sofare, Lasore...

After pressing these notes, Feng Bujue took a few steps back, vigilantly watching for any movement in his surroundings.

A few seconds passed, and two pale, slender arms emerged from inside the piano's lid at a very strange angle...

There's an idiom that means "to recite fluently from memory," and maybe there are really people who can do that, but Feng Bujue had never seen it, and he didn't think there was any point in reciting a piece of text backward. However, "to play fluently backward" was something he was about to witness.

Before playing, the hands interlaced their fingers, palms facing outward, and stretched. Feng Bujue immediately realized that this seemingly dispensable action was the "reaction time" the game had left for the players. If the player wasn't scared witless, now was the time to do something.

"Don't listen... clapping after the performance is most important..." Feng Bujue muttered the relevant hints from the song, immediately understanding. He scurried over to a chair in the first row and sat down, placing his phone on the seat next to him and wedging the flashlight between his knees, shining it toward the piano.

At this moment, the two withered white arms seemed ready. The ghostly fingers twisted nimbly a few times and pressed down on the keys. Then, the performance began... The hands danced on the keys, the mid-sections of the arms bent at unimaginable angles, the bones of the elbows twisted strangely, and each of the fingers seemed to have a life of its own, moving sideways and leaping across the keys...

Visually, the way these ghostly arms played the piano had neither beauty nor speed. If he had to describe it, it was like ten earthworms strung onto two fishhooks, five on each hook, and those worms were twisting their long bodies, trying to break free from the shackles of the fishhooks.

As for whether the music was good, Feng Bujue didn't know. Although some scattered notes drifted into his ears, he couldn't hear even a small complete melody. From the moment those two arms struck the first note, Feng Bujue had covered his ears tightly with both hands, rhythmically shaking his head while quickly humming, "La la la! La la la! I'm a little newsboy..."

After singing the Newsboy Song, he started singing the March of the Volunteers at double speed. Anyway, as long as those hands didn't stop, Feng Bujue was prepared to keep looping these two songs, not sure what grudge he held against Nie Er.

In short, about five minutes later, just as Feng Bujue was about to start singing the Newsboy Song for the third time, the performance of the two arms stopped. The ghostly claws left the piano keys, raised in the air, and froze.

Without saying a word, Feng Bujue started clapping vigorously, even shamelessly shouting "Bravo!" He was only short of shouting "Encore!"

This kind of cheering, as if he were listening to a crosstalk performance in a park, seemed to shock the owner of the two ghostly arms. Anyway, the hands hung in the air, frozen for about thirty seconds before reacting.

The right hand clenched into a fist and waved twice in the air, as if expressing some kind of dissatisfaction. Then, the left hand held the piano lid, the right hand removed the support that was propping up the lid, and then both hands worked together to hold the lid, slowly retracting it into the piano, closing the lid. Overall, the gesture was like closing the door to decline visitors...

[Main Quest Progress Updated]

[Explore Ye Jie High School, dispel seven supernatural phenomena, current progress 2/7]

"Well... it seems that the so-called 'Seven Wonders' aren't all fatal." Feng Bujue picked up his things and stood up. "Or perhaps... I'd die if I listened to the whole piece just now? Hmph... I feel like this script is conveying a worldview where 'ghosts also have humanity.'"

He glanced at the time, 35:18, and in about five minutes it would be his turn to make the phone call. He wondered how Si Yu was doing now. He hadn't heard the quest completion notification, indicating that she was still trapped in the "Thirteenth Step" space, and the system hadn't given any news that she had died.

This feeling of knowing that someone was in danger but not knowing the specifics... naturally had some impact on Feng Bujue. He opened the game menu, although he knew it was meaningless, but he just wanted to glance at the "Surviving" next to his teammate's ID. It was a strange emotion, like how players in shooting games like to press TAB to look at the roster whenever they have a chance...

Who knew that after opening the game menu, he would have an unexpected discovery. After Feng Bujue finished looking at the team column, he noticed the specialization column, and a new specialization had been unlocked.

That shaded area that appeared after the open beta now had half of it showing, and the new specialization was called "Ling Shu" (Spirit Art), and Feng Bujue's current level was F.

Of the two newly opened specializations, Feng Bujue had already unlocked one. But just by looking at the name, he knew that this specialization would be extremely difficult to train.

The six specializations during the closed beta – General, Machinery, Investigation, Fighting, Shooting, and Medical – all seemed to be relatively conventional settings, but this "Ling Shu" (Spirit Art), as well as the last specialization that hadn't been opened yet, were likely supernatural abilities.

Feng Bujue wasn't sure whether his Ling Shu (Spirit Art) specialization was unlocked after completing the task in front of him, or whether it had been unlocked earlier when he recited ghosts at the dry well. But now that it was unlocked, he couldn't help but think about many things, such as... whether the script's completion reward would randomly include a skill related to Ling Shu (Spirit Art); also, whether this specialization, which sounded like it was specifically for dealing with ghosts, would have any effect on other monsters and players; and also, whether the effects of related skills could be applied to the physical realm, etc...

He stood there thinking for a while, and soon received a prompt from the system, indicating that further dazing would be considered passive gaming. He had no choice but to leave and continue exploring.

The time until the next call was getting shorter and shorter, and the notification that Si Yu had completed the task still hadn't arrived. Feng Bujue couldn't help but feel uneasy. With only one minute left, he hesitated... hesitating whether or not to make this call.

Si Yu's current situation must be very bad. Among the many campus ghost stories, "The Thirteenth Step" should be considered relatively famous, and it was also likely the most difficult to survive. The song "Turn back quickly, turn back quickly... avoid the thirteenth step" gave a hint that was as good as none. It sounded like as long as you stepped over the thirteenth step, it would trigger a rather fatal flag.

But just now, Si Yu was multitasking while talking to Feng Bujue on the phone, counting while walking, and had already walked all thirteen steps. She herself really didn't expect that in this seven-story building, she would encounter these thirteen steps when going up to the second floor.

At this moment, Feng Bujue's consideration was: if Si Yu's situation was already very bad, then there was a high probability that she would not be able to answer this call, and the consequence of this would be that she would become the responsible party, and face even more serious threats in the next fifteen minutes, which would be like adding insult to injury.

But if... he didn't make this call, he would become the responsible party and be chased by ghosts. But in that case, he could ensure that Si Yu would not bear any additional risk.

Just as he was hesitating, the time arrived.