Puzzle Madness

Chapter 107 Association
The girl with the goldfish eyes closed her mouth and shrank into the crowd - it was unclear whether she was truly convinced or unwilling to continue the argument; she just frowned tightly, and no one knew what she was thinking.

Immediately, another boy raised his hand and started a new topic:
"Wait a minute, I object."

Doudou had seen this face several times before—in the men's restroom, the cafeteria, or the corridor; but the voice was even more familiar; he had heard it before in Taro World:

Looks like the guy who wrote a diary on his face
In reality, he is a big, strong man, with his school uniform bulging out. His face is like a square, almost connected to his neck. From this rough appearance, it is impossible to see his delicate and sensitive heart:
"Why do you have the final say? You just joined for the first time last night! You have to give in no matter what."

As he was talking, the square-faced boy got stuck - he looked around, as if trying to find some support or a suitable candidate.

But he received no response: everyone's ambiguous gazes were fixed on Ai Xi's face.

Ai Xi folded his hands over his chest and raised his brows. His muscles pulled at the scar, making his cheek look like a beating heart, which was creepy.
"We are all in the same grade, there is no need to rank according to seniority."

"Would you be willing to negotiate with the Taro King and ask that store to sponsor us? Can you get free drinks and free cakes?"

"Or if the teacher catches you, will you go and hold the jar?"

"Of course, you can push someone else out; or do you have a better plan?"

"That's fine too; as long as someone does what needs to be done, that's all that matters."

"If you just want to be the boss but are too lazy to do anything, then don't waste other people's time."

The square-faced boy's face flushed red, and the bright white pimple on the tip of his nose was about to burst.
He stood there, suddenly shook his head and shook his hands, then rushed back into the crowd without saying a word.

Ai Xi waited for a moment, staring intently at the students whose gazes were wandering:
"Anyone else object? If not, fine; that's all. If you have any other questions, we'll discuss them when we recruit new members."

"I'll announce the new location tomorrow on the radio—and I'll also bring food and drinks from Taro King."

"You all know how long it takes to queue up for Taro King. It's free and time-consuming to eat."

"Everyone likes Taro King. Consider this a benefit of the association. Of course, if you're not interested in joining, then you don't have to come."

"Do you understand what I said earlier? If you understand, then hurry back to the classroom and take a nap."

Following her "order", the students of the Taro Society slowly disbanded:

Some had not yet recovered from the lack of oxygen and were staggering as if they were drunk; some were jogging towards the teaching building, shaking the collars of their school uniforms; and some were rushing to the toilet to wash their faces.

But perhaps it was some kind of tacit understanding, or perhaps it was unnatural fear; when they turned their heads, they all avoided Ai Xi's sight.
-
After everyone had left, Ai Xi and Dou Dou returned to the utility room and closed the door. The heavy stench still lingered, but Ai Xi paid no attention, not even blinking.

Doudou pulled up the collar of his raincoat and hid his nose inside——
He had been to Ai Xi's house two or three times before, and the smell there was similar to the current storage room.

However, her house also had a lot more empty wine bottles and collected cardboard and scrap metal, with the garbage piled up like a small mountain; the walls in front of her house were also sprayed with layers of red and white paint, but there were so many layers that the writing was no longer legible.

Ai Xi doesn't have this unpleasant smell.

Doudou found a flat car tire to sit on, trying to stay away from the vomit - he didn't know why there was such a thing in the school utility room:
"So you're going to take over the Taro Society? I thought you had no interest in this kind of thing."

Ai Xi walked straight to the depths and started rummaging through the moldy corners:
"I figured it out. Even a small mosquito is still meat. Let's just organize it."

"Anyway, with over a dozen people, word will definitely leak out and be exposed. Just two or three people gossiping a little, and the whole class will know in an afternoon. This matter will only spread more and more."

"Since I can't hide it, I might as well try to control it. This is also a good opportunity."

She moved the hammer, screwdriver, and empty bucket away and threw them behind her head. Doudou casually caught the miscellaneous items thrown by Ai Xi and put them aside.
"Oh, so you want to seize the right to interpret this matter, and you can also find ways to spread false information and create smokescreens."

"Even if this gets out, it will at least be a cover-up."

Ai Xi's hands kept moving, constantly throwing debris backwards:

"Yes, the idea is similar."

"It also makes it easier to screen and investigate. If there truly is a Taro World fanatic among these fifteen people, then this would be much more efficient—at least we'd find them sooner than the Asia-Europe Post Office."

"Ah!" DouDou suddenly sat up straight, remembering something else:

"Hey! That's right: if you really want to do that new job tomorrow, you can try it on the playground."

"Remember the method I told you yesterday about identifying ecstasy? It's about looking for strange objects in the sky."

"Let's test everyone tomorrow—maybe we can find a few more people with super powers."

Ai Xi suddenly stopped what she was doing and turned away. Her eyes were filled with nervousness and anxiety, and she kept blinking.
"Ah, yes! This is great and convenient. I forgot just now: wouldn't it be possible to directly verify if there are any psychics in the Taro Society?"

"Why didn't I think of this? Ah."

Doudou quickly waved his hands—he knew his deskmate well.

"Oh, don't worry! It wasn't really suitable to do that just now—the lunch bell rang, and this is on the mezzanine floor: it's not good to drag them all out to the playground and have everyone staring up at the sky."

"Once the teacher or security arrive, it'll be a hassle again. Because we're all going crazy, it'll only make things worse."

"That's right. Let's not make things complicated. Let's talk about it tomorrow."

After the clutter was moved away, Doudou discovered that there was a dim green dot flashing regularly in the corner.

Ai Xi calmed down his breathing and finally picked up a cardboard box with a small cut out from the pile of miscellaneous items. He took out a handheld video recorder with a flashing indicator light from it.

The green dot I just saw is this thing:

"Here, I brought it and put it here this morning."

"Everyone was chanting slogans during the ceremony. I opened the recording first."

Doudou took the video recorder—it was old, with a greasy casing; the lens was cracked, and the buttons were greasy:

"When did you get a DV? That's awesome!"

Ai Xi shrugged and moved closer to Dou Dou:
"We stole it from the photography club. Let's take a quick look at it, and then we have to secretly put it back when we're done."
-
Doudou flipped open the display on the side of the camera, used the button to stop filming, and then recalled the recorded footage. The owner of the video game store at the school gate also had one, and Doudou was very familiar with it:
In the dark green and grayish-white night vision screen, more than ten of them occupied the entire utility room - the faces of the students standing in the farthest corners were squeezed out of shape.

The interfering horizontal stripes on the side screen make everyone seem as if they are immersed in water.

Everyone had their eyes closed tightly and their arms raised high, but Doudou and Ai Xi, who were standing at the outermost edge, were not in the picture.

The microphone picked up some faint snoring sounds, but because of the large number of them, they merged into a strange roaring sound; perhaps due to the poor ventilation in the utility room, every student was breathing through their mouths and snoring.

Just a few seconds after the slogan [Friends of the Taro King] was uttered, the students in the picture closed their eyes and remained motionless; a short while later, snoring sounds began to rise one after another.

"This is incredibly fast - I wish I could fall asleep this quickly every night."

Doudou pressed the fast forward button and watched the classmates wake up:

"Everyone is sleeping so soundly! Fortunately, the lunch bell woke us up. This is a bit dangerous. If you stay in this storage room for too long, you will suffocate."

"It's just that the pixels aren't high enough, it's too blurry; I can't see clearly what's happening behind my eyelids. But we should all be in REM sleep, so it's more or less certain! It's not teleportation, nor is it an illusion—it's just a dream, no doubt about it."

He handed the DV back to Ai Xi and fell into deep thought:
"Hmm, it's so smooth and obvious, there's nothing strange at all. I thought it would take a long time to figure it out."

Ai Xi took the DV and repeatedly fast-forwarded and rewound the video, pausing it from time to time. He carefully observed the footage, searching for details he had missed:
"I also tend to think it's a dream, but the reality of this dream is extremely exaggerated."

"If we must assume other possibilities: perhaps it's something like [out-of-body experience] or [astral projection]—the spirit leaves the body and meets in another dimension?"

"This is difficult to verify unless—if someone dies or becomes disabled in the Taro World next time, perhaps we will know the result."

(End of this chapter)