Chapter 22: Entering the Art Building at Night

The study schedule at Gaoshan High School was tight.

After finishing exams in the morning, students had self-study in the afternoon while teachers graded papers, and the evening self-study session was dedicated to reviewing exam content.

By the time they finally managed to make it back to the dormitories, it was already nearing midnight.

There were only twenty minutes left before the dormitory warden's inspection.

"Does everyone understand the plan?" Baili Dao asked, his expression solemn.

This operation would determine the success or failure of their dungeon mission.

The Art Building could only be entered at midnight. If they failed to get inside tonight, their chances of discovering who the runaway student was would be slim.

After all, the dungeon didn't specify that it was the person's last day of running away!

"Yeah, leave the stealing to me. Brother Baili and Shi Gandang, you guys help keep watch. Brother Wei Wang, you meet us at the Little Black Room," Tu Xingsun said with conviction.

Today's exam had left him feeling incredibly stifled.

He was essentially a "nine-drop fish"—someone who hadn't even finished primary school and was completely illiterate. If it weren't for a certain skill of his related to theft, which allowed him to quietly steal the papers of the top five students in class to copy, his homeroom teacher might have sent him to the Little Black Room to be "disposed of" like trash during evening self-study.

Shi Gandang silently grabbed a handful of pebbles from his pocket and tossed them onto the bed.

In the blink of an eye, the pebbles transformed into stone carvings shaped like four people, lying quietly on the bed to pretend they were asleep.

Skill: [Scatter Stones to Form Soldiers]!

Baili Dao walked to the window. His pupils gradually changed into slits, filled with the sharp intensity of a hunting eagle; even the whites of his eyes were faintly coated with a pale yellow hue.

[Eagle Vision]!

This was his title skill.

It allowed him to easily observe distances and micro-movements invisible to the naked human eye. This was also why he had previously noticed Wu Wang's gaze shifting upward.

"There is one security guard on every floor of the teaching building. There isn't one outside the principal's office, but there are guards at every stairwell. Brother Shi, are you sure you can handle them?" Baili Dao inquired.

A tall figure replied in a muffled, heavy voice, "Yeah, I have a prop that can knock them unconscious for half an hour. We must move fast. Once we grab the items, we leave and lock the door behind us. We can't let them wake up and notice anything is wrong."

Initially, they had thought about just knocking the guards out.

But during evening self-study, they happened to see two guards on patrol. The men were nearly two meters tall with muscles so massive they looked like they were about to burst through their uniforms, paired with bloodshot eyes and decaying skin on their faces.

They were just like the Gargantuars from *Plants vs. Zombies*; the only thing missing was a small zombie on their backs.

They knew winning a fight was unlikely.

These guys clearly weren't human; they were monsters whose brains were nothing but pure muscle and strength.

No wonder students couldn't just climb the walls to run away.

If caught, they'd be beaten to death on the spot!

"Good! Operation start!"

————

"Broken shoes, broken hat, the cassock on my back is broken~"

Wu Wang hummed a little tune as he arrived at the Little Black Room.

A somewhat swollen corpse lay at his feet, leaving a trail of water on the ground.

This was Li Yang's corpse.

Previously, Wu Wang had hidden him at the bottom of the school's lotus pond, even tying stones to his limbs to prevent him from floating up.

It had taken a massive effort to carry the corpse back onto shore today for the trip to the Art Building.

"Buddy, since you can turn into a ghost in the Little Black Room, you should be able to do it in the Art Building too, right?" Wu Wang said, dragging the other man slowly toward the back of the Little Black Room.

This was something he had just realized.

Principal Wang was worried about the tentacle ghost escaping the Little Black Room; the tentacle monster's tentacles were multicolored like an oil painting; the urban legend of the Little Black Room didn't belong to the "Ghost School" faction or the student faction; they were related to the Art Building; and the Art Building did not exist during normal hours...

Combining all these complex pieces of information...

Wu Wang reached a conclusion.

What Principal Wang truly feared was—the tentacle ghost running into the Art Building, which might trigger some kind of change.

So, he had brought Li Yang along.

The other man hadn't had any objections.

He had followed without a word, though carrying a waterlogged corpse was a bit heavy.

A moment later, Wu Wang arrived.

Behind the originally empty Little Black Room, there was now a three-story building.

The words "Art Building" were traced in gold on the roof, though it looked as if it had been abandoned for a long time; the gold had grown dim and was covered in moss and dried leaves.

*Gurgle... gurgle...*

Wu Wang felt something wriggling beneath his clothes and couldn't help but lift his bulletproof vest to take a look.

To his surprise, the [Bloody School Uniform] was undergoing a transformation; the various colors of graffiti on it were crawling and flowing across the fabric as if they were alive.

On the long-sealed iron door of the building before him, a large amount of graffiti colors were also flowing in resonance.

As expected, his guess was correct.

By wearing this outfit, he could enter the Art Building without needing that damn box of oil paints!

"Now, the game officially begins!"

He grinned wildly and approached the main gate.

From this step forward, the core of the dungeon would truly begin to unveil its mysterious veil to him.

Everything before this had merely been child's play.

*Splash—*

Wu Wang reached out, and without even needing to push the dust-covered, graffiti-laden iron door, his entire body plunged into a barrier that felt like a thin curtain of water. Ripples spread across the surface of the iron door.

He, along with the corpse he was dragging, was sucked into the building.

*Whoosh—*

As soon as he entered, a pungent smell mixed with dust hit him, feeling somewhat like low-quality oil paint, or more like the formaldehyde scent of spray paint.

He surveyed the first-floor environment.

The lighting was extremely dim; only a faint, pale yellow light allowed him to vaguely discern the surroundings.

Wu Wang was quite surprised by this; he had assumed the building would have no source of light at all.

Looking closer.

The corridors were filled with a complex jumble of desks, chairs, and benches; the clutter on the left side was piled as high as the ceiling, making it impossible to bypass.

On both sides, he could see many classroom doors, some open and some locked, with words like "Music Room 1" and "Music Room 2" faintly written on them.

It seemed this floor was for music classes.

"Hehehe... heehee..."

In an environment so silent that a falling needle could be heard, an eerie laughter suddenly erupted, echoing through the corridor like a demon's whisper, refusing to dissipate.

There was someone in the Art Building!?

Wu Wang's expression turned serious.

No, this place didn't feel like it had people in it.

It was most likely some kind of "unclean" entity, probably related to the urban legends of the Art Building.

That was—the laughter of a ghost!

"Are you... Chu Yuxun? Where are we?" An even more abrupt voice came from his feet.

Wu Wang jerked his head down to look.

Li Yang was awake!

Not only was he awake, but even his head, which had been shattered from the jump, and his limbs, which had been swollen from being soaked all day, had completely returned to normal.

He was sitting on the ground rubbing his head just like a living person, his eyes filled with confusion.

"Uh, buddy, do you remember what happened before we got here?" Wu Wang asked, tilting his head.

Li Yang only frowned in confusion and said, "I remember being in class. Teacher Yao called my name to go up, and then... I appeared here."

As expected, he didn't remember dying.

Wu Wang had no intention of telling him.

God only knew if this guy, upon remembering he was dead, would suddenly have his skin split open and turn into the kind of tentacle ghost Baili Dao and the others spoke of.

After all, it was quite ironic that before losing consciousness, he had warned them—that the Little Black Room legend was related to the student who jumped.

"Do you know about the school's Art Building?" Wu Wang reached out, pulled him up, and said, "When I was a kid, there was an uncle on the children's channel named Neil who believed me more than my own mother; he told me to go create art every day."

"Well, we are in the Art Building now. There should be some white latex here that I've never been able to find before. Want to come try it with me?"

After hearing this, Li Yang was stunned for a moment.

A moment later, he pointed a finger behind Wu Wang and asked uncertainly

"I don't really mind, but... did that person come here with us too?"

"!?"

(End of Chapter)