Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Before the guard could see them, Lin Yinxi raised her palm and slapped the cart’s button. She stuffed the cart, now contracted into an iron box, into her pocket, then crawled forward on her knees until she was below the security booth.

Deng Miao copied her. The two of them crept around furtively.

A long, horizontal rectangle of glass occupied the upper part of the booth. As long as they crouched outside it and the guard stayed inside, the guard could not see them.

A rubbish bin stood beside the booth.

Two human legs stuck upright from its top. A piece of calf flesh had been torn away, revealing stark white bone beneath.

That was the original guard. After being killed, the guard had been planted headfirst in the bin, legs sticking straight up.

Lin Yinxi and Deng Miao hid behind the bin.

“Yinxi, that monster keeps watching from the booth. We need to climb over the gate while it’s reading the paper.”

Lin Yinxi shook her head. “That won’t work.”

“Why?”

Lin Yinxi pointed at an azure-winged magpie in the sky.

Its wings corroded by acid rain, the bird struggled toward the outside of the campus. But when it flew directly above the gate, its whole body struck what seemed to be an invisible wall.

Smack!

The magpie’s head bent at an unnatural angle. It dropped straight down and hit the ground inside the gate.

Deng Miao wiped her face. “Damn it. Now even wings can’t get us out.”

Heng Jiangyue and Dr. Du were running on foot.

They were somewhat slower.

Lin Yinxi took out her phone. Her fingertip rested on the chat with [Rabbit Keeper].

This strange person was unlike the other entities. She could understand every message he sent.

As she considered whether to message him first, a single faint signal bar appeared in the top-right corner of her phone.

There was actually a signal here!

Lin Yinxi immediately tried calling for rescue.

“Yinxi, you…” Watching her upperclasswoman keep looking at that dead, black-screened phone, Deng Miao found it very strange, but dared not interrupt.

Her senior hid her abilities well. Maybe she was using the phone to cast a spell! Right?

Deng Miao could always find a reason to convince herself.

The single weak signal bar on Lin Yinxi’s phone flickered on and off.

Beep…

The call went out.

To Lin Yinxi, the phone screen was lit, and she could hear sounds from the earpiece.

But to everyone else, it was just a discarded phone.

No one answered the rescue call. She hung up and tried again.

Beep… The result was the same. No answer.

Lin Yinxi tried every public rescue number: the fire service, phone-based help services, the police, an international help line… None of them connected.

Damn it all!

Watching the battery keep falling, she thought for a moment and decided to call her older brother’s mobile number.

Beep, beep, beep…

Lin Yinxi had stopped hoping, but after three rings, her brother’s voice actually came through.

“Xi?” His voice was low and tired, with a tentative note of disbelief and confusion.

“Big bro!”

Her own brother. Her flesh-and-blood older brother. A bond worth braving mountains of blades and seas of fire.

In that instant, Lin Yinxi caught something unusual in his voice, but joy overwhelmed it. There was no time to think. She instinctively covered her mouth with one hand and lowered her voice, holding back its tremor.

“I need help. My classmates and I are trapped inside Jincheng University. The school’s full of monsters. I’m trying to get out. Can you contact someone to rescue us…?”

After a brief silence, he interrupted her.

“Xi, you’ve been missing for a year.”

It was as if thunder exploded beside her ear.

The rest of Lin Yinxi’s plea lodged in her throat.

A faint crackle came from her brother’s end, as though the signal were being interfered with.

“I’m in a safe zone. This phone only works internally. How did you call in from outside?” Distrust entered his voice.

Yet hearing Lin Yinxi’s voice filled him with longing.

“It’s really me. Remember? The black cat at home always meowed out of the window.”

That was the secret signal Lin Yinxi and her brother had agreed on as children.

After their parents divorced, Lin Yinxi stayed with their mother and her brother with their father. The two sides did not meet, but her brother would sneak back at night and knock on her window.

It meant: Your brother’s here to keep you company.

If their mother was asleep, Lin Yinxi would put the black cat on the windowsill.

The cat recognized her brother and meowed, so she knew he had arrived.

Her brother’s voice trembled.

“Xi, you’re alive… I’ve been looking for you for a whole year!”

Lin Yinxi had a thousand things she wanted to tell him too.

Then her brother’s tone became very serious.

“Xi, what I’m about to say is important. Listen carefully.”

“The Jincheng University you’re talking about is now part of a contaminated zone.”

“The world outside has changed a great deal over the past year.”

“Green-Eyed Rabbit Containment Center has taken over most areas and divided the former cities into different scenarios.”

“Those monsters you see… aren’t all monsters.”

Her brother paused, trying to explain in plain language.

“They’re called entities. They’re things that appeared along with the containment center. How they formed is complicated. I can’t explain it properly over the phone.”

“But some of the entities… used to be human.”

Lin Yinxi’s fingers tightened slightly.

“If you encounter an entity, avoid it if possible. They can attack both physically and mentally.”

Lin Yinxi pressed him. “Then how do I escape the scenario?”

Her brother answered, “Find the key.”

Lin Yinxi thought of how she had opened doors with keys when leaving the dormitory and escaping the sports field.

She saw the guard sitting in the booth. The newspaper had been lowered, and an electronic key hung at the guard’s waist.

That key controlled the cantilever gate.

The guard was checking the surrounding area.

The guard fiddled with the radio inside the booth.

The signal came and went. Her brother spoke noticeably faster. “I can’t locate you from here. Leave your current position first. Don’t stay in one place too long.”

“And…”

Her brother seemed to want to say more, but some unknown force interfered with the signal. Static stretched and distorted his voice, leaving only half a thought. “Go home and wait for me… Do you remember our secret base at home? Wait there. I’ll come and take you to the safe zone.”