At this moment, the others gradually discovered the student cards they were carrying.
These student cards, bearing personal identification information, seemed intended for use somewhere. They had already received one piece of information earlier: Shizhu Middle School was a school with extremely strict rules, nearly militarized in its management. So this student card might also be a way for the school to manage its students.
However, when Chen Mo had exited the teaching building earlier, he had already observed the surroundings and hadn't seen any facilities related to using the student card.
But the distance from the teaching building across the "playground" to the school gate wasn't limited to just this one building. In fact, Shizhu Middle School's teaching area consisted of three buildings: two single-straight-line four-story structures and one six-story building shaped like a hollow square. The teaching building they had just exited was one of the straight-line ones.
Since no student card device was found at the entrance of that teaching building, it must be located elsewhere.
Chen Mo didn't voice this deduction in front of the others. In truth, ever since Pan Long led the second group to break away from the main team, he had been pondering this issue.
Before entering the supernatural world, Su Mu had told him that in such special missions, there was usually competition between teams. Even in cooperative missions, the rewards varied greatly depending on the degree of completion. So the relationship between teams was far from as harmonious as it appeared on the surface.
Thus, the second group's decision to act alone likely meant they had discovered clues others hadn't noticed. And it could be largely confirmed that this concealed clue was related to the student cards everyone carried.
Chen Mo suddenly stopped in his tracks, recalling the contents of the first two pages of the management regulations.
The first page indicated the opening and closing times of the school gate. The second page suggested that going to the principal's office could yield a spare key for emergency exits. By extension, if there was a third page, it should inform participants of the specific method or conditions for obtaining the key!
Without meeting those conditions, rushing to the principal's office would likely result in failing to access the spare key and might even trigger certain dangers!
Wait a moment...
Just then, a voice sounded from nearby. "Zhong Qing, what do you mean by this?"
"Nothing much." Zhong Qing shook his head, pushing up the glasses on his nose. "It's just a suggestion. We also think it's better to split up."
"This is a team mission in a supernatural world. Since some things are bound to happen sooner or later, there's no need for us to pretend to be all friendly here."
"You!"
Behind Jiang Rou, a female student immediately showed an indignant expression. "That's too much! The mission hints aren't even clear yet, and you're already starting to guard against each other! I think this is exactly why the death rate in team missions is so high every time!"
"Enough, Shu Yue."
Jiang Rou's brows furrowed deeply. "No matter what others choose, it's their decision. We just need to focus on our own tasks."
"Sister Jiang Rou, if you ask me, you're too kind." The girl, still visibly upset, continued. "You always think about everyone surviving together, but others don't trust us at all."
"And what about you?" Jiang Rou ignored this girl named Tan Shuyue from the ninth group and looked at Su Mu instead. "Su Mu, have you also decided to split up?"
"Not necessary for now." Su Mu shook his head. "The mission conditions aren't clear yet. If we explore together, even if something happens, there's strength in numbers."
"Great. At least there are some reasonable people here. I'm Tan Shuyue, this is Xing Yina, and this is Liu Yuan—all members of our ninth group."
Of the four members from Jiang Rou's ninth group selected for this mission, three were female except for Liu Yuan. This Tan Shuyue was the one who had screamed earlier in the corridor when frightened by the flashlight-wielding ghost shadow. It seemed she was subconsciously afraid of this mission, hence her desire for a larger team.
More than strength in numbers, it was more about courage in numbers.
Of course, these thoughts flashed through Chen Mo's mind briefly before he introduced his own group members.
"Right now, it seems the principal's office is the core location of this mission. Since the situation is unclear, I also think we shouldn't approach that area too soon."
"Makes sense." Jiang Rou nodded, looking at him. "Then let's start with these student cards and find a facility where they can be used. I think such a facility would typically be set up near the gate."
But since no student card facility was found at the previous teaching building, they only needed to check the remaining two buildings.
Although they hadn't seen the third page of the management regulations, having all experienced one or more horror stories before, they had guessed the general direction fairly accurately. However, with the clearest instructions, Pan Long and his second group headed straight for the hollow-square-shaped building among the three!
The two straight-line buildings were clearly Teaching Building No. 1 and Teaching Building No. 2, so the remaining hollow-square structure was likely the comprehensive building.
Sure enough, as soon as they stepped into the hall, a conspicuous red machine immediately caught their eyes.
"Check-in machine!"
Zheng Zihao's eyes lit up. The red machine had a screen on top and a card slot below—clearly a device with card-reading capabilities, exactly the check-in machine they were looking for.
According to the third page of the management regulations, placing the student card on the check-in machine and swiping it would grant access and a password to the principal's office.
Song Ze looked excited too, just about to pull out his student card from his pocket. But at that moment, Zheng Zihao let out a startled cry, instinctively stepping back and raising his hand forward.
On the corridor opposite the hollow-square building, the flashlight-wielding ghost shadow had appeared again. Whether it heard the cry or not, the flashlight beam immediately swept toward them.
Not good! Pan Long screamed inwardly. It's spotted us!
Though he didn't know how the ghost with the flashlight had moved from the teaching building to the comprehensive building, there was no doubt now—it had been triggered!
-- PS: Thanks to Dream Fallen, Yan Yan, Little Laji, and fellow readers for their generous tips! I put a lot of effort into writing the beginning of each mission, so I hope everyone can support me with recommendation tickets and monthly votes. Also, supernatural missions are quite brain-intensive, so I hope readers from pirated sites can support the original version on Qidian. The author kneels and slides forward in gratitude~
Also, two updates today. The other one isn't finished yet—please wait about half an hour for its release.