She touched her hoodie—it was still a bit damp.
After all, nightfall didn’t necessarily mean she had to leave her room; on the contrary, it made the other survivors even more reliant on staying inside.
An Ling sat up, not wearing any clothes yet. She planned to settle her dinner first. For this night, she needed to stay absolutely alert.
“Damn it, I never thought about gathering Wood before entering the manor.”
Even though she had Feathers, she couldn’t make arrows for now, but that wasn’t too much of a problem—at least she still had a Composite Bow to use.
While sleeping during the day, she had vaguely heard sounds coming from downstairs. It seemed that quite a few survivors had arrived today.
It was just that they hadn’t experienced the previous incidents, and thus had no sense of awe toward this place.
No other survivors came to warn them either—after all, no one could be sure if there were any hidden survivors among them.
Outside, the noise of these people could still be heard; after days of hunger, they were unusually excited upon arriving at the manor.
They probably thought all they had to do was enjoy life for the next seven days. Ridiculous.
An Ling frowned as she ate her compressed biscuit and drank mineral water, glancing from the corner of her eye at the crack of the door. Since sunset meant nighttime, there was a chance the power could go out even before ten o’clock.
Rustle, rustle—
An Ling suddenly stopped chewing, and the surroundings plunged into complete darkness. Just now, she thought she’d heard something outside the door, like a rat sneaking around for food.
But where would rats come from in this manor?
She quickly put on her clothes and cautiously approached the door. Through the peephole, everything outside appeared normal—nothing unusual.
Carefully, An Ling twisted the doorknob and poked her head out, wanting to check both sides of the corridor.
Her room was located more toward the inner side of the building. The noise had come from the outer side, so she first looked toward the stairs.
But when her gaze shifted to the stairwell, she only caught a glimpse of a vanishing silhouette—and instantly, her pupils constricted.
That person was bald!
An Ling’s heartbeat instantly quickened. She immediately recalled the antlered deer she’d encountered before—could it be that the bald man had revived, just like that deer?
But she’d only caught a glimpse; the figure had already vanished, and she hadn’t had time to observe closely.
Maybe one of the new survivors was bald as well?
Besides, how could the dead come back to life?
“The corpse of the bald man is still on the fifth floor. It’s only just past seven o’clock now. Should I risk going upstairs to check?” An Ling murmured, weighing her options.
As long as she didn’t violate any warnings, it should be fine.
With that thought, she was about to knock on Qin Xiao’s door next to hers. With him accompanying her, she’d feel much safer.
But her hand froze in mid-air. She’d only known him for a day—they weren’t familiar at all. At this stage, knocking on doors was taboo, and without absolute trust, he was also one of her own suspects.
After a brief struggle, she finally decided to go up to the fifth floor herself. Maybe she’d run into other new survivors; let them face the danger first.
Only by figuring this out could she find the monster and uncover the truth.
She slipped two Strengthening Cards into her left pocket; her right pocket held the trump card she’d use in the face of danger.
With both hands in her pockets and a cap pulled down to hide her hair, An Ling headed upstairs. As for her other weapons, they were all in her backpack—easy to retrieve from storage space if needed.
There was someone in the fourth-floor corridor, but her footsteps didn’t draw their attention. The fifth floor was deserted, eerily quiet, as if barely anyone lived there.
Lowering her head and keeping her steps light, An Ling’s heartbeat sped up the closer she got to the bald man’s room. Every cell in her body was on edge.
Finally, she reached the room. The door was still open from when Qin Xiao had investigated before. That same nauseating, metallic stench of blood greeted her.
The room was pitch-black inside, lit only faintly by light spilling in from the hallway.
The darkness gnawed at her vision. It felt like some giant beast was lurking in the room, ready to swallow her whole.
Click!
An Ling reached in and turned on the light, but her body stayed in the doorway—she didn’t dare enter yet.
After surveying the scene for a while, she finally stepped inside, planning to check the bathroom and see if the bald man’s corpse was still there.
The pungent odor made her instinctively cover her mouth and nose, but before she could open the bathroom door, a cold wind whipped across her cheek.
Her instincts kicked in—she ducked, and with a bang, a gleaming dagger pierced straight through the bathroom door.
Panicked, An Ling quickly retreated from the room and turned to face the person hiding at the door, waiting to kill her—a person she’d never seen before.
Their eyes met. The man hadn’t expected this seemingly weak girl to dodge his ambush; he yanked out the dagger and lunged at her.
Without hesitation, An Ling spun and ran. In a flash, she turned and hurled a Throwing Dart straight at him.
Squelch—the blade tore through flesh, and blood spurted instantly, making the attacker stagger.
Even though An Ling wasn’t that strong, at such close range, with an exceptionally sharp Throwing Dart and the unfailing accuracy granted by Praying Blessing, hitting her target was easy.
“Hiss…” The man clutched the dagger, his face contorted with fury. Gritting his teeth, he yanked the Throwing Dart from his chest and threw it to the ground. When he looked up, An Ling had already widened the gap between them.
In her hands, a Composite Bow was drawn taut, her gaze fixed on the razor-sharp arrowhead—making his blood run cold in an instant.
He had no doubt—An Ling’s arrow would not miss!
Whoosh!
No time to think. The arrow shot forth like a streak of light, piercing his body and going straight through him. The force knocked him to the ground.
She had aimed for his lungs. There was no way he could survive.
“Ah…” The man howled in pain, the dagger falling from his hand as blood gushed out, quickly soaking the carpet.
An Ling couldn’t bear to look at the scene before her. When someone threatened her life, she would strike back without mercy. In this place, no one upheld justice.
She turned and left at once—only to find, to her surprise, that a girl was standing there, staring blankly at the scene.
Their eyes met, and terror instantly twisted the girl’s face as she began to scream,
“Help! There’s a lunatic here! She killed a survivor!”