Girls' Dormitory Escape - Chapter 04: The Start of the Game

 Chapter 4: The Start of the Game

    Crying and being irritable will only divert their attention, accelerate the collapse of reason, and cannot solve any problems. Tang Xinjue knows this reasoning very well.

    But the reasoning is merely reasoning is because in extraordinary circumstances, it is often difficult for people to control themselves, and they also revert to an instinct.

    From three years ago, Tang Xinjue was forced to combine principles with practice and learned how to restrain her instincts and kept calm without being driven crazy.

    "There is no unsolvable nightmare in the world, and there is no unsolvable reality," She said softly, and the scenes from those nightmares appeared in her mind.

    The nightmare, that even the psychiatrist was helpless against, brought many negative effects to her life, but this time, it seemed to herald an unexpected arrival in advance, so if she thought about it from this point of view, can other details in the dream also correspond to the current situation?

    Her thoughts were immersed in the suppressed memories, about the thick darkness in the dream and the grotesque monsters hidden in the darkness rushed towards her, but in addition, Tang Xinjue vaguely remembered that there was a rule in the dream... After a moment, Tang Xinjue opened her eyes.

    If this rule can also apply to the "game" at this time, she should know how to solve the current situation.

    From an outsider's point of view, Tang Xinjue was motionless, and after a moment of silence, she suddenly said, "You can open the door."

    Roommates: "???"

    Zheng Wanqing stopped shouting, Zhang You stopped talking, and even Guo Guo stopped crying. No one could believe that Tang Xinjue was so reckless: "Are you sure?"

    In the darkness, the girl's voice was calm and decisive: "Yes. Zhang You must come in, and the door must be opened."

    Outside the door, Zhang You sniffed, trying to keep her voice from trembling: "Then what about the thing on my back... what should I do?"

    She didn't dare to look back now, and she didn't dare to think about what would happen when the door opened.

    Tang Xinjue replied intimately: "The thing behind you will come out, attack me who opened the door first, and then take the opportunity to get into the dormitory."

    Guo Guo: "...How can you say such a terrible thing so calmly!"

    Without looking at Guo Guo, Tang Xinjue clenched the tool in her hand and pressed her fingertips on the packaging bag wrapped around the object. From her estimation, the thing is about 50 centimeters long, with a hard handle and what appears to be a thick bowl at the tip. Think of it as a little hammer to use it in hand.

    Signaling the two roommates to step back, Tang Xinjue stood in front of the door, her eyes fixed on the crack of the door, and her left hand slowly landed on the handle.

    Guo Guo, who was behind her, swallowed her saliva: "Jue Shen, are you sure there is a way to let Zhang You in? If we fail, we will all be finished."

    Tang Xinjue shook her head: "No, if it fails, I am the only one who has a high probability of being finished, you still have a chance. Remember what that child's voice said? Failing to protect the dormitory will lead to the elimination of roommates, but it is not said that the whole dormitory will be eliminated together." Before she finished speaking, her palm sank, and the dormitory door was forced to open.

    Zhang You trembled slightly outside the door. Her roommate gasped for a breath and casted a look for help.

    At the same time, a sharp laughter burst out from the back of her neck, Zhang You turned her head reflexively, and was quickly grabbed by Tang Xinjue.

    "Don't turn around."

    Unlike the vast darkness outside the balcony, the darkness in the corridor seemed to be covered with a layer of flowing and spreading fog, and there seemed to be countless things hidden in it.

    Through the dim light of the mobile phone screen, Tang Xinjue saw a pale and thin hand sticking out from the back of Zhang You's neck, pulling out a larger, white-colored object—the moment it rushed over, she was already there. Without hesitation, she raised her hand and slammed it down.

    With an inhuman scream, the plastic rod and rubber tip hit a sticky mass and hit it!

     A gloomy cold rushed up along her arm. Tang Xinjue didn't have the energy to distract herself. She waved her arm and shoved it down even more.

    As if waking up from a dream and slamming into the door, the white things in the dark screamed and were about to jump up. In that moment, the packaging bag outside the long tool was torn, and the rubber tip was still firmly pressed against the terrifying sound. The group of white creatures, which were not human at first glance, just wasn't repealed.

    Even the white monster was stunned for a moment: it's a ghost, and it's fighting against human girls, but it hadn't even got the chance to fight? ?

    Tang Xinjue was also stunned for a moment: she was about to withdraw quickly as soon as she succeeded, but just after pulling it out, the "small hammer" in her hand didn't move at all, and she subconsciously pulled it hard, but instead pulled the white monster out by two centimeters.

    The white monster: "..."

    Tang Xinjue: "..."

    She took the time to throw the tool into the dark, but the enraged monster was faster and rushed up in an instant, the skinny limbs and head stretched out from the twisted white meat ball, with no facial features but a mouth on the head. It was like a big black hole, biting towards Tang Xinjue's head.

    [Low-level ghosts wandering in the dark, cannot be touched, cannot be looked directly at, otherwise one will be swallowed into the darkness. ]

    The shrunken pupil reflected the head of the monster that was approaching rapidly, surrounded by the cold and darkness that swept in, for a moment, Tang Xinjue felt like she was still in a nightmare.

    [—But once it touches, the moment one is attacked, one can also attack the opponent. ]

    Just like in the dream, her body had already reacted instinctively. Since she couldn't withdraw, she would not stop doing it. Again and again, against the direction of her head, she slammed it down!

    With the sharp surge of adrenaline and staring at the familiar monster, Tang Xinjue couldn't tell whether it was a reality or a dream, and completely relied on the experience and instinct like how she acted in the nightmare.

    [Fear of light and loud noises, can use powerful force to shred it and throw it back into the dark...] 

    The white head was briefly thrown off, and soon climbed the tool and ran up to Tang Xinjue's arm again. Because of her excessive force, her blood vessels on the wrist started to show and bulge.

    "Be careful!" Her roommate's scream made Tang Xinjue shudder: This was not her dream when she was alone, this was reality!

    Something flashed in her mind, and she immediately blurted out: "Shout! Shout! Hurry!"

    Maybe it was the moment of life and death that would speed up people's reactions. In less than half a second, Guo Guo's voice started, and it was enough to overturn the top of the roof. The screams rose from the ground, followed by Zheng Wanqing and Zhang You, who started roaring in their throats without saying a word.

    Although they didn't understand why Tang Xinjue suddenly made the request, howling was right in the emergency.

    The white monster was afraid of light and loud noises. There was no light at this time, but there were three female college students in their early 20s who had been hitting ghosts for 4 hours.

    If the sound could be transformed into a weapon, within three seconds, they would have created a loud noise that was enough to flatten the entire dormitory area of ​​A University. Tang Xinjue clearly felt the changes in the monster, and its power was weakened!

    With a full stab, the monster's body was torn through, and it seemed to begin to feel fear. Its limbs fell to the ground and wanted to retreat to the darkness, but just like Tang Xinjue before, it couldn't get out no matter how much it pulled.

    Monster: "..."

    Only then did Tang Xinjue realize that the rubber end of this "small hammer" seemed to be able to suck something. Neither side can pull it out.

    Before the mind could figure out what it was, the monster had already realized the problem and began to change its body structure to try to swallow the rubber. How could Tang Xinjue let it succeed? She immediately stabbed it down faster and harder. She didn't know how many times she stabbed in a row, the sticky feeling suddenly disappeared, and the top of the rubber hit the ground.

    The monster was stabbed!

    The cracked white monster immediately split into countless arm-shaped objects. Tang Xinjue immediately shrank back into the door as soon as the thing in her hand was loosened. The hand seemed to want to grab it, but was blocked by the slammed door.

    "Boom!" The collision left a dull sound on the dormitory door.

    Then came the second and third, and the familiar knock on the door slowly sounded again. At the same time, Tang Xinjue's voice appeared outside the crack of the door:

    "Open the door, it's so dark outside, I'm so scared."

    The other three people fought a cold feeling. Obviously Tang Xinjue had returned inside, but the same voice as her knocked on the door at the same time. It was too strange to describe.

    Tang Xinjue slowed down for a few seconds, stepped forward and raised her hand, and knocked on the door three times clearly. After the violent action, her voice was still gentle and soft:

    "Your dad* is inside, step back."

*你爹=Chinese slang, used to joke around with friends, or in this case, show one's superiority/higher generation

    "..." The horror atmosphere was greatly dissipated.

    "Woohoohoo!!!"

    Guo Guo first moved, she rushed to hold Tang Xinjue's thin body, crying nose with tears: "Jue jie, Jue die, Jue shen, from now on you are my half-dad!"

*in order: Sister Jue, Dad Jue, God Jue

    Zhang You reluctantly picked her up: "I am the one who was rescued by Xinjue, so let me cry first, okay?"

    Zheng Wanqing couldn't get in, so she turned around in a hurry: "Don't try too hard, Tang Xinjue is not in good health, you have broken her!"

    Guo Guo said with tears in her eyes: "Da xiaojie, open your titanium alloy double eyelids to see, my daddy just tore a ghost with her hands! Tear it up with her own hands!" If this could be called weak, were they seriously disabled?

    Tang Xinjue broke free from her roommate who was recognizing her relatives (by calling her dad), and she didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Wanqing is right, don't hug me, my hand hurts." She had just been stuck in a stalemate with all her strength for too long. She needed a good rest.

    Zhang You was sharp, and immediately went to help her find a medical kit. The remaining two leaned against her. After recovering from being overly frightened, they asked their doubts:

    "How do you know how to deal with that monster outside?"

    Tang Xinjue did not answer in detail, but simply said: "I only know, for many low-level ghosts, the moment they hit us is the moment we can attack them. Plus, we have the dormitory door protection. As long as we seize the opportunity to hold it for two seconds." It's just after that much calculations, unexpectedly, the attacking weapon in her hand almost pulled her into the water*.

*拉下水; la xia shui, metaphor of being dragged into being an accomplice/doing bad things. In this context, it means that she almost fell in a bad situation because of a supposed ally (her own weapon).

    Thinking of this, Tang Xinjue couldn't help raising the "small hammer" in her hand, trying to use the light of her mobile phone to find out what treasure this was. But before she could do that, the numbers on the phone screen came into view.

    10, 9, 8, 7...

    Twelve o'clock, the four-hour countdown resets to zero, and the screen falls into darkness.

    "Ding ding ding, dang dang dang~" The melodious child's voice surrounded everyone's ears.

    "Put your schoolbag on your back and come to the dormitory, where a happy university life begins"

    "Unity and friendship, help each other, each student must abide by the dormitory rules"

    "Hard competition, diligent examination, excellent results can make you survive longer"

    "Credit system, clear rewards and punishments, educators are waiting for you in the best universities"

    At the end of the singing, the child's voice became farther and farther, as if it had risen to a very high sky, and the voice became hazy and melodious:

    "Time is precious, cherish the moment, [Dormitory Survival Game] begins!"

    The voice disappeared completely, and the phone screen turned white. The interface was still unfamiliar. Tang Xinjue saw her name on it.

    Name: Tang Xinjue

    Dormitory: 606 Dormitory

    School: Third-rate University

    Credits: 0

    Below the basic information column, there are several small information boxes, namely [Dorm Status], [Exam/Competition Record], [Power Items], [Body Information]. There were total of four columns.

    Tang Xinjue was about to take a closer look when she saw the column of [Power Items] suddenly flashed.

    "Congratulations, you won a reward for your good performance before the start of the game! The thing in your hand at this moment will become your innate ability~"

    The thing in your hand?

    Tang Xinjue looked down, and at this moment, the lights in the dormitory suddenly brightened, and she could see her "innate ability" clearly as the light brightened just like daytime.

    The hard plastic rod, the bowl-shaped end of the orange-red rubber leather, and the brand-new tool about 50 centimeters long showed something that did not appear often, but was known to all men, women and children—

    a genuine toilet plunger.

    Tang Xinjue: "..."

    She wanted to redo it again, is it too late?

    -------

    The author has something to say:

    Monster: I'm cracked!

    Tang Xinjue: I'm also cracked*

*我裂开了=I'm cracked. It's a slang on the Internet, means something like I'm out of my mind or I'm blown up.

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