【Beep—】
【Welcome to... Adelos... Error... Error...】
A long bout of ringing in her ears followed.
Xu Kewang opened her dark, hollow eyes and stared blankly at the underside of the bed above. After running a fever for several days, her face was deathly pale.
If anyone saw her like this, they would probably think they’d seen a ghost.
“Oh my god, a ghost!”
A scream came in with the cold air from outside the door. Xie Yue, returning to campus with bags of luggage in tow, rushed to Kewang’s bedside and, right before Kewang’s eyes, tested for a breath beneath her nose with a finger.
“...I’m not dead, thanks.” Looking at the face of the stunning beauty before her, Kewang couldn’t begin to fathom why this girl came up with all kinds of bizarre antics every day.
Xie Yue said, “Oh,” then turned back to unpack. “You said in the group chat three days ago that you had a fever. We haven’t been able to reach you since. I wanted to change my ticket and come back early, but there weren’t any tickets left. I had to catch a ride back today.”
She couldn’t understand how Kewang had managed to shut herself away from the world in the dorm for three whole days without a sound.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone?”
Kewang was taken aback. “Three days?”
She’d thought only one night had passed.
She pulled out her phone. Sure enough, three days had gone by. It was full of WeChat messages and missed calls from her roommates. Supporting herself weakly, she sat up, not knowing how to explain.
She’d slept too deeply.
So deeply that...
It was as if she’d died.
“Speaking of which, I think I’m about to catch a cold too.” Xie Yue rubbed her arms. “I nearly froze to death as soon as I got out of the car. It’s only the end of August—how is it colder than the dead of winter? Does that even make sense?”
When Kewang first came down with a fever, she’d felt unbearably cold and had hazily turned on the air conditioner’s heat. That was why the room was so warm now.
A bad feeling stirred in her heart. She looked out the window and saw the sun shining brightly in the sky. There was neither rain nor snow.
“Is it really that cold? The weather forecast says it’s thirty-four degrees.”
“Does it?” Xie Yue glanced at her phone too, looking doubtful. “That can’t be right. It feels below freezing outside.”
Kewang dragged her weak legs out of bed and opened the window. A blast of cold air made her shut it again at once.
Just like in her dream.
She recalled that long, fragmented dream. It had been chaotic and complicated: sometimes bitterly cold, sometimes scorching hot, with all kinds of beings that were neither human nor ghost everywhere.
There had been four people in the dorm. One had gone out looking for Food and disappeared.
Another had returned badly injured, beyond treatment, and died right before her eyes.
Kewang hadn’t dreamed about how she herself had died. Sometimes her dream was like an old television with a lost signal, full of static and the buzzing of electric current.
“Low temperatures...”
She gazed into the distance, murmuring to herself. Quite a few people were returning to campus today. Students carrying luggage were greeting one another everywhere. They all moved the same way, rubbing their arms and stamping their feet. It was obvious they were freezing.
Two familiar faces hurried through the crowd. They were Kewang’s other two roommates, Wencai and Ning Yiwei.
“What are you muttering about?” Xie Yue came over and spotted them too. “Well, looks like they changed their tickets too. To celebrate our unbreakable friendship, I Suggestion that you treat us to a meal at a little conveyor-belt Hot Pot place once you’re better.”
Kewang usually didn’t talk much.
The other three were afraid of accidentally leaving her out, so they often teased her in one way or another, though they never expected her to respond.
To their surprise, Kewang nodded.
“Sure. I’ll treat you tonight.”
“I was joking.” Xie Yue was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly said, “You’re sick. We can do it another time.”
Just then, the dorm door swung open. Wencai came in first and, seeing Kewang standing by the window, hurried over to look her up and down.
“Good. You’re alive.”
“You scared us to death,” Ning Yiwei said, coming in right behind her. “How can you disappear for three days just because you have a fever?”
Kewang smiled, warmth rising in her heart. “I’m fine now.”
“I’ll treat you all to Hot Pot. Tonight.”
Seeing the others about to refuse again, she sighed. “I’m afraid if we don’t eat it today, we won’t get another chance.”
Then she briefly told them what had happened in her dream.
“I know it sounds ridiculous, but for some reason I have a bad feeling,” Kewang said, looking out the window. “This temperature is suspicious too, isn’t it?”
How could it be below freezing in the middle of summer?
Actually, the others had also been unsettled by the sudden drop in temperature. Wencai nodded. “I even asked my parents, and they said the temperature at home is normal.”
Wencai lived in the neighboring City. There was no reason for the temperatures in the two places to be so different.
Ning Yiwei said nothing, still thinking.
Xie Yue suddenly leaned right up to Kewang, giving her a beauty Critical Hit, then raised a hand and theatrically felt her forehead. “No fever, so you probably aren’t talking nonsense.”
“Let’s go eat now,” Kewang said, her heart pounding as her unease grew. “Afterward, catch the next available train home. No matter what happens, you’ll be safer with your parents and family.”
Of the four roommates, the other three were all only daughters, pampered and cherished at home. They would be safer with their parents.
“What about you?” Xie Yue asked worriedly.
She wasn’t asking without reason. Everyone knew Kewang’s family situation was unusual. Since starting university, she’d never gone home. She earned all her living expenses by working, while her tuition came from an education fund her mother had reportedly set aside for her before she died.
As for her other relatives, Kewang had only said that they didn’t get along. Her father had remarried and had another child. The three of them were hostile toward her, constantly arguing with her and treating her badly. When she went to university, she’d had a complete falling-out with that man, and never went home again.
Whenever she talked about the details, though, she was always vague. She only said that family didn’t welcome her, and she would never go back.
“We can go home, but what about you?” Xie Yue took her hand. “How about coming back with me? My parents like you best.”
Kewang thought it was a good idea too. At worst, she could find a hotel in another city and stay there for a while. If no Calamity happened, she could treat it as a vacation.
“All right. We’ll go after we eat?”
“Forget eating.” Wencai was the only one of the four facing the window at that moment. Her expression suddenly turned grim. “Look at the sky.”
They all turned around. In the short time they’d been talking, the bright sun had been swallowed by dark clouds. The tree branches thrashed wildly, and the air felt heavy with the threat of a coming storm.
The weather had changed.
“Let’s leave now.” They hadn’t even had a chance to unpack their luggage, so they could just grab it and go. Kewang picked up her ID and a few thick coats. “No more waiting. We can have Hot Pot another time.”
The four hurried down the Staircase, luggage in hand, ready to take a cab to the high-speed rail station.
But at some point, the Dormitory Area’s gate had been locked tight. The Guards who normally watched it had disappeared. Through the Door Gap, they could see no one outside. The students who had just returned to campus hadn’t realized what was happening yet; they stood in a daze at the gate, utterly bewildered.
【Bzzzt...】
【Welcome to... Ade...los.】
【LV1 scenario is now Open.】
Kewang’s eyes twitched. She grabbed Xie Yue’s hand. “You and Yiwei take the luggage back to the dorm. Wencai and I will go buy some things at the supermarket.”
She had a feeling that if they didn’t buy them now, it would be too late.