After the Evil God Pretends to Be a Player [Infinite] - Chapter 3

Meng Luo stared blankly at Lara, her mind temporarily failing to function.

She knew that this roommate she had picked up by chance was stunningly beautiful. Even though her face was exceptionally pale, that touch of haggardness couldn’t hide her natural grace. When she stood there quietly, she brought to mind clouds in the mountains, plum blossoms in winter, or drifting ice on the sea when winter turns to spring.

But at this moment, in Meng Luo’s eyes, her roommate’s infinite charm was gradually being coated in a shimmering golden light…

In this instant, it felt as if Siddhartha Gautama… Christ… Jehovah… Guanyin Bodhisattva… some kind of deity was watching over her, and all ghosts and monsters were being dissipated by her divine power!

“Aaaaah” Meng Luo lunged forward, tightly grabbing Lara’s arm and screaming, “You’re too good!”

“But…” Meng Luo’s face fell again as she hesitated. “Is it really okay to move it so casually?”

Now that the mannequin was facing away from them, Meng Luo didn’t feel afraid. She even felt that the mannequin, forced to face the wall, was somewhat funny and pitiful; its lonely back seemed to exude a hint of grievance.

Lara said briefly, “It won’t be a problem.”

Seeing the newly adult girl still looking hesitant, she thought for a moment and added, “She doesn’t eat living people.”

Meng Luo: …Okay! Why does that sound even scarier, sob sob sob.

Every dormitory had its own bathroom, but in a dungeon full of crises, neither of them was in the mood for a full shower; they planned for a simple wash-up instead.

Meng Luo entered the bathroom first and complained, “Why are there so many mirrors?”

She wasn’t exaggerating. Besides the ordinary vanity mirror, there were over a dozen mirrors of various sizes plastered everywhere on the cabinet doors, the room door, inside the shower, above the toilet…

The moment she stepped into the bathroom, she could catch her own reflection in her peripheral vision from all directions. Meng Luo felt a chill down her spine, as if the moment she turned around, something that shouldn’t be there would appear in one of the mirrors, or a pair of eyes would be spying from the shadows…

The more she thought, the more terrified she became. She hurriedly washed her face, brushed her teeth, and got out.

After Meng Luo emerged, she busily described the eerie mirrors to Lara. Lara nodded and walked in, only coming out after ten long minutes.

Meng Luo intended to discuss those mirrors with her roommate further, but Lara’s expression showed no fear. Meng Luo was also getting sleepy; after a chaotic jumble of second-guessing, before she could even speak, they both lay down on their beds with their clothes on.

The lights went out. The pitch-black night was very quiet, as if there were no difference between this and a night in the real world.

“I moved out to live on my own in high school; it’s been a long time since I experienced group living,” Meng Luo said while lying in bed.

The room remained silent. Just as she thought Lara wouldn’t answer and her eyelids grew heavy, ready to sink completely into dreamland, she heard an extremely soft voice:

“I haven’t either.”

In an instant, a detail buried in her subconscious flashed through her mind like a meteor.

She sat up with a start and looked toward Lara: “Are you afraid of the dark?”

After a two-second interval, Lara’s voice rang out nonchalantly: “No, that was just an excuse to deceive the Dorm Mother. Go to sleep.”

Really? Meng Luo was somewhat uncertain.

The night was pitch black, but Meng Luo could still faintly see Lara’s slender back wrapped in the quilt, curled slightly like a ball. Meng Luo remembered reading in a book somewhere that this was a sleeping posture indicative of an extreme lack of security.

Lara lay on her side. After hearing no more sound from behind for a while, she originally thought the talkative girl had fallen asleep. The next second, a bedside lamp suddenly flickered on, its pale yellow light shrouding half the room.

A gentle voice rang out: “I also feel like having a small light on provides more of a sense of security. Goodnight.”

On this eerie first night of the dungeon, perhaps due to the warm little light or the harmonious atmosphere, Meng Luo drifted into a heavy sleep.

She slept soundly and didn’t even dream.

The Keeper’s voice rang in her mind: “Players, please make a ‘Listen’ check.”

The voice was actually very light, but it kicked up a massive wave in Meng Luo’s groggy brain. The wave surged ten meters high, instantly snapping her awake.

The moment Meng Luo opened her eyes, she saw a die appear directly in front of her.

This wasn’t a real die, of course, but a projection formed by the game panel. The massive hundred-sided die was completely transparent, floating in the air before her.

Meng Luo stole a glance to her side and saw that Lara had also sat up, her brow slightly furrowed as if she were scrutinizing something in front of her.

Meng Luo felt slightly relieved; she knew that a die waiting to be rolled also sat before Lara. Meng Luo reached out and gave it a push; the die began to spin.

It started slowly, but just as Meng Luo thought it was about to stop, it spun faster and faster until it was almost a blur.

Meng Luo had seen earlier that her character card had “Listen” marked at 65, representing normal hearing. In tabletop games, if the die rolls a number lower than the character card value, the skill check is successful. This meant “Listen” 65 gave her a 65% chance of success.

Meng Luo watched the spinning die, her heart tense. Finally, the die stopped at 55. Simultaneously, a small line of text appeared before her:

[Listen] Check / Roll: 65/55 Success

The instant the word “Success” appeared, she heard a faint sound of footsteps.

Tap… Tap…

As the footsteps grew from faint to clear, she realized they were in the corridor and were approaching their door! The footsteps weren’t heavy; they were almost lighthearted. After just a few seconds.

Knock, knock, knock!

A knocking sound rang out in the silent night.

Knock, knock, knock!

A massive wave of terror surged in Meng Luo’s heart. Horror movies and novels from the past few decades flashed through her mind like a revolving lantern—one moment Sadako’s hair was crawling through the door crack, the next a man with a chainsaw was cutting through…

She was practically unable to think; she didn’t know if she should lie there and play dead or take a chance and fight.

Knock, knock, knock!

The knocking in the corridor did not subside.

It felt as if only a thousandth of a second had passed, yet also as if an eternity had gone by. Meng Luo suddenly realized that the unknown person or monster in the corridor was knocking on the door next door.

It was knocking on room 615, where the streamer and the girlfriend of the couple lived.

No sound came from next door. No one opened the door, and no one screamed. Finally, the knocking stopped. But Meng Luo’s heart was still thumping in her chest; she knew the thing outside had not left.

Because she hadn’t heard the footsteps retreating.

Just then, Meng Luo’s mouth was covered by an ice-cold hand.

Meng Luo’s eyes widened, and she immediately wanted to struggle, but she suddenly remembered something. A quick glance in her peripheral vision allowed her heart to drop back into her chest.

It was Lara who was covering her mouth.

Lara met her gaze and placed an index finger in front of her own lips a gesture for silence. Meng Luo nodded to show she understood, thinking she wasn’t so fragile as to scream from this. Lara then lowered her hand.

Meng Luo turned her head.

In the next instant, an uncontrollable, short scream escaped her throat.

She finally understood why Lara had covered her mouth. It wasn’t because she was worried about her being scared by the knocking.

Before going to sleep, she remembered clearly that Lara had rotated the mannequin facing them by 180°. Therefore, the mannequin should have been facing away.

However, right before her eyes, one of the mannequin’s hands was now resting on the head of the bed, and its vacant eyes were staring straight at her.

Aaaaaaah,

A man-made mannequin shouldn’t be able to move, right? Is this all a dream?

Meng Luo hurriedly closed her eyes, counted to three, and opened them again. Then she realized in despair that not only had the mannequin not returned to its original position, but even its other hand was now resting on the bed.

The next second, she discovered something even more soul-crushing.

At some unknown point… no, she corrected herself silently, it was likely the very second she accidentally made a sound… the knocking at the room next door had stopped.

Did the thing outside leave?

No…

Even though she desperately hoped it was true, what happened next shattered her hopes and fantasies…

She heard it with absolute clarity:

Knock, knock, knock!

The knocking rang out at their door.