Dormitory Exchange

Night fell.

The streetlights flickered on, stretching shadows long across the ground.

In front of the dormitory building, the manager announced with a smile, "Accommodation fee: 5 points per night."

A freshman about to enter the building froze. "It costs that much just to stay here?"

The manager said nothing, her gaze calm and steady, as if to say, "These are the school rules."

The young man opened his mouth to speak, but then he remembered the severed limbs from earlier that day. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed his words. He pulled his student card from his pocket and tapped it against the card reader in front of the manager.

Beep! Five points were gone.

Behind him, others exchanged looks of disbelief. Someone whispered, "The accommodation fee is that expensive? This is ridiculous."

A person nearby chimed in, "What's so ridiculous about it? It costs points to enter the library and points to eat. Isn't it normal to pay for a place to stay?"

The person in front sighed. "In my original world, I lived in a palace and slept in a dragon bed. Now I have to squeeze into a run-down dorm and pay for the privilege?"

Another person interjected, "You don't have to stay here. Sleeping on the playground is free."

At those words, several people actually turned toward the playground. Five points was too steep; they had already failed the placement test, spent points on medical treatment, and were burdened with loans. The balance on their cards was no longer enough to cover the dormitory.

Though sleeping on the playground carried the risk of violating school rules, they were truly out of options.

Others stood in place, hesitating. They watched as those ahead of them swiped their cards to enter while those behind them turned to leave. The manager watched them all with a thin, cold smile.

Finally, some gritted their teeth and swiped their cards. Some sighed and walked toward the playground. Others remained at the entrance, unable to decide whether to move forward or back.

...

Yue Shi's room was on the fourth floor, Room 409.

It was a four-person dormitory. When he returned, two people were already inside.

A charlatan wearing Taoist robes sat by the window, his expression solemn. He held a live turtle in his hands; the patterns on its shell formed a Taiji Double-Fish Diagram. He seemed to be calculating something.

The other person was dressed in black with a hood pulled over his head and the zipper pulled all the way up, revealing only a pale face.

Yue Shi's two roommates: Happy Daoist and Foreshadowing.

There was one more empty bed, though it was unclear if it was unassigned or if the occupant simply hadn't returned yet.

Yue Shi walked to his bed and placed the Snow Leopard on the desk. He tossed his jacket aside and mentally reviewed the events of the day.

The room was quiet. The three of them went about their own business in silence, the only sound being the Snow Leopard licking its paws.

In their previous worlds, these transmigrators had been god-like figures. Now, they were crammed into a dormitory less than twenty square meters in size.

"Hey," Happy Daoist suddenly spoke.

Yue Shi turned to look at him, and Foreshadowing raised his head as well.

Happy Daoist said, "How about we have a little late-night chat? We can exchange information. Surviving in this school is difficult, and since we're roommates, we'll be seeing a lot of each other. We should look out for one another."

Yue Shi nodded, and Foreshadowing agreed as well.

The three of them felt a bit like college students chatting in their dorm, and the sense of strangeness between them faded slightly.

"I'll go first," Happy Daoist said, crossing his legs.

"I spent the whole afternoon flipping through books in the library and talking to others. I've summarized a few hidden rules."

"First, books in the library cannot be taken out, but they can be photocopied inside. The price is 0.1 points per page."

"Second, the teaching building has self-service exam rooms where you can take a re-exam at any time. However, the questions for each re-exam are different—they are always new. In other words, it's impossible to 'memorize' the answers by taking the exam repeatedly."

"Third, there is a major problem with the food in the cafeteria, though I'm not clear on the specifics yet. My advice is to avoid eating any meat. Stick to vegetables or staples."

"That's it. Your turn."

"I'll share two as well," Foreshadowing said.

"First, this school eats people."

"Second, students can become school staff through certain means. People like the school doctor and the dormitory manager might have once been 'students' who transmigrated here."

"That's all."

His voice was pleasant, his words concise and packed with information.

Both Yue Shi and Happy Daoist had doubts about what he said, but neither spoke up to press for more.

They were all strangers; some things were best left to mutual understanding. This was a simple exchange of information; it would be impolite to demand sources or repeatedly question whether the information was true or false.

Finally, it was Yue Shi's turn. "I have two points as well."

"First, there are no classes at this school. There are no teachers to give lectures and no subject classifications. Everything depends entirely on self-study."

"Second, the scope of the exams covers the knowledge in every single book in the library. Each exam randomly selects knowledge points from them."

Hearing this, Happy Daoist's face immediately soured. "The library is so massive. If we have to finish every book in there, it'll take forever!"

"Even with our abilities, if we memorized a hundred books a day, it would still take years to finish them all."

"With how much this school sets people up to fail, I'm afraid it'll be hard enough just to stay alive for a month."

The three of them fell silent, staring at the floor in the center of the room as they brooded over their own thoughts.

"Do you think this school treats us like food? Countless true gods have been buried here, their power drained dry to nourish the school's continuous growth," Happy Daoist said.

Foreshadowing agreed with this. "The possibility is high."

Happy Daoist sighed. "I really don't know if coming here was right or wrong."

Foreshadowing said, "Look on the bright side. I was in a lost state before, passively transmigrating all over the place. I've seen high-risk worlds that were far more dangerous than this school."

"The school rules may be harsh, but at least they are logical. Some nonsensical worlds have no reason or logic at all. For example, in a world where everyone is an invincible gag character, even a true god would be bullied into a pulp..."

The lights suddenly went out.

The room was instantly plunged into total darkness. Foreshadowing stopped talking immediately and climbed into bed the moment the lights failed, pulling the covers up to hide half of his face.

A split second later, Happy Daoist's body seemed to spring into action. He flipped onto his bed, pulled the quilt to his chest, and closed his eyes.

Yue Shi reacted even faster, having already scooped up the Snow Leopard and ducked under his covers.

The three of them lay as still as corpses, their breathing and heartbeats seemingly vanished.

They did this because of the school rules.

Although they hadn't found any rules regarding dormitory schedules yet, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Given the various ridiculous operations they had witnessed at this school during the day, no amount of caution was excessive.

A set of footsteps echoed from the hallway. They were light and slow, coming from the end of the corridor and pausing briefly at every dormitory door.

The footsteps stopped at the door of 409.

A sliver of light filtered through the crack beneath the door, like that of a flashlight. It, too, lingered for a moment before moving on.

A single term came to the minds of all three people in the room: 【Dormitory Inspection】.

The footsteps faded away, but the three in the room remained motionless, continuing to play dead.

After an unknown amount of time, a faint sigh echoed through the air. "Whew, that was a close one."

Still, no one responded.

After the lights went out, none of the three had spoken another word.

There was a fourth person in the room.