19: Chapter 19 Ambush in the Dark

A trace of mockery flickered at the corners of Chu Xuan's mouth.

Huang Guangming indeed had some minor tricks up his sleeve, but it was a pity he couldn't read the situation and lacked self-awareness.

At such a critical moment of life and death, he was still playing petty games, unwilling to relinquish his authority. It was simply overestimating his own capabilities.

Trying to use moral kidnapping?

Little did he know, Chu Xuan had already become everyone's only hope for survival. He held the moral high ground and the mandate of the group; who would dare disobey him now?

Whomever he ordered to charge would have to charge. Otherwise, they would be seen as selfish, lacking a collective mindset, and would surely be condemned and face the group's collective fury!

"There are just over three minutes left. Since you, Huang Guangming, are unwilling to scout and care only for your own petty interests over the greater good of the group, then we have no choice but to pick someone else. However, to prevent you from harboring a grudge and tripping us up, I'll knock you unconscious and leave you here first..."

"Don't! I'm willing to scout! I'll go down right now!"

Huang Guangming's expression changed drastically.

Being the first to scout might lead to death, but being knocked out and left here would definitely lead to death!

Huang Guangming cursed Chu Xuan wildly in his heart, but he didn't dare delay any longer. He hurriedly raised the Long-handled Fluorescent Lamp and walked through the fire door.

On the landing between the fourth and third floors, the two terrifying werewolf-like monsters still stood there. One had bluish-black rotted skin and blood-red eyes; the other wore pajamas, its body exposing blurred flesh and empty eye sockets.

Faced with such a scene, any normal person would have their legs trembling with fear.

Huang Guangming bit his lip and took one step down.

The two monsters didn't move.

He went down a second step; they still didn't move.

Until the third step, they remained motionless.

Was it not working?

The air seemed to freeze in that second. Everyone watched intently from the fire door, their hearts filled with extreme tension.

Huang Guangming had already paused, not daring to take a fourth step. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead. At this moment, his heart was filled with immense regret—why couldn't he have been more patient and endured a bit longer?

"One more step!"

Chu Xuan's calm voice drifted down from above, sounding like a death knell in Huang Guangming's ears.

"I can't go any further, I can't... Chu Xuan, we're all classmates, I'm begging you..." Huang Guangming shook his head repeatedly, panicked and trembling like a leaf. He had even raised his leg, preparing to retreat.

"Nightfall arrives in two and a half minutes. Time is running out. If you dare to hesitate and waste everyone's time, I'll kill you myself before the monsters even get a chance," Chu Xuan said, his calm voice carrying an undisguised threat.

Harboring secret resentment, Huang Guangming could only summon his courage and take another step down. At such a close distance, he could even hear the heavy, raspy breathing of the monsters.

"Just leave already! I'm begging you, just go!" Cold sweat poured down Huang Guangming's forehead as he screamed inwardly.

It seemed his intense wish had an effect.

Finally, as Huang Guangming reached the fourth step, the two monsters turned toward him and moved their feet one after another, leaving the landing and retreating downward.

Huang Guangming immediately breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as though he was about to collapse from exhaustion.

The others at the fire door also felt a heavy weight lift from their hearts.

Chu Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly. He had observed very clearly: the monster with bluish-black rotted skin and blood-red eyes had retreated first, followed by the one in pajamas with empty eye sockets.

There was a distinct sequence to their movements.

Yet there was clearly no verbal communication between the two monsters...

Chu Xuan immediately recalled that after the Pajama Monster emerged from Dorm 418, it had chosen to flee without any hesitation. This indicated that it knew everything happening in the hallway.

In other words, the monsters could share information!

'They can share information, but there's a delay. If that's the case, I can exploit it. However... there's still one doubt to confirm: are these two monsters really being repelled by the light, or are they faking it to lure us deeper?'

Chu Xuan remained wary of the monsters' cunning.

If the monsters were intentionally luring them, he would have to retreat back to the room, block the door with bed frames, endure the next half hour of Nightfall, and then find another way.

Thinking of this, Chu Xuan pointed at Han Meimei. "You, go down with Huang Guangming!"

"Huh?" Han Meimei stared with innocent eyes, saying aggrievedly, "Brother Xuan, I want to stay with you..."

Chu Xuan said coldly, "Will you go down yourself, or should I kick you down?"

"Don't! Brother Xuan, I'll go down myself." Han Meimei shuddered and quickly hurried downstairs to catch up with Huang Guangming.

"You four go down too, follow behind them," Chu Xuan pointed to four more people.

"This... alright then."

The four looked at each other and followed downstairs somewhat dejectedly.

Tang Zheng raised an eyebrow, realizing that these four, along with Huang Guangming and Han Meimei, were the ones who had been most hostile toward him and Chu Xuan earlier.

So this was Chu Xuan's goal...

Rather than turning against them for revenge, it was better to manipulate and use them.

At this time, besides Chu Xuan and Tang Zheng, five people remained by the fire door. Xu Zhiyou, wearing thick glasses, was among them. He adjusted his frames and said with a hint of urgency, "Chu Xuan, there are only two minutes left. Should we all go down together?"

"Wait!"

Chu Xuan raised his hand to signal him to be quiet, his gaze fixed on the area below.

Among the six people below, except for Huang Guangming in the lead who held the Long-handled Fluorescent Lamp, the other five each held a phone in one hand and a bottle of Milk-water in the other. The combined brightness was quite significant.

As Huang Guangming and the others reached the landing, from Chu Xuan's perspective, the two retreating monsters were no longer visible.

With so many people clustered together and deep in the stairwell, if the monsters were faking their retreat, they could have easily leaped over to start a massacre by now.

Chu Xuan was now seventy percent certain that the monsters were indeed being repelled by the light rather than luring them.

As for the remaining thirty percent of uncertainty...

Chu Xuan pulled Tang Zheng into the stairwell and whispered something in his ear. Then, he instructed the remaining five: "All of you, step inside and give me maximum light!"

The five nodded and entered the fire door.

At the same time, having heard Chu Xuan's instructions, Tang Zheng didn't delay for a moment. He immediately gripped a Long-handled Fluorescent Lamp and leaped down, jumping directly from the fourth floor to the landing.

Under the shocked gazes of Huang Guangming and the others, Tang Zheng planted his feet and rotated his hips, assuming a standard javelin-throwing stance. With a low grunt, he threw the lamp with all his might toward the two monsters that had already retreated to the third floor.

Chu Xuan stepped to the stair railing and looked down through the gap, seeing a streak of light shoot down like a spear.

Almost instantly, the monster with bluish-black rotted skin and blood-red eyes moved. Swift as a leopard, it suddenly turned and jumped down toward the second floor.

The other Pajama Monster followed almost immediately, also trying to turn and jump away, but it was slightly slower after all.

When that bright beam of light shot to a position less than a meter in front of the Pajama Monster, a bizarre scene occurred.

The Pajama Monster actually transformed into an afterimage, moving at a speed difficult for the naked eye to track, flitting up the stairs from the third floor toward the fourth.

Chu Xuan snapped his head around and saw a young man with disheveled hair wearing pajamas appear out of thin air in the hallway outside the fire door.

The pajamas on this young man were clearly a size too large. Half of his neck had been torn open, with blood spurting out, and his head lolled to one side.

Despite such a severe injury, the youth was not dead. Instead, he showed a ruthless expression, attempting to rush into the dark stairwell through the fire door. Unfortunately, Chu Xuan had already pre-positioned Xu Zhiyou and the other four there.

The five of them each held a bottle of Milk-water, and the light from their phones shone through them, creating a bright glow that completely blocked the pajama man's path.

The pajama man immediately tried to turn and flee, but before he could take two steps, his head slumped and he collapsed to the ground.

While the heavy neck wound couldn't kill him instantly, in his human state, he seemed to have fallen into a weakened condition, unable to move normally.

He still tried to crawl forward, unwilling to give up.

Puchi!

A dagger with a broken tip flew through the air, piercing the back of his neck.

"I've been waiting for you!"

Chu Xuan shouted. With two swift strides, he rushed over. His movements were sharp and decisive as he pulled out the blade and slashed across the back of the neck, then buried his fingers like hooks into the man's crown.

With 9 points of Strength and 7 points of Stamina, Chu Xuan's fingers were like steel rods, even sinking into the other's flesh.

He gave a violent upward tug!

Accompanied by a surging fountain of blood, a head was tossed away by Chu Xuan. When it hit the ground, it transformed into the head of a monster with no skin, only blood-red muscle fibers.

Its hollow eyes faced Chu Xuan, and its mouth opened and closed a few times before it finally went silent.

[You have killed an Eerie Clone. Your spirituality value +12.]

[Current spirituality value: 12 (Exchangeable)]

[2:58:21]