Something Has Come Back to Life

As the female voice trailed off, the familiar, light "ding" sound came from not far away.

It was a silver dragonfly, its wings fluttering—

It dropped a small rectangular paper box into Zhu Yan's arms, then vanished as if afraid of being caught.

"What is it?"

Yang Zhanbai wanted to look, but Zhu Yan moved first, swiftly pressing the box against his chest.

No one else could see what was inside that box.

Many of the potions from [Carnival Paradise] had a name label stuck on the glass bottle.

If the label on this item happened to read [Restorative], Yang Zhanbai would never stop prying.

"Hey!" Yang Zhanbai protested indignantly. "I risked my life to save you, and you won't even let me see what that thing is?"

Zhu Yan was in so much pain his hands were trembling.

He tore open the box, pulled out the little glass vial, and unsteadily downed the liquid inside in one gulp.

It was cold and tasteless, like water from a mountain stream.

Amazingly, the moment the cold stream passed through his stomach, the pain across Zhu Yan's body began to fade rapidly.

A few seconds later, that excruciating agony vanished completely—he couldn't even feel the gash on his abdomen anymore.

Zhu Yan felt like he had been brought back to life.

He pushed himself up from the ground, discreetly stowing away the empty vial, then reached up to wipe the cold sweat from his puppet's brow.

"It's not that I won't show you."

Zhu Yan patted Yang Zhanbai's shoulder gratefully, gazing at him with sincere, clear black eyes.

"It's just that the situation is truly dire. I'm not good at enduring pain—if you'd been even one second later, I'm afraid I'd have been done for."

Zhu Zeyu's expression was so earnest that it made Yang Zhanbai feel embarrassed instead.

"My bad, my bad."

He let out a dry, awkward chuckle and ran his fingers through his bright red hair.

"I knew you were too tough to die, so that's why—if you really had kicked it, that would've been—"

"Shut up." Zhu Yan immediately cut Yang Zhanbai off.

The first half was fine, but who knew why the second half suddenly veered back into talk of death?

Qi Yinming patted Zhu Yan on the shoulder.

"Cheer up."

He sounded almost faint from fright.

Zhu Yan turned to look at him and saw that his jaw was trembling, his smile still haunted by shock.

"...At least we barely made it out. If you'd seen your own state from a third-person perspective, you'd think it was terrifying too!"

Over on the other side, Xu Tongguang was still staring blankly, his face pale, while Chen Zhaoxing, as usual, kept his head down carving candy, finally handing over a green cockroach.

"Matcha flavor," he said dejectedly, then began muttering to himself.

"Oh no, oh no, I'm useless. When will I ever evolve an offensive ability like a parrot's beak..."

Chen Zhaoxing's habit of talking to himself wasn't anything new, so nobody paid him much mind.

Zhu Yan simply accepted the cockroach candy Chen Zhaoxing offered, leaned on Qi Yinming for support as he stood up, and peeked out through the door.

When he'd turned into [Mist] earlier, the pain had kept him from paying attention to what was happening outside.

If this was the first floor, he could head straight out to find the art student and hand over the [Fragment of Chaotic Order] from his ring.

...And, while he was at it, he could secretly feed the Tuxedo Cat some fresh human flesh, and take a look around to see if there was anything worth scavenging.

"Mrrp." The Tuxedo Cat's meow came from within the thick fog.

"First floor," Zhu Yan said, relaxed. "You guys heading back to Room 303? I'm planning to make a trip to [Frog's Convenience Store]."

This was true.

The Toad was dead, and [Frog's Convenience Store] was now unclaimed territory—a huge opportunity.

Zhu Yan had left in too much of a hurry last time and hadn't managed to clean the place out completely. That had been a real loss.

"[Frog's Convenience Store]?" Yang Zhanbai caught on. "The Toad's shop? You want to scavenge supplies?"

Zhu Yan was about to say yes when his arm was grabbed firmly.

"Forget it. The Toad was killed by the Hunter—what if he goes there too? What if he takes another shot at you?"

Just seeing that shot earlier had sent cold sweat down Yang Zhanbai's back.

If it had been a lower-difficulty horror creature in that store, he'd have gone in without hesitation.

But the Hunter's casually drawn longblade was already level twelve or above, let alone that custom pistol he kept close.

Compared to that, Yang Zhanbai would rather abandon those supplies and keep his own skin intact.

After all, where there's life, there's hope.

"Let's go. Stay safe!"

As Yang Zhanbai shouted the command, he was already gripping Zhu Yan's arm tightly, so both of them tumbled and sprawled across the dormitory carpet in a mess.

Zhu Yan looked up, ready to curse, but Qi Yinming, dragging Xu Tongguang and Chen Zhaoxing, collapsed beside him, momentarily cutting off his train of thought.

"Hey, Bamboo Fish."

Chen Zhaoxing picked up his fallen hat, calling out the new nickname he'd given Zhu Zeyu, while yanking hard on Zhu Yan's arm—completely killing any chance of the latter leaving right now.

Zhu Yan had no options left.

Chen Zhaoxing flicked his purple bangs, stared at Zhu Yan with an innocent look, and asked a foolish question born purely of curiosity and utterly irrelevant to the situation.

"Do you know what happened to that Ji Qingting and that dragonfly in the end? Did you see them?"

...

Inside the [Kitchen].

Ji Xiting's shattered corpse, with its caved-in chest, suddenly twitched—his waist arched up high like a crawling insect.

The ruined body reached an arm up to feel its neck, quickly gripping the string of human-bone beads there.

Something like a switch had been flipped; crackling sounds echoed clearly through the empty room as Ji Xiting's caved-in chest slowly swelled back into shape, and the heart that had been stomped to pieces began beating strongly once more.

Then, the arms pushed the body upright, stumbling over to the other side, bending down to pick up the severed head that had been ripped off.

"Oh my, really. Looks like my dad's Tibetan Buddhism actually came in handy."

A coy, reproachful look appeared on that young face, followed by a delayed surge of fury.

Thankfully, before death, he and the old man had made offerings to the true Five-Flower Relic.

Thankfully, when he'd had himself beheaded back then, he'd been wearing this six-figure human-bone necklace.

Ji Xiting recalled the relic made from a human skullcap holding eyeballs, ears, a nose, and a tongue. He'd been terrified when making the offering, but remembering it now, he felt nothing but relief.

He touched his neck—the sutures had already mended.

"Good thing we prayed... otherwise, where would this power have come from?"

Ji Xiting muttered with a cold laugh.

That damned Hunter had made him lose his qualification as a D-rank member of [Abyssal Eye], embarrassing him in front of so many high-level beings.

Not only that, but it had killed him again.

[Carnival Paradise] had already sealed off the horror creatures from the players, so going after the Hunter for revenge was no longer realistic.

Ji Xiting lowered his head, the neat shadow of his bangs covering his eyes, a strange smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

Since that was the case, let's go find that damned dragonfly first.

As for that Hunter—he wouldn't let him off either!