A normal person sitting on the ground would support their body with their legs.
But the area below Zhou Shengsheng's abdomen was covered by his oversized T-shirt, which soaked in the sewage like a puddle of melted wax.
There was no outline of legs whatsoever.
And... intestines.
A small section of dark-red intestine slid out from the hem of the T-shirt, slowly slipping further out with his slight movements.
Zhao Weilai's throat began to itch again.
She quietly took a step back and gave Deng Ziwen and Ding Feifan, who were standing beside her, a look.
Once Deng Ziwen saw it clearly, it was as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head, and every hair on his body stood on end.
Could a person even live without their lower half?
Ding Feifan also reacted. He shifted the beam of his phone light downward, illuminating the last stall.
Zhou Shengsheng only had his upper half left.
His head, arms, chest, and half of his abdomen—that was all.
He was still crying, and he could even still breathe.
“Ugh—”
Deng Ziwen finally could not hold it in anymore. He turned his head to the side and began dry-heaving.
A person had lost their lower half, yet they were still alive.
This had completely exceeded the boundaries of human physiological common sense.
Seeing the shock and terror on the faces of the three, Zhou Shengsheng immediately realized they had found out.
“I'm not dead!”
He suddenly shrieked like a duck being choked, desperately using his arms to stuff the section of intestine back in:
“I'm still alive! Don't come over! No... don't leave!”
“Really! Touch me, I still have a heartbeat!”
He dragged his upper body forward using his arms, leaving a smear of blood on the floor.
As his mangled torso scraped against the ground, more bodily fluids seeped out of his wound.
Zhao Weilai was thoroughly disgusted, her entire body trembling.
“Is... is he still human?” she whispered, a sob in her voice.
“The system didn't notify us of his death.”
Deng Ziwen wiped the sour fluid from the corner of his mouth, his face looking incredibly grim. “He should still be alive.”
“A normal person would have died long ago from such severe injuries.”
Ding Feifan was so terrified that he felt like scoffing coldly:
“Luo Yiming and Fang Wei likely died because they triggered an instant-death rule. The Instance hasn't determined that Zhou Shengsheng is dead, so he should still be considered alive... right?”
That was easy to say, but looking at the half-body still breathing on the ground, none of the three dared to get too close.
This was far more hair-raising than seeing a complete corpse.
...
“You can't leave me behind!”
Zhou Shengsheng shrieked, crawling forward a bit more by supporting his body with his arms. “I know the trigger conditions for this check-in point! I know how to clear it! If you take me with you, I'll tell you!”
Should they believe him?
The three exchanged looks, all seeing hesitation in one another's eyes.
They had searched for a long time but hadn't grasped the rules of the restroom quest.
The door-knocking game in the administration building required four people, and they didn't have enough.
The check-in quest here was perhaps the only check-in point they could currently grasp, as well as their last chance.
If Zhou Shengsheng really knew the rules...
“Tell us first.”
Zhao Weilai composed herself, suppressing the disgust and fear in her heart. “If you don't make it clear, we're leaving right now. You can stay here by yourself and keep company with these two corpses.”
Zhou Shengsheng's face paled.
He looked at the expressions of the three, and as if recalling something, his body began to tremble uncontrollably.
He did not dare to stay here alone.
“I'll talk... I'll talk, alright...”
Zhou Shengsheng muttered, his eyes dodging theirs. “You... you have to promise to take me with you to clear it first. Once we get out, the Instance can restore my body. That's how it's written in web novels... No matter how badly injured you are, as long as you leave the Instance, you can survive.”
“Tell the truth first,” Deng Ziwen spoke in a cold voice, cooperating with his girlfriend. “If you dare lie to us, we'll throw you out right now.”
Ding Feifan also nodded along, playing his part.
Only then did Zhou Shengsheng throw caution to the wind and tell the truth.
...
“I found the trigger conditions for the old school building quest yesterday.”
Zhou Shengsheng did not dare look into the eyes of the three. Staring at the puddle on the floor, he spoke rapidly, “The fog in the school was too thick, and I stumbled my way here by accident. It's the Toilet Ghost's quest. The quest is very simple—you just need to stay inside a stall until dawn.”
“I didn't dare try it.”
He peeked up at the three before quickly lowering his head again. “Who knew what kind of tricks were inside. Just then... just then Luo Yiming and Fang Wei came out of the Punishment Room. They were in a state of panic, saying they would rather die than return to the Punishment Room, so they wanted to find a place to hide.”
“So I lied to them, saying this was a safe house I found where ghosts wouldn't enter at night, and even said there was food inside. They were stupid enough to believe me.”
Zhao Weilai's fists instantly clenched tight.
Wretch.
“And then?” Ding Feifan's brow knitted into a tight knot, highly unwilling to believe this was a student from their school.
Moral depravity was a minor issue; what was the difference between tricking someone to their death and murder?
“Then they indeed triggered the check-in quest, so I said since staying here would mean getting killed by ghosts anyway, they might as well check in and leave.”
Zhou Shengsheng's voice grew quieter and quieter. “They asked me if I had tried it, and I said I did, guaranteeing it was fine as long as they stayed in the stalls and didn't come out.”
“The quest started at one in the morning. The two of them entered their respective stalls and locked the doors. I hid in this innermost one and didn't lock the door... The system said the door had to be closed for the quest to start, so since I didn't close it, it shouldn't have counted.”
As he reached this point, the corner of his mouth even curled up slightly with an extremely malicious sense of smugness.
“I peeked through the gap in the door to see what kind of tricks that thing had. But there was no sound at all, and neither of them made a peep.”
The restroom was dead silent.
All three felt a chill run through their bodies.
Two living human lives sounded like nothing more than stepping stones in Zhou Shengsheng's mouth.
“In the middle of the night, I heard something knocking on the restroom door, asking, ‘Do you want red or green?’... Fang Wei was impatient and was the first to lose his cool.”
A trace of terror flashed in Zhou Shengsheng's eyes. “He cursed, ‘Want your *!’ and then... there was no sound.”
“After a while, the stall door opened on its own. His skin had been completely peeled off and hung on the door, while his fleshy body was still writhing on the floor...”
His voice began to tremble.
“Luo Yiming was too terrified to speak. He held it in for a long time, but for some reason, he died too.”
Zhou Shengsheng's teeth began to chatter, making a clicking sound:
“I ran outside and saw the stall door open. He was stuffed upside down into the drain—head first, forced inside... I—although I didn't participate in the game, I violated the rule to ‘go to sleep as soon as possible after lights out.’ That white fog... there was something inside that white fog, and they took my legs! My legs!”
None of the three spoke.
Zhao Weilai turned her face away, her eyes reddening.
She did not know Luo Yiming and Fang Wei, nor did she even know what they looked like.
But knowing they had been tricked into their deaths like this still made her chest feel incredibly tight.
Two lives.
Gone, just because Zhou Shengsheng was a coward and wanted to test the rules.
“You're really a piece of work,” Deng Ziwen spat through gritted teeth. “You bastard, what do you take human lives for?”
“Every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost!”
Zhou Shengsheng abruptly raised his head, a trace of ferocity appearing on his face: “If I didn't do that, the one who died would have been me! Why shouldn't they die? If they die, I get to live. You would have done the exact same thing in my shoes!”
“We're not like you,” Zhao Weilai said with disgust. “We wouldn't use our teammates' lives as stepping stones.”
“Teammates?” Zhou Shengsheng scoffed. “Once you enter an Instance, who is actually teammates with whom? It's every man for himself.”
Ding Feifan had been silent on the side for a long time before finally speaking up now: “So after watching for so long, you still didn't figure out the correct answer?”
“I did!”
Zhou Shengsheng said immediately, a gleam of light flashing in his eyes. “Choosing red or green means death, and not speaking also means death. Look at Luo Yiming; he didn't speak, and he still got stuffed down the drain!”
The hearts of the three sank.
You die if you speak, and you die if you don't?
Then how were they supposed to clear it?
“That's not right,” Ding Feifan immediately countered. “Then how do you know the quest can be cleared? It can't possibly be a guaranteed death scenario.”
“There's definitely a solution!” Zhou Shengsheng said anxiously. “Even though I didn't figure it out, I know the quest requirements. The system popped it up, and I saw it clear as day!”
He paused, looking at the three as if bargaining: “I can tell you the exact text of the quest, and I can also tell you all the details I observed. But... you must take me with you to clear it.”
“Tie me to the water pipe, secure me inside a stall, and close the door. I'll count as participating in the quest too. As long as I endure until dawn, the Instance can restore my body once we get out.”
He spoke incredibly fast, terrified they would refuse. “I'm already like this, I can't harm you. I'm begging you, please take me with you... I don't want to die here...”
He began to weep, looking wretched and pathetic.
But none of the three softened their hearts.
Pathetic people always had a hateful side.
Fang Wei and Luo Yiming were far more pitiful than him.
...
The three stepped away from Zhou Shengsheng to discuss their strategy.
“What should we do?”
Deng Ziwen looked at Ding Feifan and Zhao Weilai, asking in a low voice, “The quest in the administration building requires four people, and we can't get enough. Plus, with Zhou Shengsheng in this state... this restroom quest is our only choice.”
Ding Feifan fell into deep thought.
Zhou Shengsheng's words were half-truths; they couldn't be fully trusted.
But they truly had no better options at the moment.
This was the last night.
If they missed tonight, they might never get another chance to check in.
“We can take him.”
Ding Feifan spoke tentatively, “But we have to tie him up securely. Since he only has half his body left anyway, he can't play any tricks. How about we listen to the quest rules he mentioned first, and we can judge whether they're true or false ourselves.”
Deng Ziwen nodded. “Alright, let's go with what you said.”
Zhao Weilai, on the other hand, wished someone like Zhou Shengsheng would just die quickly so he wouldn't harm anyone else.
But they still needed Zhou Shengsheng's information.
The three reluctantly reached a consensus.
Upon learning this, Zhou Shengsheng was overjoyed. He repeatedly guaranteed, terrified they would go back on their word, “I'll tell you everything I know right now! I guarantee there won't be a single lie!”
He cleared his throat and began to recite the quest rules: “The check-in quest is called ‘Restroom Ghost's Vigil.’ It starts at one in the morning and ends at five. It requires each player to enter a stall individually. Locking the door is considered the start of the game, and you must remain inside until the quest ends. During the check-in process, you cannot open the door, leave the stall, or look up, and you must respond to the Restroom Ghost's questions.”
“Must respond?” Ding Feifan knitted his brows tightly. “But the legends say that if you respond, you'll die.”
“What legends?” Zhou Shengsheng blanked for a moment.
“An old thread on the campus forum,” Ding Feifan said. “It says the Toilet Ghost asks if you want red or green paper. If you choose red, you get peeled; if you choose green, you drown. The only solution is not to answer and look up at the ceiling, and you'll be fine once morning comes.”
“No, that's not right.”
Zhou Shengsheng immediately shook his head. “Luo Yiming didn't answer, and he still died! His head was stuffed right into the drain! It must have been because he didn't respond that he triggered a dead end!”
“Then if the quest says ‘must respond,’ how are we supposed to respond without dying?” Zhao Weilai asked.
“I don't know...”
Zhou Shengsheng said sheepishly, “If I knew, I would have cleared it myself long ago. But I saw Fang Wei curse at it and get peeled immediately, and Luo Yiming didn't speak and died too. This shows you can neither curse at it nor remain silent.”
This was as good as saying nothing.
As expected, he had absolutely no idea what the correct answer was.
Deng Ziwen cursed silently.
You die if you speak, and you die if you don't.
“But I know other things! You need to enter a stall individually to trigger the quest, and, and!”
Zhou Shengsheng hurriedly rushed to add, “The Toilet Ghost will only ask three times. After three times, if no one pays attention to it, it will leave and go to the next stall...”
This information was actually quite critical.
Fearing a trap, the three decided to have Deng Ziwen enter the second stall alone first.
Zhao Weilai stood guard outside holding the mop handle, planning to break down the door and rescue him the moment any anomaly appeared.
Three minutes later, Deng Ziwen came out with a solemn expression: “I triggered the quest.”
Then it was Zhao Weilai and Ding Feifan's turns.
The three of them sequentially triggered the ghost story check-in quest of the old school building:
【Third Ghost Story Location: Old School Building Public Restroom - The Questioning Toilet Ghost】
【Check-In Quest: Enter a restroom stall individually after one in the morning, cast your eyes down, and quietly wait for dawn. Not pushing open the door and not looking up before daybreak constitutes a successful check-in.】
【Quest Hint: It will squat under the door, hand you paper, and ask you questions. Remember to answer. Additionally, please watch out for the dark shadow overhead and be patient.】
...
Rate on N.U.
