12: Chapter 12 Dead Without a Trace

'The optional task has become a mandatory task, and there are more related hints. This is quite a bit of information... Night Demon, is that the monster's true body?'

'The task difficulty has clearly jumped up a level compared to before. Originally, I just needed to escape, but now I'm actually required to stop the Night Demon's advancement. This is obviously extremely dangerous!'

'The Night Demon has already noticed me. Is it because I killed its Clone?'

'Although the task rewards are tempting—this God-Ascension Sequence thing sounds high-end—the penalty for failure is actually forced erasure?!'

Chu Xuan's thoughts raced; his previous plans were completely disrupted in an instant.

Meanwhile, the tension between Tang Zheng and Xu Fan was growing thicker, and a conflict was about to erupt.

"Everyone, quiet down!"

A somber voice rang out from the back of the crowd.

The scene fell silent instantly.

A student holding a baseball bat stepped out from the middle of the crowd. The bat was stained with blood and bits of flesh.

Chu Xuan pulled his thoughts away from the System task and recognized the person as Huang Guangming, the Student Union President. He was a prominent figure at school, usually surrounded by a following wherever he went, and lived on the fourth floor just like them.

What caught Chu Xuan's attention even more, however, was the person behind Huang Guangming.

She wore heavy makeup and had a slender, graceful figure. One strap of her beige camisole was broken, and below it were denim hot pants. Her long, straight legs were covered in splattered blood.

Chu Xuan knew she was a student from the Nursing Department, but he didn't know her name.

A female student in the male dormitory?

Chu Xuan's heart stirred.

Is it Qin Qing?

In the dream, in Future Tang Zheng's final hint, he said if I met Qin Qing, I should tell her the ritual node is in Room 1104. And since the System's task is to stop the Night Demon's advancement, could it be...

The ritual node in Room 1104 is the Night Demon's advancement ceremony?

If so, Qin Qing might be the key to completing his task!

As Chu Xuan was thinking, the female student seemed to sense his gaze. She turned her head to meet his eyes, then curled her lips in a pout.

Chu Xuan observed closely. Aside from her fear, a clear flash of disgust and disdain flickered in the depths of her eyes, and she shrank back behind Huang Guangming.

Chu Xuan felt it was a bit strange but quickly withdrew his gaze to observe the reactions of the others.

Although he didn't know exactly what to do to stop the Night Demon's advancement, he understood one principle.

Whatever the enemy wants, I must destroy!

Chu Xuan's line of thinking gradually became clear.

Finding Qin Qing was certainly important, but he couldn't pin all his hopes on someone else. In the meantime, he also had two things to do.

First, try to prevent the monster from continuing to eat people.

Second, kill as many of the monster's Clones as possible.

Especially the second task—he had to kill more Clones to increase his strength. Ultimately, at the critical moment, even if he couldn't find Qin Qing, he would have more confidence to venture into Room 1104 alone!

"Brother Ming, just in case, whether these two are monsters or not, we should restrain them first. Am I right?" Seeing Huang Guangming arrive, Xu Fan's expression immediately became submissive.

Huang Guangming didn't answer. Instead, he first stared at the monster's corpse not far inside the door. He subconsciously lifted his foot to step forward for a closer look, but after taking half a step, he retreated.

"How did you kill the monster? And how did you get out? Why was your dorm door impossible to open just now? You'd better tell us everything about the situation in your room in detail."

A string of questions came out. Huang Guangming's eyes scrutinized Chu Xuan and Tang Zheng, specifically lingering for a moment on the fruit knife in Chu Xuan's hand.

Chu Xuan raised an eyebrow and countered with a question: "Based on what you just said, it seems that besides our Dormitory 412, there are several other rooms whose doors couldn't be opened. Was Ma Tao's room one of them? Have you already confirmed that Ma Tao is a monster?"

Chu Xuan glanced toward Room 403, but his view was blocked by the crowd of people surrounding them.

"I'm the one asking questions right now!"

Huang Guangming waved his hand impatiently. "As the Student Union President, since a special situation has occurred here, I have an obligation and a responsibility to protect the safety of all students. If you aren't monsters, please cooperate."

Tang Zheng stepped forward to retort, "What? If we don't cooperate, you're gonna kill me or something? If you want to know something, talk to me properly. I hate it most when you put on those stinking airs. Just how big of an official are you?"

"How can you talk to Brother Ming like that? Watch your tone!" Xu Fan glared at Tang Zheng and scolded him coldly.

"I don't remember you being this brave normally. Is it Huang Guangming who gave you courage? Come on, ask Huang Guangming: if I want to mess you up right now, can he stop me!"

Tang Zheng took a direct step forward, looking down at the crowd with a cold face. "A bunch of cowards who've pissed themselves. I've never seen many of you with any balls normally, and now that you've run into a big scene, you've actually squeezed out the guts to kill people? Come on, let's see who's really a badass. Step out and face me!"

With one sentence, Tang Zheng insulted everyone present. He was tall and well-built, and combined with his peerlessly arrogant aura, he looked quite imposing.

Though the crowd was angry, they were momentarily intimidated.

Huang Guangming and Xu Fan's expressions were both very ugly. Xu Fan's face especially turned red suddenly, and he was about to rush forward when Huang Guangming pulled him back.

"Don't move yet!"

"Brother Ming, he..."

"I told you not to move!" Huang Guangming glared at Xu Fan, then stared at Tang Zheng again. Suppressing his anger, his tone softened slightly.

"Tang Zheng, I don't want to argue with you right now. It's not that I'm afraid of you, but everyone's situation is bad right now. If we want to survive, we can only unite and share valuable information with each other. I hope you can tell us exactly what happened in your dorm."

"If your attitude is better, wouldn't it have been over if you'd just spoken like that earlier?"

Tang Zheng snorted, then turned to look at Chu Xuan. "Brother Xuan, what do you say?"

Chu Xuan pondered and said, "What's the situation here in the hallway? Why did so many people die? Tell us what happened here..."

Chu Xuan intended to learn more about the situation, but before he could finish, Huang Guangming seemed to be triggered, and his suppressed anger flared up instantly.

"I said, I'm the one asking you, not the other way around! Don't test my patience. If I really wanted to deal with you, it would only take a minute!"

Huang Guangming said coldly, "According to the principle of majority rule, we have more people now, so we are the collective. If you don't cooperate with us, it shows you have ill intentions. I can completely treat you as monsters. Don't make a mistake."

"You're really something! I just gave you a bit of face and you're already pushing it. Then there's nothing to talk about!" Tang Zheng shouted with wide eyes. "I can't say much else, but if we really start fighting, I'll be the first one to kill you. Do you believe me?"

Huang Guangming's chest heaved as he stared straight at Tang Zheng for several seconds. Only then did he suppress his anger and say with a cold face:

"This is what happened. Someone couldn't sleep at night and went to visit other dorms, only to find that the people in several rooms were all dead, with only mangled remains left. Then everyone was alerted, but we found that three dorm rooms couldn't be opened."

"There's no signal or network at all, and emergency calls don't work! We wanted to leave this place, but the dorm elevators are broken, and the voice-activated lights in the fire escape have failed. We don't know what kind of monsters are inside; many students died as soon as they went in! We tried to go out through the windows, but they won't open at all. We're all trapped!"

Speaking to this point, Huang Guangming's breathing gradually became rapid. "Just over half an hour ago, Room 403 suddenly opened. Only Ma Tao came out alive; the other three were all dead! We wanted to ask about the situation, but Ma Tao was talking nonsense like a madman and wouldn't answer anything we asked."

Huang Guangming suddenly slammed his bat onto the ground, his emotions becoming agitated. "Then not long after, around two in the morning, the lights here all went out suddenly. We couldn't see anything. We don't know what monsters appeared, but the entire hallway was filled with screams!"

"Half an hour! For a full half-hour, there were screams everywhere!"

"There are twenty-eight dorms on this floor, four people per dorm—over a hundred people! When the lights suddenly came back on after half an hour, there were fewer than twenty of us left alive!"

"Everyone else is dead!"

"They were all eaten by monsters. We couldn't even find a single intact corpse!"

Huang Guangming's voice grew more and more agitated. The details revealed in his words were chilling, making everyone present recall the horror from not long ago, their eyes filled with unconcealable dread.

Chu Xuan looked around, imagining how tragic and desperate the scene must have been at that time.

Meanwhile, the constantly refreshing time display on the System page gave him a strong sense of oppression and urgency.

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