More accurately, only five of them felt despair, not including Qi Yang. In fact, Qi Yang’s lips curved into a silent smile. This scene was both expected and reasonable; with various terrifying incidents happening every day before, it was unlikely they would suddenly have a smooth path when leaving.

“What do we do now?” The first to speak with a trembling voice was Xu Yang. He first looked at Yi Xinming, seeing that Yi Xinming, who had cleared the game several times, now had an unprecedentedly grave and serious expression. Subconsciously, he then looked at Qi Yang. Qi Yang’s curved lips had already straightened, so what Xu Yang saw was that even the usually calm Qi Yang was shocked by the scene before them.

The massive chasm spanning before them directly blocked their path out of the school.

This wasn’t the end. As time ticked by, Xu Yang heard countless footsteps approaching from behind him. He slowly turned his head, and on the very road they had just run down, countless ghostly students were closing in. It was midday, and just moments ago the sky had been clear, but suddenly the entire sky was covered by dark, ominous clouds, plunging the world into gloom.

This gloom triggered a deep-seated fear in people’s hearts. The ghosts didn’t go to the cafeteria; instead, they all gathered towards the school gate, closing in on the players who were trying to escape this haunted middle school.

The path ahead was blocked, and their retreat was instantly cut off by the ghosts. The players turned around to face the encircling spirits.

“What do we do now?” Du Yong panicked, hastily asking Qi Yang for his opinion. Qi Yang still maintained a cold, stern expression, as if even he couldn’t think of a way to deal with the countless ghosts before them.

“Are they going to attack us?” Tears welled up in Yuan Yuan’s eyes. She walked towards Kang Lian, who was also a girl, seeking protection. Kang Lian’s face was pale, and as she looked at the countless humanoid ghosts before her, she couldn’t help but step back, almost losing her footing and falling into the deep pit.

Turning her head to glance into the deep pit, the black metal gears at the bottom of the pit were spinning rapidly. Suddenly, Kang Lian felt that these gears seemed to symbolize something. Her eyes flickered. Not long ago, she had accompanied a friend to the hospital, where the doctor had removed a mass of flesh and blood from her friend’s womb. That mass of flesh and blood had not yet formed. Although Kang Lian wasn’t present, she knew that a small life had disappeared before her eyes.

A small life, unaccepted and unloved, died before Kang Lian’s eyes.

Kang Lian squatted down, suddenly feeling a sharp pain in her own stomach. She clutched her belly and squatted at the edge of the deep pit, as if she could feel the pain of her friend’s abortion. They had said it would be a painless procedure, but after the surgery, her friend was completely drained. Kang Lian, watching from the side, felt the pain herself. Kang Lian took two gasping breaths, and before her eyes, a mass of scarlet, shredded flesh seemed to appear.

“Kang Lian, Kang Lian…” Yuan Yuan, who was beside her, called out several times before pulling Kang Lian back from her past memories. Kang Lian looked up at Yuan Yuan, her lips clearly curved in a smile, but the smile was filled with pain.

“What’s wrong with you? Does your stomach hurt?” Yuan Yuan asked, concerned about Kang Lian’s body amidst her panic. These past few days, Kang Lian had been comforting her and giving her courage, and she had grown very dependent on Kang Lian.

Kang Lian slowly stood up with the help of Yuan Yuan’s support. She smiled and shook her head, “It’s nothing, just a sudden stomach cramp. It’s much better now.”

Yuan Yuan was skeptical, but at this moment, they had a bigger crisis to deal with.

Qi Yang noticed the situation with Kang Lian and the others. Seeing Kang Lian suddenly squat down, clutching her stomach with both hands, it didn’t seem like a stomach cramp. Qi Yang subtly placed his hand on his own abdomen for a moment, unnoticed, then quickly removed it. Looking at Kang Lian and Yuan Yuan, Qi Yang recalled that Yuan Yuan had also shown similar abnormalities once. That was one night during evening self-study when they went downstairs to move books, and after that, Yuan Yuan was in an abnormal state for a period of time.

Turning to look at the gears in the pit behind him, a thought popped into Qi Yang’s mind: could these death crises actually have their own special meanings, and not just be randomly set by the game developers?

Shredded, shredding people’s bodies. Qi Yang frowned, and a few seconds later, his eyes suddenly lit up. Qi Yang thought of a certain situation. If that were the case, then there would be a reason why the people here were suddenly pulled into the game. Combined with Kang Lian’s suddenly changed expression, Qi Yang thought his guess was probably correct.

So that’s how it is, Qi Yang thought, how could he not have thought of it at first.

All the ghosts gathered, completely blocking the path behind the players, and they were slowly approaching the players, compressing the space where Qi Yang and the others were.

The distance between the players and the ghosts was getting closer and closer, so close that the ghosts seemed to be able to reach out and touch Qi Yang and their bodies.

There were only six players left, but there were many ghosts, a huge, swarming crowd. Each ghost’s eyes glowed eerily, and the players before them were their food. They stared with greedy hunger.

The ghosts were right in front of them. With just a slight reach and a push, the players would be shoved into the deep pit, to be ground into a bloody pulp by the rapidly spinning gears.

Du Yong and the others were so scared they backed away, but there wasn’t much solid ground behind them. Soon, they were all standing at the edge of the deep pit.

“We were almost out, why didn’t you let us go? We made it all the way here, why!”

“What the hell kind of game is this? Is it okay to bully people like this? So many people have already died, and you’re still not satisfied? What do you want to be satisfied, huh?” Du Yong couldn’t control his emotions and shouted loudly.

The ghosts laughed, their expressions twisted with excitement, and continued forward. They moved slowly, seemingly intending to use a human wave tactic to force the players to jump into the deep pit themselves.

Yi Xinming also showed a wry smile at this moment. This game had too many twists and turns. Just when he thought he could clear the level, an unexpected event would always pop up.

He really didn’t expect such a thing to happen just when he was about to clear the level.

Am I really going to die here today?

Honestly, he always thought he’d live a long life. Although he wasn’t as cunning as Qi Yang, he was still pretty smart. He’d cleared the previous few games with his own strength. How could it all end here? He didn’t believe it. He didn’t believe he’d die so young.

Even if he was going to die, he would struggle fiercely one last time before it happened.

It seemed they still hadn’t found the number 9. As the ghosts closed in, Yi Xinming turned back to search for the number at the bottom of the deep pit. Multiple gears spun simultaneously, making Yi Xinming dizzy. It seemed there were no blood-red numbers on the gears, so perhaps they were elsewhere. Yi Xinming’s eyes widened, and his entire upper body was almost leaning out of the pit. Xu Yang, standing to his right, saw Yi Xinming’s body tilting into the pit and thought Yi Xinming had given up, choosing to die by his own hand rather than at the hands of the ghosts.

“Brother Yi! What are you doing?” Xu Yang immediately went over and grabbed Yi Xinming’s arm, pulling him back.

Yi Xinming glanced at Xu Yang, and seeing Xu Yang’s horrified expression as if he was about to jump, he explained, “I’m looking for numbers, you should hurry up and look too.” After speaking, Yi Xinming continued his search.

“What numbers are you looking for? Those monsters are coming soon, what’s the point of finding them!” Xu Yang said with a mournful face.

Unlike Yi Xinming, who was looking for numbers, Qi Yang reached into his pocket with his right hand and pulled out a small knife. This knife was something Qi Yang had found in the dormitory and had originally just carried it with him casually. Now, in this situation, he felt the knife could come in handy.

Aren’t these ghosts afraid of something happening to him? He just pretended to faint and they were scared out of their wits. He wondered what their reaction would be if he accidentally let himself bleed a little.

Qi Yang looked up, his gaze sweeping into the distance. From here, he could see the teaching building diagonally opposite. On the third floor of the teaching building stood a man dressed entirely in black. It seemed he wasn’t wearing these clothes when Qi Yang saw him before; he had suddenly changed. The man was looking coldly and sternly towards the school gate.

This stern demeanor made Qi Yang doubt that the person who took him to the school infirmary when he fainted that night was the same person. Whether it was or not, Qi Yang knew in his heart. He vaguely sensed something from the man, which was that perhaps he had met Fu Mingnan before. If they hadn’t met, the other person wouldn’t have looked at him with an expression that suggested he knew and understood him.

The ghosts continued to approach, their eyes filled with blatant desire, waiting to feast on the tempting meal at any moment.

Some sharp-eyed ghosts noticed the knife in Qi Yang’s hand and assumed he was planning to resist. They dared not touch Qi Yang; if he wanted to leave, they couldn’t stop him. But if anyone else wanted to leave, that would be impossible.

Some ghosts had already stopped, preparing to clear a path for Qi Yang to leave. However, Qi Yang wouldn’t accept such kindness. He had a few small habits and didn’t like being controlled by others.

He knew that if he wanted to leave, these ghosts wouldn’t stop him, but that wasn’t what Qi Yang wanted. Since all six of them had made it this far, Qi Yang felt that seeing them clear the game together was what he truly liked.

Just him alone, the game will definitely continue later, and then he’ll have to team up with strangers again. Qi Yang doesn’t want to spend any more effort getting to know strangers. The current players are all pretty good. Thinking of this, Qi Yang picked up a knife and lightly cut his wrist, just breaking the skin a little. He was so fast that some of the ghosts wanted to stop him, but the crimson blood had already flowed out.

The blood dripped from Qi Yang’s fingers onto the ground. Qi Yang walked forward, heading towards the ghosts. All the ghosts retreated. Those students who weren’t in Qi Yang’s class didn’t know Qi Yang’s special identity before. Just as they were leaving the classroom, the supervisor appeared and clearly told them that anyone who harmed a single hair on Qi Yang’s head would be sent to live underground—that is, locked in a coffin and thrown into the endless abyss with the coffin. The endless abyss is pitch black, with no living things. One can only enter but not leave there. Entering is equivalent to complete death.

So when Qi Yang cut his wrist and approached the ghosts with blood flowing from his hand, no one dared to stand still. If Qi Yang’s blood got on them, and the supervisor thought they had harmed Qi Yang, they would definitely face severe consequences. This was not a place for reasoning; the ghosts that had originally gathered scattered at lightning speed. Some retreated so quickly that they fell to the ground, and others didn’t care, stepping directly over them.

Qi Yang walked up to the ghost, who hadn’t yet gotten up. He bent down and, with a friendly smile, reached out to help the ghost up. Just as the blood on his hand was about to drip onto the ghost’s face, the ghost shrieked in terror and scrambled away on all fours, as if Qi Yang was going to kill him.

Watching the ghostly figure run away in a panic, Qi Yang suddenly found the scene amusing and shook his head, laughing.

Qi Yang was inherently handsome, definitely the most striking person in a crowd. Now, with his laughter, his whole demeanor brightened. The other five people, hearing Qi Yang’s laughter, all looked over. They knew Qi Yang was different from them; Qi Yang was very intelligent, on a different level from most players in terms of intellect. But facing a death crisis, Qi Yang could still laugh. The players wondered if Qi Yang had gone mad, then noticed that all the ghosts that had surrounded them just seconds ago had retreated. The students stared at Qi Yang with wary fear, their expressions clearly saying, “Don’t come near us.”

But Qi Yang is clearly in poor health and always faints, so what are the ghosts afraid of him for?

“Brother Qi, are you bleeding?” Du Yong, with his sharp eyes, saw blood on Qi Yang’s hand. He walked over, grabbed Qi Yang’s hand, and pressed down on the wound.

The surrounding ghosts, seeing this scene, actually looked relieved, and some even looked at Du Yong gratefully.

Du Yong was completely bewildered.

“They… they’re afraid of you?” Du Yong belatedly deduced this conclusion.

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