Ban Yue discovered something interesting when Ludville picked him up and set him down by the inner corner of the room.

  Because he was a box, he now technically had four faces.

  So, although he couldn’t speak, Ban Yue could now see from all sides. Now that he had been propped on top of two other rge boxes, Ban Yue felt like he had turned into a mighty ruler sitting on his golden throne as he looked over his boundless territory. That is to say that he now had a better view of the outside world through the window.

  He was gradually coming to terms with his character and was slowly succeeding in convincing himself that being a box wasn’t all that bad. Perhaps it was because he could now look at the brighter side in four different angles.

  Still, as he let his eyes sweep over the wide campus below, Ban Yue couldn’t help but feel that there was something strange with this pce.

  “This pce is creepy…” He heard Ludville mutter worriedly under his breath as he walked over to the window while rubbing his arms, “I haven’t seen anyone around since I got here.”

  He was right.

  For such a rge campus, the entire Clodine Becket Academy was incredibly empty and quiet even at almost 4PM on a weekday afternoon. Whichever direction Ban Yue looked, he could see a wide patch of lush trees almost akin to a small forest, but he could neither see nor hear a single hint of life. There were no flying or singing birds. Just thick fog.

  It was truly strange.

  Even Ludville’s room which looked as if it was meant to house two people was dusty and unkempt. It was safe to assume that Ludville was the only person living in the dormitory at the moment.

  But where are the other students coming from?

  Surely, a steady stream of cars and people should already be streaming in and out of the campus by now.

  Still, the rose bushes below, even without the roses, looked well-maintained, so Ban Yue couldn’t be fully sure. Perhaps if he could look around, he would eventually find someone he could talk to and find some clues about this pce. The problem was that his area of exploration was incredibly limited. Since Ludville seemed to be the only one around, he’d have to find a way to get him to take him around, but he didn’t even know much about the person he’d be working with…

  Ban Yue gnced at Ludville’s face as he thought of this.

  Suddenly, as if the system was able to read his intentions, a blue window appeared next to him.

  Name: Ludville Eckart

  Age: 15

  State: Normal

  Description:

  Baron Pendrick Eckart’s only child with the te First Madame Violin Eckart. Extremely shy and timid. A very lonely and insecure child due to prolonged neglect. The others think he’s a lost cause, but he is able to exhibit a rare resoluteness and courage during critical times. Extremely gullible.

  Ban Yue’s face (?) soured.

  Now that he had seen this, the pieces of the puzzle were finally starting to fall into pce. It must be a case where the stepmother enters the family and exerts all effort to push the legitimate heir out of the succession battle in favor of her own children. If that were the case, anything that the Second Madame Eckart deemed to be good must be bad for Ludville.

  Now, he was sure that something was very wrong with this pce. Something that was enough to threaten Ludville’s life. And if that danger was severe enough to even take out even a poor, harmless, fragile box such as Ban Yue who could logically only remain in one pce in this entire process, then Ban Yue could only assume that something big would happen in this pce. If this was reted to the deadline given to him by the system, then he needed to find out what would happen in three days as soon as possible.

  Since this was a game of survival, it meant that there were threats around them.

  Ban Yue also couldn’t rule out the possibility of a chase.

  All his optimism about turning into a box quickly withered upon this realization.

  He was fucking terrified.

  Cowards like him would rather py a dress-up or farming simution game.

  Why put him in a survival game?!

  For the second time, Ban Yue asked the troll game developers: what could a silly box do?

  If he could turn invisible or perhaps perform camoufge, then it wouldn’t be so bad.

  This must be an inside joke, and he was unlucky enough to stumble upon it. This was truly a dream worthy of being called a nightmare.

  When was he going to wake up?!

  Was it even a dream?

  Since he didn’t know, he couldn’t just sit and wait around idly.

  What can a box like him do?

  Think, Liu Yichen – he recited in his head.

  [Hello, would you like to use Inspect? ☆]

  Ban Yue jolted in the middle of his mental crisis when he saw the blue window pop up.

  He thought he didn’t possess any skill, but it seems that he did?

  Perhaps the character skills and the personal skills were two completely different things.

  Ban Yue selected the “Yes” option. As soon as he did so, a window with the circur icon of an old and tattered box on the left appeared. Beside it, an arrow pointing to another simir circur image appeared, except this one had a ghost coming out of it. A text below it read:

  Name: Ludville’s old tattered haunted box

  Description:

  An old and tattered box from the Baron’s old storage cabin that could barely hold anything due to its flimsy material. The bottom has been wrapped in yers of waterproof packaging tape to reinforce it. Incredibly pathetic and fmmable. People say strange things can be heard from the room where it is hidden at night. It is rumored among the maids at the Eckart mansion that the box is haunted by the te First Madame Eckart.

  Complementary skills: Ghostly murmurs (D). This skill will allow the pyer to speak in a ghost-like voice that would only be perceivable to the target.

  Complementary stats: None.

  Eureka! This is it! Ban Yue rejoiced.

  If he understood correctly, Level D and Level 1 were the weakest category when it came to rankings in this game. Although this skill didn’t increase his attack power or defense, it was enough to lift one of his restrictions in the game.

  Ban Yue didn’t see any upgrade button at the bottom of the window, so he assumed that the Inspect skill allowed him to see the potential states of things in the game. He just needed to find out what the prerequisite to upgrade his character was and perform it.

  Ban Yue watched Ludville’s scrawny back as he diligently dusted away his bedsheets and wiped off the surfaces in the room with a towel. He then apologized silently in his heart. After all, in order to be considered a haunted item, someone must be scared first…

  But how should he go about it?

  If he didn’t have any other skills, he should at least find a way to get some points.

  Ban Yue opened the C-Market.

  A blue window appeared followed by various events and news banners: Auction Day Countdown, Subscription Upgrade discounts, C-Market Fsh Sales, etcetera.

  Ban Yue closed all of them and went straight to the C-Market.

  Just like in a normal game, the in-game shop sold items to temporarily increase stat attributes like health, attack, speed, and defense. There were also weapons and gears that gave decent buffs when equipped, but they were mostly worth 10,000 Cosmos Points and above so Ban Yue just glossed over them. As he was scrolling down, a yellow tag caught his eye. He stopped and clicked on it.

  A smaller blue window overpped with the C-Market’s window.

  On the left side of the screen, an image of a gss jar could be seen.

  The item’s effects were as follows:

  [Active effect(s): stuns the target for 3 seconds, deals 2 HP damage to targets within a five-feet radius, causes the target to hallucinate for 10 seconds]

  [Passive effect(s): dispces affected targets by 0.5 feet, defense +1 for 1 hour, duration fixed, effects stackable]

  After being put on a fsh sale, the item which used to be worth 200 Cosmos Points was now only worth 2 Cosmos Points. Plus, he could even get one free for each bundle. He couldn’t believe his luck. He wondered why this item had such a low number of sales when it was so useful. As he thought of this, Ban Yue’s eyes unconsciously drifted to the top of the screen.

  “Puha-!”

  [OOC Warning: The attempt to ugh has been terminated by the system due to your character setup restrictions. Please revisit your script and try again. Actions determined to be out-of-character by the system may have severe impact on the progression of the storyline. As such, penalties may be enforced after multiple excessive viotions. This is a warning! Please be careful!]

  “What the-!“

  [OOC Warning: The attempt to speak has been terminated by the system due to your character setup restrictions. Please revisit your script and try again. Actions determined to be out-of-character by the system may have severe impact on the progression of the storyline. As such, penalties may be enforced after multiple excessive viotions. This is a warning! Please be careful!]

  “Hahaha-!”

  [OOC Warning: The attempt to ugh has been terminated by the system due to your character setup restrictions. Please revisit your script and try again. Actions determined to be out-of-character by the system may have severe impact on the progression of the storyline As such, penalties may be enforced after multiple excessive viotions. This is a warning! Please be careful!]