Rank One, Rank Two

The dormitory trembled gently, the vibrations passing through the bed frame and blankets, layer by layer, reaching beneath Zhu Yan's body.

Just moments ago, Zhu Yan had put away his puppet and reverted from the [Mist] state back into human form.

He had gotten into bed citing "taking a rest" as his excuse, and furtively applied a fresh coat of ointment to the palm of his right hand to conceal the [Hunter] mark.

There was no shortage of the ointment for now, which meant his identity as the [Hunter] was unlikely to be exposed.

No one spoke outside the bed curtain.

The faint trembling soon stopped, and then a cheerful female voice rang out again.

"Delighted to meet you once more, players!"

"The rooms you are in have returned to where they belong—though not necessarily to your respective schools."

For example, if a student from [Western Mountain University] had entered a room belonging to [Boyang University], they would be transported along with the room to [Boyang University].

"Considering that players need to return to their schools to rest, [Carnival Paradise] has decided to temporarily open the four-school passage."

"Starting at 18:00 today, the passage will remain open for 24 hours, until 18:00 tomorrow evening."

"Please make sure to return to your own schools in time!"

Zhu Yan blinked.

In his view, this was already quite a generous perk.

Because different schools had different great spots—for instance, [Nightmare Bookstore] was at [Western Mountain University], and a small branch of [Slacker Craft Shop] was at [Boyang University].

Using these 24 hours to travel around would definitely yield a lot.

The female voice cleared her throat.

"First, congratulations to all surviving players—the pass rate for this exam is only 37%."

That was higher than Zhu Yan had expected.

Based on what he had seen, that cracked module had bizarre, terrifying creatures on every floor, banging on dormitory doors, and smashing through windows into classrooms and laboratories.

Let alone the fact that many surviving players had had their puppets sucked in from the sports field—finding a dorm room to hide in at all counted as good luck.

Moreover, the creatures in this instance were all high-tier.

"Some players figured out the pattern of the instance, some found the patterns of the floors, and others discovered the trick to staying on safe floors, barely scraping by."

The female voice rose with delight, and hit a stiff, mechanical pause when it said "barely scraping by."

Zhu Yan guessed this was [Carnival Paradise]'s way of expressing displeasure.

But the female voice didn't dwell on it, maintaining its mechanical enthusiasm.

"First, let us congratulate the [Hunter] with the player ID [HatersAreGay]!"

Oh, good grief.

Zhu Yan lay in bed, silently cursing.

That ID was way too conspicuous. He had changed it purely to frame Yang Zhanbai, and he didn't like it.

He would switch back to his main account in a moment and change it back to [Account Deleted]!

The female voice suddenly let out a silvery, bell-like giggle.

"...What are you laughing at?" Zhu Yan said.

"This is probably the first time the broadcast has laughed," Qi Yinming's voice came from under the bed. "Stay calm—what if there's something?"

Zhu Yan thought Qi Yinming still didn't understand Paradise well enough.

What could there be?

The broadcast was simply gloating.

Like when a human thinks, "The moment I say this next line, I'm going to laugh"!

"The [Hunter], by his own efforts, gathered all four key fragments—only for player [Zhu Zeyu] to swoop in and snatch them."

The female voice said gleefully.

See? He was right.

Zhu Yan grumbled inwardly.

This broadcast would be lying one moment and laughing about it the next.

"Player [Zhu Zeyu], while being forced to cooperate with the [Hunter], obtained the final [Key Fragment]."

"In the end, the [Hunter], player [Zhu Zeyu], and player [Yang Zhanbai] jointly opened the entrance-exit, ending this instance."

The female voice narrated smoothly, then paused briefly after finishing.

Yang Zhanbai muttered from under the bed: "It does sound a lot better once my name is back to Yang Zhanbai."

"Next, we will announce the top five of this four-school joint exam."

"Number one: the [Hunter], player ID [HatersAreGay]. Oh, my apologies!"

The female voice paused: "Our [Hunter] is a bit shy—he has changed his player ID back to [Account Deleted]."

"Congratulations, Account Deleted!"

Zhu Yan was startled again.

A normal broadcast wouldn't have that final remark, would it?

Was the female voice doing this on purpose?

He glanced at his main account page on the [Player Forum] and was weirdly surprised to find he had gained followers.

It had originally been an account with zero followers, but now he had over two thousand.

There were also all sorts of strange unread private messages. Zhu Yan flipped through them while lying with his legs crossed, and found that they came in every style imaginable.

In the few seconds of the broadcast, even more private messages had come in.

There were bold ones mocking him.

"Hunter bro is impressive, killed a few high-tier creatures, and still got your fragments stolen by your Zhu bro. What a clown."

There were those trying to play turncoat.

"Can you save me? I can't take it anymore. I want to know how to become like you."

And some cursing out his ancestors for eighteen generations.

Zhu Yan was done.

He went to his profile page to figure out how to remove followers in one click, while continuing to listen to the broadcast.

"Number two: player ID [Zhu Zeyu]. His strength needs no further praise—words of admiration have already been exhausted."

"Number three: player ID [Yang Zhanbai]. A significant part of why he earned third place is that he assisted the second-place player and arrived at the instance exit in time."

"Additionally, player [Yang Zhanbai] displayed strong organizational skills during the [Night Game], and is hereby commended."

To put it another way, Yang Zhanbai had largely helped Zhu Yan keep his cover story intact.

"Number four: player ID [Sanhe]. Courage needs no further praise! Even [Zhu Zeyu], ranked second, found the key location through him."

"Who is that?" Zhu Yan asked.

"Shen Zichen," Yang Zhanbai said. "The three characters of Shen, Zi, and Chen together form the earthly branch trine."

Another familiar name.

It made sense that Shen Zichen took fourth place.

After all, he was relatively good at exploring and had contributed the correct usage of the [Slacker Craft Shop].

"Number five... number five..."

Strange—the normally smooth and pleasant female voice suddenly began to crackle with static interference.

Zhu Yan felt something was off and pushed himself up into a sitting position.

The buzzing static persisted for a while before the female voice reappeared.

Its tone and timbre were unchanged, but what it announced was too absurd to believe.

"Number five: player ID [Ji Xiting]."

Ji Xiting.

Zhu Yan was sure he had heard correctly.

But Ji Xiting, in that state, couldn't possibly be a player—

And after angering those creatures, how could Ji Xiting still be alive?

Zhu Yan wanted to ask, but the buzzing static returned.

A few seconds later, the female voice sounded once more, cheerfully filling the entire space.

"Apologies, players—the connection issue has been fixed."

Fifth place: Player ID [Chen Zhangming]. He cleverly guided a horrifying creature and enabled his teammate [Zhu Zeyu] to extract crucial information from it, significantly speeding up the completion of the dungeon!