The Rat Swarm Came to Investigate the Dormitory

It's that time of night again for the dormitory supervisor to check the rooms.

Having completed their punishment and incidentally carved a perfectly crafted wooden baby sculpture for the female dorm supervisor, Wen Qinghuai and Zhao Mou watched as the female dorm supervisor began knocking on dormitory doors from the first floor.

After receiving permission, they didn't stay with the female dorm supervisor any longer. Instead, they quickly returned to their dorm room via the stairs. As they parted, the female dorm supervisor had jokingly said, "If I don't see you two when I go to your dorm later, I'll just assume you were out having fun on purpose, okay?"

She's the type who knows everything, yet still uses this to threaten them into going back immediately, as if she wasn't the one who prevented them from returning before.

Zhao Mou knocked on the dormitory door, and Yu Xing's voice, tinged with amusement, came from inside. "Who is it?"

"Derek and Winter," Zhao Mou said, "We've come up here after helping the dorm supervisor with her wood carvings."

In that instant, the lights that had been on in the corridor suddenly went out, plunging Zhao Mou into complete darkness. Wen Qinghuai, who was standing nearby, immediately realized, "It's time to turn off the lights."

Although many students study all night, they can only turn on their desk lamps to read after the dorm checks. The dorm supervisors usually turn a blind eye to this, but the corridor lights are turned off at the scheduled time.

"Come in quickly." The dormitory door opened, Yu Xing stood at the door, holding the doorknob. There was a trace of a desk lamp behind him.

Wen Qinghuai became wary instead, finding it strange that the corridor lights went out at such a coincidental time. He asked, "What's my brother's name?"

"Sam." Yu Xing smiled at him as she opened the door. "There's nothing to worry about. The dorm is pretty safe. Come in quickly, it won't be good if the dorm supervisor comes."

Zhao Mou nodded thoughtfully, adjusted his glasses, and stepped into the room. "Indeed, let's go inside and talk about the problems."

Wen Qinghuai: "..."

He watched as the fake Yu Xing and the fake Zhao Mou earnestly deceived him, believing their cooperation to be flawless.

"Hurry up and come in, or we'll be late." Zhao Mou turned around and frowned after entering the dormitory. "Have you forgotten what the dorm supervisor said? If they come up and don't realize we're still here, they'll think we've been out until lights out."

"But my brother's name is Roy, so get out of here." Wen Qinghuai coldly exposed the fake Zhao Mou, and at the same time looked left and right. She never expected that in just a moment, not only was the door in front of her broken, but even the Zhao Mou next to her had been replaced.

"Heh." The two mannequins inside the door let out a chilling chuckle in unison. They said nothing more, but closed the door, plunging Wen Qinghuai into darkness once more.

"Didn't I just get my punishment over with? Why am I encountering ghosts again so soon..." he thought suspiciously, the only reason he could think of was that this was a new punishment for students still in the hallway after lights out.

The female dorm supervisor certainly didn't have any good intentions towards them. She deliberately dragged out the time, making them break another rule. On the surface, she was giving them time to return to their dorms, but in reality, they would be haunted by ghostly figures in the corridor. Whether they fell for the ghostly figures' tricks and were killed by them, or were caught by the dormitory supervisors during room checks after a long time, it was all an unnecessary disaster that could have been avoided.

Just then, a steady voice came from the darkness. "Winter? Are you still with me?"

It was Zhao Mou's voice. Wen Qinghuai thought for a moment and replied, "Yes."

The moment he finished speaking, he squatted down on the spot, silently feeling the surging air currents in the darkness.

Something seemed to brush past above his head.

"You're not here." Zhao Mou's voice was right above him. If Zhao Mou hadn't happened to be bending over and his head was hanging above him, it would have looked like something was hanging upside down from the ceiling. Wen Qinghuai was so startled by this feeling that he broke out in a cold sweat. "Where did you go?"

Was this another case of a prank involving recognizing people? Or was I attacked by two ghostly figures at the same time?

This is just too unlucky. Wen Qinghuai didn't think these things should be attacking him. He frowned, tentatively reached out, and boldly intended to touch him.

Just then, the dormitory door opened again.

"Winter, be careful, come in quickly!" Yu Xing opened the door again. Yu Xing seemed unable to see the pitch-black corridor either, squinting as she searched in the darkness. "I hear the sound of spiders spinning webs."

Wen Qinghuai didn't speak, but decisively reached his hand up to his head, only to find nothing.

But his movement was caught by Yu Xing, who opened the door. Yu Xing breathed a sigh of relief, "You're here! Come here quickly, it's on your head!"

"What's my brother's name?" Wen Qinghuai asked expressionlessly.

"Roy, wait, what time is it? Why are you doing this?" Yu Xing opened the door, seemed a little puzzled and reached out to pull Wen Qinghuai inside.

"Come on, actually I'm the younger brother, my older brother is Derek. Since you don't know the background of us transfer students, don't waste your time acting, okay?" Wen Qinghuai quickly dodged the pull and stood up. "I..."

Before he could finish speaking, the light before them shattered like a bubble. In his ear, Zhao Mou calmly analyzed, "Given the current situation, they probably won't dare open the door for us. Roy is probably inside trying to figure something out. It's just a pity they need to hurry."

Wen Qinghuai realized the source of the sound was to his right, which was indeed where he had been standing just before the lights went out. It was as if the two waves of ghostly attacks he had just seen were just illusions, and Zhao Mou, because he couldn't see him, had no idea that he had been attacked.

Wen Qinghuai was too lazy to play these games, so he asked directly, "Derek, guess whether I'm your older brother or your younger brother?"

Something in the darkness. "..."

For a moment, it seemed hesitant to answer.

However, not answering actually meant the answer was wrong. Having been tricked by the same question three times, the thing in the darkness let out a sharp, animal-like cry after a period of silence, clearly very annoyed.

Wen Qinghuai gave a faint smile. He had seen countless fraudsters in various simulations, and these fraudsters were clearly not protected by anti-fraud apps. Their tricks were quite clumsy and posed no threat whatsoever.

The attack timer should be ending soon. There's always a way out in the dungeon's penalties. Since Ghost Shadow wants him to walk through that door, his refusal to go in is a victory in itself.

As he waited, Wen Qinghuai suddenly felt his arm being grabbed. His eyes instantly turned sharp, and he skillfully tried to break free.

But he couldn't break free. The hand that was holding him was very strong, at a very tricky angle, and most importantly, it carried a coldness and an air of unquestionable authority.

"Who?" Wen Qinghuai vaguely felt that this was really different from the liar.

"Wine." The answer came from Zhao Yijiu's distinctively gloomy voice, which made him shiver. The other party didn't say the character's name from the dungeon, nor the full name, but instead chose the word "wine," which is the easiest word to misunderstand. Even if the ghosts heard it and were about to imitate it, they probably wouldn't guess that it was the "wine" in drinking, and not the number 9.

"Wait, who is my brother?" Wen Qinghuai sensed that the person who called himself "Jiu" seemed to be leading him somewhere, so he cautiously asked the question.

"You don't have a younger brother." Zhao Yijiu's tone held a hint of impatience. "My brother has already gone in. Now I'll take you in. Close your eyes."

Wen Qinghuai guessed it was true, so he cooperated and closed his eyes.

For a moment, his body felt weightless, and the ground beneath his feet seemed to disappear, but he did not fall. Instead, he was carried by the hand on his arm, floating forward in some strange medium.

A second later, his feet landed firmly on the ground again, and he felt the stimulation of the outside light through his closed eyelids. He opened his eyes and found himself in the common area of the dormitory, with a lamp on the table.

Zhao Mou and Yu Xing sat at the table, their eyes fixed on him.

Zhao Yijiu, who had grabbed him, had a hint of crimson in his eyes. After bringing the man to his destination, he immediately let go and rubbed his temples wearily.

"That was close." Yu Xing said this, but her face didn't show much fear. "Luckily, Brother Jiu's abilities are enhanced in the shadows, so he can use the power of the Shadow Wizard to briefly move back and forth in the shadows."

"I was attacked by a ghost, and it wasn't a very intelligent one at that, three times in total." Wen Qinghuai said this, involuntarily looking at Zhao Yijiu's eyes, which were gradually losing their crimson color.

"This is normal for him," Zhao Mou explained, noticing Wen Qinghuai's underlying doubt. "Sometimes when he uses abilities beyond his control, his eyes turn red. This has happened in previous live streams; I don't know if you saw them."

He was referring to the final stage of the Death Parallel Line, but actually, at that time, most viewers didn't see Zhao Yijiu's eyes because Yu Xing covered them with a cloth strip in time.

"Traversing through shadows also requires a bit of that power," Zhao Yijiu added.

"Then I probably haven't watched the live stream you mentioned, but since you mentioned the word 'live stream,' I believe you." The poor curly-haired guy who had been locked out finally relaxed. "What did it look like from inside when the lights were off?"

"Nothing special. I just heard a knock on the door, asked who it was, and then turned off the lights. After that, there was no sound outside, so I guessed it was the ghost attacking you according to the rules." Yu Xing spread his hands helplessly. "I couldn't open the door at this time, so I could only ask Brother Jiu for help."

In order to prevent the two "civilian staff" from being trapped outside, he originally wanted to briefly send Ghost Wine out to bring them back, but Zhao Yijiu said that he could do it without changing into a fierce ghost state. It just took a little time because he was not familiar with the process when waiting for Zhao Mou.

Then it became much easier to take care of Wen Qinghuai.

Before they could exchange more than a few words, a strange crawling sound came from the darkness outside. They fell silent, exchanged a glance, turned off the lights in the common area, and returned to their respective cubicles separated by curtains. They turned off the lamps in their cubicles and crawled into bed.

"Room check." The sweet voice of the female dorm supervisor came from outside the door.

No one answered her.

When you sleep, you should look like you're sleeping.

The key was inserted into the dormitory door lock, and the iron door made a slight sound as the key turned.

"Are all four of you here?" The female dorm supervisor's eyes gleamed white in the darkness, and the crawling sounds the deducers heard became even clearer as female dorm supervisor entered.

Yu Xing lay flat on the bed, the blanket half-drawn, and his curtains only half-drawn, so that he could see a section of the ground outside as soon as he turned his head.

He heard the female dorm supervisor walk out alone, making a sound like a group of animals crawling around, checking each of the four cubicles from the dormitory door.

She lingered especially long outside Zhao Mou and Wen Qinghuai's cubicle, as if unwilling that the two of them would actually enter the dormitory within the time limit she had set.

After wandering around for a while, she came to Yu Xing's side. Yu Xing squinted and quickly caught sight of a corner of a skirt.

The female dorm supervisor stood in front of the curtain he had half-drawn, looking at Yu Xing's face through the half that wasn't drawn.

"Squeak."

Just then, Yu Xing keenly heard a tiny squeaking sound hidden among the crawling noises.

Mouse?

He was unaware of what Zhao Mou and Wen Qinghuai had discovered while making wood carvings down there; only in that instant when he heard the squeaking of mice did he realize the origin of those crawling sounds.

That's a swarm of rats.

The female dorm supervisor's footsteps made a rat-like sound; what does this mean?

This means... that this sweet-voiced dormitory supervisor might actually be a combination of a bunch of rats.

This school employs a group of rats as dormitory supervisors. As nocturnal creatures, they can perfectly scatter throughout the building to monitor the students' movements, and any student who violates school rules by leaving the dormitory without permission will inevitably be caught.

The sound of wood-gnawing that he heard as he approached the duty room also became clear: the female dorm supervisor didn't need a carving knife at all; before she saw them, she was simply biting the wood she was carving with her teeth.

"Everyone's here." The dorm supervisor announced with a hint of regret in the common area, then led her mice out of the dorm and closed the door again.

She must have known that none of the four people in the room were asleep, but none of them were willing to pay attention to her, because when she looked at Yu Xing did not close his eyes.

Not being asleep during room checks doesn't violate school rules, so she can't use that as an excuse to make trouble.

The four of them remained lying in bed without moving until the crawling sounds outside and the increasingly distant knocking on the door completely disappeared, and they returned downstairs the way they came. Only then did they tacitly sit up.

"It's disgusting. I've actually hated rats since I was a child," Zhao Mou exclaimed.

"I hate them too, but I like snakes. My snake can help me eat mice," Wen Qinghuai replied, seemingly missing the little green snake pendant he usually wore around his neck.

"There aren't many normal people in this school to begin with. Some are ghosts, some are monsters, and now there are animals too," Yu Xing didn't realize he seemed to be making a dry joke. He yawned. "It's finally quiet now. The dorms are the most private places in the school. Let's summarize the information we've gathered today."

Although they spend a significant portion of the day together, given the situation at St. Johnis Middle School, they can generally obtain different pieces of information whenever they are separated.