V1C1

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

The LED light in the corridor jumped a little, making a sharp clacking noise. As if his heart had been pressed on by an unknown force, Lin Jue broke out of the trance he had been in.

Just then… had he been going back to his room? He felt like he was suffering from memory loss, like a man who had drank too much; he tried to recall what he had been doing only a few minutes ago, but could only come up with a few blurry memories.

Lin Jue remembered that he had received a notice from a friend who had gone to class early, saying that they would be marking the rolls early next period, and so had rushed over to electives, planning to sneak back to his room after roll call.

The dormitory building was eerily quiet, the entire fourth floor corridor silent. Not a single strand of light came from the rooms on either side of the corridor. Was the entire floor vacant today?

Lin Jue had just made up his mind to keep going when his phone rang inside his pocket, the vibrations crawling up from his outer thigh to his spine, a sense of fear rising up with it, as if he had a venomous snake in his pocket instead.

It was just a phone of course, it was nonsensical to have been so surprised, but his mind went back to what he saw as he was preparing to leave- his roommate Jiang Wei curled up in front of his computer, gaming, and on the desk next to him, a powerbank that needed some repairs… and Lin Jue’s phone, charging.

Indeed, Lin Jue, who had made up his mind to come back right after roll call, had left his dead phone inside his room.

But if his phone was in his room, then what was the thing vibrating inside his pocket?

A cold wind blew in from the window at the end of the corridor, bringing a sense of foreboding with it and snapping him out of the pause he had fallen into. He slapped his forehead and woke himself up, still whiplashed from his memory loss.

I probably remembered wrong, he thought, and took out his phone. The familiar lockscreen showed an unfamiliar number. The caller waited patiently, forcing him to press accept.

“Good evening.” A sweet voice came through the phone.

It wasn’t a spam call? Lin Jue was confused. The owner’s voice was far too recognizable, unforgettable in fact. Even though he had only met her once, the voice belonged to a girl he had met in a cute western dress. On his way to the canteen for lunch today, he had seen her passing around a box of easter eggs: little round balls lined up in two neat rows, making up exactly twelve as she held another in her hand. Under that sweet, intimate smile, Lin Jue had been forced to take one.

“This is the ticket to our Halloween club, be sure to attend!” Her tone, sweet and cloying like a gummy bear left out on a hot summer day, had circled him like a slug crawling in the dark corners of a room. She had snatched the signature book from his hands, satisfied, and walked off grinning to another student without ever telling him the time and location of the event.

The voice on the other side of the phone continued, “Receiver of the ticket, welcome to the demon hunting arena. The topic of today’s game will be ‘The Undead’. If I were you, I’d head to Time Plaza right now: there’s a prop event going on right now which I believe you’ll like. Have fun gaming!”

They hung up. Lin Jue listened to the hang-up tone dumbly, unable to figure out what was going on.

The surroundings were in perfect silence, as if someone had pressed mute on the world. In the dim corridor, he stood alone, holding his phone at a loss.

A cold gloom started crawling up the soles of his feet and his heartbeat sped up even though he wasn’t moving. He could hear a loud, painful thumping in his eardrums.

Not right, this wasn’t right.

Whether it was that pseudo-prank call or the eerily quiet environment, he felt a strong sense of unease, his intuition screaming at him to run away with a senselessly fierce fear.

Lin Jue moved his legs stiffly and walked towards his room, his reason desperately trying to soothe his terrified intuition and convince him that everything was just a result of the environment he was in. When he returned to his room, maybe he would find out that it was all just a prank and he was acting like a little girl for no reason.

Before he had finished comforting himself though, a loud crash came from downstairs, like someone had broken a window. In the darkness and silence, the startlingly loud sound was especially harsh.

Lin Jue snapped out of it and refocused, hurriedly looking for his room keys. Then he remembered he had left them in his room. Thank goodness his roommate hadn’t gone to class either. He started knocking, the faint sound amplified in the gloom and reverberating through his chest like a drum.

“Jiang Wei, open up, I forgot to bring my keys.” Normally at this time, there would be a string of loud swearing from inside the room, followed by the sound of a sliding chair and footsteps…

Bang, bang, bang——

The sound of knocking came from inside the room. No, not knocking- banging, as if someone was slamming their entire body into the metal door, shaking the very frame itself.

This almost suicidal way of slamming shocked Lin Jue into taking a step back as he stared at the door, his heart beating fast.

“Hey… Jiang Wei, are you alright?” Lin Jue asked, his voice shaking.

The sound of banging paused for a few seconds, and a strange, low, beast-like roar passed through the metal door into Lin Jue’s ears. The banging sounds started again, causing the metal to groan and shake under the impact, knocking down a thin layer of dust.

Not right, this was definitely not right!

One eerie thing followed another. Lin Jue desperately wanted to know what had happened, but his intuition told him that he didn’t want the answer.

The door was still being hit. Lin Jue suddenly wondered if his roommate had suddenly been struck by some sickness, but he didn’t have his keys on him right now so he wouldn’t be able to open the door regardless…

Lin Jue took in a deep breath, turned, and ran down the stairs towards the dormitory administrator’s room on level one. She had the spare keys to every lodge!

Moonlight slipped into the stairwell from the windows. Lin Jue looked up as he ran- the faintly red crescent of the moon looked freaky and ominous.

It was just like… the scene of a nightmare…

Not wanting to think too deeply about it, Lin Jue arrived at level one.

The main hall was shrouded in the same silence. Lin Jue slowed down after stepping off the last step, but his violently beating heart refused to do the same.

The exit was right in front of him, the glass doors wide open, revealing strips of grass and street lights, casting dim, mottled tree shadows onto the ground. A gust of wind blew by, curling a few fallen leaves up which collided into each other, making crisp crackles.

Run away, get out of here, it’s dangerous! Lin Jue’s intuition warned him. He looked to the exit once more, but was reminded of Jiang Wei. He swallowed and walked towards the dormitory administrator’s room.

A light creak and the sound of a wooden door being pushed open. All the nerves in Lin Jue’s body tightened as he stared at the room not far from him. The dormitory administrator was standing right next to the door, the dim light hiding her expression, but the silhouette of a slightly plump aunty visible.

“A-aunty, I’m here for my dorm keys, I forgot to bring them.” Lin Jue forced out his voice from his parched throat.

The administrator aunty started walking towards him.

Lin Jue took a step back like a frightened rabbit.

How could he describe that strange feeling? Even though she was someone familiar whom he met with almost every day, in that unsettling atmosphere, everything about her was strange.

Her posture was so stiff, like a dead body from a freezer.

Lin Jue took another few steps back, his hair standing on edge as he looked unconsciously towards the open door.

At that moment, there was the sound of a door banging closed from upstairs, followed by the sound of something being slammed to the ground. Lin Jue looked to the staircase in confusion, unsure of what was going on.

“Do you have a deathwish? Run!” The voice of a man came from the stairs. Lin Jue continued staring in his daze and saw the person’s shadow elongate under the light of the moon from the stairs. In his peripherals, he saw the dormitory administrator walking stiffly, then suddenly jump at him!

Lin Jue was thrown onto the ground, shocked back into reality once more. He instinctively pushed his arm against her to force her away, but the weak-looking lady displayed an overwhelming strength as she clenched his arm, snarled, and bit at him as if crazy.

A strange, rotten smell reeked from her mouth. Lin Jue stared at her with wide eyes. The face so close to him was stiff and hideous, her eyes bloodshot and bulging as if trying to escape from her sockets. She opened her deformed mouth and fangs that belonged to no human tried once again to pierce through his throat.

Adrenaline filled Lin Jue with an explosion of strength and he grabbed her shoulders, keeping her face away from him, curled up his knees and pushed. The administrator fell over and he crawled up, his right hand grabbing a seat nearby for him to slam down, hard.

His body reacted faster than his brain. He didn’t even have time to think.

The administrator rolled over a few times after being knocked onto the ground before standing up, staggering. Her right foot was obviously broken but she kept walking towards Lin Jue as if she didn’t feel it at all.

Monster, she was a monster!

Vicious fear rushed up in his heart and Lin Jue once more turned to the exit to run.

“Stop,” the man who had warned him called out. He was still standing on the stairs, a plastic barrel in his hand.

What was he doing?

Before Lin Jue had time to think it through, the man had already rushed up and stuffed the administrators head into the barrel, followed by a kick to her left knee. The administrator stumbled onto the ground, kneeling, and he immediately added another kick onto her back, forcing her down onto the ground. The entire process took less than three seconds.

The person on the ground struggled violently, a beast-like roar coming out from her throat. The man stared at her, bent down to test her pulse, then withdrew after a few seconds.

Lin Jue was still standing there dumbly, looking at him in terror.

“No heartbeat, she’s already dead.” The man raised his head, revealing an unusually handsome and composed face, but his eyes were sharp as he looked to Lin Jue.

Dead? But she was still moving… Lin Jue stared at the constantly squirming figure on the ground, but his brain felt as if it was filled with water.

The man looked coldly at his panicked expression, frowned, and took a fruit knife out from his pocket.

The cold metal glinted with a glaring light in the dark hall.

The sound of piercing flesh followed it.

Lin Jue’s eyes widened and he stared as the man stabbed the knife into the administrator’s neck. The knife got stuck on her spine, unable to move forward. He gave up after one try, took out the bloody knife, and pierced her heart from the back. The administrator was still squirming, as if she couldn’t feel the pain at all.

The perpetrator frowned and looked judgingly at the unkillable monster at his feet, a troubled look on his face. Lin Jue knew though that he wasn’t troubled because he was killing, but rather because he was unable to kill.

Then, he did something that was enough to scare Lin Jue away- he took the plastic barrel off her head and threw it to the side. The monster laid sprawled on the ground, unable to turn from the weight on her back. Her horrible fangs opened and closed, making harsh scraping noises on the ground. She whimpered and snarled, trying to break free from the person stepping on her, but was forced down firmly.

“Use the chair, hit her head!”

Even though it was an order to kill, Lin Jue had given up thinking in his terror and instinctively followed the instructions given, picking up the chair that had been thrown to the side.

The cold smoothness of the metal seeped into his skin. Lin Jue carried the chair and walked towards the monster…

Kill her, kill her, kill her!

“AH——!” Lin Jue shouted and slammed the chair down on the administrator’s head. It hit the ground beside her with a bang. Lin Jue toppled over backwards, climbing a few steps and turning towards the open door again.

He wanted to run, he didn’t want to kill anyone!

Lin Jue had realized what he was about to do right before doing it. Ever since he had received that phone call, it had been like he was inside of a nightmare, and in that fear, he had even almost killed somebody!

Lin Jue stared, horrified at the man standing on the dormitory administrator. His gaze was returned coldly, the man’s brows furrowed. That judgemental glare was so cold it was like he was doing nothing more than weighing up cargo.

“Stand up.” The man’s voice was even colder than before.

Lin Jue shakily stood up from the ground, his hands and legs still trembling something awful. Now that he had recovered his ability to think, he was even more afraid than before and didn’t even dare to look at the snarling monster on the ground.

“A knife to the neck and a knife to the heart. They were both fatal hits, but she’s still moving with incredible strength. She’s no longer human and even if she was, we would only be doing this in self-defense.” The man withdrew his uncomfortable analytical stare and looked down at the struggling creature, seeing through the situation calmly. “Now, you can choose to leave me behind and run away through the gates, or pick up the chair and smash her head in!”

Lin Jue drew in a sharp breath. He realized that the stranger in front of him had saved him. If he hadn’t warned him, he might have been bitten to death already. If he ran…

Lin Jue immediately refused the option. He wouldn’t be a coward.

So there was only one option left.

Lin Jue picked up the chair and returned to the monster once more. She had already broken her neck which had turned one-eighty degrees in an attempt to attack the person on top of her. Her slit throat and pierced heart were still bleeding and a large pool of dark red liquid had spread out beneath her. The blood loss was fatal.

But she was still alive. A monster.

Lin Jue’s eyes cooled. He tightened his hands around the chair and slammed it down hard. The sound of it hitting the thing’s skull came again and again. The skin split… the skull broke… the skull sank into itself… Lin Jue forced himself to keep staring at the head at his feet. It was impossible to see that it was human anymore; it was nothing more than a piece of meat mixed with blood and brain and pieces of smashed bone; it looked like it had just come out of a meat grinder.

There was an eyeball, still connected to the veins and nerves in the broken temporal bone, sticking out jarringly from the pile of meat on the ground. Its pupil directly faced Lin Jue. Lin Jue suddenly dropped the chair, covered his mouth, bent over, and threw up.

The monster was no longer moving. The man who was stepping on it removed his foot, walked over to Lin Jue, and looked down on him.

“Have you heard of zombies?” he asked.

Lin Jue, who had already thrown up the entirety of his dinner, wiped his mouth and nodded.

“Though I’m not certain of what happened, it looks as if most of the people here have been turned into zombies; I just killed one upstairs.” They paused, the critical look returning to their eyes. “Follow me if you don’t want to die, though I won’t promise anything.”

Saying that, he strode over the body on the ground and walked towards the exit of the dormitories without turning back.

Lin Jun hesitated for half a second before following him hurriedly.

***

Vera’s Notes:

Welcome one and all to The Easter Egg Game! I’m your host Vera, and this is your translator, Luci. We’ll be uploading this once per week until we’re done. I hope you all enjoy this lovely infinity flow novel!

TOC|

Like this:Like Loading...