As soon as he stepped into the West Teaching Building, the sounds of girls filled the air, alternating between laughter and crying.
A strange girl’s voice reached his ears.
“Why don’t you play games with Hanako?”
The moment Xiao Huai heard the name "Hanako," his eyebrows arched with amusement.
It turns out that the gods enjoy using Earth’s ghost stories for their games too.
Hanako in the restroom, a ghost story from Sakura Country.
According to legend, Hanako's mother was a teacher at the school. While searching for her mom, she was murdered by a wicked person in the restroom. Her restless spirit now hides in the third stall of the girls' restroom.
After her death, Hanako always sought someone to play games with. She would knock hard on the restroom door and then drag people down into the toilet to drown.
The closer Xiao Huai got to the restroom on the third floor, the louder the voices became.
When he stood at the restroom door, a voice full of anger sounded, as if displeased.
Xiao Huai acted as if he didn’t hear it and directly approached the third stall from the inside, knocking twice on the door.
The moment he began to knock, the voices abruptly stopped, and the world returned to its original silence, the air now filled with a chilling cold.
“Hanako, are you there?” he asked with a smile.
As soon as he spoke, a chilling laughter echoed from the restroom stall.
“Hehehe…”
A girl’s sharp laughter emanated, and dark long hair hung down from the ceiling.
She hung upside down like a spider from the ceiling, her red dress stained with what looked like human blood.
Her pale face wore a brilliant yet terrifying smile, and her bluish lips slowly parted, “Yes.”
With that, the restroom door suddenly slammed open from the inside, and a flurry of pale hands reached out from the endless darkness, trying to pull Xiao Huai inside.
Xiao Huai showed no intention of retreating. Instead, he rummaged through his pockets. The moment his hand emerged from his pants pocket, those hands seemed to hit an invisible wall, freezing in midair.
“Hanako, you haven’t turned in your homework.” He waved the teacher's work badge in his hand. The badge had no photo, only the name “He Lecheng” written on it.
While everyone thought he was asking He Lecheng a math question, he had secretly stolen the badge.
The student handbook, the set of rules that students must follow.
As long as they were at school, there always existed an inherent inequality between students and teachers. Even though teachers had to abide by school rules, they didn’t necessarily follow the same rules listed in the students' handbook.
“Homework?” Hanako’s voice was shrill.
“Yup.”
Xiao Huai, without a hint of embarrassment, repeated, “Hanako, you haven’t turned in your homework.”
A flash of panic crossed Hanako’s eyes. She dropped down from the ceiling, lying on the ground like an arthropod, her head twisting a full 180 degrees toward Xiao Huai while her body remained rigidly facedown.
“I don’t know what homework is.”
Xiao Huai raised an eyebrow; indeed, there existed a hierarchy here.
Only when players realized this could they exploit the rules’ hierarchy.
For example, students must obey school regulations, and once they violate them, they would meet the same fate as the bald man.
Once Hanako's game started, players had to participate, but its priority was lower than school rules, and Hanako, being a student, had to adhere to those rules even in death.
School rules > Hanako's game.
Xiao Huai knew that part of the school rules was a fabrication, but some were true, so he was gambling that the tenth rule was real.
Even if that rule was false, he wasn’t afraid of participating in Hanako’s game.
“This question.”
Xiao Huai took out his notebook and wrote down a math problem that appeared on the level test.
He had slept a bit too soundly, so he didn’t have much time to jot down the question.
Hanako took the notebook, glanced at the question, then back at Xiao Huai, feeling something was off, yet she still quietly lay on the restroom floor, diligently working on it.
However, after staring at it for quite a while, she hadn’t written a single step down. Her frustrated scratching of her head looked unexpectedly cute.
Xiao Huai squatted beside her, finding her quite obedient for the moment.
He completely ignored Hanako’s terrifying appearance and the fact that she was the horror NPC in this scenario.
He yawned lazily and casually asked, “Hanako, do many people play games with you?”
Hanako shot him a sideways glance. Why wasn’t this human scared of her? He even propped himself up on one arm to watch her do her homework...
“Of course, the older girls love to play games with me. When they’re under a lot of pressure, they come to find me.”
“Oh?” Xiao Huai raised an eyebrow. “You don’t make them jump off buildings, do you?”
“Jump off? Hanako doesn’t like jumping-off games; Hanako likes hide-and-seek. Hehe.”
As she spoke, she licked her lips, as if reminiscing about something very amusing.
“So, what are the benefits of playing games with you?”
In the dim light, his eyes watched Hanako like a snake.
Hanako paused for a moment. It was her first time hearing a human actively wanting to play games with her.
She lifted her head to look at Xiao Huai, “Hanako can let you choose the game.”
Xiao Huai smiled and leaned closer to her. “First, let me ask, how old are you this year?”
“Hanako is five years old this year.”
Xiao Huai chuckled.
A mature high school student wouldn’t start every conversation by mentioning their name unless they were acting childish or had some mental issues.
“Then I’ll choose a game; how does that sound?”
Hanako loved games, and upon hearing this, her eyes sparkled. She put down her pen and nodded eagerly, “Okay!”
Xiao Huai fished out a coin from his pocket. This coin had been in his pocket since he entered the game.
Unlike any money he remembered, this coin resembled a token from an arcade.
He told Hanako that if it landed heads, he would win, and if tails, she would lose.
“I win if it’s heads, and you lose if it’s tails.”
He softly stated those eight words. Hanako, however, didn’t quite understand, merely finding the coin beautiful; she thought probability games were fun.
“Okay!” she nodded, crawling beside Xiao Huai.
He tossed the coin casually into the air, and with the crisp sound of it striking the ground, Hanako's pupils slightly dilated, focused intently.
“Heads, I win.” Xiao Huai showed Hanako the coin.
There was no doubt; he had a 100% chance of winning this probability game.
Whether it was heads or tails, he still won.
After all, he was playing with a five-year-old child.
Thank you for your interest in our story! We want to share that it is currently in draft form and requires some editing and updates. While it isn’t ready for publication yet, we’re excited to give readers a sneak peek at our project.