Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Chu Yue turned his head to look. Guan Doujin was already awake, and like Shen Yubi, he was staring up at the canopy of the bed.

Chu Yue immediately thought of that eerie paper cutting.

Following Shen Yubi’s pointing finger, he felt a wave of goosebumps break out across his skin.

Although the room was dark, for some reason, Chu Yue could still clearly see the changes on the bed’s canopy.

They had tied the bedsheets to the top of the bed as a precaution. Looking at it now, it had been absolutely necessary!

The thin sheet was undulating, with many small protrusions popping up and down, as if someone were repeatedly throwing small pebbles onto it and pulling them back.

Chu Yue guessed that these Little Paper Figures were likely using the sheet as a “trampoline.”

If they hadn’t covered the top with the sheet beforehand, their stomachs would have been the trampolines right now.

Perhaps it wasn’t as simple as just playing on a trampoline, either.

Thinking this, he seemed to hear a certain sound in his ears.

It was the sound of many people gathered together, whispering in hushed tones.

The dense, ceaseless murmuring made him feel a bit irritable.

He climbed out of bed and gulped down a glass of water, and only then did the sound slowly fade away.

Guan Doujin asked, “What do we do now?”

They couldn’t just let these paper puppets jump over their heads all night.

Before they could come up with a solution for the commotion inside the room, a new sound came from outside.

Creak, creak-

They were familiar with this sound; it was the sound of someone walking in the hallway outside.

Who would be out there so late at night?

Chu Yue hesitated, but Guan Doujin pulled on his boots directly. “We’ll know what’s happening if we go out and look.”

As he spoke, he had already reached the door.

“Is that really a good idea?” Chu Yue asked.

Guan Doujin’s actions were like those of a reckless brute.

“It’s fine,” Shen Yubi said. “In the last Instance, we couldn’t open the door at night because the NPCs told the Players from the start not to wander around. That was an explicit Death Condition. There is no such rule this time.”

The three of them huddled by the door, listening to the sounds outside together.

Their room was at the very end of the hallway, but the footsteps outside stopped in the middle of the corridor.

Opening the door just a crack, three heads squeezed into the opening from top to bottom.

However, looking out from their direction, there was nothing there.

The hallway was indeed a bit dark, but not so dark that they wouldn’t be able to see something standing there.

A few seconds after the sound stopped, the three of them saw a candle suddenly flicker to life in the room on the right side in the middle of the hallway.

The orange light reflected on the paper door, becoming the only light in the darkness.

“What does that mean?”

The three of them stared at that door, none of them looking away.

There was no movement inside the room; only after a long time did the light inside suddenly go out.

Because they had been staring at the light for so long, the sudden extinguishing of the candle caused their vision to go dark for a moment.

After a short wait, the sound of someone walking on the floorboards echoed in the hallway again.

Creak, creak. It headed straight toward the stairs.

After a long time, until the sound gradually faded and could no longer be heard, the three of them pulled their heads back inside.

“Did you guys see anything? Why didn’t I see a thing?” Guan Doujin rubbed his chin.

Chu Yue shook his head. “I didn’t see anything either. Could it be that the Monster this time doesn’t have a physical form?”

“No,” Shen Yubi disagreed.

This was only a Level One Instance. Everything followed a traceable logic; it wouldn’t let the Players participating in the game die to something invisible.

“Does anyone remember whose room that was, the one where the candle lit up?”

Guan Doujin raised his hand. “It belongs to the woman who tore the paper cutting on the table during the meal. There’s another guy in the same room as her.”

“A guy?” Since returning to the room after lunch, Chu Yue hadn’t stepped out, so he wasn’t clear on the room assignments.

He found it a bit strange. Zhang Duo wasn’t the only female Player this time; there should have been one more woman. How did she end up sharing a room with a man?

“You’ll get used to it after seeing it enough,” Shen Yubi said indifferently. “In terms of Combat Power, unless a woman has had specialized training, men still have the advantage. A slightly weaker woman will naturally seek a man’s protection.”

Guan Doujin chuckled twice, his laugh full of hidden meaning.

“By that same logic, why do you think the men are willing to protect the women?”

Chu Yue understood the implication and was truly shocked.

They were already in a Horror World where their lives were at risk at any moment, yet they still had the mind to think about those kinds of things?

“This kind of thing happens a lot in the game. No need to make a fuss.”

Without lingering on the topic, the three returned to the main point.

Guan Doujin turned serious. “Do you think something entered that room just now, but it was just too dark for us to see?”

“It’s very likely. After all, there won’t truly be an invisible entity that gives Players no chance to resist.”

Chu Yue said, “I wonder if there will be one corpse or two tomorrow. Given the Mortality Rate of this Instance, one person dying on the first night should be the limit, right?”

“That’s hard to say.”

The person was already dead; they couldn’t go over to check, and discussing it here wouldn’t yield any results.

Lying back on the bed, the Little Paper Figures that had been jumping around earlier had settled down and didn’t cause any more trouble.

They slept exceptionally well, right until dawn the next day.

They were woken up by a scream.

It was a man’s voice. Without even thinking, they knew it was the guy from that room last night.