The young women politely declined back and forth for a while before finally selecting one to 'receive the guest.'

[Successfully matched to instance 'Close Your Eyes (High-Spec Version)']

[Matching teammates for you now, please wait…]

"Close Your Eyes?" Gu Mian stroked his chin in the darkness. This was a murder game before the global game started, right? Similar to Werewolf. There are two factions: werewolves and civilians. Werewolves kill at night, and civilians vote others out during the day. Whichever side is wiped out first loses... But why does the name of this instance seem so familiar?

Suddenly, Fatty chimed in from the side, "I remember that instance, Doctor. Do you recall the shutdown list of extra-long instances after the New Year's Day event?"

The shutdown list of extra-long instances...

Now that Fatty mentioned it, Gu Mian suddenly recalled. You mean... there was a low-spec version of 'Close Your Eyes' on that shutdown list?

At this point, Chu Changge also spoke up, "That's right."

Fatty ducked his head. Could these two instances be related?

It looked like the younger brother had been taken down, and now the elder brother was out for revenge.

At this moment, a few lines of text appeared in front of Gu Mian.

[Instance Size: 6 Players]

[Synopsis: 'Close Your Eyes' is a game that swept through countless high schools. Six players will take on the roles of students who previously played this game. After these six individuals played the game, a series of bizarre incidents began to follow.]

[Main Objective: Ensure the 'Ghost' is eliminated.]

Seeing the main objective, Fatty couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion. Gu Mian might not excel at other things, but when it comes to getting the 'Ghost' eliminated...

Gu Mian didn't share Fatty's sentiment. He looked at the instance details. This instance is certainly bold, daring to set a haunted location in a school. Aren't they afraid of attracting the attention of the 'great light of socialist harmony'?

The moment Gu Mian finished speaking, light flooded in from all directions.

Every time he entered an instance, Gu Mian had to experience the environment transitioning from dark to light; he was already used to it.

Fatty still wasn't quite used to it. When the light surged in, he instinctively shielded his eyes, as if the brightness stung them.

Just as their eyes were filled with sunlight, a very familiar sentence reached their ears. Even Fatty, who hadn't been in a classroom for many years, was momentarily stunned when he heard it.

"Your P.E. teacher couldn't make it today, so I'm taking over."

A very familiar excuse.

Gu Mian instinctively looked towards the source of the voice.

He found himself in a brightly lit classroom with a row of large windows to his left. Outside, the sun was setting in the west. Its orange afterglow filtered through the clear panes, dyeing the students' pristine white uniforms a pale gold; even their hair seemed to shimmer with a warm light.

Gu Mian was seated in the second-to-last row, giving him an unobstructed view of everyone in front.

At the front, a female teacher stood on the podium. She looked quite young.

Her hair cascaded neatly down her back. Her light-mocha sweater fell to her knees, topped with a brown plaid vest, giving her a very girlish appearance.

Probably a recently graduated teacher.

After she announced the bad news that their P.E. class was being commandeered, the students at the front showed no reaction; it seemed they were already accustomed to such things.

Only Fatty, seated diagonally in front and to the right of Gu Mian, turned his head back, wiggling his eyebrows and making faces at him.

The sunset's afterglow, filtering through the window, landed on his face, making Fatty's already unremarkable features look somewhat contorted.

This rather contorted expression, naturally, also caught the teacher's eye, unpleasantly.

"Wang Pan!" Hearing the name, Gu Mian instantly knew who the teacher on the podium was addressing. "What are you wiggling your eyebrows and making faces for?"

Fatty's game nickname was 'Fat Kid Surnamed Wang'. Such a name wasn't suitable for an immersive instance, so the instance had conveniently changed it for them.

As for how to find out one's name in the instance...

Lost in thought, Gu Mian lowered his head to the Chinese textbook under his arm. He silently flipped open the cover. On the flyleaf, the large characters "Year 2, Class 5, Gu Mian" practically blinded him.

Gu Mian silently tore off this page with his name on it, crumpled it into a ball, and stuffed it into his pocket.

This instance is really going out of its way to enforce a real-name system on him!

Speaking of which, I wonder if Chu Changge can still use the name 'Meiren Chu'? As Gu Mian pondered this, he glanced around.

Just as he glanced to his side, a smiling face suddenly entered his line of sight.

"Holy shit!" Gu Mian almost swore out loud.

The teacher on the podium was still lecturing Fatty and hadn't noticed Gu Mian's unusual reaction.

At that moment, Gu Mian's eyes widened slightly as he stared at the person sitting beside him—his deskmate. That face...

"What's wrong?" His deskmate, who had been smiling with crinkled eyes, seemed to notice Gu Mian's odd behavior and was now looking at him curiously.

Gu Mian calmed down and shook his head, "Nothing."

There were no distorted facial features or terrifying blood on this face.

On the contrary, it was an exceptionally clean and ordinary face, yet it looked somewhat familiar.

Gu Mian had seen this face once before, in a previous instance, but it hadn't belonged to a player.

Gu Mian recalled seeing this face in an instance called 'High School Tales: The Spirited Away Game.' That too was a school-themed instance, and this person had been the first 'classmate' Gu Mian encountered upon entering. Back then, this same smiling face had explained the instance's particulars to him. To sum him up in one sentence: he was a somewhat useful NPC.

That Spirited Away Game instance had collapsed, unsurprisingly. But he never expected to see this person in a different instance.

Gu Mian now strongly suspected that this person beside him, whose player information was hidden, was actually a player and not an NPC.

How could an NPC appear in two different instances?

By now, the teacher had finished her "ideological guidance" with Fatty and returned to the lectern to resume her lecture.

Fatty no longer dared to turn around and make faces.

Gu Mian saw his deskmate, apparently satisfied Gu Mian was fine, lazily rest his head on the desk. Gu Mian then nonchalantly flipped open the textbook his deskmate had placed near the edge of the desk.

The flyleaf bore a few words: "Year 2, Class 5, Xu Xingcheng."

His name is Xu Xingcheng?

"Speaking of which..." Just then, his deskmate suddenly turned back. Gu Mian, with lightning-fast reflexes, snapped the book shut.

"What is it?" Gu Mian asked, feigning innocence.

Xu Xingcheng didn't seem to notice anything amiss. He lowered his voice, a curious expression on his face. "I heard that during our field trip a few days ago, you played a game with some others, right?"

He must be talking about the game 'Close Your Eyes.' Gu Mian remained silent, which Xu Xingcheng took as tacit agreement.

Seeing this, Xu Xingcheng continued, "Do you remember who the werewolf was?"

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