Guo Wei's appearance completely disrupted everyone's plans.
Last night, the 9th Special Investigation Team searched the entire campus overnight and memorized the location of the building. Out of caution, they did not immediately start the locked building.
As the sky brightened, the chains on the buildings disappeared one by one.
After a short break, everyone ate breakfast and walked around the campus - they planned to investigate the interior of the building during the day to find the campus radio station where Guo Wei was.
The campus is not big, one day is enough.
Who could have thought that Guo Wei would walk into a trap just like that, carrying two steamed buns.
Guo Wei was not tall, and had a malnourished skinny look. He was hunched over, and his already oversized school uniform looked empty and shabby, and he had a spicy smell of cheap toothpaste.
From time to time, students passed by him, and some of them even nodded to him. However, Guo Wei firmly lowered his head, tightly holding the steamed bun bag, trying to make it look less noticeable.
Yin Ren rushed forward and stood in front of Guo Wei: "Classmate, wait a moment!"
It's just some kind of "scenery" that is particularly real and interactive.
"I think so." Yin Ren watched Guo Wei leave. "He left no impression on us at all. He didn't look like he was acting. And how should I put it? This kid looks so different from the one on the radio."
But this place is even more strange than the outside world, and separation is tantamount to adventure. Since losing contact with Lu Xiaohe, all their means of long-distance communication have been invalidated, and even WeChat communication cannot be used.
They had to find the location of the radio station Guo Wei, check the interior of the building, and not give up the "fresh Guo Wei" right under their noses. They had limited time, and no one knew what the "four chances" meant.
"Yin Ren and I followed Guo Wei. We will meet in front of Class 2-3 at 4 pm." Class 2-3 was the class that Guo Wei was in before his death, and it was in the Bishop's School Building.
Guo Wei has large scars on his forehead and chin, typical burns and bumps, hidden in inconspicuous places. He is used to lowering his head deeply, making it particularly difficult to notice.
"It's not a human." Huang Jin had already developed a conditioned reflex, "It's not the one from the radio station either. This person is no different from other students."
Ge Tingting bit her lip, and the electronic voice sounded: "What should we do now?"
The student Guo Wei looked very introverted, and did not have the resentment and malice that Broadcaster Guo Wei had.
He raised his head again, looked at Yin Ren carefully, and a hint of gratitude appeared on his face.
In a sense, this is also another kind of "walking together". It means that you have to deal with your companion's memory afterwards. At worst, Guo Wei will be blamed, Yin Ren thought deeply.
"Is there anything else? If not, I'll leave first. Morning self-study is about to begin." Guo Wei continued to look at his toes, trying not to look at the snack bag that Yin Ren was holding.
"Thank you for telling me these. Take them and share them with your classmates." Yin Ren's smile remained unchanged.
"No, we can't leave here." Guo Wei shook his head firmly, "This is the school rule."
"Forget it then." Yin Ren changed the subject readily, "Do you know where the campus radio station is? I'll broadcast it and look for my lover."
However, he washed the school uniform very cleanly without any stains.
The other three: “…”
"No more, thank you." Yin Ren took out a bag of fish fillets and a bag of beef tendon, "Here, take it and eat it."
"Split up." He untied her ponytail and neatly cut off a strand of her long hair. "Three of you, put your hands out."
"Thank you." Guo Wei's voice was as soft as a mosquito. He took the two bags of snacks with care and held them in his hands a little embarrassedly. "Well, uh, goodbye, teacher."
"Wrap it around your wrist, I can sense your position and basic situation." Yin Ren quickly divided it into three beams.
Guo Wei's expression finally changed. He looked around the simple campus, which was as small as bird shit, and then looked at Yin Ren in shock.
Among the students whose faces were blurred, this person's high-resolution photo stood out.
Maybe it was an illusion, but Huang Jin always felt that it adjusted its position on his wrist.
Guo Wei almost bumped into Yin Ren's head. Noticing someone in front of him, he stopped and raised his eyes in confusion: "Looking for me?"
He had a dark complexion and long hair with a few white hairs, which made him look older than his actual age. His bulging eyes were always looking at the ground, and Guo Wei looked timid and slovenly.
Huang Jin looked away, deciding not to delve into the matter. Ge Tingting did not doubt him, she tied her hair silently and nodded.
Zhong Cheng said he stuffed his hair into his pocket and didn't tie it around his wrists.
This strand of hair seems to be cut off, but the cross section has pulled out a thin thread that is almost invisible, and goes straight to Yin Ren's head. It vividly interprets what it means to be connected even though the thread is broken, and the mosaic of thoughts keeps flowing on it.
Ge Tingting, Huang Jin: “?”
"Is that so?"
Seeing Yin Ren's handsome yet somewhat strange face, Guo Wei was stunned for a moment.
Seeing Guo Wei walking further and further away, Yin Ren crumpled the empty snack bag into a ball and threw it into the trash can.
"It's an old problem. I forget things easily." Yin Ren continued to coax the underage dead man, "Please help me."
"Our school doesn't have a campus radio station." Guo Wei answered honestly, looking at his toes. "The radio is recorded and played directly. Usually, we use a loud speaker to talk about things... If you want to find someone, it's better to ask the teacher."
Yin Ren took this opportunity to scan the opponent from head to toe.
"I don't… "
She asked the same question in the minds of the four people.
"Huang Jin, Ge Tingting, the two of you should carry out the original plan and look for the broadcasting studio. In addition, you should investigate the interior of the building. The authority of 'school workers' and 'students' is not small, so they won't be blocked like Yin Ren was."
"I'm the family member of the new teacher, and I have to go out for something urgent." Yin Ren smiled very gently, "I forgot where the gate is, can you help show me the way?"
Huang Jin's hesitant expression became more obvious. He took the mosaic suspiciously and gently wrapped it around his wrist.
Huang Jin's expression froze for a moment: "Isn't that inappropriate?"
At this point, the two monsters still have to act together, which seems to be an uneven distribution.
Zhong Cheng glanced at him and said, "Based on the comprehensive assessment of strength, occupational category, and campus familiarity, assuming that Miss Ge has metaphysical combat power, it may indeed be more suitable for Miss Ge and I to team up with you and Yin Ren."
"But here, Miss Ge has no fighting ability, and I don't have the right weapons. If she is attacked by metaphysics, it will be difficult for me to rescue her properly."
Zhong Cheng's expression was calm and direct. Ge Tingting said nothing and his face turned a little pale.
"Indeed, Huang Jin can see my thoughts, and it is easier for us to communicate." After a while, the overly mature synthesized voice sounded again, "We have limited time, let's go, Huang Jin."
Her smile was a little forced.
As they left, Yin Ren's hair gradually stretched out, becoming as thin as a spider's thread, like a ball of thread after a hero entered a maze. Yin Ren himself stared at her back with some worry, but finally held back his words of comfort.
In the Bai Yongji case, Ge Tingting used her special ability to support him. It is also true that her special ability to detect did not play a big role in this incident.
She knows this better than anyone.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, outside the classroom of Class 2-3 of Senior High School, Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren were standing by the back door, waiting to meet up with their teammates.
The Bishop's Building was the tallest building on the entire campus. Through the corridor window, day and night had already changed four or five times outside the campus. "Monsters Surrounded" was played from time to time, and Yin Ren went from being alert to being calm.
Yin Ren was in charge of guarding the surroundings, while Zhong Chengshuo turned into a stone guarding the door. He seemed to be glued to the back door and window, and behind the thin lenses, his eyes stared straight into the classroom.
Although Yin Ren had never been to school, he always found the scene eerie.
The good news is that, at the moment, this environment is not as dangerous as they thought. After half a day, Yin Ren's hair did not send any unusual warnings.
Unfortunately, the daytime here is a bit too dull.
It was like an ordinary day on an ordinary campus. White clouds floated across the false blue sky, and the endless chirping of cicadas was intertwined with the occasional chirping of birds. The pomegranates in the flowerbed were still in bloom, and the orange-red flowers were dotted on the branches.
The sun moved slowly across that small patch of sky, and the shadows of the buildings slowly rotated.
At 4:05, the 9th Special Task Force gathered again. Except for the fatigue in their eyes, everyone was clean without any trace of fighting.
"We have visited all the buildings, including the infirmary and the canteen," Huang Jin said helplessly. "Some areas of the library, laboratory building, and cafeteria are blurry, and we cannot enter the senior high school teaching building, the women's toilet, and the women's dormitory."
Even if Ge Tingting, a "female student", tried to enter, she would be stopped by the security guard with various excuses.
"How are things going over there?" Ge Tingting asked after Huang Jinhui reported the situation. Her expression was serious, and her emotions could not be heard through the synthesized voice.
Yin Ren covered his chest and sighed.
Guo Wei walked into the classroom at 7:30 and never came out again.
He told Zhong Cheng that the imagined collision, fight or rescue did not happen. Looking out the back window, Guo Wei was either listening to the class seriously or reading during the break, or at most looking out the window.
Guo Wei didn't even go to eat lunch during the lunch break. The two steamed buns with hot water became his breakfast and lunch. He didn't touch the snacks Yin Ren gave him, but just put them carefully into his schoolbag.
Ordinary students, ordinary behavior.
But it is undoubtedly the center of the entire classroom.
With Guo Wei as the center, the closer you get to him, the clearer the faces of the students around him become. From the style of schoolbags to the scratches on desks and dust on windowsills, this place is no different from the real world.
The teacher on the podium also looked like a living person.
They were in math class at the moment, and the math teacher looked to be in her early forties, with a sharp voice. They could even see the white hair in her curly hair, the light blue tattooed eyebrows, and the black mole on the tip of her nose.
"Guo Wei, I've told you this about a hundred times."
She knocked on Guo Wei's desk twice, picked up his homework in her hand, and shook it around.
"What the hell did you write? Can anyone understand it? When you take the college entrance examination next year, no one will even bother to read the papers. I'll give you a zero."
A few laughs rang out in the classroom. The girl sitting next to Guo Wei turned her head and glanced at him. Guo Wei just buried his head, his ears and neck were a little red.
Yin Ren didn't know how Guo Wei's math grades were, but he remembered clearly that Guo Wei's homeroom teacher was this math teacher.
Lei Xiurong, 43, has been teaching mathematics at No. 16 Middle School for 20 years.
"Rewrite it this time, and I'll check it individually tomorrow. If you write like this again next time, I'll deduct ten points from your paper." Lei Xiurong said loudly, "I don't believe that I can't cure this bad habit of yours."
Guo Wei hummed a low "hmm" and glanced at the girl at the next table. Unfortunately, the girl had already turned her gaze away and was concentrating on reading the wrong questions. The boy behind him poked him on the back: "Are you looking at Li Xiaoya again? Be careful that the old witch finds out."
Guo Wei shrank his shoulders and his face turned red: "I didn't see it."
The boy chuckled and covered his face with his textbook: "I have two calligraphy books that I'm too lazy to write in. How about you take them? Just lend me the chemistry notes to copy."
"… Yeah, OK." Guo Wei rubbed his ears and began to rewrite his homework stroke by stroke. Lei Xiurong had just returned to the podium. She snorted and played with her curly hair: "There is a quiz in the evening study session today…"
The class continued, and the two groups exchanged tasks. This time, Ge Tingting and Huang Jin were in charge of monitoring the classroom, while Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren went to patrol the campus to look for the presence of Guangbo Guo Wei.
Soon it was dinner time.
Guo Wei didn't eat dinner. He took a washbasin from the dormitory and went to the bathhouse to take a bath. Apart from that, he didn't do anything special.
His three roommates, whose faces were clearly visible, walked back to the dormitory arm in arm, carrying a bag of salty food, chatting and laughing.
At the same time, Yin Ren's hair dived into the cracks in the bricks and flowed quickly throughout the campus. Unfortunately, they still did not return any suspicious power fluctuations. Whether it was "Broadcast Guo Wei" or "The cause of Guo Laifu's illness", it seemed that they had completely evaporated from this campus.
In the blink of an eye, it was dark.
At 9:30 pm, the lights on campus went out and iron chains were put on all the buildings. It was an ordinary day, and the atmosphere was so peaceful that it made people anxious.
Everyone had a quick meal and returned outside. It was less than three hours until midnight.
Ge Tingting's breathing was a little rapid. Huang Jin squeezed the magic weapon so hard that it made a crackling sound. He glanced at Yin Ren and Zhong Cheng from time to time.
"Didn't that jerk tell us to leave school?" Huang Jin kicked the trash can irritably. "At least do something weird. If it's so normal, where can we find clues?"
"Don't worry, we are not at the end of our rope yet."
In order to prevent the "failure penalty" from falling from the sky, Yin Ren's eyes swept across the playground from time to time, and he began to calculate where to place the protective spell. There is no power without reason in this world. Even if the opponent has strange abilities, it will never be stronger than the evil spirits.
He already had some ideas, but unfortunately, if he could better understand the nature of the other party's abilities...
“We actually had a good harvest today.”
Zhong Cheng suddenly spoke. He was holding a bag of explosive spirit weapons, and his tone was unusually calm. It must be said that this man's tone was sometimes very irritating, but when the situation was chaotic, this attitude inexplicably made people feel at ease.
"Would you like to accompany me in doing an experiment? I have an idea that needs to be verified." Comrade Xiao Zhong asked seriously.
Three minutes later, everyone stopped in front of the senior high school teaching building.
It is an independent old building, older than the Bishop's Building. Its gate is locked with chains and the glass door is completely dark. It is one of the "inaccessible" areas on the campus.
Yin Ren folded his arms: "Do you want to force your way in and take a look?"
"Not really." Zhong Cheng said with a slight tilt of his head, "I'm going to blow it to the ground."
Yin Ren: “…”
Yin Ren: “…What?!”
"It's too slow for me to arrange the spiritual weapon by myself. You guys help me put it in the designated location." Zhong Cheng said, adjusting his glasses, not feeling that there was anything wrong with what he just said. "It's getting dark outside the campus, we have to hurry, I'll explain later."
Although Lord Ghost King was totally confused, he still did as he was told.
After arranging the spiritual weapon, Zhong Cheng went straight to the school gate. The abandoned sliding door was still there. Seeing them approach, the old guard glanced at them with a vigilant look.
The barrier is still there.
Night fell quickly outside the school, and monsters poured in like a tide, encircling the barrier once again.
"Five, four..."
With his back to the countless monsters outside the door, Zhong Cheng looked down at the screen of his mobile phone.
"Three, two, one."
The moment Zhong Cheng uttered the last number, a corner of the campus lit up with a blazing fire—
Amid a series of loud explosions, the outline of the two-story building disappeared. It completely collapsed, and thick black smoke rose around it. The rest of the campus remained eerily quiet, without any reaction, as if the explosion occurred in another time and space.
The last wisps of smoke merged into the night, and the earth seemed to tremble.
"Squeak."
Not far from the gate, there was a very slight sound. Everyone immediately looked around - somewhere near the sky, a tiny spider leg passed through the barrier. It moved around suspiciously, like the last remaining hair on a bald head, so eye-catching that it was hard to ignore.
Perhaps they smelled the atmosphere of the school, and the monsters' movement suddenly became more intense.
“In fact, I was a little curious from the beginning.”
Before the squirming monster, Zhong Cheng spoke in a steady voice, with no emotion visible in his black eyes.
"Ge Tingting was outside the school. Her school uniform did not have the exact name of the school on it. Guo Laifu did not remember the name of his son's school at all."
"But here, 'Guo Wei' accurately reported the name of 'Qingjiang City No. 16 Middle School'. The scene inside the campus was also too clear. If you hadn't lived here for a long time, you wouldn't have remembered it so clearly."
"The closed senior high school teaching building, the girls' dormitory, and the girls' toilet are all places that Guo Wei himself has never been to. The blurred areas are places that students don't go to often - the closer the people or scenes are to Guo Wei himself, the more realistic the details are."
Ge Tingting looked at the screen with difficulty, while Huang Jin was still confused.
Yin Ren reacted quickly: "These are all Guo Wei's memories."
"Yes." Zhong Cheng said with a slight smile, "That radio Guo Wei seems to be able to materialize memories."
"Assume that these schools and these people are all the materialized memories of 'Guo Wei himself'. The memories are large in scale and develop and combine according to rules. I think it can be called a 'consciousness'."
Zhong Cheng's excitement became more and more obvious as he joked.
"If a memory item is damaged by more than 50%, the memory will be 'forgotten'. And the loss of memory will cause unstable consciousness. It seems that this rule also applies to Guo Wei himself."
Yin Renrao hummed with interest.
Indeed, this theory can explain many problems.
For example, Lu Xiaohe suddenly lost contact, they could not feel the presence of Guo Wei on the radio, and there was the strange attack from unknown sources - if they were in Guo Wei's consciousness, as the owner of consciousness, Guo Wei would have a huge home advantage.
Huang Jin's attention was elsewhere. He rubbed his face vigorously and said, "There is no time to lose. Let's blow it up here and get out as soon as possible."
"No." Zhong Cheng said and stopped smiling.
"Why? There are less than two hours left!"
"Because there aren't enough clues." This time it was Yin Ren who answered. He looked at Zhong Cheng and said with a serious look in his eyes, "Zhong Cheng said that you blew up the most insignificant memory to test this point."
Why is it that after Guo Wei died, his consciousness is still there, but there is no ghost
Why did he keep them trapped in his own mind and force them to play this ridiculous game
If their consciousness completely collapses while they are still inside it, can they really escape safely
Huang Jin: "Or else, we can blow them up one by one. There is always a way."
"I can't gamble with everyone's lives." Zhong Cheng took out a single earphone from his pocket and put it back on his ear. "If we make a wrong judgment, we will all be wiped out."
Huang Jin was silent.
"Do we have to wait and see how the so-called 'four chances' are consumed?" After a moment, he spoke with some difficulty.
"This is the best choice." Zhong Cheng said as he sat on the destroyed iron gate with his back to the bloody morning light outside the campus.
"It's okay. We can counter his moves." Yin Ren twisted his hair around his fingertips and looked at the dark campus. "He's just a child. We've dealt with children who have been contaminated by evil forces before."
"Don't be afraid." Yin Ren said the last sentence to Ge Tingting.
However, Ge Tingting did not respond to him.
She stared at the monsters retreating outside the campus, wondering what she was thinking.
Soon, the bell for class rang at midnight.
"Welcome to Qingjiang City No. 16 Middle School." Guo Wei's voice was as cold as usual, "Welcome to the last day of your life."
"You all have not been able to leave the school. Teachers, families, school workers, and students, please choose to be removed."
Snapped.
The attack that everyone imagined did not come, and a pistol fell from the air. It had a rough appearance and lay quietly in front of the four people.
"Type out your best memories and stay here," the voice in the noise repeated, "Stay here."
"Otherwise, the four of us will stay here together."
"Removing the best memories... seems to be a recipe for mental instability and mental breakdown."
Zhong Cheng picked up the pistol and weighed it in his hand.
"I'll do it." Huang Jin sighed and stepped forward, "You said that the memory was just suppressed. As long as the person can get out, Shi'an will definitely find a way."
"Yes." A synthesized voice sounded.
Ge Tingting put his hand on the gun. Her hands trembled slightly, but her movements were extremely firm.
"Huang Jin is a spiritual craftsman and can continue to provide support. The three of you stay and have the best chance of escaping."
"Xiao Ge?!"
"In every aspect, this is the most suitable choice." Ge Tingting did not let go.
"There's a chance we won't be able to save you." Zhong Cheng said calmly.
"I'm not that weak."
Soft synthesized sounds echoed in the air. Ge Tingting turned his head and glanced at Yin Ren.
“… I’m not that scared.”
Before she finished her words, she exerted force on her hands.
Everything happened in a flash. Ge Tingting didn't give them a chance to speak again. She put her temple to the muzzle of the gun and pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
Gunshots rang out, shattering the silence.
(End of this chapter)