Chapter 7: 7

The ruckus from Room 103 reached Qin Zhou’s ears. Before he could reach Room 103, he saw the old dorm manager dragging a corpse by the leg up the stairs. He was heading right towards Qin Zhou. 

Neither Qin Zhou nor the old dorm manager stopped. They met and passed by each other. Qin Zhou took a few more steps before turning his head to see that the body was Wang Duo.

The old dorm manager quickly disappeared round the corner into the corridor, the body disappearing out of sight after him.

 

 

The noise in Room 103 continued. Qin Zhou withdrew his gaze and headed for Room 103.

He had deliberately dawdled and the reason for that was to see if anyone had died. NPCs only kill at night. If someone had died last night it would have happened in their rooms. 

If you wanted to know the rules of death in the Rule World, rather than looking for clues in the daytime, it was far easier to search for answers from those who had died.

 

The cause of death was an interpretation of the rules of death.

Among the other seven people who entered the 7-7 Rule World, save for Lin Yi, none of the others had been in the right frame of mind to remember to lock their doors.

Qin Zhou looked from bedroom to bedroom and found no one dead inside. And he had just been in contact with Lin Yi, so no one had died last night.

 

But now Wang Duo was dead…

Qin Zhou never thought that someone would die outside their dorm rooms. He frowned; he had missed the opportunity to check for the cause of death.

The old dorm manager had left drag marks on the ground while taking away the body. The starting point of the drag marks was Room 103. Add to that the screams coming from there, it was easy to figure out that that was where Wang Duo had died.

 

He quickened his pace, taking the stairs several steps at a time to reach Room 103. 

Room 103 was still in chaos. Amidst the chaos, only Lin Yi remained calm. He had his eyes down, looking like he was thinking about something.

He must have sensed Qin Zhou’s gaze, Lin Yi raised his head to look at him. Lin Yi realized that Qin Zhou seemed to have said something just now but he hadn’t heard it clearly, “…Senior, what did you say?”

Qin Zhou glanced at him again and then turned to look at the rest of the group. “I’m giving you three minutes to sort out your mood.”

Lin Yi: “…” 

Awkward.

Actually, Lin Yi really had been lost in thought. Before the old dorm manager took away Wang Duo’s corpse, Lin Yi tried moving to several unexpected spots. The corpse’s line of sight always seemed to follow him, just like the famous painting “Mona Lisa”.

However, Lin Yi found that other people didn’t seem to be able to see Wang Duo’s staring eyes nor that strange smile that was getting bigger and bigger.

He wondered if he was being targeted by the 7-7 monster or if this was due to something else. 

Lin Yi thought that it would be difficult for other people so immersed in fear to listen to Qin Zhou’s words. But unexpected, as soon as Qin Zhou’s finished speaking, the others really did begin to control their moods.

Even Qu Jialiang, who Xu Xiazhi could hold back from quarreling with Cheng Yang several times, began to compose himself.

 

Qin Zhou didn’t care whether they had calmed themselves or not. After three minutes, as soon as Room 103 was quiet, he asked coldly, “Who arrived first?”

Cheng Yang raised his hand. 

Pass. Qin Zhou said.

“God knows how I managed to survive by myself last night. I came down as soon as I heard the loudspeaker. I thought everyone would already be down here. I desperately needed to be around everyone else.” Cheng Yang waved his hands around, trying to use hand gestures to describe how scared he’d been last night. “Turned out, I was the first to arrive. I laughed but was dying inside.”

He kept gesturing about. Seeing Qin Zhou staring at him, Cheng Yang quickly said, “I was about to go back to look for Lin Yi Xiong but then the two senior sisters also arrived.”

Li Ying nodded and Zhou Lingling also nodded, confirming Cheng Yang’s statement. 

The girls didn’t dare to act alone so they came together.

After that, it was Wang Duo.

Qin Zhou’s expression darkened a bit. He asked, “Was there anything strange about him?”

Cheng Yang shook his head. “Not that I could see. The only unusual thing was that Senior Wang Duo saw us when he arrived then turned around and walked back out.” 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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“He blocked his way and kept asking questions. But senior Wang Duo didn’t answer. I didn’t see anything else.” Cheng Yang said. 

Qin Zhou looked at Qu Jialiang and Qu Jialiang said quickly, “I just wanted to know a little bit more.”

Xu Xiazhi smiled bitterly and said, “The more you know, the higher your chances of surviving.”

After everyone said a few words, it was Lin Yi’s turn. Lin Yi said, “By the time I came down all the seniors had arrived. Only that I was the first to start eating.”

This was the only thing he said. Because no one else seemed to have noticed, he didn’t tell Qin Zhou about Wang Duo’s big belly, let alone that when he looked at Wang Duo’s corpse, it directed a strange smile at him. 

Lin Yi simply showed Qin Zhou his bowl.

The bottom of the bowl was very clean. He didn’t have the bad habit of leaving crumbs in his bowl.

 

After putting down the bowl, Lin Yi pointed to Wang Duo’s seat. “Senior Wang Duo was sitting there alone.”

Everyone looked in the direction Lin Yi pointed at. Wang Duo’s place was still a mess. The rat and cockroach that he’d puked out were completely motionless. A foul and nauseating smell wafted through the whole room. 

Thinking of Wang Duo’s death, Li Ying asked, eyes going red, “Senior Qin, will we also die like that?”

This was the question that everyone was most concerned about. Wang Duo’s death was not only a shock, but also a death demonstration.

“If we can’t find any clues,” Qin Zhou made no effort to comfort them; he said, “We will all die.”

The atmosphere in Room 103 became more depressed. 

“If you don’t want to die, look for clues.” Qin Zhou said, “If you can’t find, keep looking. Turn your bedrooms upside down in your search.”

Pale faced, everyone returned to their rooms. When Lin Yi got back to his room, he knocked on the wall, leaned over and whispered, “Senior.”

After a while, Qin Zhou in Room 305 responded.

Lin Yi immediately asked, “Was Senior wondering just now why Senior Wang Duo was still alive during the day?” 

Qin Zhou knew that Lin Yi was very good at observing expressions, otherwise he wouldn’t have noticed his wariness last night. He answered straightforwardly, “Yeah.”

“Except when killed by the Monster, no one dies during the day.”

When Qin Zhou ran across the old dorm manager in the corridor, he simply thought that Wang Duo’s corpse had been moved to Room 103.

Lin Yi: “But Senior Wang Duo couldn’t have been killed by the 7-7 Monster. There’s no need for the 7-7 Monster to do the killing itself on the first night. Senior said that Monsters set the rules and that they enjoy them. If I were a Monster, having the power to kill at will diminishes the fun. To make the rules more interesting, I set another restrictive but interesting rule for myself, like killing only in a way that humans could. The conditions are just right since it’s already hiding among us, right?” 

Qin Zhou was silent for a while and then said, “You’re very good at empathizing with the Monsters.”

“…Putting oneself in another’s shoes is just another method to come up with conjecture.” Vouching for himself, Lin Yi made clear his identity, “I’m not the Monster. If I were, may I be the last of my line.”

“…” Qin Zhou said, “You win.”

“So, was I right?” Lin Yi took it as Qin Zhou praising him. 

“Yes, Little genius.” Qin Zhou smiled.

“Did you see the bowl I used?” Lin Yi asked again.

 

Qin Zhou: “En.”

The empty bowl was Lin Yi’s way of telling Qin Zhou that the rules of death had nothing to do with breakfast. 

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Among the seven people who were in room 103, he, Cheng Yang and Zhou Lingling ate. There were also Qu Jialiang, Xu Xiazhi and Li Ying who didn’t.

So eating breakfast or not had nothing to do with Wang Duo’s death and the reason why Wang Duo died during the day could only be because something had happened last night.

Lin Yi said, “Is there a possibility that Senior Wang Duo did trigger a rule of death last night and meet the NPC’s killing condition? The NPC acted last night but Senior Wang Duo died this morning. Like poisoning. Last time was when he was poisoned but this morning was when it took effect.”

Qin Zhou: “That’s very possible.” 

Lin Yi immediately said, “There must be a rule of death in his room. Senior, would you like to go and take a look?”

Qin Zhou heard Lin Yi’s words. He replayed it several times, confirming it. Lin Yi had said ‘you’ instead of ‘we’. He asked, “Would I like to go? What about you?”

“Right, right.” Lin Yi said, “I’ll wait in the room for Senior’s clue.”

He didn’t know yet if going to someone else’s room was a rule of death. 

Qin Zhou grew silent: “…Now you stop trying to court death?”

Lin Yi thought for a while and said, “I can’t die yet.”

Qin Zhou sneered. “And I can?”

Lin Yi quickly explained, “That’s not what I meant. Didn’t we already divide tasks last night? Senior is responsible for finding the rules of death and I’m responsible for attracting the Monster’s attention.” 

Qin Zhou said, “But I didn’t say yes.”

This time, it was Lin Yi who was silent for a while. And then: “Senior~”

Silence transferred back to Qin Zhou. After a while, he said, “I think I remember telling you that acting cute doesn’t work on me.”

Lin Yi: “But I have no other way.” 

Qin Zhou: “…”

Lin Yi himself was embarrassed by his attempt at acting cute. “Will you go, Senior?”

 

Qin Zhou: “Fine. Now, shut up.”

It was quiet by the wall for a while. Then came a knock. Lin Yi leaned in. “Senior, I’m here.” 

Qin Zhou said, “When I went downstairs this morning, I looked at every room. Wang Duo’s room was 310. The door wasn’t closed. It was a mess in there. There were all sorts of food wrappers on the floor and there was even an overturned lunch box.”

Lin Yi pondered. “Senior Wang Duo had vomited out a lot of things. Could it be that the cause of Senior Wang Duo’s death was that he ate something in the dorm room?”

He looked around his room. There wasn’t any food in Room 304. “So in our case, the rule of death should be moving the furnishings in the room?”

“No.” Qin Zhou said, “No matter how strange the rules of death are, they have to be associated with the ‘open window’. So if tampering with the furnishings in the room is a rule of death, it still lack any possibility of a connection to the ‘open window’.” 

“No one knows anymore whether he actually moved any of the things in his room last night.” Qin Zhou went on, “The window in Room 310 is covered with curtains. I don’t know if the window is open. But even if the window in Room 310 is open, an open window can only be a signal that the a rule of death is coming but it cannot be a rule of death itself.”

Lin Yi understood.

The Monster had set the rules of them. It would wait for the people dragged in to accidentally step on and trigger these mines.

If the window was originally open, the victim would have done nothing to trigger it. 

So Wang Duo must have done something to trigger a rule of death and meet the NPC’s killing condition. Moreover, this action had to be related to the ‘open window’.

He looked at the window in his room. The window of Room 304 was also covered by curtains.

He had rummaged through Room 304 last night and left only the curtains untouched.

Everyone here remembered seeing an open window before getting dragged in. The window had now become some kind of bad luck. How could they possibly approach a window? 

Qin Zhou said, “Little genius, I don’t believe for a minute that you didn’t notice anything unusual about Wang Duo.”

“…Then, let me think.” Lin Yi said.

After a short pause, Lin Yi recalled, “Senior Wang Duo was sitting alone. He looked very nervous and kept looking back behind him.”

Qin Zhou said, “Was the old dorm manager outside?” 

“No.” Lin Yi said, “The old dorm manager had been in the duty room the whole time. And even if he were at the door, Senior Wang Duo wouldn’t have kept looking back.”

After all, the old dorm manager was a so-called NPC. Knowing that the old dorm manger was someone who would kill people at night, who would dare to keep look back at a murderer?

 

Qin Zhou thought the same. He murmured, “Then what was he looking at?”

If he wasn’t looking at the old dorm manager, what was Wang Duo looking at? 

Lin Yi suddenly paused. Not everyone had been in Room 103; Qin Zhou hadn’t been there!

Wang Duo had been looking at Qin Zhou!

At this moment, Lin Yi’s thoughts jumped without his control.

That’s right, Wang Duo was looking at Qin Zhou. 

To be more specific, Wang Duo had been looking to see if Qin Zhou was coming. To be even more specific, Wang Duo had been waiting for Qin Zhou to come!

But why wait?

When he was in the building lobby last night, Qin Zhou had scolded Wang Duo for talking too much. Wang Duo couldn’t have been waiting for Qin Zhou to have breakfast together so he could enhance his relationship with Qin Zhou.

Frequently looking back to see if Qin Zhou has arrived must be because Wang Duo had something very urgent to tell Qin Zhou! 

What did he want to tell Qin Zhou?

Did he want to tell him about the mess in Room 310? Qin Zhou would have told him to take a hike.

What did Wang Duo want to tell Qin Zhou?

“Senior Wang Duo had been very nervous, his whole body was tense. But it wasn’t that kind of collapse from despair of someone on the verge of death. I’m more apt to think that Senior Wang Duo had no idea that he had even violated a rile of death. He didn’t know he was about to die. So, last night, the old dorm manager couldn’t have gone to Senior Wang Duo’s room.” 

Lin Yi thought deeply.

Qin Zhou also understood the logic of Lin Yi’s deduction. The old dorm manager was an NPC and the appearance of an NPC at night meant death. Wang Duo hadn’t known that he would die, which can proved that Wang Duo hadn’t had any contact with the old dorm manager last night.

“Since it wasn’t the old dorm manager then the reason for Senior Wang Duo’s nervousness can only be…” Peeling off layer by layer, Lin Yi analyzed, “He must have seen something else last night and this something scary; scary enough that it made Senior Wang Duo determined to seek help from Senior. But it mustn’t have been that scary because although he was nervous, he managed to wait until dawn the next day, and he could even sit down at the dining table while Senior had yet to arrive. ”

“And this thing…” Lin Yi said, “It must not be in the room.” 

Otherwise, Wang Duo would not have stayed in Room 310 until dawn and he would not have been the third batch to arrive at the dining hall.

If it’s not in the room, then it could only be outside the window.

 

Lin Yi pursed his lips. He hadn’t been hallucinating last night, there really had been the rustling sound of movement outside the window…

So was the rule of death looking out the window? 

Lin Yi quickly rejected it.

No, if looking out the window is the rule of death, why use curtains to cover it? They were all pulled into the Rule World by an open window, how could they possibly go near another window again?

Lin Yi tried to place himself in Wang Duo’s shoes. Knowing there was something wrong with the window and that it was unlucky, he would have stayed far away from it. Even if the curtains blocking the window flew up, he wouldn’t have approached it, nor would he have turned to look.

He might even have hidden under the quilt, covering his head. Out of sight, out of mind. 

Even if there was a strange rustling sound outside the window, he won’t have gone to check. After all, ‘curiosity killed the cat’ is an oft repeated phrase. At worst, he would have meditated on prosperity, strength, democracy, civilization and harmony under the quilt.

Unless……

Something crawled in through the open window.

The author has something to say: En. 

Close the window before going to bed.

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