Girls' Dormitory Escape - Chapter 01: The Arrival of the Game

My first time editing MTL! I read this story a while back and really like it. There is no romance in here, pure survival horror, and the main character is so cool, badass, smart, you name it. There are some postscripts notes I added under the paragraphs, just in grey color. Enjoy!

How do you survive when your dorm room becomes a playground?

  [Do you think school life is boring?]

 

  [Do you find dorm life boring?]

    At eight o'clock in the evening, Beijing time, in the living quarters of ​​A University’s girls' dormitory building.

 

    Looking out from the balcony window of the dormitory, silence and darkness enveloped the four fields.

 

    The street lights, all the lights in the dormitory building, and even the lights in the distant teaching building area were all extinguished, as if the whole world was nothing but darkness.

 

    Based on common sense, it is impossible for this scene to appear in the university dormitory area at 8 o'clock in the evening on the first day of school.

 

    But this anti-logical scenario is real, at this very moment.

 

    Tang Xinjue stood in front of the window, the mobile phone became the only light source, at this moment it was flashing and vibrating.

 

    Dialog boxes with red characters on a black background kept popping up from the screen, and bright red traces oozed out from the edge of the screen, like a grim smile:

 

    "Welcome to the dorm survival game..."

 

    "Happy dorm life begins!"

 

    15 minutes ago.

 

    This small four-person dormitory was going as usual. Because it was the first day of school, the atmosphere in the dormitory was not very cheerful.

 

    There were only three people in the dormitory because one roommate's flight was delayed and she had not returned yet. The shrill laughter from other dorms sounded from time to time outside the corridor, making the room quieter.

 

    On the aisle where the four beds are barely separated, there were several full bags. These were the daily necessities they just purchased.

 

    "Ah, I don't want to start school!"

 

    Under the bed number 1 near the door, a whimper rose, and the short-haired girl with thick black-rimmed glasses slumped on the table, feeling loveless.

 

    Guo Guo was a girl who was tired of studying. Since the week before the start of school, she had been wailing in the dormitory group, berating all kinds of dullness in the education system.

 

    "Don’t talk nonsense. How can you find a job if you don't go to school? How can you make money if you don't find a job?"

 

    From bed number 2 near the balcony, a pair of white and slender legs stretched out, and then there was a graceful figure with a straight swan neck supporting a delicate face. The words she uttered were gruff:

 

    "If I were your parents, I would send you to the construction site to move bricks, and let you know what a good life is. It's hard to come by. Those workers who are half-dead all day long will get angry when they see you.”

 

    The two beds were next to each other, so Guo Guo could see the face that could destroy the country and the city as soon as she looked up. She rolled her eyes in a place where the other party couldn't see: "Nonsense, you are the school flower, the love letter you receive on the first day of school can block the sewer. Of course, you can't understand how boring college life is for us ordinary people." She said bitterly, "If I can't find a job after graduation, I will write an autobiography titled "The Feeling of Being the Neighboring Bed of A University’s School Flower". What do you think?"

 

    The school flower of the Finance Department of A University for three consecutive years, Zheng Wanqing, shook her head proudly, threw her black hair on her back, and climbed down the stairs with her toiletries.

 

    "Then you have to thank me well when the time comes."

    Yes, she couldn’t understand the sarcasm. Guo Guo was so angry that she turned her head upside down. When she turned her head, she saw another roommate who was unpacking shopping bags.

 

    She suddenly seemed to have found her backbone: "Tang Xinjue! Look at her, I'm about to die of anger!"

 

    Hearing the shout, the girl who was silently unpacking the shopping bag raised her eyelids, and glanced at the air perfunctorily. "Yeah, it's too much."

 

    Guo Guo: "Your perfunctory is outrageous." She moved her mouth to complain, but when she looked at Tang Xinjue, who was gentle, quiet, and seemed to have a good temper, she didn't dare to speak.

 

    Not only because she did not dare to mouth off to Tang Xinjue, but also because Tang Xinjue was obviously tired and impatient today. It also made the girl's already thin body look thinner and seemed very weak.

 

    Of course, only the big-chested and brainless Zheng Wanqing believed that appearance. Guo Guo would not be deceived again.

 

    Sure enough, Zheng Wanqing shouted loudly: "Isn't Xinjue so tired? It's good that she even reply to you! Don't disturb her!"

 

    Guo Guo: "...Sister, you can look in the mirror and see. Do you see how many double standards you have?"

 

    At this time, Zheng Wanqing had proudly walked to the door of the dorm, and opened the door: "I'm going to take a bath, you leave a door open for me... Hey, why is there no light in this corridor??"

 

    From her point of view, the hallway lights were all turned off at some point, and the farther away it became, the darker it became.

 

    The corridor was long and narrow, and it looked very scary when you look at it this way.

 

    If Guo Guo stood here, the screams could directly overturn the roof. But Zheng Wanqing watched it for a few seconds, but she didn't feel anything wrong, and she was about to step out after raising her legs.

 

    "Wait a minute."

 

    Someone suddenly stopped her from behind. It was Tang Xinjue.

 

    Tang Xinjue was dismantling a toothbrush, without looking up, her voice was gentle: "Be careful, it's too dark outside."

 

    "Okay." Zheng Wanqing agreed and stretched her legs into the darkness.

 

    Behind her, the dormitory door slowly closed with a long creaking sound.

 

    Hearing this voice, Tang Xinjue suddenly put down her toothbrush and rubbed her eyebrows. Her eyebrows wrinkled unconsciously.

 

    To some extent, Guo Guo guessed right, Tang Xinjue was indeed very tired.

 

    But not because of the start of school, but a nightmare.

 

    She hadn't slept well in a week.

 

    For Tang Xinjue, being haunted by nightmares was not uncommon. But this time the situation was more serious. It even affected her usual state.

 

    Just now Guo Guo and Zheng Wanqing were arguing, but she didn't actually hear a word. There were only vague noises and rustling whispers in her ears. The tingling pain spread from the temples, making it difficult to concentrate.

 

    Of course, these feelings couldn’t be seen from outside.

 

    After adjusting in place for a while, Tang Xinjue walked to the sink next to the balcony and turned on the water faucet.

 

    In the mirror above the washbasin, a face belonging to a girl was reflected. The girl in the mirror is wearing a clean and refreshing single ponytail, but under the focus of the light, the fair skin looks a bit too cold and white. With a slender melon-seed face, and the blood on her lips is also very pale. At first glance, the whole body looked like a malnourished person.

 

    The end of her eyes drooped slightly, even if she didn't smile, she seemed to be smiling, looking weak and harmless.

 

    Tang Xinjue didn't think much of her deceptive face, but looking at the pair of black eyes in the mirror, some scenes from the nightmare suddenly flashed in Tang Xinjue's mind.

 

    The endless night, the thick black fog...

 

    Before she could recall deeply, her roommate's muttering brought her back to reality.

 

    "Thankfully our dormitory does not have a private bathroom. At least I can catch my breath during the half hour of Zheng Wanqing's bath..." Guo Guo complained incessantly, glanced at Tang Xinjue, and rolled her eyes: "Hey, while the eldest miss is away, how about we play a game of die xian¹?"

¹) 碟仙; die xian, a Chinese method of divination similar to Ouija Board.

 

    "Eldest Miss" is Guo Guo's nickname for Zheng Wanqing. It was used to poke fun and complain. Everyone in the dormitory was nicknamed by her, but Tang Xinjue didn't know what her nickname was.

 

    Tang Xinjue lowered her eyes for a few seconds, squeezed out the toothpaste, and put the toothbrush in her mouth, "If Wanqing comes back and sees it, you guys will definitely fight again."

 

    Zheng Wanqing is a staunch atheist, and she is extremely repulsive of all bulls, ghosts, snakes and gods. Not to mention games like bi xian² and die xian.

 

²) 笔仙; bi xian: a game to call spirits with pen.

 

    Very unfortunately, Guo Guo is a serious metaphysics lover, and her desk had "Detailed Explanation of the Book of Changes", "Tarot World" and various divination compasses all year round. She was keen on urban legends and games.

 

    Sure enough, when she mentioned this, Guo Guo rolled her eyes and said, "She is a rotten wood that cannot be carved³. But you are different. When I look at you, I think you have a strange skeleton, and you have a fate with metaphysics..."

 

³) 朽木难雕; Xiǔ mù nán diāo: rotten wood that cannot be carved. Meaning you cannot change the true nature of some things, like something bad cannot be made better.

    Seeing that Tang Xinjue has already automatically ignored her, and even started to open the shopping bag, Guo Guo jumped up anxiously, shook her head and persuaded: "It's just to celebrate our promotion to the third year after so much hard work, why don't you play with me? Six line divination⁴, horoscope, summoning spirits and recruiting ghosts are also fine!"

⁴) 六爻占卜; liu yao zhan bu: some kind of hexagram prediction calculation method involving six lines, from what I can understand.

 

    Tang Xinjue raised her eyes, and the other party immediately shrank her neck and gave up aggrievedly.

    "It's not that you don't know that I'm timid and afraid to play by myself. Except for da xiaojie in the dormitory, you are the only one who is not afraid of these things. I..."

 

    Tang Xinjue shook her head helplessly. Just as she was about to speak, her eyes saw something behind Guo Guo, and was suddenly stagnant.

 

    The roommate was still talking incessantly, but in Tang Xinjue's senses, there was no sound coming from the closed mouth.

 

    Her eyes were fixed on the window.

 

    On the balcony, she saw a huge yellow eyeball that took up the entire window.

 

    What's this? Hallucinations from nightmares?

 

    The yellow eyeball was full of malice, staring coldly at Tang Xinjue, the long and narrow brown pupil suddenly stretched and shrunk. The entire huge eyeball suddenly split open, turning into countless fist-sized yellow eyeballs, scrambling to fill the entire window.

 

    Hee hee, hee hee...

 

    The buzzing and murmurs were overwhelming, Tang Xinjue took a deep breath, gritted her back teeth without screaming or backing away.

 

    Three years of illness, a week of nightmares, when the terrifying monster in the dream appeared in reality, she was much calmer than she imagined.

 

    After a pause for almost a second, Tang Xinjue quickly took out her mobile phone and took several pictures in rapid succession at the eyeballs on the glass window.

 

    She had long expected that one day she would have hallucinations. When this happens, the first thing to do was to maintain a stable mental state. Get back to the reality by suggesting to yourself that "everything in front of you is an illusion."

 

    The photo had been taken, and the next step was to check it—Tang Xinjue opened the mobile phone album and recited it in her heart, it was just an illusion.

 

    Seeing empty photos, the brain will realize that everything was false, and then turn on the self-recovery mechanism.

 

    The album opened, and as the pictures popped up, a bunch of eyeballs appeared on the phone screen.

 

    At the moment when they popped up, she didn’t know if it was an illusion, and she could even catch a glimpse of daze from these eyeballs, as if saying — you see a mental pollution beyond cognition, and your first reaction was to take a photo with a mobile phone. What is this operation??

 

    Tang Xinjue also frowned: Her symptoms suddenly worsened, and she would have hallucinations even just looking at the photos?

 

    No, she had to contact the doctor first.

 

    Opening the phone address book, Tang Xinjue dialed a number, while deliberately ignoring the eyeballs outside the window, neither avoiding nor looking directly, to prevent more hallucinations.

 

    Seemingly aware of Tang Xinjue's neglect, the eyeballs outside the window seemed to be angry, and they began to vibrate, hitting the squeezed glass window one after another, making a dull crashing sound.

 

    "Huh? Who's shooting the window?" Guo Guo was tearing open a bag of snacks and turned around.

 

    Tang Xinjue was stunned, but it was because of Guo Guo's words.

 

    If the eyeball hitting the window was her hallucination, how could her roommate hear the sound?

 

    A sharp sense of ominousness suddenly flashed across her mind. Tang Xinjue immediately took action to stop Guo Guo from turning back, but it was too late—— 

 

“—Ahhhhh—"

 

    With a shrill scream that was enough to overturn the skull, the dorm lights flickered precariously twice, then went out instantly.

 

    There was darkness all around.

 

    Tang Xinjue didn't care about the phone showing the busy tone, and immediately went to pull Guo Guo. As soon as she reached out, she didn't touch anyone, and her roommate was already sitting limply on the ground, "Damn, what did I just see..."

 

    "Jue Shen Jue Shen⁵, where are you? I'm so scared, woohoo!" Guo Guo was shocked after realizing the power outage, and jumped up to find someone, grabbed Tang Xinjue, and then howled with confidence.

 

⁵) Jue Shen; or God Jue, this is what Guo Guo calls Tang Xinjue. As far as I know, this is how people usually call their idol, someone they worship, or generally someone who is just so awesome that others followed them.

 

    However, after a few seconds, a shrill laughter interrupted her wailing.

 

    "Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee-"

 

    The laughter seemed to come from outside the balcony. The windows were closed, but they seemed to be in the wilderness, making the echoes clearly heard.

 

    The most bizarre thing was that with the power outage in the dorm, the densely packed huge eyeballs outside the balcony window also disappeared, leaving nothing but darkness, as if the entire dormitory area lost power at the same time.

 

    "Do you think school life is boring?"

 

    "Do you think dorm life is boring?"

 

    The voice was like a child, humming a cheerful and eerie tune.

 

    Tang Xinjue's position was closest to the balcony, and she could even faintly hear the exclamations and screams outside.

 

    The cheerful voice was still singing: "In response to your wishes, to meet your requirements... An exciting game is coming, do you want to participate?"

 

    During the singing, Tang Xinjue heard her own heartbeat, like a drum, indicating the reality of everything in front of her.

 

    —It was a recurring scene in her haunting nightmares.

 

    "Yes… or… yes!"

Index | Next>>