dense blackness.
The Fortune Beckoning Boy was gone, and Wen Jianyan had lost the only tool he had to confirm the security guard’s position and existence.
The administration building, under the eerie red light, was as quiet as a tomb.
Wen Jianyan retracted his gaze.
“The rest of you, follow me.”
“Slowly, and don’t make a sound.” His voice was very low. “Most importantly, remember to stick to the wall.”
Led by Wen Jianyan, the group pressed their backs against the wall and moved slowly, step by step, into the depths of the corridor.
The air in the corridor was bone-chillingly cold. The unknown sense of danger coming from an uncertain source sent shivers down their spines and made their palms sweat. But Wen Jianyan, at the lead, seemed to remain calm throughout. He moved step by step, at a slow and steady pace, leading the team forward.
The faint sounds of running and talking came from downstairs.
Wen Jianyan knew that meant Brother Huand A-bao were in position.
He didn’t change his speed, still sticking to the wall, moving forward step by step.
Soon, they arrived at the staircase leading to the third floor.
The pitch-black stairwell stood before them.
Just like the floor below, the iron gate between the second and third floors had also disappeared.
The stairs led straight up, with no obstruction in the middle.
Wen Jianyan stopped.
His pale eyes glinted slightly in the darkness as he stared intently upwards. He said in a low voice:
“Wait.”
Wait?
Wait for what? For how long?
As if seeing the confusion in the others, Wen Jianyan lowered his voice and said:
“The key is the time difference.”
Since they had to go to the third floor, it meant they now had to break the rules and were forced to confront the security guard head-on.
That being the case, the timing became extremely crucial.
The longer the time between [breaking the rules] and [direct confrontation], the greater their chance of survival.
Theoretically, the moment the security guard triggered the sound of the Fortune Beckoning Boy was also the moment it was at its furthest point from them.
“The moment we hear ‘Welcome,’ we move,” Wen Jianyan said.
If everything went smoothly, they should be able to get to the third floor before the security guard arrived.
The others nodded, indicating they understood.
The wait seemed endless.
Hearts pounded against chests, and deliberately suppressed breaths became heavy and ragged.
Time ticked by, but the empty corridor before them seemed no different from a few minutes ago. The feeling was agonizing.
Suddenly, without warning, a cheerful voice mixed with the crackle of static came from the distant other stairwell:
“Welcome!”
And the moment the deathly silence was broken, the continuous sounds of movement and talking from downstairs stopped instantly.
At almost the same time, Wen Jianyan hissed in a low voice:
“Go!”
Before his voice had even faded, he moved without hesitation, charging up the stairs at top speed!
The others followed closely behind him, rushing upstairs together.
The rapid footsteps echoed in the narrow corridor like a chaotic, pounding heartbeat.
There was no sound from behind, nor was there any pursuing figure, but the group ran as if they were being chased by a ghost.
The path from the second to the third floor should have been short, but at this moment, it seemed to have been deliberately stretched, shockingly long.
The dark corridor extended upwards, but no matter how they ran, they couldn’t seem to reach the end.
However, under their full sprint, the third-floor corridor had already appeared in their line of sight.
—Almost there!
We’re almost there!
Wen Jianyan was about to push forward with a final burst of energy.
Suddenly, a jolt went through him, as if he had sensed something.
“…”
Wen Jianyan subconsciously turned his head to look down.
Through the narrow gap of the stair railing, he could vaguely see the dark stairwell and the second-floor corridor beyond it.
The dim red light smeared the floor outside the stairwell, giving it an ominous glaze.
On the smooth, mirror-like floor, a faint, floating black shadow was barely visible, almost like a hallucination at first glance, but…
Wen Jianyan focused his eyes and couldn’t help but shiver.
It was a tall, twisted human figure.
It was the security guard.
It had arrived much faster than planned.
…Much faster.
A jolt went through Wen Jianyan, and a shudder ran quickly up his spine.
It seemed that the priority of the third rule was much higher than the second, so the security guard’s movement speed was far beyond his imagination.
It took a slow, stiff step, and one foot entered the stairwell.
The moment it stepped in, the stairwell seemed to undergo some invisible change. A cold, grim feeling came from under his feet. Wen Jianyan subconsciously glanced down.
The stairwell was very dark, but Wen Jianyan was still wearing the glasses Orange Candy had lent him, so he could clearly see the situation below.
What should have been dark concrete steps, for some reason, now showed a pale, strange color under the faint light. The texture… it didn’t look like concrete, but rather like the skin of a dead person.
And, as time went on, blurry faces and twisted, compressed limbs began to gradually appear, outlines overlapping outlines, a horrifying sight.
“!”
Wen Jianyan’s heart leaped violently, and cold sweat broke out on his palms.
Now, he finally understood why he felt such a strong sense of oppression in the administration building.
He had long known that Yuying University was a deliberately created burial ground, that every classroom was stuffed full of corpses, but he had never expected that the entire administration building was made of corpses!
The number of bodies in this building was far greater than any other…
With every step upwards, the outlines of these corpses became clearer. They writhed underfoot, seemingly struggling to break free from the framework of the stairs.
“Don’t look back, keep going!” Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth.
The ground under his feet became softer and softer. Cold limbs protruded and bulged, a scene straight out of a hell scroll.
In the upper right corner of his vision, his health points began to drop rapidly, gradually entering the red warning zone.
Suddenly, a cold touch came from his ankle. Wen Jianyan was pulled off balance and nearly fell to the ground.
He turned his head in horror.
A corpse had broken free from the steps and was clutching his ankle tightly.
A pale, sticky hand and arm, a crushed and deformed head, empty eye sockets and mouth, its mouth wide open as if letting out a silent, tragic scream.
And behind it, an invisible shadow was gathering.
The security guard was about to come up.
“Give me your hand!”
From above came Bai Qiangwei’s intense voice.
“Quick!”
Wen Jianyan looked up and was taken aback.
At the top of the stairs, Bai Qiangwei was leaning over, reaching out to him. Her other hand was being held by Cheng Can and A-Rui from above, to prevent her feet from touching the steps.
“Grab me!” she shouted anxiously.
Wen Jianyan reached out and grabbed her hand.
His hand was gripped tightly. The others behind her pulled together, yanking Wen Jianyan up from the stairs with a sudden force!
The hand clutching his ankle let go.
Wen Jianyan stumbled onto the third floor.
In the cold, enclosed, dark corridor, the heavy panting of several people echoed.
And after the last person left the stairwell, the space that had been gradually taken over by reawakened corpses surprisingly returned to calm before their eyes.
The corpses disappeared.
The ground changed from a soft, deathly pale to a cold, hard iron-gray.
In the darkness below, there was not a single figure.
“Go…”
Wen Jianyan straightened up before he could even catch his breath.
He wasn’t sure if the security guard would continue to chase them to the third floor. It had come up last time, and it might this time as well.
Wen Jianyan raised his eyes.
Surprisingly, there was only one office on the third floor.
[Vice Principal’s Office]
Where the Principal’s office should have been, there was now only an empty, grayish-white wall.
—How could this be?
Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but be stunned.
According to normal logic, since the Principal’s office didn’t exist outside the mirror, it should be inside the mirror. But when he came to where the Principal’s office should have been, it had vanished?
The pocket in his clothes suddenly felt heavy.
Did this mean he had to use the eyeballs again?
As Wen Jianyan was lost in thought, suddenly, a “creak” came from ahead.
The door to the Vice Principal’s office was pushed open from the inside.
Wen Jianyan jolted and turned to look.
Behind the door, the Vice Principal’s pale, smiling face appeared. He looked at the panting, disheveled group before him, as if pleasantly surprised.
“Ah, you’re here.”
The group stood where they were, panting, staring at him without a word.
“Come in, quick.”
As if not sensing their vigilance and hostility, the Vice Principal stepped aside, warmly making way for them.
Wen Jianyan turned his head and glanced behind him.
The stairwell had returned to its deathly silence.
No corpses, no shadows, no security guard.
He retracted his gaze, took a deep breath, and was the first to walk into the office.
The others exchanged a look and followed.
The smile on the Vice Principal’s face seemed to deepen slightly.
“Bang.”
The door closed behind them with a soft sound.
Wen Jianyan surveyed the office before him—everything looked exactly the same as last school year. If he didn’t know clearly that he was now inside the mirror, he might even have the illusion that nothing had changed.
His gaze fell on the window.
The window was tightly shut. The sky outside was a viscous, terrifying dark red, like a half-dried blood clot.
The Vice Principal’s voice came from behind:
“…That was a truly wonderful basketball game. You are indeed worthy of being outstanding students of our Yuying University. To commend your excellent performance, I will present you with an award on behalf of the school.”
Wen Jianyan turned his head and looked towards the Vice Principal.
He saw him open the cabinet behind him, take something out, and then turn back around.
What he was holding was actually an award certificate.
An orange-yellow, cheap-looking piece of paper, with dry words printed on it.
[Yuying University Intramural Basketball Tournament Victory Award]
In this eerie environment, these few award certificates looked somewhat comical.
The Vice Principal’s pale face wore a smile with an unchanging curve.
“Which one of you is the captain?”
The others looked at each other. Suddenly, Zhao Ze looked at Wen Jianyan.
“The captain of the basketball team, no one is more suitable than you.”
The remaining few thought for a moment and also nodded.
“That’s right.”
“…”
Wen Jianyan braced himself and stepped forward.
The Vice Principal, smiling, handed him the award certificate.
The seemingly cheap and ordinary paper felt quite cold and grim to the touch.
The moment he received the award certificate, the familiar system voice sounded in Wen Jianyan’s ear.
[Ding! Instance exploration rate 78% reward points: 10,000]
“Congratulations on once again breaking the exploration record for [Yuying University]. You have made history…”
Wen Jianyan was stunned and blinked blankly.
Huh?
Every previous increase in instance exploration rate had a reason, but why this time?
Just for receiving an award?
This was too strange.
“Oh right, there are also prizes.” The Vice Principal, smiling, seemed like a truly approachable school leader. He turned around again. “I almost forgot.”
He opened the cabinet again.
Wen Jianyan smelled a familiar, almost bizarrely sweet and cloying scent coming from the cabinet door.
His heart thumped violently.
Wait a minute… could it be…
The Vice Principal had his back to him, rustling around in the cabinet. The inside of the cabinet was pitch black, with no sign of any items.
Wen Jianyan’s heart was pounding like a drum.
I have to decide now… should I do it?
Reason told him.
No.
Absolutely not.
His current SAN value was only 22 points. If he used another 20, he would only have 2 left.
At that value, he would be unable to think, unable to act, and would become a moving target that attracted danger.
And his current teammates were not just unreliable, they could even be considered dangerous.
But…
Wen Jianyan’s gaze fell on the Vice Principal’s back, a struggling look flashing in his eyes.
He could smell that familiar sweet and cloying scent, and all the intuition in his body was screaming wildly—there would be no better opportunity than now, no more important moment than now.
If he missed it, he might never be able to solve this mystery.
But the price was too high, he couldn’t—
Wait a minute.
Unless…
Wen Jianyan was startled, as if he had thought of something.
After the second school year began, as a reward for the anchors who had started the second year, Nightmare had given them three chances to be immune to all damage.
Wen Jianyan had used the first one under the burial mound and still had two left.
Then…
Could it immunize him from SAN value damage?
He gritted his teeth and steeled his heart.
To hell with it, let’s try!
Wen Jianyan reached into his pocket, took out the dead man’s eyeballs, and at the same time, activated the system’s reward.
“Does the anchor confirm the activation of the system reward duration?”
Wen Jianyan: “Yes.”
The moment Wen Jianyan activated the duration, the “Integrity First” livestream channel was flooded with question marks.
[?]
[???]
[This reward duration is for you to avoid danger, not for you to exploit a bug with a dangerous item!!!]
As the one-minute countdown began, Wen Jianyan raised the eyeballs. The bloody, chaotic vision appeared once again.
In this terrifying, almost maddeningly twisted world, the entire office was jarringly neat.
The Vice Principal’s figure had disappeared. Where he had been was a pure black void, like a hole gouged out of a blood-red canvas. Wen Jianyan’s gaze passed over the void and looked behind it.
In the depths of that darkness was a large, rusty iron door.
And on the iron door was a familiar, smiling face.
The face seemed to sense Wen Jianyan’s gaze. Its blood-red eyes slowly turned, drifting downwards, as if to say—
Here.
“…”
For a moment, Wen Jianyan almost forgot how to breathe.
Not just because this bloody face, which had appeared many times and guided him here many times, had appeared again, but more because—this iron door was all too familiar.
Underneath Yuying University, there was a huge, dark warehouse, and inside that warehouse were four doors.
And the appearance of those four doors was identical to the one before him.
Before he could get a clearer look, the familiar sharp pain struck again.
Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth, swallowing his scream back down his throat. The veins on the back of his pale hand bulged as he yanked the dead man’s eyeballs away from his face.
Not even a minute.
It seemed that using the system reward to offset a dangerous item was theoretically possible, but the duration would also be greatly shortened.
He forced himself to glance at the upper right corner.
His SAN value had dropped by ten points.
He now had 12 points left.
It wasn’t much, but at least it was still within a tolerable range.
And just then, the Vice Principal turned around.
Wen Jianyan stood rooted to the spot. His face was ghastly, his eye sockets burned a fiery red as if they were about to drip blood. His forehead was covered in cold sweat, and a sliver of clarity struggled to hold on in his eyes.
But the Vice Principal seemed completely oblivious to Wen Jianyan’s abnormality, his face still wearing the same unchanging smile.
“Alright, this is for you.”
He placed a blood-red badge in Wen Jianyan’s palm.
Wen Jianyan forced himself to look down at his palm.
In his vision, blurry with afterimages, he found that the badge looked almost identical to the club badge, but not only was the color different, the small face on it also seemed to have changed slightly.
The blood-red face wore a bizarre smile that made one’s hair stand on end, silently watching him.
The system’s voice sounded in his ear:
[Ding! Congratulations to the anchor for obtaining a hidden item (Difficult) in the instance!]
[Collection progress 4/10]
Perhaps due to his low SAN value, the system’s reward announcement sounded intermittent and distant.
A few steps away, the Vice Principal was still rambling on with boilerplate praise, lauding them as the school’s elite, its outstanding students.
Wen Jianyan’s head was spinning, tortured by his low SAN value and the intense pain, but he could only stand there and wait, responding dryly:
“…Thank you, you’re too kind.”
Finally, the Vice Principal seemed to have run out of praise and stopped, still wanting to say more.
“Alright, it’s getting late now. You all should be leaving.”
As he spoke, he walked to the door, once again reached out to open it, then turned his head and said to the group with a smile, “You can leave the way you came.”
Leave the way you came?
Wen Jianyan noticed this key phrase. With a pale face, he lifted his thin, trembling eyelids and shot a quick glance at the Vice Principal.
“Oh, by the way,”
The Vice Principal held the door, watching the “outstanding students” file out of the office, and said slowly with a smile:
“It’s getting dark. It’s best to hold hands when you leave.
Otherwise, you might get lost.”
