“Bro, I’m begging you. Please don’t drag me to my death with you.”

Little Fatty’s round face was scrunched up into a ball.

Wu Wang had already coaxed and tricked him (mainly by threatening him with a dagger) to the landing of the second-floor staircase. Now, Wu Wang wanted to keep going up, but Little Fatty’s calves were already trembling.

“It’s fine. That thing is definitely not in the broadcasting room. It’s already left,” Wu Wang comforted him.

“I’ve got my buddies outside dealing with it. They’ll hold it back.”

Even Li Yang chimed in.

“Now is indeed a good time to raid an empty nest.”

He, too, was curious about the floor above.

More precisely, he was curious about the secrets hidden within the Art Building of Gao Shan High School.

He’d never been this curious before. His life used to be filled with nothing but studying.

But today, he had discovered there was more to life than books. He couldn’t help but want to see it for himself.

Seeing that Little Fatty was on the verge of tears, Wu Wang asked, “You’re that scared of it? Did it ever hurt you?”

“Well, no…”

“Then has it hurt anyone else in the Art Building?”

“No… The others can’t even see it…” Little Fatty’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz.

This made Wu Wang laugh in exasperation.

“Dammit, then what the hell are you afraid of?”

He felt a bit disappointed in the boy.

The question made Little Fatty frown. He pondered it for nearly ten seconds before answering uncertainly.

“I’m afraid of seeing its face? I don’t know! I’m just scared, that’s all!”

Swish!

Just as they were speaking, a chalk-dusted blackboard eraser flew toward them.

Wu Wang tilted his head, dodging the eraser.

At the same time, he stepped to the left, narrowly avoiding a lightbulb that suddenly fell from its socket.

His stride was a bit exaggerated, but it happened to carry him perfectly over a puddle of paint-water that someone had failed to mop up.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Li Yang couldn’t help but comment. “Aren’t your skills a little too good, Wu Wang? Have you trained before?”

This was the fourteenth time Wu Wang had perfectly dodged some inexplicable object on their way from the first to the second floor.

Once or twice could be a coincidence.

But this many “coincidences” in such a short time? Something was clearly wrong.

An unseen hand was manipulating everything, and it seemed that something terrible would happen if Wu Wang was stained with any color.

“I’m a P.E. student! Don’t underestimate my experience! Back in the day, I could take down a tiger with a single slide tackle!”

Wu Wang spouted the nonsense with a completely straight face.

The increasing frequency of the colorful hazards only proved he was on the right track.

There must be something in that broadcasting room!

The closer he got, the more anxious the ghost in the shadows became.

“How about this, Little Fatty,” Wu Wang said, a glint of cunning in his eyes.

“I’ll ask you a few questions. If you can answer them, I won’t force you to go upstairs.”

“?”

Little Fatty looked up, obviously curious about the questions.

Wu Wang’s expression turned serious.

“What do you think of Chen Nan?”

Little Fatty was clearly caught off guard by the abrupt change in topic.

He stammered, completely flustered.

“Sister Chen is great, of course! Everyone likes her, and she takes special care of me. If I could find a girlfriend like her, I’d wake up laughing in my dreams… No! I mean, it’s just the kind of like between classmates, you know…”

“?”

A flicker of realization crossed Wu Wang’s face, followed by a knowing smirk.

He had only intended to motivate Little Fatty by explaining how Principal Wang would eventually harm everyone around him, including Chen Nan. He wanted to urge the boy to go upstairs and deal with the problem now.

He hadn’t expected a simple question to bait out such a critical piece of information.

This kid definitely had a crush on Chen Nan.

That made things much easier.

“I’m telling you, the thing on the third floor is the current principal of Gao Shan High School,” Wu Wang said, his voice turning cold as he stood up. “He’s planning to tear down the Art Building. Everything you cherish is about to be turned to dust.”

He stared down at Little Fatty.

“Are you just going to sit here and wait for Chen Nan to disappear?”

“!”

Little Fatty was stunned.

That monster was the principal? If the principal was going to tear down the Art Building…

Didn’t that mean Chen Nan’s hope… the hope that teachers and students would notice they were missing and come to their rescue…

Was nothing more than a pathetic fantasy?

“Either come upstairs with me right now and find a way to escape this building,” Wu Wang said, his tone exceptionally cold, “or you can let Chen Nan perish in that cozy little fantasy of hers.”

With that, he turned and walked toward the stairwell.

One step, two steps, three steps…

“I’ll go!” Little Fatty ground his teeth.

Though his legs still trembled, he managed to push himself up, leaning against the wall for support.

From the side, Li Yang had hoped to see gratitude, approval, or at least relief on Wu Wang’s face.

But, as expected, all he saw was the triumphant smirk of a successful conspirator.

This bastard! He definitely made that demolition story up on the spot!

Still, Li Yang didn’t expose him.

If Wu Wang wanted Little Fatty to come with them this badly, he must have his reasons.

They lined up again and continued their ascent.

Thump-thump… Buzzz…

They had just set foot on the third floor. Before they could even look for the broadcasting room or get a clear view of the hallway, a wave of pressure hit them.

Instantly, their heartbeats accelerated. A ringing started in their ears, their vision blurred, and inexplicable whispers echoed in their minds.

Little Fatty and Li Yang nearly collapsed.

【Mental Strength: 35 -> 34】

Wu Wang’s Mental Strength began to drop.

The drop wasn’t fast, still within an acceptable range.

Perhaps he had developed some resistance to this kind of sanity-draining Mental Contamination.

After all, the master of the Red Vertical Pupil on his wrist, the Abyss God, was the greatest source of Mental Contamination he had ever encountered.

It was a being that could make you mutate and explode just by looking at it. Even now, the mere thought made Wu Wang’s skin itch, as if it were about to sprout tentacles.

Indescribable, ineffable, unseeable.

“This isn’t right…” Little Fatty rubbed his head, his voice trembling. “The third floor wasn’t like this before…”

In his memory, the terror on the third floor was just that bloated, monstrous principal. There had never been this kind of head-splitting, whispering contamination that assaulted them the moment they arrived.

But if anything, this only seemed to prove Wu Wang right.

Even if the principal didn’t demolish the building, letting this bizarre situation fester would eventually cause problems. The contamination would spread from inside the building and affect the oblivious students below.

“The broadcasting room is at the end of the hallway!”

Li Yang helped Little Fatty up, and the two leaned on each other as they shuffled forward.

Wu Wang took the lead, walking at the very front.

Mental Contamination? Bring it on!

But halfway down the hall, he stopped.

A playful expression appeared on his face.

“Yo, done playing hide-and-seek with me?”

At the end of the hall, a figure stood before a wooden door, its back to them. It let out furious roars that sounded extremely familiar.

It was, without a doubt, the ghost that had been hunting him.

Its figure was bloated, and it wore a tattered, pitch-black garment of an unrecognizable style. Strips of cloth hung from its body where the fabric had been torn.

Hearing his voice, the creature slowly turned around.

But the sight made the playful expression on Wu Wang’s face freeze.

It froze for two reasons.

First, on the door the ghost was blocking, he saw something familiar.

It was a simple stick-figure drawing of a Red Vertical Pupil.

Holy crap! The Abyss God!

It was all obvious now. The out-of-place tentacles in this Instance, the whispers he’d heard on the way up… it all came from this.

Principal Wang must have spent every night in this broadcasting room. The Red Vertical Pupil must have been the source of his ridiculous power.

The mere presence of that ineffable being had thoroughly contaminated this place. No wonder the 【Bloodstained School Uniform】 had guided him here.

“Brother Abyss God, are you MCing in the broadcasting room?” Wu Wang griped, glancing at the mark on his wrist.

As for the second reason… that was harder to explain.

Wu Wang turned back, his voice uncertain.

“Little Fatty, I need to ask you something I should have asked a long time ago. It might be a bit rude to ask now.”

“Huh? What is it?” Little Fatty frowned.

He felt like his head was about to split open. Even covering his ears couldn’t stop the whispers from drilling into his brain, like a swarm of ants gnawing away at it.

“What’s your surname? Or rather, what’s your full name?”

This son of a bitch is dragging me to my death, and he doesn’t even know my name?

Despite his inner grumbling, Little Fatty answered truthfully.

“My surname is Wang. My full name is Wang Zhiyong.”

The moment the words left his mouth, Little Fatty also froze.

He had finally gotten a clear look at the bloated Fierce Ghost at the end of the hallway.

It had the principal’s face.

Except it was much, much younger.

So young… that it looked exactly like him.