Chapter 20: Safe Time

Jiang Jinyue looked at the utterly defenseless sleeping posture of the kitten in the cat bed, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously curved into a gentle smile.

Then, without disturbing its rest, she opened the pet panel.

【Pet Cat:

Name: Meow Aotian

Happiness: 58

Health: 62（Fatigue caused by hunting）

Satiety: 100

Loyalty: 92

Skills:

1. When Happiness is above 60%, it can hunt 30 gold coins for the player every day.（Cooldown: 12:00:00）

2. Fortune and Treasure: Has a certain probability of bringing financial luck to the player.】

Looking at that 92 Loyalty, Jiang Jinyue felt her heart grow warm. Sure enough, Aotian liked her too.

However, when she saw the 12-hour cooldown, she also breathed a sigh of relief.

Hunting would consume Health, and she had no way to stop Aotian from suddenly going out to hunt. But now that there was a cooldown time, at least Aotian would only be able to go out once its Health had recovered. That was not bad.

After putting down one worry, Jiang Jinyue glanced at the game panel and discovered that it was already 4:58.

There were only 2 minutes left until the anomalies got off work.

Thinking of this, she immediately went to the portable mirror by the front door and looked outside.

It seemed they also knew that quitting time was near. At this moment, the red-clothed anomalies in the corridor were no longer clawing at doors. Instead, they had gathered in twos and threes, slacking off.

There were even one or two occasionally leaning against the doors of players who did not have offensive items, resting?

Jiang Jinyue gained a new understanding of the anomalies’ level of intelligence.

They did not seem to be blindly driven by food as she had imagined. Instead, they seemed to have little thoughts of their own.

Combined with the messages in the Anomaly Management Group, it could be seen that these anomalies were clearly another type of intelligent species whose intelligence was no lower than humans’.

Then was the game system, which had existed all along, also an intelligent life-form?

But compared with these anomalies, it seemed much more rigid, more like an intelligent system that did not possess the ability to think independently.

Forget it. It was still too early to think about these things. She would take things one step at a time.

Just as she finished internally grumbling about the “not very smart” system, the next second, the system notification sounded in every player’s mind.

【Dear players, the first “Welcoming Night” event has been successfully completed.

All on-duty anomalies and nightmare dead souls have withdrawn from the player dormitory area. Safe Time has now begun and will last until 7:00 tomorrow evening.

During this period, the dormitory area will be free from active anomaly attacks. Players, please rest with peace of mind and prepare for new challenges.】

The notification rang beside their ears 3 times, ensuring that every living player had heard it before finally disappearing completely.

Jiang Jinyue stared fixedly outside the door. The moment the system’s voice disappeared, all the red-clothed anomalies in the corridor turned into red blood mist and slowly vanished.

At this moment, the corridor was empty and deathly silent. Only the cold light still shone down.

After making sure the outside was temporarily safe, she cautiously opened the door and glanced next door.

Seeing that the door of Dormitory 5554 was still standing there perfectly fine, Jiang Jinyue could not help feeling a little disappointed.

The portable mirror had blind spots, so she could not see the details of the neighboring door.

Back when she heard the sounds of the room next door being attacked, she had thought it might disappear, or that the head carried by that muscular man would be left behind in the nightmare.

Unexpectedly, he was pretty good at surviving?

With a regretful sigh, Jiang Jinyue closed the door, sat back on the bed, and opened the chat lobby.

The system announcement had just finished playing, and the lobby had already exploded. Messages flooded the screen at an astonishing speed, all kinds of comments popping up one after another.

【Aggressively Kissing the Cripple’s Good Leg】:

“Father of roots! Safe Time is finally here! I’m so damn sleepy! Sleep! Sleep! Nobody can disturb me from sleeping now!”

【Dragonfly Touches Sleep】:

“Wuwuwu, thank goodness!! It’s finally over. My eyelids have been fighting this whole time. I really can’t hold on anymore~”

【I Want to Get Rich】:

“Nightmare dead souls? So those things really exist?

This survival game really is sinister. It’s only the first day of the beginner period, and on the surface, it arranged red-clothed anomalies to scratch at our doors. Then in secret, it had nightmare dead souls coming to claim lives. You really can’t guard against everything!”

【Deep Shit-Stirrer】:

“Hehe, now you honestly believe it? Half an hour ago, when Broker Boss Lady reminded everyone not to get into bed, how many people still didn’t believe her?”

【Survival Is Justice】:

“Confirmed! On our floor, that guy who snatched 3 treasure chests and killed 2 people had his profile picture go dark and black the instant the system announced Safe Time!

He definitely didn’t get out of the nightmare!”

【Poop Boy】:

“Aaahhh! I’m begging you, @I Love Pooping, can I return this beagle to you?

Without dog food, not only does it directly steal my rations, now it’s also crapped all over my room! My bed and my body are covered in shit! How am I supposed to sleep?!”

【The Internet’s Number One Male Model】:

“Thank you, Boss Lady, for sharing the information for free. I almost lay down.”

【Idiots Should All Die】:

“Now you know to be grateful? Earlier, when the anomalies were scratching at the doors outside, you still dared to get into bed. Your heart sure is big.

Only Safe Time is the real time to close your eyes. A bunch of hindsight experts.”

【Lord Shiba Inu】:

“@Poop Boy, didn’t you notice that I Love Pooping’s profile picture is already black?

He exchanged something with me earlier. His equipment was actually pretty decent. He probably got dragged into the nightmare after getting into bed.”

【Aggressively Kissing the Cripple’s Good Leg】:

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Misfortune truly hides within fortune, and fortune depends on misfortune.

He gave you that beagle demon king, but in the end, because of that, he got into bed and died instead.”

【Moral Model】:

“AAA Information Broker clearly knew the information a long time ago, but deliberately waited until the last half hour to say it. She caused so many players to die in vain. She’s the murderer!”

【Deep Shit-Stirrer】:

“6. How is a disgusting old bastard like you still alive?”

【Dragonfly Touches Sleep】:

“Wuwuwu… stop arguing. Aren’t you all tired?

I don’t care about all this messy nonsense anymore. Right now, I just want to sleep until the end of time.”

All kinds of messages kept popping up in the lobby. There was relief, lingering fear, gratitude, and also arguments.

But the trend was obvious. As time passed, especially around 5:30 in the morning, most of the comments turned into “I can’t hold on anymore,” “sleeping, sleeping,” and “we’ll talk tomorrow.”

Clearly, extreme mental exhaustion and the sudden opening of “Safe Time” caused the vast majority of surviving players to be instantly crushed by drowsiness.

The messages in the lobby, which had originally been refreshing at high speed, gradually slowed. In the end, only one or two people who were too scared to sleep were occasionally chatting.

Jiang Jinyue quietly watched this scene. She pursed her lips, but did not give any reminder.

Everyone here was “paying the bill” for their own desires. She did not have the habit of “swiping her card” for others.

Besides, everyone was in a competitive relationship with each other. Only if they did not know about the treasure chests could she safely pick up the leftovers.

Since she had already made her decision, Jiang Jinyue no longer hesitated.

She opened her backpack to check her gold coin balance. Aotian had brought back 30 gold coins from hunting earlier. Added to the original 6 gold coins she had left and the 8 gold coins produced by the Catnip, she now had a total of 44 gold coins.

Enough. She could do another pull.

Standing in front of the Gambler Dog Prize Pool, Jiang Jinyue somehow suddenly hesitated.

She looked at the bright yellow gold coins, then at the quietly placed Gambler Dog Prize Pool, and still withdrew the hand she had been about to press down with.

She kept feeling that if she threw this pull in, it would be like tossing money into water. She might as well save up and try a ten-pull first.

Thinking of the Luck Fruit she had just eaten, Jiang Jinyue decisively gave up on the idea of doing one pull. After putting the gold coins away again, she returned to the doorway.

5:47.

The chat lobby had gone completely quiet. Only every 3 to 5 minutes would a message pop out, but no one responded.

She glanced at 【District Seven Anomaly Management Group】 again. Unexpectedly, this place was rather lively.

【Long-Eared Rabbit】:

“Hop, hop, jump, jump! Happy! Happy! I got rich! I got rich! Long live the administrator! Long live the higher-ups!

They gave out so many snacks in one go. It’s enough for me to chew on for a long time!”

【Little Red Riding Hood】:

“Hehe~ They’re all fresh souls filled with the taste of fear and despair. So much more delicious than those usual things scared out of their wits!”

【Yaksha】:

“Crunchy and crisp! So satisfying! I’m already looking forward to tomorrow’s hunting event!”

【Hanged Anomaly】:

“Burp. I’m full. The energy purity of these souls that sank into nightmares and dissipated is really high.”