Being left alone in a dungeon is a dangerous thing, especially in a place like a restroom. So after the male player entered the restroom, the other players waited outside.
Not all of them, though—Lu Xiuyuan, Shen Qifeng, and the other two had no intention of waiting at all. After leaving the classroom, they walked straight away without looking back.
But the others couldn’t afford to do the same. Everyone has urgent needs sometimes, and if they didn’t wait for him now, no one would wait for them when it was their turn.
So the players split up—one followed the four high level players to relay messages and report their location, while the rest stayed behind, planning to catch up once the guy finished in the restroom.
But instead of the player coming out, they heard something else.
"What was that noise?" One of the waiting players raised their head, instinctively scanning their surroundings.
The sound wasn’t loud—a faint thud, mixed with muffled groans, like someone had accidentally bumped into a wall.
But it was only around 5 or 6 in the morning. The students who had just passed by the classroom on their way back to the dorms were long gone. Apart from them, there wasn’t a single soul around.
Another player nearby heard it too and spoke uncertainly, "...I think it came from the restroom."
"Sounded like it to me, too."
Clearly, it wasn’t just one player who heard it. One person might hallucinate, but a whole group couldn’t be wrong.
The players exchanged glances. After sending a message to the player following the four experts, they all quieted their footsteps, faces tense, and cautiously approached the restroom, weapons gripped tightly in their hands.
The restroom was empty—except for the closed stalls.
Most of the stalls were open, clearly empty at a glance. Only two or three were shut, including the second-to-last one.
The players immediately knew which stall was suspicious—only under the second-to-last one could they faintly see a shadow.
Someone was inside.
Or... something.
Their eyes sharpened, locking onto the shadow on the floor. Silently, they moved closer to the stall, weapons clenched, ready for any sudden danger.
"Who’s out there?" Just as the players got within a few steps, a man’s voice came from the second-to-last stall—the same voice as the male player who had gone in earlier.
The male player’s voice was wary and uneasy, clearly having heard the sound of their approaching footsteps.
The players relaxed at the man’s normal tone—it seemed nothing terrible had happened.
They stopped walking, lowered their weapons, and responded in a hushed voice,
“It’s us.”
The male player in the toilet stall recognized his teammates’ voices. His tone turned puzzled. “What’s wrong?”
The players didn’t answer. Instead, they asked, “What was that noise earlier?”
The man sounded almost exasperated. “What else could it be? I rushed in too fast and bumped into the wall.”
The players were equally exasperated, barely resisting the urge to roll their eyes. But in the end, no one said anything.
They backed out of the room and waited outside again.
***
Elsewhere, invisible to the players, the live-stream chat exploded with rapid comments:
[Damn! My wife’s so amazing—I never expected him to even fake voices! And he memorized that guy’s tone after just a few words!]
[My poor wife, he almost got caught… but god, I’m kinda disappointed.]
[What a coincidence! I’m a little disappointed too. I thought something intense would happen. But why’d he get this dungeon? Recent streams of it have all been wipeouts.]
[Wipeouts? More like brutal massacres. The deaths were horrifying. My wife’s so delicate—how’s he gonna handle self-harm? And the nightmares are literally your worst fears.]
Had the players opened the toilet stall door, they’d have found not a male player, but Ruan Qing.
The “male voice” earlier had been his flawless impersonation.
Hearing the players’ retreating footsteps, Ruan Qing let out a quiet sigh of relief.
The players hadn’t bothered to muffle their steps. The moment they’d approached the classroom, he’d noticed and immediately hid in the adjacent restroom.
Their arrival couldn’t be a coincidence—they were likely here for him.
Realizing this, Ruan Qing guessed they either knew he was the next target or had uncovered clues about him.
So he’d taken a risk, hiding near the classroom door to eavesdrop.
The wall facing the hallway was solid, the windows set high. As long as he stayed silent, there was little chance of being spotted.
He indeed wasn’t discovered and even managed to gather some useful clues.
When the players left the classroom, Ruan Qing immediately hid in the nearby restroom, planning to avoid crossing paths with them.
But he never expected a player to come in to use the toilet—nor did he expect that player to rush in so fast, so fast that he didn’t even have a chance to dodge.
He had no choice but to knock the person out before they could loudly expose him, then drag them into a toilet stall with all his strength.
Luckily, he managed to bluff his way through.
But he couldn’t stay here for long. If the male player didn’t return soon, the others would definitely come back in, and things wouldn’t be so easy to smooth over next time.
The classroom was on the first floor, so naturally, the restroom was too. At the very back of the restroom was a ventilation window, positioned a bit high but still large enough for someone slender to climb through.
It might be difficult, but by stepping on the handle of the last stall’s door, he should be able to pull himself up.
Yet just as Ruan Qing was about to push open the stall door, voices came from outside the restroom. In the next second, his hand froze mid-air.
Because it was Lu Xiuyuan’s voice—the four high-level players had returned.
"What’s going on?"
Lu Xiuyuan appeared elegant and refined, but his aura was impossible to ignore. He looked coldly at the players gathered at the restroom entrance, radiating an indescribable pressure.
The questioned player instantly tensed up, as if facing an elder. He stammered, "N-nothing! Yang Wenju just rushed into the restroom too fast and, uh, ran into the wall. That’s why there was noise."
"We thought there might be danger, s-so we told him." The player glanced at the one responsible for relaying messages and reporting positions to the four high level players.
That player’s expression twisted into something complicated. Why report something like this to him? He thought it was an important clue.
And yet, he’d already passed the message to the four high level players, making them turn back.
The other players present realized this too, their hearts leaping into their throats. Nervousness and unease filled their faces—they were terrified the four might lose their temper.
After all, high-level players weren’t exactly known for their patience, especially when they’d practically been tricked into wasting their time.
But to everyone’s surprise, the four didn’t get angry. Instead, they narrowed their eyes slightly, staring at the restroom with a faint, dangerous glint in their gazes.
Shen Qifeng glanced at his phone. "Eight minutes have passed."
From the moment they left the classroom to their return, eight minutes had gone by.
In a dungeon this dangerous, no player would ever take this long—even for something as urgent as a bathroom break, they’d hurry back as fast as possible.
The other players, who had been confused at first, suddenly understood Shen Qifeng’s implication. Their eyes widened in disbelief as they stared toward the restroom.
"But just now—" One player tried to speak, but when Lu Xiuyuan shot him a cold glance, the words died in his throat. In the end, he shut his mouth fearfully.
Lu Xiuyuan ignored the player and strode into the restroom, followed closely by Shen Qifeng and the other two.
The four arrived too quickly—Ruan Qing had no chance to escape through the window. Hearing the approaching footsteps, he sat rigidly on the closed toilet lid, his mind screaming at him to run.
But there was nowhere to go.
His delicate face paled as he clutched his phone in a death grip. Instinctively, he lifted his legs, planting his feet on the edges of the toilet seat, and wrapped his arms around his knees, making no sound.
The empty restroom echoed with footsteps—steady, unhurried, yet dripping with an eerie dread that seeped into the bones.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
The steps grew closer, then stopped just a short distance from Ruan Qing.
Since he’d lifted his feet, the newcomers couldn’t immediately pinpoint which stall he was hiding in.
But that delay wouldn’t last.
The flimsy restroom door offered no sense of security—certainly none to Ruan Qing now.
The light cast the four tall figures’ shadows across the floor, their oppressive presence undeniable even through the narrow gap beneath the door.
Ruan Qing’s stiff body trembled slightly. He pressed his swollen lips together tightly, ignoring the pain or the tears pricking his eyes from the sting.
Getting caught was inevitable. His only chance was to deceive them.
Being discovered in the restroom and being exposed as a player were two entirely different things. The former might leave room for excuses—but the latter would mean the end.
Ruan Qing lowered his gaze, frantically running through every possible scenario in his mind, desperate to find the best course of action.
Suddenly, a phone ringtone cut through the silence, shattering his rapid train of thought. The sound echoed sharply in the cramped space.
Ruan Qing's eyes widened, his pupils contracting slightly. Stiffly, he turned toward the pocket of the unconscious player beside him—the one he had knocked out.
The ringing was coming from there.
It wasn't a default system tone but a custom ringtone set by the player, devoid of any eerie or hypnotic quality. Clearly, this wasn't the infamous "4444" death call.
Yet Ruan Qing still didn’t dare answer it—nor could he, even if he wanted to.
The call was from Lu Xiuyuan, dialing the player named Yang Wenju. Listening to the ringtone blaring from inside the restroom stall and the prolonged lack of movement, Lu Xiuyuan’s lips curved into a faint, dangerous smile.
"Found you."
He ended the call, then rapped his knuckles against the restroom stall door. His voice was flat, devoid of inflection—cold and merciless.
"Will you come out yourself, or do I have to come in?"
Thank you for the chapter!!
ReplyDeleteThank youu for tha chapterrrr⚘️⚘️
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