"Come on, everyone stand in front of the backdrop." The senior student, wearing an ill-fitting school uniform, picked up the Polaroid camera from the table and urged the visitors to stand to the left of the projector. "I'll count to three, and everyone smile together."
The senior pressed the camera shutter, his finger holding it down without lifting it. The flash kept firing.
In the pitch-black photography club room, the camera flash was blindingly bright, and several people covered their eyes.
"Alright, photos are done. Let me go check if the doctor's here yet. You guys come over and hand out the photos—one per person. And be careful, don't touch anything in the room randomly." While the senior spoke, the camera kept spitting out photos. He casually grabbed one, stuffed it into his pocket, then set the camera on the table and left.
The air conditioning in the room was set very low. Exposed skin could feel the icy gusts of wind sweeping past.
The boy named Cui Ming and Li Po supported each other as they made their way to the edge of the table and picked up the photos from the ground. "We'd better do what they say. There are a lot of puzzle-solving stages inside this abandoned school, and the clues are hidden in these everyday little props."
Cui Ming had experience from before. Last time, he apparently hadn't paid attention to collecting the props, which led to the whole situation falling apart, forcing them to give up.
Picking up the photos, Cui Ming began distributing them to everyone. Halfway through, he suddenly stopped.
"Why is there an extra one?"
Standing at the back of the group,
Not counting his own and the one belonging to Chen Ge, there was still one extra.
"There's something wrong with this photo! Holy crap! Look, quick!" Li Yuan cried out in alarm, pointing at the photo in his hand. "When we took the group photo, there's an extra person on it!"
Several visitors looked down at the photo and were shocked to discover that during the group shot, an extra person had appeared beside Xueli!
She was wearing the Nightmare Academy school uniform, her face devoid of any color, her eyes staring straight ahead, her head resting lightly on Xueli's shoulder.
"Damn it! I didn't notice a thing just now!" Xueli frantically brushed at her shoulder. Such a ladylike person under normal circumstances, she actually swore out loud.
Chen Ge stared at the photo for a moment. "It's not photoshopped. In other words, when the photo was taken, an employee hiding in the room had already come out."
The visitors' photo spot had been chosen by the senior. The back wall was a slightly different color from the other walls in the room. Looking carefully, you could see one spot that protruded outward ever so slightly.
"I don't want to stay in this room anymore. Let's go outside." Xueli clung to Li Yuan like a bullied koala.
"Don't go out randomly. Listening to the staff is the safest option," Cui Ming reminded her. "No matter how terrifying the storyline is, you won't run into anything too horrifying while you're following it. Once you stop following the script and run around on your own, every ghost and monster in all the areas will come out. That's when real despair hits."
"Fine." Xueli leaned against Li Yuan's shoulder and tossed the photo aside. She was too timid to touch the thing.
Her pretty eyes drifted absentmindedly to the projector screen. The film playing was one Xueli had never seen before. The main characters were several students wearing photography club badges, and the filming location happened to be this very room.
"Look at this movie. It's so weird."
Everyone turned to the projector. On screen, the photography club members were cleaning up, when suddenly one of them found a dusty videotape at the very back of a cabinet.
The club members gathered around, all looking curious, and decided to watch what was recorded on the tape.
The film had no sound, like watching a silent play, but the actors' performances were on point. Through body language alone, they conveyed the entire plot.