Recap
Song Yang thought for a while and said, “If we really have to consider the possibility that more than one person will be chosen by the monster tonight, then putting the people most likely to be chosen in one dormitory might be more convenient for action.”
Jia Qing counted, “Then it’s best for Wang Yueran and Liu Yi to be in one room. Why don’t you and Xia Jing stay here tonight, Yang-ge?”
Song Yang looked at Xia Jing and said, “Let’s separate tonight.”
Xia Jing smiled, “I have no objections.”
The old lady hugged Wang Yueran and said, “I’ll stay with Ranran tonight, okay?”
It was finally decided that Wang Yueran, the old lady, Liu Yi, and Song Yang would stay in 414.
Xia Jing, Jin Nan, and Jia Qing would move to 417.
Song Yang slowly said, “The dormitories have been assigned, now let’s talk about the specific arrangements for the night.”
Although it was cruel, death was also an important part of obtaining clues.
This was a recognized fact by all players in instances above two-star.
Several people formed a circle, and Xia Jing sat slightly outside, watching Song Yang with interest.
“Wang Yueran is the most fearful person among us now, but we still can’t be sure that the midnight monster will definitely choose her tonight.”
Wang Yueran lowered her head, her eyes turning red.
Song Yang continued methodically, “We can’t even be sure how big the ‘range’ of this materialized imagination will be.”
When Huang Mo died, there was no noticeable change in the bed under him.
But the color of Xu Jin’s bed sheet changed, and a doll appeared on the bed.
The “range” of the two materializations was different.
“In order to avoid involving other players as much as possible, it’s best for everyone to separate tonight and sleep in their own beds as usual.”
Everyone agreed on this point.
Xia Jing and Song Yang were indeed powerful. If they were involved, they might be able to help, but with insufficient information, the monster’s behavior couldn’t be predicted at all. Making risky arrangements would easily lead to accidents.
Speaking of this, Song Yang confirmed with the others, “Those who stayed awake at midnight yesterday should have all felt a sense of dizziness, right?”
Except for Wang Yueran, everyone else nodded heavily.
Song Yang emphasized, “Tonight, please be sure to stay awake until after midnight, especially at midnight. It’s best to keep your eyes open and carefully observe whether anything special happens before and after the dizziness.”
“Everyone sits against the wall, making sure you can see the others clearly.”
“The other thing is how to deal with the midnight monster.”
“Since Huang Mo and Xu Jin both died of sudden death, I think the way the midnight monster attacks players is still closely related to the players’ own imaginations,” Song Yang spoke slowly, making sure everyone heard and understood clearly, “Everyone’s imagination is very important.”
“So no matter what you are thinking now, please listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”
Xia Jing and Song Yang met each other’s gaze.
At this moment, even Xia Jing had to admit that his thoughts were very much in tune with this man’s, and they could confirm each other’s thoughts with just a glance.
Xia Jing found it even more interesting.
He curled his lips, expressing his agreement with Song Yang’s decision.
Song Yang confirmed Xia Jing’s meaning, withdrew his gaze, and said word by word, “—From now on, except for Xia Jing and me, everyone else will silently recite ‘Chu Shi Biao’ in their hearts.”
“Holy crap!” Jia Qing never expected that Song Yang would choose this method in the end!
Moreover, this also meant that Song Yang ultimately chose the method Jin Nan suggested as the first line of defense—leaving only him and Xia Jing to face the monster!
But Jin Nan’s idea of letting the two of them control their own level of fear was unrealistic.
The method Song Yang finally came up with was to let the others keep their minds as clear as possible. This way, even if he and Xia Jing had some thoughts, they should be the two most prominent among the seven.
This was of course a very idealized situation, because even if they kept reciting the text in their hearts, they might not be able to completely clear the minds of the other five people, but they could at least try this way.
Wang Yueran and the others were startled by Song Yang’s boldness.
Song Yang: “The reason why I arranged Liu Yi and Wang Yueran together is so that if the two of them are chosen, they can look after each other in the same dormitory.”
“The reason why I separated Xia Jing and me is because now one dormitory can only sleep three people, so it’s best to arrange one strong person in each dormitory. But our first line of defense is still Xia Jing and me.”
“Once midnight passes, no matter who the monster appears next to, the person chosen by the monster must remain calm. At that time, don’t recite the text anymore, please try to convey information to everyone, and try to imagine some happy things to dispel all the fear in your heart. If this doesn’t work—”
Everyone held their breath.
Song Yang said slowly, “Then close your eyes and think about whether there is any way to die that can make you seem dead, but actually escape death.”
Several people’s blood ran cold.
Liu Yi said with a wry smile, “For example, being stabbed with a knife, but not in a vital spot?”
What Song Yang didn’t say was that, based on Xu Jin’s experience, once the monster confirmed that the player was injured and disappeared on the spot, the instance might define the player as dead, and even a god couldn’t save them.
But now, the most important thing for everyone was faith.
There was no need to tell them this kind of thing.
Before the two groups separated, Song Yang stopped Xia Jing and confirmed, “No problem, right?”
“Haven’t you already assessed my strength?” Xia Jing raised his eyebrows and looked at him.
Song Yang did have a very high assessment of Xia Jing’s strength.
Tonight, the player facing the midnight monster had to find a weakness in a very short time to have a chance of escaping death.
Among the remaining seven people, besides himself, Song Yang felt that only Xia Jing could do it.
Actually, if it wasn’t for the lack of information, Song Yang would choose to face the monster tonight alone.
But with a strong guy around, he thought they could still try as much as possible at this stage.
Song Yang thought for a moment, then handed over his spatial bag, “I’ll keep a dagger, all other props are for you tonight.”
Xia Jing glanced at Song Yang’s spatial bag and said jokingly, “I remember there are no monster props in your spatial bag now, right?”
Song Yang didn’t expect Xia Jing to dislike it, and couldn’t help but let out a chuckle from his chest, raising his eyebrows and saying, “Yes, it’s very unfortunate, but other weapons are still quite complete.”
“Thank you for your kindness, but there’s no need,” Xia Jing put his hands in his trouser pockets and said meaningfully, “If there were monster props, I think I would be interested, Dr. Song.”
Song Yang was taken aback. He didn’t expect Xia Jing to change his teasing address from “Yang-ge” to “Dr. Song”.
Before he could react, Xia Jing’s back had already disappeared at the door.
A strange feeling rose in Song Yang’s heart. He silently recalled Xia Jing’s playful tone, and he felt a little amused and angry.
Picking up on his information from the three-dimensional world and starting to joke about him, huh?
*
When Xia Jing stepped into dormitory 417, Jia Qing and Jin Nan had already chosen their beds and climbed up.
No one touched the beige bed that Xu Jin slept in last night, and Xia Jing’s bed was also empty. Both of them slept on the other side.
Jia Qing chose the bed by the balcony, and Jin Nan slept on the bed by the door.
Jia Qing was swept by Xia Jing’s seemingly amused gaze, and couldn’t help but laugh dryly, “Brother Jing, you’re brave, please, please.”
Anyway, they didn’t dare to touch the bed on Xu Jin’s side.
Xia Jing didn’t seem to care either, just raised his lips and said lightly, “Haven’t you thought that maybe Song Yang’s guess is completely wrong? The midnight monster doesn’t choose people based on fear, but randomly chooses beds, and only the beds that have been chosen are safe?”
“After all—look, we can’t move the bed sheets at all, this is also a signal given by the instance, right?”
Xia Jing spread his hands and spoke seriously. When Jia Qing and Jin Nan heard this, they thought, damn, this makes perfect sense!
Immediately, the two of them stared at Xu Jin’s bed with colorful expressions.
It wasn’t until they heard Xia Jing’s happy laughter and saw this guy taking a towel to wash his face in the bathroom that they realized they had been tricked!
After Xia Jing went to bed, Jia Qing muttered “Chu Shi Biao” while sending him resentful glares.
Jin Nan scowled after being tricked by Xia Jing.
This wasn’t the first or second time he had clashed with Xia Jing. With new and old grudges combined, his face could be described as the bottom of a pot.
He took off his shirt, seemingly planning to get some sleep before midnight. No one knew if he was silently reciting the text in his heart as Song Yang said. This guy had never been someone who would cooperate well with the team.
As a result, when he tossed his clothes, something plopped out of his clothes onto the clean bed sheet.
Jia Qing subconsciously glanced at it and exclaimed, “Holy crap, bro, you still have a caterpillar hidden in your clothes?”
Jin Nan was stunned. The caterpillar thrown on the bed sheet was like a thin thread, all white, and was curling its body.
Jin Nan’s entire face was instantly distorted. He didn’t expect that there really was a bug that got into his clothes. Based on the time, this bug might have been hiding in there for a whole day!
“Damn!” He cursed in a low voice, and with an ugly expression, swept the bug away with his school uniform.
Then he was like a nervous wreck, turning over and over to check his clothes and himself, while he couldn’t help but scratch his skin again. Countless blood marks were scratched on his wheat-colored skin, which looked horrifying.
This was certainly due to allergies, but it was also a manifestation of his fear of bugs, but Jia Qing didn’t realize it.
He just wanted to relieve his nervousness by talking more. Without thinking much, he joked, “This kind of bug gets in wherever it can, bro, watch your ass.”
Jin Nan abruptly turned his head and glared at him, growling, “Shut up, if you talk nonsense again, I’ll beat you up!”
Jia Qing shrank his neck and scratched his cheek awkwardly.
After Jin Nan finished scolding, he started tossing and turning his bed again. Fortunately, he didn’t find any more bugs, but his sleepiness had completely dissipated.
He leaned against the wall and sat down on the bed with a gloomy expression.
Not long after, at ten o’clock, the dormitory lights uniformly went out.
Everyone could even hear the “click” sound when the lights were uniformly turned off.
Neither dormitory drew the curtains tonight, which was part of the plan.
In order to see more clearly when the midnight monster descended, they needed more light, but using phone flashlights might attract the teacher NPCs to rush into the dormitory, so moonlight was the most suitable natural light.
Weak, but safe.
Under the moonlight, the empty space in the middle of the dormitory was covered in snow-white light.
Most of the beds on both sides were still hidden in darkness.
Jia Qing was trembling slightly, Jin Nan tensed his body, only the young man on the opposite bed sat in the darkness, still as a mountain.
Jia Qing’s voice reciting “Chu Shi Biao” became louder and louder, as if he was trying to clear his mind of distractions.
His nervousness could be heard from his trembling voice.
Jin Nan’s breathing became heavy, and he scratched himself from time to time, staring at the other two restlessly.
Xia Jing was completely quiet.
He watched everything in the darkness, the luminous clock hanging on the wall, listening to all the sounds in the night, and at the same time, still thinking quietly.
Suddenly, Jin Nan said coldly, “Hey, do you think the midnight monster will really choose Wang Yueran or Liu Yi tonight?”
This was directed at Xia Jing.
Jia Qing interrupted, “Yang-ge has already said that this is uncertain, can fear be weighed with a scale?”
Xia Jing calmly asked, “Aren’t you going to recite the text again?”
Starting to talk for no reason was a manifestation of most people’s nervousness.
Jin Nan couldn’t hold back anymore.
Having his mental state exposed, Jin Nan seemed to feel a little embarrassed, and he said stubbornly, “I’m not afraid, I’m afraid that the four people next door will fail their plan tonight!”
“Come on, with Yang-ge there, even if he can’t save anyone, at least he won’t miss any clues,” Jia Qing felt his throat dry, “Let’s talk about something happy. After this instance is over, I must have hotpot, with tripe, duck intestines, and gizzard! So… what about you, old bro?”
Jin Nan sneered, “You’re still in the mood to think about this!”
Jia Qing: I shouldn’t have talked to you!
Jia Qing: “What about you, Brother Jing?”
Xia Jing tilted his head and blinked, “Is hotpot delicious?”
Jia Qing was surprised and really had his attention diverted, “Brother Jing, you haven’t even had hotpot before?”
Xia Jing was genuinely curious, “What does hotpot taste like?”
Jia Qing immediately started chatting, “Ah, there are many kinds of hotpot bases, just for spicy ones, there are butter and clear oil bases, not to mention clear soup, there are many flavors, tomato, mushroom, pork belly chicken… Brother Jing, where are you from, how come—”
Xia Jing suddenly interrupted him and said softly, “Don’t close your eyes.”
As his voice trailed off, on the dial of the luminous clock, the second hand, minute hand, and hour hand converged, all pointing to the number 12.
A wave of dizziness hit, and this time, both Xia Jing and Jia Qing clearly saw that the world in front of them did have a momentary double vision.
“Holy crap, holy crap—” Jia Qing pressed his forehead, resisting the nausea, and shouted in a low voice, “Brother Jing, bro, are you guys okay?”
Soon, Jia Qing found that he couldn’t move.
He was frozen at the moment when he turned his head to look at Jin Nan’s bed and opened his mouth wide to say the word “okay”.
And Xia Jing was staring straight at Jin Nan on the opposite bed.
The strong man was leaning quietly against the wall, his head lowered, and at some point, he had stopped breathing, as if he had fallen asleep.
With a slight “plop”, something fell on Jin Nan’s bed.
___
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Update: Monday, Wednesday, Friday
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