Second floor of the dormitory.
Led by secretary Chika, Natsuki quickly met Chika's two 'roommates'.
In the dim room, there was only one candle, emitting a faint green candlelight.
Chika's two roommates were both female. The two roommates did not talk to each other and went about their own business. One roommate was combing her hair. The comb was not an ordinary comb, but a rich woman's pleasure brush. Upon closer inspection, it was already bloody and fleshy, but the woman didn't care and kept combing her hair.
The other roommate was eating her fingers. That was literally eating, not just biting for fun. The tips of all ten fingers had already turned into stark white bones, and sticky saliva was still clinging to them.
In short, it was very eerie and unsettling. Even for players, sharing a room with such roommates would inevitably make them nervous.
"So scary..."
The passerby player whispered, her face slightly pale, cautiously hiding behind Natsuki.
Natsuki, however, looked as usual. He first walked to the woman combing her hair near the door and politely asked:
"Miss, do you have any thoughts about changing dormitories?"
"..."
The woman combing her hair completely ignored him, continuing to comb her hair at her own pace.
Natsuki wasn't angry; when asking someone to move out, it was only proper to try persuasion before force.
"How about one sin coin to move out?"
When polite inquiry failed, Natsuki took out a sin coin, attempting to use money to persuade her.
"…"
This time, the woman finally stopped combing her hair, extending a pale right hand directly towards the sin coin in Natsuki's hand.
Natsuki quickly pulled his right hand back.
Without hesitation, the woman's fingernails suddenly grew sharp, stabbing towards Natsuki's abdomen.
"Clap."
Natsuki grabbed her wrist, saying unhurriedly, "Miss, you should think carefully; once you make a move, I'll have a legitimate reason to retaliate."
"…"
The woman tried to break free from his grip but felt as if her right hand was cast in steel, completely immobile. She finally settled down, looked up, revealing a pale face with only whites for eyes, and said in a hoarse voice, "Give it to me… and I'll move out."
"That's better."
Natsuki smiled and handed over the sin coin.
It proved that money really could make a ghost turn a millstone, and evil spirits were no exception.
The woman, true to her word, quickly got up after receiving the sin coin, gripping her steel hairbrush. She swayed as she walked out, quickly leaving the dormitory.
"Um…" The player quietly asked, "If she leaves the dormitory, where will she stay tonight?"
Hayasaka placed her right hand on her hip, looking over with a half-smile, "Ryoko-chan is so concerned, why don't you follow her and see? You can come back and tell us once you find out."
"No, no, no." The player quickly shook her head, covering her mouth with both hands, "I was just a little curious."
Natsuki then walked over to another roommate, again using money to pave the way.
"Miss, could I ask you to stay out for the night and not return to the dormitory?"
Natsuki spoke while taking out a sin coin.
"Giggle, giggle…"
The woman gnawed on her fingers, then looked up with crimson eyes at everyone, her voice sharp: "Get out… Don't bother me, or else…"
Natsuki directly pulled out a handful of sin coins, holding them in front of the woman, and smiled, "Or else what?"
The woman: "…"
It was proven once again that money could indeed solve ninety-nine percent of the world's problems.
If it didn't solve them, it was likely that you hadn't given enough money.
The woman, who had initially been sneering and gnawing on her fingers, saw the entire handful of sin coins, and her eyes immediately softened. She stopped eating her fingers and quickly got up, vacating her bed: "I'll go out right away!"
Taking the sin coins, the woman turned and walked out without hesitation. When she reached the dormitory door, she paused, turned back to Natsuki, and asked with hopeful eyes, "Do you want to rent a dormitory together tomorrow?"
"…"
"Bang."
The door closed.
With the two evil spirit roommates gone, the dormitory instantly became the players' exclusive area.
"The President gave us too much money," Chika said, putting her hands on her hips, unable to resist complaining, "It feels so wasteful."
"Spend it if you have it; you can't take it out of the instance anyway," Natsuki said indifferently. "So, how do you want to divide the beds?"
The dormitory environment in the park was very ordinary, only twenty square meters in size. There was a table in the middle of the aisle for miscellaneous items, and bunk beds on both sides.
"Hmm…" Chika pondered, "How about we all squeeze in?"
The beds were narrow, and squeezing in to sleep would be quite uncomfortable, but in an instance, safety naturally came first; comfort and such were secondary.
"Squeezing in is fine," Mitsui-san said softly, "Safety is most important."
"Mhm, mhm." The passerby player quickly nodded, "Mitsui-san is absolutely right. Although the bed is a bit small, it's already super satisfying compared to being in the same room as an evil spirit."
Kaguya and Yukino naturally had no objections, so everyone unanimously voted to pass.
At this moment, there were seven people in the dormitory: Kaguya, Hayasaka, Yukino, Chika, Mitsui-san, the passerby player, plus Natsuki. It worked out perfectly with two girls sharing a bed, and Natsuki having one bed to himself.
As night deepened, the dormitory building gradually quieted down.
The candle on the miscellaneous table slowly extinguished, leaving only the last flicker of embers. The girls also stopped talking and began to rest.
Natsuki lay on the lower bunk by the door, eyes closed, not resting but silently keeping watch.
Although the two roommates had left, there was no guarantee they wouldn't sneak back in at night, so it was impossible to completely relax. A night watch was very necessary.
After an unknown amount of time, Natsuki suddenly heard someone quietly getting out of bed, followed by soft footsteps approaching his side.
"Natsuki-kun…"
A timid call softly echoed in Natsuki's ear.
It was the passerby player.
Natsuki opened his eyes and turned to look. In the dim dormitory, he could barely make out shapes. He whispered, "Is something wrong?"
"Th-that…" The passerby player's face flushed slightly, her hands clasped in front of her chest, her expression seemingly difficult to articulate, she stammered softly, "I want to go to the restroom…"
"Then go."
"But there's no restroom in the dormitory…"
The old dormitories in the park had poor conditions and indeed no private restrooms. To use the restroom, one had to leave the dormitory and go to the ends of the hallway.
The passerby player said softly, her face red, "I'm a little scared by myself… Natsuki, could you please accompany me?"
Natsuki said exasperatedly, "You're sleeping with Mitsui-san, aren't you? Why don't you ask Mitsui to go with you?"
"Mitsui-san is already asleep, and I don't want to wake her…" The passerby player whispered, "So I can only ask Natsuki, please, please, will you?"
"…"
At the same time, Kaguya lying on the upper bunk opened her eyes, listening intently, and unconsciously puffed out her pink cheeks.
Something was off.
Very off.
They had only known each other for half a day, so why could she speak to the President with such a familiar tone?
"Eh, wait—"
A flash of insight suddenly struck Kaguya's mind, and she finally realized what was wrong.
A girl, going to the restroom in the middle of the night, should find another girl of the same gender to accompany her. To ignore other girls and directly ask a boy for company was too strange!
Could it be that she wanted to do something strange to the President in the restroom?
"Please, Natsuki-kun, will you?"
Listening to the passerby player's almost coquettish voice, Kaguya finally couldn't bear it anymore. She flipped over and sat up, gritting her teeth, "Suzuki-san, I'll go to the restroom with you!"
In the darkness, Hayasaka opened her eyes and smiled, "I haven't fallen asleep either. Let's go together."
"I'm still awake," Mitsui-san's voice followed, "So there's no need to trouble Natsuki."
The passerby player: "…"
Since everyone was awake, she naturally couldn't ask Natsuki to accompany her anymore. The passerby player could only glumly get up and leave the dormitory with Kaguya and the others.
The dormitory became quiet once again.
During the group activity just now, apart from Chika, who was sound asleep and hadn't been woken, only Yukino hadn't spoken.
Natsuki couldn't sleep no matter what, so he quietly got up and looked towards the upper bunk.
Yukino and Chika were sleeping together. Chika was on the inside, sleeping very soundly, while Yukino was on the outside, slightly turned, with her back to Chika.
"Yukino, are you asleep?"
Natsuki asked softly.
Yukino quietly opened one eye, her gaze puzzled, her lips slightly parted, and she whispered, "What do you want?"
"As expected, you weren't asleep," Natsuki said, "Why didn't you say anything just now?"
Yukino closed her eyes again, saying calmly, "I don't need to go to the restroom, so I didn't want to speak."
Yukino initially thought Natsuki was just making small talk, but she soon felt a familiar warm breath on her face.
"What are you doing?!"
Yukino suddenly opened her beautiful eyes, looking at Natsuki who had quietly moved closer.
"I was tossing and turning, couldn't sleep no matter what," Natsuki said solemnly, "Finally, I looked it up and found the reason I couldn't sleep… Yukino hasn't given me a goodnight kiss yet."
"Heh heh."
Yukino's eyes showed disdain, looking at him as if he were kitchen waste.
Natsuki said shamelessly, "When I saved you on Mount Everest, Yukino promised me that my kissing time hasn't run out yet. Yukino wouldn't go back on her word, would she?"
"You…" Yukino gritted her teeth, her eyes filled with shame and anger, "Chika is right here. Let's talk about it next time!"
However, Natsuki didn't stop; instead, he continued to press closer, lowering his voice, "Don't move… You don't want Chika to find out, do you?"
Yukino: "…"
Shameless!
Lewd!
Chika is right beside me, and you're still trying to sneak around behind her back. Don't you have any guilt or shame?!
If looks could kill, Natsuki would be riddled with holes by now.
But alas, they couldn't.
To avoid waking Chika beside her, Yukino could only endure the humiliation while glaring with her beautiful, mortified eyes.
But Natsuki wanted to tease her even more. If she just lay there like a wooden doll, it wouldn't be fun. This expression of shame and anger, yet being unable to refuse, made him unable to stop!
He had promised to only kiss for one minute, but Natsuki couldn't stop. Yukino, however, was keeping track of the time and wanted to push him away, but she was worried about disturbing Chika behind her, so she could only silently endure.
He didn't know how long it had been, until the sound of girls' footsteps echoed at the door, Natsuki finally let go of Yukino and quickly returned to his bed to lie down.
"Huff… huff…"
Yukino's breathing was slightly ragged, her pretty face was flushed, and she clenched her fists in shame and anger, utterly furious.
Just you wait till tomorrow!
Kaguya and the others pushed the door open and returned, the girls each lay down, continuing to rest, and the dormitory became quiet once more.
The night passed without a word.
The next day.
It was a brand new park life.
After everyone had a simple breakfast, Natsuki casually said:
"We still have an hour until work, let's go to the casino first and complete the 'Legend of the Gambler' side quest."
Hayasaka nodded and said:
"Alright, we're just sitting around anyway."
Natsuki said:
"Let's make it quick. You can just follow my bets."
"…"
"Strange… Where do they get such confidence?"
The passerby player sitting in the corner looked over in surprise.
The Legend of the Gambler side quest required winning over a thousand sin coins at the casino. Although she had never been to a casino, she knew very well that in such places, the only people who truly won money were the dealers; ordinary people were just there to be fleeced.
Natsuki seemed to have won a lot of sin coins from the casino yesterday, and today he actually wanted to take everyone to win together?2
It couldn't be that easy, could it?
"However, if you win too much, you'll attract the attention of the thugs, and then they'll rob you on the way." Natsuki extended his right hand to Hayasaka, "So… let's paste some skills first."
"What does 'paste skills' mean…?"
The passerby player quietly perked up her ears, not asking any questions.
After the incident of going to the restroom together last night, she had clearly noticed the girls' hostility towards her. At this time, it was better to try to reduce her presence, so after waking up this morning, she had become much quieter and more obedient.
Hayasaka extended her right hand, allowing Natsuki to hold it.
"Chika first." Natsuki turned his head and said, "Everyone line up."
"Yay!"
Chika stepped forward, took Natsuki's other hand, and began to paste the transformation skill.
After Chika finished pasting, Mitsui was next, followed by Kaguya and Yukino.
It must be said, Yukino had grown a lot.
If it were before, after being threatened and taken advantage of by others, she would absolutely not have any further contact with the other party, but at this moment, she was able to let Natsuki help her paste skills with a normal expression, though disgust and shame occasionally flashed in her eyes.
A moment later.
Chika said in a clear voice:
"Ryoko-chan, come over here, let the President help you paste skills."
"Eh?" The passerby player cautiously asked, "Um… can I too?"
"Of course you can!" Chika put her hands on her hips and explained the principle of pasting skills, "It's very easy, you just need to hold hands for five minutes."
"Then I'll trouble Natsuki…"
The passerby player was initially skeptical, but as Natsuki pasted the transformation skill over, watching the new skill icon appear on her skill panel, the passerby player's eyes suddenly lit up.
Pasting skills… it literally meant that!
Being able to paste temporary skills onto others was too exaggerated, and that glimpse just now, countless different skills… The passerby player couldn't help but take a deep breath.
She had previously thought Natsuki was just an ordinary experienced player, but now she suddenly realized she was wrong.
The high school boy in front of her was not ordinary at all; he was clearly a expert and a strong player!
Damn it, I almost missed out!
I'm taking this guy, not even Jesus can stop me!