Chapter 17

Through his glasses, Black Wooden Horse stared intently at the two motionless marble statues of women.

Currently, all the paranormal events within Cimu Middle School, whether it was middle school students banging their heads on the ground or cross-dressing middle-aged men asking people what their favorite color was, followed a certain pattern.

"What exactly did I do just now to cause her to change? Was it the active attack?"

Black Wooden Horse's mind raced, his body remained frozen, afraid to move rashly again.

As the sun continued to sink, gradually approaching the distant, overlapping mountain ridges, the dark clouds in the sky gathered together.

A shrill, violent wind began to blow throughout Cimu Middle School.

The wind howled, blowing open the art teacher's wooden door.

The glass windows trembled and shook, the curtains fluttered like skirts,

And the scrolls placed on the wooden table were swept up by the wind, floating all over the classroom.

The fine sand carried by the wind slipped into Black Wooden Horse's eyes, and involuntarily, he blinked.

When he opened his eyes again, the marble statues of women had increased from two to four.

Their pure white, smooth feet had, at some point, left the statue bases,

And they were standing stiffly on the cold floor of the art classroom.

Even more terrifying, the light veils that had gently draped over the statues' faces fluttered up,

Revealing faces that were no longer serene and dignified, but had become distorted, twisted, and ferocious.

Their mouths were wide open, their teeth sharp and pointed, like serrated blades,

And the tongues buried in their mouths were forked at the tips, darting out at Black Wooden Horse like venomous snakes.

How sacred, pure, beautiful, and dignified the statues had been just now,

That's how evil, violent, greedy, and vicious they were now.

"...What's going on?"

Black Wooden Horse took half a step back. Fortunately, all four statues were stiff and motionless, their four outstretched arms only about two meters away from his chest.

"When..."

Black Wooden Horse was horrified. Even with the Code Observer glasses, he still hadn't seen clearly what had just happened.

He took a deep breath, and his feet moved towards the door at an extremely slow pace.

His hands retrieved a bulky, crude, single-soldier rocket launcher from his backpack.

The distance between them was too close, he had to get outside the classroom to ensure that the rocket's explosion shockwave wouldn't harm him.

Little by little, he struggled against the wind and reached the door of the art classroom.

However, the wind was so fierce and violent that as soon as Black Wooden Horse stepped out of the classroom,

The entire old wooden door was blown down by the wind, tilting diagonally,

Slamming against the door frame with a "bang," blocking Black Wooden Horse's view of the four statues.

Black Wooden Horse was startled, and a sense of crisis rang alarm bells in his heart.

He kicked open the wooden door in front of him, only to see a marble statue standing neatly behind the door.

This statue was bent at the waist, its five fingers melted together into three.

Its already narrow face had become even narrower and longer, and some short, black fluff had even grown on its face.

And in its wide-open mouth, the teeth, like serrated blades, were connected into an interlocking ring.

Like some kind of worm.

The images of these statues had become even more terrifying, one could even say that they were gradually deviating from human form and transforming into some kind of "crawling beast."

The number had increased again...

Black Wooden Horse forced himself to calm down. Each time the statues changed, it happened when they were out of his sight.

Did that mean that as long as he kept looking at these statues, they wouldn't change?

Black Wooden Horse stood in the corridor, staring fixedly at the statues inside the door, slowly moving backward until he reached a safe distance.

While keeping his eyes wide open, he shouldered the rocket launcher, aimed roughly, and pulled the trigger.

The rocket flew out, hitting the lead marble statue squarely.

Boom—

The fire was dazzling, and smoke billowed into the sky. Black Wooden Horse strained his dry eyes, staring unblinkingly at the center of the thick smoke.

Suddenly, he thought of something.

If the statues could only move when they were not being watched, then when the fire flared up and the smoke billowed, could they move freely...?

Kaka Kaka—

The sound of some kind of rock cracking rang out at Black Wooden Horse's feet and behind him. He suddenly realized something and immediately turned around.

Behind him, seven statues had somehow broken open the reinforced concrete of the walls, floor, and ceiling behind Black Wooden Horse,

And were standing behind him, preparing to attack—four claws had already touched Black Wooden Horse's back, neck, and waist.

But when Black Wooden Horse's gaze swept over, they, who had been baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, returned to their stiff, motionless poses.

Boom—

The sound of the wall cracking rang out again in his ears. Black Wooden Horse opened his bloodshot eyes and retreated sharply, using the corner of his eye to stare at the wall.

The dozen or so statues in the wall, digging open the reinforced concrete with their fingers and palms, also stopped moving when they were caught by the corner of his eye.

If each time they left his sight, these statues would split into two,

Then I'm afraid that if Black Wooden Horse blinked a few more times, the entire art building would be submerged by endless marble statues.

Rocket shells couldn't kill them,

What's more, the billowing smoke caused by the rocket shells would cause him to lose sight of them, allowing the statues to continue splitting.

"What the hell..."

Black Wooden Horse only felt his eyes so dry that they were about to explode. He propped open his eyelids with his hands, preventing himself from blinking subconsciously.

People need to blink to evenly distribute tears over the cornea and conjunctiva to keep the surface of the eyeball moist.

Normally, a person blinks more than ten times a minute unconsciously, usually blinking once every two to six seconds, with each blink only taking about 0.3 seconds.

The statues were moving faster and faster, and their numbers were increasing.

Those brief 0.3 seconds were enough for them to split up and go around behind Black Wooden Horse,

To use the arms that had mutated into beast claws to sever his head.

Or to use the worm-like maw to bite off his entire head.

"The way to survive this paranormal event is probably to have a player enter the art classroom, pick up this statue without blinking, and carry it downstairs.

Have three people take turns watching her, blinking separately, fixing the statue in place so she can't move or split,

And finally, have the three people work together to figure out a way to destroy her directly."

Black Wooden Horse stood at one end of the corridor, looking at the sixteen statues that were fixed in place, thinking quickly.

"When there's only one statue, it's easy to get rid of, but when the number of statues increases to double digits, the difficulty of the task increases linearly...

How, exactly, can they be solved...?"

The surface of Black Wooden Horse's eyeballs had been blown into by a lot of fine sand and dust, and the intense itching pierced his forehead, making him tremble.

He let out a breath of stale air, stared at the sixteen statues, hesitated for a moment, and then blinked his left eye.