“Mommy!” Lu Zibing nearly jumped out of his skin, bolting away like a shot. “There’s a monster!—”

At first, the livestream chat didn’t know what was going on, but after they saw it clearly, even they forgot to laugh at him.

[That scared me! How are the portraits moving?!]

[Are they gonna climb out of the pictures?!]

[Damn, game dev, you’re really something. How am I supposed to look at galleries and school history museums now?!]

The more Lu Zibing ran, the more the eyes in the photos rolled, like they were overexerting themselves, lines of bloody tears streaming down.

The men and women all wore the same warm smiles from their photos, but their eyeballs were twisted to the extreme, showing only white, combined with the crimson blood, creating a scene of absurdity and horror.

“Hehehe…”

“Heh heh hahaha…”

“Hee hee hee…”

Outside, the rain poured down in sheets, thunder boomed, and from all sides of the corridor came suppressed giggles, echoing and overlapping.

Just like the chat guessed, the people in the photos actually started to shake. They leaned out, their upper bodies the familiar faces of the alumni, but their lower bodies, beyond the edge of the photos, were all sorts of things: some snakelike, some ratlike, some centipedelike.

“What the hell are these monsters?!” Lu Zibing was crying now, running even faster. He’d barely survived a three-hundred-round battle with one rat-person on hard mode, how was he gonna survive a this now?

“Don’t run away…”

“Hee hee, stay in Building 18…”

“Join us, heh heh hahaha…”

[Everyone else gets a teacher simulator, our streamer’s playing a marathon simulator!]

[Why does the streamer attract so many critters?!]

[Critters?! Are you kidding?!]

Lu Zibing reached the stairs, rushing down three steps at a time.

The stairwell was pitch-black, he couldn’t see anything, stumbling like a drunk, nearly eating dirt a few times. The creepy crawlies behind him, however, were relentless, herding him downstairs.

Aside from the screaming, some of the braver viewers were analyzing the situation, unfazed.

[Guys, all the monsters we’ve seen in the school so far are either rats or bugs, there’s gotta be a reason, right?]

[I’m guessing it has something to do with the types of monsters Lin Huailu is? He’s probably a building spirit, so what else could he control besides the building itself and the creatures inside it?]

[Makes sense! And his name ten years ago was “Lou Huailin,” his surname was “Building” (Lou) directly! But there should be plants in Building 18 too…]

Lu Zibing was already three floors down, out of breath like a bull, mind wandering as he skimmed the chat’s analysis.

As if to answer their predictions, a few windows shattered with a crash, and twisted branches reached in, lunging for Lu Zibing!

Lu Zibing: “???”

Lu Zibing: “You guys and your jinxes! Stop analyzing!”

He was now feeling one emotion, and it was represented by a plant: freaking grass!

Lu Zibing was forced to speed up again, gasping like a bellows, struggling downstairs.

Eighteen floors, he’d never climbed this many stairs in his life!

When he reached the eighth floor, a figure suddenly appeared at the stairwell—

It was the student ghost who looked like Lang Tingyao.

Lu Zibing slammed on the brakes. “Whoa! Scared me.”

The student ghost’s appearance seemed to pause the chasing monsters and plants for a second.

The student ghost silently pointed downstairs.

Was she helping him?

“Th-thanks, good daughter!” Lu Zibing awkwardly clasped his hands together, stumbling downstairs.

The student ghost stood above, watching him.

But as he reached the landing, ready to go down again, another shadow suddenly appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

“Jeez! Second jump scare!”

Lu Zibing took a closer look, and was stunned.

The figure below, blue and white school uniform, head on backwards, red backpack… it was another student ghost!

And she was pointing upstairs.

Lu Zibing froze, clutching the handrail, a chill crawling up his spine.

[?? How are there two Lang Tingyaos?]

[Ahhh, I get it now! Is one of them a monster in disguise?]

[…But which one is real?]

A flash of lightning illuminated their faces—both Lang Tingyao’s face, indistinguishable.

But they were pointing in completely opposite directions.

The game’s prompt appeared at that moment:

[You’ve encountered the most difficult situation. How do you choose? Which one is the real daughter? Only one path leads to survival, one wrong move and you’ll be doomed. Use your wisdom and emotion to analyze.]

[Note: If you die in this stage, the game automatically ends, all data is reset, and you start from the first scene. (This is the third act, no more shortcuts. Good luck!)]

Lu Zibing couldn’t help but curse inwardly, “Director Shang, you’re a real jerk.”

[I knew it! Classic game dev trick, they do this with crucial choices in the last scene of dating games too.]

[I’m so nervous, the first one has to be real, right? My daughter wouldn’t send me back to such a dangerous place!]

[How do you know it’s not more dangerous downstairs? Don’t forget how cunning Lin Huailu is!]

For the moment, there was no sound from either upstairs or downstairs, the real Lang Tingyao seemed to be keeping things at bay, only the wind and rain audible in the stairwell.

Lu Zibing tentatively called out, “Xiao Yao?”

The two Lang Tingyaos, upstairs and downstairs, spoke in unison, “Mom… mom…”

Lu Zibing got goosebumps all over.

Upstairs was the monster horde, he’d just come from there, it looked like the place he should be running from.

But was what he saw necessarily the truth?

Then, should he go upstairs?

Lu Zibing shuddered at the thought of the monsters. Could he really go back and survive?

“Ugh, I can’t choose!” Lu Zibing grabbed his hair, freaking out.

He re-read the prompt, “It says, ‘Use your wisdom and emotion’… I’m not counting on wisdom, but what about emotion?”

What did “use your emotion” mean?

[Streamer, try to feel if you’re more drawn to either of the ghosts?]

[LOL, is that even reliable?!]

[Why is the streamer’s livestream always like this, horror morphing into comedy?]

Lu Zibing: “…That’s completely useless, thanks!”

He racked his brain for a while, then had a sudden realization, slapping his palm, “I got it!”

Chat: [What did you get…? Wait, streamer, what are you doing?]

Lu Zibing opened the small window on the landing and started climbing out.

“The real Lang Tingyao wouldn’t let me die, I’ll jump and see who tries to save me. That’s called emotional leverage!”

Chat: [???] You’re a genius!

“It’s death either way, might as well go big. Come on, Lang Tingyao!”

Lu Zibing sat on the window ledge, raindrops hitting him, soaking his clothes. He stared at the two Lang Tingyaos, opened his arms, and leaned backwards into the wind and rain—

–

Azure Snow’s Livestream.

Ao Qingxue was in the same predicament.

Despite facing the faceless ghost, she’d chosen to go upstairs, trusting her gut feeling that getting closer to where Lang Tingyao had died was the key to the truth.

Having finally shaken off the faceless ghost, Ao Qingxue was running blindly, until the chat reminded her, [Streamer, shouldn’t you check the floor numbers?]

“…Huff, huff… how is this not the top yet?”

Even with the follow mode, the player had to walk themselves. Ao Qingxue’s legs were wobbly, she could barely move, but at the reminder, she turned her head and looked up, freezing.

The floor number in glowing paint was “3F”!

She’d climbed at least ten floors, how was it only the third?!

Ao Qingxue clutched Lin Xiaomei’s cursed doll, and at that moment, she encountered the Lang Tingyaos upstairs and downstairs.

[…Use your wisdom and emotion to analyze.]

The Lang Tingyao upstairs pointed up, the one downstairs gestured for her to go back.

Like Lu Zibing, Ao Qingxue pondered the meaning of “use your emotion.”

“Does it mean… they have emotional symbols?”

Ao Qingxue’s mind was calm and rational, she theorized.

For a “life-or-death” choice, the game wouldn’t be too obvious, but also not too complicated, there had to be clear clues.

She started to scrutinize the two Lang Tingyaos and noticed a detail—both had a red scarf trailing from their schoolbags.

The scarf had appeared before, viewers commenting that it looked like a dangling intestine, adding to the creepiness.

In fact, the protagonist’s dream fragments showed that Lang Tingyao was wearing that scarf when she ran away from home during winter after a fight with Langzhu.

It was a scarf Langzhu had knitted for her daughter, appearing multiple times in the story.

Ao Qingxue had a good visual memory. She remembered the bunny on the scarf was light blue, the green pinwheel clockwise, and viewers had even mocked the ugly color scheme.

But the Lang Tingyao below had a light pink bunny and a counterclockwise pinwheel on her scarf.

She was the fake!

Ao Qingxue, having made her choice, didn’t hesitate anymore. She continued running upwards, and Lang Tingyao reached out to Langzhu. The imposter below showed resentment, blood and tears flowing from her eyes, full of hatred, “Mom! You’ll regret this!”

“Mom, why are you abandoning me again?”

Her voice echoed behind her.

“You only care about your career, your career, I’m dead, are you satisfied?!”

“You’ll regret this!”

[Did she choose correctly?]

[This scene is so freaky, because Lang Tingyao’s head and body are reversed, so when she runs forward, her head is still looking at Langzhu…]

[Weirdness mixed with humor, I’m tired of cursing the dev!]

Even though Ao Qingxue was sure of her choice, she couldn’t help but waver for a moment after hearing those mournful words.

Guided by Lang Tingyao, she ran upwards, her steps light and quick, passing floor after floor, finally reaching the top.

Logically, the open-air rooftop should have drenched her, but somehow, Ao Qingxue passed through the rain without getting wet.

Lang Tingyao stopped and gently squeezed Langzhu’s hand.

Then, the surroundings started to collapse like a shattered mirror. Ao Qingxue’s vision blurred, and when she opened her eyes again, she found herself back in the right time.

No crazed teachers and students, no repeated slogans, Langzhu stood at the elevator door of Building 3, everything like a dream.

It was dusk in reality. Unknowingly, she’d been trapped in Building 18 for most of the day.

Thankfully, she’d chosen correctly! …What would have happened if she’d chosen wrong?

Ao Qingxue shuddered.

Not far away, at the end of the hallway, Lin Huailu walked out, his expression grim.

—His tricks exhausted, he finally revealed his true form to face the player.

–

The moment Lu Zibing fell from the window, the Lang Tingyao pointing upwards reacted instantly.

He didn’t fall. The girl grabbed him, her ghostly black hair brushing his face, bringing a whiff of blood.

Lu Zibing immediately climbed back in and walked back. Even though he was glad he’d guessed correctly, he couldn’t help but grimace, “So, I should have gone back? I wasted my time!”

The monsters were still roaring at him. Lu Zibing braced himself, expecting a fight, but the monsters that touched him turned into black mist. “…Huh?”

So, they were fake, illusions?

Next, similar to Ao Qingxue’s experience, Lu Zibing returned to reality.

Lin Huailu stood before him, his face and neck stretching and distorting, his skin turning ashen, his eyes hollowing, his features melting away into the Faceless Ghost.

His body hunched, covered in a black substance, his forearms turning into long sickles.

A vortex opened in the Faceless Ghost’s mouth, emitting an enraged roar.

The chat quipped, [Streamer, aren’t you gonna flirt with your favorite guy anymore?]

Lu Zibing: “…”

He looked around, his only weapon a teaching triangle ruler, and swore.

Toilet brushes and teaching tools, was this game trying to torture players?!

“Roar—!”

The Faceless Ghost charged, its stench filling the air.

This was a puzzle game, not a monster-bashing one. Even though Lu Zibing was playing on hell mode, the actual difficulty wasn’t impossible for players with poor reflexes.

Overcoming fear was the key to landing every hit.

Besides, Lin Huailu wasn’t that strong in the real world, otherwise, he wouldn’t have bothered with scaring players, he’d have just attacked directly.

Lu Zibing was hit once, his health bar dropping by half, fueling his anger, “I’ve reached the boss fight, you think you can kill me now?!”

He fought with renewed vigor, finally stabbing the monster to death with the triangle ruler, a big green [CLEAR] appearing in the prompt box.

[You’ve solved the ten-year shadow plaguing Baishui No. 2 High School and made the right choice. Now, the truth will be revealed.]

Lu Zibing was exhausted, panting, but jumped up excitedly, “Cleared! Am I the first online… oh, well, second place is good too.”

He scratched his chin, watching the ending scene.

–

On Ao Qingxue’s side, Langzhu wasn’t fatally injured.

Thanks to Lin Xiaomei’s goodwill, when the Faceless Ghost attacked, the cursed doll flew out from her clothes, blocking the sickle.

The doll shattered, cotton spilling out, its stitched face half-undone, looking even creepier.

But this time, no one found it scary.

[Ah, my doll!]

[Can it be fixed? I’m kinda sad… it’s been with the streamer for so long.]

[I kinda want a cursed doll plushie now, what’s wrong with me?]

Ao Qingxue became the first player to clear the game. As the Faceless Ghost fell, the black substance on it faded, revealing the unconscious Lin Huailu—but with a different face, an ordinary-looking young man.

“Huh? So, it was a possession?” Ao Qingxue wondered, touching her chin. “This face must be the real one… is his name really Lin Huailu?”

She leaned in to check, and it wasn’t—the teacher’s ID card had changed, his real name was Lin Xiaozhuang.

Ao Qingxue: “…”

What a perfunctory name!

She connected the clues:

Lin Xiaomei and Lin Xiaozhuang shared the same surname, and Lin Xiaomei knew some metaphysics.

Could it be that Lin Xiaozhuang and Lin Xiaomei were related, and he also had a metaphysical constitution, which was why the building monster possessed him to approach players?

The distant Building 18 suddenly shook like an earthquake, emitting white light.

This was the ending animation. Ao Qingxue saw Lang Tingyao’s soul walking towards Langzhu.

Langzhu instantly lost her composure, “Xiaoyao!”

Lang Tingyao had no bloodstains, no disfigurements, and wasn’t wearing the blue and white school uniform, but the white summer uniform.

—If Lang Tingyao had made it to the college entrance exam, she would have worn this uniform during the June graduation season.

Langzhu was already sobbing, rushing to hug her daughter.

Through Lang Tingyao’s words, the viewers learned the whole truth.

The secret of Baishui No. 2 High School was simple. Lang Tingyao died ten years ago. Players had to correctly deduce the cause of her death, eliminate distractions like bullying and vengeful spirits, and kill the building monster to get the happy ending.

Lou Huailin, later Lin Huailu, was indeed related to resentment. Long before ten years ago, students jumped to their deaths because of bullying, their resentment used by the newly formed building monster to grow stronger.

But he wasn’t satisfied, targeting Lang Tingyao, who had a special constitution, wanting to manipulate her into jumping to her death as nourishment.

He first tried using bullying, but Lang Tingyao fought back successfully, so he personally intervened, becoming Lou Huailin. This time, he succeeded.

But Lang Tingyao also restrained him after her death, so ten years later, he could only appear in a weakened, possessed state.

When no one was around, the monster’s minions would create anomalies, insects and rats acting as his senses.

After Langzhu appeared, Lang Tingyao actually helped her from time to time. What players had to do was trust their daughter.

“…Mom, you weren’t a good parent.”

The girl stood in the sunlight, long black hair flowing behind her, a sad smile on her face.

“But I love you, Mom. I used to wonder if you loved me too, but now I know.”

“I hope it’s not too late, Mom.”

Langzhu hugged her tightly, and Lang Tingyao looked up, gently wiping away Langzhu’s tears, “Goodbye, Mom. We’ll meet again, but don’t come looking for me too soon.”

Her form gradually turned transparent, finally shattering into bubbles in her mother’s embrace. Langzhu collapsed, only glowing sand left in her hands, scattering in the wind.

Interstellar people were romantics, their hearts soft and sentimental. The viewers were crying.

[I came to play a horror game, why did I get emotionally wrecked?! So heartbreaking!]

[QAQ Xiaoyao, don’t go!]

[Everyone, petition the dev for a sequel! I want to see the mother and daughter truly reconcile!]

In both livestreams, Lu Zibing was sobbing uncontrollably, and Ao Qingxue’s eyes were red.

Lang Tingyao wasn’t the source of the haunting in Baishui No. 2 High School, but its guardian for ten years, her soul fighting Lin Huailu after her death.

Without her, Baishui No. 2 High School would have been like in [Bad Ending 10], with a student dying every month.

And as Lin Huailu grew stronger, this would have escalated.

Just like the cursed doll wasn’t for cursing, but to protect the player.

“Seeing the end, I’m not scared anymore…” Ao Qingxue concluded, scratching her cheek. “I might do a second playthrough to explore more details.”

There were probably many hidden storylines and easter eggs in Building 18, like the present-day story of Lin Xiaomei and Lin Xiaozhuang, and the student who jumped to their death due to bullying many years ago.

But this time, her feelings weren’t fear, but melancholy.

–

That night, the hashtags #Building 18 Clear# and #Lang Family Mother and Daughter# trended.

[So sad… I played with my mom because I’m afraid of ghosts, we had similar progress, and we both cried after leaving the game.]

[I hope there are more family-themed works. Well, there used to be a lot, family-friendly ones. But they always had to add romance. Building 18 and Heaven-Sent Starship showed us more possibilities.]

[Speaking of which, Director Yan and Director Hua’s family backgrounds are similar. Are they telling their own stories through these mother-daughter themes?]

Because of the similar themes, Hua Feitian’s Heaven-Sent Starship was inevitably mentioned.

A comedic happy ending and a tragic bad ending, each with its own merits.

Besides crying, players mostly cursed Lin Huailu: if it weren’t for him, how could such a tragedy have happened!

Among them were the grievances of players who didn’t clear the game—Ao Qingxue and Lu Zibing chose correctly, but many players didn’t and were sent back to the beginning.

They answered Ao Qingxue’s earlier question:

[Do you know why you can’t choose to go down? Because the floors in the Building 18 we were pulled into are reversed, the first floor is the real top floor! That’s why Azure Snow and Lu Zibing weren’t rained on when they reached the top floor.]

[Lin Huailu made all players who entered normally start on the top floor to kill us faster. One wrong step and you fall.]

[That’s what happened to me. I’m not as brave as Ao Qingxue, I didn’t dare enter the second floor, I just tried to walk out. And you can guess, I stepped into the void—Bad Ending.]

–

“Pfft… cough, cough!”

Shang Jingyan saw the two players clear the game one after another and curiously watched the recordings, truly shocked by Lu Zibing’s actions.

Players were indeed the most unpredictable beings. Who would have thought to threaten a ghost with death?!

Thankfully, her built-in AI was high-quality, and the real Lang Tingyao made the judgment to save Lu Zibing, otherwise, he really would have died.

The discussion on StarNet was enthusiastic, and Shang Jingyan felt a bit melancholy, especially after learning a bit about Shang Song’s past.

When she made this game in her spare time, she relied on intuition. Now that she thought about it, she realized that she had unconsciously incorporated the original owner’s feelings for her mother.

Shang Jingyan subconsciously wanted a happy ending—

Lang Tingyao in the game got a definite answer, but the “Shang Jingyan” in reality hadn’t.

[Was my time travel really an accident?] Shang Jingyan’s thoughts wandered, […Is there really a parallel world, with a parallel “me” so similar to me, that let me time travel?]

X71 sent a head-scratching emoji: [My manual doesn’t cover this, maybe it’s like this for every host?]

Shang Jingyan didn’t speak.

She was on her way to Pei Yi’s place to get her cookies.

Sister Cui really wanted to watch the show, and before she left, she kept talking about “Shura fields,” which made Noel perk up.

But Shang Jingyan ruthlessly refused her, and Noel didn’t get a chance to chat her up.

Pei Yi was with his family, staying in a villa area. When Shang Jingyan arrived, Pei Yi was sitting at the door with his rabbit, both looking depressed.

“What’s wrong, Store Manager Pei?” Shang Jingyan waved her hand in front of him.

“I watched the Building 18 livestream,” Pei Yi said resentfully. “The family storyline hit hard, I haven’t recovered yet.”

Shang Jingyan folded her arms, teasing him seriously, “If you keep watching my works, you’ll have many more melancholy moments.”

Pei Yi: “…”

Was that even human language?

“In that case…” he got up and brought over the cookie box, half-jokingly asking, “Can a box of sweets get Director Shang to reveal what her next work is? Movie, game, variety show…”

–

While they were talking, at the spaceport of Rose Heart in the Exiled Star System.

Most starships from other star systems arriving in the Exiled Star System landed on Rose Heart first. At this moment, a starship from the Capital Star of the Main Star System was disembarking passengers.

The passengers were usually “Main Star System drifters,” locals who went to work in the Main Star System, rarely real tourists.

When the first passenger in line, wearing a white coat, white mask, and white hat, swiped their card, revealing [Place of Residence: Capital Star], a robot asked, “Do you need to book a tour guide in advance?”

“No need,” the passenger replied coldly.

His agent looked around, waiting for the pre-booked spaceship.

The white-clad passenger stood aside, playing with his light brain. In his comment section, someone asked in surprise:

[Huh? Why is Teacher Yun Yongxue’s IP address in the Exiled Star System?]