Chapter 8: The Truth
Source: https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-1388844.html
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com
Outside the door, that monster was glaring at Shu Yushuang, watching her like a tiger eyeing its prey.
Shu Yushuang raised the weapon in her hand, but unexpectedly, she saw the monster shrink back and run away.
Shu Yushuang coldly watched the monster's retreating figure. Only when it disappeared completely did she head upstairs in the opposite direction.
There must still be some information upstairs that she hadn't noticed earlier.
Shu Yushuang re-entered the office where she had found the notebook. Coincidentally, this office was directly above the classroom where she had just been hiding.
This time, the female ghost did not come out to cause her trouble.
Shu Yushuang walked to the windowsill and found that although thick dust had accumulated on it, there were two distinct footprints on top of the dust as if someone had stepped there not long ago.
She immediately thought of the shadow that had just flashed past the window.
So, was that shadow from earlier the one that fell from here?
Shu Yushuang carefully examined the two footprints.
Both footprints showed only half of the sole, making it impossible for Shu Yushuang to deduce any basic information about their owner from the incomplete prints.
Just as Shu Yushuang was still studying the footprints, she suddenly felt as if there was someone behind her.
Assuming it was the charred female ghost again, Shu Yushuang instantly became alert.
However, when she turned around, she saw that behind her was not the female ghost, but a woman with her back turned towards her.
Shu Yushuang did not let down her guard because she clearly remembered that she was the only participant in the adaptation-level dungeon.
The woman had no idea someone was behind her. As she stepped back, she angrily cursed, "You beasts are worse than animals, you truly deserve to die!"
Seeing the woman getting closer and about to bump into her, Shu Yushuang quickly moved aside.
The woman continued to curse a few more times, but her voice grew increasingly panicked.
In the end, the woman cried out in terror, "What do you want? Don't come any closer, stay back!"
After a few seconds of silence, the woman climbed straight onto the windowsill and jumped out of the window.
It all happened so suddenly that Shu Yushuang had no time to react.
She looked out the window, and this time she could see what was below.
There lay the corpse of a woman with a split skull.
The woman had jumped headfirst, and that fall instantly claimed her life.
Behind her, the sound of cursing rang out again.
Shu Yushuang turned around and once again saw that "woman."
The "woman" was exactly the same as before, showing no signs that she had just jumped from the building, and her skull remained intact.
But Shu Yushuang knew that she was definitely not human.
Just like that, the "woman" repeated her jumping behavior three or four times.
Shu Yushuang understood that the woman's jumping incident was likely the lead that the notebook's owner wanted to report to the authorities.
The "woman" must have gone through something before she jumped, something that forced her to take that fatal leap.
Shu Yushuang vaguely felt that the reason behind her jumping was the key to completing this level.
But the clues were still insufficient.
It is impossible to deduce the truth just from the bit of content in the diary and the few words said by the "woman".
Shu Yushuang tried to talk to the "woman", but the "woman" turned a deaf ear.
Shu Yushuang didn't know if she couldn't hear what she said or if she couldn't respond to her.
After the "woman" repeated the process of jumping off the building several times, Shu Yushuang finally became impatient.
The "woman" repeated the same words every time before jumping off the building, without providing any more clues to Shu Yushuang.
Clues…clues…
Right, a sudden idea flashed in Shu Yushuang's mind.
Since all those who were burned to death were cafeteria employees, why not go check the cafeteria?
No sooner had this thought appeared in her mind than Shu Yushuang immediately ran downstairs.
However, what she saw on the first floor left her deeply disappointed.
Where the main entrance should have been, there was now a solid wall.
Shu Yushuang found no other exit—there weren’t even any windows.
She calmed herself and carefully tried to recall if there was any place she might have missed.
Thinking back, when she was on the third floor, the view outside the window had been completely foggy, nothing was visible. But when she was on the sixth floor, she could clearly see the scene outside the window.
Could it be that the only way to escape was by jumping from the sixth floor?
Shu Yushuang returned to the sixth floor, where the "woman" was still repeatedly jumping, while the charred female ghost had completely disappeared.
Shu Yushuang leaned out and looked outside, suddenly realizing how far the ground was from her.
The sixth floor wasn't as high as a building with dozens of stories, where a fall would completely shatter a person, but it certainly wasn't low either.
If she jumped from the sixth floor, at best, she would suffer multiple fractures, and at worst, like the "woman," she'd die on the spot.
There was a tree beside the building, though it was a bit of a distance from the window.
Shu Yushuang roughly calculated that if she gave it her all, she could still manage to jump onto the tree.
But...
Shu Yushuang glanced down again.
Should she take the gamble?
Shu Yushuang thought for a moment but eventually pulled her head back inside the window.
She had never valued her own life much, but right now, she still hadn't found Shu Ya, and she couldn't risk her life.
Since she couldn't check the cafeteria, she would continue searching for clues in the building.
There were still two offices on the sixth floor that hadn't been burned. Earlier, her attention had been entirely drawn to the notebook on the floor, and with the threat of the female ghost behind her, she'd forgotten to search those two relatively intact offices.
But now, after failing to find any leads, she finally remembered them.
Shu Yushuang left the office she was currently in, now reduced to an empty shell. She hadn't noticed the "woman" who had been repeatedly jumping from the building, staring at her back with venomous hatred.
The "woman" cursed under her breath, "Damn it, why didn't she take the bait?"
Shu Yushuang saw and heard nothing.
Who knows if she would have been relieved for not jumping out the window had she heard the "woman"?
Shu Yushuang arrived at the first relatively intact office.
This office was larger, with five or six desks. There were not many signs of fire damage inside, and it looked fairly clean.
There was nothing on the desks. Shu Yushuang frowned and could only go through each drawer and cabinet one by one.
Source: https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-1388844.html
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com
Most of the drawers and cabinets were empty. Shu Yushuang just glanced at them casually before closing them again.
Until she finally found a handwritten canteen purchase record in the last drawer.
There was no time to consider why the canteen's purchase record appeared in the teaching building's office; this was the only clue she had at the moment.
Shu Yushuang opened the purchase record, but it only recorded the details of kickbacks.
"4.27, purchased 100 kg of potatoes, about half sprouted, 30% off."
….
"4.31, purchased 100 kg of spinach, half of the leaves were rotten, 30% off.”
….
6.6, purchased 100 kg of green peppers, half were moldy, 20% off.
…"
This was the only kickback record in the entire office, so it was definitely an important clue.
However, other than realizing that the purchaser was very unscrupulous, Shu Yushuang still did not have any other clues.
She searched the office again to make sure she had not missed anything, then left and went to the next room.
In the second office, Shu Yushuang found a newspaper.
It had an article about a tragic incident at this school where food poisoning resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen students.
Shu Yushuang compared the dates in the news with the dates in the kickback record. She found that after the food poisoning incident, the kickback records paused for a month. But a month later, this unscrupulous purchaser started taking kickbacks again without restraint.
Shu Yushuang connected all the clues she had in her mind and came up with a rough hypothesis.
But she still could not understand why several canteen staff members were burned to death every few years.
Even if this purchaser had accomplices, there would not be many of them. Moreover, the whole incident took place decades ago. Even if the purchaser was still alive, they would now be in their sixties or seventies and unlikely to still be working at the school.
Unless...
The image of that "woman" repeatedly jumping off the building appeared in Shu Yushuang's mind again. She thought of another possibility and could not help but tremble slightly.
It was fortunate that when she attended this school, Shu Ya always prepared her lunch every day, and she never ate at the canteen.
Now Shu Yushuang had roughly pieced together the whole story, but she was unsure if this was the final truth.
The second task of the instance required her to find the truth. If her guess was correct, she should have already completed the instance and returned to the real world.
But she had not. She was still in this haunted school, facing threats from monsters and vengeful ghosts.
So, what exactly was the truth?
Shu Yushuang went back to the previous "open-air office," hoping the "woman" who jumped could give her some guidance.
However, to Shu Yushuang's disappointment, the "woman" was no longer there, but the charred female ghost was waiting for her instead.
Strangely though, Shu Yushuang did not sense any danger from her.
Shu Yushuang did not panic. She stared intently at the charred female ghost and slowly backed away.
At that moment, the female ghost spoke.
"Don’t be afraid. I just need you to do me a favor."
Hearing this, Shu Yushuang’s first reaction was to find it ridiculous.
What could a human possibly help a ghost with?
Seeing that Shu Yushuang was still on guard, the female ghost tried to get closer to her. "You saw me when you were a child, right? I didn’t hurt you then, and I won't hurt you now."
It would have been better if the female ghost had not mentioned this. As soon as she did, Shu Yushuang immediately thought of the dungeon’s details: "She didn’t harm you before, but today…that might change."
Shu Yushuang made a quick decision and immediately swung her weapon at the ghost.
The moment the weapon hit the female ghost, she did not react at all, perhaps not expecting Shu Yushuang to attack so suddenly.
However, this attack seemed to have no effect. Shu Yushuang decisively turned and ran.
Angry roars came from behind her, and a cold wind howled past her back. She did not look back and just quickened her pace, running downstairs.
She speculated that there were three vengeful ghosts in this instance. Two female ghosts were on the sixth floor, and a ghost disfigured by fire was on the third floor. They couldn’t leave their respective floors—except for the female ghost who jumped off the building; she had another way to go downstairs.
After returning to the third floor this time, as expected, the charred female ghost didn’t follow.
When Shu Yushuang reached the third floor, several classrooms lit up with red lights again. This time, only half of the classrooms remained unlit.
Shu Yushuang didn’t know what this meant, but she guessed it was the instance’s countdown for her.
The strange sound once again reached Shu Yushuang’s ears, and that deformed monster poked its head out from the end of the hallway.
When it saw Shu Yushuang, it immediately got excited and sped up.
But when it saw Shu Yushuang holding her "weapon" in front of her again, it deflated and slowed down.
The saying “demons fear the wicked” really made sense.
Shu Yushuang thought for a moment and decided to try communicating with the deformed ghost.
“Are you the cafeteria supplies buyer?”
There was no response.
“What did you do to the female ghost who jumped off the building?”
Still no response.
Shu Yushuang had no choice but to ask one last question, “Were you burned to death by the one upstairs?”
Unexpectedly, as soon as the deformed ghost heard this, it immediately charged at her again in a frenzy.
This time, even using her weapon as a threat had no effect.
She had no choice but to hide in a classroom without the red light again.
Shu Yushuang continued to review the clues she had collected so far.
