Deep in the Living-Chapter 492 - 478: Familiar

Luo Di had just pushed open the rooftop door when he bumped into a blonde girl.

"Mia, didn’t I tell you to stay in the dorm?"

Unexpectedly, she looked displeased and directly poked Luo Di’s forehead with her index finger, "You’re asking me first? You said you’d be back soon, but I waited for ten minutes and didn’t see you.

I came looking for you because I was worried. Is this fun for you?"

Mia quickly poked her head out to survey the rooftop, not finding the female college student she was expecting.

At the same time, she caught a whiff of a faint musty odor on Luo Di, as if he’d been to an old, decaying area.

Luo Di explained simply:

"I ran into a bit of trouble, but I also got some important information.

Try not to think about anything related to ’fog’ while on campus, as it’s easy to fall into a ’mental fog’ and lose your perception of reality.

This is especially risky when alone."

"I knew something must have happened to you alone~ As long as you’re not dead, let’s head back, la la la~♪"

Since stepping onto campus, Mia seemed quite happy, even showing less hostility towards the new addition, Wu Wen. It seemed she was secretly yearning for such a youthful life, the kind she should be experiencing at her age.

The dormitory door opened.

Wu Wen was still wrapped in a quilt, lying on her side asleep, her damp hair almost dry.

A metal bucket sat in the corner, everything seemed normal, except it looked like Luo Di was the one with issues.

[Four hours later]

Hmm~

A soft sound escaped Wu Wen’s throat as she slowly sat up and stretched, finally catching up on her sleep.

All of a sudden, her flesh sensed something, and she whipped her head around.

Luo Di, who was supposed to be sleeping on the opposite bed, was now on the bed behind her, kneeling and almost pressing his face against hers.

This sudden close contact made Wu Wen instinctively pull back, using the quilt as a shield, even though she was already fully dressed.

"What are you... doing!?"

Luo Di gestured towards the bathroom, from which the sound of running water was coming.

"Mia’s taking a shower. We’ll grab some food at the cafeteria afterward and take a stroll around campus. Tonight, after the staff have clocked out, we’ll check out the school hospital.

While it’s just the two of us, there’s a question I want to ask you."

"What?"

Seeing no malice from him, Wu Wen gradually lowered the quilt in front of her and straightened her back, no longer in a defensive posture.

Luo Di quickly summarized the strange experiences he’d been through, prepared beforehand in his mind, including:

Suicide, facelessness, television, fog, and more.

Wu Wen showed little change in expression, "Oh, like that? As long as you survived."

Suddenly, Luo Di, half-squatting on the adjacent bunk, leaned forward, almost invading Wu Wen’s space, his face dark and carrying Killing Intent.

"I’m not recounting the sequence of events.

What I mean is, didn’t you say that there were no dangers early in our stay here at campus, and you seem to have encountered similar situations at the [newspaper office].

Why didn’t you give us a heads-up? What are you holding back? If we’re supposed to be collaborating, why not be a bit more transparent?"

Luo Di’s words were tinged with gray, like several tentacles caressing the other’s brain.

Unfazed, Wu Wen leaned forward as well, even though her face was nearly touching Luo Di’s, she didn’t lose an inch:

"Is something wrong with your ears?

I never said ’no danger.’ I said things would seem relatively normal when first entering the [location], but with time, the dangers would gradually increase.

Besides, if I have to lay out every detail and issue various reminders to mitigate risks, and if you can’t rely on your own awareness to sense danger or survive, then our cooperation is meaningless."

Their faces nearly touched,

Luo Di knew she hadn’t explicitly said the words "no dangers." He was merely annoyed by the lack of full transparency and information sharing.

Their gazes locked,

each could even feel the other’s breath.

Suddenly,

Wu Wen let out a slight sigh, breaking free from her aggressive stance, leaning back while supporting herself with her hands behind her, "At the newspaper office, I didn’t have a similar experience.

There were no suicides, no television.

The main danger lay in the ’character images’ from the newspapers. For instance, when I’d pass by those printers late at night, they’d start working on their own, emitting fog and printing very dangerous newspapers.

Just like the TV you encountered,

the characters on the newspapers could manifest into reality through the effect of the fog.

However, there wasn’t a situation where thinking about the fog would limit my thoughts. Also, on my first day at the newspaper office, I didn’t encounter any dangers at all."

Seeing Wu Wen’s explanation, Luo Di took a step back and realized something.

"You went in alone... You entered the newspaper [location] alone. But now, there are ’four of us’ entering the university [location] together.

With more people, the difficulty escalates accordingly.

That’s likely why I encountered danger right away on the first day, and even just thinking about the fog already has adverse effects. That makes sense."

"Hmm."

Wu Wen watched the man in front of her, initially thinking he was a rather simple-minded Murderer, as he’d been guarding the girl in the metal bucket from the start.

Now it seemed he was smarter than she anticipated, and more interesting.

For a brief moment upon waking up, she really felt like she was about to be slaughtered... moreover, that close face-to-face contact sparked a strange feeling within her, and her body didn’t display any rejection towards this young man throughout.

"Hey! Among the eight of us sharing a ride, only you, me, and that girl in the bucket are of Asian descent, and we’re about the same age.

Do you think we might know each other in real life?"

Luo Di shook his head, "I don’t know, the related memories have been erased."

Wu Wen suddenly leaned in again, lightly sniffing the scent on him with her nose and touching his cheek.

"Aside from the novelist [Lebeite], I’ve met all the other participants once. You’re the only one who feels different to me, which is another reason I’m willing to cooperate with you.

It might relate to you being ’human.’

However, you seem to have a very close relationship with the girl in the bucket, which is why you’d risk keeping her by your side. At best, we are probably just ordinary partners in reality."

"Do you have any memories of ’Fourth High’?" Luo Di suddenly tossed out the question, hoping to verify this part of the memory with the reporter in front of him.

"Fourth High... Yes! When I was still human, I studied there, but the exact memories are quite vague. I think I even held the position of Squad Leader during my school time."

"Squad Leader?"

Buzz!

Suddenly a strong ringing pounded in Luo Di’s ears, followed by a nosebleed, as the dense fog in his brain intensified, forcibly obscuring related memories.

Attempting to recall further might risk blowing his entire brain apart.

Just moments ago, Luo Di felt as if he was on the brink of breaking one of the "rules" of the event.

Wu Wen quickly grabbed a tissue to help him wipe away the blood, their eyes meeting closely, both strange yet oddly familiar.

Just then,

the bathroom door suddenly swung open.

Mia walked out, wrapped in a towel, her hand still combing through her damp blonde hair, and unexpectedly found Luo Di doing push-ups on the floor.

She then glanced at the now-awake female reporter sitting on the bed, feeling a sense of oddity.

As if the scene a second ago wasn’t the current one, like she had missed something crucial.

While Mia was deep in thought, she detected a faint sense of danger, not from the fog, but from the metal bucket.

Unknown when,

the girl in the bucket seemed to move slightly, her previously knee-hugging hands moved upward, with her middle finger slightly raised.

[Night, Wenslim University - School Hospital]

The streetlights scattered around the campus noticeably thinned as they got closer to the hospital, with hardly any insects buzzing around the light fixtures.

The building, clad in cold white tiles, stood alone at the campus’s edge.

The four new students quietly approached, sticking to spots the streetlights couldn’t reach...

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