Chapter 2: First Kill

Someone saw that the entire row of elevators was already full, so they tried to search for the stairwell entrance, but found nothing.

And so, the battle for the rooms on the first floor began.

Inside the elevator, Jiang Jinyue skillfully wiped away the bit of blood that had splattered onto her face, her gaze alert as she looked at the other players around her.

However, the game had only just begun.

With no conflict of interest yet, no one wanted to start a fight too early.

So after testing one another with their eyes, they each chose to press different elevator floors.

Through the gaps in the crowd, Jiang Jinyue looked at the elevator buttons that went up to the hundredth floor.

She noticed that most people had chosen the middle floors between thirty and sixty.

For now, aside from herself, no one had chosen any floor below ten or above sixty.

It looked like she would not have to make a decision right away. She could first check whether the dormitories on the fifth floor were any different.

Beep, beep!

Soon, they arrived at the fifth floor.

Jiang Jinyue struggled to squeeze out from the back of the elevator. Ignoring the complaints coming from inside, she seized the time and began checking her surroundings.

It was a stark white corridor. The lights in the hallway were dim, and an ominous atmosphere filled the air.

At the moment, no other players had chosen the fifth floor. The area was very empty, with only Jiang Jinyue’s hurried footsteps echoing around her.

“Huff, huff…”

The sound was like a broken bellows, lingering beside her ears along with the heavy thud, thud of her footsteps.

Jiang Jinyue’s throat burned, and her heart pounded wildly. She felt as if her lungs were about to explode.

Even back when she had been forced to run one thousand meters at her school’s sports meet, she had not felt this miserable.

But she could not stop!

Each dormitory was different in size, and the items inside each room varied as well.

She had to seize the initiative at the start of the game in order to increase her chances of surviving!

But the dormitory corridor seemed to have no end. Just after she finished checking one row of rooms, she turned the corner and found yet another new row of dormitories.

Ding-dong~

The familiar sound of the elevator rang out. Jiang Jinyue understood that more players had come up.

Her legs felt as if they had been filled with lead.

But she had no time to rest. She simply continued mechanically dragging her heavy steps forward, pushing open one dormitory door after another.

Most of the rooms were not large.

The floors were covered with yellowing square tiles, and a glaring incandescent bulb flickered overhead.

Against the wall stood a rusty iron-frame bed, a crooked wooden cabinet, and a broken wooden desk.

There was also an item flickering with a different-colored light.

Although she did not know what these lights represented, based on Jiang Jinyue’s experience checking so many dormitories, white lights appeared the most, blue lights were the next most common, and purple lights were the rarest.

But even when she came across an item glowing purple, Jiang Jinyue still did not immediately choose to confirm it.

Perhaps because there were still many dormitories available to choose from, she could not help being a little picky.

This dormitory was too small.

This dormitory’s item only had blue light.

This dormitory was too close to the bathroom.

The footsteps behind her were getting closer and closer.

The player who had just arrived on the fifth floor seemed to be in much better physical condition than her. From the sound of it, he was about to catch up.

Just then, Jiang Jinyue’s sore, exhausted hands once again twisted open a cold door handle.

This time, the room could only be considered medium-sized, but the golden light shining from the accompanying item was dazzling.

Jiang Jinyue’s eyes lit up.

She found it!

This was her dormitory!

The golden light shone through the open door and into the dim corridor, making it extremely eye-catching.

The instant Jiang Jinyue was about to enter the dormitory, another player behind her was also drawn in by the light.

Without hesitation, the man strode forward, his face filled with wild joy.

Then he suddenly grabbed Jiang Jinyue by her bun and yanked her backward hard.

“Hahaha… Little girl, I really have to thank you for finding such a good dormitory for me!”

The moment she heard the footsteps approaching, Jiang Jinyue had already prepared herself. She knew this person must have seen the golden light too.

Everyone understood the principle of not flaunting wealth.

Right now, there were only the two of them in the corridor.

Not only did she have to claim the dormitory before him, she absolutely could not let this person leave alive.

A tearing pain came from her scalp. Behind her was the man’s arrogant laughter.

But Jiang Jinyue did not make a sound. After silently judging the angle in her mind, she suddenly exerted force with both hands.

Her manicure, covered in tiny rhinestones, stabbed without hesitation into the man’s eyes.

Pshh!

The sound of the eyeballs being punctured was enough to chill the blood.

“Ah!!!”

The man’s heart-rending screams echoed through the corridor.

All the greed and arrogance on his face vanished. His eyes were tightly shut, and bloody tears slowly flowed from the corners of them.

Jiang Jinyue looked at the pale-faced, thin and weak-looking man, and slowly let out a breath of relief in her heart.

Fortunately.

Fortunately, this man did not look like a strong, muscular type.

Otherwise, in her current exhausted state, she would have had no choice but to give up on this dormitory.

Ding-dong~ Ding-dong~ Ding-dong~

The familiar sound of the elevator rang out again. This time, it seemed that quite a few players had chosen the fifth floor.

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Jiang Jinyue had no time to calm the fear in her heart. After silently calculating how long it would take for the players at the elevator entrance to reach her, she decisively made her move.

Without hesitation, she pulled the cheap metal hairpin out of her bun. Her eyes turned ruthless as she looked at the man clutching his eyes and rolling on the ground in pain.

Then she flipped herself onto him.

Again and again.

Pshh! Pshh! Pshh!

Creak~

The sound of flesh being pierced and blood vessels bursting, along with the teeth-aching scrape of metal against bone, was buried beneath the man’s weak, rasping “heh, heh” noises.

Jiang Jinyue had no time to think too much.

She stood up, wiped the blood from her face, then quickly dragged the man, who had already passed out, through several nearby dormitories.

Seeing that nearly half the dormitories in this part of the corridor had been stained with blood, she finally threw the man mercilessly at the entrance of the hallway.

Then she quickly ran back to the door of Dormitory 5555 and shut it behind her.

The next moment, the familiar electronic voice sounded in her mind again.

【Player Jiang Jinyue, do you confirm binding Dormitory 5555?】

“Yes.”

【Congratulations, Player Jiang Jinyue. Binding successful. This will be your absolute safe house. Please begin building your fortress as soon as possible!

Note: Unless the player dies or the door breaks, no living being can enter the dormitory without the player’s consent.】

As the electronic voice faded, the item that had originally been emitting a dazzling golden light instantly withdrew its glow. Only the dim incandescent bulb remained, lighting the room.

It was not until this moment that Jiang Jinyue’s tightly wound nerves finally relaxed slightly.

Then came the delayed fear and collapse.

She had killed someone!

And after killing someone, she had even calmly calculated when the others would arrive and moved the primary crime scene!

Was she naturally antisocial?

Jiang Jinyue lowered her head in confusion and looked at her bloodstained hands.

Those hands were slender and fair, but there were two small calluses on her fingertips like tiny bumps. They were the “occupational injuries” shared by every student in Xia Country.

Of course, the most eye-catching thing at the moment was still her sharp, slender manicure.

Not only had three of the ten nails broken, but some of the tiny rhinestones still had bits of human tissue stuck to them. It was truly enough to make one’s scalp go numb.

Back then, this beautiful manicure had been something her mother had taken her to get after the college entrance exam, as a reward for all her hard work during her senior year.

She never would have expected that, with everything changed beyond recognition, her manicure would unintentionally help her so much at a critical moment.