How Miserable is Zhu Zeyu

Yang Zhanbai couldn’t wait at all. He fired off several frantic private messages in a frenzy.

“What do you mean, wait?” he snapped back, then quickly adjusted his tone. “I fucking know I should wait, but the problem is I can’t!”

He paced in circles: “Zhu Zeyu might not be able to die, but... but...”

Qi Yinming asked, “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying the Hunter’s move here is obviously looking for a scapegoat!”

The moment he remembered that disgusting look on the Hunter’s face in Dorm 303 yesterday, Yang Zhanbai couldn’t stop worrying about Zhu Zeyu.

“Going around doing evil with Zhu Zeyu’s face—what the hell is he trying to pull?”

He thought about the matter of the Key Fragments and felt a thread in his mind slowly knitting those scattered clues together.

The Hunter had been searching for the Key Fragments all along.

He’d come to Dragonfly’s Lazy Handcraft Shop, taken that Shifting Menu, gone to the print shop, and then to the kitchen.

The other’s goal was now perfectly clear—

He went to the kitchen to snatch the final Key Fragment from those horror creatures.

The more Yang Zhanbai thought about it, the more uneasy he became. He couldn’t help rising to his feet, gesturing passionately as he hashed it out with Qi Yinming.

Recalling the secret Zhu Zeyu had confessed to him—that “all the key Fragments are on our side”—Yang Zhanbai closed his eyes, knowing he could no longer keep it to himself.

He took a deep breath, resigned to telling Qi Yinming everything.

“What did you say?”

Qi Yinming shot him a look and lost his composure.

“What do you mean he’s carrying Key Fragments on him? Three pieces?”

“A big deal like this—and you hid it till now?”

Qi Yinming laughed in disbelief: “He wants to go get himself killed, and you’re not satisfied unless you throw fuel on the fire?”

Yang Zhanbai said, “I figured he had his own plans!”

“Plans my ass!” Qi Yinming was worked up now. “Don’t you see it? It all clicks!”

“What clicks?”

Qi Yinming took a deep breath: “The Hunter definitely has some kind of item on him. Run through the whole thing again and you’ll see why that thing hasn’t come to Dorm 303 all this time.”

“Why?” Yang Zhanbai asked, stunned.

Qi Yinming pinched the bridge of his nose.

“He’s fishing. Fishing for Zhu Zeyu. Do you remember the rule about the Key Fragments?”

Chen Zhaoxing raised his hand, jumping in to answer.

“They have to be collected in order. Without 1, 2, and 3, even if you have 4, you can’t keep it.”

“Right,” Qi Yinming said. “The Hunter should know that better than we do. But now, 1, 2, and 3 have accidentally ended up in Zhu Zeyu’s hands.”

“Besides, in the previous games, Zhu Zeyu did exceptionally well—one-man show, basically.”

“The Hunter is also a player. I’m sure he has channels to find out.”

Yang Zhanbai stared at Qi Yinming’s face and felt a dark cloud rising in his chest.

Slowly, the realisation dawned on him, his brow dropping heavily.

“You’re saying the Hunter might have already had his sights set on Zhu Zeyu, and deliberately waited for him at the print shop, luring him into going to the kitchen together?”

“That’s the only explanation.” Qi Yinming adjusted his glasses. “Think about it—this way is much more clever than just coming to snatch the Key Fragments outright.”

“Zhu Zeyu’s got an eighth-tier blade on him—that counts as a risk to the Hunter.”

Yang Zhanbai nodded thoughtfully in agreement.

“Right. So the Hunter avoids the dorm, and that risk doesn’t exist as far as he’s concerned.”

“Exactly.” Qi Yinming’s brows pressed slightly downward.

That Hunter was far too cunning—like some thousand-year-old fox, with who knows how many tricks stuffed in his gut.

Zhu Zeyu, meanwhile, was smart, sure, but even more rash than Yang Zhanbai.

Would he really not get played for a fool by the Hunter?

Inside the craft shop, light from the crystal chandelier reflected off Qi Yinming’s face, illuminating the sheen of sweat on his nose.

Qi Yinming looked from Yang Zhanbai to Chen Zhaoxing, and suddenly felt things had gotten seriously hairy.

“He can make himself look exactly like Zhu Zeyu,” he said slowly.

“So, going to the kitchen with Zhu Zeyu, he can misbehave all he wants and provoke the horror creatures.”

“If he’s strong enough, he could carve his way straight through the entire kitchen.”

“If he’s not that strong... then Zhu Zeyu can take the fall.”

“Either way, he gets what he wants and slips away without a trace.”

Qi Yinming’s eyes were dark with intensity.

Yang Zhanbai glanced at the still-glowing avatar on his retina, and a delayed fury at being played crept up his spine.

“The Hunter can kill his way through the kitchen.” His tone cooled. He stopped pacing abruptly.

“Dragonfly said the Hunter’s weapon could knock even her out.”

“Dragonfly’s level must be pretty high. So...”

Yang Zhanbai laughed coldly and cursed under his breath.

“Qi Yinming, you’re underestimating him.”

“Knowing that Zhu Zeyu has the Key Fragments, he’s probably planning to use one tiger to hunt another.”

“He does his own dirty work and pins the blame on Zhu Zeyu.”

“Nurse his grudge, take the keys, and leave every other player rotting in here.”

...

Zhu Yan lay sprawled in his chair, enjoying a drink he’d bought from outside.

He still had a salted cheese iced Americano, half-caffeinated so it wasn’t bitter—just the roasty aroma blended with the creamy-sweet depth of the cheese foam.

He needed a jolt of caffeine for courage.

Zhu Yan shifted position, meaning to look up some tips about human platter displays on the Player Forum.

But he didn’t get that far, because a flood of private messages popped up one after another, grabbing his full attention.

“...Yang Zhanbai?”

Knowing how that guy loved to charge headfirst into danger to “investigate on site,” Zhu Yan couldn’t afford to ignore him.

He set his half-drunk iced Americano down on the bloodstained tile floor, sat up straight, and opened the message box.

“Zeyu, we’ve figured it out—that Hunter is trying to use you!”

“I know your situation is dangerous and you might not be able to reply.”

“But you need to hear me out...”

Shit.

Zhu Yan blinked, a little stunned.

What the hell was this?

He’d just been lying there sipping his Americano, and now this?

As his eyes moved down the screen, the initial tension in him gradually eased.

Oh.

He’d thought it was something serious.

This was just classic conspiracy theory material.

With these guys spinning theories left and right, his “Zhu Zeyu” identity was being washed whiter than a funeral shroud!

“Zeyu, our guess is the Hunter will slaughter the low-tier creatures in the kitchen first, then go stir up trouble among the higher-tier horrors.”

“He’ll definitely pin the blame on you. Once he’s wiped out the horrors outside the kitchen, we’ll come down.”

“Has he done anything to you? Has he approached you?”

Zhu Yan smiled.

He stared at the messages for a while, and once he confirmed Yang Zhanbai and the others weren’t about to come down immediately, he lay back down again.

In that case, time to put on a performance.

“He wants me to work with him.”

"He promised that as long as I helped him get the [Key Fragment] afterward, he would take me out with him."

"Did you agree?"

"I did." Zhu Zeyu answered without hesitation. "The Key Fragment is something that can take everyone out. What if we manage to snatch it from the Hunter?"

"So, even if there's only a sliver of hope, I have to try."