"I could see the fire spreading, burning faster and faster, thick smoke rolling everywhere, screams and wails on all sides. I couldn't open my eyes. I wanted to run outside, but the moment I opened the door, flames rushed straight into the private room."
Zhang Ju lay on the ground, veins bulging across his forehead, the scars on his face trembling faintly. "I don't know where the pain first came from. I charged forward desperately, gasping for air, barely able to see anything. In the end, I collapsed in the corridor."
"I vaguely sensed someone lifting me. I still had a trace of consciousness at that point."
His mud-and-blood-caked fingers dug into his hair as he propped himself up on his elbows. "I must have been taken to the hospital. I could faintly hear my parents talking with a doctor. I wanted to open my eyes, but when I did, I saw a world that was completely pitch-black — as though everything had been scorched."
Zhang Ju's voice gradually returned to normal. He slumped against the ground. "I can remember my parents' faces, I can remember the doctors and nurses who looked after me, but I just can't recall how I woke up from the coma, and I don't remember how I ended up at this school."
"Is it possible that you never actually woke up, and this world is what exists inside your coma?" Chen Ge's words caught Zhang Ju completely off guard.
"I never woke up? This world is inside my coma?" Zhang Ju repeated Chen Ge's words in a murmur. "Then is all of this just my dream? Are all of you just figments of my imagination?"
"Figments my foot — the more you talk, the more absurd it gets. Can we tone it down to something resembling normal?" Zhou Tu snatched the kitchen knife from Zhang Ju's hands. "I don't know about anyone else, but I'm definitely not a character in your dream. I'll hold on to this knife for you — saves you from doing any 'experiments' by hacking at people later."
Zhou Tu felt he was the only sane person in the club. The weapon was safer in his own hands.
"Zhang Ju's theory isn't entirely without merit, but there's one thing he got wrong. This world isn't the dream of any single person. It was formed from the negative emotions and desperate experiences of many people, coalescing into a single nightmare." Chen Ge's gaze swept across every club member's face. "You're all trapped in this world, and this world was created by your own hands."
After Chen Ge finished speaking, the forest fell deathly silent. Everyone stared at him, their expressions a fascinating mix.
"I know this may be hard to accept right now, but that's all right — we still have time." Chen Ge, with Wang Yicheng slung over his back, glanced at the distant wall. "Wang Yicheng's memory awakening already drew the Manager. Now that your memories are starting to loosen too, Zhang Ju, the Manager is very likely on the way. We need to leave — quickly."
Chen Ge turned and started walking toward the edge of the forest.
"Wait!"
Zhang Ju's hands clawed into the reddish earth. Slowly raising his head, his eyes locked onto Chen Ge. "Who exactly are you? Why are you telling us all this?"
"Who I am isn't important. What matters is that I can help you escape from here. In the real world, your families have been waiting far too long." Chen Ge wore a gentle smile. "Actually, I'm quite like you — I once lost a portion of my own childhood memories. So when I encountered you all, it was as though I were looking at my former self."
He waved a hand and started walking off into the distance. "Meeting me was your good fortune. Back in my day, I had no one to guide me. I groped through the darkness alone, and lost far too much…"
Chen Ge sighed with genuine emotion. He led the club members around the laboratory building and the faculty apartments, following a narrow path until they arrived beside the teaching building.
"The restroom on the top floor of the teaching building — the answers I'm looking for should be in there."
The teaching building on the West Campus was merely quiet and gloomy, but the teaching building on the East Campus was eerie through and through. The moment you drew near, a creeping chill would snake up your spine and race straight to your brain.
"Keep your voices down. If anything happens here, the consequences will be severe," Chen Ge warned in a hush.
"What kind of consequences?" Zhou Tu's forehead glistened with sweat. He gripped the kitchen knife he had pulled from the tree hollow, hunched his back, and darted his eyes around nervously.
"The East Campus stores all the garbage the West Campus doesn't want. And how do we normally deal with garbage in our daily lives?" Chen Ge kept his smile, but his words made several club members suck in a breath of cold air. "Once we're caught, we'll be dismantled for anything useful, squeezed of every last drop of value, and then simply thrown away. Dying here is truly a luxury."
There was no turning back. Chen Ge was the first to step into the East Campus teaching building.
Whether it was his imagination or not, the night on the East Campus seemed far blacker than on the West Campus.
Stepping on the worn-out stairs, he could see scorch marks still clinging to the handrails. In the empty classrooms nearby, he could faintly hear the sound of desks and chairs being dragged around.
"This place is terrifying. I can't believe it was right on the other side of a wall from us." Zhu Long lowered his voice — he brought up the rear of the group.
"Shh — no talking." Zhou Tu clutched the knife and followed closely behind Zhang Ju, terrified that the scar-faced student might suddenly snap and come after him.
The more you worried about something, the more likely it seemed to happen. Zhou Tu had been watching Zhang Ju the entire time, and the other simply stopped in his tracks mid-step.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'm just curious — why are there so many photographs of doctors posted along the corridor?" Zhang Ju looked up at the doctors on the wall. "We're not a medical university, and these doctors don't seem particularly famous. A lot of them don't even have a bio — just a work photo in a white coat. Oh, and did any of you notice? Every single one of these photos is a work photo."
Zhang Ju's words caught Chen Ge's attention. He had noticed something strange about these doctor photographs before but couldn't figure out why. Now, after hearing Zhang Ju spell it out, a possibility suddenly clicked into place.
"The world beyond the door is woven from the memory of the person who opened it. This school is special — it contains the memories of every student. These doctor photographs on the walls could very well be people the students encountered in real life." Chen Ge gently placed a hand on Zhang Ju's shoulder. "Keep a close eye on these photos. See if there's a doctor you recognize."
"Doctors good enough to have their pictures on a wall would be the absolute top of their field. How would I possibly know any of them?"
"In this place, the doctors may carry a special meaning. Just do as I say." Chen Ge led the club members onward toward the upper floors. As they passed the third floor, he froze mid-step. "Don't move — there's someone up ahead."
A classroom near the corridor on the third floor was unlocked. A flimsy wooden door creaked back and forth in the wind.
Chen Ge and the others stood motionless in the stairwell. After what felt like an eternity, a dark silhouette emerged from the classroom.
"That build looks familiar — is it Chang Gu?"