CH 19

Chapter 19: Four Seasons Protection Guide (6)

Although they were already mentally prepared, the moment they saw the scene in front of them, the stomachs of the four were still surging.

In the dilapidated and desolate lounge, four frozen corpses are displayed.

There were traces of being torn and swallowed on each corpse, and the purple-black blood was evenly splashed on the ground, covered with a thick layer of frost.

That's why Zhang You couldn't tell the direction of the smell of corpse and blood, because every corner of the room was filled with blood and debris.

"It's really unexpected. Classmate Zhang managed to come to the inside of the inspection site." The student council and others entered the door, and they were disappointed when they saw that Zhang You was still alive.

Lili dragged her tone dryly: "However, entering the lounge is just the beginning, and you need to inspect the room carefully. Remember, we only have one hour."

Zhang You looked at them in forbearance, but did not speak. While silently moving her legs, she endured the surge of gastric juices and walked to the four corpses in turn.

"Put your phone closer." Tang Xinjue concentrated on observing the scene. There are countless more nauseating scenes in the nightmare. Tang Xinjue was hardly disturbed by the mess, and quickly analyzed: "These four people are tall adult males. The cause of death should be freezing to death. The torn injuries on their bodies were caused by the Phantoms after death." Tang Xinjue didn't say anything else.

It was impossible for a normal corpse to gather so many dark creatures in a short time. What's more, some of those ghosts just now had little interest in corpses.

More likely, they were deliberately released here, either to destroy the scene or to stop those who came to look for it.

But no matter the reason, Tang Xinjue knew that she had guessed some of the answers by mistake.

"Here's the truth about the heating failure," she said softly. "The four corpses are the staffs responsible for heating. They had uniform clothes and work badges, and they were all in this exclusive lounge for heating staff. They are obviously ready to go to work."

But when winter comes before, they suffered an accident and froze to death. Naturally, they could no longer activate the heating system.

"But..." Tang Xinjue frowned, "There should have been five people here." There were five thermos cups on the table, five chairs in the room, and one badge on the ground was sealed in ice and left alone.

Lili said slowly, "Classmate Tang's eyesight... isn't it very good?"

Tang Xinjue ignored her and said to Zhang You, "Go to the window and have a look."

There are four windows in the room, Zhang You pushed three of them, They are all sealed, and the direction of the seal is from outside to inside. It was only when Zhang You reached the last window that when Zhang You exerted force, the window splattered and shards fell, slowly opening a gap.

"It seems that the fifth heating worker left here." Looking at the window, which was obviously damaged by violence, Tang Xinjue concluded, "Or, only the fifth person managed to successfully escape."

Zhang You repeated Tang Xinjue's words and turned to look at the student council.

The other party squeezed out a hypocritical smile and said to the microphone in a surprised tone: "Oh, it turns out that the heating worker in our school really had an accident. This is troublesome. If there is no heating worker, how should the heating work?"

After she finished speaking, Lili looked at the house again and asked, "What's even weirder is, why did the heating worker suddenly freeze to death? Is it a terrible monster? Or a wicked student? This problem is really worth exploring."

Tang Xinjue sneered: "Then you can explore by yourself, don't waste our time."

Lili: "..."

"Haha," she giggled: "Dear classmates, don't you want to cooperate with the investigation of the student council?"

"Oh?" Tang Xinjue asked back, "If I remember correctly, our mission should be over, right?"

Zhang You felt refreshed.

Tang Xinjue's tone was clear: "From the very beginning, our mission is to help you solve the heating problem successfully. This process is divided into three parts. First, speculate on the cause, put forward hypotheses, and determine the inspection site; second, on-the-spot inspection, if you speculate correctly, explore the reasons for the heating failure; third, find a solution to the heating failure."

Student Council: "...Yes, are you all done?"

"Of course. We have given the correct answer and found the correct location answer, and found that the correct reason for the heating failure came from the death of the heating worker..."

Lili pressed closely: "What's the solution?"

"Five heating workers, four died and one ran away. The solution is of course to find the one that run away." Tang Xinjue answered as a matter of course.

It was well-founded, logically complete, and irrefutable.

"Then," Lili didn't give up: "How do I find the last heating worker?"

"That's your business." Tang Xinjue whispered softly, "The first time you found the scene, the student council should have reported it or sent someone to look for it. According to your ability, it should be easy to find a heating worker, right? If you can't find it, I will wonder if you are deliberately not wanting to solve the heating problem."

First put the hat on someone else's head, so that those who want to do so will have no way to start.*

*blame someone first before you get blamed

Of course, she was not without aim - the requirements of the student union were obviously far beyond the ability of the candidates. Did they want those trapped in the dormitory to track down the heating workers?

Everything outside the basic logic chain, including why the heating workers froze to death, where the remaining heating workers went, etc., it had nothing to do with them.

Sure enough, with the silence of the student council, the task prompt sounded again:

[Ding dong! The task has been completed, the heating recovery process has been triggered, please wait in the dormitory for the cooling down!]

The stone in their hearts fell*, and everyone finally felt relieved.

*an uneasy thing got solved

The student council also had to give up digging holes and declare them successful. Without interest, they even forgot to disguise the tone. Lili held the microphone and went through the process sullenly: "Congratulations, you have successfully helped us complete the field trip. Although you are lazy and insidious, it is clear that the school is tolerant and kind... In view of this, we decided to send a gift for you, dear classmates, what do you want?"

It would be a lie to say that she was not excited. Especially when she was exhausted just after getting out of danger, and suddenly got the end and reward, Zhang You suddenly felt that even the second face on the back of the student council's head was not so scary.

She looked at the reward options provided by the student union, which included "appreciation from the student union", "a random item", "an exam reminder"... There were so many different options that it was hard to decide for a while.

While in a trance, Tang Xinjue's serious voice suddenly sounded on the phone: "Let Zhang You go back to the dormitory first!"

When the voice reached her ears, Zhang You was instantly jolted, the drowsiness in her head was swept away, and she remembered her current situation.

Lili covered her mouth and giggled, her curly hair trembling: "This is also a gift."

The trash student union had even dug a hole here!

If she had just chosen other gifts, Zhang You would have lost the chance to return to the dormitory. If it wasn't because the student council could hear the scolding during the call, the whole dormitory would have been scolding long ago.

"Let Zhang You come back." Tang Xinjue made a solemn decision.

"Are you sure? Then your wish will be fulfilled. Today's student council broadcast ends here~"

Guo Guo suddenly said, "Wait, you haven't said when the heating will be restored!"

"Ah, didn't I say??" Lili pretended to be surprised, and then said slowly: "Before night falls, warmth will come again, but the student union believes that the students will be able to hold on until the night, right?"

After speaking, the radio rang, and only the radio squeaked, leaving only the chaotic signal flow after the radio was turned off.

Within two minutes, the dorm door was pushed open, and Zhang You stumbled in, pointing weakly at the mask on her face.

A few people hurriedly helped her take it off. Zhang You had already held her breath until her blue face was exposed, and she didn't care about the chest tightness caused by the cold air. She took a few breaths and said weakly: "Give me something to eat..."

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the temperature was minus 60 degrees.

All the bedding and mattresses in the dormitory have been taken down and stacked on the ground in the middle of the dorm room. With the addition of tables and chairs, a small and thick tent was built, and the three (T/N: four?) of them hid in the tent. They wore a down jacket with a drape and covered all their exposed skin to prevent frostbite.

After eating and drinking, the three decided to pass the time just like that.

Tang Xinjue took out the Phantom's arm that was frozen into a popsicle and studied it with interest: "This is the first time I have seen their limbs exist in this form."

This was also thanks to the [Light of the Right Path] buff. Otherwise, although she had a way to repel it, she might not be able to get such a complete specimen.

"Wait, judging from this arm, it has a real body... so is it a ghost or a monster?" Guo Guo shrank herself into a ball, as if this arm could break the ice and be resurrected at any time, but she couldn't hold back her curiosity and asked quietly.

Tang Xinjue thought for a while: "Strictly speaking, except for a very small number of Phantoms, they cannot leave the darkness on their own initiative. But if they rely on certain energy or substances, such as ice, water, fire, or even electronic signals, their bodies can be made to appear in physical form for a short period of time.

"What's more, this was just a scorched stump and lost its strength. It was frozen before it crumbled, and it was preserved right then."

Tang Xinjue made the toilet plunger squirt again. The water flowed out, and the water quickly froze in mid-air, and when it fell, it turned into an icicle that looked exactly the same. She knocked the two icicles together, and the pure ice snapped and shattered, while the icicle containing the phantom arm was intact.

"Look, this is forming an enchanted weapon." Tang Xinjue raised the icicle to joke.

Zheng Wanqing's eyes lit up: "If you tie them all to your body, wouldn't you be invulnerable, so you can charge forward with confidence?"

Several people: ... Your idea is very wild.

Guo Guo said faintly: "If there is one day, please stay three meters away from me, so that I don't lose my sanity first, thank you."

Zhang You couldn't help laughing, but when her mouth was bent, her wound opened, so she could only continue to close her mouth.

...

At seven o'clock in the afternoon, the indoor temperature reached minus 68 degrees.

[Moderate Frostbite: Health value -20. Your health value will decrease at a rate of 1 point every 10 minutes]

A day of nervous exhaustion, coupled with the stiffness of the body under the low temperature, several people have become drowsy. Even if they know that the health value was constantly decreasing, they didn't have the energy to control it.

The dilemma of extreme environments was that the human body is often more fragile than imagined.

But its hope was also that human vitality is more tenacious than imagined.

Tang Xinjue put the toilet plunger away. If she felt it carefully, she could see that there were two symbols in her mind at the same time; one was the cartoon version of a toilet plunger, and the other was the light golden [Light of Righteous Path] buff.

At this time, it should have been used once. The color of the buff is much darker than before. It seemed that it had a very strict limit on the number of uses and could only be used as a temporary aid.

If you want to pass the level in the more dangerous exams, the key to breaking the game was to improve your own strength, the five-dimensional attributes... and abilities.

Thinking about this, Tang Xinjue held her head and slowly closed her eyes in the overwhelming sense of heaviness.

[…Ding dong, the heating has been restored, and thanks to your efforts, the winter has been successfully passed...]

[Exam progress: 25%]

In the silence, Tang Xinjue opened her eyes, and almost the next second, tears started to flow out.

Not because of sadness, but because sweat seeped into the corners of her eyes as she opened her eyes, and her physical tears were stimulated by the pain.

Tang Xinjue stretched out her hand with difficulty, wiped the water droplets off her face, and then forcefully overturned the quilt on her body.

Too hot!

One minute later, she might be suffocated in the thick bedding, and she would die before this part of the exam started.

As soon as the quilt was lifted, hot air rushed in. Tang Xinjue looked down and saw that she was lying on the bed, but she was still wearing a down jacket. The heavy clothes weighed almost ten pounds. It was a miracle that she didn't suffocate to death.

What about the others?

This thought arises, and a prompt sound appears at the same time:

[Ding dong, through your tireless efforts, winter is over. However, because the heating workers failed to control the firepower and overheated, the summer came early. Please control the indoor temperature and work hard to survive! ]

...Dude, it's summer after winter?

Even if the order of the seasons was disrupted, what the hell was the reason for this - overheating?

After being speechless for a few seconds, Tang Xinjue rolled over and got out of bed, saving the roommates who were almost suffocated to death one by one.

"Ahhhh!!"

Guo Guo took off her cotton-padded clothes and pants as soon as she woke up. Although last season (Winter) she sniffed and swore that she would rather live in an extremely hot environment than be frozen to death by low temperature, but now——

"I'm so hot, I'm so hot. Damn it!" Looking at the temperature gauge again, the needle had already moved to the opposite direction: 37 degrees.

Tang Xinjue sighed: "If it only stay at this temperature, it can be tolerated, but according to our winter experience, the temperature will definitely continue to rise." Her voice fell, and the next second, the pointer of the measuring table moved up again.

Everyone: "..." 

After replacing all the thick clothes with thin tops and shorts, the sweaty few people breathed a sigh of relief.

"Very bad news." Zhang You checked the faucet with a serious expression: "We are out of water."

Not only the air conditioner, but also the faucet in the dorm was on strike this time. The only water available in the bedroom was half the bucket on the water dispenser, as well as a few bottles of bottled water that were drawn from the mall.

Under high temperature, the water in their bodies will evaporate rapidly, and the water consumption may be ten times higher than usual. Not to mention the need for cleaning and cooling water, this water would not last long.

In the dignified atmosphere, Tang Xinjue took out the toilet plunger and swung it.

"Pfft" - a stream of clean water spewed from the rubber head.

After a few seconds, she hesitated: "Is this a water resource?"