Chapter 16: This Is Fucking Impossible!

Wu Wang, completely unaware that the four other players outside were in chaos, each worrying about themselves, was now somewhat baffled.

“1001, 1002, 1003…”

Wu Wang used the standard medical timing method and estimated he had wandered in the small black room for about fifty minutes.

He found no ghost.

He searched every corner of the room but found no trace of the three figures from earlier.

The strangest part was that this small black room was truly empty—nothing at all inside.

But that shouldn’t be possible!

He had just seen the two cleaners dump Liu Yang’s corpse inside; from their conversation, previous corpses were always disposed of here, and the air still reeked of rotting flesh.

Yet after entering, he found no corpse at all!

“A ghost wall? Or did someone hide inside the room earlier to dispose of the bodies? Or is this connected to the urban legend?” Wu Wang considered every possibility.

The idea that the small black room disposes of trash was common knowledge among students—it wasn’t an urban legend.

The legend must be something else.

Like what he was experiencing right now.

“Wu Wang… Wu Wang…”

As time neared one hour and Wu Wang was about to stand up and wait by the door for Teacher Yao to fetch him, a faint, ethereal, yet unmistakably familiar voice came from behind him.

It called him by his real name!

Wu Wang spun around sharply.

A faint source of light had appeared in the pitch-black room, as if someone carefully carried a candle barely clinging to life.

In the orange glow of the candlelight, two faces he hadn’t seen in years stared back at him, expressions dazed.

“Dad? Mom?”

Though he knew his parents could not possibly be here, his voice still grew strange.

Upon hearing his response, the two stumbled toward him, their steps oddly unnatural.

The distance was close enough for Wu Wang to clearly see their current state—

Wu’s father’s skull was missing half its top, white brain tissue exposed and swaying with each step, his eyeballs hanging outside their sockets, suspended only by two nerves and blood vessels, his legs twisted as if wrung like a rag.

Wu’s mother was even more horrifying—she clung to her husband’s upper body solely by her arms, for her entire lower half had vanished; her bloody intestines and internal organs dragged from the severed waist to the floor, leaving a trail of blood.

They walked right up to Wu Wang.

He did not flinch.

He let them take his hand.

And with a trembling voice, he spoke: “Why? Why didn’t you come to join us? Do you really feel at ease living on our corpses? Living in our house, spending our money—you’re having such a happy life…”

His parents’ voices were hoarse.

Each word seemed to carry magic, forcing Wu Wang to relive that plane crash.

In the dimness of the small black room, a faint howling wind echoed, passengers screaming in panic, the flight attendant trying to calm everyone—but even her voice trembled.

The stench of burning engines mixed with the metallic taste of blood flooding his mouth after his seatbelt snapped and he slammed to the floor.

He was back.

【Mental Strength: 34, 33, 32…】

His mental threshold on the interface was dropping by one point every ten seconds.

Some force was affecting his mental state, making him perceive these memories with such terrifying realism.

“Are you going to abandon us again?” Wu’s mother glared at him with hatred.

He smiled.

Bowing his head, he whispered: “Even though you’re just a false illusion, I still want to say…”

“Mom, I miss you both.”

Saying this, Wu Wang suddenly wrenched his hand free, rose up, and gripped the dagger in his fist.

He gently pressed the tip against his temple.

At first, Wu Wang thought even if one sacrificed something important, no student should die outright inside the small black room.

Now he understood.

The small black room didn’t just dispose of trash.

It required you to dispose of it yourself.

Other students entering would have normal mental thresholds far lower than Wu Wang’s—they’d last at most a minute, then sob and choose to follow their parents into hell.

Students would die.

Or they’d have to choose to abandon them, erasing those emotions and that humanity entirely under the influence of the strange force.

Students would become learning machines.

Two choices: die, or live worse than death.

He smiled with resignation: “I choose death.”

Pfft—

The blade sank fully into his brain; blood gushed from the wound like water, and Wu Wang collapsed to the floor, motionless.

All the strange phenomena vanished instantly; the room returned to its usual pitch-black darkness.

Tap-tap-tap—

Three footsteps slowly appeared.

The ghost hidden in the darkness looked down at Wu Wang’s still form, expressionless, bent over, grabbed his foot, and dragged him toward the door like garbage.

Until Teacher Yao came to pick him up…

No, to claim the corpse.

One minute left.

————

But they didn’t know.

At this moment, Teacher Yao had already arrived outside the small black room.

He was now crawling on the ground, searching frantically, muttering: “Where did it go… where did it go… time’s almost up…”

His access card was gone.

After sending Wu Wang in, Teacher Yao returned to the classroom but couldn’t find the card to open the small black room’s door—he panicked.

The agreement was one hour inside.

No matter the student’s condition, if the door wasn’t opened within five minutes past that time, he’d violate school rules!

That damned old beast would definitely throw him into the small black room for reflection too!

Creak—

Suddenly, as Teacher Yao crouched in the grass searching for his card, his ears twitched and he froze.

He looked up in disbelief at the heavy iron door of the small black room.

It had opened.

Damn it! This is fucking impossible!

Why did it open by itself?

Before Teacher Yao could comprehend what was happening, he saw three pairs of blood-stained canvas shoes beneath the doorway—lying there was Wu Wang, who had entered earlier.

He knew the boy was dead.

“Cough cough… Sorry, everyone, I’ll take him away.” Teacher Yao, being a seasoned veteran,

knew he must never reveal the door hadn’t been opened by him.

He only needed to act as usual.

Carry the boy’s corpse to the rooftop and throw him down to stage a suicide.

Then go to the administration office tonight to get a new access card—nothing else would happen.

It definitely wouldn’t happen…

“Please, my other self!”

At this tense moment, Wu Wang on the ground suddenly opened his eyes—his shadow shot out a hand and seized one of the ghosts’ ankles.

He pulled with all his strength toward the door!

【Shadow Duel Technique】

Why was Teacher Yao’s card missing? Why did the small black room’s door suddenly open? How was the grade sheet stolen from the podium in the first place?

All of it was the work of the 【Shadow Duel Technique】.

No one ever suspects shadows.

When Wu Wang realized Teacher Yao dared not enter the small black room and claimed he’d come to pick him up after an hour, he understood.

The ghosts must have brought him to the door when opening it.

To truly catch them, he had to act now!

For safety, he’d stolen Teacher Yao’s card while the man turned away—if all else failed, he’d swipe the door open and run.

“What the fuck! This is fucking impossible!”

Teacher Yao was so startled he collapsed onto his butt, sweat pouring down his forehead, face ashen.

Because what was inside the small black room had, against all odds, been dragged out by Wu Wang.

It was a student whose head had exploded like a ruptured watermelon, his uniform soaked dark red with blood, no ID badge on his chest—but Teacher Yao and Wu Wang both recognized him instantly.

Liu Yang!

————

Meanwhile.

In the classroom, Baili Dao sat boredly listening to the lesson; with He Yikan’s reminder, he tilted his head to observe his classmates as they pondered their next move.

Each time his gaze swept over Liu Yang’s eerie ghostly state, he couldn’t help but stare a little longer.

“Has his head healed a bit? Doesn’t the damage seem smaller than before?” Baili Dao noticed the change in Liu Yang’s body.

Before he could examine it further,

a sudden transformation occurred.

Boom—

Inside the classroom, Liu Yang’s entire ghost exploded with a loud crash, spraying unknown fluids and internal tissues everywhere; the seats were instantly drenched in crimson.

Baili Dao, sitting closest and already leaning over to watch him, was naturally the worst victim.

He was now completely discolored.

A liver rested atop his head, a tongue stuck to his face, and two globular objects—burst free from Liu Yang’s exploded form—lay lifelessly staring up at his face in his arms.

“Fuck! This is fucking ghosts!”

“Did he just explode right here!?”