thefictionvixens Chapter 254 I am human!
Chapter 254 I am human!
A smell that was a mixture of old wood, a faint musty smell, and... something like paint immediately wafted out of the room.
The room is small, with a typical four-person layout: four sets of bunk beds with desks underneath are placed against the wall, leaving a passageway in the middle.
The furniture is a uniform dark yellow, with severely worn edges.
There was a small balcony with the glass door tightly closed, and outside the window was the red building of the girls' dormitory across the street.
However, the most eye-catching feature is the wall.
Almost every exposed wall surface was covered with stickers the size of A4 paper.
The same sentence, expressed in various languages, is written on it with rough, dark red ink, like dried blood:
I am human!
The handwriting is crooked and written with great force, as if the writer is in great pain or madness.
"Hiss..." Park Chang-beom gasped, his face showing undisguised disgust. "What the hell is this? Is this a cult scene?!"
He strode to the nearest sticker and reached out to tear it off: "It looks unlucky! Tear it off!"
"Wait!" Lin Feng reacted quickly and grabbed his wrist.
"Why are you stopping me?" Park Chang-beom turned to look at Lin Feng with some confusion.
Lin Feng didn't answer, but instead pointed behind the door with his other finger.
Park Chang-beom and Wasim looked in that direction and saw a printed sheet of paper pasted on the inside of the door, titled "Dormitory Management Rules".
Lin Feng's finger landed directly on the third rule:
[Dormitory Rule 3: The "I am Human" sticker on the wall must not be torn or covered. If the sticker is found to be peeling off, it must be glued back on immediately.]
Park Chang-beom abruptly stopped, his face turning deathly pale, and he swallowed hard.
"Damn it, these rules are such a rip-off! I almost lost my life!"
The three of them immediately huddled together and began to carefully read the six rules on the door panel from the beginning.
[Rule 1: Lock your locker before going to bed. If you hear scratching sounds inside the locker at night, no matter how loud the sound is, do not unlock it to check.]
[Rule 2: All light sources must be turned off before 23:00 PM every night; the use of flashlights is prohibited.]
[Rule 3: The "I am human" stickers on the dormitory walls must not be torn or covered up. If a sticker is found to be peeling off, it must be glued back on immediately.]
【规则4：凌晨 3:00-5:00为污染峰值时段，不可下床，哪怕口渴、尿急也需忍耐。】
[Rule 5: The time spent looking in the mirror in the dormitory building shall not exceed 1 minute per day]
[Rule 6: Every morning after waking up, check the inside of your wrists. If black ape-like markings appear, immediately report to the security post in the Lion Zone and do not return to your dormitory that day.]
Relying on the passive intuition brought about by [rule affinity], Lin Feng discovered that none of the six rules exuded a dangerous aura, indicating that they were likely reliable.
"Let's analyze them one by one," Vassim suggested.
Lin Feng nodded and slowly and carefully read the first rule again.
After they finished reading, the three of them simultaneously looked at the matching light wood cabinet under each bed.
"So... there might be 'things' in these cabinets at night?" Vassim frowned, as if trying to verify something, and walked straight to the cabinet closest to the door.
"Hey, don't move!" Park Chang-beom instinctively tried to stop him.
But Vassim had already grasped the handle and, with a slight pull—"creak," the cabinet door was pulled open.
It's daytime now, and the rules only mention nighttime, so theoretically there's no immediate danger.
Moreover, the lockers are for storing items; if they can't even be opened, then the entire party might as well just wipe out in this dungeon.
Lin Feng and Park Chang-beom immediately went over, and the three of them looked into the cabinet together.
The cabinet was empty, with no personal belongings inside, and the interior walls were made of rough, uncolored wood.
However, inside the cabinet, on the back panel, side panel, and top panel, there were distorted patterns painted with some kind of reddish-brown pigment.
It wasn't random graffiti, but rather some kind of rune with repetitive and symbolic qualities.
Lin Feng moved closer and squinted to examine it carefully.
The chaotic, blood-red lines swayed visually, but Lin Feng's gaze gradually focused—
Imagine that arched curve as a spine, those short, thick strokes as curled-up limbs, and the blurry circle in the center as a head…
A chill ran down his spine.
Those dark red, frantic strokes vaguely form the outline of a curled-up, pained ape!
Around the "ape's" body, there are some finer, more intricate patterns, like chains or sprawling branches, firmly confining this symbolic presence within the small space of the cabinet wall.
"This is... a monkey?" Park Chang-beom also recognized it, his tone full of surprise and doubt.
"It's an ape!" Lin Feng corrected in a low voice, pointing a few times with his finger to outline the vague shape. "Look here, it looks like arms are wrapped around the knees... and this, that's probably the head."
Wasim stretched out his finger and gently smeared the "paint" on the cabinet wall.
He felt a dry, rough texture on his fingertips, brought it to his nose and sniffed it, his brow furrowing.
"There was no obvious smell of blood... but it didn't smell like ordinary paint either. It was more like... something mixed with rust and clay."
Park Chang-beom's Adam's apple bobbed slightly: "So these symbols... can summon those ape-like monsters at night?"
Lin Feng pinched his chin: "Or, that ape-like monster was originally trapped in this cabinet—it just exists in another form that we cannot detect with the naked eye."
"And these runes are precisely what are used to imprison it."
"It only awakens at night... Once the cabinet door is opened, the runes are destroyed, which is equivalent to releasing it."
Park Chang-beom swallowed hard. "Then... I won't open it."
Wasim's eyes darkened: "I'm afraid it's not that simple."
Park Chang-beom was taken aback: "What else can we do?"
Wasim shrugged: "Who can say for sure right now? We'll only know when the rules are triggered. Anyway, remember—never open the cabinet door, no matter what."
As he spoke, he reached out and closed the cabinet door again, locking it with a "click".
Lin Feng continued to slowly read out the second rule: "Rule 2: All light sources must be turned off before 23:00 every night, and the use of flashlights is prohibited."
"flashlight……"
Wasim immediately bent down and pulled open the drawer under the desk—indeed, there was a silver-cased flashlight inside.
The tube body is slightly worn and feels heavy in the hand.
He tried to flip the switch, and a bright beam of light instantly pierced the darkness.
Park Chang-beom asked疑惑地, "That's strange. If it's prohibited, why equip it at all? Isn't that redundant?"
Lin Feng: "Perhaps... the dormitory will experience a power outage."
Park Chang-beom shrugged: "Okay, as expected, ghost stories have a lot of tricks."
Then Lin Feng read out rule number three, the one about the "I am human" sticker.
"glue……"
The three immediately split up and searched the drawer, and soon found two bottles.
The bottle caps are blue and green, and the bottles are all made of semi-transparent plastic, with the liquid inside sloshing slightly.
Park Chang-beom frowned: "Why prepare two bottles?"
Lin Feng said calmly, "One bottle should be real, and the other fake. If we use the wrong one... we'll be eliminated instantly."