Chapter 21: Human Head
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Chapter 21: Human Head
Xing Ye frowned slightly as he watched Wu Yu run into the distance. Was Wu Yu testing them, or was he really stupid enough to reveal his player identity in front of NPCs?
If it was the former, Wu Yu must have a teammate. One of them would be in charge of drawing the other players' attention while the other would hide and harvest from behind the scenes; if it was the latter, Wu Yu must be somebody with ridiculous luck, like the mirror. Either his strength was very strong, or he possessed many special abilities.
Three options... they were all troublesome.
Xing Ye used less than a second to analyze the situation before pulling A and C to catch up to Wu Yu, chasing him as he shouted: "Old Wu, what did you mean by player? What the hell's wrong with this floor, didn't we come to peek at girls?"
In this unexplainable place, boys A and C naturally didn't dare to split up. They hastily caught up with Xing Ye: "Old Wu, Old Wu, don't go off alone. Don't you know that going off alone is always a death flag in horror movies?"
The three stuck to Wu Yu like glue. When Wu Yu saw that Cao Qian was already almost done exploring the fourth floor while he was still being held up by his three classmates, he angrily kicked boy A: "Get the hell away from me! Of course normal people dragged into this mission space would die. Don't drag me down!"
Xing Ye only had 200 more points compared to an ordinary person, and under the situation where he had yet to see a QR Code's special ability, he was basically the same as an ordinary person. What could an ordinary senior high school student do in such a strange place?
He was a wealthy, spoiled brat and the leader of his gang of scoundrels, somebody who cared very much about his reputation very much. Having experienced puberty, Xing Ye knew that for many teenagers in that period, reputation was sometimes more important than their own life.
In high school, Xing Ye had a classmate who cut her wrists because her boyfriend was cheating on her. Although he couldn't understand why somebody would so easily give up their life for something like that, it didn't affect his act.
He grabbed Wu Yu's arm and swiftly punched Wu Yu ruthlessly in the face, towering over him arrogantly: "What player, what special space? Old Wu, you were the one who suggested sneaking into the girls dormitory. You seem to know a lot. Shouldn't you give your bros an explanation?"
After saying that, he raised a clenched fist, showing he was prepared to fight and win.
Xing Ye had knocked Earl Luca out and killed the Imperial Guard Captain both with one strike; with Wu Yu's high school student physique, just Xing Ye's punch already made him dizzy.
Wu Yu struggled twice only to find that he couldn't shove off Xing Ye's arm and snarled: "What would you guys understand! This room's very dangerous, and from Cao Qian's actions, it's clear that we can't stay in one place for long. The female dormitory only has four floors and since Cao Qian's already gone through the fourth floor, I have to hurry to the third!"
"Then let's go together." Xing Ye pulled Wu Yu's arm, not letting go. He was only an ordinary student with two hundred points; since he saw his classmate had a way to escape, he had to grab on and not let go.
At the same time, Xing Ye was also testing if Wu Yu would use a special QR code on an NPC. The system never said they couldn't harm the NPCs in the game world, so if Wu Yu had enough special abilities, it was very likely for him to retaliate against them after being hit.
Wu Yu seemed very angry as he took a deep breath, his free hand tightly clenching his phone. He looked at Xing Ye and boys A and C, gritting his teeth as he said: "Then let's go down!"
"That's right," Xing Ye patted Wu Yu's shoulder, "Good brothers should know how to advance and retreat together like this."
Wu Yu glared at him murderously as the four went down the floors together.
The staircase was so run down that it seemed it would shatter with just a few stomps. Xing Ye silently counted the number of steps- there were still 13.
The air seemed to have changed again when they stepped into the third floor. While the fourth floor had a moist and foul odor, the third floor had the fresh scent of.... Blood.
To explore the campus ghost stories, a flashlight was naturally required so your phone wouldn't run out of battery. Earlier in the afternoon, Xing Ye bought a small but powerful flashlight from the campus supermarket and made sure it was at full battery before entering the female dormitory. The lights along the hall were all broken so Xing Ye pulled out the flashlight. Under the light, the four discovered that the floor was completely wet, covered in a red liquid. No matter how you looked at it, it was clearly....
Boy A was just about to scream when Xing Ye stuffed the flashlight in his mouth, speaking icily: "Don't scream, endure it!"
Boy A sobbed as he bit the flashlight. Boy C also wanted to cry but didn't dare to under Xing Ye's tyranny.
Wu Yu's face also didn't look so good as he walked through the third floor halls.
"Shouldn't we go down to the bottom floor to find a way out?" Xing Ye asked.
"You think we can escape just by going to the first floor?" Wu Yu said, "The third floor is clearly a lot worse than the fourth floor, so we can use this to assume that the further down you go, the harder it is. If we don't look for clues in each of the floors, even I wouldn't be able to escape."
Oh? Wu Yu didn't seem too confident in himself. He didn't use QR codes on ordinary people nor had the mirror's high confidence in his luck. That means it was probably the first possibility: Wu Yu had a teammate.
That person definitely wasn't Cao Qian and it wasn't clear whether they were in the female dormitory.
"Then, then let's go look," Xing Ye clicked his tongue, "So dirty. My shoes are limited edition, if this can't be washed off, I can't get new ones even if I have the money."
"Right now, you still care about some stupid shoes?" Wu Yu almost died from anger.
"500,000 RMB a pair." Xing Ye casually made up a number.
The four walked through the third floor and saw Cao Qian standing in front of a dormitory door. Wu Yu saw her guarded expression but still decided to ask, probing: "What happened?"
"This space is different from what I had imagined. Time stopped." Cao Qian said. "Originally, I thought that even if I couldn't find important information, I could leave the dormitory as long as I survived until dawn. However, that doesn't seem to be the case."
"How did you know?" Wu Yu ditched the three deadweights and cautiously walked over.
Cao Qian didn't reveal any fighting intent as she pointed at the window. Xing Ye stood beside her and looked out the window to see a full moon, shining brightly in the sky.
The brightness wasn't a problem, but today was only the 28th of the lunar calendar. How could it be a full moon?
"The wristwatch is also frozen at 12," Cao Qian raised her arm with the watch, "Time seems to have stopped."
Xing Ye was suspicious that she had found the prop but on the surface, he continued to act like he didn't understand: "Are you sure that your watch just isn't too cheap and broke? I said that you can't buy things that are too cheap because you can't use them for long and the quality's just too low."
Can Qian bit her lip and pointed at Xing Ye's group of three: "What's up with these three? Are they players?"
Wu Yu rolled his eyes, "What do you think?"
"You're too weak, you can't even handle three normal people." Cao Qian fished out her phone and opened the interface: "I'll deal with them for you just this once."
How rich and imposing. It was obvious that she wasn't lacking in any special abilities... Xing Ye's brain ran at light speed as he thought of what he could say to escape his current predicament when suddenly, a strange sound, like a ball landing in water, resonated at the end of the hall way.
It kept continuing, sounding like somebody was hitting the ball into the water, the ball floating back before being whacked in again.
"What, what's that noise?" Boy A cried out again.
Xing Ye stuffed the flashlight back into Boy A's mouth, his voice low: "Shut up!"
Cao Qian didn't focus on the three anymore, instead turning to speak to Wu Yu: "You four led the way!"
"Why?" Wu Yu was also scared.
"Using you three as meat shields," Cao Qian pulled out a handgun and aimed it at Wu Yu's head, "I have ten bullets with 100% accuracy and twenty bullets with 50% accuracy in this gun. It's not worth wasting four of them on trash like you and NPCs."
"That's probably a toy gun..." Xing Ye still kept character.
Cao Qian was probably very strong and didn't even place Wu Yu in her eyes. In front of somebody like this, Xing Ye absolutely had to hide his identity and pretend to be a normal person, even if he would be courting death!
This needed a very strong mentality. Cao Qian didn't suspect this person, who was still courting death, was actually a player as she pressed the muzzle against Xing Ye's forehead, her voice cold: "You can try."
"I'm not afraid of you!" Xing Ye shouted, "But right now, how could a man let a woman go in first? The three of you, come with me!"
After saying that, he turned around and the three of them crammed together, going towards the source of the noise.
Very good, he didn't go out of character while still showing he was afraid.
Xing Ye was satisfied as he took the flashlight from Player A's mouth and slowly forged ahead. At the end of the hall, they found a human head. It was jumping up and down in a pool of blood, painting a horrifying scene.
This time, Boy A really couldn't endure and pissed his pants, urine dripping onto the bloody floor as he released a blood-curdling screech.
"F*ck!" Wu Yu angrily pushed Boy A, "What are you screaming for!"
Boy A, this sort of crybaby and obviously always the first to die in horror movies sort of cannon fodder, was suddenly pushed by Wu Yu face first into the ground. His whole body became covered in blood as he landed right in front of the jumping head.
"Wu Yu, you really are a f*cking bastard!" Xing Ye gave Wu Yu another punch before loyally running over and pulling Boy A up.
"What are you crying for, if you wanna die, just die when you actually see it!" Xing Ye scolded.
When the human head saw Xing Ye walk over, it started to jump higher and higher, fighting to look face to face with Xing Ye. Xing Ye used one hand to support Boy A and the other to hold the flashlight, carefully observing the human head.
This was a... young girl.
When they finally looked face to face, she suddenly opened her mouth and spoke: "Have you guys... seen my head?"
Her voice was wispy and detached, sounding especially sinister in this strange space.
Boy A's face contorted again: "Isn't your head right here? Sob, sob..."
The originally indifferent head's eyes suddenly turned red as she screamed fiercely, "This isn't my head! It's not my head!!"
After saying that, she lunged viciously at Boy A's neck. Boy A's legs grew soft as he struggled to crawl up but couldn't. It was still Xing Ye who kicked him away, helping him dodge the head's attack.
Cao Qian and Wu Yu didn't move as they observed the head, not caring about the lives of Xing Ye's group as they gathered information.
It was impossible to hope they would save them. Xing Ye saw the human head kept chasing after Boy A and thought of this game's mission: "I don't know where it is but I can help you find it, don't bite him!"
The human head suddenly stopped attacking and jumped a circle around Xing Ye, grinning: "Alright, I'll give you three days~ if you can't bring me my head, I'll take yours, hehehe."