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Bonus chapter! Thank you to --- for the donation! ^^
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The current clues clearly pointed to this scammer, so none of the players objected. They each found a spot and sat down.
Although there were quite a few players, not a single one spoke, plunging the classroom into complete silence.
Perhaps because they waited so long without encountering any danger, the players’ tense nerves relaxed slightly.
It was already past 3 AM, and with the easing of tension, many players began to feel drowsy, their heads nodding on the verge of sleep.
Most, however, didn’t dare fall completely asleep—except for the male player sitting by the window.
The original entry time for this dungeon was supposed to be two days later, but Qin Yulian’s sudden use of a dungeon-specific item had caught many players off guard. Some hadn’t even had time to rest properly.
Li Yue was one of them.
Less than two days after finishing his last dungeon, he had been abruptly dragged into this one. The mental exhaustion was overwhelming, and despite his best efforts, he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. Slumped in his chair, he drifted into unconsciousness.
Ring-ring… Ring-ring…
An abrupt phone ringtone shattered the silence. The players jolted awake, their gazes snapping toward the source of the sound.
The ringing came from two directions—two players’ phones were going off simultaneously.
Lu Xiuyuan’s and Li Yue’s.
Lu Xiuyuan glanced indifferently at the caller ID on his screen before pressing the volume button, clearly intending to mute it.
But no matter how many times he pressed, the volume refused to change.
The phone couldn’t be silenced.
Naturally, none of the players would answer a death call like this, so Lu Xiuyuan’s reaction was expected.
Li Yue, however, was different. Half-asleep, he instinctively reached out, his finger hovering over the answer button.
The players’ eyes widened, tension etching across their faces. Some even held their breaths.
Answering a death call meant certain doom—yet not a single one of them spoke up to stop him. They just watched, unblinking, as Li Yue moved.
Clues always came at the cost of lives. Someone had to be sacrificed.
Still barely conscious, Li Yue pressed the answer button without even opening his eyes. His voice was hoarse, laced with irritation.
“Hello… who is this?”
Dead silence filled the other end of the line.
Then, after a few seconds—
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The sound of frantic footsteps erupted from the receiver, accompanied by ragged, panicked breathing… and something else. Something wrong.
The voice on the phone sounded like its owner was being chased by something terrifying. Even through the heavy breathing, you could hear his sheer panic.
Li Yue, who had just been rudely awakened, was initially annoyed. But one glance at his phone screen froze him wide awake.
Because it showed: "Incoming Call: 4444."
And he had already answered it.
Li Yue's face instantly drained of color. Every hair on his body stood on end, and his hand trembled so violently he could barely grip the phone. Without thinking, he tried to hang up.
But his fingers shook too much—he jabbed at the screen repeatedly, yet the call wouldn't end.
No, it wasn't that he failed to hit the button. The call simply couldn't be disconnected.
He frantically smashed the "end call" icon, but nothing happened. The call continued mercilessly.
It seemed that once you answered this call, there was no way out.
The classroom was dead silent, the only sound being the eerie noises from the phone, tightening the nerves of everyone present.
Beads of cold sweat broke out on Li Yue's forehead. Realizing he couldn't hang up, his lips began to tremble, his entire body consumed by dread.
The thing chasing the person on the phone was getting closer—the sounds grew clearer, the victim's terror more palpable.
It was as if Li Yue's fate was mirroring the horror unfolding through the speaker.
Finally, a blood-curdling scream erupted from the phone—then silence. The call had ended on its own.
The other players had heard it too. They exchanged uneasy glances, their eyes dark with fear.
Because that scream... had sounded exactly like Li Yue. Like a grim announcement of his impending death.
Li Yue was now the next target.
Seeing him on the verge of collapse, another player tried to reassure him in a hushed voice, "Answering the call doesn't necessarily mean you'll die. And not answering doesn't guarantee safety either."
If simply ignoring the call kept you safe, this dungeon would be too easy—the clearance rate wouldn't be so abysmally low.
The words seemed to calm Li Yue slightly. He took a shaky breath, steadying himself before addressing the others, his voice hoarse with fear.
"That ringtone... there's something wrong with it. No matter how tired I was, I'd never answer a call in my sleep without realizing it."
The other players stiffened. "What do you mean?" one asked urgently. "What's wrong with the ringtone?"
"I don't know either." Li Yue clutched his own hair in distress, his entire demeanor weighed down by exhaustion and despair.
"It was like... I was hypnotized by that ringing. My mind was completely consumed by it—all I could think about was answering the call as fast as possible."
For a moment, he even thought he was dreaming.
The players' expressions darkened at his words. They turned to Lu Xiuyuan for confirmation.
Lu Xiuyuan, who had been idly spinning his phone in boredom, glanced up at their expectant stares and gave a careless nod, verifying Li Yue's account.
The ringtone was undeniably unnatural. Those with weaker willpower or lower mental resilience were far more susceptible to its influence.
And in a high-stakes dungeon, players could never rest properly. Their mental state would only deteriorate day by day, leaving them inevitably vulnerable to the ringtone's lure.
Answering the call wasn't a matter of if—only when.
The players paled as this realization sank in.
With one of them already marked as a target, they'd soon witness firsthand what that entailed. Shen Qifeng turned to Lu Xiuyuan. "Are we still waiting for that scammer?"
"We wait." Lu Xiuyuan's reply was calm. "He's likely more than just another target. Otherwise, Xiao Mingyu wouldn't have documented him in such detail."
Qin Yulian agreed. "For Xiao Mingyu to keep recording him even while dying... That's abnormal. He must have noticed something."
The Death Call wasn't limited to midnight. Now, no player dared let their guard down, each terrified of becoming the next victim.
As for Li Yue—perhaps because he'd already answered the call—he slumped over the desk, burying his face in his arms.
The others couldn't tell if he was trembling in fear or had actually fallen asleep. The classroom plunged back into suffocating silence.
Hours crawled by until the first hints of dawn tinged the sky. Yet the person they awaited never came. Instead, movement came from Li Yue.
He had been sitting quietly, but suddenly jolted awake as if startled, scrambling backward violently.
The abrupt motion sent him and his chair crashing to the floor. The impact seemed to shock him fully awake.
Only then did the players notice something was wrong. His face was drenched in cold sweat and tears, his expression one of sheer terror. He gasped for air like a drowning man just dragged ashore.
Between ragged breaths, he stared blankly around the room. "...A dream?"
It had to be. For a moment, he'd truly believed he was about to die.
Li Yue's face was pale with lingering fear, his eyes red-rimmed as he clutched his chest, struggling to steady his breathing.
The players exchanged confused glances. Lu Xiuyuan narrowed his eyes, his sharp gaze fixed on Li Yue. "Did you have a nightmare?"
Li Yue nodded shakily, swallowing hard. "...I accidentally fell asleep and had a... pretty terrifying dream."
Most of the players lost interest—dreams weren't their concern. Only Lu Xiuyuan let out a low, knowing chuckle. He tilted his chin slightly. "Look at your arm."
Li Yue blinked in confusion. But before he could speak, his voice died in his throat. His eyes widened in horror as he stared down at his arm.
A sharp pain throbbed there.
The nightmare had been so horrifying that fear had numbed him to everything else. He hadn't even noticed the wound until Lu Xiuyuan pointed it out.
Trembling, Li Yue touched his arm—and his fingers came away smeared with blood.
His sleeve had been slashed open by something sharp. Beneath the torn fabric, a deep gash oozed fresh blood, staining the fabric dark red.
Li Yue collapsed to the floor, his face ashen. "How... how is this possible?" he whispered, voice breaking. "That was just a dream..."
A wound like that couldn't have come from a fall. And all night, he'd been under the players' watch—he hadn't even left to use the bathroom. There was no way he could've been injured elsewhere.
Except... through that phone call. And the dream he'd mentioned.
Shen Qifeng's expression darkened. "Tell us about the dream," he ordered coldly.
Li Yue's lips trembled. "I was so tired... and since I'd already gotten the call, I thought it'd be safe to sleep." He clutched his bleeding arm, pain making his voice shake. "But then I dreamed... I dreamed of the thing I fear most."
His words were disjointed, almost incoherent, but the players understood. The injuries from his dream had become real.
A wave of dread settled over them. If wounds from the dream world could manifest in reality... then what happened if a player died in their dream?
Would they die in real life too?
They didn't want to believe it. But deep down, they already knew the answer.
No wonder this dungeon's clearance rate is so low—after all, an ordinary person simply can't go seven days and nights without sleep.
And once a player falls asleep, they'll be killed in their dreams.
That's the most terrifying part of this dungeon.
Just as the classroom sank into dead silence again, the sound of footsteps suddenly echoed from the hallway outside. The players' eyes sharpened, instantly locking onto the direction of the noise.
Their view was blocked by the white walls, leaving nothing visible. The players weren't too anxious, though, patiently waiting inside the classroom for the person to approach.
The footsteps grew closer and closer—until they passed right by the classroom door. It wasn't the scammer from the photo, but a student who had pulled an all-nighter in the study room and was now heading back to the dorm.
One player muttered under their breath, "Could the scammer already be dead?"
Another player frowned. "That fast? Dying right after receiving the call?"
Beside them, Li Yue trembled slightly. "If I hadn't woken up in time... I might have died in my dream too."
With the scammer's status unknown, waiting any longer was pointless. The players left the classroom.
One of them, feeling a sudden urgency, excused himself and headed for the restroom. The others had no choice but to wait outside.
The restroom was right next to the classroom, just a short staircase away.
In his haste—not wanting to keep the others waiting—the player rushed inside at full speed. So fast, in fact, that he failed to notice someone was already inside. He collided head-on with the person.
"Sorry—" In dungeons, it was always wise to be polite to NPCs; you never knew what might get you killed. The player instinctively began apologizing—but before he could finish, his eyes widened in shock.
"...Scammer?"
The person he'd bumped into was none other than Ruan Qing. Realizing things had taken a bad turn, Ruan Qing reacted swiftly—knocking the player out cold with a single strike from his baton.
But it was already too late. The other players outside seemed to have heard the commotion.
Go to sleep~
ReplyDeleteWhat a chaos. Thank you for the chapter!!
ReplyDelete