CH 46

Chapter 46

After seeing Qin Zhou push the woman in red, Lin Yi quickly moved aside to prevent the woman in red from falling on him. 

Because Lin Yi suddenly withdrew and also because Qin Zhou had pushed her from behind, the woman in red fell into the room.

The woman’s fall gave Lin Yi a chance to escape. Just as Lin Yi was about to step over the woman in red and fly out, there was a commotion outside.

“We’ve got the president, Lin Yi Xiong. Run!” Cheng Yang yelled, “Hurry! I can’t hold him for long!”

Ou Ying also shouted anxiously at Lin Yi, “Lin Yi, run!” 

Lin Yi raised his eyes. Everyone who’d been gossiping in the room had come out. They probably heard the movement in the corridor. He saw Cheng Yang behind Qin Zhou, his arms wrapped tight around the other. Cheng Yang was gritting his teeth from the effort. Chen Jinnan and Zhou Gan were also helping Cheng Yang hold Qin Zhou back.

Qin Zhou obviously had never experienced being suppressed by so many people at the same time and thus it didn’t exist in his memory. His expression finally started to look wrong; his facial muscles trembled. Even Qin Zhou’s original appearance couldn’t portray the horror and weirdness caused by the distorted expression.

Li Dang was shielding Ou Ying. He shouted at Lin Yi, “Don’t just stand there, run!”

They were all focused on helping Lin Yi escape, so naturally, their thoughts couldn’t drift to anything else, even with the ferocious ghost standing right behind them the entire time.

Lin Yi glanced at the ferocious ghost. The ferocious ghost had no face. A blank swath of skin existed where features should have been. In Lin Yi’s heart, he was even more certain about his guess as to what the woman’s Rule of Death was.

As soon as he closed the door, he didn’t bother locking in the woman in the room. He’d only closed it at the last minute to buy him some time. He raised his head and asked anxiously, “Where’s the photo? Xue Jie, where’s the photo in the room?”

Ou Ying said, “Under the mattress.”

After saying so, Ou Ying said to Li Dang: “Quick, go and hold the door. Don’t let her get out.” 

Lin Yi immediately ran to the room where the woman in red was locked before and just as Ou Ying said, he found the photo under the mattress.

He didn’t stop and immediately ran back after getting it.

This back and forth to get the photo was done lightning quick.

But during this brief time, less than a minute in total, Lin Yi could already see that Cheng Yang’s arms trembling from the strain, as though his strength would be exhausted in the next second. Chen Jinnan and Zhou Gan were also sweating, gritting their teeth and hugging Qin Zhou tightly. 

Lin Yi didn’t dare delay. He stuffed the photo into Qin Zhou’s pocket and shouted to the others, “Get out of the way.”

When Lin Yi stuffed the photo into Qin Zhou’s pocket, Qin Zhou’s expression completely sank but he also stopped struggling and glared at Lin Yi.

Seeing that Qin Zhou had calmed down, Cheng Yang let go. Chen Jinnan and Zhou Gan also let go, one after the other.

Before Lin Yi could tell Li Dang to let the woman out, Ou Ying, who had already figured it, shouted to Li Dang, “Li Dang, let her out.” 

Li Dang’s strength had been exhausted a long time ago and he was relying on sheer adrenaline to hold on. When he heard Ou Ying’s command, he already withdrew before he even had time to think.

The woman in red came out of the room. Holding the sharp knife aloft, she headed straight for Qin Zhou.

The knife plunged into Qin Zhou’s chest.

“Ah, my god.” Cheng Yang grabbed his throat with both hands. He felt like his heart was about to jump out of his throat. 

Everyone was exhausted. They couldn’t understand what was happening.

And the ferocious ghost who had followed them out of their room, waved his hands excitedly seeing the woman in red kill Qin Zhou. It seemed to want to join but was confined in place as if somehow barred.

Olc Tl kjr agslcu ab mjamt tlr ygfjat jr tf ibbxfv ja Hlc Itbe.

Rb yibbv rqliifv ogbw Hlc Itbe’r ybvs, gjatfg la kjr yijmx wlra. Ktf ugbecv rtbbx yfcfjat atflg offa jcv mgjmxr jqqfjgfv atgbeut atflg reggbecvlcur, fzafcvlcu eqkjgvr ilxf j rtjaafglcu wlggbg. Ktf mgjmxr mgfjafv wsgljv ogjuwfcar atja yfujc ab ojii jii jgbecv atfw. 

Qin Zhou was the one who told Lin Yi that Monster would try to lead them to violate the Rules of Death.

Throughout the entire instance, there was only one thing Qin Zhou has guided them to and that was the photo.

Based on Qin Zhou’s memory, transferring the photo from the trash can to the woman’s bedside table could mislead them in their analysis. But this was only from Qin Zhou’s perspective.

From the perspective of 2-6 Monster, it was the one that set the rules. 

That night, the 2-6 Monster actually had two plans for killing Lin Yi. The first one was to wait in the kitchen and wait for Lin Yi to deliver himself into its hands. Then the Monster would take Lin Yi out itself. If Lin Yi didn’t go to the kitchen, it could also go to the woman’s room. Since they were in possession of no actual clues, the 2-6 Monster’s bet was that Lin Yi would take the photo. Additionally, even if they didn’t take the photo, its location would interfere with their analysis.

For the 2-6 Monster, the last one was the least desirable option.

When Ou Ying took the photo, the woman in red immediately came to ask the participants who took her photo. It could be seen that photo was very important to the woman in red.

But do people really keep pictures of their friends after they’ve been betrayed by them? Lin Yi didn’t think so. Perhaps the woman in red still had complicated feelings for her friends but the important role of the photo wasn’t to help the woman to recall her dead friends fondly; instead it was to fulfill her fantasy of personally exacting revenge. 

The 2-6 Rule was that there are no ghosts on campus.

Converted to the 2-6 Rule World, it was actually ‘there are no ghosts in the world’.

Otherwise, if there were real ghosts in the villa, why would they not harm the woman in red?

One way to explain it was that these ghosts actually arose from woman’s imagination; and indeed they would only appear after the woman in red’s Anke game and they listened to her dispatch assignments. 

The role the photo served was to help the woman recall her friends’ appearance and imagine how they would look like as ghosts. Why did the ferocious ghost have no face? Because the ferocious ghost didn’t appear in the photo. The woman didn’t remember how this ferocious ghost was supposed to look.

This photo was equivalent to a prop that made the Anke game come true, just like the dice.

The 2-6 Monster had guessed that Lin Yi would tamper with the dice, but they wouldn’t take it away. And so the only thing it could use to lead them to violate the Rule of Death was the photo.

So the woman in red’s Rule of Death was taking away the photo. 

But the person who took away the photo was Ou Ying. Why did she come for Lin Yi?

Lin Yi had figured out an answer to this as well.

The old dormitory manager used the pinhole camera as a tool to know Qu Jialiang had left his room. The woman in red didn’t have a camera so she was going insane questioning everyone if they’d taken her photo that morning.

And when night fell, when NPCs were now allowed to kill, the woman in red, having been triggered by a violation of her Rule of Death, came to his door. 

She could sense that the photo was in Lin Yi’s room and Lin Yi happened to be in the room alone. So, she naturally concluded that Lin Yi must have stolen the photo.

The reason why he was able to frighten Qin Zhou was also because the Rule of Death he guessed had nothing to do with the actual Rule of Death. This confused Qin Zhou and made Qin Zhou unable to guess what he was actually trying to do.

Now that Lin Yi had stuffed the photo into Qin Zhou’s pocket, Qin Zhou has violated the Rule of Death. According to the principle that Monsters won’t break their own Rules of Death, Qin Zhou can only, hands tied, wait and let himself be caught.

Qin Zhou looked down at the woman in red stabbing him in the chest over and over. He then raised his head and glared at Lin Yi, complaining, “You violated the Rules…” 

Lin Yi was momentarily dazed, his expression turning a little ugly.

After Qin Zhou said this, his body collapsed. The black mist grew thicker and thicker, slowly forming into the shape of the woman in red. She was still staring angrily at Lin Yi.

Cheng Yang and Chen Jinnan were stunned at seeing this black mist. Cheng Yang said, “Why… why are there two women in red?”

Ou Ying explained, “This is the ‘evil’. It’s not the woman in red.” 

Zhou Gan: “Evil?”

Ou Ying nodded. “Born from extreme emotions. Once it turns into a Monster, it traps the person within it.”

Cheng Yang asked, “Is our student union president really going to be okay? He’s been stabbed so many times.”

Ou Ying reassured him, “It’s fine. Zhou Ge should have woken up in the real world by now.” 

After forming the figure of the woman in red, the black mist dissipated. The NPC woman in red finally stopped stabbing. She fell to the ground, the sharp knife clattering by her side.

“Why……”

Ruan Yiyi covered her face and cried bitterly, “Why did you deceive me? Why did you abandon me…?”

She couldn’t understand and she was still unresigned. 

And she still harbored resentment.

She no longer needed friends. It was why she always used ‘friends’ to refer to these people she was going to kill later on. She was trapped in her own hatred.

No one spoke. They didn’t know what to say.

Lin Yi seemed to glean something from the 2-6 Monster’s words but he didn’t dare to think further into the abyss. 

He stepped forward and before Ruan Yiyi’s figure disappeared, he patted her shoulder lightly.

Ruan Yiyi looked up at Lin Yi. She remembered Lin Yi and smiled wryly, “I won’t be able to wait until tomorrow.”

Lin Yi had told Ruan Yiyi that Linlin had asked him to bring her a message and that he wouldn’t be telling her until tomorrow.

Although, Ruan Yiyi probably knew very well that this was just a lie made up by Lin Yi to escape. 

Lin Yi said, “She said, I’m sorry.”

Ruan Yiyi was momentarily stunned and then, she smiled. “Thank you.”

After saying these words, Ruan Yiyi’s figure scattered. The villa fell under their feet like fragments and a white blazing light rose from the end of the corridor.

“F*ck.” Cheng Yang covered his eyes to block the light. “What is this?” 

“It means it’s done.” Ou Ying said, “We can leave now.”

The white light at the end of the corridor slowly rose. It swallowed the remaining mist in the corridor before then drowning them all.

Lin Yi didn’t close his eyes this time and his vision blanked white for a moment.

After he got used to it, he closed his eyes and then opened them again. 

He had returned to the school. But he wasn’t in the teaching building area anymore. Instead, he was in a relatively large exhibition hall. However, there were no tables, chairs or projection equipment in it. Rather, it was filled with those large beds you find in hotels.

Lin Yi sat up and found that other people were also lying beside him. Beside him was an empty slot.

However, those who’d died were not among them.

The room was divided into areas. Over Lin Yi’s area was a makeshift sign that read ‘2-6’. 

There were signs hanging in other areas. This seemed to be a holding area where the student union kept the bodies of the students who have entered Rule Worlds.

Each area has a student assigned to be on duty. It they find that someone has died, they would report it immediately. After reporting, someone would come to deal with it. After the corpse is put in a body bag, the student union member on duty would clean up the blood.

The student assigned to the 2-6 area was nowhere to be see. Lin Yi started looking around.

He could hear a conversations in the distance. 

“Zhou Ge, you’re back?!” The person on duty in the 2-6 area yelled in surprise, attracting everyone in the room to turn his way and let out a thankful sigh.

Qin Zhou’s voice: “Yeah.” After thinking for a while, he asked, “Show me the full list of people who entered the 2-6 Rule World this time.”

The person who spoke to Qin Zhou immediately went to get the list and handed it to Qin Zhou.

“This time 13 people entered the 2-6 Rule World. You, Ou Ying Jie and Luo Yi Ge… all entered the same round.” 

Qin Zhou said, “Luo Yi is not in the 2-6 area.”

People who weren’t in the area either already woke up and left or were doomed to stay in the Rule World forever; the probability of the latter was far greater than the former.

But because it was Luo Yi, Qin Zhou asked once more, “What’s the situation with Luo Yi?”

His voice was deep. 

The person on duty choked up immediately, “Luo Yi Ge, Luo Yi Ge entered and… he entered and…”

He was so choked with sobs that he could bring himself to form the response even after a long time.

Qin Zhou already had a guess but because he couldn’t grasp the memory in his mind, he frowned and turned his head to look at the 2-6 area with heavy eyes

At this moment, Lin Yi met his gaze. 

Lin Yi immediately lowered his head.

There was a burst of fear in his heart.

Cheng Yang who happened to be next to him also woke up so Lin Yi turned to talk to Cheng Yang to relieve his tension.

Qin Zhou froze for a moment. He took out the cigarette packet from his pocket, fished one out and put it between his lips, lighting it. 

The 2-6 Monster was him.

Instead of the taste of smoke, his mouth was filled with an indescribable taste.