Thank you @Nova and @Renea for the Kofi.
Yuying University
Chapter 505: I don’t understand…system failure?
The dormitory door was tightly closed. Inside, it was pitch-black, without a single shadow.
But in this tomb-like dead silence, a faint, rustling sound could be heard.
By the side of the wall-side bed, a corner of the wrinkled bedsheet hung down. On the tip of the bedsheet hung a small bear sticker, dangling back and forth.
Once, twice, three times.
Just as it was about to reach the ground, it lost its grip. Its two small, short claws flailed in the air, and it plopped to the ground.
The dormitory fell silent again.
A few seconds later, the little bear sticker wobbled to its feet, shaking its head dizzily.
It had succeeded…
It just took some getting used to.
That’s right, this was the “backup plan” Wen Jianyan had mentioned earlier.
Back when he wanted to monitor the clearly abnormal Weasel, he had taken advantage of the other’s absence from the dormitory to secretly leave the little bear sticker on Weasel’s headboard.
This was an item known as the “Perfect Monitor.”
It could faithfully record everything that happened within its line of sight and could even move for a short period of time, changing its position under the user’s control.
But unexpectedly, due to a wave of subsequent emergencies, and since Wen Jianyan had figured out the reason for Weasel’s abnormal state through other means, this sticker, for various reasons, had been left in its original place, never used.
By a twist of fate, it became Wen Jianyan’s opportunity to infiltrate the dormitory that had been sealed off to him.
However—
Wen Jianyan looked down at his current cartoonishly short arms, feeling a little frustrated.
He had thought that the so-called “changing position” would be like remote control for a video game, that he would just need to stay outside the dorm and move a joystick. Not like now, where he had to use his own consciousness to control the sticker…
This little flat piece of paper could barely even stand steadily!
The sticker bear hugged its two short arms and sighed dejectedly.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[…Cute.]
[…Super cute.]
[Ahhh, I can’t take it anymore! Where can I buy this kind of cute little bear?!]
After barely getting used to his body, Wen Jianyan looked up at his surroundings.
Because his body was now only the height of a thumb, all the surrounding decorations were excessively large, even appearing distorted and misshapen, which was unsettling.
But even so, he could still recognize that this was the dormitory he had lived in during his first year.
And the floor Richard was on was directly above his.
He had to act quickly.
The reason the little bear sticker could be left in place for so long was because it hadn’t been activated.
After being activated, its usage time was not long, only a short hour. After an hour, it would turn back into that motionless little bear sticker, no longer of any use.
The light from the corridor shone through the crack under the door, falling on Wen Jianyan.
The door crack, which was originally less than half a finger’s width, looked exceptionally spacious in comparison to his current size.
The sticker bear turned sideways and easily squeezed through the crack under the door, arriving in the corridor.
After his body became smaller, the walls on both sides looked ridiculously high in his eyes, leaning in on him, almost making it hard to breathe.
It took Wen Jianyan two minutes to figure out where he was and which direction to go next.
The corridor was too wide and too unsafe for him now. So, the flat little sticker stuck close to one side of the corridor, wobbling as it ran hard towards the stairwell.
Along the way, he was tripped by obstacles five times and by his own short paper legs fifteen times.
After an unknown amount of time, Wen Jianyan finally stopped, panting. He looked at the stairwell not far away, calculated the time in his head, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
This short ten-meter road from room 404 to the nearest stairwell had actually taken him a full fifteen minutes!
A good chunk of the hour had already passed, and he hadn’t even reached his destination.
“…”
Fine.
He now finally understood why everyone only used this item for fixed-point surveillance.
Wen Jianyan沮喪地 raised his hands and held his paper head.
His head ached.
At this rate, when would he ever climb to the fifth-floor washroom!
Just as Wen Jianyan was getting a headache, suddenly, a few hurried footsteps came from downstairs, seemingly running up quickly. The thumping sound echoed in the empty stairwell, and even the ground vibrated, shaking him so much that he almost fell.
Someone’s here?!
Wen Jianyan was startled and quickly turned sideways. The thumb-sized little bear sticker immediately pressed itself tightly against the wall behind him, fitting perfectly.
Conversation came from below.
“…What about that old hag?”
“She’s right behind!”
“Dammit, she’s been chasing us for so long, why hasn’t she given up yet?”
“The first and second floors aren’t safe anymore. The third and fourth floors are probably iffy too. What do we do?”
“What can we do? Keep going up!”
Wen Jianyan recognized a familiar voice among them.
He moved slightly away from the wall behind him and tilted his head to look.
Through the gap under the railing in the stairwell, he indeed saw a few familiar faces—
It was actually Brother Hu and A’Bao!
However, besides the two of them, the rest of the faces were unfamiliar to Wen Jianyan. They were clearly other anchors the two had met on the road and teamed up with.
Seeing that the group was already approaching, Wen Jianyan quickly squeezed out from the door crack and wobbled towards the stairwell, running hard. He finally managed to silently jump onto one of their pant legs just before they left this floor, sticking his body firmly to it.
With a normal-sized human to carry him, his movement speed was several times faster than before. In the blink of an eye, he had already left the fourth floor.
For the current Wen Jianyan, this was a timely rain, a free ride.
…It was just that this free ride was a bit shaky.
Looking at the ground that was sometimes far and sometimes near, Wen Jianyan clung tightly to the swaying pant leg behind him, feeling dizzy and a little nauseous.
While trying hard not to fall off the pant leg, he also diverted some of his attention to listen to the conversation between the anchors.
After just a few words, Wen Jianyan had a rough understanding of the current situation.
Unlike them, the reason these people had entered the dormitory building was more due to luck.
They had encountered the invisible monster outdoors, and in their panicked flight, A’Bao, whose talent was being a psychic, had chosen the nearest shelter for everyone, which was how they had entered the dormitory building.
However, after entering the dormitory building, they were soon targeted by the dorm manager, who had mutated and was no longer bound by the rules, forcing them to hide and flee again.
They were originally on the first floor, but as time went on, the dorm manager’s level of terror gradually increased, and the safe zone’s range became narrower and narrower, to the point where they had to continue moving upwards.
The bright number “5” appeared not far away, its paint peeling, presenting a strange dark red color.
“So, we’re just going to keep going up like this? What about that graduation thesis?”
One of the anchors clearly had some doubts about the current situation.
“Then what do you suggest? Are we supposed to go out of the dormitory and face those invisible monsters head-on?”
“But if we want to leave the instance, we have to graduate—”
Before he could finish, Brother Hu suddenly fell silent.
The others followed his gaze and saw a figure standing in the darkness of the stairwell ahead, motionless, who knows how long it had been standing there.
What? There’s someone else here?
Seeing this, the anchors’ hearts couldn’t help but leap, and all their muscles tensed up.
From the darkness, a voice that betrayed no emotion sounded.
“You’d better leave.”
“Leave?” Below, an anchor’s expression turned grim, and he frowned. “You mean, you won’t let us go upstairs?”
“Correct.”
The other’s flat voice came from above.
“But, but…”
A’Bao quickly spoke, choosing his words carefully. “The dorm manager is chasing us from below. The first to third floors are no longer safe. We have to keep going up to—”
He was cut off before he could finish.
“That has nothing to in with me,” the shadow’s voice didn’t seem to be moved. “My mission is only to hold this place and not let any existence cross the line in front of you.”
Only then did the anchors notice that a few steps above them, a line had been drawn on the stairs with crooked, black, wet, and cold soil, like an invisible barrier.
“If you want to cross by force, I’m afraid I’ll have to take action.”
That voice did indeed sound a little guilty, but only a little.
“There’s someone in my team I’m even more unwilling to offend—sorry.”
The moment he gave his answer, the atmosphere in the stairwell immediately became tense.
Just then, from the stairwell below, a sound that everyone present did not want to hear came:
Heavy, slow footsteps.
Thump, thump, thump.
The sound was like a heavy hammer, striking the ground one by one, echoing in the empty, cold corridor.
It was the dorm manager!
“Listen to me… friend.” The few anchors below were also provoked. One of them roared in a low voice, “If you don’t let us pass, then we won’t be polite—”
In an instant, the air became heavy and solid, like a non-flowing liquid. The smell of gunpowder began to rise, about to explode at any moment.
Brother Hu stared at the darkness opposite, the knotted muscles on his body bulging, preparing for the terrible conflict that might happen next. But just then—although there was no wind in the stairwell, and the corners of his other clothes hung motionless—he felt the right side of his pant leg suddenly move slightly, as if it had been gently pulled by some invisible force.
“?”
Just as Brother Hu suspected that it was just his imagination, a thin, paper-like little bear jumped onto his shoe and wobbled towards the middle ground.
“…”
Under everyone’s astonished gaze, the little bear stopped in front of the line of soil, puffed out its paper chest, and arduously raised its two short arms, making a vertical and horizontal gesture, as if to say:
STOP—
Under the black and red sky, there was a deathly silence.
A scorching flame suddenly erupted, then immediately disappeared without a trace.
Soon, on the empty ground in front of the teaching building, a group of several figures slowly walked out of the darkness.
“…Success?”
Wei Cheng’s voice came.
Yun Bilan: “Should be.”
She crossed her arms and looked around, her expression as cold as a rock, seemingly not surprised by this.
“Uh…” Tian Ye looked up, seemingly still doubtful. “Then why is the sky this color?”
“It should be this color,” Wei Cheng reminded him. “Have you forgotten? He once told us about his experience here.”
Hugo raised his gray, stern eyes and looked straight at the sky above.
“This is it.”
The first time he entered this place through the swimming pool in the gymnasium, the sky outside the window was just like this.
Hugo concluded:
“We’re out.”
“Wait…”
Su Cheng walked out of the darkness, the screen in his hand lit up. He said, “You guys check the chat history.”
The group paused, looked at each other, and then also took out their phones, also seeing the message from Wen Jianyan.
“What? Graduation thesis?” Tian Ye took a short, sharp breath.
“Wait… wait, what?”
Beside them, Arnold, his face still bearing burn marks, looked left and right. As the only one not in the group chat, listening to the others around him talk about topics he knew nothing about, his expression became more and more bewildered.
“What graduation thesis? What are you guys talking about?”
Hugo skimmed through the long addendum from Wen Jianyan and commented rationally:
“…The process is very detailed.”
“How much time do we have left?” Tian Ye asked, a little anxious.
Wei Cheng looked down at the time and said, “There’s less than two hours until the end of the third school year. I guess we need to finish before then.”
Tian Ye: “Can we do it…”
Wei Cheng: “Probably? After all, we have enough intelligence this time—”
Arnold gasped. “Huh? There’s a time limit? What happens if we don’t finish within the time limit?”
Just then, Su Cheng looked up at the group. “I’ve already sent him a message saying we’re out and hope to meet immediately.”
As he spoke, he frowned.
“—No reply yet.”
“Then we’ll wait for his reply,” Hugo had clearly already made a decision. He stuffed his phone back into his pocket, took out a cigarette instead, and stuck it between his lips, saying calmly,
“We’ll go complete the graduation thesis first. Time is tight.”
This was clearly the best solution.
The group had no objections and followed Hugo forward.
Arnold: “…”
Am I invisible?
Is no one going to pay attention to me?!
Forget it.
Arnold sighed in resignation and limped after them.
He didn’t have any other options anyway.
At least this group seemed quite reliable—not counting the repeated use of his talent to pass the fire.
In the corridor, a group of people stared in astonishment at the thumb-sized paper bear hopping on the empty ground. It seemed unable to speak and could only gesture anxiously in the air, as if trying hard to convey some message to them.
“Huh? You want us to go that way…”
Brother Hu tried to interpret the little bear’s sign language.
“Isn’t that it?”
“What on earth is this thing you brought up?”
Watching this somewhat comical scene, the voice from the fifth floor asked doubtfully.
The anchors on the stairs looked at each other.
How would they know?
Beside them, Brother Hu was still trying to decipher the little bear’s sign language. “Do you want something to eat? Or do you want us to empty our pockets—”
“…”
The little bear sticker stood stunned for a few seconds, then, as if losing its support, it slapped onto the ground.
Face down, utterly hopeless.
Just then, another voice came from the darkness on the fifth floor. “What’s going on?”
That voice was indifferent and arrogant, very familiar.
The little bear sticker secretly peeked up from a small corner.
“Uh… you’re finished?” The voice that had just been calm was clearly stunned. “So quickly?”
With the sound of footsteps, a figure came from the darkness into the light.
That anchor had a very young face. Although his features were handsome, his expression was impatient.
It was Chen Cheng.
The little bear sticker immediately perked up. It propped itself up from the ground, opened its two short arms, and wobbled towards him.
“Wait a minute, didn’t you just say we can’t cross that line?”
That voice became flustered.
“We don’t know what that thing is. You’d better not—”
Chen Cheng’s hand crossed the black soil on the ground. He watched the little bear sticker climb onto his finger, and without looking back, said:
“Shut up.”
He looked at the little bear sticker standing unsteadily in his palm, took out his unlocked phone from his pocket, unlocked the screen with one hand, and opened the keyboard. “You want this?”
The little bear sticker nodded frantically.
Thank God… finally, someone I can communicate with!!!
Wen Jianyan took quite a while to give the instructions—in his current state, even with a keyboard, it was difficult.
But luckily, Chen Cheng was indeed talented when it came to communication.
What was even rarer was that his judgment was still wise.
Before the heavy footsteps from the stairwell below reached the fifth floor, Chen Cheng had already gotten a rough understanding of the situation and had reluctantly, generously, approved of Brother Hu’s group entering the line of soil he had drawn.
After doing all this, Chen Cheng, under Wen Jianyan’s guidance, came to the fifth-floor washroom, opened the pipe of the second sink by the window, and successfully retrieved the item Wen Jianyan wanted.
Of course, while doing all this—especially when rummaging through the hair and sludge in the drain—Chen Cheng’s expression was not very good.
It was almost terrifying.
“This is what you wanted?”
Chen Cheng gave him the item, his expression disgusted.
The little bear sticker raised its arms, hugged the crumpled sheets of paper, nodded vigorously, and then bowed deeply in thanks with great effort.
Three seconds later, as if it had lost its life force, it fell down like a puppet with its strings cut.
Time was up.
Downstairs in the dormitory building, Wen Jianyan’s eyes shot open.
“Big shot, you’re awake?”
Suo Suo eagerly came over and helped him up. “I’ve been keeping watch for you the whole time. Nothing happened.”
Nothing could have happened.
Wen Jianyan was now half-alien and wouldn’t be attacked by other existences in the instance. That’s why he dared to do this in such an unsafe place with someone he didn’t trust by his side.
He also knew that the reason Suo Suo wouldn’t run away or do anything was more because he feared him and had nowhere else to go.
With the premise of an invisible monster roaming around, no one wanted to run around randomly outdoors.
However, Wen Jianyan couldn’t be bothered to mention this.
“How was it? Was it smooth?” Suo Suo asked.
Wen Jianyan nodded and stood up with the help of the other’s outstretched hand. “Of course.”
The most important reason he had chosen to use the little bear sticker, which had limited time and was not designed for long-distance movement, was precisely this—
He didn’t need to “bring the item down after obtaining it.” He just needed to have “directly contacted” it.
Richard’s notebook was in Orange Candy’s hands, and Wang Ni’s letter was in Suo Suo’s hands. Neither of these items was in Wen Jianyan’s hands. He had only been in close contact with them, which was enough for him to get a full picture in the graduation thesis’s regression.
“Let’s start the third time,” Wen Jianyan said, patting the dust off his clothes.
The obsequious expression on Suo Suo’s face froze. “…Now?”
Wen Jianyan didn’t look up. “Mm.”
Suo Suo still struggled. “Aren’t you going to rest a bit?”
“No.”
Wen Jianyan looked up this time. He blinked at Suo Suo and asked with a smile, “Is there any need?”
Suo Suo chuckled drily. “…Haha, you’re right.”
As Suo Suo took out the cassette, Wen Jianyan took out his phone.
The message bar was empty.
“…” He frowned.
Haven’t Su Cheng and the others come out of the memory yet? But it’s already this late. They should have.
In the “Integrity First” live room:
[Tsk tsk tsk, if his teammates aren’t out of the memory by now, they’re probably toast.]
[?]
[Wait a minute, that’s not right. I just came from Hugo’s live stream next door. Hugo and the others are out!]
[I just came from Su Cheng’s live stream. I saw with my own eyes Su Cheng send the anchor a message, but why didn’t the anchor’s side receive it?]
[I don’t get it… a system malfunction?]
WJY in the bear sticker was too cute😭🤏🏻