Doll Survival Game - Chapter 103 - 35686
The words Luo Yiran spoke lingered in Xia Lang’s mind for a long time, even haunting his dreams after he fell asleep again. When he opened his eyes once more, he took a moment to shake off the remnants of his dream. Instinctively, he glanced at the makeshift bed he had set up for Luo Yiran on the table, only to find it empty. Luo Yiran had moved to the window instead.
Xia Lang was momentarily taken aback. He got up and walked over. “Ranran, aren’t you going to rest?”
The doll turned around, his eyes bright in the darkness. The night breeze lifted his hair and long dress, giving him an ethereal, almost fragile appearance. “I’ve rested enough.”
Though rest wasn’t necessary for him, he had still slept for a few hours.
However.
“Time has passed, but the sky hasn’t brightened.”
Xia Lang was puzzled for a moment, then the room lights flickered on. He glanced at the time; it was already past eight in the morning.
He hadn’t noticed the darkness upon waking, and given how exhausted he was, he had assumed he had only slept for an hour or two…
“So from now on,” Xia Lang rested his hand on the window ledge beside the doll, gazing at the starry sky outside. The wind tousled his bangs, and his voice carried a hint of melancholy. “We won’t see the sun again.”
The doll looked out at the sea and sky. “You missed the last sun that rose in the Fairy Tale Forest yesterday.”
Xia Lang smiled. “As long as you saw it.”
The doll lowered his head and opened the notification on his holographic display. “The ‘Eternal Night’ update is complete.”
Xia Lang was taken aback, then he opened his own notification. “Really? Does it say anything?”
“Dear players,” the doll read aloud, his voice devoid of emotion, sounding almost like the system itself. “‘The ‘Eternal Night’ update is complete. From now on, the world will remain in perpetual darkness.'”
Xia Lang watched the notification as Luo Yiran continued reading, his eyes widening. “All players in this mode cannot exit the game. Current total player count: 35,686…”
Xia Lang stopped, unable to continue reading the rest. “Is this… for real?”
Luo Yiran remained silent, sending a message to the group to ask if anyone was at the organization base. Just as he sent the message, he paused, his red eyes snapping towards the door of Xia Lang’s room.
Knock, knock, knock.
The rhythmic knocking startled Xia Lang so much he nearly tumbled out the window. Knocking? There was no place to stand outside his door; how could anyone be knocking?
And if it were a teammate visiting, they wouldn’t be outside the door. Whether it was Guan Cheng or Via, they always appeared directly inside his room!
“Ran, Ranran…” Xia Lang edged back, his eyes wide with fear. “Outside?”
Luo Yiran thoughtfully touched his chin, then glanced at the replies in the organization group. He said, “Let’s just leave.”
Xia Lang looked down, realization dawning on him.
Outside, black wings flapped gently, and gray hair floated in the air. The magician hovered naturally in mid-air, reaching out with his bandaged hand to knock again when he suddenly paused.
The magician chuckled softly. “Gone again.”
He didn’t rush to follow but instead flew up to the roof of Xia Lang’s room. The sea breeze hit him, and he gazed out at the endless ocean, the bandages on his face unmoving.
After a moment, he raised his right hand to rest on his left arm. “How annoying.”
Villa.
The doll and Xia Lang landed lightly on the sofa. Xia Lang took a moment to steady himself and patted his chest, “That was scary.”
Lin Ye had slept directly in the villa last night. Now, dressed in black pajamas and holding a can of beer, he stood by the window. Hearing the commotion, he turned around leisurely, “What’s up?”
Beer in the morning?
Xia Lang’s gaze flickered over the beer in Lin Ye’s hand, “Someone knocked on the door of my personal space.”
Lin Ye hadn’t been to Xia Lang’s personal space, and in his own space, visitors either knocked or entered directly. So he didn’t find the knocking unusual, “Was it a visitor?”
Xia Lang shook his head, “There’s no place to stand outside my door.”
Luo Yiran stood up on the sofa, which was soft and squishy. He swayed a bit before steadying himself, “The one knocking was the magician.”
“…”
No one spoke.
Luo Yiran looked up.
Just then, Zhang Mimi, who had come down from upstairs, burst into laughter, “Doll, what are you wearing? Hahaha!”
Luo Yiran: “…”
Lin Ye looked at him thoughtfully and then asked, “Do you want to try a leather skirt?”
Doll: “???”
Zhang Mimi came down in a few steps and gave Lin Ye a hearty slap, “He can’t wear your skirts; the doll’s only palm-sized!”
“…”
Lin Ye and Zhang Mimi’s words carried quite a bit of information.
Feeling a bit anxious, Xia Lang squeezed closer to the doll, but the doll was only palm-sized now and couldn’t provide much comfort. So Xia Lang awkwardly explained, “Ranran’s clothes were forced on him by the magician.”
“Wow, that’s twisted,” Zhang Mimi responded reflexively, then pointed at Lin Ye, “It’s better to be like Lin Ye and wear what you want.”
The doll didn’t respond, leaving Xia Lang to awkwardly add, “Yeah, but I haven’t seen Lin Ye-Ge wear them…”
Lin Ye, with his red hair tied in a ponytail, replied calmly, “Because it’s inconvenient for moving around.”
Luo Yiran interrupted the awkward conversation, “Have Via and the others arrived?”
Zhang Mimi pointed upwards, “They’re upstairs. There’s a training room on the third floor. They’re testing items and training Duan Miaomiao’s close combat skills… Miaomiao paid with items as tuition.”
He paused, then sighed, “Yesterday, Miaomiao planned to slack off for a bit, but after seeing the update notification, she got motivated. You saw it too, right?”
Xia Lang nodded, his tone incredulous, “I read it several times, thinking I must have misunderstood.”
“You didn’t,” Lin Ye said, downing his beer before crushing the empty can and tossing it into the trash, “In two weeks, the game will update again.”
“So that means after two more instances, the third mode will arrive, and the organizational battle will start at 9 PM on the last day of the second week.” Lin Ye calculated the dates in his mind, “July 4th for the organizational battle, July 5th for the game update.”
Xia Lang’s lips twitched slightly. “Isn’t the main issue the number of people?”
Lin Ye looked up. “Indeed, the most terrifying part of the notification is the certainty that before the next game update, the number of players will drastically drop from thirty-five thousand to below one thousand.”
The notification was very definitive, as if this outcome was inevitable in two weeks.
“Thirty-four thousand people will die in two weeks…” Xia Lang’s eyelashes trembled.
Zhang Mimi brushed his bangs to the side. “This shows that the instances over the next two weeks and the organizational battle on the last day will be terrifying.”
“The organizational battle might directly eliminate players upon task failure, with no punishment instance to follow,” the doll said calmly. “A mountain of corpses for a single revival potion… But since the game states that only a thousand will remain in two weeks, the difficulty of all instances during this period will be quite high.”
Massive deaths won’t just occur in the organizational battles.
Speaking of this, Lin Ye thought of something. “Doll, are you planning to go to this week’s instance alone?”
Luo Yiran looked up. “No, I’ll go with Xia Lang.”
Lin Ye glanced at Zhang Mimi, who stepped forward with a grin. “Can Yuan Mo and I tag along with you?”
The doll was taken aback.
Lin Ye explained, “Because Yuan Mo wants to follow you, and I plan to have Mimi train Yuan Mo, so they’ll both accompany you. If the instance takes a long time, they can train within it.”
“After all, the organizational battle is approaching.”
Zhang Mimi looked up at the stairs. “Lin Ye will take Miaomiao with Li Qi Feng and the others. We discussed this morning that it’s best not to have everyone together. If the instance allows only a few participants, we might end up in a situation where we have to fight each other… Although the probability of such a small instance appearing is low given the elimination rate, better safe than sorry!”
The doll was indifferent. “That’s fine.”
Xia Lang pointed at himself, his eyes filled with confusion. “Don’t I need to train?”
Zhang Mimi paused. “Little brother, our grouping means the two of us will take Yuan Mo.” Over there, the others will take Duan Miaomiao.
But this only applies when external forces like items aren’t considered.
Xia Lang panicked. “…” He’s taking Yuan Mo, isn’t something wrong here?
Luo Yiran noticed Zhang Mimi’s mention of two people taking Yuan Mo. He looked at his own ball-jointed fingers-indeed, with this body, he couldn’t join any side.
“If Yuan Mo really can’t manage, just focus on increasing his stamina,” Lin Ye said without a hint of worry, recalling what Yuan Mo had mentioned the previous night. “His spirit serpent isn’t just a healing item; even if he can’t do anything, his chances of survival are several times higher than others.”
Zhang Mimi stretched out his thin arms and legs. “Let’s try to train him back into that muscle-bound guy!”
Xia Lang, unsure of his role, stood up in a daze. “I should go find Via and dissolve the teammate relationship first.” If not dissolved, they’d be dragged into the instance together.
And any other confusing matters could be set aside for now.
Zhang Mimi went up with Xia Lang. “I’ll go too. We need to establish a teammate relationship later.”
Lin Ye glanced at the doll’s dress, then extended a hand to Luo Yiran. “There’s a room for each member on the second floor; maybe yours has clothes that fit you.”
The doll’s silver thread reached out, hooking onto Xia Lang’s clothes, and in a blink, he was perched on Xia Lang’s head. “Thanks, but Xia Lang can take me up.”
Lin Ye chuckled. “Alright…”
Before he could finish, Lin Ye suddenly looked out the window-something seemed to have flashed by just now.
Arriving at the door on the second floor marked with Luo Yiran’s name, Xia Lang opened it. “Ranran, see if there’s any clothes you can change into. I’ll head upstairs.”
“Oh, and if you need to come out, just send me a message.”
“I can move using the silver thread,” Luo Yiran replied casually. “Don’t worry about me.”
He had just thought to come along since it was on the way.
Zhang Mimi hooked an arm around Xia Lang’s neck. “Relax, your buddy can fly using the silver thread.”
Xia Lang acknowledged with a nod and waved as he followed Zhang Mimi up to the third floor.
Luo Yiran entered the room and glanced around, noticing that most of the furniture was sized for normal people, except for the “room” on the table.
Everything on that table was miniature-small bed, small wardrobe-almost like a box without a box space.
Click.
The sound of the door closing made Luo Yiran turn sharply, and he saw the magician, towering like a mountain to him, standing straight at the entrance. His black wings unfurled as the door shut, casting a massive shadow that loomed over him.
The magician crouched down, holding a black JK skirt in his hand, his tone exceedingly gentle. “Young master, you can’t wear clothes that aren’t made by me.”
The doll sighed lightly-he wasn’t surprised, but rather felt a sense of inevitability.
Expressionless, he let the magician lift him up, and then heard him say, “Here, the first outfit of the day.”
“Don’t worry, young master, it’s a long skirt, no chance of exposure.”
“…”
Beep-
The doll cursed inwardly.