Chapter 57: New Instance, Horror Ghost School

"Let me make a phone call and we will start the third stage. Give me a moment." Luo Yimeng thought for a moment, spoke to Bai Wan, and decided to call the logistics team anyway. "Xiao Qin, we have a problem here. Can you come over and handle it?"

"Sure, Sister Luo. Go ahead," replied a male voice on the other end, sounding quite young.

Luo Yimeng gathered her thoughts and summarized, "The left hand of the door-knocking ghost in the first stage is missing; it was taken away by a Chinese cabbage. The ghost's right hand also seems to have a slight hairline fracture—I suggest the medical department take a look and do a preliminary check. Also, the specially reinforced heavy door of the first stage was accidentally shattered, so it needs to be cleaned up and replaced with a new one.

"And, half of the water ghost's body in the second stage turned into gold. I'm not sure if it's pure gold, so you might want to find someone to appraise it. Oh, right, our artificial river mysteriously sprouted an inlet pipe and an outlet pipe; see if you can plug those up. That's about it."

After she finished speaking, silence stretched on the other end of the line for a long time.

Hearing no response, Luo Yimeng prompted, "Hello? Xiao Qin, are you still there? Are you listening?"

After being stunned into silence for quite a few seconds, a weak and tentative voice asked, "Sister, has a full-scale war broken out between humanity and the supernatural?"

Luo Yimeng gave a bitter smile and said, "No, we're just administering a test to a ghost hunter..."

The other end of the phone fell speechless.

Are you certain we are the ones testing the ghost hunter, rather than him testing our stages?

Out of a total of three stages, two have already been rendered completely wrecked. Isn't that utterly ridiculous?

He treated this like a disposable one-time clearance game, didn't he?

Clear a stage, wreck a stage? Who could possibly endure this? Do you guys just expect us not to have to clean up the aftermaths?

Despair washed over the person on the other end. Great, another weekend spent working overtime.

"I am truly sorry. None of us expected it to turn out like this..." Luo Yimeng apologized profusely.

Just as Luo Yimeng was communicating with the logistics team, a system notification suddenly popped up in Bai Wan's mind.

[Supernatural Game Released]

[Urban Legend: Horror Ghost School]
[Type: Faction Confrontation]
[Matching opposing teams...]
[Opposing team members matched successfully.]
[Protagonist Team: Family, Little Strawberry, Staying Up Doesn't Make Me Sleepy, General, Professional Tail-Ender]
[Antagonist Team: Blank, I Am a Royal Sister, The Bureau Must Die, Miss Zombie, Lies]
[Match information has been synchronized to the forum. All players, please prepare actively.]
[Countdown to game start: 72:00:00]

Upon seeing the message, Bai Wan's first reaction was to send his routine regards to the system's family members.

Damn it, I just came out of a dungeon yesterday, and you're already throwing me into another one this fast? Are you in such a rush to get reincarnated?

After exchanging pleasantries with the system, he refocused his attention on the dungeon.

Horror Ghost School, a confrontation-type dungeon?

According to the information Liu Tong had provided earlier, the supernatural games were divided into many categories. The majority of them were collective urban legend clearance types, such as the previously encountered Ghost Ship and The Letter.

Then there was another type known as confrontation-type dungeons.

Two teams would hunt and fight each other within the same dungeon.

Generally speaking, one team would consist of law-abiding official personnel from reality, while the opposing team would naturally be composed of murderous, wanted criminals from the real world.

The confrontation between righteousness and evil had always been the focal point of the forum's attention, especially since the protagonist team featured Family, while the antagonist team featured Blank.

Therefore, as soon as Horror Ghost School was announced on the forum, it instantly sparked heated discussions.

"Another round of righteousness-versus-evil confrontation is beginning. This one's going to be worth watching—Family actually got matched up against Blank."

"Family is truly pitiful... He's participating in a confrontation only on his third dungeon. I checked, and the lowest number of dungeons among the antagonists is six, with Blank at eight and I Am a Royal Sister at seven... Isn't this just setting him up to be brutally slaughtered?"

"Family is in danger this time! Quick, look at the bounty leaderboard—Family's ranking has updated again!"

"Hiss... Seriously, he's climbed to the thirtieth spot? He was forty-eighth before, jumping eighteen places in one go? That is ridiculously defying the heavens."

"Family cleared an unsolvable-level dungeon, so a rise in his bounty is only expected. But now Family is in genuine peril. To the villains, Family is basically a walking wallet."

Bai Wan also logged into the forum. Seeing everyone chattering away, his expression turned increasingly grim.

Good grief, his opponents seemed fiercer than the last.

As expected, the system harbored malicious intentions all along.

Suddenly, another comment popped up in the forum.

"Everyone, look, the evil-path players have started tagging Family... Family is truly so pathetic."

"Is that so? Let me go take a look."

Bai Wan paused in surprise after reading that, and sure enough, he noticed a small red dot flashing on his interface.

Opening it up, he found that several people had tagged him.

[I Am a Royal Sister: Little brother, time to drop some gold coins. @Family]
[The Bureau Must Die: Thanks for nature's bounty. @Family]
[Miss Zombie: Hehe, see you in the next dungeon, Mr. ATM. @Family]

Good grief, they were truly treating him like an ATM machine. Wasn't this going a bit too far?

Bai Wan was rendered somewhat speechless by this.

He then memorized all their usernames one by one, committing every single one to memory before breaking into a satisfied smile.

"Tsk tsk, your luck is atrocious," Luo Yimeng remarked when she noticed Bai Wan browsing the forum.

"Who is Blank?" Bai Wan asked.

Look, so many people in the comment section kept mentioning this person.

Luo Yimeng explained, "Blank is a prominent figure among the wanted criminals recently. He has killed many official geniuses and can be considered an outstanding newcomer among the fugitives. However, I'm referring to the Blank you're seeing now, not the true Blank."

"What do you mean?" Bai Wan didn't quite catch that.

Luo Yimeng turned somewhat serious, continuing, "Over the past month, many official geniuses have died inexplicably. It seems someone has been systematically hunting official personnel, especially two months ago... when a captain candidate even died."

Bai Wan was startled upon hearing this.

If the four S-class captains represented the absolute ceiling of ghost hunters, then captain candidates were figures second only to captains. Even someone like that had died?

Looking somewhat puzzled, Luo Yimeng said, "That's right. And even more bizarrely, that captain candidate participated in a newcomer dungeon at the time—a veteran-led dungeon where the players averaged fewer than three game participations. Yet, right inside such a dungeon, a captain candidate met his end."

Bai Wan was similarly astonished.

A dungeon like that shouldn't have been difficult for a captain candidate.

Luo Yimeng went on, "Because of this, some people believe there was something wrong with the dungeon, while players from the criminal faction believe that a powerful new player was born within their ranks, hunting down a captain inside a dungeon. The fact that official personnel have continued to go missing every now and then over the past two months—with the authorities unable to track down the perpetrator—has only made them firmer in this belief."

"Perhaps someone is intentionally putting pressure on the authorities, or doing it for other purposes, but the wanted criminals have dubbed this mysterious newcomer who hunts official personnel 'Blank.' However, no one has yet been able to prove whether Blank actually exists. The person going by the name Blank right before your eyes is merely a fanatical follower of the true Blank."

Bai Wan nodded, beginning to understand.

Everything started with the fall of the captain candidate in a newcomer dungeon, followed by rampant rumors and the emergence of a character named Blank.

Luo Yimeng thought for a moment and added, "Well, although this fake Blank is just a zealous fan of the real Blank, you still can't underestimate them, after all, they are far ahead of you in terms of the number of cleared dungeons."

Bai Wan nodded, indicating that he understood.

"All right then, let's take you to the third test." With that, Luo Yimeng led Bai Wan into the third room.

The third room was even more luxurious than the previous two, featuring a crystal ball placed in the center.

Luo Yimeng smiled at Bai Wan and said, "Put your hand on the crystal ball."

Bai Wan nodded and placed his hand upon it. A cool sensation spread through his palm, which felt quite pleasant. He broke into a happy smile and asked, "Sister, what does this test for?"

Luo Yimeng explained, "Latent awakening skills. This crystal can prematurely awaken latent skills."

Upon hearing this, Bai Wan's smile vanished instantly. He asked with a somewhat uncertain expression, "Huh? You said... latent what skills??"