Chapter 17 Important Hints

When Ruo Yu and the other two girls came out of the women's restroom, Brother Jue and the three boys had already been waiting at the door for more than a minute.

"How was it? Any gains?" Feng Bujue asked.

"We didn't find any items, but... there seem to be clues," An Yueqin replied.

Before she could finish, Xiao Ling chimed in, "There were three graffiti drawings on a wall in the women's restroom—the first was a tic-tac-toe game that was half-finished, the second was a Tower of Hanoi game, and the third was rather strange… it just looked like a chaotic pattern made up of many curves, with no clear meaning."

"Did you all memorize those three patterns?" Feng Bujue asked quickly.

"We definitely remember the first two," Ruo Yu replied this time, "But that third one… only Xiao Ling could completely memorize it."

"Okay… fine." Feng Bujue nodded. "Now that you've memorized them, let's go."

"Hey? What about your side?" Seeing Brother Jue turn to leave, An Yueqin quickly asked.

"I naturally memorized everything on our side as well, but to save time, I suggest we talk as we walk," Feng Bujue replied, already pulling Xiao Tan and heading towards the second floor.

Seeing this, the others didn't say anything and quickly followed; An Yueqin, holding the other "activated flashlight," consciously went to the back of the group to cover their rear.

"The situation in the men's restroom was similar to yours." Having only walked a few meters, Brother Jue began explaining, "We didn't have any graffiti, but on the back of the doors of the three squat toilet stalls, there was a line of text written on each…" He paused, then continued, "The first stall had 'Beware of the Water Basin' written on the back; the second had 'Watch Your Step'; and the third had 'Do Not Run in the Hallway.'"

"Hmm…" As soon as Brother Jue finished, Xiao Ling said, "Team Leader, have you noticed that the information hidden in the two restrooms might be…"

"Exactly." Feng Bujue interrupted before she could finish, "That information is all about the 'important hints' for each room." He paused for half a second, then continued, "The tic-tac-toe graffiti in the women's restroom is clearly an allusion to the 'nine-palace grid' concept; the nine-palace grid puzzle appeared in the music classroom, and that puzzle could only be solved by 'Sanzenin,' and because Sanzenin is a girl… the clue appeared in the women's restroom."

"Oh! I get it." Hearing this, Xiao Tan interjected, "According to what you said… then the 'Beware of the Water Basin' line in the men's restroom is a reminder about the sink in the biology lab; the biology lab's puzzle has to be solved by me… namely 'Sawada,' and Sawada is a boy, so the clue is in the men's restroom."

"Yes." Feng Bujue replied, "In other words, after coming out of the classroom in Class 2-A, the best course of action would have been to go to the restrooms first; if we had seen the clues in the restrooms before entering the biology and music classrooms, then we could have solved the 'seat number' puzzle more easily, and Xiao Tan might have avoided being injured by the monster." He shrugged, "But… it's not too late now, our team is quite strong after all, and although we didn't follow the best path, we haven't suffered too much damage. We just need to pay attention from now on."

"Then… based on this deduction, can we infer that…" Ruo Yu seemed to have thought of something else, and she looked at Brother Jue and said, "In the subsequent scenarios, we still have to solve puzzles in at least four more areas, and these four areas must be solved by you, me, Xiao Ling, and Gui Xiao respectively using some unique skill."

"Yes." Feng Bujue replied, "There's a high probability of that happening."

"If that's really the case, then we don't have much time left," Gui Xiao added appropriately, "Even if we count the initial classroom, we've only explored two and a half areas so far… and one person's flashlight has already run out of battery; if we continue at the same pace, then the lighting equipment probably won't last until the last room."

"Don't worry, I've already considered this." Feng Bujue replied immediately, "From this moment on, let's speed up the pace and explore two more areas, and if the situation becomes unfavorable, we'll return to the biology lab and use the alcohol and gauze on the lab table to make a few torches, which should last for about half an hour."

"Oh… you've got that covered." Hearing this, Gui Xiao felt a little more at ease.

As their conversation progressed, they arrived at the bottom of the row of stairs.

Xiao Tan, leading the way, didn't think much and just raised his flashlight to shine upwards and looked up before preparing to step onto the stairs.

However, at that moment…

"Wait!" Brother Jue, standing almost side-by-side with Xiao Tan, suddenly reached out a hand to stop him and quickly added, "Something's not right…"

In this eerie and oppressive environment, the phrase "something's not right" itself was a factor that could make people feel scared…

"Wh…what?" Xiao Tan retracted his foot and stuttered.

"Take a closer look…" Feng Bujue turned his head and gestured towards the stairs ahead with his eyes, "There are footprints… on the stairs."

"Huh?" After being reminded, Xiao Tan quickly noticed it as well, "Oh! There really are!"

Indeed, there were footprints on the wooden stairs, but… you had to shine the light directly on them and look at them at a certain angle to see them clearly.

The width of the stairs was about one meter and two, and there was a footprint on each step, and there were no shoe sole patterns in these footprints, only the outermost circle of "outline," looking like they were "hollow."

"It seems… this is the place that 'Watch Your Step' was referring to," Feng Bujue said, "Not in the room, but on the stairs, heh…" Saying this, he couldn't help but smile, "Unpredictable~"

"Then… how do we solve this puzzle?" Gui Xiao, who was behind him, asked.

"Isn't it obvious? Just follow the footprints on the stairs and step on them one by one," Feng Bujue said.

"Oh… I'll just step… huh?" Gui Xiao instinctively wanted to reply, but he felt something was wrong halfway through, "Why am I going first?"

"Nonsense, since this is the puzzle corresponding to the hint in the men's restroom, it must be solved by a boy," Feng Bujue replied, "Xiao Tan, playing Sawada, has already completed the dissection puzzle in the biology lab, so that leaves only me and you."

"Then what is your basis for judging that you shouldn't be the one going up?" Gui Xiao asked again.

Hearing this, Feng Bujue immediately raised one leg and hovered his sole over the footprint on the first step, and then pronounced a word with what he thought was a very standard English pronunciation: "Look."

Gui Xiao squinted and said, "Tch… is it because you have big feet?"

"My feet aren't big, but they're definitely not as small as someone who's less than 1.7 meters tall." Feng Bujue could add personal attacks to perfectly normal conversations without even thinking, which was truly a talent.

"Stop talking nonsense! I haven't finished growing yet!" Gui Xiao retorted fiercely, and took a few steps forward, turning on his flashlight again, "Alright, alright… I don't have time to argue with you, we need to hurry."

To take the overall situation into account, Gui Xiao didn't argue with Brother Jue, but immediately started to act.

Squeak—

This was the sound of Gui Xiao's foot stepping on the first step… the kind of sound that only a wooden plank that could be broken at any time would make.

Of course, although the sound was scary, the stairs didn't actually break.

"Damn… the layout of these footprints is pretty sharp…" Gui Xiao had just wanted to take the second step when he noticed that the position of the left footprint on the second step was actually to the right of the right footprint on the first step, "Are we supposed to be dancing Yangge to go upstairs?"

Complaining aside, now that things had come to this… if he retreated now, he didn't know what would happen, so he could only bite the bullet and finish the path ahead.

Thus, Gui Xiao began his one-step-at-a-time journey of stepping on the stairs.

After only a few steps, Gui Xiao noticed… that the outline of the footprint was almost perfectly the same size as his foot, which made him feel uncomfortable, but it also proved that Brother Jue was right, and that he was the one who had to solve the mechanism on these stairs.

One step, two steps…

Gui Xiao's balance was good, and even though the distribution of the footprints on the stairs had a deliberately difficult feel to them, he still steadily stepped on each footprint.

After walking up twelve steps, Gui Xiao arrived at a corner connecting the two sections of stairs.

This area had no footprints, so he stepped directly onto it, and the moment both his feet landed on this flat surface, the twelve steps he had just stepped on made a strange "creaking" sound.

Immediately afterwards, a faint wisp of black smoke rose from the stairs, and along with the faint smoke… the footprint outlines on the stairs also disappeared.

"Hmm…" Seeing this, Feng Bujue said, "After you stepped on them all, it seems like you can walk on these stairs however you want now."

After saying that, he raised his foot and took two steps up to test it, and nothing happened, not even the "squeaking" sound.

With this, everyone no longer hesitated; a dozen seconds later, the five members of the team had all walked up to the landing of the staircase.

"Okay… then I'll continue going up." After everyone was in place, Gui Xiao stepped forward again to step on the second half of the stairs.

Squeak—Squeak—

Just like the first half, the stairs were still making sounds as Gui Xiao broke the mechanism.

Because he had experience, this time, he walked even faster, and after a few steps, his line of sight passed the height of the second-floor floor; at this point, if he looked straight ahead, he could see the corridor on the second floor.

And Gui Xiao… did indeed raise his flashlight and look up.

If he hadn't looked, it wouldn't have mattered, but this look almost scared him into rolling down the stairs.

"Hey…" Perhaps he was too frightened, but Gui Xiao didn't even shout this time; he just used his flashlight to shine on what he saw, and said in a tearful voice without turning his head, "Do you guys remember the thing we saw outside the window in the Class 2-A classroom…"

Feng Bujue, standing in the back, had already seen the abnormality from Gui Xiao's trembling back, and the moment he heard this, Brother Jue instantly reacted: "You saw it?"

"Yeah…" Gui Xiao's "yeah" was accompanied by an extremely obvious tremor, "It's now lying on its stomach about a meter away from the last step, looking at me with a sneer."

"What's your condition?" Feng Bujue continued.

"My legs are weak, and I might kneel down on the spot or fall and roll down the stairs at any moment," Gui Xiao was a straightforward person, so he said what he had to say.

"Can't be? You've already seen it, what's there to be afraid of?" Feng Bujue said at this time.

"That's what I'm saying…" Gui Xiao replied, "But 'seeing' it is different from looking at it from a data perspective compared to looking at it like this…" He explained, "The former is like looking at a dot matrix, while the latter is like watching a horror movie."

"Then just look at the horror movie like it's a dot matrix," Feng Bujue said in a drawn-out voice.

"I don't have your skills…" Gui Xiao expressed his helplessness.

"Then just think of it this way…" Feng Bujue said, "The worst-case scenario is that when you walk over, it suddenly pounces on you; is that any different from being attacked by a regular monster? Just take the hit, fight back, or die… what's the big deal?"

"The way you put it… really is… a great help!" The third part of Gui Xiao's sentence was almost shouted out, showing that he had once again reached a state of anger born from extreme fear.

"Although I don't want to interrupt your chat, I think it's best to remind you…" At this moment, Ruo Yu, standing next to Brother Jue, suddenly interjected, "Gui Xiao, little friend… your flashlight doesn't have much battery left; if you go up in one go now, there's still a chance you can use the light to force the monster back or suppress it; but if you continue to stand there and stare at the monster, when the flashlight goes out, I'm afraid it won't wait for you to go up…"

"Ah—"

Before Ruo Yu could finish speaking, Gui Xiao shouted and quickly and accurately stepped on the footprints on the stairs, ascending step by step.

Obviously, Ruo Yu's words had worked…

This incident tells us that one of the ways to force a person to face their fears is to use a pressure that they fear even more to force them to act.

Just five seconds later, Gui Xiao reached the end of the stairs, and as he approached, the monster actually retreated…

With each step Gui Xiao took, the expression on the monster's face changed, and in the end… the sneer turned into a twisted fear.

Finally, when Gui Xiao stepped on the last footprint, the monster screamed under the close-range illumination of the light, and instantly turned into a wisp of black gas and dissipated.

When Gui Xiao's feet landed on the corridor on the second floor, all that was left on the ground where the monster had been lying was… a pair of shoes.