The Sorority at Mouster College was an organization that had existed since the school’s founding and had entrenched itself in the academy for more than two hundred years.
The state university where Everly studied also had sororities. She had even received an invitation from one of them, but Everly had her own matters to attend to and declined.
From what Everly knew, traditional Greek organizations like sororities took pride in their long histories and generally did not easily change their initiation rituals. If the “initiation ritual” of the organization had caused all the anomalies, then why had there never been any incidents in the past two hundred years—why had a monster like M suddenly appeared this year?
If the anomaly wasn’t caused by the initiation ritual, then what was it? And what connection did it have to the sorority itself?
Many questions simply couldn’t be answered by thinking alone.
Everly needed information about the sorority—preferably as much as possible.
Unfortunately, even in an information age, there were still people who, due to conservatism, tradition, formalism, and various other reasons, refused to use electronic devices such as phones or computers for work—this described the Mouster College sorority perfectly.
When Everly deployed her “toolman” hacker Orff, the usually reliable hacker tried several thods but ultimately ca up empty-handed.
According to Orff, there seed to be a rule within the sorority prohibiting mbers from discussing internal matters online. If any decisions needed to be made, soone would send a text ssage to gather mbers for an in-person eting, and everything would be decided offline. As a result, there was almost no useful information to be found on the internet.
Everly also tried bribing mbers of the school’s journalism departnt. However, the sorority held a very high status on campus, and its mbers were either rich or influential. Even the journalism departnt—normally like a pack of gossip-hungry reporters—did not dare to provoke it.
After trying various thods and still finding nothing, Everly thought for a long ti and decided that tonight she would sneak into the school herself and personally investigate the sorority’s activity room and the adjacent drama storage warehouse to look for clues.
…
Like most universities in the United States, Mouster College has no periter walls. It is a small “university town” located within Concord City.
After deciding to conduct a nightti investigation of the sorority and the warehouse, Everly began her preparations.
During the day, she drove onto campus and, pretending to be a student, made her way into the student activity center. She wandered around the surrounding buildings, locating the areas she planned to explore at night, and carefully observed the types of locks on the doors and the structure of the windows.
After gathering enough information, Everly left the campus, went to a store to purchase various tools she might need for the night, then returned to her hotel room and went to bed early to conserve her energy.
At 11 p.m., the alarm went off.
Everly got up, drove out, and parked in a lot outside the school. She rested in the car for a while.
By midnight, as fewer and fewer people were out walking, Everly stepped out into the cold wind, carrying all her equipnt. She moved along the shadows of the buildings, keeping herself concealed, and quickly slipped into the campus toward the student activity center.
The state of New Osebuch in early February was still very cold, with temperatures generally below freezing. Even energetic college students had no desire to wander outside at night in such weather. Along the way, aside from the occasional patrol car of campus police, the entire university was empty and silent.
To prevent cri and protect student safety, Arican universities installed surveillance caras around buildings such as libraries and laboratories. However, there were not many of them, and they were generally not placed inside classrooms or other more private areas.
When she ca during the day, Everly had already walked around campus once and noted the locations of the caras along her route. She stuck close to the walls, skillfully avoiding surveillance zones, and whenever a campus police patrol car passed nearby, she lowered her body and hid in the corners of nearby buildings.
In this way, after seven or eight minutes of moving through the freezing wind, she finally reached the entrance of the student activity center.
Before breaking in, Everly found a hidden corner and sent Orff a quick “ping.”
Orff replied instantly: [Sara is watching a “hot guys cleaning windows” video on YouTube. Based on her phone location, she should be in the university girls’ dorm.]
Everly: [OK.]
Knowing Sara wasn’t nearby, Everly felt slightly more at ease.
People who frequently watch thriller films all know that when exploring a monster’s lair, the most common worst-case scenario is that, halfway through the search, the monster suddenly appears and traps the protagonist inside its own den.
Although Everly still couldn’t confirm whether the sorority room and the drama club warehouse were truly M’s lair, having an extra layer of safety was always better than regretting it later when sothing unexpected happened.
She tid her move right after a patrol car had just left. Dressed in black and wearing a hood, Everly sprinted into the student services center, found the sorority room, and took out the lock-picking tools she had prepared in advance. Using the faint light from a distant streetlamp, she began trying to pick the lock.
The student services building had been built over forty years ago. It was an old structure, and the lock was a basic model—only good enough to keep out honest people, not intruders. With tools, even a novice could easily pick it.
About half a minute later, there was a soft “click.” Everly successfully turned the lock cylinder and opened the door.
Before entering, she bent down to put on shoe covers, checked the weapons, protective charms, and universal antidote she had on her, confirming she was prepared to handle danger if necessary. Only then did she take a deep breath and slip sideways into the room.
In stark contrast to the building’s old and modest exterior, the sorority room was lavishly decorated. Thick handmade rugs covered the floor, tasteful artwork hung on the walls, and the furniture—though understated—exuded luxury. In the center of the room even stood a piano that looked extrely expensive. Everywhere she looked, the space reflected the wealth of its occupants.
Everly searched the large room briefly, skipping over the clearly recreational areas, and finally ca to the bookshelf in the corner of the room.
The shelves were filled with rows of hardbound books.
They were thick volus, larger than ordinary books, and labels were attached to their spines, marked with what appeared to be years.
Everly had good night vision. Without turning on a flashlight, she squinted and scanned the collection. The books were arranged in chronological order. The latest one was labeled “2X15,” while “2X16” had not yet been placed—likely because the year had just begun and the volu was still incomplete.
So she put on gloves and pulled out the 2X15 volu.
Only after opening it did she realize—it wasn’t a book at all, but a photo album.
Every ti the sorority held an event, they would take commorative photos on-site, and at the end of the year, all the pictures would be developed and compiled into a single volu. What she was holding now was the complete collection of event photos from January to December of 2X15.
Bethany and the other two were freshn; they hadn’t even enrolled last year. However, traditional Greek organizations like sororities placed great importance on continuity. Recruitnt seasons were roughly the sa every year, and initiation rituals were passed down in a consistent manner. So even if there were no photos from 2X16 yet, Everly could still use last year’s records to infer what the so-called “initiation ceremony” might involve.
With that in mind, she flipped to the first page and began turning through the album from front to back.
The sorority was ticulous. Each batch of photos was labeled with the date and description of the event. Everly quickly skipped past early-sester gatherings and birthday celebrations, scanning forward efficiently.
Soon, she found the photos of the 2X15 “Welco Night.”
There were six photos in total.
The first was a pre-event preparation shot. In it, a group of young, attractive girls gathered in the main sorority hall, arranging banners, confetti poppers, and other celebratory decorations.
The second photo showed seven or eight young won standing tightly packed in a dark, narrow corridor. Each of them held a lit white candle. Their expressions were tense, mixed with a hint of fear. In front of them stood two older girls holding notebooks, their faces stern and authoritative.
Everly placed the first and second photos side by side for comparison and confird that the girls holding candles were all unfamiliar faces. None of them appeared in the first photo. This suggested they were likely the freshn who underwent the 2X15 initiation trial.
As for the two serious girls with notebooks, they were probably the sorority mbers responsible for evaluation.
Next ca the third photo—a candid shot. In it, one girl was holding a lit white candle, stepping alone into a completely dark room with its door wide open. The candle fla was small, its faint glow only illuminating half an arm’s length around her. It made the girl look less like she was walking into a room, and more like she was being swallowed by sothing unseen and terrifying.
The fourth photo returned to a bright, warmly lit main activity room. Three young won stood smiling in the center, holding bouquets and wearing flower crowns. Around them, the official mbers were popping party poppers, celebrating their success.
The fifth and sixth photos were similar—docunting the welco ceremony and the final group photo.
Everly was only interested in one thing: what exactly the sorority’s initiation ritual was.
She flipped back to the second and third photos and carefully studied the backgrounds.
The corridor in the second photo looked sowhat similar to the student activity center, but it could also be another academic building—so campuses built multiple structures in a uniform architectural style.
As for the third photo, judging from the room number plate on the door, it was likely the sorority’s rarely used small activity room.
So the initiation trial required candidates to hold a burning candle and walk alone into that small room?
What was inside it? Why did they have to do this? Was it so kind of ritual?
For a brief mont, many thoughts flashed through Everly’s mind.
Her instincts told her that the room—and the ritual—were extrely important. She crouched behind the door, using it as cover, and turned on her flashlight to illuminate the photo album. With her other hand, she took out her phone and quickly photographed all the relevant images.
After finishing, she returned the album to its place and continued to search the activity room while wearing her gloves.
Unfortunately, whether the important materials had been taken away by sorority mbers or for so other reason, the entire room was practically empty. She found no additional useful clues.
Everly decided to move on.
She carefully restored everything she had touched to its original state, waited quietly until the campus patrol passed by again, then slipped out of the room without a sound, closing the door behind her. Relying on her mory from the dayti visit, she moved in a crouched run toward the drama club’s warehouse.
The drama club warehouse was located at the back exit of the student activity center. Between it and the sorority’s main hall lay a dium-sized room—that room was the rarely used small sorority activity room, and also the dark room that appeared in the photos where the initiation trial took place.
If one took a shortcut through the corridor from the main hall to the warehouse, they would inevitably pass by the small activity room.
Everly knew that the small activity room might contain important clues, but she was also very clear about one thing: rooms like this—places where suspicious rituals might have been held—were often dangerous. Although she carried many self-defense tools purchased from Rebecca, she was not a supernatural specialist. If she encountered sothing extrely powerful and malicious, those items would not necessarily be enough to protect her properly.
So Everly decided to avoid the small activity room for now and head to the warehouse first. If what she found there could reveal the true nature of Monster M, she might not need to take the risk of going into the small activity room at all.
Holding onto that hopeful thought, Everly circled around the small activity room and arrived at the entrance of the drama club’s warehouse. She crouched in the shadows and sent Orff another “ping.”
Orff, as reliable as ever, replied instantly: “No problem. Still watching hot guys doing borderline cleaning-window content.”
Good. As long as Sara M wasn’t wandering around.
Everly put her phone away, closed her eyes briefly to adjust to the darkness, then took out her tools and repeated her old trick—picking the lock on the warehouse door once again.
Creak…
The old door swung inward, producing a grating, tooth-aching sound.
Darkness surged in silently. Everly realized she was standing at the edge of a black void.
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