Chapter 166: Ballet Dancer
"Everyone, this is Adam; treat him well, aight?"
Lucas introduced Adam to a group of students huddled in his room at the dorm.
They were playing cards, eating snacks, and laughing loudly, but once they arrived, it turned silent, and they were all looking at Adam with their round eyes.
It turned awkward real quick.
"Don't mind them; they haven't met a celebrity yet." Lucas patted Adam on the shoulder and joined his friends on a table, where a card game was ongoing.
"Yo, name's Garry." An emo-haired guy said, extending his hand for a shake.
Adam shook the hand and nodded briefly.
As he looked around the room, he saw the gazes of the other students lingering on him, but no one really dared to speak to him.
Terry stood by the doorway, feeling out of place.
This was his first time being part of a small dorm party, as he had never been invited before.
He wasn't the most popular guy in the class. In fact, many of his classmates barely knew who he was.
He had a stigma of being a quiet boy who wouldn't be fun at any parties, so no one bothered to invite him as they didn't want to make the atmosphere awkward and uncomfortable.
Adam's gaze then landed on one of the young men, who was fiddling with some kind of gadget, but it looked like he didn't understand how it worked.
Adam approached him and said, "Hey, need any help with that?"
"Eh?" The young man flinched after seeing him and then stared at the gadget in his hands. "I bought it from the tool shop since I thought it looked interesting, but I should've asked for goddamn instructions."
"It's from the New World, and not something that can be opened by normal means." Adam sat beside him and put his hand out. "May I?"
"Uh, sure," the young man handed the gadget to him.
It was cubicle-shaped and had strange symbols engraved on each side.
It pretty much looked like a puzzle, and that's what the young man thought as well.
Since he was a big fan of puzzles, he bought it, but had no idea how to solve it, even though back in the real world, he had solved one of the world's hardest puzzles.
He was a genius at puzzle-solving.
Lucas and others also looked over, interested about this object from the New World.
The students often bought items from the tool shop as they were from the New World, and they were very interested in learning more about that strange, amazing world.
'An item from the New World?' Terry also approached them, interested in how Adam would solve it.
"See these lines?" Adam traced his finger across the zigzag lines that covered the surface of the item.
"Yeah, but apparently none of them have actually traveled the New World." Lucas said.
'That makes sense. Usually rookie mercenaries aren't allowed to go anywhere dangerous until they've proven themselves.'
"Not sure if I know much more than others since I've only been in the New World for a couple of months, but what do you want to know?"
"About those murders, do you have any idea how the murderer has never been seen yet, even after killing so many?"
"I bet the guy has invisible skill." Garry said with a grin. "That skill sure would be handy..."
His friend elbowed him in the chest with a disgusted look. "Shut up, you pervert; what would
you want to do with that skill?"
"Nothing, nothing at all..." Garry zipped his mouth shut.
"I doubt it is an invisible skill." Adam said. "That's a very rare skill."
"Hmm, I see." Lucas rubbed his chin. "What do you think of those murders?"
"I guess the best word is griefing," Adam said.
"Griefing?"
Since most of them had played other computer games before, they recognized that term.
"Yeah, since those who die in here and haven't taken the tutorial yet, can't play this game any more."
"What?!"
It was surprising news to them.
"Wait, seriously?" Lucas frowned. "So is that why none of the murdered ones came back? I thought it was because they were too afraid to return."
"It's same as dying in the tutorial." Adam said. "If you die even once before receiving the Mercenaryman rank, you're unable to return to the game."
"So, that's why it is griefing..." Lucas looked enlightened. "It's because that killer is destroying their future and basically made their time in the institute completely worthless!"
"Damn, I heard that killer murdered someone who's been in the institute for five years!"
"Five years to a waste..."
"The killer is heartless, that's for sure." Adam said. "If he knows about it."
"The killer's victims so far have been those who haven't taken the tutorial yet. I heard that
one student, who has reached Beyonder rank, tried to bait the killer into killing him, but the
killer never took the bait."
"Interesting..." Adam intertwined his fingers. "I wonder who the killer is..."