Flicker

After hearing the mission, everyone was stunned.

After what they had just experienced, the hint given by this D-level instance had become clear:

"As long as you follow the rules, you won't be killed."

However, after the NPC clearly stated the rule "don't leave the dormitory after ten o'clock", the live broadcast system immediately updated a task that was completely contrary to the rules:

[Leave the dormitory after the lights were turned off, and explore the campus.]

Wasn't this clearly pushing the anchor into a death trap!

They could hardly imagine what kind of terrifying situation they would face if they were caught by the old witch after leaving the dormitory.

The sound of the clock echoed in the air.

The entire dormitory building was surrounded by darkness, and only the ceiling light at the corner of the corridor was still on. In the suffocating darkness, only a dim and faint white light was flickering.

***

Dormitory room 201.

The rookie anchor Cheng Huaquan stood alone in the dark, not yet reacting from the shock of the live broadcast mission.

With shaking hands, he took out his ID card in a panic.

His initial survival time was seven hours, and now there were still four hours left.

Cheng Huaquan's fingertips were white, and he was holding the card tightly as if this was the only way to gain a sense of security.

He stared at the numbers above and made up his mind secretly.

He won't do this main task.

Anyway, his initial survival time was the longest. Even if he didn't do this main task of the live broadcast, it shouldn't matter too much. He only needed to get enough points that could be exchanged for three hours to clear the level. He could ask the audience for a reward before the next point settlement was reached, and collect the points for customs clearance.

He really didn't want to face the unknown monster outside the dormitory.

After completing the psychological construction, Cheng Huaquan turned on the live broadcast interface.

He tried hard to please the audience, spared no effort to meet any of their increasingly outrageous requirements in the live broadcast room, licked his face, and begged for more popularity and rewards.

However, what he couldn't understand was that no matter how hard he tried, the number of people online in the live broadcast room was still inexorably dropping rapidly.

Just like the sand in the palm of your hand, the harder you try to hold it, the faster it would drain.

When the number of live broadcast viewers dropped to three digits, Cheng Huaquan finally panicked.

If this continued, he would no longer have the possibility of continuing his life.

"Don't go, don't go!"

He put his miserable pale sweaty face in front of the light screen, and shouted in panic: "You, what do you want from me? Just tell me, I will definitely—"

When Cheng Huaquan was sweating with anxiety, a slight "duh" sound came from behind.

Rhythmic, thumping sound.

It was so faint that it could be ignored if one didn't pay attention.

Unexpectedly, in Cheng Huaquan's live broadcast room, the number of people who had been decreasing rapidly suddenly stopped, and even showed a tendency to rise.

The fire of hope lit up in his eyes:

"Thank you, thank you everyone, I will definitely live up to your support…"

However, Cheng Huaquan, who was immersed in ecstasy, didn't notice that although the number of people in this live broadcast was increasing, the barrage was extremely quiet, and almost no comment appeared on the bullet screen.

Cheng Huaquan, who was a novice anchor, didn't know that all barrages involving spoilers would be blocked.

However, in the dead silence, he gradually realized that something was wrong.

"Duh."

"Duh."

"Duh."

The regular thumping sound gradually become clearer over time, until it was completely impossible to ignore.

Cheng Huaquan froze in place.

…That voice did not come from the corridor but was coming from inside this room.

Right behind his head to be precise.

His eyes trembled nervously, and cold sweat slid down his sunken temples.

Don't turn back, don't turn back, don't turn back—

The light screen in front of him shook slightly, and the faint light illuminated the glass not far away.

Like a mirror, the glass clearly reflected the anchor's distorted face.

And…

A pair of feet hanging in the air behind him.

"Duh."

"Duh."

The drooping black toes slammed against the metal bedpost, making a regular sound.

Almost uncontrollably, Cheng Huaquan's gaze slowly moved upwards——

He saw a person hanging from the fan.

With long black hair hanging down, the smiling face half-submerged in the shadows was staring straight at him. It was pale as molten wax, a pair of strange pitch-black eyes stared at him for a moment, and the corners of the mouth grinned silently.

"…Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!"

A shrill scream swept through the darkness.

On the ID card, the remaining survival time dropped rapidly at a terrifying speed, as if being swallowed by some invisible existence, and in a blink of an eye, it dropped to single digits.

Snapped.

In the live broadcast square of "Decai Middle School", a screen went black.

[The anchor has been disconnected.]

[The 27463hud live broadcast room will close in one minute, countdown: 60, 59…]

In the live broadcast room that had turned black, the audience was delighted by the death, and they were discussing it contently in the barrage area.

[Tsk tsk tsk, it's a shame that he got the eight-hour survival time in the beginning.]

[This kind of anchor who resists the main task, is hopeless, and it's not worth watching at all.]

[At least a few minutes before it was disconnected was pretty cool to watch.]

[This type of death is nothing new. Friends, I vomited blood in the 789326qwk live broadcast room next door. Not only the anchor with the 20-minute survival time didn't collapse, but he also raised the rating of the entire instance on his own, it's super nice!]

[Yes, that anchor is really good, bold, and careful, with a very fine mouth, and it seems that he is a trumpet of a big boss.]

[And as soon as he started the game, he encountered this strange thing, and it is absolutely amazing.]

[Really? I don't believe it.]

[Is it true? I'll go check it out.]

As time went by, the number of people online in the live broadcast room gradually decreased.

[5, 4, 3…]

The bloody red words slowly appeared before the live broadcast room closed.

[Our slogan is entertainment to death.]

***

In the dark corridor, Su Cheng groped in fear and walked forward step by step.

His initial survival time was too short, and even though he had been desperately trying to unlock his ID card to earn points, there was only more than an hour left.

As a newcomer to live broadcast, the number of online viewers and the number of rewards in the live broadcast room were only a few hundred or so.

Therefore, even if he knew that the cost of violating the rules was high, Su Cheng had to bite the bullet and leave the dormitory.

If he didn't do the main task, he will surely die.

The corridor was pitch-black, and only the lights in the stairwell flickered behind him, giving a strange atmosphere of depression and suffocation.

In his live broadcast room, the audience sent barrages one after another.

[This main broadcast room has been around for a while, why still nothing happened?]

[Yes, I remember that in this instance the anchors can't violate the rules. As long as they violate the rules, they will be targeted by ghosts. It's just a matter of time.]

[I thought it was the good luck of the host, but I just went to the host next door who chose to leave the dormitory to check. They are all safe. What's going on?]

[Didn't the people upstairs go to the 789326qwk live room for makeup lessons?]

[?? Make-up lessons? What's going on?]

[The plot modification of this instance is more than 60%, don't you know? The ghost who would target the offending anchor was gone in the special mission.]

[? ? ?]

[Some of the user's remarks above involve spoilers and will only be visible to the audience.]

At this moment, Su Cheng heard footsteps coming from the stairwell behind him.

It was heavy, dragging, and had an uncomfortable and weird friction sound.

Someone was stepping on the stairs and was coming upstairs.

He turned his head in horror to look in the direction of the sound.

The large, human-like shadow was distorted into a grotesque shape and was projected on the walls of the hallway by the dim light, the edges of the shadow were squirming as if some unstable existence was slowly changing shape.

A strong sense of danger hit him.

Su Cheng turned his head and ran wildly.

He heard the woman's "hee hee" come from behind him: "I heard that there are students upstairs who are still wandering in the corridor after the lights are turned off…"

The hissing in the woman's voice became clearer, and the heavy malice and pleasure seemed to come through the darkness.

"It's really unruly."

The footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, accompanied by low humming as if a gradually approaching life-threatening sound.

Su Cheng broke into a cold sweat and ran forward with all his strength—

The second floor, the third floor…

However, he didn't know if it was an illusion, no matter how fast he ran, the humming sound followed him like a shadow, approaching him step by step without stopping.

As if an invisible rope was strangling his neck, tightening little by little mercilessly.

Just when Su Cheng was almost in despair, suddenly, without warning, a pair of hands stretched out in the darkness from the side and yanked him to the side!

Wha...?!

Su Cheng was shocked.

A cold palm covered his mouth, forcibly blocking all the sound.

In the darkness, a pair of eyes as bright as stars looked at him.

The handsome young man came close, raised a finger to his lips, and made a "shush" gesture.

This… this person seems a little familiar?

Su Cheng leaned against the wall in shock, nodding slightly, indicating that he would not make a sound.

Wen Jianyan let go of his hand and quietly approached the door.

He carefully pushed open a gap with his fingertips and looked out cautiously.

The hallway was pitch black.

A faint light source flickered in the distance, barely reflecting a large shadow that was slowly moving forward.

The old witch's figure nearly became twice as large as before.

Her head was pressed against the ceiling, and the wet blue-grey skin seemed to be swollen and stretched to the extreme as if it would burst open in the next second; some places that were not covered by the fabric had already cracked several openings, and the water droplets fell to the ground, leaving a long string of wet marks on the ground.

The dark eyes looked out from the slits in the skin, rolling maliciously.

Before one of the eyes looked over, Wen Jianyan quickly closed the door, blocking the other's view.

The palm of his hand was pressing against the cold door, and he could almost feel the heavy vibration caused by the footsteps outside.

Really…

It had nothing to do with the word "human-like" at all.

As the target of the other party's hatred, Wen Jianyan's eyelids twitched ominously.

Time passed minute by minute.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, the sound of footsteps hovering at the door gradually moved away and disappeared.

Wen Jianyan breathed a sigh of relief.

After the biggest threat was temporarily gone, his mind quickly turned.

The next most important thing was to complete the task of finding the face. If Xu Yuan's face wasn't found before the specified time limit, he didn't know what would happen, and he didn't want to gamble on this possibility.

However, the current situation was not good for him.

Whether it was the alienated NPC who focused his hatred entirely on him, or the group of senior anchors who wanted to find him to get props, and sell him to the NPC to save their lives, all of them have pushed him to the cusp of the storm. Make the slightest mistake and he would be doomed.

It wasn't good for him to act alone at a time like this.

Wen Jianyan turned to look at the anchor behind him who had just been rescued by him, and he narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

He had watched the episode that had happened in the canteen before, and at that time, this anchor had caught his attention.

He was a newcomer.

He had no experience but had certain observational and analytical skills.

Being calm and not screaming.

What's more, since he was wandering in the corridor just now, he must be trying to complete the newly released main task.

—Either there was an ambition and desire to seize greater interests, or he was forced by the circumstances to take the risk.

Either way, there was an opportunity.

A smile swept across Wen Jianyan's lips as if a breeze was blowing, causing a fleeting ripple.

For some reason, Su Cheng suddenly shivered.

?

What's happening?

Obviously, the NPC outside should have left.

He rubbed his nose in confusion.

At this moment, the young man standing by the door turned around and walked over step by step.

As the distance narrowed, Su Cheng couldn't help but widened his eyes slightly.

The other party's glasses had already been taken off, and the gentle and soft bookish air was swept away. After losing the blocking of the lenses, a pair of light-coloured sharp and clear eyes appeared.

At this moment, those eyes were looking over at him, giving him a sense of frankness and sincerity.

Su Cheng stammered:

"You, you are…"

The young man in front of him had a straight back like a pine, and he looked directly at him seriously and solemnly.

He took out a palm-sized wallet from his coat pocket and shook it open in front of the other party's eyes, with a sense of calm authority in his voice:

"Xu Wen, Police number 598405."

"…?!"

Su Cheng was stunned.

In the darkness, the certificate in the young man's hand flashed by.

After being stunned for two seconds, Su Cheng finally recovered.

The other party didn't seem to notice his reaction. He was frowning and stuffing his wallet back into his pocket, and continued:

"In the past five years, the number of deaths and disappearances in Decai Middle School has been abnormally high, but all the investigations related to this have come to an end as if there was always something hindering the investigation. But I didn't come with a mission this time, I…"

The young man paused and took a deep breath:

"I came here to find my sister."

"Sister…?" Su Cheng's eyes widened slightly.

"Xu Yuan, she disappeared at Decai Middle School three months ago."

The young man lowered his eyes to hide them and a hint of pain flashed at the bottom: "All my efforts were in vain, so I had to hide my identity and sneak into the school to find her, and as a result——"

He glanced at the closed door and said with lingering fear:

"Just now… what was that thing?"

—A perverted live broadcast room has created a nasty product to torture them.

But of course, Su Cheng wouldn't say that to the NPC in front of him.

He just shook his head: "I…I don't know either."

However, since the old witch was mentioned, Su Cheng naturally remembered something. He pondered for a while, and asked euphemistically: "By the way, before Teacher Yang said something downstairs. She seems to have lost something. Could it be…"

Originally, he was already prepared that the other party was not going to say anything, but what he didn't expect was that Wen Jianyan nodded calmly and answered frankly. : "Yes, it was me."

He took out an old key from his pocket:

"This is the only clue I have now."

Su Cheng: "!!!"

Based on his years of experience in mystery-solving games, whether it was the background story displayed by the other party or the special prop held in his hands, these were definitely crucial points only an NPC could have!

"I'll help you!" He volunteered.

The young man was startled: "No."

He frowned and flatly refused: "This kind of thing is too dangerous. It's not something you middle school students can touch, and I can't bring you into danger."

"You saw the monster just now. Do you think this kind of thing would happen in the normal world? If you act alone, you will never be able to find your sister."

Su Cheng said seriously.

The young man who called himself Xu Wen's eyes flashed slightly, and there was a hint of hesitation on his face.

Seeing that the other party was wavering, Su Cheng hurriedly stepped forward, racked his brains, and tried his best to promote himself:

"Since I have reached this point, there is no need for me to hide anything. In fact, I am not a student in this school either. I have channels to get all kinds of supernatural props, if it really reaches the point of last resort, please believe me, I… I will definitely be very useful to you."

He said with emotion, trying to convince the other party:

"You must have violated your superior's order by coming here this time, right? Your relationship with your sister must be very good, and you definitely want to find her safely, right?"

The air fell into silence.

Su Cheng waited timidly.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, the young man seemed to have finally compromised. He slowly let out a breath and said reluctantly:

"…No matter what happens, you must follow my instructions."

"!"

Su Cheng's eyes lit up, fearing that the other party would regret it, he agreed immediately: "No problem!"

In the live broadcast room of 789326qwk.

[…It's been a long time since I've seen someone rushing to sell themselves.]

[Haven't you noticed, the host has been using words to guide the other anchor from the very beginning. Whether it's about his identity or anything else, it's been said about three points and hidden about seven points. Even the props he got from the old witch had been prevaricated by him, and he even made the other party agree to go to the other place with him without leaving any traces… awesome.]

[That's right, in order to form a team with this fake NPC, the anchor not only has to unconditionally listen to his commands but also has to be prepared to buy props from the system store. It's almost like signing a contract to sell himself!]

[F*ck, pity.]

[It's so miserable that the anchor is completely distracted and doesn't doubt anything at all.]

[Hahahahaha, poor victim +1]

Wen Jianyan smiled briefly.

Placing the victim in a precarious state of mind and manipulating it through external danger and pressure was a common formula for scamming.

The live broadcast room itself had helped him complete the most difficult step.

It used the countdown to death and the threat of ghosts to create a dangerous slaughterhouse that made everyone in it nervous and fearful.

All people who were under such unstable emotions, theoretically speaking, would become easily gullible to the authorities and become the easiest target to conquer.

Just like right now.

In the dimly lit environment, the once-recognized NPC identity, and the other party's initial thinking about "game clues", as long as one made a little use, they could easily make the other party follow their own script.

Su Cheng: "Then… Where are we going next?"

Wen Jianyan: "Go to the teaching building."

The room number on Xu Yuan's note must be an important clue.

He raised his eyes, patted the other person's shoulder lightly, and said slowly, "I'll go to the corridor to check the situation."

—Increase physical contact and induce a kind of subconscious trust.

—Take the initiative to help, so that the other party was accustomed to relying on you as the stronger party.

These small tricks had long been familiar to Wen Jianyan, and they had become an instinctive habit.

Su Cheng's expression was obviously relaxed, he nodded: "Okay."

Wen Jianyan opened the door and walked outside lightly towards the end of the corridor.

When the other party's figure disappeared into the darkness, Su Cheng let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall.

He opened his own live broadcast interface.

Su Cheng's eyes widened slightly when he saw the number of people online.

Just now, there were only a few hundred viewers. He didn't know when it began to soar, and now it was approaching one thousand!

"This, so many people? Thank you for your support." He said, feeling somewhat flattered.

Unexpectedly, although the number of online viewers has doubled, the barrage was sporadic, and only some content that was not related to the plot fluttered on the screen.

Su Cheng didn't notice this.

He took a deep breath and solemnly analyzed: "I think, I may now have access to the deep plotline of this instance. The storyline of that brother just now is very important…

The barrage was filled with schadenfreude "hahaha"

[Hahahaha, please, don't analyze, I can't bear to look at it anymore…]

[It's indeed very important to hear it. In case you ignore this storyline made up by the other party… Hahahahaha!]

There are also people who hate the iron not being steel:

[F*ck, the other party is a liar! Anchor, you sober up a bit, don't be tricked by him ah!]

[Some of the above user remarks involve the same instance anchor and will only be open to the audience.]

Su Cheng knew nothing about these barrages.

After earnestly analyzing a wave of possible plotlines, he found that his live broadcast room became more popular, and he couldn't help but be more flattered, and more convinced that his guess was correct.

At this moment, Wen Jianyan leaned back quietly and made a gesture to him:

"It's safe outside, let's go."

The young man's body was slender and tall, his eyes were clear, and his calm and cautious expression gave people a strong sense of strength and security.

Su Cheng looked at the other party's back, turned his head to face his own live broadcast room, and said with sincerity:

"This NPC is really a good person."

The barrage: "..."

This is not just being tricked, you have been sold without getting any money in return!