I Am a Toad

A light, sticky chill crept up his back little by little.

Zhu Yan's heart gave a slight twinge as he snapped his head around to look at the small supermarket beside him.

—There was nothing.

Peach-pink fairy wands and colorful toy car models meant for children were sealed in blister packs, hanging in rows at the most conspicuous spots in the shop; a crude little electric fan dangled from a rope, its white plastic blades spinning with a creaky sound.

Everything seemed normal, except there was no one around.

Driven by some inexplicable urge, Zhu Yan walked inside and found half a glass of hot tea sitting on the counter. The tea leaves had settled at the bottom, showing a low-quality grayish-green hue.

Zhu Yan cleared his throat. While quickly stowing the food and water from the shelves into his ring, he began muttering to himself in a voice too low for the players outside to hear.

"I want to change floors."

"The merchandise here is abundant."

"The food here is delicious..."

"I..."

He reeled off about a dozen sentences, but everything remained the same.

He hadn't guessed the right command.

The floor didn't change, and from outside came Xu Tongguang's somewhat breathless explanations and Chen Zhaoxing's out-of-tune humming.

Zhu Yan fell silent.

The fan blades continued their creaking, and inside the blister packs, the peach-pink fairy wands still looked shiny and new.

But the chill on Zhu Yan's back kept spreading into deeper cells, seeping into his very bones bit by bit.

Was this really a small supermarket normally absorbed by the Main Trunk?

Who would sell cheap fairy wands—toys that only toddlers would like—to university students on a college campus?

Who would put such things in the most prominent place in the store?

Only people like Yang Zhanbai and Chen Zhaoxing could be so careless.

This place was absolutely not normal at all!

Zhu Yan steadied his nerves, turned around decisively, and walked into the small room next door.

It was a broom closet with its door wide open. Inside, a few filthy wooden mops leaned haphazardly, alongside half a bucket of dirty water.

In Xishan University, there were no normal dorm managers, nor had Zhu Yan seen any cleaning ladies.

He presumed there were none, because the bloodstains in front of Dorm 106 had never been cleaned up. When he passed by there this morning, the metallic smell of rust mixed with rotting flesh was so thick it was nauseating.

If Xishan University didn't have them, would the other three schools?

Zhu Yan backed out, his heart turning icy cold.

The scene here was very strange. The horror creatures behind this hadn't appeared openly, but that didn't mean they weren't watching from the shadows.

How long had his movements been monitored? How much had been seen?

Zhu Yan quickly recalled his actions.

The newly replaced dorm door was quite soundproof, and the entire room could withstand high-level attacks, so the monster might not necessarily know what happened inside.

Outside the dorm, Zhu Yan had hurriedly run around in his original appearance, eavesdropping, and checking the small supermarket and the broom closet.

It was okay.

The monster might know he was the Hunter, or it might not...

Zhu Yan swallowed hard.

Not far away, Chen Zhaoxing was still chattering, his voice growing more distant.

"Huh? Which dorm is Yang Zhanbai in again? He went back to his room. I remember him saying his dorm had a black door, 30... thirty-something?"

"303," Xu Tongguang's voice chimed in.

He clearly realized something and suddenly gasped.

"Wait... 303! Did you guys hear that broadcast..."

Another player's voice hesitantly interjected, "The wanted poster? Are you saying the Hunter might be on our floor?"

"Then the guy who just ran past, could he be..."

No one spoke anymore.

The players looked at each other in dismay, all thinking of a terrifying possibility.

There were no horror creatures on this floor, but there was a Hunter.

Would Yang Zhanbai in Dorm 303 be a match for the Hunter?

One of the players quickly took out his phone and scrolled through the messages.

"There's a signal," he whispered, his face already pale.

"I just saw people from this floor posting. Some dorms have bad soundproofing; they could hear our conversation and are asking about it."

To be precise, the student group chat of Boyang University was already blowing up.

Some people were fighting desperately against the attacking monsters outside, but anyone hiding safely in their dorms was asking which floor this sudden Hunter was on.

After the floor number, 100, was exposed by someone with good hearing, some people became even more eager to try their luck.

"What Hunter? Why don't those of us on the 100th floor see if we can team up and insta-kill the Hunter together, let's just do it!"

"The Hunter isn't on the player leaderboard anyway, so their level should be about the same as ours, right?"

"Is anyone coming out?"

The boy scrolled through these messages, shrank back nervously, and looked around.

Chen Zhaoxing snatched the phone and scrolled through it with great interest; Xu Tongguang, however, placed his index finger against his lips, signaling the others to stop talking.

Then, he took a step forward, moving to the very front of the group.

After finishing reading the messages, Chen Zhaoxing also fell silent.

A gloating smile appeared on his face as he swiftly moved behind Xu Tongguang and spoke to him in a low voice.

"Brother, it's up to you, blow it up."

...

Zhu Yan leaned against the wall, hiding silently, when a possibility suddenly occurred to him.

The Wanted Poster was broadcast publicly to all horror creatures.

If he went back to Dorm 303, then transformed into a toad, pushed the door open, and pretended to demand an explanation...

Zhu Yan clenched his fists.

Admittedly, this was very risky. If the horror creatures here were above level six, then the ability Roleplay would be seen through instantly.

But what if their level was not higher than six?

That would be an excellent opportunity to fish for information. If it went smoothly, he could even head to the floor he wanted to go to!

Zhu Yan made up his mind.

Even if he failed, it didn't matter; the floors changed every so often anyway.

It wasn't like he could be trapped here for the rest of his life!

Zhu Yan covered his mouth with his sleeve and muttered in a voice so low he could barely hear it himself, "Keep safe."

A wave of dizziness washed over him.

With a thud, Zhu Yan belatedly felt his knees hit the carpeted floor, landing right beside Yang Zhanbai.

Yang Zhanbai was leaning against the bed frame; who knew how much effort it had taken him to get into this posture.

His forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat. Seeing Zhu Yan return, he actually forced out a sneer.

"Yo. Good son, why are you back? Is Zhu Zeyu alive or dead?"

Qi Yinming, on the other hand, didn't speak.

He just pursed his lips and quietly looked up at him, as if pondering something.

Zhu Yan was speechless.

At a time like this, the bro still had the mood to fight for patriarchal dominance.

He ignored Yang Zhanbai, stood up, and walked toward the door.

The moment he pushed the door, Zhu Yan instantly activated Roleplay.

By the time he stepped out again, he had already turned into that toad with blood-red eyes wearing a green apron!

The dorm door slammed shut behind him as Zhu Yan imitated the way a toad walked.

Except for the absence of the squelching sound of slimy webbed feet hitting the ground, everything else was an exact match.

"I have come to find the trail of the Hunter!"

Zhu Yan was not the least bit afraid of death, his hoarse, toad-like voice echoing through the air.

Not far away, the blood instantly drained from Xu Tongguang's face.

"A toad..."

"Shut up!" Chen Zhaoxing growled under his breath, turning to order the rest of the group.

"Find a place to hide. No one is to make a sound!"

It was terrifying.

That kind of aura was simply not something an ordinary, low-level horror creature could possess.

Even in Bailu City, it was exceptionally rare!