“Kill her!”

Their bodies listed like broken scarecrows, uniforms blotched like rain-soaked bark. Zhong Qiangwei and Li Yao screamed like hawks, claws angling for Nana Toki’s throat, eager to end her in a heartbeat.

“Courting death.”

Her calm was winter water. She lifted the Colossal Axe like a rising moon. Her eyes sharpened like a blade. In a thunder-quick arc, the weapon crashed down on Zhong Qiangwei’s skull.

“Ah!”

The scream sliced the air like torn silk. The dorm boiled over like a kettle. Bone-cold yin wind blasted from Qiangwei’s body like knives. Curtains snapped and glass jittered like cicadas. The shut door groaned like a haunted hull.

“Not dead?”

Nana Toki watched the flickering wraith tear around the room like a storm-tossed sparrow. A frown gathered like mountain fog. She hadn’t expected such stubborn life in that shade. That strike should’ve pulped a peak revenant like a rotten log. Why did a mere common ghost eat it like gristle? She had no ties to the male or female lead—cannon fodder, a leaf in a stream. Was this body’s durability thin as paper?

She lifted her gaze, cool as moonlight, and met Qiangwei’s venomous stare. The ghost dove like a hawk, claws out to pierce and hollow. The shriek was a nail on glass, almost knocking Xiaoxiao Ji out cold like a doused candle.

“Oh? Still coming?”

Her tone stayed flat, a windless lake. Her grip tightened, sinew coiled like a bowstring. She swung. Just as the axe-edge kissed those claws—boom. Ink-black clouds crouched over the roof, and lightning cracked it like a drum.

In that flash, Qiangwei’s hate-charge broke like ice. She saw something awful, a tiger behind bamboo. She screamed and tried to retreat like a crab to its shell. Too late. An unseen force wrapped her like spider silk. She hit the dorm’s boundary like a bird to glass. Her body swelled, skin ballooning like a bloated frog. The air shivered; space keened like metal. Nana Toki felt the plot skew, a river bending under wind. Then Qiangwei popped with a sharp puff, a balloon under winter sun. The yin shockwave lifted the dorm like a reed mat in a gale. At the wall’s jagged hole, Nana Toki nearly blew out like a leaf.

“Damn, there’s even a self-destruct?”

She fished out an Amber Talisman, half-torn like a dead chrysanthemum. She rolled her eyes, dry as dust. She turned to hunt the other ghost that had spooked Xiaoxiao like a barn swallow. The room lay wrecked, a battlefield after rain. Li Yao was gone, vanished like mist.

Nothing more to say—just a stone in a well. This reeked of a backstage hand, a puppeteer behind the screen. She’d felt it the moment she entered, chill like ash. The lower three floors had walls cracked like fire-baked clay. Yet Xiaoxiao Ji, Lu Ming, and Teacher Bai walked in blind, eyes like covered lamps. If she hadn’t used a Talisman to hide her breath like smoke, those two wouldn’t have shown so easily.

“Alright. It’s over. Up you go.”

She helped Xiaoxiao Ji to her feet, gentle as a spring reed. That pallid face pricked her heart like a thorn. Annoyance rose, a red ember under snow. Damn it—my treasure I won’t let cry was made to weep by two shades. If not for the situation, she’d dig their graves and salt the ground. If my Nesting Phoenix gets scared stupid, can those two pay that debt like rain to dry soil?

System: “...”

“Sis Ling Jiang…”

Xiaoxiao trembled like a rabbit, clinging to Nana Toki’s chest like a child to a quilt. “Sis Ling Jiang… I saw my roommate turn into a ghost… sob sob… sob sob… kawaii—”

Nana Toki: “…”

Was this real fear, or a tease like a cat’s paw? She let the girl fumble, a willow under light rain. When Xiaoxiao’s breath steadied like warm tea, Nana Toki asked what had happened.

When she’d sensed trouble, she’d suspected Director Chen, a fox at the granary. Dorm allocations were his furrows. But reaching his office, the smell was lure-the-tiger-from-the-mountain, bait on a hook. The school’s master behind the curtain was also—silence like a dropped bead.

“I’ve got the picture. Your two roommates are what you think—embodiments of the campus tale.” She flicked on the light, a gold coin in fog, and laid it out. “Didn’t you notice? When Zhong Qiangwei and Li Yao told you the tale, they spoke like bystanders watching rain. That means someone lived it, or told them in full like tea talk. The second is slim, a thread in a storm. They said they were your classmates. A newcomer digging a foreign school in one day for so many complete details? That’s like fishing the moon from water. So they were lying. They are the tale, masks on the wall.”

“Now that Sis Ling Jiang crushed those two, we’re safe, right?” Xiaoxiao stuck close, three steps like a tether.

“Safe? Not likely.” Nana Toki shook her head, a pine shedding snow. “Qiangwei turned into a legend because this place already holds grime like soot. With Qiangwei and Li Yao gone, the things in the dark will seek us like wolves to lamb.”

She didn’t want to spook her, a candle in wind, but truth is truth, stone-hard. They couldn’t pass the first night like a calm lake. Six more days loomed like mountains. Confidence wasn’t lacking; her strength stood like iron. But even a fierce beast naps, lids heavy as clouds. Even with her never-leaving guard like a shadow, a nest in a ghost den gets drafts. For Nesting Phoenix, she wanted zero slips, a string taut. Ninety-nine percent safe is still a crack; she wanted a hundred, lacquer-sealed.

“Seems… I really did take out the ghost school’s master behind the screen…”

“Huh? Sis Ling Jiang, did you say you were taking someone out?” Curled in her arms like a kitten, Xiaoxiao caught the whisper like wind in bamboo.

“It’s nothing. For the next few days, stick to me. No wandering.” She gave a gentle head pat, fingers cool as moonlight.

Xiaoxiao: “…” This was you leaving me behind, a kite cut loose. Still, the touch eased her, warmth like a brazier. Yes—safety blooms near the ghost-sister, a willow’s shade.

“Alright. Before the Protagonist Lord shows up, let’s clear one more thorn.” Feeling the tide right, Nana Toki pulled out a fan of Amber Talismans, fluttering like yellow leaves. She pasted them on Xiaoxiao one by one, neat as scales. She placed only one on Zhao Yue, a single petal.

“Eh? Another problem?” Watching charms stack like autumn papers on her, while Zhao Yue got one like a stamp, Xiaoxiao’s mouth twitched like a fish. Why all the yellow papers for me, and just one for Yueyue?

“When that guy told you the hanging girl tale, didn’t Dorm 411 have someone calling her name like night wind? And your friend just had an ‘accident’ in the bathroom, a puddle under a locked door. I suspect there’s another ‘person’ in this room, a mirror on the wall.” She smoothed the last Talisman, satisfied like a craftsman at dusk. “Don’t worry. With all these charms, as long as you don’t court death like a moth to flame, you’ll be fine.”

Xiaoxiao: “…” Ghost-sis, when you say it like that, fear blooms like frost.

“Anyway, wait for my good news.”

Ding—! Side Mission II triggered: Mirror Person.

Mission: Unravel the true face of the hanging girl legend at Longvine Academy.

Ding—! With the hanging ghost slain, difficulty drops like rain after drought; you gain one free hint, a lantern in fog.

Ding—! Hint: At 3:32 a.m., in a sealed restroom, the mirror can show your other-world self, a river beyond glass.

Ding—! As the Main Mission hasn’t triggered for long in this plane, a selectable Side Mission countdown begins, a sandglass turning. Prepare yourself. Time left: 23:59:59.

A string of System prompts chimed like bells through mist. Floating into the bathroom like drifting ash, Nana Toki paused, brows lifting like wings. No Main Mission triggered? A selectable Side Mission? Strange, a stone in the shoe. Usually the main quest pops the moment you arrive, a drumbeat at the gate. This time it wants me to knock first, door like a temple. And what is that selectable side mission, a coin toss in rain? Any stat points, luck like clover?

She slid out her phone, black mirror like a pond, and checked the time. 3:32 a.m., numbers cold as stars. Looks like there’s still a stretch, a path under moonlight.