Chapter 1: Game Arrives
[Do you feel that school life is boring?]
[Do you feel that dormitory life is boring?]
8pm Beijing time, A University Living Area, girls’ dormitory building.
Looking out from the balcony window of the dormitory, silence and darkness shrouded the surroundings.
The street lights, all the lights in the dormitory building, and even the lights in the distant teaching building area were all turned off, as if the whole world was left with only darkness.
Common sense tells us that this scene could not possibly happen in a university dormitory at eight o'clock in the evening on the first day of school.
But this illogical scene is real, right now.
Tang Xinjue stood in front of the window, and his cell phone became the only source of light. At this moment, it was flashing with a fluorescent light and vibrating.
Dialog boxes with black background and red text kept popping up on the screen. Bright red marks oozed out from the edge of the screen, like a hideous smiling face:
"Welcome to the Dormitory Survival Game..."
"Happy dormitory life begins!"
15 minutes ago.
This small four-person dormitory was just like usual, but because it was the first day of school, the atmosphere in the dormitory was not very lively.
Since one of my roommates had a delayed flight and hadn't come back yet, there were only three of us in the dormitory. From time to time, the shrill laughter from other dormitories could be heard outside the corridor, making the room even quieter.
In the aisle barely separated by four beds, there were several full bags piled with daily necessities they had just purchased.
"Ah, I don't want school to start!"
A wailing sound rose up from under bed number 1 near the door. A short-haired girl wearing thick black-framed glasses collapsed on the table, looking hopeless.
Guo Guo is a staunch student who has been wailing in the dormitory group since a week before school started, denouncing the dullness of the education system.
"You're just talking nonsense. How can you find a job if you don't go to school? How can you make money if you don't find a job?"
On bed number 2 near the balcony, a pair of white and slender legs stretched out, followed by a graceful figure, a straight swan neck supporting a delicate face. But the words that came out were rough:
"If I were your parents, I would send you to a construction site to carry bricks, so that you would know that a good life is not easy to come by. You look so depressed and lifeless all day long, and it makes me angry just to see you."
The two beds were next to each other. Guo Guo could see that stunningly beautiful face as soon as he looked up. He rolled his eyes where the other person couldn't see him: "Nonsense, you are the campus beauty. The love letters you receive on the first day of school can clog the sewer. Of course you can't understand how boring the university life of ordinary people is."
She added sourly, "If I can't find a job after graduation, I'll write an autobiography called "What It Feels Like to Have the Campus Beauty of University A Sleep Next to Me."
Zheng Wanqing, the campus beauty of the Finance Department of A University for three consecutive years, shook her head proudly, threw her black hair on her back, and climbed down the stairs carrying her toiletries.
"Then you must thank me well then."
Well, I can't tell good from bad. Guo Guo was so angry that he fell backwards. When he turned around, he saw another roommate opening a shopping bag.
She suddenly seemed to have found her backbone: "Tang Xin Jue! Look at her, I'm almost mad at her!"
Hearing the shouting, the girl who was quietly unpacking the shopping bag raised her eyelids and glanced at the air perfunctorily with unfocused eyes, "Yes, that's too much."
Guo Guo: "You are so perfunctory."
She moved her mouth to complain, but after looking at Tang Xinjue, who was gentle and quiet and seemed to have a good temper, she didn't dare to speak.
Not only because she didn't dare to be rude to Tang Xinjue, but also because Tang Xinjue's brows were clearly tired and impatient today. This also made the girl's already thin figure look even thinner, and she looked very frail.
Of course, only Zheng Wanqing, who has big breasts and no brains, believes this appearance. Guo Guo will not be fooled again.
Sure enough, Zheng Wanqing shouted at him in a rough voice: "Can't you see that Xin Jue is so tired? It's good enough to reply to you! Don't disturb her!"
Guo Guo: "... Big sister, can you look in the mirror and see how hypocritical you are?"
At this time, Zheng Wanqing had already walked to the dormitory door proudly and opened it: "I'm going to take a shower, please leave the door open for me... Hey, why is there no light in this corridor?"
From her perspective, the lights in the corridor had all been turned off at some point, and the farther away she went, the darker it became.
The corridor is long and narrow, and it looks very creepy when viewed from this perspective.
If Guo Guo was standing here, the screams would have blown the roof off the house. But Zheng Wanqing watched for several seconds, but didn't feel anything was wrong, and was about to step out.
"Wait a moment."
Suddenly someone called her from behind. It was Tang Xinjue.
Tang Xinjue was taking apart a toothbrush. Without looking up, he said in a gentle voice, "Be careful, it's too dark outside."
"Oh, okay." Zheng Wanqing agreed and stepped into the darkness.
Behind her, the dormitory door slowly closed with a long creaking sound.
Hearing this voice , Tang Xinjue suddenly put down his toothbrush, rubbed his eyebrows, and frowned unconsciously.
To some extent, Guo Guo was right, Tang Xinjue was indeed very tired.
But it wasn’t because of the start of school, it was because of a nightmare.
She hasn't had a good night's sleep in a week.
For Tang Xinjue, being haunted by nightmares was not uncommon. But this time the situation was particularly serious. It even affected her state in reality.
She actually didn't hear a word of the argument between Guo Guo and Zheng Wanqing just now. All she could hear in her ears were some vague noises and low murmurs, and waves of stabbing pain spreading from her temples, making it difficult for her to concentrate.
These feelings are of course not something that can be explained to outsiders.
After adjusting himself for a while, Tang Xinjue walked to the sink next to the balcony and turned on the faucet.
The mirror above the sink reflected a face that belonged to a young girl. The girl in the mirror had a neat and clean ponytail, but under the spotlight, her fair skin looked a little too cold and pale. She had a thin oval face and very pale lips. At first glance, she looked like a person with capital malnutrition.
The corners of his eyes droop slightly, and he looks like he is smiling even when he is not smiling. He looks weak and harmless.
Tang Xinjue didn't have any opinion about his extremely deceptive face, but looking at the pair of black eyes in the mirror, some scenes from the nightmare suddenly flashed in Tang Xinjue's mind.
Endless darkness, thick black fog...
Before she could recall further, her roommate's mumbling brought her back to reality.
"Thank goodness our dormitory doesn't have an independent bathroom. At least I can take a break while Zheng Wanqing takes a shower for half an hour..."
Guo Guo kept complaining, and when he saw Tang Xin Jue, his eyes turned and he said, "Hey, while the young lady is away, how about we play a game of Ouija?"
"Miss" was the nickname Guo Guo gave Zheng Wanqing, which she used to complain secretly. Everyone in the dormitory had been given a nickname by her, but Tang Xinjue didn't know what his nickname was.
Tang Xinjue lowered his eyes for a few seconds, squeezed out the toothpaste, and put the toothbrush in his mouth, "If Wanqing comes back and sees this, you will definitely start quarreling again."
Zheng Wanqing is a staunch atheist and is extremely disgusted with all kinds of monsters, not to mention games like the Pen Fairy and the Ouija Board.
Unfortunately, Guo Guo is a serious fan of metaphysics. His desk is always filled with "Detailed Explanation of the Book of Changes", "Tarot World" and various divination compasses. He is keen on weird urban legends and games.
As expected, when this was mentioned, Guo Guo rolled his eyes and said, "She is a rotten wood that cannot be carved. But you are different. As soon as I saw you, I felt that you have a unique character and a destiny with metaphysics..."
Seeing that Tang Xin Jue had automatically ignored him and even started to open the shopping bag, Guo Guo jumped up anxiously, shaking his head and persuading him, "Just think of it as a celebration of our promotion to the miserable third year. Can you play with me? Divination, horoscopes, and summoning ghosts are all fine!"
As soon as Tang Xinjue raised his eyes, the other party immediately shrank his neck and stopped attacking in a wronged manner.
"You know I'm timid and afraid of playing alone. You're the only one in the dormitory who's not afraid of these things, except for the eldest lady. I..."
Tang Xinjue shook his head helplessly. Just as he was about to speak, his eyes accidentally passed behind Guo Guo and suddenly froze.
The roommate was still talking incessantly, but as far as Tang Xinjue could sense, no sound came out of his opening and closing mouth.
Her eyes were fixed on the window.
On the balcony, she saw a huge yellow eye that took up the entire window.
What is this? A hallucination caused by a nightmare?
The yellow eyeball stared coldly at Tang Xinjue with malice. The narrow brown pupil suddenly expanded and contracted, and the entire huge eyeball suddenly split into countless fist-sized yellow eyeballs, scrambling to fill the entire window.
Hehehe, hehehe…
The buzzing sound and whispering pressured him down like an overwhelming force. Tang Xinjue took a deep breath and bit the back of his teeth, without screaming or retreating.
After three years of illness and a week of nightmares, when the horrible monster in the dream appeared in reality, she was much calmer than she thought.
There was only a pause of one second before Tang Xinjue quickly took out his cell phone and took several photos of the eyeball on the glass window.
She had long anticipated that she would have hallucinations one day. When faced with such a situation, the first thing to do is to maintain a stable mental state. By suggesting to herself that "everything in front of me is an illusion", she could return to reality.
The photos have been taken, and the next step is to check them - Tang Xinjue opened the photo album on his phone and silently said to himself that this was just an illusion.
When seeing an empty photo, the brain will realize that everything is fake and then start the self-recovery mechanism.
The album opened, and as the pictures popped up, a bunch of eyeballs appeared on the phone screen.
At the moment they popped up, I didn’t know if it was an illusion, but I could even catch a hint of confusion from these eyeballs——
Seeing mental pollution beyond cognition, the first reaction is to take pictures with the mobile phone. What kind of operation is this? ?
Tang Xinjue also frowned: Her symptoms suddenly worsened, and she even had hallucinations when looking at photos?
No, she had to contact the doctor first.
Opening the address book on his cell phone, Tang Xinjue dialed a number, while deliberately ignoring the eyes outside the window, neither avoiding nor looking directly at them, to avoid inducing more hallucinations.
As if sensing Tang Xinjue's neglect, the eyeballs outside the window seemed angry. They began to tremble, hitting the squeezed glass window again and again, making dull impact sounds.
"Huh? Who's knocking on the window?" Guo Guo was tearing open a bag of snacks and turned around to answer.
Tang Xinjue was stunned because of Guo Guo's words.
If the eyeball that was banging against the window was her hallucination, how could her roommate hear the noise?
A sharp sense of foreboding suddenly flashed through his mind, and Tang Xinjue immediately tried to stop Guo Guo from turning back, but it was too late -
“—Aaaaaa—”
With a shrill scream that was loud enough to blow your skull off, the light in the dormitory flickered twice and went out in an instant.
The surroundings fell into darkness.
Tang Xinjue ignored the busy tone on his phone and immediately went to pull Guo Guo. When he reached out his hand, he didn't touch anyone. His roommate had already collapsed on the ground. "Fuck, what did I just see..."
"Jueshen Jueshen, where are you? I'm so scared, wuwuwu!" After realizing the power outage, Guo Guo was startled and jumped up to look for someone. After catching Tang Xinjue, he howled with relief.
However, after a few seconds, a shrill laugh interrupted her wailing.
“Hehehe—hehehe—”
The laughter seemed to come from outside the balcony. Although the windows were closed, it felt as if one was in the wilderness and could hear the echo clearly.
The strangest thing was that as the power went out in the dormitory, the densely packed huge eyeballs outside the balcony window also disappeared, leaving only darkness, as if the entire dormitory area had lost power at the same time.
“Do you find school life boring?”
“Do you find dormitory life boring?”
The voice sounded like that of a child, humming a cheerful yet strange tune.
Tang Xinjue was standing closest to the balcony and could even faintly hear the exclamations and screams coming from outside.
The cheerful voice was still singing: "Respond to your wishes, meet your requirements... The exciting game is about to begin, do you want to participate?"
Amid the song, Tang Xinjue heard his own heartbeat, like the beating of a drum, revealing the reality of everything before his eyes.
——This is exactly the scene that reappears in her lingering nightmare.
"yes...or...yes!"
