Trunk

Yang Zhanbai was eager to take action tomorrow.

Zhu Yan looked at him with a bit of sympathy.

To be honest, Yang Zhanbai's thinking and acting abilities were already much better compared to the other students.

But sometimes, there was truly nothing one could do when the information gap was too large.

For example, the existence of the account "Zhu Zeyu" completely limited his imagination. He could never have guessed that "Zhu Zeyu" and the forum user "HatersAreGay" were the exact same person.

Qi Yinming was still picking out items in the [Online Mall], while Yang Zhanbai, after careful consideration, decided to go out and take a picture of [Xishan University] at night to use as his profile picture.

"Brother Zhu, you should go to bed early," Qi Yinming said. "A notice was sent in the group. Tomorrow morning at six o'clock, the instance will start over at the sports field."

Zhu Yan lay on his bed and closed his eyes.

At what time would the [Frog Convenience Store] open again?

...

The faint light of the sun pierced through the hazy gray mist, looking like dusk.

Zhu Yan sat in the bleachers of the sports field. The smell of blood and rot, having settled overnight, drilled intensely into his nose.

He heard someone next to him dry-heaving in discomfort. Many people took off their jackets to use as makeshift masks to cover their noses and mouths.

"It's been two hours, why hasn't the hunter replied yet?" Yang Zhanbai pressed his uniform jacket tightly against his face, his voice muffled. "The situation today is much better than yesterday. Hey, someone else passed!"

Zhu Yan had, of course, already received Yang Zhanbai's message.

The reason he hadn't replied for so long was simply because he felt it wasn't the right time to use Yang Zhanbai yet.

Right now, he didn't even know what the situation inside the instance was like.

Replying to the message would be a pure waste of time.

"Maybe he didn't see it," Zhu Yan replied perfunctorily, narrowing his eyes to look at the sports field.

Over the course of an evening and a night, the surviving players had almost all formed small groups, ranging from a few people to dozens.

With mutual cooperation, the clearance rate was indeed much higher than yesterday's meat grinder of a situation.

During the several hours from morning to two in the afternoon, many people who had cleared the instance successively took their seats in the bleachers.

There were not many people left on the field. After one last batch, the entrance exam would be over.

"Hey, Brother Yang, Brother Zhu, look over there!"

Qi Yinming suddenly became excited.

"Holy crap, what are those two doing?"

Zhu Yan followed his pointing finger and saw two strange figures at the edge of the sports field.

They were two very skinny-looking boys. One of them was Blondie, who also had his hair tied in a braid.

The other boy wearing a hat very loyally pulled Blondie in front of him as a shield. The monster unceremoniously attacked Blondie, and then...

The monster died.

Zhu Yan swallowed hard.

He felt this skill was a bit familiar.

In the instance [Family Dinner], Xu Tongguang, who cross-dressed to join the fun, took the initiative to ask Zhu Yan to attack him because the damage could be reflected back multiple times.

And his companion, Chen Zhaoxing, could use cockroaches to heal.

They happened to be students of [Xishan University] as well!

Weren't the skills of those two people used in this exact combination?

Zhu Yan involuntarily leaned forward and found that the person wearing the hat was indeed constantly feeding things to the half-dead Blondie.

Blondie was covered in blood, yet he showed no signs of dying at all!

"How did these two find each other?" Yang Zhanbai was shocked. "How could there be two skills that match so perfectly?"

Zhu Yan didn't know either.

He watched as these two unhurriedly reached the finish line, much faster than the other teams.

They then climbed up the bleachers one after the other, still having the mood to high-five each other.

"They don't look like new players." Yang Zhanbai stood up. "They are too calm. Wait here, I'll go ask."

Indeed.

Zhu Yan stayed where he was, silently observing the others.

Many survivors were weeping tears of joy, and some, ignoring their wounds, couldn't help but roar at the sky.

"I survived! Mom, I survived!"

"That scared me to death, holy shit!"

"I can't take it anymore, I want to quit the game, I want to get out!"

The area around Zhu Yan was noisy and chaotic. Some people were running around asking for help, holding cash, trying to exchange it for some medicine from their companions or veteran players who had already cleared the game.

"These people probably won't take the entrance exam with us, right?" Qi Yinming said uncertainly. "At this time, and in their current state..."

Many people were in a terrible state.

To survive, most of the players who went on the field later traveled light, throwing away the backpacks they had brought.

Many people didn't have medicine and could only hastily wrap their wounds with their clothes.

Zhu Yan looked down at his phone.

The school hadn't yet notified them of the exact time for the [Entrance Exam], and there was no activity in the Qingyu Classroom app either.

Could the exam be starting at night?

Maybe he should just camp out in front of the [Frog Convenience Store]...

"There should still be a portion of players who haven't arrived." Qi Yinming's voice interrupted his thoughts. "I roughly estimated the numbers yesterday; this few people can't possibly make up an entire school of students."

"[Carnival Paradise] will probably arrange a next batch, just like the entrance exam."

As he spoke, he helplessly apologized to a person who came to ask for medicine.

"Sorry, we have to go through an instance soon too, and our items are scarce."

"Are you a veteran player?"

The person didn't leave, however. Clutching his broken arm, his eyes lit up.

"Do you know the rules of the instances here? Like when the next instance will start..."

At this moment, a burst of cheers suddenly erupted on the sports field!

Several of them turned their heads to look at the same time. The last batch of people had also successfully cleared the instance, and the survivors were hugging each other in celebration.

"We cleared it!" a new player said excitedly. "Can we rest now too? Senior, I heard from others that there are monetary rewards for clearing it, is that true?"

Qi Yinming said, "That is true. With gold coins, you can buy items. You guys—"

"Attention—!"

The slime suddenly shrieked.

The extremely penetrating voice rang through the air above the stadium, enveloping the entire bleachers.

The second half of Qi Yinming's sentence was drowned out.

All faint noises came to a sudden halt at this moment. The players, wearing various expressions, focused their gazes on the sports field below.

That massive lump of flesh rolled to the center of the field, stopping amidst a pile of white bones and fresh, steaming flesh.

"First of all, congratulations to everyone for passing the exam—!"

The slime's tone was somewhat distorted, its trailing notes excitedly high-pitched, carrying a bit of trembling secret delight and the faint noise of slurping drool.

It was just like a starving child facing a table full of delicacies, but it wasn't mealtime yet.

In an instant, a strong sense of foreboding eroded Zhu Yan's heart.

He leaned on the edge of the plastic chair, stood up, and slowly edged toward the gate.

It was a subconscious action.

Something was wrong!

The slime raised two bone spikes, pointing them sharply at the sky.

Dead silence.

"We also sincerely hope that everyone can rest, recuperate, and replenish your stamina!"

Zhu Yan silently walked down the steps.

When the slime said "hope," it very clearly slurped its drool.

This hope really didn't sound hopeful at all.

"However!"

It swung its bone spur, pointing toward the back of the sports field.

A rumbling sound of wind drifted from that direction, faintly and distantly reaching everyone's ears.

Zhu Yan quickly slipped down.

A few seconds later, he ducked by the perimeter wall of the field, signed out on the roster, and pulled open the iron gate with a loud creak.

Someone nearby turned to look, but very quickly, a much clearer noise captured their attention.

It was the wind!

As time passed, the noise grew louder and more distinct.

It transformed into a massive reverberation and roaring boom, making the ground beneath them violently shake up and down.

Zhu Yan felt his very insides trembling.

"What is that thing?!"

Someone screamed with a sobbing voice.

Some people stood up from their seats, while others sat frozen, as if terrified out of their wits.

Zhu Yan saw it too.

It was a massive, jagged pillar, its top piercing straight into the dense gray clouds low in the sky.

It was sliding and crushing its way toward them, shattering and disintegrating every building in its path.

Rooms of all sizes were stripped away, sucked onto the pillar by an irresistible force, and then rapidly reorganized and aligned to become part of the pillar itself.