Feng Bujue reached out with both hands, grabbed the female ghost by her armpits, and yanked her down.
The moment she landed on the ground, the female ghost was stunned. Before she could react, a foot stepped on her shoulder, and at the same time, a flashlight shone on her face.
"Gah!" The monster's first reaction was to make a scary face and scream.
But Feng Bujue did not buy it. "Scream!" His voice was louder than the ghost's. "If screaming is going to work, then why do you need arms and legs?"
He was right. Even the monster realized that 'scaring' was not going to work. Therefore, she suddenly turned around, pushed Brother Jue's foot away, and crawled away, disappearing into the darkness.
Be it in terms of strength or agility, this ghost was much stronger than Noguchi, so Feng Bujue was unable to stop her.
When Brother Jue raised the flashlight to shine into the dark music room, the female ghost had already disappeared.
"She really is a monster …" Seeing this, Feng Bujue could not help but sigh. "The ghosts in this scenario are all 'physical monsters' that can be touched with our hands, but …" He paused, and his eyes darted around. "At the same time, they also have the ability to enter an alternate dimension and quickly become invisible …"
"Have you thought of something?" Ruo Yu noticed something from the slight change in her Brother Jue's expression, so she asked.
"I was thinking … could there be such a setting …" Feng Bujue said. "The few of us … are actually ghosts as well."
When that was said, everyone was startled.
"Hmm …" An Yueqin was the first to chime in. "Now that you mention it, it does seem possible …"
"Indeed, the narration implanted a preconceived notion in us, and that created a blind spot in our thinking." Xiao Ling added. "If the leader's speculation is correct, then it explains why we can physically interact with the ghosts."
"Eh? That's not right! " By then, Phantom Dawn, who had been scared out of his wits earlier, had slowly recovered. Even though he had almost disconnected from the shock earlier, he still caught up to the group's train of thought. He walked over to ask, "Then why …" He scanned the group with the flashlight and asked, "Why are none of us affected by the light?"
"About that …" Feng Bujue scratched his chin. "This is what I think …" He looked around at his teammates and continued. "The six of us … are people who have just become ghosts. We have not fully assimilated into the world of the dead, so we are not that afraid of the light yet. But the ghosts that we have encountered have been dead for many years already. They are already part of the world of darkness, so …" Feng Bujue paused.
"As expected of a novelist, to be able to make it sound so convincing even when there's basically no evidence to back it up." Rainy listened and immediately gave a very pertinent comment.
"Sigh … Like I said, it's just speculation." Feng Bujue shrugged. "The main reason I'm telling you this is to provide you with a new way of thinking. If I die because of some kind of death flag, at least my intelligence will protect you …"
"I feel like … your intelligence is always trying to trick me and not protect me," Phantom Dawn said with a sigh.
That basically summed up what had happened to him after he ran into Brother Jue in Tournament for the Best S2.
"Haha … You flatter me." Feng Bujue heard that and replied with a smile.
"Is that a compliment? Can you hear the compliment in my voice? " Phantom Dawn was once again shocked by Brother Jue's shamelessness. The way he took pride in the fact that he was being mocked really made him speechless.
There was a saying — you could not wake up a person who was pretending to be asleep. Similarly, you could not insult a person who was truly shameless.
"Alright, guys, since the ghost has disappeared, let's start the search," Feng Bujue said as he walked through the door and prepared to start the search that he was best at.
The others followed closely behind him. They turned on their flashlights and split up to investigate …
The music room was not big, and the four walls were covered with old, yellowed wallpaper. In the corner of the room was a piano and a matching piano stool. Next to it was a simple standing music stand. In the middle of the room were some square, colored stools with numbers printed on them. From the size and style, one could tell that they were meant for children. On the opposite wall from the door, there was a relatively large cupboard. Even though it was also made of wood, with the nature of this kind of puzzle-type scenario … even if it was made of paper, as long as one did not meet the requirements to open it, one would not be able to open it.
The players started their search in this environment. Due to the limited space, in just five minutes, they had investigated everything that they could. The results were as follows.
One, there was nothing hidden inside the piano, and it could be played normally.
Two, there was nothing wrong with the piano stool.
Three, there was a yellowed, broken music score sitting on the music stand, but there were still a few bars that could be identified.
Four, there were exactly nine stools, and they were written with Arabic numerals 1-9. After inspection, the stools were all solid and fixed to the ground.
Five, there were no obvious abnormalities, patterns, or clues found on the wallpaper. The wallpaper was confirmed by Feng Bujue.
Six, when the players touched the cupboard door, they got the hint that it was' sealed by some kind of dark power '.
After confirming the above six points, the players gathered together and had a brief discussion. They then reduced the number of flashlights to two.
"Okay …" Feng Bujue said, "We've checked everything that we can. Now … we can only use 'this'." When he said that, he took out Suzuki's Flute from his pocket. "The item states that only male players can play it, so …" He turned to look at Xiao Tan and Phantom Dawn. "Who's going to play it?"
"Er … I don't know how to play a stringed instrument," Xiao Tan said professionally.
It was worth mentioning that before he was in third grade, Xiao Tan had indeed studied music.
Of course, for a rich kid like him, he would not study music for the sake of extra marks in exams.
The reason Xiao Tan chose to study music was because his parents thought he had talent …
So, where did this' talent 'come from? It was like this. When Xiao Tan was in kindergarten, there was a period of time when he liked to bang on things. Therefore, his parents used that as an excuse to send him, who was not even seven years old, to take percussion lessons.
He studied for two and a half years. Xiao Tan did not say anything, but the teacher could not take it anymore. The teacher admitted, "The child is tone-deaf, and he has no sense of rhythm. In the future, you'll be lucky if he can find the right tune when he sings karaoke. You should find someone else."
Just like that, Wang Tanzhi ended his twenty-nine-month career as a children's drummer. The final result of his studies was … he learned how to play a few basic drum beats, trained his left hand to be as nimble as his right hand, and … cured his habit of banging on things.
"I know how to play the harmonica …" After Xiao Tan, this was Phantom Dawn's answer.
Feng Bujue saw that neither of them knew how to play, so he said casually and raised the flute to his lips, "Is that so? Then, I'll do it."
"So, you know how to play? Then why did you ask? "Phantom Dawn grumbled.
"Eh?" Seeing that, An Yueqin raised her brow in surprise. "You know how to play a musical instrument?"
"That can't be right …" However, Ruo Yu had a suspicious look on her face. She turned to An Yueqin and said, "I've stayed at his place for so long, and I've never seen any music in his house …"
Wu!
Before they could finish, Brother Jue started to play.
Wu … Wu … Ji … Fufu … Wu … Ji …
His playing was completely out of tune. Sometimes he was out of breath, and sometimes he was making a very sharp sound. His fingers were just randomly pressing on the holes of the flute in an inexplicable way, messing around.
"Hey! So, you don't know how to play the instrument! "Phantom Dawn gasped." Not only that, even an outsider can play the instrument so badly! Where does your confidence come from? "
"Stop wasting time. After all, none of us know how to play the instrument, so it doesn't matter who plays it, right?" Feng Bujue retorted immediately. After that, he continued to play as if there was no one else around.
Even though Phantom Dawn wanted to complain, he had to admit … Brother Jue had a point. None of the three boys knew how to play the instrument, so it did matter who played it.
Therefore, the group endured Brother Jue's mental pollution for another minute.
For some reason, one minute later, suddenly …
With a loud creak, the sliding door of the music room closed on its own.
Then, a woman's voice echoed in the space. [Everyone, go to your seats. The teacher is about to start playing.]
"What's going on? Are you farming monsters again? " Phantom Dawn used his flashlight to scan the room, but he saw nothing. The source of the voice was also uncertain, and it was hard to tell.
"This should be a hint." Feng Bujue said calmly. "Follow the voice's instructions, and the next part of the plot will be triggered."
"Then … shall we go and sit down?" Xiao Tan said as he turned to look at the square chairs.
"It's not that simple …" Xiao Ling's expression darkened slightly as she continued, "The numbers written on these chairs clearly mean something … Furthermore, the voice just now also said that we should sit in our 'own seats'."
"In other words …" Ruo Yu finished for her. "If someone sits on the wrong seat, something bad might happen."
"Hey, hey … It's one thing for Feng Bujue to scare us, but how can you guys say something so scary as well?" When Phantom Dawn heard the word 'bad', he started to panic again.
"Hah … This is a real problem. No matter how scary it is, we have to face it and solve it." Brother Jue smiled and added, "But there's no need to worry too much. The problem with the seating … I noticed it not long after I entered this room."
"What? You've solved the puzzle? "Phantom Dawn thought about it for a few seconds and then said loudly," Oh! I know now. It's based on the seating order in the classroom, right? In other words … the first person on the first row is 1, the second person is 2, and so on … "
"That's not right." The next second, before Brother Jue could say anything, Xiao Ling denied Phantom Dawn's answer. "How do you know the seating order should be from left to right and from top to bottom?"
An Yueqin added, "Yes … You've seen Noguchi Eiji's diary, right? It was written from top to bottom and from right to left. What if the seating order is based on that?"
"Furthermore …" Ruo Yu added, "Even if the seating order is based on 'top left is first', there might be a pattern like 'the first person on the first row is 1, and the first person on the second row is 2'."
"Er …" Once they said that, Phantom Dawn lost confidence in his answer. He turned to look at Brother Jue with a questioning gaze. "Fine … I'd rather hear your answer."
"I think … the order here should be based on the Nine Palaces." Feng Bujue agreed. "When we were in the second-year Class A, I was already curious about the arrangement of the tables and chairs. The 3 × 3 seats correspond to the nine boxes inside the lockers. It seems to be hinting at that. But until we left the classroom, there was no puzzle related to the Nine Palaces. " He paused for half a second before turning his gaze to the nine square chairs not far away. "But after we arrived here and saw these nine numbers, it reminded me of that game."
"Wait a minute …" Phantom Dawn interjected. "The Jiu Gong that you mentioned is a number game where every axis adds up to fifteen, right? The position of the numbers in that kind of picture is not fixed, right? "
One second later, Xiao Ling used a formula to answer Phantom Dawn's question. "Wear nine, walk one, three on the left, seven on the right, two and four on the shoulder, eight and six on the foot, and five in the center."
"You heard that, right? There is a so-called 'standard form'." Feng Bujue added, "In any case … if we arrange it according to the Nine Palaces, I am 5, and you are 7. Passing Rain, Hanjian, and Laughing Soul (Brother Jue still used his friends' in-game nicknames when he was with Phantom Dawn) are 4, 9, and 2 respectively, and Xiao Tan (but Brother Jue has always referred to Xiao Tan as such) is 1."
"Hmm …" Phantom Dawn thought about it. "Do you … have confidence in this arrangement?"
"At least, it is more confident than the arrangement from left to right or top to bottom." Feng Bujue replied. "But I understand your concern because … there is indeed a lack of evidence for this riddle." "I think … we must have 'missed some clues' before, because according to the information we have now, even I can't find any clear evidence to point out which six of us correspond to which six seats."
Brother Jue had his reasons for saying that. The scenario that he had come up with … was far more than anyone else there.
Take the names of the nine students from Year 2 Class A as an example. Their romanization, pseudonyms, strokes, radicals, relationships with metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, even famous people with the same surname … Brother Jue had considered all of them. He had gone through the rest of the analysis based on this. With that as the basis, Feng Bujue had said something like 'based on the current information we have'.
However, the current situation did not allow the players to look for more clues.
"Didn't you hear me? I told you to sit properly! "
Just as the group was hesitating, the voice spoke again, and this time, it was more vicious and sinister than before.
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