FCPADT 16

Chapter 16

Tang Yu stood at the bottom of the dormitory building, beside the storage basket, and saw the stack of blank paper that his senior mentioned — and the lunch box Shen Junxing had left for him.

Tang Yu sighed softly. He took out his phone and sent a message to Shen Junxing:

“You don’t need to bring me food anymore, and you don’t have to help me clean. I can take care of myself.”

Normally, Shen Junxing replied almost instantly, but this time, there was no response for a while — maybe he was busy with something.

Holding the stack of papers in one arm and the lunch box in the other, Tang Yu trudged upstairs with heavy steps.

Maybe the best part of living in a dormitory, he thought, was that climbing the stairs every day could be considered a form of exercise.

By the time he reached the fourth floor, Tang Yu was already out of breath, laughing bitterly to himself.

Then, he suddenly felt a strange sensation — as if someone were watching him from above.
Tang Yu lifted his head, but there was nothing there.

Up on the fifth-floor landing, a small paper figure peered down anxiously at Tang Yu on the fourth floor.
The moment Tang Yu looked up, the little paper man froze in terror — then quickly curled itself up in the corner, wrapping its arms and legs around itself until it became a tiny crumpled paper ball.

When it no longer heard Tang Yu’s footsteps, the ball unfurled back into the wrinkled little paper man.
It darted toward the sixth floor, gliding past shadowy obstacles and slipping through a crack under a door. Once inside, it frantically rustled at the dozens of paper figures gathered there.

The next second, all the paper figures that heard the message broke into a panic, hastily speeding up their movements.

One paper man carrying a bucket of dirty water ran so fast it tripped and fell — spilling filthy water all over the freshly cleaned floor.

A dark shadow beneath the doorframe quivered as if laughing mockingly at the scene.

The paper figures that had been engaged in a fierce struggle with that shadow didn’t even have time to fight back; some retreated, leaving only a few to hold the line, while the rest rushed to mop up the spilled water together.
They scrubbed the floor until it gleamed — spotless and shiny enough to reflect light. But in that mirror-like surface, what reflected back was a grimy ceiling and an old electric fan.

Having caught his breath, Tang Yu resumed climbing. Thinking about the dorm room that still needed cleaning, he could already sense how tough it would be.
Would one whole afternoon even be enough to tidy it up?

The thought made him sigh again.

He reached the sixth floor, walking down the hallway. There were strange sounds echoing from somewhere — splashing water, clattering noises — like someone was in the middle of spring cleaning.

As he drew closer, the sounds grew clearer, resembling the rustle of wind through a dense forest, or the fluttering of book pages in a summer classroom when the windows were open.

Tang Yu followed the sound until he stopped in front of Room 623.

Suddenly, everything went silent.

Total stillness — peaceful, almost unnaturally so.

Tang Yu hesitated, then reached out and opened the door.

The next instant, he froze, startled, and instinctively took a step back. He glanced up at the room number — 623 — no mistake.
He blinked hard, his blue eyes wide in disbelief, staring blankly at the spotless dorm room before him.

The green curtains had been drawn open and tied neatly to both sides, sunlight pouring in from the balcony and flooding the room with golden light.

The walls gleamed white as if freshly painted. The ladders and bed rails, once rusted, now shone as though brand new. Everything in sight was clean and orderly — the burlap sacks were gone, their contents neatly organized.
The floor was so polished that it reflected the transformed room like a mirror.

What… happened here?

Tang Yu lifted a foot, but hesitated to step inside — the floor looked too clean.
He stood at the doorway, a little lost.
“Um… may I come in?”

“You can,” came Li Sheng’s calm voice from inside.

“Senior, did… someone clean the dorm just now?” Tang Yu asked, his mind spinning.
He instinctively assumed it must have been Shen Junxing — after all, Li Sheng didn’t seem like the type… not the type who’d do something like this.
“Was it maybe my friend who came in and cleaned while I was gone?”

Before Tang Yu could finish his guess, a cold voice cut through the air from behind the bed curtain:

“I cleaned it.”

Each word was clear and firm, ringing with quiet authority.

Tang Yu, who had been doubting his eyes, now started to doubt his ears.

Li Sheng — his senior — cleaned the entire dorm, in such a short time?

Was that even possible?

Oh… well, maybe it made sense.
His senior’s stat panel was probably as high as Shen Junxing’s — perhaps he had some special ability too.

“Senior…” Tang Yu looked up, eyes full of awe, at the spotless ceiling fan that even looked newly installed.

He blinked, and the sunlight spilling in from the balcony lit up his face.
His blue eyes sparkled, wet and bright, like an ocean shimmering with golden light — overflowing with admiration and longing.

“…You’re amazing.”

For two seconds, there was silence behind the curtain. Then, a soft, almost embarrassed snort.

A gentle breeze blew through the balcony, rippling the dark curtain.
It also stirred something on the old ceiling fan — a small white object slipped off one of the blades and dropped to the floor.

Hearing the sound, Tang Yu looked down — and saw a soggy little paper man at his feet.

“Huh?”
Tang Yu crouched and picked it up carefully.

It was palm-sized, with two round black eyes, a tiny nose, and a straight line for a mouth. But because it was soaked through, the ink had run — the eyes were smudged into dark streaks like tear tracks, and the mouth had blurred into a sad frown.

Was this…

Something a former dorm resident had made for fun?

Tang Yu gently lifted the little paper man from the floor, cradling it in his palms.
He lowered his gaze, focusing on it — his long lashes gleamed like strands of gold, his blue eyes shimmering softly with a quiet melancholy.

Then those blue eyes curved slightly.

Tang Yu cupped his hands together and whispered through the tiny gap between his palms:

“You’re really cute.”

The moment he spoke, the dark curtain rustled again — though there was no wind this time.

Tang Yu looked up, puzzled.
For some reason, the light around him seemed to dim.
Heavy shadows crept across the balcony.
It was broad daylight, yet it felt as if storm clouds had gathered overhead.

What changeable weather, Tang Yu thought vaguely.

(Cut to)

“Those two definitely aren’t Shen Junxing, right…” one player muttered.

Sertraline didn’t answer.

He had only found two people named Shen Junxing — one was a child still in kindergarten, the other an elderly man living in a nursing home.
If Tang Yu and Shen Junxing were friends across generations, then maybe that old man, half a foot in the grave, could be the one.

But after checking the records, Sertraline discovered that the elderly Shen Junxing had suffered a stroke — and unless a medical miracle occurred, there was no way he could have cooked those delicious breakfasts and somehow delivered them across the country to Tang Yu.

So then…

Where was the real Shen Junxing?

Was Shen Junxing’s personal information so highly classified that even he couldn’t access it?

Meanwhile, other players had started bothering Tang Yu’s classmates, asking around at the university, trying to dig up anything about Shen Junxing.
But whether online or in person, there was nothing — no trace at all.
It was as if Shen Junxing existed only in Tang Yu’s words.

Who was he? Male or female? Young or old?
Everything about him was a mystery.

“The game obviously won’t let us cheat by using outside methods to find Shen Junxing,” said one player, rubbing his chin. “Should we ask Tang Yu again?”

“Aren’t Yan Lang and his group already sucking up to him? Let’s just wait for their intel. Maybe they’ve gotten something.”

“Hey, look at the forum! Yan Lang’s team just triggered a hidden quest!”

“What? Seriously? Let me see!”

“Damn, I should’ve followed them! They even got key information!”

“…”

Hearing that, Sertraline opened the player forum as well.

The forum wasn’t just for closed beta players — even the “cloud players,” who were desperately waiting for access to Eerie Revival, could view posts.
Since most beta players were too absorbed in the game to post much, the cloud players were the most active.

Eerie Revival, promoted as the world’s first full-immersion holographic game, had skyrocketed in popularity.
Yan Lang’s post had only been up for half an hour but already had tens of thousands of views and thousands of comments — it was trending.

[Post Title]: #《Eerie Revival》 Beta Review — I’m Blowing This Game Up!#

[Main Post]

Long time no see, I’m Yan Lang, one of the first beta players! I’m honored to have received early access to Eerie Revival.
No nonsense — here’s my first-hand experience with this revolutionary full-immersion game!

One sentence: It’s. Absolutely. Amazing.

Eerie Revival feels like a second world — from freedom and realism to graphics and NPC interaction, it’s absolutely top-tier!