Chapter 386: Tang City University Haunting Incident

Late at night, Tang City University, College of Liberal Arts building.

A light was on in a laboratory of about two hundred square meters. By the light shining from inside, one could vaguely see a metal plaque hanging above the lab door: [Archaeology and Museology – 1].

Inside the lab, at the long table, a short boy with freckles on his face sat facing a laptop, working late into the night.

The boy’s name was Li Ziqi, a first-year graduate student in the history department, in the same program as Mao Sanyou.

Earlier, Professor Hou had been so infuriated by Lu Yibei and that junior sister named Xinyi that he grew more and more annoyed with the antiques he’d collected from the market during the day. In the end, he simply had the students take them back to the university early and store them safely in the lab.

As a hardcore gamer and notorious cheapskate, Li Ziqi naturally wouldn’t miss the chance to use the school’s free internet, so he volunteered to deliver the antiques and, of course, started playing games.

“Whew-!” After winning another round, Li Ziqi let out a satisfied sigh and stretched back in his chair.

“I’ve heard the experimental building’s internet is lightning fast, way better than the dormitory. Now that I’ve tried it, it’s truly extraordinary. Awesome!”

After a short break, Li Ziqi got up to make himself a cup of coffee. Just as he was about to return to his computer for another game, he glanced out the corridor window and suddenly felt a chill run through him.

The office was empty, the corridor especially gloomy, and the night sky outside was pitch black, as if it could swallow a person whole.

He stared for two seconds, then looked away, shaking his head with a wry smile. Sitting back at the long table, he patted his cheeks and muttered, “Don’t get paranoid. The long night is perfect for more games, not sleep.”

As he spoke, he clicked the start option on the game’s main menu, throwing himself into the game with full enthusiasm.

He was playing a popular shooting game. One mode featured a four-person squad entering various haunting incident locations, searching for hauntings, and using guns loaded with silver bullets to kill them and complete bounty missions.

Although most of the hauntings in the game looked grotesque and terrifying, and their appearances were shocking, Li Ziqi had played for so long and seen so much that nothing fazed him anymore.

At least, that’s how it should have been…

However, something felt off in this new round. Li Ziqi, who prided himself on being a master at finding hauntings, could usually locate one within five minutes and start the hunt. But this time, after more than ten minutes, the four-person squad had only found traces of haunting activity-no sign of the hauntings themselves.

As time passed, his teammates grew restless. Soon, one quit the game, and with someone taking the lead, the other two quickly followed.

“Damn it, a bunch of useless teammates!” Li Ziqi cursed, downing the now lukewarm coffee at his side. “Hmph, I don’t need you. I can finish the mission alone!”

With that, he continued controlling his character, searching the map-modeled after an abandoned hospital-on his own.

According to the backstory, the hospital had been deserted for years. The walls were covered in mold, and the dusty floors showed occasional shoe and footprints, as if people often walked the dimly lit corridors.

Li Ziqi guided his character down a corridor. Gradually, yellowed scraps of paper appeared on the floor, and black-and-white photos of doctors hung on the walls. Some faces had been gouged out with sharp objects, leaving only dark, empty holes.

Accompanied by eerie music, his character pressed on. Li Ziqi habitually glanced at the minimap-and suddenly froze.

His character had moved outside the minimap’s boundaries.

A bug? It must be a bug, right? Li Ziqi thought, spinning the mouse to look at the seemingly vast expanse ahead, then swallowed hard.

He immediately controlled his character to run toward the safe house.

There, the character could enter rest mode-a built-in healing mechanic-and the map would reload.

Li Ziqi had cleared this map countless times and knew the building’s layout well. Soon, his character reached the safe house door.

But the door was closed-he didn’t know when that had happened.

Li Ziqi frowned, his face darkening.

In the game, only players could close the safe house door. Now that it was shut, it was obvious one of those three guys had done it before quitting.

“Damn, those guys actually closed the door when they left!”

He cursed again, and as he spoke, controlled his character to grab a baseball bat and start smashing the safe house door.

“Ding-ding-ding-!”

Amid the clanging metallic sound effects, Li Ziqi’s anger gradually dissipated. The moment he stopped attacking, his character’s gaze landed on the mesh window of the safe house’s main door. Through the mesh, he caught sight of the scene inside and froze.

After those three players quit the game, their characters were all leaning against the wall farthest from the door, facing the entrance, lined up in a row.

Looking at those characters, now devoid of player control, sitting there like corpses, expressionless and staring at him with empty eyes, Li Ziqi suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He cursed under his breath, “Bad luck!” and quickly pressed the Esc key to bring up the menu, preparing to exit the game.

Just then, a faint, shuffling sound of footsteps came from the speakers, sounding as if someone was slowly moving behind him.

Li Ziqi moved his mouse, controlling his character to turn and look, but saw only the pitch-black, empty corridor.

“Pat-pat-pat-!”

The faint footsteps continued to come from the speakers. Hearing them, Li Ziqi couldn’t help but feel a chill along his back. The next moment, he exited the game without hesitation.

As the mission failure prompt sounded, the footsteps that had made his skin crawl also vanished along with the scene’s sound effects.

However, in those few seconds as the game interface gradually faded to gray, Li Ziqi didn’t notice that the three characters in the safe house suddenly moved, turning around to face the wall, and then the screen went dark, jumping to the main menu.

After quitting the game, Li Ziqi’s already taut nerves did not relax.

Today was the first time in his life he had stayed overnight in the lab, and after encountering such a bizarre situation in the game, he couldn’t help but grow suspicious and paranoid.

He sat in front of the computer, absentmindedly browsing through meme videos, but couldn’t help quickly glancing over his shoulder, then at the corridor outside the lab, always feeling as if someone was hiding in the empty lab or just outside the corridor, only revealing a pair of cold eyes, secretly watching him.

Li Ziqi’s scalp tingled and his heart pounded like a drum. He knew very well that all of this was just him being startled by the game’s bug, his own fear conjuring up wild imaginings.

But knowing was one thing; he still couldn’t help thinking of those terrifying hauntings that circulated around the school.

Li Ziqi felt a bit regretful. If only he’d played a little less and gone back before the dormitory closed.

As he was thinking this, suddenly…

“Pat-pat-pat-!”

From the supposedly empty corridor came the faint sound of footsteps, just like the ones he’d heard in the game.

Li Ziqi’s body froze, panic and fear flashing in his eyes.

“Pat-pat-pat-!”

The footsteps were unhurried, rhythmic, each step pounding on his heart, coming closer and closer.

Approaching the lab.

“Who, who’s out there!”

“Is it the security guard doing rounds? Are you out there in the corridor?”

Sweat appeared on Li Ziqi’s forehead, and he felt his voice trembling.

The faint footsteps outside the corridor suddenly stopped, falling silent.

Li Ziqi forced himself to suppress his fear, straining his ears to listen, but heard nothing. The corridor was deathly silent, only the whirring of his laptop’s fan filling his ears.

Li Ziqi stared fixedly at the main door. Time crawled by, each second feeling like an eternity. Just as he was about to crack under the psychological pressure, the footsteps sounded again outside the corridor.

“Pat-pat-pat-!”

The sound grew closer, but still faint, almost like an illusion.

When the footsteps reached near the lab, they disappeared once more.

Suddenly, the expressionless faces of those three characters in the safe house flashed inexplicably through Li Ziqi’s mind. He shuddered, his emotions collapsing, and shouted toward the door.

“Is the person outside the security guard on patrol? I don’t care who you are, this kind of joke isn’t funny at all!”

“If you keep scaring me like this, I’m really calling the police!”

“…”

After shouting a few times, Li Ziqi’s emotions were vented, and he suddenly didn’t feel so afraid anymore. He stared quietly at the door for about ten minutes, finally relaxing.

Then, he plugged in his headphones and refocused on the meme videos.

After watching a few particularly funny ones and laughing out loud, the fear from earlier finally faded away. Li Ziqi opened the game main menu again and clicked to start the game.

As the loading bar finished and his character entered the map, his expression suddenly changed.

What a coincidence-he had randomly landed on that abandoned hospital map again.

“It’s all random, it’s all random…”

Li Ziqi muttered to himself for comfort, then controlled his character to move. But after only a couple of steps, he took his hands off the keyboard.

He saw his three “teammates,” and for some unknown bug, their characters looked as if they’d been decapitated, heads missing, yet still running deeper into the abandoned hospital.

After a moment, Li Ziqi snapped back to his senses, fumbling to exit the game.

Just then, the computer screen suddenly went black. Accompanied by a bizarre burst of laughter, a pair of ghastly pale hands suddenly reached out from the computer screen and grabbed his head…

Ding dong-ding dong ding dong-!

Early morning, Four Seasons Hotel, Tang City.

After finishing his research on the “art of self-destruction and being destroyed” with the Ancestors in the Dream, Lu Yibei went up to the rooftop for his daily sunbath. He had just returned to his room, ready to take another nap, when he was startled awake by a flurry of urgent doorbell rings.

He opened his eyes, completed a sit-up that spanned over an hour, then looked toward the door and asked impatiently, “Who is it?! So early in the morning…”

“It’s me, Ma Zhen!” Professor Ma’s voice came from outside. “Lu Yibei, get up, tidy yourself up, we’re going to meet an old friend of mine.”

…

Lu Yibei glanced at the sky outside, which had just been touched by the first rays of sunlight. He was silent for a few seconds, then pretended not to hear Professor Ma’s call and muttered to himself.

“Who could it be? Why aren’t they saying anything? If you don’t speak, I’m going back to sleep!”

Ding dong-ding dong-!

Hearing Lu Yibei’s voice, Professor Ma pressed the doorbell twice more, hard. “You brat, get up and go to the restaurant for breakfast. If you’re late, everything will be gone!”

Breakfast? Breakfast is a must; I have to take care of my health! A glint flashed in Lu Yibei’s eyes. “Oh! Professor? Wait a moment, I’ll be right out.”

In this world, only Meow Meow-chan and breakfast cannot be let down!

As he spoke, he jumped out of bed, tidied up the little Paper Cicada Immortal figures he’d placed in every corner of the room for security, and got dressed.

Five minutes later, he followed Professor Ma to the restaurant.

Looking at the empty restaurant, as if no one had ever visited, Lu Yibei stared at Professor Ma expressionlessly and complained, “Professor, scholars shouldn’t lie! Look at this…”

“You brat, what do you know? Early to bed and early to rise, good habits benefit you, not me!” Professor Ma scolded, giving Lu Yibei a hard smack on the back of the head.

“Go get me a bowl of soy milk, two pieces of bread, and a plate of fruit. I’ll go save us a seat.”

Watching Professor Ma walk away, Lu Yibei rolled his eyes. “There’s no one here, what’s the point of saving a seat? It’s so early, nobody’s here for breakfast yet!”

As soon as he finished speaking, a gentle voice sounded beside him.

“They’ve already eaten, you know. Everyone’s already had breakfast. There was an emergency at Tang City University, so they all left.”

“Huh?” Lu Yibei was stunned for a moment. He turned around and saw a girl.

She was a girl with short blonde hair, wrapped up in a slightly bulky off-white down jacket, her figure completely hidden.

The moment Lu Yibei turned, his gaze met her beautiful almond-shaped eyes. Under the lights, her blue eyes seemed to shimmer with a watery brilliance.

In short, she was very cute-the kind of girl who’d cry for a long time if you punched her.

“Hello, I’m Fu Xinyi, Professor Zhang’s student.” The girl reached out her hand, smiling openly at Lu Yibei.

Seeing that Lu Yibei didn’t shake her hand, she took the initiative to grab his, gave it a shake, then leaned in and whispered in his ear, “Let me tell you, they rushed off to Tang City University because someone died there. And it was a student from our project team. I heard it was a haunting incident!”

“So, isn’t it scary?”

Lu Yibei nodded perfunctorily, then tilted his head and probed, “Miss, have we met somewhere before?”

…Fu Xinyi stared at Lu Yibei for a few seconds, then suddenly burst out laughing. “Classmate, that’s such a classic pick-up line! Alright, I won’t chat with you anymore, I’m off to Tang City University to see what’s going on.”

As she spoke, Fu Xinyi waved at Lu Yibei and left the restaurant, her steps light as if she were dancing.

Watching her leave, Lu Yibei frowned deeply.

Definitely seen her before…

Could she be the “insider” who appeared last night?

Thinking this, Lu Yibei jogged to the food counter, grabbed a croissant and bit into it, then muttered, “Professor, you’ll have to sort out your own breakfast! I’m heading to Tang City University!”

Hearing Lu Yibei’s shout, Professor Ma looked over and saw Fu Xinyi and Lu Yibei leaving one after the other. He froze for a moment, then slammed the table in anger. “Hmph, brat, forgetting your teacher when you see a pretty face!”