Chapter 31

As a player who relied on deception to clear games, Brother Zhang had particularly vivid memories of those he couldn’t outsmart.
He had deceived over a hundred players but had only encountered failure three times.
Little Gu was the most beautiful among those three players who had bested him.
Brother Zhang would never forget her.
Because the impression was so profound and her aura and appearance were so striking, just by looking at the photo, Brother Zhang had an intuition that this person was undoubtedly Little Gu herself!
This was an intuition honed through countless life-and-death situations!
Brother Zhang was dumbfounded.
Truly dumbfounded.
What was going on with this game?
The key clue character in the mission was actually a player in a The Game of the Gods!
Brother Zhang couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander. In his own world, was he perhaps also a key clue character in one of The Game of the Godss?
This speculation sent a chill down his spine.
The other five novice players, seeing Brother Zhang’s dazed expression, immediately felt that this veteran player was somewhat unreliable.
A single photo of a pretty girl had thrown him off balance.
The novice players exchanged glances. After being scolded by the dorm supervisor and reprimanded by the security guards, they were no longer as fearful of this unfamiliar world.
The people and things here seemed almost identical to their own world, and the language was the same, aside from slight differences in accent.
As their fear subsided, their rationality returned, and they no longer thought of relying entirely on the veteran player, Brother Zhang.
Brother Zhang had already pointed them in the right direction, now, they needed to find the person directly involved in the spirit pen incident and survive seven days under its pursuit.
Of course, whether the spirit pen would actually appear was still unknown.
The novice players mustered their courage and decided to take action themselves.
One of the novice players tried to strike up a conversation with the college student.
“If we want to find her, do we have to wait for her at the library?”
The college student put away his phone, scrolled through the forum posts, and eyed the six players with clear suspicion.
His expression was filled with unmistakable doubt.
The players had no choice but to repeat the identities they had just fabricated for themselves. “We really are just magazine staff investigating urban legends. It’s broad daylight, we couldn’t possibly do anything to a girl, right? Besides, we have three female colleagues.”
The three female players weren’t fools. They cooperatively smiled to show their innocence.
The college student remained skeptical.
The player said, “If you’re free and also curious about this spirit pen incident, why don’t you come with us to find this girl?”
Young people always have a strong desire to explore the unknown.
The college student scrolled through the forum, looking somewhat tempted.
“I’m free, so I’ll go with you…”
“No need to trouble you.” Brother Zhang suddenly interrupted the college student.
He had regained his composure and said to the college student, “You’re still a student. Even if you don’t have classes, you should focus on studying. I’ve been through this, take my advice and spend more time in college enriching yourself.”
“Huh?”
The college student was confused by Brother Zhang’s sudden lecture on the importance of studying.
He wanted to say something more, but the people in front of him, led by the one who had just spoken about studying, hurried toward the intersection ahead and disappeared around the corner in the blink of an eye.
Their behavior was undeniably strange.
The college student shook his head and sighed.
He walked a short distance in the opposite direction, wondering if he should call campus security.
Huh? Where was his phone?
The college student was shocked to find that the phone he had been holding was gone!
He immediately turned around and sprinted after them.
But it was too late. Brother Zhang had led the others through a narrow passage between the teaching buildings and turned into a new area.
The novice players stared at the phone in Brother Zhang’s hand, their faces uniformly stunned.
He managed to snatch the phone from someone's hand while they weren't paying attention and successfully led the group to escape.
Though they knew this behavior wasn't right, they now had a lead.
A female player cautiously asked, "Brother Zhang, do you know the lock screen password?"
Brother Zhang replied, "I saw it when he was using it. Don't blame me for my actions, it's all for our survival."
"I think we shouldn't go looking for that person surnamed Gu just yet."
Brother Zhang stated his decision.
Seeing the confused expressions of the five novice players, he explained, "Did you hear what they said earlier? Everyone says she's strange. What if she's a ghost? If we rashly go to find her, it might be like sending a lamb into a tiger's den."
The novice players were already worried about this possibility.
Brother Zhang's words amplified their underlying fears, making them hesitant.
Brother Zhang was quite pleased with their reaction.
It wasn't the right time to look for Little Gu yet. Given her temper, if she recognized him, she would definitely expose him.
Brother Zhang had another suspicion: since Little Gu was a key clue character in this game and not a fellow player, it was highly likely she didn't remember her identity as a player in the Game of the Gods.
He planned to test Little Gu from a distance.
If she didn't remember, he would take the newcomers to ask her about the pen spirit incident.
If she did remember, he would assess the difficulty of this game before deciding whether to approach her.
Brother Zhang's mind was full of calculations.
He said, "Listen to me. We'll split into two teams and gather information again.”
While the six players were busy gathering information, Gu Yi'an was in the library working on her major course assignments.
The seat next to hers was also occupied.
The campus was large, and not everyone had heard the rumors about Gu Yi'an. They only knew the warnings passed among students: a certain seat was reserved and absolutely off-limits.
Since that seat couldn't be used, the ones next to it were fair game.
There were plenty of bold individuals.
Thus, in the library, the area around Gu Yi'an was still crowded, with most people focused on their studies.
However, there were still those who idled away their time using the library's Wi-Fi.
The boy sitting across from Gu Yi'an seemed unaware of her reputation.
He held a book, occasionally flipping a page or two, but his gaze wasn't on the text. Instead, it drifted over the book, secretly fixed on Gu Yi'an opposite him.
On the desk in front of Gu Yi'an lay neatly arranged professional books, and beside them was a notebook.
These did not block the boy's gaze.
The boy could see Gu Yi'an as she lowered her eyes to do her homework, calm and composed, only frowning slightly when encountering a difficult problem before quickly relaxing again.
Just sitting here watching her, the boy could spend the entire afternoon.
After a long internal struggle, the boy finally decided to take action.
What if the goddess was still unattached?
If he didn't give it a try, he'd be letting himself down.
He crumpled the piece of paper into a small ball, weighed it in his hand, it had enough heft to be thrown across.
Filled with confidence, he flicked his wrist and tossed the paper ball.
His eyes followed the trajectory of the ball, up, down, and further down in a parabola, just as it was about to land on the goddess's notebook.
Suddenly, the paper ball seemed to be struck by another force and rebounded at an even faster speed, hitting him right in the face!
The boy was stunned.
What just happened?
He glanced at the notebook on the desk, then looked at the oblivious goddess.
Could it be that he had thrown it too hard?
Or was there something special about the notebook cover, maybe it was made of some spring-like material?
Never mind, the most important thing was to make contact with the goddess.
The boy picked up the paper ball from the floor again.
This time, he stretched his arm out a bit further, softened his throw, and gently tossed it forward.
The paper ball flew lightly.
But perhaps because the force was too weak this time, the ball once again approached the notebook.
The boy anticipated the outcome.
Sure enough, the paper ball was rebounded by the notebook again, this time landing right back beside his hand.
This was truly bizarre.
The boy was completely baffled.
Suddenly, he noticed the goddess across from him move.
His heart leaped.
He watched as the goddess raised her hand and lightly tapped the notebook with the cap of her pen, without even glancing in his direction.
The boy's spirits sank immediately.
Was this the goddess's way of subtly rejecting him after witnessing what had just happened?
He felt her actions were full of hints.
He sat in his seat for a while, still unwilling to give up.
He opened his laptop, which he hadn't planned to use at all, and took an alternative approach by logging onto the school forum to post a thread.
The post described how he had met a goddess who made his heart flutter in a certain section of the library. He mentioned that she seemed to frequent the library often and described her appearance, hoping for help from the forum users in obtaining her contact information.
To his surprise, someone replied quickly, even attaching a photo, "Is it her?"
The boy took one look, it was exactly the goddess sitting across from him.
Truly, the masses have sharp eyes; everyone remembers someone beautiful.
The boy hurriedly typed a reply, "Yes, that's her. Is she single?"
"I suggest you leave right now," the same person who had just replied sent two consecutive posts.
"Search for Gu Yi'an on the forum. I guarantee you won't want her contact info after reading."
The boy stared at the replies on the screen, completely confused.
What did that mean? Was the goddess's way of rejecting people particularly brutal?
He glanced at the person across from him.
She sat there, as serene and beautiful as a still-life portrait.
Dismissing his speculations, he tried searching for Gu Yi'an on the forum.
One minute later.
Gu Yi'an suddenly heard the sharp screech of a chair scraping violently against the floor.
She looked up and saw the boy opposite her leap to his feet, his face deathly pale, sweat beading on his forehead as he stared at her in sheer terror.
Gu Yi'an calmly averted her gaze.
Nine times out of ten, he just learned about her reputation.
She serenely finished writing the last line of her solution in her homework notebook.
In that brief moment, the boy across from her hastily snapped his laptop shut.
He stuffed his laptop and books into his backpack.
Without even zipping it up, he grabbed his bag and fled in a panic.
People at other study tables glanced intentionally or unintentionally in Gu Yi'an's direction.
When they realized the commotion had come from her area, they simultaneously looked away.
So it's Gu Yi'an. No wonder that boy ran off.
There was something deeply unsettling about her.
Those who were frightened began gathering their books to find another spot with Wi-Fi.
Gu Yi'an was aware of the surrounding activity. She collected her completed homework notebook and set it aside.
Then she picked up the notebook currently possessed by Lu Zize, flipped it open to a random page.
The page was blank, with no writing on the ruled lines.
Gu Yi'an picked up her pen and wrote a sentence:
"What did you do?"
In a place like the library, it wasn't appropriate for Gu Yi'an to speak directly to Lu Zize residing in the diary, so she resorted to written communication.
Beneath the words Gu Yi'an had just written, a line of text gradually appeared in handwriting completely different from hers.
"I helped you."
Lu Zize's script was elegant and flowing, yet sharp in its details.
Reading these words, Gu Yi'an didn't believe his nonsense for a second.
His version of "help" was definitely not out of kindness.
He had most likely terrified that boy.
If it were just rumors about her, that boy wouldn't have been scared to such an extent.
Outside the library, the boy who had just fled through the doors stood bathed in sunlight, yet the gloom in his heart remained completely undispelled.
He had merely tried to search for Gu Yi'an online, when suddenly his laptop screen went black.
Before he could figure out why the screen had gone black, the computer lit up again.
It displayed a photo of a corpse with slit wrists.
Upon closer inspection, the boy realized the face of the corpse was unmistakably his own!
The sunlight did nothing to dispel the chill running down his spine.
He lowered his head and stared at the computer in his backpack.
He was going to sell this damn computer right now!
Gu Yi’an was unaware of the commotion on the boy’s side.
She closed her notebook again.
Gu Yi’an picked up her phone to check if she had missed any messages while doing her homework.
The screen showed that over forty minutes ago, her academic advisor had sent her a message via a chat app, asking her to come to the office.
At Gu Yi’an’s university, due to increasing concerns from parents about their children’s ability to live independently, the school had specially assigned teachers as academic advisors to oversee the family situations, academic progress, and daily lives of students in each major and class.
For instance, when conflicts or disputes arose among students, it was usually the academic advisor who stepped in to mediate.
If students had no issues, the advisor typically wouldn’t contact them.
Gu Yi’an’s advisor rarely reached out to her.
The last time the advisor had contacted Gu Yi’an was regarding the incident involving her roommate and the deaths from playing the Oujia game in the neighboring dorm.
At that time, Gu Yi’an had explained the entire situation to her advisor. The female advisor believed Gu Yi’an’s account and actively defended her in front of the school administration, helping her clear her name promptly.
Overall, the advisor was a very good person.
Seeing the message, Gu Yi’an immediately replied, explaining the reason for her delayed response and promising to head over right away.
Gu Yi’an had a feeling that this time, the advisor’s summons might be related to the recent incident her brother, Gu Tianjing, had mentioned, another death from playing the Oujia game at her school.
Carrying her notebook in one hand and her backpack, Gu Yi’an arrived at the advisor’s office.
She simply couldn’t bring herself to leave the notebook in her bag, fearing that without her keeping an eye on it, Lu Zize would undoubtedly cause trouble.
During the time Gu Yi’an arrived, the other advisors who shared the office were likely out on business, as none were present.
Only Gu Yi’an’s advisor was sitting at her desk, working on her computer.
Gu Yi’an knocked on the open door and called out, "Ms. Huang."
Hearing the sound, the advisor shifted her gaze from the computer and saw Gu Yi’an.
"You’re here. Grab a chair and sit. I wanted to ask you about something today."
The advisor’s eyes swept over Gu Yi’an holding the notebook in her hand and found it a bit odd.
Why carry the notebook when it could be placed in the backpack?
However, she didn’t ask, assuming Gu Yi’an had been in a hurry.
After Gu Yi’an found a stool and sat down beside the advisor’s desk, the advisor warmly asked, "How have your studies been lately? Managing okay?"
Gu Yi’an replied, "Not bad."
The advisor didn’t rush to the main topic but instead chatted with Gu Yi’an about trivial matters in her life, asking if she had been affected by any rumors.
Then, as if by chance, the advisor mentioned, "It’s been so long, hasn’t it? I remember last year at the start of the semester, you and Zhou Yaling arrived at the school almost on the same day. I was the one who took you and the others to your dorm."
She suddenly brought up Zhou Yaling.
This person was Gu Yi’an’s former roommate. She was the one who had first suggested playing the Oujia game and was now deceased.
Gu Yi'an pretended not to know the counselor's intention and said, "I've really troubled you since starting university."
The counselor replied, "This is what I should do as a counselor. You've just entered university, and to me, you're all still kids who need care. Zhou Yaling, I remember she was very lively and loved to laugh, though her academic performance wasn't great. And the others, Yi Feifei was as quiet as you."
The counselor voluntarily described the personalities of Gu Yi'an's former roommates.
Gu Yi'an listened quietly and, after the counselor finished speaking, nodded and said, "Teacher, hearing you talk about them today made me realize that not much time has actually passed, yet it feels like they've been gone from us for a long time."
The counselor smiled and said, "It's always like that."
As if speaking from personal experience, she added, "You think a long time has passed, but she will always live on in our memories."
For a moment, the counselor seemed lost in her own recollections, but she quickly returned to her usual self and said, "I won't hide it from you. I called you here today to ask about their personalities. The school administration needs this information."
The counselor pointed to her computer screen.
Gu Yi'an could see a spreadsheet on the screen. The first column listed the names of her former roommates and the girls from the neighboring dorm, the second column described their personalities, and the third column contained information about their social circles and other details.
The counselor stood up and moved away from her seat.
She said, "Yi'an, come over and help me fill in a bit more about their personalities. Also, if you know anything else about them, like if they had boyfriends or anything, just add it in."
"Okay, Teacher Huang."
Gu Yi'an nodded, moved a stool over to the computer, set her notebook aside, and began typing to fill in the form.
The counselor watched Gu Yi'an's back and said, "Things have been unsettled lately. Yi'an, you need to be careful yourself."
Gu Yi'an replied, "Alright, thank you for the reminder, Teacher."
The counselor looked at Gu Yi'an again, her eyes flickering with a trace of nostalgia.
Hesitating for a moment, the counselor took out a yellow talisman folded into a triangular shape from her pocket and placed it in front of Gu Yi'an.
"This is a protective charm. I went to get a couple when I had some free time, they only cost a few dollars, so it's nothing valuable, and I'm not sure if it even works. I only need one; you take this."
Gu Yi'an turned her head to look at the counselor and declined, "Teacher Huang, I can't accept this."
The counselor smiled at her, "Seeing you reminds me of my younger sister. She... well, these things are more about the sentiment. I hope all you kind and good-looking kids stay safe and sound."
The counselor abruptly shifted the topic and placed the protective talisman next to Gu Yi'an.
Given how far she had gone with her words, Gu Yi'an thanked her once more before finally accepting the talisman and tucking it securely into her clothing pocket.
Seeing this gesture, the counselor's gaze momentarily drifted, as if she were recalling someone.
But when Gu Yi'an looked at her again, the counselor had returned to her previous demeanor.
Gu Yi'an finished filling out the electronic form, picked up her notebook, and returned the stool to its original position.
The counselor said, "Yi'an, if the rumors start spreading again recently, just give me a call, take some time off, and go on a trip for ten days or half a month before coming back. If you have anything on your mind, you can always talk to us counselors."
"Thank you, Teacher Huang."
Gu Yi'an responded politely, thanked the counselor once more, and left the office.
Back in the office, the counselor returned to her seat and suddenly noticed a notebook on her desk that hadn't been there before.
It seemed to be Gu Yi'an's notebook. She remembered Gu Yi'an taking it with her, how had it ended up left behind?
The counselor thought she should send Gu Yi'an a message to come back and retrieve it.
Suddenly, the notebook opened on its own, and in the middle of the page, a line of black text appeared.
"I know your secret."
The counselor froze.
As she stared in shock, the notebook gradually faded and eventually vanished completely.
Was it Gu Yi'an? No, it couldn't be. She was quite clever and would deliberately avoid such things. The protective talisman warded off evil, Gu Yi'an hadn't refused it earlier and had taken it directly, and the talisman itself showed no reaction.
It seemed Gu Yi'an was unaware of the notebook as well; the notebook had come to her on its own.
While the counselor was lost in thought, four or five other counselors gradually entered the office.
"Sister Huang, that student of yours won't be coming back, right? Why are you covered in cold sweat?"
Someone asked Gu Yi'an's counselor.
Gu Yi'an's counselor paused, then reached up to touch her forehead, it was indeed drenched in sweat.
She forced a smile and replied, "Is that so? She won't be coming back today. Next time I call her in, I'll remind you all just like today."
"Sister Huang, thanks. That student of yours... she's really not your average kind of eerie. Four more people died yesterday, including that Zhou Yaling's cheating boyfriend and his current girlfriend. Yet her roommate, the one they were jealous of, remains completely unharmed."
The chatter made the office feel a bit livelier, but only Gu Yi'an's counselor remained lost in thought, staring at the spot where the notebook had disappeared.
That evening, at Gu Yi'an's rented apartment.
The day had passed without incident, and Gu Yi'an had almost forgotten she was in the middle of her fourth game.
She continued with her usual routine.
After showering, Gu Yi'an prepared to wash her jacket.
She took everything out of the pockets, but when she reached for the protective talisman, her hand came away covered in black ash.
Gu Yi'an specifically opened the pocket to check inside.
She saw a yellow triangular protective talisman.
But whenever she reached in, her hand would pass right through the talisman and touch the black ash left behind after the paper had burned.
In other words, the protective talisman she saw was merely an illusion!
When it came to achieving such an effect, Gu Yi'an could only think of one person around her who could do it, Lu Zize.
Gu Yi'an washed her hands, dried them with a tissue, and opened her notebook.
She glanced at the blank pages and suddenly realized there was no need to ask anything.
Lu Zize’s current state as a ghost was enough to make the protective talisman burn. It was only natural that he would use some means to conceal the commotion.
Gu Yi'an remained silent, but words gradually appeared on the notebook page:
"Miss me?"
Not at all.
Gu Yi'an closed the notebook.
After this somewhat childish act, she looked at the notebook and suddenly felt a bit more warmth in her life.
Her usual routine, studying, occasionally tutoring on weekends, seemed orderly but was always solitary.
Sometimes, even having a ghost around was better than being alone, because solitude was too overwhelming, leaving no one to confide in.
Although Gu Yi'an still worried daily that Lu Zize might cause trouble or secretly bring her harm someday, she had to admit that his presence had eased her loneliness in this world.
Gu Yi'an cleaned the black ashes from her coat, hand-washed it, and then tossed it into the washing machine.
By the time she finished hanging the clothes, it was already 10 p.m.
Gu Yi'an placed the notebook, her phone with the miniature coffin charm, and the gambler’s card beside her pillow.
"Good night."
The notebook opened on its own, glowing with faint, fluorescent white words in the darkness:
"Sweet dreams."
Gu Yi'an smiled and said, "Sweet dreams to you too."
Perhaps it was because the notebook, the antagonist from the previous game, was right beside her pillow, but she had been sleeping very peacefully these past few days.
She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
In the middle of the night, moonlight, as usual, cast a faint glow over the room.
A shadowy figure arrived right on schedule.
It had just seeped down from the ceiling.
The little girl inside the miniature coffin roughly pushed open the lid, leaped into the air, and the two-centimeter figure suddenly swelled into a massive balloon floating mid-air. She opened her mouth and took a fierce bite at the shadow.
"Hiss!"
The shadow writhed in pain, struggling desperately, but the balloon’s bite was astonishingly powerful.
The shadow had no choice but to sever a part of itself and flee in panic.
In her sleep, Gu Yi'an's eyelashes fluttered slightly.
Hearing no further movement, she drifted back to sleep.
Same world, different circumstances.
Brother Zhang and the four other players who had arrived in this world were now huddled inside the school gymnasium. Originally, there had been six of them, but now only five remained.
The school gymnasium didn't require a student ID to swipe in and out, so Brother Zhang and the others had climbed over the wall to get inside.
They didn't dare turn on the gym lights, so they crowded into a corner of the basketball court, using a single flashlight for illumination.
Brother Zhang held the flashlight and said, "Let's make do for now. We absolutely need a quiet, uninhabited place to summon the pen spirit, and there's nowhere else. The money I got from selling my phone isn't much, so we have to use it sparingly. We already spent over a hundred on food today."
After calming the new players who were frightened by the vastness of the gymnasium, Brother Zhang got straight to the point: "When did this pen spirit start following us? Think carefully."
In his hand, he held a cute, cartoon-patterned gel pen.
Brother Zhang and the others hadn't originally planned to summon the pen spirit tonight.
They weren't as reckless as those who deliberately courted death, knowingly summoning ghosts when they were aware of their presence.
But just as Brother Zhang was planning for them to spend the night at an internet cafe, a female player who had been keeping her head down noticed that a gel pen with a cartoon pattern printed on it kept appearing on the path they had passed several times.
They tried throwing the pen into a trash can, but after walking a few dozen meters, the exact same pen would reappear on the road ahead of them.
Later, around ten at night, when the players had let their guard down, the pen suddenly pierced through the head of a male player, causing his immediate death.
Brother Zhang quickly led the remaining players away from the scene of the incident, but the pen appeared once again on the path ahead of them.
Left with no choice, Brother Zhang picked up the pen and had been holding onto it ever since.
From that moment on, Brother Zhang's authority within the group reached its peak.
He had claimed that the pen spirit had targeted them from the start, and now, with the cost of a life, it was proven true.
Moreover, Brother Zhang was the only one brave enough to keep holding the pen, earning the admiration of the other players, after all, it contained a ghost.
Brother Zhang said, "From what I remember, the room we first stayed in had a lot of pens scattered around. This might be one of them."
Hearing this, a female player hesitated slightly and said, "I think I remember seeing this pen in that room too."
The pen had persistently followed them, seemingly waiting for an opportunity to kill them.
Realizing he was losing control over the pen, Brother Zhang had no other option but to discuss with the group and decide to summon the pen spirit to ask what it wanted.
They came to the gymnasium, spread a piece of paper on the floor, and wrote "Yes" on one side and "No" on the other.
Brother Zhang and another male player sat cross-legged on the floor. Following the procedure they had read about on a forum, they held the pen together and chanted, "Pen spirit, pen spirit, I am your present life, you are my past life. If you wish to continue our bond, draw a circle on the paper."
They repeated the chant over and over, while the other players watched them nervously.
A sudden, eerie wind swept across the floor.
The only light source, the flashlight, began flickering on and off.
A sinister chill gradually seeped into the surroundings of the players.
It had arrived.