The next morning, Ye Chu was woken by a knock at the door. Lu Rui's voice came from outside. "Ye Chu, are you up yet? Want some breakfast?"
Ye Chu glanced at the alarm clock by his bed. It was nine.
He sat up. "I'll be right out." Ye Chu yawned. He hadn't slept this late in ages. Last night really must have worn him out.
He opened the wardrobe and was pleasantly surprised to find it full of the clothes he usually wore. Ye Chu picked out a white shirt and black trousers at random, washed up, and went out.
The aroma of breakfast greeted him the moment he stepped outside. He walked over to the sofa. Several servings of breakfast sat on the coffee table, simple but clearly prepared with care.
"Sit down and eat, Ye Chu." Lu Rui set the last bowl of noodles on the coffee table. "Feng Zi should be down soon. Xiao Pei and Youyou aren't up yet. Young people just love sleeping in."
Ye Chu, who was only a year older than Wu You: ...
"Morning, Lu Rui." Su Fengzi came downstairs yawning. He looked half-asleep, his uncombed hair making him resemble a rooster with its feathers all fluffed up.
"Morning." Lu Rui patted the sofa beside her, motioning for him to sit. "I'll go call Youyou and Xiao Pei again. If they don't get up soon, the food will go cold."
Ye Chu swallowed his mouthful of noodles and stopped Lu Rui. "I'll go. You've been busy all morning. Eat first."
He stood as he spoke. Passing Su Fengzi, he couldn't resist reaching out to ruffle his bird's-nest hair.
"Huh? What are you doing?" Su Fengzi clearly wasn't fully awake yet and looked utterly dazed.
"Nothing. Just fixing your hair." Ye Chu lied without hesitation or so much as an extra blink.
Su Fengzi nodded. "Oh, thanks."
Ye Chu smiled and headed toward Pei Yanchuan's room. He knocked on the closed door. "Pei Yanchuan? Pei Yanchuan, get up. The food's going cold."
"If you don't open up, I'm coming in." As he spoke, Ye Chu tentatively turned the doorknob. To his surprise, it opened. Huh, he doesn't lock his door when he sleeps?
When he opened the door, the sight before him stunned him.
On the bed lay not the boy with the Wolf Cut, but a black wolf the size of a person.
Ye Chu silently closed the door. I should go back to sleep. I got up too fast. Now I'm seeing people as wolves.
He stood outside the door, rubbed his eyes, and opened it again. Great. The wolf was still on the bed.
His fur was glossy black, rumbling snores came from his throat, and his big tail swished unconsciously back and forth.
Ye Chu took two steps closer to get a better look at the wolf. He had already confirmed yesterday that they were completely safe in this house, with no danger lurking anywhere.
So this big fellow in front of him was Pei Yanchuan himself... in the fur.
He wanted to go tell Su Fengzi and Lu Rui first. Wu You was probably in the same situation as Pei Yanchuan, having turned into a wolf after a night's sleep.
Ye Chu had only taken one step toward the door when the wolf behind him startled awake and suddenly pounced, knocking Ye Chu down and pinning him beneath him.
Ye Chu: ...
Ye Chu tentatively called his name. "Pei Yanchuan? Are you still aware of what's going on, Pei Yanchuan?"
The wolf in front of him gave a low sound in response.
Apparently, he was still aware. "Let me go first..." Ye Chu struggled to get up, but the wolf had his entire body pressed against him, leaving him unable to move.
He shoved Pei Yanchuan off with all his strength and ran toward the stairs. "Get up here! Pei Yanchuan's turned into a wolf!"
Downstairs, Lu Rui and Su Fengzi looked bewildered. "What did he just say?" "What did Xiao Pei turn into?" "A wolf, I think?" "Oh, a wolf."
A wolf?!
The two immediately jumped up and scrambled upstairs, where they found a black wolf and Ye Chu pinned to the floor.
"What's this? A romantic floor pin?" Su Fengzi asked.
Ye Chu lifted his head with difficulty to look at him. "Shut up and get him off me."
"Xiao Pei, let Ye Chu go." Lu Rui adjusted her glasses and pursed her lips, her voice low, stern, and utterly serious. She looked exactly like a high school homeroom teacher. Pei Yanchuan immediately lifted his paws.
Ye Chu got up from the floor and straightened his clothes, staring at Pei Yanchuan, who was now sitting obediently by the wall. "..."
Is this the power a homeroom teacher has over her students?
Lu Rui headed to the next room to check on Wu You. Pei Yanchuan stretched out a paw, wanting to follow, but one glare from Lu Rui made him sit obediently back down.
Su Fengzi looked at the enormous wolf in front of him and rubbed his hair. "Is he... a wolf or a dog, exactly?"
Ye Chu held out his hand, and Pei Yanchuan immediately tucked his head beneath it and nuzzled him. "...A dog, probably."
The wolf wouldn't stand for that. He immediately let out an "Awoooo!" to prove to the two people before him: I'm a wolf.
Lu Rui's voice came from Wu You's room. "Pei Yanchuan, what are you barking about?"
Pei Yanchuan: ...
Su Fengzi also went to Wu You's room to check on her. Unlike Pei Yanchuan, Wu You had turned into a white wolf, and she was considerably smaller than him.
Lu Rui lifted her off the bed. Wu You was still half-asleep and utterly dazed. She hooked a paw around Lu Rui's neck and unconsciously nuzzled against it.
Supporting her with one hand, Lu Rui gently rubbed her fluffy head with the other. "She's not awake yet. Why don't you go eat first? I'll stay with her for a while."
Ye Chu took Pei Yanchuan downstairs, while Su Fengzi went to ask the system what was going on.
[Um... sorry, there's a bug in the system space...] It stammered, sounding thoroughly guilty.
Ye Chu wasn't buying it. He raised his eyes toward the camera in the living room. "And?"
[W-well, it's not entirely a bad thing...]
"Hm?"
Under Ye Chu's gaze, the system didn't dare say another word.
Only after a long while did it speak again. This time, it had clearly drafted an announcement, and its delivery was much smoother.
[This bug will be fixed very soon. This is the first time such a situation has occurred in over two hundred seasons of No One Survives. We apologize for the negative impact on your gaming experience. As compensation, players may retain this ability in subsequent instances.]
Su Fengzi lay back on the sofa, holding an apple. He took a bite. "What ability?"
[In subsequent instances, you may transform into your corresponding Werewolf roles as needed. For example, Pei Yanchuan can turn into a wolf, Su Fengzi gains the ability to foresee the future, and Ye Chu can use poison to kill people or an antidote to save them...]
"What about the Hunter?"
[The Hunter's highest-level privilege allows them to take the instance's boss down with them after their own death.]
"Oh?" Su Fengzi interlaced his hands behind his head. "Then the Hunter's ability is powerful in one sense, but pretty useless in another. We'll probably never have any use for it, right?"
He uncrossed his legs, stood up, and went into the kitchen to look for more snacks.
Ye Chu glanced at him, then at Lu Rui, who stood at the foot of the stairs with her head lowered. He couldn't tell what she was thinking.
Ye Chu rubbed the wolf's head. Pei Yanchuan lay quietly at his feet, eyes narrowed in contentment and a rumbling sound rising from his throat.
"How come you're so well-behaved as a wolf pup? Maybe you shouldn't turn back."
Before you continue