After the system’s voice faded away, Xia Bai returned to his dormitory—the real dormitory of Heping Medical College. The room was brightly lit, clean, and refreshing.
In the dormitory, there were only him, Lin Xiang, Hua Haoming, Song Mingliang, and Meng Tianyou.
Meng Tianyou was the most severely injured, missing a leg and barely clinging to life. Lin Xiang also looked particularly horrific, with his back and right arm exposing white bones and covered in blood. They couldn’t delay; immediate treatment was necessary.
Hua Haoming looked very weak too, pale and frequently retching as if he was about to vomit at any moment.
Suppressing his urge to vomit, Hua Haoming hoarsely said, “Meng Tianyou needs to be taken for treatment immediately. When I open the door, doctors might come in to take Meng Tianyou and Lin Xiang to the ambulance. You guys don’t say anything, just follow them.”
Xia Bai and Lin Xiang nodded in agreement, while Song Mingliang remained silent.
Hua Haoming was experienced; true to his prediction, when the dorm door opened, doctors with stretchers were indeed there.
One of the doctors nodded at Hua Haoming, then spoke into a walkie-talkie, “Brawl in the freshman dorm, two seriously injured, take them down immediately.”
Outside the dormitory was the familiar and reassuring real world.
Curious and surprised faces peeked out from the dorms on the same floor, wondering how there could be such a severe fight on the first day in the dorm without any apparent reason or grudge. Wasn’t the worst that could happen a small conflict over bed allocation?
They had no idea what these people had been through.
And these people didn’t mind being gawked at; everything was so familiar and dear to them that they were on the verge of tears.
It was so good to be back.
Their nosy fellow students were so adorable.
They were a lucky, blissfully ignorant bunch.
Meng Tianyou and Lin Xiang were taken to the ambulance, while Xia Bai, Song Mingliang, and Hua Haoming got into another vehicle, which followed the first out of Heping Medical College.
Xia Bai asked, “Will they be okay?”
He noticed that Meng Tianyou’s breathing was so faint it was almost imperceptible, and he must have lost a lot of blood. Under normal circumstances, he would be beyond saving.
“Lin Xiang will definitely be fine. As for Meng Tianyou, he should also be able to be saved,” Hua Haoming said. “There are players with healing abilities. As long as one is still breathing when they come out of the game, they can be saved. Since the rescue team took Meng Tianyou to the ambulance, there must be such players inside.”
He took a sip of water, then a strong urge to vomit surged again, “You guys check the game app, I’ll head down…”
He didn’t finish his sentence and jumped out of the vehicle.
“Ugh!”
“…”
After Hua Haoming left, only Xia Bai and Song Mingliang remained in the car.
Including their time in the game, it had been several days since Song Mingliang had spoken.
Xia Bai said, “His death was because of the game.”
Song Mingliang trembled, his head hanging even lower, still without a word.
Xia Bai didn’t speak further and began searching for the game app that both the system and Hua Haoming had mentioned. The old phone had very few apps, many of which went unused, either because the owner didn’t know how to use them, or because having too many apps open would slow down the phone. The additional app was very conspicuous.
A drop of thick blood flowed into two branching streams, forming a curved blood-red “人“, which was the icon for the game app. There was no text in the image.
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Wlj Djl milmxfv bc la.
Ktf tbwfqjuf bo atf ujwf jqq kjr rtbklcu j rmgbiilcu jccbecmfwfca: “Ktf Lfqlcu Zfvlmji Jbiifuf lcrajcmf tjr yffc mifjgfv ys qijsfgr, jcv atf wjq lr yflcu fgjrfv.”
Mbiibkfv ys jcbatfg: “Ktf lcrajcmf bo Keczlcu Nliijuf tjr yffc mifjgfv ys qijsfgr, jcv atf wjq lr yflcu fgjrfv.”
Apart from the top announcements, the homepage was divided into three sections.
The first was a marketplace. As the name suggests, it was a place for trading, except the currency used here was game points, and the items for sale were rarely seen in the real world, such as weapons, props, mysterious medicines, and more.
The top right of the page displayed Xia Bai’s available points: 1,907,700.
This must have been the “other game rewards” that Xia Bai earned in Heping Medical College, as mentioned by the system.
With 1.9 million points, there were quite a few items he could buy, including expensive cancer treatment drugs and some one-time use skill items. The rewards seemed quite generous.
The second section was the player communication area. This was the busiest section. It seemed that every player who had taken part in a game before would have the app, and they would all gather here. In other words, this was a gathering place for all players.
The most prominent feature in the communication area was the player points leaderboard at the top.
Xia Bai clicked into it and saw the top fifty players. Ranked first was [Ghost Charmer], second was [Spirit Medium], and third was [Tree Planter]. The names in the leaderboard were all the players’ usernames, offering some degree of privacy protection for the players.
Xia Bai scrolled through the list but didn’t see [Corpse Collector].
He paused, lost in thought.
He then looked at the name of the leaderboard again: Player Points Leaderboard.
Xia Bai guessed that every successful game completion came with a basic point reward, and better performance in the game meant more points, with the top performers possibly receiving additional rewards.
So, this leaderboard was mainly influenced by two factors: the number of times a player entered the game and the player’s skill level.
Some players might not have top-tier skills, but had played many games, accumulating points through sheer frequency.
Others might be extremely skilled but rarely entered games, so their points would be fewer.
In this case, members of the strike team would likely rank high.
He remembered Wen Qiu saying Hua Haoming was among the top twenty players, so Xia Bai tried to identify which one could be Hua Haoming among the top twenty.
He couldn’t find a match. He only knew that Hua Haoming had used a flexible sword in the game, but this weapon didn’t match the identities of the top twenty, which seemed more related to core skills. Perhaps Hua Haoming had other skills or weapon abilities unknown to Xia Bai.
But since everyone knew his ranking, his identity among the players probably wasn’t a secret.
With this in mind, Xia Bai started browsing the discussion area below.
The discussion area had various topics, including player trades, gossip, socializing and teaming up, technical analysis, and mission bounties. Currently, the most discussed topics on the homepage were the Heping Medical College and Tunxing Village instances, with Heping Medical College being the more popular topic.
Xia Bai briefly scanned and clicked on a post titled “Heping Medical College instance cleared, Hua Haoming is awesome!”
Original Poster (OP): Saw Hua Haoming in Heping Medical College. He definitely led the new players in clearing the game.
1st Comment (1L): The game adjusts its difficulty based on the map’s location. For a top-tier institution like Heping Medical College, does it assume the players have a certain level of intelligence and knowledge? Just hearing it sounds difficult. And a medical college is inherently creepy. Sounds like a tough and terrifying instance.
2L: That’s why you should generally avoid such places. If the game starts while you’re there, you would be a miserable person cursed with bad luck.
3L: Anyway, the Dual-Faced Man is amazing!
4L: Haha, it’s called Heping Medical College for a reason. There are lots of smart people there. How are you so certain that it was Hua Haoming who helped them clear the instance? What are his educational qualifications?
5L: Here comes another Hua Haoming hater. Why bring up educational qualifications when clearing a game? If you think yourself so educated, why don’t you join the Game Management Bureau’s strike team?
Wen Qiu had said that Hua Haoming was as disagreeable as the rumors suggested, and this thread somewhat confirmed it. It soon turned into a squabble between Hua Haoming’s fans and haters.
Xia Bai didn’t read further as he had found what he wanted to know.
Hua Haoming’s identity was “Dual-Faced Man,” ranked 16th on the player points leaderboard.
Dual-Faced Man. What skills could this identity represent?
Could that flexible sword be indicative? There was the concept of double-edged swords, but it wasn’t a precise match.
Hua Haoming probably didn’t use any skills related to this identity in the Heping Medical College scenario. But why not? The situation had been dire.
After briefly staying on the forum for a couple of minutes, Xia Bai moved on to the third section, the one he was most interested in—the player’s profile page.
The profile page was divided into three modules: Basic Player Information, Player Skills and Wealth, and Player Achievements.
Basic Player Information:
Name: Xia Bai.
Game Identity: Corpse Collector.
Age: 19.
Intelligence: 94.
Physical Strength: 83.
Luck: 72.
Physical Condition: Generally healthy, memory loss.
“Physical Condition” referred to the body’s state. “Generally healthy” was fine, but Xia Bai lingered on “memory loss” for a few seconds.
Hua Haoming had said that there was no dignity in the game, and indeed, part of human dignity is privacy. In the game, their memories and experiences were laid bare to the game.
Xia Bai had no memories before the age of twelve. His grandfather said he had been seriously ill that year, barely escaping death, which left him physically weakened and his memories erased. He only started school in the second half of his twelfth year.
The game seemed to know all of this.
The second module was the Player Skills and Wealth. The top of the page displayed Xia Bai’s points and ranking: 1,907,700 / 1021.
Below were two sections, the first being the [Living Dead] skill book, the second, [Parasitic Xuemu].
Clearly, the system wanted him to focus on the [Living Dead] skill book, so Xia Bai opened it first.
Skill: Living Dead.
Current Level: Level 1.
Skill Attributes: Soul Skill.
Skill Type: Contractual Skill, Growth Skill.
Skill Usage:
With the pre-death consent of the corpse’s original owner, players can claim the corpse, becoming its secondary owner, using all of the corpse’s pre-death skills and items (Note: Excludes soul skills, which may be degraded), and physically reanimate the corpse to a certain extent based on the skill level.
Additional Skill Effects:
Corpse Affinity +100%, increases with skill level.
Corpse Ledger (corpse storage space).
Others (to be discovered by the player).
Skill Usage Reminder: Soul skills can affect the player’s soul and may have side effects.
Xia Bai’s eyes widened with excitement, his cheeks flushed as he covered his chest.
Hua Haoming had said that acquiring soul skills required fate and compatibility with the player. This skill was incredibly compatible, almost tailored to his dreams.
Trembling, he touched the genealogy book in his pocket, then clicked on the Corpse Ledger in his phone, which could be renamed. Xia Bai immediately changed “Corpse Ledger” to “genealogy book.”
He sat quietly for a while, calming the excitement in his eyes and steadying his breath, before continuing to scroll down.
Next was [Parasitic Xuemu], given to him by the elder Xuemu at the end of the game.
He wasn’t quite sure why the elder Xuemu had done this, but he had two uncertain guesses.
The first stemmed from the apology he heard from her; perhaps she felt that she had failed as a sister.
The second guess was based on how easily sister Xuemu pulled out her younger sister from her mouth. They might no longer be able to coexist as before, and she couldn’t continue to support her. Perhaps she also knew her own fate and entrusted her younger sister to Xia Bai, giving her a chance at a life of freedom she never had before.
The game app clearly displayed the current state of the younger Xuemu. She was curled up and crying, a posture very familiar to Xia Bai. She was half-lying down, her hair covering her entire body.
Xia Bai gently touched her.
A description of her popped up on his phone.
[Parasitic Xuemu]: Small in size, requires little food, easy to care for, needing only a bit of love and blood. Powerful abilities, able to unearth even the deepest secrets and obsessions; don’t anger her, or she might curse you.
So, she survived on love and blood. And she only needed a little bit. When she was sewn inside the female corpse, there was no blood supply. How did she survive then? Was it through love? Did the elder Xuemu’s love for her even in death sustain her?
Or was she already dead, no longer alive in the human sense?
Xuemu didn’t like having gazes on her, so Xia Bai stopped looking at this section and moved to the last part of the Player Profile Page: Player Achievements.
Player Achievements only showed the covers of the maps the player had cleared, so Xia Bai only had Heping Medical College. The cover was a black and white photo of the entire college, centered on the anatomy building, eerily silent and deserted.
Looking at such a cover, Xia Bai’s mind conjured an image of a sunny day with Chu Xuelin walking in the college, bending down to deeply inhale the scent of sweet peas.
Snapping back to reality, he couldn’t quite explain why, but he started searching online for Chu Xuelin, with no results.
Xia Bai continued his search for Chu Xuelin at several top medical colleges and universities in China, starting with Heping Medical College. To his surprise, he found the name right there, at the very first institution he checked.
Staring blankly at the name on the list of new students admitted eight years ago, Xia Bai’s heart skipped a beat.
He let out a sigh, turned off his phone, and looked out the window. It was dark outside, and he had no idea where the car had taken them. Everything was obscured by the darkness, beyond discernment.
He pondered deeply, questioning the existence of a person like Chu Xuelin in the world.
Do you think a person like Chu Xuelin exists out there?
Thank you for the chapter!!
Amazing end to his first instance! Thank you for the chapter!!❤️🧡
Thanks for the chapter!! 💜💜💜
thanks for the chapter!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Wooo first arc done! That was a ride!
The perfect skill for him, and now he has a little sister as well.
Thanks for the chapter!
ahhhh it’s too exciting!!! If it wasn’t because there was no MTL of this novel I would’ve already finished this novel weeks ago!!!! (Also is Xiao Bai going to meet Jiangye now?)
Thx for the chapter btw ❤❤❤
Thank you for the chapter!
🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚 Thank you for the chapter!
His family is expanding, good for him
Maybe his grandpa was also a player? He died last winter I assume, while the game has been going on for at least 2 years, so it matched.