"An accident turned me into an Amazonian Laser Tarantula, but instead of enjoying the pampered life of an exotic pet, I was forced to fight and kill all manner of venomous insects in a Gu-raising livestream."
"It all started when that meteorite fell on our school."
"It opened the door to a new world — one interwoven with the unspeakable, the eldritch, and highly advanced intelligent machinery."
"Oh, right. My name is Bai Jie. My good friends call me Jie-ge, and the ones with a death wish call me..."
"Of course, you may also invoke my honored name: The Body and Avatar of the Primordial Night; The Mysterious Sovereign Who Rules Over Thunder and Lightning; The Color from the Stars; The Spider God Who Weaves the World's Web."
"I will answer — if I am not slumbering, that is."
...
It was the sweltering summer break, but plenty of students still remained on campus.
Inside the Xingchuan University cafeteria, two young men were discussing campus ghost stories.
"I've always believed that every story, in one way or another, actually happened. What about you?" Bai Jie said.
"Maybe." Chen Zhang sat across from him, shoveling rice into his mouth, noncommittal.
At Xingchuan University, three campus legends circulated.
The first legend was about a senior who, bullied by classmates and abandoned by a scumbag boyfriend, committed suicide in a classroom.
But her spirit continued to live on campus, going about life and studies like any ordinary student — she'd even make friends with people.
If anyone discovered her true identity, she would kill that person and keep playing the role of a dutiful student.
Perhaps the classmate sitting right next to you is that very senior in disguise.
The second eerie tale concerned the madman roaming the overpass outside the school gate.
Legend had it he was originally a graduate-track student at Xingchuan University, expelled for peeping in the women's restroom. Hammered by online backlash, he eventually turned into something barely human.
He wandered the overpass nursing a grudge, waiting for a chance to settle scores.
The third legend took place in the women's dormitory. Every night, someone would leave their room to rummage through the hallway trash bins, scavenging for food.
They would mutter under their breath: "Why am I hungry again..."
Whenever the dorm supervisor or a brave girl followed the sound to investigate, they never found anything.
...
As they talked, neither of the two looked excited or frightened — instead, their expressions were rather subdued.
"You think maybe A Xiao discovered that senior's ghost and that's why he went missing?" Bai Jie suddenly asked.
Chen Zhang curled his lip. "That first legend about the senior has been around for over a decade, and it's not just our school — lots of schools have different versions."
"I think A Xiao's disappearance has something to do with that meteorite." Chen Zhang lowered his voice.
Both Chen Zhang and Bai Jie were second-year students at Xingchuan University, roommates, and got along well.
If nothing went wrong, they'd follow the same path as most college students: graduate, work, marry, have kids, and eventually return to the earth.
But just a month ago, something happened at Xingchuan University that shook the entire nation — a massive meteorite fell from the sky and plunged into the campus artificial lake.
According to eyewitnesses, an instant before the meteorite struck, it lit up more than half the city with blinding radiance. After hitting the lake, the entire surface shimmered with a pink-purple glow.
It was as eerie as it was beautiful.
At the time, no one imagined that after that meteorite fell, students would start vanishing from Xingchuan University one after another.
Among the missing was A Xiao from the class next to Bai Jie's — Bai Jie's good buddy.
As of now, four people had disappeared in total — and bear in mind, this was within a single month!
Xingchuan University hadn't seen a student disappearance in many years.
Panic spread quickly.
Naturally, the authorities connected the coincidental timing to the meteorite, but they had no way to investigate further.
Because, according to whispers going around, the meteorite vanished into thin air the very next day after the research team hauled it away — though officially, the authorities had always denied this.
Furthermore, the missing students had left behind not a single trace.
Before their disappearances, none had displayed any abnormal behavior; both their psychological and physical states could be described as healthy.
If you had to name something all the missing had in common, it was that they were all male students at Xingchuan University.
So now, guys like Bai Jie and Chen Zhang were on edge — it felt like the wind carried whispers of danger, and every man had to watch his own back.
To many people's surprise, the school still hadn't imposed a campus lockdown, only tightening management of off-campus personnel entering the grounds.
"A Xiao finally mustered up the nerve to pursue a senior, and now he ends up missing. Damn it all." Bai Jie said bitterly.
"A senior?" Chen Zhang put down his chopsticks, puzzled.
"Senior Zheng Yueling from our department. I'm working on a project with her, and since we were short on hands, I brought A Xiao into the project team, too."
"After that, A Xiao had his eye on her. I even played matchmaker for them."
Chen Zhang frowned at that. "A Xiao? The guy barely talks — he had the guts to go after a senior?"
Bai Jie's phone suddenly buzzed. He opened it, saw something, and his eyes went wide.
"What is it?"
"Check the class group chat."
Chen Zhang opened the class group — the one without any teachers in it — and saw the following exchange:
Class Monitor: [I just heard something terrifying. Don't spread it outside.]
Others:
[What is it? (confused face)]
[Just spit it out, then I'll decide whether to spread it or not (doge)]
[Is it about the disappearances? (terrified)]
Class Monitor: [Well... I heard that before he went missing, A Xiao from the class next door was with Senior Zheng Yueling, and they even went to her rented place off campus.]
Others:
[Whoa! Guess you can't judge a book by its cover.]
[? And then?]
[That's... well, at least he went out with a bang, but you're not saying A Xiao's disappearance has something to do with Senior Zheng Yueling, are you?]
Class Monitor: [I didn't say that. I'm just telling you the facts. I wouldn't dare draw conclusions.]
At this, Bai Jie typed into the group: [Is your source reliable? How do you prove it?]
Class Monitor: [My uncle works for the Yongan City Criminal Investigation Department. Based on A Xiao's last phone location, they confirmed that before he disappeared, A Xiao went to Senior Zheng Yueling's house.]
"Holy crap!"
Chen Zhang and Bai Jie exclaimed simultaneously, drawing glances from others in the cafeteria.
The other classmates who'd seen the Class Monitor's message were also reeling. For a long moment, no one said another word in the group.
An awkward silence settled over the class chat.
Bai Jie stared at the screen, his fingers trembling slightly, then typed a line and hit send.
Bai Jie: [Did the Criminal Investigation Department find anything else?]
After a while, the Class Monitor replied: [No...]
[People from the CID and the school both went to Zheng Yueling's rented place to investigate and questioned her, but they didn't find any clues at all.]
[And they also found no evidence that Senior Zheng Yueling had any motive.]
[A Xiao just vanished into thin air — exactly the same as the three students before him.]
At that point, another classmate asked: [Why did your uncle tell you all this?]
Bai Jie and Chen Zhang were curious about that too.
Class Monitor: [Because... he warned me to keep my distance from Senior Zheng Yueling, regardless of whether she's a suspect. I figured everyone should know, for your own safety.]
Others:
[That's a bit of a stretch.]
[Could it be a glitch in the GPS satellites? Ever since the meteorite fell, signals have been acting weird.]
[I think it's a misunderstanding too. Remember when we started school, Senior Zheng was the one who welcomed us freshmen? (pout)]
The Class Monitor said nothing more.
After that, the group chat erupted in speculation and discussion, tying together the campus legends and the meteorite.
Bai Jie locked his phone and looked up at Chen Zhang. Unsurprisingly, he saw deep confusion mirrored in the other's eyes.
Why had the Class Monitor posted all of that in the group?
A group with over thirty people — no matter how much you reminded or warned them, it was foreseeable that the rumor about Senior Zheng would inevitably leak out.
And combined with the backdrop of the school's first campus legend, the rumor was bound to generate even more buzz.
Bai Jie sighed and said to Chen Zhang, "Probably because the Class Monitor and Senior Zheng had some bad blood."
"Oh." Chen Zhang nodded. "What the Class Monitor said should be true, though. Because yesterday, I saw people from the CID talking to Senior Zheng."
Bai Jie's face stiffened.
Chen Zhang added, "And the Class Monitor probably wouldn't dare make up rumors. That's grounds for disciplinary action, unless she doesn't care about her grad school recommendation."
"Next, the CID will probably want to ask you some questions, right? Since you were in the same project group as A Xiao."
Bai Jie nodded. "Yeah, the school already notified me. This afternoon I'm going to the Administration Building to be questioned."
...
That afternoon, Bai Jie did in fact see agents from the Criminal Investigation Department at the Administration Building.
After a conversation where he held nothing back, Bai Jie left the building alone.
"Judging by the agent's reaction, I don't think I provided any useful leads."
"A Xiao, where could you be right now?" Bai Jie murmured.
Suddenly, his phone rang.
Bai Jie looked — it was a message from Senior Zheng Yueling:
[Little Jiejie, the teacher's project wraps up the day after tomorrow, and school's about to start. Let's go see a movie tonight to celebrate?]
[(playful) (tongue out)]
Inexplicably, Bai Jie's heart clenched tight.