After she dealt with the "student," no one came seeking help until two in the morning.
But there was a small interlude.
During that time, Xu Kewang heard knocking coming from the corridor outside—not far from her, likely at the duty room of one of the girls who had come seeking cooperation earlier.
She vaguely heard the "student" crying for help.
And not long after, she heard the "student" let out a furious shout, as if demanding answers.
"Stranger…"
"Who…"
"Expel the unrelated…"
Fragmented and intermittent, Xu Kewang pressed herself against the door and listened for a long while. Then came the sound of a door being slammed open, filled with the screams of several girls. The hallway erupted into chaos—roaring, cries for help, footsteps, sobbing, agonized wails.
Xu Kewang's gaze darkened.
Though she didn't care for those girls' behavior, she didn't wish for them to die either. If they truly met their end because of this, Xu Kewang would still feel a pang of regret.
After all, the fewer real students left in this building, the more "students" would take their place.
And the danger their dormitory would face would only grow more severe.
The moment the hour struck, her phone rang automatically, reminding Xu Kewang it was time to go out and resolve the student's plea for help.
She gently pulled open the door. There wasn't a single trace of light in the corridor—visibility was even worse than when she'd first arrived. It wasn't so much that there were no lights as it was that a layer of black mist had shrouded everything.
Xu Kewang had brought a flashlight with her in advance. Even after switching it on, it only illuminated about a meter around her.
She carefully surveyed the corridor and spotted several long streaks of blood, along with a chaotic tangle of footprints. Some looked like they belonged to women—roughly size thirty-six or thirty-seven. Others…
Could hardly be called human footprints.
Some were especially small, like those of a seven-year-old child. Others were short and wide, while still others were long and slender.
Keeping in mind the rule of never looking back, Xu Kewang pressed close to the wall and moved forward. The moment she stepped out, that familiar weight eagerly settled onto her back once more, along with the same trick of breath blowing against her neck.
She swept her flashlight across the dormitory doors.
Some rooms stood wide open, their interiors already in complete disarray, emanating a pungent stench of gore. Unidentifiable chunks of flesh and blood were scattered across the floor—look at them too long and you'd lose your appetite.
Xu Kewang was grateful she still had a mint in her mouth to mask the acrid stench.
Room 106 was here.
The door was half-ajar. Xu Kewang held the flashlight in one hand and the small iron trowel in the other. She found it a bit inconvenient—she'd need to get herself a headlamp if the opportunity arose.
She gave the door two light kicks with her foot, making an effort to appear friendly. "Hello there, classmate."
The furtive sounds inside abruptly ceased.
The dormitory door swung open a wider arc on its own. Xu Kewang's flashlight shone mercilessly inside. She only took a single glance before forcing a sharp inhale and putting on a mechanical smile.
"Hello, this classmate, someone in your dorm reported—"
She stopped mid-sentence as she got a clear look at the person inside. The other slowly turned around and flashed her a wide, positively radiant smile.
That is, if not for the fact that this girl with the indistinct face was currently gnawing on a human leg with a satisfying crunch, strands of meat wedged between her teeth, blood dripping from the corners of her mouth and staining clothes whose original color was no longer discernible.
Xu Kewang might have genuinely believed she was friendly.
"Aixi, you're not allowed to eat your classmates," Xu Kewang sighed. She didn't have much time. "Your roommate reported you to me. I hope you'll stop this behavior, otherwise I'll have to report it to the school."
It seemed like it had been a long time since anyone had called Aixi by her name.
She blinked in confusion.
"Safety Officer, you're the Safety Officer?" She set down the leg bone in her hand, already stripped of meat. "I don't want to eat my classmates either, but I'm really hungry. I'm starving to death. I want to eat meat."
She stood up, her mental state gradually becoming deranged: "Can you not report me?"
"Ah, so hungry. Safety Officer, can you give me your arm to eat?" Aixi's legs—one thick with muscle, the other thin as a pen shaft—clearly didn't belong to the same person, so she walked with a crooked, unsteady gait. "I… I'm hungry…"
She glanced at the time. Five minutes left.
Xu Kewang picked up her iron shovel. The flashlight beam fell on Aixi's face, which no longer resembled anything human. This kind of monster, pieced together and stitched up, made people feel not just disgust, but also a trace of pity.
Perhaps she really had been a student in Room 106 once, only to be senselessly transformed into this ghastly state.
If she still had even a shred of consciousness left, she probably wouldn't want to live like this either.
This was the psychological preparation Xu Kewang gave herself before killing her.
Because in the next second, she mercilessly raised the iron shovel high and, with the sharp edge she had spent all night grinding, slashed viciously at Aixi's neck.
She used all her strength. The recoil numbed the web of her hand.
The metal blade cleanly severed Aixi's head. Her scream hadn't even ended before her head and body were separated. Her mouth gaped unwillingly as it rolled twice on the ground.
Xu Kewang thought: if this kind of monster could be stitched together, then maybe the body and head could remerge.
So she didn't hesitate. Her time was precious. She brought the shovel down hard on that head—its eyes still open in death—once, then again and again, until the ground was a muddy mess.
Xu Kewang straightened up, panting, and saw that Aixi's body had already slumped limply to the ground.
[Congratulations on completing the first-kill mission. Now…]
There were still two minutes left. Xu Kewang didn't have time to listen to the mechanical voice by her ear. She needed to get back to the rest room quickly. But as she was leaving Room 106, she ran into a dilemma.
Walking from here to the rest room probably meant retracing her steps.
Did retracing her steps count as turning back?
She stood at the boundary between the dormitory and the corridor, able to sense an excited, dangerous, impatient presence outside.
Xu Kewang's eyes darted around.
She turned directly and walked out backward.
The instant she stepped out backward, she felt a scream drift past her ear, now distant, now near, full of rage and unwillingness. The weight on her back grew heavier and heavier. The breathing by her ear could no longer be described as rapid.
It was exactly like a hand-pulled bellows used to stoke a fire in the countryside.
The emotional breakdown was obvious.
But none of that had anything to do with Xu Kewang. She safely walked backward to the rest room, and the moment she entered, the weight on her body became light and easy.
By the light in the room, she examined herself. She was covered in foul-smelling black-red blood, and there were unknown bits of debris around the soles of her shoes. It was disgusting.
Sitting on the table, she regretted not bringing some roll paper. She could only keep wiping the blood on her hands onto the wall and the table.
Only then did she finally have the leisure to recall the content of the mechanical voice from earlier.
[…Congratulations, you have unlocked the Personal Information Panel.]
[Please accept your mission reward in the Personal Information Panel.]
The voice was quite human-like, and seemed to know exactly which word she had zoned out on, seamlessly picking up the announcement right from there.