Xiao Jia almost crashed into the other person’s arms.
“Hey! Where did this flashy slut come from, daring to pounce on me! Let me tell you, I only like men!” The other person pushed Xiao Jia away with a haughty spit.
Xiao Jia fell on her butt, her face scrunched up in displeasure.
Xin Meng walked over to help her up and looked at the newcomer.
She had a strong scent of the streets.
Her wavy hair was dyed light yellow, her face heavily made up for the evening, with dark circles under her eyes, red lips, and it was hard to tell her original appearance. She wore extremely revealing clothing, a top that looked like a bra, a super short skirt, fishnet stockings, ten-centimeter high heels, and the edges of lace thongs were clearly visible against her bare waist.
At first glance, she was clearly not a respectable woman.
The perfume was so strong it made one sneeze.
Xin Meng unconsciously took a few steps back, feeling more cautious than if she had seen a ghost.
“Hey, I said, what are you doing bringing me here?” The woman glared at Xiao Jia with a sidelong glance, “Don’t tell me you’re from the TV station; I’m still a hostess, you know? This line of work can’t be exposed, got it? Let me go, or I’ll report you for illegal detention!”
“You even know the term ‘illegal detention’? It seems your brain isn’t completely empty after all.”
Suddenly, another voice came from behind her. Before long, the woman was pushed from behind, her high heel twisted, nearly causing her to fall. She angrily turned around and shouted, “Hey! What are you doing! You filthy woman!”
As she stepped aside, the person behind her appeared in front of Xin Meng and Xiao Jia. It was a young woman dressed in a white shirt and an A-line skirt, looking like a white-collar worker. She wasn’t particularly attractive, but her makeup was delicate, neither too heavy nor too light, making her look quite pleasant.
“You’re blocking the door,” the office lady frowned and pushed her aside before slowly walking in.
“Hey, hey! Don’t push me! Are you sick?” The woman jumped in anger but received no response.
The office lady’s gaze flicked between Xiao Jia’s sportswear and Xin Meng’s casual hoodie, and she asked with some confusion, “Are you all… students, or are you my future teammates?”
They all looked like college students.
“What teammates?” Xiao Jia asked, bewildered.
Xin Meng smiled politely and said, “I’m your teammate; she isn’t. My name is Xin Meng, nice to meet you.”
The office lady nodded and replied appropriately, “Hello, I’m Zhou Shengnan.”
“Hey, you even introduced yourselves!” the streetwise woman said angrily, “Who brought me here without my consent? What nonsense about teammates, what ridiculous game, I don’t want to participate!”
After saying that, she turned to leave, but Zhou Shengnan coolly said, “You just said you had a bit of a brain, and now you’re acting foolish again. Didn’t you carefully read the instructions on the card?”
“Who are you calling foolish!” the streetwise woman cursed, “I think you’re the foolish one, believing whatever others write down. Are you a pig?!”
Zhou Shengnan ignored her and said to Xin Meng, “I originally thought what happened just now was some kind of trick, but later I saw the books in that dormitory and found them very strange. Not only were there blank dates, but there were also no author names. When I opened them, it was a bunch of gibberish, even the textbooks were like that. I realized something was off.”
Xin Meng nodded and said, “We indeed entered a game system. If we don’t clear it, we can’t return to the normal world.”
Zhou Shengnan murmured, “So it really is like that…”
The streetwise woman: “…”
Due to her profession, she was very good at reading people. Seeing that the two didn’t seem to be joking, she hesitated a bit, temporarily stopping her steps and pricking up her ears to listen to their conversation.
“Um…” Xiao Jia asked weakly, “What about my roommates?”
“We’re here, Xiao Jia!” Two girls outside responded, then entered the activity room. The three of them huddled together, excitedly chattering about the game they just played and what had happened, occasionally gasping in surprise.
Xin Meng took out his card and asked Zhou Shengnan, “Can I see the hint written on your card?”
Zhou Shengnan nodded, and they exchanged cards.
When Xin Meng took a look, it read: [You want to kill a ghost?—Hehe.]
Hehe…
Xin Meng’s mouth twitched. What kind of strong mocking tone was that? Couldn’t it just say there’s no way?
“Let me see yours,” Zhou Shengnan said to the streetwise woman.
“Why should I!” The woman rolled her eyes and refused to cooperate.
“I told you, no one is joking with you. If you don’t show yours, we won’t show you ours. In the end, you’ll be the only one who knows nothing. If you die for no reason, don’t blame us,” Zhou Shengnan looked at her with disdain, seemingly very annoyed by her type.
The woman wasn’t stupid. After hesitating for a moment, she reluctantly extended her card, as if she were reluctantly donating it, and then urged anxiously, “Show me yours too.”
The streetwise woman, who was named Li Yan, had written on her card: [The dead will take your soul, burying you in dust.]
Zhou Shengnan asked Xin Meng, “Can you understand this? What does it mean?”
Since Xin Meng had regained the memories of the NPC, he was very familiar with the rules present in the game hints. He glanced at it and said, “It means we can’t die. If someone dies, we will die too.”
Zhou Shengnan pondered for a moment and found it quite reasonable, unable to help but praise, “You’re very smart; you figured it out so quickly. I have no clue at all.”
Xin Meng couldn’t say that he was an insider cheating; he could only awkwardly smile.
Li Yan noticed Xin Meng’s expression and narrowed her eyes, “Little brother, you seem to understand a lot! Don’t tell me you’re one of the behind-the-scenes staff causing trouble?”
Xin Meng’s brow twitched. He didn’t expect this Li Yan, who seemed big-breasted and brainless, to be surprisingly sharp and accidentally hit the truth!
However, Xin Meng was not someone to be trifled with. He said without changing his expression, “It’s because I didn’t just come in; I’ve already cleared a few levels, so I naturally understand this game better than you.”
“Not your first time?” The two were surprised and wanted Xin Meng to elaborate.
But the current Xin Meng was no longer the same as before. In the past, he would patiently explain the situation to everyone for the sake of survival, but now his perspective on the problem was completely different. He no longer felt empathy for these players and naturally didn’t want to waste time.
Just when he was troubled about how to escape, a man’s voice came from outside the door. To Xin Meng’s disappointment, that voice still did not belong to You Yi.
“What’s all this noise? It seems… my ‘teammates’ have arrived first?” The eerie voice sent chills down everyone’s spine.
Everyone in the room looked towards the door, and a thin man walked in with a smile. He had an ordinary appearance, the kind that would be unrecognizable if thrown into a crowd, and he was wearing… a prison uniform?
Behind him followed a female college student, presumably one of Xiao Jia’s roommates, but she was acting very unusually—cowering with her arms crossed, her expression terrified, but it didn’t seem like she was scared of a ghost.
Her gaze was fixed on the thin man’s back, shivering from time to time, trembling all over.
Was she afraid of this man?
This situation not only caught Xin Meng’s attention, but the two women also keenly sensed something was off and looked at him warily, the atmosphere in the room growing tense.
The man had his hands in his pockets, wearing a harmless smile, “What’s going on? I’m also your teammate.”
The three exchanged glances, and no one spoke.
The NPCs, however, were completely unaffected, going about their business. Xiao Jia and the others cheerfully called out to the girl behind the man, “Mao Mao, come over here!”
The girl named Mao Mao glanced up, but the man was blocking half of the open door. The other half could actually be pushed open, but…
Mao Mao timidly glanced at the man’s back and shook her head vigorously at her roommates.
“Mao Mao, what’s wrong with you?” Xiao Jia looked at her in confusion, and the man turned his head, but Mao Mao quickly lowered her head deeply.
“Did I block you?” The man smiled, stepping into the room and making way for her, “Go on. Your… friends want to have a good chat with you…”
Mao Mao’s pupils constricted, trembling even more, but she didn’t dare to not move, forcing herself to slowly pass by him and return to her companions. Xiao Jia and the three surrounded her, asking her various questions, but she kept her head down, saying nothing.
Xin Meng felt something was off; this man was too strange!
A prison uniform… a prisoner.
It seemed he had died while still wearing the prison uniform; he must be a death row inmate.
What crime had he committed to be sentenced to death?
This was the first time Xin Meng encountered such a special identity among players while playing the game. What kind of impact would it have on clearing the game?
But he couldn’t exclude this person just because of that; after all, they were all players, and the other party held a very important card.
“Can I see your card?” Xin Meng said straightforwardly, “In exchange, you can also see ours.”
The man raised an eyebrow, his eyes carrying a playful glint, “Interesting… I thought the first thing people would say when they see me is: ‘What crime did you commit?'”
“I don’t care,” Xin Meng said coldly, “If it’s theft, we have nothing to steal. If it’s rape, keep away from these girls. If it’s murder, keep away from all of us. After we exchange cards, you can move freely; no one will care about you.”
The man was completely taken aback by such a response, surprised, and began to scrutinize Xin Meng with a new perspective.
Xin Meng pretended not to notice, but his outstretched hand remained until the man chuckled lightly, muttering “Interesting,” and then placed the card in his hand.
Xin Meng picked up the card and saw it read: [July Half, Hundred Ghosts Ascend to Heaven.]
Flipping it over, he saw the beginning and learned the man’s name—Shen Tu Kou.
A rather imposing name, but it was completely inconsistent with his thin, ordinary appearance, creating a strong sense of incongruity.
For some reason, compared to the streetwise woman Li Yan, he had a hundred times worse impression of this Shen Tu Kou.
