CH 3

Now, there wasn’t a single freshman who didn’t take the campus rules seriously. Some of them tried took out their mobile phones, trying to get in touch with the outside world, but they all put down their phones in horror and held their heads in despair. 

Their phones had no signal here.

“Se-… Senior, what the hell is going on here…”

The freshman who mustered up the courage to ask got a sympathetic look in exchange, “You’ll know after you register. If you’re afraid, just keep one thing in mind — don’t violate the rules.”

It was mentioned in the admission letter that they shouldn’t arrive early; arrive late or not show up. 

The freshmen didn’t dare to arrive late or not arrive at all, so they could only leave the inn fearfully and head to the university two hundred meters away to completely their registration.

Lin Yi, who went with the crown, looked back after walking some distance.

The inn was a two-story house and didn’t look much different from any other small town hostel. The inn had no signboard but a notice board had been erected in front of the door: Only for students, faculty and staff of Unnatural Engineering University.

Compared with the pale-faced freshmen, the seniors seemed used to death. Instead of reporting it to the police, they methodically packed the bodies into body bags.

Lin Yi glanced over. There were six or seven body bags and people were constantly dragging bodies out of the inn.

How many body bags there were, were how many people who died last night.

The social bull senior was squatting in front of the body bag, his legs crossed, a cigarette between his lips. It seemed he had a bit of a smoking addiction. It wasn’t just anyone who could open a body bag, look at a mutilated corpse and still remember to flick the cigarette ash to the ground.

“Are there any more?” Qin Zhou asked. 

“No, it’s all here.” Someone next to him replied. Although he was used to dead people, he still couldn’t bear to face towards the body bags and look.

“Seven.” Qin Zhou closed the zipper of the body bag and said, an unidentifiable emotion behind his tone, “There are a lot of disobedient freshmen in this batch.”

Suddenly, Qin Zhou thought of something and asked, “That pain in the ass I asked you to bring back yesterday.”

Saying so, he glanced at the body bags, “Is he among these ones here?” 

“He’s still alive.” The person who answered recalled: “He was very obedient. When he was with us, he didn’t ask anything. We told him to stay here for the night and he cooperated without saying a word. Compared with all the other noisy freshmen, he was the quietest one. He doesn’t seem like much of a pain.”

Qin Zhou stared at him. “Who do you think is normal? Those freshmen who yelled and shouted, called us sick or someone like him?”

The person who answered fell silent.

Qin Zhou stood up. “His suitcase was full of knives.” 

“Huh?”

“Did you think I was joking when I told you to threaten him with being reported to the police?” Qin Zhou said, “It was obvious he came prepared. He knows the situation here.”

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The others felt that Qin Zhou’s words made sense and so they were even more shocked. “Th-that can’t be. How could someone one even before they’ve registered?”

Qin Zhou couldn’t answer either. He put out the cigarette and said, “We’ll have to keep an eye on that one.”

–

Lin Yi arrived at the gate of Unnatural Engineering University and looked up at the school gate. 

Unnatural Engineering University could barely scam their way into being regarded as a centennial school. After all, its buildings looked to be a hundred years old, epitomizing the architectural style of the era of the republic.

However, the freshmen were in no mood to appreciate the campus aesthetics. All the freshmen who came out of the inn had their heads hung low.

There were also freshmen who had arrived after dawn on the 29th. These freshmen all shared one common characteristic. They all kept rubbing their eyes, the expressions on their faces dazed and incredulous.

It seemed that they might not have taken the exam to come here; when they received the admission letter, they thought it some malicious joke. They were headed for a normal university but winded up here instead. 

Lin Yi found out that those freshmen had a tendency to try and ask others and so he hurriedly ducked to the side, afraid of being caught.

Thereupon, a strange question and answer conversation reached his ears.

“Excuse me, classmate, do you know what’s going on? This obviously isn’t where I was headed.”

“I don’t know either, but you’d better follow the rules or you will…will…” 

“What?”

“You’ll die.”

The university registration process was also different. After entering the school gate, you could see the makeshift registration points that had been set up. There weren’t many registration points, only two.

One registration point was responsible for handling the new students who came with their admission letters. Another registration point was responsible for handling new students who had left their admission notices at home. It seemed that it had been prepared for these confused new students. 

Lin Yi went to the first registration point. The queue was very long but the processing speed was very fast. After a while, Lin Yi was at the front of the queue. He looked at the freshmen who had gone to register before him — you only needed to hand over the admission letter to the person in charge and pay the fee.

“Teacher.” The freshman in front of Lin Yi asked, voice trembling, “Wha-what is going on here?”

“Look over there.” The person in charge pointed to a spot in the distance, “Over there is the student union and the student clubs. After signing up, take your receipt to the student union to choose your major and get your dorm assignment. If you want to find out what’s going on, you can also ask them there.”

After saying so, he gave the receipt to the freshman and looked at Lin Yi, “Next please.” 

Lin Yi stepped forward and handed over the admission notice and bank card to the person in charge. The person in charge took his bank card. He swiped it on the POS machine and printed out a receipt. He then returned the bank slip, receipt and bank card to him.

Originally, Lin Yi hadn’t planned to ask any questions — the freshman before him had already asked the questions he wanted to ask — but when he saw the receipt and bank slip, he couldn’t hold back.

“Teacher.” Lin Yi: “It’s just…isn’t there anyone who can handle this?”

The person in charge consoled, “As long as you follow the rules and obey the student union’s arrangements, the survival rate is still quite high.” 

“No.” Lin Yi sadly looked at the bank slip: “A year’s tuition is fo-forty-four thousand?”

Even if it was for the terrifying atmosphere, isn’t it a bit too much? After all, wool comes from sheep!

What did they mean by this forty-four? The balance shown on his bank slip was now in the f*cking negative.

… The person in charge didn’t expect that this to be what Lin Yi was concerned about. He explained, “Most of the tuition fee is used to buy insurance. If there’s an accident, it’s a little bit of comfort given to those who are still alive.” 

Lin Yi was silent for a little while, “Can I not buy the insurance?”

The person in charge glanced at him. “The student union is responsible for purchasing the insurance for you. If there’s a special case, you can go and consult with the student union.”

Lin thought for a while and said shyly, “Teacher, can being poor be considered a special case?”

Person in charge: “…You ask them.” 

Lin Yi: “Thank you, Teacher.”

Lin Yi took his things and headed to the student union’s area. Compared with the registration, the flow of students was much slower here. Some freshmen were choosing their majors; while others were asking the student union about the rules. The student union did not give a direct answer, saying only that they would find time to explain to them the situation, repeatedly emphasizing that they should not violate the rules.

He watched from behind the crowd. His impression of the members of the student council was that they were all very fierce. And so, he looked down at the receipt in his hand and then aggrievedly, put the receipt back in his pocket.

He didn’t dare. He was afraid of getting a dressing down. After all, so many people were watching. 

After that, Lin Yi set his sights on clubs recruiting new students right across the student union. Compared with the crowded student union area, the clubs seemed deserted. Almost nobody paid any attention to them.

Lin Yi soon found out the reason. Although the university majors offered by the student union were somewhat unpopular, they were still quite standard. The clubs, on the other hand, were completely out of this world.

Monster Research Society, Rules Research Society, Monster News Club…

With such strange club names, it would be strange for any freshman to join. 

Lin Yi approached and finally found a trace of normal university life here. Unlike the others who always sported long faces, the club presidents welcomed Lin Yi enthusiastically.

“Classmate, would you like to learn about the Monster Research Society?”

Lin Yi nodded.

The club president immediately handed over the club’s flyer. “The mission of the Monster Research Society is to analyze the preferences of each Rule Monster.” 

Lin Yi asked, “Monster?”

The club president suddenly said, “The student council hasn’t explained the situation yet?”

“Well, no matter.” In order for Lin Yi to better understand the club, the club president said, “Monsters are the ones behind the rules in the campus rulebook and each rule corresponds to a Monster. Those who violate the rules will be dragged into the Rule World, that is, the world of the Monster.”

“If you die in the Rule World, you will also die in reality. So, as long as we analyze the monster’s preferences, we can significantly improve the survival rate.” 

Lin Yi asked again, “The Monster’s preferences?”

When asked this, the club president’s smile froze. “The Monsters’ preferred means of killing.”

At this time, the club president of the Rules Research Society next to them came over and said, “Classmate, open the campus rulebook. Read the first rule on the first page and then read the seventh rule on the seventh page.”

Lin Yi did as she said. Guessing that he’d finished reading, the female president said, “Did you find something wrong?” 

Lin Yi nodded hesitantly.

Rule 1-1: There is only one gate on campus. If you find multiple gates, stay where you are and contact your advisor. Do not try to walk through the gate.

Rule 7-7: All windows on campus are sealed, when an open window appears (to be added)

The female president said, “Most of the rules have solutions, such as 1-1. If you find multiple gates, as long as you don’t enter the gate, you won’t be caught up in the Rules World. Then you contact your adviser and your class adviser will take you away. However, there are also rules that need to be supplemented like 7-7, which means that if a sealed window suddenly opens, we have no way to escape and have no choice but to be involved in the 7-7 Monster’s Rule World —— The student union names Monsters with code numbers.” 

“The reason why there are rules with countermeasures and rules without is because the seniors exchanged their lives for it.” The female club president continued, “Do you know why the students call it the ‘Rule World’? Because in the Monster’s world, Monsters will formulate many killing conditions. Once you’re taken in and you meet these conditions, you may be killed by the Monster. Our predecessors managed to escape by the skin of their teeth and they brought out extremely precious clues with them. The student union then eradicated these clues to come out with a summary, which is the countermeasures you’re seeing now.”

Lin Yi glanced at rule 7-7 again.

The female club president sighed and said, “If you get involved in the 7-7 Monster’s world, you’re as good as dead. Even the students of the student union can’t get out of there alive, let alone us. What the Rule Research Society can do is to infer what those rules might me; try to stand in the Monster’s shoes and guess what kind of killing conditions it will make in its own world. This is so as to help as much as possible those students who get involved in the Rule World.”

The club president of the Monster Research Society said, “At this time, researching the Monsters’ preferred means of killing is of particular importance. Generally speaking, the killing conditions formulated by a Monster is connected to its preferred means of killing. For example, the 7-7 Monster, our entire club agreed that it must be particularly fond of open windows and its killing conditions must be related to the windows! For example, if you get close to the window, you’ll die.” 

Lin Yi was greatly shocked. “Is this still possible?”

The male president lowered his head: “But…it doesn’t help much.”

“Actually, it has no impact at all. Otherwise the death rate for 7-7 wouldn’t be so high.” The female club president said. “The killing conditions in the Rule World are probably far more difficult than we think, otherwise, the student union wouldn’t have collectively called us Garbage Clubs.”

Lin Yi: “…”