Boom!
The impact echoed affectionately—like fate giving a standing ovation to someone with monumentally bad luck. It was a thud, no warning, no mercy—just one painful *splat*.
Lam Thanh Bach fell from over two meters in the air. His butt landed first, followed swiftly by his face. His knees scraped against the rough concrete floor, and his glossy red lips… lovingly kissed the ground in full sacrificial devotion.
"…"
He lay face-down for a few seconds, speechless. The scent of rust, dust, and a hint of mildew rushed up his nose, making him want to launch into a full monologue about respecting artists.
Cold wind whistled past his ears. The silence around him was so eerie it pressed against his skin. Only dry leaves rustled nearby, accompanied by a faint clink clink sound—like someone lightly tapping chopsticks on a bent iron railing.
"What kind of janky system dumps people like trash…"
He slowly crawled to his feet, looking like a stray cat kicked out of the living room. His once-glittering performance outfit was now as filthy as if he had just finished a national-level mud wrestling competition.
After wobbling for a moment, Lam Thanh Bach looked up at the gray sky above—just a thick fog and the flickering, half-dead glow of a lonely streetlight.
"Serious question here… Y'all couldn't think of ANY other method of transportation?!"
His voice cracked with the despair of an artist betrayed by modern technology.
A soft ding~ echoed in his head like someone pressing a doorbell.
[System Ly Sao – Connecting… Connection Successful! ✨]
"No way, sweetie~ This is a top-rated method deemed highly innovative by Central Brain! It's resource-efficient *and* comes with a high comedic effect score! Sooo? How do you like it?~ UwU"
Lam Thanh Bach wiped his mouth, eyes gleaming like knives stabbing into thin air, lips curling into a deadly smirk.
"Oh, I love it. I'd need a brain injury to love face-diving like that."
The system paused as if pondering seriously, then replied in an overly "professional" tone (specifically, professionally sarcastic):
"Brain injury is on you, sweetie. We're artificial intelligence, thank you. Don't lump us in~"
"…If I ever get my hands on your code, I'm resetting you with a flip-flop[1]."
Ly Sao coughed politely, played a *meow* sound effect, then resumed with a voice smoother than butter:
"Violence won't solve anything, darling~ Learn to love Mother Earth the same way you… just kissed her so tenderly~ 💋"
"You lunatic!"
Lam Thanh Bach swatted the air to shut it up and scanned his surroundings with gritted teeth.
Before him stood a dark, towering dormitory—ten floors high, wrapped in rusty fencing and vines thick like snakes. The crooked sign above the gate had red-painted letters nearly worn off, barely legible:
DORMITORY A-13
*Not responsible for missing students.*
His eyes twitched. A chill ran down his spine like something had just licked the back of his neck.
In the distance, a lone flickering fluorescent light sputtered in the second-floor hallway. Every now and then, a shadow flitted past—too fast to see clearly but fast enough to make your heart hit rollercoaster speeds.
"Well, great. This copy of Hell just unlocked itself."
Ly Sao switched to turbo-narrator mode:
"Correct! Dungeon: The Dormitory That Must Not Be Named – Difficulty: Medium, Horror Level: 3/5.
Objective: Survive 7 days.
Rewards: 300 XP, 1 F-tier weapon draw ticket~ and countless fabulous prizes… as long as you sell your sou— oops, I mean your *time*!~"**
"You haven't even told me the main mission yet and you're asking me to just survive seven days?! What if I fail?"
"Well…" – Ly Sao's voice dropped, now a creepy *whisper* effect overlaying it:
"You'll say goodbye to life, your body will disintegrate in 1.3 seconds, data fragmented and deleted permanently from the system… and… your friends won't even remember your name."
"…"
"What's wrong, sweetie? Cat got your tongue? Spooked already?"
"I'm just deciding whether to punch the wall or your face first."
---
Stepping through the rusted gate, Lam Thanh Bach looked up at the second floor, where the only light in the whole building continued to flicker and buzz like a haunted disco.
The rotting wooden door creaked open with a long, mournful groan—like the sigh of someone who once lived and died here. The air inside was colder, damper, thick with mold and something faintly… metallic—like long-dried blood.
The floor tiles were cracked and muddy footprints stained the surface. The hallway stretched long and dark, with peeling paint that looked suspiciously like clawed bloodstains. Old sticky notes were still taped to the walls, scribbled in red ink:
"Do not open Room 204."
"If you hear knocking at night, pretend you didn't."
"Don't touch the mirror."
Lam Thanh Bach swallowed hard.
"What is this place… a dorm or a knockoff horror movie set?"
Ly Sao added wind howling + meow sound effects for dramatic flair:
"It's the gathering place of nightmares, where souls wail in despair—and also where you can get 5% off resurrection items if you die within the first 24 hours~!"
"This system is *certifiably* insane…"
He stepped into the first room. A dusty bunk bed, posters of ancient idols, and a taped-shut window blocking any sunlight. On the desk lay a torn notebook, with a few remaining scribbles:
"He patrolled again last night. Room 301's door was open…
I saw it. The thing that crawled with its hands… it smells…"
Click!
A sound echoed from the end of the hall, and Lam Thanh Bach spun around.
A… shadow had zipped by. No clear form. No footsteps.
"Hey hey hey Ly Sao, doesn't your system have surveillance cameras?! Pull up the map! I wanna see the map!"
"Oh sweetie, the surveillance system is currently interfered with by an unknown force. The map is now on 'blind survival mode'~ Hihi~ 😘"
"Got it. I'm in God's sick joke difficulty mode, right?"
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Three knocks. From… somewhere above.
Not sure if it was wood, metal… or bones.
Lam Thanh Bach retreated from the room, returning to the main hallway—just in time to bump into a group of other players gathering at the stairwell.
---
Author's Note:
"Hi everyone~ Sorry for the delay, been super busy lately! Finally had time to type up this chapter. I promise the story will be full of laughs and thrills—like spinning on a haunted merry-go-round. Hope you enjoy it and support the original version!"
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Disclaimer:
- This story is copyrighted by the author. Reproduction, adaptation, re-uploading, or any commercial use is strictly prohibited without written permission.
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- Thank you for reading and supporting! Please read from the official source to respect the writer's efforts!
[1] “I swear, I’ll reboot your code with a flip-flop slap.”