I Upended Yet Another Campus Urban Legend

Chapter 37

Lin Yi was silent for a long time. Ou Ying took a deep breath. “Am I right?” 

It was another century-long silence. It was so long that the oxygen in the air seemed to ferment.

Cheng Yang was alarmed and terrified, “He…he isn’t, right?”

Finally, Lin Yi nodded and said, voice very low, “Yes.”

Cheng Yang: “F*ck,f*ck,f*ck!” 

Thinking how he had roomed with the 2-6 Monster for an entire night, Cheng Yang swore again, “F*ck,f*ck,f*ck.”

“Cheng Yang, please calm down.” Ou Ying said in a low voice. She pointed to the door of the room. Her meaning being that someone outside the door might be eavesdropping.

“Oh, okay, okay.” Cheng Yang’s voice weakened. In fact, the two outbursts just now had exhausted the energy he had managed to recover from lying on the soft bed.

Ou Ying glanced at the bottom gap of the door. It was clear; there was no one outside their room.

After confirming this, Ou Ying murmured, “No wonder.”

No wonder Lin Yi spoke up that he would room by himself on the first night even after knowing that contact with ghosts was not a Rule of Death or even a sign that one was being targeted by the Rules of Death.

At that time, Lin Yi’s explanation was that he was waiting for the 2-6 Monster to come find him. Now that she thought about it, this reason was really far-fetched.

It was only the first night. Even if the 2-6 Monster was Qin Zhou, knowing Lin Yi’s performance in the 7-7 Rule World, it wouldn’t rush to kill him on the first night. 

And Lin Yi was so smart, what if the 2-6 Monster failed to kill him?

Once it failed, wouldn’t the 2-6 Monster have exposed its identity?

Lin Yi didn’t hide it anymore. “I had guessed the Luo Yi Xue Chang would room with Senior so I said I’d room by myself to put Cheng Yang in with them. Cheng Yang’s big size could help Luo Yi Xue Chang to a certain extent. My guess was that if Cheng Yang roomed with them, the 2-6 Monster wouldn’t take action due to there being more people. Luo Yi Xue Chang and Cheng Yang would have been safe. Unexpectedly, the 2-6 Monster still made a move.”

Lin Yi’s tone was a little regretful and he said to Ou Ying, “I’m sorry, Xue Jie. If I’d told Luo Yi Xue Chang the situation directly, Luo Yi Xue Chang wouldn’t have died.” 

During these two days of interacting with Lin Yi, Ou Ying already knew that Lin Yi was smart but she didn’t expect Lin Yi to be so smart that it tended to be outrageous.

Setting aside how his statement of “I’ll room by myself” had so many hidden mysteries —

“You already found out on the first night?” Ou Ying said in surprise, “No, it wasn’t the first night. When you had Cheng Yang and Luo Yi room together, it was just the beginning of the first night. Did you find out during the day, before Zhou Ge even called you over to talk?”

Lin Yi nodded. 

Ou Ying covered her mouth. “Because he was looking for cigarettes?”

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.

“Rb, atja kjr pera jc jmalbc atja wjvf wf rerqlmlber. Jtfcu Tjcu jcv P kjcafv ab teu sbeg atlutr, yea atlr jmalbc bo Vfclbg’r vlrqfiifv atbrf atbeutar.”

Olc Tl fzqijlcfv, “Qtja gfjiis mbcnlcmfv wf atja Vfclbg lr atf 2-6 Zbcrafg lr atja tf abiv wf ab ‘yf mjgfoei’.”

Ye Tlcu ujnf tlw j qehhifv ibbx. 

“When I was in the 7-7 Rule World, Senior would come every morning and knock on my door to ascertain my safety and he would tell me ‘be careful’ every night.” Lin Yi said, “This was because my window was open at that time. Senior knew that I was being targeted by the Rules of Death so his ‘be careful’ was because he knew I was in danger and he was warning me.”

Ou Ying did not interrupt Lin Yi. She listened nervously and curiously as Lin Yi continued his explanation.

“After the Anke game on the first day, I went to turn on the lights for everyone since no one else could see.” Lin Yi said, “Senior said to me, ‘be careful’ and there was indeed a ghost lying on my back. Senior knew that I was in danger, so he told me ‘be careful’ based on a reaction the Monster had seen in Senior’s memory.”

Ou Ying was stunned. 

“But it doesn’t make sense.” Lin Yi said, “Senior can’t see in the dark. He couldn’t have said it because he’d seen the ghost lying on my back. Unless he’s the 2-6 Monster. As the creator of the 2-6 Rule World, he knew that the Anke game of the woman in red had summoned three ghosts. And so, he told me to be careful.”

Ou Ying thought for a while and said, “But in this kind of surroundings, even I would tell you to be more careful.”

“Xue Jie, it’s not the same.” Lin Yi shook his head and said, “Senior wouldn’t do anything irrelevant nor would he say something meaningless. Even if the general environment is dangerous but it was daytime, the NPC would only kill people at night. It was impossible for me to be in any danger. I think Senior is also very aware of the weight of his words. His “be careful” wouldn’t have made me vigilant but it would have made me feel as though there was danger. So, if he weren’t possessed, he would never have said ‘be careful’ to me at that time.”

Ou Ying was now completely convinced by Lin Yi. Although she had already decided to trust Lin Yi when she decided to ask Lin Yi the name of the 2-6 Monster, this repeated convincing just strengthened her belief in Lin Yi’s cleverness. 

“Then…why did you try to get me to trust Zhou Ge after that?” Ou Ying asked absentmindedly.

“It’s to protect you. It’s also to cooperate with Senior’s act.” Lin Yi said: “…I’ve been wondering why Senior exposed himself.”

In Lin Yi’s eyes, Qin Zhou exposing himself had been rather superfluous. But since it was the 2-6 Monster that exposed itself, there must be a purpose behind it.

On the first night, Xue Jie, you and I discussed about reverse psychology and straightforward thinking. Later, Xue Jie also said that it was impossible for the 2-6 Monster to disrupt our thinking. After all, not everyone in a team understands reverse psychology, at the same time, not everyone would look at a problem in a straight-forward manner. But, Xue Jie, have you ever thought, what if from the very beginning, the 2-6 Monster only had one objective?” 

Cheng Yang was stunned, he couldn’t understand what Lin Yi was getting at.

Ou Ying said after a brief moment of contemplation. “You mean to say that the 2-6 Monster has been targeting you from the very beginning. You certainly aren’t someone who’d look at a problem in a straightforward manner so the purpose of him exposing himself was just to confuse your thinking .”

“More or less.” Lin Yi nodded: “Without that ‘be careful’, I wouldn’t have been sure that Senior is the 2-6 Monster. And Senior exposing himself did have a benefit for it that we hadn’t thought of.”

Ou Ying asked, “What?” 

Lin Yi: “It gave it another way out.”

There was no such thing as a flawless murder. The 2-6 Monster, having read Qin Zhou’s memory, was also well aware of this principle. And so, if he does leave a trace, Qin Zhou as the Monster could completely blame it on the 2-6 Monster having read his memory, This way the 2-6 Monster could be anyone.

“Fortunately, with that phrase ‘be careful’, I didn’t fall into the trap it had set and I was able to figure out the 2-6 Monster inner workings. — It wants to play games with me. Once I completely trust it, it will stab me in the back.” Lin Yi demonstrated his view with an example. “Senior talked to me on the first night and asked who the third ghost had contact with. He was actually trying to prove he wasn’t the Monster. After all, the Monster has already thoroughly mastered our method of self declaration. — As long as we do something that a Monster wouldn’t be willing to do then we aren’t a Monster. A Monster wouldn’t care whether someone lived of died so Senior pretended to care.”

So Lin Yi pretended to believe him but at the same time couldn’t fully believe him. He threw out all his misgivings and waited for Qin Zhou to explain. Only after Qin Zhou explained did he show that he ‘believed’. He couldn’t give his trust too easily. It was the only way the Monster could be convinced that Lin Yi believed Qin Zhou wasn’t the 2-6 Monster. 

“Once it believed that you believed it, the Monster only focused on you and its next move is to find a way to kill you. This way, it won’t kill other people to muddy the water so as to achieve its purpose of making you believe it.”  Ou Ying said.

Lin Yi nodded and apologized, “Unfortunately, I didn’t dare be certain of this this until Luo Yi Xue Chang died.”

After Luo Yi’s death, Ou Ying had given him five minutes to think before he fully reacted.

“It had even reminded me…” Lin Yi said regretfully, “It said I was too smart for my own good. It was a reminder. It was hinting that I should use the simplest way to think about what I would see the next day and then I speculated that Senior was being framed. He just blatantly killed Luo Yi Xue Chang after beating Cheng Yang unconscious…” 

“Unfortunately, I only figured this out after Luo Yi Xue Chang’s death.” Lin Yi lowered his head and repeated.

“Lin Yi, it’s not your fault.” Ou Ying said comfortingly, “It was too early. Even if you had told Luo Yi, he wouldn’t have believed it. I know Luo Yi and Luo Yi’s is very skeptical. He won’t believe something unless he finds finds and puts the clues together himself, every other person’s speculations are just suggestions to him.”

After a while, Lin Yi said, “En.”

Ou Ying knew. Luo Yi was dead, such consolation was of no use to Lin Yi. She changed topics and asked, “So, do you have a solution now?” 

Lin Yi knew that Ou Ying was asking about how to kill 2-6 Monster. He shook his head, “The 2-6 Rule World’s Rules of Death cannot be applied.”

The 2-6 Monster knew the Rules of Death it had set up. This Rule of Death — believing there are ghosts in the world — How could it violate that rule of death that easily? It was even more unlikely that they’d be able to fool it since it knows that Lin Yi had used Rules of Death to kill the 7-7 Monsters.

Today, there would be a new Rule of Death. They didn’t know if this one could be used against Qin Zhou. But the possibility that it could apply to Qin Zhou was far far less than the possibility that the other survivors would violate it. What’s more, they hadn’t been able to tamper with the die. Tonight was going to be more difficult than the previous two.

Ou Ying saw Lin Yi’s hesitation and she suggested, “We still this entire day so let’s use what time we have to find the second Rule of Death. If we can find it and if we can derive from it a means to kill the 2-6 Monster then we’ll eliminate the Monster. If not, we’ll seek out the 2-6 Monster before it gets dark and ask for a Replay.” 

Lin Yi nodded. Though he didn’t want to let off the 2-6 Monster, he was worried that his insistence would get others killed.

“Then it’s decided.” Ou Ying said: “Don’t feel pressured. Anyway, Zhou Ge doesn’t know that you already know that he’s the 2-6 Monster.”

Lin Yi felt that this should be the case. He nodded and said, “Okay.”

The woman in red was still outside, kicking up a fuss about the missing photo. Lin Yi opened the door and said to Ou Ying, “Xue Jie, I’ll deal with the mercury.” 

Because they still had to stay in the 2-6 Rule World for an entire day, the mercury might endanger other people’s lives, so Lin Yi had to clean up the mercury from the thermometer he had accidentally broken outside the dining hall.

“Put these on.” Ou Ying handed the simple mask and gloves that she made last night to Lin Yi. “Be careful… Watch out and don’t let it get in contact with you.”

Lin Yi: “Okay.”

Lin Yi opened the door and went downstairs. He put on his mask and gloves. Mercury was very troublesome to deal with. Brooms and rags couldn’t be used. Fortunately, the villa’s floor was made of smooth tile and the appearance of ghosts last night made the temperature very low, making the mercury on the ground condense. 

Lin Yi found a cardboard case and a plastic bag. He carefully scraped together the scattered mercury. He slowly gathered the small mercury beads and into a small sphere. When he was about to pick it up and put and seal it into the plastic bag, a pair of legs appeared in front of him.

According to the style of the trousers, it was Qin Zhou.

Lin Yi was momentarily stunned. Then said, while shoveling the mercury, “What brand are Senior’s shoes?”

Qin Zhou looked at him. “What?” 

Lin Yi: “You make no sound when you walk.”

Qin Zhou didn’t speak, just kept staring at him.

“Senior, don’t stand here. If you inhale the mercury…” Lin Yi packed up the mercury, raised his eyes and then the next second, he stopped mid-sentence, “it’s harmful to –…”

He saw red spots and blisters on Qin Zhou’s face. 

When skin is exposed to mercury, rashes, papules, blisters and oozing scabs could appear.

Had Qin Zhou been in contact with mercury? And to his face in particular?

Disjointed memories flashed through Lin Yi’s mind. The 2-6 Monster grinding a chopstick in the kitchen, shadows appearing by his feet the next second, strange lowering movements, Qin Zhou’s face…

Lin Yi’s heart immediately sank. 

He remembered why he threw the thermometer. Because he had ran into Qin Zhou in the kitchen.

-“I’ve been waiting for you.”

– “I know you don’t tell the sides of the dice for no reason.”

– “You must be trying to mess with the dice, am I right?” 

– “I can know your thoughts with any movement or expression of yours.”

Wrong, wrong. They’d made a mistake!

Qin Zhou doesn’t know that he already knows that Qin Zhou is the 2-6 Monster? That’s wrong! He had already exposed himself to Qin Zhou.

Since the Monster knew to wait for him in the kitchen, how could it not have also laid a trap in the woman’s room? 

What about that photo?

This was a disaster! An absolute disaster.

It’s over, it’s over.

It’s over.