With the cautionary example of Fang Rongzhi, although the gazes cast from all directions during the announcement of the achievement points were complex, no one dared to openly provoke anymore.
“More than halfway there,” Zhao Sanliang, surprisingly also at the transfer station, appeared with a cheerful smile. “You're just a step away from collecting all the achievement points.”
Su Er wanted to bring up Zhao Banjin, but didn’t know how to start.
Still grinning foolishly, Zhao Sanliang continued, “By the way, I just heard someone say my cousin was in the same instance as you guys.”
When he didn’t get an immediate answer, his smile faded.
Some players said they had seen Zhao Banjin, proving he had still been alive. But Su Er said nothing—there was only one possible explanation left.
“Did something unpleasant happen?”
Su Er hesitated, but Ji Heng answered bluntly, “The game won’t let him survive the next instance.”
Zhao Sanliang closed his eyes, seemingly understanding something. After a long while, his voice came out hoarse: “Actually, I’d already felt it. He was tired of playing the game.”
Before the conversation could grow heavier, Su Er changed the subject. “I’m hungry. Who’s buying?”
Ji Heng had to go test some items. “Give me a few minutes.”
After he left, Zhao Sanliang forced a weak smile. “Looks like you gained a lot this round.”
“If you’re feeling down... you don’t have to force a smile.”
Zhao Sanliang was silent for a few seconds. “When I first got to Grave Return, I wanted to bring my cousin along, but the boss rejected him.”
“Why?”
In terms of strength, Zhao Banjin was actually a bit stronger than Zhao Sanliang.
Zhao Sanliang replied, “Boss said he was too ordinary.”
Su Er looked puzzled.
Zhao Sanliang explained, “I had the edge in mentality.”
“You’re good at that too,” Zhao Sanliang added.
Su Er gave a dry laugh.
Ji Heng was gone a bit longer than expected. When he returned, the three of them pressed the recessed part of their chest plates one after another and exited the instance.
Since they were forcibly dragged into the instance this time, Su Er returned to his own home. The entertainment news on the TV was frozen on the moment he had left. His phone buzzed—it was Zhao Sanliang sending him the location for dinner.
After a moment of thought, Su Er called Ji Heng. “Should we pay a visit to Sen Huanhuan’s parents sometime?”
“I’ll make the arrangements. You just focus on studying,” Ji Heng said, then asked about his last math test score.
Su Er fell silent, then replied, “It’ll be 20 points lower than the next one.”
There was a pause of half a minute before Ji Heng responded, “I’ll keep an eye on it.”
The dinner was set at a café.
Zhao Sanliang was the host. “I wanted to invite Yao Zhi too, but unfortunately he’s busy preparing test papers.”
At the word “test papers,” Su Er’s eyelid twitched.
They had only just had a meal together not long ago. Zhao Sanliang sighed, “No girlfriend is rough. Three single guys eating Western food together.”
For some reason, Su Er instinctively glanced at Ji Heng. Their eyes met briefly, then quickly turned away.
Zhao Sanliang didn’t notice anything strange and kept rambling, “There’s a rumor that ‘Wan Yi’ managed to get a card to the Deception instance.”
“Wan Yi?” Su Er vaguely remembered him—they’d interacted in the Wudu instance.
Ji Heng stood up to pour lemon water for everyone. “When did that happen?”
“A few days ago?” Zhao Sanliang wasn’t sure. He sipped from the rim of his glass and frowned. “I have a bad feeling.”
Players were getting those cards more frequently, which meant the Deception instance might open at any moment.
With that in mind, Zhao Sanliang suddenly looked at Su Er. “If you have a safer route, don’t take unnecessary risks.”
He meant well, but Su Er shook his head, his gaze unreadable. “Mister Rose once said: no one can leave the game by relying on achievement points.”
Zhao Sanliang chuckled. “That’s because before you, no one had ever earned achievement points one after another.”
Su Er fiddled with the corner of his coaster, eyes lowered so no one could read his thoughts. After a long while, he finally spoke softly, “Mister Rose never lies.”
Their conversation was interrupted when the waiter brought out pasta and fried rice.
Su Er had ordered the pasta, but apparently found it too bland and added some pepper.
“Three months.”
Ji Heng’s sudden comment pulled Su Er’s attention away from his food.
“Three months at most—the Deception instance will open.”
Zhao Sanliang’s eyes widened in surprise. “How do you know?”
Ji Heng didn’t answer. “Use the time to grind through instances and raise your physical power.”
Su Er also knew that was his weak point and nodded.
Then Ji Heng turned to Zhao Sanliang and said, “Before I leave, I’ll leave you and Yao Zhi some of my items. You need the strength to hold your ground.”
There was half a minute of silence before Zhao Sanliang replied, a bit dryly, “Okay.”
The meal passed with little appetite. Ji Heng uncharacteristically took the initiative to decide for Su Er and glanced at a calendar. “We go into the next instance in five days.”
Su Er noted the date.
Whether it was fate or coincidence, the day Ji Heng chose happened to be when Su Er had just taken a pop quiz.
After grinding through mock exams for several days, his score had slightly improved, but there was still a long way to go before reaching the boastful twenty-point leap he had declared.
On his way to the meetup, Su Er silently prayed that Ji Heng had forgotten about it.
On the surface, their conversation was as usual, and just when Su Er thought the matter could be brushed aside, Ji Heng unexpectedly pulled out a bloodstained exercise book as their team-up item.
“Don’t overthink it. It’s just a reward from a girls’ high school instance.”
Su Er gave a weak smile.
Team-up items were one-time-use, and this exercise book’s method of use was simple and crude—Ji Heng tore it open down the middle.
The scene was brutal, but the teleportation process was surprisingly smooth.
Su Er vaguely saw a black shadow seep out of the book and envelop both of them. The world before his eyes went from darkness to brightness. Once he could see clearly, it felt as though everything had changed.
Above his head was an overly bright fluorescent light, and it quickly became clear that they were in a classroom.
Ji Heng was sitting right in front of him. Su Er was caught between laughter and tears. “Is this karma for tearing the book recklessly?”
The instance had directly set them inside a school.
Currently, the classroom was filled with players—roughly ten, by Su Er’s quick count.
Usually, the first thing to do in the game was to memorize the numbers on everyone’s nameplates, but this time, everyone’s attention was unanimously focused on the host.
The man on the podium looked to be in his early thirties, with fine crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes—though he might be even older.
What was surprising was that the host was seated in a wheelchair. His hands rested on his knees, his expression unusually calm.
“Welcome to the world of Seven Days and Seven Nights. I am your host, Mister East Wind.”
This was the kind of person whose personality couldn’t be easily gauged by appearance alone, so Su Er raised his guard to the maximum.
“Strength, intellect, even appearance… Each instance focuses on different traits,” said Mister East Wind calmly. “I believe you’ve all gotten a taste of that by now.”
A few players nodded slightly in agreement.
“This instance’s focus is luck.”
The moment the words fell, Su Er felt the world emit a heavy sense of malice toward him.
When it came to luck, he had never beaten anyone.
“What’s the task?” someone asked bluntly.
“Find the hidden graduation certificate,” Mister East Wind replied. “There’s a book inside each of your desks.”
Su Er looked down, and sure enough, there was a very thick book jammed in tightly. It took a bit of effort to pull it out.
Seeing that no one around him was making a move, he resisted the urge to open it.
<The Book of Answers>
When he saw the title, Su Er was visibly surprised. This had been quite the fad in his class for a while.
Despite being called a book, each page only had a short sentence or a single word. The user would think of a question, flip to a random page, and the words on that page would be their answer.
Mister East Wind said, “Each person’s graduation certificate is hidden in a different place. The specific location is written on a page within the book.”
Running a finger along the edge, Su Er could clearly feel how thick it was. His eyes lowered.
Mister East Wind didn’t bother to be subtle. He personally demonstrated: he also had a book, flipped it open, and at the center of the page were the words in black ink: Let’s play hide-and-seek!
“For example, this would mean you need to play a game with a mischievous ghost.”
He flipped again. This time, the answer was much vaguer: Wait quietly.
“There are quite a few meaningless answers like this. If you flip to one, it means you’ve entered a safe zone and can keep flipping pages in peace.”
“How many pages in total?” Su Er looked up and asked.
Mister East Wind closed the Book of Answers and slowly said, “Three hundred and sixty-seven.”
A voice from the back row echoed what everyone else was thinking: “At this rate, no one’s going to survive.”
Mister East Wind shook his head. “The book is tailored to each of you by the instance. Even the most dangerous page won’t exceed your individual capabilities.”
The instance’s calculations were extraordinarily precise, but they were based on the player performing at their best. As for psychological factors, the game didn’t take those into account.
Someone asked two more questions, but Mister East Wind didn’t answer. Instead, he finished explaining the process step-by-step and finally issued the rules: “No killing one another. Each person may only read their own book. You may not steal or damage others’ books in any form.”
After stating all that, Mister East Wind seemed somewhat fatigued. He closed his eyes slightly and sat upright against the chair back, resting.
Players in the middle row, closest to him, exchanged glances and confirmed the same thing in each other’s eyes: The instance had begun.
Based on the rules so far, someone with incredible luck might flip to the certificate page on their first try. Someone with terrible luck might flip a page and die immediately.
Su Er hugged the Book of Answers and sat down beside Ji Heng, resting his head on the book’s cover with a deep sigh.
Ji Heng couldn’t find any words to comfort him—he could only marvel at how Su Er seemed to be cursed with bad luck all year long.
For now, no one had touched their books. Most players were clearly waiting to observe what happened to others first.
Ji Heng looked at the resting Mister East Wind and asked, “Will pages that have already been turned stay folded or marked?”
“Each page vanishes after you read it.”
That at least was merciful—it avoided the risk of re-reading the same page.
“Look at the door,” someone suddenly whispered.
The hallway lights flickered, and outside the door appeared a child—without a head.
Mister East Wind opened his eyes. “You want to play hide-and-seek with me?”
Even without a head to show emotion, the child’s body language was timid. It turned toward the Book of Answers near Mister East Wind’s hand but seemed afraid of the terrifying aura around him. After pacing in place for a few seconds, it left resentfully.
The hallway lights returned to normal.
To the others watching, this scene was a terrifying prelude.
Just minutes ago, Mister East Wind had flipped to the ‘play hide-and-seek’ page, and the ghost had immediately come knocking.
Su Er’s thoughts stirred. He considered using the mysterious eye within his body to peek into the book’s secrets.
But Mister East Wind’s gaze darkened with a clear warning, and at the same moment, a flash of golden light shimmered across the surface of Su Er’s Book of Answers. The scene seen by his inner eye was blurred out—censored like a pixelated video.
The cheating plan failed.
Su Er hadn’t placed much hope in it to begin with, so he wasn’t particularly disappointed. He turned to Ji Heng and said, “I’m going to start flipping.”
With no better options, even knowing danger lay ahead, he had no choice but to forge on.
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