“Was Gao Cheng that strong?” After Han Fei collected all the info, Gao Cheng was in the top three strongest among the eight class teachers. He had strange abilities and plenty of cursed items and entered many Strange Buildings.
“How did he end up like this? If everything came from the persona, how could I trigger it?” There was limited info in the office. Han Fei took the apartment key and prepared to go home. He just stood up when he heard the door open. Two female teachers entered the classroom together.
“Strange. I wasn’t haunted yesterday night.” The teacher for Class Eight was a tiny woman called Zhang Menglan. She was cute and lively. She had a manicure. She looked young.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” The woman beside Zhang Menglan was Yan Lan. She was the teacher of Class One. Her skin was covered in scary tattoos.
“But that has been happening for a week already. Why wouldn’t it come back yesterday night? Has it gone to haunt another woman? No. I need it to give me an explanation tonight!” Zhang Menglan hugged her arms. She sensed Han Fei in the room and changed her pose. The two teachers didn’t talk to Han Fei. Han Fei had accepted the fact that he was not popular. He cleaned up his table, grabbed his bag, and left the office.
“Have you made the decision so soon?” Yan Lan’s voice suddenly appeared behind Han Fei. Han Fei didn’t even notice she moved there. “You might survive if you stay in school. After you leave, you’ll become a crazy monster and then sealed up in the buildings.” The metallic chains rattled. Han Fei turned back to look at Yan Lan. She was taller than he was. In her black pantsuit, she was intimidating and professional.
“What else can I do?” Han Fei didn’t get why Yan Lan could be so oppressive when she was a mere human. This appeared to be the power of the persona.
“After you leave, your class will be disbanded and taken in by other classes.” Yan Lan’s gaze was scary.
“Do you have any good suggestions?” Han Fei felt like she could break his head with a single punch.
“I just feel like it’s a waste for you to die like that. If you’re willing to accept my previous conditions, I might help you.” Yan Lan ignored Han Fei and returned to her seat. Throughout the process, Han Fei observed Yan Lan. The woman had a grey metal branded on her spine. Her hands were bound with cursed bandages. Her muscles appeared to contain endless power.
“Has there been any deal between Gao Cheng and Yan Lan? Or is this the effect of Lapidarist?” Han Fei glanced at Yan Lan’s fists. He left the office with a frown. “I should talk to the children and then go back home to get to the bottom of Gao Cheng’s secrets.”
The ‘weak’ Han Fei returned to Class Seven. He wanted to give the news to the kids so that they could be prepared, but when he got close to the class, he heard these conversations.
“We don’t know the outside city. Leaving the school is death. Why don’t we stay and try to kill all the staff?” “I agree with No. 11. Thinking it from the worst perspective, assuming this city is not 2/3 dominated by ghosts but fully dominated by ghosts, we’ll be hunted if we leave.”
“Then we’ll start with our teacher. Shall we kill him?”
Han Fei was frightened. He just left for a bit, and his class had started to plot to massacre the school.
“I need to calm down.” Han Fei moved forward and looked into the class. A few seats were vacant. “Where are they?”
“Teacher Gao, it looks like your conditions have improved.” No. 1’s serene voice came from the corner. Han Fei wanted to retreat, but No. 4’s thin figure silently moved out of the shadow to block Han Fei. They appeared to be normal kids, but Han Fei felt that they were very dangerous.
“Did you say all those things in the classroom for me to hear?” Han Fei backed against the wall. He didn’t think he’d run into a life-threatening situation the moment he woke up. No. 1 was fine, but No. 4 would really kill him.
“We want to see what kind of person you are.” No. 1 stopped before Han Fei. “We don’t sense any malice from you. This is strange. There can’t be any kindness in this cruel place.” Han Fei felt a chill run up his spine. No. 4’s eyes turned black. He had mastered how to use persona.
“I come from the same place as you. I’ve promised someone that I’ll protect all my students.” Han Fei didn’t use Masterful Acting because he didn’t think he could fool the kids.
“Get into the classroom first.” No. 4 placed his hands on Han Fei’s shoulder. The black eyes scared Han Fei.
Han Fei took the lectern again. He looked at the 30 students. Under the innocent faces were monsters. He felt like he was not teaching a class, but the class was deciding his fate.
“Teacher Gao should be on our side.” As the tension heightened, a girl raised her hand. She was very young. She was No. 30. “I feel like she’s very kind. He’s like a brother or a father.” No. 30 was not a fighter but she could see a person’s essence. She had given Han Fei the best review.
“It’s hard to trust someone at somewhere new.” No. 2 closed his notebook. “But someone has to try. His actions match his words. This man is not lying.”
“I still don’t secure. Plus human heart is the most complicated. How can you be sure that he’ll follow on this path?” No. 4 kept his hand on Han Fei’s shoulder. It was like a snake.
“In that case, we’ll vote.” No. 5 raised his hand. “Raise your hand if you trust him. Keep it lowered if you don’t.”
Less than half of the class raised their hands. Zhou Qi understood the meaning. “I’m sorry, Teacher Gao. We have to ask you to leave. If you really want to help us, please don’t interfere. If you want us to trust you, then you have to trust us.” Han Fei remembered Mad Laughter saying something similar.
“Okay. I’ll go.” There was no argument. Both parties did this to survive. Han Fei took a few steps and then stopped. He asked No. 4 with some embarrassment. “Have you mastered how to use the power of the persona? How do you do that?”
“It depends.” No. 4’s eyes returned to normal.
The door closed, and Han Fei heard Zhou Qi say this, “Three days later, once we leave the classroom, I hope everyone can start to focus on their mission so that all of us can live!”
Han Fei wanted to be with them, but the kids didn’t want to play with him. “I’ve underestimated them. Instead of worrying about them, I should worry about myself.”
Han Fei, who was hated by most of the school followed the map and entered the teacher’s apartment. Han Fei opened the door with the key. The room was filled with trash and smashed furniture. The wallpaper was scratched with knives, and mad ravings were written everywhere. Han Fei noticed that police seal was hung on the door. His apartment room had been listed as a danger zone by the school. Han Fei stood inside the room and looked around. There were several different sets of footprints.
“The cursed objects Gao Cheng have been stolen already. The looters didn’t even leave behind some clean food and water.”
Rusted spring poked out of the old sofa. Han Fei sat on the overturned dresser. He looked at the darkening sky, and his anxiety grew. This emotion was corrupting his persona.
“It’ll be more dangerous after dark. I need to change this around.” Han Fei took out the mirror. “This is the only thing Gao Cheng took out from the Strange Building. The Optometrist Hospital is strange too. Gao Cheng was blind before the big tragedy, but he regained sight after the tragedy struck Xin Lu…” Han Fei looked at himself in the mirror. “Should I go to the third Optometrist Hospital?”
Han Fei suddenly realized his reflection was laughing. He seemed to try to tell Han Fei something. “It looks like he’s mouthing the bathroom.”
Han Fei entered the bathroom and examined every spook. He pried open a tile and took out a notebook and a black key hidden underneath.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve found Grade E Special Item, Gao Cheng’s Diary, and Grade F Special Item, White Building’s Rental Key.”
“Diary? Why would my reflection be so familiar with Gao Cheng’s home?” Han Fei stared at his reflection. The man looked just like him, but he looked so unfamiliar. “Is the real Gao Cheng trapped in the mirror?” When Han Fei entered Fu Sheng’s altar world, he became Fu Yi, Fu Sheng’s father. And the real Fu Yi was inside Han Fei’s body. Their fates were bound.
“What is the relationship between Gao Cheng and Gao Xing? Why would I become Gao Cheng?” Han Fei looked through the diary, and he was hooked.
Gao Cheng had an eye illness, and his birth parents had an eye illness too. On the night he was born, his selfish parents swapped him out for another normal child so that Gao Cheng could get the treatment he needed. Their fates were changed. One flower bloomed, and the other wilted.
While he received various treatments and his parent’s love, the original child had to suffer the world’s darkest fate.
When tragedy came, Gao Cheng’s adoptive parents told him the truth. They already knew Gao Cheng was not their child, but their child and the blind parents were already, so they had been treating Gao Cheng as their own child.
His adoptive parents took care of Gao Cheng during the tragedy until they died being killed by the ghosts. Gao Cheng lost his family and became a monster. Han Fei knew many things from reading the diary. Gao Cheng had done many things to survive.
He traded with ghosts to regain his sight. He sacrificed people to Red Buildings to gain power. Humanity was gone on Gao Cheng. He was a ghost in human skin. Other than the description of the change in Gao Cheng, the diary also contained some hand-drawn maps and exploration notes.
Gao Cheng had entered the Strange Buildings five times and managed to escape. His diary contained info on the third Optometrist Hospital, Gu Yang Tian Nian Elder’s Home, and Deep Sea Aquarium. This was what the school was after.
Other than the info on the three ‘Strange Buildings’, Gao Cheng had a secret storeroom at school. The storeroom contained his most precious materials and cursed items. The key to the storeroom was kept with the diary.
