CH 26

The third round of the game began, and I felt a tap on my shoulder, signaling me to move forward. Unless something unexpected happens, this should be the round where I pass through the empty corner.

Each step in the darkness was difficult, and no one knew what lay ahead. I regretted agreeing to play this game with them, knowing how dangerous the campus could be.

One step, two steps, and my hand stretching forward finally touched the solid wall. The corner was empty. I breathed a sigh of relief as the game continued without any abnormalities.

“Cough!” Following the rules of the game, I coughed and continued to the next corner.

As I moved forward, the sound of footsteps echoed and a dark figure appeared in front of me. I lightly tapped their shoulder and stood at the corner.

The game continued normally until the seventh round, when I lost patience and grew a bit numb to the game. Suddenly, the sound of coughing disappeared.

One minute, two minutes, and three minutes passed without any coughing, but the sound of footsteps still echoed out clearly.

“Has someone else entered the room?” I resisted my curiosity and didn’t turn around, but I observed with the corner of my eye. The signal light of the window camera kept flashing, and Sakurako stood there like a corpse, still and motionless.

“If it’s not Sakurako who joined the game, then who is the extra person in the classroom?” My heart beat faster and faster, and no matter which direction I looked in the darkness, everything seemed to be hiding spirits of wronged deceased.

“Listen to me, everyone. It seems that we have an extra person in our game. Let’s change the rules.” Hideki’s voice was erratic in the classroom. “The basic rules are the same as before, but we’ll add one more. When you tap the shoulder of the person in front of you, you have to say your name. Okay, let’s start with whoever’s turn it is.”

The footsteps never stopped, and I was considering whether or not to stop them and forcefully end the game when someone suddenly tapped my back. “I’m Hideki.”

A deep and slow voice rang out, with a subtle difference from the one I heard earlier. It was like someone talking while eating. Without turning back, I moved on to the next corner.

“I’m the host,” I said to the person in front of me, and then he stumbled away as I nervously stood at the corner.

The game had gone on for seven rounds, and I remembered the position changes in each round.

Based on logical reasoning and the known clues, I and Hideki were in our correct positions. That meant that something else had been mixed in. “The extra person should be between Xue Fei and Shen Meng, or between Shen Meng and Hideki.”

Time passed, and only the sound of footsteps remained in the classroom. I counted the seconds while deducing the position of each person.

“Pa!” My back was lightly patted. “I’m Shen Meng.”

“Shen Meng?!” My hairs stood on end at the sound of her name. “How did she get behind me?”

In the darkness, I didn’t look back and stiffly took a step forward.

“Some games shouldn’t be played casually, especially in a place like this,” murmured Shen Meng behind me, but I didn’t quite catch what she said. Feeling uneasy, I touched the wall and left.

“This isn’t right. I can only hear one person’s footsteps in the classroom. Where did Hideki and Xue Fei go?” Without realizing it, I had already walked to the next corner. “Is no one here?”

The empty corner was filled with thick darkness. I touched the wall in front of me and coughed lightly before moving towards the next corner. “Could it be that the fifth person has already left? So there’s an empty spot…”

As I continued to ponder, I was suddenly startled by the situation in front of me. There was still no one at the second corner! “What…?” I quickened my pace towards the third and fourth corners. “No one, still no one!”

Touching the wall, my lips were dry. “Could it be that they’ve been following me this whole time?”

I turned around suddenly, but there was only pitch darkness. “The footsteps have stopped, and I’m the only one moving. Could it be that everyone else, except for me, is…”

I looked towards the window, and the camera signal light was flashing. However, the girl named Sakurako was nowhere to be seen!

Standing at the corner, an unprecedented fear came from all directions. I felt like there were countless pairs of eyes in the darkness, all malevolent and staring at me.

I couldn’t remain calm anymore and rushed towards the window at a fast pace. It was the only source of light in my field of vision. Pushing open the window, I leaped onto the corridor and left the gloomy and oppressive, pitch black room. I felt as though my whole body was dehydrated, and I collapsed on the ground.

“Haha, so even adults can be so scared!” I heard someone laughing, and when I looked up, Hideki, Xue fei, and Sakurako were hiding behind the classroom door. Hideki was clutching his stomach, laughing merrily.

“When did you two come out?” I looked at them suspiciously.

“We came out a long time ago.”

“Why is there an extra person when only four people were playing?” I asked.

“Well, there were only the four of us in the classroom. The reason you heard footsteps is because I kept moving around. After I tapped your shoulder, I returned to my original position, which created the

illusion of an extra person,” Hideki said proudly. He didn’t share his peers’ fear of the darkness.

“Boring,” Xue Fei shrugged. “There are no ghosts in this world. It’s all just people scaring themselves.”

“So it was just a prank,” I breathed a sigh of relief, putting away my camera and standing up. “It’s good that everything’s okay. The game is over now, so you should all go home.”

It was already late at night, and I guessed the parents of these children were starting to worry.

I scanned the three kids in front of me. “Where’s the other one? The short-haired girl named Shen Meng?”

“She hasn’t come out yet? Maybe she’s still in the classroom, scared out of her wits, haha.” Hideki chuckled.

But his joke was met with my stern expression. “What do you mean, she hasn’t come out yet?”

“What’s wrong? Didn’t you also see through Hideki’s prank before you left early?” Xue Fei noticed my unusual expression and asked.

“No, I didn’t see through his prank. I searched the entire classroom, all four corners, and didn’t find anyone before hastily escaping…” I tried to simplify my speech to make it easier to understand. “I looked for her, but Shen Meng wasn’t in the classroom…”

“That’s impossible!” The kids realized the severity of the situation and rushed into the classroom. I took out my phone for light, but the classroom was empty and silent, with not a soul in sight.

“Shen Meng went missing? Right under our noses?!”

“Shen Meng!” Xue Fei and the others shouted in the dead silence of the teaching building, but there was no answer for a long time.

“You bastard! It’s all because you had to play this Four Corners game!” Xue Fei grabbed Hideki by the collar and lifted him up.

“How can you blame me? It was everyone’s decision to come here and test our courage. Didn’t you also agree?” Hideki dared not resist the tall Xue Fei and could only wave his hands in the air. “Don’t worry, Shen Meng might have left already with her bold attitude. Maybe she’s hiding somewhere, having fun right now.”

“Do you think she’s as reckless as you?” Xue Fei became more and more angry as he spoke, raising his fist to strike Hideki.

“Calm down. Now is not the time to argue about who’s right or wrong.” I sighed and grabbed Xue Fei’s arm. “Our top priority is to find Shen Meng. This school becomes very eerie at night, and we don’t have time to argue here.”

I pulled Xue Fei and Hideki apart and squatted in front of Sakurako. She didn’t participate in the game and had been standing outside the classroom, so she might have seen something.

“Sakurako, do you know where that sister went?” I had no experience dealing with children, so I tried to speak as gently and softly as possible.

Sakurako, who was dressed like a doll, didn’t look at me. Her eyes were lifeless as she stared at the ground, then shook her head.

“Is this child too introverted?” No matter what I asked her, the girl’s responses were only two actions: shaking her head or remaining motionless as if she hadn’t heard anything.

“Mr. Host, what do we do now?”

“What else can we do?” I stood up and looked at the eerie campus in the dark. “Check all the buildings; we must find her.”

With a young life at stake, I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing, even though I knew it would only drag me deeper into this vortex.

“We’ll check the teaching building again later, and then go to the laboratory together. You three follow me closely and don’t get lost again.” Carrying the camera, I walked at the front of the group. While they weren’t looking, I quietly took out my phone and reviewed the recording from earlier.

The footage was extremely blurry, and only a glimmer of light was captured as I was passing by a window. Yet, it was during this split second of brightness that an extremely terrifying scene was captured. Someone had been following me all along in that classroom we were just in!

“I knew it, you were lying…”