Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 280

Chapter 280

The carpet under her feet became even softer. The walls curved inward. The air grew thicker and stickier. There was only a shadow at the doorway. Gu Huaiwei waited for a while, but the principal still didn’t appear.

But the principal had already arrived.

The sound of chewing was right by her ear.

Even though she couldn’t see it, Gu Huaiwei could still feel something wet and soft pressing against her cheek, leaving behind a string of damp, slimy marks.

The disgusting sensation wouldn’t come off no matter how much she wiped.

The Little White Dog barked like mad, then snapped and tore at the empty air.

Gu Huaiwei felt that sticky touch lessen, but the red light on the Little White Dog’s body was growing weaker and weaker. That was an ominous sign.

“It’s okay. I won’t suffer Contamination, so you don’t need to worry about me like this.” Gu Huaiwei tucked the Little White Dog back into her arms, and only then did the lamp on its neck gradually settle down and stop dimming.

Just then, Bai Yuzhen’s call got through to Gu Huaiwei.

A terrified voice came from the other end. “Shopkeeper Gu, does your earlier offer still stand? I agree to your condition, but you have to take me out of this Instance! As for how we split the Lifespan, we can talk about it in detail after we leave the Instance.”

She was still thinking about how to negotiate for a bigger share of the Lifespan.

Gu Huaiwei stroked the dog’s head and let out a short laugh.

“Classmate Bai, changing your mind so suddenly… have you already suffered Contamination?”

A petty little trick like that couldn’t escape Gu Huaiwei’s notice.

The other end instantly fell silent.

Bai Yuzhen’s thoughts had been seen through, and her cheeks flushed slightly.

Afraid that Gu Huaiwei would grow disgusted with her for trying to play smart, she hurriedly added, “I… I just thought this would be better for both of us. As for the conditions, we’ll do it your way. There’s no need to wait and discuss it later.”

Greedy, but aware of her limits.

When people were in danger, everyone tried to maximize their own benefit.

Gu Huaiwei didn’t dislike that kind of person.

On the contrary, she appreciated them.

She liked small animals like cats and dogs.

But compared to raising dogs, she preferred raising cats.

Cats were more challenging. Proud and unpredictable, with a strong sense of boundaries and self-will. The uncertainty that came with their disobedience was fascinating.

Humans and animals were the same at their core.

Gu Huaiwei’s voice was soft and warm, like well-aged wine. “Don’t worry. My earlier offer still stands.”

Seeing Gu Huaiwei agree, Bai Yuzhen let out a long breath. The tension that had been lodged in her chest finally released, and she pleaded in a trembling voice, “I can’t find my way out in the fog. Can you come get me?”

The Principal’s Office was underground, so there was no view of the outside.

“Of course.”

Humming a little tune, Gu Huaiwei hugged the dog and prepared to head out and bring Bai Yuzhen back to the Principal’s Office.

She retraced her steps.

As she passed the shattered bottles and jars in the Corridor, Gu Huaiwei saw the School Doctor’s lower half lying twisted beside a cabinet. His head was nowhere to be seen.

She pressed the elevator button.

The elevator doors opened.

Gu Huaiwei and Lin She stepped in, and the elevator immediately gave an overload warning.

“Beep, beep, beep-”

An overloaded elevator couldn’t run.

But even if the Little White Dog counted as one person, there were only three of them in the elevator.

The elevator’s maximum capacity was four people.

That meant something else was here.

Gu Huaiwei looked up.

Above the elevator car, a strand of black hair hung down, like a stalk of wheat gone black dangling there.

Something was clinging to the outside of the elevator car.

“Hello. There’s a front door, and instead of using it, you insist on hanging up there. That’s really not safe.” Gu Huaiwei sighed and reached out with helpless exasperation. Grabbing the dangling hair, she gave it a hard yank downward. “Don’t be shy. Let me see your face.”
The hair at the top had snapped from Gu Huaiwei pulling too hard.

At the other end of it, a small bloody strip of scalp was still attached.

“Ka-ka-ka… ka-ka-ka…”

The elevator car began to shake violently.

The thing that had been sprawled on top cried out strangely in pain, then ran off along the side.

With that thing’s movement, the whole elevator car tilted. Red warning lights kept flashing inside, and the elevator doors could no longer close all the way.

The Little White Dog in her arms gave a weak little yawn and fell asleep.

The bad news: the elevator door was broken and wouldn’t shut.

The good news: the elevator could still barely run.

Gu Huaiwei pressed for the first floor.

The elevator let out a few creaking groans. The aged machinery dragged itself along with difficulty, like an old man with one foot already in the grave, gasping for breath after only a few steps.

As the elevator moved, the Red-clad Nurse was still waiting outside.

Because the elevator doors couldn’t close, Gu Huaiwei came face-to-face with her.

The Red-clad Nurse looked a little different from before. Part of her hair seemed to be missing, and she was holding a box in her hands. Inside the box sat the School Doctor’s head.

The School Doctor’s ill-fitting eyes had already fallen out.

The head was placed neatly inside the box, and that remaining mouth just kept chattering.

“He was afraid I’d get close to his daughter. He thought I wanted to follow the same path he did and inherit the principal’s position… ka-ka-ka-ka… because he walked that road himself, now that he’s taken his father-in-law’s place, he’s started guarding against his own daughter at every turn, refusing to let her fall in love.”

“They say even a tiger won’t eat its own cubs, but that black-hearted bastard is far crueler than any tiger. Just to keep his daughter away from me, even the dog I gave her, he wanted to beat to death… ka-ka-ka… there is always retribution. The debts on him are too many. He drove his own father-in-law to death, drove his own wife to death, and now he wants to drive his own daughter to death too. There will be retribution… ka-ka-ka…”

“More and more students are dying, and now the parents of those students have come storming in again… I’m going to talk. I’m going to say it no matter what. I’m going to expose the school’s scandals to the public… ka-ka-ka…”

Then the Red-clad Nurse standing outside suddenly stuck out her long tongue and licked the School Doctor’s head. A panting sound came from her throat, her shoulders rising and falling. She didn’t look human at all, but like a dog.

The Little White Dog in Gu Huaiwei’s arms, meanwhile, looked at the School Doctor’s head with a complicated gaze.

This little dog was the principal’s real daughter.

The elevator kept moving.

After Gu Huaiwei returned to the first floor, she sprayed perfume at the main entrance of the Laboratory Building, then went into the thick fog with Lin She.

Everyone carried a distinct scent.

Following Bai Yuzhen’s smell, Gu Huaiwei found her lost in the dense fog.

“Shopkeeper Gu!” Bai Yuzhen could no longer tell whether the person before her was a phantom created by Contamination or the real Gu Huaiwei.

She had already been lost in the fog for three hours.

Gu Huaiwei was her last lifeline.

“It’s me.” Gu Huaiwei noticed that Bai Yuzhen’s pupils were a little unfocused.

But after running two steps toward Gu Huaiwei, Bai Yuzhen suddenly stopped. Looking past Gu Huaiwei in confusion, she said, “Class Monitor, why did you come too? Why are you wearing surgical clothes? Are you sick?”