Flipping through the remaining pages, Xiao Xiao found no more writing and silently closed the notebook. Silence settled over the room for a while. Neither of them spoke.
"Stay in this place too long, and you'll be assimilated," Ye Chu said. "So that business about leaving after a month is a lie. What they call leaving actually means you've already been assimilated into an emotionless monster."
"Will that happen to us too?" Xiao Xiao looked lost. She had thought she could leave as long as she lasted a month. She had thought freedom was just around the corner, only to discover that it wasn't hope waiting for her, but another abyss.
"Don't worry. It definitely won't." Ye Chu patted her shoulder reassuringly.
"That Laboratory Building..." Ye Chu pressed his lips together. "The Laboratory Building is that monster's lair." He looked at Xiao Xiao. "Xiao Xiao, can you let me choose who goes on cleaning duty at the Laboratory Building this Friday?"
Xiao Xiao's eyes widened. Thinking Ye Chu wanted to return to that place that radiated eeriness from every corner, she pointed at the diary, her voice hoarse. "There's a monster in there! A monster covered in yellow eyeballs!"
The image she conjured up disgusted her so much that she began dry-heaving into the trash can.
Ye Chu set a bottle of water on the table and gently patted her back. "I know, but we can't just sit around waiting to die, can we? We'll die sooner or later anyway. If we go to the Laboratory Building, we'll at least have a little hope. If we don't, we'll all turn into monsters. Do you want to become like that? Do you want to see Zhang Lian become like that?"
Xiao Xiao pictured it and shook her head like a rattle. "No. I don't." She couldn't bear the thought of becoming like that herself, much less seeing Zhang Lian become like that.
"I'll go with you on cleaning duty this Friday."
Ye Chu smiled. "No need. I'll just go with Wu You or Sister Lu Rui."
Xiao Xiao stared at his smiling, peach-blossom eyes, momentarily dazed. He was younger than her, yet somehow he seemed so dependable.
She felt she could trust him with all her heart.
"Okay. I'll arrange it."
The lights-out bell rang, and they hurried back into their beds. "Xiao Xiao, get a good night's sleep. The next few days probably won't be peaceful."
In the darkness, Xiao Xiao murmured her agreement, and the dorm room fell quiet.
The live chat, however, was buzzing.
[I just started watching. Have they been in this Instance for twenty-something days? It's almost over, right?]
[Replying to the person above: you might not believe this, but it's only their fourth day in the Instance...]
[Holy crap. Going by previous players, they should still be following the rules, or just starting to notice something off about them. Meanwhile, these guys... have fast-forwarded straight to the final step.]
[Seriously, aren't they way too lucky? How did they unlock a crucial clue like the diary right off the bat? They must be cheating.]
[Because they unlocked the achievement for three players entering the Laboratory Building together on their first day... But seriously, who knows why they all charged in when they knew it was dangerous?!]
[Shouldn't you avoid a place if you know it's dangerous? Why are they all so reckless?!]
[12789 is fucking awesome!!]
[Holy shit, I've got a feeling this season is going to be legendary too.]
The next morning, for once, Pei Yanchuan didn't linger in bed. He got up bright and early and knocked on the Class Monitor's dorm room next door.
Having only just woken up, the Class Monitor was still groggy. Looking pale, he rubbed his eyes and, upon seeing Pei Yanchuan at the door, asked sleepily, "Classmate Dad, is there something you need?"
He was so polite that Pei Yanchuan felt a little embarrassed.
"Nothing much," Pei Yanchuan replied.
"Oh," the Class Monitor said, turning to go back to bed. Suddenly, something hard struck him viciously on the head, knocking him unconscious.
"Sorry," Pei Yanchuan whispered as he dragged the monster's corpse out of the dorm room. The moment the monster left the room, his body turned into a wisp of white smoke and dispersed into the air.
"Well, well." Pei Yanchuan raised his eyebrows. That saved him the trouble of disposing of the body.
Since he had gotten up early, Pei Yanchuan also managed, for once, not to be late for morning class. When the Chinese Teacher called the name "Dad," he answered on time.
The fat Mediterranean held the class roster. When no one answered the Class Monitor's name, he looked up in confusion, searching the classroom for him.
He called twice more, but still received no answer. Just then, the Dormitory Warden knocked on the classroom door and told the Chinese Teacher that one student had been missing when everyone left the dorms that morning. He had just searched the dormitory building himself but hadn't found the student.
The Chinese Teacher nodded thoughtfully, then announced to the class, "Students, your Class Monitor is dead."
Pei Yanchuan nearly spat out a mouthful of water. Seriously... that casually?
"I'll now announce the next Class Monitor..." The Chinese Teacher swept his gaze across the class again and pointed at another monster student. "All right, you."
Pei Yanchuan wasn't having that. He stood straight up. "Sir, going by credits, shouldn't I be the Class Monitor?"
The Chinese Teacher glanced at him and said slowly, "Credits only matter during the rotation of class officers. This is an emergency, so the homeroom teacher can simply appoint a Class Monitor." Then he tilted his head and added, "Disrespecting a teacher and speaking out of turn. Two points deducted."
Pei Yanchuan sat back down, his expression darkening. A vicious glint entered his eyes as he ran his tongue over his canine tooth.
Class Monitor, huh? Fine.
I'm getting that position today, no matter what!
Su Fengzi watched in shock as Pei Yanchuan raised his blade and cut down the newly appointed monster Class Monitor in a toilet stall in less than a minute.
Seriously, man, are you really an ordinary high school student?
But to his surprise, when the Chinese Teacher learned that the newly appointed Class Monitor had died less than half a day into the job, he immediately handpicked another monster student.
That day, Pei Yanchuan went on an absolute killing spree. Every time a monster took over as Class Monitor, he slaughtered them. Before the day was even over, the class of twenty-eight had dwindled to twenty-two.
The Chinese Teacher stared blankly at the roster, now missing a whole slew of names. What... was going on?
The math teacher strode into the office, leather shoes clacking, and flung a textbook down in front of the Chinese Teacher. "What's going on in your class? How did so many students disappear all at once?"
The little old Mediterranean flinched in fright and shook his head blankly. He didn't know either.
The math teacher looked furious, eyes blood-red. "If He finds out about this, none of us will get off lightly!!"
The little old Mediterranean shuddered again. Right, they couldn't let Him find out. If He got angry, all of them teachers would be finished. The Chinese Teacher glanced at the roster again, paused over the box marked "Dad," then placed a check beside it.
"Classmate Dad, you'll be the Class Monitor."
Pei Yanchuan secured the position of Class Monitor, radiating smug satisfaction. In the classroom, the Class Monitor's authority was second only to the teacher's, which meant he could enter and leave the office freely and alter the cleaning schedule drawn up by the sanitation representative.
"Brother Fengzi, when's the next time we can see Brother Ye Chu and the others?" Pei Yanchuan asked, rocking back and forth on his stool.
Su Fengzi looked up and thought for a moment. "I think there's a music class this afternoon."
Before you continue