MM Racing Chapter 28 Man in the Mirror, Beast in a Cage
Chapter 28 Man in the Mirror, Beast in a Cage
The dormitory corridor resembled an elongated stone path, unusually quiet at this moment.
The door to room 304 was unlocked. The moment Lu Dan pushed the door open, a cloud of dust rushed out.
There are no cozy notes here, nor are there any neat beds.
A piece of "clothing" hung from the beam of the room with a red rope; it was a human skin that had been completely peeled off, facing the door. The facial features of the skin were somewhat sunken, but this did not prevent Lu Dan from guessing who the face belonged to—Su Ke.
Facing this empty shell directly is far more impactful; it's like a haute couture gown waiting to be tried on, its toes barely touching the ground, making it unsettling to look at. Is this what they call "awaiting stitching"?
Lu Dan clutched his broken ribs, suppressing the urge to cough. He walked away from the human skin and his gaze fell on the bed beside him.
Someone had scraped off a layer of ash from the wall with their fingernails, revealing it covered in dense, frantic scribbles, layered and overlapping like countless tangled maggots.
[Su Ke is me.]
【I am Su Ke.】
The skin is too tight!
I can't laugh!
Who am I? I am Su Ke. Su Ke is me...
This is practically like a medical record of a schizophrenic patient.
Lu Dan squinted at the handwriting. It seemed that this perfect class monitor had experienced a terrible collapse of self-awareness before becoming a "perfect shell".
......
Table World, Room 304.
The air seemed to have solidified into glue.
Heavy footsteps echoed from the corridor outside the door.
"Thump, thump, thump."
It was accompanied by the clanging sound of metal chains dragging across the ground, each step feeling like stepping on a person's nerves.
Zhang Kai and Lin Xiaoxiao huddled on the other two empty beds, barely daring to breathe, while Su Ke slept soundly on the bed like a dead person.
Zhang Kai gripped the small round mirror tightly in his hand, his palms sweaty. He subconsciously turned the mirror to a different angle, originally only wanting to check the situation at the door, but unexpectedly saw a different color in the reflection of the mirror.
The world in the mirror is gray. But standing in that darkness is a swaying figure.
"Uncle!" Zhang Kai almost shouted out loud. He frantically waved to Lin Xiaoxiao in the opposite bunk, pointed at the mirror, and exaggeratedly gestured with his lips: "Look, look!"
Lin Xiaoxiao crouched down and leaned closer, her gaze falling on the mirror, her pupils instantly contracting.
Lu Dan's reflection in the mirror was horrifyingly gruesome. His security guard uniform had been reduced to a dark red rag, his left arm was twisted and hanging limply, and his chest had caved in.
His face was deathly pale, but his eyes shone eerily in the dim light of the flashlight as he stared intently at the words on the wall.
"He can still stand up even with injuries like that." Lin Xiaoxiao felt a toothache; this was practically a berserker with an invincible health cheat.
But this body clearly won't last much longer.
The footsteps outside the door paused for a moment at the entrance of room 304, as if hesitating whether to come in and check the rooms.
Something has to be done.
Lin Xiaoxiao quickly pulled out a yellowed piece of paper, paused for a moment with her pen, and then wrote down rapidly: [Visiting student: Zhang Kai. Symptoms: Excessive enthusiasm. Location: Girls' dormitory 304.]
She was trying to establish a connection in this way.
Lu Dan, looking in the mirror, must have noticed that the journal on his chest was starting to get hot. He took out the notebook with one hand, glanced at the words on it, and a helpless smile appeared on his lips.
He used his teeth to open the pen cap and wrote a reply with his trembling right hand. The handwriting was crooked and uneven, but the tone was extremely firm: [Girls' Dormitory 304, everything is normal.]
I'm a security guard, and I'm not dead yet.
That's normal.
Lin Xiaoxiao frowned as she looked at the reply that appeared on the paper. Was this person made of iron?
She gritted her teeth and continued writing on the paper, this time making the implication even more direct:
[Symptom development: Frequent fighting and serious injuries?]
Lu Dan in the mirror seemed to sense something. He raised his head, his gaze seemingly piercing through the dimensional barrier, accurately looking in the direction of the mirror in Zhang Kai's hand.
He shook his head, and then a line appeared in his log, carrying a stubbornness that was both annoying and strangely reassuring: [Girls' Dormitory 304, normal, everything normal.]
As long as I don't admit I'm dying, I can keep acting. That's the self-discipline of a passerby.
......
Boys' dormitory.
Bao Ping had just tucked the strange drawing into his pocket, preparing to make a quick getaway.
Suddenly, my vision jolted violently, like an old television set, with countless black static dots exploding on my retina.
"Sizzle—"
After a sharp crack of electricity, Bao Ping suddenly noticed a figure appearing on the empty balcony of the dormitory.
It's that old dormitory supervisor who guards the gate.
But he looked completely different now. His overcoat looked like it had been soaked in blood, with a thick liquid dripping down it. The old man's face drooped, covering half of it, and the string of walnuts he was holding had turned into two rusty iron balls connected by a thick chain.
"Students these days...don't sleep...run around everywhere..."
The old man's voice sounded like he had phlegm stuck in his throat, and his cloudy eyes were fixed on Bao Ping.
"Holy crap!"
Bao Ping was terrified. His survival instinct kicked in instantly. Without hesitation or even glancing back, he turned and rushed toward the stairwell.
"Clang! Clang!"
To warn his teammates downstairs, Bao Ping ran wildly while pulling out a wrench from his waist and frantically pounding on the stair railing.
The crisp metallic clanging echoed through the deathly silent dormitory building, like a death knell.
......
Female dormitory 304.
The rapid knocking sound came, and Lin Xiaoxiao's expression changed.
"It's Bao Ping! Something's happened!"
She acted swiftly, writing down the last line on the paper:
[Symptoms worsened, suspected violent tendencies.]
Lu Dan was given a final report.
"Let's go!" Zhang Kai grabbed Lin Xiaoxiao, disregarding any secrecy rules, kicked open the door and rushed out.
Just as I rushed to the stairwell, I saw Bao Ping tumbling down the opposite boys' stairwell like a gourd, his face full of panic, scrambling and crawling.
"Run! Run!" Bao Ping roared, his voice cracking.
A foul stench followed immediately.
The withered figure of the dormitory supervisor appeared above the stairs. The chain ball in his hand shot out with a whoosh, smashing the iron railings of the stairwell with a loud bang, sending cement fragments flying everywhere.
"Bad students... all have to go to the septic tank..." The old man's mouth suddenly split open, all the way to his ears, and it continued to tear until the upper part of his head folded back, turning into a giant mouth covered with barbs.
"Holy crap, what kind of Resident Evil look is this?"
Zhang Kai yelled and dragged Lin Xiaoxiao to join Bao Ping. The three of them rushed to the lobby on the first floor like headless flies.
However, the door was tightly shut.
The sound of chains behind me grew closer and closer, and the oppressive feeling was like having a meat grinder chasing me from behind.
"There's no escape!" Bao Ping waved his wrench in despair.
Just as the monster whose head had turned into a mouth pounced behind them, the chain ball whistled through the air and slammed into Lin Xiaoxiao, who was at the very back.
In the split second between life and death, Zhang Kai, who had been looking a bit dazed, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He released his grip on Lin Xiaoxiao's hand, spun around abruptly, his movements so fast they left afterimages in the air, and delivered a savage flying kick.
"Get the hell back here!"
"boom--"
With a dull thud, the kick landed squarely on the old dormitory supervisor's chest.
The seemingly invincible dormitory supervisor monster, covered in terrifying buffs, was kicked away like a ball. His massive body arced through the air before crashing into the stairwell of the boys' dormitory, smashing half a wall and sending dust billowing up.
The world is quiet.
Lin Xiaoxiao and Bao Ping remained in their fleeing postures, their necks stiffly twisted, their mouths agape, wide enough to fit an egg, staring at Zhang Kai with expressions of utter disbelief.
Zhang Kai pulled his leg back, dusted off his trousers, and scratched his head somewhat awkwardly: "Well, I said I'm a sports specialist with slightly stronger explosive power, which makes sense, right?"
Lin Xiaoxiao looked at the large hole in the wall that was still crumbling and swallowed hard.
Where are these students with special talents from?
What exactly happened to this kid?