When Ming Po woke up again, his head felt like it was splitting open.
It was late at night, and the classroom was completely empty. The lights were steady and bright, just like right after evening self-study ended.
His desk was clear of test papers. It was completely spotless, without even a single scratch.
Ming Po felt around for a mont and realized his phone was still hidden in his sleeve.
He casually glanced out the window while slowly sliding the phone out of his cuff. Pressing his fingers against the fabric of his sleeve, Ming Po operated the device and found no new text ssages.
"Interesting..."
Ming Po muttered under his breath, rising from his seat.
He first scanned his surroundings to confirm the classroom was empty. Then, approaching the window on the back door, he peeked left and right. The corridor was completely deserted as well.
He tried to open the door, only to find the back door had been locked from the outside. Peering down through the glass, he spotted a tiny black lock.
"...An escape room?"
Ming Po pondered as he walked to the front door, gently rattling the handle. Sure enough, it was locked too.
How was he supposed to get out?
Smash the door open? It didn't feel entirely impossible...
He turned to look at the windows on the other side—only to discover they were all fitted with security bars. Leaving through there was out of the question.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
A knocking sound suddenly echoed from the central window of the classroom.
Ming Po turned around, finding the glass completely frosted over with condensation, obscuring everything outside.
Relying on the illumination from the corridor, he could vaguely make out a hand slowly rapping against the pane—the fingers were slender, looking very much like a girl's hand.
Ming Po was absolutely certain that when he checked the front and back doors earlier, there had been no one out there.
But this window was the only remaining passage to the outside world—it sat on the sa wall as the doors. Opening it and stepping through would drop him directly into the hallway.
Left with no other choice, Ming Po approached it.
The closer he got, the clearer the figure hidden behind the fog beca.
She gradually ca into focus—from her fingers to her wrist, up her arm, and finally the contours of her face.
Right at the exact mont Ming Po was about to see her face clearly, the lights in both the classroom and the corridor simultaneously went out.
The next instant, a blood-red light flickered on in the hallway—
Slap, slap, slap, slap, slap, slap—
Countless blood-soaked handprints rapidly materialized on the glass. The crimson light filtered through these bloody marks, bathing the entire classroom in a dark, macabre red.
The handprints spread at a frantic pace, crawling ever upward.
It wasn't until they reached the very top that Ming Po noticed the highest windowpane was missing its glass.
A girl poked her head through the gap, smiling down at Ming Po.
She looked incredibly pale, like a faded photograph. Rather than a high school student, she appeared more like a middle schooler.
"Hello there, little beauty."
Ming Po also smiled, greeting her in a gentle tone.
The next mont, the bright white lights of the classroom abruptly snapped back on.
And the girl vanished into thin air.
However, the bloody handprints remained... Furthermore, at a visible rate, they began to lt and ooze downward.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
Ming Po shook his head. "Whoever is on cleaning duty tomorrow is going to suffer..."
He glanced at the bloody handprints that had climbed all the way to the ceiling and sighed. "They really know how to climb."
He reached out and tried to push the window open, but as expected, it wouldn't budge.
The window felt as if it were fused to space itself, completely immovable no matter how hard he pushed.
Ming Po wasn't panicked, though—he already knew how to leave this classroom. In no rush, he simply turned around and ticulously searched through the compartnts of every student's desk.
This proved to be quite fruitful.
Ming Po found a black hair tie strung with several small keys, as well as a dead phone that wouldn't turn on.
It was only when Ming Po turned back around that he suddenly noticed... his own desk was now completely covered in carved writing that had appeared out of nowhere.
"Morning," "Hold on a little longer," "Today," "Tomorrow," "November 11, 2011," "Knowledge changes destiny," "Yang Qing, I love you," "Enjoy the present while it lasts," "Liar."
Imdiately after, a dense cluster of words surfaced much like the handprints on the window earlier, accompanied by the sharp gouging sounds of a small knife striking the desk.
"Liar," "I am a fat pig," "Cheat," "My mom is dead," "Liar," "110," "Off to jail," "Fraud," "Retard"...
A thick swarm of abusive text materialized, entirely obscuring all the previous engravings.
"Wow."
Ming Po murmured, "I think I understand."
He stood there staring at his desk, watching until the words appearing on it gradually slowed down and stopped.
Following that, he tried pushing his own desk. Then he tried pushing soone else's.
Sure enough, only his desk could be moved.
Everyone else's desks and chairs felt as though they were welded into space itself, refusing to shift even a fraction of an inch regardless of how much force he applied.
"Well, would you look at that..."
Ming Po exclaid in surprise. "There's even a tutorial!"
Using the bloody handprints to draw his attention to the missing glass in the top windowpane, and then utilizing the dense carvings on the desk to make him turn around and notice the only movable piece of furniture...
This ghost was already doing a better job than quite a few ga designers!
And so, Ming Po reached out, grabbed his desk, and hoisted it atop the desk nearest to the window.
The height of that opening from the floor was nearly three ters.
Compared to a standard classroom window, it was about half a ter higher—the exact height required for Ming Po to comfortably climb through while standing on two stacked desks.
Ming Po squeezed through the gap.
He leapt down gracefully, executing a roll as he landed.
The corridor was brightly lit, and the school campus was eerily silent. The sound of his landing echoed far into the distance.
He looked back at his forr classroom and reached out to touch the bloody handprints on the glass, only to find they felt completely dry.
Just a mont ago, when he was looking at them from the inside, they had still been oozing downward.
"...Wait, no. That's a death chanic."
Ming Po narrowed his eyes as the realization hit him.
If he hadn't escaped before the bloody handprints fully lted and dripped down, he likely would have triggered so sort of fatal trap and died right there in the classroom!
At this thought, he cast a glance into the deep shadows of the corridor.
"In that case..."
He walked over to the classroom's front door and tested the keys hanging from the black hair tie one by one.
As expected, one of the keys successfully unlocked the front door. Ming Po then tried to open the back door as well.
He was now able to step back inside the classroom.
And this ti, the bloody handprints didn't resu their downward flow.
At this mont, a difficult dilemma presented itself to Ming Po—
This key was obviously intended to let him back in after he escaped, likely serving as an "optional bonus condition."
But should he place his desk back in its original position, or should he drag it out into the hallway?
After a mont of thought, he decided it was best to return the desk to its starting spot.
Ming Po possessed excellent agility and was confident he could vault back through that window using only a single desk as a stepping stone. The Frankenstein Title had considerably enhanced his already impressive physical attributes. Back when he was inside, he actually could have forced his way out without needing to stack his desk at all...
However, Ming Po felt that structurally, the chanic wasn't ant to be bypassed like that. He was currently a Deceiver of the World within the Domain of Force, so it was normal for his actions to be a bit more mindless. But if all Deceivers of the World were facing this, then the standard solution for escaping had to involve sothing like stacking desks.
Conversely, an ordinary person relying on just one desk for a boost would never be able to climb back through the topmost pane of this grid-style window from the outside.
Therefore, returning it to its original spot was definitely the correct choice.
After moving his desk back to its exact starting point, aligning it perfectly with the scuff marks on the floor tiles to ensure not a single milliter was off, Ming Po opened the classroom door once again.
Right at that mont, he saw a security guard standing outside the door, his face dripping with fresh blood and his limbs gruesoly twisted.
Clutching a rubber nightstick in his hand, he had silently blocked the exit!
"Hssss—"
He let out a raspy hiss and lunged forward like a stumbling drunkard, bringing a heavy stench of gore with him!
Ming Po nimbly stepped back, dodging the pounce.
But the instant Ming Po turned his head, he heard the footsteps behind him accelerate into a frantic sprint!
Imdiately after, the nightstick ca swinging at him with a vicious whoosh!
Ming Po instantly ducked into a forward roll, spinning around to keep his eyes on him.
Sure enough, the mont he looked back, the security guard reverted to his slow, shambling approach.
Ming Po slowly lured him deeper into the room and opened the back door of the classroom.
He suddenly darted out into the hallway, the hurried footsteps behind him closing in at blinding speed!
He slamd the door shut in a flash and threw the lock in place!
Following that, both Ming Po and the security guard inside simultaneously turned and rushed for the front door—Ming Po was evidently one step faster.
Ming Po yanked the front door shut in the blink of an eye and locked it tight!
The security guard was now locked securely inside the classroom!
Ming Po stared down the long corridor, listening to the ceaseless roaring coming from within the classroom as he fell into deep thought.
"...Wait a minute, that was supposed to be a chase sequence, right?"
'Did I just skip a level?'
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