CH 25

Chapter 25: Four Seasons Protection Guide (12)

If she hadn't seen Tang Xinjue doing nothing with her own eyes, Guo Guo would have thought she had secretly sipped a bottle of life-recovery potion... This resilience was too outrageous!!

She looked at Tang Xinjue faintly: "We just thought you had an accident."

Tang Xinjue smiled: "I heard, you cried a lot."

The pain and inability to control just now were real, but the pain came and go quickly. Now, she doesn't feel anything except the slight swelling of her temples.

Zhang You had lingering fears and asked, "What is that? Is it the sequelae of some kind of disease? Or is it related to your nightmare?"

Tang Xinjue rubbed his temples and explained, "Compared to sequelae, it's more like a breakthrough. After a certain barrier, the side effects brought about."

Looking at her blank-faced roommates, for a second, she didn't know how to explain it in detail, so she could only cut down the complicated and simplified: "Simply put, I found a way to temporarily curb mental pollution."

Open the [Physical Status] interface, under the health value that belongs to her, a new message pops up with green writing that has never been seen before:

[Mind Control (Level 1): The first step of control is self-control. Additional attribute: Immunity +5]

[Note: Self-created skills will be hidden under the five-dimensional attributes, and the attribute bonus will be a permanent gain, which will not disappear due to skill degradation]

[Full of energy (positive buff): Spiritual strength increases, clears all negative status, health value has risen sharply]

Self-created skills!

This time, even Tang Xinjue was a little surprised.

From the moment the new buff appeared, although she had a faint premonition that this ability would be advanced with the breakthrough, she did not expect to advance so quickly.

It's just... like a blank in the game's database. As long as someone creates a "new thing", it can't wait to enter the database.

Thinking back about the first time they "take the exam", with the four of them got all kinds of strange achievements, and even the effect of the toilet plunger was all due to her DIY ability... Tang Xinjue seemed to have lifted a clump of wool* and noticed some subtleties.

*not sure where this came from, I cannot find the explanation. My guess is that it's a metaphor of discovering something hidden, something like, 'lifting something that covers your eyes'.

But now is not the time to think about that.

She suppressed her thoughts and turned back to the topic: "Sorry, for disrupting everyone's plans. Let's go back to the closet as soon as possible. I don't know when the third reaper will come..."

Before she finished speaking, she paused.

She saw that among the 12 light spots, the dimmed light spots changed from two to three!

Seeing this scene as well, the others were startled and looked at each other in dismay.

The third reaper has come? When?

"No, it didn't come here." After realizing the key, Tang Xinjue's eyes lit up: "It didn't come to us at all!

"The rule we originally thought was that every reaper would patrol all the dormitories again and then leave." Tang Xinjue explained quickly: "But now it seems that this may not be the case - the scope of each reaper's patrol may be different."

Some will come to their dormitory, some will not. But when they leave, the spots of light are equally dimmed, signifying that a danger has disappeared.

Zhang You also reacted, with a hint of joy in her eyes: "That is to say, we don't need to avoid 12 reapers in a row?"

If they are lucky, as long as they dodge a few successfully, they can survive!

Guo Guo and Zheng Wanqing looked at each other:

"We don't know how many dormitories are participating in this test, and we don't know the radiation range and selection criteria of each reaper. Maybe it's random, maybe not."

After a brief surprise, Tang Xinjue calmed down and said, "We still have to plan for the best and the worst. From now on, we have to hide in the closet until the last light goes out."

"Are you sure you're all right, Xinjue?" Zhang You was still worried, as Tang Xinjue fell to the ground just now. It's too scary. Even if they see the recovery of health points with their own eyes, it's still scary.

Although she didn't know the specific inside story, she could see that Tang Xinjue survived and succeeded in "breaking through". But what if she doesn't make it through next time?

Tang Xinjue nodded, "Don't worry."

Without further ado, the group hurried back to the closet.

Guo Guo whispered, "Fortunately, I don't have claustrophobia." The closet was too narrow to move, it was cold and stuffy. Since it was dark, she couldn't see her fingers, which was a test of endurance in itself.

Tang Xinjue comforted: "If it's really hard, you can take a nap."

Guo Guo: "..."

Is this a time to sleep?!

But for some unknown reason... Perhaps it was because Tang Xinjue was too calm beside her, after a while, Guo Guo really didn't have any other thoughts, and even slowly closed her eyes.

Even until the coldness hit like a tide.

This time, a faint scent spread in the room. Tang Xinjue took initiative to close her the perception again, so she could only smell it faintly, and it is accompanied by a sense of irritability inexplicably rising in her heart.

The moment the strange feeling appeared, she was sure that this disturbing and irritable scent was specially used to search for hidden prey.

The scent had little effect on her. Guo Guo was timid, and being irritable would only make her shrink more tightly, and it was impossible for her to suddenly go wild. As for the other closet...

Tang Xinjue suddenly opened her eyes, and through the darkness and the cabinet door, she carefully sensed the movement outside.

Zhang You is cautious and careful, but Zheng Wanqing is a carefree and irritable character. If she do not take precautions against inhaling too much scent, coupled with the depression of the space in the cabinet, she may indeed be unable to control her emotions.

Once she made any movement, the probability of being discovered is almost 100%!

And the only way is to see if Zhang You can control the situation in time.

Tang Xinjue guessed right.

At the same time, in the closet on the right side of the bedroom door, Zheng Wanqing was leaning against the thick bedding, her eyebrows were twisted to the point of sinking, and her teeth were rattling.

It was as if there was a fire burning in her chest—she had never been so irritable, not even when her computer was flooded with water after she worked hard for a week for her dissertation. Even that time didn't make her mad like this moment.

Once the gates of negative emotions were opened, they couldn't stop rising. A sense of self-defeat about the current situation started to arise: Is it really useful for them to hide here? Isn't it a dead end when they're found?

It's okay to die, but to die feeling such suffocation, without any chance to fight at the end. It is better to go out and fight to the death... Her shoulders were suddenly pressed hard, and Zheng Wanqing suddenly came back to her senses and found that without knowing, she had put her hand on the cabinet door. To go out, she just needed to push it open with a little force!

Unable to speak in the dark, Zhang You grabbed her arm, pulled it back and held it tightly, controlling her not to move.

After this, Zheng Wanqing was also much more awake, and a cold sweat broke out in her heart. She realized that her state was not right.

...is the scent!

The cold scent floated in along the gap in the wardrobe, even though most of the ventilation openings had been blocked. Fortunately, Zhang You had prepared a face towel soaked in cold water in advance, one for each of the two, which covered her mouth and nose and refreshed her mind. After it blocked her nose, Zheng Wanqing didn't feel so uncomfortable.

After a few minutes, the scent gradually dissipated. Another spot turned grey.

They survived again.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." Guo Guo counted in a low voice, and she was about to cry: "There are six more lights on, please don't choose our dormitory again, don't come, don't come, don't come..."

Before she finished speaking, another light spot suddenly turned yellow, and within a few seconds, it quickly jumped to red again!

Guo Guo abruptly stopped speaking and swallowed the prayers into her stomach.

This time, there was silence for several minutes in the dormitory.

The sound came from outside the corridor.

First there were footsteps, from far to near, calmly, and finally stopped outside the dormitory door. Then, the door handle was pressed—

With a creak, the dormitory door was opened.

"Huh?"

A crisp young voice sounded from the door.

"Is there no one here? It's strange. Could it have been taken away?" The boy said to himself, and stepped into the house.

The sound of footsteps crossed the closet and moved into the house, chairs and other objects were overturned at will, and fell to the ground.

Listening to the voices outside, the four people hiding in the closet were shocked:

This "reaper" was actually a person?!

Compared with the previous monster image, there was no doubt that "people" who can think normally like NPCs are more dangerous to them.

Because what they can think of, others can naturally think of.

Sure enough, after a while, the boy's voice sounded again.

"There is no sign that it has been harvested, it seems that the people are still there, it's just..." The footsteps came towards the door again, and everyone's hearts were so high that they almost jumped to their throats.

Finally, the voice settled by the closet.

"They're just hiding."

Tang Xinjue pursed the corners of her mouth and clenched the toilet plunger.

At the same time, there was a sudden explosion outside the corridor, as if something exploded, causing the entire space to shake a few times. Their ears were buzzing.

The reaper outside the closet was also attracted (by the noise), and moved to the door, complaining, "Oh, there's a fight again, I knew I should've come earlier, it's really disappointing..." The dormitory door closed immediately. Most sounds were blocked (from their hearing).

After an unknown amount of time, Guo Guo felt that she was able to breathe. She watched Tang Xinjue open the phone interface, and the red light spot was extremely dazzling.

One, two, three... three red dots light up at the same time!

Here at the same time, three reapers??

However, don't the exam rules say that only one reaper will appear at a time?

Guo Guo looked up at Tang Xinjue in astonishment. In the dim light, Tang Xinjue's expression was also unclear, and finally made a mouth shape: "Wait."

If the rules are really inviolable, then the reaper violates the rules, and the game will definitely react.

For now, they could only wait and see what happens.

But as time passed, the sound outside the door did not stop, but instead intensified. The flashing red light spots did not decrease but increased, but the exam rule maker did not seem to notice, and did not give any reminders.

How could this be?

Tang Xinjue frowned.

In the face of unreasonable situations, it was natural that common sense cannot be used to judge.

After the rapid thinking diverges, a possibility finally forms in her mind.

Perhaps, the reapers have some way of temporarily blocking the exam rules. Therefore, even if they violate the regulations, they will not be discovered and punished.

However, it is extremely unfair and disadvantageous to treat the students who are taking exams in this way... If they take this opportunity, what if they turn around to kill* again?

*回马枪, huímǎqiāng; meaning of luring the enemy away, wait, then stab the enemy in the back.

It seemed that just as she thought, the footsteps that had already gone away sounded like they were going back!

- How to deal with this situation?

Under the madness of thinking, Tang Xinjue's expression became calmer and calmer, her eyes drooped slightly, and the color of her eyes almost merged with the suffocating darkness.

After a long while, she suddenly turned on her mobile phone and clicked an option on the main interface of [Dormitory Survival Game].

Troubleshooting, online customer service.

[Applying for online customer service requires 1 point, do you want to apply?]

[Yes]

She clicked without hesitation, and the interface changed instantly.

[Using the point, connecting the customer service... The customer service is connected!]

[Customer Service 001: Hello dear classmate, Customer Service No. 001 is online, please tell me your question.]

Tang Xinjue typed four words with no expression:

[I want to report.]