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?”
Proofreader: Purichan
I wonder what were the two words that XXY wrote.
Teacher Nan said gambling is bad. Brother Fang steal money from everyone through gambling only to make Teacher Nan smile
thanks for the chapter~
Sun Guojing be strong! You can survive!…. I hope
Thanks for the chapter!!
I would have gone crazy a long time ago, you are so strong, Guojing!
Thank you very much for the translation
We are so closeeeee!! Hold on hold on hold on!
AND?? WHATS THIS ABOUT THE FULL MOON? that’s been mentioned by Xie and Nan Zhou so?? Did I miss the reason in an earlier chapter? Does he become weaker???
Still so many lovely secrets!!!
Thank you for the chapter! 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕
thanks for the chapter <3
“In his alert state, there was no one who could do anything to himself unless it was a full moon.” Ohh, so that’s why the guy wanted it to be a full moon. Maybe MC suffers from a psychological attack/trauma during a full moon?