Chapter 21 "Look... as long as you dare to face fear, overcoming it isn't too hard, right?" Feng Bujue said as the entire team arrived on the second floor.

At that moment, the flashlight in Gui Xiao's hand finally ran out of power.

"If anyone else said that, I'd definitely reply with...'Easy for you to say'," Gui Xiao's emotions had calmed down considerably, and his tone was relatively steady as he replied. "But when you say it, I really can't argue..."

"Heh..." Feng Bujue chuckled. "I'll take that as a compliment." As he spoke, he stepped forward and picked up the pair of shoes from the floor.

[Name: Crafty Ghoul Boots]

[Type: Armor]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Defense: Medium]

[Attribute: None]

[Effect: Emits a warning black mist when approaching traps with a fixed pattern]

[Equipment Requirements: Male, Level 8 or higher, foot size less than or equal to 39, bound on equip]

[Can be brought out of this script: Yes]

[Note: Boots left behind by a crafty ghoul after his soul dispersed.]

"Eh? It's actually equipment... I thought it would be a quest item," Feng Bujue said after reading the item description, and then handed the boots to Gui Xiao. "You solved this part of the mechanism, so you get the reward."

Gui Xiao wasn't polite and took the boots first.

"Hmm... the stats are so-so," Gui Xiao muttered as he looked at the equipment. "But it's not completely useless..." As he said that, he tied the two boots together with the laces and slung them over his shoulder. "Anyway... I'll accept them without ceremony."

He was, after all, a professional player under the Order, and he could assess the value of a piece of equipment to within eighty or ninety percent of its true worth; so he knew that something like this was the kind of thing that could be "put up for auction at a reasonable price and sold." Of course, he didn't need to worry too much about that, because he didn't have to handle the spoils of war—the studio had people specifically responsible for distributing tradeable equipment and skills.

"Okay, you don't look like you need to rest, so let's get moving," Feng Bujue said to the others two seconds later, waving to Xiao Tan and signaling him to lead the way.

However, Xiao Tan then suggested, "Brother Jue, I think... you should lead the way. I'll give you the flashlight."

"Hmm..." Feng Bujue paused for a second after hearing that and then said, "Alright, I'll do it."

"Hey!" Gui Xiao was shocked at the sight. "Why are you so agreeable when he makes a request? You were constantly criticizing me when I raised objections to your commands earlier!"

"Because he's injured," Feng Bujue replied without thinking, in a matter-of-fact tone. "If you had a chunk of flesh ripped off by a monster earlier, I'd definitely take your situation into consideration too."

That reason was indeed reasonable and there was nothing to criticize.

"Okay, okay... you're always right..." Gui Xiao muttered, rolling his eyes, and didn't say anything else.

Jue-ge had already taken the flashlight from Xiao Tan and walked to the front of the group again, saying as he walked, "Besides, if I walk in front... I can shield you from most of the 'jump scare' scenes, can't I? It's good for your Scare Value rating too."

"Come on~ We've all been scared multiple times already, except for you," An Yueqin interjected at this point. "As long as we can clear this script, I don't care about the rating anymore."

"That's right," Ruo Yu nodded in agreement. "This script is really a bit scary, and there are a lot of jump scares... our rating is basically beyond saving." At that point, she looked at Jue-ge, and changed the subject. "But... even if we don't care about the Scare Value, I still support you walking in front, because your efficiency in scripts like this is much higher than ours. Most of us will be affected by fear, but you won't... in a situation where we need to race against time, you're the most suitable to lead the way."

As the few of them conversed with each other, Jue-ge's footsteps naturally didn't stop, and everyone else followed closely behind him.

The layout of the second floor was different from that of the first floor. The space here was small, and the corridor could be seen all the way to the end from the top of the stairs; and there were only two rooms in total...

Feng Bujue wasn't in a hurry to open the door. He first walked to the end of the corridor and checked the window located there.

Like the windows in the biology classroom on the first floor, the windows here faced "outside the school", and because it was on the second floor, you could see even further from here.

"Everyone... if I'm not mistaken, is that a torii gate?" Jue-ge said suddenly after standing and gazing out the window for a few seconds.

Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Ling and Xiao Tan both crowded over; leaving aside the bonus factors in the game, these two also had excellent vision in real life, and they usually volunteered to help with this kind of work that required good eyesight.

"Hmm... that's right," Xiao Tan quickly confirmed, using the bright moonlight outside. "It's on that mountain road over there."

"I see it too, it's red, it must be a torii gate," Xiao Ling added.

"In other words... if we go through that grove of trees and follow the mountain road, there's a shrine not far away, right?" Feng Bujue then said.

"You mean..." Gui Xiao immediately understood something from his words, "That festival that we saw on the news earlier..."

"The Sansha Matsuri," An Yueqin reminded him at the right time.

"Oh right... the Sansha Matsuri," Gui Xiao continued. "You mean that the place where that festival is held isn't far from this school, so... it might be related to the series of supernatural events happening here?"

"I don't know about that, there's not enough information yet," Feng Bujue said, then turned around and gestured for everyone to follow him back. "As far as I know... the general 'Sansha Matsuri' refers to a folk event that has been passed down since the Edo period, and it's held in the Asakusa area of Tokyo, and it's basically just a matter of carrying a palanquin around the streets... but I don't know what the so-called 'Sansha Matsuri' held in this town, or rather, this 'village' where 'Chongjiu Elementary School' is located, is specifically for."

As he said this, Feng Bujue had already walked to the door of the "Principal's Office" on the second floor. Opposite this door was the "Storage Room" where the fire had occurred.

"I'll try this door first..." Jue-ge stood there and thought for two seconds, then turned to the door of the "Storage Room".

[This door is sealed by a dark power]

"Alright..." After receiving the expected prompt, Feng Bujue looked at his teammates, shrugged, and then took out the [Principal's Office Key] and opened the door to the Principal's Office.

The door of this room was different from all the previous doors. It was not a Japanese-style sliding door, but an ordinary hinged door.

Therefore, Feng Bujue didn't pull it open horizontally, but pushed the door open inward.

"Uh—" The moment the door was pushed open, a low groan came from the room behind the door, and along with it... there was also a strong smell of alcohol.

"Heh..." Feng Bujue chuckled when he smelled the scent. "This hint is pretty obvious." As he stepped into the room, he said, "It's just trying to tell us that the principal is a drunkard who makes mistakes when he's drunk, right?"

The time after opening the door was a high-incidence period for jump scares. Although Jue-ge's words made sense, the others had no intention of responding... they were all tense, preparing to welcome some kind of sudden event.

A dozen seconds later, all six players entered the Principal's Office.

If the biology classroom on the first floor had a relatively small "activity range", then this room... was purely small in area.

In a space of about thirty square meters, there was a desk, three wooden chairs, and a large bookshelf; the desk and bookshelf were naturally for the principal's office use, as for the chairs... it was also obvious that one was for the principal to sit on, and the other two were for visiting parents to sit on.

In addition, there was also a window in this Principal's Office.

Feng Bujue went straight to the window as soon as he entered the room, wanting to know what he could see through this window.

As a result, he saw the school's playground, and...

"Oh? This is quite strange..." Feng Bujue had only stood at the window for a few seconds before saying this.

"What's wrong?" Gui Xiao was close to him and went over to take a look. "What did you see... ah!" He didn't finish his sentence, because when he was halfway through, he saw what Jue-ge had seen, so he exclaimed in surprise.

"What's going on? What did you see?" The others in the team were startled by him and turned around to ask.

"There's... someone outside!" Gui Xiao stammered.

Hearing this, everyone gathered at the window and looked outside.

At this moment, on the school's empty playground, stood a figure. By the moonlight, you could see that it was a man, about thirty years old, wearing a white shirt, black pants, and glasses.

It looked like an ordinary office worker, slightly overweight, with average looks, and a very ordinary hairstyle.

In fact, if he was just standing there, he wouldn't have scared Gui Xiao, but the problem was... he was looking up at the window of the Principal's Office, and looking at the players from across the distance with a straight gaze, which... was a little creepy.

"Brother Jue, what... what should we do?" Xiao Tan asked Feng Bujue for his opinion at the first moment.

"Time is tight, you guys search the room first, I'll try to communicate with him," Feng Bujue replied, raising his right hand and waving to the man on the playground.

"Be careful," Ruo Yu wasted no time after hearing Feng Bujue's instructions. She immediately turned on her flashlight and headed towards the desk.

The others hesitated slightly and then left the window one after another.

Thus, the investigation of the Principal's Office began.

This time, the players were racing against time and were very quick, and they completed everything in just four minutes.

The final results were as follows—

One, the telephone on the desk had no telephone line, and it seemed to be just a decoration.

Two, the desk had a total of three drawers, one large and two small. Only the small drawer on the left could be opened. The large drawer in the middle and the small drawer on the right were prompted to "require a key".

Three, the drawer that could be opened contained a black and white photograph. The photograph had no item description, and no date or text could be found on the photograph. The content of the photograph... was a half-length portrait of a seven or eight-year-old boy who was not at all cute.

Four, the bookshelf contained a large pile of documents and materials, but 99% of the content was invisible, that is, irrelevant information that had been "blurred by the system"; however, one extra-large group photo... was still relatively clear, and there was a line of words written on the back of the group photo—[Showa 46, Class 1-A].

"Okay, it looks like... everyone's made good progress, right?" Feng Bujue took the initiative to turn around and said to his teammates four minutes later.

"Yeah, there aren't many places to search in this room," Ruo Yu replied, and asked, "How about your side?"

"No reaction," Feng Bujue replied.

"Be more specific," Ruo Yu added.

"To be more specific..." Feng Bujue continued, "I waved to him, waved the flashlight, made the Star Trek peace sign, made a funny face, gave him the middle finger... in short, I did everything I could, and if the system didn't stop me, I would have taken off my pants in front of the window..." He paused for two seconds, "But that guy just stood there with an unchanging expression, continuing to stare at me, without any reaction."

"Okay..." Ruo Yu belatedly realized that she probably shouldn't have asked.

In short, since there was no result from communicating with the mysterious man outside the window, the players temporarily ignored him; after they exchanged the results of their search, they entered the puzzle-solving stage...

"So... the entry point is these two photos, right?" Feng Bujue said, looking at the two photos placed on the desk. "This 'Class 1-A in Showa 46' is naturally 'Class 2-A' in Showa 47; in other words... the people in this group photo, including the teacher and students, can be called 'Class 2-A'."

"You mean..." Xiao Ling followed Jue-ge's train of thought and said, "The hidden quest we received—[Investigate the whereabouts of everyone in Class 2-A], isn't just about finding out the whereabouts of the nine students, but about figuring out the ending of everyone in this group photo?"

"Yeah, there's no way around it," Feng Bujue replied. "Fortunately... the whereabouts of three people are already clear." He pointed his finger at a child in the photo, "This is Noguchi Eiji. He died in front of the classroom locker on May 14, Showa 47." He paused for a second, and moved his fingertip slightly, "This is the female ghost we encountered in the music classroom. I guess she's the music teacher... Although I don't know the specific time of death, she undoubtedly died in the large cabinet in that classroom."

"You can recognize her even though the corpse has turned into a skeleton?" Gui Xiao asked suspiciously.

"Didn't she hang upside down and show her face when we first opened the door?" Feng Bujue replied calmly. "You didn't see it clearly, but I saw that face clearly at close range."

This answer was very convincing...

"Next... let's talk about the third one..." Feng Bujue said, pointing to another person in the photo, "If I'm not mistaken, this guy in the white coat... is that pile of Italian noodles in the biology classroom."