Chapter 130: Dormitory Friendship League
Their tacit understanding meant they didn't need to say anything, nor was there any need to refuse at this juncture; complete trust was the answer.
Therefore, Zhang You simply nodded, then swiftly pulled up the cloak and threw it over, dispatching the penultimate elf.
Almost at the same moment, the elf Tang Xinjue was standing on suddenly let out an extremely high-pitched, strange cry, its entire body struggling frantically with unprecedented strength, nearly throwing Tang Xinjue off!
Zhang You hurriedly threw the cloak over, and by the time Tang Xinjue reached out to catch it, the elf had already mutated.
Two long, deformed wings made of white bones unfolded from the elf's body, flapping heavily and rapidly downwards. Tang Xinjue didn't hesitate for a moment, and leaped directly down.
With wings, it was no longer restricted to the original method of jumping and climbing, so all tactics and plans had to be immediately overturned and re-created.
Sure enough, the moment Tang Xinjue leaped, the winged monster suddenly soared upward, its back bones arching and spinning as if to fling the person off—
and then it belatedly realized that Tang Xinjue was no longer on its back.
Tang Xinjue hung onto the railing below 606 with one hand. Under the horrified gazes of the 506 students, she looked in the direction of the elf and nodded, "Fortunately, there's still no IQ enhancement this round."
Unlike the mutation in the previous round, of which they expanded, this time the elf shrank, seemingly to accommodate the wings. The venom-filled glands had degenerated into hard scales, its limbs shortened, its claws enlarged, and its razor-sharp black nails half an arm's length. It was doubtful if a single claw could hold onto the dormitory railings.
The mutated elf screamed and flew to the rooftop. Just when everyone thought the round was over, a distorted figure, wings flapping, suddenly burst from the edge of the rooftop and swooped down towards Tang Xinjue's dormitory like lightning!
"They really hold a grudge,"
Tang Xinjue sighed. She then shook the cloak and quickly hung it on the clothesline. The black fabric cascaded down, covering the space facing the balcony.
The next second, the elf burst straight into the cloak.
"Squeak!"
It instantly formed into a ball.
...
"Awesome... Brother Bai, Brother Bai, how many of them are there? Are there six or seven?"
On the balcony of Building A, 303, several boys half-crouched, busy tinkering with something. One of them secretly observed the situation across the way. When he saw 606's pentakill, his eyes widened, and he exclaimed "Wow!"
The fair-skinned boy, known as "Brother Bai," instinctively smoothed a wisp of curled hair from his forehead and said calmly, "Eight."
The boy questioning him: "...Forgive my lack of knowledge, I'm just saying 'f*ck!'"
He counted his own dormitory's catches and immediately put on a mask of anguish: "No way! We only have four, and they already have eight. And we still haven't reached the reward standard? How long will it take us?"
The fair-skinned boy said: "The reward standard is different for each dormitory. The stronger the dormitory, the higher the standard."
With these words, he finally found what he was looking for on the bottom ledge of the guardrail. With a light tap of his slender fingers, a piece of the concrete ledge was removed, revealing a crumpled piece of paper.
Unfolding the mottled paper, the number on it, like blood, was revealed:
11.
The roommates all stood up, gasping. "This is..."
"This is our reward standard," the fair-skinned boy said softly, yet with a quiet power. "We have to capture at least 11 elves to get the final reward."
"Holy crap!"
"Hush!" As the exclamations rang out, a roommate standing across from the fair-skinned boy immediately smacked the nagging boy furthest away, "Guo Liang, shut up!"
The boy being yelled at was bewildered. "Zhang Chi, are you sick? I didn't say anything!"
"...?"
The four of them exchanged bewildered glances. If Guo Liang hadn't said anything, then who had just shouted?
"Holy crap!" The four of them whipped their heads around at once to see a boy's head pop out of the next door dorm. The exclamation had come from his throat.
The boy's mouth opened wide, staring at them with a look of terror. "You, you're not dead?"
The students in 304 had been holed up in their dorms when they suddenly heard voices from the next door. They thought it was haunted. When they emerged, they discovered it was indeed haunted.
Standing there chattering non-stop was the muscular, buzz-cut boy named Guo. He clearly remembered that his opponent had been ambushed and killed by a hidden arrow just as he was stepping out to surrender at the very beginning of the match! And that tall, lanky guy named Zhang in the back—hadn't he been killed by the informant's poisonous spider in the second phase of the mission? How did they all resurrect?!
The fair-skinned boy pressed down on the frizzled hair on his forehead and smiled gently, "Classmate, this is a misunderstanding..."
"What misunderstanding? I saw you die with my own eyes, and the game even notified us!"
Shocked, the shout from 304 spread, and many nearby dormitories noticed the anomaly. What was going on? Someone could be resurrected during a match?
Even the shield girl paused from her constant battle preparation, raised an eyebrow in surprise, and looked towards the dorm whose stereotype still clung to the "unlucky" one.
Yue Qiong scoffed, "Fools."
Only a few, including Yue Qiong, reacted unresponsively. Some were fully prepared for the next round of elves to appear, while others had already guessed the truth and weren't surprised by what had happened in Dormitory 303.
There was even a girl with a bob-haired hairstyle on the upper floor who gave a small cheer, then immediately shrank back and stood behind Tang Xinjue upon being discovered. Pulling gently on Tang Xinjue's sleeve, Guo Guo excitedly shared, "I guessed right!"
As she had suspected, no one had died in Dormitory 303! It was true that two boys in this dormitory had been knocked out by the informant, but the victims were quickly carried into the dorms, and no one saw them die. The only evidence was the sound of the game announcing the death of the student.
But what if this "death notice" wasn't actually the death of the student in 303, but the death of the informant?
Guo Guo's excitement grew as she spoke, finally understanding Tang Xinjue's reasoning: once the core clue was found, all the logical points naturally fell into place.
The first death hint in the whole venue could be said to be the unlucky boy in 303 who was attacked by surprise, or it could be said to be the informant roommate of the sinister boy - and the reason why he was the only one in the sinister boy's dormitory was because his roommate was killed by 303 in some way. The same logic applies to the second candidate who "died" in 303.
The informant who died silently at that time should be the one who hid in the big guy's dormitory and controlled the poisonous insects!
Now, the two boys who should have "died" in 303 are standing on the balcony unharmed, which further verifies this fact.
In her excitement, Guo Guo did not forget to ask Tang Xinjue: "Jue Shen, how did you find out in the beginning?"
Tang Xinjue looked up at the rooftop, her gaze fixed on the ground as she spoke. "When they fell, from my mental power, the soul fireballs didn't disappear; they just dimmed for a moment. Their vitality returned after they returned to the dormitory."
When the death notice sounded, the actual fluctuations in vitality came from other dormitories.
Guo Guo: "..."
She realized once again, intuitively, just how incredibly powerful a weapon mental power truly is. No wonder the student mall had sky-high prices, no wonder Gao Ying's entire dorm had to support only one person, no wonder... even the games had such a high difficulty level for them.
Huh?
Guo Guo was startled by her last thought.
Before she could process how it had occurred, Tang Xinjue suddenly pushed her backward, and Zheng Wanqing, with her quick eyes and hands, quickly grabbed her waist and carried her through the dormitory door. After this incredibly rapid series of movements, she finally had time to look up, and then she heard a thunderous explosion, and countless dark shadows flew down from the sixth floor—
the third wave of capture event had begun!
This time, their speed was so swift that even Tang Xinjue didn't have time to count them before they were right in front of her.
Deep blue scales, bone-white wings, massive claws, and a body about a meter long—they were identical to the mutated elf from the previous round.
"Protective shield!"
Every candidate still standing on the balcony on the sixth floor came to the same conclusion upon witnessing this scene.
A head-on confrontation with just one or two would have been fine, but these were at least dozens, perhaps even hundreds, swooping down simultaneously, leaving them with no time to react!
The mutated elves quickly flew to the next floor, but Tang Xinjue snatched up two with a toilet plunger. By the time they were both stunned and tucked into her cloak, she and Zheng Wanqing each had a bloody mark on their shoulders.
"Don't move! Wait for me to get the medicine."
Zhang You and Guo Guo immediately restrained them. Guo Guo first frantically used exorcism, but when the wounds left by the elves showed no trace of magic, she relaxed.
But as Zhang You sprayed the hemostatic and restorative potions, their relaxed brows furrowed again.
The medicine hadn't worked.
The two deep wounds showed only slight improvement, but the bleeding continued. Tang Xinjue shook her head, "It's the poison."
"Elves have venom glands in their claws, and the toxin will remain in our wounds."
Tang Xinjue tore off a bandage and wrapped it tightly around the wound several times, until the bleeding subsided. Her cheeks, already pale as a sheet, were now as white as paper, but her tone remained gentle.
"After the match, we'll buy some antidote from the mall and use it with the hemostatics."
Zhang You didn't hesitate: "Buy it now."
Tang Xinjue was even more blunt: "I don't have the money."
Buying it in the mall now would cost at least double the points.
Zheng Wanqing's wound was shallower than Tang Xinjue's, and when she heard about the price, she almost dropped the half-finished bandage: "I don't have any money either! A little bleeding is nothing. It'll be a free tattoo on my left arm."
She was focused on upgrading her fist to the top level and accessorizing it with a cool set of steel armor. They cared more about points than canned meat. If they were to bleed money profusely during the competition, even a tough girl would burst into tears, huddled under the covers in the middle of the night.
Zhang You frowned, unyielding in a rare display of stubbornness: "If Guo Guo gets hurt, you two will also buy it even if it is three times the points."
Guo Guo, suddenly called upon, responded: "?"
Tang Xinjue nodded: "Then we'll talk about it after Guo Guo gets hurt."
Guo Guo: "???"
They didn't have much time to discuss the topic, quickly turning their attention back to the competition. The mutant elves were much faster this time than the previous wave. By the time they had bandaged their wounds, they had already swept up from the first floor again, bringing with them a howling chorus of ghosts and wolves.
With their keen dynamic vision, they could see that a dozen elves had grasped the examinees under their wings. The examinees struggled frantically, but the higher the elves flew, the less intense their struggles became, almost to the point of waiting for death.
Plunging from the sixth floor into the bloody mist on the first floor, how could they possibly survive?
But the next second, a shrill voice suddenly erupted from the third floor:
"Jump into the other dormitories! Jump in!"
The students, caught high in the air, looked down in astonishment. They saw a yellow-haired boy, a stark contrast to the surrounding atmosphere, standing on the balcony of Dormitory 307, waving his hands vigorously, clinging to the railing and gesturing at them: "Jump!"
Everyone instantly understood.
They would surely die if they fell to the first floor, but if they could leap to the other dormitories on the upper floors to either side, there was still a glimmer of hope!
The elves would throw people away once they reached the sixth floor. They had no choice but to grasp at any glimmer of hope.
If only... these students in the unfamiliar dormitory were willing to take them in.
With a sharp howl overhead, dozens of elves simultaneously released their sharp claws.
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