Story Background: The Figure Lost After Rural School In a rural area of China in 2002, the chirping of cicadas masks the silence of a primary school. Daming, the protagonist, has a younger brother named Xiaoming. As usual, Xiaoming headed to school with his faded canvas schoolbag—but never came home. Determined to find his brother, Daming steps into the deserted school after hours, only to find it shrouded in an eerie atmosphere: faint children’s sobs echo from the end of the corridor, strange basketball bounces ring across the campus... Every anomaly seems to point to the truth behind Xiaoming’s disappearance, and hides untold secrets of this rural school. Core Gameplay: Solve Puzzles Amidst Weirdness, Seek Clues in Fear Puzzle-solving & Scene Exploration You’ll need to explore every corner of the primary school—dusty classrooms, dim stairwells, the sealed principal’s office, and overgrown corners of the playground. Solve 机关 puzzles tailored to the rural school setting: find the key to the office, evade Granny Tang in the janitor’s room, navigate the maze-like cemetery, and take part in childhood games... Each puzzle is deeply tied to scene details; careful observation of your surroundings is essential to progress. Deduction & Truth Reconstruction As your exploration deepens, you’ll collect items like Xiaoming’s diary, other students’ doodles, and the principal’s old files. By piecing these clues together, you’ll gradually reconstruct the full story: Is Xiaoming’s disappearance linked to an old school violence incident at the school years ago? Could those bizarre supernatural phenomena be projections of left-behind children’s loneliness and fear? Your final choices will determine whether you find Xiaoming—and whether you uncover the truth deliberately hidden in this rural school. Game Core: Beyond Horror, a Deeper Reflection When the horror fades, the game aims to draw attention to two real-world issues: In 2002’s rural areas, with large numbers of parents migrating for work, left-behind children faced loneliness and safety predicaments; and how overlooked violence and bullying in schools left indelible scars in silence. The "truth" you uncover in the game may not just be an answer to a disappearance, but a look back at the living conditions of rural children in that era.
