Chapter 126
Lin Yi quickly tilted his head and faced the wall.
He was sensitive to sight and he knew full well that the thing had seen him.
Before he looked away, he heard a “squeak” from the door. The thing had pushed the door open and come in.
The thing slowly approached Lin Yi, its footsteps no longer booming but deliberately being gentle until it finally stopped beside the bed.
Listening to its movements, Lin Yi estimated that the thing must be squatting down.
But contrary to what one would think, Lin Yi breathed a sigh of relief and his curled fingers stretched out.
The thing had seen him but it hadn’t seen his face clearly. Otherwise, the thing wouldn’t have come in and would have turned back to find Cheng Yang instead. After all, it was not him who needed to hide his life tonight, but Cheng Yang.
But now the thing pushed open the door and walked in and was even squatting next to him.
This made Lin Yi even more certain that the thing had not seen his face. So, it was now observing him and confirming his identity.
However, while being stared at by this thing, Lin Yi could not turn his head back around to see its face. Once the thing sees clearly that he isn’t Cheng Yang, it will turn around and look for Cheng Yang. There was still some time before dawn. Even if the thing goes through each dorm room in its search, there was still enough time to find Cheng Yang.
Lin Yi always kept his head tilted towards the wall. His neck had almost gone stiff. The thing was still squatting beside the bed, observing him, waiting for him to turn his face.
So Lin Yi confirmed a few guesses in his heart.
The cats don’t kill; they just lead the way.
There is intelligence in that thing, but not much.
It will only kill people who are cursed by the note. Even if other people are contaminated with the scent of the cursed person, while they will be chased by the cats come nighttime, it won’t actually do anything.
And this thing’s eyesight wasn’t very good, at least not as good as his. The bottom of the bed and the open gap in the door were diagonal to each other. If he were the person peeking out of the crack of the door, if he’d seen the person under the bed, he would have also seen the person’s face.
In the 7-7 Rule World, Lin Yi had been able to hold back the vase girl for several nights. Now he only has a sore neck. His current condition was hundreds of times better than his condition after confronting the vase girl.
Lin Yi didn’t care. His goal was to waste away the entire night with this thing here with him.
Staying up all night was a common occurrence for Lin Yi. He was used to keeping his eyes open the entire night.
After confirming that his life was not in any danger, Lin Yi felt relaxed. He didn’t feel like the night was dragging on. He even felt like it passed very quickly.
When the first rays of light began to show in the horizon, the thing stood up.
It was time to leave.
However, Lin Yi did not turn his head to look at the thing as it left. He was worried that the thing might be walking backwards.
According to his past experience in the Rule Worlds, even if a person caught by a Rule of Death survives the first night, he will still be found on the second night.
This thing had been observing him all nigh long. Lin Yi estimated that the thing had already memorized his figure. If he turned his head and met the thing’s eyes, the thing would know that he isn’t Cheng Yang and tonight, it won’t be fooled.
Lin Yi maintained this position and waited until full dawn before he got out from under the bed.
After getting out, he went to Room 204. On the way there, he rubbed his sore neck.
When he passed Room 204 last night, he saw signs that the body parts were moving closer and condensing. The neck part was even shaking.
If he hadn’t still seen Xia Hui’s face showing a strange smile to him, he would have began to doubt if Xia Hui had become an NPC. After all, in the 12-6 Rule World, there were participants who were selected by Doctor Zhu to become NPC doppelgängers.
Only those participants who’ve died would smile like this, so Lin Yi instructed Cheng Yang to head to Room 204.
After all, Xia Hui was not an NPC. Even if the dismembered parts were gathering together for some unknown reason, this was still the corpse of a participant. A participant cannot attack another participant. This was an overarching rule that all Rule Worlds must follow.
The only variable was whether Cheng Yang would scream from fear at the changes to Xia Hui’s body, attracting that thing that could actually kill him. This was why Lin Yi had specifically told Cheng Yang to keep quiet.
But that thing had squatted next to the bed the entire night, proving that Cheng Yang spent the night out of any danger.
Lin Yi’s only worry now was whether Cheng Yang had been scared silly.
Just because Cheng Yang survived one night did not mean he would be safe afterwards. On the contrary, he was in more danger than the others.
If Cheng Yang’s mentality had been shattered by Xia Hui’s corpse, tonight would only be more difficult than last night.
Arriving at Room 204, Lin Yi was about to knock on the door and call Cheng Yang, but Cheng Yang opened the door first.
Both of them were startled.
Lin Yi glanced at Cheng Yang. Although Cheng Yang was pale and had dark bags under his eyes, he could still stand and walk. This came as a slight surprise to Lin Yi. He thought Cheng Yang would be crawling over to answer the door.
Cheng Yang had much more emotional stability than Lin Yi gave him credit for.
First there was intense surprise. Cheng Yang originally came to confirm whether Lin Yi was still alive after seeing the light seeping through the curtains. Seeing Lin Yi so unexpectedly, he was struck with the impulse to rush up and give this brother in trial and tribulation a great big hug of pure friendship.
However, Lin Yi saw his intention and took a step back.
Cheng Yang also stopped in time because of of the stain on his hands.
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.
After that, Cheng Yang’s current feeling turned into that gratefulness at being able to survive this disaster. Lin Yi’s presence proved that he had survived.
Coafg atja, Jtfcu Tjcu ofia juuglfnfv. “Yt ws ubv, Olc Tl Wlbcu, vb sbe xcbk tbk P uba atgbeut ijra cluta?”
Yo mbegrf Olc Tl xcfk. Lf qertfv Jtfcu Tjcu lcab Ebbw 204 jcv atfc obiibkfv tlw lc.
Coafg mibrlcu atf vbbg, Olc Tl jrxfv Jtfcu Tjcu, “Qtfgf lr la?”
Jtfcu Tjcu qblcafv ecvfg atf yfv.
He could swear that the scene he’d seen last night was the most horrifying scene he had ever witnessed in his life.
If the combined body parts hadn’t been under the bed and not come out, Cheng Yang would have passed out; he would have gone comatose, unable to wake up even with an oxygen mask fitted over his face.
Seeing that Cheng Yang was whole and uninjured, Lin Yi estimated that the current ‘Xia Hui’ would not hurt anyone. And so, he squatted down and looked at the reassembled ‘Xia Hui’ under the bed.
Cheng Yang didn’t dare to take another look and said beside him, “I swear, this has created the biggest indelible shadow in my life. It will take two lifetimes to heal.”
What Lin Yi saw was the same as what Cheng Yang had seen last night. The only difference was that Xia Hui’s face was still smiling ferociously at him.
“Meow.” Xia Hui called out and shrank back into the corner.
Lin Yi stood up after looking for a while. When Cheng Yang heard Xia Hui’s cry, he shrank in fear. He told Lin Yi what he’d thought of last night. “Lin Yi Xiong, it must have been a cat that killed Xia Hui.”
Lin Yi was momentarily stunned and asked, “Did you see it?”
Cheng Yang said, “I didn’t see anything, but looking at Xia Hui’s condition, wouldn’t that be the obvious answer?”
Lin Yi glanced under the bed again, but couldn’t understand.
“Why do you say that?” Lin Yi asked humbly and without shame.
Cheng Yang had stayed with Xia Hui all night. It was possible he could have figured something out.
“People will turn into zombies when zombies bite them. According to this infection logic, Xia Hui was probably killed by a cat.” Cheng Yang said, “Why is he imitating a cat instead of barking like a dog? It must be because he’d been bitten to death by a cat.”
Lin Yi: “…”
Lin Yi was heartbroken that Cheng Yang had wasted these few seconds but he still discussed it with Cheng Yang, mainly because there was no one else here.
Lin Yi said, “It makes sense.”
These three words were only for the ‘Why is he imitating a cat instead of barking like a dog?’ part of what Cheng Yang said.
And why is it cats instead of dogs that sniff the packages at night? Obviously, people’s general belief is that dogs have a more sensitive sense of smell.
Then Lin Yi said, “But that thing should be human. Even if it isn’t human, it’s still humanoid.”
It had pressed down on the door handle and its footsteps sounded like hard-soled shoes on the floor.
Cheng Yang said, “A cat demon?”
After saying these words, Cheng Yang immediately said with certainty, “That’s right, it must be a cat demon. Otherwise, why would those cats show it the way?”
Lin Yi thought and said, “If it’s a cat demon, its sense of smell should be better than that of a cat. It wouldn’t need to rely on the cats to sniff and guide the way. Its sense of smell isn’t good. Otherwise, with how close it was to me, it should have recognized my own scent on me.”
Cheng Yang’s certainty disappeared. “That makes sense.”
Lin Yi glanced at Cheng Yang.
He had many fragmented thoughts in his mind but they couldn’t come together coherently.
Cats, mailrooms, packages, a female teacher, five students with clear faces and the missing student who the teacher kept pointing out.
Lin Yi suddenly missed Qin Zhou very much.
If Qin Zhou were here, he would definitely help him connect these ideas.
But on second thought, Lin Yi felt that he was being too unreasonable. According to Cheng Yang, he seemed to be a bit of a scumbag.
On the day he entered the 8-4 Rule World, he secretly snuck a peek at Qin Zhou. He saw Qin Zhou turn around and leave the 8-4 launch site.
Qin Zhou was definitely angry. That was what Lin Yi was thinking at that time. He was probably angry that he didn’t even greet him.
Seeing Lin Yi purse his lips, Cheng Yang thought he was thinking hard about something, so he didn’t dare to interrupt.
After waiting for a long time, Lin Yi said, “I got it.”
Cheng Yang hurriedly said, “Say whatever you want.”
Lin Yi said seriously, “I like Senior.”
Cheng Yang: “…”
The remaining fear in Cheng Yang from last night was dispelled by Lin Yi’s words. “You’ve only realized it just now?”
Lin Yi felt something was wrong when he heard Cheng Yang’s tone. He asked nervously, “Is it too late?”
“It’s not too late, your can confess your feelings as soon as we get out.” Cheng Yang gave Lin Yi a thumbs up and said, “With my Lin Yi Xiong on the offensive, President Qin will be taken down in one fell swoop. We have winter vacation in two months, right? Are we allowed to leave school during the holidays? Our President Qin has been working hard for a whole semester. You can go on vacation with President Qin. I’ll cover all your expenses to repay your life-saving grace. Oh, by the way, didn’t you say that you want to try crab pancakes? Go and eat it! Eat it with President Qin! You can eat whatever you want, your brother has plenty of money.”
Lin Yi thought for a while and said, “There will be a second Rule of Death tonight. There’s a high probability that…”
“Wait, Lin Yi Xiong, I don’t mean to interrupt you,” Cheng Yang was stunned and said, “But don’t you think you jump topics too fast? Brother, I can’t keep up with your pace.”
Lin Yi said, “I don’t think I’m that bad.”
“I know! Lin Yi Xiong!” Cheng Yang suddenly laughed, bumped Lin Yi’s shoulder with his and said, “The sooner we get out of here the sooner you get to confess, right?”
Cheng Yang saw through his thoughts. Lin Yi pretended to be calm. “There will be a second Rule of Death tonight.”
Cheng Yang nodded. “Well, what is it?”
Lin Yi said, “It’s most likely related to that other sentence on the note.”
There wee two lines written on the note.
The first line went, ‘it’s your turn to hide your life’.
The Rule of Death was being found by that thing.
The second line, ‘if you want to live, pass it on’.
“So the Rule of Death is not to passing on the note?” Cheng Yang asked.
Lin Yi shook his head and said, “I’m not sure.”
He said, “The essence of curse letters is called ‘transmission’ in Fangshu.”
Cheng Yang let out an “Oh”. “What do you mean?”
Lin Yi said, “In other words, a knowledgeable person would put a foul curse in the first letter and then send the letter out. The person who receives the curse letter would spread the curse letter out of self-preservation. The filth in the curse letter would then spread from one to ten, from ten to a hundred, from a hundred to a thousand. As the curse letter spreads, it absorbs people’s luck. Finally, the knowledgeable person, that is, the person who wrote the first curse letter will use some soul-collecting tools to take back the spread of filth and then use the accumulated luck for their own use.”
Lin Yi said, “In Fangshu, the content of the curse letter actually has no real power. People who receive the letter and don’t take it seriously will usually be fine. On the contrary, those who forward it will have their luck absorbed.”
Cheng Yang felt like he was listening to some fairy tale. “Damn it, Lin Yi Xiong! You already know astronomy and geography. How come you even know the art of Qihuang?”
Lin Yi scratched his head, not bothering to correct Cheng Yang regarding the meaning of Qihuang. He said, “There is a saying that ‘He who never wrongs others does not fear the knock in the night.’ The person who forwarded the curse letter did something bad, so ghosts will come knocking on their door.”
Cheng Yang decided. “Then I won’t send it.”
Lin Yi thought for a while and said, “But the first line wasn’t a lie.”
The first line of the note clearly told Cheng Yang to hide his life. Cheng Yang hid, so he didn’t die.
Cheng Yang was momentarily stunned. “So should I send it or not?”
Lin Yi said, “We need to find out whether the person who wrote the first curse letter wanted the next ones to send it.”
Just as Cheng Yang was about to say something, there was a knock on the door of Room 204.
Lin Yi stopped talking, Cheng Yang also kept his words in his heart and asked, “Who is it?”
Outside the door, “Zeng Nannan.”
Cheng Yang asked Lin Yi in a low voice. “Open it?”
Lin Yi thought for a while. “En.”
Cheng Yang went to open the door for Zeng Nannan. Just as Zeng Nannan was about to come in, she was forced out by the rotten smell in the room. She choked and shed tears. “I’m sorry…I…”
Lin Yi said, “Let’s go next door.”
After closing the door of Room 204, the three of them headed to Room 203.
After entering the room, Zeng Nannan said, “Actually, it’s nothing. Last night, I saw… and I just wanted to confirm whether you… are still alive.”
Lin Yi had guessed that Zeng Nannan had come for this purpose. After all, Zeng Nannan had been about to open her window to let him in last night.
But Lin Yi still asked, “Were we talking loudly just now?”
Cheng Yang didn’t hear the underlying meaning behind Lin Yi’s words, but Zeng Nannan understood. Lin Yi was wondering how Zeng Nannan knew they were in Room 204.
Zeng Nannan quickly explained, “I didn’t overhear anything, but I went to knock on your door. Your doors were both open, so I guessed that you were either in Room 204 or you’d already headed to the teaching building, so I just tried knocking on the door. I didn’t expect that you’d really be there.” Before Lin Yi could ask the basis for her guess, Zeng Nannan took the initiative and said, “Because you couldn’t possibly be in the other dorm rooms.”
Lin Yi didn’t understand what Zeng Nannan meant.
Cheng Yang was even more clueless.
Zeng Nannan said, “Ren Li Ge seems to suspect that there is something wrong with you two. I don’t think the others would dare to take you in.”
Cheng Yang said, “He’s the one with the problem, he really is.”
Lin Yi pursed his lips and asked, “Ren Li Ge, did he directly say that there’s a problem with us?”
Given Ren Li’s character, he probably wouldn’t do anything behind their backs. Even if he is the 8-4 Monster now, the Monster will speak and act according to the memories it’d spied upon.
Sure enough…
“No, but,” Zeng Nannan said, “Everyone can tell.”
Lin Yi asked, “How can you tell?”
“One of us is missing.” Zeng Nannan said, “Everyone knows that he’s dead, so someone went to see Ren Li Ge after school, hoping that Ren Li Ge could teach us a way to survive.”
Lin Yi had a bad premonition, “Ren Li Ge said something?”
“En.” Zeng Nannan said, “Ren Li Ge looked very impatient at first, but at times like this, face is not as important as survival. After everyone kept pestering him, Ren Li Ge told us that if there’s a delivery from Cheng Yang Tongxue, we should reject it.”
Cheng Yang’s face suddenly turned pale.
Lin Yi also fell silent.
From the beginning of the 8-4 Rule World, he had deliberately put Ren Li in the public eye so that Ren Li would have to think twice before attacking him and Cheng Yang.
He’d overlooked one problem: Monsters will lead participants to break the rules.
For example, at this time, Ren Li’s reminder was guiding the participants to violate the Rules of Death.
Zeng Nannan said, “I don’t think there’s any problem with either of you so I want to stick with you.”
This sentence sent another message to Lin Yi — that the participants were splitting up.
Cheng Yang said gratefully, “The eyes of the masses are really sharp!”
Lin Yi shook his head and said, “No.”
Not to mention that it was dangerous for Zeng Nannan to go with them but Lin Yi couldn’t protect the safety of two people by himself.
Lin Yi thought for a while and said politely, “Tongxue, are you willing to be an undercover agent?”
Cheng Yang gave a silent ‘fuck!’ while Zeng Nannan was momentarily stunned before then immediately figuring it out. Cheng Yang and Lin Yi were the only two people here. If she joined them openly, it would only add another target for everyone to exclude.
It was better to be an undercover agent, so that she could grasp what’s going on over there as soon as possible.
Zeng Nannan nodded. “Okay.”
“Then I can’t stay with you anymore. It’s almost time for class. Don’t let them find you.”
Cheng Yang: “Great!”
Lin Yi nodded and said goodbye to Zeng Nannan.
After Zeng Nannan left, Cheng Yang regained his dejected look. “What should I do? Should I send this letter or not?”
Lin Yi had still been unsure just now but now he nodded: “Send it.”
Ren Li was targeting the two of them. He named them and prevented the other participants from signing for the express delivery from Cheng Yang. It must be aimed at them. Therefore, it proved that the Rule of Death today was: failing to send the curse letter.
From the beginning, Cheng Yang had the idea to send the letter to Ren Li, but Lin Yi rejected it.
The 8-4 Monster in Ren Li’s body was the creator of Rule World and it wouldn’t have dug a hole to bury itself. Now Lin Yi understood that the curse letter wouldn’t be so easy to send. For the curse letter to take effect, they would need to add filth to the letter.
The curse letter Cheng Yang received smelled of paint and blood.
Therefore, the curse letter Cheng Yang will send must also contain these two things.
Not only that, the only way to spread the curse letter is by mail and the recipient can refuse to accept the express delivery.
It must be clear in Ren Li’s memory that Lin Yi wouldn’t do something like this that could harm others and since Cheng Yang and Lin Yi were good friends, even if the participants were divided, Cheng Yang wouldn’t forward a curse letter to harm anyone.
Lin Yi’s guess was that only Ren Li knew the method of rejection and it was impossible for the Monster to tell others how to survive. Lin Yi figured that the main purpose behind Ren Li’s mentioning to reject the express delivery was to tell them in a roundabout way not to waste their efforts in sending the express delivery to him. Additionally, it would also keep the other participants away from them, which would more or less increase the difficulty of figuring out the main plot and performing a Replay.
Lin Yi felt troubled.
Indeed, when Monsters select powerful participants, the difficulty of the entire Rule World increases.
But Lin Yi thought it was still fine. No matter how difficult he had gone through worse.
The most difficult being when Qin Zhou had been possessed by the 2-6 Monster. He almost died by Qin Zhou’s hands.
“To whom should I sent it to?”
Cheng Yang said, “Forget Ren Li, even the others won’t accept the express delivery from me now.”
“Can it be sent to an NPC?” Cheng Yang had just came up with this idea, but before Lin Yi could answer, he already rejected it.
Participants cannot kill NPCs. Although he doesn’t know whether using this method counts as killing NPCs, Cheng Yang didn’t dare attempt it rashly. Even if he dared, Lin Yi wouldn’t agree.
“There’s someone you can send it to,” Lin Yi said.
Cheng Yang was surprised, “Who? Who? Who?”
Yeah, who? The dead Xia Hui? He is a corpse, not a NPC, and even the corpse of a player. It could also be the missing student, but without the name, and considering that the students are also NPCs… But what about the faceless students? What’s their deal, anyway? So many questions!
Thank you for the chapter!
Wondering if all the cats are dead players.
The monster needed to see his face to make sure it had the right person so does that mean it knows what CY or possibly all of the players look like?
How would it know???
“Me”. No players will accept it except him his friend and brother. Lin Yi will sacrifice himself again for his friend. I wonder why the monster possessing Ren Li didnt attack them for 2 nights when they were facing problems, its because he is waiting for them to receive that delivery to annihilate them
Probably to Lin yi himself, xia yi, and zheng nannan. According to qinhuang that Lin yi mentioned the recipient must think of it as a joke or as nothing for it to not affect them.
Xia hui*
Thank you for the update ❤️💯