Ch. 16 - Campus Horrors (8)

Over in the gym, the burly guy hauled his girlfriend into the equipment room, did a quick sweep to make sure it was completely empty, and firmly locked the door behind them.

The instant the door clicked shut, the man threw himself at the woman with ravenous urgency, pinning her against the gym mats and viciously tearing at her clothes.

His whole gig was doing adult streams for views, and this woman had been with him for over two months. Though her face was average, her smoking-hot body earned her sky-high screen time.

Today, however, she seemed exceptionally uncooperative, a defiant attitude that only made things more thrilling for him.

A sadistic urge flared within him. Straddling her, he delivered a vicious slap across her face and spat, "Behave, you slut!"

The man hit her so hard her head whipped to the side, but since they always played rough like this, he didn't sense anything amiss.

But in the very next second, his eyes bulged in absolute, unadulterated terror.

Right before his eyes, a spindly, pitch-black monster with a gaping, blood-soaked mouth tore its way out of the woman's fleshy husk.

"Mons—"

Before the scream could even leave his throat, the abomination snapped its jaws shut, biting his head clean off...

By the time Fu Yan and his companion arrived, there was nothing left but a headless body. Still, one look at the clothes and they knew it was the burly guy.

"Was he eaten by a monster?" He Shuyang asked.

"Clearly," Fu Yan said, squatting down to examine the corpse.

"Where's the woman then?"

He Shuyang turned around, only to catch Fu Yan blatantly rifling through the dead man's wallet.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Seeing if he's got anything worth stealing."

He Shuyang was utterly speechless. He genuinely could never tell when Fu Yan was joking and when he was dead serious.

"Come take a look at this," Fu Yan beckoned, handing He Shuyang a photograph.

The photo depicted a couple in matching baseball jackets. The man was clearly the burly guy, but the woman beside him was definitely not the woman they had been seeing.

The real Baseball Girl in the picture had a great figure, but her face wasn't nearly as pretty as the one they saw in this dungeon.

He Shuyang gaped. "Why are there two of them? Which one is the real deal?"

"People will deceive you, but objects generally do not."

"So the girl in the picture is the real one? Is this guy blind? He didn't even know his girlfriend got swapped."

"Maybe the girlfriend he saw was different from the one we saw. Remember when I stomped on the blond guy outside the school?"

He Shuyang nodded.

Not only did he remember, but it had also been incredibly gratifying.

"I put lethal force into that stomp, yet I never received the system warning against killing players."

"You mean we were actually already inside the Instance Dungeon back then?"

Fu Yan nodded.

He Shuyang mused, "No wonder I thought the game's notification sound was slightly off! It was this Instance Dungeon playing tricks all along! But why would it do that?"

"To mask the identity of the girlfriend."

"Then who is the girlfriend we've been interacting with this whole time?"

"Did you read the diary I gave you?"

"I did."

A sudden wave of realization washed over He Shuyang.

"She is Gu Yao!"

Fu Yan was at a loss for words.

"No, she's Gu Ling!"

He Shuyang's face scrunched up in confusion.

"How is that possible? Doesn't Gu Ling have a massive birthmark on her face?!"

"Who do you think wrote the diary, then?"

"Gu... Gu Ling?" He Shuyang replied hesitantly.

Fu Yan flipped through the journal and pointed at the pages.

"Gu Ling wrote it. In '11, she envied Gu Yao; in '13, she hated Gu Yao; and in '14, she claimed her wish came true. What would be the ultimate wish of someone who both envies and despises Gu Yao?"

"To become Gu Yao!"

"Bingo. You get one point."

It suddenly dawned on He Shuyang that Fu Yan had been staring intently at the woman the moment they entered the Instance Dungeon. Had he known she wasn't human right from the start?

"Did you know from the very beginning that she wasn't human? Is that why you couldn't take your eyes off her?"

He Shuyang's question rendered Fu Yan speechless yet again.

This kid was an idiot when it came to anything else, but his intuition regarding Fu Yan was always terrifyingly accurate.

But there was no way he'd admit this. Never in a million years.

"Nah, I just thought she looked pretty."

Words failed He Shuyang for a moment.

What a pervert!

Shooting Fu Yan a covert glare, he continued, "So, are we going to hunt down Gu Ling now?"

"No, we're going to do something more exciting than that."

Rendered speechless yet again by Fu Yan, He Shuyang thought, Hasn't this whole night been exciting enough?!

By the time Fu Yan wheeled a massive cart loaded with alcohol and flammables out of the chemistry lab, He Shuyang felt completely dead inside.

It seemed like a single candle couldn't satisfy this pyromaniac psycho anymore, huh?

What was his plan? Burning the entire Instance Dungeon down?!

Fu Yan pushed the cart to an old, abandoned basketball court.

Long abandoned and boxed in by rusted fences, the ground was choked with a thick layer of dead leaves and dry grass—the absolute perfect venue for a BBQ.

Tonight's main course: Monster Skewers.

Fu Yan piled the kindling and flammables together to construct a makeshift bonfire. The moment it was lit, a brilliant shower of sparks erupted into the night air.

Tossing the remaining alcohol to his companion, he smirked.

"I'll leave dinner to you, Chef He."

He Shuyang nodded in utter resignation.

Since things had escalated this far, he had no choice but to ride this crazy train all the way to the end.

Drawn by the blazing inferno, a horde of over a dozen monsters quickly converged on the court, roaring furiously as they launched themselves at Fu Yan.

Fu Yan welcomed them all with open arms, dealing with them one punch at a time as if disciplining rowdy toddlers.

He pulverized the monsters until severed limbs flew through the air, splattering the ground with a gruesome, multicolored mosaic of brains, guts, and intestines.

[Ding! Fear Points +70]

[Ding! Fear Points +70]

[Ding! Fear Points +70]

[Ding! Fear Points +70]

……

Every time Fu Yan killed one, he'd casually toss the carcass onto the court, while He Shuyang played the dutiful grill master, keeping the fire stoked and roasting them.

If he encountered one that wasn't completely dead, he would hack at it to finish the job.

Though initially terrified, the repetitive butchery soon left him completely numb.

With every precise plunge of his blade, he began to mimic the chilling, psychopathic aura of Fu Yan himself.

Meanwhile, Fu Yan stood barehanded before the crackling flames, completely bathed in gore, looking like a ruthless demonic god straight out of hell.

[Who said GOAT Fu Yan was gentler this round?! Brains are practically exploding in my face!]

[Having arms and legs raining from the sky isn't exactly a step up from scooping out brains, okay?!]

[What on earth was GOAT Fu Yan's profession before this? Was he under that much stress?!]

[Could he be a programmer?]

[Impossible! Programmers don't have that much hair!!!]

By the time Fu Yan executed the final monster with a crushing blow, he had raked in a total of 2,870 Fear Points.

Combining that with his kills at the library, he had slaughtered exactly 49 monsters and amassed 3,355 Fear Points.

With the exception of "Gu Yao," who was possessing Gu Ling's body, every single one of them had maxed out their contribution at 100 Fear Points.

Instance Dungeons with a ton of NPCs like this were the best.

With the trash mobs cleared, only the final boss remained.

Fu Yan hoisted his torch and shouted into the pitch-black expanse of the field, "Gu Ling! Are you coming out here yourself, or do I have to drag you out?"

He Shuyang asked dubiously, "Can she even hear you from here? Do you want me to go find you a megaphone?"

"She heard me."

Sure enough, a woman emerged from the darkness of the field the very next second. Clad in the familiar baseball jacket, she had an attractive face punctuated by a distinct mole on her nose.

She smiled at Fu Yan.

"How did you know it was me?"

Fu Yan had actually figured it out the very first time he laid eyes on her, which was exactly why he had violently assaulted Blondie to test whether they had already entered the Instance Dungeon.

Still, he had zero intention of explaining any of that to her.

"'Cause I'm smart."

Gu Ling nodded.

"Indeed so. I know you want to leave the Instance Dungeon, but actually, you can leave without killing me."

Fu Yan was amused.

"Oh?"

Gu Ling sidled up to Fu Yan and slipped off her jacket, revealing her stunning curves.

"As long as you let that dumb kid die for me, I'm yours. I can leave the Instance Dungeon with you and be with you forever."

Her gaze locked onto Fu Yan, dripping with irresistible seduction.

"Really?"

Gu Ling leaned on Fu Yan's shoulder and nodded shyly.

"Alright then," Fu Yan agreed.

Gently pulling her jacket back over her shoulders, he took a deep breath, reeled back, and buried his fist brutally deep into her stomach.

"Urgh..."

The coy flush froze on Gu Ling's face.

An instant later, she was launched backward like a cannonball, face-planting violently into He Shuyang's roaring bonfire.

"Wh-Why?!"

Fu Yan sneered.

"Hah! You really thought you could be with me?! As if I'd let you take advantage of me like that!"

His overwhelming haughtiness left both Gu Ling and He Shuyang utterly speechless.

Comments