Chapter 150 Guardian (VIII)
And the news that person brought was much more than that——
The three bodies were discovered by a pair of sophomore high school lovers who were in love prematurely. The sophomores finished school earlier than the juniors, and the couple were in different classes, so they couldn't wait to stick together after class and even chose places with few people for their tryst.
However, when the two were about to kiss each other, the girl felt like she stepped on something.
She looked down and saw a hand stretched out from behind the bushes, and apologized quickly. But she soon realized the problem. Under the moonlight, the hand was yellow and green, and the surface of the skin was beating like a pulse.
However, the owner of the hand did not respond to the girl's apology.
The two mustered up their courage and turned behind the bushes, and then they saw a scene that they would never forget -
Three people in school uniforms were lying on their backs. Except for their hair, their exposed skin was glowing with this strange color. Even the place where their eyes should be was occupied by surging yellow-green stripes.
There was also a student ID card dropped next to him, showing that it was Zhu Chao, and the other person often followed Wang Hao with several other people.
Because Wang Hao was notorious in the school, his younger brothers were equally famous. The two had seen each other before, so they recognized Zhu Chao and Wang Hao's other two younger brothers from their figures.
The three did not react to their terrified screams, and soon they discovered that there were bugs moving under their skin.
The two were so scared that they ran out screaming and went to find the teacher to call the police.
The police arrived quickly because they were in the school. The screams of the two people had attracted people on the way back to the dormitory and attracted a lot of onlookers. The student who spread the news also heard it from other onlookers, but he was able to basically confirm the identity of the deceased.
Screams and shouts of fear rang out in the classroom one after another. Although the players had expected this and did not shout in surprise, some of them still looked grim.
Obviously, Qiao Yuan's guess should be correct. The person they encountered who had the same condition as the three corpses could basically be determined to be Wang Hao.
However, they clearly regarded Wang Hao and others as a threat to Su Zeyuan, but they did not expect that the other party would die first. Moreover, from the description, the strange appearance was not caused by human power.
"So this instance is... haunted?" The novice player named Ren Shirui swallowed her saliva and then trembled as she spoke. If you listened carefully, you could hear her teeth chattering.
The other two novice players looked a little panicked when they heard her words. One of them couldn't help but shout, "How could there be ghosts in the world..."
Because her voice was shrill and she hadn't controlled the volume, the students sitting in the front row looked over. The other players also realized this, and in order to prevent her shouting from disturbing more people, Cheng Xiao, who was closest to her, quickly covered her mouth, finally blocking the other person's subsequent words back into her throat.
Qiao Yuan remembered that her name was Zou Lu.
The other party claimed to be a novice, and now indeed behaved like a novice, with a panicked look. However, as someone who had the same experience of disguise, Qiao Yuan could see at a glance that the other party was disguised as a novice. The only real novice players were Uncle Man and Ren Shirui.
However, since this kind of thing is just experience and intuition, it is difficult to come up with convincing evidence, so Qiao Yuan is not prepared to expose it for the time being.
Cheng Xiao, who had been secretly reading a book while everyone was discussing, also pursed his lips and looked panicked. After all, he had never encountered any ghosts in the novice copy.
Yang Zhe sensed the anxiety of these players. If it were in the real world, he might have offered some words of comfort as a senior or elder, but now that he was in a dungeon, he could only give an ambiguous answer: "Maybe."
"Look at it in a positive way. If there is a ghost, it might be on our side." As one of the real novice players, Uncle Man quickly thought of something and smiled optimistically: "According to normal thinking, we need to protect Su Zeyuan. This means that he is in danger and is also a possible target of the ghost. But in the end, it was Wang Hao and the other four who hurt him who died."
"And according to what Xiao Qiao said, they didn't encounter any danger on the way back with Su Zeyuan..."
But judging from the slight tremor in his voice, he was not so indifferent.
After hearing Uncle Man's words, Yang Zhe immediately spoke up: "That's right, everyone, don't be so scared."
"I have just been studying the mission introduction given to us by the system. I think the main difficulty of this mission is to protect Su Zeyuan, so even if there is a ghost, it should be heading for Su Zeyuan."
Judging from the expressions of other players, they were obviously only half comforted. However, the fact that it was not directed at them still made many players feel relieved. After all, Yang Zhe was the person who had experienced the most dungeons among those present.
Qiao Yuan frowned slightly and thought of another possibility -
If there is a ghost in this copy, then the opponent might have originally intended to attack Su Zeyuan, but was interrupted by them, or it is very likely that he will point the spearhead at them.
It was just that Qiao Yuan proposed a possibility. Except for Song Yanchi and Sheng Guiye, the other players did not say anything, but judging from their expressions, they did not seem to believe it.
After all, both Qiao Yuan and Yang Zhe have made speculations, and players are obviously more willing to believe the latter.
However, Qiao Yuan caught a glimpse of the sarcasm in Zou Lu's eyes, but judging from the other person's gaze, the sarcasm was not directed at her, but at Yang Zhe.
At this moment, Yang Zhe suddenly stopped the discussion. It was obvious that he had now consciously taken on the role of team leader.
It turned out that Su Zeyuan had already packed his schoolbag and seemed to be leaving the classroom, so the players naturally had to follow him.
Because it would be too obvious if nine players followed together, Yang Zhe suggested that the players split into groups of three or four and blend in with the crowd that was also walking out of the classroom, but still keep a distance from Su Zeyuan.
Qiao Yuan and Song Yanchi were walking together. She knew very well that being too attentive would appear suspicious, so this time she did not step forward, but walked in the middle of the crowd with Song Yanchi. However, her eyes were still on Su Zeyuan, who was walking alone in the crowd with a book in his arms. His tall back was particularly conspicuous in the crowd.
Su Zeyuan never turned his head from beginning to end, so he didn't notice the person following him.
When she heard the news that Wang Hao's three younger brothers had died, she subconsciously looked at Su Zeyuan. The other party had obviously heard it at the time, but his expression was exactly the same as everyone else's: surprise.
Because Wang Hao had come to him with three younger brothers in a hurry, he was the last person in everyone's impression to come into contact with the three men. Some people looked at Su Zeyuan with a bit of fear, and they had obviously imagined that the other party was bullied by Wang Hao's younger brothers, so they fought back in excitement. Most of them were curious and wanted to ask Su Zeyuan if he knew the reason or if he noticed anything unusual when he came into contact with the three younger brothers.
Facing everyone's questioning, Su Zeyuan seemed unwilling to talk more and gently refused: "I'm not sure either. We can wait for the conclusion of the police investigation."
As this went on, many students realized that he didn't want to talk more and could only leave with regret.
And from the beginning to the end, he did not show any gloating or relief at the death of Wang Hao's three brothers. However, it is possible that he has a gentle personality and does not bear grudges, or he just thinks that "the dead are the greatest".
The dormitories are divided into two buildings for men and women, which are located opposite each other. However, there are two checkpoints, namely card swiping and dormitory management. In addition, there is a rule of nightly dormitory inspections, so it is very difficult to sneak in.
The players separated at the doors of the male and female dormitories, and the male players followed Su Zeyuan, Qiao Yuan and the other three female players into the female dormitory.
The news of the discovery of the body in the school had apparently spread throughout the school at an alarming speed. When Qiao Yuan walked into the dormitory building, she could still hear discussions coming from the corridor and the bathroom. It was obvious that this incident had become a new topic of conversation in their boring and dull lives.
Qiao Yuan met a familiar female classmate in the corridor. After chatting with her for a few words, he quickly got to know her dormitory room.
The school dormitory is an eight-person room with bunk beds, and the four female players were assigned to the same room.
When she realized this, Ren Shirui breathed a sigh of relief. She had been moving with everyone since she entered the dungeon, so she was quite worried that she would be left alone.
Because they stayed in the classroom for a while, it was almost lights-out time when the four of them returned to the dormitory. Except for one who had asked for sick leave and went home, the other three people in the dormitory were also there.
The other three girls who lived in the dormitory were also from the same class as them. When they saw them coming back, they immediately pulled them together to discuss the matter of Zhu Chao and the others with great interest. The books they brought back were temporarily placed on the only desk in the dormitory.
"Hey, I heard that those three people's bodies were full of bugs. Anyway, I have a traumatic experience with bugs..."
"Yes, and what kind of insect is this? It eats human flesh. Aren't most insects vegetarian?"
"I don't think Su Zeyuan did it, but I wonder if Wang Hao will vent his anger on him..."
"It's very likely. After all, Wang Hao is a guy who can do anything."
Obviously, these people stand on the position that Su Zeyuan did not kill anyone, so their words are biased towards Su Zeyuan.
And they didn't know yet that Wang Hao had reunited with his brothers.
A loud "bang" interrupted everyone's conversation temporarily.
"Sorry, I accidentally knocked the book over." Zou Lu, who was leaning against the desk, apologized to them while bending down to pick up the book that she had knocked over.
Ren Shirui stood next to Zou Lu. Because they were both newbies, she and Zou Lu were closer than others. They even walked together when they returned to the dormitory just now and exchanged a lot of things about the real world.
For example, she already knew that Zou Lu was a few years younger than her in the real world, and they had been in the same high school, which was equivalent to a senior and a junior relationship. Although Ren Shirui had already graduated and they didn't know each other in school, being in the same university still gave her a sense of security as if she saw an acquaintance in the dungeon.
And Zou Lu also depends on her.
A book fell at Ren Shirui's feet, and she picked it up and handed it over.
But she soon seemed to notice something and whispered, "Are your hands shaking?"
After a pause, she added: "Don't be afraid. Just don't think about the scene of those three dead bodies."
However, Ren Shirui couldn't help but tremble, which greatly reduced the persuasiveness of her words. After her body trembled, she obviously felt embarrassed and showed a shameful expression: "I... I..."
Fortunately, Zou Lu did not show any mocking expression, but looked touched: "Thank you, following your method, I am not afraid anymore."
Ren Shirui breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good."
Because other people started a new topic at this time and their voices were quite loud, the two of them could only speak close to each other's ears.
Taking advantage of the brief moment of silence, Qiao Yuan had already interrupted the conversation.
"Come to think of it, this isn't the first time someone has died in our school, right?" Qiao Yuan mentioned casually, "Do you remember that something similar happened in our school before..."
No one noticed that she was getting something for nothing. As expected, a female classmate quickly responded, "Are you talking about the skinning incident?"
Qiao Yuan nodded: "Yes, I remember that this incident was indeed a sensation at the time."
The attention of the other girls was quickly diverted: "Of course, is it the incident about the female student whose face was disfigured in the dormitory and who died of excessive blood loss..."
"I remember that incident, but it wasn't disfigurement. The girl's entire face was peeled off. We hadn't entered school at that time yet, and I heard about it from my dad. He had a forensic friend who was in charge of the autopsy at the time. He said that the girl's face was peeled off, and blood was all over the bed, and it seeped into the lower bunk. The one on the lower bunk was also in a miserable state. She felt something dripping in a half-asleep state, but she didn't care and just wiped it off. She was awakened by the strong smell of rust in the morning, and then she found that her hands were covered in blood, and the bed board above her had been stained red with blood. When the police came, they didn't find the murder weapon or the missing face, nor did they find any unfamiliar fingerprints..."
"The news report I saw at the time didn't say this, it just said that the facial injury led to death."
"After all, how could such a weird thing be reported in detail? It would definitely cause panic. Even the dormitory where the other party originally lived was sealed off with a wall."
"But this is really weird. Didn't she make any screams or noises when her face was peeled off? And the other roommates were sleeping so soundly? Could it be that the roommates killed her together? That's why there are no strange fingerprints left in the dormitory."
"As a police officer, didn't you consider this? They investigated. Although the girl had some conflicts with other roommates, it was not to the point of murder. And the girl's face was completely peeled off. Do you know what this means? The other party peeled off the face very cleanly, just like taking off a mask. How could an ordinary person do this?"
Hearing the other party's words, Qiao Yuan nodded in agreement. If what this female classmate said was true, then this was not something that a few ordinary female students could do, unless one of them was a surgical genius in the previous life, reborn in the student dormitory for revenge. After all, this was a real test of skills.
The other girls couldn't help but sigh: "Oh, how pitiful."
"Yes, that girl is our senior. If she were still alive, she would have graduated from college by now..."
"Speaking of which, the surveillance cameras didn't show any suspected murderer. Some people also said that because the senior sister lived on the upper bunk at the time, she was lying face down between the cracks in the door when she died. So sometimes people sleeping on the lower bunk would see a pair of bloodshot eyes and blood oozing out of the gap between the upper bunk boards while half asleep, as well as eerie voices and words like 'found the face'."
"But later it was confirmed to be a dream, and I woke up still in bed..."
"I, I don't want to listen anymore!" Ren Shirui's voice suddenly rang out, startling the girls who were chatting happily: "Shirui, what's wrong?"
Ren Shirui pursed her lips.
What's wrong?
That's of course because the four players all live in the lower bunk.
