Chapter 51 Do You Like It Too

The first ray of morning sunlight fell upon Huan Xiao's face.

She opened her eyes to find three girls leaning over her, examining her closely.

Do not be fooled by their human-like appearances right now; their true faces were terrifying enough to make anyone scream for their mother.

"Xiao Huan, are you imitating how humans sleep?"
the loose-haired ghost asked in confusion.

It was utterly bewildered as to why Huan Xiao hadn't moved at all after lying down the previous night.

"What else would I do? We can't do anything else anyway."
Huan Xiao sat up nonchalantly.

The braided ghost looked at her with intense curiosity and said,
"You look so much like a human when you sleep. If your ghost Qi hadn't beaten me up, I almost would've thought you were a human disguised as a ghost."

It conveniently forgot why it had been thrashed by the ghost Qi swirling around Huan Xiao in the first place; had it not tried to absorb the ghost energy radiating from her, it wouldn't have suffered a backlash.

The twin-tailed ghost rolled its eyes, its pupils rolling all the way back into its skull, which looked extremely frightening.

Huan Xiao clapped her hands to shoo them away and said,
"Aren't you going to the cafeteria? It's open now."

"Waiting for you to come with us,"
replied the loose-haired ghost, whose appearance was indistinguishable from a human's.

Ever since Huan Xiao helped it pick up its dropped eyeball, it had grown increasingly friendly toward her.

"You guys go ahead, I have things to do."
Huan Xiao hopped out of bed and began to wash up.

The three ghosts departed while she was searching for her toothbrush cup. They had probably stayed behind earlier simply out of curiosity to see when exactly Huan Xiao would wake up.

After changing back into her school uniform, Huan Xiao headed out to buy breakfast.

This time, the woman running the food stall noticed Huan Xiao's school uniform.

Previously, the ghost school's emblem had been obscured by Huan Xiao's hair, making the uniform look like an ordinary casual jacket without it.

Now that the emblem was exposed, the stall owner asked out of curiosity,
"Young lady, you're a student, right? Why are you still wearing your school uniform during the holidays?"

Huan Xiao casually pointed out a few breakfast items for the vendor to pack and replied,
"A school uniform is just clothes, and clothes are meant to be worn."

"Hahaha, my kid hates wearing the school uniform. Once the holidays start, they don't even want to look at it. You're such a good girl, your parents must have it so easy."

After finishing, the stall owner seemed to remember something and said to Huan Xiao,

"Today is Teachers' Day, but since it's a holiday, we've been agonizing over what gifts to give the teachers."

"You can just give them when you get back to school. I'm sure the teachers won't mind,"
Huan Xiao replied.

She hadn't expected today to be Teachers' Day in this world, and coincidentally, she was right in the middle of a school-themed game.

...Shouldn't she also politely prepare a small gift? After all, Teacher Chen had been quite nice to her.

Taking the breakfast handed to her by the vendor, Huan Xiao didn't head straight back to school. Instead, she ran to a gift shop and bought a greeting card and some ribbons.

By the time Huan Xiao returned to the school grounds, she had finished eating her breakfast.

Realizing she still had plenty of time, she took out the 'One-Eyed Human Skin Bear' from her storage compartment and wrapped it up neatly using the materials she had bought.

In truth, she had no idea what to give, but her storage compartment contained nothing suitable for gifting, aside from the human-skin bear and a rose-heart wallet.

She decided this would have to do—it was the thought that counts, and besides, ghosts surely must like things made of human skin.

Thus, taking advantage of the time before morning classes began, Huan Xiao carried the human-skin bear toward the teachers' office.

Unsurprisingly, Teacher Chen was inside.

Huan Xiao placed the human-skin bear directly onto Teacher Chen's desk.

Meeting Teacher Chen's puzzled gaze, Huan Xiao said,
"Today is Teachers' Day. To thank Teacher Chen for looking after me, I wanted to give you a gift."

"...Teachers' Day, today?"

A strange flicker of emotion crossed Teacher Chen's eyes before she smiled and said,
"This is the first time I've ever received a gift from a student... The final exams are in two days, but I won't go easy on you just because you gave me a present."

"That's not necessary. I believe my own strength is enough to pass the final exams."

Huan Xiao was brimming with confidence. She was gradually coming to understand the knowledge of this world and trusted she would score a passing grade on the finals.

Teacher Chen made no comment on this, accepted the gift, and promptly chased Huan Xiao out of the office.

Huan Xiao remained completely calm as she was ushered out. Ghosts were notoriously fickle; as long as the gift was delivered, that was all that mattered.

Aside from her wallet, everything else in her storage grid was items she had prepared to give to people or ghosts, just to clear up space in her inventory.

She hadn't walked far from the office before she spotted Shen Quan and his remaining lackey.

However, only one of his followers was left now.

"Morning, classmate Xiao Huan."

Although Shen Quan greeted her with a smile, his complexion was hideous.

He wasn't smiling because he was glad to see Huan Xiao; rather, it was because he had eaten a human-meat bun from the cafeteria at Lin Long's recommendation, and now his stomach was in agony.

What had happened was this:

Zhang Si and Xiao Wei had triggered the death conditions and died last night, leaving only Lin Long by Shen Quan's side today.

Counting the two of them, there were only five players left in the ghost school now. This was the conclusion Shen Quan had reached.

Because the food provided for humans in the cafeteria was utterly disgusting, Shen Quan refused to take another bite. Noticing Shen Quan's aversion, Lin Long had volunteered,
"Why don't we eat the ghost students' meals instead? Our lives are already hanging by a thread, why should we care whether what we put in our mouths is human meat or pork?"

These words struck a chord with Shen Quan, as he had been thinking the exact same thing.

Consequently, Shen Quan and Lin Long calmly went to the ghost window to collect their breakfast.

Shen Quan had made Lin Long take a bite of the human-meat bun first, waiting about ten minutes to ensure there were no issues before eating his own.

Though such a tactic would undoubtedly hurt Lin Long's feelings, Shen Quan no longer cared to hide it.

In just a single day, more than half of the players had already died, which showed that the difficulty of clearing this ghost school was extremely high.

Shen Quan knew full well that the longer he stayed in the game, the more dangerous it became. He needed Lin Long to act as a poison-tasting canary.

One had to admit, the ghosts' breakfast tasted far better than human food, and Shen Quan had instantly fallen in love with the flavor.

Yet, for some reason, ever since eating that human-meat bun, he felt a terrible discomfort throughout his entire body, as if a hand were clawing wildly inside his stomach, frequently making him feel nauseous.

When he asked Lin Long, however, Lin Long claimed he hadn't experienced any such symptoms...

Brought back to the present, Shen Quan could no longer endure it; he clutched his stomach and squatted down.

Huan Xiao asked with genuine perplexity,
"Did something you ate go bad? Do you want to go check the school infirmary?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, she remembered she had no idea if an infirmary even existed here.

At the very least, she hadn't seen one yesterday.

"N... no,"
Shen Quan managed to wave a hand in feeble refusal.

They were standing not far from the classroom when the three ghosts—the twin-tailed ghost and the other two—finished their breakfast and returned. Catching sight of Shen Quan squatting on the ground, the twin-tailed ghost first sniffed the air around him, then said with a strange expression:

"He ate the cafeteria's ghost-hand buns."

"...He ate the cafeteria's ghost-hand buns?"

The loose-haired ghost's eyeball popped right out of its socket again. Huan Xiao casually caught it and pressed it back into place for them.

Meanwhile, the braided ghost looked as though it had found a kindred spirit and asked excitedly,
"Do you also love the sensation of having your organs poked to pieces? I thought I was the only one!"