The breath that suddenly appeared was slower and longer than everyone else's.
A cold and eerie aura silently spread towards Xia Jing.
It was as if there was a person who had just climbed out of a cold abyss, standing quietly at the head of Xia Jing's bed.
And when that breath suddenly appeared in the silent dormitory, Xia Jing heard it clearly——
Xu Jin's breathing became rapid.
As if her throat was strangled, or as if she had run tens of thousands of meters, she was panting and making very faint whimpers in her throat, but there was no movement on the bed, as if she was completely unable to move.
So close.
Xia Jing tried again silently, but he couldn't even bend his fingers or lift his eyelids.
The appearance of the monster froze everyone's bodies.
Silence appeared in Xia Jing's heart.
Xu Jin's breathing quickened for a few seconds, then suddenly stopped, leaving only a low tremor in his throat.
It was like I was so scared that I held my breath, thinking that as long as I held my breath, I would not be discovered or noticed.
However, after a few seconds, even the subtle tremor in his throat completely disappeared...
…
It takes about a minute.
In the dormitory, there were only three breathing sounds left.
The body is finally unfrozen.
Xia Jing and Song Yang sat up from the bed together. In the darkness, they looked around the dormitory and found no monster.
Song Yang placed the four people's mobile phones on the cabinet at the entrance, but the monster did not move from the entrance. Instead, it suddenly appeared between Xia Jing and Xu Jin's beds, and then suddenly disappeared.
Song Yang quickly opened the quilt and prepared to get out of bed, while whispering, "How is Xu Jin?"
In the darkness, Xia Jing leaned over and gently touched the girl who was sleeping quietly on the other side. After a moment of silence, he said, "The body temperature has cooled down."
Song Yang paused: "So fast?"
Xia Jing retracted his hand: "This should be the result given by the copy."
The copy had already defined her death, and first aid was meaningless.
Song Yang also fell into silence.
This wasn't the first time he'd encountered this situation.
In some copies, players are in danger and appear to have stopped breathing, but with first aid and official medical supplies, they can be saved.
But in some copies, once the player stops breathing, their body temperature will drop rapidly at an unrealistic speed. This is a clear signal given by the copy that the person is dead and there is no way to bring them back.
Song Yang grabbed a handful of hair.
For dungeons with two stars and above, it is basically impossible for players to obtain sufficient clues on the first day. In the absence of sufficient clues, no matter how hard they defend themselves, they cannot escape death.
Even if they had sufficient clues, they still couldn't prevent death from coming.
——Just like this copy, when the monsters came, they couldn't move at all.
However, even though he was used to this kind of death, Song Yang still felt complicated.
He took a deep breath, got out of bed and took his phone back.
After turning on the phone, he first sent a message to Jia Qing, then turned on the flashlight on his phone, climbed up the ladder on Xia Jing's side quietly, shone the flashlight on Xu Jin's face, and checked it with Xia Jing.
Xu Jin, like Huang Mo, looked like she was sleeping peacefully. Her eyes were closed, her face was calm, her skin color, lip color, and everything else appeared normal, as if she was still alive, but she had no breath and no body temperature.
Xia Jing checked Xu Jin's neck and found no marks of being strangled. There were no signs of being pressed or injured on Xu Jin's wrists or ankles.
The copy still did not give any clues about death.
"Could it be another 'sudden death'?" Song Yang frowned.
The specific cause of Xu Jin's death may still have to wait until Wang Yueran's "mother" tells them tomorrow before they know.
At this moment, Wang Yueran was still sleeping peacefully.
And how will she feel when she wakes up tomorrow and finds out that her best friend is gone?
There was silence between Xia Jing and Song Yang for a moment.
Xia Jing asked softly, "After the monster appeared, you couldn't even lift your eyelids, right?"
"Well, there's one thing that's strange," Song Yang said slowly. "The rest of us will have our bodies frozen, but theoretically, the person chosen by the monster shouldn't be the same as us. The dungeon can't set up a monster that the players can't resist."
So, assuming that the monster did not suppress or strangle Xu Jin, why didn't Xu Jin make any sound throughout the whole process?
How did she die?
Xia Jing thought for a moment and said, "Without witnessing the entire process with our own eyes, it is difficult for us to determine what exactly happened."
Song Yang whispered, "Indeed."
The two fell into silence again.
Song Yang's phone vibrated.
Jia Qing sent a message.
Song Yang took a look and said quickly, "Jia Qing said they were also in a state of stiffness and couldn't move just now. It was relieved in about a minute. However, all four of them are safe and there were no casualties."
At this moment, footsteps were heard outside the corridor. It was the footsteps of the teacher who was patrolling the dormitory at night, approaching here quickly step by step.
After the footsteps stopped outside their dormitory door, there was suddenly no movement.
——The person outside the door was eavesdropping on the sounds in their dormitory.
Xia Jing said in a low voice: "Let's talk about it tomorrow."
At night, even if they tried to be as quiet as possible, the NPCs would still notice them.
If the NPC took Xu Jin's body away immediately, it would be difficult for them to obtain more clues.
It would be better to get up early tomorrow morning and investigate carefully before the teachers arrive.
Song Yang let out a long breath, nodded, pulled the quilt covering Xu Jin, and gently covered the girl's face.
But this night, I probably won't be able to sleep at all.
*
The next morning, seven people gathered in Room 417, and Wang Yueran's eyes were swollen from crying.
There were two details that Xia Jing and Song Yang hadn't noticed last night, and they only noticed them when it was bright daylight.
The color of the sheets on the bed Xu Jin slept on had changed.
The beds in all the dormitories in the student dormitory have the same white sheets. Xia Jing can also confirm that before going to bed last night, Xu Jin's bed was no different from theirs.
But today, he saw that the bed sheet under Xu Jin had turned beige - the color was too light, which was probably why he and Song Yang didn't notice the change last night when they used the flashlight on their mobile phones.
In addition, next to Xu Jin's feet, in the corner, under the thick quilt, there was a worn-out teddy bear.
Xia Jing was sure that the doll was not in Xu Jin's bed before he went to bed last night.
"What on earth is going on?" Jia Qing felt horrified.
The sheets that inexplicably changed color, the rag dolls that suddenly appeared, the companions who died peacefully—
Except that he looked very calm when he died, just like Huang Mo, other situations were obviously completely different!
Several people looked unhappy, and Wang Yueran was crying so hard that she almost collapsed.
She and Xu Jin, like Huang Mo and Liu Yi, have known each other for a long time.
They have been best friends since high school. It is true that death is happening everywhere in this horrible world, but Wang Yueran never imagined that death would come to her best friend so suddenly.
And when Xu Jin was in danger last night, she didn't even wake up!
Soon, the teacher rushed in again with security and medical staff and drove them away.
Just like yesterday, they could only watch their companions' bodies being carried away and left the dormitory in silence.
Sitting down in the cafeteria again, the atmosphere was no different from yesterday morning.
Wang Yueran was still crying, and the old lady patted her back to comfort her.
Xia Jing spoke first: "There is one thing that I think may be related to Xu Jin's death."
As soon as these words came out, all eyes were focused on Xia Jing. Wang Yueran also looked up and looked at him with red eyes.
"Before going to bed last night, Xu Jin suddenly told me that when she was a child, she woke up in the middle of the night and saw a green-eyed figure standing in front of her bed."
Xia Jing looked at Wang Yueran. Among the seven of them, she was the only one who knew Xu Jin best.
"When the monster appeared yesterday, I couldn't open my eyes to see the specific scene, but the monster's aura did suddenly appear between the head of Xu Jin's and mine bed."
"What do you mean?" Jin Nan's face changed, and he asked angrily, "Are you saying that she has seen the monster in this dungeon before in real life?"
"How is that possible!" Jia Qing was stunned. "No, what about the green-eyed figure that Xu Jin saw when he was a child?"
Song Yang fell into deep thought.
Wang Yueran opened his eyes wide, obviously having heard of this matter.
She said in a hoarse voice, "She mentioned this to me! Xu Jin said she might have seen a ghost when she was a child. During the summer vacation of her third grade, she suddenly woke up in the middle of the night and saw a green-eyed person standing at the head of her bed!"
"I asked her what the figure looked like, and she said it was a black mass. You could only see a pair of green eyes. The whole shadow was the shape of a person!"
"There was thunder in the middle of the night, and she was awakened by the thunder. However, her grandmother who was sleeping next to her didn't move. She was so scared that she didn't dare to make a sound, and even held her breath. She pushed her grandmother under the quilt, but her grandmother didn't wake up!"
Several people got goosebumps after hearing this.
Jia Qing was stunned: "Is this true or false? Did she really see ghosts when she was a child?"
Wang Yueran said with tears in her eyes: "She didn't have to lie to me!"
"What happened next? How did the black shadow disappear?" Liu Yi asked hurriedly.
Wang Yueran: "She was still young at the time. When she pushed her grandmother and got no response, she was completely afraid to move. She pretended to be dead and nearly had a heart attack. Then she fell asleep, and when she woke up the next day, the shadow was gone."
Heart attack?
After hearing this, several people felt something subconsciously moving in their hearts.
Could this be the cause of Xu Jin's sudden death?
"She told her family about this, and her parents and grandparents all thought she had a nightmare. But when she grew up, she looked it up online and found many people had seen 'green-eyed people' and 'blue-eyed people' as children. We both thought she might have had a psychic condition as a child, and she really had seen ghosts!"
At this point, Wang Yueran seemed to recall more things. She wiped away her tears and said quickly, "Oh, right, that beige bed sheet and doll! Xu Jin told me that the night she encountered the ghost, she slept on the beige bed sheet at her grandmother's house. On the bed was her favorite teddy bear from childhood. But because the experience that night was so terrifying, she later felt afraid when she saw the bed sheet and doll. Her family put them away, but they never threw them away."
"A few years later, when they moved and found the bed sheet and the doll, her parents laughed at her for being so timid!"
In this way, they were almost certain that Xu Jin's death last night was related to her childhood experience.
"But how could the monsters in the copy be ghosts in reality...?" Jia Qing always felt that the answer seemed to be right in front of him, but before he turned around, his face was full of confusion and bewilderment.
Song Yang said slowly: "Whether Xu Jin's experience in elementary school was a dream or a real ghost, this is something that cannot be confirmed."
Xia Jing stated calmly, "What is certain is that Xu Jin only recalled the incident after hearing about Huang Mo sitting awake in the middle of the night and staring at his roommate. She was very scared at the time."
Xia Jing turned his gaze to Jin Nan.
Following his gaze, everyone looked at Jin Nan, and Jin Nan's expression became strange.
Some fragments flashed through everyone's mind.
The information they received in the classroom yesterday, the words Jin Nan said during lunch, the brainwashing sounds from the campus loudspeakers—
An answer finally emerged in everyone's mind, and everyone's face changed.
Song Yang said slowly: "'Don't think about it'."
——Don't think about it, maybe it's because in this copy world, everything imagined will really appear in front of them!
At this moment, the others all gasped.
There was almost no need for them to communicate with each other. Just looking at everyone's expressions, you could tell that for a moment, their minds were frozen.
It was as if the monster was in this space, floating above this dining table, grinning sinisterly and silently spying on their brains.
I dare not think about it, not even a single thought.
They sat frozen in their places, blocking their brains and fiercely cutting off all thoughts, fearing that all the horrible ideas in their heads would materialize and befall them in the next second.
When Xia Jing heard Xu Jin's confession last night, he did feel that he seemed to have caught a fleeting glimpse of the truth for a moment.
However, it was not until this moment that he was truly sure of the answer.
In this dungeon, their thoughts and ideas may be the breeding ground for monsters.
The circumstances before and after the deaths of Huang Mo and Xu Jin were so different, perhaps because everyone's horror fantasies were completely different. The monsters and death scenes they created were completely different.
There was silence at the long dining table for a full two minutes.
The atmosphere was extremely weird.
Everyone looked at each other, and everyone was as stiff as plaster.
Liu Yi was the first to break the silence.
He pulled the corners of his lips stiffly, laughed dryly and asked: "...What were you thinking about just now?"
Jia Qing's face turned pale and he shook his head rapidly, as if he wanted to throw his brain out.
Jin Nan's face also looked ugly.
He relayed those messages at the dinner table yesterday in order to scare these people and make them laugh, but he didn't expect...
The student NPCs' gossip and speculations were fueling their horrific fantasies, and the devilish tones from the loudspeakers were intensifying the fear in their hearts. Everything was paving the way for their death.
And at this moment, it was as if my hearing suddenly became sensitive, and all the movements around me were infinitely magnified.
The rustling sounds of footsteps, the sounds of plates being picked up and put down, and the laughter and conversation of students all echoed in their world.
"It seems like another one died this morning?"
"Is this school cursed?"
"Speaking of which, do you often hear footsteps in the corridor in the middle of the night?"
"Besides the footsteps, there are also crying sounds. I don't know where the crying sounds came from..."
"I heard there's a ghost in the woods behind the school. Many people have seen it!"
"Ah, one time my roommate went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and saw a dark shadow staring at their balcony from downstairs..."
"Is it the night watchman?"
"Or maybe there really is a ghost, hahaha..."
"…"
Jin Nan's face turned pale, and he stood up with his hands on the table with a bang.
The others also stood up quickly. Liu Yi said with a grim expression, "Let's talk outside."
They can no longer stay in an environment full of discussions. Their brains are like out of control, and they can't help but start to associate when they receive information.
Xia Jing and Song Yang followed at the end of the group. Seeing Xia Jing's thoughtful look, Song Yang asked, "What about you? What are you thinking about?"
Xia Jing glanced at the campus loudspeaker tied to a tree not far away: "I wonder if that voice will appear today."
Almost as soon as Xia Jing finished speaking, a harsh debugging sound came from the campus loudspeaker.
Jin Nan and the others covered their ears as a gruff male voice rang out from the speaker: "Hello? Hello? Ah, classmates, classmates—"
"Focus on studying, don't listen, don't look, don't think!!"
"Focus on studying, don't listen, don't look, don't think!!"
"Focus on studying, don't listen, don't look, don't think!!"
Jin Nan cursed: "Fuck your grandpa——"
Liu Yi couldn't even hold back his temper, he picked up a stone from the ground and smashed it directly at the loudspeaker on the tree!
"Focus on studying. Don't listen, don't look, don't think! Hehehehe - zizizizi -"
The loudspeaker on the tree was smashed and deformed, but the rough, strange, brainwashing voice still echoed in every corner of the campus, mocking their nowhere to escape.
"It seems the microphone monster will be replenished endlessly," Song Yang was also a little annoyed by the harsh sound. He said slowly, "Do you think the main monster of this dungeon will be the one that appeared last night based on the players' fantasies?"
Xia Jing shook his head.
Song Yang laughed.
It seems that the two of them have the same idea.
--not necessarily.