Chapter 7
Chapter 7
It had changed. The dream had changed.
Heng Jiangyue got up from the ground and fled after Lin Yinxi.
Lin Yinxi panted heavily. For someone who failed her PE exams, this much running was practically a death sentence.
Bang!
She ran into something hard in the thick mist. At the instant of impact, her heart stopped for a beat.
Surely there was not another Arsonist in front of them?
“Ow! My ribs!” a man cried in pain.
“Shh. Keep it down.”
Lin Yinxi looked up and steadied him.
He looked panicked. His white shirt was hopelessly crumpled, as if he had just escaped from somewhere ahead.
“Dr. Du? What are you doing here?” Lin Yinxi recognized him from the campus infirmary. “Forget it. Run. Talk while we run. Don’t stand here!”
Dr. Du adjusted his black-framed glasses, frowning and clutching his waist and abdomen. He instinctively glanced at Lin Yinxi.
“Your complexion is so…”
Halfway through, Lin Yinxi glared at him, and he stopped himself.
Dr. Du smacked his own mouth. “Sorry. Back to the point. Slow down. Over there… we can’t go over there…”
“Can’t go where?” Lin Yinxi did not slow down.
Dr. Du spoke urgently. “At the sports field, there’s a big man pushing a cart. Anyone who goes there… huff, huff…”
“He twists their head off and throws it straight into the cart…”
“There are monsters behind us too.” Lin Yinxi’s gaze cooled slightly.
“What?” Dr. Du went pale, his lips trembling. “Then we’re done for. There’s nowhere to run!”
Lin Yinxi looked at the mist all around them. It could not block the smell of blood. Every corner of Jincheng University was full of monsters of one kind or another.
Heng Jiangyue had been following behind them. Her narrow eyes scanned their surroundings, and she abruptly said, “They’re not called monsters. They’re called entities.”
At that moment, the phone vibrated.
[Green-Eyed Rabbit Bank…]
Lin Yinxi glanced at it and closed it at once.
Her wages had arrived, but she had to stay alive to spend them.
Lin Yinxi made a snap decision. “To get to the main gate, we have to cross the sports field. The more areas we pass through on a detour, the more monsters we’ll encounter. Let’s check the field first and see if there’s a path we can cut across!”
Deng Miao chimed in beside her.
“Listen to Yinxi!”
“Let me sing our senior’s praises. Whichever route she says to take, that’s the route that keeps you alive!”
“Without her, I’d already be drinking soup at Naihe Bridge…”[^naihe]
“Oh my God, be quiet!” Heng Jiangyue’s nerves were stretched tight. The noise was giving her a headache.
Her dreams had pictures but no sound.
How was she supposed to know Deng Miao talked this much?
They reached the sports field. The mist stopped at its edge. The sky was still gray, without a sun, and a patch of low shrubs around the perimeter made an excellent hiding place.
They hid among them and watched what was happening outside.
Lin Yinxi crouched in the farthest corner. Leaves brushed her face. Some had dark red, dried blood on them.
Deng Miao and Heng Jiangyue were listening to Dr. Du describe what had happened to him.
Lin Yinxi turned sideways to work her phone.
[Green-Eyed Rabbit Bank] Wages of 230 Rabbit Coins were credited to your account at 06:00 on September 4.
Two hundred Rabbit Coins were her wages for organizing the fifth-floor corpses.
Thirty Rabbit Coins were overtime pay.
Lin Yinxi paid her phone bill first.
The basic plan cost sixty Rabbit Coins, but internet usage cost extra. It was expensive.
She bought an app-specific data bundle outright.
For an extra forty Rabbit Coins, she could use Green Bubble with unlimited data every month. A good deal.
She had just topped up when another message appeared.
Rabbit Keeper invites you to join [Jincheng University Sports Field Work Assignments].
[Join group chat?]
Lin Yinxi tapped to join.
There were only three people in the small group.
Herself, Rabbit Keeper, and the entity who had posted a picture of himself pushing a cart in the large group earlier.
She opened his picture. He had an eight-pack and wore a black gas mask. It had fused with his neck, where veins bulged, and foul air puffed from the mask’s opening.
The entity was called Blackhead.
[New notification]
[Rabbit Keeper: Dawn has arrived. Effective immediately, Blackhead will organize games for all survivors who reach the sports field.
The survivors must send a representative to put a hand into the black box, draw a game card, and participate in the designated death game according to its rules.
Survivors and entities alike must obey all game rules unconditionally.]
[Rabbit Keeper: If the humans initiate an attack, Blackhead will dispose of the ringleader and confine the rest. Wait until other survivors enter the sports field before restarting the game.]
[Rabbit Keeper: Organizer, during the games, help Blackhead put the losers’ heads into the handcart. Wages will be settled per game.]
This group was not muted.
Blackhead posted a string of strange symbols.
Sending stickers in a work group did not seem very professional.
Lin Yinxi copied Blackhead’s string of odd symbols and posted it in the group.
It probably meant something like “Received,” “OK,” or some flattery for the boss.
All she had to do was follow his lead.
But the message had barely gone out.
[Blackhead has sent you a friend request.]
Lin Yinxi immediately turned her screen off.
Work comes first! No messing around on the phone!
Dr. Du clutched his hair. Sweat filled the gaps between his fingers.
“There’s… no other route around here.” His voice was dry. “All we can do is hide here and wait for rescue.”
No one answered him.
None of them seemed willing to sit and wait to die.
Lin Yinxi gently plucked a bloodstained leaf beside her, set it on her palm, and held it out for them to see. “Other monsters are patrolling the edge of the field. Sooner or later, they’ll find us here.”
Dr. Du swallowed. “I escaped with the people from the campus clinic… Someone tried to cross the sports field… That monster caught them, and they died on the spot. I’m the only survivor.”
Wind skimmed over the grass.
It rustled softly.
“We can’t beat it…” Dr. Du repeated quietly. “No matter how many of us there are.”
Heng Jiangyue had been frowning the whole time. She stared toward the sports field. “Dr. Du, you’re so much older than me, and you’re a man. I’m not afraid, so what are you scared of? Whether you go is up to you. I’m crossing the field.”
Fragmented images flashed through her mind.
An empty sports field. A gray sky.
And herself, walking out across that field.
The scenes in her dreams had been coming true ever since last night. Apart from Lin Yinxi, who should not have appeared, everyone else was in the dreams.
Deng Miao swallowed and looked cautiously at Lin Yinxi.
“I’ll listen to Yinxi.” Her round face looked utterly harmless. She smiled at her upperclasswoman, her voice firm. “Wherever you go, I’ll go.”
Just then, another flamethrower sounded in the distant mist.
Lin Yinxi stood up from the shrubs at once.
She did not look at the others again.
“If you’re scared, I’ll go first.”
She stepped toward the sports field.
Deng Miao cupped her cheeks, her eyes sparkling with admiration, and stood up too. “Our senior’s amazing! Yinxi, wait for me!”
[^naihe]: In Chinese underworld folklore, souls crossing Naihe Bridge drink a soup that makes them forget their previous lives before reincarnation.