Just as Zhou Zhou was about to fall into the monster’s mouth, a hand suddenly grabbed the back of his collar.
Like lifting a sack of rice, the seemingly small, pitiful, and helpless Zhou Zhou was abruptly lifted up, narrowly avoiding the monster’s deep abyss of a mouth.
Zhou Zhou was pulled up by his collar and pressed against the wall, “Don’t make a sound.”
Zhou Zhou’s height was the standard 180 cm, while this person who suddenly appeared was half a head taller than him. In the darkness, Zhou Zhou looked up and could only see the smooth jawline and thin lips of the other person.
The two were in an intimate position, pressed together, but the other person’s breathing was calm and composed, and Zhou Zhou showed no signs of shyness or anger on his face.
An invisible pressure enveloped the two of them, and although the two were right there, it felt like there was not a trace of their presence.
The monster on the ceiling, unable to find its target, circled around for a few turns. It could not only move on the ceiling but also lived on the surrounding walls.
Following the wall downwards, it even came to the side of the two people, and the wall next to Zhou Zhou kept bulging, with yellow-green spots constantly emerging.
The man who was holding Zhou Zhou’s shoulder frowned slightly and turned his gaze toward the person he had unintentionally saved. He had originally thought that the other person would either keep screaming or shaking uncontrollably upon sensing the monster’s approach. But he never expected the other person to show no reaction at all, even tilting his head to look at the place where the monster appeared.
Was it because it was too dark to see, so his reaction was slow?
Or was he really not afraid?
The sound of the monster’s breathing rose near their ears, and Zhou Zhou, who was pressed against the wall, could even feel the wall distorting behind him from the monster’s movements.
As if it had been hungry for a long time, the sound of the monster swallowing saliva was also clearly audible in their ears.
The man’s gaze was fixed on the monster, and his ice-blue eyes flashed.
After circling around, the monster finally left, the wall surface returned to normal, and the spots also disappeared, leaving no trace of the horrific scene from before.
The man released his hand and took a step back, and that layer of pressure also disappeared.
It was only then that Zhou Zhou saw the man’s appearance clearly. He had deep features, a high bridged nose, and was extremely handsome. Moreover, the aura around him that was different from ordinary people only made him even more attractive.
However, the man’s expression was extremely cold, and those ice-blue eyes seemed to contain frost and snow, as if just one look could freeze someone.
He nodded at Zhou Zhou, not caring whether Zhou Zhou could see it in the darkness.
“Thank you,” Zhou Zhou said softly.
The man did not respond, only studying Zhou Zhou in the darkness, his gaze carrying a sense of scrutiny. Then he spoke, “Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure.” Zhou Zhou agreed without asking further questions.
“Follow me.”
The man did not explain what favor he needed, turning and leaving on his own.
If it were someone else encountering such an arrogant person, they might have gotten angry. But the current Zhou Zhou would not get angry or find the man’s attitude problematic, following behind him.
Zhou Zhou could sense the monster’s movements, and this time it had gone to the fifth floor. The other person also seemed to be heading toward the location of the monster, his gaze scanning around to find its hiding place.
The man occasionally looked back, each time meeting Zhou Zhou’s gaze.
He realized that the other person could see things in the darkness, and the higher one’s spiritual power, the more they could see and sense in the dark. However, if the other person’s spiritual power was high, why had he seemed so defenseless when pushed down earlier, without even using a trace of spiritual power?
Spiritual power was something every person in the interstellar era had, with varying levels. But as long as one had decent spiritual power, they would have learned how to use it from a young age, so it was impossible for someone to not know how to use it at all.
Therefore, he would never have thought that the person before him was not actually from the interstellar realm, and in a strict sense, was not even human physiologically.
On the fifth floor, they found the monster on a wall.
The monster on the wall pulsated like it was breathing, extremely close to the two people watching it, but with no intention of attacking.
A white, delicate finger slowly reached out toward the monster.
The man saw this but did not stop it, only silently watching.
“Hello.” Zhou Zhou gently poked the monster, feeling a slight chill at the tip of his finger.
The monster seemed to not have felt it, continuing to pulsate and breathe.
“Hello, want to fall in love?” Zhou Zhou said, remembering Xue Li’s words, poking it a few more times.
“Plop.” A soft tearing sound, and a piece of white wall skin fell off the monster, leaving a round little dent where Zhou Zhou’s finger had poked in, like poking into tofu.
Zhou Zhou blinked, withdrawing his finger and looking at it in puzzlement for a few seconds, seeming surprised at how fragile the skin was.
The monster’s pulsating also paused for a few seconds, as if stunned by what had just happened, even stopping its breathing.
Not seeing any issue, Zhou Zhou extended his mischievous finger again, poking toward another intact part of the monster.
“Hello.”
The monster immediately squirmed a few times, then made two popping sounds, spitting out two red objects from the largest gap in the middle.
Two red heart shapes floated slowly into the two people’s hands, and then the monster retreated into the wall, disappearing.
The red hearts in their hands turned into cold, hard crystals, like a red ruby carved into a heart shape.
Zhou Zhou felt a sense of familiarity from this scene, but couldn’t recall where he had seen it before.
“Well done.” The man suddenly said.
The key to triggering the clue was to have two people present, this was something he had discovered earlier. Now it seemed there was another condition, to say the words “fall in love” in front of the monster. As it happened, both of these conditions were met.
The other person’s luck was indeed quite good, or perhaps he had already guessed these two points.
Zhou Zhou: “?”
Zhou Zhou did not know what he had done to receive the praise, it just seemed that his first attempt at actively pursuing love had ended in failure.
Meanwhile, the monster was now on the ceiling of another floor, trembling as it extended a tentacle to place the fallen piece of wall skin back onto the hole that Zhou Zhou had poked, its cautious demeanor resembling a pitiful balding man tearfully trying to put his fallen hair back on his head.
It was attempting to reattach the wall skin.
The small piece of wall skin was extremely crispy, crumbling to pieces before it could be put back on. The monster froze, trying to catch the falling pieces but unable to in time, as the white fragments all fell to the ground.
Monster: “……”
At that moment, a player came running through the corridor.
The panic-stricken player stepped right into the fragments, leaving only a white footprint behind.
Monster: “!!!”
The enraged monster, furious at its loss of wall skin akin to going bald, turned its wrath toward this unlucky player…
A scream came from upstairs, and Zhou Zhou reflexively looked up, but the man showed no concern at all. He had only helped earlier because another person was needed, he had no kindness to spare for rescuing others.
“Let’s go.”
Zhou Zhou hurried to follow, “My name is Zhou Zhou, what’s your name?”
The man’s pace was quick, and Zhou Zhou could only jog to keep up with him.
“Al.”
Just as they were nearing the main entrance, the man suddenly spoke.
Zhou Zhou hadn’t had a chance to respond when his sharp eyes spotted two figures peeking out at the entrance.
They really were waiting for him!
Though unable to see, Xue Li and Ke Li heard Zhou Zhou calling their names in the darkness and waved vigorously inside.
“I found a clue, look!” Zhou Zhou opened his palm, presenting the red heart to the two like offering a treasure.
Xue Li and Ke Li couldn’t even see Zhou Zhou clearly, let alone the thing in his hand, but still showered him with praise blindly.
At that moment, the night of the Love Academy passed, and the sky transitioned from dark to light, a ray of sunshine falling on the group.
The ruby in Zhou Zhou’s palm blazed like a ball of red flame under the sun’s rays, its color rich and dense.
The two who had been praising blindly were struck speechless for a moment, gazing at the red heart in awe.
“This is a clue?” Xue Li’s eyes shone brightly. She had always loved beautiful things like this, never expecting to see such a sight as soon as her vision returned.
“Yeah, it’s for you two.” Zhou Zhou extended his hands holding the red heart.
Ke Li immediately waved it off, “We didn’t do anything, it was all your doing. You keep it.”
Zhou Zhou shook his head, insisting, “For you two.” He didn’t need it.
After a dazed moment, Xue Li joined in, “Since we’re a team of three, it doesn’t matter who holds it.”
In the end, the heart was entrusted to Ke Li for safekeeping.
It was only then that Zhou Zhou realized Aier was gone, or rather, he had already left before daybreak.
The campus in daylight was indeed different from the day before, more like the remnants left behind after the passage of years, dilapidated everywhere.
Zhou Zhou felt a sense of discomfort looking at the surroundings. Used to the vibrant colors of the campus, the desolate scenery before him now left him ill at ease.
“Wow, this place looks creepy,” Ke Li remarked, looking around.
They sat on a patch of grass that had once been a lush green but was now dim and withered.
After hearing from Zhou Zhou about what happened after he went in alone, they were indignant toward the person who had tried to harm him, yet felt conflicted about the monster not actually harming people it came into contact with.
If only they hadn’t been so cowardly, they might have learned this sooner.
“Sorry, I lost the flashlight you gave me,” Zhou Zhou said guiltily, his eyes drooping.
“It’s okay, that flashlight was actually from a player who left earlier, not mine. And now that it’s daylight, we don’t need it anyway. The main thing is that guy who pushed you down, if we meet him again, we’ll beat him up together,” Ke Li clenched his fist.
Zhou Zhou’s eyes perked up. “Okay.”
The silent Xue Li suddenly exclaimed, “I remember now!”
Zhou Zhou and Ke Li both turned to look at her.
“How could I have forgotten this? Do you remember the Animation Era from our elementary history books?”
Zhou Zhou looked completely clueless, while Ke Li pondered for a moment before replying seriously, “It’s been too long, I forgot.”
“You uncultured slacker. The Animation Era was a strange phenomenon that occurred on ancient Earth thousands of years ago. At that time, twenty percent of inanimate objects around the globe suddenly showed signs of life. From small things like figurines to huge buildings, they all exhibited unique life signs, although it only lasted a few decades before disappearing. Even scientists and historians have been unable to provide a reasonable explanation to this day.”
Xue Li lectured like a scholar.
Ke Li was silent for a bit. “Isn’t that just a legend?”
“What legend! It’s written in the history books, did you even listen in elementary school?”
He really hadn’t paid much attention, the uncultured Ke Li couldn’t refute and could only listen silently.
From start to finish, Zhou Zhou remained in a state of oblivion, though his clear eyes stared at them intently as they spoke, giving the impression that he knew everything but was just watching them talk.
“The monsters in this building may be the game’s imitation of the living beings from the Animation Era thousands of years ago. How did I not think of this sooner?” Xue Li seemed regretful.
“See, your brain doesn’t work either,” Ke Li mocked gleefully.
Just as the two were about to start arguing again, a soft dinging sound rang in their ears.
Their impending quarrel halted, and they immediately opened their quest log.
【Main Quest: Go to the library and borrow a book.】
The two looked pleased. “Next, we’re going to the library. The next clue is there.”
Zhou Zhou glanced at the quest log in front of them and nodded upon hearing their words.
Just as Zhou Zhou was about to fall into the monster’s mouth, a hand suddenly grabbed the back of his collar.
Like lifting a sack of rice, the seemingly small, pitiful, and helpless Zhou Zhou was abruptly lifted up, narrowly avoiding the monster’s deep abyss of a mouth.
Zhou Zhou was pulled up by his collar and pressed against the wall, “Don’t make a sound.”
Zhou Zhou’s height was the standard 180 cm, while this person who suddenly appeared was half a head taller than him. In the darkness, Zhou Zhou looked up and could only see the smooth jawline and thin lips of the other person.
The two were in an intimate position, pressed together, but the other person’s breathing was calm and composed, and Zhou Zhou showed no signs of shyness or anger on his face.
An invisible pressure enveloped the two of them, and although the two were right there, it felt like there was not a trace of their presence.
The monster on the ceiling, unable to find its target, circled around for a few turns. It could not only move on the ceiling but also lived on the surrounding walls.
Following the wall downwards, it even came to the side of the two people, and the wall next to Zhou Zhou kept bulging, with yellow-green spots constantly emerging.
The man who was holding Zhou Zhou’s shoulder frowned slightly and turned his gaze toward the person he had unintentionally saved. He had originally thought that the other person would either keep screaming or shaking uncontrollably upon sensing the monster’s approach. But he never expected the other person to show no reaction at all, even tilting his head to look at the place where the monster appeared.
Was it because it was too dark to see, so his reaction was slow?
Or was he really not afraid?
The sound of the monster’s breathing rose near their ears, and Zhou Zhou, who was pressed against the wall, could even feel the wall distorting behind him from the monster’s movements.
As if it had been hungry for a long time, the sound of the monster swallowing saliva was also clearly audible in their ears.
The man’s gaze was fixed on the monster, and his ice-blue eyes flashed.
After circling around, the monster finally left, the wall surface returned to normal, and the spots also disappeared, leaving no trace of the horrific scene from before.
The man released his hand and took a step back, and that layer of pressure also disappeared.
It was only then that Zhou Zhou saw the man’s appearance clearly. He had deep features, a high bridged nose, and was extremely handsome. Moreover, the aura around him that was different from ordinary people only made him even more attractive.
However, the man’s expression was extremely cold, and those ice-blue eyes seemed to contain frost and snow, as if just one look could freeze someone.
He nodded at Zhou Zhou, not caring whether Zhou Zhou could see it in the darkness.
“Thank you,” Zhou Zhou said softly.
The man did not respond, only studying Zhou Zhou in the darkness, his gaze carrying a sense of scrutiny. Then he spoke, “Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure.” Zhou Zhou agreed without asking further questions.
“Follow me.”
The man did not explain what favor he needed, turning and leaving on his own.
If it were someone else encountering such an arrogant person, they might have gotten angry. But the current Zhou Zhou would not get angry or find the man’s attitude problematic, following behind him.
Zhou Zhou could sense the monster’s movements, and this time it had gone to the fifth floor. The other person also seemed to be heading toward the location of the monster, his gaze scanning around to find its hiding place.
The man occasionally looked back, each time meeting Zhou Zhou’s gaze.
He realized that the other person could see things in the darkness, and the higher one’s spiritual power, the more they could see and sense in the dark. However, if the other person’s spiritual power was high, why had he seemed so defenseless when pushed down earlier, without even using a trace of spiritual power?
Spiritual power was something every person in the interstellar era had, with varying levels. But as long as one had decent spiritual power, they would have learned how to use it from a young age, so it was impossible for someone to not know how to use it at all.
Therefore, he would never have thought that the person before him was not actually from the interstellar realm, and in a strict sense, was not even human physiologically.
On the fifth floor, they found the monster on a wall.
The monster on the wall pulsated like it was breathing, extremely close to the two people watching it, but with no intention of attacking.
A white, delicate finger slowly reached out toward the monster.
The man saw this but did not stop it, only silently watching.
“Hello.” Zhou Zhou gently poked the monster, feeling a slight chill at the tip of his finger.
The monster seemed to not have felt it, continuing to pulsate and breathe.
“Hello, want to fall in love?” Zhou Zhou said, remembering Xue Li’s words, poking it a few more times.
“Plop.” A soft tearing sound, and a piece of white wall skin fell off the monster, leaving a round little dent where Zhou Zhou’s finger had poked in, like poking into tofu.
Zhou Zhou blinked, withdrawing his finger and looking at it in puzzlement for a few seconds, seeming surprised at how fragile the skin was.
The monster’s pulsating also paused for a few seconds, as if stunned by what had just happened, even stopping its breathing.
Not seeing any issue, Zhou Zhou extended his mischievous finger again, poking toward another intact part of the monster.
“Hello.”
The monster immediately squirmed a few times, then made two popping sounds, spitting out two red objects from the largest gap in the middle.
Two red heart shapes floated slowly into the two people’s hands, and then the monster retreated into the wall, disappearing.
The red hearts in their hands turned into cold, hard crystals, like a red ruby carved into a heart shape.
Zhou Zhou felt a sense of familiarity from this scene, but couldn’t recall where he had seen it before.
“Well done.” The man suddenly said.
The key to triggering the clue was to have two people present, this was something he had discovered earlier. Now it seemed there was another condition, to say the words “fall in love” in front of the monster. As it happened, both of these conditions were met.
The other person’s luck was indeed quite good, or perhaps he had already guessed these two points.
Zhou Zhou: “?”
Zhou Zhou did not know what he had done to receive the praise, it just seemed that his first attempt at actively pursuing love had ended in failure.
Meanwhile, the monster was now on the ceiling of another floor, trembling as it extended a tentacle to place the fallen piece of wall skin back onto the hole that Zhou Zhou had poked, its cautious demeanor resembling a pitiful balding man tearfully trying to put his fallen hair back on his head.
It was attempting to reattach the wall skin.
The small piece of wall skin was extremely crispy, crumbling to pieces before it could be put back on. The monster froze, trying to catch the falling pieces but unable to in time, as the white fragments all fell to the ground.
Monster: “……”
At that moment, a player came running through the corridor.
The panic-stricken player stepped right into the fragments, leaving only a white footprint behind.
Monster: “!!!”
The enraged monster, furious at its loss of wall skin akin to going bald, turned its wrath toward this unlucky player…
A scream came from upstairs, and Zhou Zhou reflexively looked up, but the man showed no concern at all. He had only helped earlier because another person was needed, he had no kindness to spare for rescuing others.
“Let’s go.”
Zhou Zhou hurried to follow, “My name is Zhou Zhou, what’s your name?”
The man’s pace was quick, and Zhou Zhou could only jog to keep up with him.
“Al.”
Just as they were nearing the main entrance, the man suddenly spoke.
Zhou Zhou hadn’t had a chance to respond when his sharp eyes spotted two figures peeking out at the entrance.
They really were waiting for him!
Though unable to see, Xue Li and Ke Li heard Zhou Zhou calling their names in the darkness and waved vigorously inside.
“I found a clue, look!” Zhou Zhou opened his palm, presenting the red heart to the two like offering a treasure.
Xue Li and Ke Li couldn’t even see Zhou Zhou clearly, let alone the thing in his hand, but still showered him with praise blindly.
At that moment, the night of the Love Academy passed, and the sky transitioned from dark to light, a ray of sunshine falling on the group.
The ruby in Zhou Zhou’s palm blazed like a ball of red flame under the sun’s rays, its color rich and dense.
The two who had been praising blindly were struck speechless for a moment, gazing at the red heart in awe.
“This is a clue?” Xue Li’s eyes shone brightly. She had always loved beautiful things like this, never expecting to see such a sight as soon as her vision returned.
“Yeah, it’s for you two.” Zhou Zhou extended his hands holding the red heart.
Ke Li immediately waved it off, “We didn’t do anything, it was all your doing. You keep it.”
Zhou Zhou shook his head, insisting, “For you two.” He didn’t need it.
After a dazed moment, Xue Li joined in, “Since we’re a team of three, it doesn’t matter who holds it.”
In the end, the heart was entrusted to Ke Li for safekeeping.
It was only then that Zhou Zhou realized Aier was gone, or rather, he had already left before daybreak.
The campus in daylight was indeed different from the day before, more like the remnants left behind after the passage of years, dilapidated everywhere.
Zhou Zhou felt a sense of discomfort looking at the surroundings. Used to the vibrant colors of the campus, the desolate scenery before him now left him ill at ease.
“Wow, this place looks creepy,” Ke Li remarked, looking around.
They sat on a patch of grass that had once been a lush green but was now dim and withered.
After hearing from Zhou Zhou about what happened after he went in alone, they were indignant toward the person who had tried to harm him, yet felt conflicted about the monster not actually harming people it came into contact with.
If only they hadn’t been so cowardly, they might have learned this sooner.
“Sorry, I lost the flashlight you gave me,” Zhou Zhou said guiltily, his eyes drooping.
“It’s okay, that flashlight was actually from a player who left earlier, not mine. And now that it’s daylight, we don’t need it anyway. The main thing is that guy who pushed you down, if we meet him again, we’ll beat him up together,” Ke Li clenched his fist.
Zhou Zhou’s eyes perked up. “Okay.”
The silent Xue Li suddenly exclaimed, “I remember now!”
Zhou Zhou and Ke Li both turned to look at her.
“How could I have forgotten this? Do you remember the Animation Era from our elementary history books?”
Zhou Zhou looked completely clueless, while Ke Li pondered for a moment before replying seriously, “It’s been too long, I forgot.”
“You uncultured slacker. The Animation Era was a strange phenomenon that occurred on ancient Earth thousands of years ago. At that time, twenty percent of inanimate objects around the globe suddenly showed signs of life. From small things like figurines to huge buildings, they all exhibited unique life signs, although it only lasted a few decades before disappearing. Even scientists and historians have been unable to provide a reasonable explanation to this day.”
Xue Li lectured like a scholar.
Ke Li was silent for a bit. “Isn’t that just a legend?”
“What legend! It’s written in the history books, did you even listen in elementary school?”
He really hadn’t paid much attention, the uncultured Ke Li couldn’t refute and could only listen silently.
From start to finish, Zhou Zhou remained in a state of oblivion, though his clear eyes stared at them intently as they spoke, giving the impression that he knew everything but was just watching them talk.
“The monsters in this building may be the game’s imitation of the living beings from the Animation Era thousands of years ago. How did I not think of this sooner?” Xue Li seemed regretful.
“See, your brain doesn’t work either,” Ke Li mocked gleefully.
Just as the two were about to start arguing again, a soft dinging sound rang in their ears.
Their impending quarrel halted, and they immediately opened their quest log.
【Main Quest: Go to the library and borrow a book.】
The two looked pleased. “Next, we’re going to the library. The next clue is there.”
Zhou Zhou glanced at the quest log in front of them and nodded upon hearing their words.
