After the Evil God Pretends to Be a Player [Infinite] - Chapter 17

There was no time for second-guessing. Li Zhu grabbed Lale’s hand and bolted toward the dormitory door at a speed that would have won him the hundred-meter dash at a collegiate athletic meet.

Behind them, the ragged breathing of a beast echoed in their ears, over and over.

Li Zhu pressed the door handle and pulled; the door swung open. He just began to breathe a sigh of relief, thinking they were lucky not to be mysteriously locked in, when he realized the corridor had completely transformed.

The green light of the emergency exit had been extinguished. Every dormitory door stood wide open, resembling the gaping maws of countless predators.

Looking left and then right, everything seemed identical; they could no longer find the direction of the exit.

As the sounds behind them drew closer, Li Zhu hesitated. Finally, Lale yanked her hand from his tight grip and pointed to the left.

“Run that way! I can hear the flow of the air.”

Li Zhu didn’t stop to ask how she could possibly hear air moving. He grabbed her hand again and sprinted in the direction she indicated.

At some point, the monster’s distinctive heavy breathing vanished. The corridor was silent except for the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of their running footsteps. It was terrifyingly quiet.

The path ahead seemed boundless, as if the end would never come. Inadvertently, Li Zhu’s gaze swept over the doors on either side of the hallway, and a sudden chill crawled up his spine.

He saw a person covered in blood standing in the shadows of one doorway. Bright red blood dripped down, drop by drop, accumulating into a small puddle at the entrance. It was impossible to discern the person’s features or even their gender; even the eyes were matted shut with gore. Yet, Li Zhu felt instinctively that the figure was staring at them.

It wasn’t just that room. In the shadows of every wide-open doorway, a monster seemed to be standing, watching them intently like predators observing a trapped beast’s futile struggle.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the familiar main dormitory gate appeared. After bursting through the doors, even Li Zhu couldn’t help but bend over, gasping for air.

He panted for a while before standing up. When he turned his gaze back to Lale, he asked in confusion, “How do you not look tired at all?”

He had always been physically fit, yet after such an intense sprint, he was inevitably drenched in sweat. Lale, however, remained as poised as a statue of ice and jade. There wasn’t a trace of perspiration on her face, and her breathing wasn’t even labored.

At that moment, she was looking at him with an indescribable expression.

Li Zhu asked, puzzled, “Why that face?”

Following her gaze, he realized that after his limited-edition black coat had “honorably retired” during the battle at the teaching building, his school uniform had also failed to maintain its dignity during the recent struggle.

He had initially thought only a corner of the uniform was torn, but he now saw that during the run, a large portion of the jacket had been ripped open. It now hung off him like a tattered rag.

He had intended to try and tidy the ruined uniform, but seeing Lale’s subtle look, his mind raced and he changed his plan. Instead, he quite brazenly stripped the jacket off entirely.

It was a summer night, after all; Li Zhu felt his actions were perfectly normal.

However, Lale had never witnessed such a display from a modern man. Her eyes darted away from Li Zhu’s exposed eight-pack abs, and she offered a soft, one-word critique: “Dissolute.”

“What did you say?” Li Zhu almost thought he had misheard her.

Lale deliberately looked elsewhere and said, “Don’t waste time. You took that envelope out, didn’t you?”

“I did. And I’m telling you, that guy Cheng Lin nearly snatched it away…”

As he pulled the manila envelope from his sleeve and handed it to Lale, he remarked, “This must be a crucial clue. Why else would it cause such a massive commotion?”

Lale glanced at him, but because she accidentally caught sight of his upper body again, she snapped her gaze back as if struck by lightning. She didn’t bother to remind him that the “massive commotion” was largely due to his Critical Failure. Instead, she explained calmly, “Although this place looks like events from the past, it is essentially what the dungeon’s Evil God wants to tell us.”

Li Zhu seemed to understand. “You mean, what we saw isn’t necessarily the whole truth?”

Lale nodded. “It can’t be ruled out. The scenes we witness may become distorted based on the Evil God’s likes and dislikes. Just like how everyone in the first-floor boys’ dormitory turned into monsters perhaps to Him, the things they did were unpardonable.”

Inside the manila envelope was a stack of letters.

Lale walked to the plastic track of the playground, sat down, and unfolded a letter to read. Li Zhu sat beside her, craning his neck to look at the paper. He smiled and asked, “What does this one say?”

Lale said succinctly, “A love letter.”

Indeed, it was.

By the hazy moonlight, the handwriting on the paper was clearly visible:

Yingzi:

I’ve loved you since the day you started school! Your long hair, your face, your figure—every bit of you hits my (scribbled out) spot! You have captured my heart!

I will love you until the seas run dry and the rocks (crossed out) crumble, until the very end (crossed out) of time! Accept my roses and be my woman!

Li Zhu frowned slightly and gave a low chuckle. “How are these high schoolers so… I was much more innocent back then.”

Lale flipped through the rest. The subsequent pages were also love letters. To be fair, the tone of these letters was quite unsettling.

After flipping through countless pages, the tone of one letter finally shifted significantly:

Yingzi:

Why do you never reply to my love letters!

Why! Why!

Don’t look down on me just because I’m bad at studying! I’m telling you! After those ‘pretty boy’ top students graduate, they’ll only be fit to turn screws in my family’s factory! If you stay with me, you’ll have a life of luxury. I’ll make sure you’re a rich man’s wife!

If you keep ignoring me, I’ll…

The letter ended abruptly there, but the threat was already very clear.

Frowning, Lale continued to flip through the pile. With each subsequent letter, the emotions became more volatile and the handwriting more frantic. Toward the end, the script was almost illegible.

Li Zhu shook his head and commented, “So, it’s a case of love turning to hate. If he can’t have her, he’ll destroy her. Tsk, tsk.”

As he spoke, Lale reached the very last piece of paper. At that moment, both of them froze.

Because, unlike all the previous love letters, this was a received note.

Lale unfolded the paper to find only a single short sentence:

Do you want to have her? At 8:00 PM, in the small woods, I’ll tell you what to do.

There was no signature or closing, but Lale and Li Zhu both realized that no matter who wrote it, this person was the true instigator!

Li Zhu stared at the line of handwriting for a long time. Then he said, “I feel like this handwriting looks familiar, but I can’t place it. Strange, where have I seen it before?”

He pondered for a long while to no avail and then decided to push his Inspiration.

[Inspiration] Check/Result: 50/31 – Success

A scene suddenly flashed through Li Zhu’s mind. It was from when Yingzi had first moved into the dormitory. A girl in the same room had immediately shown her kindness. She asked for Yingzi’s name and then wrote her own name, stroke by stroke, on a piece of paper.

From that day on, she had become Yingzi’s best friend.

They had eaten together, gone to the bathroom together, and laughed out loud at the same funny stories. They had even whispered complaints about a certain irresponsible teacher.

Yet, it was this very “best friend” who, while Yingzi remained completely unaware, had written a letter to the obsessed pursuer who was driven mad by unrequited love:

Do you want to have her? I’ll tell you what to do.