Ch55 - Sha, Sha, Sha

The item system intermittently jammed for around five minutes before shutting down on the spot. It gave up analyzing the composition of this thing and left garbled marks before it went silent.

Sun Guojing had jumped off the building just now in an attempt to escape and got a fractured bone. However, under the stimulus of great joy and sorrow, his legs were as soft as cooked noodles. He even forgot his identity as an upright animal and it was difficult for him to walk on his own. Thanks to the support of his brothers, Sun Guojing staggered back to Room 403 with the others. 

After a while, Sun Guojing slowly realized what Nan Zhou had done in the chaos. Did he collect that door??

Nan Zhou didn’t seem to feel that he had done anything too extraordinary. He came back and wiped his hands with the wet wipes he bought. Then he concentrated on eating apples to replenish his energy.

Sun Guojing asked in a trembling manner, “Where is the door? What about the monster?”

Nan Zhou put down an apple core. “What monster?” 

He didn’t see it at all. He only saw the door.

Sun Guojing, “……”

For the next five minutes, he exhausted the limit of his language skills and tried his best to describe the terrifying appearance of the monster. Every distorted human face, every twisted limb, the soft and sagging dead skin…

He had jumped out the window of the East Fifth Building and limped toward the still lit part of the campus, only to have those countless hands grab his feet and drag him all the way back—

His description made the people who hadn’t seen the monster become frightened and their hearts beat faster.

Nan Zhou looked at him. “……”

Nan Zhou’s expression didn’t change. “Ah.”

Sun Guojing, “……” 

What did this ‘ah’ mean?!

Nan Zhou seemed unable to empathize with his feelings and just reassured him, “It’s gone. You don’t have to be afraid.”

Sun Guojing, “???” Was that the question?

Li Yinhang was also in a state of shock. She asked Nan Zhou uncertainly, “That monster… is it safe to put it in the warehouse?” 

Nan Zhou was willing to say more to his teammates. He said, “At that time, I carefully observed the door. Once the door was closed, there was no light from inside, as if there was a wall behind the door. Once it is opened, there is light.”

“I thought the corridor on the fourth floor was 12 steps longer than the other corridors. We can feel this after testing. This door is something we can’t normally see and it can only be seen at a certain point in time.”

“As you said, the monster grabbed people by constantly stretching out white matter. Thus, its body should be inside this non-existent door. That force is the same as the door, a symbiotic creature.”

“This door is the passage of that force. It is the entrance, the medium and the part of the entity that can be touched.” 

“The warehouse can collect entities.”

“I collected it and stored it in the warehouse.”

“Sun Guojing was going to be caught anyway. It didn’t matter if I tried it. The worst that could happen was that it couldn’t be collected.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Ktf aglb, “…..” 

…Pa kjr gfjrbcjyif. Ktfs pera jikjsr ofia atfgf kjr rbwfatlcu kgbcu.

Vec Xebplcu kjr lcmgfveiber. “Qfgfc’a sbe jogjlv la kbeiv mgjki bea jcv olcv sbe?!”

Rjc Itbe uijcmfv ja tlr kjgftberf. “Ktja vbfrc’a rffw qbrrlyif.”

Ktf ktlaf tewjcblv wbcrafg kgjqqfv jgbecv atf vbbg kjr wlrfgjyis gfibmjafv. Rbk la rffwfv ab tfjg Rjc Itbe’r kbgvr jcv la kjr rb jcugs atja lar ilwyr ajcuifv abufatfg ojrafg jcv ojrafg. Ktf rbecv bo oifrt kglatlcu mbeiv yf tfjgv. Lbkfnfg, atlr tbgglyif rluta jqqfjgfv ecatgfjafclcu lc atf rwjii klcvbk bo atf kjgftberf. Ktf raglcu bo ujgyifv kbgvr yfibk la wjvf la ibbx ilxf j vscjwlm wlcljaegf ijcvrmjqf. 

Li Yinhang, “……” If she was the monster, she would’ve died of anger by now.

Jiang Fang said with a smile, “The warehouse is the official basic tool of Forces of Temptation. It allows you to put in all types of physical objects. There is no rule that you can’t put an instance boss inside.”

…Nonsense. What crazy player would grab an instance boss and put it in the backpack?! Oh yes, that crazy person was right in front of them.

The trio were shocked and stupefied on the surface. 

Nan Zhou nodded and agreed with Jiang Fang’s judgment. “The warehouse has accepted it so it can’t spit it out anymore. Otherwise, it will violate the warehouse’s own rules.”

At this point, Nan Zhou suddenly took a breath. The trio thought he realized something important again so they couldn’t help holding their breath and listening carefully.

“We still have a day and a half left.” Nan Zhou glanced at Jiang Fang. “We will gain a lot of bonus points, right?”

Jiang Fang looked at Nan Zhou. After saying these words, Nan Zhou’s calm and cold expression revealed a bit of naivety. No one could see that he was carrying a monster that was twisting easily, nor could they tell that his fingers that smelled like apples could easily break a person’s neck. 

Jiang Fang looked at him and he didn’t shy away. He also stared at Jiang Fang while waiting for an answer. Jiang Fang wrapped an arm around Nan Zhou’s neck and rubbed it. “Do you want praise?”

Nan Zhou honestly replied, “Yes.”

He felt that he and Jiang Fang were equal. So getting his approval was more valuable than anyone else’s approval.

Jiang Fang didn’t say anything. His hand on Nan Zhou’s shoulder snapped at his left ear. Nan Zhou followed this and subconsciously focused all his attention on his left ear. Immediately, Jiang Fang’s fingers moved quickly over his highly sensitive ear, placing a seal on it like a dragonfly’s kiss. 

Nan Zhou, “?”

Jiang Fang smiled at him. “Write it down first.”

Nan Zhou didn’t understand. Then he soon realized that Jiang Fang meant to write it down first and once they went back, he would buy dessert as a reward.

Nan Zhou touched his ears. The place where Jiang Fang touched felt warm and comfortable .Then he thought about how Jiang Fang had many friends and he was just one among many. This caused him to purse his lips and fall silent. 

Li Yinhang, “……”

The trio, “…..”

Sorry, they would take their leave.

The instance boss that was supposed to lock everyone up had been locked up alive. All the negative influences on them were completely offset. After some time, Sun Guojing finally felt the pain from his legs. He gritted his teeth while Luo Ge and Qi Tianyun helped him to the 24 hour infirmary. 

However, the dungeon had a survival time of 120 hours. All they had to do now was very simple.

—Wait for the instance to end.

Nan Zhou had no worries about the boss who was frantically angry in his inventory. He carried it and had a good night’s sleep. He didn’t dream. He just felt someone touch his ear in a trance. His ear became warmer due to the repeated rubbing.

Nan Zhou moved forward and leaned against the person who was facing him. “Can’t you sleep?” 

Jiang Fang answered, “Wait a moment. I’m thinking about something.”

Nan Zhou was very sleepy. He didn’t show it but he had been very tired today. Nan Zhou wondered, “Do you miss your friends?”

Jiang Fang smiled. “I was thinking of a friend of mine. He used to love me very much.”

Nan Zhou, “…Oh.” 

“Still, maybe it’s been too long. I’m remembering it backwards.”

Nan Zhou thought in an unconvinced manner, ‘I also have friends. That friend planted an apple tree in front of my window.’

However, he was very sleepy. Before he could refute it, he fell asleep again. Jiang Fang’s fingers touched his ears like a kiss. He couldn’t hear Jiang Fang whispering to him, “I’m sorry.”

*** 

Monday morning, the results of Friday’s examination came out. Nan Zhou wore Jiang Fang’s pajamas and was standing in the bathroom washing when the mobile phone placed on the side vibrated endlessly. He picked up the phone and glanced at it.

The messages came from his dormitory group. The group of brothers blew up the group chat, all of them thumping their chests in a heart-wrenching manner.

“Nan Zhou, you fucking don’t talk about loyalty!”

“Do you feel at ease studying behind your brothers’ backs?!” 

“A full score! You actually got a full score on something like History of Foreign Architecture?!”

Nan Zhou carefully read every message. Then he replied in the group. “I didn’t say that I didn’t study. I just asked you what the test was on.”

There was a moment of silence from the group. “…That’s true.”

Then they soon became noisy again. 

“You don’t value loyalty! Buy us a meal!”

“Please eat barbecue!”

“I will order 20 big skewers!”

Nan Zhou replied, “Okay.” 

Then he placed his phone on the washstand. He stood in front of the mirror and opened the tap. Then he unfolded the sketch of the East Fifth Building that he had torn out. After losing the influence of that power, the handwriting in the lower right corner of the sketch paper had become visible.

Nan Zhou read the numbers with the fingers of his left hand one by one while holding his phone in his right hand. He called that number. The phone rang only once before it was picked up.

Xie Xiangyu’s voice contained a laugh that was like a spring breeze. “Congratulations, I saw it yesterday. It was beautiful.”

Nan Zhou didn’t want to talk about it with people who weren’t involved. “I think you have something to tell me.” 

Xie Xiangyu smiled and issued an invitation. “Tonight at midnight, see you on the roof of the international students dormitory.”

Nan Zhou hung up and continued to wash. Li Yinhang yawned and walked in, vaguely greeting him. Nan Zhou nodded to her as well. In Nan Zhou’s view, this was just a normal meeting.

The day passed in a plain manner. The crisis was carried by Nan Zhou in his pocket and the transition was smooth. Nan Zhou went to class, calmly accepted the praise of the foreign architecture teacher and invited his roommates to eat. That evening, he secretly added a pair of egg tarts to his own meal. He didn’t mention to anyone his planned itinerary for tonight.

At 11:50 p.m., Nan Zhou confirmed that Jiang Fang and Li Yinhang were sound asleep and got up. He put on Jiang Fang’s coat and walked out silently like a cat. As he opened the dormitory door and let a ray of light from the corridor penetrate into the room, the only one who woke up was Nanji Star. He gave a confused cry. 

Nan Zhou put his index finger to his lips and whispered, “Shhh.”

The awake Nanji Star shook his short legs and ran toward Nan Zhou. He slipped inside the trousers and held Nan Zhou’s ankles tightly. Nan Zhou looked down at the small tail on top of his shoe and didn’t say anything. He left with Nanji Star.

Xie Xiangyu stood on the edge of the rooftop, staring in the direction of the sports dormitory. The red and blue lights of a police car lit up that place. It was bright and bizarre, like a blinking eye.

“It is really realistic.” Xie Xiangyu sighed. “It is like the real world.” 

Nan Zhou walked to his side and saw the scene he was looking at. “What happened”

“I heard that a student from the sports department has gone missing. It is so pitiful. I don’t know where he has gone.”

Then he glanced at Nan Zhou. This was the first time Nan Zhou saw Xie Xiangyu’s face clearly. After all, the face seen in the photos at the camping club was of the character ‘Xie Xiangyu’ in the instance and it wasn’t vivid enough. The face in front of him was handsome, arrogant and young. There was an invincible confidence in it.

Nan Zhou’s eyes squinted. He felt that such a look and combination of facial features were a bit familiar. However, he couldn’t remember it. He wondered, “How did you get here?” 

That force had disappeared. It wasn’t easy if Xie Xiangyu wanted to pass the guard at the entrance of the international students dormitory.

Xie Xiangyu took out an access card for the dormitory from his pocket and shook it in front of his eyes.

Nan Zhou understood. This person could’ve easily grabbed it when he stole Brother Fang’s room card.

Nan Zhou asked, “What do you want?” 

“Since you came to meet me, you should know what I want to do.”

Nan Zhou stared at him and shook his head silently.

Xie Xiangyu reached out to him, a sharp and warm light in his eyes. “Nan Zhou, be my teammate.”