With time pressing, Ye Li quickly tied the rope and climbed up to the top bunk.
The edge of the top floor's roof extended outward nearly twenty centimeters past the edge of the balcony, and above that was a waterproofing gutter about thirty centimeters high.
If Ye Li wanted to reach the rim of the gutter, she would have to lean her entire body out—an extremely dangerous move, not to mention having to climb up afterward.
After thinking for a moment, she had Yi Lin and the other two bring over the wooden desk from the room. She placed it upside down with the tabletop resting against the bedboards, one end sticking out past the bed, and had the three girls press down on the other end to prevent the desk from flipping over when she stepped on it.
Then, bracing one hand against the ceiling, Ye Li turned sideways and slowly edged onto the overhanging section of the tabletop. Under her weight, the weathered wood instantly creaked and groaned.
At that moment, beneath her feet was nothing but a five-centimeter-thick plank and a dizzying height; a single misstep would send her plunging into the churning darkness.
The bone-chilling wind howled, carrying the stench of dust and rust straight into her nostrils, choking enough to make one sneeze.
Holding her breath, Ye Li first tossed the half-javelin tied to the rope up onto the roof. Only then did she reach up, feeling around until her fingers hooked firmly over the rim of the waterproofing gutter.
She tightened her grip, kicked off hard from the wooden board, and used that momentum to haul herself up with considerable effort.
By the time she successfully scrambled onto the roof, both of her arms were trembling faintly—a clear sign of exhaustion.
Yet Ye Li couldn't afford to rest. Catching her breath for just a moment, she scrambled to her feet to find an anchor point for the rope.
In the end, she chose to tie the rope around a pillar of the seismic reinforcement frame.
After judging the distance, Ye Li secured the rope around its midpoint, leaving two strands hanging down just in case.
Just as she finished anchoring the rope, a commotion suddenly erupted from below.
Ye Li hurried to the edge with the rope in hand and peered down.
The balcony of Room 802 was now swarming with rotting corpses, claws bared and teeth gnashing toward Yi Lin and the other two.
There was a gap between the balconies; the rotting corpses had stiff joints and were nowhere near as agile as living humans, so from time to time, one would tumble off while trying to climb across.
Although the monsters couldn't cross over right away, those gruesome faces festering with decayed flesh and their starving, ravenous howls were still enough to send chills down one's spine.
Frightened out of their wits, Yi Lin and the other two had curled up on the opposite side of the balcony, trembling like leaves.
Ye Li lowered the rope immediately and urged, “Hurry up and climb!”
Only then did the three snap out of it and scramble to move.
According to the order arranged beforehand, Fang Wen was supposed to go first, but right then, Yi Lin grabbed hold of the bed's ladder and wouldn't let go.
“Get out of my way! Let me go first! I'm going up first!”
She yelled, trying to scramble up heedlessly.
With crisis breathing down her neck, she had completely laid bare her selfish nature.
The other two seemed long accustomed to being dominated by her, not even daring to contest it.
Ye Li's face darkened. “Let Fang Wen come up first! I can't pull you up!”
She didn't care about who went first; she only cared about whatever maximized everyone's chances of survival.
“I can climb up on my own too!” Yi Lin quickly promised.
“Really?” Ye Li sneered, not bothering to waste words on her. “Then I'll untie the rope. Climb up yourself!”
Yi Lin froze. A glint of malice and indignation flashed through her eyes, but she had no way to argue back.
She knew that without the rope, it was utterly impossible for her to climb up on her own. In the end, she had no choice but to compromise. Stepping down resentfully from the ladder, she let Fang Wen go first.
Fang Wen stood 1.7 meters tall with long limbs. With the safety rope tied around her waist, she made it to the roof without much trouble.
Yet just as she untied the rope, terrified shrieks from Yi Lin and Chen Xiaoxiao suddenly rang out from below.
It turned out that the dorm lock had been completely busted. Although the door remained jammed shut by several bunk beds barricading it from inside, several mangled, rotting arms—their flesh torn to the bone—had already forced their way through the door crack, clawing and pushing frantically into the room.
“The door's open! They're coming in! Hurry up! Hurry!” Yi Lin screamed in sheer panic from below.
Just then, Chen Xiaoxiao grabbed her sleeve, pleading with a miserable face, “Yi Lin, can you let me go up first? It's really hard to climb in my clothes, and I climb slowly.”
She was still wearing that miniskirt and tall boots, which made climbing extremely awkward.
Yi Lin frowned and flatly refused. “No! You said it yourself, you climb slowly! If the monsters break in before you make it up, what happens to me?”
Chen Xiaoxiao still didn't give up, shaking her arm and begging, “Please, Yi Lin, just let me go first! You're so thin, they can just pull you straight up afterward!”
Right at that moment, the rope was finally lowered from above.
“I said no! Get off me!” Lost to impatience, Yi Lin shoved Chen Xiaoxiao violently to the floor, scrambled onto the bed on all fours, and grabbed the rope to tie around her waist.
Once she finished securing the rope, seeing Chen Xiaoxiao still sitting there on the floor, she frowned and barked, “What are you just sitting there for? Hurry up and hold the desk down for me!”
Resentment flared in Chen Xiaoxiao's eyes, but she dared not voice her anger. Swallowing her grievances, she got up obediently and held down the desk for her.
Soon enough, Yi Lin safely climbed onto the roof as well.
Finally, it was Chen Xiaoxiao's turn.
Yet just as she tied the rope around her waist, a rotting corpse squeezed through the door crack, wriggled past the barricade, and lunged ravenously toward her.
Chen Xiaoxiao's pupils constricted in horror, throwing her into total panic.
“It's inside! The monster is here! Pull me up, hurry and pull me up—!”
She scrambled desperately to climb, but with no one holding down the other end of the desk, she accidentally flipped it over with a misplaced step.
Before she could catch the rim of the gutter, her footing gave way completely, and she plunged downward.
“Aaah—!”
Amidst her shrill shriek, the already dilapidated wooden desk plummeted from the eighth floor, shattering into pieces on impact.
Fortunately, Chen Xiaoxiao had the safety rope tied around her waist. After dropping violently for a short distance, she was caught before falling all the way.
She dangled in midair, her hands death-gripping the rope, her toes barely able to graze the horizontal bar of the balcony railing.
Yet the rotting corpse had already reached the balcony. Crawling under the lower bunk, it lunged forward like a ravenous wolf, snatching its prey by the foot.
“Help!” Overcome with sheer terror, Chen Xiaoxiao broke down in tears. “It grabbed me! Pull me up, hurry! Somebody save me...!”
She wailed as she kicked wildly, desperately trying to shake off the monster.
How could a rotting corpse let go of prey already in its grasp? Clamping both arms around her legs, it opened its bloody maw and clamped its teeth down viciously.
“Aaaagh—!” Chen Xiaoxiao shrieked in agony.
Because she was thrashing incessantly, the rope caught against the edge and was stretched taut. With nearly a hundred jin of dead weight, there was simply no leverage to haul her up, not to mention that the rope was grinding continuously against the rough concrete, threatening to snap at any moment.
Below, the dorm room door was being shoved open wider and wider. Once it gave way completely and the rotting corpses swarmed in, she would be utterly doomed.
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