CH 6

“Lin Yi Xiong.” Cheng Yang’s voice was shaking and took a few deep breaths to try and steady himself. “Is there a possibility that the black in front of me is not black?” ” 

Lin Yi lowered his head and pondered, “What kind of white are you talking about?”

Cheng Yang: “…”

The people who registered ahead of them had followed the numbers on their keys to their dorm rooms. The lighting in the corridor on the third floor wasn’t all that bright, but the number of each room was still visible.

“303, 304…” Cheng Yang counted the dormitory numbers. His face turned gray, “305…” 

The room numbers were all in order, they were all distributed in an orderly manner on the same side of the corridor on the third floor. The orderly room numbers proved that the black sky was the darkness of night when NPCs could kill people. However, the game started out at nighttime and they had no clues at all.

Cheng Yang’s face was ashen.

Standing outside their room, Lin Yi took the key and opened the door, while Cheng Yang watched him.

Lin Yi felt like he was being targeted by a strong man, the kind who would take advantage of when he opened the door to charge in and then perform a rape and massacre.

Lin Yi didn’t turn the key even after a long while. After a moment of silence, he said, “Cheng Yang Xiong, I’m a man.”

It took Cheng Yang a while to understand what Lin Yi meant. He then quickly explained, “What if something lying in wait to kill you when you open the door? I’ll watch from behind you and if there’s a situation, maybe I can grab you.”

Lin Yi: “Oh…”

Then he turned the key under Cheng Yang’s watchful eyes. The door lock was opened and the return spring made a ‘click’. This sound was especially abrupt in the corridors and it resounded into the depths. 

Lin Yi could tell that Cheng Yang’s whole body was tense. He pushed open the door, walked in and then stuck his head out.

There had been nothing lying in wait to kill him.

Only then did Cheng Yan open his door.

He waited for Cheng Yang to open his door. Lin Yi having returned Cheng Yang’s good intentions, shrank back into his own room. 

The light in the room wasn’t turned on. Lin Yi couldn’t see the situation in the room but it was quiet. He closed the door and fumbled for the light switch, turning it on.

With the light turned on, Lin Yi found that there were many personal belongings in Room 304, as though there was someone living there.

Because this suspense game started immediately at night, Lin Yi had no choice but to limit his search in the room. He quickly explored it, checking every corner, even finding a filled storage canister under the bed. However, none of them seemed to be a useful clue.

So Lin Yi looked at the window opposite the door. The window was blocked by a curtain, covering the whole view of the window. 

Lin Yi looked at the curtains and made to get closer. But after taking a single step, he stopped.

Everyone here had been pulled in Rule 7-7 and anything related to windows always seemed fishy to them. Rushing close to it may cause problems.

And Qin Zhou had said, ‘be careful of the windows.’

Lin Yi looked at the curtain. He hesitated for a while and in the end, he chose not to court disaster by going near it. 

Then he looked towards the wall. On the other side of the wall was Room 305. He saw that Qin Zhou had taken the key to room 305.

Lin Yi scratched his forehead. He took a deep breath and leaned against the wall.

Room 305.

Qin Zhou has already looked through the entire room and he hadn’t found a lot; they seemed to be of little value. 

There were clothes in the closet, all of which were small women’s clothes.

There were also a lot of bottles and jars of cosmetics on the table next to the single bed. If this room 305 was inhabited, it was by a petite woman.

Compared with other people who entered the Rule World, Qin Zhou seemed as though he were simply calmly returning to his own home. After all, half the rules in the rulebook had been completed thanks to him entering those Rule Worlds. Those that had yet to be completed were uncompleted simply because those rules hadn’t found him yet.

He set his eyes on the window opposite the door. It was covered by curtains so he didn’t know whether the window behind the curtain was closed or open. 

As he was staring at the curtains, a sound, thin as a mosquito’s foot, seemed to sound from both far away and very close.

“Senior…”

Qin Zhou: “…”

Lin Yi heard Qin Zhou knock on the wall twice. Having gotten a response, Lin Yi said, “I have a question for Senior, is that alright?” 

It was his first time here and he didn’t know much. He wasn’t sure if he could communicate through the wall, so he was now carefully seeking Qin Zhou’s approval.

There was another knock on the wall.

Lin Yi supposed that Qin Zhou agreed, so he said, “Senior has never heard of Mensa but you must have heard this saying: ‘Do not fear godlike enemies but pig-like teammates’?”

On the other side of the wall: “…” 

Lin Yi shyly marketed himself. “I have an IQ of 143. With guidance, I may become a godlike teammate.”

There was no detectable movement beyond the wall. It seemed that Qin Zhou still had no intention of paying any attention to him. Lin Yi himself knocked on the wall again. After giving three staggered knocks, he stopped. Guessing that Qin Zhou’s attention was still on him, he said, “It wasn’t by chance that I met Senior on the bus on the 28th. Rather, Senior had been trying to prevent new students from arriving early. There was also that student union patrol list on the 29th. It was empty. Senior doesn’t actually want to see students pulled into the Rule World and you’ve been trying to find ways to protect the students. Senior is what they call ‘knife-tongued but tofu-hearted’!”

Finally, Qin Zhou’s voice came from across wall. “…Are you scared?”

Lin Yi had finished ingratiating himself; his ears were already blushing. He quickly sorted out his mood and then said, “No, I just found that Senior has gone quiet since entering the Rule World. A social bull suddenly becoming silence is definitely strange..” 

Ktfgf kjr j vewyobecvfv rlifcmf bnfg atf batfg fcv.

“P obecv Vfclbg ajixlcu ifrr kjr yfmjerf sbe’gf uejgvfv jujlcra er jcv jirb yfmjerf sbe’gf byrfgnlcu er.” Olc Tl rjlv: “Dea Vfclbg lr atf bcf ktb xcbkr er, atlr ugbeq, yfra. Coafg jii, sbe’gf atf raevfca eclbc qgfrlvfca. Cirb, kts kbeiv Vfclbg yf uejgvfv jujlcra er? Po sbe atlcx kf’ii pera vgju sbe vbkc, sbe mbeiv pera xlmx er jkjs. Ktfgf’r cb cffv ab gfwlcv er ab ‘yf mjgfoei bo atf klcvbkr’ jcv atfgf kbeiv tjnf yffc cb cffv obg sbe ab ajxf atf ifjv lc gfulrafglcu. Ktfgf kbeiv tjnf fnfc yffc ifrr bo j cffv obg sbe ab byrfgnf er; joafg jii, kf mjc’a tfiq sbe wemt. “

“So…” Qin Zhou: “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to gain Senior’s trust and prove that I’m not a monster.” Lin Yi said: “Senior, the 7-7 Monster is between the eight of us, right?” 

A social bull suddenly turned closse-mouthed. They were all aggrieved students of the Unnatural Engineering University. Qin Zhou’s display of vigilance proved that among them was an existence that even the president of the student union dreaded. In the rule world, the most dangerous were the NPCs but even more dangerous was the 7-7 Monster.

They weren’t NPCs so they could only be the 7-7 Monster.

Qin Zhou was silent for a long time this time. He obviously hadn’t expect Lin Yi’s thinking to jump so fast. Lin Yi patiently waited for Qin Zhou’s answer. After a while, there came a knock on the wall.

He was right. 

Without waiting for Lin Yi to ask the next question, Qin Zhou, keeping his voice low, said, “Only a small number of students can know about this.”

In other words, he was telling Lin Yi to keep it a secret.

“Okay.” Lin Yi had realized it himself; the others didn’t know about this. “I hope Senior won’t find me annoying but can I ask why?”

Probably to rule out Lin Yi’s suspicion, Qin Zhou said, “Monsters make the rules of the game and they honor and enjoy these rules. But Monsters are Monsters and they don’t have an IQ of 143. The killing conditions it sets, or the rules of death, will always be seen through.” 

Lin Yi understood now, “So the Monster is a supervisor. It hides among us to supervise us to violate the rules of death it has set. If necessary, it can even guide us to violate these rules of death. Once it finds out that we know of its existence, it could personally come kill us to prevent that secret from being disclosed?”

“More or less.” Qin Zhou said, “The monster itself has a killing condition.”

“What?”

“Killing at will before the replay.” 

Lin Yi didn’t understand. “Replay?”

“The only way to get out of here is to find the Monster and tell it that you understand all its rules. This is called replay.” Qin Zhou said, “I told you that this is a game. Once you know its game routine, it will kick you out and you won’t be chosen to play its game again.”

“Oh, right!” Lin Yi recalled. “So that’s why that cement road had no effect on Senior.”

“Little geniuses with IQs of 143 like yourself better hide your abilities.” Qin Zhou said, “It loves killing little geniuses best.” 

Little genius Lin Yi wasn’t frightened at all. Rather, he said shyly: “I understand. Senior, do you now think I have the potential to be a godlike teammate?”

…

“Senior, let’s cooperate.” Lin Yi said, “I’ll attract the attention of the Monster and the senior will look for the death conditions for this place and tell them to me.”

“In the end, are you or are you not afraid of death?” was the question from next door after a moment of silence. 

“Of course I’m afraid of death.” Lin Yi was perplexed.

“So you think it’s cool to attract the attention of the Monster?”

Lin Yi was momentarily stunned and quickly muddled through an explanation. “Dividing labor is more efficient. I’m tired, I’m going to bed. Good night, Senior.”

In order to convince Qin Zhou that he really was tired, he made sure to make a lot of noise while getting into bed. 

After the sound of movement disappeared, Lin Yi stared at the ceiling.

Qin Zhou hadn’t told him the death condition for tonight, nor did Lin Yi ask. The reason was simple. Qin Zhou hadn’t found it yet either.

Lin Yi pursed his lips. “Mom, Dad, please bless and protect me.”

In order to prevent his mind from being too active and affecting his sleep, he touched his pocket, planning on taking out his MP4 player and fall asleep listening to the recorded white noise. 

A single touch told him his pockets were empty.

Now, he understood why Qin Zhou said his knives were useless. It was because he couldn’t have brought them in with him. The MP4 player, which never left his side, had disappeared like his watch.

Lin Yi: “Oh…”

Feeling unhappy, he kept his eye sopen and waited for the NPCs to come with their killing conditions. 

Knowing that he might not be able to fall asleep, Lin Yi began to think about the old man, trying to guess the old man’s killing condition.

Was it the registration? The old man could kill you once you register?

If so, wouldn’t everyone just GG together?

“Oops…” Lin Yi let out a sigh. “I forgot to ask the senior if there’s “the law does not punish the majorty” principle here.” 

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Yi heard a rustling sound.

He immediately sat up and looked at the curtains.

The sound seemed to have come from outside the window. But as soon as Lin Yi sat up, the sound seemed to come from next door. He even heard a short scream.

But the scream quickly disappeared, making it sound like a single syllable before it was cut off. 

Then came a suppressed whimper, a whimper more pronounced than the rustling sound. It came from the other wall of Room 304, which was Room 303 where Cheng Yang was staying.

On the other side of the wall that the single bed was leaning against was Room 303, so Lin Yi heard his whimper very clearly.

“Huhuhu, prosperity, strength, democracy, civilization and harmony.”

“Huhuhu, freedom, equality, justice and the rule of law.” 

“Huhuhu, patriotism, dedication, honesty and amicability.”

“Huhuhuhu, it’s not working, I’m still scared…”

Lin Yi: “…”

It was Cheng Yang’s whimper from next door. 

Cheng Yang whimpered for at least two hours. When Cheng Yang’s whimpering died down, the whole apartment fell silent until dawn. It was as though that rustling and abrupt scream were but auditory hallucinations.

A loudspeaker had been installed in the hallway of the dormitory building and it rang out at this moment. It looks like the loudspeakers used by vendors to attract customers and that was more or less what it was.

– “Breakfast. Breakfast. Breakfast in Room 103.”

There was the sound of a door opening in the corridor. Lin Yi deliberately lingered for a while and when he came out of Room 304, he happened to run across Qin Zhou who came out of Room 305. 

Qin Zhou glanced at Lin Yi.

For others, being unable to sleep from fear was reasonable but seeing dark circles under Lin Yi’s eyes, Qin Zhou fell silent.

They had both deliberately dawdled in order to take the opportunity to take a look at the situation in the other dorm rooms. The others obviously weren’t as calm as they were and there was a high probability that they would forget to close their door in their panic.

Taking advantage of the fact that there was no one in the corridor, Qin Zhou brought Lin Yi to his side. Keeping his voice extremely quiet, he said, “Little genius, don’t tell me you were tossing from side to side last night?” 

Lin Yi, who didn’t have his MP4 player with him, couldn’t sleep all night. At that moment, he was feeling uncomfortable everywhere. Being pulled aside by Qin Zhou like this made Lin Yi so embarrassed all the hairs on his body were standing on end.

Lin Yi gave a start and pulled away from Qin Zhou, increasing the distance between them. “N-no.”

“You didn’t sleep last night. The dark circles under your eyes are about to fall on your cheeks.” Qin Zhou said, “Don’t tell me you’re afraid. You’ve got the guts to court death and you’re scared now that you’re here?”

Lin Yi: “I was so worked up, I couldn’t fall asleep.” 

After a few times of Qin Zhou wanting to say somethng but hesitating, Lin Yi touched his belly and said, “I’m hungry.” He quickly escaped Qin Zhou’s clutches and leapt to the stairwell, disappearing down into it.

Qin Zhou’s face darkened: “…”

Ah, I can see no sincerity in cooperation.

Room 103 on the first floor was converted dining hall. 

Inside was a table for eight people. Atop the table was rice porridge and side dishes. However, none of the others had sat down to eat; they didn’t know if there was any problem with breakfast.

They are all waiting for someone to go first, even if they were so hungry that their stomachs kept rumbling.

When Lin Yi arrived late in the dining hall, everyone’s eyes turned to him.

Cheng Yang breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Lin Yi. His eyes lit up in pleasant surprise. “Great! Lin Yi Xiong, you’re still alive.” 

With this statement, the other people’s expression turned bad. There were now already 7 people in the dining hall. If the NPC had killed someone last night, the person who died couldn’t be…

If even Qin Zhou couldn’t make it then what about them?

As a result, the looks they directed at Lin Yi were all very conflicted. The social phobic Lin Yi, standing against all their gazes, hurriedly sat at the table.

He used food to awkwardness of being stared at by so many people. 

Seeing that Lin Yi was eating and there was no problem, the others also sat down. Cheng Yang took the initiative to sit next to Lin Yi, which made Lin Yi very envious of Wang Duo, who was sitting opposite. Because Qin Zhou had not come yet, Wang Duo was sitting alone.

Because of envy, Lin Yi kept throwing looks at Wang Duo. He then realized something was wrong.

None of the others rested well last night and they all had bruising under their eyes. But Wang Duo’s eyes were particularly bloodshot and he kept turning back to look behind him; his whole body was tense.

One moment, he would be rubbing his face and then next, he would be biting his nails. 

Because it was his second him entering the Rule World and because Qin Zhou wasn’t there, he was the only one that others could ask questions from.

But Wang Duo didn’t answer anything. Xu Xiazhi pulled Qu Jialiang, who kept throwing questions. “Stop asking. Wang Duo said it last night. He won by lying down, he doesn’t know anything.”

“But he’s the only one here who’s been to the Rule World before!” Qu Jialiang asked Wang Duo again, “Wang Duo, how long do we have to stay here? I heard before that we can go out once we’ve stayed for as many days as there are people, is that true?”

Wang Duo didn’t say he didn’t know; he just kept looking back at the door. 

It was as if he hadn’t heard Qu Jialiang talking to him at all.

His nervousness made everyone else nervous. Finally someone couldn’t stand the tension and the two girls both cried.

“Eat, eat.” Cheng Yang invited, “Sisters, don’t cry. How about you eat something first? Once you’re full, you’ll have the strength to find clues. I’ve always been pretty lucky. We’ll definitely be able to find clues.”

Qu Jialiang said angrily, “If you’re so lucky, you wouldn’t have been dragged in here. Better yet, you wouldn’t have been selected by this university!” 

Cheng Yang gave an “ei”. “What are you yelling at me for? Then don’t eat. Go and squat outside. Isn’t that right, Lin Yi Xiong?”

Lin Yi: “…”

One of his greatest fears was being cued up at times like this. He was so frightened that he dropped his chopsticks.

Qu Jialiang was about to quarrel with Cheng Yang again but Xu Xiazhi held Qu Jialiang back. “There’s nothing wrong with what he said. Don’t take your anger out on the junior.” 

Seeing that Qu Jialiang was finally quiet, Lin Yi bent down to pick up his chopsticks.

As soon as he bent down, his expression went all wrong.

He saw Wang Duo’s belly under the table. It was huge.

Of course, it was nothing against a ten-month pregnant woman but it was comparable to one who was four or five months pregnant. Wang Duo had enough and spare. 

August was the season for wearing short sleeves and Wang Duo was wearing a T-shirt, so Lin Yi could clearly see his belly bulging.

Before Lin Yi could recall whether Wang Duo had a beer belly last night, there was a frightened shriek from the table.

Lin Yi immediately raised his head. Wang Duo was vomiting but Wang Duo himself didn’t seem to realize it. He kept looking to the door while vomiting.

The people who gathered around to eat, scattered like birds and beasts. His vomit flowed onto the table. There were grains of rice, instant noodles, spicy strips; even a cockroach and a half-digested mouse. 

When it was spit out, the cockroach stuck on the mouse. It seemed to still be moving.

“Ahhhh—”

“Fuck, fuck. What the fuck! Ahhh, I’m gonna fucking die from fright!” Cheng Yang jumped back like a monkey. An unforeseen event happened at this time!

Wang Duo noticed the vomit on the table. He was stunned for a while, and his whole body became convulsed. His fingers curved like bird claws. Chopsticks fell to the ground and he too fell soon after. 

“Ugh—cough—”

Wang Duo groaned in pain. His talon like fingers, scratched at his throat until there were ten bloody scratches ran down his neck.

No one could know how much pain he was in at this time but flesh and skin embedded under his nails.

His struggling feet seemed almost able to scrape indents into the floor. 

However, this process did not last long. Soon, Wang Duo vomited less and less, and his struggles grew weaker and weaker and then stopped completely. His head fell to one side and he stopped breathing.

“Is he dead?”

“I-I…don’t know…”

“Is anyone going to take a look?” 

After some consideration, Lin Yi squatted down and reached out to probe Wang Duo’s pulse.

Everyone stared at Lin Yi, not daring to let out a single breath.

“Lin… Lin Yi Xiong, is… is he still alive?” Cheng Yang, holding his head, asked, sounding pained.

Lin Yi shook his head. He was no longer breathing. 

He focused on Wang Duo’s stomach. Although Wang Duo’s stomach was no longer as big as before because of the vomitting, it was still bulging. No one knew what else he had swallowed.

Lin Yi even saw that Wang Duo’s belly was slight undulating like a wave.

Was what was in his stomach still alive?

Lin Yi lowered his eyes and pondered. He was considering whether to press and squeeze this undulating thing out of the dead Wang Duo’s stomach. 

Since Wang Duo was dead, he must have met the NPC’s killing condition.

So starting from the cause of Wang Duo’s death, maybe they could discover something. After all, everyone was in their own rooms last night. No one knew what Wang Duo had experienced.

Thinking of this, Lin Yi made a decision. But before squeezing, he planned to inform Wang Duo. The dead is the greatest and he didn’t want Wang Duo blaming him for disrespecting his corpse.

“Senior Wang Duo, I…” When his gaze landed on Wang Duo’s face again, Lin Yi paused. 

Seeing Lin Yi suddenly refusing to budge, Cheng Yang asked carefully, “Lin Yi Xiong, what’s the matter?”

Lin Yi pointed to Wang Duo’s face.

Cheng Yang: “His face… what’s wrong with his face?”

Lin Yi asked, “Can’t you see it?” 

“See… see what?” Cheng Yang shivered. “Lin Yi Xiong, don’t scare me.”

Lin Yi stopped talking.

He looked down at Wang Duo again.

Wang Duo’s eyes had opened at some unknown time and the protruding eyes were staring at Lin Yi. Maybe Wang Duo had been staring at Lin Yi the whole time he was looking at his stomach, but the people around him didn’t seem to notice anything unusual about Wang Duo’s body. 

And no one noticed that the corners of Wang Duo’s mouth ticked up a little bit.

Ticked up into a strange curve.

A hideous smile.

The author has something to say: Maybe, perhaps, this should still be within the acceptable range! Immortals!