Chapter 96: Surprise Hygiene Inspection
Not 919?!
A word woke up the dreamer*, and the others soon more or less recalled that something was wrong.
*a sentence meaning to stop someone from being confused, a wake-up call
“Is this an illusion? Or has 919 been moved? Are Jiang tongxue and the others in danger?”
Guo Guo immediately scraped a string of possibilities out of her brain and asked in rapid-fire succession.
Tang Xinjue shook her head, “It's not an illusion, everything we see now is real. The entire corridor, whether it's the walls, the floor, or the black liquid, it's all real — every single time. It's just that being real is sometimes not the same as being right.”
It's like this every time... Jiang Lan repeated it silently in her mind and suddenly realized something: “What we experience every time is not the same corridor?”
“No, it should be more than just the corridor,” she immediately denied herself again, her eyes shaking slightly as she finally concluded:
“It's the floor!”
Lines of sight met, and Tang Xinjue spoke with a nod, “That's right, it's the floor.”
They were indeed in this dormitory building, within a corridor specially designed by the Academic Affairs Office.
This corridor connected to the female dormitory at the front and the male dormitory at the back, the layout not any different from what they had just seen when they broke out of 919.
But this was not the 9th floor.
Upon hearing this news at first, after a brief two seconds of difficulty in accepting it, all the previous incongruities flooded their minds:
From the disappearing traces once the corridor refreshed, the wall that suddenly became solid and difficult to smash through, to the black liquid gushing out of the original female dormitory wall, one by one the unexplainable problems piled up... but if it was not at all the 9th floor?
All the questions suddenly had an answer.
“It's not the 9th floor, so which floor are we on now? When were we switched?”
Guo Guo frantically ran her brain trying to keep up with the thoughts, “Could it be when we just came out into the male dormitory? No, at that time the male dormitory ghost was still pointing the way, if there was a problem with the floor it would definitely be discovered.”
“When we came out from the male dormitory?”
Zhang You made a guess.
The first time they noticed the abnormality in the corridor, it was also this time.
Jiang Lan picked up, “But when we hid in the repairman's room and came out again, the traces we left behind disappeared for the second time. Does this prove that the floor has switched twice?”
If that was the case, then the traces they had left behind on the walls hadn't actually been so-called auto-recovery at all, but rather, every time they came here, they saw not the same wall!
No. 7 interrupted their speculations and questioned, “Wait a moment first. All the premises you're talking about now are based on one foundation, and that's the conclusion Tang Xinjue just made.”
She turned her head to Tang Xinjue, “Once we believe in your conclusion, it will affect our next very important choices and actions. So, how can you be sure that your speculation must be right?”
“It's simple to verify.”
Tang Xinjue smiled and stood in front of the wall covered in cracks.
“The Academic Affairs Office killed the male dormitory ghosts who could move around freely, because their familiarity with the dormitory building would have immediately revealed the truth. But we're not familiar with this building, so even if we find out what the problem is, we won't be able to confirm which floor this is, let alone find a way to leave.”
If the Academic Affairs Office could really manipulate the floor changes at will, it would only need to directly move them to a random floor, and the candidates could be blocked and imprisoned forever.
“Obviously, this doesn't fit the balance and logic of the exam. It's impossible for the Academic Affairs Office to be so strong, or the more powerful the ability, the more it must be restricted in its use by a corresponding limitation.
Tang Xinjue said, “That's why there's another premise to my speculation, and that's that there's only one fixed threshold for the floor conversion. And as long as it is triggered, the floor must be converted regardless of whether the school administration wants to change it or not.
“If you want to verify whether my guess is right or not, just break this critical point and see if everything will change.”
As the words fell, Tang Xinjue once again swung the hammer and pounded on the crack!
Thud, thud, thud. Gripping the handle of the hammer, which was thicker than her own two arms bound together, the girl stared expressionlessly at the largest spot of the crack in the wall, hitting it accurately with each stroke.
Without the black liquid inside the wall, the wall seemed to become much weaker. The cracks became larger and larger, and soon a gap appeared that ran through the top to the bottom, and the uneven cement structure inside and the dots of dried black liquid could be seen.
Just as the crack exceeded the depth left by the last crowd, the pitch-black, silent hole verified that there was no living soul on the other side of the wall at all, much less their familiar dormitory room of 919.
Just then, the wall suddenly changed.
The white paint on the ceiling seemed to be shaken as if falling layer by layer, pungent dust rose up. They subconsciously stepped back to avoid it, but after two moments, in front of them, there was already a blanket of white.
When No. 10 used her Water Ability to disperse the dust, a complete, smooth, unmarked wall appeared in front of them.
Another refresh!
“Cough cough cough, it is known that this dormitory building only has a maximum of 9 floors.”
Jiang Lan forcefully waved away the remaining dust, her already hoarse voice was choked and intermittent, but she was still covering her nose as she doggedly analyzed, “Based on these few times, the probability of each refreshed floor cannot be repeated. Then, we will only experience eight refreshes at most.”
By the ninth time, even if the Academic Affairs Office was no longer willing, they would have to let them return to the ninth floor.
“I see, so it doesn't really matter at all what floor we're on right now!” Guo Guo's eyes lit up and she counted with her fingers, “The most important thing is whether or not we can carry through the remaining 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... 6 refreshes!”
The requirement for the floor transformation was to smash this wall, and if the wall was smashed to a certain extent, the crowd would be attacked. Only by surviving these waves of attacks consecutively would they be able to return to 919 and hand over the red thread that would allow the ghosts to move freely to Jiang tongxue and the others.
“There are still six whole times?” Zhang You had a bit of a headache.
The accumulation of danger for six consecutive times was not an algorithm of one plus one equals two. And yet, this was just to get back to the 9th floor. They hadn't even found the shadow of the Academic Affairs Office at the moment.
Even if the determination to pass the level was as strong as ever, one couldn't help but feel some self-doubt: could they really complete the final task of the dungeon in the midst of such almost-unseen obstacles and dangers?
Tang Xinjue rubbed her arm, which had become engorged with blood due to her excessive exertion, but the light of her eyes on her calm demeanor was extraordinarily bright, even shockingly sharp:
“There is no level with certain death, nor is there a dungeon that cannot be cleared.”
From the first exam until now, her knowledge of the game has grown from nothing. Even if it seems like a difficult situation, it is no longer unsolvable. She has always adhered to this point.
Just like in the countless dark nightmares in these three years where there was no hope in sight, as long as one did their best to persevere until the end, there would always be the moment when they cut off the monster's head, and also the moment when they returned to reality.
“Although the exam is unfriendly to the candidates, it is normally impossible to set such a disparity in strength. A dungeon BOSS that can casually control changes in the structure of the dungeon, set up countless traps and ambushes, and even easily imprison the other side's ghost camp, cannot just be at the strength level of a C-grade group dungeon.”
After Tang Xinjue finished speaking, Keke also opened her mouth in a rare manner after having used the Spirit of Language. She hung up the phone that couldn't connect to A'Nian for the nth time, “I agree with this point as well. That group of fools in the female dormitory, let's not talk about their intelligence, I don't see how outrageously strong they are in terms of strength. Even if they have a restraining effect on the Academic Affairs, with what I've seen from this dungeon so far, I really don't think it's anything the Academic Affairs need to hide from.”
She shrugged her shoulders, “There's no need for me to say more about what this means, right? If the Academic Affairs Office was really as powerful as it's been shown to be, it would have long since ascended to the heavens, and there's no need to play any mind games with the students here.”
Following up on Keke's words, Tang Xinjue hooked the corners of her mouth:
“So the moment we find their main body, what we see will most likely be an incredibly weak Academic Affairs Office.
—This is also one of the secrets they want to hide.”
Her voice had just fallen when the wall, which had been calm and unmarked only moments ago, suddenly cracked open with a zip from where it was attached to the ceiling.
Crowd: “...”
Broken defense?
After a short analysis and exchange, the crowd reached a consensus under the wall that gasped to a crack.
No matter what kind of scheming the Academic Affairs Office was playing, it could not affect their unwavering goal and determined course of action.
The goal exists, the action begins.
Zheng Wanqing took the initiative to take over the task of smashing the wall, letting Tang Xinjue, who had smashed two rounds in a row, take a break first, before flinging her gradually solidifying right hand into battle, and mercilessly began to wreak havoc.
The dust that had just dissipated once again filled the entire space, and the crowd had to cover their noses to combat the coughing. Guo Guo wanted to look for No. 10 to use her rainfall ability to alleviate the situation, but she was unable to find No. 10 in the dust for a while.
“Ah, I suddenly remembered that I still don't know the names of the three people in their dormitory.”
Guo Guo covered her nose and searched left and right, while saying as an afterthought in the brain chat group.
From the time she entered the exams until now for such a long time, she surprisingly only knew that the other person's bed serial numbers were No. 5, No. 6, and No. 10 respectively.
Everyone seemed to have introduced themselves roughly during dinner, yet now they only had a rough impression and couldn't match the specific names and information.
Zhang You found a bunch of masks from her storage bag and distributed them while calmly saying, “It's okay, once we finish solving the dungeon boss, we'll have time to get to know our new friends properly.”
Guo Guo: “Then I'm going to eat one more bowl of rice at the celebration banquet, no, three bowls!”
She couldn't be the MVP in the exams, but she was still confident in her dry rice.
Right in the midst of the casual conversation, the masks had basically been handed out. Zhang You pinched the last few masks that hadn't been handed out, and also started to look for a few others in the dust just like Guo Guo: “No. 5 tongxue? No. 10 tongxue? Which position are you guys in?”
“Cough cough cough... cough cough...”
There was no answer in the air, only the faint sound of coughing came.
Zhang You frowned gently, “Number 5 tongxue?”
“Cough... cough cough!”
The coughing sound grew louder and louder, attracting the attention of several people. Tang Xinjue's complexion changed slightly, “The one who is coughing is No. 5.”
Her legs stepped forward and walked towards the direction of the coughing sound. The others followed closely behind, and soon saw two figures bending over and trembling non-stop. No. 10 was next to them, frantically rummaging through the props, then looked towards the two people bending over and coughing violently. It was No. 5 and No. 6!
“What's wrong with you?”
The few of them immediately stepped forward to help them up, but No. 5 reacted very violently by shrinking backward. She coughed until she couldn't speak, and could only shake her head vigorously to refuse the crowd's approach.
In front of everyone's eyes, gurgling black and red blood gushed out from within the crevices of No. 5's fingers covering her mouth.
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