Chapter 59 : Chapter 59
Chapter 59: Lu Liangting — My Life Is Over
Number 652’s mission was extremely important. Bai Yu wanted to know what changes would occur after she completed it, so that she could understand why the Scum Game had arranged things this way.
She had never encountered anything like this before, yet it happened during the final mission.
For Number 652, what difference would there be between completing the mission and failing it?
There were far too many questions she wanted to understand. Therefore, today, even if she had to press a knife against Number 652’s throat, she would still make her complete this mission.
That said, Bai Yu truly was not worried about Zhao Mingyue. She had already left a safeguard on Zhao Mingyue, so there was no way she would let her face danger alone without any protection.
There was another point she was almost certain about: the old director was not in the youth center. The most likely location was the Cafeteria.
That old man liked eating people. What the scent of meat in the midnight Cafeteria meant was self-evident. Coincidentally, the ghosts of those he had eaten were also here, and most of those ghosts were not particularly strong. Therefore, the old director was highly likely to be here—or in that classroom.
However, there was one thing she could be certain of: Lu Liangting.
If the person who came here was truly Lu Liangting, then the old director was definitely inside the Cafeteria.
Lu Liangting was the protagonist. She trusted the protagonist’s ability to attract the boss.
Passing through the overgrown grass, Bai Yu scanned the surroundings.
She was also a ghost, and her perspective was different from that of living humans. In her vision, the entire school was shrouded in a thin layer of blood mist. Beneath that mist, dark shadows flickered faintly as they passed by. On the outer and inner walls of the various buildings, thin strands of blood clung here and there.
Among them all, the building hidden in the night with the two blood-soaked characters “Cafeteria” written above the entrance had the densest red mist.
It could be said that even if the old director was not inside the Cafeteria right now, he must have come here frequently.
“Cafeteria…”
Bai Yu’s sense of smell was not very sensitive, yet the fragrance of meat inside the Cafeteria seemed to possess some strange power. It ignored her dull senses entirely and lingered constantly at the tip of her nose.
“This is the place. Let us go.”
Bai Yu’s figure became blurred. Shen Shuyun blinked, and Bai Yu had already appeared inside the Cafeteria. In the span of a single blink, she had moved nearly ten meters in an instant.
“Tsk. Truly a terrifying person.”
Even as she said this, Shen Shuyun still followed her inside.
Having such a teammate beside her made things far easier.
“Did Lu Liangting come here with you?”
Upon entering the first floor of the Cafeteria, Bai Yu looked at the empty hall. The scent of meat in the air was far stronger now. She could even hear the bubbling sound of something boiling, as if soup were simmering.
Aside from that, dull banging noises echoed from the second floor, the sound of something repeatedly striking a door.
Looking at the lingering black mist that had not yet dissipated across the first-floor hall, it was obvious what had happened here.
While Zhao Mingyue was still in the dormitory building, she had seen three ghosts heading toward the Cafeteria. Those ghosts had been drawn there by sound.
Those three ghosts must have fought the old director—and they had died miserably.
“Did Lu Liangting come here with you?”
“Yes.”
“Let us go upstairs.”
The one being hunted upstairs was undoubtedly Lu Liangting. Bai Yu already felt a headache coming on. Why did she always encounter him like this? And every single time, it was under circumstances like these.
She was going upstairs to kill the old director. When that happened, the boy would probably witness everything and once again move himself to tears.
·
***
At the same time, Lu Liangting was hiding inside a room in the kitchen on the second floor of the Cafeteria, desperately bracing the door to keep whatever was outside from entering.
It had been sheer misfortune.
He knew there was a mission here, and he had come partly to search for Shen Shuyun’s whereabouts. When he arrived at the Cafeteria, he noticed the main entrance was not locked, so he simply pushed the door open and walked in.
When he entered, the beam of his flashlight revealed that the Cafeteria had already been emptied. The interior was covered with dust and cobwebs, as if it had been abandoned for many years.
And yet the scent of meat was still there, drifting from somewhere unknown.
He searched the entire first floor but found neither Shen Shuyun nor the source of the meat’s fragrance, so he went upstairs.
After reaching the second floor, he followed the smell until he arrived at the kitchen. As if possessed by something, he opened the black wooden door.
There was indeed something inside the kitchen—a shadow.
When the shadow saw him, it seemed startled. It vanished in an instant, leaving only the large iron pot on the stove, still bubbling vigorously.
In such an environment, after entering the Cafeteria kitchen and seeing a ghost cooking something in a large iron pot, it was impossible for Lu Liangting not to take a closer look.
He approached the pot and shone the flashlight into it.
He had no idea what was inside. All he could see was a thick, dark-brown sludge tinged with blood.
He reached out and grabbed the ladle resting on the edge of the pot. The moment the cold metal touched his hand, the scent of meat in the air suddenly disappeared.
In its place came a nauseating stench—the smell of a corpse in advanced decay.
At that moment, something downstairs began climbing up.
It carried with it a strong burnt smell.
Through the Cafeteria’s outer window, Lu Liangting saw a burly old man wearing a blood-red coat slowly walking upstairs. At first glance, he looked like a living person.
Lu Liangting saw the old man—and the old man saw him.
This ghost could even speak. His speech was fluent, with perfectly normal logic and tone. Talking to him almost felt comfortable. He controlled both his tone and his speaking pace extremely well.
He did not say much. He only asked Lu Liangting to open the door, claiming that several terrifying Fierce Ghosts had arrived outside.
Lu Liangting refused to open the door and did not respond to him. Gradually, the ghost’s behavior became increasingly unstable. His knocking turned into violent pounding.
Strangely enough, the ghost had not lied.
Three terrifying Fierce Ghosts soon climbed up from downstairs, and the two sides were clearly not allies.
Then Lu Liangting witnessed ghosts fighting ghosts—and one side completely crushing the other.
After the three ghosts were killed, the old man in the blood-red coat began pounding the door with even greater force.
If not for the talisman Chen Yun had given him to strengthen the wooden door, he would never have been able to hold it shut.
Unfortunately, the talisman was about to lose its effect.
Back then, Chen Yun’s talisman had been powerful enough to kill the ghost attached to Li Nan’s back with a single strike. Yet against the ghost outside, such a powerful object could not even last half an hour.
“My life is over.”
Lu Liangting clutched a steel pen and a red hairpin in his hands.
These were the two ghosts assisting him. The problem was that even together, those two ghosts were nowhere near strong enough to fight the monster outside.
If there had been another way out, things might have been different.
But he was trapped inside the kitchen, and the only exit was the black wooden door behind him.
“I promised to help the two of you fulfill your wishes. I am sorry… I broke that promise.”
“The world outside is far more terrifying than we imagined. In a moment, I will create an opportunity to send you out. Once you escape, run as fast as you can.”