Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Ning Gaoqiang and Hu Jiang were both novice players, but Ning Gaoqiang had the volatile air of a man who would answer any offense with twice the violence.

He grabbed Hu Jiang by the chin, eyes bulging. “I only asked your name, yet you’re acting guilty as hell. You definitely know something!”

Hu Jiang’s legs went weak with fear. He shook his head and waved his hands frantically. “I don’t! I don’t know anything!”

Xiao Huai could not be bothered with them. He checked the time and obediently climbed into bed.

Since Xiao Huai had raised the suspicion in the first place, Ning Gaoqiang expected him to help squeeze information out of Hu Jiang. Instead, he really went to sleep like a good little student.

Knocks sounded one after another from the rooms next door. Ning Gaoqiang’s heart lurched. He immediately released Hu Jiang’s collar and leaped into bed.

It was already eleven. The woman was making her rounds.

There was one condition to the bed check: they had to be lying in bed.

Standing on the floor or sitting in a chair both counted as violations.

Knock, knock, knock.

At last, the dorm supervisor reached their door. After three knocks, a beautiful woman with a stunning figure appeared before them.

Ning Gaoqiang did not dare sit up for a better look. He studied her from the corner of his eye, his pupils contracting.

Her face was identical to the obese supervisor’s. No one could believe she had slimmed down so drastically in ten minutes. Her voluptuous figure was impossible to forget.

Then again, this was the world of a horror game. Common sense might not apply here.

The supervisor’s smile was even more obvious now that she was thin. With no rolls of flesh crowding her face, they could clearly see that the corners of her mouth seemed to split all the way to her ears.

Her eyes opened wide as she surveyed the room. Raising a pen, she lightly pointed at each of the three beds in turn.

“One, two, three. Very good. Such well-behaved children. Everyone is here.”

The moment she left, Ning Gaoqiang seized Hu Jiang, dragged him from the bed, and threw him to the floor hard enough to leave his head spinning.

“Talk!”

Hu Jiang kept wailing that he truly knew nothing until Ning Gaoqiang pressed the dagger to his throat.

“If you really don’t know a goddamn thing, then I’m a fucking idiot. Talk or die.”

This time, Hu Jiang was genuinely terrified. He stopped struggling and fell silent for a long while before his lips finally parted.

Xiao Huai rolled onto his other side to watch, a lazy hint of amusement in the corners of his eyes.

“I’ll talk. I’ll talk… Ning, do you remember what happened before you came here?”

Ning Gaoqiang frowned. Before entering the game… he had been robbing someone. Just as he was about to plunge his knife in, he had inexplicably arrived in this world.

Hu Jiang had been fleeing the police after selling illegal goods when he was suddenly brought here.

“Remember the man who was killed outside the teaching building? I recognized him. He was on television. He was a murderer. He got drunk and killed a female student at a high school, then got arrested. He was supposed to be executed soon, but he came here too…”

Perhaps that was why the bald man had been so desperate to get inside the school. The setting had reminded him of his crime, and he had been afraid to face the memory.

Hu Jiang continued weakly, “If I’m right, then maybe everyone here… was brought in after committing a crime. The horror game is more like the gods putting wicked people on trial.”

Having done terrible things, they felt even guiltier and more frightened in a place like this, and were all the more terrified of dying.

A full cast of villains.

“But doesn’t that make it more interesting?” Xiao Huai spoke suddenly. A nearly imperceptible smile touched his eyes, lending his red gaze a wicked edge. “Now killing them won’t weigh on my conscience.”
“Wh-what did you say?” Hu Jiang thought he must have misheard.

Xiao Huai turned away and said nothing more.

“What about you? What did you do to end up in this game?”

Ning Gaoqiang narrowed his eyes at Xiao Huai. In a place like this, the calmer someone was, the more likely they were to be a deranged serial killer.

For all he knew, this man’s hands were stained with the blood of countless people.

The thought that he might have laid hands on a psychotic killer sent a chill crawling over Ning Gaoqiang’s skin.

Worse, they were sharing a room. He might die without ever knowing what hit him.

Just then, Xiao Huai sat up and looked down at his wrist. Several scars crossed it. Cocking his head, he said, “I don’t remember. Maybe suicide?”

“Suicide?” Ning Gaoqiang and Hu Jiang exclaimed together.

Xiao Huai chuckled. “Suicide is still a form of killing.”

He stretched. “Get some sleep. This is only a survival instance. We’ll be out in seven days.”

He was right. It was only a survival instance, and a first-floor one at that. The NPCs would not start slaughtering them indiscriminately the moment they arrived. Surely there had to be some form of beginner protection.

By two in the morning, the combined debuffs of exhaustion and terror had dragged most people into a deep sleep.

Xiao Huai was one of the few players still awake. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

Ever since he arrived at Ivy Girls’ School, several notifications had been sitting in his system.

[A god has left a message in your livestream. Come take a look~]

[Chaos: So you like pink skirts. I’ll remember that.]

Xiao Huai: “…” Uh. A god seemed to have misunderstood something.

Although he remembered nothing, anything related to games triggered an instinctive response in him. Identity cards were one example.

The instant He Lecheng dropped a clue, the term had slipped from his mouth without thought.

If the game only required them to obey the rules and survive seven peaceful days, it would be far too boring. Had he designed this horror game, he would never have made it so dull.

The identity cards were the obvious point of entry. Whoever received one might not be evil, but they certainly would not be good. That was where the game’s entertainment truly began.

What could be more entertaining than turning humans against one another?

With a faint smile, he sat up, walked straight out of the room, and strolled toward the teaching building.

The walk from the dormitory took only ten minutes.

All the corpses had vanished, though the putrid smell of blood still hung in the air.

Moonlight fell across the empty corridors. Every classroom door was tightly shut, and through the glass panes, only darkness could be seen within.

Dim lights at the far end of the corridor cast long shadows. Xiao Huai entered the teaching building without hesitation, as if waiting for something to happen.

One second. Two. A full minute.

Nothing.

“Just as I thought…” He laughed softly, pulled the Student Handbook from his pocket, and tossed it into a trash can.

Rules Three and Four contradicted each other. By existing together, each proved the other false.

[3. Return to the dormitory to rest as soon as evening study ends.]

[4. Do not enter the third-floor restroom in the west teaching building after ten p.m.]

Rule Three implied that no students were allowed inside the teaching building after evening study. Evening study ended at nine thirty, so logically there should not be any students here after ten. Yet Rule Four specifically forbade entering the third-floor restroom in the west teaching building after ten.

If no one was supposed to be in the building then, why would Rule Four need to exist?

The answer was simple: both rules were false.

A student handbook containing false rules…

Was worthless.