Prologue Never Daring to Explore New Restaurants Again (New Book Release—Please Add to Your Collection, Recommend, and Support! Thank you!)

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In the corridor of the men’s dormitory at Dais Academy, hurried footsteps echoed, growing louder as they approached.

Xiao Wangyan climbed the stairs, gasping for breath, veins bulging on his forehead, his face etched with unmistakable terror.

After sprinting all the way here, he felt the world spinning and mumbled to himself, half in a nightmare:

Damn it... Why did I go there to check out that place... Why did I provoke that person...

Images of his two roommates' horrific deaths flashed repeatedly through his mind. His hands and feet shook violently, his heart pounding so fiercely it felt ready to burst from his chest.

He regretted it bitterly—why had he listened to the third roommate’s nonsense? Why had he used the excuse of “exploring a new restaurant” just to score a free meal?

Now... it was all over...

Ever since he’d uploaded that video reviewing the place, Xiao Wangyan had been dogged by a sense of foreboding, a constant feeling that something terrible was looming.

Today, that sinister shadow finally manifested, and though it felt like a death sentence, he was also overwhelmed by a bone-deep chill.

Just last night, both his roommates died in horrifying, inexplicable ways.

The eldest had gone to the Civil Aviation Park in the dead of night, and at the park’s largest airplane model, began smashing his head against the plane’s wing, again and again, until his skull exploded, blood splattering everywhere.

The third roommate, on that same dark, windy night, snuck into a farmhouse, butchered a fat pig in the pen with a cleaver, then forced his own head inside the severed pig’s head, suffocating himself.

When he died, the grotesque pig’s head was almost perfectly fused with his own, blood pooling across the floor—an utterly bizarre sight.

These two murders exploded across the campus overnight, spreading rapidly through every group chat, microblog, forum, and short video platform.

To prevent panic before the facts were clear, the academy held back any official announcement.

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When Xiao Wangyan saw the news in the group chat, he was stunned with fear.

He’d been gaming all night at an internet café, but the moment he saw the messages, he abandoned his game and immediately tried to contact the fourth roommate. But no matter if he sent messages or called, there was no reply.

Sensing something was very wrong, Xiao Wangyan rushed back from the café in a panic, desperate to warn the fourth roommate.

But to his astonishment, when he burst into the dorm, he found the fourth roommate lounging casually, still playing League of Legends on his phone as if nothing had happened.

Xiao Wangyan was furious, and couldn’t help but shout,

“Are you insane? Something huge just happened!”

The fourth roommate, relaxed on the upper bunk, didn’t even glance at Xiao Wangyan, his fingers tapping at the screen as he cursed his teammates in the game.

“Rock, are you an idiot? Use your ult, use your ult, hurry up and use your ult!”

Xiao Wangyan rushed to the bed, shaking the frame violently and shouting,

“Hey, check the school group! We need to get to the security office now. We’re in danger!”

“What’s the panic? Danger... the only danger right now is their jungler counter-jungling me,” the fourth replied, unhurried.

Xiao Wangyan’s teeth ground in frustration. He wanted to smash the phone right then and there. He snapped,

“I can’t believe you! Just look at the school or class group chat for one second. Everything’s blowing up. How can you still play games? The eldest and the third are dead!”

“Heh, you’re really working on your acting lately, huh? But you still overdo it. What, am I supposed to jump down and rush over, only to find them dead at Baron?” the fourth joked, laughing from his bunk.

Xiao Wangyan was at his wit’s end and cursed,

“You’re so stubborn! Maybe you should really unscrew your head and give it a spin. Can’t you just check your messages for once?”

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Before Xiao Wangyan could finish, there was a thud from above—the sound of a phone hitting a face—and then sudden silence.

“Hey... what are you doing up there...” Xiao Wangyan called, uneasy, as he climbed the bunk.

But the moment he reached the top, he recoiled in horror and fell back to the floor.

His roommate stared at him, eyes bloodshot, face ashen and lips streaked with blood, a noose tightly wound around his neck.

The roommate’s arms twisted at unnatural angles, straining to wrench his own head aside, as if exerting even more force.

Dear God! He’d only joked about unscrewing his head, and his roommate was actually doing it.

Xiao Wangyan’s mind short-circuited with terror, on the verge of collapse.

“Aaaah—”

A piercing, blood-curdling scream tore from Room 514 of Building 4 at Dais Academy, echoing through the halls.

But the dorm supervisor, long accustomed to the dorm’s nightly madness, simply banged on the radiator and kept sipping his spirits.

Little could he have imagined the horror unfolding in 514, nor could he have guessed the strange, gruesome sight he’d soon witness—

An ordinary college student, goaded by a roommate’s casual jibe, obeyed without hesitation and broke his own neck, dying right there in the dormitory.