"The clues from all the floors, when pieced together, can reveal the story of the three individuals, allowing us to understand the relationship between the three Evil Ghosts."
"I speculate that during the road test, the Evil Ghost corresponding to each car will appear and hinder the players. The solution to the road test can likely be found in the written exam."
"Ma Gang’s resentment towards Yang Shuang has reached its peak. So, I specifically went to the first floor to get the photo from in front of Yang Shuang’s door. If the prison van is chosen during the road test, Ma Gang might appear. We can use this photo to attract his hatred and buy some time."
After Chu Changge retrieved the photo from the first floor, he encountered Fatty and Xiao Qiao on the stairs and began telling them about his discoveries.
In the darkness, Fatty and Xiao Qiao exchanged glances, listening intently, seemingly struggling to articulate something.
Chu Changge looked at them and asked, "Where’s Gu Mian? We need to tell him this storyline as soon as possible."
Fatty paused for a moment, then hesitantly said, "No... No need..."
Chu Changge immediately noticed his odd behavior and frowned. "What’s wrong?"
Fatty seemed reluctant to speak.
I can’t possibly tell him that the storyline he risked his life for, painstakingly pieced together, was already forced out of the ghost by Gu Mian, who literally had it by the throat, can I? That would be too discouraging.
After a long pause, Fatty finally stammered, "Actually... it’s not that complicated. To be honest, Dr. Gu caught the ghost on the second floor just now..."
Even if Fatty hadn’t finished, Chu Changge could have guessed the rest. He was a man with strong associative thinking skills.
Chu Changge asked in a serious tone, "What did Gu Mian do?"
Although he asked, he could already somewhat imagine the situation.
Seeing this, Fatty asked with some surprise, "Brother Chu, how come you’re not surprised at all to hear this?"
Just moments ago, watching Gu Mian drag the ghost out from under the bed, Fatty had nearly been scared out of his wits.
It wasn’t that Chu Changge didn’t react; it was simply because he had known Gu Mian for too long and had witnessed many things that defied ordinary comprehension.
Moreover, Gu Mian himself was like a bug in this game. The very facts that he could actually die in an instance and could attack NPCs were proof enough.
Therefore, Chu Changge wasn’t the least bit surprised to hear that Gu Mian had attacked a ghost within the instance.
Gu Mian could even attack NPCs, so it wasn’t surprising that he would lay hands on a ghost.
Seeing Chu Changge remain silent, Fatty continued, "Dr. Gu dragged the ghost out from under the bed right in front of me. It was really strange..."
"When I saw the Doctor catch that ghost... I reached out to try too, but I almost had my neck twisted... It scared me to death!"
"Dr. Gu seems very different from us. No, that’s not right, he’s incredibly different..."
Fatty said this in a daze, as if doubting he was dreaming.
Ignoring Fatty’s rambling, Chu Changge asked, "So, where is Gu Mian now?"
The three of them were currently on the staircase between the second and third floors.
Fatty glanced upwards. "Dr. Gu said he was going to find you, Brother Chu. He didn’t find anyone on the first or second floors, so he just went up to the third. He asked us to wait for him here. The ghost from the second floor... it probably won’t come out again, right...?"
After the previous instance collapsed, Gu Mian had received a threatening letter from the game system. Consequently, he was being very careful in this instance, trying not to damage anything.
After he finished questioning it, he naturally let go, and the moment his hand was free, the ghost vanished.
While Fatty was still speaking, they suddenly heard a rustling sound from the stairwell entrance below.
It sounded as if something was pressed close behind the wall.
The three of them quickly looked towards the stairwell. Behind the wall there, a pale half-face had appeared at some point, staring fixedly at them with wide, bell-like eyes.
Fatty gasped and shot up, ready to flee.
But just then, a sound also came from the stairs above.
Someone was descending. He quickly looked up and instantly recognized the familiar white coat.
"Doctor!" Fatty’s earth-shattering cry echoed throughout the entire building.
Chu Changge turned to look at the entrance to the second-floor staircase.
That half-face had disappeared.
Gu Mian, dragging something in his hand, looked at Fatty. "What’s wrong?"
"Ghost... There’s a ghost..." Fatty pointed, trembling, towards the second-floor stairwell.
Gu Mian looked in that direction. It was completely empty; not even a fly, let alone a ghost. However, there was an additional person.
He looked at Chu Changge. "I thought you were eliminated."
"Not at all." Chu Changge shook his head slightly. "I found some clues and finally pieced together the relationship between the three ghosts. I was going to tell you, but it seems you didn’t need it."
Gu Mian always had his own way of doing things; Chu Changge knew this.
Lu Xun once said, "Originally, there were no roads in this world; they are made by people walking them."
But Gu Mian never played by the rules. He never cared if there was a path or not; he’d just stumble along blindly, yet somehow, as if by some unseen force, he always reached the destination.
He still remembered a time in kindergarten when the teacher assigned a craft project: make a paper house and submit it the next day.
This task stumped countless kindergartners and their parents. Consequently, when the assignments were due the next day, Gu Mian was the only one who had completed it.
And how did he complete it?
He went straight to a funeral supply store and bought a paper villa—the kind burned as offerings for the deceased.
After that incident, the kindergarten teacher never assigned that kind of homework again.
Gu Mian had always been an oddball, and as time went on, this particular ’exotic flower’ only bloomed more brilliantly.
So, it wasn’t surprising at all that he’d forge his own path in an instance, doing something like capturing a ghost for interrogation.
Although the instance was designed for players to use deduction, and normal players probably couldn’t do such things to ghosts anyway...
It was now 10:15 AM; they could start answering the questions.
Gu Mian tossed aside the object he was dragging, ready to take out the test paper and start answering.
But Chu Changge seemed interested in the object Gu Mian had tossed aside. "Is this... a long-handled axe? Where did you get it?"
"That?" Gu Mian glanced at the axe on the ground. "It belonged to the ghost on the third floor. He tried to hit me with it, but I snatched it away."
Chu Changge stared at the long-handled axe on the ground, then picked it up. He recalled the nameplate he had seen on Ma Gang’s cell door on the third floor—
Ma Gang: Intentional homicide. Released after serving a thirteen-year sentence. Thirteen years post-release, murdered a woman with a long axe.
Looking closely at this long-handled axe, he could see bloodstains. This was very likely the weapon Ma Gang had used to kill Yang Shuang!
"This axe might be useful during the road test," Chu Changge said, tossing it to Fatty. "You hold onto it for now."
Fatty caught it. "So now... can we answer the questions?"
"Of course." Gu Mian had already taken out a pen. "Once we finish the road test, we can leave."
Fatty pursed his lips. If only the road test was as simple as Gu Mian made it sound.
There were a total of seven players in this special instance.
Gu Mian’s group now numbered four. One player, Hao Laoshi, had died beside the first-floor stairs. Ordinary players didn’t truly die if killed in an instance, so the corpse was also simulated by the game.
The other two players were nowhere to be found; they might also be dead, their bodies lying in one of the rooms.
At this point, the instructor was already standing at the entrance of the written exam center, seemingly waiting to grade the papers.
The four of them lined up and handed him their completed test papers.
The instructor seemed somewhat surprised, likely because more people had survived than he expected.
He then looked down at the four papers. "Although four of you players made it out alive, that doesn’t necessarily mean even one of you passed the exam..."
But his next words caught in his throat.