The child seemed completely unaware. After class, a few students approached him to chat, but he appeared very timid.
His personality was completely different from that of the other children before.
When they asked, "Where is your home?" the child immediately turned and ran away, as if they were wolves or tigers.
Watching his retreating figure, Yang Lin sighed, "He isn't cooperating at all. What should we do?"
Yu Yezhou replied, "Let’s follow him after school."
"But..." Yang Lin hesitated. "Our parents will come to pick us up."
Yu Yezhou said, "I noticed that the last class this afternoon is physical education. We can sneak out early and wait at the school gate until it’s time to go home."
"But that means we're breaking the rules."
Yu Yezhou smiled and said, "Have you ever heard the saying? Anything we’re told we can’t touch, we will eventually touch, especially the rules."
"That makes sense," Xu Yu agreed. It was challenging to unravel the mysteries within the scenario without breaking the rules.
After all, these rules were meant to restrain them.
"Alright," Yang Lin said, not insisting any further. "If you all think it’s time to break the rules, then let's do it."
The second period was math.
When the teacher entered, he didn’t start the lesson immediately but instead announced, "There will be a monthly quiz next Monday. You all should stay in this weekend to review and aim for good results."
An exam was coming.
However, none of them took it seriously.
After all, this was an elementary school. They were all adults now, and even if they struggled, they could still handle an elementary school exam.
The day passed quickly, and it was soon time for physical education class in the evening.
For the first time, they boldly headed to the playground.
Even during physical education, the teacher was overly intense; he first made them run laps around the field and then gathered them to practice calisthenics. Only ten minutes before the end of class did he announce that they could have free time.
This was the moment Gu Zhan and the others had been waiting for. They gathered in a corner to discuss how to leave the premises.
Xu Yu said, "I noticed a gap in the wall while we were running earlier. It would be quite easy to jump out."
Yang Lin also said, "From my observations, this school doesn’t have many surveillance cameras. If the copy setting isn’t a problem, then this is just an ordinary school... What if we try jumping over the wall?"
Gu Zhan was sure that this copy wasn’t based on reality, at least his parents weren’t people who would exist in real life.
However, he couldn’t figure out what was going on, so he didn’t speak, letting them take the lead.
Taking advantage of the teacher’s distraction, everyone sneaked over to the wall.
Xu Yu took the lead and successfully climbed over, then shouted to those inside, "No problem, come on out."
The second was Yang Lin, followed by Yu Yezhou—Yu Yezhou had intended to be the last one, but Gu Zhan seemed more eager to go last.
It wasn’t the time to argue, so he let Gu Zhan go.
Just as he climbed onto the wall, the teacher's voice came from behind, shouting, "What are you doing over there!"
As soon as Yu Yezhou landed, he heard the shout and quickly waved at Gu Zhan, "Hurry!"
Gu Zhan reached out swiftly, grabbing Yu Yezhou’s hand, and with two quick steps, he jumped onto the wall. Before the teacher could reach them, they quickly jumped down.
Yu Yezhou was still hanging on the wall, surprised by Gu Zhan’s clean and efficient movements, and hurriedly jumped down as well.
Once on the ground, he dusted off the dirt from his palms and said softly, "Did you bring a stamina-boosting item?"
"What stamina?" Gu Zhan retorted.
Yu Yezhou didn’t have time to explain; the four of them slipped along the wall. They stopped at a corner of the campus wall, and Yu Yezhou cautiously peeked outside, confirming that the teacher hadn’t followed before turning to Gu Zhan and saying, "I thought you moved so nimbly because you bought an item."
Gu Zhan replied, "I don’t have that many points."
Hearing this, Yu Yezhou sized him up again.
[He really hasn’t switched items? Did he complete the previous mini-game all by himself?]
[He says he has no points, but he’s so capable? How is that possible?]
[If he’s a newcomer, it’s possible he has no points.]
[??? Newcomer? With that performance, you’re calling him a newcomer?]
[Is he bragging? Using a fake name to mislead in the rankings?]
[Hehe, I came from his last livestream. I know everything, but I won’t say a word.]
[??????]
"Let’s move a bit further," Yang Lin suddenly said. "I just feel like this place isn’t safe."
Next to the school, there was a snack street with many people, making it almost impossible to be found once they went inside.
The group followed the crowd into the snack street, where they found a dessert shop with an empty table outside.
Yu Yezhou pulled out two bills from somewhere and told the owner, "We want four bowls of dessert."
"Eh?" Yang Lin asked, "Where did you get that?"
Yu Yezhou replied, "It’s leftover money from buying origami paper... I think it’s from my New Year’s money savings. I’m not sure; my family is pretty well-off, so my parents should give me some pocket money, right?"
Each of the four held a bowl of dessert, and halfway through eating, school was dismissed.
While Yang Lin was still eating, Yu Yezhou stood up and tugged at her, "Stop eating! Let’s go!"
Parents usually picked up their kids by car, and they watched as Yu Yezhou’s deskmate got into a car that sped away in a direction they couldn’t chase after.
They finally slipped out, but they lost track of him?
This wouldn’t do.
Yang Lin felt a bit anxious and asked, "What should we do? Should we take a taxi to follow him?"
"No," Yu Yezhou frowned. "We can’t let others know we’re tracking him. This small town isn’t big; the roads are full of cars. Let’s see if we can catch up."
He looked at the others, "Do any of you have items or skills that can help you catch that car?"
Gu Zhan replied, "I can."
With buildings all around the road, he could use teleportation to catch up.
"Eh?"
Gu Zhan continued, "But only I can follow… Is there any way for us to communicate with each other?"
After a moment of silence, Yu Yezhou said, "You go ahead; we’ll catch up."
"Eh?" This time, Gu Zhan looked puzzled.
But Yu Yezhou didn’t seem to want to explain.
Gu Zhan understood; this should also be his skill.
When Yu Yezhou approached him back then, his attitude was quite peculiar.
So, Gu Zhan kept his eyes on that car.
As they had suspected, there were many cars on the streets, and it wasn’t moving fast. After teleporting two or three times, Gu Zhan managed to catch up to the car.
Meanwhile, in the distance, Yang Lin and the others were keeping an eye on things.
"Did you see his movements before he teleported? It looked like he just touched the wall," Yang Lin frowned.
Yu Yezhou said, "That should be his item; he used it in the previous copy too. It’s not a secret—after enough livestreams, everyone will know... But it seemed like he also took someone with him when he teleported in the last copy."
"Taking someone with him?" Xu Yu was somewhat surprised.
"Yeah, so that’s a powerful ability, but it seems to have limitations; it must be used near a wall." Yu Yezhou frowned, trying to recall the details of the last copy. He wasn’t very sure and said, "Maybe he was just pretending for the viewers in the livestream."
Many people did this—taking useful items but deliberately making it seem like the items had limitations.
This way, they could keep a trump card in case they encountered a PVP copy, increasing their chances of winning.
After saying this, Yu Yezhou spread his hands, "It’s not a good habit to keep suspecting teammates; let’s stop analyzing."
Yang Lin had no ill intentions; she was just genuinely curious.
Since Yu Yezhou said so, she stopped talking.
After a while, Yu Yezhou suddenly said, "He’s arrived; let’s go."
The others were used to his words and followed him.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at the door of house 221-4B.
Gu Zhan said, "He went into this house."
“221-4B…” Yu Ye Zhou furrowed his brow. “That number sounds familiar.”
A moment later, he said, “It's your deskmate.”
“Ah…” Yu Ye Zhou recalled that his first deskmate was the child who had gone missing, whom the teacher referred to as “221-4B.”
“Why is that?” Yang Lin asked, confused. “Is this child… related to the one who disappeared? Why didn't he come to school before?”
The others couldn't figure it out, and in the silence, Gu Zhan suddenly said, “Maybe he’s a substitute.”
“What?” Yu Ye Zhou looked up.
Gu Zhan said calmly, “When something breaks, you naturally buy a new one to replace it. The previous one was a bad child who broke the rules, so it’s better to get a obedient one. This new 221-4B is indeed a bit more timid than the previous one.”
Yu Ye Zhou: “…”
Why say such terrifying things in such a calm tone?!
How can a person be the same as an object?
But he quickly realized that Gu Zhan's words actually had another meaning.
Here, perhaps “people” can be changed just like “objects.”
That’s why the child had no name, only a house number as a label.
“…” Yang Lin said quietly, “Does that mean we… It’s no wonder this place has so many rules.”
“Yeah.” Gu Zhan’s tone remained calm as he said, “Violating the rules might make you a bad child, and being replaced is normal.”
This idea was indeed a bit dark.
But this was a scenario; anything could happen.
Terrifyingly, they all felt that Gu Zhan made a lot of sense.
Yu Ye Zhou said, “Let’s go see what they’re doing; we’re already here.”
They went around to the back of the house, climbed over the railing, and ran to the back window to look inside.
This was the living room window; there were no curtains, so they could see inside easily.
The child numbered 221-4B had already changed his shoes and was standing next to the coffee table, while his parents sat on the couch, seemingly checking on his homework.
After a moment, the woman smiled and nodded, reaching out to pat 221-4B’s head, appearing very pleased with his performance.
Voices could be faintly heard from inside: “Did anything special happen at school today?”
221-4B didn’t seem to understand that he was just an “object.” He spoke to his parents with the reliance of any obedient child, saying, “I made a few friends today, but it was strange; they asked me where my home is.”
All of them felt a jolt in their hearts—wasn’t he talking about them?
However, the woman seemed unaware of anything wrong. She just smiled at the child and said, “Making friends is a good thing, but your main focus right now is studying; don’t get things mixed up.”
The child obediently replied to his mother, “Don’t worry, Mom, I understand. That’s why I didn’t say too much to them!”