Chapter 303: The Corner of the Girls' School (2/10, Autumn Subscription)

Only then did Hua Qiuqiu understand what Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu meant, and she couldn't help but smile bitterly: "... The key isn't with me. After the Hua Family split into branches, the main house keeps the box, and the branch houses keep the key. The key is with my sister from the branch house—Hua Wuye."

"Ah, your family keeps the box, and they keep the key... I'm getting a bit dizzy..."

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu was still bewildered, but Hua Qiuqiu merely shook her head slightly: "Give the box to her, and she'll understand what I mean on her own."

As she spoke, Hua Qiuqiu had already turned and walked outside, vanishing in no time.

Speaking of which... Ye Ge mentioned that Hua Qiuqiu had gone to Qingsi County—how did she get back so quickly?

Though a little puzzled, Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu didn't dwell on it. She took the box back to her room and couldn't help but examine it carefully.

The box was made of metal, slightly heavy.

The craftsmanship was exquisite, with a quaint, textured feel. The materials used seemed very high-grade, and it was also engraved with a phoenix-dancing-across-the-nine-heavens motif.

But beyond that, there was nothing else particularly special about it.

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu even tried imitating the thieves in TV dramas, fiddling with the lock using a wire, but after trying for a while, she gave up.

Although she was quite curious about what was inside the box, if she couldn't open it, there was nothing she could do.

After hiding the box well, she lay flat on her back on the bed, and Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu slowly logged out of the game.

Ding-ling-ling!

Ding-ling-ling!

Hearing the familiar ringtone, Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu realized she had slept through another afternoon.

"I can't keep wasting my studies anymore!!"

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu, who suffered from 'intermittent-effort syndrome,' immediately felt an intense guilt over wasted time, along with a strong desire to buckle down and work hard.

Then, she saw her roommates walking back into the dorm, chatting and laughing.

The moment they spotted Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu, they immediately teased her: "Wu Wu! You skipped class again!"

"N-no! Playing games... can that even be called skipping class?"

Then came a barrage of unfathomable technical jargon.

Things like "Mo Cun is so big, I want to go see it," "Every second of the game's scenery is wallpaper-worthy," "That's not playing games, that's cultivating one's sentiments—how could that be the same as skipping class?"

The other roommates didn't seem to know whether they understood or not, but they all burst into laughter anyway, and a cheerful atmosphere rippled through the girls' dorm.

After a while, the girl in Bed One, who called herself the 'Big Sister,' said: "Oh right, I heard that at the boys' school next door, someone played games until their brain exploded. You'd better be careful—don't let us come back from class one day and find nothing but a bloodstained bedsheet and your headless corpse."

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu was instantly terrified, her face draining of all color: "No way! How could playing games make your brain explode? Did he buy his gaming equipment from some shady source? That's why I've always said game helmets are outdated equipment—look at Tengli Group's new product, it uses a Game Watch, that's the trend of the future!"

Big Sister was immediately displeased.

"What trend? My little brother is also a gamer. He always says game helmets are the proper gaming equipment. Game Watches and the like are just reskinned money-grabs—the technology isn't mature at all. Every gaming company that uses Game Watches as gaming equipment is a shady, greedy business!"

"N-no, it isn't! Game Watch tech is mature—super mature!"

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu said huffily.

Big Sister just rolled her eyes and didn't argue further with a hardcore game addict like Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu. She only said: "I won't argue with you, but I'll tell you this—the person whose head exploded at the boys' school next door that I just mentioned? He was wearing a Game Watch on his wrist at the time."

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu's pupils shrank instantly at those words.

N-no way. Because of technical difficulties, Game Watches have actually always been gaming equipment exclusively monopolized by Tengli Group. Could it be... that the person who died at the boys' school next door actually died while playing *Blue Ocean*?

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu was so scared she started trembling all over, and even felt the urge to throw away the Game Watch on her wrist.

Games are games—once it threatens her life, she wouldn't play!

"Alright, alright, we agreed we'd just give Wu Wu a heads-up—look how scared you've made her." Little-Foot Sis, who was coiling her hair nearby, chimed in.

Hearing that, Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu quickly asked: "Wait, was the thing about the boys' school something you all made up to scare me?"

Little-Foot Sis shook her head slightly: "Not exactly—there really is that rumor on the campus network, and there seemed to be photos too. But when we logged on during class to check out the drama, the photos and everything were gone. Only the discussion posts from other people were still there, and even those were being cleaned up. So whether it's a rumor or real, nobody knows."

"It must be a rumor!" Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu said decisively: "Such a huge company—how could they dare let their gaming equipment have a problem like that!"

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu was a textbook member of the "big companies wouldn't dare have problems" school of thought, and she also had a bit of a gambler's mentality—if there really was a problem, with such a massive player base, surely it couldn't happen to her, right?

Regardless, Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu was still left feeling unsettled by her two roommates, Big Sister and Little-Foot Sis, and didn't quite dare go online.

She went out for a walk by herself and opened the campus network on her phone.

But after scrolling around, she found that nobody was discussing the incident at the boys' school next door at all.

"They really were just trying to scare me!"

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu patted her little chest. By now she had reached the corner of the sports field, and sure enough, she spotted Weiba striking some strange poses.

"Weiba! You logged out of the game too?"

Weiba glanced at Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu and stopped her dance-like movements.

"Yeah, Ni Dongmei locked me in the inn, so every day I do nothing but eat and read books in the game—it's even more boring than class... I might as well log out and hide here to practice dancing."

The so-called "practice dancing" wasn't practicing any moves assigned by a dance teacher—Weiba was rehearsing the basic Martial Techniques Ni Dongmei had taught her in the game. Because her physical abilities weren't as monstrous as in the game, she couldn't perform the Martial Technique movements quickly.

So Weiba could only slow down her poses, doing the Martial Technique movements slowly, as if she were dancing.

But this way, the poses ended up a bit awkward and weird, and kind of embarrassing, so she preferred to sneak off to the corner of the sports field to do these movements.

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu had known about this for a long time. When she had told Fang Yue earlier that Weiba was impressive, part of what she meant was that Weiba was impressive in this regard—being able to bring in-game movements into real life to practice, without feeling ashamed of it...

If it were up to Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu, she would rather die than do it.

"Oh right, my roommate said someone at the boys' school next door had their brain explode, and they were wearing our Game Watch when they got hurt—have you seen this drama?"

Hearing Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu's words, Weiba paused, then silently took out her phone and enlarged a photo on it for Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu to see.

"Is this the photo you're talking about?"

(End of this chapter)