Free Web NovelBai Six, still wandering outside, glanced at the phone screen after the call disconnected. His expression tightened slightly. The coin hanging against his chest had been vibrating nonstop.
He tapped open the system panel and was immediately met with a flood of notifications:
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu’s main identity line physical strength slot is recovering. Use Physical Strength Recovery Agent to restore strength?]
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu’s main identity line physical strength has been restored to maximum.]
[System Notification: Should player Bai Liu’s main identity line use personal skill (The Thief’s Trained Capuchin Monkey)?] free𝑤ebnovel.com
Bai Six took a slow breath and closed the panel.
In the darkness, the teacher on patrol was gradually approaching the dormitory. After circling the grounds, talking with Bai Liu, and scouting possible escape routes, Bai Six quietly slipped back inside. He climbed into bed and lay perfectly still, breathing evenly as though deeply asleep.
Only after confirming the teacher had finished checking their dormitory did the “sleeping” Bai Six spring lightly from the bed. At the same moment, Xiao Miao Feichi, Xiao Miao Gaojiang, and Xiao Mu Ke climbed down from their own bunks.
They exchanged a silent glance as Bai Six moved toward the dormitory door, then followed him soundlessly into the pitch-black corridor.
The dormitories and hallways around them seemed to be swallowed bit by bit by the darkness. Mu Ke unconsciously swallowed hard. Trying to steady himself, he nervously followed behind Bai Six into the vast night.
The first floor of the building opposite theirs housed Liu Jiayi’s dormitory. Between the two buildings lay a small playground-like square already filled with wandering Deformed Children. Crossing it directly was impossible.
Fortunately, Liu Jiayi had told them about another route.
If they climbed out through the girls’ restroom window, they could circle around behind the building and reach the first floor safely while avoiding the Deformed Children.
Bai Six moved with practiced ease as he slipped into the girls’ restroom. After a quick glance around, he vaulted neatly through the ventilation window beside the last stall and landed in the bushes outside.
Dense shrubs and overgrown grass covered the back of the building. Feeling his way along the wall, Bai Six led the others toward the neighboring dormitory.
As they walked, they could still hear children laughing inside.
The laughter was clear and crisp, yet strangely hollow.
It drifted closer and closer until it felt as though something had climbed out after them and was now trailing behind their group, joining this little game with delight.
At the rear of the line, Mu Ke kept glancing back toward the sound. His face had gone nearly white. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was following them.
“Don’t turn around.”
Just as Mu Ke heard footsteps rustling through the grass again and instinctively started to look back, Bai Six spoke calmly.
“Something is following us. It probably thinks we’re playing a game. Move faster. Don’t let it catch us.”
Under the ghostly moonlight, the Deformed Children finally emerged from the bushes.
Some faces were mangled beyond recognition; others looked almost normal. But every one of them wore the same grotesquely innocent smile.
Their hands, stained crimson from crawling through the deep red mud, stretched toward the group as they chanted brokenly:
“Play! Play with me! Stay and play!”
Mu Ke felt his heart nearly stop from terror.
The children bolted.
They sprinted with everything they had, finally scrambling through the restroom window of the opposite building just before the Deformed Children could grab them.
Xiao Miao Gaojiang collapsed onto the floor, pale and trembling. He had been the last one through the window, and one of his shoes had nearly been dragged off by the creatures chasing them. Fortunately, Bai Six had reacted quickly enough to snatch it back.
Most of the Deformed Children suffered from physical deformities and couldn’t manage difficult movements like squeezing through the narrow ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) ventilation window. Now they crowded outside it instead.
Under the pale moonlight, distorted faces pressed together at the opening, stacked one atop another. Their enormous, lifeless eyes stared unblinkingly at Bai Six and the others while their hands clawed ceaselessly inward.
“I want to play! You have to play with me! Come out!”
Bai Six handed the recovered shoe back to Xiao Miao Gaojiang. His gaze swept indifferently over the creatures outside.
“They can’t get in for now. Put it on. We’ll have to run again soon.”
Xiao Miao Gaojiang accepted the shoe with a complicated expression and muttered his thanks.
Bai Six merely acknowledged him with a vague hum before turning to leave the restroom.
They had finally reached Liu Jiayi’s building.
As they moved through the corridor toward her dormitory, they heard Liu Jiayi speaking to a teacher in a frail, delicate voice.
“Teacher, I don’t feel very well.”
Her performance was flawless. Her breathing sounded weak, and she even coughed intermittently.
For a “commodity” scheduled to be taken away the next day, getting sick the night before was the last thing the welfare home staff wanted.
The teacher repeatedly questioned Liu Jiayi about her symptoms. Liu Jiayi stalled skillfully, dragging out the conversation until two soft cat meows sounded outside the door—Bai Six’s signal.
Only then did Liu Jiayi finally say, “Okay... let’s go see the doctor.”
The teacher took her hand and helped her off the bed.
The moment they reached the doorway, Liu Jiayi suddenly cried out and collapsed.
Startled, the teacher reflexively turned around—
Exposing her back to the children waiting outside.
Bai Six immediately led the others forward.
Driven by raw survival instinct, Xiao Miao Feichi and Xiao Miao Gaojiang—already beginning to develop the strength of older teenagers—threw themselves into restraining the teacher. They strangled her with desperate force.
Within moments, the teacher’s eyes rolled back, and she crumpled unconscious to the floor.
The previously “weak” Liu Jiayi instantly let go of the teacher’s hand and climbed to her feet.
Unable to see clearly, she turned anxiously toward Bai Six and the others.
“Hurry and find the keys on her! Other teachers will start patrol soon! We don’t have much time tonight!”
Bai Six quickly located a ring of keys hanging at the teacher’s waist.
Since Liu Jiayi couldn’t see well, escaping would be difficult for her. Bai Six had Xiao Miao Gaojiang carry her piggyback.
Together, they stepped over the unconscious teacher sprawled face-down on the floor and rushed out.
Aside from Xiao Mu Ke, not a single child looked back.
They moved with an almost frightening lack of hesitation, like children born with an instinct for cruelty—children who felt no guilt toward the people they harmed.
Only Xiao Mu Ke, whose morals were still relatively intact, lingered uneasily behind them. He glanced back at the unconscious teacher with terrified eyes before quickly forcing himself to look away and follow the others.
Tonight, none of them had the luxury of pity.
Xiao Miao Feichi and Xiao Miao Gaojiang ran ahead first, charging into the square to lure the Deformed Children away temporarily.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Bai Six unlocked the children’s ride-on car parked near the playground.
A moment later, Xiao Miao Gaojiang arrived carrying Liu Jiayi on his back, and the two climbed aboard, panting heavily.
As for Xiao Mu Ke—
With tears streaming down his face, he straddled the tiny vehicle and screamed while pumping his aching legs:
“Bai Six, drive faster!! Stop fucking making phone calls! Those things are about to catch me!!”
Bai Six sat behind the wheel.
The toy car had never been fast to begin with, and now it carried four children. Aside from the lightweight Liu Jiayi, the others were all teenage boys. The overloaded vehicle rattled forward miserably, sounding like it might die at any moment.
Behind them, the Deformed Children delighted in the chase.
Laughing gleefully, they dragged twisted limbs across the ground or crawled after them on all fours.
Just as several of the creatures lunged close enough to touch the car—
A burst of black smoke exploded from the vehicle like flames erupting upward.
The smoke boiled violently, condensing into countless charred corpses screaming and clawing through the darkness. They looked both real and unreal at once.
The apparitions roared and spewed blazing fire from their mouths, forcing the Deformed Children backward.
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu’s secondary identity line used item (The Passengers’ Blessing). While riding on a transportation vehicle, the souls of these passengers will help you drive away other monsters.]
The Deformed Children recoiled in terror.
They scattered with shrill cries, though they still lingered at a cautious distance, unwilling to completely give up the chase.
Mu Ke, who had been screaming in panic moments earlier, hiccuped through his tears at the sight.
Bai Six kept one hand on the steering wheel while holding the children’s cell phone in the other.
His expression remained calm.
“Bai Liu,” he said quietly into the receiver. “What’s happening on your side?”
No answer came.
Bai Six kept calling.
Ever since the brief conversation at 9:15, he hadn’t heard Bai Liu’s voice again.
His eyes darkened.
He opened the system panel again and immediately saw Bai Liu’s health points had plummeted from 6 to 3 in only a few minutes.
And they were still falling.
Every stat on the screen fluctuated wildly, almost dizzyingly fast.
The physical strength gauge in particular bounced repeatedly between full and empty as though Bai Liu were recklessly burning through everything he had left.
Warning notifications flashed nonstop across the panel.
From the welfare home grounds, they could see the private hospital looming in the distance.
Bai Six looked up at the dark building that seemed capable of swallowing people whole. Reflected in his pupils was the hospital where Bai Liu remained trapped.
His lips pressed into a thin line.
Then suddenly—
The welfare home behind them exploded with light.
A teacher’s horrified scream rang out:
“The children attacked a teacher and escaped!”
As though triggered by the scream itself, lights blazed alive throughout the welfare home.
Teachers appeared one after another at the windows.
Under the harsh light, their shadows stretched long and distorted across the glass as they stared down at the fleeing children with dark, terrifying expressions.
In that moment, they no longer resembled kind caretakers.
The masks they wore during the day had fallen away, revealing monsters no different from the hospital investors.
“Bring them back!”
The Dean’s voice thundered through the broadcast system, thick with fury.
“Find those runaway children and punish them severely!”
Her voice rose into a hysterical shriek.
“Drown the child leading them in the baptismal pool!”
