Extra 1
After returning to reality, time seemed to suddenly speed up.
When 606 suddenly felt like checking the calendar, he realized that a month had already passed.
That dark night is still vivid in my mind, but the following time was unusually calm. The same accident never happened again, as if nothing had happened.
Of course, not everything has changed.
According to news from the freshman class, their school even lifted the 12:00 PM lights-out rule for freshman and sophomore dormitories to calm the students. Since then, for many nights, the entire dorm has been brightly lit, with no dormitories willing to turn off their lights.
The students themselves could not explain the specific reasons for their sudden resistance to the darkness and dependence on light.
"Hey, I heard that Sun Jia from the next dorm has been buying up LED tubes and night lights like crazy these days, and then selling them online on campus. His business is booming."
Guo Guo was reading a novel while mumbling to himself:
"She happens to be an e-commerce major, and she's already done her final project. How about we do one too?"
Zhang You was tidying up his desk and asked with a smile, "What ideas do you have?"
Speaking of this, Guo Guo's spirits brightened. She pulled out a stack of novels from under the table and said, "After careful research, I think reading novels can effectively relieve PTSD and pessimism. Otherwise, we..."
Zhang You kindly added, "A big sale of unsold second-hand books?"
Guo Guo: "... Reading, how can you say that a book is unsalable?"
Seeing that Zhang You wasn't fooled, she turned to Zheng Wanqing and urged her, "Miss, what do you think of the potential of this project? After my careful research—"
Zheng Wanqing, who was typing away on her paper, remained unmoved. She ruthlessly interrupted her, "Have you finished that group assignment you've been putting off for a week? Don't forget, we have to go on another investigation after dinner. Will we have to pull an all-nighter to catch up on that?"
Guo Guo: "Thanks for the reminder. Sorry to bother you."
She returned to her seat in a sullen mood. She looked up casually and saw the corner of a piece of clothing sticking out from the upper bunk. Her eyes suddenly lit up: "Yes! And my dearest Jue Shen, you..."
"Xin Jue is resting, don't disturb her sleep."
Zhang You gently grabbed Guo Guo's ear and dragged her away.
Upper bunk.
The girl lay flat on the bed, breathing evenly, her eyeballs moving slightly and rhythmically under her eyelids, which was a standard dream state.
A few minutes later, she suddenly opened her eyes, and her focus quickly returned to a waking state. She continued to breathe slowly and looked at the ceiling calmly.
I can’t remember how many times I’ve had this dream this month.
To control variables and increase the sample size, she tried shortening her sleep time, falling asleep multiple times a day and achieving deep sleep, and also tried lying down all day and staying asleep for a long time.
Among them, the probability of dreams appearing is 60%, and among all dreams, the number of nightmares is 0.
After coming out of the game, she never had nightmares again.
Rubbing her brows, Tang Xinjue opened her phone. A long nap had already accumulated a slew of unread messages. She didn't rush to reply to each one, but instead opened a public forum. As soon as it loaded, a prominent discussion at the top caught her eye:
Title: The Lost Hour
[Main thread: A month has passed. Does anyone still care about the sudden, one-hour power outage at universities across the country that night? Why is there no news on any of the platforms?]
[Second floor: It's not just our country, the internet went down too. But they announced there was a problem with the power system, and some cables just happened to be sabotaged... Anyway, it's a once-in-a-century coincidence. Do you believe it? I don't.jpg]
[Fifth Floor: Didn't some people say this was just a massive prank by a hacker gang? And the power outage wasn't even an hour long; it was restored gradually, and there weren't any casualties. You can't shut down all the universities in the country just because of a power outage. There's really no need to make a fuss.]
[11th Floor: Whether you want to hear the results of an investigation or make a fuss about it, the real right to speak should be in the hands of those who have experienced these things firsthand, right? There are tens of millions of college students in our country, so isn't there anyone who can speak out and share their own experiences?]
[Twelfth Floor: My sister is a sophomore at Nanshi X University. She told me nothing happened. She just stayed in the dark for an hour, and then the battery was restored. She doesn't understand what people are discussing online and doesn't like to participate. I finally asked her about this.]
[27th Floor: No, don't you all find it strange? How come the previous several floors have all given the same explanation? Did your friends and relatives just sit there motionless when the power went out? No memory of it? And shouldn't those who experienced it be the most enthusiastic to discuss things like power outages? Why are they so averse to the topic?]
[55th Floor: Continue to wait for the results of the investigation. No matter how much you argue, I still find this very strange. Instead of believing these explanations, why not just tell me that that hour was directly erased from the timeline by a mysterious force? Perhaps that would be more believable.]
…
Several related discussions have been held, mostly just arguments. However, it's not hard to see that the topic's popularity has subsided considerably compared to when the incident first occurred.
New things happen in the world every day, and the internet won't just remain a memory. Perhaps before long, the relevant discussions will completely disappear, along with the "truth" that has not yet been investigated, disappearing into time.
Because the relevant traces disappeared so completely, even 606 himself sometimes wondered whether everything that happened that night was just a dream.
…Really, was it just a dream?
Tang Xin Jue switched back to the message interface, where several new messages popped up.
[Student Bai: I'm sorry I haven't been able to share my thoughts with you these past two days. After coming out of there, my mind has been in a state of confusion from time to time, and my roommate's is the same.]
[Student Bai: I guess this might be some kind of sequelae. The longer you stay "in there," the more serious the sequelae will be.]
[Mr. Bai: In the worst case scenario, I’m afraid…]
Tang Xin Jue succinctly supplemented the other party's speculation:
[You will completely lose your memory.]
About the university town, about the game, about the nightmare, about everything that happened in that "hour".
[Student Bai: Unfortunately, the vast majority of people are like this.]
[Student Bai: Is the Investigation Bureau still contacting you?]
[Student Tang: Always.]
[Student Tang: If it weren't for the persistence of these investigators, and my connections with you, Jinhan, and others, I might have doubted myself too.]
In a boys' dormitory.
The boy sitting at the table saw the flashing avatar on the message board, smiled subconsciously, sighed, and the curl of hair on his head trembled slightly.
[Student Bai: Thank you for your hard work. After all, you were the first dorm to graduate, truly number one in the world. Since you left, the game has added a new tier, alongside the first-tier, second-tier, and double-first-class universities, called the TOP-level candidates. Also known as the "Random Coders," it's said to be in honor of a dorm with a "Random Code" ranking.]
Tang Xin Jue: "..."
Thank you. Can’t you think of a nice name for University Town?
[Tang Xin Jue: Being noticed by the university town might not be a good thing.]
The two chatted briefly for a few more minutes before Bai Zhi finally expressed his desire to visit University A:
We've discovered some new information about games and college towns that I thought I'd pass on to you in person.
[Tang Xin Jue: Is it related to the gaming company you mentioned last time?]
[Bai Zhi: Yes. But... I hope I'm wrong. I won't bother you any more. See you tomorrow.]
Five minutes later.
[Student Bai: I hope you have a happy day today too.]
**
"Bai Zhi will come tomorrow?"
After the routine questioning and investigation, the four members of 606 walked on the street back to school at eight o'clock in the evening.
As they chatted about "old acquaintances" like Bai Zhi, Guo Guo tucked his hands into his coat, leaned against the others, and thought while holding his ice cream cone: "This is the first time we've met acquaintances since we came back. After all, there are very few people who have clear memories of them. I just don't know if I can see Ou Ruofei, Zhou Ao, and the others again... Oh, right, do we need to prepare anything?"
She carefully pulled a pack of talisman paper from her pocket. "I bought these from a 100% positive review store. If we get caught and arrested by the university town while we're exchanging information, maybe these talismans can help!"
Zheng Wanqing put her hands back in her pockets: "Don't be such a pessimist. We've made a complete comeback, and that won't happen again."
"It's getting late." Tang Xinjue said, "Let's go back and rest early."
She looked at the night scene ahead where the street lights were swaying, her brows unconsciously furrowed.
"We'll talk about the details tomorrow."
If everything could really return to normal, they shouldn't be involved in discussions about these things anymore.
If it really keeps its promise and disappears completely from their lives and has no connection with them anymore.
Best to just treat it as a dream.
Returning to the brightly lit dormitory building, the four of them were stopped by the dorm manager before they could even reach the stairs:
"Ahhhh, a delivery to your dormitory!"
Guo Guo took it curiously and said, "The recipient's name is mine. I wonder which novel it is. I hope it's the one about campus rebirth and King Kong. But why is it here with Auntie?"
Auntie waved her hand: "How should I know? I found it on the table like this. Maybe a classmate gave it to me. Go back quickly."
Back in the dormitory, Guo Guo couldn't wait to start opening the package, and even borrowed a paper cutter from Zhang You. Zhang You took a look and suddenly stopped: "Wait a minute, whose package is this?"
Under Guo Guo's puzzled gaze, Zhang You pointed his finger at the recipient column of the express information. Under the light, the word "Zhang You" could be faintly seen behind Guo Guo's name?
Zhang You used a paper cutter to cut it open without hesitation, and what came into view was not only Zhang You, but also Zheng Wanqing who was covered on the next layer, and Tang Xinjue who was on the next layer!
Looking at this scene, Tang Xinjue's eyes darkened:
"This isn't your package, Guoguo. This is from our dormitory."
After that, the courier box split in two, revealing only a rolled-up piece of paper. Unrolling the paper, a festive red color emerged:
【Outstanding Graduate Award】
Dear 606 Dormitory, since you have graduated early with excellent grades, we would like to award you the "Outstanding Graduate" award as a token of our encouragement.
October 1, 2022
【——A university town that always cares about students】
