# 55
Chapter 55
An Qingyu – First Appearance (Day 3, four updates today)
“I… I didn’t expect this many.” Li Yifei sighed.
“We’re grateful you came down to save us.” The boy bowed slightly. “But unfortunately, your evacuation plan won’t work.”
“Then what better idea do you have?”
“Hold the line.” His voice was calm. “These monsters look scary, but they’re not so strong we can’t fight back. As long as we keep reinforcing the doors and windows, we can stall them. I believe specialists will come for us soon.”
Li Yifei studied the thin, mild-looking boy in glasses.
“I still don’t know your name.”
“An Qingyu.”
“An Qingyu? The one who ranks first in the whole city?” Li Yifei’s eyes widened.
“Grades mean nothing to me.” An Qingyu’s gaze drifted to the nauseating scraps of flesh outside the corridor, an odd light flickering in his eyes.
“Looks like this world… is far more interesting than I thought.”
For some reason, Li Yifei felt a chill run down his spine.
“Since you won’t come with me, I’ll head back to the fifth floor.” He turned to leave; he wasn’t needed here, and plenty of students remained upstairs.
“I’m afraid you can’t leave now.”
An Qingyu stepped to the window and pointed: three monsters were sprinting up the right stairwell, another three climbing the left.
They were surrounded.
Worse, one monster casually shredded the thick rope dangling outside the corridor, cutting off their only way back.
Li Yifei’s pupils shrank.
With chairs and a fire-axe they might kill two monsters, but six at once meant certain death.
“Quick! Block the door again!”
Desks and chairs were hastily shoved back into place. Seconds later the monsters slammed against them, teeth and claws rattling the barricade till it groaned.
Twenty-odd boys pushed with every ounce of strength, faces purple.
Inside, girls screamed and huddled in corners; the remaining boys looked equally grim.
Only the frail An Qingyu stood aside, frowning in thought.
“Kill two, and six appear—implies a neural network controlled by a central brain, human-level intelligence.
But how did they know to cut the rope?
Even if vision is shared, when Li Yifei slid down, no monster had line of sight… so how did they identify the rope as the link between floors?
Also—”
While he pondered, Li Yifei at the front line felt the push forcing them step by step back.
“Damn… we can’t hold it!”
The instant strength failed, a figure flashed past the window.
A crescent of pale-blue light; a monstrous head flew high.
Before the other five reacted, the figure twisted in an impossible stance and slashed again—shoulder to hip, one clean cut.
Blood fountained; the remaining four lunged—only to freeze as the intruder’s eyes blazed like twin furnaces, terrifying divine pressure crashing over them.
A second crescent swept through four necks in a single fluid arc.
The boy landed, Straight Blade sliding back into its sheath, school uniform spattered crimson.
Students gaped.
A classmate—just a high-schooler—had dropped six monsters in seconds.
“Qiye! You’re finally here!” Li Yifei’s voice cracked with relief. “I thought you’d ditched me.”
“Spare me the drama.” Lin Qiye rolled his eyes.
“Classmate… are you here to save us?” someone asked tremulously.
“Something like that.” Lin Qiye nodded, then turned to Li Yifei. “Brief me.”
Li Yifei collected himself.
“After that first roar, most monsters went berserk; the whole building’s chaos.
Fourth floor’s still okay, but on the first floor one class half-turned and slaughtered the rest, blocking the stairs. Anyone jumping from the second floor was torn apart.
So everyone fled upward.
I led some fighters, cleared the fifth floor, then sealed the stairwell and waited. When we heard survivors on three, we came down.”
“How did you handle the ‘maybe-human’ ones?”
“Good thing you warned me about Han Ruoruo. She hadn’t transformed, blended in, but I spotted her. To avoid alerting her, I locked her and several close contacts—guys from her dorm plus a few girls—in a classroom under watch.”
Lin Qiye exhaled. “Lucky you were here; casualties would’ve been worse.”
Li Yifei scratched his head, grinning. “With a performance like this, I’m basically Night Watch material, right?”
“Pretty much.”
Lin Qiye sensed a stare and turned.
The thin boy in glasses looked at him the way a biologist eyes a rare specimen ripe for dissection.
“You are…?”
An Qingyu stepped forward, offering a polite handshake. “Hello, I’m An Qingyu.”
Lin Qiye hesitated, then clasped the hand.
“Lin Qiye.”