Human Skin

Yang Zhanbai sent a message in the group chat.

"Better safe than sorry. Before we can confirm what's going on with that person outside, it's best not to open the door."

Zhu Yan heard rustling from the neighboring bed.

Yang Zhanbai climbed down from his bunk and came over to tap on the edge of Zhu Yan's bed. "Bro, come down and take a look with us."

Zhu Yan had had enough.

What kind of crappy horror entity was this, worth him getting out of bed just to inspect a Level 14 door?

If it were up to him, he'd just pull the curtain shut and go to sleep, waiting until the horror creature started attacking the door before doing anything else.

The calico cat nimbly hopped onto Zhu Yan's shoulder.

Helpless, he had to shoulder the cat and quickly descend from the bed, squeezing over to the peephole.

Cafeteria stalls at Bóyáng University were all closed for the night, some having vanished entirely, leaving nearly nothing but the empty hallway and the dormitory doors lining both sides.

The young woman's voice was still distinct and clear; she hadn't given up calling for help. In fact, her cries had grown even more pitiful.

"Help, help! We're all human here. I beg you, please don't just ignore me and let me die!"

The corridor formed a loop, and the sound traveled. It seemed the woman had already made a full circuit of the hallway, because the voice drifted from far to near again, heading back toward their dorm.

"Brother Zhu, Brother Yang, look."

Qin Yinming suddenly pointed grimly at the peephole.

In the cold, empty corridor, a human figure finally appeared.

It was a young woman, wearing a uniform from Bóyáng University.

Her hair was casually tied behind her head, and her face still bore the lively complexion of a living person.

Right now, that face was a mess of tear streaks and snot.

The young woman cowered, her upper body curled, and she kept pounding on the doors on both sides, looking absolutely terrified.

"Help…" she cried toward the dorm opposite 303. "I really need help. I'm not some kind of horror creature — I'm a living person!"

It was true.

No stiff gait, no cold, lifeless eyes, no ashen, deathly complexion characteristic of the dead.

This person — no matter how you looked at her — was nothing short of alive.

Yang Zhanbai furrowed his brow. "She really does look human, but there's no horror creature behind her."

"Maybe the horror creature is invisible," Qi Yinming said.

He had been studying the scene carefully, his glasses practically pressed against the peephole lens.

"In times like these, self-preservation comes first. Who would dare open the door?"

But this time, the young woman didn't knock on a door for a moment and then leave like before.

She seemed fixated on the dormitory directly across from 303, her knocking and pleading unrelenting.

"Save me, save me! Please, just save me — or at least give me some advice!"

"I really need help! I really need it!"

Zhu Yan pulled his gaze away from the peephole and glanced down at his phone.

Messages were scrolling up at a breakneck pace. A player from the dorm opposite was reporting in real time.

"I swear, she's still banging on our door. It's terrifying!"

"Even if she's not a horror creature, isn't this behavior gonna attract the real ones?"

Someone suggested a solution to that player.

"How about this: you guys reply and say you can't offer any help?"

"Just tell her to get lost," another player chimed in, more aggressively. "What else can you do? The game's too brutal."

Amid the endless flood of new messages, the player from the opposite dorm fell silent for a moment.

In less than two minutes, the pounding on the door grew even louder.

The young woman seemed to have fallen into some kind of extreme emotion, as if she wouldn't stop until the door was forced open.

Zhu Yan stared at his phone screen. The other player came back with an update.

"My roommate and I talked it over. We're going to probe a bit first, then turn her down."

"We really don't dare open the door either. The highest-level weapon in our whole dorm is only Level Five. And the door hasn't even been upgraded to the highest tier."

Immediately, someone went off-topic below: "Holy crap, big shot, you have a Level Five weapon? How'd you get it?"

But that wasn't the point.

What mattered was — the knocking outside had stopped.

Qi Yinming turned his head, raised a finger to his lips, motioning for the others to listen carefully.

Sure enough, someone in the opposite dorm was speaking.

But the voice was muffled through two layers of doors; no matter how hard Zhu Yan listened, he couldn't make out the words.

The moment the faint voice sounded, the girl in the peephole froze.

The world went quiet, leaving only the faint echoes and the deliberately hushed breaths of the people on watch.

A vague unease crept into Zhu Yan's heart.

He watched as the young woman slowly pressed her ear to the door — pressed, not so much as pressed as crushed it there.

On her face was something close to piety; after those indistinct replies stopped, she lifted a hand and wiped her tears.

"What does that mean?!" she shrieked, her voice sharp, making Zhu Yan's heart jolt.

"I'm a civil engineering student, class of this year's Session 02, Bóyáng University. What's with you doubting my identity?"

Whoever was inside must have offered some kind of defense, because the girl's tone shot up abruptly.

"What do you mean, what's my name?! Since when do you have the right to demand my name?!"

The muscles in her face tensed and wrinkled as she collapsed into a frenzy.

"Open the door, help me! Help me!"

"I'm going to die! Please, help me!"

The tone was still desperate, but the young woman raised her hand to wipe her face, smoothing down the tension in her muscles.

And then — very slowly — the corners of her mouth were tugged upward, forming a cold, stiff smile.

To Zhu Yan, it felt like someone who had never smiled before was trying out a grimace for the first time.

Qi Yinming's expression shifted. Yang Zhanbai, standing beside Zhu Yan, burst out with a curse.

"How the hell can that be human?"

Zhu Yan leaned in for a closer look. Aside from the stiffness when smiling, the young woman had no definite non-human traits.

Her eyes were even still filled with fear and tears.

"Let's see what she's up to," he said, pressing down on Yang Zhanbai's arm to signal him to stay calm.

A strange, chilling sensation crept along his arm, down to his back, and Zhu Yan found himself covered in goose bumps helplessly.

"I mean," he began, speaking slowly, trying to sort through the source of that frozen sensation, "to say she's human — her expression is far too inhuman."

"But if she's a horror creature, she doesn't seem this useless…"

Zhu Yan kept his eyes fixed on the dormitory door in the peephole.

"You'll notice — the door to the opposite dorm isn't all that high-end either."

"If she were a real horror creature, there's no way the door would show no damage."

Just a moment ago, when the girl was banging on it, the door made noise and seemed scary.

But Zhu Yan didn't see any actual damage on the door.

After all that pounding, the door stood firm without even a hint of deformation.

Did that seem right?

The young woman raised her hand and pressed it against the door of the opposite dorm, her voice carrying a sob.

"So you're turning me down, is that it?"

Zhu Yan heard a fragmented reply from inside, but couldn't make it out.

The girl fell silent.

A moment later, she bowed toward the door, full of gratitude.

"Thank you — thank you for being willing to take me in!"

That wasn't right.

Zhu Yan frowned in confusion.

Why had the people inside suddenly changed their minds and agreed?

Yet the girl giggled softly, then slowly lowered herself to the ground. Her body began to deflate like a leaking balloon, and in less than ten seconds, it had collapsed into a flat, paper-thin human skin. This skin arched its back like a worm, then slithered forward, effortlessly squeezing itself through the crack in the door.