I, the screenwriter, have experienced a resurgence of inspiration.

In the instant the three held their breath, pale black ink-wash characters simultaneously appeared in everyone's field of vision:

[Second haunted location: Administration Building - The female ghost who knocked on the door and jumped off the building]

[Check-in Task:]

1. After the game starts, players need to stay in a room alone and cannot team up. Then the first player needs to enter the corridor and start knocking on the door.

2. After hearing a knock on the door, the players in the room must determine whether the person outside is a human or a ghost.

If your teammates are outside the door, you need to open the door and follow them to the next room to knock on the door.

If no one is outside the door, you are safe.

If there's a ghost outside the door, you should say through the door, "The person you're looking for isn't here."

3. Once the game starts, it cannot be stopped midway until dawn.

4. Incorrectly identifying oneself or forming a group midway will both result in a failed check-in.

This check-in task requires at least four players.

[Current number of players in the room: 3. Insufficient players to start the quest.]

[Warning: A vengeful spirit is wandering the corridor; please open the door with caution.]

……

The words floated silently in the center of my field of vision, each one seemingly poisoned.

The office was deathly silent.

Deng Ziwen's stomach pain had miraculously stopped.

Adrenaline surged instantly, and all physiological desires were suppressed by fear.

"At least four players?" His voice was hoarse. "We're doomed."

There are only four survivors left in the instance, and the whereabouts of the lone Chow Sang Sang are still unknown.

If the next check-in task also has a limit on the number of participants, wouldn't they be stuck in this instance forever?

Zhao Weilai's face turned deathly pale, and his heart pounded wildly.

This task is even more dangerous than the one for the artificial lake.

Artificial lakes at least have clear rules; as long as you don't turn back and the candles don't go out, everything will be fine.

But what about this one?

How can you tell if the person outside the door is a human or a ghost?

Can ghosts mimic human voices? Can they transform into the appearance of a teammate?

What happens if you make a wrong judgment and open the door for a ghost?

Moreover, once the game starts, it cannot be stopped; you have to stay up until dawn.

……

"Four people...you need four people to check in..."

Zhao Weilai couldn't sit still any longer. He tiptoed to the door, his face pale. "There are only three of us, so we can't complete the check-in. Then... what about that thing outside the door?"

Ding Feifan's legs also felt a little weak:

"The rules say 'The vengeful spirit is already wandering the corridor,' which means that even if we don't start the quest, it will still be wandering around the corridor."

He lowered his voice, his tone filled with terror, "If we don't open the door, what if it breaks in?"

"I don't know." Zhao Weilai bit her lip. "But the rules don't say what will happen if you don't open the door."

"It should be fine if we don't open the door, right?" Deng Ziwen's voice was still trembling slightly. "Like Weng Yang and the others, if they don't look or answer, it can't get in, right?"

The moment those words were spoken, the knocking at the door changed.

The even "thump-thump" sound was replaced by a piercing "squeak-squeak-squeak".

It looked like someone was patiently scraping the wooden door with their fingernails, stroke by stroke.

Sharp, fragmented sounds drilled into the ears, sending chills down one's spine.

Immediately afterwards, a woman's voice rang out.

It was very soft, with a hint of a sob in its voice, sounding muffled, and it came through the door:

Is anyone there?

"Could you please open the door for me..."

"I dropped my things in there..."

"Teacher, teacher, are you there? I don't want to have to extend my studies."

His tone was somewhat helpless, and he sounded like an ordinary student.

But the three of them felt their hair stand on end.

The sound came close to the door.

It's like the woman outside the door is pressing her face against the door and talking to her.

Who knocks on the door like that?

Deng Ziwen could even picture the face outside the door: a bloody mess, a sunken skull, and bulging eyes peering through the crack in the door.

His stomach churned, and the urge to defecate was forcibly suppressed by a large part of his fear.

"Don't speak, don't make a sound." Zhao Weilai gestured for silence. "Hold the door shut, and ignore whatever it says. It should leave by dawn."

The three of them quickly worked together to push the metal filing cabinet next to them over and brace it against the door.

Zhao Weilai moved two more desks and placed them behind the filing cabinet.

After doing all this, the three of them retreated to the innermost corner of the office.

The sound of fingernails scratching the door continued, "creak, creak," growing louder and more urgent.

The woman's voice changed; it was no longer soft, but carried a hint of resentment, as if she were deliberately drawing out the melody.

"Open the door..."

"I know you're inside..."

"Open the door and let me in..."

"Teacher, I can't fail this course..."

The sound came from near and far, sometimes close to the door, sometimes drifting to the window.

The knocking and banging on the window were mixed together, and the three of them couldn't tell how many "things" were outside.

The temperature in the office was dropping lower and lower, and the breath of the three of them turned into white mist.

The sound of fingernails scratching the door went on all night.

……

……

The three of them finally made it to dawn, when the sound disappeared into the white mist at the end of the corridor.

Only after Zhao Wei confirmed that it was completely safe outside the door did he move the desk and cabinet used to block the door.

She also discovered that she seemed to be much stronger than before.

All three guessed that it was because she had awakened her profession.

After daybreak, Ding Feifan went from office to office looking for something to eat.

Deng Ziwen followed behind the two men, his eyes devoid of their luster, looking like a salted fish.

He couldn't hold back in the end and relieved himself on the spot.

Zhao Weilai secretly glanced back at him, saw his lifeless expression, and quickly turned back, his shoulders shaking from trying to suppress his laughter.

Ding Feifan earnestly comforted him: "It's okay, special circumstances require special handling."

Besides, if you hadn't had a stomachache and wanted to open the door, we wouldn't have discovered this checkpoint that appeared in the early morning. It was a blessing in disguise.

Deng Ziwen was expressionless, as if his soul had been completely ripped out.

Society will die, and you really will die.

……

……

According to Ding Feifan's speculation, the last place to check in should be the toilet in the old school building.

Following the white mist, the three of them traversed most of the campus and finally arrived successfully.

As you approach the old school building, a damp, musty smell mixed with the stench of decaying grass wafts from the front.

Ding Feifan walked at the front, holding half a mop handle in his hand, and parted the weeds that were taller than a person.

The dew on the grass blades dampened my trouser legs, feeling cool and clinging to my skin.

"Is this the place?" Zhao Weilai tried to remain optimistic. "I've never been here before."

In the mist, the outline of a gray brick building could be vaguely seen.

The four-story building has large sections of its exterior wall plaster peeling off, revealing the red brickwork underneath.

Dark green moss slid up half the wall, looking from a distance like irregular patches of corpse spots.

The weeds in front of the building grew wildly, mixed with broken glass, discarded plastic bottles, and rotten desk and chair legs.

People walk in the grass, making a "crunch" sound every now and then.

……

"Yes, it's the old school building." Ding Feifan's tone became a little lighter. "It used to be the dormitory for international exchange students, built in the early 2000s."

Later, the facilities became severely outdated, water pipes burst every few days, and there was no heating in winter, which led to numerous complaints from students.

The school originally planned to renovate it, but after calculating the costs, it became too high, so it was left vacant. The original plan was to demolish it next year and build a school history museum.

"Are all those ghost stories circulating at school, like women crying in the middle of the night or red and green paper in the toilets, fake?"

Deng Ziwen parted a clump of thorny vines, turned around, and asked a question.

"Most of it is just rumors spread by students." Ding Feifan shook his head. "It started when a girl got up in the middle of the night, fell, and hit her head, bleeding a lot. Later, it was spread as 'a female ghost in red is taking lives in the toilet.'"

In addition, the building is indeed in a remote location and no one lives there, so the rumors got increasingly bizarre.

That's what they said, but when they actually stood in front of the building, the three of them still felt a little uneasy.

In broad daylight, the entire building was as quiet as a tomb.

The wind howled through the broken window, making a "whooshing" sound, like someone sitting inside crying.

Two rusty iron gates were bound together with thick iron chains and secured with large padlocks.

The keyhole was rusted; it looked like it had been sealed for several years.

The chain was sealed with a blurry official seal.

"It's locked, you can't get in." Deng Ziwen shook the iron chain, making a "clattering" sound.

"Look around the side, there should be a broken window." Ding Feifan walked towards the west side of the building. "A graduate student once sneaked in and lived there, so there must be a way in."

The three of them then walked westward along the base of the wall.

The moss at the base of the wall had grown thicker, making it slippery underfoot. Zhao Weilai almost slipped and fell, but luckily Deng Ziwen caught her.

Walking to the side, I saw that a window on the first floor had been pried open.

Most of the glass was broken, and the remaining pieces were cracked like a spider web.

The window wasn't high, just up to chest level.

"I'll go first." Zhao Weilai tucked the mop handle behind his waist, reached out to brace himself against the window frame, and jumped inside. Then, a "thud" was heard from inside, probably because he had stepped on something and broken it.

"Are you alright?" Deng Ziwen asked, leaning against the window.

"It's nothing, just a broken bottle," her voice came from inside. "Climb up, I'll get you."

The two boys gripped the window frame and carefully climbed inside, where Zhao Weilai caught them.

Upon entering, a strong musty smell mixed with the stench of dust hit them, causing them to cough twice.

The corridor was long and gloomy, its end hidden in the thick fog.

On both sides were rows of dormitories, most of the doors of which were open, and inside were bunk beds that were about to be abandoned.

The dust was thick, and the ceiling was covered with spider webs and dead insects.

"It's really been wasted," Deng Ziwen muttered to himself.

"The toilet is at the far west end," Ding Feifan pointed. "There's a sign on the wall; I've been here once before."

The three walked along the corridor.

Footsteps echoed behind the three of them, "tap, tap, tap," as if someone else was following them.

The further west you go, the stranger the smell in the air becomes.

First came a faint smell of urine mixed with a damp, musty smell, then the smell of something rotting.

The further you go, the stronger the smell becomes.

The three of them stopped in their tracks, feeling a little uneasy.

"Director Ding... this tastes wrong," Zhao Weilai whispered.

Ding Feifan tried to comfort himself: "...It must be a dead rat. Yes, there are a lot of rats in the old house. It's normal for them to die and rot in a corner."

That's what he said, but he had a long face, and his smile looked worse than a cry.

The toilet door was broken, hanging precariously on the hinge, with a crooked gap.

There were no lights inside.

The stench was coming from the toilet stalls.

Deng Ziwen walked to the front and gently pried open the toilet door with a mop handle.

"Squeak—"

The old wooden door let out a piercing groan and swung open completely.

A stench mixed with the smell of urine hit them, causing all three to take a step back and cover their noses.

"What the heck... what does this taste like..." Deng Ziwen almost threw up.

Zhao Weilai also covered his mouth and shone his phone flashlight inside.

This is an old-fashioned public toilet, unisex, with five stalls in a row, all with their wooden doors ajar.

The ground was concrete, full of potholes.

The corners and the area around the squatting area were crawling with cockroaches, a large, black, oily swarm.

The five rooms are arranged in a row from left to right.

The door to the leftmost cubicle was half-open, swaying precariously.

……

"Why isn't there a time clock notification?" Zhao Weilai said, trying to use the mop handle to prop open the cubicle door and slowly push it open.

—As soon as the door was pushed open a crack, an even stronger stench of fish rushed out.

"thump!"

A heavy object fell straight down from behind the partition door, directly facing Zhao Weilai, who was standing at the front.

Zhao Weilai initially dodged backward, but after clearly seeing what it was, he immediately let out a heart-wrenching scream:

"ah--!!!"

The thing slammed heavily onto the ground with a dull thud.

It was a corpse.

A male corpse that has been skinned.

The entire face had no skin, revealing dark red muscle tissue and white fascia.

His eyes bulged out, without eyelids, just a pair of cloudy eyeballs staring intently ahead.

There were two black holes where the nose was, and the lips had been cut off.

He has no skin on his body.

The skin has been peeled off.

The three of them let out the loudest screams they had ever made in their lives.

……

……