Ch54.1 - Sha, Sha, Sha

Nan Zhou placed the sketchbook and charcoal pencil on the fire hydrant next to him. He leaned against the large windowpane, dialed a number and placed the phone gently to his ear. “Brother Fang, come here.”

On the other side, Jiang Fang let out a soft sigh of relief. It was like he let go of the burdens in his heart. The heavy burden of not speaking for 10 hours cut across the radio waves and became as light as a feather, brushing against the tip of Nan Zhou’s ears and making him feel a bit itchy. 

Jiang Fang asked, “Where are you?”

Nan Zhou touched his ears. “Room 403.”

“Aren’t you looking for Xie Xiangyu?”

“Yes, he is right next to me.” 

Xie Xiangyu, “……”

Before he could react, Nan Zhou temporarily moved the phone away from his ear. He spoke in the direction of the shadow, “You can run but if you don’t join us, once Sun Guojing is successfully replaced, our side will reshuffle the order and you will be next in line. You should consider it clearly.”

Then he put the phone back to his ear. “Brother Fang, you don’t have to come in a hurry. Bring Sun Guojing’s group of three with you. I’ll wait.”

Nan Zhou hung up and looked again at the empty corridor. The mixture of light and shadows was wonderful. They changed with objects and transformed the visual field, cutting the corridor into two distinct yin and yang sides. It made him want to draw a sketch.

However, the shadow that was superimposed over his own was gone. Xie Xiangyu didn’t respond to his remarks.

Nan Zhou had some regrets. He thought that maybe he shouldn’t have scared the enemy just now. He should’ve grabbed Xie Xiangyu’s head first, slammed him against the wall and then talked to him.

Then Nan Zhou soon rejected this idea. It wouldn’t be good if this person died. Fortunately, he wasn’t worried about Xie Xiangyu attacking him. In his alert state, there was no one who could do anything to himself unless it was a full moon.

Nan Zhou went to the staircase and planned to open a new page in the sketchbook and copy the classroom layout map. Then after taking a step forward, Nan Zhou stood still. There was no handwriting on the blank paper. 

However, as he turned the page, his fingers touched a subtle bump in the lower right corner. There were words. He stoked the paper and read the message with his fingertips. Among other things, the writing was beautiful and strange.

Xie Xiangyu was the only one who could stick to his body and leave such a message that was difficult to recognize with the naked eye. The question was when Xie Xiangyu had left such a message.

Nan Zhou thought for a moment before letting out a faint ‘ah.’

…It was when he put his sketchbook and pen on the fire hydrant. In addition to a phone number, there were two words. 

Nan Zhou moved his fingers over these words multiple times. A look of confusion passed through his eyes as he blinked gently. The next second, Nan Zhou tore off the entire piece of paper in the sketch book. He quickly crumpled it into a ball and stuffed it into his coat pocket.

The tearing sound was very loud and even echoed a bit in this empty, straight corridor.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

***

Aljcu Mjcu’r ugbeq mjwf ab atf Sjra Mloat Delivlcu jcv obecv Rjc Itbe rlaalcu lc ogbca bo atf wjqif agff, jvvlcu atf ijra ofk ragbxfr ab tlr rxfamtybbx. Snfgsatlcu kjr cb vloofgfca ogbw yfobgf Vec Xebplcu’r ugbeq ifoa. 

Rjc Itbe rtbbx tlr tjcvr jcv tjcvfv bnfg atf gfvgjkc ragemaegji vgjklcu bo atf Sjra Mloat Delivlcu. Lf wjvf cb wfcalbc bo atf abgc qlmaegf. Pa kjr qjrrfv jgbecv atf ugbeq ktlif Rjc Itbe ujnf j yglfo fzqijcjalbc bo tlr olcvlcur. Ds atf alwf tlr rxfamtybbx gfjmtfv Aljcu Mjcu’r tjcvr, Rjc Itbe tjv jiwbra wjvf Vec Xebplcu’r ugbeq ecvfgrajcv atf kjs ab mifjg atf ujwf.

Jiang Fang glanced at the jagged outline of the last sketch paper that was faintly peeking out through the seams of the book. Rather than turning it over, he just slowly stroked the paper with his fingertips. His finger stopped in the lower right corner of the paper for a moment before dropping naturally, as if he had never found a clue.

The group of people re-entered the East Fifth Building and verified Nan Zhou’s conjecture. There was indeed a strange space on the fourth floor. It didn’t exist in human vision. It didn’t exist on the map of classrooms. It wasn’t present.

The method Qi Tianyun had thought of on that day was correct. They just needed to enter the correct ‘classroom’ at the right time and order and there was a great possibility they could make a safe transition out of this instance. The eyes of the three men lit up in an amazingly bright manner. There was no awkwardness in their eyes as they watched Nan Zhou full of infinite gratitude and admiration. 

Jiang Fang was very concerned about someone who wasn’t present. “Where is Xie Xiangyu?”

Nan Zhou said, “He is gone.”

Sun Guojing had a happy face but he couldn’t help worrying again at these words. “This… there is one less person. Will it work?”

Nan Zhou said, “It doesn’t matter. He will come.” 

Qi Tianyun’s thinking was flexible. He was inspired by Nan Zhou and immediately responded. “He wanted to disrupt the order by killing people but after all, he can’t guarantee that his method of clearing the instance is absolutely correct. Now that there is a better way, what if we are missing a person and his method doesn’t work? He will be done for. Thus, he will have to join us!”

Then Qi Tianyun eagerly looked at Nan Zhou, obviously wanting to get a positive answer from him.

“No,” Nan Zhou replied ruthlessly. “I don’t think so.”

Qi Tianyun, “……” 

Nan Zhou directly told him, “This instance will also consider the circumstances of someone’s death. If Sun Guojing dies, we will be missing one person completely. Will our road to life be blocked if a player dies? Do all the other players have to wait for death? The game can’t be set so unevenly.”

“Therefore, I don’t think there will be a great impact if there aren’t enough people. The reason I asked for Brother Fang to find you and gather you together is to make sure Xie Xiangyu doesn’t have a chance to strike. This way, he will have to follow our rhythm.”

At this point, Nan Zhou looked at Qi Tianyun. “Still, you are right about one thing. Unless he wants to use his own death for our task to fail, he will definitely join us. It is because he is alone. No matter how convenient it is to act, no teammate can switch the order with him.”

Nan Zhou thought about how that person jumped straight out of the window last night and added, “He really cherishes his life.” 

Sun Guojing couldn’t help muttering, “Still, he ran away.”

Qi Tianyun patted Sun Guojing’s shoulder. “Old Sun, don’t think about it. If you were him, would you dare to come straight up to us and say you want to join us now?”

Sun Guojing, “……”

He felt hatred as he thought about the little bastard who ran to their dormitory in the middle of the night and claimed he wanted to be friends with them, only to check them for clues and coax them into exploring the way while stabbing them in the back at a critical time. If Xie Xiangyu was in front of him right now, he would knock Xie Xiangyu’s teeth into the back of his throat. 

Qi Tianyun continued, “If I were him, I would definitely hide until 7 o’clock. Then once ‘that place’ opens, I would secretly follow.”

“Fuck.” Sun Guojing cursed. “Once we go in, we will immediately close the door on him!”

Nan Zhou wasn’t very interested in the venting or the complaints of Sun Guojing and the others. He succinctly stated their course of action. “Now we just have to wait.”

*** 

After repeated testing, the extra steps of the ‘non-existence space’ were right next to the right side of Room 403. As a result, Room 403 was requisitioned again. They would wait here until 7 o’clock in the evening.

Now, all they needed was patience. In order to pass the time, they intended to play aeroplane chess. Then after taking out all the pieces, they found that they had lost their chessboard. They couldn’t find it at all and had to give up. In the end, they chose to play Fight the Landlord. The bet for every game was a meal.

Li Yinhang wasn’t good at playing so she chose to watch from the sidelines. Luo Ge hadn’t slept all night. Now his spirit was relaxed and he slept like a dead pig on the table.

Sun Guojing and Qi Tianyun hadn’t slept as well but they were too excited about the path of life being close at hand. Sun Guojing nagged that once they got out, he would go to the Douzhuan Casino to make a bet. Damn, he had better win a big one. He gritted his teeth. “As long as I win, I don’t have to play with my life.” 

Jiang Fang and Nan Zhou exchanged looks. This was how customers of the Douzhuan Casino came. After experiencing a life or death struggle, everyone would be afraid and weak at heart. The more afraid they were, the more they wanted to escape and to take shortcuts. Even if that shortcut was a spider’s thread over a cliff, a hunter’s trap or a fisherman’s bait, they would fight hard for ‘nine times out of ten, you lose.’

Nan Zhou reminded them, “You will lose in gambling.”

“Bah.” Sun Guojing didn’t care. “If I can survive this time, my luck can reach the sky.”

Nan Zhou glanced at Jiang Fang. ‘You look at them.’ 

Jiang Fang understood. He smiled and handed the shuffled cards forward. “Then how about drawing cards?”

Jiang Fang could do all sorts of strange tricks as long as it was a game with cards, let alone a popular card game like this. He didn’t cheat. He just used the most regular way of playing and used only 10 cards to get rid of Sun Guojing’s idea of going to Douzhuan Casino and transforming into the god of gambling.

Nan Zhou hadn’t played this card game before. He had a serious attitude and a flexible and clear mind. Losing was due to bad luck at cards. For several hands in a row, he drew either small cards or garbage cards that couldn’t be connected to a straight or even a pair. One card was missing in the east and another in the west.

By the time the cards in someone else’s hands were finished, he still had a lot of cards left in his hands. His gaming experience couldn’t be described as extremely poor. Basically, it could be described as none. Nan Zhou’s competitive spirit was raised a bit more but his luck was really bad. 

Finally, in the 12th round of the game, Nan Zhou pursed his lips and carefully arranged his cards. Jiang Fang had grabbed the landlord position. He looked at the four 2s and two Kings in his hand and asked Nan Zhou with a smile, “Are your cards good?”

Nan Zhou stared at his cards, expression very cautious. “Hmm.”

After a few rounds of miscellaneous cards, Nan Zhou played a triplet with an attached card. He had four 3s—a very small bomb in his hand. There was also another straight. He just had to play the straight and he would win.

Sun Guojing and Qi Tianyun had bad hands and said they couldn’t afford it. It was Jiang Fang’s turn. He glanced at Nan Zhou’s pursed, slightly downward curved lips and smiled happily. 

Jiang Fang’s card counting had always been accurate. He could guess what cards Nan Zhou had and how he planned to play them next. Thus, Jiang Fang played his cards. “A triplet with an attached card. Three 2s and one 2.”

Nan Zhou heard the words ‘triplet with an attached card’ and his eyes lit up slightly. He logically used the bomb made up of four 3s. None of the three people could beat it. Nan Zhou played the straight and finally won a game. He had no expression on his face but he was happy.

Jiang Fang mixed the cards in his hand with the cards he had played and gave Nan Zhou an elegant smile and a wink. Seeing him like this, Nan Zhou’s hands were itchy again. He wanted to play with this person’s eyelashes.

Sun Guojing and Qi Tianyun hadn’t slept all night and were dizzy from constantly losing. Combined with Jiang Fang’s too reasonable tone, they didn’t notice a problem with the strange operation of three 2s and one 2. 

Sun Guojing threw away the cards in his hands. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly yelled. His entire body shot up from the ground and he gasped for air. Qi Tianyun, who was tied to him with a rope, was nearly dragged off the ground by him.

Nan Zhou looked up. “What’s the matter?”

Sun Guojing’s eyes were red and the muscles of his throat spasmed as he tried to speak. After a while, he managed to choke out, “You guys, did you hear it? I heard…”

All the strength in Sun Guojing’s body was used to make a sound. His tall figure trembled and softened. 

“The eighth… rustle… the second to last sound…”

The expressions of the others present changed when they pieced together the message from his broken speech.

Li Yinhang grabbed her phone for the first time to check the time. It was 12:30 p.m. There were six and a half hours left until 7 o’clock.

Sun Guojing’s throat shook with extreme fear. He covered his ears, trying to resist the endless rustling. 

“It is coming again…”

“It doesn’t want me to live…”

Qi Tianyun grabbed his shoulders and gritted his teeth while trying to persuade Sun Guojing. “Old Sun! Calm down! Wait until 7 o’clock. By 7 o’clock, everything will be fine!”

Sun Guojing’s pale lips trembled fiercely. The cold teeth touched his hot lips, making him cold all over. He murmured, “Can I wait until then?” 

Chapter 54.2

They couldn’t continue playing cards. Sun Guojing sat with his two brothers and said nothing.

The closer it got to 7 o’clock, the more anxious Sun Guojing became. He had gnawed the nail of his thumb down to the flesh and started to pick at the back of his thumb. He didn’t stop even when it started bleeding. 

Almost every minute, he would glance at the clock. Every second that passed, it felt like an ant was crawling over him.

It was 5:30. It was 6 o’clock. It was 6:30…

Sun Guojing prayed silently. He reflected on all the mistakes he had made. He piously begged all the gods he knew. He hoped that 7 o’clock would come early. Under the nervous stare of Sun Guojing, the clock finally barely pointed to 6:50 p.m.

There were 10 minutes left! 

Sun Guojing’s mouth and teeth had long become sore while sweat dripped down like syrup. Tears fell from the corners of his eyes. The hell-like suffering and waiting were coming to an end…

Seven minutes left!

……

Five minutes left!

Four minutes!

Finally, Sun Guojing couldn’t stand it. He abruptly got up and grabbed Qi Tianyun’s shoulder. “Let’s go to the corridor and wait!”

The moment he spoke—

“Sha—” 

The life-threatening sound rang out deep in Sun Guojing’s ears. It playfully repeated again as if afraid that he hadn’t heard it clearly.

“Sha—”

Next, Sun Guojing watched his hand pass through Qi Tianyun’s shoulder. Meanwhile, Qi Tianyun was staring at the countdown on his phone. The ropes connecting him to Qi Tianyun and Luo Ge also fell off his hands.

Sun Guojing stood blankly on the spot, grabbing Qi Tianyun’s shoulder several times. He could still stand on the ground but the ropes couldn’t hold him. He also couldn’t hold anything else. Anything that allowed him to communicate with others was beyond his reach. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Coafg j ofk rfmbcvr bo rtbmx, j ktlaf rtjvbk jqqfjgfv lc atf mbgcfg bo Vec Xebplcu’r fsfr. Vec Xebplcu aegcfv tlr tfjv ab ibbx jcv tlr qeqlir rtgjcx. Lf rmgfjwfv jcv wbnfv yjmxkjgvr.

Vec Xebplcu olcjiis ecvfgrabbv kts Ieb Aljwlcu tjv yffc gecclcu jkjs. Pa kjr yfmjerf atf wbwfca atf clcat geraif kjr tfjgv, tf rjk j wbcrafg qbxf lar tfjv atgbeut atf fcagjcmf bo gbbw 403. Pa kjr jc lcvfrmglyjyif bypfma.

The countless indistinguishable heads and tails of the white humanoid form arched against the ground, entangled with a huge, disgusting object. It was like countless souls that had disappeared silently in this world were twisted together and crawling on the ground. Countless human shaped legs and hands rubbed against the ground, dragging the centipede-like body and making a fine rustling sound.

Sha sha. 

Sha sha.

Sha sha.

It was like a resentful cry. It was like the call of the underworld. It was like the small curse in Zuo Jiaming’s death message.

“—I’m going.” 

“Sun Guojing, when are you coming?”

Sun Guojing screamed and rushed to the back of Room 403. The white monster wasn’t urgent or slow. Its soft and flexible feet rubbed against each other as the body that looked like a pupae climbed the steps toward Sun Guojing.

The other five were doing their own thing. They simply couldn’t see what Sun Guojing was facing.

In the desperate situation where he couldn’t rely on others, an amazing desire to survive burst out from Sun Guojing. He jumped onto a table, narrowly avoiding a hand that was grabbing for him. He stomped loudly on the desks as he sprinted all the way down, lifting his legs to jump over the white monster writhing on the ground and rushing out of 403. 

The only thing that could confirm Sun Guojing’s existence in this world was the sensor lights in the corridor. Filled with a last expectation and hope, Sun Guojing went out and turned right, running toward the place where they estimated the non-existence space to be.

However, Sun Guojing’s small hope that was like a lit match was extinguished by the wind. There were only dark walls. There was no door! No door!

Sun Guojing turned to look at Room 403, sweat dripping crazily. The monster had moved out of the doorway of 403 and was crawling out, filling the corridor and slowly coming toward him.

Sha— 

Sha—

Sun Guojing’s heart thumped as he strode to the window at the end of the corridor. Without slowing down, his body broke through the glass and he jumped straight down from the fourth floor! Last time, he was falling head down. This time, he hoped to land smoothly.

Please, save me, save me—

Everyone, save me… 

***

Nan Zhou wasn’t looking at the time.

He had been staring at Sun Guojing but he didn’t know when Sun Guojing ran away. It seemed like Sun Guojing had been right there, without moving. It also seemed like… he stared at a blank space from beginning to end. It wasn’t until the sensor lights outside turned on for no reason that Nan Zhou looked up.

Jiang Fang, who had been doing the same thing as him, found something. He abruptly got up and his voice was hurried. “Where is Sun Guojing?” 

Hearing this, the group was chaotic. Luo Ge and Qi Tianyun saw the rope that had fallen off and their faces turned pale. They ran out of Room 403 only to find that the door next to 403 was opened at an unknown time.

It was the most common classroom door. There was a warm light coming from inside. The door was open and a silent invitation was sent out to the corridor.

…Please. Please enter.

On Friday last night, Hu Li arrived first without the key and was confused by such a thing. 

Nan Zhou moved quickly to the door. There was no sign on the door, nothing to prove its function. It was just a small, anonymous classroom that shouldn’t exist. He could see the scene inside the door clearly.

It was a small, empty room without any tables or chairs. It was about 8-9 meters long and 6-7 meters wide. There were still traces of a party. Several drink bottles were thrown in the corner. The ground had scattered scraps left from the barbecue and mottled sugar stains from spilled beverages. There was also the aeroplane chessboard lying quietly under a table.

The moment Nan Zhou held the doorknob, a cold chill passed through his hand and stabbed his mind like a knife. They were standing on top of the body, hands and feet of the snow-white thing stretching out from the door like a cobweb. Everyone couldn’t see it and neither could Nan Zhou.

Qi Tianyun pulled at Luo Ge and spoke in a trembling voice, “Let’s go! Old Sun can still be saved!” 

Jiang Fang held Qi Tianyun’s hand. “He can’t be saved.”

Qi Tianyun was furious. “You fucking can’t be saved!”

Jiang Fang wasn’t angry and asked, “Why did he disappear?”

At this reminder, Qi Tianyun received enlightenment and his face turned a miserable white. Sun Guojing heard the ninth rustling! Even if they went inside now, he had already been tangled up with that force. Really… it was hopeless… 

Qi Tianyun and Luo Ge both sat on the ground, their eyes dull. Meanwhile, Sun Guojing’s screams rang out silently in the stairwell. He was prey caught in a spider’s web. Shining fangs were about to bite at him.

Meanwhile, Nan Zhou stood in front of the door. He held the icy doorknob and opened and closed it repeatedly, as if experimenting with something. He closed the door. The light source from inside disappeared instantly. The door crack was dark and no light leaked out. Nan Zhou opened the door again. There was a warm yellow light inside the door. It seemed that this classroom was attached to the door that appeared out of nowhere.

No one knew what Nan Zhou was thinking. People couldn’t guess Nan Zhou’s heart or see and hear the deadly situation Sun Guojing was facing right now. All they could see was the originally turned off sensor lights coming on one by one from the other end of the stairwell. The white hands and feet rolled like a cloud and pulled its prey with satisfaction back toward the door.

Just as Sun Guojing’s feet were only half a meter away from the door, Nan Zhou abruptly raised his foot and kicked hard at the door. The moment there was an ear-piercing shattering sound— 

“Recover,” Nan Zhou declared coldly. “I said, recover the item.”

The door, which had been half blown off by his kick, made an abnormal tremor. Then it suddenly disappeared from in front of everyone’s eyes.

—It was as abruptly as it had appeared. The white monster stopped moving in shock and uttered a weird scream. It let go of Sun Guojing’s feet and disappeared.

Sun Guojing had been holding onto the edge of the wall just now, trying his best to make his final resistance. The next moment, the huge pulling force on his feet was gone. Sun Guojing lay softly on the ground and opened his eyes dripping with sweat. He unexpectedly saw Luo Ge and Qi Tianyun whom he never thought he would see again. 

Qi Tianyun and Luo Ge saw him lying on the ground and were even more shocked than him.

“Old Sun? How are you—”

Sun Guojing couldn’t think about what had happened. He rushed into the arms of his two brothers and cried bitterly. Meanwhile, the long silent game notification sounded in Nan Zhou’s mind.

[Congratulations to the player Nan Zhou—] 

[Congratulations—]

[Congrat—]

The item system jammed again as it saw the door-like object entangled with a white human-like object. What was this??