Footsteps sounded in the empty corridor.
The dazzling light of the flashlight pierced into Liu Hui's eyes. Her body suddenly stiffened. She almost screamed in fear, but her hands covered her eyes tightly.
Song Sihang's face turned pale. He looked around and asked, "Did you hear any breathing?"
The children's breathing was intermittent, as if they were overly frightened.
There were small hands on their shoulders, clutching their clothes tightly, and the faint stream of water seemed to brush past their ears gently.
… The orphan is looking for the child who eavesdropped on the secret.
The eavesdropping children were disobedient and would be severely punished by the principal.
Fear is contagious. The emotions in the air flow slowly like fluid, along with the children's sometimes deep and sometimes shallow rapid breathing, through the long passage of time, and into the ears of outsiders.
Liu Hui almost collapsed on the ground, her body shaking constantly and tears flowing uncontrollably.
"If it is found..." Chai Ning asked in a dummy voice, "What will be the consequence?"
Team doctor Sui and her husband looked at each other, their eyes involuntarily sank, and they shook their heads.
In the previous phone call, the Director of the Local Service Bureau, who was also the "deputy director", had mentioned that they wanted to make a deal with the terminal, exchanging the core particles of the electric storm for a set of equipment for brainwashing and implanting systems.
…
The Security Department is aware of this matter.
They have been monitoring the actions of the conservatives and know that the conservatives have used this interstellar space to make a deal with a certain dimension. The top leaders of the alliance have already started to deal with this matter, but in terms of the way of handling it, the security department has gradually split into two distinct factions.
The National Security Bureau insisted on intervening in the transaction, taking the initiative from the conservatives and offering a higher price that would be more satisfactory to those conservatives.
Sui Zhengfan was the chief of the Special Investigation Division at that time. He was ordered to participate in the formation of the Li Team and monitor the Li Team at the same time. The deeper he delved into the confidential information sealed within the military, the clearer he became about the consequences of doing so.
The Sui family was not strong enough to stop this, so Sui Zhengfan considered it again and again and decided to visit Pu Sicun, who had retired long ago, and asked him to reject the proposal to trade with the terminal.
A month later, Pu Sicun's grandson disappeared in a lightning storm.
He was the smartest and most obedient child in the Pu family, and the next generation heir that the Pu family had long designated.
Not long after, Pu Sicun completely withdrew from the alliance headquarters, no longer participated in parliament, and no longer supported his juniors to get involved in any political disputes.
… Now it seems that this rejection only prevented Director RCS’s ambition on the surface, but failed to stop the transaction from happening.
"The children's punishment was simple: just being pushed out the door."
Sui Zhengfan said loudly: "The punishment from the dean will only be more severe and more cruel."
"Xiaozhan and I will stay here for the time being. You can go back to your respective bedrooms. Once you are back, pretend to be asleep immediately."
Sui Zhengfan spoke slowly, using hand gestures to ensure that everyone could understand him: "Don't make any sound when you move..."
"Why do we have to play hide-and-seek?" The lizard in the corner, who had been motionless, suddenly asked, "Why can't we hand over the people who answered with full marks?"
Song Sihang stared at him in astonishment: "What did you say?"
"Didn't they both run away first?"
Lizard's face was gloomy, and his voice was particularly hoarse: "Why did the two of them run away? Isn't it because of this?"
Liu Hui was so frightened that she looked back and forth, her expression wavering: "NPC... NPC won't die, right?"
She swallowed in fear and asked quietly: "Isn't that dean an NPC? He wouldn't kill his own people..."
Sui Zhengfan's expression turned cold.
The trio that came out of the basement and wanted to attack them, Duan You and the One-Eyed Dragon both died outside the "door". The lizards were relatively silent and had not caused any trouble so far, so they did not take any additional action for the time being.
"I advise you not to do that." Sui Zhengfan's eyes fell on him, his gentle brows faintly revealing sternness, "They are on our side now, and—"
Before Sui Zhengfan could finish his words, Liu Hui suddenly pushed team doctor Sui away, struggled to get up and ran out.
Sui Zhengfan hugged his wife and said sternly, "Stop him!"
Chai Ning placed one hand on the metal edging of the floor tile, lightning crackling between her fingers, and in a blink of an eye she caught up with the figure, the jumping arc of electricity instantly bit Liu Hui's calf.
Liu Hui's legs felt numb and she fell to her knees involuntarily.
Their reaction was fast enough, but it attracted the attention of the "warden". The flashlight beam shone directly into the dark and gloomy corridor: "Who's there!"
Song Sihang dived over, covered Liu Hui's mouth tightly, and dragged the struggling person back.
The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and more and more rapid, heading straight towards them.
Sui Zhengfan took out his service gun and said, "Hurry up!"
The players were dragged and helped away from the staircase. Dai Lei had just woken up. He grimaced and pressed his aching head. Together with Song Sihang, he dragged Liu Hui, who was unable to stand, into the nearest bedroom.
Liu Hui struggled desperately: "You want to die, why are you dragging me?! If we continue like this, we will all be caught..."
Her spirit was on the verge of collapse, but she still dared not speak a word, and her voice was trembling so much that she could not form a single word.
No one had time to explain to her that the children's bedrooms were similar to old-style student dormitories, with transparent glass on the door that allowed one to see inside and outside. Using a flashlight, one could see clearly what was going on inside the room. If they were not dealt with quickly, they would be discovered sooner or later.
Chai Ning swiftly tore off half a bed sheet and worked with Meng Nanke to temporarily cover the inside of the glass window on the door.
Sui Zhengfan and his wife stood guard, holding their guns and standing with their backs against the wall. Finally, they moved into the bedroom and closed the door tightly. "Is everyone here?"
"Yes." Dai Lei said, "Isn't this all—"
He suddenly paused and his eyes widened in surprise.
…The tattoo-controlling lizard is gone!
"We were keeping an eye on him!" Dai Lei looked around in astonishment, "How is it possible? He was right here just now!"
"There!" Liu Hui pointed to an inconspicuous ink mark in the corner of the wall with trembling hands, "He was completely immersed in the tattoo. I saw it..."
The players kept their voices low, but the piece of ink flickered alertly and quickly slipped out through the crack in the door.
Sui Zhengfan immediately pulled the trigger, but the silenced electromagnetic gun seemed to malfunction suddenly and turned into a toy with no power at all.
"We are children now." Team doctor Sui held her husband's arm and said solemnly, "Children can't use guns."
Sui Zhengfan frowned. He signaled everyone to disperse and hide. He crouched to the door and used the barrel of his gun to lift a little of the bed sheet covering the glass.
…
The lizard came out of the tattoo.
The flashlight immediately pierced his eyes. Lizard immediately raised his hands and stood still: "I know who wrote that paper! I didn't eavesdrop, I'll tell you..."
Dai Lei gritted his teeth in anxiety and cursed: "Rubbish!"
The flashlight paused, then slowly dropped, and the footsteps stopped in front of the lizard.
The dean's voice became kind again: "Who is it? Tell the dean, the dean will send you out to study."
"It's the guy sitting at the invigilator's desk!"
The lizard was delighted, swallowed, and whispered: "He is not among the original ten children in the orphanage. He is the other one. They have escaped now..."
The director's voice asked, "Do you know where he ran off to?"
The lizard paused, and he opened his mouth, a little hesitant: "We are all sealed here... Anyway, we are on this floor, so we will definitely not run too far!"
The dean didn't say anything else, just signaled with the light of his flashlight.
Following the light of the flashlight, a staircase leading to the third floor suddenly and quietly appeared.
…stairs leading upstairs!
The environment downstairs is no longer suitable for survival. You can go up one floor after passing a level. The exit must be upstairs!
The lizard looked relieved. He could no longer suppress his joy. He thanked him profusely and quickly ran up the stairs.
The flashlight went out around him.
…
After a few seconds, the dean's footsteps sounded again in the empty corridor.
"We all had a chance to get out!"
Liu Hui was trembling, she was a little hysterical, her eyes were full of bloodshot: "Now we can only play hide and seek here..."
She could no longer control her voice, and Song Sihang had to keep whispering to her before she could calm down a little.
"This is not a solution." Chai Ning whispered, "We are all staying in one bedroom. Sooner or later we will be found."
The eavesdropping children were discovered by the warden and were so frightened that they all rushed into the bedroom nearest the stairs.
It won't be long before the police find them.
Or... the dean has already discovered them.
Fear, fatigue and weakness continued to attack the children hiding in the house. Without Feng Qing, they were terribly scared and their mental state was slowly and continuously collapsing.
Song Sihang suddenly groaned.
Dai Lei turned around suddenly and found Song Sihang already held hostage by Liu Hui, with a sharp piece of mirror stuck on his neck.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I just want to live, I don't want to die in the game."
Liu Hui trembled, "I won't betray you. If you let me out of this bedroom, he won't think there's anyone in it, right? I'm just going to help them find two NPCs. NPCs are just data, they can't die."
Dai Lei was anxious for a moment, fearing that she would hurt his partner, but he couldn't help but get angry: "NPCs can be formatted and their data can be cleared! How is this different from being dead?"
Liu Hui shook her head vigorously: "I can't care about that..."
Her special ability is "Mirror". The broken lens in her hand is her domain. Mirror can see endlessly. No matter where a person hides, as long as he is illuminated by the mirror, he can be found.
Liu Hui held Song Sihang hostage, moved to the door tremblingly, opened the door quickly, and ran out without looking back.
Sui Zhengfan made a decisive gesture, and in a flash, he quietly walked out of the door.
This villa has awakened its self-awareness, and Sui Zhengfan's domain magic is no longer effective, but the most basic "mimicry" ability can still be used.
The bedroom door was closed again, and Sui Zhengfan's figure quickly disappeared as he walked out the door, becoming part of the shadows in the moonlight.
Liu Hui stood in the corridor and waved desperately: "Here! Is there anyone there? I can help you find those two people..."
…
The bedroom is at the end of the corridor.
Yu Tang stumbled half a step and bumped into Zhan Chen's arms.
They did not suddenly leave the player team, but were dragged through the wall by a force and fell into a bedroom.
Yu Tang was circled by Zhan Chen. He stood firm again and looked carefully at the empty bedroom.
It looked like a child's bedroom in an orphanage. The furnishings were simple and somewhat shabby, with the most ordinary hard bed against a white wall, short curtains, and an exercise book on a low table in the corner.
The exercise book was very worn, as if it had been bought from a scrapyard, but it had been carefully protected by the user, who had carefully wrapped the cover in transparent plastic paper.
The system plucked up its courage, zoomed in on the camera image, and took a closer look at the exercise book.
Yu Tang asked, "What subject?"
"… and other mathematics." The system said, "The name is written on it, host."
The system closed the cover of the exercise book. The handwriting on it was very childish, but each stroke was extremely neat. It contained the name of the owner of the exercise book.
Pu Ying.
Yu Tang raised his eyebrows slightly, walked over quietly and opened the exercise book.
The inside pages of the exercise book do not contain a lot of problems.
The handwriting on the yellowed paper was neatly arranged, but the content seemed like an incomprehensible book, with not even half a word recognizable.
The system searched hundreds of interstellar language libraries for a long time, but still found nothing: "Host, this should not be a certain language that exists in our current and historical records..."
Yu Tang was turning the pages intently. He stretched out his hand and was about to speak when a flattened piece of paper appeared in his palm.
Yu Tang was slightly startled, raised his head to meet Zhan Chen's gaze, and couldn't help but pursed his lips slightly.
He took the note, and took the hand that Zhan Chen had not yet put away, and placed the note that the players had searched under the carpet next to the open exercise book.
The system carefully compared them for a long time and said in surprise: "... Host, the words on these two are the same!"
Yu Tang nodded, made a gesture to Zhan Chen, and put the note into the exercise book and stored it in his sea of consciousness.
Feng Qing never went to school in the orphanage. It was already the limit for him to be able to recognize a few words. It was impossible for him to understand those calculus problems.
They were in Feng Qing's memory, looking at the entire orphanage from Feng Qing's perspective. Pu Ying's exercise book and the note left by Pu Ying were no different from the heavenly book in Feng Qing's eyes, so they could only see the handwriting that seemed to be scribbled like the heavenly book.
"Look, Zhan Xue." Yu Tang whispered, "We—"
His voice was already very soft, but before he could finish, his expression changed slightly.
Zhan Chen placed one hand on Yu Tang's head and pressed him into his arms immediately. He lowered himself against the wall and hid himself beside the door.
… A blinding flashlight shone in the corridor.
The sound of footsteps came from far away, and the bright crystal color faintly spread in from the crack of the door, reflecting the moonlight coming in from the window.
It's a fragment of a mirror.
There are detection-type psychics investigating and helping the "House" find their whereabouts.
The orphanage's rules were very strict. Every child could only sleep in his or her own bedroom. No one was allowed to go to other people's rooms at night, otherwise they would be taken away and punished by the warden.
Each mirror is connected to each other, and the image will be transmitted back to the broken mirror in the core area. No matter how dark the room is, as long as the mirror can see two figures in the room, they can determine their hiding place.
"It must be here, there is no mistake..."
Liu Hui led the invisible "warden" and looked at the flashlight that followed her all the way. Cold sweat had already appeared on her forehead.
For some reason, no matter which bedroom her lenses were in, they would always reflect the blurry image of a sleeping child.
This is the last room. If you can't find another one...
The lens in Liu Hui's hand flashed, and her eyes suddenly lit up. She pointed to the last bedroom in a hurry: "It's here! They are here-"
Zhan Chen reacted very quickly. He reached out and picked up Yu Tang, avoiding the camera's range, and quickly tapped the code of early apology on Yu Tang's back with his fingers.
The next second, the light of the flashlight shone straight in.
The shadow instantly covered the lens, and the mirror became dark and blurry.
Liu Hui's excitement was frozen on her face. She looked at the image on the screen and raised her head in disbelief.
… The flashlight illuminated only one person.
Zhan Chen had followed Pu Ying's habit and lay motionless facing the wall, stuffing Teacher Xiao Guangtuan into his quilt.