"When did the viewer count break twenty thousand? I remember there being only a few dozen people when I first started streaming."
"Twenty-something thousand viewers but fewer than five thousand followers and subscribers — that's a pretty dismal conversion rate." He held up his phone and snapped photos of the papers he'd used for the pen spirit game, then pointed the camera at the cracked ballpoint pen between the chairs. "Fellow viewers, did you see that? I played the pen spirit game and the pen killed itself! And you still won't hit that follow button? Do you have any idea how much risk I'm taking? A small streamer like me — no equipment, no production team, all alone, constantly teetering on the edge of danger. I know my gear is terrible, I can barely even see your chat messages, but I can take you on the most authentic paranormal experience out there. It's one of a kind and impossible to replicate."
After delivering that speech, the stream's follower count began to climb. Chen Ge's little pitch actually worked.
To him, he was just completing missions assigned by the black phone, but from the viewers' perspective, the experience was entirely different.
Especially when compared to Qin Guang — Chen Ge's setup might be laughably bare-bones, but his content was something that side could never hope to match, whether in entertainment value or sheer danger.
Watching livestreams was all about novelty. Qin Guang and his crew wrote scripts and hired actors to play along, and no matter how well they performed, it still came across as stiff. Chen Ge was the opposite — even he had no idea what would happen next.
"Thanks for the support, everyone. The pen spirit game — do not attempt this without professional supervision. Alright, next we're heading to a different location." Chen Ge watched his viewer count continue to skyrocket, his heart blooming with joy. He was going to have to carry out these missions regardless — might as well wring every last drop of hidden value out of them, turning the process of completing missions into raw viewership.
"No idea what's going on in the stream right now, but more viewers is a good thing. At least my risk wasn't for nothing." One side mission knocked out with ease. Chen Ge felt a little more confident about surviving the night.
He pulled his raincoat hood up and stepped out of the dormitory building. He'd already swept the whole place — no reason to linger.
"Three missions left: the last classroom, the deep well, and the fifth stall in the restroom."
The fifth stall in the restroom should be in the teaching building. He'd already checked the restroom in the dormitory building and it only had four stalls. If the office building and the dormitory building shared the same floor plan, then only the teaching building's restroom matched the mission description.
Chen Ge checked his phone. He'd arrived at Muyang Middle School at eight in the evening. The pen spirit game shouldn't have taken that long, but when he checked the time again, it was nearly nine.
"Three hours until midnight. Three missions in three hours — cutting it close, but doable." Chen Ge had already mapped out his plan. Once all the side missions were done, he'd find a corner with good positioning for both offense and defense, curl up, and quietly wait until dawn.
Standing before the teaching building once more, Chen Ge was struck by a strange feeling — as if the structure before him wasn't a ruined building but a massive coffin burying countless souls.
"The side mission didn't specify the restroom's exact location. The teaching building has three floors, meaning the fifth stall on any floor could be my target." He lit the way with his flashlight, phone held up in his other hand, and went inside.
Passing through one empty classroom after another in the dead of night was itself a terrifying experience. Chen Ge dreaded the thought of glancing into one and finding something strange lurking inside.
He ran to the end of the corridor and ducked into the first-floor restroom.
The fire hadn't reached this far. The restroom was mostly preserved as it had been years ago — cracked floor tiles with weeds sprouting through the gaps. Dark brown stains clung to the walls, and only one window remained, moaning an ugly sound in the wind and rain.
"Mission first. Can't afford to waste time."
The teaching building's restroom had a total of six stalls. After all these years, many of the stall doors were damaged — he could see the contents without even pushing them open. Gripping his tool hammer, Chen Ge walked past each of the six stalls one by one. The first four were perfectly normal. Only the fifth and sixth stalls felt off.
The doors of both stalls were shut tight. Chen Ge gave one a gentle push — it was locked.
"Stalls are usually only locked when someone's inside." The thought had barely formed before he dismissed it. "The school's been abandoned for three years. Whatever's in there might not be a 'person.' Better take a look first."
He swung the tool hammer against the lock, and the stall door burst open. Before Chen Ge could react, several dark shapes lunged straight at him.
"What the—!"
He dodged to the side, then shone his flashlight inside — it was nothing but mops, brooms, and other cleaning supplies stacked up.
A false alarm. Chen Ge set the mops and brooms back upright, then leaned against the door and peeked into the last stall. It too was crammed with junk.
All six first-floor stalls were completely normal. His target must be on another floor.
Stepping out of the first-floor restroom, Chen Ge hesitated and looked back. Half of the stall doors stood slightly ajar, swaying gently — like someone beckoning.
"If I put this scene in my haunted house, it'd scare off plenty of people." Chen Ge thought to himself as he carried his tool hammer up to the second-floor restroom.
Same layout, except the windows here had been sealed shut with wooden boards. Stepping inside, the oppressive atmosphere was far heavier than downstairs.
"Could this be the one?"
Perhaps because the windows were sealed, the second-floor restroom had been remarkably well preserved — barely changed from how it had looked years ago.
He walked up to the first stall, but before he even touched the door, faint footsteps echoed from the corridor outside.
The heavy rain made it hard to make out clearly. "Someone running in the corridor?"
He ducked into the corner of the restroom, crouched with his tool hammer at the ready for several minutes, but nothing strange passed by.
"I keep feeling like this school is gradually changing as time passes — like it's coming back to life. I'd better speed things up."
Chen Ge stopped hesitating and strode into the restroom. He pushed open the first four stalls in quick succession. When he reached the fifth stall's door, footsteps sounded in the corridor again. This time they were crystal clear — two people walking side by side.
"The mission description for the fifth stall in the restroom says that a red shadow appears every midnight. Has it already arrived?"