Thank you @MsKend_a for the Kofi.
Changsheng Building
Chapter 654: Indiscriminate killing
Seeing through the deadly darkness and lighting the oil lamps in the shop was by no means difficult for Gentleman and his team.
A stale aura permeated the air. A gray-white corpse oil lamp glowed faintly in front of the counter. Several plastic mannequins wearing no clothes stood half in the light and half hidden in the darkness, motionless, their pale limbs stiff and eerie.
Gazing at the shop filled with a terrifying atmosphere before him, Gentleman narrowed his eyes slightly and turned to a prophet beside him:
“Any threats here?”
However, before he could finish speaking, two strange “cluck-cluck” sounds came from the corner.
“!”
Gentleman froze and jerked his head up, looking toward where the sound came from.
Under the gray-white light, a faceless plastic mannequin had turned its head at some point, staring at him with empty eye sockets.
Cluck-cluck.
Cluck-cluck.
Teeth-aching sounds of friction between limbs echoed. The mannequin that had been motionless just a moment ago began to move under the light, walking step by step toward the humans.
Such a terrifying scene, however, seemed commonplace in Gentleman’s eyes. He simply nodded and ordered calmly:
“Dispose of it.”
In the live broadcast room, the number of online viewers was rising rapidly.
[This efficiency is satisfying!]
[Exactly, coming to a Nightmare Top Ten’s live room is all about comfort. Look at this level!]
However, amidst the flattery from the regular viewers in Gentleman’s live room, some viewers from other live rooms seemed very confused:
[…Huh? Do these mannequins move this early?]
[Did I remember wrong? I recall this instance isn’t about spawning monsters, but is rule-based?]
Could it be that even the rules changed after the instance reopened?]
The living plastic mannequin was indeed a threat, but for a well-trained squad like the Gentleman’s, it wasn’t a life-or-death problem.
While they were fully focused on dealing with the plastic mannequin, no one noticed the dusty glass door of the building slowly opening. Stiff footsteps walked in slowly, and overwhelming darkness descended.
“Ding-ling!”
The old copper bell shook, and the shop door creaked open.
Sensing something, Gentleman turned to look.
The wick of the oil lamp flickered for an instant. The light that had filled the entire shop was instantly compressed to within the counter, and endless cold aura surged in from outside.
His pupils contracted sharply.
Having experienced so many instances, Gentleman knew well enough that the “thing” entering the shop now was terrifyingly powerful.
“Retreat!!” A trace of tension appeared in Gentleman’s usually calm voice. “Full effort to deal with the ghost entering now!”
In the dark shop, the crisis escalated and intensified amidst the conflict.
One threat wasn’t solved yet.
A second set of footsteps began approaching from behind.
Even Gentleman hadn’t expected that not long after the instance started, the situation would become dangerous to a point difficult even for him to control!
Layers of darkness pressed in from outside. The customer they were barely holding back remained in place; all previous attacks were useless against it, while their defense line was collapsing bit by bit.
Gentleman seemed to realize something. He turned his head to look at the anchor who had worn the bracelet to draw the key earlier:
“Go to the front.”
That person’s face paled, but he still braced himself and moved forward.
The next second, the “thing” walking into the shop seemed attracted by some irresistible force, changing direction and walking toward that anchor.
The human hair bracelet had side effects. Rather than changing luck, it was more like a token of a curse. For a long time afterward, the user would be entangled by supernatural forces, becoming the most vulnerable target to attacks.
Gentleman ordered the others: “Use all means, attack with full force.”
However, all attack methods vanished into the darkness without producing any effect.
“V-Vice President, something’s wrong!” One anchor gritted his teeth. “All items are ineffective against it. This thing has no solution!”
Gentleman obviously discovered the same problem.
This was an unsolvable type of ghost.
You know, unsolvable ghosts only appeared in rule-based instances, not in combat-based instances.
That meant their direction was wrong from the start.
“Ahhh, ahhhhh!!” The anchor in front let out a piercing scream. Under the control of some invisible force, the skin on his body began to peel off bit by bit, revealing bloody red flesh, like taking off a glove of human skin.
Gentleman scanned the messy shop, his face very grim:
“We thought wrong. These things aren’t monsters, but ‘customers.’ What we need to do isn’t fight them, but sell the clothes in the shop to them.”
It took Wen Jianyan twenty minutes to figure out the instance rules, but due to the initial misleading clues in the shop, Gentleman and his team spent a full forty minutes.
“Ding-ling.”
The copper bell rang.
Footsteps walked out of the shop. As the darkness receded bit by bit, the light brightened again.
The first business transaction ended. A gray-white ghost bill was left on the counter.
The shop was in shambles.
“Ring ring ring!”
The telephone rang.
It was the call notifying them they could continue upwards.
“Hiss, the consumption on the first floor is this big.”
“Yeah, the anchor’s luck is really bad. Don’t know why the plastic mannequins in this shop didn’t have human skin clothes. If suppressed by human skin clothes, they would only activate after the first customer arrived, so it wouldn’t be so misleading.”
“Can’t be helped. The more experienced the anchor, the easier it is to make mistakes in such places. This setup is somewhat too unconventional; can’t blame him for preconceived notions.”
Putting down the phone, Gentleman picked up that ghost bill, his expression darkening for a moment.
Obviously, even he hadn’t expected to be caught off guard on the first floor of this instance.
But it didn’t matter.
As a senior anchor, Gentleman knew very well how high the probability of accidents in Nightmare was. No matter the instance level or anchor level, one couldn’t be arrogant; otherwise, it was easy to capsize in a gutter.
Gentleman took a deep breath, quickly regaining his usual elegant demeanor, and smiled:
“Rested well? If so, let’s continue. Let’s go upstairs and see.”
The more senior and knowledgeable a anchor was about Nightmare’s layout, the easier it was to fall into set thinking patterns.
Just tweaking the layout a bit could bring unexpected gains.
Outside the shop, in the darkness away from the light, Wen Jianyan stood with arms crossed, chuckling softly.
However… he wasn’t particularly surprised that Gentleman successfully resolved the crisis and smoothly entered the second floor.
Regardless, Gentleman was one of Nightmare’s top ten. For him, an ordinary error in judgment was nothing. Although such things were uncommon, they didn’t exceed what he could accept.
Such a small setback, he could quickly regain his footing.
And for Wen Jianyan, this was just a simple probe.
After all, even in the Changsheng Building instance, the danger on the first floor wasn’t significant. Wen Jianyan never planned to finish them off on this floor from the start.
If he acted too excessively right away, it would be easy to alert the enemy.
Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes.
The real show was still ahead.
However…
Watching Gentleman’s retreating figure and recalling everything he just saw, Wen Jianyan’s expression gradually became elusive, as if pondering something.
While he was deep in thought, his left shoulder suddenly felt heavy, pressed down slightly.
“What are you thinking?”
The next second, a cold breath touched his earlobe.
Wen Jianyan shivered reflexively.
He glanced at Wu Zhu. Whether accustomed to it or too lazy to argue, he just symbolically moved his head in the opposite direction: “I’m thinking, there are still too many people around him.”
Gentleman was tightly guarded by his team members. He would push everyone in front of himself to block the vast majority of dangers. Although Gentleman’s squad was indeed consumed, he himself hadn’t been affected in any strict sense—even though the terror level of the Changsheng Building instance was high enough, wanting to corner Gentleman in this situation still faced considerable resistance.
Wu Zhu: “Want me to kill them all?”
“Really, can’t we be a bit more peaceful,” Wen Jianyan laughed nonchalantly. “Why always fighting and killing.”
Not that he cared about those people’s lives. After all, anyone who could climb to Gentleman’s squad in Oracle was birds of a feather. Given what they did in previous instances, Wen Jianyan never planned to show mercy from the start.
“Anyway, no need to act,” Wen Jianyan said lazily. “Live broadcasts are still on. Getting caught exposing your whereabouts wouldn’t be worth the loss, understand?”
Although letting Wu Zhu act would be quickest, it was blunt and crude, carrying significant risk.
After all, Nightmare was still watching covetously. It wasn’t worth it for this.
Seeming to realize something, the corner of Wu Zhu’s mouth tilted up: “Mm.”
Wen Jianyan paused and added: “…Don’t overthink it, I don’t mean I’m worried about your safety.”
Wu Zhu nodded: “Mm.”
“…” Wen Jianyan sighed.
Forget it.
“In short, I have a better way.”
Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes, pondering for a moment. In that moment of silence, countless plans and layouts seemed to unfold in his mind. Soon, he spoke again, saying:
“We act on the third floor.”
“Of course, the fourth floor would definitely be safer,” Wen Jianyan shrugged. “But Hugo and Anise are also in this instance. Their levels are too high; I don’t want long delays leading to trouble.”
He wasn’t sure if the appearance of these two was a coincidence or if there was deeper meaning behind it, but regardless, a quick resolution was better.
“…Hugo?”
Wu Zhu paused, seeming to think of something, his eyes growing colder.
“Oh, that person.”
“You wanted me to save him,” the cold cheek nuzzled into the human’s warm neck hollow. Though the tone was cold as usual, the arm around Wen Jianyan’s waist slowly tightened. “And even take the medicine he gave.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
Heh, he knew this guy would bring up old matters!
He remembered these two incidents too. The first happened at the end of Xingwang Hotel, and the second during Yuying Comprehensive University.
Have to say, Wu Zhu’s memory in this regard was amazing.
Even though it wasn’t the same fragment involved in the situations, it didn’t affect his main body holding grudges one by one.
“First, I didn’t ask you to save him,” recalling the situation then, Wen Jianyan couldn’t help rolling his eyes. “I just asked you not to kill him then.”
Unexpectedly, Wu Zhu answered without thinking:
“Same.”
“Same my ass.”
“As for the second thing…” Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes and turned to look at him. Though smiling, he looked inexplicably terrifying. “He gave me medicine at least to stop the pain. Think about what you did then? Oh right, you threw away my water bottle wanting me to die.”
Wu Zhu: “…”
“Let go,” Wen Jianyan said expressionlessly. “Then stay away from me.”
Knowing he was in the wrong, Wu Zhu let go dejectedly.
“Don’t come near me for twenty minutes. Reflect on yourself properly.”
“…” Wu Zhu thought for a moment, trying to bargain. “Holding hands isn’t allowed either?”
“No!”
The second floor of the Changsheng Building instance was an electronics store.
“Which shop number is on the key?”
While walking up the stairs, Gentleman asked.
“Number three.” The teammate lowered his head, scanned the blurred text, and answered.
In the live broadcast room, viewers who hadn’t seen the platinum process of Changsheng Building didn’t react much, but those who had exploded.
“No, what’s going on?!”
“Shop No. 4 on the first floor was a coincidence just now, how could it be again this time?”
Shop No. 03, the fiercest shop in the entire Changsheng Building.
And, it was also the shop Pinocchio had stayed in.
Even… his being able to choose this shop had Oracle’s influence behind it.
“Something’s wrong, absolutely wrong!!”
Due to the spoiler prevention mechanism in the live room, Gentleman knew nothing about the discussion in his live room.
They had delayed too long on the first floor, so they had almost no time to linger in the corridor and entered the shop directly.
“Selling electronics?”
Gentleman narrowed his eyes.
“Should we look for products with supernatural power and put them out in advance?”
A teammate suggested.
Gentleman lowered his eyes. A cracked turtle shell appeared in his palm. “Crack,” the turtle shell made a cracking sound, and more lines appeared on it. Obviously, it wasn’t used for the first time—once the usage count was exhausted, the turtle shell could no longer be used.
No one knew which anchor’s death it was born from.
And no one would remember.
It was just another item to be used and consumed.
After a brief reading of a few seconds, Gentleman raised his head: “No need.”
“This floor is different from the previous one. Doing that in advance is meaningless,” Gentleman said slowly. “But this floor is very fierce. Everyone be prepared. Don’t spare any items. I’ll resupply you if needed.”
Viewers in the live room tutted in admiration:
[As expected of Oracle. What wealth! Using such level prophecy items casually.]
[And I remember Pinocchio suffered a big loss in this shop before, right?]
[Yes, they didn’t have so many good things back then. Every pitfall was tested step by step. That was thrilling. Compared to Gentleman’s generosity, the gap is really too big.]
[The previous floor was probably just unprepared. Now that all rules are figured out, for a anchor of Gentleman’s level, won’t it be a massacre?]
[Exactly, a massacre!]
