Chapter 147: The Building With No Exit

I had asked Sakurako about this a long time ago. Because of various restrictions, she was only able to speak a single sentence in a dream.

But just now, the girl standing in front of me—who looked exactly like Sakurako—had spoken twice.

I wasn't being paranoid. In a Nightmare where the slightest misstep would send you plunging into the abyss, I had to be careful.

"Let's go together." My expression was perfectly natural, even projecting a hint of warmth and excitement. In truth, this was just facial expression management—a basic skill for plainclothes officers.

The girl who looked exactly like Sakurako didn't realize I was already on guard. Maintaining a sweet smile, she followed a meter or two behind me.

Fingers squeezed mine. Huang Xue turned her head and whispered, "Be careful."

I didn't answer. Instead, I hurried downstairs without looking back.

We saw almost no students in the stairwell. But after running for over ten minutes, Huang Xue and I both stopped in despair.

"The Endless Corridor!"

Having been to Xinhu High School before, I naturally knew the Laboratory Building only had six floors. But this time, the stairs seemed to lead straight down to hell—floor after floor, with no end in sight.

"How is this possible?" Huang Xue clutched my shirt tightly, babbling somewhat incoherently as the light left her eyes. "It's over. We can't escape. This is a complete dead end!"

Standing in the stairwell, I hadn't given up hope yet. This was the resilience I had honed through surviving four live streams.

"There's still hope, don't panic." I glanced at the little girl behind me. "Sakurako, you know a lot about the Dream Realm. Do you have any good ideas?"

The girl's smile faded. "You can't get out. Once a Nightmare descends, it shrouds everything."

Her voice sounded exactly like Sakurako's, but her tone and phrasing were completely different. She didn't sound like a young girl at all.

"We can't get out?" Frowning, I looked at the floor markers in the stairwell. The wall said we were on the first floor, but when we went down another flight and checked again, the sign said we were on the sixth floor.

"An infinite loop with no exit." I tried smashing open the laboratory doors on both sides and pushing open the windows, but there was only pitch-black darkness outside. I couldn't even see the ground.

The girl tilted her head, watching my futile efforts. "This is a Nightmare. There is no hope. It is a Nightmare no one can escape."

As the three of us stood in the room, hurried footsteps suddenly echoed from the corridor outside—someone running away from something.

"They're heading this way. Let's hide first!" There was a row of storage cabinets at the back of this lab. I pulled open a door and instinctively grabbed Sakurako, ducking inside.

It was just a physical reflex to the sudden crisis; I couldn't really explain it. This time, the girl only struggled for a moment before stopping, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Hey! What about me?!" Huang Xue stamped her foot anxiously. The cabinet wasn't large to begin with, and the girl and I already took up most of the space.

"Don't just stand there! Get in!"

"But..."

Ignoring her protests, I yanked Huang Xue into the cabinet. The little girl stood in the middle, pressed against my chest, while I hunched over on my tiptoes to leave as much room for Huang Xue as possible.

"Watch where you're putting your hands!"

"Is there any point complaining about that right now? Keep your voice down." I pulled the cabinet door shut. Squeezed into the cramped storage space with our arms curled up, we inevitably brushed against soft curves.

Bang! The person outside had tried every classroom door. Only this laboratory, with its broken lock, could be opened.

He rushed in looking utterly terrified. Unfaded bruises covered his body, and he tightly clutched a love letter in his hand.

"Guo Junjie?" I peered through the ventilation slits in the cabinet door and saw him. "Why is he being chased? Logically, he should be working with those malicious ghost students."

The scrawny Guo Junjie didn't even bother closing the door. He made a beeline for the storage cabinets, yanking at our door but failing to open it. Glancing left and right in a panic, he simply dived under a desk.

"He's leaving himself wide open. He's definitely going to get caught hiding there."

My opinion of this boy had unknowingly changed—from considering him guilty of the Ten Unpardonable Evils at the beginning, to now feeling a trace of sympathy.

For such a horrific tragedy to happen at Xinhu High School, the true culprit had to be the Two-Faced Buddha who orchestrated it all.

Just as Guo Junjie hid himself away, the laboratory door was pushed open. Two people walked in: Xue Fei and Xiu Mu.

The tall, solidly built Xue Fei led the way, with Xiu Mu cowering behind him.

"Are you sure? That filthy mutt ran this way?" Xue Fei grabbed Xiu Mu by the collar and dragged him close.

"I saw it clearly. He slipped away in the chaos, and he was holding that love letter." Xiu Mu was deeply afraid of Xue Fei. Although his family had money, they were nothing compared to the truly wealthy and powerful children at the school. If he didn't bully Guo Junjie, he would end up at the absolute bottom. To keep from being bullied himself, he had no choice but to bully Guo Junjie even harder.

Most private schools had an invisible hierarchy. Those at the very top of the pyramid, with privileged backgrounds like Xue Fei, always had a pack of lapdogs swarming around them, forming a miniature society.

Where there was an upper crust, there naturally had to be a bottom rung acting as the foundation. In a private school where money and connections were everything, even if Guo Junjie didn't exist, a Li Junjie or a Zhang Junjie would simply take his place as the isolated target for everyone's abuse.

With Xiu Mu sounding so certain, Xue Fei cursed under his breath and started searching the room. The two of them rummaged through the place, flipping things over. Hiding beneath the desk, Guo Junjie trembled. If they found him, a brutal beating and vicious humiliation were inevitable.

As Xue Fei walked toward the back row of cabinets in the lab, I silently readied a Talisman Paper. Inside, the three of us held our breath.

"Found him! Guo Junjie, you sure can run!" Pointing at Guo Junjie, who was cowering on the floor beneath a desk, Xiu Mu flashed a smug look. "See, Xue Fei? I wasn't lying."

"He really can." Sneering, Xue Fei kicked the desk away. "Since you love groveling on the floor so much, I'll let you grovel to your heart's content!"

He kicked Guo Junjie square in the face. The small grains of sand on his sole tore up Guo Junjie's skin. "Run! Keep running!"

The two boys pinned Guo Junjie in the middle of the laboratory floor, beating and insulting him. Eventually, they even found a bottle of chemicals in a cabinet and poured it over his head.

The pungent chemicals evaporated into the air as the two demonic children laughed with glee.

Taking all of this in from inside the storage cabinet, an inexplicable surge of anger welled up within me. I wanted Guo Junjie to fight back, to swing his fists and smash those two arrogant, repulsive faces.

But my hopes were dashed. Even when Xue Fei and Xiu Mu grew tired of beating him, Guo Junjie didn't fight back.

"Fuck, this little bitch can really take a beating." Xue Fei stretched his arm, snatched Guo Junjie's love letter, and tore it to shreds right in front of him. "There were too many classmates around earlier, so I didn't make myself clear. Let me say it to you again now."

"You're just a dog lingering around Shen Mengting. Any of us can boss you around however we want. Don't get any funny ideas, and definitely don't flatter yourself."

At the mention of Shen Mengting, a subtle shift appeared in Guo Junjie's expression. The person who bullied him every time was Xue Fei, so he still held onto a sliver of hope regarding Mengting.

You couldn't say he was pathetic; that girl was likely the only thing keeping him alive.

"Do you understand?"

Faced with Xue Fei's interrogation, Guo Junjie didn't answer. His silence infuriated Xue Fei, making him feel like he had thrown a punch into cotton.

"Looks like you still won't give up!" Xue Fei smashed the chemical bottle and had Xiu Mu pry Guo Junjie's mouth open, preparing to pour the glass-laced chemicals right down his throat.

Seeing this, I pulled my gaze away and quietly glanced at the girl beside me.

The girl who looked exactly like Sakurako was entirely captivated by the scene outside. Her face had darkened, and her eyes burned with an unquenchable fury.

'Why would she care so much about Guo Junjie's situation?'

'Who exactly is she?'

An answer surfaced in my mind, but it wasn't the right time to confirm it. I could only reach out and pat the girl's shoulder. Then, under the shocked gazes of both Huang Xue and the girl, I pushed open the cabinet door. "Even if this is the Dream Realm, I still feel like I have to do something."

"You're crazy!"

Huang Xue yanked at my clothes, but I ignored her. Pinching my only Draw the Ground as a Prison Curse between my fingers, I stepped out of the cabinet.

Xue Fei and Xiu Mu were startled to see me. "So our new friend was hiding in here. Do you want to join us?"

Faced with their invitation, I shook my head and pointed a finger right at Xue Fei. "The myriad laws of heaven and earth, governed by the heart. Let this be the boundary. Draw the Ground as a Prison—Trap!"