Having finally escaped the classroom thick with the stench of blood and despair, the remaining dozen or so students huddled in the corridor, an overwhelming terror palpable among the still-shaken crowd.
The gruesome sights they had witnessed in mere minutes were enough to shatter anyone’s fundamental understanding of the world.
“Everyone, listen to me!”
A clear voice attempted to quell the escalating chaos.
“We must have encountered some kind of supernatural event. I’ve experienced similar situations before; my old family home has been abandoned ever since something like this happened…”
All eyes immediately gravitated towards the speaker, even Qi Yue’an, who had been silently observing, turned to look at him.
She finally remembered: this elegantly dressed, uniquely charismatic male student was none other than the self-proclaimed “Li Yan” who had once approached her while she was working at a coffee shop, using the excuse that his “haunted house needed an exorcism.”
“Supernatural resurgence? It’s over, everything’s over…”
A classmate, usually prone to chuunibyou tendencies, instantly paled, as if conjuring apocalyptic scenes from some work of fiction.
“Do ‘those things’ really exist in this world? How did you escape back then? What should we do now?”
Someone pressed urgently for answers.
Li Yan remained remarkably composed. He pulled out his phone, quickly exchanged contact information with a few students nearby, then lowered his voice.
“The current situation is very similar to what happened at my house. First, we must remain calm and act cautiously. We need to adhere to the known rules, then search for loopholes or boundaries within those rules to find a way out. Remember, do not act rashly before fully understanding the rules. Any impulsive move could lead to destruction.”
His clear, well-reasoned words, imbued with a certain air of “experience,” temporarily stabilized the panicked hearts of the students.
With expressions of lingering fear and caution, the students began to move in twos and threes towards the dormitory building, guided by their phone maps.
****
Qi Yue’an, however, did not leave. She remained standing quietly, waiting for Li Yan to conclude his “pacification efforts.”
Only when most of the others had departed did she step forward.
“Qi Yue’an, we meet again.”
Li Yan turned to her, a perfectly calibrated, polite smile gracing his lips, as if this truly were their second accidental encounter.
“I remember, you’re… uh… the perverted cannon fodder lolicom?”
The words had barely left Qi Yue’an’s mouth before she realized her blunder. The composed expression on Li Yan’s face instantly crumbled, his mouth twitching subtly.
She attempted to correct the excessively rude address, only to find she genuinely couldn’t recall his name.
“My name is Li Yan.”
He took a deep breath, striving to maintain his composure, yet a hint of helplessness flickered in his eyes. He sighed inwardly, seemingly overwhelmed by the situation.
“Are there really ghosts in this world? Also, I remember you’re definitely not in our class.”
Qi Yue’an paid no mind to her earlier slip, her silver eyes fixed intently on him.
Although he might have fooled the other ordinary students, the tiny flame he had precisely controlled in the classroom to create light, coupled with his overly calm demeanor now, convinced Qi Yue’an that he was far from as simple as he appeared.
“Perhaps… As for my class, would you believe me if I said I’m a temporary transfer student?”
Li Yan offered a somewhat troubled smile, attempting to bluff his way through.
Such a perfunctory answer naturally failed to satisfy Qi Yue’an. She remained rooted to her spot, silently staring at him with her beautiful silver eyes.
Li Yan met her gaze for a few seconds, then finally seemed to concede defeat, scratching his head helplessly.
“Ah, fine. I’m really not good at this roundabout stuff.”
He seemed to abandon his pretense, his tone becoming more genuine.
“This time was indeed a coincidence, but I really have been at this school before. The specifics are complicated, so I won’t elaborate for now.”
He tried to steer the conversation back on track.
“As for so-called ‘ghosts,’ of course they don’t exist. This is actually an effect caused by a ‘Holy Relic.’ You must have heard similar concepts from other Magical Girls, right? They are masterless anomalous items derived from the power of a Magical Girl’s wish. Wishes throughout history often share similarities, and when they converge and solidify, these things are formed. They are something that we… uh, that both Magical Girls and Demon Beasts covet.”
“But they are usually very dangerous, so you need to be careful…”
“Meaning,”
Qi Yue’an seized upon the crucial information in his words, interrupting him.
“You’re a Demon Beast, and you came here for this ‘Holy Relic’?”
Li Yan’s words abruptly ceased. He let out two dry laughs.
“Haha, of course not! I just heard all this from a friend…”
He attempted to mend the situation, but under Qi Yue’an’s direct, questioning gaze, which seemed to view him as an idiot, his voice of protest grew fainter and fainter until it completely vanished.
“Then why did you ask me to ‘exorcise’ your house before?”
Qi Yue’an stepped closer to him, looking up at him, her eyes filled with accusation and suspicion, her delicate face etched with urgent questions.
“Was it really to abduct a young girl? Or was it to…”
“Please, don’t ask anymore.”
Li Yan sounded cornered, raising his voice slightly in a desperate, ‘what’s the point’ manner. The expression on his face was like that of an incompetent husband facing a capable CEO, pleading not to lose his job.
“I am actually a perverted lolicom! I approached you before to abduct you, and now you’re practically delivering yourself to me…”
He practically shouted the last sentence, then grabbed her wrist as she tried to extend her hand, attempting to cut off Qi Yue’an’s deeper inquiries. His face was a mix of embarrassment, helplessness, and the frustration of having tried his best but truly being unable to make up any more excuses.
His voice brought silence to their surroundings, interrupting Qi Yue’an’s thoughts. Their distance was now less than a meter. Seeing the situation, she quickly shook off his hand, then said nothing more, merely stepping back a few paces to create some distance between them.
Though her face was devoid of expression, a hint of disdain was visible in her eyes.
“We’ll talk about it later, at the dorm.”
A few classmates who hadn’t walked too far happened to overhear Li Yan’s “declaration” and the fact that Qi Yue’an hadn’t shown too much disgust. They all turned their heads, casting glances at him from afar that mixed surprise with a strange sense of admiration. Some even gave him a thumbs-up.
“Awesome, brother.”
He still wanted to explain, but everyone else had already left.
‘Ah, never mind. They didn’t ask me to keep too much secret anyway, as long as I don’t reveal classified information.’
Consoling himself thus, he also caught up with the group.
****
From afar, the outline of the dormitory building was astonishing.
It was no longer the unassuming structure she remembered, but had transformed into a distinctly modern, even luxurious, edifice.
Yet, this opulence exuded an indescribable eeriness. Rather than a dormitory, it resembled something from an urban legend, its architectural style remarkably bizarre, as if various styles she had seen in her memory were forcibly mashed together to form a semblance of harmony.
Many people had already gathered here, their faces bearing varying degrees of panic and lingering fear. A cacophony of discussions rose and fell, and some couples could even be seen embracing.
‘Is this place not segregated by gender?’
As she pondered this, she noticed that the dormitory building was not divided into male and female quarters as before. Students from all four grades of the entire school were gathered here, yet despite the large crowd, the vast hall felt strangely uncrowded.
Around the hall were rows of elevators, all similar in appearance both inside and out. Everyone present seemed to be waiting for something.
“Ding-dong—”
The notification sound from her phone came from her pocket. Everyone present seemed to receive a message simultaneously. It originated from the school’s intranet announcement system, but the previous notices had, at some point, morphed into bloody and cruel directives.
‘Is this truly a product of a Magical Girl’s wish?’
Thinking this, she checked the new rules on her phone.
Apartment Building Rules:
1. This apartment building has five floors in total. Please take the elevator to your assigned floor.
2. If the elevator display shows it’s going to a different floor than the one you pressed, please ignore it. This is a display malfunction. Please wait for the display to return to normal.
3. Warning! The sixth floor does not exist! If the elevator stops on a non-existent floor, please press the door-close button three times consecutively and wait to return to your assigned floor.
4. The stairs are the only stable way to reach other floors.
5. Dorm rooms are single occupancy. If you encounter an acquaintance who shouldn’t be on your floor, or a complete stranger, please ignore them. If conversation is unavoidable, respect their role and do not speak irrelevant words.
6. Room hopping is permitted in this apartment. However, after 23:00, please return to your assigned floor and room as quickly as possible, and ensure you can still find it.
Qi Yue’an stood before the elevator, surrounded by the noisy and fearful crowd. She lowered her head to reconfirm the rules on her phone.
This eerie apartment building was clearly not a dormitory in the conventional sense, but rather a chaotic labyrinth.
Without hesitation, she walked directly to an elevator that had just arrived at the lobby. The elevator’s interior was spotless, yet it exuded a cold metallic scent.
She pressed the button marked “5,” and the elevator doors slowly closed.
The elevator ascended smoothly, but Qi Yue’an’s senses detected a subtle disharmony.
The numbers on the floor display flickered: 1… 2… 3… 4… Then, just as it was about to show 5, the number suddenly blurred, morphing into a distorted “6.”
Rule number three flashed into her mind: [Warning! The sixth floor does not exist! If the elevator stops on a non-existent floor, please press the door-close button three times consecutively and wait to return to your assigned floor.]
Without a moment’s hesitation, Qi Yue’an quickly and forcefully pressed the door-close button three times.
Silence descended within the elevator, broken only by her own breathing. The “6” on the display flickered a few times, like a faulty light bulb, before slowly reverting to “5.”
The elevator vibrated slightly, and the doors slowly opened.
****
Outside the doors was a familiar sight—a modern, apartment-style corridor with warm lighting and rows of tightly closed doors on either side.
This was precisely the style of the corridor on the floor where she, Xiyin, Bai Jin, and Bai Zhi were planning to rent a shared apartment.
She stepped out of the elevator and looked back. The elevator doors closed silently, the display panel steadily showing “5.”
She began to stroll down the corridor, her gaze sweeping over the names on the doorplates.
“Xiyin,” “Bai Zhi,” “Bai Jin”… these names were clearly visible, but their owners shouldn’t be here right now… and they weren’t even students at this school…
As she thought this, she saw her own room door, clearly labeled “Qi Yue’an.”
She tried pushing it; the door was locked, but as she approached, the lock automatically clicked open, seemingly a facial recognition type.
Just as she was pondering this, a nearby door clicked open.
A girl with pure white twin pigtails, dressed in an elaborate Western-style dress, peeked out. Seeing Qi Yue’an, her red eyes lit up, and she spoke with an exaggerated cadence:
“Oh? If it isn’t the bothersome Miss Fox? Have you perhaps been drawn by my radiance? Let me warn you, you’ve already charmed Miss Star, so don’t try to enchant my elder sister anymore.”
This was a substitute for “Bai Jin.” She played the role of a “knight,” yet her image leaned more towards a “vampire princess” or an “arrogant young lady.” She called herself “Heavenly Radiance Knight” and referred to Qi Yue’an as “Miss Fox.”
She seemed to have no recollection of her real name and uttered no word about why she was here, as if she had been living there for a long time.
Qi Yue’an recalled Rule number five: [If you encounter an acquaintance who shouldn’t be on your floor, or a complete stranger, please ignore them. If conversation is unavoidable, respect their role and do not speak irrelevant words.]
In the other girl’s eyes, Qi Yue’an seemed to be a complete vixen. Suppressing her unease, Qi Yue’an responded in kind, her tone light and appreciative.
“Just taking a stroll, Knight-sama~ And you’re quite cute too.”
Playing into the image the other girl had of her, Qi Yue’an indulged her inner urge and gently patted her head. The girl outwardly appeared resistant, yet she nuzzled back like a kitten, a faint blush and satisfaction blooming on her face.
“Hmph~ Smart of you to realize, but even if you say that, I won’t be sleeping with you tonight.”
She pulled away from Qi Yue’an’s hand and looked up.
“This Knight is about to patrol her territory, to ensure no villains trespass here,”
Her words carried the peculiar, tsundere concern, and she walked ahead of Qi Yue’an.
Qi Yue’an shook her head.
“No, I want to explore on my own.”
“Hmph, suit yourself! I’m not accompanying you.”
‘Bai Jin’ seemed somewhat displeased, but she closed her door nonetheless, continuing her “territory patrol.”
Qi Yue’an continued to wander the fifth floor. She saw “Xiyin’s” room, its doorplate, and she also noticed “Li Yan’s” room, a little further from her own.
She tried knocking, but there was no response. Had Li Yan not come to the fifth floor? Or had he encountered something else?
The corridor seemed endless, yet she had deduced a pattern: the rooms on either side corresponded to people she had recently interacted with, and the closer the relationship, the closer the room was to hers.
This arrangement made her subtly uneasy, as if her inner world had been dissected and laid bare.
She reached the end of the corridor and found an emergency exit sign pointing to the stairwell. Rule number four stated that the stairs were the only stable way to reach other floors, so she decided to go down and investigate.
****
The stairwell was quiet, dimly lit. She first descended to the fourth floor.
The décor of the fourth floor resembled the corridor of the old apartment building she had once rented alone: grayish-white walls, sound-activated lights flickering on and off.
Here, she saw “Xiao Ru’s” room. The door was ajar, and she saw Xiao Ru sitting inside, murmuring to herself in front of a mirror, her expression alternating between sweet and gloomy, as if rehearsing something.
When Xiao Ru saw Qi Yue’an through the crack in the door, her face instantly broke into a dependent and joyful smile:
“Yueyue-jie! You came to see me!”
She ran over, trying to take Qi Yue’an’s hand.
“It’s so strange here, but seeing Yueyue-jie, I’m not scared anymore. We’ll always be together, right?”
Qi Yue’an noticed that she didn’t mention anything about Magical Girls, contracts, or Qi An, but was fixated solely on the role of “being with Yueyue-jie.”
Qi Yue’an responded briefly, ensuring she didn’t violate any rules, then continued downwards.
Arriving at the third floor, the style here had transformed into the corridor of her university dorm. She saw the doorplates with the names of her former dormmates, and also the names of other classmates.
She saw several substitutes wandering the corridor, playing roles such as “hard-working student” or “gossipy roommate.” Their conversations were hollow and repetitive, while others, their faces etched with fear, desperately tried to remain calm and cope with them.
These were all people who had died in the classroom. Their direct “resurrection” here seemed to indicate they had been replaced by corresponding substitutes.
She had originally intended to offer a warning, but upon seeing those familiar faces, a hint of darkness surged within her, and the impulse to help instantly faded.
‘It’s fine. They seem capable of handling it, so I won’t meddle. Besides, I have my own matters to attend to.’
With this justification, she continued downwards. The second floor’s style was a melange of elementary, middle, and high school corridors, filled with a sense of nostalgia, yet profoundly desolate due to being completely empty.
There were even faint, childish scribbles on the walls. She saw many names of old classmates here, names she had almost forgotten.
Just as she was about to continue her descent, a room door opened, and a bespectacled, refined-looking boy emerged. He saw her, paused, then smiled, only to become shy again.
“Qi An… no… Qi Yue’an, long time no see. I didn’t expect to run into you here.”
This was a high school classmate of hers. They hadn’t kept in touch after graduation, but he had indeed enrolled in the same university as her, just a different major, so they had barely met.
His eyes held thought and doubt, unlike the substitutes who only had fixed roles. It seemed he was a real person.
“Yes, long time no see.”
Qi Yue’an nodded, her heart vigilant, but maintaining a calm exterior.
“This place is very strange. You should be careful too.”
“I know.”
He pushed up his glasses, looking down.
“I’m trying to understand the rules here. I have a hunch there’s something important down there. How about I call a few people, and we wait here for others to join us before going together?”
He said this, extending an invitation to Qi Yue’an, but she shook her head.
“No, I’m going down now. You all be careful later.”
Qi Yue’an declined the request, desiring to be unburdened when activating her magic. This wasn’t just about the secrecy required of Magical Girls, but also her reluctance to bring along people she would need to protect.
“Alright, then you be safe too. Please share any new information with us if you find any.”
The other boy could only nod, expressing his regret.
Bidding farewell to this unexpected acquaintance, Qi Yue’an headed towards the stairs leading to the first floor. The lights in this section of the stairwell had completely extinguished, leaving only the faint glow of her phone screen and a trickle of unknown light from outside the window.
As she cautiously descended, she caught sight of a small boy’s back at the stairwell’s turn below, illuminated by the dim light.
He wore a clean but somewhat worn shirt and shorts, his back to her, his figure small and slender, appearing to be no more than seven or eight years old.
An inexplicable sense of familiarity struck Qi Yue’an. This silhouette… she had definitely seen it somewhere before!
As if sensing her gaze, the little boy slowly turned his head.
The darkness of the stairwell blurred his features, but with her superhuman vision, Qi Yue’an discovered with horror—he had no face! Where his facial features should have been, there was only smooth, empty skin!
“!”
The faceless boy seemed to “look” at her, then abruptly turned, agile as a startled deer, and swiftly vanished into the deeper darkness.