I Upended Yet Another Campus Urban Legend

“Little genius.” 

Qin Zhou stared at Lin Yi. He hadn’t opened his note. After seeing the name on Lin Yi’s note, the name written on his was already self-evident.

“There is an uncertain factor in this.” Qin Zhou said, “Do you need me to say it?”

Lin Yi held the note in his hand, “No need, Senior, I know.”

They were to tell 7-7 the Monster that the Monster was among them and that they suspected he or she was it. 

This was the situation to which a reaction the 7-7 Monster wouldn’t be able to find in its store of human memory. This was a reaction the 7-7 Monster wouldn’t have had of imitating since the very beginning of the 7-7 Rule World.

So, the 7-7 Monster would definitely give itself away.

But just like the 7-7 Monster wouldn’t know how to react to this, neither of them knew either how the 7-7 Monster would react. The uncertain factor here was whether the 7-7 Monster’s reaction would be to simply immediately kill them.

After all, for the 7-7 Monster, killing someone to silence them wasn’t something they needed to learn. It had always been playing such a role.

Qin Zhou said, “Breakfast should be over by now. They should be back.”

After saying so, they heard footsteps in the third floor corridor.

There then came a knock to Room 304’s door. Cheng Yang’s voice came from outside, “Lin Yi Xiong, are… are you okay?”

They must have seen the beaten Xu Xiazhi with his bruised nose and swollen face at breakfast. A quick inquiry about the situation and they would have known that Xu Xiazhi had moved Lin Yi’s wardrobe last night. 

Qin Zhou looked at Lin Yi and tilted his head slightly. “Let’s go.”

Lin Yi’s palms were sweating and the sweat smeared the note, causing the characters in the note to smudge.

The only two characters written on the note —

Cheng Yang. 

“Senior, you be careful too.”

Thinking about how Qin Zhou would say that to him every time he did something, Lin Yi decided to say it to Qin Zhou as well.

“Okay.” Qin Zhou replied. Compared to Lin Yi for whom this was his first time pinning down a Monster, Qin Zhou looked much more relaxed, like he was going off to some dinner party.

Lin Yi nodded and walked towards the door. 

“Little genius.”

Qin Zhou called him once again from behind.

Lin Yi looked back at Qin Zhou: “?”

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.

“Forget it. I’ll wait til we get out of here before I cash in on your promise.” Qin Zhou gestured with his chin towards the door. “He’s saved you the trouble of looking for him.” 

Olc Tl cbvvfv jujlc. “Cigluta.”

Qtfc tf bqfcfv atf vbbg, Jtfcu Tjcu kjr ralii raeqlvis rajcvlcu atfgf. Lf tjv tlr tjcv gjlrfv jr atbeut tf kfgf jybea ab xcbmx bcmf jujlc.

“Ktja lr, et, P tfjgv We Wljhtl rjs…” Jtfcu Tjcu geyyfv atf yjmx bo tlr cfmx. “Olc Tl Wlbcu, jgf sbe jigluta?”

“I’m perfectly fine.” Lin Yi looked at Cheng Yang, took a deep breath and said, “Cheng Yang Xiong, I have something to tell you.” 

“Huh?” Cheng Yang looked at Lin Yi’s serious face and after momentarily being dazed, he said, “Okay. What is it?”

Lin Yi said, “Let’s go to your room and talk.”

Cheng Yang took a look into Room 304 and met Qin Zhou’s gaze as he was walking out. When he reached Lin Yi, he reached out and patted Lin Yi on the shoulder, saying, “Ask him carefully.”

He then looked at Cheng Yang and asked, “Is there any breakfast left?” 

“Ask me what?” Cheng Yang was at a loss. “There’s still breakfast. We left food for Boss and Lin Yi Xiong.”

Qin Zhou said nothing. He simply turned around and left.

Cheng Yang was puzzled and when Qin Zhou was a little farther away, he quickly asked Lin Yi, “Lin Yi Xiong, what’s going on? What happened?”

Lin Yi just said the same thing, “Let’s go to your room and talk.” 

Cheng Yang thought for a while. “Okay!”

Cheng Yang’s Room 303 was next to Lin Yi’s Room 304. Lin Yi waited for Cheng Yang to go into Room 303 before following after him.

Before entering Room 303, Lin Yi calmly glanced in the direction Qin Zhou left.

Instead of heading downstairs, Qin Zhou had turned to go into Room 301 where Zhou Lingling was. 

Afraid that Cheng Yang might notice something, Lin Yi didn’t dare look any longer. He followed Cheng Yang into Room 303.

Standing by the door of Room 303, Lin Yi thought about it and decided to close the door.

If Cheng Yang wasn’t the 7-7 Monster and the real 7-7 Monster catches sight of and manages to imitate Cheng Yang’s reaction through the open door, it was going to be bad for them.

This was their last and only chance. 

Click.

Lin Yi closed the door to Room 303 but he didn’t dare get too close to Cheng Yang. If Cheng Yang was the 7-7 Monster, being alone with him now, Lin Yi’s situation was much more dangerous than if he were Qin Zhou because the 7-7 Monster has always been out to kill Lin Yi.

“Lin Yi Xiong?”

Cheng Yang took a few steps towards Lin Yi, a worried expression on his face/ “What’s the matter? Don’t scare me. It’s fine if you laugh but, Xiongdi, I might look strong but your xiongdi’s courage is actually very small. It’s only this much.” 

Saying so, he gestured with his index finger and thumb.

“Cheng Yang Xiong,” Lin Yi observed Cheng Yang’s expression and said, “I have a request before I tell you.”

Cheng Yang: “Huh? There’s even a request?”

After thinking about it, Cheng Yang came out and said, “Request away. So long as it isn’t life-threatening, I’ll do it.” 

Lin Yi said, “Keep calm the whole time. No screaming.”

Cheng Yang’s heart trembled and he felt the seriousness of the matter. Impatiently, he took a few steps closer to Lin Yi. “Is it serious? Then… Then I’ll take a few deep breaths and adjust my fragile state of mind.”

With that said, Cheng Yang stopped and no longer tried to approach Lin Yi.

Lin Yi observed him as Cheng Yang looked back and forth throughout the room. He then strode to the side of the bed and picked up the pillow, hugging it. 

He held the pillow tightly in his arms, using it to share his anxiety.

Cheng Yang then said, “Lin Yi Xiong, I’m ready. Tell me. I should probably be able to take it.”

Lin Yi asked first, “How much do you know about the Rule World?”

Cheng Yang said, “I know shit about it. I don’t know anything. I’m a fucking poor tester. My dad said that there was no school in the entire country that would accept me. He said I was a waste. Then I got accepted into this school, the Un…Unnatural…” 

Lin Yi added, “The Unnatural Engineering University.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Cheng Yang said: “The admission letter from this f*cking school was sent to my house. If I hadn’t had a big fight with my parents, I would have gone abroad to get gilded. But I lost my temper and in a fit, I came here and them I got caught in this thing.”

“I don’t know anything, except what you told me that night, about how I should treat this place like a suspenseful exploration game and that the NPCs in the game could kill people. I’m totally clueless about anything else.”

Lin Yi said, “This is a Rule World; student union number 7-7.” 

Cheng Yang: “And?”

Lin Yi said, “There is a boss in each Rule World. The boss here is called the 7-7 Monster.” This time, without waiting for Cheng Yang to ask, Lin Yi said, “It’s a real monster. Yes, the kind that you’re imagining right now.”

“Fuck.”

Cheng Yang was startled, and immediately thought of Lin Yi’s request. He slapped himself on the mouth and then asked, “A real monster?” 

Lin Yi nodded. “Yes.”

“Whe-Where is it?” Cheng Yang held the pillow tightly. Lin Yi could see that he was nervous. His knuckles had even gone white.

“It’s…” Lin Yi stared straight at Cheng Yang. ” Among us.”

Cheng Yang repeated, “Among us?” 

“Yes, it’s among us.” Lin Yi said: “One of us is the Monster.”

Meanhile, in Room 301.

Qin Zhou walked in. Zhou Lingling was startled by Qin Zhou’s sudden entrance.

“Senior Qin?” Zhou Lingling looked suspiciously at Qin Zhou. 

Qin Zhou took a quick look around Room 301 and then his eyes landed firmly on Zhou Lingling. “Now that you’ve calmed down, can we talk?”

Zhou Lingling bowed her head. She judged from Qin Zhou’s words that Qin Zhou had come to ask her about what had happened in the first floor toilet yesterday.

But Zhou Lingling didn’t want to think about it at all. It was terrible.

Li Ying’s death had been even more terrifying than Wang Duo’s death. Although Wang Duo’s death had been bizarre, at least there had been a lot of people in the dining room at the time. 

Compared to that, Zhou Lingling had been the only one present at the scene of Li Ying’s death.

Qin Zhou was never one to stand if he could sit. He pulled over the chair in Room 301 and sat down. Turning from a guest to a host, he looked at Zhou Lingling and said, “Tell me what happened.”

Zhou Lingling shook her head.

“Junior Sister Zhou Lingling, you’re a sophomore year this year. Do you need me to tell you what kind of place this is?” Qin Zhou gently rubbed his thumb against the side of the second knuckle of his index finger. He said in a tone that was neither light nor serious, “If you don’t tell me, the next to die will be you.” 

Zhou Lingling covered her face and said, pained, “Why? Why? Why was I chosen?”

She was referring to the Unnatural Engineering University. “I never applied to this university. Why did it choose me? Why!”

“We were all selected.” Qin Zhou said, “I also want to know why I was selected. But before that, we first have to survive and get out of the 7-7 Rule World.”

Zhou Lingling’s tears overflowed between her fingers. Qin Zhou handed her a tissue. “Three minutes should be enough to adjust your emotions, else your first year in the Unnatural Engineering University would have been in vain.” 

“Thank you, Senior.”

Zhou Lingling took the tissue, and while wiping away her tears, she recalled, “After entering the 7-7 rule world, Li Ying and I have been inseparable. As the only two girls, we knew that everyone here would be too busy taking care of themselves to take care of us so we agreed to look after each other.”

Qin Zhou leaned against the back of the chair. Though he looked relaxed and lazy, in fact, his weight was still on his feet. He and Zhou Lingling weren’t close but they weren’t far apart either. If a situation were to arise, he would be able to react instantly.

“Yesterday Qu Jialiang died. Li Ying and I didn’t dare use the toilet on the third floor. The second floor was locked we can use the one on the first floor.” 

Zhou Lingling thought back, “Senior, you know, the toilet here are shared and there’s no separate ones for men and women. Li Ying and I, we can only use the toilet one at a time so the other can stand guard outside. So that you guys wouldn’t…– it’s to avoid a potentially embarassing situation.”

Qin Zhou: “En.”

Zhou Lingling said, “I was the first to use the toilet yesterday. Outside, Li Ying was telling me to hurry up, saying that she was very scared, that he had heard some big ruckus.”

It must have been Qin Zhou smashing the gate on the second floor. 

“I told her to come wait for me inside. The situation being what it was, being embarrassed was the least of our worries.” Zhou Lingling said, “But Li Ying didn’t come in.”

Qin Zhou frowned: “Why?”

Zhou Lingling said, “Cheng Yang came.”