Ch53 - Sha, Sha, Sha

On the other side, Sun Guojing’s group easily made some decent deductions so they naturally refused to give up on their speculation easily.

That night, at 7:30 p.m. In accordance with the order, they had Qi Tianyun who heard the rustling sound the least enter 403 first. Then Luo Ge pulled Sun Guojing to enter together. 

The three people were terrified. They spent the night inside and didn’t dare close their eyes. The results still weren’t satisfactory. After a hard night, 65 hours after entering the instance and at 8 o’clock on Sunday morning, Sun Guojing was filled with endless terror as he slowly ushered in the third to last sound of his life. The force seemed to be fond of leaving time for people to constantly think about it, fully appreciating the fear before death came.

Perhaps it was because he nearly fell down from a building and died once. This time, Sun Guojing calmed down and didn’t become mad. After a short decline, his san value rose immediately.

It was just that they were still confused. What went wrong with their inference? How could they end this instance? Half of the 120 hour game time was over but it seemed that Sun Guojing could only live through today.

The three people had dark circles and wandering souls when they came out of the only exit of the East Fifth Building and ran into Nan Zhou. Nan Zhou sat under a maple tree directly opposite the door and had a set of sketching tools at his feet. He seemed to have been sitting there for a while because the small section of bone protruding from the side of his right wrist was dyed black due to a carbon pencil. Along with the black sweater, it made his skin an unusual white. He looked like he had had a good sleep and even had the leisure to change into new clothes. 

Nan Zhou greeted the trio. “Good morning.”

He specifically reminded himself to pay attention to Sun Guojing. He stared for a long time before seeing the person Qi Tianyun and Luo Ge were protecting behind them. Sun Guojing had now heard the sixth rustle and was the most worthy figure to observe.

Nan Zhou summarized the law of the influence of the ‘rustling’ sound on people. After hearing the rustling three times and seeing a supernatural phenomenon once, the person’s sense of existence would be weakened. It was like Nan Zhou himself who went back to the dormitory to prepare for the examination that day.

This change was very mild. If one wasn’t sensitive enough, it might not be visible. The qualitative change occurred after the six rustles. The person’s sense of existence would be sharply reduced and their ability to communicate with the outside world severely weakened. This was true objectively and in other people’s minds.

That morning, the reason why Sun Guojing was collectively forgotten in Room 403 was because everyone’s state wasn’t so good. Luo Ge and Qi Tianyun had just woken up with a hangover. Jiang Fang only slept for 30 minutes and the blood supply to his brain seriously affected his judgment. Li Yinhang slept with back pain and woke up a few times at night. She was groggy when she woke up and simply became a small tail attached to Nan Zhou and Jiang Fang. She didn’t think much. As for Nan Zhou, it always took him a while to wake up properly.

Fortunately, hearing the rustling six times didn’t mean death. At this stage, it was just difficult to attract the attention of others without making any shocking movements through physical contact.

However, at least everyone still had the concept of ‘Sun Guojing’ in their minds. In short, they would subconsciously forget Sun Guojing’s existence. It was just that this ‘subconscious’ wasn’t insurmountable.

The instance took every three rustling sounds as one stage. Each stage would have a qualitative change. By the ninth sound, Sun Guojing would change to be exactly the same as Hu Li and Zuo Jiaming. They didn’t exist and due to that, the system judged them as ‘dead.’ 

…It was even more miserable.

Hu Li and Zou Jiaming were important clue characters and were part of the puzzle. Yet once Sun Guojing ‘died’, Nan Zhou was worried that they would forget everything about him. Apart from him as a person, this included the laws and clues observed from him.

They would have to look for who Sun Guojing was again from scratch, just like they once looked for Zuo Jiaming and Hu Li. It was too much trouble once such a situation occurred. It also affected the number of points.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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Nan Zhou raised the sketchbook and charcoal pencil in his hands. “My architecture department has to hand over drawn building structures every week.”

The trio, “…..” 

Too amazing. They were convinced. He was really making the best of this role-playing.

Qi Tianyun asked, “Where are your two friends?”

Nan Zhou’s hand paused slightly before he continued to draw. He said, “I also have many friends.”

Qi Tianyun was confused. “Huh?” 

Then he clarified. “Ah… I’m talking about your teammates. Where are they?”

“Brother Fang and Yinhang went to find Xie Xiangyu.” Nan Zhou lowered his head while answering. “Brother Fang said that we might’ve failed because we have one less person.”

The three men were full of spirit after hearing these words. Yes! This instance was essentially PVE. Perhaps it required a high degree of cooperation between players? Find Xie Xiangyu, gather the seven people and enter 403. Perhaps it would work!

The three men had their next direction of action pointed out and immediately bid farewell to Nan Zhou. For them, they had to firmly grab onto even a glimmer of hope, regardless of whether it was spider silk descending down into hair or straw in a vortex. 

The trio left and Nan Zhou continued to finish his homework. He had a strong sense of space, his pencil strokes were sure and precise and his lines were clear. Unlike a professional art student, he sketched with a pen first. Then he used the charcoal pencil to enrich the details. He set out a few basic points. Then he chose a window on the first floor and used it as the origin to quickly draw a whole picture.

After it was completed, Nan Zhou held up the sketchbook and compared it. Yet the corners of his eyes remained behind him. The reason he came here alone wasn’t just to finish his homework. He didn’t believe that one failure would make Xie Xiangyu give up his plan to kill someone. This was the way Xie Xiangyu had chosen to play.

Now that the road of cooperation had been cut off, Xie Xiangyu could only go to the end. He still had the advantage so it was more important to hurry up and act. Otherwise, once Sun Guojing was killed by that force, his turn would be next.

Nan Zhou being alone was specifically an opportunity created for Xie Xiangyu. It just wasn’t known if he would be hooked. If Nan Zhou took Xie Xiangyu’s indiscriminate killing style, the preferred target would be himself. 

Solve the most difficult one first and it would be much more convenient. However, he wasn’t Xie Xiangyu nor did he know Xie Xiangyu. He could only try it out. The worst result was that Xie Xiangyu didn’t show up. Even so, the original body’s weekly homework had been completed so it was cost-effective.

Nan Zhou could be said to be half right. Xie Xiangyu’s first choice for killing wasn’t him but the fishing move was indeed effective. Xie Xiangyu was now standing silently half a step away from him, playing with the homemade throat crusher behind his back. Meanwhile, he leaned over and admired the work Nan Zhou had just finished.

Then after examining it, Xie Xiangyu’s expression subtly changed. He thought to himself, “Oh…”

At almost the same time, Nan Zhou frowned. His gaze shifted between the building and his homework. After glancing back and forth several times, he stood up and walked to the East Fifth Building. 

“Maybe…” Nan Zhou murmured to himself. “Maybe.”

Xie Xiangyu suggested, “Why don’t you give it a try?”

Nan Zhou couldn’t hear but he took action as Xie Xiangyu said.

The East Fifth Building was a four storey teaching building with a red-black matte brick surface that faced north and south. The appearance wasn’t a proper square. All the corners were a bit of a blunt arc shape. 

The entrance was the staircase that went straight up and down. The interior wasn’t particularly special and there was no porch. The shape was simple. There was only one corridor on each floor and rows of classrooms. There was nothing wrong with Nan Zhou’s drawing. The details of the drawing matched closely with the East Fifth Building.

Nan Zhou went to the side of the East Fifth Building and closed his eyes. He tried his best to shield his external senses from interfering with his perception as he held onto the bricks of the outer wall and walked forward step by step.

One step, two steps, three steps.

Xie Xiangyu was beside him, following his footsteps and doing the same thing as him. Meditating and counting steps, trying to keep their strides constant. 

Nan Zhou walked all the way from the east end of the building to the west end and wrote down the data. Then he entered the interior of the building. The corridor empty of people was quiet. The morning light revealed a bit of flying dust, like a gentle web of light that spread all over Nan Zhou’s body, forming a phantom that captured him in its palms.

On the first floor, Nan Zhou repeated the actions just now. From east to west, he measured with his own footsteps. Discounting the area of the building itself, the length of the corridor on the first floor was around the same length as outside. Then he went straight to the fourth floor.

Xie Xiangyu walked upstairs with his hands behind his back, watching Nan Zhou’s side profile with appreciation and joy in his heart. He couldn’t help wanting to hold Nan Zhou’s chin and use the throat crusher on the beautiful Adam’s apple. Still, he overcame it every time with willpower.

Nan Zhou stood on one end of the fourth floor corridor, facing the French windows on the other end of the building. 403 was the only lecture classroom in the building and it was located in the center of the corridor. In addition, looking around, the layout and length were no different from the corridor on the first floor. 

Nan Zhou closed his eyes. The light coming from the other side of the corridor weaved a thin web of blood in the capillaries of his eyes. He held the wall and slowly walked forward.

The reason he wanted to do this was because Nan Zhou realized something he hadn’t noticed before when doing his homework. His sense of space was quite good. Therefore, he found that the corridor of the East Fifth Building in his memory was longer than the one seen from the outside. At present, all their text messages only mentioned that their meeting place was in the East Fifth Building seven days before they entered the instance.

…There was just no text message that mentioned they went to Room 403. Even Zuo Jiaming’s death message at the start of the instance didn’t mention 403. In Hu Li’s messages, he also said ‘everything changed since we entered that classroom.’

Why did they take it for granted that they had gone to 403? It was because 403 was the place where the physical education department had a class. The key to Room 403 was in Sun Guojing’s hands. The party was organized by the group of four in the sports department. In order, the first one to enter the sphere of influence of that force was Hu Li and the second one was Zuo Jiaming. 

Thus, they logically deduced that Hu Li took the key of his roommate Sun Guojing and went directly to Room 403 in the morning. Yet what if Sun Guojing had the key from beginning to end?

Nan Zhou had been to the lecture room and found that it was too wide to be utilized for a party. The only space that could be used was the small area between the desk, chairs and podium. There might be a projection screen to watch movies but judging from the amount of board games they carried that day, their main purpose wasn’t to watch movies. In other words, it wasn’t suitable for multiplayer gatherings.

What if Hu Li arrived at the East Fifth Building in advance and while waiting for Sun Guojing to open the door, he accidentally found a more suitable place for a gathering on this floor? It might be adjacent to 403. Perhaps it wasn’t locked. Maybe it was better for a party. It didn’t exist in the blueprint of the East Fifth Building and didn’t exist before 7 p.m. It quietly lurked in a corner of the East Fifth Building, breathing without anyone knowing about it. It was only when the tip of the iceberg was occasionally exposed that Hu Li ignorantly opened the door.

Thus, they went to a non-existent place like Zuo Jiaming said. 

……

Nan Zhou touched the window lattice at the end of the corridor. He held the window, opened his eyes and walked back to his original place.

Nan Zhou took his drawing and walked around the building several times in accordance with the arrangement of the windows. Obviously, the corridor was the same length from the outside. However, the fourth floor was 15 steps longer than the outside. It was 12 steps more than the first floor.

After repeated measurements, Nan Zhou determined that the extra 12 steps were next to Room 403. It was just that there was no door. There were no windows outside. 

He found the reason for the two days of useless work. The reason was simple. They simply went to the wrong classroom.

Nan Zhou repeatedly experimented before exhaling. He rubbed his eyes and planned to call Jiang Fang. He shifted his gaze to the side and paused slightly. He saw another shadow vaguely stacked with his reflection and the odd pen in its hands.