Chapter 135: Dormitory Friendship League
After a brief moment of pause, the shield girl quickly regained her composure, turning around as if she hadn't seen anything, forcing herself to shake off the stiffness and coldness that had just threatened to sweep over her.
That was definitely not her feeling. No matter what she saw, no matter how shocked she was, she wouldn't allow herself to lose the ability to move.
There was only one possibility... The girl had a vague suspicion, but she always followed her instincts and didn't think further.
As soon as she turned around, she noticed there was more than one human-faced monster on the balcony.
Besides the one that had climbed up from her side, there was another one on Yue Qiong's side, even larger than hers, with even more bizarre and uglier features.
Yue Qiong's situation seemed far worse than the shield girl's. Just now, he, like the shield girl, had seen familiar faces on the giant face. However, these flashing faces were both male and female, belonging to different young students—
the only thing they had in common was that they had all died at his hands not long ago.
There was the giant who had cursed him madly before his death, the students he had so easily killed, and even his own roommate who had perished on this very balcony.
Every face was now filled with mad, silent laughter, their lips strangely drawn up to their ears, a mixture of joy and mockery, their eyes fixed intently on Yue Qiong.
Perhaps it was his recent mental breakdown that had caused Yue Qiong to lose his composure for a moment. By the time he realized what was happening, it was too late to retract his attack. The black mist snake hissed as it pierced the face, tearing a rip in the thin, dark blue skin, sending streams of dark-red blood gushing out.
After the attack and the bleeding, the familiar face vanished, leaving only the original, monstrous, deformed features. However, the smile on the face only widened—
the next moment, the guardrail that had once firmly supported the balcony's edge suddenly cracked, a gap the size of the wound on the face!
"Don't attack it,"
Tang Xinjue blocked Zheng Wanqing's fist, her mind replaying the scene she had just observed with her spiritual power.
"Our attacks on it will translate into actual damage to the balcony railing. If we penetrate it, it can enter the balcony and attack us."
Zheng Wanqing shuddered, coming back to her senses. "That was a close call! I hadn't intended to attack it, but seeing its half-human, half-ghost appearance, I inexplicably felt an irritation and wanted to attack. Thanks to you for stopping me!"
Tang Xinjue: "It was trying to lure you."
She stared at the giant human face, currently only wriggling outside the railing. Even though they were a meter away, they still felt a nauseous, uncomfortable sensation of being right in front of their face.
She paused. "Actually, to some extent, they've already attacked us."
This time, the impact was concentrated on the examinees' minds.
A mental attack?
Zhang You immediately turned to look at Tang Xinjue: "Doesn't that mean..."
"Yes," Tang Xinjue smiled faintly. "Isn't that a coincidence?"
This was truly a flood that had washed away the Dragon King Temple*, much like Gao Ying's attempt to control her mentally.
*"A flood washed away the Dragon King Temple, and family does not recognize family" is a Chinese folk saying that describes conflicts between similar groups caused by misunderstandings - the same kind of people fights.
It was completely useless.
From the moment the human-faced elf appeared, she had blocked 90% of its mental fluctuations. Otherwise, Zheng Wanqing wouldn't be the only one affected.
Therefore, she was the only one who could see the constantly shifting shadows on the human face. It would transform into Gao Ying, a dorm roommate grinning, a close-quarters informer wielding a Tang sword, and then back again into the elves from previous rounds.
These images had no effect on Tang Xinjue, but for the candidates, who lacked mental defenses, the impact was immense.
Across the field, most of the balconies in both buildings were empty, their doors and windows locked. Only a dozen or so dormitories remained, almost all of them unable to control their attacks on the human-faced elf, and then had to face the consequences of the loss of their balcony railings.
"Is that you? Are you here to seek revenge? No, don't come over here. It was clearly raining so hard that you fell down on your own. It has nothing to do with me..."
On a lower-floor balcony, a boy stared despairingly at the face that had already crept into the balcony. His dormitory window was just a stone's throw away, but he refused to retreat, as if possessed. Instead, he roared in despair, unleashing all his attacks and items on the giant face, as if intent on destroying it head-on.
Even more despairing was the fact that the damage inflicted on the elf healed instantly. Its dark blue flesh and skin grew endlessly, slowly creeping, forcing the boy to the edge of the balcony, until he dropped his arms in despair, seemingly lost in a state of self-destruction.
"Wake up!"
With a sudden, clear shout, the boy's dazed eyes seemed to clear for a moment, and then, the next moment, a terrifying, shrieking roar pierced his ears—
nearly deafening, and he woke completely.
This cloud-piercing demonic sound, like the simultaneous wailing of countless ghosts, was accompanied by a surge of mental power that sharpened the senses, doubling the torment of the sonic waves. Even fainting was impossible. When the sound finally faded, the madness fueled by the hallucinations was completely dissipated, along with the sweat that covered his body, leaving no trace. He had no worldly desires.
On the balcony of Room 303, Guo Liang uttered a cry, grasping the railing and retching in agony. Unable to tell whether it was the aftereffects of the demonic sound or the human face, he retched for a full half-minute before he lifted his head, tears welling up at his calmly radiant roommate from the Department of Healing.
"Brother Bai, why are you only blocking yourself? What about our roommate relationship?"
The boy unhurriedly unleashed a group health-regenerating spell and corrected him, "From a medical perspective, what they just did to you is called fighting poison with poison."
In the distance, Tang Xinjue put away the toilet plunger. The mentally enhanced toilet plunger's skill had indeed become much more effective, but there was no time to observe it closely. As soon as the screams subsided, she controlled the rubber head with her backhand to spit water to fill the gap in the guardrail.
Its mental hypnosis was broken, and it couldn't find a way to get through to the balcony. The giant face outside 606 had lost its smile, becoming filled with anger and resentment, its features distorted to the point of being almost unrecognizable as a human. Blood gushed out and corroded the guardrail.
"Found it!"
Zhang You fished out something from her storage bag, her brows relaxed with relief. She unscrewed the plastic bottle in her hand and shook the transparent gel inside.
[Furniture Repair Liquid: Dorms inevitably get tattered after a long time, but can't afford new furniture? This repair liquid solves your problems with one click! It seems to be a brand with no after-sales service, but it's very affordable.]
This was one of the quirky little items they had won from countless shopping mall raffles. They had only dug it out from the bottom of their closet and used it during this dorm renovation. Unexpectedly, it came in handy now.
The repair liquid was poured onto the damaged guardrail, instantly solidifying into clumps of filler. Zhang You had initially been unsure if it would work, but judging by the mutant's increasingly distorted expression, it was clearly working.
In contrast to the frantic activity in the other dormitories, 606's pace slowed down after mitigating the danger of the guardrail damage. There was even a hint of mockery in the look they directed at the monster.
Under the mutant's fierce glare, Zhang You pulled out three more bottles of repair fluid.
Zhang You: "Is that enough? If not, there's more."
The mutant: "..."
...
After 606 stabilized, the other dormitories that had been breached and regained consciousness also realized the situation and retreated back inside, abandoning their elf-hunting efforts.
"Ah, I finally understand. This so-called elf-catching reward is like the benefits promised by capitalists, the discounts advertised by sales offices, and the Ministry of Education's mandated reduction in student burdens. It's all just wishful thinking, but it's impossible to achieve—it's all bullshit!"
Guo Liang concluded indignantly, wrapping clothes around the railing. Fortunately, with Brother Bai at their disposal, their dormitory balcony remained untouched. After observing 606's solution, they copied their own approach and began tinkering. Without repair fluid, they wrapped old clothes around the railing, and surprisingly, it worked.
"This should be one of the ways the game allows us to survive," Zhang Chi calmly analyzed. "If someone had thought of this from the start and covered the railings and walls with protective coverings, our dorm might have been invulnerable according to the game's rules."
Guo Liang grew even more indignant. "If you have to be this predictive to survive, then why did the game bring us in? To make up the numbers? Can't they just select everyone with an IQ of 180 or above?"
"Besides, if we can't fight or kill now, how can we continue catching elves? This rubbish game should just declare everyone fails."
In his excitement, Guo Liang accidentally overexerted himself, snapping the tattered edge of the railing with a snap.
The mutant face, swift and quick, slipped through the gap. In his speed, he accidentally squeezed his eyeball out, which landed right in Guo Liang's hand.
"Hehe," the mutant face pressed against Guo Liang's body, grinning.
Guo Liang: "..."
"Fuck!!"
Amid the screams that filled the air in 303, the shield girl also sheathed her shield and decided to retreat to the dormitory for the time being.
Although she had secured her half of the balcony, Yue Qiong had usurped the other half. Once the face entered the balcony, it spread out flat against the ground, as if to envelop the entire balcony.
She remained on the balcony, not only to complete the elf capture, but also to ensure Yue Qiong didn't deliberately pushed out his roommates. However, she soon discovered that the mutated face, despite its obvious malevolence, would not attack the students. Instead, it was focused on eroding the balcony, making it impossible for Yue Qiong to pushed his roommate even if he wanted to.
But what was the point of eroding the balcony... With only minutes left to capture the entire balcony, what were these mutated elves trying to do?
The shield girl couldn't figure it out, and she didn't bother to think. She sent her observations of the face to Tang Xinjue via telepathic link and prepared to close the window and retreat to the dormitory.
"Don't rush back," the female voice in her mind stopped her.
Even with time running out, Tang Xinjue's voice remained as measured and methodical as ever, making it difficult to connect her with all the ruthless and audacious actions, especially that screaming toilet plunger.
"This round of capture has nothing to do with the human-faced elves on our balconies," Tang Xinjue said.
"I know that might be hard to understand," Tang Xinjue said, connecting to the other side, and directing the ice cone into the distance. "This thing on each of our balconies is targeting us. It can't be destroyed. The more elves and students we kill, the bigger and more difficult it becomes. But fundamentally, it's just a deception. Whatever its purpose, it has nothing to do with our mission."
An ice cone returned to the balcony with an object, and 606's cloak sank slightly.
She curled her lips. "See those densely packed smaller faces on the wall outside? Those are our targets this round."
The shield girl looked up, following the voice. Countless faces, clinging to the wall like leeches, tumbled across her field of vision. Most people were too preoccupied with losing sanity and dealing with the immediate threat to even bother with capturing anything.
After Tang Xinjue's announcement, the faces of countless candidates suddenly appeared on the windows of the dormitories, which had already died down. The scene was as weird as the mutant elves.
When everyone was still in doubt, 303, who was still insisting outside, had followed suit and used props to grab a small human face and brought it in, and it was indeed easily transformed into an elf egg.
Candidates:... Damn it.
When they were full of confidence, the competition hit them hard. When they knew when to give up, they found that this had actually become a loss?
Is there any justice in this world?
The author has something to say: Mutated faces: attacking cities and demolishing strongholds!
Zhang You: reclaiming land from the sea.
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