Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 326: Don’t come to save me
“Really?” Wen Jianyan leaned in a little closer and said sincerely, “Don’t force yourself.”
“No forcing, no forcing!!”
Zhong Shan shook his head vigorously, like a rattle drum.
Wen Jianyan clicked his tongue, looking quite regretful.
He let go of his hand:
“Alright, then tell me, what exactly happened earlier?”
Zhong Shan’s gaze flickered slightly.
Wen Jianyan keenly caught the evasive look in his eyes.
He narrowed his eyes, watching the pale man in front of him, and let out a low chuckle. With a gentle and soft voice, he said:
“By the way, I suggest you don’t try to lie or hide anything from me while I’m here.”
“?!”
Upon hearing this, Zhong Shan was startled, instinctively looking up at Wen Jianyan.
“If it were usual, I might entertain playing this kind of game with you,” Wen Jianyan blinked.
“But now, my time is limited, so if I catch you lying, even over the tiniest irrelevant detail…”
The young man smiled, tugged at Zhong Shan’s collar, and forced him to look toward a certain direction inside the room.
There was a stiffly walking corpse.
It wore a dull gray human-skin suit, and its pale face, as if half-melted, flickered in the dark, with its mouth twisted into a strange and terrifying smile. The “drip-drip” sound of blood dripping echoed throughout the room, sending chills down the spine.
It wandered in the dim shop like a lost soul, looking for its next victim.
“Do you see it?”
The young man’s voice, still carrying a smile, echoed in Zhong Shan’s ear like a curse, causing him to shudder with fear.
Zhong Shan instinctively turned his head, looking at the figure.
“Who you’re going to talk to next is not me. It’s either me or it.”
Inside the dark room, Wen Jianyan looked down at him from above. His already pale eyes glowed even paler in the darkness, and there seemed to be a faint smile at the corner of his lips. But for some reason, Zhong Shan just knew…
The other person wasn’t joking.
“Do you understand?”
“…”
A sense of danger prickled at Zhong Shan’s back, causing his scalp to tingle and cold sweat to pour out.
He swallowed hard, nodding with great difficulty, “I… I understand.”
“Good, now tell me everything that happened earlier.” Wen Jianyan’s voice became slightly firmer, each word clear and deliberate. “Don’t leave out a single detail.”
Zhong Shan took a deep breath, wiping the sweat off his pale face, and slowly nodded.
Ten minutes before everything started.
The Gentleman and Anise’s group tore off their masks of kindness, revealing their true brutal faces. The originally prepared red team anchors, who had been ready for a life-or-death battle, suddenly realized in terror—
No, they couldn’t move?
They didn’t know what the other side had done, or how they had done it, but… they clearly understood one thing: they were now completely at the mercy of others.
“…”
Everyone’s face turned pale, their pupils contracted, cold sweat oozing from their foreheads. They desperately tried to move their bodies but couldn’t change their situation at all. No matter the props or their skills, nothing was usable.
This… this was definitely wrong!
The black faction anchor in front still had a smile on their face, as if nothing had changed, but to them, it looked as terrifying as a demon.
A horrified expression appeared on Zhong Shan’s face.
Although he knew the other side was strong, he had never expected the disparity in strength to be this great!
“…”
Zhong Shan subtly glanced toward Yun Bilan.
She stood at the back of the group, half of her body hidden in the shadows, her position incredibly discreet. She was almost unnoticeable, and anyone entering wouldn’t immediately notice her.
Locket’s team didn’t know why the black side had suddenly turned hostile, but Zhong Shan, who knew about Yun Bilan’s existence, was fully aware of the reason behind it.
Since the black side’s strength was unmatchable, if they wanted to survive, perhaps the best course of action was to hand her over now…
That might give them a slim chance of survival.
Zhong Shan instinctively opened his mouth, but before he could speak, the words got stuck in his throat.
Wen Jianyan’s smiling face flashed in front of him, and the spot on the back of his head where his hair had been yanked began to throb with pain.
That guy had left such a psychological scar on him, not to mention the intimidation brought by the title of “008 Pinocchio”…
Zhong Shan hesitated.
He remembered that part of his hair was still in the hands of that sinister anchor.
If he truly managed to escape, after finding his teammates dead, that newly promoted 008 wouldn’t spare him. If the other party could remotely control his life by some unknown method, just like the legendary witchcraft… even if he could run far away, he would still be under the other person’s control.
A sense of unknown threat and fear washed over him, causing Zhong Shan to shiver involuntarily.
While he was struggling with the decision, suddenly, a trembling voice sounded from the side, “Y-you’re looking for someone, right? I know who you’re looking for!”
“?!”
Zhong Shan was startled as if his secret had been exposed. He instinctively turned his eyes toward the direction of the voice.
It was one of their teammates.
It was the anchor who had been skilled at masking their presence and tracking others.
Anise, who was walking ahead, paused briefly and looked over as well: “Hmm?”
“I-I mean,” the person stammered, swallowing nervously. “If I can tell you—”
Before he could finish, Anise interrupted from not far away:
“Haha.”
He laughed twice.
The laugh was strange, carrying an eerie and terrifying undertone.
“Let me guess, you want to say that if we give you what you want, we’ll spare your life.”
“…”
The anchor froze, standing still as if struck by Anise’s words.
“How naive,” Anise said with a smile. “Do you really think you have the capital to make a deal with us?”
He narrowed his eyes, which looked like huge insect eyes, and slowly said, “Sorry, but right now, we don’t have the time to figure out what games you’re playing. It’s easier this way, isn’t it?”
Everyone immediately understood the implication, and their expressions turned grim.
In the face of overwhelming strength, most negotiations were meaningless because the enemy would never believe anything they said. For efficiency’s sake, they could act without hesitation. Instead of wasting time determining whether their words were true or false, it would be simpler to just kill everyone.
“Go, search them for all their nameplates.”
The Gentleman’s voice was calm.
At his command, one of the anchors stepped forward and began to search the immobilized Rocket team members. Despite their faces contorted with fury, they couldn’t move a single step.
“And who says the living are more useful than the dead?”
Anise, watching the scene unfold, smiled a twisted, almost gleeful smile. As his words fell, everyone in the shop felt an unspoken, eerie sensation.
The temperature in the air seemed to plummet, turning cold to the bone, making them shiver from head to toe, as if some formless presence was awakening and slowly reviving…
A chill wind rose from nowhere, swirling in the air. The clothes hanging on the shelves began to sway slightly, as if something invisible below was stirring, gradually taking on a strange shape.
The Gentleman’s expression darkened slightly as he looked at Anise:
“You acted too soon.”
“No,” Anise said, grinning wildly, his smile almost manic. “There are too many of them; it’s not too soon…”
The wind howled.
One by one, the clothes on the shelves began to bulge.
One, two, three…
Anise’s live broadacst room:
[Hahaha, the anchor finally made his move!]
[Oh, oh, oh, no wonder he’s the Soul Summoner!! He’s so powerful!!!]
[Hehehe, it’s over for them now, as soon as they step in here, they’re definitely dead!]
Suddenly, a cold female voice echoed from the corner: “I think you’re looking for me.”
The voice broke the dead silence, resonating through the empty room like a thunderclap.
A blue-haired woman stepped out from the darkness.
Yun Bilan had somehow regained her appearance, returning to the form she had at the beginning.
Her face was pale, her dark eyes like cold stars, with thorns wrapped around her arms and legs like long whips. The sharp barbs had embedded deep into her skin, and the crimson blood, like little snakes, flowed down her body.
In the dim room, her face appeared sharp and impossible to look at directly.
Wait, she can move?
Zhong Shan froze.
Yun Bilan smiled, suddenly turning her head to look at Zhong Shan: “Get down!”
“?!”
What??
Zhong Shan was stunned, unable to react at first.
But the next second, a sharp gust of wind tore through the air.
The thorny whips coiled around Yun Bilan’s body suddenly loosened, and the sharp, clear sound of them slicing through the air rang out—”Szzz!”
Zhong Shan suddenly realized that the restraints on him had disappeared. Instinctively, he dropped to the ground, narrowly avoiding the whip that sliced past his head.
It seemed capable of tearing through anything.
The black side team quickly tried to dodge.
“Ugh—”
Amid the chaos, a muffled grunt came from not far away.
Zhong Shan, crouched on the ground, instinctively turned his head toward the source of the sound. He saw one of the black side team members, bleeding from the corner of his mouth, his face pale as paper.
Yun Bilan whipped her arm around, gracefully leaping through the open window. She turned and sneered:
“Want to catch me? Come and try.”
With that, she disappeared into the torrential rain outside, vanishing without a trace.
“…”
Anise’s face darkened, as if it could drip water.
One of the black side team members asked: “Captain, what do we do?”
“Chase,” his voice was squeezed out between clenched teeth.
“And the others?”
“Forget about them!”
In Zhong Shan’s fading vision, these were the last two words he heard.
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, listening to Zhong Shan’s trembling account. His face remained inscrutable, difficult to read.
Finally, Zhong Shan finished speaking.
He nervously stole a glance at Wen Jianyan, only to be caught by his emotionless gaze. Zhong Shan’s heart skipped a beat, and he quickly looked away, hurriedly swearing, “I swear, everything I just said is true! Really! If you don’t believe me, you can ask the other people who’ve woken up!”
“…”
Wen Jianyan didn’t respond.
He could tell.
Although Zhong Shan was afraid that Wen Jianyan might blame him for Yun Bilan’s situation, he wasn’t lying.
And Zhong Shan’s account had just answered many of the questions Wen Jianyan had noticed but couldn’t solve earlier.
Whether relying on talent or props, Anise could activate the “vengeful spirit” as if… summoning it.
So, after they entered this place, even though no one had touched the four garments, nor had anyone worn them and stepped into the rain, they began to awaken like they were already fully prepared to act as a medium and start “hunting.”
Because they had been activated by breaking the balance, which clearly violated the rules of the scenario, they had to find a “person” to parasitize, or else they would fall into a logical paradox.
This was why the four garments’ aggressiveness and range were so strong earlier, even surpassing the human skin umbrella… Even before Wen Jianyan’s shadow had yet touched the blood, they had already sensed his presence.
Every piece of clothing in this room was made of human skin, and if each piece were forcefully activated, Wen Jianyan was confident that anyone stepping into the shop would not survive the dense, overwhelming attack.
This was the source of Wen Jianyan’s earlier “rough” feeling.
After all, this trap was set by the high-level anchors, 008 and 010. Their knowledge of the instance and their props and resources far surpassed most people in the Nightmare instance. Even Wen Jianyan wasn’t sure he could walk away unscathed if he faced such an enemy.
But now, the trap before him, although dangerous, was clearly incomplete.
More than half of the red team anchors had had their nameplates taken, and the rest were simply unconscious.
Although there were hundreds of human-skin garments in the entire shop, only four had been activated and turned into weapons.
If this trap had been fully constructed, even a Celestial being wouldn’t have survived.
However, because Yun Bilan interrupted the construction midway, it had ended up as the incomplete, rough version that Wen Jianyan was currently experiencing.
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, pushing aside all the emotions rising within him, and mentally sorted through all the information he had gathered from Zhong Shan’s account.
Clearly, the person who had first restricted everyone’s movement was a member of the black side’s team, likely someone with control-type talent. It was like invisible threads had silently and undetectably wrapped around everyone without them noticing.
Perhaps that was why Anise and the others had engaged in a false show of negotiation with the red team before the confrontation, even explaining things carefully before the mask was ripped off… Otherwise, based on Wen Jianyan’s past experience, these people weren’t the type to waste time on useless tasks.
Moreover, they had probably figured out the key, knowing that Wen Jianyan’s team was on the way, but had not acted immediately.
This was because it took some time to “trap” everyone.
—Unfortunately, Yun Bilan wasn’t one of the people who had been “trapped.”
According to Zhong Shan’s account, when she acted, thorns wrapped around her arms and legs.
Yun Bilan was a highly perceptive and alert anchor with exceptional danger sensing abilities. Plus, she was the only one who knew her identity and understood the danger posed by the black side. So, even before they showed their fangs, she had already raised her guard, even wrapping her thorns around herself in advance.
After all, the only thing that could counter talent was talent.
And Yun Bilan’s actions were, in essence, the most dangerous way she could expose herself, preventing the deadly trap from fully forming.
Because she knew, by this point, they would never let her leave. She was the key to the entire trap; without her, the others couldn’t make it to the designated location, and they wouldn’t step into this place.
If she managed to escape, she might return to the team with invaluable information.
And the black side team’s efforts would be in vain.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and forced himself to release the tension in his hand.
However… there was still one question that remained unanswered.
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan seemed to have thought of something. He looked up at Zhong Shan and asked:
“Before you passed out, where exactly were you standing?”
Zhong Shan was confused, but still pointed to the location.
Wen Jianyan walked over, slowly crouched down where Zhong Shan had pointed.
Yun Bilan had no emotional attachment to Zhong Shan. She wasn’t the type of anchor who would care about anyone’s safety outside her team, nor was she the kind of person who would show sympathy for others. She hadn’t warned anyone other than Zhong Shan.
So, rather than “warning of danger,” it was more about “delivering information.”
Wen Jianyan, maintaining his half-crouched position, slowly scanned the surroundings. Soon, his gaze stopped and landed on a place beneath the nearby shelf.
In the corner, a faint glimmer of light flickered, clearly visible in the dark.
As expected.
Wen Jianyan’s eyes lit up.
He jumped up from the ground, not even bothering to dust himself off, and quickly ran over, reaching out toward the shelf.
Soon, his fingers touched something cold and hard.
Wen Jianyan stood up.
Blond and Chen Mo quickly approached.
“What is it?” Blond asked eagerly.
“…”
Wen Jianyan silently looked down at his hand.
It was a phone.
Yun Bilan’s phone.
Perhaps to find it, the phone had been set to disable the auto-lock feature, but the screen brightness had been turned down to the minimum. This way, unless someone crouched down and searched carefully, it was nearly impossible to spot.
Wen Jianyan paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and gradually increased the screen brightness.
The screen was on the message interface.
[Don’t come]
The two words had been sent successfully.
However, in the conversation box, there was another line of text that hadn’t been sent:
[Don’t come to save me.]
