"I'm full! Ah, let's walk around a bit, then find somewhere crowded to hide. The police should have gotten the word out anyway, and that Evil Sin probably won't kill anyone at noon. Maybe we'll be rescued if we wait. I'm not daring to go back to the dorm."
Hu Zihao stretched and spoke to the two beside him.
Shi Yu had regained his energy, but he felt a little uneasy.
"Did it really work? Why do I feel so unsettled..."
Han He also said they could wait a while. If nothing major happened, they could stay outside for now.
Just as the three were discussing whether to tell the other students about the monster later, Han He suddenly went on alert. He whipped his head around to look behind him, but there was nothing there.
"Something's wrong! Something's watching us. Move!"
Han He got straight up and pulled the other two outside.
"Huh? Who? Any idea what it is?"
This time, Shi Yu truly hadn't sensed anything. Apart from the persistent, vague unease, he felt no other serious danger or fear.
But Han He had always been reliable, and he surpassed Shi Yu in both experience and ability level, so Shi Yu simply followed his lead.
Han He was fast. After pulling them outside, he broke straight into a run. As an Heir of the "Hunter," his speed was naturally beyond either Hu Zihao, an ordinary person, or Shi Yu, who had barely strengthened his body and had poor stamina. Hu Zihao was at least tall and long-legged, so he could just about keep up, but Shi Yu had no such luck. Han He simply let go of Hu Zihao and ran at full speed with Shi Yu by the wrist. Feeling as though his wrist was about to be crushed, Shi Yu hurriedly called for him to stop:
"Wait... hold on, man... I can't!"
But Han He still said nothing. He just dragged Shi Yu forward, leaving even Hu Zihao farther and farther behind.
Shi Yu suddenly felt something was wrong.
"Han He? Han He?! Let go!!"
Han He's grip tightened, and the warmth began draining from his hand until it gradually turned ice-cold. Shi Yu felt as though his wrist were trapped in a bench vise that was being tightened continuously.
He's not Han He!
Shi Yu realized it, and a chill swept up his spine. He immediately made his judgment and acted without hesitation. Stumbling as "Han He" dragged him toward the dormitory building, he pulled a utility knife blade out with his right hand and stabbed hard at the hand gripping him.
Just as the blade was about to strike "Han He's" hand, "Han He" suddenly vanished completely. Shi Yu couldn't stop his momentum and could only barely change the angle of his thrust. The sharp blade sliced a deep cut along the edge of his palm, and blood immediately flowed out.
"Fuck!!!"
Shi Yu hurriedly gripped his wrist. Ignoring the wound, he quickly looked around. "Han He" had already dragged him inside the dormitory building!
Shit, I have to get out fast.
Fortunately, he hadn't been dragged far inside. Shi Yu was only in the first-floor lobby. Huang Daye wasn't in the guardroom either. Shi Yu guessed he had been dragged into the "Inner World," just like Hu Zihao that night, so he planned to leave first.
But he clearly remembered Hu Zihao's description.
"I thought I was charging toward the door, but I was actually running toward the window."
Shi Yu knew this Evil Sin could interfere with people's perception. He had thought of a few methods beforehand, and now was a good chance to try them.
Shi Yu immediately took two coins from his pocket, flipped his palm, and tossed them out. Then he used "Thought" to make the coins rapidly crash around this "first-floor lobby," allowing him to judge whether the things before him were real through the sounds and the coins' trajectories.
At the same time, Shi Yu concentrated, hoping to find a way out.
Clink, clink, clang-
Under Shi Yu's control, the coins struck different places all around, producing different sounds.
Sure enough, through the coins' collisions, Shi Yu discovered that many things were false, while some seemingly empty spaces contained objects.
Clang!
As the sound rang out, a premonition guided Shi Yu's gaze toward that coin. His intuition told him:
I can get out there!
Shi Yu didn't hesitate any longer. Delay could bring trouble! He knew that well. If he didn't take a gamble, his fate would probably be even worse!
Shi Yu immediately rushed toward that empty space and reached out. Sure enough, he felt a handle where there appeared to be nothing.
Shi Yu pulled the handle open, revealing the dormitory corridor outside!
I was dragged into the bathroom? That fast? My memories must have been tampered with too. No time to worry about all that!
Shi Yu charged out, but regretted it the instant he took a step across, because he suddenly remembered-the door from the bathroom into the dormitory corridor clearly opened with a push!!!
But it was already too late. Before Shi Yu could stop, pain shot through his nose as he slammed squarely into something. A clang rang out, and the metallic reverberation left his eardrums buzzing.
Then the leg he hadn't yet brought inside was shoved hard from behind, pushing his whole body in.
Dazed by the collision, Shi Yu tried to turn around, only to hear a loud bang! He knew his way back must have been sealed.
With no other choice, he held his nose, looked up ahead, and gently reached out.
His last hope shattered. Shi Yu's hand touched a cold, hard barrier, and the metal hummed under his touch. After a sharp burst of pain, the chill slowly numbed the wound on his hand, seeping through the cut into his palm.
The dormitory corridor gradually blurred under Shi Yu's touch, and the light seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer. Soon, darkness swallowed all the light, leaving him unable to see a thing. Bewildered, he slapped at the spaces in front of and behind him, but heard only the sound of hands striking metal.
Shi Yu found the sound familiar. Feeling the cramped, confined space around him, he finally remembered.
It was the sound of a wardrobe.
"So he did have disloyal intentions! Lock him in the wardrobe!"
Zhang Ya stared at the wardrobe before him through gritted teeth. Without a doubt, he had been the one to give Shi Yu that final shove.
"If that lord hadn't looked through those four police officers' memories, we wouldn't have known someone like you was in the school! Fine, fine, fine! You can become nourishment for that lord too!"
Then Zhang Ya's expression abruptly changed, turning fawning as he listened carefully to something. He bowed to the surrounding darkness, then spoke obsequiously:
"Please enjoy..."
With that, Zhang Ya respectfully withdrew.
And the surrounding darkness began to stir...
In dorm room 225.
Hu Zihao lay in bed, listening to his roommates snoring around him and recalling Han He's words.
"No, not going back now would definitely alert them. We made such a commotion in the bathroom yesterday, but Yang Desheng hasn't come looking for us today. He and the Evil Sin must not share information in real time. Otherwise, he would have kept such a close watch on us when the police came today that Shi Yu couldn't possibly have had a chance to meet them."
So after eating, the three had still chosen to return to the dormitory building. They had said goodbye and gone their separate ways for now.
That does make sense...
Hu Zihao pondered Han He's words, envying his and Shi Yu's abilities while hating and fearing the Evil Sin that had nearly killed him.
Liu Zunfu... must have met with disaster... Even Mr. Liu has gone missing. If I hadn't told him... would he have avoided...
Although Hu Zihao hadn't said anything over the past two days, he still felt guilty. Yet that guilt was gradually being diluted by his own fear and desire to survive. This conflicting state made him suffer all the more.
Snore... snore...
Hu Zihao's roommates were sleeping deeply. They had now completely forgotten Liu Zunfu's existence and couldn't remember who their homeroom teacher was. They were sleeping soundly, and Hu Zihao found himself envying them instead.
Why was I chosen? Why can't I forget those things?
Hu Zihao agonized over it. He wasn't some Heir like Han He, nor had he suddenly awakened superpowers like Shi Yu. He was just an ordinary person. Why had he been dragged into something like this?
But as he thought, he suddenly felt a faint breeze, even though the doors and windows were shut tight.
The breeze... drifted gently through the dorm room, lifting the curtains and toying with the shadows cast by the sunlight, making them flicker unpredictably.
Hu Zihao felt a chill.
"..."
This wasn't his first encounter with something like this. He understood what was happening.
The surrounding snores were no longer irregular. Inexplicably, they began to synchronize.
And Hu Zihao keenly noticed something different.
The snoring... seemed to include one extra person.
In other words, five different people were now sleeping in the dorm room.
Cold sweat had soaked Hu Zihao's back, and his hands and feet felt cold.
The snores soon overlapped, like harmonizing voices finally coming into unison. Hu Zihao could no longer distinguish whose was whose within that unified sound. Like a tide battering a high wall, the sound grew louder with each successive swell, its pitch rising higher and higher.
Huff! Huff!
The sound was no longer snoring. It was like some beast tearing open a dead person's abdomen, blood vessels pulling at the fascia inside as a broken-bellows rasp sounded amid teeth and final breaths!
Hah-huff-hah--huff-
The pitch rose higher and higher, growing ever more shrill!
Hu Zihao finally couldn't stand it anymore. Breaking down, he jumped out of bed and hurled his pillow at the door. Seeing that it hadn't fallen through, he rushed over and frantically pressed the door handle!
Crack!
With that sharp snap, every sound stopped. The strange breeze that had been circling also quietly dispersed, and the curtains settled steadily, blocking out a broad swath of sunlight.
Hu Zihao stared in disbelief at his palm. The door handle in it had been forcibly torn out, with parts missing. He had once seen with his own eyes someone outside a door rip off the other half of this handle.
It was the bathroom door handle.
"Hah-cough, cough-urgh-cough, cough-"
Hu Zihao's hair stood on end. The terrifying sound came from right behind his head. He felt a pair of cold, blood-scented hands close around his neck, their fingernails bent backward to expose jagged bone.
"Why didn't you come save me?"
It was Liu Zunfu's voice.
Under the last sliver of sunlight, the mirror by the door dutifully displayed what was behind Hu Zihao. He saw the face draped over his back.
Liu Zunfu's entire face was swollen and bluish-white from soaking in water, like a lump of rotten meat with facial features carelessly embedded in it. His eyes bulged so far that their corners had split, and his tongue hung out, bitten into a bloody mess by his teeth. The foul, rotten stench of decay wafted from his body.
Behind him, the washroom's sinks and large mirror came into Hu Zihao's view.
He was in the washroom.
"Come keep me company, all of you..."
Before you continue