This side mission was described in first person, telling the story of someone who hid inside the fifth stall of the bathroom in order to catch the red figure that always appeared at midnight.
What happened next wasn't detailed in the mission briefing, leaving Chen Ge plenty of room for imagination.
He switched off the flashlight, a hint of confusion stirring in his mind. "The mission says a red figure appears in the bathroom at midnight, but the footsteps I'm hearing sound like two people walking side by side. Could it be that during all the years this school has been abandoned, the red figure made a new friend?"
The footsteps were slowly approaching the second-floor bathroom. According to the mission requirements, Chen Ge was supposed to hide inside the fifth stall at this point, but he felt that was far too passive. If he actually ran into something terrifying, there would be no way out.
"Maybe I should be more proactive."
Chen Ge gripped his tool hammer and set up an ambush behind the bathroom door. Whoever came in, he was prepared to swing the hammer first and ask questions later.
He drew a deep breath, held it, and raised the tool hammer overhead.
The footsteps were growing clearer now — it sounded like two people running side by side, and they were very close to the second-floor bathroom.
The waiting was a form of torture for Chen Ge. He had no idea what was outside, let alone what it intended to do. All he could do was listen carefully while keeping as silent as possible.
After a few seconds, the footsteps finally stopped at the bathroom door.
"They're here!"
The hand gripping the tool hammer had already broken into a sweat, and his heartbeat was steadily climbing.
Outside the bathroom, rain and wind howled together. More and more raindrops blew into the building, dampening the floor.
"Where are they?" Chen Ge turned to look behind himself and above the door, but nothing had appeared — no ghostly face or anything of the sort. His patience slowly ran out, and he reached for the door, ready to step outside and take a look for himself.
But before he could move from behind the door, a bolt of lightning illuminated the night sky. In that brief flash of light, Chen Ge saw two shadows on the bathroom floor.
"Someone's at the door!"
His body froze in place. The flashlight had been off for some time, and the bathroom was pitch-black — he could see nothing at all.
"The shadows are short. They look like two children." He didn't dare let his guard down. He waited a few more seconds, and footsteps sounded at the door once again.
But contrary to what he had expected, the owner of the footsteps didn't enter the bathroom. Instead, they stepped into the corridor beside it, as if heading down to the first floor.
"They're just leaving?"
Chen Ge slowly shifted his feet and peered toward the bathroom door. Nothing was there.
"Whoever was standing at the door just now seemed to be two children. That doesn't match the black phone's description of the red figure. Could it be that too much time has passed and something unknown has changed? Or has something strange already started to awaken in this school because of my presence?"
Chen Ge couldn't come up with an answer, and he didn't have the mind to pursue it either.