Chapter 54
Chapter 54
The greasy man sucked in a sharp breath, then desperately swallowed the sound before whoever stood outside could hear.
Qin Musong had already drawn his handgun and silently retreated two steps to the laboratory’s center.
Lin Zhu watched him reposition with confusion. Whatever waited outside, human or ghost, was still a clue. He walked directly to the door.
Qin Musong’s gaze grew complicated. The high-school student appeared delicate but had considerable courage. Qin Musong remembered how badly the boy had reacted to the corpse in the restroom. Young people certainly adapted quickly.
Lin Zhu quietly listened. The owner of the high heels walked slowly, each tap striking a leisurely rhythm through the silent corridor.
Tap. Tap.
The footsteps stopped precisely outside the laboratory door.
Sweat drenched the greasy man, plastering his already oily hair against his scalp. He compressed his thin body even smaller.
Qin Musong had hidden in the shadow of a laboratory cabinet. The greasy man had not followed. He stared at the figure that had suddenly appeared inside the room, losing the ability to walk, speak, or save himself.
The chill on the back of Lin Zhu’s head made him turn stiffly from the door. At some point, a person had appeared in the middle of the laboratory.
It wore a lab coat and had longish hair. The flesh of its face was mangled beyond recognition, making its sex impossible to determine.
Its body faced Lin Zhu, but its head had twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees toward the greasy man behind it.
“Hh… hh…” The figure moved. Several broken sounds escaped its exposed throat.
Then it began to walk.
Like a doll whose head had been wrenched backward, every movement ran in reverse.
It approached the greasy man, walking backward like a damaged toy wound in the wrong direction. The motion was grotesque and uncanny.
“Help… help me.” A weak plea squeezed from the greasy man’s throat. Faced with a nightmare made real, he felt immersed in ice and lost all ability to think.
He collapsed to the floor. The sharp smell of urine spread from his pants.
Scrambling backward on all fours, he kicked and swatted wildly at the empty air, as though he could drive away his own terror.
When the creature caught him, he tried to close his eyes, but his lids remained stretched wide.
Blood-slick arms closed around his neck. He might have been thrown into a slaughterhouse; the nauseating odors of blood and rot overwhelmed him.
Just as terror threatened to burst his heart, pain flashed through his neck and consciousness vanished.
Lin Zhu watched the humanoid creature catch the screaming man in moments, casually snap his neck, and toss him aside like garbage.
He swallowed. The thing seemed like a ghost, yet also resembled a corpse.
He was afraid. But perhaps because it felt more like a supernatural entity than a dead body, or because Cheng Miao had recently strengthened his courage, Lin Zhu did not run.
When the creature slowly turned and presented both its back and ruined face to him, Lin Zhu adjusted his glasses and held his thick Item book ready.
Sister Miaomiao had said no instance would completely sever a player’s path to survival. Lin Zhu was certain he had violated no rules in the laboratory, during either the day or night.
Therefore, the ghost that had suddenly appeared could not simply erase him.
He might as well attack first. Light flashed behind Lin Zhu’s lenses. He inhaled deeply, steadied himself, and walked toward the monster one firm step at a time.
The closer he came, the more hideous its mutilated face became. A nauseating stench filled his nose and mouth. Lin Zhu showed no expression, neither disgust nor fear.
Once he stood directly before it, he raised the Item high and smashed it down with all his strength.
Cheng Miao awoke to a roommate’s phone alarm and jolted upright.
When had she fallen asleep? She remembered nothing. Even when resting inside an instance, she should never have slept so deeply.
Knock, knock. The dorm supervisor stood outside.
“Announcement: the liberal-arts and science classes have free activity this morning. A basketball game will be held in the gymnasium this afternoon.”
“The basketball game is today?”
“Yep. Free activity all morning. What are you going to do?”
“Me? I’ll stay in the dorm and watch a movie.”
“Then I’ll visit the library and see whether that older student is there again.”
“You… Ha ha ha.”
Cheng Miao listened to the two girls below laugh and rubbed her temples before climbing down.
“Morning. Is your classmate still asleep?” A girl with a pointed face greeted Cheng Miao, looking slightly embarrassed that her alarm had been so loud.
Cheng Miao smiled and said it was fine. Only then did the reminder register. Sister Li had made no sound since speaking to her the previous night.
Something was wrong. Cheng Miao climbed the ladder in two steps and pulled back Sister Li’s bed curtain.
She froze.
“What is it? Is your classmate all right?”
The two girls found it strange when Cheng Miao remained on the ladder, curtain in hand, without moving.
“Sorry. Please get a teacher. Someone died.”
“D-dead?” The two girls supported each other as they fled the dormitory, faces white, leaving Cheng Miao alone.
Cheng Miao sighed at the woman’s corpse. Sister Li had suffocated against her pillow.
Her death did not cause the uproar that Brother Zhang’s had. Perhaps the body looked less frightening, or perhaps the forensic examiner’s explanation that a heart attack had caused the suffocation eased everyone’s fear.
Cheng Miao thought that explanation was complete nonsense.
Most of the players still looked dazed when they gathered on the athletic field.
“How did Sister Li also…” Zhou Jian looked and sounded weak, without any strength in his voice.
Only science-class players had died the previous day. Why had Sister Li suddenly died too?
Cheng Miao swept her gaze across the group and frowned. “Someone’s missing.”
Qiao Jin looked ethereal even inside an instance. She glanced around in surprise. “You’re right. Where is that creepy guy?”
The auntie wanted to mock Qiao Jin’s affected manner, but remembered she was a veteran player and merely pursed her lips.
No one else shared that reaction. Qiao Jin was beautiful and capable. Even her surprised expression seemed charming and lively rather than contrived.
“Dead.” Lin Zhu spoke wearily, dark circles beneath both eyes.