Chapter 111.2 Merfolk Shore
Categorized as an unidentified species, Wen Shi successfully reached outside the dormitory building. He stopped, looking disheveled in the strong wind. The game lessened the frightening effect of the wind, otherwise, running at that speed, the wind hitting him would have felt like scraping against his bones.
Wen Shi didn’t directly enter the dormitory building. He messaged to inquire about any danger from above.
Jian Qingrong replied, “Passed.”
Implicitly suggesting that things weren’t calm before.
Only then did Wen Shi enter the wooden door, which resembled a monster’s mouth.
The dorm supervisor, who worked tirelessly throughout the night, sat quietly in the staff room. She was surprised when she saw someone come in.
Wen Shi politely greeted her. “I’m done with the evening self-study. Thanks for keeping the door open.”
Dorm supervisor: “Why are you…”
In the past, students returning from evening self-study were all in a sorry state, the earliest arrivals coming back around three or four in the morning.
However, this student only had a messed-up hairstyle.
The gentle illusion of the previous two nights was finally torn apart. The corridor was eerily quiet now.
Tick-tock.
Upon reaching the second floor, Wen Shi heard the sound of a faucet not being properly closed. He quickly stepped back. The liquid dripping had both water droplets and blood. The overwhelming scent of blood rushing toward his nose indicated either someone died in a gruesome way—gutted and torn open to produce such a heavy stench—or many people had died. Oddly, he didn’t see a single corpse.
A faint light suddenly spilled down from upstairs, beams interweaving through the railing, highlighting the greasy sheen on some trapped flesh fragments.
Wen Shi looked up as composed footsteps approached from above, neither deliberately light nor heavy.
Definitely not a ghost. Just as a name emerged in his mind, Jian Qingrong appeared with a flashlight, descending from the upper floor.
After finishing a quest in the frightening instance, someone came to fetch him back. This feeling was… somewhat peculiar.
One ascending, the other descending, they quickly met at the corner.
Wen Shi whispered, “What happened?”
“Something’s circulating between the dorm rooms, feeding on people—hungry ghosts or the like,” Jian Qingrong spoke succinctly, emphasizing that the culprit wasn’t human, nor was it a merfolk.
Wen Shi lowered his gaze, knowing that it could only be the ghosts of students who had met an untimely end.
The fourth-floor air wasn’t heavily tainted with blood—no one had died there. The fifth floor, like the second, reeked of blood.
The closer they got to room 502, the more pungent it became.
With the illumination of the flashlight, Wen Shi saw a pool of blood accumulated at the dorm room entrance. He thought with a headache, cleaning this up would be quite a hassle.
Jian Qingrong reminded him that they could release the Old Man Ghost for cleaning duty.
“……” He had grown tired of hearing the words “filial son.”
Wen Shi asked Jian Qingrong to hide for a while. He didn’t want to deal with the highly agitated Old Man Ghost.
Jian Qingrong was about to refuse when he heard someone nearby say, “You can go lie down on my bunk first, don’t show your face.”
“Alright.” He changed his tune promptly.
The Old Man Ghost hadn’t seen daylight for a long time. Released, it hadn’t even complained much before Wen Shi assigned it to cleaning duty. It immediately leaned against the wall, portraying the appearance of an aged and frail being. Wen Shi said, “If you don’t want to stay cooped up in the Ghost Box, then work properly.”
He pushed the door and entered the dormitory.
Song Yan was the first to turn upon hearing the noise. Seeing Wen Shi bring in a skin-covered skeleton, he jumped in surprise.
Wen Shi gestured, “Janitor. No need to worry.”
The Old Man Ghost obediently fetched water and mopped the floor. In life, he had always been shuttling between the dorm and the Big Factory. Following Wen Shi, he could at least see the world outside. After grumbling a bit, he wasn’t too angry anymore.
Wen Shi looked at the messy bunk near the door.
There wasn’t much blood on the bed. Most of it had splattered on the dressing mirror behind the door and the ladder. They were probably attacked while trying to escape through the door.
Ji Yuanzhi’s efficiency was quite high.
“The ghost sought them out proactively,” Ji Yuanzhi sat at the table, wiping the blood stains off his glasses, not concerned about their deaths.
Wen Shi gave a surprised sound upon hearing this, immediately recalling the recent actions of Xiao Li and A’Zhuang. He picked out two potentially significant points, “Besides informing on others, they visited the school clinic to get medication and have been drinking bottled water.”
Bottled water shouldn’t be the issue, which left the possibility that getting medication triggered the appearance of the monsters.
“Can’t get sick, try not to get injured, otherwise, you’ll be categorized as weak.” Ji Yuanzhi had used his【Omniscient Seer】skill to decipher this rule.
The monsters prioritize attacking weak targets.
Wen Shi nodded and tidied up the bedding a little.
In any case, there was now an empty bed, a place for the newly arrived family member.
“Recommend summoning,” he attempted to communicate with the game.
The system’s prompt came after a two-second delay: “This instance contains multiple unknown dangers. Confronting the unknown with another unknown might not be a bad strategy.”
Hehe.
Wen Shi had a rebellious streak. He didn’t believe the game would be so kind as to save his points. It was clear that the game was avoiding recommending anyone.
He enjoyed watching the game struggle with tasks it didn’t want to do but had to.
“Recommend,” Wen Shi emphasized, then casually asked, “Is the person you’re planning to recommend a good person?”
Aside from the icy tone, there was a hint of darkness in the prompt sound.
“It’s a beast.”
“……”
After deducting two hundred points, the prompt sound chimed again—
【Skill ‘I Am Who I Am’ activated】
【Target summoning in progress】
【Do you know what kind of beast you’re about to encounter?】
Wen Shi nearly choked on thin air, coughing twice. In the past, when a family member appeared, the prompt sound used descriptions like【What kind of fireworks?】 How did it suddenly change to “beast” for this one?
Was it a noun or an adjective? Could it really not be a human, like a beastkin or an ancient savage creature?
While Wen Shi let his thoughts wander aimlessly, he suddenly noticed Ji Yuanzhi looking alertly in his direction. Instinctively, he turned around, and at the entrance stood an unfamiliar man.
During lights-out time, strong light could attract the attention of the dorm supervisor, so Wen Shi took out a lantern, casting its dim light partly onto the newcomer.
The guy was tall. The first thing Wen Shi noticed was his open collar, revealing a muscular build ready for explosive action. As the light moved upward, it revealed a three-dimensional and deep facial structure. The newcomer’s skin was darker, and his ash-gray hair had a slight curl.
Wen Shi felt a jolt. When he saw other family members, his first reaction was a sense of familiarity. But with this person, aside from familiarity, he also felt a trace of alertness that raised his sense of alarm.
This alertness wasn’t because he thought the person was suspicious. It was more about an inherent aggressiveness that made one want to flee on instinct.
Song Yan had already run off.
Comparing the unexpected guest outside the door, he shifted to a safer spot on the balcony.
“Good evening,” the man outside glanced inside, “My name is Arlon.”
Before mentioning his name, he noticed a glimpse of a campus card peeking out of Wen Shi’s pocket, with the name “Aaron” written on it. Only after that did he state his name. [T/N: the Chinese characters for Aaron are 亚伦 (Yalun).]
Wen Shi had a feeling that wasn’t his real name.
Arlon walked in, and for a moment, an aura seemed to spread from him that suppressed the scent of blood. It was a bit like nearly combustible barleywine, but it quickly vanished.
Song Yan, hiding on the balcony, shared the meager outdated vocabulary of the true spirit. A term popped into his mind: “Alpha explosion.”
Wen Shi continued to stand facing the door, his expression somewhat complex. Did he really have such a side to himself? The visible explosive power that seemed to emanate from every part of him felt like a towering mountain pressing down.
Considering that a family member would often appear in Wen Shi’s instances, Ji Yuanzhi guessed based on the man’s age, “Your Big Brother?”
Wen Shi nodded.
Ji Yuanzhi glanced between the two and casually said, “You must be mistaken.”
“……”
If you enjoy this novel, support the Translator ginevre on her ko-fi account :))
