024 Buying Time

Rushing up to the fifth floor, Carbonhead and Pang Dongqiang launched simultaneous attacks against the ghostly woman, while Chen Hao stood at a loss, and Li Yuan was nowhere to be seen.

I stepped in front of Chen Hao and asked, "What's happening now?"

Chen Hao quickly explained the sequence of events: just now, the white handkerchief had suddenly floated onto Pang Dongqiang, who instinctively touched Chen Hao; Chen Hao, in turn, touched Carbonhead, and Carbonhead touched Li Yuan. But they forgot to find someone else for Li Yuan to pass the touch to, so the ghost pursued them directly.

To buy Li Yuan some time, Carbonhead and Pang Dongqiang had no choice but to tangle with the ghost, not hoping to defeat her, only to delay her long enough for Li Yuan to find the next target.

Now, it seemed, I was the only one who hadn't been touched by the white handkerchief. If I didn't hurry and join the game, I might wind up being the last one left.

Pang Dongqiang's ice powers could restrict the ghost's movements, but it was only a stopgap measure.

Carbonhead's body was somehow able to physically interact with the ghost in her spiritual form—perhaps that was his ability.

Seizing the opportunity, I ran in Li Yuan's direction, taking out my walkie-talkie to ask for his location.

Within minutes I reached him and retrieved the white handkerchief from him.

"Carbonhead, Pang Dongqiang, I've got the handkerchief. Hold on a little longer if you can!"

Then I said to Li Yuan, "Go regroup with them and get out together."

Li Yuan looked at me anxiously and said, "Zijian, are you sure you'll be alright?"

There was little I could say at this point. "Don't worry," I replied with a dazzling, reassuring smile, sending him on his way.

Now, the fight was mine alone. With all my teammates safely gone, all I had to do was find the next student.

Surely not everyone from the School of Engineering was dead, I reassured myself—they had such a large group to begin with.

I came down from the fifth floor, passed through the Pulmonology department on the fourth and the Surgery department on the third, but saw not a single living soul.

I'd already checked the Laboratory on the second floor, so that left only the Ultrasound room in the opposite hallway and the Registration and Pharmacy on the first floor.

As I exited the Ultrasound room, I received word from Carbonhead—they couldn't hold on any longer, the white-clad ghost had broken free of their control and was rushing toward me.

Quickening my pace, I pushed open the Registration office door and heard the sound of quiet sobbing.

Excellent, at least someone was here. Rounding a corridor into the back office area, I saw, sure enough, three boys from the School of Engineering crouched, faces red from crying.

Just as I thought my ordeal was ending, I felt something cold pressed against my back.

"Don't move!"

"If you do, there'll be a hole in your body."

Glancing back, I saw it was Zhao Jisheng from the School of Engineering—always top of his class, better known even than Lin Wan and Lu Ling.

"Zhao Jisheng, what do you think you're doing?"

Fortunately, I'd already hidden the white handkerchief before entering—they had no idea I was carrying it.

Zhao Jisheng pressed the gun into my back, smirking. "Nothing much. I just don't want my brothers to die, so we need someone to take our place."

"What do you mean?" The ghost was already racing toward us—I needed to wait until Zhao Jisheng was distracted at the critical moment to touch him and pass the handkerchief. For now, I just needed to buy time, circling around.

"Naturally, I plan for each of my brothers to take the handkerchief in turn, and finally give it to you."

"You see, the last people in this building are all right here."

"So, none of you have touched the handkerchief yet?" I asked.

"Of course not. It chooses people at random, but we've just been lucky."

I sneered inwardly. Lucky? They were about to become ghosts themselves.

With Zhao Jisheng's gun to my back, I didn't dare use my own ability. I was confident I could kill him, but not sure I could escape unscathed.

I couldn't dodge his gun, and even if I survived, I probably couldn't take on all three of them, especially since I didn't know if they were armed.

As soon as Zhao Jisheng had the gun on me, the three boys stopped crying—clearly, it had all been an act. That I had fallen for it was almost laughable.

When the Registration office door was suddenly thrown open with a bang, I turned quickly and activated my power, plunging the room into darkness.

Zhao Jisheng didn't dare shoot, afraid of hitting his own men. I took the chance to touch him, instantly transferring the handkerchief to him, though it didn't cover his eyes.

Feeling the handkerchief, Zhao Jisheng panicked and ran toward his three friends.

In dangerous moments, survival was everything.

I slipped out quietly, joining my teammates outside. What happened to Zhao Jisheng and his group was no longer my concern.

Stepping through the main doors of the campus hospital, I saw my companions. Wen Lingyu already looked much better, and Han Xue rushed over and hugged me tight.

"You're alive, that's all that matters."

I could tell the girl was beginning to adapt to life on the edge of death, no longer the dazed child she once was.

Passing the others, I went straight to Lin Wan and demanded, "Why didn't you follow the plan?"

But Lin Wan seemed prepared and answered helplessly, "What could I do? The ghost came for me first. My first thought was to run."

"But you could've stayed and used your power to help—why did you leave so soon?"

"There was nothing I could do. What if I got caught in the crossfire? You know most of the Engineering students are armed."

His helpless expression left me with nothing to say; I could only let it go.

But then Carbonhead and Pang Dongqiang brought up something that caught my attention.

The white handkerchief wasn't wrapped around everyone's head—it could be held in one's hand, or even hidden on any of the known ability users: me, Lin Wan, Lu Ling, Pang Dongqiang, Sun Cheng, and Carbonhead. In other words, those with abilities weren't bound by the handkerchief. Yet how did this explain Han Xue, Wen Lingyu, or just now Zhao Jisheng, whom I had dragged into this? They hadn't been bound either—could they be ability users?

I dismissed the thought immediately. If Wen Lingyu had abilities, there's no way she wouldn't have fought back.

A few minutes later, the last survivor emerged from the campus hospital—only Zhao Jisheng.

He cast a resentful look at me, and just then we all received notification that the third round was over.

Though the Business and Humanities Schools had few survivors, they'd all made it through this time.

As for the Engineering School, aside from ability users Lin Wan and Lu Ling, only Zhao Jisheng and a handful of others remained, leaving their numbers lower than ours.

It seemed their threat to us had diminished significantly. If the Medical School's numbers fell that low, things would be much better.

But what worried us most were not these ordinary people, but those like us—ability users hidden among the crowd.

Fifty-four ability users—what kind of people were they?

This game had left everyone half-dead with exhaustion. All that running for our lives alone was enough to wear us out.

Back in my empty dorm, I lay on the bed, unwilling to move.

After a while, I received news of the fourth round. Thankfully, our two schools didn't have to participate this time.

The Law, Biochemistry, and Arts Schools would play a game of hide-and-seek. The game would begin the next morning and last a day. One person would be the seeker, the rest would hide.

If the seeker didn't find someone within one minute, they'd be hunted by a real ghost. As always, the last person found would inevitably die.

At the bottom of the announcement was a link. Clicking it, I found a countdown timer marking the time until the fourth round began and a box labeled "No video feed yet."

Scrolling to the bottom of the page, I saw a small line of text that made my hair stand on end.

"Every game is broadcast live. Please pay attention to humans with special abilities—killing them and taking their playing cards will allow you to escape the D-University Game."

This sentence made it clear to everyone that there were ability users among the ordinary people. If this was truly a live broadcast, then everything we did in the third round had already been witnessed by the Wuyou people.

My, Carbonhead's, and Pang Dongqiang's abilities had all been exposed...