Don't provoke mentally ill people in the infinite flow genre!

The cultural and sports activity center has three floors and looks relatively new and impressive. Compared to other buildings on campus, it seems to have been built a little less recently.

However, the gate was locked, and the sign on the steps indicating that the area was open to the public was blurred. The only legible time on it was 22:00 to 04:00.

"Damn, do you mean we have to come in the middle of the night?" Qin Shaoyu couldn't help but complain. "What kind of cultural and sports activity center is only open at night? Is this a respectable place? Isn't this a complete trap?"

"That's good," Wu Ying said. "This at least proves that there are indeed clues inside, and the real clues usually come out at night."

"So, what should we do now?"

"Let's go explore other places first, then find a room nearby to catch up on some sleep," Yi Zanglan decided casually. "I need to recharge; I have a feeling I'll be busy tonight."

……

It's said to be 48 hours, but in reality, the system calculates the time at different rates for day and night within the game.

This results in relatively short days, and it takes players a while to explore the campus. If they want to rest, it gets dark before they've had a chance to sleep.

And the night will last a long time.

Near the cultural and sports activity center, there was a small lecture hall. The group of four found a secluded equipment room there, put the table and chairs together, and laid out their coats to rest for a while.

Around 10 p.m., Shen Yubai woke everyone up. Yi Zanglan was sitting at the table and had just lazily yawned when Shen Yubai handed him a piece of chocolate.

"Want some or not?"

"Where did it come from?"

"When you inspected that teaching building this afternoon, there was a convenience store downstairs, so I climbed in through the window and grabbed some food."

As Shen Yubai spoke, he handed the other two chocolates to Wu Ying and Qin Shaoyu respectively.

"Let's go, let's go!" Qin Shaoyu stuffed a whole piece of chocolate into his mouth, full of fighting spirit. "Tonight I'm going to turn that building upside down!"

* * * * * *

Sure enough, the cultural and sports activity center automatically unlocked at 10 p.m.

However, it's not visible from the outside; all the windows remain dark, letting in no light at all, but the lights are actually on inside.

The four-person group entered the building and deliberately closed the door before beginning their exploration deeper inside.

Qin Shaoyu habitually went straight to the front desk; usually, in places like this used for consultation and top-up, one should always provide some clues.

"What's this?" He pulled the drawer open completely, and finally pulled out two irregularly shaped hard pieces from a pile of messy papers. "...Oh, it looks like it's made of acrylic?"

Yi Zanglan took them and examined them under the dim light. She saw that the two acrylic pieces had colorful patterns drawn on them, and she could vaguely make out half of the words, which seemed to be something like "Opening" and "Outside the World".

She understood a little: "This should be an acrylic promotional poster for the event center. We need to find all the pieces and put it together. We estimate it will take 20 to 30 pieces."

"Shall we put together a poster?" Qin Shaoyu asked, immediately rubbing his hands together excitedly. "Great! Finally, I'm in my comfort zone!"

Wu Ying remained silent, as this had crossed her line.

"The venue is quite large, so let's split into three groups to improve efficiency." Yi Zanglan quickly divided the group. "Old Shen and I will go alone, Xiao Ying, you go with Old Qin. He'll be responsible for finding the posters, and you'll be responsible for protecting him."

"...OK".

Everyone agreed, so they dispersed. Qin Shaoyu and Wu Ying stayed on the first floor to search, while Shen Yubai and Yi Zanglan went to the second and third floors respectively.

……

The second floor houses an indoor badminton hall, a table tennis hall, a billiards hall, and a swimming pool. Shen Yubai worked tirelessly, striving to search every room he could reach, afraid of missing any details.

He found four or five pieces of acrylic, put them all into his coat pocket, zipped it up, and carefully protected them.

He had just left the billiards hall and was about to continue walking when he suddenly heard a strange noise coming from the corner of the corridor behind him.

Kara la la la—

It sounds like the friction of a cart tire against the ground.

Shen Yubai was startled and quickly hid in the shadows behind the door, holding his breath and listening intently.

Kara la la la—

The friction sound gradually faded away and didn't move closer to him; it seemed to be heading towards the third floor.

If nothing unexpected happens, Yi Zanglan is currently on the third floor and is likely to run into this cart-pushing ghost.

After pondering for a while, Shen Yubai decided to go and find out what was going on. If any special situation arose, he could also help Yi Zanglan.

...Before he could even take two steps, he suddenly caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye that the entrance to the swimming pool was only a few dozen meters away from where he was.

The door was sealed with crisscrossing yellow tape, clearly indicating that outsiders were prohibited from entering.

He searched almost the entire second floor, but there was no place sealed off; the swimming pool was the only one with such a seal.

This means there must be something important inside.

He hesitated for a moment, then changed his mind and decided to search the swimming pool first.

After all, Yi Zanglan might not need his help, and if asked for her opinion, she would definitely give him the same instructions.

Shen Yubai sighed, walked quickly to the entrance of the swimming pool, and tore off the two seals.

Strangely, the door was only sealed with a tape but not locked, and it was easily pushed open.

Upon entering the museum, he discovered that the floor still had faint traces of fresh water stains, as if it had just been cleaned.

The overhead lights were dim, with only a few remaining, flickering intermittently, barely illuminating what lay below.

There are three pools: a children's wading pool, a 1.2-meter shallow training pool, and a 3-meter standard deep pool.

Shen Yubai searched along the shore and found a piece of acrylic on the lifeboat. He went to the children's wading pool, bent down to examine it, and saw that the water was relatively clear and that there were two pieces of acrylic at the bottom of the pool.

He easily scooped it up, and as if sensing something, he turned to carefully examine the shallow and deep pools.

As expected, there were two pieces at the bottom of the shallow pool, while there were three pieces at the bottom of the deep pool.

The deep pool appears shadowy due to light refraction, but the different locations scattered at the bottom of the pool can still be identified.

Shen Yubai thought for a moment, took off his coat and shoes, went into the shallow water first, retrieved the fragment, and then decisively jumped into the deep water.

Fortunately, he was a good swimmer, and after searching the bottom of the pool for a while, he finally managed to collect all the fragments.

……

Just as he was about to surface, he seemed to encounter some invisible force, like a hard barrier, which bounced him back into the water.

Alarm bells rang in Shen Yubai's mind. He realized the situation was dire and quickly gathered his strength, attempting to leap out of the water again.

...This time it failed again.

A sudden, sharp pain surged in his chest, like a heavy punch that had struck from nowhere, instantly shattering the remaining air in his lungs.

Almost at the same moment, cold hands grabbed his feet and dragged him back into the water.