Chapter 6
Chapter 6
After the monster dragged Chen Hongmei away, the women’s dormitory door slammed shut from inside. It was made of glass, but looking in from outside, they could see only darkness.
In that darkness, something seemed to be moving slowly against the glass.
The monsters could not leave their workplace before finishing their work.
This spot was safe for now.
Lin Yinxi moved away from the entrance and stood closer to a wall at the side. She raised an eyebrow. “Do I have ‘cannon fodder’ written across my face?”
Heng Jiangyue parted her lips slightly, her delicate brows furrowing, and nodded without thinking.
Lin Yinxi pressed a hand to her forehead.
She only looked a little pale and run-down.
Alive with a touch of dead. She was not actually dead.
Deng Miao rubbed her arms and stamped her feet.
“What if the monsters come after us? Let’s hurry up and get away.”
She helped pull Heng Jiangyue up from the ground.
After rising with her help, Heng Jiangyue suddenly reached out and seized Lin Yinxi’s wrist. Her long nails dug deep into its soft flesh. “You’re the only variable!”
“Ow, ow, ow! That’s my skin you’re digging into! We’re roommates. Don’t do that. You’re pinching me.” Lin Yinxi looked at Heng Jiangyue’s dilated pupils, so different from her earlier indifference, and yanked her wrist free in pain.
Her eyes shifted as she asked cautiously, “Did you have a dream that foretold the future? And I didn’t escape in that dream?”
Heng Jiangyue came back to herself. Her gaze flickered guiltily toward the red nail marks on Lin Yinxi’s arm. She flicked her ponytail behind her head and hastily covered it up. “N-no. Sorry. I was just frightened. Let’s get out of this dangerous place and look for help.”
“Right!” Deng Miao nodded with her usual lack of reserve. “We should tell the teachers that monsters got into the women’s dormitory. Uh… we’d better call the fitness-test teacher. He’s sturdier.”
Thick mist shrouded the area outside the women’s dormitory.
If they stood a couple of steps farther apart, the mist swallowed their outlines and they could no longer see one another.
A little farther away, even footsteps were swallowed up.
Lin Yinxi rubbed her arm.
Though it was safe for the moment, this was no place to linger.
Using the mist as cover, she silently shifted half a step aside.
Following the photograph in the group, she picked up the new employee gift left at the dormitory entrance.
Inside was a fully charged yellow power bank with an enormous capacity. A rabbit head making a silly face was printed on it.
Nice!
A must-have for workers without a charger!
Her phone showed its final battery bar: five percent. It was about to enter ultra power-saving mode.
Time to plug it in.
A green charging icon appeared. It even supported super-fast charging.
Once the power was connected, Lin Yinxi noticed that the flashlight button had changed from gray to black.
She could use the flashlight while charging, or when the battery was above forty percent.
“Yinxi, can you get in touch with a teacher?” Deng Miao felt her way through the mist to her upperclasswoman, deliberately lowering her voice.
Lin Yinxi shook her head. “Nope. No signal.”
The only things that worked on this phone now were the chat app [Green Bubble] and the built-in flashlight.
“Not even an emergency call to someone outside?”
“No.” Lin Yinxi looked down at the group messages.
[Rabbit Keeper: Flayer 003 has committed serious dereliction of duty, allowing three students to escape! All Flayers in this area will receive a collective demotion!]
[Rabbit Keeper: This is hereby announced!]
She wanted to read further, but her phone sent a payment reminder.
[Outstanding balance reminder: Dear customer, as of 14:00 on September 4, you owe 8 Rabbit Coins. Your credit facility has been activated (limit: 10 Rabbit Coins). To ensure uninterrupted service, please make a payment promptly.]
Huh? Monsters were out here peeling people, and chatting online still cost money?
Where was the justice?
Time was running out.
Lin Yinxi pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth and forced herself to stay calm.
Her wages would not arrive until dawn.
While she still had a little internet credit left, she quickly opened the large [Green-Eyed Rabbit Containment Center] group, tapped the chat information, opened the message search, and typed [Jincheng University]. No results.
That was wrong. Such a huge chatter group, and not a single message?
Her fingers paused. She opened the smaller group, copied [Jincheng University], and pasted it into the chat history search.
This time, messages appeared!
The corresponding text was all gibberish that Lin Yinxi could not read.
She could not understand the writing, but she could understand pictures!
She saw an entirely black monster holding a flamethrower and setting fires along a campus road.
The Arsonist was facing directly toward the women’s dormitory.
There was also a terrifying chef in the cafeteria, built like a mountain of meat, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, showing off a feast made from human bodies.
On the sports field, a monster in a gas mask, with a muscular bare upper body and camouflage trousers, was pushing a cart full of human heads. One of them belonged to the poor fitness-test teacher.
What a miserable death the fitness-test teacher had suffered!
In the security office, someone in a security uniform and a face mask sat perfectly still, their head turning little by little at an extremely slow pace. A cup of tea, a battered newspaper. Such a peaceful life.
Of course, it would have been even better if the head in the guard’s live image had turned less than 360 degrees.
All these horrors were happening inside [Jincheng University].
After browsing quickly, Lin Yinxi closed the pictures.
She made her decision. “We’ll take the shortcut across the sports field, then leave through the main gate.”
To Deng Miao, Lin Yinxi’s phone screen was completely black.
She thought her upperclasswoman possessed great wisdom.
Yinxi was staring at her phone in such deep thought. She must be using some flow-state perception and quantum entanglement to choose their best escape route.
The phone had no data bundle.
Lin Yinxi had merely tapped a couple of pictures in the group, and her remaining credit was gone. Service had been suspended for nonpayment.
What was the difference between cutting off her internet now and killing her?
“I remember the sports field’s in that direction, right?” Deng Miao rubbed her nose. “Do you smell something burning? Like scorched roast meat.”
Deng Miao had barely finished speaking.
A glow of orange-red light shone through the depths of the mist.
With the sound of air bursting, a wave of heat rushed toward them.
Lin Yinxi’s expression changed sharply.
“Duck!”
She pressed a hand to the back of Deng Miao’s head and shoved her down.
Whoosh!
A tongue of flame suddenly swept through the mist, skimming over their heads. Lin Yinxi thought she could smell her own hair after the searing heat.
Deng Miao froze, her face pressed against the ground, her pupils contracting wildly.
“Wh… what is that…?”
“An Arsonist,” Lin Yinxi said quietly. “The flamethrower should have a range of ten meters. Those monsters are more than ten meters away. Keep track of the direction and don’t look back. We need to run toward the sports field!”