DSMC Chapter 169.1

Yan Jiyun and Shi Yan weren’t particularly familiar with each other, but that didn’t stop them from entering the library together to search for important information.

A single set could be used for multiple scenes, so there were probably connections between the different parts.

Since Shi Yan and He Yuanle hadn’t found the real culprit before, and they had never checked the library either, that meant there was still some crucial evidence they hadn’t uncovered. Yan Jiyun didn’t know whether the two instances were necessarily connected, but he still wanted to take a look.

A cat didn’t allow itself to give up territory it hadn’t explored. It was a form of territory-marking.

Yan Jiyun curiously peered inside, but he was reluctant to actually go in, afraid he might run into Ghost Girl No. N. Shi Yan, on the other hand, was completely unfazed. He simply pushed open the door to the library on the first floor and walked inside.

The door wasn’t even locked. But the moment he pushed it open, a cloud of dust rose up, showing just how long it had been since anyone had visited Mingya High School’s library.

Shi Yan took the lead. Since Yan Jiyun was someone Qi Feng trusted, and Shi Yan had also seen him take the hit from that falling chair for Qi Feng, he didn’t doubt Yan Jiyun’s intentions. Besides, Yan Jiyun was injured and still so enthusiastic about clearing the instance. That alone earned him quite a few points in Shi Yan’s estimation.

Mingya High School’s library wasn’t particularly large, but it was housed in a separate building. The first floor was divided into three sections: a study area, a magazine section, and a book-borrowing area, which mostly contained classics from around the world.

The front desk had an old computer, though there was no separate counter for borrowing and returning books.

Yan Jiyun asked Shi Yan, “Do you remember what information was on that library card? What books did Zhao Yue borrow?”

Shi Yan happened to remember. “The first page was too water-damaged to make anything out, but we could read the titles of the last two books on the final page. One was The Spirit of the Ouija Board, and the other was Spirit Summoning.”

Yan Jiyun said, “This school was pretty open-minded. They actually had books like these circulating in the school. Check whether anyone ever borrowed these two. Then we’ll know whether they have some inevitable connection to the original Mingya High School instance.”

Shi Yan had never considered that. He thought the two instances were completely separate. After all, the rewards for the Mingya High School instance had already been settled, so he had never thought in that direction.

As Yan Jiyun spoke, he had already found a registration ledger at the front desk. The computer probably wasn’t going to be very useful in this instance.

Judging by Ghost Girl No. 2’s appearance and Qi Wanquiao’s age, perhaps the events had happened ten years ago. And if something had happened ten years ago, could it be connected to the events of the original Mingya High School instance?

However, when Yan Jiyun had been in the [Mingya High School] instance, the only Qi Wanquiao he encountered was the art teacher, Qu Wanquiao.

The same NPC shouldn’t exist twice in the same space. It seemed that [Mingya High School] had been reset.

He explained his theory to Shi Yan. “Back in The [Mermaid], apart from the different storyline, the NPCs in the instance were exactly the same as those in [Mingya High School]. But things should be different this time. Aside from the script, we don’t have many clues about Ghost Girl No. 1 and No. 2.”

Shi Yan said, “That’s true.”

The information provided by the script was extremely limited, and most of its content had been adapted. If they simply followed the script, they would be put at a disadvantage. They could only uncover the truth more effectively by combining it with what had actually happened at Mingya High School back then.

Only by finding the truth could they find the real Teacher Qu.

At present, Yan Jiyun had three candidates for the true main personality of Teacher Qu: Qu Wanquiao, Ghost Girl No. 2, and Director Jiang.

These were also the NPCs he had encountered so far whose personality traits were the clearest. He had originally wanted to add the producer to the list, but he hadn’t interacted with him enough yet, so for now he could only put him in the “undetermined” category.

Although the events of the [Mingya High School] instance might not be connected to the storyline of [Mingya High School 2.0], this was Teacher Qu’s world. Some small details were bound to be similar.

For example, the Ouija board game and Spirit Summoning. Perhaps they could find those two books here.

The two of them began flipping through the thick book-borrowing ledger at the front desk.

Yan Jiyun could read ten lines at a glance. On the third-to-last page, he eventually found that someone had borrowed the two books separately.

But when they checked the borrower’s name, they found that it had been completely blacked out. There was no way to make out the handwriting. There was writing on the back of the paper as well, but they couldn’t exactly expect to find a simple clue like they would in one of those suspense dramas where everything was conveniently handed to the protagonists.

Shi Yan found it incredible. “I didn’t expect the library card to actually be useful.”

Yan Jiyun said, “Any information we obtain in an instance is worth trying to use. This is Teacher Qu’s world. The same person will always have some similar details.”

Shi Yan said, “Too bad I didn’t go with you guys into the [Innocence] instance.”

Yan Jiyun thought about how everyone had been children there and sincerely advised him, “It’s probably better that you didn’t. Besides, even if you wanted to go now, you couldn’t. The instance has been permanently closed. It won’t open again.”

“Permanently closed? Qi Feng never told me. You guys found that out?”

“The system never explicitly said so, which is why Qi Feng didn’t mention it. But permanent closure is basically a given. Several instances were merged into a single main storyline, and things had already become chaotic from the very beginning. We’ve also figured out the true origins of the [Mermaid] and [Innocence] instances. The system probably won’t let players enter them again.

“Even if they were reopened, the storyline would be changed beyond recognition. It wouldn’t be the original instance anymore, so it’s basically the same as being permanently closed.”

“Got it.”

The two weren’t particularly close, so their conversation was limited to instance plots and information. Their work efficiency, however, was very high.

There was no record of either The Spirit of the Ouija Board or Spirit Summoning ever being returned, which meant whoever had borrowed them had never brought them back.

How had the ghosts come into existence?

Who was Ghost Girl No. 1? Where had she come from? Was she one of the girls who had jumped from the building back then?

Ghost Girl No. 2 knew Qu Wanquiao, but Qu Wanquiao didn’t know her. What was going on there? Was she also one of the girls who had jumped to her death?

Why had they jumped?

There was a No. 1 and a No. 2. Could there also be a No. 3 and No. 4?

Could it be… there would be another one of those situations like with the Class Monitor? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven personalities?

Shi Yan looked at the ledger. “Who do you think has these two books now?”

“They could be in the luggage of someone from the film crew. But besides looking for the owner of these two books, we can also look for information related to the girls who jumped from [Mingya High School].”

“Everyone else has already gone looking. No one has found anything.”

The two of them simultaneously looked toward the staircase leading to the second floor of the library. They saw a sign posted on the wall.

First floor: Fiction, books and periodicals, study room.

Second floor: History, chemistry, and physics books, study room.

Third floor: Geography books, archives, study room.

Their eyes simultaneously landed on the archives on the third floor.

Yan Jiyun asked, “Shall we go?”

Shi Yan nodded. “Let’s go.”

The archives should contain records related to the students.

Mingya High School had been operating for so many years, yet when it suddenly stopped operating, all the records had still been left behind. That suggested the school had closed down extremely abruptly.

What else was hidden inside Teacher Qu’s consciousness world?

In the [Mingya High School] instance, there had been seven students playing the Ouija board game. There had also been six Class Monitors in [Innocence]. Perhaps they had cleared the instance too quickly and left before reaching the seventh Class Monitor.

But the dolls in Teacher Qu’s nightmare came in groups of seven.

The number seven had been impossible to escape throughout the entire instance.

Following that logic, could this instance also have seven personalities?

Only one of those seven personalities would be the real Teacher Qu.

If that was the case, Yan Jiyun still had four more personalities to find among the film crew.

Was the person trapped by the incident the main personality? Were the alternate personalities constantly using this incident to deepen the main personality’s fear, causing him to remain trapped in the past, unable to wake up or escape?

What did seven represent? Were there seven participants in the jumping incident back then? Su Xiran was the first victim. Did that mean there would be another one?

Yan Jiyun and Shi Yan entered the archives.

During the dozen or so seconds it took them to climb the stairs, Yan Jiyun had gone over everything again in his head. He now had a rough outline of the instance’s storyline and the relationships between the characters.

Shi Yan looked at row after row of student records in the archives. There were records spanning ten years, and his eyes were already going blurry.

“There are so many. Whose are we supposed to look for? We don’t even know the name of the ghost that attacked us.”

Whether it was No. 1 or No. 2, Yan Jiyun didn’t know their names.But he did know Su Xiran.

“Look for Su Xiran’s records. Once we find hers, we should be able to find the rest.”

The other players probably hadn’t thought of looking in the library. At the moment, no one else had found this place. If Yan Jiyun hadn’t suddenly remembered the library card they had found in the [Mingya High School] instance, he probably wouldn’t have thought of this place either.

Shi Yan said, “Su Xiran is 26. If we work backward to figure out when she would have been in high school, it should be this row.”

Yan Jiyun looked at him. “You can calculate it that precisely?”

“When the police came to collect the body, I saw the forensic examiner recording her identity information.”

Yan Jiyun understood. This was the advantage of having teammates.

The two began searching through the records from the year Su Xiran would have entered Mingya High School.

But after searching for quite a while, they still couldn’t find her.

Shi Yan said, “That doesn’t make sense. Why can’t we find her?”

Yan Jiyun suddenly remembered something. “She’s a celebrity. She probably used a stage name. Let’s see if there are any names similar to Su Xiran.”

Shi Yan slapped his forehead. “I focused on her age and forgot to compare her name. If I remember correctly, the characters ‘Su’ and ‘Ran’ should both be right.”

Since they had first heard the name Su Xiran, they had naturally taken it for granted. When looking through the records again, they hadn’t paid much attention to the exact name.

The two began searching again. As long as the name had “Su” at the beginning and “Ran” at the end, it was worth checking.

And sure enough, after spending some time searching, they found several candidates: Su Ziran. Su Xiran¹Celebrity Su Xiran’s name is 苏希然, while this girl’s name is 苏喜然. Different characters are used.. Su Qiran. Su Jingran.

It was practically like searching for a group of homophones.

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  Celebrity Su Xiran’s name is 苏希然, while this girl’s name is 苏喜然. Different characters are used.