Chapter 68: The Bathroom and the Storage Room, Choose One

Lu Yuan walked into the towering black building before him.

The structure was immense.

However, guided by Xia Hai's instructions, Lu Yuan easily located the principal's office.

Yet, standing outside the office door, Lu Yuan did not knock immediately.

"I have two choices right now."

"One is to knock and go inside."

"The other is to find a room, sleep to log out, and return to the real world to rest and regroup."

Lu Yuan's gaze flickered slightly.

He could leave the Spectral Dream World at any time now. He had already completed the television's assigned task of arriving at Mingzhi Elementary School within the stipulated time. As long as he found a place to sleep, he could return to reality.

A sense of apprehension stirred in Lu Yuan's heart.

To be honest, he felt a lingering fear toward Mingzhi Elementary School.

This wasn't merely the product of his own inner terror; every single specter he had encountered so far had exhibited genuine fear of Mingzhi Elementary School.

If even specters feared this place, let alone a living human like Lu Yuan.

After hesitating for a long time, Lu Yuan decided to log out and rest first.

He needed to clear his mind, organize his current train of thought, and take advantage of various resources in the real world to investigate Mingzhi Elementary School.

The Spectral Dream World and the real world were both antithetical and interconnected.

Since Mingzhi Elementary School was such a perilous forbidden zone within the dream world, earth-shattering events must have occurred there in reality.

Minor incidents were difficult to trace.

Major events, however, would always leave behind traces.

Lu Yuan glanced to his left and right, then walked down the corridor where the office was located, inspecting the rooms one by one.

"There are many rooms on the fifth floor."

"Most of them lack any identification signs."

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the entire fifth floor ought to fall within the principal's office domain, and the other rooms were not being used by specters.

However, two rooms bore distinct labels.

The room right in front of Lu Yuan and another room at the very end of the corridor both had wooden plaques hanging on their doors.

These two rooms did not look particularly unusual.

One was a utility room.

The other was a restroom.

What baffled Lu Yuan slightly was why, with the principal as the sole occupant of the entire fifth floor, the restroom was located as far away from the office as possible.

Of course, Lu Yuan knew he had fallen back into the logical trap of a normal person.

This was the Spectral Dream World; he could not use normal reasoning from the real world to deduce things here. In this realm, specters had no need to use the restroom.

Lu Yuan should not have been wondering about the distance; rather, he should have been questioning why there was even a restroom on the fifth floor.

"A choice between two."

Lu Yuan needed to pick a relatively safe spot to sleep.

Aside from the principal's office, the restroom and the utility room were the most suitable options. The other unmarked rooms were best left untouched.

The unknown was perilous.

Especially in the Spectral Dream World, this maxim held more truth than ever.

Lu Yuan did not hesitate for long before choosing the utility room, primarily because a flood of terrifying imagery associated with restrooms instantly surfaced in his mind, triggering a subconscious aversion.

In almost every horror film, the frequency of a restroom's appearance nearly rivaled that of the protagonist.

Clearly, restrooms were never auspicious places.

Lu Yuan slowly pushed open the door to the utility room. Contrary to his expectations of thick dust and grime, the interior was exceptionally clean.

It looked... as though someone frequented it.

This utility room didn't look like a utility room at all; it resembled someone's private chamber. Instead of cluttered debris, it was clean, tidy, and orderly.

Lu Yuan frowned slightly.

Had he made the wrong choice?

Should he... retreat and choose the restroom instead?

It was utterly unreasonable for a utility room to be kept this immaculate, and why would any specter care so much about cleanliness?

Lu Yuan conducted a brief inspection and grew increasingly convinced that someone definitely lived in this room, and it was cleaned regularly.

"Whoever can live here must have a very close relationship with the principal."

"The wooden plaque reading 'Utility Room' hanging outside is clearly meant to conceal the room's actual contents and layout."

"The person living here is likely someone the principal is hiding."

Lu Yuan's gaze flickered.

The principal's method of hiding someone wasn't particularly clever.

The plaque outside actually stood out quite prominently among the unmarked rooms, easily drawing unwanted attention.

There was only one explanation.

The principal of Mingzhi Elementary School was dead certain that no one would ever dare come to the fifth floor.

"Who could the person hidden here be?"

Lu Yuan found no relevant clues.

A moment later, Lu Yuan contemplated retreating.

This utility room was clearly not a safe save point. If he logged out here, there was a good chance he would come face-to-face with a specter the moment he logged back in tomorrow.

Lu Yuan had no desire to experience a jump scare.

With that thought in mind, the restroom didn't seem so unacceptable after all.

While the restroom might harbor a specter, this utility room definitely did. Between a fifty percent chance and a hundred percent chance, anyone would choose the former.

Just as Lu Yuan intended to step out of the utility room, a sound of footsteps echoed from the stairwell.

The footsteps were heading toward the fifth floor.

Lu Yuan cursed under his breath.

How unlucky!

He had actually run into such a low-probability event.

When he had come up earlier, he hadn't seen a single specter and had even waited outside for a while before choosing a room.

Nothing had gone wrong during that prolonged wait, yet the moment he prepared to leave the utility room, a specter arrived.

"Once I get back to the real world, I really need to go pay my respects at a temple." Lu Yuan felt his luck had plummeted so drastically that he might as well have "bad luck" tattooed across his forehead.

Lu Yuan dared not go out.

If he stepped outside now, he would most likely collide head-on with the ascending specter.

The best course of action was to hide first. Once all was quiet outside, he would attempt to leave the utility room and head for the restroom.

Lu Yuan pressed himself against the door, pressing his ear directly to the wooden panel.

After ascending the stairs, the footsteps paused, the sound vanishing for so long that Lu Yuan almost believed the hallway was empty.

The next second, the footsteps resumed.

This time, they were heading straight for the utility room.

Lu Yuan's expression turned grim.

Could he really be this unfortunate?

Out of a choice between the restroom and the utility room, he had managed to pick the absolute most dangerous one. Lu Yuan felt like crying.

Lu Yuan held his breath. He could no longer afford to hide behind the door; the utility room door opened inward, and the wall was right behind it. The moment the door was pushed open, he would be instantly exposed.

Lu Yuan kicked off his shoes, his bare feet treading silently on the floorboards as he cautiously crept toward the wardrobe.

There was no other choice!

The utility room wasn't large.

There were only two places to hide: the wardrobe or under the bed.

Much like his aversion to the restroom, Lu Yuan subconsciously rejected the space beneath the bed, naturally steering toward the wardrobe.

Just as Lu Yuan successfully concealed himself inside the wardrobe, the door to the utility room was pushed open...