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When the light came on, they could finally see the whole monster.

It could hardly be called a monster. It was just an arm.

It had no head or face, no body or torso, nothing else at all. Just an arm.

Judging by the wound, it had been chopped off. It didn't look recent; it had probably happened a long time ago.

Thinking of what had happened to Liang Yuanhao the night before... this ghostly arm might have belonged to some unlucky examinee from the past.

With no torso to restrict it, the ghost arm was incredibly agile.

It swung its bone cleaver, twisting and writhing beneath Qin Jiu as it tried to chop off his head.

Qin Jiu was thoroughly fed up.

With a sneer, he pulled a leather cord from under the coffee table and tied the hand and cleaver up tight. Then he carried this grand gift over and knocked on a certain sleep god's door.

You Huo was woken by a feather tickling him.

He turned his head and sneezed, then sat up, clutching his hair with an impatient look on his face. Only then did he notice someone sitting beside his bed.

"How did you get in?" You Huo looked displeased.

Qin Jiu wiggled his fingers, making the keys jingle. "With the spare key."

You Huo frowned. "Couldn't you knock first?"

Qin Jiu: "..."

How can he even say that?

"What's that in your other hand?" You Huo's gaze fell on his other hand.

There, a deathly pale thing was writhing wildly.

Qin Jiu held the arm up in front of him and said flatly, "Surprise. A goodnight gift for you. Do you like it?"

You Huo: "???"

"This thing came to chop off your head. You ignored it, so it came after me," Qin Jiu said. "Please try to remember you're an examinee and deal with it."

This thoughtful gesture first thing upon waking made You Huo feel sick for five minutes.

He said to Qin Jiu, "Give it to me."

Qin Jiu thought he was going to kill it or bury it. Instead, the inventive examinee loosened the leather cord, held one end in his hand, and placed the ghost hand on the floor with the other end fastened around it.

"What are you doing?"

"Can't you tell? It's twisting around like that, so it obviously wants to leave. I'm walking it back," You Huo said.

Qin Jiu: "???"

Twenty minutes later, the group freezing stupid in the woods saw a big shot in the distance, walking a dog... no, a hand, straight toward them!

Chapter 27: In trouble ┃ "Bro, how do you write 'woods' or 'grave' in Romani?" You Huo: "...I don't know."

The hand moved incredibly fast.

Its five fingers clawed at the ground, darting up and down.

Unfortunately, a leather cord restricted its movements, so it tried to swing the cleaver in resistance as it wriggled, only to be subdued every time.

The sight was so striking that everyone stared, transfixed.

They had been scared to death, holding their eyelids open against the sleepiness to stay alive. Now, the sight of You Huo jolted them wide awake.

"Bro, you..."

Having fun? Yu Wen wanted to ask.

But when he saw his cousin's deadpan expression, which said, I don't get any fucking sleep again, he swallowed the question.

When You Huo got close, he forcibly brought the deathly pale ghost hand to a stop.

The ghost hand swung the bone cleaver in a circle, struggling wildly.

Startled, everyone stepped back half a pace to avoid the blade, then hurried over and pinned it down together.

Chen Bin looked at You Huo with a complicated expression. "How did you catch it?"

The monster that had been hacking at people in a frenzy last night had become a laughingstock today. Who wouldn't be stunned?

Especially since he had nearly been the one it chopped. The lingering fear of his narrow escape hadn't even faded before he got to see this...

"I didn't catch it." You Huo jerked his chin toward Qin Jiu. "He brought it to me."

Chen Bin: "..."

Brought it...

Qin Jiu said magnanimously, "You're welcome."

You Huo: "Did I thank you?"

Qin Jiu nodded and smiled. "I suppose I can take it that way."

No one had expected the invigilator to be the one who caught it. They froze for a moment before cautiously asking, "Then... has the help card been used?"

Qin Jiu pulled the card from his pocket, sounding deeply regretful. "Not yet."

Everyone was surprised. "Huh? Why not?"

You Huo said, "That was self-defense. Why would he need a help card?"

Qin Jiu stared at the back of his head, then nodded after a moment. "...All right."

Self-defense?

Everyone was even more baffled. "This thing can attack invigilators too? It's that crazy?"

You Huo briefly explained what had happened.

Yu Wen smacked his fist into his palm. "In that case, does that mean you'll be fine when the monster comes as long as you don't wake up? I knew it! There's no way every option leads to death. There has to be a way out."

"Oh, easy for you to say. How are you going to stop yourself from waking up? It's not like keeping your eyes closed is enough," Old Yu said irritably.

Yu Wen said, "Oh... what about taking sleeping pills?"

"You silly boy, find me a sleeping pill, will you?"

Yu Wen: "..."

In the end, everyone still felt this exam was a bit unreasonable.

It wasn't as though they really had no way to tackle it. With You Huo around, they could always find a way.

Rather... both Black Granny and the ghost hand behaved unreasonably in some ways.

For example, besides the requirements in the question, Black Granny had added the obstacles of drawing cards and sewing dolls. And the ghost hand had actually lost track of its target, letting You Huo, an examinee, go and attacking the invigilator instead.

"It really is pretty strange..." Yu Yao ventured. "Could it be that the exam questions weren't like this before, and they added complications to make each exam harder?"

The girl had improved a lot. She had cried throughout the last exam, but she was doing much better this time.

For a moment, no one had any idea.

Besides, the exam questions held the initiative. Even if they did have an idea, they couldn't guarantee how long they would stay alive.

"Was there any movement in the woods at night?" You Huo asked.

"About the same as last night."

"Lots of things were crawling around, but they were too fast, so we didn't rush after them," Yu Wen said. "They vanished in a flash. Now it looks like... they were probably all things like this."