Qi Yang first noted what he saw in his mind, but worried about misremembering, he then wrote it down in a notebook. Roughly every class, the ghosts would change their appearance, becoming terrifying and gruesome. The entire classroom was filled with the smell of decaying corpses. When class ended, Qi Yang would go outside to get some fresh air. Players from other classes would also come out; clearly, their situation was similar to Qi Yang’s class. Everyone’s faces looked about the same, with only a few experienced players who had cleared previous games looking better.

From his outward appearance, Qi Yang seemed unaffected, but deep down, he still had doubts about whether he could successfully clear the game.

Who knew that what he thought was discovering the rules might only be a small part of them, and there were many crucial points he hadn’t found yet.

Looking at the playground downstairs, Yuan Yuan and his two little followers also stood on either side of Qi Yang. When class started, they separated from Qi Yang. Although they weren’t far apart, both of them were still very flustered. After class, they got closer to Qi Yang. Qi Yang had a particularly peaceful aura about him, as if getting close to him could calm one’s heart quite a bit.

The two of them still had some discernment and noticed that Qi Yang seemed disinclined to talk, and also seemed to be thinking about something. After exchanging glances, they decided not to disturb Qi Yang for the time being.

After the third class in the afternoon, Qi Yang walked out of the classroom. Yi Xinming had already been waiting outside. At noon, Qi Yang said he had discovered something and was waiting to verify it. However, Qi Yang didn’t speak to him during the two afternoon classes. Instead, he saw Qi Yang standing in the corridor with a calm expression. Yi Xinming began to suspect that perhaps he had placed his hopes in the wrong place. Even he, who had cleared the game several times, couldn’t discover the rules for the dead, so it was unlikely that Qi Yang, a newcomer who had just transmigrated, would be more perceptive than him.

Yi Xinming already felt that perhaps he should still rely on himself, but before that, he still walked up to Qi Yang and asked him if he had discovered anything that afternoon.

Originally, he didn’t have much hope, but the feedback Qi Yang subsequently gave surprised Yi Xinming, who stared blankly at Qi Yang.

“Qi Yang, are you really not lying? Is this your first time clearing the game?” Yi Xinming blurted out what was on his mind.

Qi Yang was actually quite puzzled as to why Yi Xinming was so surprised by his discovery. In his opinion, as long as one overcame a little fear and observed carefully, they could notice some trends in the changes of the ghosts in the classroom.

“First time, and I’m sure I haven’t lost my memory.” Qi Yang smiled faintly, not dwelling on the question, and continued with what he had been interrupted from saying.

“There are a total of sixty-seven students in my classroom. Excluding me and Yuan Yuan and the other two, there are sixty-four left. I roughly noted down, not completely, that the deaths of over sixty people can generally be divided into eight to nine categories. The first is being crushed by a heavy object, the second is burns, the third is being cut by a sharp object, and there are also those who were run over, strangled, had their limbs severed, and had their eyes gouged out…”

Listening to Qi Yang calmly describe these, Yi Xinming and Yuan Yuan’s expressions changed.

Qi Yang stopped and looked at Yi Xinming in front of him: “This is just what I found in my classroom. You can note down your class’s situation tonight, and then we can compare. If they are all the same, then that’s pretty much it.”

Yi Xinming took the note on which Qi Yang had written how those ghosts died. Looking at the words on it, Yi Xinming’s heart found it hard to calm down.

“If that’s the pattern, then fire should be next.”

“Fire? Where’s the fire?” Yuan Yuan’s eyes flickered with fear. “The cafeteria?”

That was the only place Yuan Yuan could think of.

“No, not just the cafeteria, the dorms too.” Yi Xinming smiled wryly and met Qi Yang’s gaze.

Qi Yang nodded. Yuan Yuan didn’t understand for a moment, and then Du Yong, also a male student, offered an explanation.

“Someone’s smoking. It’s not surprising that many people in a male dorm would smoke.” If there’s smoking, there’s definitely a lighter.

Yuan Yuan was startled. She remembered her high school. Although there were dorm rules against smoking, sometimes when she went to the restroom, she could still smell smoke inside. It was clear that not only boys, but girls too, smoked.

“Then tonight…” Yuan Yuan thought the dorm would at least be much safer than the classroom and cafeteria. Now it seems that the dorm might actually be more dangerous, with its small space and only one door. As long as someone guards the door, they won’t be able to escape.

“Don’t be too pessimistic. Aren’t there still four classes tonight? I think we can look for other clues.” Qi Yang looked at Yuan Yuan and comforted her.

Yuan Yuan looked at Qi Yang’s gentle eyes. When he spoke, it was as if a warm current flowed through her heart. Yuan Yuan lowered her eyelids, her ears suddenly a little red.

Yi Xinming, with his sharp eyes, saw this scene. He raised an eyebrow to look at Qi Yang, who didn’t understand. Yi Xinming didn’t point it out. He actually hadn’t told Qi Yang and the others something: that after almost every level, the personnel would be adjusted. People who had become familiar with each other might be separated in the very next game. So, Yi Xinming didn’t plan to interfere with Yuan Yuan’s feelings for Qi Yang. Whether they could clear the levels was still unknown, including himself; Yi Xinming wasn’t entirely confident.

However, at this point, Yi Xinming had a new understanding of Qi Yang. This person’s abilities were as outstanding as his looks. Yi Xinming felt fortunate to have met Qi Yang here.

“Okay, I’ll pay attention during class tonight, and you keep an eye out too.” Yi Xinming and Qi Yang thus reached a cooperation agreement. Individual strength is always limited; with more people, you can always discover things you wouldn’t notice yourself.

Several people went to the cafeteria together for dinner. Because of the ceiling collapse at noon, most of the cafeteria was cordoned off in the afternoon, and some tables and chairs were even moved by cafeteria staff to the open space outside. Seeing this situation, Qi Yang finished eating outside the cafeteria and didn’t go back to the dormitory. If he went to the dormitory and accidentally encountered a fire, he would be burned to death, and there would be no place to revive.

After dinner, a group of people found a corner in the playground to stay. The spot was open, with only a two-meter-high wall behind them.

There were indentations in some parts of the wall that could be climbed.

“This wall can’t stop anyone; I can climb it in a minute,” said a man from Yi Xinming’s class. The man was tall and thin, over 1.8 meters, and when he raised his hand and stretched a little, his hand reached the top of the wall.

“Do you dare to climb?” Yi Xinming asked with a smile, looking up.

The smile on the man’s face faltered a bit. As a newcomer, he was quite arrogant at first, thinking there was nothing to be afraid of here. But then, during the first class, the ghosts changed their expressions and almost scared him to death.

After learning that Yi Xinming had cleared the game several times, the man’s arrogance vanished, and he became like a coward.

“I wouldn’t dare.” The single-eyelid man didn’t pretend to be brave; he remembered someone in the hallway who didn’t enter the classroom and had their right hand twisted off by the teacher.

If he climbed over the wall, it would be considered truancy, and the thought of the punishment for truancy sent shivers down his spine.

“Truancy is wrong, but if you don’t get caught, it’s not a problem, right?” Qi Yang narrowed his eyes, looking at the top of the wall.

“Didn’t you guys ever climb over the wall in high school to play games all night?” Qi Yang asked the male players.

“I did,” Du Yong was the first to raise his hand and reply like a good student.

The rest of them also nodded, but a boy wearing glasses shook his head, and most of the girls also shook their heads, though one still nodded.

“So this is what I’m thinking: since the possible outcome is being burned to death, and there’s a risk of fire in the dorm, wouldn’t it be better to skip class and stay at an internet cafe for the night?”

Qi Yang presented his idea.

“Are you sure nothing will happen at the internet cafe outside? If something does happen, will you take responsibility for the consequences?” The single-eyelid guy trusted Yi Xinming but not Qi Yang. He didn’t know what Qi Yang had done, so he immediately used sharp words to provoke Qi Yang. His personality was one factor, and Qi Yang being too handsome, with all the girls’ attention on him, was another.

“Huang Qian!” Before Qi Yang could reply, Yi Xinming glared at the single-eyelid guy.

The single-eyelid guy’s name had “Qian” in it, but his personality completely lacked humility.

Qi Yang glanced indifferently at Huang Qian, then looked away.

“Let’s go to class.” Qi Yang, hands in his pockets, turned and walked away from the corner.

His two followers, Yuan Yuan and Du Yong, both glared at Huang Qian, then quickly caught up with Qi Yang.

“Brother Qi, don’t bother with people like that. They do nothing but question others’ abilities, trash,” Du Yong cursed.

Qi Yang smiled faintly, a cold smile playing on his lips.

“So what exactly should we do tonight?” Du Yong was more concerned about this.

Qi Yang shook his head; he didn’t know either.

“Brother Qi Yang, could there be a situation like this, with numerical hints? The cafeteria was 1, the fire was 2, and so on, 3, 4, 5, 6. Yuan Yuan’s idea was simple; she subconsciously thought there would be numerical hints, otherwise, this game would be too cruel, giving them no way out at all, and whether they lived or died would be entirely up to luck.

Qi Yang looked back at Yuan Yuan, who was staring at him with those beautiful, luminous eyes, and Yuan Yuan’s cheeks quickly flushed.

“I-I’m sorry, I just said that casually. How could it be that simple? It’s impossible.” Yuan Yuan immediately apologized for her naivety.

But then Qi Yang smiled, and when he smiled, it was as if much of the gloom in the sky had dissipated.

Yuan Yuan’s heart pounded rapidly.

“Maybe it really is like that,” Qi Yang said.

“Really?” Suddenly affirmed, Yuan Yuan immediately felt like she wasn’t so useless after all.

“So how do we find these numbers? Where will they appear? At the scene of death?” Du Yong’s mind was still working quite fast.

“Maybe,” Qi Yang replied, not giving a definitive answer.

“I’ll go check the cafeteria. I’ll handle this matter for Brother Qi.” Not knowing where the courage came from, Du Yong volunteered to go to the cafeteria accident scene to see if there were any numerical clues.

As he turned to leave, Qi Yang suddenly called out to him, “No need.”

“Huh? Why?” Du Yong and Yuan Yuan asked in unison.

“Look there!” Qi Yang pointed to the sign above the cafeteria. In the bottom right corner of the sign was a bright red number 1, as if stained with blood.

“Such a small number, really, who could see it?” Yuan Yuan couldn’t help but whisper.

As they walked towards the classroom, several people along the way were stared at as if they were food, and the students in school uniforms all showed eerie smiles. The sky wasn’t completely dark yet, but those chilling smiles were already different from what they had seen before.

Du Yong and Yuan Yuan moved closer to Qi Yang. Qi Yang glanced at the two of them, left and right. He wondered if it was his imagination, but it seemed like these two were treating him like a mother hen, and they were two little chicks afraid of the surrounding threats, so they moved closer to Qi Yang, hoping he would protect them.

Qi Yang originally wanted to laugh. He himself was similar to these two, both newcomers who had just entered the game. But then he suddenly thought, they really weren’t quite the same. At least these two weren’t pregnant when they entered this game, unlike him, who had a baby in his belly.

Qi Yang walked up the stairs, recalling how this child came to be. Of course, it didn’t just suddenly appear in his belly; it was due to a one-night stand two months prior. He was traveling out of town, had one too many drinks that night, and was already in his hotel room when he suddenly felt hungry. He could have ordered takeout, but for some reason, Qi Yang changed his clothes and went downstairs. He bought some things and returned to the hotel, where he met someone in the elevator. The person was dressed in black from head to toe, but their skin was unusually pale, almost like a corpse’s. Qi Yang was a bit drunk at the time, so he kept staring at the person. If it had been his usual self, he definitely wouldn’t have done that. When the other person turned their head, Qi Yang smiled and even whistled.

He was too handsome. It was a face Qi Yang hadn’t seen in years—cold eyes, a cold face, and black pupils that seemed darker than the deepest night. After Qi Yang whistled, the man seemed a little displeased and stared at him. Qi Yang smiled and greeted him. The man averted his gaze, and then Qi Yang found himself staring at the man. Whether by coincidence or not, the man was going to the same floor as Qi Yang, and their rooms seemed to be not far apart.

When he opened the door with the room card, Qi Yang suddenly joked to the man passing behind him, “Are you stalking me? Are you secretly in love with me?”

He hadn’t drunk much that day, so he didn’t know why he was joking like that with a stranger at the time.

The stranger seemed similar to Qi Yang, and also a little interested in Qi Yang’s face. The man walked up to Qi Yang, and as he got closer, Qi Yang felt a strange chill.

“Your face is so cold.” Qi Yang raised his hand to touch the stranger’s handsome face, and the man’s eyes, where he was touched, immediately showed a raging storm.

Qi Yang couldn’t quite remember what happened after that. It seemed he had invited the man in, and with the mindset of a one-night stand, Qi Yang slept with him.

The next morning, the man was gone. If Qi Yang hadn’t seen some marks on his neck when he washed his face, he would have thought it was just a vivid, erotic dream.

After that day, Qi Yang put the one-night stand out of his mind. He thought he would never have anything to do with men again. Who would have thought that he would soon become pregnant, pregnant with a stranger’s child?

And he’s playing horror games while pregnant.