Although Ning Gaoqiang and Hu Jiang were both novice players, Ning carried an aggressive air of someone who wouldn’t hesitate to retaliate if wronged.
He grabbed Hu Jiang by the chin, his eyes wide with intensity. “Hah, I’m just asking you your name. With that guilty look on your face, you must know something!”
Hu Jiang was so frightened that his legs went weak, shaking his head and waving his hands in denial. “I don’t know! I don’t know anything!”
Xiao Huai couldn’t be bothered with these antics. He glanced at the time and obediently climbed into bed.
After all, it was Xiao Huai who had proposed this scenario. Ning Gaoqiang thought Xiao Huai would help him extract information from Hu Jiang, but to his surprise, Xiao Huai just went to sleep.
Knocking echoed from the adjacent room, and Ning Gaoqiang realized the situation was critical. He immediately released Hu Jiang’s collar and jumped onto the bed.
It was already eleven o’clock, and that woman was now conducting a bed check.
There was a rule for the bed check: you had to be lying in bed. Standing on the floor or sitting in a chair was a violation.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
The dorm supervisor finally arrived at their door. After three knocks, a stunningly beautiful woman appeared before them.
Ning Gaoqiang dared not sit up to look; he discreetly stole glances at her, his pupils narrowing.
This woman looked exactly like the plump dorm supervisor. No one would believe she could lose weight so drastically in ten minutes. Her curvaceous figure was unforgettable.
Of course, this was a horror game world, so logic might not apply here.
Now slimmer, the dorm supervisor wore a more pronounced smile; without the excess flesh, her mouth seemed to stretch all the way to her ears.
With wide eyes, she scanned the room and lightly tapped a pen in the air, indicating the beds of the three of them.
“One, two, three. Good, all good kids. Everyone’s here.”
Once she left, Ning Gaoqiang wasted no time in seizing Hu Jiang, pulling him down to the ground, causing him to hit his head hard.
“Speak!”
Hu Jiang repeatedly wailed that he really didn’t know anything, until Ning Gaoqiang pressed a knife against his neck.
“If you really don’t know anything, then I’m a total fool. Either talk, or die.”
This time, Hu Jiang was genuinely scared, and after a long silence, his lips parted slightly.
Xiao Huai turned to face him, a hint of lazy amusement in his eyes.
“I’ll tell you… Ning Ge, do you remember what happened before we came here?”
Ning Gaoqiang furrowed his brows. Before entering the game, he had been in the midst of a robbery, the knife poised to strike when he inexplicably found himself in this world.
Hu Jiang had been chased by the police for selling illegal goods when he suddenly arrived here.
“Do you remember the man who was killed in front of the teaching building? I know him; he was on TV. He’s a murderer. He got drunk and killed a female student at a high school, then was caught. He was supposed to be executed recently, but now he’s here…”
So that bald man had been so frantic to get into the school—perhaps it triggered memories of his past crimes.
Hu Jiang continued weakly, “If I’m not mistaken, everyone here might… be criminals who ended up here. This horror game is more like a judgment from a deity upon evildoers.”
Because they had committed bad deeds, they were more fearful and anxious in this strange place, afraid of dying.
All were villains.
“But having all villains here makes it even more interesting, doesn’t it?” Xiao Huai suddenly interjected, a barely perceptible smirk at the corner of his mouth, adding a hint of wickedness to his red eyes. “That way, there’s no psychological burden when it comes to killing.”
“What… what did you say?” Hu Jiang felt like he must have misheard.
Xiao Huai turned away, stopping the conversation.
“What about you? What crime brought you to this game?”
Ning Gaoqiang narrowed his eyes at Xiao Huai. The calmer a person was here, the more likely they were to be a psychopathic killer.
He couldn’t shake off the feeling that this person might have blood on his hands.
The thought of being in the same dormitory as a potential killer sent chills down his spine, and he wondered if he would die without ever knowing how.
But at that moment, Xiao Huai sat up, glancing at his wrist, where several scars marred his skin. He tilted his head and said, “I don’t remember. Maybe it was because of suicide?”
“Suicide?” Ning Gaoqiang and Hu Jiang exclaimed simultaneously.
Xiao Huai chuckled lightly. “Suicide is also a form of murder.”
After saying that, he stretched. “Let’s hurry and sleep. This is just a survival scenario; we can get out in seven days.”
He was right; this was merely a survival scenario, and it was a relatively low-difficulty one. NPCs wouldn’t kill them immediately; there had to be a beginner’s protection period.
At two in the morning, under the double pressure of fatigue and fear, most of the players had already fallen into a deep sleep.
Xiao Huai, however, was one of the few players who remained awake, frowning slightly.
Since arriving at the Ivy League Girls’ School, he had received several notifications from his system.
“Your live stream has received a message from the deity; come check it out~”
“Chaos: So you like pink skirts, huh? I’ll remember that.”
Xiao Huai: “…” Uh, it seems like there was a misunderstanding with the deity.
Even though he couldn’t remember anything, when it came to the game, he would instinctively think of certain things, like the identity card.
After a lead was revealed in Heluo City, the term “identity card” slipped from his lips.
If the game was just about following the rules and surviving for seven days, it would be too boring. If he were the game designer, he definitely wouldn’t make a horror game this dull.
The first point of entry had to be the identity card; the one who obtained it wasn’t necessarily a villain, but they certainly weren’t a good person. The game’s intrigue stemmed from this point.
Turning humans against each other was far more interesting, wasn’t it?
He smiled faintly, sat up, and walked out of the room, slowly making his way to the front of the teaching building.
It only took ten minutes to walk from the dormitory to the teaching building.
All the bodies had vanished, but the air was still heavy with the stench of blood.
Under the moonlight, the corridor appeared desolate, every classroom door tightly shut, with faint glimpses of darkness visible through the windows.
The lights at the end of the hallway were dim, casting long shadows. Without hesitation, Xiao Huai entered the teaching building, as if waiting for something.
One second, two seconds, one minute—nothing happened.
“Sure enough…” he chuckled softly, pulling the student handbook from his pocket and tossing it into the trash can.
Rules three and four were paradoxical; their existence proved each other to be false propositions.
3. After evening study sessions, please return to the dormitory promptly for rest.
4. No entry to the third-floor restroom of the west teaching building after 10 PM.
Rule three implied that there could be no students in the teaching building after evening self-study, which ends at nine-thirty. Therefore, logically, there should be no students after ten o'clock. However, rule four stated that no one could enter the third-floor bathroom of the West Teaching Building after ten.
If the teaching building was indeed empty at that time, what was the point of setting rule four?
The answer was simple: both of these rules were false.
A student handbook containing false rules.
It was utterly useless.
Really interesting so far! Thanks for the translation and new series.
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