Chapter 47: Real Ghost Stories
With last night’s meal being completely gurged out, Bai Yan’s face was full of suffering as he miserably walked home.
Not only was his physical being badly affected, but the jittery feeling, as well as disgust, had made his heart agitated, causing him to want to ignore all these difficulties.
With the lack of a better option, Bai Yan opened his laptop and watched law television programs for half of the night. Hearing the victim’s family members cry and wail with grief made his stomach feel a bit better as it slowly started to recover.
Ever since he became a player on the app, it had been a long time since he last watched law TV programs.
The law TV program brought him a small bit of happiness. Every time he lost control of himself, once he watched it, he’d set himself straight. Bai Yan stared at the flickering fluorescent screen, suddenly feeling that his heart was tired. An ineffable exhausted feeling washed over his body, leading his back to slouch a bit, as he sat downcast on the chair.
Who said that doing good deeds could make you happy? Wang Ze had me for a fool and made me do lame things!
Bai Yan dully closed his laptop and planned to browse through the forum before he went to sleep, quickly forgetting about this horrid day.
…
[1. This game level will last seven days. On the seventh day at noon, if the player’s application is still incomplete, it will be considered as a loss.]
[2. After correctly filling out the club application form, press the ‘Return’ button on the phone to leave the game.]
“So, this round’s theme is Real Ghost Stories?”
Bai Yan thoughtfully looked at his phone and then moved on to find the Supernatural Club.
But before he could move around, he heard a stern shout coming from nowhere, “That boy wearing a blue shirt over there! What are you doing? Quickly go take your exam! Why hasn’t your phone been confiscated yet?”
Bai Yan was startled by the sudden noise. He curiously looked around, only to find out that he was the only one wearing blue.
Moreover, he also discovered that he was in an unfortunate situation. Bai Yan was currently sitting inside an exam room. His current identity seemed to be a test taker.
“This level appears to be the same as the Story Adventure, in which I’ve replaced an NPC’s identity. Who knows after how long I leave, if the original NPC would come back or not.”
Bai Yan changed his train of thought. Anyone would have obediently stood up and sincerely apologized to the NPC professor. He still had to stay in this school for seven more days, so if he were punished for his crimes, then it will be bad for his future actions.
Fortunately for him, this was just a small exam, so at least the app didn’t completely dig a whole for him to die in.
Bai Yan noticed that there was a backpack right beside him, so he placed his phone inside and then brought his bag to the front of the class. He then waited for the exam sheet to be passed over to him.
When the exam papers were distributed, Bai Yan just then realized that this test was a foreign language exam.
Bai Yan didn’t know anything at all about this world, more so about this world’s foreign languages. As a result, he couldn’t care less about what would happen after he leaves the NPC. So, he wrote as if his pen were flying freely, shading the bubbles on the answer sheet completely at random and brimming with confidence.
Due to Bai Yan’s confidence in answering the questions, after he had done the multiple-choice questions and while the proctor wasn’t paying attention, the person to his right quickly poked him on the arm, winking at Bai Yan when their eyes met.
The man pointed at his answer sheet, making Bai Yan tactfully understand that this person was one-hundred-percent trash.
Facing the slacker’s fervent request, Bai Yan naturally couldn’t refuse.
He wasn’t afraid to let the scumbag take advantage of him because right now, even he didn’t know what the hell the right answers were.
Bai Yan silently slid his answer sheet with his right hand, letting the loafer copy his test from the first until the eightieth item.
Seeing how the slacker trusted him without a second thought, Bai Yan surmised that this student must have a good relationship with the original owner. Furthermore, the original owner must have been a bookworm, otherwise, this dud wouldn’t have left his answer sheet blank and waited to copy Bai Yan’s answers, saving his sorry behind.
After analyzing the original owner’s relationship for a second, Bai Yan joyfully handed over his test paper.
When he saw the answered test paper being handed over to him, the scoundrel copied his answers exactly.
Bai Yan then picked up his bag and left the exam room.
As soon as he left the room, the slacker impatiently asked, “Bai Yan, how did you do on the test?”
Wasn’t the original owner’s name Lu Xuemin?
Bai Yan had a moment of doubt but instantly understood that this was must have been all thanks to the app’s influence. The app’s service sure was considerate. The app was able to transport his conscience into this body as well as help change the NPCs’ memories, but the game was able to make them understand this world’s language, so maybe altering the NPCs’ memories was nothing.
Bai Yan stared blankly at the hoodlum for a while, and with the app’s help, his name swiftly appeared inside his mind.
This sleazebag was the original owner’s roommate, whose name was Wei Zizhao. The app only offered this piece of information, but Bai Yan thought for a bit and still became aware that this Wei Zizhao’s level in a foreign language was undoubtedly nothing great.
“It was okay.” Bai Yan intentionally asked as if by accident, “Oh right! When will our foregin language results come out?”
“I think around seven to eight days. This time you were the shining light that saved me, so don’t be too worried about the exam. Brother, thank you so much for doing me this solid and saving my *ss!” Wei Zizhao cheerfully said.
“Don’t mention it, we’re roommates afterall. You could just treat me to a meal next time.” Upon hearing that the examination results would be released after seven days, Bai Yan calmly and unhurriedly patted Wei Zizhao’s shoulder, “Oh, by the way, can I ask you something? Do you know where the Supernatural club is?”
“Supernatural Club? I think I remember seeing a poster on the billboard outside, and on it says where the Supernatural Club’s new address is.” Wei Zizhao was flabbergasted, “You want to become a member of the Supernatural Club?”
“En.”
When he already got the information he had wanted, Bai Yan made up an excuse to say his farewells to Wei Zizhao and went alone to disseminate the poster up on the billboard.
Bai Yan searched for the Supernatural Club’s address. The Supernatural Club was located on the second East building, room 303.
He asked a lot of people where the second East building was and was unrelentingly in a hurry to room 303. Bai Yan hadn’t gotten there yet when he found someone standing right outside the door.
“Are you a player?” The woman asked.
“Yes.”
“You got here a bit late, there’s still one left inside.” The lady raised the application form in her hand, saying, “I’m called Ye Shangyu. We can talk over matters slowly.”
Bai Yan glanced at the application form in her hand and gently knocked on the Supernatural Club’s door.
On the chair placed in the middle of the clubroom, a boy sat cross-legged in front of a table and handed over an application form to the person in front of him.
Bai Yan felt that that person’s back looked a bit familiar, and when that person turned his head, Bai Yan was surprised to find out that he could recognize this person.
Wasn’t this person his teammate from the third level, Li Ming?
“Li Ming?”
He tentatively called him out, and Li Ming, in response, nodded his head in acknowledgment, grabbing an application form and promptly leaving the room.
Bai Yan knew well that this wasn’t the proper time to reminiscence about the past, so he walked to the front of the table and talked to the guy in front, “Hello, who might you be?”
“I am the Supernatural Club’s president. Do you want to join?”
“That’s right, but I don’t know the requirements to join the club. Do I have to pay a membership fee?” Bai Yan asked this but already knew the answer.
“You don’t need money to join, just fill out this application form. There will be five ghost stories in school this week. You should write down the details of each tale, and if you do that, I’ll count it as passing the club’s entrance exam then you’re in! That’s it. You can do it!” The president smiled politely.
The president casually pulled out an application form and gave it to him. Bai Yan took the application form, always having this weird feeling that the man’s smile looked particularly eccentric.
Thinking about what the guy had said, Bai Yan could instantly predict what would happen in these ghost stories around the school. He needed to be concerned with these strange tales.
The guy was completely indistinguishable from a normal person, but Bai Yan already marked him as some sort of ghost.
Before he left, Bai Yan quickly swept across every detail inside the club’s room, where he found a map. The map was filled with ‘X’s’ and ‘?’s’ written in blood-red text.
Bai Yan took note of this in his heart and silently left the club room.
Ye Shangyu and Li Ming were waiting outside.
After seeing him go outside, the three walked the hall together and left the second East building. The three people then began to exchange information.
“I should call you ‘Li Ming?’”
“Luo Xing, this is my real name.” Luo Xing added, “When I arrived in this world, I found myself in a room taking an exam. I then immediately submitted my test early and hurriedly got out of there.”
“I am Bai Yan, the Yan as in, in the word language(1).” Bai Yan said to Ye Shangyu, “At the start of the game, I was also in an exam room, just like Luo Xing, and I didn’t understand much of it.”
Language in Chinese is (語言) Yuyan. The Yan is used in Bai Yan’s name.“I got luckier than you guys. My original owner didn’t have an exam today since she took the test at an earlier date.” Ye Shangyu said, “I’ve actually gathered some information, but I know this isn’t much. The president of the Supernatural club is a junior college student, and two months ago, he went missing. The vice president filed a missing person report online and even offered a 5,000 yen reward to whoever could provide information on his whereabouts. But a month ago, the president suddenly returned out of nowhere.”
“Missing? He must have died during that time…” Bai Yan muttered apprehensively, “I think that we could approach him as if he were a dead man.”
“This dead man’s going to give us a problem?” Luo Xing mucked about, “How did you sense that this was a horrifying person?”
“Practice makes perfect. On what level are you guys in?” Ye Shangyu asked.
Luo Xing answered, “Fifth level.”
Bai Yan replied, “I’m also at my fifth level.”
Ye Shangyu nodded her head as if she understood. She gazed at the application form in her hand and said, “The president mentioned that ghost stories will be taking place the next few days. The ghost stories could happen around us or it could happen around school among the student body. During the free time we have before these haunted tales are discovered, we could collect more information.”
Upon seeing that Bai Yan and Luo Xing didn’t have any contradictory opinions, Ye Shangyu said, “I’ll take care of the clues hidden on the Internet, while you guys can ask around. Is that good with you?”
“You know computers?” Bai Yan asked.
“I only know about them a little.” Ye Shangyu stifled a laugh.
Since they’ve equally distributed the work, Ye Shangyu wanted to first go back to her dorm. Coincidentally, both Bai Yan and Luo Xing also had the same thing in mind.
The three exchanged numbers and agreed to update each other when there was progress. As he was going back, Bai Yan was surprised to have found out that he and Luo Xing were roommates.