Chapter 77 - The Paper and Pen on the Table

Chapter 77: The Paper and Pen on the Table
Translator: 
Lonelytree 
 Editor: 
Millman97
The strange way the taxi driver acted unsettled Chen Ge. Taxi drivers were the party that were the most familiar with the city; thus, they knew the taboo places that populated the city.
Has the driver misunderstood me?

The mat was dropped in the mud and was soon drenched by the rain. While he was reading the supernatural stories on Mu Yang High School, Chen Ge did not think they were that scary. However, after the incident with the taxi driver, Chen Ge’s bravery started to waver.
The requirement of this mission is merely for me to survive. This means that even the black phone believes that surviving will be a huge challenge.

In the blink of an eye, the taxi disappeared down the road. Chen Ge stood in his raincoat surrounded by a wide expanse of nothing but trees. It felt like he was abandoned in the wild.
The rain continued to pour. Chen Ge pulled the raincoat tighter and pulled out his flashlight to wander down the muddy road. The rainclouds were low in the sky, blocking out the moonlight. Chen Ge moved toward the buildings that he had seen earlier, and it was not until then that he realized how rundown they actually were.
Rusted chains hung off the door, and the glass on the window had long since been broken. Looking through the cracks, Chen Ge saw that the interior was stuffed with rotten furniture and trash with unknown bugs crawling over the ground.
There’s not a single sign of a living person, is this place that cursed?

Before he came, he did obtain several precious nuggets of information from Fan Yu’s aunt. Therefore, Chen Ge knew a thing or two about the surroundings of Mu Yang High School. Since there was no one for him to ask, he could only wander deeper into the unknown based on his memory.
The road was muddy from the rain, and it was bordered on both sides by weirdly-shaped trees, but they had all overgrown into the road due to a lack of trimming.
Mu Yang High School’s site was once a crematorium. As scary as that is, it meant that there had to be a road for vehicles. However, the road keeps getting smaller and smaller; it’s practically impossible for any four-wheeled vehicle to traverse. Am I even on the right road? 
The intensity of the rain slowed Chen Ge’s progress. It’ll not bode well if I get lost. If Mu Yang High School is not at the end of this road, I’ll need to turn back and abandon this quest.

Chen Ge continued on the road at another thirty minutes. At the end of the road, he saw a sign that was knocked off the ground and a wooden fence.
There’s lichen growing on its side—it has been on the ground for years already.

Chen Ge pulled the sign upright, but the characters were too faded for him to make any sense of it. He used his flashlight to scan the sign. Why does the lichen only grow on one side? Is it because of the sun, or has someone been here recently to move the sign and the fence?

He stopped moving and looked at the time on his phone. It’s almost 8 pm, and the mission location is still nowhere to be found. The only good news is that I still have coverage. At least I can call for help in case of an emergency.

The night was exceptionally dark because of the rain. Chen Ge’s phone was the sole source of light for miles. Both sign and fence are here, but weirdly enough, they seem like they have recently been moved. This is curious.

Chen Ge used the sign to part the shrubbery that blocked his way. He walked for another ten meters before the scenery changed. A row of broken wooden railings stood in the middle of the forest, and within the railings were several squat buildings.
This is Mu Yang High School?

Compared to Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy, this school looked far more dilapidated. Its size was less than one-third of Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy.
Chen Ge did not let his guard down simply because the place was smaller in size. The school being smaller might not necessarily be a good thing. Yes, the need for exploration had decreased but so had the space for hiding.
Chen Ge tossed the sign aside and jumped over the rail into Mu Yang High School. All the buildings of the school could be captured with one glance.
The one closest to the entrance was the education block. It seemed to have been the victim of a huge fire. The surface was charred black, and the corners of the wall seemed cracked, as if it could fall at any given moment.
To the left side of the education block was the dormitory. Probably due to the low number of students, the dormitory only had two stories and barely a handful of rooms. To the right was the office, and from the exterior, the building seemed to be the best preserved.
Behind the education block was an uneven field. Two basketball courts and several ping pong tables stood to the side.
Thus was the layout for Mu Yang High School. Other than its rich supernatural history, the school itself was lacking in flavor and personality. Chen Ge suspected that the real reason for closure was not something supernatural but rather there were simply no new students who wished to study here.
Weirdly enough, when Chen Ge arrived at his destination, he felt calmer. He was an expert at managing his emotions.
There are four side missions at Mu Yang High School: The Pen Spirit, The Fifth Cubicle in the Toilet, Deep Well, and The Sealed Classroom. If I want to unlock the full scenario, I mustn’t miss out on any of them.

In the previous mission, it was because Chen Ge had a more than ninety percent completion rate that he obtained the hidden reward—Wang Qi’s Missing Person Notice. It was this item that had bridged the relationship between Chen Ge and Xiaoxiao’s family.
He understood the importance of having a high mission completion rate, but it was easier said than done. Any one of the side missions could rival the creepiness of a Nightmare Mission, and he was expected to complete all four in one night.
It is still not yet midnight. There’s still time before the active hour for the residents of the other world. I should scout out these four locations. If the difficulty is too high, I still have time to leave.

Chen Ge put the doll in his chest, whipped out his trusty mallet, and headed toward the education block.
The surface of the building was black with soot that remained even after so many years.
The whole building is burnt, could this be related to the original crematorium?

Chen Ge moved lightly. He remembered the mission description provided by the black phone.

There’s a classroom at the end of the corridor that’s always sealed. No one ever enters it, but every night, the classroom will come alive with activity.

Bad luck befell Fan Yu’s father after he entered that classroom, so that classroom might be the center of the paranormal activities at Mu Yang High School.

The creepy photo appeared in Chen Ge’s mind. There was a high chance he would have to spend the night with the roomful of students who refused to meet the camera.
All the classrooms were locked, and Chen Ge could only peer in through the windows with his flashlight. The front few classrooms were normal abandoned classrooms. It was not until Chen Ge reached the very last classroom at the end of corridor that he spotted something weird.
The classroom was curiously preserved from the fire. However, what attracted Chen Ge’s attention the most were the books, paper, and pen that were placed on the table in the middle of the classroom, creating the illusion that someone had just attended a class there.