Collection

The broadcast ended.

For about two seconds, all Zhu Yan could hear was the sizzling of meat and vegetables being pressed onto the iron plate.

Then, chatter exploded around them like fireworks.

"What night game? Can't we even get some damn sleep?"

"At least we've got five more hours..."

"What the hell is this bullshit?!"

The door to my dorm is already broken. What am I supposed to do now?"

Some people couldn't take the pressure anymore and started crying.

Yang Zhanbai looked around and patted Zhu Yan on the shoulder.

"Hey, why don't you head back to the dorm to rest? I'll go add myself to some other school's freshman groups and be back in a bit."

Under the current circumstances, trading or gathering intel was no longer feasible.

Rest was the priority. He'd just get the contact info and head straight back to the dorm.

Zhu Yan understood Yang Zhanbai's intention.

He nodded and said, "Be quick," then softly called out the command to return to the dorm.

The atmosphere in the dorm had shifted.

Chen Zhaoxing was bouncing around and making weird noises, while Qi Yinming wore a serious expression as he allocated the beds.

When Zhu Yan walked in, Qi Yinming, holding an extra bundle of bedding, nodded at him.

"You heard the broadcast, right?"

Qi Yinming spread the bedding on the floor, keeping as far as possible from the dining area where the body of Tu Shan was laid out.

"There are only four beds, but there are seven of us."

He grabbed the overly excited Chen Zhaoxing and the thin Xu Tongguang. "You two are the skinniest. The bed's wide enough—just squeeze in and sleep together."

Chen Zhaoxing stopped bouncing. "Damn, I don't wanna sleep. Qi-ge, I can stay awake until the night game starts—"

"Shut up," Qi Yinming replied curtly.

He pointed to the bedding on the floor and turned to Yuan Chen and Qin Yang.

"You guys—"

"We'll sleep here!" Yuan Chen quickly said. "We don't need blankets. We can even sleep on the table!"

Holy crap.

Who could understand how lucky they were?

Running out blindly, nearly dying, and then being saved by someone—who turned out to be a friend of the second-ranked bigshot.

After being rescued, they somehow ended up in a dorm full of top players.

Zhu Zeyu, Yang Zhanbai, Qi Yinming, and Chen Zhaoxing—it was a gathering of elites.

Was there even a safer place in the game?

"Being able to stay here? We'd sleep in the toilet if we had to."

Qin Yang was quick on the uptake, too.

After nearly losing his life, he now fully understood how vicious this game was.

"The bigshot’s way too considerate, even prepared a blanket for us..."

Zhu Yan didn't care how they sorted things out, as long as it didn't affect his sleep.

He even took a quick shower, then climbed onto his bunk and lay down next to the calico cat that had been sleeping all day.

"...How can you sleep so much?"

The cat turned its big, round eyes on him.

Zhu Yan could tell it was scolding him for not taking it out earlier.

"Alright," he said softly. "You're already level seven. You really can hunt monsters on your own now."

"Meow," the cat said.

Zhu Yan caught the hint of grievance in its tone.

"Fine. We'll go together during the night game."

He pulled up the blanket and heard a thump from under the bed.

Yang Zhanbai was back—

He whispered a few words to Qi Yinming, but Zhu Yan couldn't make them out.

Fatigue, delayed and overwhelming, washed over his brain again. His eyelids were too heavy to keep open.

Soon, Zhu Yan fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

...

Downstairs.

The door to Room 106 was wide open, and a hazy mist was seeping in from the hallway.

Xing Chong’s face was twisted in a grimace as he looked at the two fresh bodies lying in the middle of the room, forcing a smile.

"O-Old... boss."

The bespectacled man stood behind the two bodies, his arms and hands trembling unnaturally.

"Um, is this good enough? We did what you asked..."

"C-Can you tell us the floor change command now?"

Xing Chong stepped forward and bent down to examine the two new corpses.

This glass-wearing player had some real skills.

He said his ability allowed him to make people die from anger, with no visible cause.

Now that he saw it, these two bodies were flawless—so fresh at a glance that they looked alive.

Much more perfect than the ones he had killed himself, or even the ones Tu Shan had killed.

But it wasn’t enough yet.

There were so many bodies in this room. Why not take them all?

Once he had them, he could just freeze this gifted player to death.

Then, wouldn’t he have an endless supply of bodies to use?

Threads of white mist crept into the nostrils of the two bodies, pressing in from every direction, into every pore.

Within seconds, they stood up shakily. Aside from their stiff movements, they looked almost exactly like living people!

"Th-This..."

The bespectacled man watched in terror, instinctively trying to back away.

The remaining seven or eight other players were also silent; one of the more timid ones looked like he was about to wet himself.

"The command... the command—"

"What's the rush?" The voice came from one of the newly risen bodies.

"Player, your ability is excellent. Give me two more of these bodies, and I'll tell you."

The thick white mist pressed threateningly around the bespectacled man.

On the corpse’s face—its muscles still soft, looking eerily alive—a friendly smile spread.

"Wow, this muscle control, this brain... I feel like I’ve gotten smarter just by switching."

The bespectacled man was on the verge of tears.

"Smarter," my ass.

There wasn't even a real person here, big bro.

But the bone-deep cold was already seeping in.

The man could only raise his hand and quickly pointed at three other players.

The corpse burst into laughter.

Thin mist quickly invaded the new bodies. The glasses-wearing man stared at Xing Chong in panic, before hearing another command.

"Not enough, not enough—still not enough!"

The voice was chillingly cold.

"Give me three more! Three more!"

The damp cold pressed against the glasses-wearing man's lungs.

He gasped for air, then suddenly turned his head—only to realize that, including himself, there were only four live players left in the room. Every single one of them looked utterly terrified.

If this thing wanted three more, then he wouldn't have any teammates left.

Alone against such a bizarre monster, he was sure to die!

"No!"

The man completely broke down.

"No!! You’ve been stalling on giving us the floor change command! There’s no way I’m helping you kill anyone else!"

His only response was a few light, cheerful laughs.

The corpse furrowed its brows and looked at him with some regret.

"Fine," it said.

The moment the word left its mouth, thick white mist wrapped tightly around the man.

This body, it seemed, would have to be collected early.

Not a bad thing, though.

Once he had this body, he could kill people without leaving any trace himself.

Doing the dirty work with his own hands—that would be the best.

When he had enough bodies, he would disguise himself as a player and go find that sneaky bastard who had stolen from him!

But then, the bespectacled man suddenly moved.

He burst out of the dense fog and ran with all his might into the hallway!

"What are you doing?"

The corpse wrinkled its nose in annoyance.

"The whole hallway is me."