“Classmate, can you do me a favor?”
A nearby student quickly replied, “I’ll help you! I’ve got time.”
But the custodian seemed to have set her sights on Su Er and completely ignored the other student. “Your studies come first. You should head back and review. Come find me at ten tonight.”
The moment she said that, all the admiring gazes instantly turned to fear. Even the student who’d just offered to help backed away.
Ten o’clock was the school’s official lights-out time. Just from the looks on everyone’s faces, Su Er could tell that nothing good happened at night.
“I…” Just as he was about to decline, the custodian interrupted with a beaming smile: “All custodians like hardworking kids. After all, labor itself is a form of reeducation.”
She might as well have said outright: if Su Er didn’t come, he could forget about getting a top evaluation from any custodian.
Su Er was silent for a moment. With no other choice, he nodded and agreed.
He didn’t know what would happen, but his experience with game instances told him he definitely wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight. Back in the dorm, he changed into clean clothes and used the time to quickly wash up.
The cool water cleared his head considerably. As he looked up, water dripped from his chin, soaking a patch of his shirt. Someone handed him a towel from the side.
“Thanks,” Su Er took it and wiped his face, mumbling, “No idea why the custodian picked me.”
Ji Heng leaned against the doorframe with arms crossed. “What do you think?”
Su Er fixed his hair in the mirror, momentarily distracted by his own reflection. “Maybe she’s trying to coerce me.”
Ji Heng shook his head. “Be more realistic. The custodians are close with the dorm supervisors. They like the host and naturally dislike you.”
Kids sent to the Reform Camp were often seen as trash—not even worth recycling. That little girl, on the other hand, was considered a prodigy. Building good relations with her was a safe bet.
Hearing that, Su Er pressed down a few stray hairs and muttered, “Blind fools.”
Dinner was light. Near ten o'clock, Ji Heng offered to go with him, but Su Er refused, not even asking for any tools.
“I still have the pendant from Mother Zhou, and two other items of my own.”
Ji Heng: “You sure?”
Just before leaving, Su Er raised his brows. “The famous philosopher Nietzsche once said… What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
The door shut with a decisive thud, a little arrogant even.
Ji Heng stood there for a moment and raised his brows helplessly.
The hallway was quiet. With only five minutes until lights out, no one would risk leaving their room at this point.
The custodian lived on the top floor, where the space was larger and good for storing things. But as Su Er reached the fifth floor, he saw a figure waiting at the stairs.
Despite the stifling heat, the custodian was dressed in layers. Only half her face and her hands were exposed. She was dragging a large black plastic bag and waved him over.
When Su Er approached, she had him grab the other end of the bag to share the weight.
Heavy.
That was Su Er’s first impression.
He didn’t ask what was inside, simply followed her up in silence.
Their heavy footsteps echoed all the way to the top floor. Just as they reached the landing, the janitor abruptly let go without warning. The bag tipped toward Su Er, and its contents spilled out.
Based on past experience, Su Er had assumed it’d be dismembered body parts. In horror-themed dungeons, corpses were common.
But as the bag emptied, it wasn’t limbs that rolled out—it was five severed heads. Their hair was matted together with sticky blood, hiding most of their faces. Even so, it was clear they had all been young.
One head rolled right to Su Er’s feet. The eyes were open, the pupils long dilated, and cloudy corneas still oozing blood.
Under the moonlight, the eyes of the dead and the living locked for a second.
Su Er’s fingers tensed slightly. He looked up at the custodian. “You killed them?”
“Not killed—disposed of,” the custodian replied. She told him to pick up the heads and take them inside. She went in first, pulled out a pair of gloves, and put them on. “Every year, someone tries to escape the Reform Camp. Without exception, they’re all disposed of.”
She crouched and pulled out various items from a cabinet—white gauze, scissors… a tray.
“These will be made into specimens to warn the other kids,” she explained while using tweezers to pull out a few broken eyelashes from an eye. “Doesn’t need to be too elaborate. Students try to escape regularly—old specimens are always getting replaced.”
Maybe the mask was suffocating, because she loosened it after speaking. Su Er clearly saw large purplish-red blotches around her mouth.
Livor mortis.
The words flashed in his mind.
After some thought, Su Er decided to open the eye inside his body to see more clearly. Within moments, the reflection in that eye revealed the janitor's true form—a heavily decayed corpse, strikingly similar to the zombies they’d encountered in the last dungeon.
“Come help out,” the custodian called. Seeing that his face had turned pale, she assumed he’d been frightened by the specimens and gave a satisfied smile.
Su Er took the scissors from her and asked, “Have students helped you with this before?”
The custodian replied, “Many.”
Su Er: “And none of them ever questioned what they were doing?”
The custodian’s hands paused mid-action. She turned her head slightly, her tone chilling. “What exactly are you implying?”
Su Er stared at her silently.
The custodian set down the tweezers and smiled. “Actually, quite a few students have volunteered to help dispose of escapees. As a reward, I gave each of them an A-level evaluation.”
Hearing the smugness in her voice, Su Er suddenly recalled a news story from years ago—traffickers encouraging children to report on each other, then publicly rewarding the informants in front of everyone else. Over time, imitation spread, and escape attempts ceased entirely.
“You can finish the rest of the work,” the custodian said, snapping him out of his thoughts.
Making specimen heads out of five people who’d died horribly—no normal person could do that without psychological burden.
“What, don’t want to?”
Su Er stood still for a moment, opened his mouth, and said, “I’m will—” halfway through the word, he suddenly looked past her in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
The custodian reflexively turned around—then immediately realized: this was the top floor. There couldn’t be anyone behind her.
In the dead of night, the sound of frantic footsteps echoed through the hall.
A true warrior never looks back—but that doesn’t mean they can’t call for help.
Su Er had his pride, so he kept it subtle: “Anyone care to open a door?”
Whether player or student, everyone knew someone was being chased in the hallway—but they all held their breath and pressed their ears to the doors to listen.
A door creaked open faintly.
“Block it!” came Su Er’s urgent shout.
Clattering and thudding shattered the stillness of night. When morning finally arrived, many only dared to crack open their doors and cautiously peek outside.
The door to Su Er’s dorm was dented in several places. He had just stepped out, looking pale and clearly injured.
“You okay?” a player named Zhang Yi hesitated before asking.
Su Er nodded. “Luckily, my roommate opened the door in time.”
Zhang Yi asked nervously, “Why was the custodian trying to kill you?”
Su Er replied, “Does a ghost need a reason to kill?”
Ghost?
Just as Zhang Yi was about to ask more, Su Er and Ji Heng were already heading downstairs.
A companion behind him shook their head at Zhang Yi. “Consider yourself lucky he told you that much.”
After all, none of them had done anything useful last night.
The weather was overcast. Su Er and Ji Heng walked toward the classroom building. As they went, Su Er gnawed on a flatbread. It was dry, and he swallowed with effort before speaking: “The custodian’s a ghost. There’s no way the camp hasn’t noticed.”
Ji Heng replied, “We need to gather more clues. Some things will surface naturally.”
It was only their first day here—there was no way to fully understand what had happened yet.
The sky was just beginning to brighten. No students were in the classroom yet, but the little girl spotted Su Er and flashed her sharp little teeth, grinning gleefully. “Heard someone had a rough time running for their life last night?”
Su Er found his seat and sat down. “What doesn’t kill me will bring fortune later.”
The little girl saw how unsteady his walk was and laughed behind her hand.
The class session was a pop quiz.
Su Er was the first to finish. As he handed in his paper, his face was pale. Ji Heng reached out to steady him, only to find a small note stuffed into his hand. No need to guess—it was the answers.
Su Er walked slowly to the podium and gave a weak smile. “I’m not feeling well. May I go rest?”
The teacher glanced at his finished paper. At a quick look, all the multiple-choice questions were correct.
Quite satisfied, the teacher said, “Go ahead.”
“Thank you, teacher.” At the door, Su Er suddenly turned back to grab his textbook.
That small, thoughtful gesture made the teacher even more pleased.
But Su Er didn’t return to the dorm. Instead, he wandered nearby. Since students were all in class, it was rare to run into anyone in the halls. He looked around carefully before entering the administration building. On each floor, he checked the end of the hallway. Finally, he saw the words Archives Room. His face lit up, and he quickened his pace.
“Picking locks is unethical.”
A crisp voice rang out.
Su Er turned around and saw the little girl shaking her head at him. “I knew you had another reason for leaving class.”
He frowned and took a step toward her. The girl immediately backed up several paces, clearly refusing to let him get close.
“From now on, I’m going to watch you closely,” she said, tilting her chin up. “Don’t even think about getting into the Archives Room.”
Her words only confirmed that there was something inside.
Su Er, expression unchanged, lied smoothly: “I just got lost.”
With that, he went downstairs.
The little girl followed at a distance—not too far, not too close. Su Er couldn’t take it anymore and turned around: “Hey, you…”
Bang!
The loud noise came from behind.
Su Er froze for a moment, then turned around. It was a corpse—smashed to pieces.
A strong stench spread through the air. Strictly speaking, it was no longer a corpse. It looked more like overcooked minced meat.
The loud commotion quickly attracted the dormitory supervisor.
Su Er looked up at the top floor. She could vaguely make out a dark figure, and immediately ran upstairs.
He struggled her way up to the rooftop, but aside from the howling wind, there was nothing.
About ten minutes later, two security guards arrived along with a stern-looking woman. Su Er heard the dorm supervisor call out, “Principal Feng,” but the woman responded coldly, not even acknowledging it before directly asking, “What happened?”
Su Er: “I saw someone push…”
“Nonsense!”
Principal Feng barked sharply.
Su Er was about to say more, but Principal Feng cut him off forcefully: “Say one more word and you’re going into solitary.”
“It was probably just too much work pressure that made her lose it,” Principal Feng declared, framing the incident definitively. Then she turned to the security guard. “Get the body cleaned up before the students finish class.”
With that, she walked off without looking back.
The others gradually dispersed. Su Er lingered on the rooftop for a moment, then suddenly hurried to catch up with the dorm supervisor. “Principal Feng seems even stricter than Principal Chen.”
To his surprise, the dorm supervisor actually responded this time, giving a cold snort. “That woman just likes stirring up trouble.”
Su Er had picked up bits and pieces about the power struggle inside the Reform Camp—both from gossip and the notebook given to him by the girl in the cafeteria yesterday. Although the camp had four principals, only one held actual authority. The current head was about to retire, and Principal Dai was still too young. Based on seniority, the next in line would most likely be either Principal Chen or Principal Feng.
The custodian, dorm supervisor, and teachers each represented different factions within the school. The custodian and dorm supervisor supported Principal Chen, so naturally, Principal Feng didn’t like them.
To Su Er, it all felt like a palace intrigue drama come to life.
He pressed his lips together, then whispered, “If you give me and my friend an A-rank evaluation, I’ll tell you something useful.”
The dorm supervisor was already irritated at the sight of him and was about to refuse, when Su Er added, “If the info’s worthless, you won’t lose anything just by hearing it.”
He sounded so sure, as if it really was something significant. The dorm supervisor frowned but didn’t outright say no.
Su Er didn’t keep her in suspense: “At the spot where the fall happened, I saw an unfinished character—‘Feng.’”
The dorm supervisor’s face changed. “Do you even know what you’re saying?”
Su Er said, “You and the custodian support Principal Chen, which puts Principal Feng at a disadvantage. When it comes to interests, people are capable of anything. You saw how she acted just now—too eager to dismiss everything.”
The dorm supervisor gave him a sharp look.
“And isn’t it suspicious how quickly she arrived after the incident?” Su Er added, then gave a sheepish smile. “So, about that A-rank evaluation…”
The little girl suddenly popped her head out. “We can’t be sure if that’s true—why should you get anything?”
Su Er responded calmly, “As an eyewitness and a model student in the teacher’s eyes, I could always ‘accidentally’ let this slip,” he paused and glanced at the little girl, “which is different from someone who just tattles all the time.”
“You—!”
Ignoring their spat, the dorm supervisor turned to Su Er. “You can really go through with this?”
She didn’t care who had committed the murder—but anything that would weaken Principal Feng’s position was worth pursuing. If Principal Feng took control, the first thing she’d do would probably be kicking her out of the camp.
Su Er said, “Of course. Once it’s done, I’ll go find Principal Chen. Who knows—he might give me another A-rank.”
With just one more from a teacher, he’d have the full set.
Thinking about it, Su Er smiled faintly. “If I ever leave this camp, I won’t forget those who helped me.”
No matter how slick his words were, the dorm supervisor ultimately only gave him one A-rank, filling out and stamping a form. “Take this to the academic office.”
The little girl seemed preoccupied and didn’t stop him this time. In fact, it was Su Er who followed her to another building.
“What do you want?” she said, holding out an arm. “Keep your distance.”
Su Er asked, “The custodian is clearly a ghost—who could’ve killed her?”
The little girl snapped irritably, “How should I know?”
Clearly, she was also troubled by the matter.
Su Er pressed, “You must know something.”
She spun around and shouted, “Follow me one more step, and I’ll kill you!”
Su Er stood still, watching her disappear, then shook his head and walked away.
The custodian incident was swept under the rug—for now, most students didn’t even know anything had happened. But among the players, word had already spread.
Night fell silently.
Su Er walked over to close the curtains—and was startled to find a gloomy face staring at him from outside the window.
The little girl had somehow appeared on the balcony again. She seemed to have a particular fondness for her small lantern, always carrying it wherever she went.
“It was you,” she said, glaring at Su Er.
“Huh?” Su Er looked utterly confused.
The little girl continued, “I examined the body. All the yin energy was completely drained.”
Their eyes locked in a tense standoff. Su Er’s gaze was full of bewilderment.
But then, his expression changed entirely—the confusion vanished without a trace. He grinned, his neat teeth looking ghostly white in the moonlight. “I thought that being shattered from the fall would cover up the real cause of death… turns out I was too naïve.”
Behind the black frames, the little girl’s fish-like eyes widened in shock.
“The moonlight tonight is beautiful,” Su Er said, stepping out onto the balcony and stretching his arms. “Reminds me of last night—bright moon, just like this. A pity I wasn’t in the mood to enjoy it, since the custodian was trying to force me to use a student’s decapitated head as a specimen.”
Su Er turned to look at the girl. “When I refused, she tried to kill me. Tsk, tsk… too bad she ended up being the one who died.”
He didn’t mention the part where he’d used a stun gun on her the moment she turned around—just told the second half of the story: “I got a bottle of black dog’s blood from the welfare exchange—it blocks damage from ghosts for seven seconds. I thought it’d only be good enough to scream for help… didn’t expect seven seconds was more than enough to suck a weak ghost dry.”
All the other players thought he’d been weakened by a ghost attack. In reality, it was from consuming too much yin energy.
The little girl’s hand holding the lantern tightened slightly. “So the rest was all your staged act?”
Su Er nodded frankly. “I turned in my paper early and deliberately led you in circles nearby, then had someone time it just right to throw the custodian off the building.”
The girl snapped her head to look at Ji Heng behind Su Er—the accomplice.
“Oh right, it was him who called Principal Feng,” Su Er said, pointing at Ji Heng. “But really, no matter who showed up, for the sake of the camp’s image, they were going to cover it up.”
The little girl’s gaze was sharp as a blade. “And then you sowed discord to trick the dorm supervisor into giving you an A-rank evaluation?”
As the accomplice, Ji Heng didn’t respond to a word of their conversation. He was calmly wiping rotting flesh from inside the wardrobe, where the corpse had been hidden the night before.
Su Er hadn’t slept at all. He nodded while yawning. “This camp doesn’t even have surveillance cameras. Isn’t that just inviting crime?”
Then again, considering how many students had died here, installing them would just be asking for trouble.
“Go ahead, report me,” Su Er said cheerfully, now that everything was out in the open.
The girl looked at his expression and knew he still had something up his sleeve. Fuming, she snapped, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?”
“I didn’t break any rules. The host can’t just go around killing players,” Su Er said with a shrug.
A heavy silence fell between them, so still that even their breathing was audible.
“I know you deliberately pushed the custodian to come mess with me,” Su Er suddenly crouched down so their eyes were level. He smiled. “The real show hasn’t even started. Be a good girl and enjoy the next act—on me.”
That gentle tone only enraged the little girl more. She shook her lantern in frustration. “How could you kill her?” she fumed, pacing back and forth. “Even in war, you don’t kill the messenger!”
It was one thing to kill a ghost, but to not even leave the body intact…
Su Er stood up, his body swaying slightly—the aftereffects of consuming so much yin energy were clear. He steadied himself against the wall and cast a glance at Ji Heng, who was still scrubbing the bloodstains in the cabinet.
Clearing his throat, Su Er said with a dramatic flair, “Because I’m going to leave this place with the captain. He’s looked out for me all this time. I don’t mind carrying the burden of all these sins, as long as I can remind myself… to stay strong.”
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