Ling Xiao stared at this passage for a long time.
It seemed like he no longer constantly thought about getting back his heart.
A strange feeling, as if his heart had found a home.
Before this, his heart had always been wandering.
Whenever a dungeon world was unstable or its Master had issues, it would drift to that world, releasing energy to stabilize it.
Perhaps in the mysterious deep sea, perhaps in the polar glaciers, perhaps in the dark hell, or maybe in the filthy sea of corpses, it wandered in all the harsh places that humans detested and feared.
This was the first time it was inside a person’s body.
In the warm chest, amidst the pulsating heartbeat, it thought that it should have a place of rest.
No other human could, only here, because the blood nourishing it was very familiar, making it feel very secure.
Ling Xiao folded the crumpled paper and cut off the alarm system that had been sounding in his mind.
***
At ten o’clock at night, Ning Su fell asleep peacefully.
In his dream, he seemed to feel that the heart suddenly thumped heavily.
Outside the bed curtain, the cabin was at its noisiest and liveliest moment.
Except for Ning Su and Ling Xiao, no player dared to sleep at this time.
Among the players who recognized each other tonight, most of them gathered together.
Xue Wei slept on the upper bunk of Gu Xinghua’s bed.
Not far to the right, the four players who had just gathered tonight slept on adjacent bunks.
The middle-aged woman with trembling hands is called Yunxiang Ning, sitting on the lower bunk.
Above her, the woman in the yellow shirt that Gu Xinghua mentioned in the game hall, Lin Lin.
The man, Dong Zhengxuan, who was also on the lower bunk, felt that it was too quiet on their side and struck up a conversation with Yunxiang Ning from the opposite bunk.
“Yunxiang Ning, Yunxiang Ning!” Dong Zhengxuan shouted several times before Yunxiang Ning raised her head, looking a bit absent-mindedly at Dong Zhengxuan.
Dong Zhengxuan sighed. “I thought I remembered the name wrong. Why aren’t you answering? Are you uncomfortable? Why are you so absent-minded?”
“It’s... it’s nothing.” Yunxiang Ning forced a smile onto her face. “I haven’t slept much for three nights, feeling a bit confused. My brain has gone on strike.”
“Indeed, none of us slept well,” Dong Zhengxuan said.
Yunxiang Ning said so. It would be better if he didn’t continue talking to her and let her rest quietly.
While the entire ship was filled with excited corpses, their side had been so quiet. Would it not seem abnormal?
Dong Zhengxuan, who had been tense all along, thought so.
Just as he was thinking this, Lin Lin, wearing a yellow shirt on the upper bunk, came down.
She sat on Yunxiang Ning’s bunk and said to Dong Zhengxuan, “You’re Dong Zhengxuan, right?”
Blocked by the upper bunk, in the dim space below, Dong Zhengxuan saw Yunxiang Ning move backward, showing a willingness to give them space for conversation and an unwillingness to participate.
Dong Zhengxuan didn’t look at her again and spoke to Lin Lin, who actively engaged in conversation with him, “Yes, I am.”
He smiled at Lin Lin, “Gu Xinghua said he saw you in the game hall. In fact, I saw you too, but I only saw your back, not your face.”
“Don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t observing all the time. It’s just that yellow is too conspicuous.”
Lin Lin laughed. “Yes, yellow is one of the brightest and most eye-catching colors.”
“Yes.”
Lin Lin showed no sign of panic, which calmed Dong Zhengxuan considerably. He also admired her, feeling that she wasn’t an ordinary player.
He said, “At a time like this, why did you still enter a dungeon instance? Those who entered an instance at this time are usually low-level players like me, afraid of offending others in the individual competition and not getting good results, so they simply give up participating.”
Lin Lin smiled, “I don’t think so. You’re not bad.”
Dong Zhengxuan scratched his head and laughed, embarrassedly.
The two of them chatted quietly. In the cabin full of corpses, being able to chat quietly was much more reassuring than in complete silence.
In a dangerous and tense environment, this comforting feeling of mutual support easily brought people closer and generated good feelings.
Around eleven o’clock at night, Lin Lin adjusted the scarf around her neck and prepared to go back up.
As she moved on the ground, Dong Zhengxuan only then noticed that one of her legs seemed to be injured. She dared not put force on it, causing her to limp as she walked.
She grabbed the ladder, and as that injured leg stepped on the first rung, it began to tremble with pain.
Dong Zhengxuan quickly stood up and said, “If you don’t mind, let’s switch beds. You can sleep below, and I’ll sleep above.”
Lin Lin looked down at him against the light. “Then I’ll trouble you.”
She looked down at the ground, her injured leg not coming down with each attempt to move.
Dong Zhengxuan said, “I’ll help you.”
He reached out, holding Lin Lin’s arm to support her. For some reason, after just a second of contemplation, he extended his other arm, wrapping it around her slender waist, and said, “Alright, come down now.”
The person above didn’t move.
After a few tens of seconds, Dong Zhengxuan awkwardly withdrew the arm around her waist and looked up at Lin Lin.
He thought his abrupt gesture might have upset her.
But when he looked up, he saw her smiling.
Around two hundred corpses in the cabin were muttering something. Some corpses were laughing, while others were crying for unknown reasons, creating a chaotic scene.
Suddenly, it became quiet here, eerily quiet, making Lin Lin’s smile seem somewhat sinister.
When she looked down at him, a few strands of hair fell, casting a shadow. The flesh around her eyes drooped, and her dark pupils were deeply set, giving her smile a creepy touch.
At the same time, the scarf around her neck fell, landing on Dong Zhengxuan’s face.
The scent of perfume wafted into Dong Zhengxuan’s nose, mixed with a faint smell of blood.
Dong Zhengxuan saw the other end of the scarf, sliding slightly down from her neck as she lowered her head, revealing a bloody hole.
“You... are you playing a corpse so seriously, special effects makeup... right?”
No sound, just absolute silence, with the smile growing larger.
Sweat broke out on his body, and as his brain went blank, Dong Zhengxuan’s senses became unusually sharp.
He felt that the arm he was holding onto didn’t feel right.
His palm was half pressed against the shirt and half gripping her exposed wrist.
When he saw the bloody hole, he tightened his grip abruptly, pressing on a strange vein.
It went down in one push, not the softness of a human blood vessel, but a hollow feeling, as if there was no blood inside.
Dong Zhengxuan’s legs went weak, almost falling.
When the corpses carried away Dong Zhengxuan’s body, the players only then realized that, in the darkness, another player had silently died.
If it were another player’s death, they could maintain composure.
When they saw Dong Zhengxuan being carried away, many players were on the verge of collapse.
Pang Yang grasped his curly hair tightly. “What exactly happened? How is he still dead?”
Xue Wei’s face turned pale. Not long after the corpse left, she immediately came over to ask the other three players on this side, “What’s going on?”
Ning Su rubbed his eyes and followed Fang Qi and Pang Yang over.
Yun Xiangning shrank in the corner of the bed, trembling with her arms around her head.
The male player on the upper bunk lay stiff on the bed, not making a sound, with a faint trembling visible under the blanket.
Both of them looked quite frightened, and the immediate thought in the minds of several players was that the scene where the corpse killed Dong Zhengxuan must have been very terrifying.
Fang Qi: “Don’t be afraid, it’s gone. Quickly, tell us!”
However, the two remained silent, only trembling.
The only one who could still be asked here was Lin Lin on the upper bunk.
Several people looked up at her.
Xue Wei sat on Dong Zhengxuan’s bed, and when she looked up, she saw Lin Lin looking down at them, her feet swinging below.
Just as Xue Wei was about to question her loudly, a drop of blood dripped from her hand into her eyes.
In this part of the cabin, it suddenly became eerily quiet.
Ling Xiao stared at this passage for a long time.
It seemed like he no longer constantly thought about getting back his heart.
A strange feeling, as if his heart had found a home.
Before this, his heart had always been wandering.
Whenever a dungeon world was unstable or its Master had issues, it would drift to that world, releasing energy to stabilize it.
Perhaps in the mysterious deep sea, perhaps in the polar glaciers, perhaps in the dark hell, or maybe in the filthy sea of corpses, it wandered in all the harsh places that humans detested and feared.
This was the first time it was inside a person’s body.
In the warm chest, amidst the pulsating heartbeat, it thought that it should have a place of rest.
No other human could, only here, because the blood nourishing it was very familiar, making it feel very secure.
Ling Xiao folded the crumpled paper and cut off the alarm system that had been sounding in his mind.
***
At ten o’clock at night, Ning Su fell asleep peacefully.
In his dream, he seemed to feel that the heart suddenly thumped heavily.
Outside the bed curtain, the cabin was at its noisiest and liveliest moment.
Except for Ning Su and Ling Xiao, no player dared to sleep at this time.
Among the players who recognized each other tonight, most of them gathered together.
Xue Wei slept on the upper bunk of Gu Xinghua’s bed.
Not far to the right, the four players who had just gathered tonight slept on adjacent bunks.
The middle-aged woman with trembling hands is called Yunxiang Ning, sitting on the lower bunk.
Above her, the woman in the yellow shirt that Gu Xinghua mentioned in the game hall, Lin Lin.
The man, Dong Zhengxuan, who was also on the lower bunk, felt that it was too quiet on their side and struck up a conversation with Yunxiang Ning from the opposite bunk.
“Yunxiang Ning, Yunxiang Ning!” Dong Zhengxuan shouted several times before Yunxiang Ning raised her head, looking a bit absent-mindedly at Dong Zhengxuan.
Dong Zhengxuan sighed. “I thought I remembered the name wrong. Why aren’t you answering? Are you uncomfortable? Why are you so absent-minded?”
“It’s... it’s nothing.” Yunxiang Ning forced a smile onto her face. “I haven’t slept much for three nights, feeling a bit confused. My brain has gone on strike.”
“Indeed, none of us slept well,” Dong Zhengxuan said.
Yunxiang Ning said so. It would be better if he didn’t continue talking to her and let her rest quietly.
While the entire ship was filled with excited corpses, their side had been so quiet. Would it not seem abnormal?
Dong Zhengxuan, who had been tense all along, thought so.
Just as he was thinking this, Lin Lin, wearing a yellow shirt on the upper bunk, came down.
She sat on Yunxiang Ning’s bunk and said to Dong Zhengxuan, “You’re Dong Zhengxuan, right?”
Blocked by the upper bunk, in the dim space below, Dong Zhengxuan saw Yunxiang Ning move backward, showing a willingness to give them space for conversation and an unwillingness to participate.
Dong Zhengxuan didn’t look at her again and spoke to Lin Lin, who actively engaged in conversation with him, “Yes, I am.”
He smiled at Lin Lin, “Gu Xinghua said he saw you in the game hall. In fact, I saw you too, but I only saw your back, not your face.”
“Don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t observing all the time. It’s just that yellow is too conspicuous.”
Lin Lin laughed. “Yes, yellow is one of the brightest and most eye-catching colors.”
“Yes.”
Lin Lin showed no sign of panic, which calmed Dong Zhengxuan considerably. He also admired her, feeling that she wasn’t an ordinary player.
He said, “At a time like this, why did you still enter a dungeon instance? Those who entered an instance at this time are usually low-level players like me, afraid of offending others in the individual competition and not getting good results, so they simply give up participating.”
Lin Lin smiled, “I don’t think so. You’re not bad.”
Dong Zhengxuan scratched his head and laughed, embarrassedly.
The two of them chatted quietly. In the cabin full of corpses, being able to chat quietly was much more reassuring than in complete silence.
In a dangerous and tense environment, this comforting feeling of mutual support easily brought people closer and generated good feelings.
Around eleven o’clock at night, Lin Lin adjusted the scarf around her neck and prepared to go back up.
As she moved on the ground, Dong Zhengxuan only then noticed that one of her legs seemed to be injured. She dared not put force on it, causing her to limp as she walked.
She grabbed the ladder, and as that injured leg stepped on the first rung, it began to tremble with pain.
Dong Zhengxuan quickly stood up and said, “If you don’t mind, let’s switch beds. You can sleep below, and I’ll sleep above.”
Lin Lin looked down at him against the light. “Then I’ll trouble you.”
She looked down at the ground, her injured leg not coming down with each attempt to move.
Dong Zhengxuan said, “I’ll help you.”
He reached out, holding Lin Lin’s arm to support her. For some reason, after just a second of contemplation, he extended his other arm, wrapping it around her slender waist, and said, “Alright, come down now.”
The person above didn’t move.
After a few tens of seconds, Dong Zhengxuan awkwardly withdrew the arm around her waist and looked up at Lin Lin.
He thought his abrupt gesture might have upset her.
But when he looked up, he saw her smiling.
Around two hundred corpses in the cabin were muttering something. Some corpses were laughing, while others were crying for unknown reasons, creating a chaotic scene.
Suddenly, it became quiet here, eerily quiet, making Lin Lin’s smile seem somewhat sinister.
When she looked down at him, a few strands of hair fell, casting a shadow. The flesh around her eyes drooped, and her dark pupils were deeply set, giving her smile a creepy touch.
At the same time, the scarf around her neck fell, landing on Dong Zhengxuan’s face.
The scent of perfume wafted into Dong Zhengxuan’s nose, mixed with a faint smell of blood.
Dong Zhengxuan saw the other end of the scarf, sliding slightly down from her neck as she lowered her head, revealing a bloody hole.
“You... are you playing a corpse so seriously, special effects makeup... right?”
No sound, just absolute silence, with the smile growing larger.
Sweat broke out on his body, and as his brain went blank, Dong Zhengxuan’s senses became unusually sharp.
He felt that the arm he was holding onto didn’t feel right.
His palm was half pressed against the shirt and half gripping her exposed wrist.
When he saw the bloody hole, he tightened his grip abruptly, pressing on a strange vein.
It went down in one push, not the softness of a human blood vessel, but a hollow feeling, as if there was no blood inside.
Dong Zhengxuan’s legs went weak, almost falling.
When the corpses carried away Dong Zhengxuan’s body, the players only then realized that, in the darkness, another player had silently died.
If it were another player’s death, they could maintain composure.
When they saw Dong Zhengxuan being carried away, many players were on the verge of collapse.
Pang Yang grasped his curly hair tightly. “What exactly happened? How is he still dead?”
Xue Wei’s face turned pale. Not long after the corpse left, she immediately came over to ask the other three players on this side, “What’s going on?”
Ning Su rubbed his eyes and followed Fang Qi and Pang Yang over.
Yun Xiangning shrank in the corner of the bed, trembling with her arms around her head.
The male player on the upper bunk lay stiff on the bed, not making a sound, with a faint trembling visible under the blanket.
Both of them looked quite frightened, and the immediate thought in the minds of several players was that the scene where the corpse killed Dong Zhengxuan must have been very terrifying.
Fang Qi: “Don’t be afraid, it’s gone. Quickly, tell us!”
However, the two remained silent, only trembling.
The only one who could still be asked here was Lin Lin on the upper bunk.
Several people looked up at her.
Xue Wei sat on Dong Zhengxuan’s bed, and when she looked up, she saw Lin Lin looking down at them, her feet swinging below.
Just as Xue Wei was about to question her loudly, a drop of blood dripped from her hand into her eyes.
In this part of the cabin, it suddenly became eerily quiet.
