Chapter 84 - Eighty-three: ’What’s the Cost?

Chapter 84: Chapter Eighty-three: ’What’s the Cost?

The bullet chat was already dying of laughter:

Su Ming’an finished writing the math paper, then started on English, followed by Chinese reading... When he saw the physics problems, he was stunned. When he pulled out another book, he then saw chemistry.

He put down his pen.

Soon enough, a "ding dong" came from the other side.

Lv Shu in another dorm turned his head and glanced at his dorm mates, who were cowering in the corner scared by Mantis, and replied:

Lv Shu thought this was a good idea.

While Su Ming’an was still struggling with the physics, chemistry, and biology in front of him, Lv Shu hadn’t gotten back to him yet.

Suddenly, Su Ming’an, tormented by the three subjects, noticed the bullet chat.

Su Ming’an was in a good mood—he was for the first time feeling that the audience had a function beyond just watching him.

He followed the bullet chat and wrote down one question after another, and the bullet chat, noticing that he was paying attention, got excited:

With the help of the bullet chat, though it was a bit dizzying, Su Ming’an finally managed to finish the problems.

He took photos of the homework and sent them to Lv Shu, then tossed the notebook to Zhang Jinfei, and took a glance at the time.

...Even with the cheating help of the bullet chat, the homework still took so long. If he were an ordinary student, one can only wonder how late they would have to stay up. But Su Ming’an knew that lights-out was at midnight, and if players hadn’t finished their homework, they could only get up early tomorrow and finish it by morning light.

Reading time was at 7:00 AM, Su Ming’an flipped through the timetable and suddenly saw the top student Wang Ran approaching him.

"Um... Number One Player," Wang Ran, who was indeed a Player, whispered, "the homework, could I possibly..."

Su Ming’an glanced at the back of his hand, which was bare: "What’s the price?"

"Huh?" Wang Ran looked as if he hadn’t expected to be asked for compensation. In his eyes, even Zhang Jinfei, that npc, had gotten the answer; why would Su Ming’an still ask him for a payment?

He suddenly thought of something and a cold sweat covered his back: "It can’t be, not..."

He remembered the long-discussed behavior of Ming’an in the first Apocalyptic World, "piercing the palm to obtain the antidote," and involuntarily shrank his hand back, his neck retracting a bit as well.

Su Ming’an had always found that these Players were afraid of him.

As an audience, they were all smiles and jokes, but as Adventurer Players, they were like mice seeing a cat.

"Am I very scary?" he asked in a low voice.

Watching Wang Ran hastily shaking his head, his face reddening, he sighed softly, "Once Zhang Jinfei has finished copying, you can take it then."

Speaking, he ignored Wang Ran’s look of having narrowly escaped death and turned off the protective eye lamp.

He didn’t plan to sleep tonight.

Nighttime was a good time for action, for both himself and the enemy.

After copying everything, Zhang Jinfei went to bed and fell asleep instantly; Li Xin, who had been silent all this time, also climbed into bed. Wang Ran looked at Su Ming’an, who was hunched over the desk playing with his panel, hesitated for a moment, and then also stayed down.

"Ding Dong!"

"Ding Dong!"

The night veiled the world outside the window in impenetrable darkness; even the faintly visible greenery had disappeared from view.

The hands of the clock pointed to twelve, and all the lights dimmed at once, plunging the entire school into a deep shadow.

The school broadcast began with a "ding ling ding ling" sound:

"It is now midnight, time to turn off the lights—students should go to their dormitories to sleep and not go out. Violators will be dealt with according to school rules."

Through his Cloning’s vision, Su Ming’an saw that the rooftop was shrouded in the same oppressive darkness.

He commanded his Cloning to move downstairs, first stopping in front of the iron door that separated the rooftop from the fifth floor of the dormitory.

The extinguishing flame at the Cloning’s fingertips flickered once, and the iron door creaked open. Cloning walked down the stairs, feeling something distinctly amiss.

The usually tidy walls now had cracks, like those of a long-abandoned derelict building, with cobwebs clinging to corners and a growing inconsistent layer of dust on the floor.

Cloning pressed his ear against a dormitory door, standing there for at least twenty minutes. During that time, he heard no sound at all—not a page turning, no snoring, and not even a hint of breathing.

The accommodations, normally poor at soundproofing, shouldn’t be so silent; there should at least be some noise of students climbing into bed after finishing homework, or the sound of water being fetched.

He felt as if someone were watching him, but after scanning the surroundings with his spiritual power, he couldn’t detect the source of the gaze. The hallway was eerily silent at both ends, without even a whisper of another sound.

Only he stood in the long corridor; there was no room for any other living being.

The gaze was nowhere to be found.

Cold drafts brushed against his neck from both sides.

Cloning found this strange. Intending to peek inside the door, he pressed his form close and peered through the slightly ajar door—

...he found the source of the gaze.

From the gap in the door, they were facing each other, a pair of eyes also looking back at him.

Like glass beads, glossy and reflective enough to cast back his own gaze, were a pair of eyes.

Those eyes slightly skewed, as if smiling at him.