Just as 007 also stayed in place following Keke's words, she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder.

She immediately turned to look, and what met her eyes was Yue Nu's face.

By now, Yue Nu too had taken a good look at everyone around her.

Aside from one boy whom she didn't recognize, 007, Keke, and Meiren Chu could all be accessed through their player interfaces, their nicknames hinting at the names they used in this instance.

However, the nickname of the guy carrying a large guitar on the side was not like the others.

It was the Green Doctor.

Yue Nu swiftly ran through the list of twelve names in her head and found that none matched up with 'Doctor'.

Then she remembered the special name "Gu Mian" on the list, and couldn't help but squint her eyes.

Upon seeing Yue Nu, Li Yibai immediately spoke, somewhat excitedly, "Where were you last night?"

Yue Nu furrowed her brows slightly.

Looking at his demeanor, it seemed that something must have happened to them last night, and it was likely that these few had cast the seven votes for Li Wentao.

She glanced at 007 in front of her, "Isn't it normal for me to go home every night? Last night, I was taken home... I received a call at three in the morning asking me to vote. Do you guys know what happened?"

As she spoke, she looked at Li Yibai as if waiting for his reply.

Gu Mian looked at Yue Nu, who had appeared out of nowhere. He checked her player interface; her in-game nickname was indeed "Yue Nu."

So, she had been taken home yesterday. No wonder she had disappeared inexplicably.

And not only that, but Yue Nu apparently received the game's voting notification last night via a phone call, which meant that no matter where you were, you would receive the voting notification on time.

However, speaking of last night's vote...

At this point, Li Yibai's voice echoed from the side, his words increasing in volume, seemingly having found someone to confide in.

He was different from the others who had faced those instances before. The most horrifying thing in his life had been bumping into the class teacher while dating.

He was just an ordinary person, yet he was unexpectedly pulled into this bloody and terrifying game.

Engaging in a struggle of killing or being killed.

"You don't know..." Li Yibai raised his voice to Yue Nu, "It's that game, the Close Your Eyes game we played! It's still going on; the ghost is still killing! We were suddenly somewhere else last night... There were two buildings, two ominous buildings, then... Wang Pan and Li Wentao died!"

Yue Nu put on a shocked expression. Gu Mian noticed that she wasn't actually shocked, but was just pretending in front of Li Yibai.

Yue Nu widened her eyes, exclaiming, "How did this happen!? Did someone die last night? I was puzzled to hear on the phone yesterday that Li Wentao had been voted out by seven people. I didn't expect it to be because of this game... But does the person with the most votes in each round die?"

Li Yibai firmly replied, "They die! We saw him die with our own eyes!"

But just as his eager retort was about to spill out, a slightly plump middle-aged man suddenly approached.

Gu Mian saw Li Yibai, who formerly had his mouth open, suddenly shut it tight.

This seemed to be a teacher from Li Yibai's class.

Indeed, as the slightly plump middle-aged man approached, he stared at Li Yibai with a strange look, "What are you doing here? It's so late, shouldn't you be in class?"

They all knew if they told the class teacher about what happened last night, they would all be considered insane and sent home individually.

No one dared to be alone under these circumstances.

Keke and Li Yibai immediately nodded like chicks pecking at grain, not daring to retort.

Under the man's gaze, the two quickly walked away.

The middle-aged man gave the remaining Gu Mian and the others a weird look, then followed after Keke and Li Yibai.

Li Yibai, who seemed anxious, had to leave. He turned back to look at Gu Mian and the others several times, seemingly trying to sneak back.

But the middle-aged man was following them closely, giving the two no chance to break away.

Watching Keke and Li Yibai's retreating figures, 007 said, "Is it really okay to let them go like this?"

Gu Mian shook his head slightly, "Well, sooner or later we have to go to their class to find people."

Last night's absentees, Yuan Qinghua, Guo Jimei, and Zhang Pingfan, were all in the same class as Keke. They were bound to find them anyway.

With no outsiders present, Yue Nu dropped her shocked expression and turned to Gu Mian, "My name is Yue Nu. What's yours? You seem to be aware that your nickname is a bit unusual."

007 frowned at Yue Nu.

She felt like Yue Nu had some inexplicable hostility towards Gu Mian, but then she let it go, figuring that Yue Nu had probably deduced something about Gu Mian's identity.

The hostility was probably due to the thirty thousand Game Coins.

Gu Mian did not really mind Yue Nu's hostility; he just glanced at her and said, "You can call me Gu Mian."

They would have to get along with her in the instance for many days to come, and the name wasn't easily hidden anyway.

Upon hearing the reply, Yue Nu withdrew her gaze, seemingly completely oblivious to the name Gu Mian.

"By the way," Yue Nu turned to look at 007 again, "Can you tell me what happened last night? Not in too much detail, just the cause and the result will do."

007 simply said, "Last night, we were inexplicably sent to two large buildings. Pan Yue witnessed something during the process and became convinced that Li Wentao was the ghost. So at three o'clock in the morning, apart from Li Wentao himself... all of us voted for Li Wentao."

Upon hearing this, Yue Nu's face showed an expression of "just as I thought."

007 continued, "The one killed by the ghost last night... it was Wang Pan, just like us, an instance player. Pan Yue became somewhat mentally unstable after she voted and learned that Li Wentao was not a ghost, then disappeared to who knows where."

Listening to these words, Yue Nu frowned, "Besides me, who else was not teleported last night?"

007 didn't hesitate to name them, "Besides you, there were Zhang Pingfan, Guo Jimei, and Yuan Qinghua."

"You've come back to school to find us—those who weren't teleported last night—haven't you? Even though we weren't with you last night, we're still under suspicion," Yue Nu said.

Gu Mian nodded, "Correct."

Unfortunately, none of these three were in his class.

Yue Nu looked at Gu Mian again, "Did you find any clues about the ghost last night? Even though you voted for the wrong person, you should've found some clues, right? Which of the remaining ten people do you find suspicious?"

"None," Gu Mian shook his head. "Aside from Keke, every person last night had a significant amount of unaccounted time. The timelines of all individuals allowed them to carry out a murder."

Yue Nu frowned, "You guys really are…"

Gu Mian interrupted her, "Did you vote last night?"

Yue Nu seemed a bit unhappy that her words were suddenly interrupted, but she answered, "Yes, last night I…"

But before she could finish, Gu Mian saw a woman walking towards them, who seemed like a teacher.

Right now, it was school working hours, and occasionally, a few teachers passed by them.

Gu Mian ordinarily wouldn't have paid much attention to this, but at this moment, Yue Nu's expression suddenly changed, and she even stopped mid-sentence.

007's expression also changed.

Immediately after, 007 quickly spoke, "The homeroom teacher is coming. We have to go back to class. I'll go check if Pan Yue returned to school. When shall we meet back up?"

Li Wentao from their class had already been killed. His body could be discovered at any time, and in the meantime, neither of them could draw any attention with unusual behavior, or they would be easily suspected.

If they ended up becoming suspects, they might get detained for twenty-four hours.

The instance was always changing rapidly. No one knew what could happen in those twenty-four hours.

Gu Mian pondered for a moment, "We won't delay for too long. We'll come find you after the first class ends."

"Okay." 007 nodded lightly, then quickly left with Yue Nu.

Only Gu Mian and Chu Changge were left there at that moment.

Gu Mian looked at Chu Changge, who stood beside him, "Should we head back to the classroom?"

His deskmate, Xu Xingcheng, seemed to have something to do with this game. Gu Mian wanted to find out more about his deskmate.

Chu Changge gave a slight nod.

The two headed towards their classroom.

After they had walked a short distance, Gu Mian suddenly said, "Oh right, did you notice something?"

Chu Changge spoke in a soft voice, "Hmm, what are you talking about?"

They had now reached the ground floor of the teaching building.

Most of the students were sitting in the classrooms by now, and the floor was practically deserted.

Gu Mian continued, "Regarding the voting, last night there were eight voters and three abstentions."

He remembered that last night, he, Chu Changge, 007, Keke, Li Yibai, and Pan Yue—all six of them—voted for Li Wentao.

Li Wentao, who was nearly out of his mind, had also participated in the vote. His vote, made in anger, was for Pan Yue.

Thus, all seven present had voted.

Six votes for Li Wentao, one vote for Pan Yue.

But Li Wentao received seven votes last night. This meant that among the four who were absent, one of them had also voted for Li Wentao.

That's why Gu Mian asked Yue Nu earlier if she voted.

She did vote, but she left hastily before she could say who she voted for.

"In theory, Yue Nu should have been Li Wentao's seventh vote…"

Gu Mian suddenly fell silent.

They had already started ascending the stairs.

Chu Changge's eyeglasses flashed in the light. It was a few seconds before he said, "But you thought Yue Nu's tone didn't sound like she voted for Li Wentao, right?"

Exactly.

Gu Mian nodded.

Yue Nu's statements, such as "I was baffled yesterday when I heard on the phone that Li Wentao got seven votes" and "Although you voted for the wrong person," completely lacked any implication that she had also voted for Li Wentao.

So, it's very likely she voted for someone else.

"But we knew that there were only eight people who voted last night," Gu Mian frowned, "the seven of us plus Yue Nu makes eight. But if she didn't vote for Li Wentao, who cast the seventh vote for him?"