Chapter 10

Chapter 10

It was ten o’clock at night.

More and more strange things were appearing inside the duty room.

I closed my eyes-out of sight, out of mind.

I felt like some enlightened master, surrounded by demons and monsters, yet utterly unshaken.

“Gu Tang, are you in there? I’m coming in!” a voice called from the doorway.

I opened my eyes and saw Zhang San walk in.

Zhang San was the guy from the Annihilated Dormitory who had greeted me earlier!

Hey, who said you could come in? Making decisions on your own like you own the place?!

It would’ve been one thing if Zhang San came in, but he didn’t even close the door.

I saw it clearly: the Person in the Red Top Hat was standing outside.

Close the door behind you, do you understand basic manners?!

[The duty room is absolutely safe.]

[If you see them, tell yourself it’s all a hallucination.]

“Gu Tang, stay clearheaded. Do not step out of the duty room-not even once,” Sun Huawen’s voice came through.

Zhang San, acting like we were best friends, walked up and grabbed me. “It’s so boring in here alone. Come out for a walk with me.”

A walk, my ass!

Can’t you see that thing outside is just waiting for me to step out so it can kill me?

“I’m not going,” I said flatly.

“Why?”

“For world peace. For the twinkling stars. For the surging sea. And for the cafeteria eggs that cost one-fifty each.”

Zhang San: “…?”

But Zhang San still tried to drag me toward the door.

I started to suspect this Zhang San wasn’t a hallucination.

He really, truly wanted to pull me outside and get me killed.

“I’m warning you-keep this up and I’ll use the law to punish you!”

Zhang San, the outlaw, didn’t flinch.

The scene turned into complete chaos. Zhang San grabbed my legs and tried to haul me out, while I clung to the chair of the teacher across from me, vowing to die before I let go.

Thank you, Teacher. Back then I didn’t appreciate you and even thought you were scary. Now I understand-you’ve been indulging me this whole time. You’ve been protecting me in silence.

“Boss Sun, what do I do?!” I begged Sun Huawen for help.

If that teacher stood up, I’d be finished.

And while I was worrying, the teacher actually stood up.

Yeah, thanks a lot.

“The dormitory check is here!” Sun Huawen suddenly shouted into the call.

The moment Zhang San heard that, he immediately let go and bolted out the door-then even closed it for me on his way out.

Crisis resolved.

“Boss Sun is truly Boss Sun. That was insane!”

“I was just trying it-I didn’t think it would actually work,” Sun Huawen said, exhaling hard.

[Don’t talk to people from the Annihilated Dormitory. They’re in league with the Person in the Red Top Hat.]

The thought made cold sweat pour down my back.

I warned my roommates to stay away from people from the Annihilated Dormitory.

Would Zhang San come again?

Probably not…

It was eleven o’clock.

The dormitory check began.

As long as there were no Traitors in the dorm, the dormitory check wasn’t anything to be afraid of.

During the check, my roommates and I chatted over the sound of explosions.

Oddly enough, it almost felt kind of romantic?

Tonight’s dormitory check-three dorms had incidents.

“Why did so many dorms get hit tonight?” I asked.

“No idea… The Library is clearly packed, so how can there still be that many Traitors?” Xiao Ze said.

“Wait!” Sun Huawen sounded like he’d suddenly remembered something. “How many students does our school have?”

“A few tens of thousands,” Zhou Yiqiang replied.

“Then how many seats are in the Library?”

The second Sun Huawen asked that, every one of us froze.

Right. How many seats could a Library possibly have?

Using the Library to estimate the ratio between the living and the dead was bad information!!!

The moment the Library started having empty seats, that alone would already be terrifying!

Maybe things were already extremely unsafe.

Not long after the dormitory check ended, we heard doors opening and closing again.

“Let me in! Please, save me! I won’t bring the Student Council here! Please let me in-if you don’t, it’ll kill me! Please!” someone outside cried in despair.

“You’re a Dog-Seer. We won’t let you in. Don’t even think about it.”

The reply was ice-cold.

We listened quietly. No one spoke.

What was the “it” the Dog-Seer was talking about?

And why didn’t Dog-Seers open the door for the people doing the dormitory check earlier?

The duty room I was in-the Person in the Red Top Hat couldn’t enter.

This duty room kept reminding me of the Student Council’s Box.

Lights out. Everyone needed to rest, so I ended the voice call.

I lay on the floor of the duty room. I closed my eyes, but I couldn’t fall asleep.

Not because I was afraid of the demons and monsters around me.

Not because I was afraid of the Person in the Red Top Hat outside, either.

I couldn’t sleep because I felt all these clues were connected-and I felt like I could find the connections.

In the pitch-black space, I listened to my own breathing, mixed with the soft tapping outside the door.

For the first time in my life, I was thinking with this much seriousness and focus.

I think I know.

[Dogs will not open the door for the dormitory check.]

[The people conducting the dormitory check are in league with the Person in the Red Top Hat.]

[The Student Council is opposed to the Person in the Red Top Hat.]

So the Person in the Red Top Hat can’t enter the Box.

And the Box is the duty room.

[The Annihilated Dormitory is afraid of the dormitory check, but they’re also in league with the Person in the Red Top Hat.]

That’s why Zhang San wanted to drag me out of the duty room.

Then I remembered another message.

[Dog-Seers are the Student Council’s lackeys.]

That’s why Dog-Seers are afraid of being locked outside.

And since the Student Council is opposed to the Person in the Red Top Hat, Dog-Seers won’t open the door for the dormitory check.

The “it” the Dog-Seer mentioned…

It refers to the Person in the Red Top Hat.