Everyone scrambled to run outside, pushing each other as they made their way through the front entrance and out into the open air. There were shouts and cries as the group struggled to escape the danger. 

 

During the chaos, Xiang Chen was shoved aside, and he fell down onto the cold wet dirt outside. But someone grabbed his wrist, pulling him up and tugging him forward and away from the school. 

 

When everyone was relatively far away enough, Xiang Chen caught his breath, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart in his chest. 

 

“You okay?” The person holding Xiang Chen’s wrist let go and turned to face him. The male student looked unfamiliar, but many of the students in the group weren’t familiar to Xiang Chen. 

 

“I’m good, thanks.” Xiang Chen replied, giving a small smile as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

 

“Wait, stay still.” The male student said as he closed the distance between them, reaching out and brushing a hand against Xiang Chen’s cheek. “You’ve got something here.”

 

“Xiang Chen, are you okay!?” Li Qianru and Bai Shen’s worried voices appeared next to him. 

 

“En, I’m fine.” Xiang Chen said, sighing a little as he felt his heartbeat steadily slow down. He turned back to thank the other male student but found that the guy had already started walking away towards the rest of the group. 

 

“You’re bleeding!” Li Qianru cried out. She shoved her phone into Bai Shen’s hands as it was currently being used as a light, and then she dug into her pocket for a handkerchief and handed it over to Xiang Chen.

 

Xiang Chen was surprised at Li Qianru’s words, taking the handkerchief and wiping at his cheek. When he glanced down at the white handkerchief, a bloody smear could be seen on it. Xiang Chen felt his goosebumps tingling as he realized that it was not water that had fallen on his cheek but actually blood.

 

“It’s not mine…” Xiang Chen replied, causing Li Qianru to stare at him in quiet fright. 

 

“Let’s head over to the rest of the group ah…” Bai Shen said, urging them forward. 

 

Xiang Chen agreed, and the three of them started heading over to where everyone else was standing together. He glanced back at the school, seeing that the crawling ghost had not followed them outside. 

 

There were only a few flashlights with batteries left, and a few phones found that their batteries were being drained rather quickly. 

 

Xiang Chen had expected as much. From all the horror movies he’d seen, it seemed that the ghosts liked to drain electrical energy from batteries to manifest and manipulate things. 

 

“W-What do we do now?” 

 

“Stay out here?”

 

“But it’s so cold… and the forest is so creepy ah…” 

 

“I’m not going back in there!” 

 

The group of students collectively agreed that reentering the school was most definitely a bad idea. 

 

But then, someone suddenly exclaimed, “Where’s Meimei!?” 

 

Everyone turned to look at the speaker, alarmed at his words. The male student looked distraught, frantically looking around. “My twin sister Meimei is gone!” 

 

“Shi Kang is gone too!” 

 

“So is Gu Huang!” 

 

Xiang Chen wasn’t familiar with those students, but as he counted the people around him, there were indeed missing three people. Only nine students were now huddled together in a group.

 

“Did they…?” Someone said quietly but dared not finish the sentence. 

 

“Shut up!” The male student shouted angrily, pushing forward and grabbing the other person by their collar. “Don’t fucking say it!” 

 

“Ah, ah, calm down, Shao Ming!” Bai Shen said frantically as he moved forward to restrain the angry male student. 

 

“Fuck off, Bai Shen!” The angry Shao Ming cursed, shoving aside Bai Shen who fell against Xiang Chen. 

 

Xiang Chen helped Bai Shen back onto his feet, and calmly walked over to the angry Shao Ming. “Calm down, your sister probably just got lost. We’ll find her.”

 

Shao Ming angrily glared at the other person, but hearing Xiang Chen’s words, he calmed down a bit, letting go of the other person. 

 

Although Xiang Chen knew that the sister ‘Meimei’ had most likely been taken by the ghost, but it didn’t necessarily mean that she was dead. If the ghosts had wanted to kill them, they would kill them on the spot and leave the dead bodies behind to scare the group of students even more. However, three people were gone with no bodies in sight. Xiang Chen furrowed his brows, glancing back at the old dilapidated school. It was like the ghosts were trying to lure them back into the building using the missing people as bait. 

 

“H-How are we going to find them ah?” A female student asked worriedly. 

 

Xiang Chen knew the dangers of going back into the school, but… It had barely been an hour or so since they originally reentered the old school, making it only around eleven at night. They still had six more hours to go… Staying outside didn’t necessarily mean that they would be safe, and passing the time away doing nothing also did not guarantee their safety. Perhaps, part of escaping safely also revolved around solving the mystery of the old school. “We’ll have to go back into the school.” Xiang Chen said calmly. 

 

“Why!? That’s basically like asking for death!” 

 

Shao Ming glared in the direction of the speaker, shutting them up. 

 

Xiang Chen sighed, feeling conflicted. “Staying here doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to be safe. If the ghosts can trap us in this area in a loop, what’s to say that they can’t trap us here indefinitely, regardless of time? I know I said that we could wait it out before, but… now three of us are missing. We can’t just leave them behind.” 

 

“What’re you saying, Xiang Chen?” Li Qianru said, tugging onto Xiang Chen’s sleeve with a scared look on her face. 

 

“I meant that if we want to leave this place, we’ll have to figure out a way to appease the ghosts so that they’ll leave us alone.” Xiang Chen explained. “And if we want to find the three missing people, we’ll have to go back into the old school.” 

 

Everyone looked visibly shaken at Xiang Chen’s words. They had been assured that if they just waited it out, that everything would be okay when the sun comes up; but now, they realized that Xiang Chen could be absolutely right. They could be stuck here forever! 

 

“I say we go back in, form groups and split up to try to cover more ground faster. The longer we stay there, the more dangerous it would be for us.” Xiang Chen looked towards the old school. With there being nine people left, it would need to be groups of three. However, there were four floors. “We can cover the first floor together to get an idea of the layout. Then we’ll split up and have each group cover a floor.” 

 

“I’m not going back in there!” A female student cried, clinging onto the other girl beside her. 

 

Xiang Chen sighed. He knew that there would definitely be objections to his idea. Convincing them to go back into the place where they had just experienced such terrifying things… even Xiang Chen was a bit hesitant. 

 

“Fine, we’ll search without you. But if you go missing, we won’t go looking for you. Just remember that.” Xiang Chen couldn’t avoid being a bit strict. 

 

The female student’s eyes welled up with tears, and she sniffled. “F-Fine, I’ll go…” 

 

Xiang Chen nodded and then turned to the rest of the group. “Anyone else wants to stay behind?” 

 

No one said anything. Xiang Chen took that as a silent agreement to his plan. He felt a bit guilty, but he also couldn’t afford to passively wait. 

Suddenly, a holographic screen popped up in front of him. 

 

[Congratulations on completing the achievement “No One Gets Left Behind!” You’ve successfully convinced the remaining students to follow you back into the old school! For your diligent efforts, you may select one reward!]

 

[Hint or Item]

 

Xiang Chen was surprised at the prompt. He glanced between the two rewards, wondering which would be more of a benefit. On one hand, an item could prove to be useful in a sticky situation… But he didn’t know what sort of item the system would grant him; was it a flashlight, maybe a talisman of some sorts? The numerous possibilities made it impossible to guess. However, getting a hint would at least allow Xiang Chen to head in the right direction. 

 

Xiang Chen reached out and pressed on ‘Hint.’ 

 

[You’ve chosen to get a hint as your reward! Please pay attention carefully as the hint will only be given once.]

 

The holographic prompt disappeared, and another one immediately followed after. 

 

[Hint 1: Fourth floor stairs.]

 

Xiang Chen stared at hint, committing the phrase to memory. Fourth floor stairs… Did they mean the stairs to the fourth floor in the old school? Was there something about those stairs that would help them find the missing people or appease the ghosts?

 

“Bai Shen, is there anything you know about the fourth floor stairs in the old school building?” Xiang Chen asked curiously. 

 

Bai Shen gave Xiang Chen a strange look, furrowing his brows in thought. “You don’t know remember about the rumor regarding those stairs?”

 

Xiang Chen shook his head. 

 

“There’s a rumor that if you close your eyes, walk up the stairs from the third to the fourth floor and find a thirteenth step, that you’ll be able to get your wish granted if you put your hands together like a prayer and say your wish in your mind three times.” 

 

A school myth? Xiang Chen wondered how that had anything to do with the ghosts. Was it maybe the work of a demon who prayed on wish-making students? “Was there anything else?” 

 

Bai Shen scratched his head, thinking. Then his eyes widened as he suddenly remembered something. “Ah! I remember now! There’s also a rumor that a female student killed herself after making her wish!” 

 

Xiang Chen was surprised, but then he quickly connected the dots. “Did people start to die a lot afterwards?” 

 

“En, a lot of people kept trying to get their wishes granted by doing the stairs thing, but then people started dying so they stopped. But even though no one did the stairs stuff anymore, people still kept dying. A few teachers even died too!” 

 

“That must be why they built a new school.” Xiang Chen reasoned. 

 

“But why did they leave the old school up instead of tearing it down?” Li Qianru asked curiously. 

 

“Because construction workers kept dying while trying to demolish the old school, so I guess they just decided to leave it alone.” Bai Shen shrugged.