Yang Zhanbai, his face pale, stepped back and then bent down to check the gap under the door. Fortunately, the Level 14 door was tightly sealed, not even a sliver of light could escape.
“Our door... should be fine, right?”
Zhu Yan shook his head without answering.
Too eerie.
Even though he had seen many horrifying creatures before, Zhu Yan still felt a wave of nausea. He wiped the thin sweat from his forehead and scrolled through his phone.
A few minutes earlier, the player from across the hall had sent a message in the group:
“We refused. She’s being a bit relentless, doesn’t seem right.”
Someone replied: “How many levels of attacks can your door withstand? If she can’t break through, you should be fine.”
“I hope so. She seems to have given up.”
“Be careful, upstairs. I didn’t hear her footsteps leaving.”
“Huh?? It sounds like she’s saying you agreed?”
But the player across the hall suddenly panicked:
“No, no! Holy crap!!”
That was his last message. Below, people kept asking:
“What’s wrong?”
“Where are you? I’m easily scared—don’t mess with me. What’s wrong?”
“Did the horror creature get in? Did something happen to him?”
Zhu Yan gripped his phone, his gaze fixed.
Soon, the player from across sent another message. It was just as panicked as the last, but Zhu Yan felt something was off.
“Save me!! That horror creature is after me again, save me!!”
Again? What did he mean by “again”?
“Look,” Qi Yinming suddenly said.
He seemed even more panicked than Zhu Yan, sweat matting a strand of hair to his forehead as he stared unblinkingly at the mirror.
The door across the hall opened from the inside.
Strangely, the female player from before was nowhere to be seen. A male player rushed out in a panic, stumbling to the door of Room 303 and pounding on it.
“Save me! Brothers, I’m being haunted by a horror creature, save me!”
The door Zhu Yan had bought was very thick. The young man’s fists thumped against it, producing only a dull, muffled sound.
“Save me! Please, don’t just stand by!”
By now, everyone in the dorm could see something was wrong.
The tone, the cadence... It was exactly like the girl who had turned into human skin earlier!
It wasn’t so much a young man knocking as it was a horror creature wearing a new skin!
Yang Zhanbai was so frightened he crouched down again to check the crack under the door.
“Is this some kind of looping curse?”
After confirming the door had no gaps, he stood up and poured himself a glass of cold water to calm his nerves.
“Is this a curse, or some kind of body-snatching horror creature?”
Chen Zhaoxing squinted his eyes, while Xu Tongguang, Yuan Chen, and Qin Yang stood together, trembling in fear.
Only Qi Yinming shook his head seriously and said, “I’m not sure. More likely a horror creature.”
The young man kept pounding on their door.
Zhu Yan stared at the mirror, watching the vivid image of the player reflected there, and frowned slightly.
To him, one thing seemed especially odd.
If that girl could turn into human skin and slip through the door crack, why had she wasted so much time knocking?
It couldn’t just be out of malice, could it?
What advantage was there in over-alerting the players?
“Brother Zhu, should we ask this guy what’s going on?” Qin Yang swallowed hard. “After all, our door is sturdy...”
Zhu Yan shook his head: “No, it’s not that simple.”
He glanced at Qin Yang and slowly explained his reasoning:
“I think this thing might need some kind of ‘permission’ to enter, or it triggers some kind of mechanism.”
“Maybe it can enter if the people inside agree, or if they refuse it—it still gets in.”
Zhu Yan wanted to use his ‘Remote Grasp’ skill to pull something from outside the door, but unfortunately, the Level 14 door was impervious to it.
“I think the best approach is to stay silent for now,” Zhu Yan concluded, feeling a bit regretful.
He remembered that body-snatching fog.
That fog was Level 0, and after snatching a body, it would match the host’s level.
He wondered what this thing was, what level it had, and what its traits were.
He also wondered if that book, Coexisting with Forbidden Things, might have the answers—it was gathering dust in his ring.
Zhu Yan sighed.
“Let’s ignore it for now. Let it try other doors and see what happens.”
The young man kept pounding on the door.
But a Level 14 door was absurdly sturdy. Using all his strength, his fists turned red, but the door didn’t even tremble, and the sound remained muffled and dull, nothing like the loud, clear banging on other doors.
Defeated, the young man stopped.
In the mirror, he took a step back, his tear-streaked face instantly turning blank.
“That’s terrifying,” Yang Zhanbai commented. “Brother Zhu, if he really gets in, can I borrow your Level 8 blade?”
“What do you plan to do?”
Yang Zhanbai let out a cold laugh: “Fight it to the death, of course. If I die, just put up a gravestone for me.”
Good heavens.
Zhu Yan felt like hitting him: “Do you have to say this at a time like this?”
In the mirror, the young man tilted his head.
He tilted it too far, and Zhu Yan heard a faint crack—his neck bone had broken into two under the skin. One piece of bone poked against the skin, forming a noticeable lump.
Zhu Yan raised his military saber.
But the young man just stared coldly at the door of Room 303 for a while, then used both hands to twist his neck back into place and walked away step by step.
Zhu Yan barely caught what he muttered:
“Just as I thought... tough to deal with...”
Oh?
He raised an eyebrow.
“Just as I thought,” meaning it was expected.
What was going on? Why would this thing say “just as I thought”?
Room 303 wasn’t famous enough for that.
Zhu Yan thought of the fog upstairs and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
This thing wasn’t the fog, of course.
But the fog couldn’t be completely eradicated.
Could it have tipped this thing off?
The young man continued wailing and knocked on the next door.
“Open up, please! Save me, I beg you!”
The people next door did the same as Zhu Yan’s group—they stayed silent.
“He’ll probably move on to the next room, right?” Qi Yinming asked.
The young man stopped again.
But in the mirror, unlike last time, he didn’t leave or step back to observe. Instead, he stretched his face into a wide, stiff smile.
Then he crouched down, his body rapidly shriveling, his throat rolling out muffled, indistinct murmurs:
“Silence counts as permission too...”
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
