RHWHEG – Chapter 36 The Attack

The first to spot the enemy’s arrival were the students in the humanities building, who quickly used their radios to broadcast a warning across the campus. The agricultural university’s students were thrown into chaos. Amid the confusion, Yu Qunqing, having arrived at the computer science building, finally confirmed a suspicion he’d had for a long time.

He peered through a first-floor window and saw a room full of obese people, each one chained. Their eyes were yellow, their tongues swollen, and their bodies showed all the tell-tale signs of being attacked by a Klein bottle.

The calamity had already struck! The university town was not safe at all!

Yet, the agricultural university had been hiding the fact that they’d been attacked from all outsiders, attempting to forget the incident and pretending that the campus was still a safe haven, content to live in this false sense of security.

Inside the classroom where the obese people were being held, Fang Shanyu dragged a large bucket to the front and began serving them food. The meal was a small dollop of vegetable mush. The mindless people devoured it in a single gulp, their throats making dissatisfied grunting sounds. Fang Shanyu’s eyes were red as she continued to distribute the food, and she had to stop them from snatching it from one another.

When the sharp air raid siren sounded, a single thought appeared in her mind: finally, liberation.

If these people could die at the hands of the attackers, their own food supply would be more plentiful. If there was one less mouth to feed, everyone would get a little more.

Though they were her former classmates, the moment they lost all signs of humanity, becoming fat and unrecognizable, their status as “people” began to fade in her mind.

The moral chains in her heart were slowly coming undone. This university utopia, surrounded by a viaduct, was finally nearing a complete moral collapse.

From outside the window, Yu Qunqing gestured to She Lulang.

The victims of the Klein bottle inside the university town were in much better condition than those at the elementary school. Their limbs weren’t swollen to the point of being red or having stretch marks. They were attacked earlier, yet their condition was better than the victims at the elementary school. There had to be something in the university town that could suppress their symptoms or even restore them to normal.

Both the university town and the elementary school shelter were rather basic. The only difference was that in the university town, the floors above where the victims were held were filled with the sound of computer science students discussing radio technology.

It was sound.

Specifically, the sound of discussions about knowledge.

This was the key to alleviating or even resisting a Klein bottle attack.

She Lulang pointed to his ear, indicating that he understood.

With the information he needed, Yu Qunqing finally had a basic plan to counter the Klein bottle. He began to figure out how to bring the talent and resources from the university town back to their own neighborhood. With so much fresh blood here, it would be a waste not to take advantage of it.

“Ding dong! H-rank calamity data – Klein bottle, collection progress 50%, has been added to the key monitoring list and designated as an unfriendly unit for the game.”

“Long time no see.” Yu Qunqing had closed most of the system’s notifications, such as the one for “Penguin Farm growth has reached its max, pick the fruit now.” Hearing a different one was a bit jarring. He asked, “Are you going to shut down for another update?”

He had figured out the system’s pattern: whenever it collected new information, it would update.

System: “Hello! Thank you for your feedback on the system’s update frequency. The system will take it into careful consideration. This time, the system is here to distribute a reward.”

Yu Qunqing accepted the mail, which contained a game seed: Travel Cat (Closed Beta).

“A slow-paced companion game that warms the lonely hearts of city dwellers. There’s an empty game slot. Would the player like to download it?”

Yu Qunqing thought for a moment. He said to She Lulang, “Let’s go get our hidden weapons. I have a plan: we can use force to compel these people to leave the school and then lead all of them back to our neighborhood. What do you think?”

At the same time, he said to the system, “No thanks, I’ve realized that if something can be solved quickly with force, there’s no need for a cheat.”

Last time, with Fruit Ninja, he had to play four rounds, which was incredibly inefficient and would have been enough time for four rounds of an all-out battle!

The system issued an alarm: “If the player doesn’t play the game, this system has no reason to exist! Alert beep beep beep—” The noise gave Yu Qunqing a headache.

She Lulang, standing nearby, discreetly showed his concern: “You don’t look so good.”

Yu Qunqing gritted his teeth, “I’m looking for the ‘report a bug’ button…”

She Lulang thought for a moment and, with a deep frown, lightly touched Yu Qunqing’s forehead to check his temperature, guessing that Yu Qunqing might have gotten a bit silly from heatstroke.

The moment his fingertips touched his forehead, Yu Qunqing’s eyes widened, and he instinctively dodged the touch. She Lulang’s hand hung in mid-air, but he didn’t look embarrassed. His eyes remained perfectly straight, as if what he had done was the most normal thing in the world.

What’s wrong with friends checking each other’s temperature?

Did I overreact?

When it came to his partner, Yu Qunqing was always good at convincing himself. He had a subtle tolerance for She Lulang, perhaps due to the guilt of having dragged him to their deaths in their previous life, or maybe years of trust, or something else… Yu Qunqing finished convincing himself and immediately felt his action of dodging was inappropriate. Worried that She Lulang would feel awkward, he took She Lulang’s hand and slapped it against his own forehead with a crisp sound.

She Lulang: …

Yu Qunqing pretended to be calm: “I don’t have a fever.”

She Lulang took his hand back. Yu Qunqing held his wrist for a while before letting go, their fingertips briefly intertwining. She Lulang secretly rubbed his fingertips against his palm, his face impassive as he explained that he was simply concerned about his companion’s temperature.

Yu Qunqing also found a perfect excuse for his partner: Because he’s such a good person now, it’s completely normal for him to reach out and check a companion’s temperature! Anyone else would do the same, right!

The system stopped trying to force Yu Qunqing to play a game and instead issued a statement: “Ding dong! Mental energy has reached the standard.”

“Your game friend, She Lulang (verified user), has encountered a game problem. Hurry and help him!”

“You’ve received a temporary game slot x1 and a game seed – Snake (Limited Time) x1. Have fun playing!”

Yu Qunqing immediately asked, “What’s She Lulang’s game problem?” What was the partner he was with right now worried about?

The system replied: “Your friend She Lulang is worried about his companion Yu Qunqing’s safety.”

Yu Qunqing’s heart skipped a beat. He tested the waters: “Is the standard more relaxed because he’s a verified user?”

Last time, the game problem he received was from Sun Min. Sun Min was a good kid who provided the Fruit Ninja instance, hoping the test subjects would be rescued. The game manual explained that sharable game problems required the player’s full attention and that there was a minimum mental energy threshold.

The system replied: “This system’s judgment of mental energy is uniform. His mental energy for this problem has indeed reached the standard.”

Oh…

So this was his partner’s true feeling.

She Lulang’s concern wasn’t just out of kindness; it was because he was genuinely worried about Yu Qunqing’s safety, more so than other people’s sympathy for the test subjects. He only felt this way for Yu Qunqing.

Without realizing it, Yu Qunqing pressed the download button in his mind, and the download progress for the game Snake began to change from 0%.

In reality, Yu Qunqing showed no outward signs of his inner turmoil. He just looked at She Lulang with a hint of guilt. He said, “Let’s stick to the plan. If we don’t destroy the wall here, the students will either die from infighting or from the external threat. Now, let’s go find Lin Luyi and the others.”

She Lulang replied, “Okay.”

Yu Qunqing couldn’t help but add, “It’s more important to protect yourself on the way.” He really didn’t need so much worrying.

She Lulang’s eyes seemed to ripple slightly: “You, too.”

They arrived at a relatively open area, and the system’s voice chimed in: “Game – Snake, 100% downloaded. The download environment has been installed. Game open time: 2 hours. Have fun playing!”

Yu Qunqing didn’t want to hide too much from She Lulang, so he opened his palm, where a small snake made of pixels lay.

According to the system’s description, the games each person could lend out were related to their own special abilities. So the game Snake was actually derived from She Lulang’s own ability.

The reason She Lulang’s nickname was “Snake-Heron-Wolf” wasn’t just because of his personality and the similar-sounding name; it was because he could actually transform into these three animals.

However, She Lulang preferred birds and kept his other two forms a well-guarded secret. This time around, Yu Qunqing pretended to know nothing about it.

He said to She Lulang, “We need to make it grow.”

Then, they would make these students who had stayed in this utopia for too long—these survivors who had willingly become blood-sucking locusts—all voluntarily walk down the path he had set for them.

Meanwhile, Lin Luyi and Sun Min were running for their lives.

“You two know each other! You’re definitely spies!” The agricultural university students panted as they ran behind them.

Lin Luyi cursed, “If I were a spy, I would have surrendered long ago. Why would I be running with you guys!”

Sun Min yelled, “To the left!”

The fleeing crowd uniformly turned right. The next second, the wall of the humanities building on the left was shattered, and a black “passage” constantly surged forward. From above, it would look like a giant snake slithering through the agricultural university buildings, its tail having just emerged from the school cafeteria. On top of the giant snake was a half-human figure. His original appearance was unrecognizable. His expression changed frequently, sometimes laughing at the new power he had gained and other times crying that he was about to be swallowed by something.

“What kind of monster is that!”

“We can’t run to the experimental fields! The monster will destroy all our food!”

“Is that really LV2?” Lin Luyi couldn’t understand. “It’s so different from our LV2s!” At least the LV2s on their team were fully-limbed and could fight and jump.

“Hey! Can’t our LV2 black snake be controlled?”

The attackers were also in a panic. President Qi’s face was pale as he tried to hide in the crowd. But someone pulled him out and asked, “What’s going on? Our good classmates suddenly aren’t listening to us. It would be great if we could destroy the agricultural university, but if it affects us, everything will be miserable.”

The attacking team was in disarray, while Dong Changxin lingered at the back of the group, picking up trash.

After her ability replaced the cones, she had to pick up each small cone one by one to use it again. It was really a hassle…