Faking Faint

The Tuxedo Cat devoured the meat from a row of lunch boxes like a whirlwind, leaving not even a drop of sauce behind.

Zhu Yan bent down to clean up the trash on the floor, stuffed it back into his ring, and patted the Tuxedo Cat’s wet head.

The strange chill had not faded; instead, it coursed through his bones, bringing an intense ache.

Zhu Yan was truly feeling unwell.

“I’m going to fake fainting later,” he muttered to the Tuxedo Cat. “When that happens, act worried—circle around me and meow.”

“Mrow,” the Tuxedo Cat replied.

Zhu Yan knew that meant it agreed.

He deliberately made the dorm a mess. Besides the corpses of several puppets, he brought out Tu Shan’s body and the first corpse the Skin Tailor had taken over, placing them on the balcony.

After doing all that, Zhu Yan looked up at the surveillance mirror and spotted a familiar figure inside.

—Yang Zhanbai.

He looked tense, gripping a short dagger tightly as he crept step by step toward door 303, as if confirming something.

Zhu Yan’s heart tightened.

Without time to overthink, he quickly dropped his army knife and collapsed limply to the floor!

The next moment, a loud crash echoed from the middle of the dorm.

Yang Zhanbai scrambled up from the ground. The thick stench of corpses, mixed with a cold, moldy dampness, violently assaulted his nose.

He also caught a whiff of some sweet, savory meat, but the aroma of rich, saucy dishes blending with the smell of blood was too much for his nerves.

Yang Zhanbai couldn’t help but lean over a bed frame and dry-heave, only to find the iron frame slick with condensation, cold water droplets soaking his hands.

But he had no time for that. He ran over and found an unconscious Zhu Zeyu among a pile of dismembered bodies.

“Holy crap, Zhu Zeyu!”

Behind him, more heavy thuds sounded.

Qi Yinming asked, “What’s going on?”

“Mow!” the Tuxedo Cat said, sounding half-hearted.

It trotted up to Zhu Yan, raised a paw, and slapped his face, but Yang Zhanbai grabbed it by the scruff and set it aside.

“This doesn’t look good.” Yang Zhanbai felt for Zhu Yan’s pulse. “And Chen Zhaoxing? His face looks no different from a corpse’s.”

In just a few minutes, Zhu Yan’s face had gone from pale and bloodless to slightly blue and purple, his lips losing all color like a dead man’s.

Qi Yinming said, “I can tell he’s injured, but he doesn’t seem dead.”

He crouched down, touched Zhu Yan’s forehead, and his expression grew even graver.

“Why is it this hot? Such a high fever?”

Chen Zhaoxing, clutching cockroaches in his hand, hopped over through the gaps between the scattered bodies, shoving past the two.

“Whoa whoa whoa—a Japanese-style potato croquette-flavored cockroach—whoa… damn!”

The moment he saw Zhu Yan’s face, Chen Zhaoxing froze.

“A dead guy probably can’t chew a potato-flavored cockroach.”

Yang Zhanbai grew frantic.

He snatched the three cockroaches from Chen Zhaoxing’s hand and, without a second thought, shoved them into Zhu Yan’s mouth.

“Who says he’s dead? His icon’s still lit!”

“Zhu Zeyu, can you even chew right now?”

Zhu Yan had no choice but to blearily open his eyes.

Yang Zhanbai’s movements were so rough that the three cockroaches felt like they were about to burst his mouth open.

“Shit!” Yang Zhanbai let out a huge sigh of relief, his eyes teary.

“Bro, I knew you were tough. You didn’t even die this time!”

Zhu Yan had to start chewing the cockroaches with difficulty.

The mix of strawberry jam and salty mashed potato-like texture flooded his mouth with a bizarre taste that nearly finished him off.

He ate with a furrowed brow, pretending to shakily push himself off the floor to sit up.

The cockroach candy worked too fast.

As soon as the three cockroaches went down, a warm current swiftly and completely dissolved the chill in Zhu Yan’s bones.

He wiped away the tears forced out by the awful taste and reached a hand toward Chen Zhaoxing.

“Give me one more—the basic flavor. Thanks.”

Chen Zhaoxing pouted unhappily but eventually handed him a plain brown cockroach.

Zhu Yan ate it, and color finally crept back into his lips, the blue and purple on his face fading heavily.

“They’re dead,” he said hoarsely, wiping his forehead. “All of them are dead.”

It was an obvious outcome.

The floor was slick with almost-congealed blood. The whole dorm felt like it had been pulled from water—the humidity was suffocating.

Yang Zhanbai wanted to ask how Zhu Yan got Fog and the Skin Tailor to obey, but seeing Zhu Yan’s utterly exhausted state, he held back his questions.

“Congratulations!”

A female voice rang out abruptly in everyone’s ears.

“Congratulations to all players on Floor 46. Your Nighttime Game has ended.”

Zhu Yan grabbed his phone and opened the group chat.

After the voice finished, the chat went eerily silent for two seconds, then exploded with “Holy crap!” messages.

“It’s over?”

“I didn’t do anything—was that just luck?”

“?????”

“So what the hell happened out there?”

The female voice cheerfully announced:

“Congratulations to player Zhu Zeyu for eliminating this floor’s horror entities—Fog and the Skin Tailor—completely, through a clever, twisted, and cunning method.”

Zhu Yan felt a rush of satisfaction.

Right, that’s how a Hunter should be treated.

After all, Hunters were technically on Joyous Paradise’s own side—why keep making things hard for them?

He climbed up from the blood-stained dirty carpet, leaned against a table, and looked down at his phone.

After all, the bigger Zhu Zeyu’s reputation grew, the longer he could stay hidden.

“Holy crap, it’s this big shot again?” a player led the exclamation, and soon a chain of responses followed.

“Daddy, thank you, Daddy, for saving my life!”

“Daddy, thank you, Daddy, for saving my life!”

“Daddy, thank you, Daddy, for saving my life!”

Chen Zhaoxing mixed in, clicking “+1” over and over.

Yang Zhanbai slapped Zhu Yan’s shoulder hard, and Xu Tongguang also came over to express his concern.

“You really went through a lot this time.”

Zhu Yan didn’t dare to respond.

Well… how to put it.

After all, Xu Tongguang had been ruthlessly used by him and had nearly died.

Xu Tongguang sighed. “And this isn’t the first time—you’re amazing every single time.”

That was true too.

Zhu Yan looked at Xu Tongguang, and whatever guilt he had instantly vanished.

He had used Xu Tongguang more than once, and truth be told, it had gone well every time.

“Now, we will first announce the group rewards.”

The female voice said cheerfully:

“Congratulations to all players on Floor 46! For the next six hours, your floors will not change, and no horror entities will invade. You will have six hours of completely safe sleep time.”

At that, even with the dorm doors closed, the cheers from outside couldn’t be stopped.

Joyful shouts flooded in from beyond the door, and even the few people in Room 303 couldn’t hold back their excitement.

“Awesome!” Yang Zhanbai shouted. “Damn, now I can finally get a decent sleep!”

Only Zhu Yan looked troubled.

“What’s wrong?” Qi Yinming asked with a smile. “Aren’t you happy?”

“The blanket’s all wet,” Zhu Yan said. “How am I supposed to sleep?”

A female voice seemed to read his thoughts.

“Next, we will switch to a private channel to issue rewards to certain dormitories and players.”

“Dormitory 303, please take note of your special cleaning supplies, renovation items, and powerful drying agent.”