Kitten Achieves Great Feat

The corridor was now only a vast expanse of white.

This time, the puppet led Zhu Yan toward Room 303, its brow furrowed once more.

"How strange. Didn't you say there were players in 303? Where are they?"

Zhu Yan pretended not to know. "There aren't any?"

The fog in the corridor was rapidly thinning.

One of the puppets shook its head. "No. But I saw Tu Shan's corpse. You're not wrong—this really is the Hunter's nest."

The words were spoken quite softly.

"Maybe the players ran off for some reason. But the broadcast told us to stay in our rooms—that has to be correct."

Of course the broadcast couldn't be wrong!

The other puppet seemed increasingly irritated.

"So can you hurry it up?" it said. "The broadcast gave me a ten-minute limit."

"This timing definitely has its reasons."

"If you're any slower, it might be too late!"

In the thinning white fog, Zhu Yan could already see the grand black door of Room 303.

Thick fog and several puppets were frantically squeezing inside. Zhu Yan looked at the dense gray-white inside and felt certain that everyone's blankets were doomed.

With all this dampness pouring in, how could the blankets and walls possibly survive?

Zhu Yan sighed inwardly, while the puppet beside him seemed to have made a new discovery.

"What's that cat doing on the bed?"

Its tone rose, presumably to express puzzlement.

"I don't know that cat's rank... but I'm sure it's no ordinary cat."

"Can the witch's cat actually look this good?"

Zhu Yan thought of the unmistakable shape on the Tuxedo Cat's face and found it deeply unsettling.

"Is there something unusual about the cat?" he asked.

The Fog let out a cold snort.

"Just keeps flicking its tail. Oh, now it's jumped off the bed."

Jumped off the bed?

Was this thing trying to come out and find him?

Zhu Yan was a bit startled.

At that moment, they were only a few steps from Room 303, and the fog in the corridor had almost vanished.

The door to 303 was open a crack, and behind it, the gap was pitch black, packed with Fog.

A cat head poked out from beneath the Fog, followed by one chubby cat leg.

Zhu Yan quickly shoved the two puppets inside the door, scooped up the Tuxedo Cat that was about to run, and slammed the door shut with a bang.

"Wow!" the Tuxedo Cat yowled in protest.

Zhu Yan understood—it meant it hated Fog, and it also hated water, especially dirty water.

He set the Tuxedo Cat on the floor and tried to pat its head to calm it down, but it angrily swatted at him.

The Tuxedo Cat didn't extend its claws, but the paw pad struck Zhu Yan's hand with precision and force, producing a sharp slap.

Zhu Yan had no mood to deal with it.

Right now, the dormitory was packed with "people," all hidden within the thick fog. Zhu Yan could only locate them by their voices.

"Aha, Tu Shan really is dead. Look, the body's right here."

One voice came distantly from the balcony.

"This place is tiny. If the Hunter comes back, will there even be room to stand?"

That was another voice, right beside Zhu Yan.

"There should be," Zhu Yan said with a faint smile.

He habitually touched his wrist, gripping the string of small sandalwood beads, intending to slide them off.

But considering the omnipresent Fog, he held back.

The Tuxedo Cat protested with loud meows, still pressing against Zhu Yan's calf.

He felt its wet fur and sighed.

"Fog, you're great in every way, but you're way too damp."

"What?" a puppet's voice came from beside Zhu Yan.

No sooner had it spoken.

The military knife swung out cleanly. Zhu Yan's hand felt a faint resistance, followed by a soft "swish."

With a thought, the decapitated puppet was absorbed into his ring.

There were two seconds of silence in the space.

Then the other puppet spoke, its voice thick with suspicion.

"What the—ah?!"

The military knife precisely reaped a second head.

Zhu Yan quickly moved to the door to guard it, and from the darkness came a third question.

"Skin Tailor, what's going on?! How do you have that knife?!"

Zhu Yan laughed softly and said nothing. In the darkness, the puppet's voice grew stiff.

"Isn't that the Hunter's knife? What the hell is happening here?"

Zhu Yan rubbed his leg against the Tuxedo Cat's side, ignoring the puppet's question, and chuckled to himself instead.

"Do me a favor," he said to the Tuxedo Cat. "Please eat up all this Fog. I've prepared a very generous meal for you—I'll deliver it right after you finish the Fog."

"Meow," said the Tuxedo Cat.

The dense fog in the small space immediately began to churn.

Zhu Yan didn't pause.

He stepped forward and swung the knife precisely toward the source of the voice. The sharp blade flashed with cold light in the gray-black gloom.

The Tuxedo Cat began to gulp down the fog in large mouthfuls.

As the layout of the dormitory became visibly clear, the puppets screamed in unison.

"What are you doing?!"

"Are you the Hunter?!"

Zhu Yan swung again, cleanly chopping off a head.

"That's right," he said with a smile, tilting his neck in imitation of the Skin Tailor.

Only the glasses-wearing puppet and "Xing Chong" remained.

They stood beside Tu Shan's corpse, their gray, unfocused pupils locked onto Zhu Yan's direction without focus, their stiff facial flesh twisted into a grimace.

The "Skin Tailor" before them was changing rapidly.

Growing taller, hair growing longer.

In almost an instant, it transformed from a horrifying creature draped in skin into a player—

a real, living player!

The glasses-bearing puppet opened its mouth and let out a hoarse, broken shriek.

The remaining thin fog in the dormitory churned violently like a trapped beast, and a piercing chill slammed fiercely into Zhu Yan's body.

Painful, but it didn't matter—

He slid off his bracelet and, as the blade swung again, burst into hearty laughter.

"Idiot!"

With a swish, the glasses-wearing puppet's head hit the floor.

Some thin fog escaped from every pore of the corpse, only to be inhaled by the Tuxedo Cat as it pounced.

"Xing Chong" screamed in panic.

"No! This is impossible!!"

"That ability, and the broadcast—there's no way it could be fake!"

It raised a hand to use its ability on Zhu Yan, but failed.

The Hunter before it was laughing—

He seemed ecstatic, his expression wild like someone drunk.

And his level... his level...

"Xing Chong" stumbled backward, feeling fear for the first time at a player's level.

It shouted for help: "Skin Tailor! Did you hear the broadcast? Skin Tailor!!"

The Tuxedo Cat finally sucked up the last of the floating fog, leaving only a faint chill in the dormitory.

"The broadcast!" Zhu Yan mimicked a female voice's cheerful tone.

Then, as if singing, he repeated: “For the sake of your revenge plan, please follow the instructions of the Skin Tailor and avoid all players. Within ten minutes, move to Dormitory 303.”

“Is that what you heard, puppet?”

“Xing Chong” let out a shrill scream.

But the military saber cut through its neck in one swift stroke, and the last lingering wisps of white mist scattered into the air.

Zhu Yan grinned at the staggering, collapsing corpse.

“That’s right. I was the one who broadcasted that. I’m the one who played the Skin Tailor, and that cat is my pet, too.”

“It was you inside that kitten’s belly, Fog.”