Free Web NovelMidnight Fierce Zero raised his voice, “You mean the dorm buildings themselves can be aberrated into frogs?!”
Rainy Night Blade: “I can’t guarantee it, but it’s highly likely!”
Brahman immediately asked, “Is there any way to counter it over at Shadow Prison Building?”
Rainy Night Blade: “Shadow Prison Building’s defenses are extremely strong, but we can’t rely on that. We’ll do what we can and leave the rest to fate!”
For a moment, the radio fell silent, though everyone’s breath could be heard growing heavier.
Frogs capable of aberrating entire dorm buildings—what level of threat is that?
“I have a way.” Xu Lang said calmly.
Hundred Ton King hurriedly chimed in, “Boss, tell us!”
Xu Lang: “Kill the frogs in advance, don’t let them get close to the dorm buildings!”
Rainy Night Blade: “But none of us can go outside, it’s pouring blood rain out there!”
Xu Lang: “Blood rain is ineffective against mechanical entities. I don’t know how many combat drones your dorms have in stock.”
Midnight Fierce Zero: “Who actually has those things at home? Mechanical copies are too rare!”
Xu Lang: “I have combat drones here, and more than I can use.”
Midnight Fierce Zero snapped, “Are you showing off?”
Xu Lang: “I can arrange material exchanges, I just don’t know whether you’ll agree.”
The radio fell into silence again.
This time the pause was even longer than before.
Lone Wanderer, Midnight Fierce Zero, and Brahman all went silent on their mics, as if adjusting their emotions or consulting their own think tanks.
After a while, Rainy Night Blade spoke, “How long will your method take to take effect?”
Xu Lang: “At least three hours. At noon, twelve o’clock, the Calamity Frogs will arrive. At least, that’s when they’ll reach our dorm building.”
Hundred Ton King: “Boss, your building also has predictive traits? Is ‘Calamity Frogs’ an official name?”
Xu Lang didn’t respond to that, and instead said, “Decide quickly. I’ll only wait ten minutes. Saying it up front, the number of Calamity Frogs will far exceed your imagination. The earth, houses, and plants are their breeding grounds.”
His words sounded insightful and carried convincing force.
Xu Lang had previously warned the Blood Mist Mutual Aid Society that blood rain could mutate players, back when the Blood Calamity hadn’t yet arrived.
Still, everyone sank into silence.
The Dorm Survival Game was a vast dark forest; every player distrustful and watchful.
About five or six minutes later, Brahman spoke up, “Friend, our building still has some long-range attacks, and hastily engaging with our building will be very dangerous for you... It’s not that I don’t support your efforts, and by the way, thank you for the intel.”
Midnight Fierce Zero: “You keep switching between ‘I, the monk’ and ‘friend’—so annoying!”
Brahman: “Sorry.”
Midnight Fierce Zero: “Screw you!”
Rainy Night Blade: “If you don’t want to listen, leave. Zero Number’s plan is very risky.”
Hundred Ton King gasped, “Station Director, have you decided?!”
Rainy Night Blade: “I’m not the station director, just the acting one, and I trust Zero Number.”
Midnight Fierce Zero: “This is childish, I’m out!”
Brahman: “The monk takes his leave!”
Hundred Ton King: “Goodbye!”
Rainy Night Blade: “Lone Wanderer, aren’t you leaving?”
Lone Wanderer: “I want to ask, besides combat drones, is there any other good method?”
...
In a certain dorm room, Lone Wanderer looked full of regret.
Once he had been a big shot, the one asking questions to Xu Lang.
And now, everything was upside down.
...
Xu Lang: “There is. Evict players from the dorms and make them go out to kill the Calamity Frogs!”
Lone Wanderer: “Uh…”
Xu Lang: “But even so, your Sealing Building won’t be able to withstand the onslaught of the Calamity Frogs for long; it will go offline quickly.”
“Damn, when did I ever show my true colors? Zero Number, did you check me?!” Lone Wanderer’s voice changed abruptly into a rough male tone.
Xu Lang didn’t respond immediately.
In the dream, Lone Wanderer had kept the Blood Mist Mutual Aid Society radio on during his final moments, and before dying he frantically revealed his information, as if trying to leave something behind.
Sometimes, even if someone knows they’re nothing but a handful of ash, they still hope for a gust of wind to blow them farther.
Xu Lang: “If you don’t trust me, you will die.”
The more concise the words, the more powerful they sounded.
There was silence on Lone Wanderer’s side again.
Rainy Night Blade: “Lone Wanderer, Zero Number is extraordinary, I advise you...”
Lone Wanderer: “Stop. Are you guys colluding to trap me?”
Rainy Night Blade: “Believe it or not, that’s all I’ll say.”
Lone Wanderer: “Three minutes. Give me three minutes, I’ll think it over and discuss with the tenants!”
Xu Lang: “You’re a lone ranger, where are your tenants coming from?”
Lone Wanderer: “...”
Lone Wanderer was a veteran player from more than thirty cycles, and Sealing Building was a dorm about to be promoted to tier three.
He had joined Sealing Building in its fifteenth cycle and had been betrayed by the wife who entered the game with him, so he trusted no one.
If it weren’t pointless, Xu Lang almost wanted to help Lone Wanderer recall that bitter childhood and his revenge plan against his wife.
Lone Wanderer: “Alright... Zero Number, you say it.”
Xu Lang: “First, imagine this scene... a magic box that contains countless tales... its function is... describe it as detailed as possible, you should draw it if you can, keep it in mind constantly.”
To understand the tales was to step into the tales.
About half an hour later, the Taleblade Demon Box gained two new sensory sources.
Sealing Building and Starving Corpse Building were both in the Titan Ruins, not far apart—at least not as distant as separate worlds.
From then on, Lone Wanderer and Rainy Night Blade dove into frenzied imagination about the Taleblade Demon Box, entering a kind of trance.
At their request, Xu Lang began recounting what was inside the Taleblade Demon Box, what incomprehensible tales it contained.
They were even more radical than Xu Lang had expected.
By nearly eleven o’clock, Xu Lang could summon the two into the Taleblade Demon Box.
Sealing Building and Starving Corpse Building possessed awareness, and at that moment they would surely shout, “Damn, there are intruders inside the game!”
In the previous cycle, Rainy Night Blade had contacted Xu Lang when he was at the brink of desperation.
Blood rain was especially punishing to Starving Corpse Building players.
...
Titan Ruins.
Under a blood-colored sky stood a dorm building full of desolation. Even inside the safe zone, everything was barren; plants looked as if they had been eaten away.
In this dorm building, two-thirds of the room doors were broken. There were seven hundred rooms total, yet occupancy was under forty percent.
Moreover, the intact rooms were mostly concentrated on the top floor.
Suddenly, a door on the top floor opened.
A young man with a cold expression and deep eyes stepped out.
This was Rainy Night Blade, acting station director of the Blood Mist Mutual Aid Society radio.
Two tenants, a man and a woman, stood inside the doorway, looking at him with worry.
“Chant the true name, enter my box!”
In Rainy Night Blade’s field of view, illusions of palm-sized magic boxes reflected from all directions, emitting long, monotonous eerie sounds that made his heart plunge toward an abyss.
He felt nearly swallowed by a sense of doom, the alarm bells in his mind about to blare like air-raid sirens.
Yet he forced down the negative emotions, looked long and hard at the desolate safe zone, and said, “I will save this place!”
He pressed his fist to his chest and resolutely stepped forward into the Taleblade Demon Box.
After Rainy Night Blade vanished, more players gradually opened their doors.
They were all the old, the weak, the sick—so thin from hunger their skin clung to their bones. Watching the place where Rainy Night Blade had disappeared, their expressions were the same: despair, numbness, worry, with a faint, symbolic glimmer of hope—alas, too dim, like a candle in the rain.
The players leaving their rooms seemed to know what Rainy Night Blade intended.
That meant, before making the decision, Rainy Night Blade had communicated through breath with them, giving instructions or farewells.
Such cohesion was rare.
Starving Corpse Building had a rule similar to Mad King Building: many are allowed in, few are allowed out. Though its restrictions weren’t as strict; under certain conditions, Starving Corpse Building players could still leave.
Dorm buildings with such domineering clauses usually held especially cruel game content.
If they didn’t, the players would learn the truth and run at once—there would be no game left to play.
