Chapter 126 Am I Dead?

Chapter 126: I Died?

"Hiss—"

Upon hearing Ai Xiaojia declare that Su Bai, the top student from the neighboring class, had "passed away," Zhang Pan and Zhou Qingshou gasped in unison. The three players, standing beside the student group, cautiously took a step back.

A lingering spirit bound to the school?

Considering the "Midnight Library" was the first of the Seven Campus Mysteries Ai Xiaojia mentioned, and given the game's school setting, the appearance of a ghost with such a backstory in the library struck the three players as perfectly plausible.

"Could it be that he always topped the honor roll, but after falling ill and dying, he couldn't bear to see his photo removed from the board? So, every midnight, he appears in the library, furiously studying, sometimes even weeping because he can no longer continue?" Zhang Pan's voice trembled as he speculated on the "top student ghost's" origin.

"Too terrifying, too terrifying," Zhou Qingshou echoed, shaking his head in fear. "I told you we should transfer schools. Look, this school doesn't just drive people crazy—it might even drive ghosts crazy!"

"I've passed away?" Su Bai closed the exercise book before him, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the three students.

"I'm so sorry. I've read many horror novels, and I know this is incredibly difficult to accept, but... please don't torment yourself with something as dreadful as studying!" Ai Xiaojia pleaded, her face etched with sorrow.

"Click!" Mr. Flashlight, standing nearby, immediately pulled out an old film camera and snapped a photo of Su Bai.

"Are you close with the top student from the next class?" Zhou Qingshou subtly nudged Ai Xiaojia's arm. "Why do you seem so particularly sad?"

Ai Xiaojia turned to look at Zhou Qingshou and Zhang Pan, her tone and expression tinged with despair. "Besides needing friends, people also need a crush. Do you know how hard it is to find a guy in this terrible school who's kind, doesn't bully, isn't arrogant, isn't sleazy, and is also exceptionally handsome? Ever since Su Bai stopped coming to school, my friends and I haven't even had anyone appealing to look at!"

"..." Zhang Pan and Zhou Qingshou exchanged glances, then confidently declared, "Actually, we meet most of those requirements too."

"This is too painful," Ai Xiaojia sighed, covering her face.

Su Bai watched the three students, who seemed a mix of nervous and not, and found himself in a rather good mood. Listening to them chat and subtly tease each other, Su Bai felt as though he had returned to the campus life he had long forgotten in a corner of his memory.

But snapping back to reality, he realized he was indeed back on campus.

"Sorry, I don't quite understand what you're talking about." Su Bai suppressed his habitual standard smile and, remembering he was just an ordinary student, skillfully adopted a confused and perplexed expression. "I just took a month or two of sick leave. How could I have passed away?"

"Huh?" Ai Xiaojia was equally stunned.

"Is it already this late?" Su Bai theatrically glanced at the clock on the study room wall, then feigned surprise. "Aside from the rumor about me passing away being ridiculous, you're actually right about something. I'm genuinely worried about falling behind in my senior year studies after two months off, so after canceling my leave, I've been coming here every day to grind through questions. But this is the first time I've stayed until midnight."

"You're... alive?" Ai Xiaojia was the type of girl who would cover her eyes but still peek at a horror movie. So, after sensing that Su Bai's words might be true, she nervously moved closer to him—close enough to see the veins beneath his skin and her own reflection in his dark eyes under the desk lamp's glow.

"I'm still alive." Su Bai routinely questioned his own humanity.

The three players watched in astonishment as Ai Xiaojia, with surprising speed and boldness, reached out to touch Su Bai's wrist. Though she withdrew her hand a second later, the girl's impulsiveness was truly remarkable.

Zhang Pan and Zhou Qingshou were accustomed to it. Ai Xiaojia had scaled walls and punched them countless times, which was how the petite, rather cute girl had earned the nickname "tomboy" through her actions.

"He's warm! He has a temperature! Su Bai is alive!" Ai Xiaojia cheered as if she'd scored fourth-to-last on an exam.

Even so, Mr. Flashlight, the leader of the players, approached Su Bai to check for himself before nodding to Mr. Dajian and Mr. Axe. Only then did the always-cautious Mr. Dajian truly relax.

"Have you been in the library this whole time?" The players clearly hadn't expected another student to be in the library. But since they already had three stragglers, one more didn't matter.

As for the top student... Mr. Flashlight and the others clearly paid him no mind. To many nightmare world players nowadays, bookworms who only knew how to study in the real world were merely prey for ghosts in the nightmare world and couldn't be expected to offer any help.

"Yes, I just lost track of time while studying," Su Bai said, then looked puzzledly at Zhang Pan and the others. "Why are you all here?"

"So even top students don't know everything!"

The three students, perhaps unaccustomed to seeing a confused top student, immediately launched into their story: how they made a bet with classmates, scaled the wall to sneak into school, encountered ghostly barriers after seeing the red moon, couldn't leave, and then met role-playing enthusiasts like Mr. Flashlight. The entire narrative spilled out like a comedic dialogue, complete with straight man and punchline roles.

"The moon is actually red." Su Bai rose from his seat, went to the window, and stared at the red moon in the sky as if seeing it for the first time. "So we can only leave school after sunrise?"

"Your classmate seems pretty calm," Mr. Axe whispered to Zhou Qingshou.

"He's a super top student, after all." To students like Zhou Qingshou, the title "top student" carried a certain authority.

"Anyway, since we can't leave, we decided to go with the three Misters to find the Seven Campus Mysteries, take photos, and check them off. It'll help us stay brave, and we can even win a thousand yuan," Zhang Pan happily explained his plan.

"But it seems the rumor about the 'Midnight Library' might not be true, since we haven't heard any crying after being here so long," Ai Xiaojia mused. "Maybe we should go to the second mysterious spot first and come back if we hear crying? A friend of mine said she really saw something creepy at the second spooky location!"

"Alright," Mr. Flashlight nodded.

Though the Midnight Library currently housed not a ghost but an ordinary student studying obsessively, Mr. Flashlight decided it was better to follow the students to the second mysterious location rather than wander aimlessly around the large campus.

"Su the top student, why don't you come with us?" Ai Xiaojia didn't forget to invite Su Bai, her eyes hopeful. "The red moon is so strange—it's safer to stick together. That way, we have the three Misters to help, and I also..."

"You also get to admire something nice to look at, right?" Zhang Pan knew his petite friend all too well.

"..."