Am I still alive?

I’m standing right in front of you!

And besides…

Even if Jiang Ye’s No.1 Replica really did die, he couldn’t say he was dead.

After all, if a player dies, you can see it immediately in the chat group’s member list.

If it’s just a Replica that dies, the member list shouldn’t show them as “offline.”

So even if the Replica dies, he’d have to find a way to cover it up to avoid exposing himself in the group.

Fortunately—

The No.1 Replica on the rooftop didn’t die.

He immediately replied to Yang Wenchao: 【I’m still alive @Yang Wenchao】

Yang Wenchao replied right back: 【Alright, stay put on the rooftop. I’m coming to save you.】

As soon as he said that,

quite a few classmates thought…

Jiang Ye’s done for! He’s dead meat!

After all, Yang Wenchao had previously told Wang Rui he’d help reunite her with her parents.

But what actually happened? He went and killed Wang Rui!

Now he says he’s going to save Jiang Ye on the rooftop…

Is that really a rescue?!

Still, because of Yang Wenchao’s strength, no one dared to say much.

What if he got annoyed and started killing off anyone in the group who spoke ill of him?

But.

At this moment, the Apartment Fusion had completed.

And their group chat had changed.

The member list now showed (108/162).

And soon, another player from the apartment chimed in—

Zhou Qiong: 【Jiang Ye? Yang Wenchao? Are you talking about Jiang Ye and Yang Wenchao from Class 1, Senior Year at Mingli High?】

Ran Ziyi: 【Holy sht? Lu Shen, Xiao Likun, Gao Chang… aren’t these all familiar classmates?!】

Xin Hang: 【No way! Seriously! Looks like this Apartment 1008 is full of people from our high school! My goddess Xu Yuewan is here too!】

Xing Man: 【F**?? Why is Wang Rui’s name grayed out? Who did it?! Who killed Wang Rui?!】

Very quickly, the students from Apartment 1008 realized too:

【What the hell?! This Apartment 1010 we just merged with is also full of our schoolmates!】

【Awesome! It’s Teacher Zhou! We’re saved!】

【Could it be because the numbers 1008 and 1010 are close together? So when crossing apartments, there’s a higher chance of landing in a neighboring one and running into familiar faces?】

【Xing Man, Ran Ziyi… these guys are all from Class 9, right?】

【I thought after the fusion we’d have to deal with strangers from society. Never thought it’d still be schoolmates—and even teachers!】

*【Awesome my ss! Did you look at the member list? Our apartment used to have 70 people! After the merge, it shows 108! That means… only 38 from Apartment 1010 survived the fusion! Over half of them—more than 80—died!】

【Hiss… how did so many die?! We’re all classmates, right? It can’t be from killing each other… was it while fighting monsters or leveling up?】

Just as Apartment 1008 was shocked by the survival rate in 1010,

someone from 1010 replied—

Zhou Qiong: 【It wasn’t from fighting monsters or leveling. It was really just classmates killing each other… I honestly didn’t expect it. Can’t believe you guys in 1008 still have 70 people alive…】

But right after that message, another one popped up—

Xing Man: 【Still so chatty, huh, Teacher Zhou? Guess you’ve completely forgotten I spared your life. No gratitude at all.】

The students in Apartment 1008 were stunned!

Zhou Qiong taught Chinese for both Class 1 and Class 9.

Right away, several Class 1 students messaged in shock:

【What?? Teacher Zhou was just speaking normally, and you’re threatening her? @Xing Man】

【Exactly, what kind of attitude is that? Is that how a student should talk to a teacher? @Xing Man】

【What the hell happened in Apartment 1010? Why is the vibe so creepy?】

【Xing Man… I think I’ve heard that name before! That thug from Class 9 who’s always in fights!】

【Pretty sure most of Class 9 were just troublemakers and slackers, right? Did they ever have anyone in the top 10 of the grade? We had so many exams in senior year, and their class always came dead last!】

【I even heard Xing Man’s dad was a criminal! His mom doesn’t even want him. He’s basically unsupervised and lawless!】

As Apartment 1008 students gossiped about Class 9,

the usually quieter Apartment 1010 suddenly burst out with responses:

Xin Hang: 【Hahaha! This is hilarious! These Class 1 and 2 “good students” must’ve read themselves stupid!】

Ran Ziyi: 【No seriously, they’re so naive it’s funny! They’re even bold enough to talk smack about us “bad students” from Class 9 right here in the group chat?!】

Dou Heming: 【Hahaha! Hey, good students! Why don’t you check the Ranking Board and see what level us “bad students” are at?】

Xin Hang: 【So dumb! These “good students” don’t even get the situation! Someone even said, “Yay, a teacher’s here,” hahahahaha, I nearly died laughing!】

Ran Ziyi: 【Hard to believe these are seniors in high school! You’d think they were elementary kids, hahahaha!】

Tang Xuan: 【What can you do? Good students gotta listen to their teachers, right? Hahahahahahahahaha!】

Xing Man: 【Those few Class 1 students who spoke earlier—I remember all your names. And you better remember this—】

【When you’re fighting monsters or doing jobs, watch your backs. You might not even know how you end up dead!】

Xing Man’s message was insanely arrogant, straight-up threatening!

And it looked like all the ones talking in Apartment 1010 were his followers.

Xin Hang: 【Class 1 and 2 nerds, haven’t you figured it out yet? In Apartment 1010, only a few of us have the right to speak!】

**【Anyone who didn’t bow to Brother Xing is either hiding in the apartment waiting to die or already dead!】

【Got it now, little chickens from Class 1 and 2?】

Ran Ziyi: 【If not, let me make it extra clear!】

【This chat might look like a public group, but from now on, only Brother Xing and those of us who follow him get to speak.】

【If anyone else dares to run their mouth, be ready to die at any time!】

Xing Man: 【OK, now that everything’s been made clear, the group chat is finally quieter. Now, we’ve got a question for you folks from Apartment 1008—】

【Who killed Wang Rui?】

【Don’t tell me it was monsters or something while leveling. With how timid she was, it was surprising she even left her room. Going to the hallway to fight monsters? No way!】

【So who killed her?】

The group chat went dead silent.

Because by this point, the students from Apartment 1008 had already looked at the Ranking Board—and felt the pressure!

【Apartment 1010 Newbie Ranking Board】

1st: Xing Man (Level 5)

2nd: Ran Ziyi (Level 4)

3rd: Xin Hang (Level 3)

4th: Tang Xuan (Level 3)

5th: Dou Heming (Level 3)

6th: Yang Wenchao (Level 3)

7th: Yan Zhuo (Level 3)

…

After the two Newbie Apartments fused, everything was renamed under Apartment 1010.

And on the entire Ranking Board…

The top ten were almost all Class 9 students from Apartment 1010!

Even the strongest from Apartment 1008, Yang Wenchao, was only in 6th place!

And their second strongest, Wang Lingling, wasn’t even in the top ten!

This…

This gap was massive!

If Class 1 was once the rocket class, and Class 9 the ordinary one—

then in this survival apartment, the roles had completely flipped!

The former “bad students” had risen as top-ranked powerhouses!

And the once “good students” had average or even dismal performance, with many still stuck at Level 1 or lower!

That enormous gap struck the “good students” of Apartment 1008 like a hammer.

And combined with the arrogant posts from Xing Man and the others—

no one dared “run their mouths” in the group anymore, afraid of drawing deadly attention.

Even when Xing Man asked a direct question, no one dared respond.

So Xing Man simply started calling people out by name to answer:

【@Yang Wenchao @Jiang Ye, you two, answer me right now—how did Wang Rui die?】

He must’ve seen the conversation between Yang Wenchao and Jiang Ye in the group chat right as the Apartment Fusion completed.

Seeing that Yang Wenchao was the only Level 3 powerhouse in Apartment 1008,

he @-tagged them now, calling them out specifically to answer.

Clearly, he also wanted to further establish his absolute authority.

However…

At this moment, Yang Wenchao and Jiang Ye weren’t paying attention to the chat at all.

After all, according to Yang Wenchao, saving Jiang Ye was a race against time—every second counted!

Once he confirmed that Jiang Ye wasn’t dead,

he immediately pulled out a poster-like sticker in the stairwell!

After sticking it onto the stairwell wall, he pressed his palm against it.

Jiang Ye watched and figured this was probably the same kind of teleportation item as the one on the TV in the woman in white’s apartment.

And it was—

Through the poster, they instantly arrived on the rooftop!

There was no creepy forest-like transition space this time.

Once they reached the rooftop,

they immediately saw Jiang Ye with the black water snake coiled around his neck.

Yang Wenchao dashed toward him while speaking rapidly to bald Jiang Ye:

“Based on the current situation, that woman in white probably survived the Apartment Fusion.”

“So, as she said, she should be coming to release Jiang Ye soon.”

“If we try to forcibly capture her black water snake now, it might really p**s her off.”

“However, we’ve got a cross-apartment item—we can grab the snake and escape to another apartment.”

In just a few sentences, he reached Jiang Ye’s No.1 Replica, his eyes locked on the black water snake wrapped around Jiang Ye’s neck.

Bald Jiang Ye followed close behind, frowning as he said:

“If we run off to another apartment, what about Jiang Ye?”

Yang Wenchao replied calmly:

“Didn’t I say before? These NPC tenants usually won’t kill players unless their own lives are threatened.”

“Plus, we’re the ones snatching her snake, not Jiang Ye.”

“So worst case, Jiang Ye just gets a bad review or loses the cleaning fee—nothing serious.”

As he spoke, Yang Wenchao took out the grass-shaped item he’d bought from the High-End Mall and held it out to the black water snake.

He looked calm, but his hand was clearly trembling a little.

Only when he saw the snake flick its tongue and actually lean toward the grass did he finally exhale in relief.

Even so, he still looked tense.

While keeping a close eye on the snake, he handed a dark diamond-shaped chip to bald Jiang Ye.

“This is the cross-apartment item.”

“That console over there—you can activate it with this chip. Pay 1 Survival Point, and you can teleport to another apartment in the same region.”

“Teleporting to farther apartments costs more Survival Points and honestly isn’t worth it.”

“Of course, by accepting this chip, you’re also agreeing to the cooperation we discussed earlier.”

It was clear that Yang Wenchao was still set on getting the “mysterious bald guy” out of the apartment.

This mission seemed like it was to help him obtain a rare item,

but in reality, it was also a setup to make him offend the woman in white—

giving him a new excuse to switch apartments.

And the tight timeline left the “bald guy” no time to second-guess.

But Jiang Ye had already thought it all through.

He’d planned from the start to send a Replica into another apartment to explore.

Now, facing Yang Wenchao’s scheming, he was perfectly happy to play along.

He grabbed the diamond chip without hesitation, but frowned and said:

“What if I don’t have any Survival Points?”

“……”

Yang Wenchao looked annoyed but didn’t get suspicious.

After all, in their apartment, other than Huang Qi, who killed whom had already been figured out through group chat discussions.

And this bald guy had definitely never killed anyone.

But then he quickly remembered—

Jiang Ye had killed Ding Deng before!

So while guiding the now-dazed black water snake (which had eaten the grass) into a test tube, he turned to Jiang Ye and said firmly:

“You should have 1 Survival Point in your Survival Jade Token, right?”

“We just saved your life. Giving us that Survival Point isn’t too much to ask, is it?”

“……”

F***’s sake, didn’t we just go in a full circle again?

Jiang Ye thought: Are you seriously calling this a rescue? This whole thing was about capturing the black water snake and setting up the bald guy to leave!

But right now, his character was a regular 20th-floor tenant, so he couldn’t openly call Yang Wenchao out.

Just then, the black water snake, now dazed after consuming the grass, obediently slithered into the small test tube-like glass vial under Yang Wenchao’s guidance.

The tube was filled with a clear liquid, which looked a lot like the stuff in the water tank the woman in white had asked Jiang Ye to use to soak her hair.

Once the snake entered, it quickly transformed back into a strand of hair.

With the snake gone from his neck, Jiang Ye felt completely relieved.

He turned to Yang Wenchao and explained:

“But I hadn’t received my Survival Jade Token yet when I killed Ding Deng.”

“So my Jade Token has no Survival Points in it. If you don’t believe me, take a look—”

As he spoke, he pulled out his Survival Jade Token.

It clearly displayed a big, fat zero.

Yang Wenchao looked a little frustrated.

After all, only Survival Points stored in the Jade Token could be traded.

Any Survival Points shown on the Data Panel were untouchable—no one could take those.

But it didn’t matter…

Yang Wenchao’s eyes darkened, and he sneered:

“Fine, then—”

“If you’ve got no Survival Points, you’ll pay with yourself instead!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep