“Sob, sob...”
“Sob...”
The fear that Zhao Weilai and Deng Ziwen had suppressed for the past few days finally exploded upon seeing this skinned corpse.
Ignoring the filth on the floor, the young couple hugged each other and wept bitterly.
Ding Feifan was also crying, but with no one to hug, he could only weep and vomit at the same time: “Ugh... Blech—”
The three of them had barely eaten anything to begin with, and now they were shaking violently from vomiting. In the end, they could not even throw up stomach acid and were reduced to dry-heaving.
The ghosts in the artificial lake before had caused psychological terror.
But now, a skinned corpse of one of their own kind, bloody and mangled, lay right before them.
The primal fear of death engraved in human DNA awakened, and every single cell in their bodies screamed frantically, Run, run!
“It’s fine... it’s fine. Once we complete the quest, we can go home...” Deng Ziwen cried with tears and snot streaming down his face, holding Zhao Weilai as they wept together.
“I really want to eat the savory crepes from the stand outside the school gate... I, I still have half a bottle of laundry detergent left in my cabinet, I need to buy a new one...”
—He was clearly so terrified that he had started blabbering whatever came to mind.
Ding Feifan’s soul had practically fled his body.
He was just a college counselor; his usual duties involved minor issues like students skipping class, failing exams, or getting into arguments.
A skinned corpse.
He had never imagined in his life that he would ever see such a sight.
...
The three of them suffered an emotional breakdown and vomited for a full hour before they finally managed to calm down.
It wasn’t that they had stopped crying, but there was simply nothing left in their stomachs to throw up.
The corpse lay on the floor, its face turned toward them. Under the light filtering into the room, its skinless face looked exceptionally hideous.
The dark-red muscle fibers, the bulging eyeballs, and the mucus dripping from the corners of its mouth—
every detail assaulted their nerves.
Deng Ziwen forced down his nausea and tightly gripped Zhao Weilai’s hand. The latter swallowed hard, feeling somewhat hopeless.
“Is... is it Luo Yiming or Fang Wei?”
His face deathly pale, Ding Feifan supported himself against the wall and forced back his disgust as he tried to identify the body’s build.
“I’ve never met them, but it probably is.”
Zhao Weilai took a long time to recover and barely stop dry-heaving.
She did not dare look at the corpse on the ground. A living, breathing human had been reduced to this state—
For a split second, she even despised her daytime self, who had voluntarily given up her survival slot, feeling a wave of wretched regret.
“There are still four stalls left.”
Ding Feifan regained his composure, forcing himself to stay calm. “We... need to check.”
Deng Ziwen looked at Zhao Weilai, who had vomited until she had nothing left, and hesitated. “How about I go? You two don't have to look.”
“No, I want to see.”
Zhao Weilai shook her head and hefted the mop handle in her hand. “I can do it.”
Ding Feifan gave her a slightly admiring look, held up his phone, and walked toward the next stall.
The door to the second stall was closed.
A pool of old, blackened blood seeped out from the gap under the door, sticky and glistening.
Deng Ziwen exchanged looks with the other two, took a deep breath, pressed the wooden stick against the door panel, and slowly pushed.
But even when he pushed until his face turned red, the door did not budge.
Like it was being blocked by something from the inside.
“There's something inside,” Zhao Weilai took over and said to the two. “I have more strength. Let me pry the door open. You two watch out.”
Deng Ziwen and Ding Feifan nodded, both gripping their self-defense tools tightly.
Copying Deng Ziwen's movement, Zhao Weilai inserted the wooden stick into the door handle and gave it a firm pry—
With a loud crash, the door was pried open with great force.
A stench of decay even stronger than before washed over the three of them, hitting them right in the face.
Fortunately, the three of them had been prepared and quickly leaped back.
Zhao Weilai mustered her courage to look inside, and instantly gasped.
She wanted to vomit again.
The stall was very small, containing only a squat toilet with a water tank that had long stopped holding water hanging behind it.
A male corpse was head-down.
His head had been forcibly stuffed into the narrow drain opening by something.
The corpse's head was severely deformed from being squeezed, with a collapsed skull. His hair, mixed with blood and muddy water, was plastered over his face.
His neck was twisted at an impossible angle, and his shoulders were wedged against the edges of the squat toilet.
Blood dripped from his head, flowing down the edges of the toilet.
The blood they had seen earlier had flowed from here.
The three of them could easily picture the victim's fear and despair before his death.
“This wasn't done by a human...” Deng Ziwen muttered to himself, his voice tight. “Is there really a ghost in the restroom?”
No one answered.
The restroom was deathly quiet, save for the rapid breathing of the three of them.
The corpse on the floor and the corpse in the stall—two bodies, both dying horrific deaths.
Skinned, and stuffed down a drain.
Neither of these was something a normal human could do.
“Why did they die here?”
Zhao Weilai wiped her tears. “What on earth is in that Punishment Room? How did they end up running to the old school building?”
“I don't know,” Ding Feifan shook his head. “No one has ever been to the Punishment Room. I think they probably found the check-in point of the old school building after leaving the Punishment Room.”
The three stood in silence.
Ten people had entered, and now two were dead.
Could they really make it out alive?
Would they end up like this too, dying in some dark corner and slowly rotting away?
Once this thought cropped up, it could not be suppressed.
Fear, like ice water, welled up from the soles of their feet, making the three of them shake all over.
...
The door to the third stall was also slightly ajar. Like the first one, it opened with a gentle push.
Inside was only a squat toilet, holding stagnant, yellowish water.
Half of a corpse was wedged in the drain, crawling with maggots.
The soft white worms wriggled in a dense, squirming mass.
Zhao Weilai took only one look before quickly turning her head away.
The fourth stall was empty as well.
There were only a few dead rats on the ground. It was impossible to tell how long they had been dead, but they had rotted until only fur and bones remained.
Now, only the last stall was left.
The innermost stall.
The door was shut tight, without a single gap.
No blood seeped out from under the door, and there was no sound.
The three stood at the entrance of the stall, exchanging looks, all of them tense.
Jump scares often happened in movies. Although it was daytime now, no one could guarantee what was inside.
Just as the three of them hesitated about whether to leave—
Thump.
A soft sound suddenly came from the other side of the door.
It sounded as if someone had lightly bumped against the door.
The three got goosebumps all over, and their six feet scrambled to run outward in unison.
The next second, the door was opened from the inside.
There was no corpse or ghost in the stall.
A living person was huddled in the corner of the squat toilet, hugging his knees with his head buried in them, shivering all over.
He wore a somewhat familiar floral T-shirt.
It was Zhou Shengsheng.
As if hearing the noise, his eyes stared straight at the three of them.
Compared to when they had first met him the day before yesterday, he was in a terribly miserable state now.
His hair was messy, his face was stained with blood and mud, and there were several scratch marks on his right cheek that had already scabbed over.
“You guys...”
He opened his mouth, his voice as raspy as sandpaper, and then tears instantly gushed out:
“You're finally here...”
“Save me... there's a ghost... there's a ghost in the restroom...”
—As if seeing something terrifying, Zhou Shengsheng suddenly leaned back violently:
“Don't come over... don't look for me...”
“I didn't kill you guys... I really didn't...”
“Don't come over, don't come over!”
He muttered incoherently, tears and snot mixing together, yet he still shrank in the corner.
He looked both wretched and pitiful.
The three of them looked at each other.
How could Zhou Shengsheng be here?
Didn't he go to the old teaching building?
Why was he hiding in the restroom stall of the old school building?
And he said, “I didn't kill you guys”...
Who did he kill?
...
“Zhou Shengsheng, why are you here?”
Ding Feifan took a step forward. “And Luo Yiming and Fang Wei, why did they die here?”
Upon hearing "Luo Yiming and Fang Wei," Zhou Shengsheng's body shook even more violently.
He clutched his head and shrieked, “Don't ask me! I don't know! The ghost killed them! The Toilet Ghost killed them! It has nothing to do with me!”
His shriek was sharp and piercing, echoing in the cramped restroom and almost making their ears hurt.
“Calm down!” Zhao Weilai frowned from the side:
“No one is blaming you right now, but you have to make things clear. How did the three of you get together? What exactly is the check-in quest here?”
Zhou Shengsheng slowly raised his head, his eyes still vacant. It took a long time for them to focus on the three faces.
He gasped heavily, speaking in fits and starts about what had happened:
“I... ran into them... They had just come out of the Punishment Room, covered in wounds... They said the Punishment Room was full of ghosts...
When it got dark, we thought of finding a place to hide...”
“Then we found this place... We originally wanted to hide until dawn... But... but who knew there was a ghost in the restroom...”
Speaking up to here, his body began to shake again, his eyes filled with terror:
“It first killed Fang Wei... peeled his skin... and hung it on the stall door...”
“Then it was Luo Yiming... it shoved his head into the drain... shoved it in alive... I heard the sound of bones shattering... crack, crack...”
Zhou Shengsheng's voice shook more and more, all color draining from his face, as if he had returned to that scene:
“I hid in this stall... didn't dare make a sound... It just walked back and forth outside... wanting me to open the door...”
“I thought I was dead for sure... Fortunately, you guys came...”
As he spoke, he started crying again.
Looking at Zhou Shengsheng's pitiful state, Ding Feifan felt a surge of sympathy.
—If it were him, watching two people die such tragic deaths right in front of him, he might have broken down even more than this.
...
“You didn't complete the check-in quest?” Zhao Weilai suddenly noticed a blind spot. “You still haven't said what the check-in quest here is.”
“I, I don't know. I was scared out of my mind, I didn't pay attention at all.”
Zhou Shengsheng shivered, a sudden look of wild excitement appearing in his eyes. “I saw the notification. That cafeteria auntie, and those few people, they made it out, right? Right?!”
He pressed them with questions, his expression urgent: “How did they get out?! Tell me, tell me!”
Deng Ziwen was standing closest, and when his arm was grabbed, several scratches immediately appeared on his skin.
“What are you doing? We kindly saved you, and you're biting the hand that feeds you?”
Zhao Weilai quickly pulled Deng Ziwen behind her like a chick, and just as she was about to answer Zhou Shengsheng's question, she suddenly realized something was wrong.
Zhou Shengsheng didn't seem to have stood up once since they entered.
Was his floral T-shirt really that big?
It could drape over his legs and cover his entire lower body?
Looking at him like this, why did Zhou Shengsheng seem a bit "small"?
Not metaphorically, but even if a normal adult male curled up, he shouldn't be that tiny.
Unless he only had his upper body left.
Zhao Weilai suddenly realized something, cold sweat breaking out on her back:
Whose half-corpse was that in the third stall?
Rate on N.U.
