Ghost Amusement Park [Infinite] 58

Li Zhi mimicked the actions of her male classmates, leaning in with a curious expression. “What game?”

Seeing her interest, the male classmate became more excited. “Summoning the Lamp Spirit!”

“Summoning the Lamp Spirit?” Li Zhi raised an eyebrow. “Never heard of that one. I’ve only heard of summoning the Pen Spirit.”

The male classmate twirled his pen. “Oh, we’ve already played that one. This time we want to play something more thrilling. So, are you in or not?”

Li Zhi shook her head. “No thanks, I’m a scaredy-cat.”

Audience: “……..”

– [Say that again to the wax monster you mocked in the ancestral hall.]

– [Say that again to the Infant tower you crawled into.]

– [Say that again to Fang Lin, who you tied up like a dumpling.]

…

Playing a supernatural game inside a ghostly setting does feel like tempting fate. However, judging by the male classmate’s tone, it seemed like these students regularly played such spooky games. Had nothing ever gone wrong?

Tan Manyu leaned in curiously. “So, when you played the Pen Spirit, did you really summon it?”

“Of course! The Pen Spirit even answered our questions!” The male classmate grinned mischievously.

“We found out who the class committee member has a crush on. The Pen Spirit circled the name, and the committee member didn’t deny it.”

Tan Manyu deliberately asked, “And did you send the Pen Spirit back afterward? I’ve heard it’s hard to get rid of the Pen Spirit once it’s summoned. Nothing bad happened, right?”

The male classmate shot her a strange look. “Of course we sent it back. Why wouldn’t we? We play these kinds of games all the time, and nothing has ever happened.” He picked up his backpack and stood up, losing interest.

“If you’re not joining, that’s fine. We’ve got enough people anyway.”

As the students gradually left the classroom, the players discussed among themselves and decided to head back to the dormitory. They all walked out of the school building together, heading towards the lit dormitory building.

The two dormitories stood next to each other, one for boys and one for girls, so the male and female players had to split up. The pink-haired player glanced sadly at their leader as she entered the girls’ dorm and reluctantly followed Lian Qinglin instead.

There were seven female players this time. Aside from the “Singer Streamer” Tan Manyu, the other five were seasoned players who had already cleared similar scenarios. Among them, an actress named Bei Xuan was the most popular player, second only to Li Zhi.

After Zhou Jianzhang left with the male players, Bei Xuan stepped forward and said, “We should probably appoint a temporary leader for the girls as well. Let’s stick together and follow orders to avoid panicking in dangerous situations.”

Tan Manyu glanced at Li Zhi and noticed that she didn’t seem to hear Bei Xuan’s suggestion, as she was busy observing the dormitory surroundings. Realizing that Li Zhi wasn’t interested in being the leader, Tan Manyu didn’t say anything more.

As expected, Bei Xuan naturally became the leader. “Let’s go check in with the dormitory supervisor and see how the rooms are assigned.”

They took the student IDs they had found in the desks and presented them to the dormitory supervisor. The supervisor glanced at them, looking disinterested.

“The students who used to live on the second floor have moved to the new campus, so it’s all empty now. You can pick any room you want. It won’t be long before you’ll have to move anyway. The keys are on the doors.”

The dormitory building was as quiet as the school building had been during their evening self-study session. The students who had returned to their rooms after class were as disciplined as soldiers, and after entering their rooms, no more sounds were heard.

As their leader, Bei Xuan walked at the front. The old staircase of the dormitory had yellow light bulbs hanging overhead, around which moths and insects circled. Their shadows, cast on the uneven steps, looked like wriggling, irregular grey patches.

The air was damp, and the smell of mildew was noticeable with each breath. The dormitory building was clearly very old. As they reached the second floor, a long corridor stretched out before them.

Many of the light bulbs along the corridor were either completely out or flickering, emitting a faint buzzing sound. The dim yellow light cast eerie shadows on the red and blue tiles of the floor, illuminating rows of pale yellow wooden doors on either side. The hallway felt dark and never-ending.

Bei Xuan, who had been full of confidence just moments before, instinctively took a step back.

The entire floor was empty; they couldn’t even hear any noise from upstairs or downstairs. It was as if the students had vanished the moment they entered their rooms.

The person walking at the front froze at the top of the stairs, too scared to move, and those behind were blocked from proceeding.

Standing on the steps, Li Zhi gently asked, “Why did we stop?”

The sound of someone swallowing nervously came from the front. “This floor looks too creepy…”

“Let’s split into groups then,” Li Zhi suggested after thinking for a moment. “Since we’ll be spending the night here anyway, we should divide into groups, pick our rooms, and get some rest.”

Often, getting through the night without incident was the safest option.

The dorm rooms were typically four-person rooms, but to avoid a complete wipeout, no more than three people should share a room. This way, even if something happened, the casualties could be minimized. With four people in one room, the risk was too high. The group of seven decided, as they had done before, to divide into groups of two, two, and three.

A thin girl in the group quickly asked Li Zhi, “Can I room with you?”

With Chi Yi, that clingy person, not around, finally no one was monopolizing the big shot!

However, Li Zhi shook her head and refused, “Sorry, I’ve already promised to room with my deskmate.”

Tan Manyu gave her a grateful glance at just the right moment, leaving the girl with no choice but to walk away, disappointed.

After splitting into groups, Li Zhi walked down the corridor, opening each door with the keys on the handles. She found that the dormitory doors looked almost identical, and the interiors were nearly the same too. At least on the surface, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Most importantly, her warning device hadn’t gone off.

The others were so tense from her actions that they didn’t dare breathe, afraid that as soon as she opened one of the doors, some monster would leap out.

Once Li Zhi had checked all the rooms and confirmed they were fine, she turned and said to them, “Try to pick three rooms close to each other so we can look out for one another if something happens.”

Bei Xuan, having recovered from her initial fear, seemed a bit dissatisfied with Li Zhi stealing her spotlight as the leader and raised her voice, “If something really happens, staying too close together might not give us enough time to react before we all get wiped out. I think we should put some distance between the rooms so we have time to prepare.”

The group exchanged glances, and Tan Manyu spoke up with a puzzled expression, “But didn’t you say earlier that we should stick together and be united? How are we supposed to do that if we space out the rooms?”

Bei Xuan: “……..”

This newbie, Tan Manyu, was clearly trying to undermine her authority!

Bei Xuan scoffed inwardly and, with a pointed tone, said, “You’re a newbie without any tools. If you’re staying with the big shot, you’d better be careful. Big shots like to take risks for the sake of entertainment. Without tools, you’re putting yourself in danger.”

“Thank you, but I’m not afraid,” Tan Manyu replied with a shy smile. “Li Zhi said she’d protect me.”

Bei Xuan: “……..”

Li Zhi casually opened a door near the staircase. “I’ll take this room. The rest of you can choose whichever you like.”

With that, she went inside, and Tan Manyu quickly followed. After they shut the door, the others exchanged looks. The girl who had initially wanted to room with Li Zhi hurried over to the room next door. “I still want to stay close to the big shot. Peipei, let’s take this room, okay?”

Her companion agreed. “Sure.”

That left Bei Xuan and the two other girls. She walked further down the hall, stopping only after putting four rooms between herself and Li Zhi. “We’ll stay here.”

The dorm room had four beds.

Li Zhi pressed the switch on the wall by the door, and the incandescent light on the ceiling flickered twice before casting a dim glow. Probably due to the room being unoccupied for a long time, everything was covered in dust. The closet was stuffed with a few blankets.

After glancing around the room, Tan Manyu asked, “Which beds should we sleep on?”

Li Zhi looked around. “Let’s both take the lower bunks. If something happens, it’s easier to get up and run.”

Tan Manyu nodded, fetched a basin of water from the balcony, and began to clean up. Meanwhile, Li Zhi started making the bed.

Just as she finished tucking in the blanket, Tan Manyu’s voice came from the balcony in a low gasp, “Li Zhi, come quick and look!”

Li Zhi quickly walked over.

The small dormitory balcony faced the playground—the same one where they had been transported in the afternoon. The night was deep, and in the middle of the playground, beyond the reach of the streetlights, there was a group of people holding white candles, gathered in a circle.

From where they stood, they couldn’t make out the faces of the people, but they could tell that they were all students, given their blue-and-white school uniforms.

Li Zhi counted about a dozen students. They were holding candles and walking in a small circle, first moving clockwise. After three circles, they began to move counterclockwise. Through the night breeze, they could faintly hear the students chanting some kind of incantation.

Tan Manyu couldn’t help but remark, “It looks like some kind of cult ritual.”

As a government official, her first thought upon seeing something like this was always that it involved a cult.

Suddenly, Li Zhi said, “Are they summoning the Lamp Spirit?”

That creepy game?

Tan Manyu frowned and looked closer. She noticed that the students had stopped walking in circles and had sat down in place, forming a circle. They were holding their white candles in front of their chests, as if meditating, or perhaps waiting. The faint candlelight illuminated their youthful faces, filled with a strange sense of excitement.

Suddenly, one of the candles went out.

It was too far for Li Zhi and Tan Manyu to see how the candle was extinguished; they only noticed that one part of the glowing circle suddenly dimmed. Immediately after, the student whose candle had gone out stood up.

At that moment, the alarm in Li Zhi’s arms suddenly went off.

This was the first time the alarm had made any sound since she had acquired it. The sound was similar to real-life alarms, but much sharper. Tan Manyu didn’t seem to hear the piercing sound, still intently focused on the playground.

Li Zhi quickly grabbed Tan Manyu’s wrist, pulled her back inside the room, and closed both the balcony door and the dormitory light.

“The alarm went off,” Li Zhi explained before Tan Manyu could ask. “It gives a 30-second warning. There’s something wrong with that game. If we keep watching, we might be noticed. Let’s just sleep for now. We can ask that boy what happened when we get to class tomorrow.”

Tan Manyu agreed, and they both lay down to sleep without glancing back at the balcony.

Li Zhi silently counted to thirty in her mind. When she finished, everything around them was still normal, with no signs of danger approaching. It seemed the warning had indeed been triggered by the spooky game. If they had kept watching, who knew what would have happened next.

This was Tan Manyu’s first time in such a scenario. Despite having undergone training, she was still just an ordinary person and couldn’t help tossing and turning, unable to sleep. In the faint light coming in from the street outside, she noticed that Li Zhi also seemed to be awake, holding something in her hand.

“Li Zhi,” she asked softly, “what are you looking at?”

Li Zhi lay on her back, resting her arm under her head, holding a sunflower-shaped jade pendant in her hand. There was a trace of amusement in her voice, different from usual. “Just looking at a gift from a friend.”

She hadn’t taken out this pendant during the last instance. Could that be why Li Jianxi wasn’t able to find her? What about this time? Would he sense her test?

Li Zhi squeezed the jade pendant in her palm and turned over. “Get some sleep. We have early self-study tomorrow.”

Tan Manyu sighed softly.

The next morning, before dawn, they were all awakened by the sound of a wake-up bell ringing from all directions.

The eerily quiet dormitory building seemed to come to life at the sound of the bell. From upstairs and downstairs, they could hear students hurriedly rushing about.

Li Zhi stepped onto the balcony and splashed some water on her face. “Let’s head to the classroom too.”

After all, good students shouldn’t be late.

The cafeteria was right next to the dormitory, so the players swiped their student cards to grab some breakfast. After eating, they hurriedly made their way to the classroom for Grade 11, Class 1.

Upon entering, Li Zhi noticed the boy who had invited them to the horror game last night sitting at his desk. He was memorizing English vocabulary, and both his expression and actions appeared completely normal—so normal that it didn’t seem like someone who had experienced anything strange.