Ava sat on the bed, every detail she had gathered sprawled across the notebook in an order only she could understand. Lines connected scattered words, question marks clustered in the margins, enough to signal how much was still missing. When she checked the score after returning, it had quietly risen to 36% , and new story details had been added.

A brief description followed, outlining what Ava had uncovered so far.

Yesterday, the sound of the staff’s footsteps echoed through the corridor shortly after 10 p.m. The ghost activity began about an hour later, and the level ends precisely at 1:55 a.m. Ava cannot leave her room before the first rounds finish, since the staff do not come at an exact time and might even appear quietly from the stairs rather than using the elevator. This gives her roughly three hours to reach the fifth-floor stairwell and somehow remain there without being discovered by either the ghost or the staff until she triggers the key fragment.

The fragment should reveal what happened to Janice, unless Ava has already made a mistake by staying in last night. If the incident occurred after 1:55 a.m., then her only option is to interact with the ghost and uncover the reason it lingers, raising her score to at least 40%. That way, she would only need to use the score-boost card instead of the immunity card.

The earlier rounds must have been more lenient for Janice to dare going to the boys’ floor to meet the suspected father. The likelihood of her leaving immediately after 10 p.m. is very low. There is no way no one would have noticed her injured on the stairs before 5 a.m., even if the staff used only the elevator, since the stairs would still be checked. Waiting until the first rounds end before going out is the most logical choice.

Setting a vibrating alarm for 10 p.m., she fell asleep before Mia came back, partly because she was exhausted and partly because she did not want to interact with her and risk breaking character again. When the alarm woke her, she hurried to silence it, then glanced at Mia, who was sleeping soundly, and exhaled in relief. She stayed in bed, listening for the sound of footsteps.

It did not take long. As expected, after twenty minutes the sound of the elevator echoed down the hall, followed by the sound of short heels tapping the ground in a rhythmic melody along the corridor. She listened at the door for ten minutes after the elevator closed. With 3 hours and 25 minutes left to uncover the hidden truth behind Janice’s mysterious injury, she opened the door gently.

Sitting on the floor, a small lamp fully charged at her side, she waited another minute before carefully stepping outside, leaving the door slightly open.

She moved along the wall like she had the night before, steady but quick, her feet touching the ground in thick socks that barely made a sound. She climbed the stairs one step at a time, slow and careful, almost like a toddler. She reached the fourth floor, but as she started toward the fifth, she heard a muted cough.

She froze, then retreated to the fourth floor, pressing herself against the wall like a lizard and holding her breath. Spotting a large, wide-branched potted plant in the corner, she slid toward it, hiding and turning off her lamp. The sound of her heartbeat thundered in her ears as her eyes stayed fixed on the entrance. A few seconds later, a tall figure came into view.

She exhaled in relief. The figure brought light to the dim surroundings, and the bright sign above his head read Player 7.

Still, she didn’t leave her hiding spot. He glanced around and moved stealthily deeper into the floor. The soft click of a door closing reached her ears. She didn’t want to waste time waiting to make sure he was really gone—after all, he was just a player; he couldn’t hurt her directly.

She stood up, about to leave, when a voice suddenly said, “Hey.”

She almost jumped in place, realizing she had been tricked, she patted her chest to calm her racing heart. Ignoring him, she tried to leave the floor, but he called out again, “What about we exchange clues?”

She paused and turned to look at him. The system had said they could help each other or even work together. She weighed the decision carefully then asked, “What do you want to know, and what do you have for me?”

“Did you meet the ghost yesterday? Did it kill you? As for what I can provide, I can tell you who planted the virus in the surveillance system.”

She frowned. “Are you sure that’s relevant to the story?”

“Oh, yes. Why would someone suddenly shut down all surveillance in the dormitory if they weren’t hiding something big? If it were just about students sneaking out now and then, they could disable the cameras catching them, or better yet, loop the footage. It would be far safer and more discreet. Why take down surveillance for the entire building?”

“We’ll write down what we know in a message and send it at the same moment. You better be giving the right name.”

He nodded, and they both started interacting with the game panel. Ava wrote what had happened to her after going out the previous night, not a word more. He finished before she did and waited.

“Let’s count to three and hit send.”

They counted quietly. One. Two. Three.

She hit send, and at that same moment, she heard the system chime.

Player 7 has sent you a private message.

Opening the message, she wasn’t shocked by the photo he had sent. It was the student who had left the building quickly after hearing the others bring up the subject of the baby. He had definitely shut down the surveillance because Janice went to find him, and he did not want anyone to know.

When Ava opened the story details, the score rose to 39%.

 1% more, and she would only need the score boost card to pass the level.

 The name Alan had been added to the characters column. She had not noticed it before. There was even Professor Gill’s name, but how was he relevant to the story? Technically, a character had to be active to be mentioned.

Player 7 turned to leave right after receiving the message, but Ava didn’t. She moved deeper into the corridor, scanning for a possible hiding spot in case she needed to avoid the staff or the infant ghost, though she doubted the latter would fail to find her.

Unfortunately, there were none. The chairs in the sitting area and the tables were far from discreet. The toilets were a definite no. The laundry room was a possibility, but it was far from the entrance. She would have to run for it and hide behind the soap vending machine. That meant the moment she heard a sound from the stairs, she would need to move as fast as possible while making the least amount of noise.

The fifth floor was probably the same, but she had to check anyway. Slowly climbing the stairs, she stopped at the entrance, straining to catch any sound. The ghost would be appearing soon. If only there were a room she could hide in on the fifth floor, since it could not enter students’ rooms.

She entered slowly, sticking close to the wall. Even the lamp stayed off, leaving only the emergency lights to guide her. She looked around, but nothing seemed out of place.

Just as she moved deeper into the corridor, she heard the cursed lullaby echo through the building, coming from another floor. Her blood ran cold and a chill crept up her spine. 

Starting earlier than yesterday!

She hurried to the laundry room. The layout was the same as the other floors. She hid behind the vending machine. If someone only stood by the door, they would not notice her.

Her thoughts raced. How could she interact with the ghost to raise the score? Talk to it? Help it? But how? Was it here to take revenge on Alan for abandoning Janice?

The lullaby grew closer, the girl’s voice becoming more distorted, the lyrics changing this time.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
No one wonders what you bore.

The familiar sounds of scraping and sliding followed. Shh, shh, shh.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
Where is your smile, where is your pride.

The sound traveled to the dead end of the corridor, then came back. The lullaby continued.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star—

Then the movement stopped.

For Ava’s horror, it sounded as if it was right in front of the laundry room door. She swallowed, her mouth dry, her throat tight. The door creaked, and the lullaby continued just beyond it.

Lay on the floor, close yet too far.

Suddenly, the sound of running water cut through the still air. The sink near Ava turned on by itself. She looked at it without thinking, watching as the clear stream slowly turned metallic red. The smell was pungent and suffocating.