WTNL Chapter 66.1

Antai Community
Chapter 66.1: “Why don’t we make a deal?”

The number of people in the Red faction was slowly but continuously decreasing, yet there was no sign of the Soul-Locking Urn being forged.

Amidst this endless attrition, all the streamers had reached the critical point of an imminent breakdown.

And right at this moment, something even worse happened to add insult to injury.

Those teammates whose names they had personally written on the yellow paper had somehow, inexplicably, appeared before them once again!

Moreover, they were clearly well aware of exactly why they had ended up in such a state. Soon, catalyzed by a desire for revenge, former teammates tore off all pretenses one after another, and the Red faction plunged into utter chaos.

In the “Antai Community” live broadcast room:

[Exciting!]

[Ahhhhh, it’s actually a massive free-for-all! It’s been so long since I’ve seen such a thrilling instance!]

[Speaking of which, the Black faction really knows how to play. They threw the Red faction into complete disarray without losing a single soldier. Now the Red faction is too busy fending for themselves, let alone completing the main quest.]

[Yeah, exactly! So freaking awesome. The initial disadvantage was reversed in an instant. No wonder the Black faction only has one person in this faction war. The instance’s judgment on power distribution is actually really reliable.]

[Ahhhhh damn it, I regret it! I shouldn’t have just brainlessly supported the Red faction from the start. After this wave, the Black faction’s win rate is definitely higher. No, I have to hurry to the Black faction’s live broadcast room and bet some points!]

[Me too!]

In instances with faction and team wars like this, the viewers’ tips acted as bets. If the streamer they bet on won, they would receive a dividend after the instance ended. However, during the live broadcast, viewers could move between different rooms and tip both sides.

Half an hour before the instance ended, the system would close the betting function and settle the viewers’ tips. Whichever side a viewer tipped more was considered their successful bet. If the betting points on both sides were equal, all points would be counted as normal tips and would not participate in the final point dividend.

That is to say, if a viewer realized during the broadcast that the side they currently supported had a low win rate and wanted to change factions, they had to go to the opposing live broadcast room and tip a higher amount.

When it came to playing the capitalist, the Nightmare Live Broadcast Room could be considered second to none.

[But speaking of which, isn’t the situation already so obvious now? Why hasn’t the system’s determined win rate changed much?]

[Eh, you’re right. It seems like the win rate prediction bar hasn’t moved at all since the faction war started…]

[? Is it a bug?]

In these kinds of faction- and team-divided instances, to tempt viewers into tipping and betting, the system would calculate the win rate of both factions based on in-instance data and display it as a data bar in the live broadcast plaza.

This win rate would also constantly refresh and fluctuate.

However, after the faction war mode started in this Antai Community instance, the system-calculated win rate bar had not changed, constantly hovering around 50%. Whether it was Wen Jianyan beginning to recruit and convert believers, or using the believers’ hatred to cause internal strife in the Red faction, the win rate never shifted toward the Black faction. In fact, it even showed a trend of leaning toward the Red faction.

—

Wang Hanyu’s face was extremely grim.

After he was unable to provide Granny Wen with new names and refused to write his own name down, he was kicked out of her small room.

To say “kicked out” wasn’t exactly accurate.

To be precise, he found the “Granny Wen’s room” before him slowly beginning to fade. Whether it was the room’s decorations, Granny Wen sitting at the table not far away, or the other players in the room, everything dissipated from his sight like phantoms. By the time he recovered his senses, he found himself standing all alone in an empty corridor with nothing around him.

…Damn it.

Wang Hanyu secretly gritted his teeth.

He knew that, given the current situation, he had completely lost the chance to compete for the main quest.

Then, based on his experience in clearing instances, the most urgent matter now was self-preservation—redeeming enough points to ensure he wouldn’t die before the main quest ended.

Wang Hanyu took a deep breath and looked down, glancing at the comparison of the two factions’ numbers in the background of his Nightmare APP.

It’s fine. No matter what, the Red faction should still have the upper hand right now, after all…

Wang Hanyu reached into his pocket.

The hard, cold touch of the Soul-Locking Urn’s wall transmitted through his fingertips, inexplicably giving him a strange sense of reassurance.

According to logic, if their goal was to create the tenth Soul-Locking Urn, then the Black faction’s task should be the opposite—that is, destroying the Soul-Locking Urn.

He had obtained this Soul-Locking Urn during that chaotic skirmish before the faction war began.

This meant that as long as this Soul-Locking Urn was still in his hands, the opposing side shouldn’t be able to complete their main quest, and the Red faction wouldn’t face total annihilation.

However…

For some unknown reason, Wang Hanyu felt an inexplicably strong sense of unease in his heart.

Without any apparent trigger, the words of that fake precognitive streamer kept echoing continuously in his mind.

“The Tower, upright.”

“Everything you have will begin to collapse and disintegrate from the core. Every bad thing you’ve ever done will come back to bite you.”

…You’ve got to be kidding me.

Wang Hanyu gritted his teeth, his pale face involuntarily twisting slightly under the intense emotion.

This was just how it was in the Nightmare Live Broadcast Room: if you don’t kill, you get killed. It was an unbreakable truth! Not to mention, the other party had already become an obstacle to him!

In the Nightmare, guild creation qualifications were precious and strict. Even for just a small guild, the creation process was not simple, and those inside a guild received more rewards and preferential treatment. Many large guilds would cultivate shadow guilds to obtain double the benefits and enhance their main guild’s competitiveness in the overall streamer market.

The Obsidian Guild ranked in the top twenty on the overall leaderboards and had been enjoying the limelight recently. They attempted to absorb them into Obsidian, making their guild one of their shadow guilds. But such generous conditions were flatly rejected by their President, Chen Mo, who refused to listen no matter how much Vice President Wang Hanyu tried to persuade him.

Thus, Wang Hanyu decided to plan for his own future.

From the moment he wrote Chen Mo’s name on the yellow paper up until now, Wang Hanyu firmly believed he had made the right choice.

Right at that moment, Wang Hanyu’s phone suddenly vibrated.

Buzz, buzz, buzz.

Wang Hanyu froze and looked down at his phone screen. In an instant, his face drained of color.

[Your guild president is accessing your location.]

H-How could this be possible?

This function could only be used internally within a guild, and it cost an exorbitant amount of points. Unless encountering an extremely urgent situation, almost no one would use it.

More importantly…

Shouldn’t his guild president already be dead?!

Tap, tap, tap.

In the corridor not far away, the sound of approaching footsteps rang out.

Wang Hanyu’s face turned ghastly pale. He slowly backed up several steps, then abruptly turned around and ran in the opposite direction of the sound!

However, before he could run even a few steps, crimson chains abruptly appeared out of nowhere right in front of him, dead-blocking his path.

Wang Hanyu’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. His facial features stiffened, and he stood rigidly in place, not daring to move a single step.

A familiar, indifferent voice came from behind him:

“Didn’t expect this, did you?”

Wang Hanyu stiffly, inch by inch, turned his head to look behind him.

His teammate, who was supposed to be dead, had inexplicably appeared at the end of the corridor. His face was pale, and a crimson, seemingly corroded wound still remained on his forehead.

He looked as if he had crawled up from the very depths of hell.

“To think we could actually meet again,” Chen Mo smiled faintly and said coldly, “I didn’t expect it either.”

The baptism of another streamer whose SAN value had dropped to the critical point was complete.

—

Wen Jianyan stood up and turned to walk out.

Ji Guan walked over, his face revealing an eager expression. “How is it, how is it? How many are left before we can occupy the entire instance?”

As one of the earliest old believers, he possessed immense enthusiasm for developing downlines.

Wen Jianyan: “…”

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, opened the Nightmare APP background, and took a glance.

Although the Black faction’s number was still 1, the Red faction’s number had already dropped to less than 10. Aside from those he had converted into believers, there were probably quite a few who had died in the infighting. Regardless, the current power ratio should have undergone an absolute shift.

But…

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes, revealing a thoughtful expression.

Strange. Why is it that, even though things are clearly like this, Granny Wen is still continuously feeding people into the mirror world? If she hadn’t realized someone was playing tricks the first and second times, she should have definitely realized it by now. The previous failures weren’t accidents, yet she still hasn’t stopped her actions or changed her strategy.

Could it be—

Wen Jianyan turned his head to look at Ji Guan and Su Cheng, hurriedly instructing, “I’ll leave the internal affairs of this mirror world to the two of you from now on.”

“…Eh?”

Ji Guan was dumbfounded. “What?”

Su Cheng, who had just rushed over, suddenly became alert. “Wait? What do you mean?”

However, before they could even get an explanation, they saw the young man before them pull out that Bagua mirror from his pocket. A deathly pale arm reached out from the mirror and grabbed him by the collar.

The next second, their vision blurred, and the young man’s figure instantly vanished.

???

Only Ji Guan and Su Cheng were left, staring at each other in speechless dismay.

Leave it to the two of us? What the hell?!

You’re way too irresponsible as a Cult Leader!

The moment Wen Jianyan left the mirror world, his phone began buzzing.

“…?”

This was something he hadn’t expected.

Wen Jianyan paused slightly, looking down at his phone screen.

It was an unknown incoming call.

Wen Jianyan answered the call.

Chen Mo’s voice rang out from the other end of the receiver. After simply stating an apartment room number, he immediately hung up.

Wen Jianyan raised his eyebrows but still followed his memory and walked in that direction.

Soon, Chen Mo’s figure appeared not far away.

One of his hands hung by his side, the wound on his palm split open. Crimson blood steadily dripped down his fingertips, falling onto the ground and pooling into a puddle of blood.

Chen Mo’s chest heaved rapidly, his heavy panting echoing in the corridor.

Hearing the footsteps, Chen Mo looked in Wen Jianyan’s direction. He lowered his eyes and said in a calm yet suppressed voice, “Someone wants to make a deal with you.”

He slightly stepped aside.

A wretched figure could be seen crumpled on the ground, his entire body trembling incessantly.

Wang Hanyu raised a pale face stained with tears and snot, looked at Wen Jianyan not far away, and said in a shivering voice, “I, I know where the last Soul-Locking Urn is!”

Wen Jianyan raised his eyebrows and stepped forward. “Oh?”

The last Soul-Locking Urn was definitely on a certain streamer. As long as he continued to assimilate streamers, gradually dragging the majority of the Red faction into his own camp, the probability of finding it would steadily increase—of course, that was assuming he intended to get the Soul-Locking Urn in the first place.

Wen Jianyan crouched down in front of Wang Hanyu, stared at the other’s contorted face, and said softly:

“You know, right? If I get the Soul-Locking Urn and complete the main quest, all the remaining streamers in your Red faction will die, including you.”

Wang Hanyu shuffled forward on his knees and desperately grabbed Wen Jianyan’s sleeve. “But, but you know how to free the streamers from the faction’s constraints! Right!”

He stared at Wen Jianyan with eager, yearning eyes. “I am willing to give you the Soul-Locking Urn, as long as you convert me into one of your people too!”

“Even if it means the other Red faction streamers will be totally wiped out as a result?” Wen Jianyan confirmed.

“I, I don’t want to do this either, but…” Wang Hanyu tilted up his tear-streaked face. “That’s how the rules are! This live broadcast is cruel. To survive, everyone will use whatever means necessary—”

Chen Mo stood silently to the side, his face pale and icy.

He lowered his eyes and wordlessly clenched his fingers, his neatly trimmed nails digging fiercely into his soft palms.

“But, that’s not enough.”

Wen Jianyan cut him off breezily.

Wang Hanyu was taken aback. “…What?”

“Just knowing where the Soul-Locking Urn is isn’t enough.”

Wen Jianyan slightly narrowed his eyes. “The situation in the instance changes too fast. Your knowledge might already be obsolete. It might not even be as straightforward as using a Guiding Hand. Although my redemption limits for the Guiding Hand have been exhausted, I’m sure there are plenty of Red faction streamers who would be willing to trade a Guiding Hand for a chance to live, wouldn’t they?”

Wang Hanyu’s expression froze.

“You should understand this point. Yet, even so, you still proposed this deal to me…”

Wen Jianyan smiled and leaned in a bit closer. “Because the urn is actually on you, isn’t it?”

A lie of this caliber was simply not enough to pass muster.

Wang Hanyu’s heart trembled. He subconsciously clenched his teeth so hard that he instantly tasted blood in his mouth.

—He knew that if he admitted the Soul-Locking Urn was on him, the other party could completely just kill him and search his corpse. That was why he had lied to Chen Mo, telling him that he only knew the location of the Soul-Locking Urn, so that Chen Mo would call the Black faction streamer over, thereby leaving him a bit of bargaining leverage.

But what he hadn’t expected was… for the other party to see straight through it and expose it without any mercy.

A surge of intense despair welled up in Wang Hanyu’s heart.

Now it was truly over.

Wen Jianyan blinked. “However, it’s fine.”

“!!!” Upon hearing the other’s reply, Wang Hanyu’s face revealed a look of pleasant surprise.

Even though he realized he was lying, the Black faction streamer still actually agreed to this deal that was completely in his favor! Could it be…

Wang Hanyu covertly sized up the young man before him, a glimmer of light flashing in his eyes.

Was there actually such an overly compassionate saint in this live broadcast?

To prevent the other from going back on his word, Wang Hanyu hurriedly pulled out the Soul-Locking Urn and handed it over to him.

Wen Jianyan weighed the Soul-Locking Urn in his hand, as the familiar sound of the system rang in his ears.

Yes, it was the real deal.