Elysium, your sloppiness lacks all sophistication

"There are no fixed rules for this start-of-term exam, but please observe the relevant rules of each examination room as appropriate."

"Failure to comply may lead to rather severe consequences."

The gentle female voice was muffled by the old equipment, mixed with a faint crackle of static, revealing a hint of chill.

The three of them exchanged silent glances.

This severe consequence was, without a doubt, death.

"The maximum duration for this exam is 5 days."

The female voice continued.

"Five days?" Yang Zhanbai tensed up, his eyes involuntarily darting toward the video. "No way. I have to endure another five days of torture like I did with Mr. Wolf?"

At the thought of this, Yang Zhanbai's face fell.

In that Mr. Wolf instance, it was actually all thanks to Zhu Zeyu stepping up and securing 48 hours on the very first day.

So their subsequent long trek wasn't too agonizing.

But the start-of-term exam was different.

Just thinking about having nowhere to sleep, nowhere to use the bathroom, and getting as filthy as a cockroach made Yang Zhanbai feel uncomfortable all over.

These trivial matters were actually the most torturous!

"A maximum of five days," Qi Yinming said. "The difficulty shouldn't be low, but we can't just drag it out until the last moment."

Zhu Yan didn't know either.

He thought of the information the Human-Spider Supervisor had given him, and his heart tightened again.

It couldn't be, right? Please don't let it actually be that difficult.

"Please listen carefully to the common objective, players."

"Players' joint task: Find the key and leave the building within five days."

"Note: If players remain in the building for more than five days, they will be swallowed by the building as nutrients."

The three listeners had different expressions, all of them somewhat nervous.

This matched the information, and Zhu Yan breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.

His gaze swept over Qi Yinming's tightly pursed lips and Yang Zhanbai's clenched fists.

The task didn't sound difficult.

But how were they supposed to find the floor where the key was located?

"Additionally, there is one Hunter in the game." The female voice took on a hint of malicious amusement.

No way, again?

Zhu Yan felt like passing out.

What good did it do for the Carnival Paradise to always target him, the Hunter?

He couldn't help but clench his right hand, while Qi Yinming and Yang Zhanbai's faces also turned grim.

"Another human traitor!"

Yang Zhanbai gritted his teeth in hatred.

Whenever he thought about how the Hunter could use special means to transfer markers and create chaos—both he and Zhu Zeyu had been made to act as Hunters before—he felt the urge to slaughter his way through the game.

Damn it.

This trash game, this trash traitor.

It was simply ruining good people, making them slaughter each other!

"Stay calm and collected," Qi Yinming advised, his face pale.

Zhu Yan clenched his hand even tighter, feeling his palms start to sweat.

This damn Paradise.

Couldn't it let his marker stay hidden for just another two days?

"Human traitor," Yang Zhanbai cursed, beginning to sneer. "If they act up again, I won't have any psychological burden about dealing with them."

Zhu Yan wanted to kick him out of the dorm room he had spent his own money renovating.

"As long as you find the Hunter and throw them into the building's main trunk, all players will obtain detailed information about the key fragments, including the floor number."

Holy shit.

The floor number!

The floor number that the Human-Spider Supervisor hadn't provided!

Zhu Yan swallowed hard.

If he found himself, did that count as the players finding the Hunter?

Qi Yinming, however, asked, "What is the building's main trunk? Is this instance really going to be that Metabolism of the building?"

"I think so."

Yang Zhanbai looked at Qi Yinming, whose brows were furrowed and lips tight, and then at Zhu Zeyu, who was clenching his fists beside him. He raised both hands and patted them heavily on the back.

"Don't overthink it. Overthinking is useless. There will be so many unexpected situations by then, we'll just have to improvise anyway."

"If we work together this time, we'll definitely be able to root out that Hunter."

Yang Zhanbai lowered his eyes coldly, a smile still on his lips.

"Since the Hunter in this game is doing it voluntarily, I wouldn't mind tearing them into a thousand pieces."

Zhu Yan made a mental note of that.

Tear your daddy into pieces, huh.

"Lastly, the specific time for this instance is uncertain."

"Students who have passed the Entrance Exam, please follow the notification in the group chat and proceed to the playground grandstand to assist in proctoring the new students' entrance exam."

"The specific time for the Start-of-Term Exam will be announced separately. Please stay tuned."

The video ended there.

Qi Yinming was quick and had already pulled up that chat record.

"The freshmen exam is at exactly 9:00 AM the day after tomorrow. That's about two days away from the start-of-term exam."

Qi Yinming added, "The librarian said the start-of-term exam is in four days. But the exact time is undecided."

Yang Zhanbai took out his phone and started typing rapidly.

A few seconds later, a new message popped up in the freshmen group.

"@Academic Affairs Office, may I ask if assisting in proctoring the exam is mandatory, or can we choose not to go?"

The sender was Yang Zhanbai, sporting a Xuexitong avatar.

The Academic Affairs Office replied quickly.

"If you go, you can earn credits just by signing in and out, which is equivalent to participating in two instances outside."

Wow, really?

Qi Yinming said, "I think I'll go. With my ability, I might not survive going through instances outside."

Yang Zhanbai was also quite enthusiastic.

Zhu Yan, on the other hand, wasn't very interested.

How could watching people go through instances from the grandstand be as satisfying as clearing them yourself?

By clearing instances yourself, you got much more than just a few credits.

There were also plenty of supplies, heaps of bone coins, upgraded abilities, and strange items...

It was a bit tiring, but the rewards were generous.

Zhu Yan yawned and prevaricated, "Then you guys go for the first day. I'm dead tired, I need to rest. Message me if anything happens."

...

The next day.

It wasn't until the afternoon that Zhu Yan finally woke up from his slumber.

Probably because he had been too tired lately, he slept very soundly, not even having a single complete dream.

The only reason he woke up was because his phone kept buzzing.

"I didn't set an alarm, did I?"

Zhu Yan groggily felt around for his phone near his pillow.

It was a message bombardment.

This time, the messages came from Yang Zhanbai and the survivor group chat he had been pulled into during the previous instance. Surprisingly, everyone was blowing up the chat in unison.

"Meow." The Tuxedo Cat walked up to Zhu Yan's pillow and rubbed against him.

Zhu Yan rolled over and swiped open the screen.

"Holy shit, bro, something huge happened, bro!"

"Holy shit, their difficulty level is even worse than ours!"

"Look at this, who could possibly make it to the finish line?"

Below the sentences were several video clips.

Zhu Yan casually tapped on the first one. The video showed an overhead shot of the playground.

Half of the massive playground was shrouded in thick fog, while the other half was crammed with a huge crowd—no, a queue of players.

The massive line was being overseen by a dozen zombies and that round, squishy slime of rotting flesh.

Zhu Yan turned on the sound and could vaguely make out the noise and screams coming from the crowd.

There were too many players; for this start-of-term exam, they were even being sent in batches of dozens at a time.

The slime blew a whistle and shouted through a megaphone, "Mr. Wolf, Mr. Wolf, what time is it?" The first batch of dozens of players then sprinted toward the fog in various postures.

However, after merely five seconds, the slime cheated and shouted the words, "It's dark!"

In an instant, terrifying creatures surged out from the thick mist, and even the mist itself seemed to crush down upon the players.

Screams and curses immediately erupted from the bleachers.

Yang Zhanbai's phone dropped with a clatter. By the time he picked it back up, the sports field had already become a river of blood, with dozens of new corpses visibly scattered across the ground.

Zhu Yan covered his forehead and let out a groan.

This was just too absurdly fast.

Could this really be right?

"Hurry up and get over here, bro," Yang Zhanbai typed frantically, worried sick. "There's a girl in the bleachers whose ability is related to intuition."

"She says her intuition is telling her that this make-up exam is extremely important, and that it's closely tied to the next instance."

"Come quickly so we can all put our heads together and figure out how to clear this!"

Zhu Yan lay there, staring blankly into space.

What intuition? Could it possibly be more accurate than the information provided by the Human-Spider Supervisor?

"I'll come tomorrow," Zhu Yan insisted. "You guys just take care of yourselves for now."

First thing tomorrow morning, he would assess the situation and just go through the motions.

Once that was out of the way, he would immediately head to the Frog Convenience Store.

That way, as soon as the instance began, he could immediately set off to find the first key fragment!