Liu Shen’s cool and detached voice came from behind Huo You’s head, carrying a hint of the young girl’s lingering frustration—she was smart, but also young and impulsive.
What she thought would be an easy dungeon turned into a situation where she was outsmarted by an unknown weakling.
Being highly competitive, she was determined to get her revenge.
She didn’t forget to throw in a cold, cutting remark at Huo You in the end.
And at that final moment.
The dagger was almost touching Huo You’s neck.
Just as it was about to be over.
“Are you cold?”
Huo You asked this, though she wasn’t afraid of being slit in the throat.
In her “corpse” state, her cell activity was frozen, so she felt no pain and didn’t need to breathe.
The biggest issue with a slit throat was the severed trachea causing suffocation, but as long as she deactivated her “corpse” state, her cell activity would recover, and the nutrient solution would focus on repairing the damage her trachea would partially heal in a short time due to the restored cell activity.
At the very least, she’d have enough time to survive.
But Huo You still didn’t take the risk.
She knew Liu Shen had no chance from the moment she appeared in the elevator, everything had been on a countdown.
Actually, it was indeed very cold.
The building had been gradually getting colder, but the change was so slow that no one noticed, as they were all busy with the dungeon.
Now, with Huo You’s question.
Liu Shen paused for a moment, her mind quickly running through several possibilities to pinpoint the exact cause of this change.
But she remained calm, and her hand holding the dagger didn’t stop—instead, it sped up, aiming to cut the throat of the person in front of her.
Investigating the root of any anomaly wasn’t as effective as simply eliminating the threat!
But!
The system chimed in.
“Ding, the low-temperature index has reached the human body’s limit. You have caught a cold… Your health is deteriorating, antibody index -50%, please be aware, please be aware.”
This sudden negative state made Liu Shen acutely feel the freezing cold brought on by the sharp drop in her antibodies.
Her throat-slitting motion… didn’t stop, but it was affected enough for Huo You to grab her arm.
Twist the wrist, take the dagger…
A swift emergency combat move-Huo You had only learned these simple techniques, as she was truly weak in other forms of weapon combat.
This was also a sneak attack, taking advantage of Liu Shen’s weakened state.
Liu Shen tried to counter, but the severe cold had weakened her too much…
The dagger was taken, her arm twisted behind her back, and in the next second, the blade was pressed against her own throat.
Liu Shen’s left hand was free, and she raised it behind her, her palm ready to unleash a final piercing attack.
But!
Boom!
A loud noise.
From the north, a chilling wind carrying terrifying levels of pollution and bacteria swept over in an instant.
The light from the north gate, which had truly opened, absorbed all the malicious pollution sources from outside the town.
It arrived at the south gate in a flash.
This was Huo You’s piercing attack.
And the wind, carrying the stench of bacteria and the pungent smell of industrial pollution, whipped through Huo You’s clothes and hair.
Except for her and the other night watchmen and gatekeeper corpses, all the examinees, including Liu Shen, were hit with a second negative state.
“Ding, alert! Level 8 pollution state has fully covered the environment. This dungeon has reached a state of complete pollution. Examinees, please take precautions, please take precautions…”
“No need to take precautions, no need to take precautions. Your antibodies are already at -50%, you’re all infected! You’re all infected!”
“This bacterial group includes inflammation, skin itching, respiratory tract lead poisoning, internal organ metal powder erosion, and industrial exhaust pollution… You’re all infected.”
“Depending on the antibody index, the degree of infection varies, but it’s getting worse, it’s getting worse…”
Liu Shen had wanted to unleash one last sonic attack, but now she truly couldn’t withstand it.
She had to conserve her nutrient solution to keep her antibodies active, otherwise, she’d end up like Wang Yang and the others…
“Yue…”
“Ah, this is so uncomfortable…”
“Ugh~~ my skin…”
“I’m just here for the college entrance exam, not to work in some industrial mine. Why is this happening to me!”
“Heavens, this is supposed to be the easy level! My teacher told me I could pass it with my eyes closed, better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix… Damn it!”
The examinees, who had been barely hanging on, were kept alive only by their determination to pass the exam and secure their futures, constantly relying on nutrient solutions to maintain their state.
Now, with the infection, their nutrient solution consumption had multiplied several times over.
As the pollution particles in the air increased, their condition would continue to deteriorate until they were completely defeated.
Well, well, well.
With 15 minutes left until the end of the easy dungeon, they were all about to perish.
Liu Shen was struggling to even breathe, her body barely supported by Huo You’s grip on her neck.
She had no chance to fight back, barely clinging to life, but still, driven by her competitive nature as a top student, she asked Huo You.
“The north gate? How did you open it?”
She had previously guessed there was a second boss or another space on the first floor, based on her sensitivity to spatial data the size of the dormitories and the length of the corridors on the upper floors had given her a clear idea of the building’s structure, but the first floor was different, its space was partitioned.
So she had left room for action.
But clearly, Huo You hadn’t left room for action—she had another trump card.
Her parasitic body, detached at the north gate, not only found the north gate but also opened it.
Huo You was still in her “corpse” state, wearing a human skin coat, completely unfazed by the pollution and cold.
She said, “There are two keys. The south gate key was deliberately given by the night watchman in the morgue, but it was originally the correct clue to clear the easy dungeon.”
“However, because of me or you, the exam program was altered, and it introduced an additional operation, bringing in the graveyard outside the south gate and loading in two BOSSes.”
“Correspondingly, with this program alteration, the second key must also exist.”
“Similarly, with the addition of the second BOSS and the increase in combat power, there must be a shortcut to deal with them; their weakness lies in the pollution source outside.”
“Earlier, not just me, but probably you also noticed that this place is essentially an absolute pollution environment.”
“We instinctively thought this was due to the exam setting, to eliminate pollution interference and allow us to focus on the exam questions and the interfering creatures. But in the morgue, I noticed the temperature was off.”
“The standard temperature for a morgue is between -18°C and -21°C, but this morgue was kept at -5°C.”
She hadn’t closed the morgue door, allowing the cold to affect the entire exam hall from top to bottom.
Later, she found the ducts for the cold air and opened them layer by layer, gradually intensifying the cold in the exam hall.
All of this was prepared in advance.
“This is because the skinless corpses lost their ability to withstand the cold. Excessive cold would directly freeze their tissues and joints, causing plasmolysis, which would hinder their role in the dungeon.”
“So the temperature was adjusted accordingly, but this also meant that, like humans, they needed environmental protection.”
“Therefore, the absolute pollution environment of this exam hall, and this tightly sealed building in the polluted town, weren’t protecting us examinees, they were protecting the corpses, which also meant they were their weakness.”
“The night watchmen knew their own weakness, so the second key must be hidden in a related area, and this area was deliberately not marked on the map but indeed existed the cold air released by the central hanging lights in each dormitory + the most important morgue, all pointed to its existence.”
“Existence is important, but the map deliberately didn’t show it, just like the graveyard on the first floor-it’s a hidden clue and an added difficulty.”
“Based on the exam setting, all of this is interconnected. Just follow the cold air and the power consumption to find it, Huo You had Brock go look for it while she stalled them on the first floor.”
Liu Shen realized: “The temperature control room?”
Huo You: “Yes.”
The low temperature + the external chemical pollution created an environment where only she, a “corpse,” was unaffected.
The other examinees and the interfering creatures… were doomed.
Liu Shen’s expression was complex, but she quickly asked indifferently,
“You’re patiently answering all my questions not just because you know I’ve lost the ability to fight back. Running out of nutrient solution means my antibodies can’t recover, and without antibodies, I can’t resist the increasing pollution index. But your state won’t last much longer either.”
“Why don’t you just kill us outright? What’s your purpose?”She asked.
Huo You’s response was… to let go, slowly stepping back, allowing Liu Shen to collapse weakly to the ground, becoming one of the defeated under her gaze.
And with a flick of her wrist.
The polluted air from the north gate suddenly stopped-because the gate had closed.
Brock had listened to her and closed the gate, controlling the pollution index at its current level.
Liu Shen and the others were stunned and confused.
But Huo You said, “The answer is simple-I don’t plan to kill you.”
“I’m not a psychopathic killer. Why would I kill you?”
“On the contrary, I hope you all do well on the exam.”
Everyone: “?!”
Huo You smiled, “There are thirteen minutes left. Finish these last thirty questions, and you’ll pass the first round of the college entrance exam, get the next round’s admission ticket, and also earn points. But the price is you’ll give me half of your bronze badges.”
“In other words, you can live, but with half the points.”
“Is my request too much?”
Liu Shen and the others suddenly realized she hadn’t killed them, nor had she killed the night watchmen or the gatekeepers.
From the beginning, she hadn’t killed the night watchmen, only incapacitated them.
For the night watchmen, who were part of the Cthulhu system, being bisected wasn’t fatal-it just severed their combat ability.
She was controlling the dungeon’s progress.
They were her tools, and the examinees were her… harvest.
And the system had screened out Huo You’s previous side quest progress.
Do you think the night watchmen, once they appear, can successfully open the gate?
No, because there’s another space. The south gate is a fake.
What are the possible ways to end the dungeon?
For this dungeon, there’s only one way it depends on me.
When do you think the remaining 30 questions will appear?
They’ll appear when I say they will.
No, candidate 4444, you’re a bit arrogant.
The system was almost amused at the time.
Now, she had a perfect score.
A stroke of luck, a turn for the better, and they had no choice but to obey her.
And after they agreed to this deal, the system indeed triggered the progress the questions were bound to appear, and with the current situation, it naturally activated according to the program.
While the group was barely hanging on to answer the questions, this tall, slender girl didn’t forget to encourage them.
“Do well on the exam, don’t be nervous, don’t be careless, you can do it!”
Her motherly + homeroom teacher-like warm encouragement almost made them think she was a good person.
But as the exam phase was about to end… she had already finished quickly, glancing at the changing bronze badge scores on their bodies.
Her handsome nose twitched slightly.
“You’re more illiterate than I thought.”
Wang Yang and the others: “Can you shut up? Who’s as smart as you and Liu Shen, you scheming dog!”
Liu Shen had also finished, maintaining her cool, detached silence, her face pale, her demeanor fragile, like a delicate willow branch, so pitiful…
Faced with such a pitiful beauty, plus the fact that she had answered all thirty questions correctly, likely also getting the hidden side questions right, earning an extra 50 points there was really nothing to criticize.
Huo You shouldn’t have anything venomous to say, right?
But she looked at Liu Shen and asked,
“You’ve got 186 points. With such good grades, why did you choose the easy level to bully these underachievers? Isn’t that like a white crane entering a flock of chickens? Doesn’t your conscience hurt?”
With such a high score, she must have gotten most of the 80 questions right, plus the extra points from the side quests, otherwise, she wouldn’t have such a high score.
The flock of chickens: “?”
Who are you calling chickens?
The white crane, Liu Shen, looked up and saw the bronze badge hanging on the slender wrist of this handsome and beautiful peer.
240 points.
She laughed in exasperation.
This venomous-tongued, self-unaware living Yama.
“What about you?”
Huo You: “You answer my question first, then I’ll answer yours.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.