Chapter 18: The Stench in the Cellar

"The 42nd Exam Room, Player No. 2 Tony has failed the assessment."

"First-year Architecture Class B, all students have failed the entrance assessment. Punishment begins!"

The broadcast echoed in every classroom, and a similar execution live stream appeared once again.

The students of Architecture Class B started screaming in terror, running around frantically, desperately trying to escape the classroom.

But all their struggles were futile and meaningless.

To the Black Goat, their survival instinct was nothing more than an appetizer to liven things up.

With a snap of the Black Goat teacher's fingers, the classroom of Architecture Class B went dark briefly.

Jon's classroom was directly below the Architecture Department.

Hanson's face was grim as he looked up at the ceiling. The sound of something sharp and piercing echoed from above, like someone bumping into desks and chairs while trying to escape.

Then came the high-pitched screams, powerful enough to pierce through.

It seemed as if everyone in the classroom above screamed in agony simultaneously.

The same kind of screams left everyone in Jon's classroom speechless, as if an awl were stabbing into each person's eardrums.

No one could tell when death would come for them, and this feeling of waiting for it was utterly maddening.

After just a few seconds, the room above fell silent.

On the electronic whiteboard's live stream, the first-year Architecture Class B lit up again.

The students who had been in turmoil were back in their seats, sitting quietly.

However, their heads were missing.

The live stream then switched views.

Their severed heads were hanging from the two ceiling fans in the classroom...

Each face was frozen with a different expression they had when they died.

The ceiling fans started to spin, like a swing ride at an amusement park, evenly splattering blood all over the classroom.

...

The atmosphere in Jon's classroom became oppressive.

Although their two competitors in the same exam room had been eliminated, it didn't bring them any joy.

For these young students, it felt like they had to step over their classmates' corpses to survive.

Such competition was incredibly cruel.

Hanson noticed the heavy atmosphere in the classroom.

Someone would surely have an emotional breakdown if this continued, so he tried to analyze Tony's cause of death to shift everyone's attention.

Hanson sighed softly, "Tony must have violated the hidden rule about not closing doors and didn't sleep, which worsened his cognitive pollution, leading to severe hallucinations."

Some students started to discuss.

"That makes sense. At first, I thought Jon shouldn't be sleeping either..."

"It should be Rule No. 12, which hints that players need to eat well and rest to restore psychic energy."

"From what we can see, it seems like Jon is the only one in the 42nd exam room who has discovered the existence of psychic energy and is avoiding those eerie gazes."

"Let's trust Jon. He's handling it really well, maybe he truly has a talent for this!"

The current class of students has roughly divided into two groups.

One group consists of students who originally had no strong impression of Jon, only knowing there was someone like him in the class.

These students had no previous conflicts with Jon and are now very impressed by his outstanding performance.

They all believe that Jon indeed has the ability to pass the eerie game.

The other group is led by Nora and includes a small number of people.

These individuals are almost certain that Jon is a twisted and dark character.

However, Jon's success or failure in the challenge concerns their lives too, as they are all in the same boat. If the boat sinks, none of them can escape.

So, their dissatisfaction with Jon can only be temporarily suppressed until this eerie game is over.

...

Inside the eerie game instance, the clock struck eight times.

Jon pulled off the blanket and sat up, stretching lazily at the edge of the bed.

The perilous first night had finally passed safely, and he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, based on yesterday's experience, the daytime seemed relatively safe.

Last night, Jon covered his head with the blanket, leaving only a small gap for breathing while facing the wall, and slept soundly until now.

As he had guessed—

"It" had a cooldown period for controlling the dog and couldn't do it at any time.

Yesterday afternoon, after the dog was first controlled, there was a long period without any further signs of control.

From this, Jon analyzed that "Its" control had a cooldown period.

Jon thought of the information Hanson had conveyed to him last night.

One player had slept with the dog, and the reason the dog turned into a Werwolf was that the player's psychic energy was excessively absorbed by the dog through physical contact.

This led the dog to become a Werwolf and, after losing its sanity, slaughter the player.

Reflecting on the note left by the dog, which said it would "lose control." it was likely hinting at two things.

First, absorbing too much psychic energy would turn the dog into a Werwolf.

Second, it would be controlled by "It."

Jon began to analyze softly, "It seems that absorbing players' psychic energy makes these creatures stronger..."

That should be the logic, otherwise, they wouldn't crave psychic energy so much.

However, Jon had figured out the mutual restraint logic.

As long as he didn't leave the cabin, the only threats were "It" and the dog.

As long as he didn't break the rules, "It" couldn't steal the player's psychic energy, and as long as he ensured the dog wouldn't lose control, it would be very safe.

Having organized his thoughts, Jon got out of bed.

Jon went to the first-floor washroom to freshen up, keeping an eye on the mirror to see if "It" was watching him.

The saw he had seen in the bathtub yesterday did not appear today.

After washing up, Jon went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

He also checked the mirror at the base of the cupboard, the wooden spike that appeared in the window yesterday was gone.

Today, the physical form of "It" did not appear, indicating that it was not watching him at the moment.

It could also be that by eating and sleeping, he had restored his psychic energy and was now in a normal cognitive state, so he couldn't see "It."

In any case, this should be good news.

Jon went to the living room and lit the fireplace, warming up the entire room quickly.

"Woo... woo... woo..."

The puppy poked its head out from under the couch, looking at Jon with pitiful eyes.

It didn't come out, seemingly knowing it did something wrong last night and afraid of being punished.

Jon said to the puppy, "It's okay, come out and get warm."

He knew the puppy didn't act intentionally last night, being controlled by "It" was unavoidable. Plus, Rule No. 9 mentioned— the puppy is family, and we should treat him well.

Grandma must have foreseen that a puppy with low psychic energy could be controlled by "It" to harm players.

The puppy had been starving for many days before Jon arrived, already in a state of low psychic energy.

This was why the puppy was susceptible to "Its" control.

Players need to make dog food to help the puppy restore its psychic energy.

Of course, there's a quicker method—physical contact. Petting the puppy can transfer psychic energy faster.

This explained why Player No. 3's puppy quickly turned into a Werwolf.

It was because the excess psychic energy fully restored it.

And Werwolves are inherently beastly, bloodthirsty, and vicious creatures. Once awakened suddenly, it's hard for them to suppress their urge to kill, leading to player harm.

But it's not really the puppy's fault, it's because the player didn't follow the rules.

"Woof woof!"

The puppy wagged its tail and crawled out from under the couch, sitting excitedly a short distance from Jon, avoiding the warm fireplace.

Jon noticed the puppy was deliberately keeping its distance from him.

It seemed the puppy knew that the player's psychic energy could be absorbed through physical contact.

This also explained why the puppy rubbed against him yesterday—it had low psychic energy and was afraid of being controlled by "It" to harm players, so it sought some psychic energy from Jon.

"I'll make more dog food for you in the future, I won't let you go hungry again." Jon said with a smile.

He felt that as long as he fed the puppy well, it wouldn't fall into a state of low psychic energy.

Jon opened the cellar door, carried a candlestick to get the ingredients for breakfast, and the endless staircase from yesterday did not appear.

But a foul stench wafted out from the basement.