Thank you @nande for the Kofi~
Yuying University
Chapter 401: Damn, that’s awesome.
Wen Jianyan stood frozen in place, a layer of sticky cold sweat unknowingly forming on his back. An invisible, eerie breeze swept past him from behind, making him shiver involuntarily.
Just then, Brother Hu’s startled voice rang out from the nearby bathroom:
“Holy shit! What the hell is that?!”
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, forcing himself to pull his gaze away from the washbasin and head toward the source of the noise.
Like the rest of the corridor, the bathroom was eerily silent. The few others inside kept a cautious distance from the stalls, their expressions grave.
“What happened?”
Wen Jianyan poked his head in and asked.
“Look over there…” Brother Hu pointed to the second stall.
Wen Jianyan followed the direction of his finger.
Inside the filthy squat toilet was a tangled, soaking mass of pitch-black hair. Under the flickering light, it looked especially grotesque and chilling.
“That’s way too much…”
A dormmate who bunked near the door and was on the same team as the Weasel frowned and muttered, “That’s disgusting.”
Wen Jianyan glanced at him.
He remembered the guy’s name: Zhao Ze.
“Gurgle.”
Suddenly, another strange hollow sound echoed.
Dark, dirty water began bubbling up from beneath the hair and the drain, slowly spilling over and dripping along the bathroom floor.
Wen Jianyan’s heart skipped a beat. He instinctively took a step back.
Then he seemed to realize something. He turned slightly and looked at his dormmates beside him. They were still standing in place, whispering among themselves, debating what to do next — completely unaffected by the foul black water.
“Hey…”
Wen Jianyan tugged at Brother Hu’s sleeve and cautiously asked, “Do you guys see the water on the floor?”
“Yeah.”
Brother Hu answered nonchalantly, “Someone probably left a faucet running. It’s all over the floor. Why? Is something wrong?”
Faucet.
Wen Jianyan suddenly latched onto that keyword.
Someone had just said, “None of the faucets are on. Why is there so much water on the floor?” So why did they all now assume it was just from a leaky tap?
Unless…
In their eyes, the water on the floor wasn’t black, murky, and full of filth — it was clean and clear.
In the instant this realization hit, Wen Jianyan felt a chill crawl up his spine.
He realized something from the movie was now happening to him.
Why did Richard insist on only drinking bottled water? Why was he so terrified of it?
The answer was simple — because to him, water no longer looked the way it should.
Creak—!
Suddenly, a harsh metallic screech came from behind.
A moment later, the sound of rushing water filled the air — a crisp, gurgling splash.
Everyone jumped in shock and turned toward the noise.
Inside the empty washroom, one of the faucets had somehow turned on by itself, water gushing out.
Creak—
Another screech.
A second faucet followed suit.
Then a third, and a fourth…
In the blink of an eye, the entire washroom was filled with the sounds of running water, and every sink was quickly filling up.
“What the hell is going on?!”
Everyone was panicked. “What do we do?!”
“I-I don’t know!”
“Go! Get out of here, now!”
Though they weren’t entirely inexperienced, this kind of situation was clearly beyond what they could handle. If it had been a ghost, they could have used the tools in their backpacks — but now, all they saw were ominous visions of death approaching. They couldn’t even identify the true source of danger, let alone choose the right item to defend themselves.
Wen Jianyan’s spine turned cold.
To his eyes, the water rushing from the faucets wasn’t clear — it was black, thick with filth, and reeking of damp decay. It gushed out, quickly pooling in the basins before spilling over and dripping to the floor.
Strands of black hair swirled within the water, caught in the swirling eddies.
The murky water spread across the floor — and then, as if alive, it began slithering directly toward Wen Jianyan!
In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:
[Shit, the anchor’s literally turning into Richard now!]
[But wait, isn’t that weird? I thought the instance recognized him as Richard’s dormmate, not Richard himself?]
[Maybe that means Richard is already dead in the movie, and now he’s next?]
[Hahahahaha that could totally be it!]
[Rip anchor.]
Everyone exchanged tense looks.
“Go. Get away from the washroom!!”
They retreated quickly down the hallway. Suddenly, Zhao Ze gasped sharply and pointed at one of the dorm rooms: “Holy f*ck!!!”
The others followed his gaze — and were instantly terrified.
The dorm door was tightly shut, but on the dirty, grimy windowpane… a pale, bloated face was pressed against the glass.
It stuck there silently, facial features water-swollen and distorted by pressure, staring straight back at them.
On this pitch-black, silent night, the sight was enough to make anyone’s hair stand on end and their back break out in a cold sweat.
“Holy shit! There’s one over here too!!!”
A-Bao screamed in terror.
Only then did the group realize — every single dorm room window now had one of those terrifying, swollen, pale faces pressed against it. A pair of pitch-black, pupil-less eyes stared silently from each face into the hallway at them.
“AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”
Screams erupted from the group.
They had no time to think. They turned around and sprinted back to their own Room 404, panicked footsteps echoing through the deathly silent corridor.
Maybe fear really could push a person past their physical limits. Within seconds, they had all dashed back into their dorm.
Some moved chairs, others pushed desks, and someone activated an item.
In the blink of an eye, the door was tightly barricaded.
Inside the narrow, pitch-black room, only the sounds of their ragged, panicked breathing remained.
“Wh-what do we do now?” Zhao Ze asked with a trembling voice.
Brother Hu, also panting, shook his head. “I-I don’t know.”
Everything had happened so suddenly. There had been no clues or instructions to tell them how to escape this situation.
“We can’t get off this floor. Are we supposed to just wait this out?” someone snapped, growing agitated. “Or are we supposed to do something? We can’t just sit here waiting to die, right?”
“…”
Silence fell over the group. No one responded.
The truth was, the situation was too strange. None of them knew how they’d even entered this dangerous scenario — and they certainly had no idea how to handle it.
Wait it out?
But what if it wasn’t a matter of time?
Or maybe they were supposed to find a specific object?
But if they were wrong — and left the relative safety of this room — wouldn’t they just be walking into more danger?
That complete lack of direction filled them with a creeping despair.
“W-wait a second…”
Suddenly, A-Bao seemed to realize something.
He peered out through the torn corner of the newspaper covering the window, his voice trembling:
“Don’t you guys think… something feels off?”
“?”
Everyone froze and instinctively looked in the same direction.
The dorm room across from theirs had its door wide open — pitch-black and empty inside.
“But,” A-Bao swallowed hard, “every other dorm has a face stuck to its window — except the one across from us…”
Because its door was open.
Which meant — the thing inside that room was already…
The moment this realization hit, everyone went rigid.
Then — a faint sound echoed from behind them.
Drip.
Like water falling to the floor.
Everyone stiffly turned around and looked into the shadowy corners of their room.
In the corner stood a motionless, pitch-black figure.
Drip.
The sound of water dripping was shockingly loud in the silence.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Screams tore through the room.
“Move! Move! Get the chair out of the way!!!”
“AHHH why is there a desk too?!”
“Where’s the item—whose item is this?! Get rid of it!!”
Panic erupted. In a flurry of fumbling hands and frantic movements, they scrambled to clear the barricade from the door. Behind them, the shadow began to move.
One step. Two steps.
It moved silently, water dripping from its body, each drop hitting the floor with a soft splatter.
Faster.
Faster!!!
Just as the shadow closed to within a single step, all the obstacles at the door were finally removed. The group didn’t even dare look back — they stumbled and lunged out of the dorm room.
They sprinted down the hallway.
“F*ck, where the hell can we even go?!”
They were all on the verge of breaking down.
Every dorm room window was marked with a face. That meant once they left their previous room — there was nowhere safe to run.
Wen Jianyan ran with them, but he turned his head slightly to look behind.
The sound of rushing water echoed through the corridor.
In the distance, under the flickering lights, he saw water slowly flooding out from the washroom.
What looked like clear water to everyone else… was, in Wen Jianyan’s eyes, murky black sewage filled with unknown debris. Strands of damp, thin black hair floated within it, curling and twisting through the current like something alive, reaching slowly toward the cracks beneath the dorm room doors.
Wen Jianyan’s heart leapt into his throat.
Thanks to past experience, he instantly guessed what would happen next.
Those dorm-room horrors couldn’t appear on their own — they had to be released. And whichever door the water reached… would open.
At this rate, no room in the hallway would remain safe.
Even their own previous dorm would eventually become compromised.
In other words, they couldn’t afford to waste time here. They had to take the initiative and find a way out.
But where should they even begin?
Wen Jianyan faltered for a split second. Then, suddenly, he asked:
“Have any of your values dropped?”
His voice was unsteady from the earlier sprint, but in this chaotic moment, it carried a strange calm — the kind that instantly grabbed everyone’s attention.
The others froze for a moment. They all looked at their stat bars and shook their heads.
“No… Nothing.”
Wen Jianyan stood still, his gaze fixed on the top right corner of his screen.
Even though he had been running the whole time and hadn’t been attacked by anything, for some reason, his SAN value had dropped by another 3 points—completely negating the 2 points he’d previously regained over time.
Even worse, his HP had dropped by 8 points!
“……”
In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:
[Hahahahahaha!]
[HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!]
[LMAO, targeted again, aren’t you?!]
But unlike the gleeful audience watching the anchor’s misfortune, Wen Jianyan’s eyes lit up slightly the moment he got the answer.
As he suspected!
Not only could he see the abnormality in the water, but it seemed he was also the most susceptible to attacks among everyone in the dorm.
That might mean greater danger—but it also meant that the key to breaking through this scenario likely lay with him.
No matter how difficult an instance was, there would never be a true dead-end.
Especially in an A-rank instance, there would definitely be clues. He just hadn’t noticed them yet.
Water gurgled through the hallway. From behind each door, bloated, pale faces watched silently, seemingly waiting to be released.
But strangely, even though the door to Dorm 404 was wide open, the shadowy figure inside hadn’t followed them out.
“!”
Wen Jianyan’s breath caught. His eyes gleamed.
He figured it out!
Wen Jianyan pulled an item from his backpack and shoved it into Brother Hu’s hands. “Hold this.”
“?”
Brother Hu was taken aback, instinctively catching it.
“What is this…”
He was about to ask more, but Wen Jianyan had already dashed off in the direction they had just come from.
“Hey—!”
“That place is dangerous! Are you insane?!”
His temporary dormmates shouted in alarm, but Wen Jianyan didn’t even turn around. He ran straight toward Dorm 404.
The door to 404 hung wide open. It was pitch black inside, completely silent.
The shadowy figure hadn’t chased them—it had gone back inside.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, turned on his phone’s flashlight, and stepped inside.
A cold, damp smell filled the dorm room.
The dripping sound still echoed faintly in his ears.
Step by step, he walked further in. Each footfall felt like it landed directly on his chest. Finally, he reached his bed.
Wen Jianyan inhaled sharply and rose on tiptoe to search the top bunk.
Where…
Where is it—
His fingers brushed against something damp and sticky, like water-soaked hair.
“……”
Wen Jianyan slowly raised his head and looked forward.
In the dim, flickering beam of his flashlight, a swollen, pale face peered through the bed rails—its dark, white-less eyes staring directly at him.
In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:
[Aaaahhhhhh!!]
[AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH WTF!!!!]
[That’s straight out of a horror movie!! I’m scared shitless; I’m pissing myself, oh my god!]
Meanwhile, back in the hallway—
Brother Hu looked down at the item Wen Jianyan had shoved into his hands, puzzled.
It was a ragged-looking stuffed doll, crookedly stitched together.
“What the heck is this?”
Zhao Ze, standing nearby, was more informed. His eyes widened. “Whoa, that’s a substitute doll. That thing’s rare!”
“What? A substitute doll? What’s it do?”
“For three minutes after activation, it takes all non-lethal damage in your place.”
As the group curiously studied the strange toy, the doll’s right hand began to dampen, then slowly rot, as if molding before their eyes. White maggots started to squirm out and fall from it.
“Sh*t!”
“That’s disgusting! What even is that?!”
Back in Dorm 404—
Wen Jianyan’s face was pale. He clenched his teeth, forced himself to press on, and continued searching in the dark with trembling fingers.
Finally, amidst the sticky mass of wet hair, he touched something—
A backpack strap!
That was it.
With one desperate pull, Wen Jianyan yanked his backpack free.
Soaked and heavy, the bag slid off the bed.
He clutched the backpack and bolted for the door.
Out in the hallway, A-Bao spotted Wen Jianyan bursting out of the room. “Hey—hey!”
But the next moment, he saw something following closely behind him and turned pale. “Holy sh*t!! BEHIND YOU!!!”
“Drip, drip.”
The soft sound of water droplets splashing onto the floor echoed behind him.
Even without turning around, Wen Jianyan knew that pale face was hot on his heels.
As he ran, he unzipped the backpack and reached inside.
Soon, he found what he was looking for.
A damp, eerily cold sheet of draft paper marked with red lines—and the heading:
【Yuying Comprehensive University】
Mildew stains dotted the corners, as if the paper had been corroded by something.
Somehow, at some point, the blank page had begun to fill with sinister scarlet handwriting.
【”Reflection on Brave Richard,” required: 1500 words】
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath.
He was right.
This entire crisis was directly tied to the homework assignment for the Film Appreciation elective.
Back in class, before the session ended, Teacher Sun had repeatedly emphasized: don’t lose the draft paper, and finish your 1500-word review of the movie.
That was the key to escaping this nightmare.
It seemed the review had to be completed inside the movie world itself—and this draft paper was directly tied to the anchor’s life.
That’s why the ghost released from the dorm across the hall hadn’t headed toward the water room—but instead entered their dorm and appeared on the side of Wen Jianyan’s bed.
Even after they had escaped the dorm room, it never came after them.
Precisely because of this, although Wen Jianyan hadn’t been attacked by anything the entire time, both his SAN value and HP had kept dropping.
Based on his extensive experience of playing mind games with nightmare instances, Wen Jianyan guessed that for other anchors, the exact moment when they faced danger was likely something they could choose voluntarily.
That’s why no one else besides him had encountered any danger yet.
In other words, once they started doing their “homework” to earn credits, they would be dragged back into the movies they had previously watched.
As for why he was passively pulled into it on the very first day…
Wen Jianyan wasn’t entirely sure yet, but he suspected it had something to do with his “excessive behavior” during the film. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d been singled out and targeted.
Oh well. He was used to it.
“What are you all still standing around for? Run!” Wen Jianyan shouted, gripping the open backpack in one hand and the draft paper in the other as he ran.
The others, who had been stunned, snapped out of it and quickly followed him in a panic.
“Wh-what the hell is going on?” Zhaozhe stammered.
“Is this really the time to ask that?!”
Brother Hu roared.
Wen Jianyan barked, “Stay close!”
Saying that, he darted down the stairwell.
“Wait, did you forget? We can’t get out through the stairs!!!” A-Bao shouted frantically.
“Just go there!”
Midway down, Wen Jianyan suddenly stopped and grabbed the others around him, ordering them to stop.
His words were short and clipped, and though he was still panting from the run, there was a strange, unshakable calm in his voice that somehow made everyone hold their breath.
“Huh?”
The others froze, confused.
They had no idea why Wen Jianyan had stopped or why they should follow his lead—but in moments like this, when no one else had a clue, it made sense to stick with the person who seemed to know what he was doing.
Harsh breathing echoed in the narrow stairwell.
They stood there, tense, waiting.
Accompanied by the sizzling sound of flickering bulbs, the dragging footsteps and dripping water noises grew closer.
One step, two steps, three steps—
Under the dim light, Wen Jianyan finally got a clear look at what had been following him this whole time.
His pupils shrank. He sucked in a sharp breath.
It was a pale, floating face suspended in midair. Its bloated, flat features looked like steamed buns soaked in water, and its pitch-black eyes without any whites stared directly at them.
Beneath that floating face, the body was entirely made of hair.
Wet, tangled clumps of hair writhed with countless pale maggots squirming inside. Water dripped with soft plops, releasing a nauseating stench of rot.
Brother Hu instinctively took a step back.
But Wen Jianyan reacted quickly and grabbed him. “Don’t move.”
“D-Don’t move? Now’s not the time to not move!!” Everyone was nearly breaking down.
“Just wait a bit longer!” Wen Jianyan barked sharply.
Plop. Plop.
The creature, made of hair and a human head, finally stepped into the stairwell and began descending slowly.
“Now!”
Wen Jianyan let go and calmly instructed, “Run—but not too fast.”
He turned and started running down the stairs.
The others scrambled after him.
The lights flickered, footsteps clattered chaotically, and the tension was suffocating.
Soon, Wen Jianyan led them down two flights to the next floor. The bright red “4F” on the wall glared ominously.
“There’s no way out! We’re trapped on the fourth floor!”
Despair clouded everyone’s faces.
But Wen Jianyan, seemingly expecting this, darted out of the stairwell nimbly:
“Follow me!”
Sticky footsteps echoed behind them. With no other options, the group could only chase after this seemingly unreliable guide and reenter the fourth floor corridor.
The moment they stepped in, they nearly stopped breathing.
Up ahead, at the end of the hallway—
Water from the communal washroom had flooded out, submerging more than four dorm rooms.
And right before their eyes, they watched as the doors to those rooms creaked open with eerie groans.
Bloated, pale faces… bodies made of black, matted hair… More “things” began to step stiffly into the corridor.
“Holy sh*t, holy sh*t! What the hell do we do now?!”
They were now truly caught in a death trap—one monster chasing them from behind, and more waiting ahead.
It was a near-impossible situation.
But Wen Jianyan only ran faster. “If you don’t wanna die, then hurry up!!”
Just as they were about to crash into the newly-emerged monsters, the youth up front made a sharp turn and—
Charged straight into the seemingly empty Room 404.
“Block the door!!”
Having done it once before, the movements were now practically hard-coded into their DNA.
In just a few seconds, chairs, desks, and random items were all piled up against the door.
Pale, bloated faces pressed up tightly against the door, pitch-black eyeballs staring into the room—but they couldn’t break in.
The group stood frozen, breathing heavily, soaked in cold sweat, legs weak and trembling. Their minds still hadn’t caught up with what had just happened.
Only now did they realize:
Just moments ago, they had pulled off a perfectly coordinated maneuver—luring all the ghosts on the floor into a wild goose chase and then diving back into the only now-safe dorm room at the very last second.
They stared at each other in stunned silence.
Damn. That was epic.
And just as everyone was still standing there in a daze, recovering from the adrenaline rush, a retching sound came from behind:
“Urgh!”
They turned to look.
The same badass who had just led them through that god-tier sequence was now hunched over the bed, clutching the frame with one hand, face pale, teary-eyed, and dry heaving like crazy.
Clearly scared half to death.
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