Global Collapse

Zi Liang slowly turned his neck to look up.

He saw a face pressed tightly against the glass of the window above, grinning and staring at him.

The windows on the classroom wall facing the corridor were more than a person's height from the floor; a normal person wouldn't be able to press their face against the glass up there.

The moment he made eye contact with the face, Zi Liang immediately withdrew his head and ducked under the table.

Seeing this, Willow not supporting wind seemed to understand and subtly raised her head, glancing in the direction Zi Liang had just been staring.

However, the space beneath the table was too cramped for two people. With several chairs blocking their view, Willow not supporting wind couldn't see outside either.

"What is it?" she mouthed at Zi Liang.

In the cramped space, Zi Liang pointed upward with a stiff hand and mouthed, "Over there..."

Even if Zi Liang didn't elaborate, Willow not supporting wind could guess what was there from his expression.

At this thought, Willow not supporting wind involuntarily shrank back, trying to make herself even smaller.

Just then, however, Zi Liang, who was in front of her, moved again. He mouthed slowly, enunciating each word—"It saw me."

Willow not supporting wind's pupils abruptly contracted.

It saw them!

Just then, they heard a noise coming from the entrance.

Gu Mian and the others hadn't closed the laboratory door after entering, so this wasn't the sound of a door being pushed open.

Instead, it was the extremely faint sound of footsteps, barely audible. If he hadn't seen Willow not supporting wind's face turn pale, Zi Liang would have thought he was imagining things.

It was coming in... The grinning ghost face from the window—it was coming in.

The two of them huddled together tightly, as if shrinking themselves down would prevent the ghost from finding them.

Zi Liang couldn't understand. Why do these things always happen to me?

It had been the same earlier with Fatty, when he had practically curled himself into a ball.

And it was happening again now.

Why are there so many ghosts in this laboratory building!

Theoretically, their current situation was even worse. When they were hiding in the restroom, at least there was a chance they wouldn't be found, protected by the dilapidated restroom door. But now, the ghost had spotted them from the outset; it had entered the classroom specifically for them! And here, there was only a pile of rickety chairs that could be easily pushed aside.

The footsteps outside were faint and indistinct.

The two hiding under the table heard the footsteps only once before a long silence descended, as if whoever made them had long since departed.

Zi Liang was covering his phone screen, peeking at it through a tiny gap.

When the upside-down female ghost appeared last time, a warning had shown up in the game. This ghost with the faint footsteps should, theoretically, also appear on the screen.

However, the screen left him dumbfounded. The display only showed the table they were hiding under and a few nearby floor tiles, not a full view of the laboratory.

There were also several lines of text at the bottom of the screen—

"[Faint footsteps echo in the classroom. It seems someone is walking around outside. But this classroom has been abandoned for a long time due to past events. Who would come here?]"

"[Willow not supporting wind: ...]"

"[Liang'er: ...]"

Perhaps their game characters had also sensed the danger, so they didn't dare make a sound.

The screen, showing only their hiding spot under the table and the nearby floor, made Zi Liang frantic with anxiety.

Just then, Willow not supporting wind, opposite him, suddenly looked over and mouthed, "It seems like the noise has stopped."

Has the noise stopped? Zi Liang listened carefully, and indeed, not a single sound came from outside.

But even so, they didn't dare peek out.

Better to wait for the others to come out of the restroom… if they even can come out… Why are two minutes taking so agonizingly long!

Zi Liang had never felt time pass so agonizingly slowly. He gripped his phone tightly, his eyes peering through the gaps between the legs of the chairs in front of the table, fixed on the restroom door not far away.

He even found himself thinking, 'It's warmer if we all die together.'

Then, just as he was lost in these morbid thoughts, he suddenly heard soft footsteps nearby. Very close! They were almost right in front of the table!

Zi Liang blanched and instinctively looked up at Willow not supporting wind across from him.

But as Zi Liang raised his head, he saw Willow not supporting wind staring back at him, her expression even more terrified than his own.

Zi Liang's scalp prickled. He followed Willow not supporting wind's gaze and looked behind himself.

A deathly pale face had somehow squeezed through the gaps between the chairs. It was almost touching his own, its mouth stretched into a wide grin as it stared at him.

"It's over…" Zi Liang choked out.

Just after Zi Liang's despairing cry, another sound suddenly echoed.

It was the sound of the dilapidated restroom door being abruptly pushed open, followed by Fatty's disgusted "PTOOEY! PTOOEY!"

"That place is disgusting. The more I looked, the sicker I felt. I think some little flies flew into my mouth," Fatty said, glancing towards where Zi Liang and Willow not supporting wind were hiding.

After exiting, his first instinct was to check if his teammates were still there.

However, when he looked over, he saw Zi Liang with his eyes closed, the picture of someone resigned to death. Such an expression might have befitted a hero on a battlefield, but here and now, it just looked pathetic.

"What are you doing?" Fatty strode over and yanked away the chair blocking the front of the table.

Only then did Zi Liang open his eyes. He twisted his neck to look around and asked, "Am I not dead?"

Gu Mian observed him carefully. "You appear to be, for now," he replied.

Just then, Willow not supporting wind scrambled out from under the table, gasping for breath. "We just saw a ghost!"

Saw a ghost? Gu Mian rubbed his chin. This spot wasn't that close to the restroom door, yet they should have heard if anything happened outside.

"Just now," Willow not supporting wind gestured wildly, "a huge face nearly touched me! But when I closed my eyes and opened them again, it was gone. Then, suddenly, I saw you guys come out."

Gu Mian lowered his hand. "Was it the same female ghost as before?"

"No." Zi Liang weakly shook his head. "It wasn't."

He had been closest to the face, so he had the most authority to speak on this.

"It wasn't the female ghost, nor the male ghost we saw in the restroom earlier. It was a new one, a ghost we've never seen before…"

Hearing this, Fatty couldn't help but shiver. Just how many ghosts are in this laboratory building?!

Chu Changge's voice suddenly came from the side, "Did it touch your face just now?"