In the cafeteria, students in school uniforms had gotten their food and were sitting at the tables. When game players like Qi Yang walked in, everyone’s eyes simultaneously fixed on them. Even the cafeteria staff serving food at the windows stared greedily at the players with a look of long-starved hunger for a delicious meal.
Many players were trembling with fear, not daring to walk further into the cafeteria, wishing they had two more legs to run away as fast as possible. Some students grinned, a silent smile, their teeth sharp like a beast’s, their mouths split to their ears, making one wonder if their face would split in half the next moment.
This was not impossible. In the four classes that morning, the monster classmates in the players’ classes had already brought them unprecedented horror and terror.
There was a meal card in the desk. Qi Yang rummaged through his desk after class and, holding the meal card, ignored the covetous gazes focused on him as he walked to a window. Qi Yang chose two relatively light-flavored dishes. He used to prefer strong, oily, and spicy flavors, but after becoming pregnant, the smell of overly oily food made his stomach uncomfortable.
Holding his tray, Qi Yang intended to find an empty seat nearby. Wherever he went, there were excited and eager gazes, as if Qi Yang joining their table meant their anticipated feast was about to be served.
This feeling was quite distinct, but Qi Yang didn’t pay much attention. He needed to eat, but suddenly Qi Yang realized that no one stipulated that meals could only be eaten in the cafeteria; he could also eat in the dorm. Qi Yang turned and left the cafeteria with his tray. As he left, a series of extremely disappointed expressions followed him, but there were also some different ones mixed in. Those different ones were his classmates. Others didn’t know, but they were quite clear: the top boss had explicitly stated that there was one player among the current ones whom they absolutely could not touch, not even a single strand of hair. Anyone who did would face a fate worse than death.
So, after Qi Yang left, his classmates secretly breathed a sigh of relief. As for why they didn’t tell the others about Qi Yang’s special status, it was because although they were colleagues, they were also competitors to some extent. There were only so many players in the game, and everyone wanted to enjoy delicious souls, which was simply not enough to go around.
If someone is unlucky enough to accidentally touch Qi Yang, others would be happy to watch the show; it’s always good to have one less competitor.
So no one mentioned it, waiting for someone to step on a landmine.
Qi Yang didn’t eat in the cafeteria, and Yuan Yuan and the others, who had already decided to follow him as his entourage, naturally chose to go out as well. Yi Xinming and the others, however, didn’t follow them out; they got their food and found an empty table.
易新明那里除开他之外还有个是通了两次关的人，两个人自认对游戏规则有些了解，吃饭在食堂吃这再正常不过，不至于连食堂也会出事。
The NPCs here are all ghosts. During the day, it’s relatively safe; as long as you’re careful, your life is generally secure. What’s more important is the night, as that’s when the ghosts are most active.
It seems their dorm is a six-person room, and these five players aren’t even in the same dorm. This means there are NPC ghost roommates, and how to safely get through the night and survive until the end is what concerns them most.
What Yi Xinming thought of, Qi Yang also thought of, and even more so. Since those game NPCs are ghosts, it’s clear they’re restrained during the day. Judging by what happened in the classroom, the two players who went insane didn’t show any external injuries, so they probably weren’t directly physically attacked. Ghosts can transform into terrifying forms and even gouge out eyeballs, so gouging out their eyeballs shouldn’t be difficult. But for such a long time in the morning, four classes, no ghosts laid a hand on them.
There were only five of them, and dozens on the other side, who could easily subdue them. So there must be some reason for this. From Qi Yang’s personal understanding, he wondered if it was because it was daytime, and daytime was not when ghosts were active, but nighttime was.
If that were the case, Qi Yang thought it would be very necessary for him to go and check out their dorms. He couldn’t wait until the last class of the evening to go to the dorms, because if anything unexpected happened in the interim, it would be difficult to take corresponding remedial measures.
Qi Yang asked his classmates in advance and found out that he and Du Yong were roommates. Yuan Yuan was a girl, so they couldn’t go to the girls’ dorm. Yuan Yuan stood in front of the girls’ dorm building, with students coming and going. But every time someone passed by Yuan Yuan, their eyes would fall on her. Yuan Yuan felt scared. She wanted to escape this terrifying game world, but her hands and feet wouldn’t obey her. Yuan Yuan stood for a while, and then someone walked up behind her and patted her on the shoulder. Yuan Yuan screamed in fright, her pupils wide. Yuan Yuan turned around and found that the person who patted her was one of the players. Yuan Yuan was really about to cry from fear.
The girl had her long hair tied up. She saw Yuan Yuan’s red eyes and knew she had scared her, so she quickly apologized. Yuan Yuan sobbed, and it seemed like more people were gathering around. Every pair of eyes seemed to be prying at them, waiting to pounce like beasts.
Yuan Yuan suppressed the endless fear in her heart, took the girl’s hand, and walked into the dormitory. When she found out they were roommates, Yuan Yuan suddenly felt less scared.
Qi Yang and Du Yong were also roommates. They found their dorm room, where someone was sitting and reading a novel. When Qi Yang and the others entered, he lifted his eyelids, glanced at them without much change in expression, and then lowered his eyes to continue reading his novel.
Du Yong really wanted to ask why ghosts also liked to read novels, but he didn’t dare to actually ask, fearing that the other party would suddenly change their expression and pounce on him with a bloody face. The bed rails had names written on them, indicating who was on the upper and lower bunks. Qi Yang was on the upper bunk in the middle on the right, and Du Yong was on the lower bunk near the door on the left. The two sat on Du Yong’s bed.
The room was simply laid out, a small room of just over twenty square meters, with no private bathroom, only a communal toilet and shower room at the end of the corridor. Du Yong hugged his pillow. There was only one NPC in the dormitory, which was much better than the classroom or cafeteria. This NPC also looked thin, and he and Qi Yang should be relatively safe for now.
Qi Yang sat down and began to eat. Du Yong looked at the food on the table, and a scene from the classroom that morning flashed through his mind: someone was sitting not far to his left, their flesh falling off in chunks, a bloody mess of flesh. Du Yong immediately lost all appetite.
“I really envy your good appetite,” Du Yong said.
Qi Yang glanced at Du Yong: “If you don’t have an appetite now, what will you do later?”
Du Yong let out a bitter laugh. He looked down at his palms. He had never thought of himself as weak before, but now he knew he was a complete and utter weakling.
“Who knows.” Du Yong didn’t know either. He still had a strong sense of unreality, hoping that when he closed his eyes and opened them again, everything would return to normal. He did so, but no miracle happened.
Qi Yang quickly finished his meal. Du Yong eventually ate a couple of bites. The afternoon was still long, and it wasn’t good to be hungry and lack stamina.
After eating, there was still some time before afternoon classes, so neither of them wanted to go to the classroom immediately and decided to take a nap in the dorm.
As soon as Qi Yang had washed his face and before he had even climbed into the upper bunk, faint screams could be heard from outside the window.
Qi Yang and Du Yong became alert simultaneously, and both walked towards the window.
“What happened?” Du Yong’s heart was beating completely irregularly.
“I don’t know.” Qi Yang shook his head. He didn’t have clairvoyance or X-ray vision.
“How about we go down and take a look…” Du Yong really wanted to know what exactly was going on.
Qi Yang’s brows furrowed slightly, then he nodded. The two left the dormitory. The dormitory and the cafeteria were not far apart, so as soon as they stepped out, they immediately realized that the accident had happened at the cafeteria.
Thinking that Yi Xinming and the others had been eating in the cafeteria earlier and hadn’t brought their food back to the dormitory, Qi Yang’s expression was unusually serious, hoping in his heart that nothing bad had happened to all of them.
Rushing to the cafeteria, Yi Xinming was standing there perfectly fine among the crowd, but his expression was unusually solemn. Qi Yang looked around and it seemed like one person was missing from their group.
Pushing through the crowd, Qi Yang reached Yi Xinming’s side. His view had just been blocked by the people, and as soon as it cleared, Qi Yang stared at the person in the middle of the cafeteria, pinned under the fallen ceiling, blood gushing. It was as if only then did he truly grasp how close death was to him, so close that he felt he could almost sense the despair and helplessness of that person when the ceiling crashed down.
“How could the ceiling fall off?” Qi Yang quietly asked Yi Xinming.
Yi Xinming sneered, a sarcastic smile on his face, unsure if he was mocking himself or others.
“Shoddy construction, I guess.” But whether it was truly shoddy construction, everyone actually knew the truth.
“So… we can’t eat in the cafeteria anymore?” Du Yong also squeezed to the front, and when he saw the dazzling pool of blood on the ground, he gasped.
“Not necessarily. It depends on who’s lucky and who’s unlucky. The unlucky ones might even choke to death drinking water.” Yi Xinming’s tone and attitude made it sound as if he had really seen people choke to death while drinking water.
Du Yong was stunned. His mouth twitched, and he said in a pleading tone, “Don’t say such scary things.”
Yi Xinming smiled and turned his gaze back to the person who had been crushed to death.
Unlike those in the classroom who suffered mental breakdowns, primarily due to their poor personal resilience and insufficient mental strength, this was a direct accident scene.
How many is this now? How many have bled to death?
Yi Xinming began to calculate in his mind. The first person whose wrist was twisted by the teacher probably didn’t count, as that was a rule-breaker. Later, two or three people ran directly out of the classroom, their blood staining several flights of stairs, but their bodies weren’t seen, so they probably didn’t count either. Therefore, this was the first death that didn’t violate the rules.
Is there some kind of pattern here? Yi Xinming doesn’t believe there’s no pattern at all. It must be connected to something from before. What could it be?
Yi Xinming gritted his teeth and fell into thought.
Qi Yang looked at the crimson blood on the ground, the smell of blood assailing him, stinging his throat uncomfortably. He took two steps back to let the smell dissipate a little. Qi Yang turned his head and looked around, originally just a casual glance, then he saw someone with a strange expression. That person had a brilliant smile, as if the accident before him was something he had anticipated and enjoyed.
A strange face, not someone from Qi Yang’s class. Qi Yang lightly touched Yi Xinming’s hand, leaned over, and whispered, “Do you know that person?”
His train of thought interrupted, Yi Xinming was not in a good mood, but seeing Qi Yang’s fair face approaching, his anger seemed to dissipate a little, and Yi Xinming looked in the direction Qi Yang indicated.
“I think I know him, yes, he’s a classmate of mine.” Yi Xinming wasn’t quite sure at first, then he remembered a bloody scene, in which the boy’s face was twisted and deformed, as if his face had been flattened by something, and blood gushed from his mouth, looking almost identical to the person who was crushed by the ceiling in the cafeteria.
Yi Xinming curled the corner of his mouth, and he quickly said to Qi Yang, “I know what’s going on.”
Qi Yang was confused: “What?”
“Let’s talk somewhere else.” Yi Xinming didn’t speak in front of the NPCs. He pulled Qi Yang out of the cafeteria. As for the person who was smashed to death in the cafeteria, Yi Xinming had seen many such scenes and his heart no longer fluctuated much. He used the deaths of others to warn himself to be careful and cautious, and that staying alive was the top priority.
They went under a small tree next to the basketball court, where there were few people. The other players also followed, apparently having reached some consensus that calmness and quietness were much more reliable than impulsiveness.
Yi Xinming told Qi Yang about his discovery, saying that the death of the person in the cafeteria was very similar to that of the smiling student, which could be considered a kind of hint.
“But how do we determine the next danger?” Qi Yang asked the most crucial question.
Yi Xinming’s initial excitement was quickly dampened, and his tone became dejected: “Indeed, this is a big problem.”
“Wait, I think I might know what’s going on. I need to confirm it first, and then I’ll tell you in detail once I’ve confirmed.” Qi Yang recalled a small detail from the morning.
Yi Xinming wanted to ask what it was, but seeing Qi Yang’s expression, he temporarily kept quiet.
After all this, there wasn’t much time left for lunch break, but Qi Yang still managed to snatch a few dozen minutes of sleep. In the afternoon, there were three classes, and time seemed to pass much faster than in the morning. During this time, some classmates changed their faces, and the speed of their face changes wasn’t entirely consistent. Qi Yang even mentally noted who was first and who was second. Because there were many people, he first noted those in the front. As Qi Yang expected, the first person to change their face revealed a gruesome sight similar to the one in the cafeteria: their head was flattened, mouth askew, teeth missing, and blood gushed out. They made broken, gurgling sounds, and the face change was controlled within two minutes, not lasting too long.
The NPCs knew they had a job to do, and they needed to earn points through their work to survive in this space. However, they couldn’t be too terrifying for too long; if they genuinely scared Qi Yang, they would all be in deep trouble.
