In my slumber I vaguely heard a woman's voice, oh, it was Fanny's voice, her melodious voice was so crisp! But I couldn't really hear what she said. Suddenly, I was awakened by Fanny's loud cry again, and I opened my eyes, and that's when I realized that I had overslept.

"Wake up, it's not early." Fanny urged me.

But I want to stay in bed! I rubbed my eyes, still sleepy, and squinted at the small gray ceiling above me, and that's when I remembered last night. I slept late last night because I was thinking about the little parchment note that I had brought out in my nightmare, and I couldn't get up this morning.

I forced myself to sit up.

"Hurry up, it's too late!" Fanny urged me again, "These are the muffins and yogurt that I got you from the cafeteria. She put her breakfast on the bedside table next to the bed.

"Thank you!" I smiled gratefully.

I was stunned for a moment before I put my shoes on and went to the ground. After washing up, I ate breakfast again. It was late, but I couldn't keep up. To tell you the truth, I really wanted to pretend to be sick and take leave to continue to sleep, but when I saw Fanny still waiting for me, I couldn't bear it.

I suddenly remembered that I had been informed last night that today we were going to the International Building to listen to the lectures of the older generation on the history of war. After a few more bites of the muffin, I followed Fanny out of the dorm in three steps and two steps. Behind us, Duru also followed in a panic, and we all knew that Duroux's friction was well known. At this time, there was no one in the dormitory.

We were running in stride. It was too late, but we ended up catching up with a sightseeing minibus heading to our destination. It was really late today, and we didn't see a single classmate on the bus, they must have already left on the previous bus. There were only a few people sitting in the car, and I sat in a row of window seats with Fanny and Duroux.

Sightseeing minibuses are speeding down the road. The cool breeze in the morning made me feel no sleepy. I looked out the car window and saw the calm water of the Smoky Lake flowing below us, and the lake was covered with a thick layer of fog. In this vast expanse, the misty riverside swamps float gently like a utopia.

I turned to the right again, and across the tidal lake, I saw the faintly elegant silhouette of the International Building. After the minibus turns a corner, the solemn International Building comes into view, and its continuous right-angle intersecting lines are shocking. But the city landmark not far from it, an upside-down cone, seemed a bit nondescript to me.

The huge cone, carved from a free-standing boulder, hung abruptly in front of me, especially against the gray and empty sky, and its upside-down image seemed to be about to crash to the ground. From the perspective of the minibus I was in, it seems that today's upside-down cone has no foundation at all······ How to put it, I felt that on a gloomy morning, it was like a flat boat in the rough sea, and it had deviated far from its proper track.

The sightseeing minibus stopped at the station, which was still a fifth of a mile from the International Building, and we got off the bus in order. I looked around and didn't see a single classmate I knew, so it must be a little late today. I looked at my watch again, and it was already 7:52, and I had eight minutes to go. We trotted to the entrance to the new visitor center in front of the International Building.

"It's about to change." Fanny said as she ran.

No sooner had we reached the arched porch that led to the entrance to the visitor center than the rain began to fall. We curled our heads, dodging the rain that could pour down at any moment, and continued to speed towards the entrance. The raindrops showed no signs of abating, but instead fell on us more intensively.

I finally ran to the glass turnstile, and I was already a little out of breath by this time. I pushed the glass revolving door and brushed away the raindrops that had not yet penetrated the surface of my clothes.

But what I didn't expect was that it had spanned a thousand years, and the glass revolving door had not lost a little weight, but had become heavier and heavier. It took me a lot of effort to push the glass revolving door and enter the International Building Visitor Center.

As soon as I inside, I immediately held my breath in amazement. It's really special, it's completely different from what I expected. I thought it was just an ordinary, large passage, but I didn't expect it to be a hole. Everything you can see is a diamond-shaped world, and even the solid round pillars that normally support the building have been replaced with a diamond-shaped structure, which makes people feel a little worried. The ceiling is inlaid with plexiglass with diamond-shaped flower patterns, resembling a giant kaleidoscope that changes over time. Wisps of flickering and dimming circles of broken gold pierced through the colored plexiglass and sprinkled all over the hall, as if adding a mysterious and agile atmosphere to this majestic and stable international building, and this beautiful and grotesque yet dazzling beauty seems to have penetrated into the bone marrow of the building.

I was a little daunted, but Fanny tugged at me so hard that I realized that the time was almost up. I had to follow them straight down the hall and straight to the security checkpoint.

The security check has already made a qualitative leap, and there is no need for human control at all. We passed through the unattended security checkpoint, underwent a meticulous and high-speed full-body dynamic check, and then ran to the escalator according to the detailed large, virtual signage.

The route of this set of escalators is quite long, leading up to the fifth floor. As the escalator went up, I looked up and saw that the heavy raindrops were falling from the sky on the glorious glass dome of the International Building like large and small jade beads, splashing diamond-shaped water. The setting of this mansion is really ingenious!

Durroux stood on an escalator in front of him, looking around with a thief's eyebrow.

"Haven't you heard about the haunting here?!"

It's only been a long time since I've been in this strange world, and I'm sure I haven't heard of it, but I'm not in a hurry to speak, and Fanny just smiles noncommittally.

"There are several legendary versions that I know of, but the most widely circulated is a strange incident that happened when the visitor center was first built. When digging the foundation, the remains of 24 soldiers from the war more than 200 years ago were accidentally dug up, and from the military uniforms wrapped in the bones, it can be recognized that they are all brothers in the trenches, but their leaders are missing, and it should not be that they have left them to flee alone, because judging from the surrounding layout at that time, there is no trace of a battle at all. The deaths of these twenty-four soldiers should have occurred in an accident in their own war zone, presumably due to eating some kind of poisonous food, or some other unknown reason. At that time, the staff searched within a kilometer radius of the place where the remains were found, but still did not find the body of the mysterious officer, and then the matter was closed. But what is jaw-dropping is that although it is said that these 24 bodies have been buried separately, their souls have not rested. The twenty-four ghosts still roam the former trenches, which are now used as a visitor center, and according to the analysis of those who have seen them, they must still be searching for the vanished leader. ”

Duru whispered mysteriously as he sneakily peeked around.

"There's also a legend about a big black cat, which is also quite terrifying! Legend has it that it is always fleeting in the narrow corridors or small rooms of the International Building, which resemble an underground labyrinth, and is arguably the most famous and bizarre ghost! However, some people deduce that the big black cat's every move is closely related to the twenty-four ghosts, and that this cunning and treacherous big black cat is actually the transformation of the leader of these ghosts. What do you guys think? ”

"Stop talking nonsense, let's hurry up, it's too late!" Fanny muttered.

And I was right in and out of my right ear for Duru's words, because my brain was racing at the moment. In an instant, I looked around, and suddenly a flash of inspiration occurred in the depths of my brain, and my consciousness conveyed a message to me, I must have been to this place before, and I vaguely remember the scene here in my memory, but I can't remember when I visited.

The escalator had reached the end of the fifth floor, and we walked down the escalator. Fanny glanced at her watch.

"Two minutes to go."

So we hurried through the wide corridor and followed the signs to the conference hall.

At this time, the majestic bell rang in the corridors of the International Building.

Eight o'clock.

As we hurried through the connecting corridors between the halls, I saw the entrance to the conference hall, the door closed, and it was sure that the speech was about to begin.

Like wild horses on the loose, we rushed straight to the conference hall. I was feeling relieved that I had finally arrived······ I opened the closed doors of the chamber, and the moment I stepped into the hall, I froze in place, gasping for breath and anxious with utter surprise.

The situation is very, very wrong.