Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Seeing Wang Xingxing’s utterly bewildered expression, Rao Fei slapped his forehead as he finally remembered.

While Wang Xingxing’s trainee background offered a significant advantage in this instance, he was otherwise a reluctant, half-baked newcomer. Since joining the bureau, he’d mostly been assigned the typical fieldwork given to fresh recruits.

Now that Wang Xingxing had been unexpectedly separated from the team, Rao Fei had no choice. To ensure a smooth completion later, he discreetly pulled out a pale, bony finger and a dark reddish, somewhat repulsive chunk of flesh from the crowd.

This was a Strange Item he had applied for from the bureau before entering the instance.

Due to instance restrictions, they could only carry a limited number of Strange Items, and each had to be used precisely when it mattered most.

At this moment, protecting Player C certainly qualified as a critical juncture.

A few minutes later, Wang Xingxing, who had already followed the main group upstairs, felt a sudden disorientation.

It was as if he had activated a split-screen perspective hack in a video game.

Even though he was physically on the third floor, he could still vaguely perceive Director Lin, Peng Jia, and Peng Xu walking ahead of "himself."

Not being a complete novice, he immediately understood that Rao Fei had used one of the Strange Items brought into the instance on him.

The name of this Strange Item was "Ten Fingers Connected to the Heart."

The item consisted of two parts: a finger bone and a heart fragment.

By embedding the finger bone into a cut wound on one person’s chest and drenching the heart fragment with the fingertip blood of another, it could achieve approximately 50% of a vague shared sensation.

Sure enough, just as he finished contemplating the item’s function, Wang Xingxing faintly heard a voice in his ear: "Wang Xingxing, it’s me, Rao Fei. Since you’re alone on the third floor, you must be extremely careful and stay in touch with me at all times."

"Remember, on the third floor, besides yourself, you absolutely cannot fully trust anyone, not even the other trainee players!"

After saying this, Rao Fei repeated the code phrases that Wang Xingxing hadn’t fully grasped earlier.

He particularly emphasized not to linger unnecessarily in front of the Dormitory Selection Officer on the third floor. This time, stability was paramount. Protecting Director Lin and surviving until the end was the ultimate victory!

Wang Xingxing firmly committed Rao Fei’s instructions to memory. Thinking of his eighty-year-old grandfather and eight-year-old sister, he looked at the young man ahead with a gaze full of awe and quietly dropped back several positions in the line.

According to the seniors, powerful entities in the strange world were all deranged. Who knew if the other party might kill him simply because he stepped into the dormitory with his left foot and it displeased them?

Ahead, Su Ximu, who had led the trainees to their destination, gave his small flag one last wave. Turning around, he faced the gazes of so many trainees and, steeling himself, nervously recited the speech he had prepared: "Um… hello, everyone. My surname is Su. You can call me Little Su or Selection Manager Su."

"During the upcoming period, I will be responsible for the daily affairs of the six dormitories on the third floor, including supervising everyone to maintain healthy lifestyle habits during the program recording."

"If you have any issues, you can also come to the dormitory by the staircase and knock on my door."

"For now, you can go ahead and choose the dormitory and bunk you want. In one hour, I will come to each dormitory to distribute the dormitory rules."

The trainees choosing their dormitories was also one of the bonus content for the program’s later episodes.

So, the assistant director had notified everyone in the work group from the start to let the trainees choose their own dormitories.

Every single trainee present, without exception, was a player dragged into this instance.

Likely due to the nature of the instance, both the new and experienced players selected this time were quite attractive.

The new players, encountering such a bizarre situation for the first time, had experienced disbelief and even breakdowns.

However, after going through the island interview and audition process, and witnessing the fate of those new players who tried to escape the instance, all the remaining new players had chosen to comply.

After nearly a full day of settling in, some of the new players, whose rationality had returned, began calculating mentally upon hearing Selection Manager Su’s words.

From number 43 to number 63, there were twenty-one trainees on the third floor, with four beds per room.

That meant one of them would definitely end up alone!

In such a dangerous environment, being alone almost certainly meant courting death.

Realizing this, the five new players assigned to the third floor immediately prepared to act. But when they looked up, they found that the experienced players had already dashed out with their luggage.

!

Devious!

The trainees displayed an unusually high level of enthusiasm and initiative in scrambling for bunks.

Su Ximu took a few steps back, looking at the cameras set up around them, and felt that no job was as straightforward as it seemed from the outside.

As a popularity-based talent show, the trainees needed to shine bright not only on stage but also offstage—wherever cameras were present, they had to be ready at all times.

Look, the trainee at the eleven o’clock position was so moved he cried because he successfully secured a bed away from the door!

At the ten o’clock direction, a trainee who was a beat too slow and had to room alone was seen with a pale face, his hands trembling as he opened his dormitory door. Eventually, he broke down and begged other trainees to let him crash in their room at night.

However, the other trainees refused, citing a lack of available beds.

The trainee’s eyes instantly turned red, and he grabbed viciously at his own hair.

Su Ximu glanced at that trainee again, uncertain. So, because this world was more volatile, did the audience also prefer this kind of intense trainee style?

Not far away, Trainee No. 51, with his buzzcut, was initially prepared to forcefully muscle in and take a bed from the neighboring dormitory after being rejected. But before he could act, he accidentally met the gaze of the Dormitory Selection Officer by the staircase.

That gaze was calm yet icy and scrutinizing. No. 51 was certain that if he actually went through with it, the other would rip him to shreds in an instant!

No. 51 gulped, his face pale, and immediately pushed open the door to his assigned dormitory.

Sure enough, the Dormitory Selection Officer, whose gaze had been cold and scrutinizing, smiled at him.

Fortunately, he had controlled himself and avoided stepping into a trap.

He had already witnessed the sheer nastiness of these monsters during his first island interview earlier that day.

Su Ximu happened to make eye contact with Trainee No. 51 from a distance and clearly felt the trainee’s flow of emotions abruptly cut off.

Feeling that he had disrupted No. 51’s performance, the young man froze for a moment, then offered an awkward but polite smile when the trainee looked at him again.

Because of this little hiccup during the dormitory selection, Su Ximu didn’t linger in the hallway any longer and instead returned to his own dormitory to wait.

He stayed there until the cameraman came up to the third floor with the camera, ready to distribute the dorm rule sheets together.

If the entire Bizarre Island was divided into many areas of varying sizes, then each area had its own distinct rules and different staff responsible for management.

The dormitory rules provided by the program team for the third floor, which Su Ximu was responsible for, were pretty straightforward.

"1: As qualified trainees, you should strive to improve your performance skills. After 6:30 AM every morning, please head to the cafeteria for breakfast, then proceed to the practice room for training. Do not linger in the dormitory building."

"2: Lunch break is from 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM. You may stay in the dormitory during this time, but please keep it down."

"3: Please keep the dormitory clean and tidy."

"5: After 10:00 PM, all trainees should be in bed, remain in their dormitories, and keep quiet."

"6: If you hear footsteps in the hallway at night, do not be afraid. It is the Dormitory Selection Officer making rounds."

"7: If someone knocks on your dormitory door at any time, do not open it. The Dormitory Selection Officer and mentors have keys to every dormitory."

"8: Maintaining your physique is something every qualified trainee must always keep in mind. The dormitory is equipped with an electronic scale, so please keep track of your weight."

"9: If trainees receive more than three complaints from the Dormitory Selection Officer of their floor, the Dormitory Selection Officer has the right to add a new rule."

"10: Do not bring prohibited items."

Su Ximu initially thought that with so many young trainees living together—some of whom might have little experience in dormitory life—it would be normal for a few to break one or two rules at first.

As the Dormitory Selection Officer, he was prepared to familiarize himself with the rules and promptly remind the trainees.

Unexpectedly, everyone took the rules more seriously than he, the Dormitory Selection Officer, did.

After posting the rule sheet on the wall of another dormitory, he even saw a trainee standing right in front of it, looking like they were about to memorize the rules.

Especially after 10:00 PM, when Su Ximu stepped out of his dormitory, he found the entire third floor completely silent.

All the trainees were like hibernating animals, lying quietly in their own "nests," trying not to make a single sound, as if afraid of attracting some fierce predator.

If he hadn’t heard the trainees chatting around 9:00 PM, Su Ximu would have started to wonder if the entire third floor was empty except for him.

The hallway on the third floor was completely dark, and his phone was buzzing in his pocket—it was the assistant producer texting the Dormitory Selection Officer on the second floor to hurry up with the dormitory inspections.

It's said that this makes for good TV drama effect, and viewers love watching the recorded footage.

Taking out his phone again to check the messages in the work chat group, Su Ximu thought that the reason the trainees were dead silent was probably to help the production team build up the show's atmosphere.

After all, he had lived in a dormitory before and knew that even the quietest ordinary dorm wouldn’t be this silent.

Seeing the other Dormitory Selection Officers enthusiastically reporting their progress to the assistant director in the work chat group, Su Ximu took a deep breath, pulled out his small flashlight, and turned it on.

He had already tried earlier—for some reason, the motion-activated lights in the hallway had suddenly stopped working.

The only one that hadn’t completely died was flickering at the end of the corridor, and it was a red alarm light.

Su Ximu didn’t want to think this way, but he couldn’t help it.

He felt the lighting effect was very much like that of a haunted house.

The only thing that gave him any comfort on site was the camera, which was also flickering.

Gently pushing open the door of Dorm 301, he found it unlocked.

Following the example of the photos shared by the other Dormitory Selection Officers, Su Ximu shone the flashlight on the trainees’ faces, then used his phone to record some B-roll footage and uploaded them to the work chat group for the editing team to use later.

In the dormitory, all four trainees were lying ramrod straight in their beds, without a single wrinkle in their blankets.

He had no idea how the trainees managed to tuck themselves so neatly into blankets that stiff.

After checking the trainees in the first dorm, Su Ximu’s nerves eased up a bit.

Because he had already realized that these trainees were just pretending to sleep to play up the show's effect.

No one can stay this perfectly still while asleep.

Hmm! No one!

He turned and left the first dormitory.

Not noticing that the trainees behind him remained flawlessly still even after his departure, even their breathing carefully maintained at the same rhythm and intensity as before, as if afraid he might suddenly return for a surprise inspection.

Su Ximu moved on to the second dormitory, where the trainees were still laid stiff as corpses.

One trainee’s acting skills weren't very convincing at pretending to sleep—his eyelids trembled noticeably after closing. Su Ximu made a point of recording this trainee’s performance, thinking the editors could use such authentic reaction shots.

A Dormitory Selection Officer inspecting the dorms, trainees nervously pretending to sleep—a perfect reality TV moment.

Then, as he moved to the third dormitory and before he could finish filming, a blood-curdling scream shattered the silence.

"Ah!!!"

"Monster! No! Stay away!"

His phone was expensive. He couldn’t drop it. That was his first thought.

His second thought was that the scream seemed to come from downstairs.

Had something happened downstairs?

He tried to convince himself it was another part of the show, but he couldn’t quite believe it.

The scream sounded too real.

But monsters don’t exist in real life.

So... still part of the show?

Second floor.

A supernatural entity with a jaw unhinged to grotesque proportions was excitedly chasing a player down the hallway, axe in hand.

It seemed to be playing cat-and-mouse with its victim, mercifully holding back each time the axe was about to strike.

It drove the player toward the staircase, reveling in their terror and despair.

Safety was just steps away, yet the player couldn’t take that step.

It was as if an invisible wall blocked any hope of escape.

"I want to go home..." Trainee No. 39 cried out hopelessly, "My father is sick. I need to go home..."

The veteran players, bound by their character assignments, were forbidden from breaking character with the new players or telling them they had three lives in the game.

But it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

"Ghost 101" was a major game scenario, and it could shatter players' sanity.

Most new players wouldn’t be permanently eliminated after dying in the instance.

Unless their mental fortitude could withstand the trauma.

Trainee No. 39’s despair didn’t faze the creature closing in on him step by step—instead, it made the creature's grin stretch even wider.

"It's alright. Soon enough, they'll come join you."

The slit-mouthed creature raised its axe. The trainee, slumped in the corner, struggled desperately but was pinned by an invisible force.

Until... light, very light footsteps.

Slow, careful footsteps came from upstairs.

Su Ximu carefully peeked around the corner of the staircase, trying to check out what was being filmed downstairs.

Only to make direct eye contact with the slit-mouthed creature.

The creature was totally stunned: "H-How did you get down here?"

I thought the staircase was sealed off after 10?

The young man glanced at his colleague, whose voice he recognized, but the special effects makeup had startled him, then took two more steps down.

As if to show that was how he’d gotten down.

Author's Note:

Is this meant to scare the players or to scare Little Mu?!