The library was situated at the center of the Spirit School. After stepping out of the mirror inside it, Chen Ge finally witnessed the true world behind the school's gates.
But as he walked toward the edge of the campus, more and more peculiar things began to appear around him.
The Spirit School was enormous, yet the students and teachers were mostly concentrated in the central area. Many of the classrooms and rooms along the outer perimeter were empty.
If they had simply been empty, that wouldn't have been much of an issue. But upon closer inspection, Chen Ge discovered that all sorts of strange traces had been left behind in these classrooms.
Some of them looked as though they had been submerged in water — the desks and wooden chairs had all gone moldy, giving off thick, pungent smells.
Others had been nailed shut with wooden boards. Peering through the gaps in the windows, he could see that every desk drawer had been sealed with planks, as if whoever had done it was afraid that something inside might crawl out.
That wasn't even the strangest part. After Chen Ge had walked through several corridors and was well and truly out of the school's central area, he came across an abandoned auditorium.
The layout of the auditorium was almost identical to the one he had seen when he visited Xinhai to challenge someone else's haunted house.
The haunted house in Xinhai had been reconstructed from the diary — which meant this auditorium had once appeared in the real life of the diary's original owner.
Chen Ge had read that diary as well, but he found that the scene before him was nothing like what the diary had described.
A banner reading "Welcome, New Students" hung across the auditorium. On the concrete podium sat several mannequins with grotesque faces, each one bearing a label on its back representing a negative emotion — anger, envy, and the like.
"These mannequins are smiling happily at the students, but they have the names of negative emotions plastered on their backs. Is that supposed to be some kind of omen?"
As Chen Ge passed by the auditorium, he clearly saw the mannequins on the podium turn their heads toward him, their expressions shifting in the process. There had to be more to this auditorium — something terrifying lurking within.
"What are you looking at? Keep staring and I'll eat every last one of you." Through the window, Chen Ge played the part of a short-tempered young man, barking a few threatening words at the mannequins.
To their credit, the mannequins took the hint. At some point they had turned their heads back, as though everything that had just happened had been nothing more than Chen Ge's own hallucination.
"If I weren't in such a rush to find the old principal, you really think I'd let you off that easy?" Chen Ge fixed his gaze on the mannequin that had looked at him. "Hiding won't help. I've got my eye on you."
The Spirit School had no shortage of bizarre rooms. To Chen Ge, it was like a gift box filled with every flavor of chocolate imaginable — he had no idea what he would find the next time he pushed open a door.
"I've only searched the west side of the school. If the other directions are like this too, then this scenario is truly massive."
The thought that he might one day have the chance to move this entire scenario into his haunted house made Chen Ge's eyes go red with excitement. Owning such an enormous, terrifying, and intricate experience scenario — that was every haunted house owner's lifelong dream.
"The Spirit School alone covers every horror scenario related to schools. There are countless classrooms and rooms here for me to renovate. If I'm willing to put in the time, I could even recreate every single story I heard in the Ghost Talk Society right here!"
Just thinking about it was enough to make Chen Ge's blood boil. Effort and reward were proportional. If he could successfully unlock the Spirit School scenario, then facing the aggressive Virtual Future Amusement Park wouldn't necessarily be a losing battle.
"Too bad the scenarios unlocked by the Black Phone are just empty shells. The ghost stories and ghost employees inside still have to be found by me." At the thought of the Black Phone, Chen Ge sobered up instantly — like standing next to a heater in winter and suddenly having a bucket of ice water dumped over his head.
He had found his backpack. Everything inside was accounted for. But the Black Phone was gone.