The dripping had a slow, rhythmic cadence. If you kept listening, it almost had a lulling effect.
Trying to divert his focus, Fu Changxun began paying attention to other sounds—and quickly noticed how unnaturally quiet it was outside the door.
It was only because of the dripping that the silence wasn’t immediately obvious. In fact, it made the water sound even louder.
Hrrrhh… hrrrhh…
One of the NPCs started snoring.
Then another pale face pressed itself against the glass of the door.
Its pupils were missing. Vacant eyes peered into the dormitory.
That gaze slowly swept across each bed, scanning one after another. Everyone appeared to be asleep.
Finding nothing amiss, the face gradually retreated and moved on, likely heading to check the other rooms.
As the unnerving sensation of being watched finally faded, Fu Changxun opened his eyes a crack and took a slow, deep breath. He needed to calm the instinctive chill that had raised every hair on his body, and the fierce pounding in his chest.
This boss was capable of mental attacks.
Classic SAN-drain.
As someone who’d been terrified of ghosts since birth and hadn’t even gone toe-to-toe with this one yet, his SAN value had already dropped by 16.
After weighing his own nerves and glancing at the now-sound-asleep Qiu Yi, Fu Changxun decided to abort any action plans for the night. This ghost tale would have to wait until tomorrow.
But he wasn’t the one picking this fight.
The instance came for him instead.
Less than ten minutes later, that chilling pressure returned—stronger this time—snapping Fu Changxun out of his shallow doze and into full alertness.
It was worse than before.
The dormitory door, which had been securely locked, gave a soft click under the influence of this… thing.
And then it stepped inside.
Fu Changxun all but held his breath—but he knew better. Holding still would only make him stand out more.
He forced his breathing into a slow, natural rhythm, willing his body to stay calm.
But his attention was fully locked onto whatever had entered the room.
He couldn’t open his eyes—but its presence was unmistakable. He could feel it.
The thing lingered beside his bed for several seconds, then moved inward toward the other bunks.
Fu Changxun cracked one eye open—and saw something utterly horrifying.
“It” wore the face of the dorm matron. He’d even seen her when he entered the building earlier. But now her mouth gaped impossibly wide, and that cavernous, blood-soaked maw clamped down on an NPC student. Accompanied by a series of crunch, crunch sounds, she swallowed the entire body whole.
The scene was pure SAN-destroying nightmare fuel. Fu Changxun failed to control his reaction, and his breathing slipped out of rhythm.
The dorm matron immediately noticed. She turned toward him, sharp teeth still smeared with scraps of flesh and blood. One leg hadn’t even been fully swallowed yet—just hanging there—as she stared straight at him.
Fu Changxun: “……”
Another 20 points of SAN gone.
And worse—once the boss had noticed him, he would be the next one eaten.
While she was still swallowing, Fu Changxun threw off the blanket and sprang up, bolting straight for the door.
He hadn’t taken off his clothes or shoes before sleeping—this exact scenario was why. He just hadn’t expected the worst-case outcome to actually happen.
When the dorm matron entered earlier, she hadn’t closed the door. That worked perfectly for his escape—and he even managed to pull it shut behind him. Qiu Yi was still asleep. There was no way to wake him now.
Fu Changxun could only hope that… the dorm matron wouldn’t finish eating everyone else in the room first before coming after him. Ideally, she’d chase him immediately.
At least he was still conscious. He had items he could use. And he had the black cat—and dandelion—backing him up.
The dorm matron did indeed give chase right away—but got momentarily stuck by the doorframe.
She had to stop, swallow the remaining leg, and wait for her grotesquely deformed mouth to return to normal before rushing out.
By then, that cunning prey had already fled far beyond the dormitory corridor.
She charged forward in fury. “Where are you?”
Her voice was hoarse and drifting, unstable—exactly how people imagined ghosts sounding. Fu Changxun hid silently behind a fire hydrant.
He was thin. Under the cover of night, an ordinary person really wouldn’t be able to tell where he was.
But this wasn’t an ordinary pursuer. This was a boss. A dungeon monster.
“Found you.”
The dorm matron’s voice suddenly sounded right behind him—icy, ghostly, spine-chilling.
Fu Changxun didn’t turn around. The instant the sound reached his ears, he hurled a paranormal defensive item backward and sprinted forward.
The shrill wailing behind him closed in fast. He veered sharply at full speed and charged into the stairwell leading upward.
“Meow—!”
At that exact moment, a black shape burst out from the shadows by the wall. The black cat lunged and bit down hard on the dorm matron’s ankle, ripping off a chunk of flesh. That piece quickly dissolved into a mass of black fog, which the cat swallowed.
The dorm matron let out a twisted scream. “What is that thing?!”
The black cat deftly dodged all her attacks, leaped up the steps, and caught up to Fu Changxun.
“Meow!” She’s vicious!
Fu Changxun was starting to lag physically. “I know. Where’s Dandelion?”
Black cat: “Mraow.” On the rooftop.
Fu Changxun forced himself to accelerate, taking two steps at a time as he climbed.
But just as he was about to reach the topmost floor, something felt wrong.
He’d just taken seven strides, each spanning two steps. That should’ve been fourteen steps total…
But every staircase in this dorm building had only thirteen steps. That was something he remembered clearly from high school.
The moment that realization hit, the entire floor shifted.
The sky above the rooftop seemed to transform into a gigantic mouth, pressing down on him like a bottomless abyss.
Fu Changxun froze in place, one foot still on the last step, unable to move.
His SAN dropped a few more points. His vision began to double.
“So that’s how it is… Am I going to be swallowed?”
His mind went blank of everything else. He felt only regret at his own carelessness.
Ah—and Dong Zi, whose whereabouts were currently unknown. Fu Changxun couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for him. Dong Zi might’ve just fallen in love… only to lose his boyfriend immediately.
But what came next wasn’t annihilation.
It was a familiar voice—Dandelion’s incessant, foul-mouthed ranting.
“Whoa, what the hell is this thing?! It’s so ugly! Ugly enough to offend my beautiful flowers!”
“Ha—take this! Hit-hit-hit ratatatata biubiubiu! You ugly freak with the big mouth! Wow, you actually wanna eat me? I’m gonna stab you to death! Watch out for my spines—hmph! If you eat me, you’ll turn into a sea urchin!”
Fu Changxun opened his eyes.
His second precious troublemaker—Dandelion—was squaring off against the dorm matron. Possibly because Dandelion’s mouth was too vicious, the matron was so enraged she stretched her mouth even wider.
…Indeed, just as Dandelion said.
An ugly, big-mouthed monster.
But the dorm matron’s true strength lay in her mental attacks. Earlier, Fu Changxun’s momentary lapse in awareness had allowed her to strike.
That was why he’d perceived fourteen steps.
In reality, he’d already stepped onto the rooftop terrace, beneath a sky full of stars.
Only this dormitory building—no, the other dorm buildings as well—were shrouded in black fog.
The pitch-black silence, the sense that you could hear your own breathing—that atmosphere all came from the fog. Step outside it, and it was immediately obvious that there were lights on in the dorms, and NPC students making noise.
Grinding teeth. Snoring. Talking in their sleep. Some even singing in their dreams. Others sneaking off to the bathroom to secretly play on their phones while the dorm matron was away…
In short, nothing like the deathly silence from before lights-out.
Dandelion was still fighting the boss dorm matron. The two sides were nearly evenly matched.
Fu Changxun couldn’t help but sigh in relief. “Looks like you really do need someone who can fight. Otherwise I’d be dead meat tonight.”
Dandelion snorted. “Hah! Now you finally realize how important I am, huh? Next time you’re not allowed to leave me stuck alone in that whatever-space. I wanna come out and play!”
Fu Changxun agreed without hesitation. “Deal. You’re the MVP.”
Dandelion perked up instantly and fought even harder. Its sharp spines—mutated through the apocalypse instance—were now on par with many metal and steel materials.
The dorm matron took one look at Dandelion—whose fighting spirit had clearly surged again—and immediately sensed that something was wrong.
She tried to flee downstairs, but Fu Changxun blocked the doorway firmly, even slapping on an expensive mental-type defensive item.
Dandelion’s sharp spines and leaves—now several times enlarged and towering taller than a human—lashed down viciously. The dorm matron let out a piercing shriek, and the two attacked each other simultaneously.
“AH—!”
The ghostly wailing was so loud it actually startled Qiu Yi awake back in the dorm.
Director Qiu came to groggily, eyes unfocused and mind muddled. The moment he opened his eyes and saw that Fu Changxun’s bed was empty, he was scared half to death and jolted fully awake.
Bloodstains on the floor. One NPC missing. One teammate gone. The dorm door wide open.
It took his brain a few seconds to process everything.
“Fuck! How did I fall asleep again?!” Qiu Yi didn’t even have time to put his coat on properly. He cursed himself under his breath, shoved his feet into his shoes, and ran off in slippers, clomping toward the source of the noise.
Dr. Fu—please don’t let anything happen to him!
To the Huaxia Special Affairs Office, Director Qiu himself might be expendable—but Lulu and Dr. Fu absolutely were not.
One healed the mind. The other healed the body. Only together could lives truly be saved.
Not to mention, Fu Changxun was ranked second on the individual Points Leaderboard—a symbol of national strength. Qiu Yi didn’t even dare imagine what would happen if Dr. Fu died in an instance. What would Dong Zi do? What about Xiao Xiao? What would happen to Special Affairs?
High stamina really did make a difference. Qiu Yi reached the rooftop in just over ten seconds—and was immediately confronted with the absurd sight of Dandelion locked in a fierce battle with the dorm matron.
And the Dr. Fu he’d been worrying himself sick over?
Standing off to the side, waving enthusiastically and cheering Dandelion on.
Director Qiu: “……”
Fu Changxun noticed him and looked genuinely surprised. “You woke up? How’d you wake up?”
Qiu Yi coughed lightly. “Uh… probably from all the noise you guys were making.”
Fu Changxun glanced back at the battlefield and casually tossed a protective item onto Director Qiu. “Good thing you’re awake, then. I’m burning through items like water—I’m guessing once I leave this instance, I’ll drop down the leaderboard.”
He felt the pain keenly—but it had to be done. Otherwise, losing his life would be the real loss.
The dorm matron, seemingly enraged by Dandelion yet unable to overpower it, seized an opening and fled downstairs. Dandelion chased after her relentlessly.
It had no intention of letting this boss go. If it caught her, it would officially surpass even the black cat as a top-tier item!
The black cat, who had absolutely no interest in competing: “…Meow meow meow.”
Boring.
