Changsheng Building
Chapter 655: A promising young man
As the clock struck the hour, darkness descended once again.
The “business hours” of Changsheng Building’s second floor had begun.
“Ding-ling!”
The copper bell on the door rang.
With the opening and closing of the glass door, the first “customer” walked into the shop. The lamp wick flickered, and the air rapidly turned cold and gloomy. Everyone’s expression was tense, ready for battle.
They held their breaths, listening to the footsteps penetrating deep into the shelves. After a long yet brief few dozen seconds, the footsteps slowly walked out from the shelves—accompanied by a crisp copper bell sound, the door was pushed open again. The “customer” who had completed the transaction slowly left the shop. The oil lamp’s light brightened once more, slowly filling the entire shop.
Gentleman: “Action.”
At his command, everyone immediately sprang into action.
With the groundwork laid by the previous floor, they had pretty much grasped the rules of this instance. Naturally, they knew the most important thing now was to find the product carrier the “customer” took away. Otherwise, losing its suppression, it would soon start wreaking havoc and killing people.
The members of the squad moved swiftly, dispersing in different directions.
“Zzzt zzzt.”
A strange sound of electric current rang out from deep within the shop.
“Good evening,” a smiling voice came from the darkness. Even mixed with the static noise of electric interference, one could inexplicably hear the clear and magnetic quality of the voice. Unfortunately, the more pleasant the voice, the creepier it seemed in the darkness. “Welcome to listen to tonight’s radio consultation program.”
“Next, is the call from tonight’s first listener.”
In the brief silence was the rustling sound of electric current.
“Oh my, it seems the caller this time is a listener with ambition and ability, yet satisfied with nothing.” Soon, that voice sounded again, the smile in the tone becoming more distinct.
“?!” The person closest to the radio was startled, abruptly looking toward the direction of the sound.
“Clearly did everything possible, racked your brains to please, completed every order, yet they never see your efforts. Why do useless people get important positions instead? Why does everyone turn a blind eye to your ability?” From the radio, that somewhat distorted voice carried a few hints of empathetic pity, “Ah, how pitiful…”
“—How regrettable.”
“Zzzt zzzt.”
Electric sounds rang from all directions.
The anchor with a pale face, whose neck and cheeks showed cyan corpse spots, gritted his teeth and walked forward, trying his best to block out the negative influence brought by this strange radio. However, that bewitching, smiling voice still drilled irresistibly into his head.
“It’s fear, right?”
“Being used without restraint, exploited mercilessly. When you have no value left, what awaits you?”
“Being abandoned? No…”
“That would be too simple, too unoriginal.”
The anchor, with one hand bandaged and the skin below completely gone, leaving only bright red muscle, had a tense face and clenched teeth. Echoing in his ears were the same beguiling, terrifyingly gentle whispers.
“Guess why he chose to let you draw the key?”
“Guess again, why were you the one attracting the fierce ghost just now?”
No, don’t listen.
The anchor quickened his pace.
He knew very well that these voices born from the instance existed to shake their willpower. They were full of malice and absolutely shouldn’t be listened to.
But…
That voice followed him like a shadow. No matter how he blocked his ears, he couldn’t expel that voice from his mind.
Mixed with rustling sounds, the voice from the radio came softly, close to his ear:
“You already have a guess in your heart, right… why not dare to verify it? Take off the bandage and see, the mark of a fierce ghost cannot disappear…”
Seemingly attracted by some irresistible force majeure, his gaze was bewitchingly cast upon his own bandage-wrapped right hand. Something seemed to be growing constantly under the nourishment of doubt.
At the front desk shrouded in gray-white light, Gentleman realized something was wrong.
He took a step forward, stepping out of the light’s protection range. On the shelf nearest to him, a radio turned on, and a smiling voice mixed with electric interference came from it.
“Ah, how firm and loyal this calling listener is.”
Gentleman paused in his action, turning his head to look toward the source of the sound.
“You’ve done so much for your god, even not hesitating to dirty your hands, offering everything. As a return to you, He will always watch over you, reward you… He will never give what belongs to you to those unbelievers, nor turn a blind eye to you—right?”
The last word was bitten very lightly, like a light and thin wisp of smoke, but carried a piercing malice impossible to ignore.
And…
Pity.
“…!” Gentleman’s pupils contracted.
Before he could react, the radio on the shelf had been violently swept to the ground, shattering into a pile of scrap metal with a “crash.”
Buzzing electric sounds came from the damaged radio. Amidst the increasingly chaotic noise, a mocking chuckle seemed faintly audible.
In the live broadcast room, the number of online viewers was climbing rapidly.
[Damn, is the crisis on the second floor of Changsheng Building like this?]
[No, no, I watched previous streams. The voice in the radio before was just death energy erosion, never like now… This is fucking mental attack, and it’s targeted too. This terror level evolution is too ridiculous!]
[Exciting!]
[If it was the previous type of sound interference, affecting Gentleman and his team might be difficult, but this type really has no solution. No matter how experienced they are, in the end, they are still humans with emotions and desires. And the higher-level the anchor, the less able they are to resist this type of attack; after all, the alienation level is right there.]
[Wait, but that’s not right. I just went to check other live rooms; they don’t seem to have such a situation?]
[Also, is it my illusion? I feel the voice in the radio is a bit familiar…]
“…”
Gentleman closed his eyes, took a deep breath, facial muscles contracting tight, looking somewhat ferocious under the oil lamp light.
However, in just a fleeting moment, he retracted all exposed emotions. He raised his head, raised his voice, and ordered, “Don’t listen to the content in the radio! It’s ghosts confusing you!”
“Don’t be stingy with using emotion-calming items. Clear out all sound-producing things as soon as possible!”
Under his order, the anchors immediately sprang into action, starting to deal with these sound-producing radios as quickly as possible. However, in a place none of them saw, a TV in the corner of a shelf quietly lit up.
A cold figure began to slowly take steps, walking out of the TV step by step.
In the darkness.
The young man rested his chin on his hand, tossing and catching a blood-red candle absentmindedly, watching everything happening in the shop with a smile.
Soon, soon.
But still missing a bit of fire.
Calculating the time in his heart, his fingertips suddenly closed.
“Here.” Wen Jianyan raised his hand and tossed that candle to Wu Zhu.
Wu Zhu caught the candle, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Light it, put it at the shop entrance.” Wen Jianyan raised his hand and threw another one to him, “Not too close, not too far. Ideally where they can see it but can’t extinguish it from inside the shop.”
He touched his pocket, clicked his tongue, “Oops, I’m out here. Do you have any more?”
Wu Zhu lifted his eyes. The shadow gathered like clouds moved over as if alive. The next second, with a clatter, a pile of red and white candles rolled out from the depths of the shadow, rumbling all over the floor, piling up beside Wen Jianyan’s feet in the blink of an eye.
Wen Jianyan looked down at the candles rolling all over the ground by his feet: “…”
Because the system backpack was gone, he could carry very few items on him. So, when leaving the courtyard on the fifth floor, he asked Wu Zhu to take a bit more. But the quantity in front of him… wasn’t it a bit…
He slowly raised his head:
“Wait, how many did you take?”
“You didn’t say a specific number.” Wu Zhu looked calm, expression unchanging. “So I swept away everything visible on the table.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
He crooked his finger.
Wu Zhu didn’t understand why but still obediently lowered his head to get close.
The next second, his head was vigorously rubbed.
Wen Jianyan held his head, praising with a gratified face: “Teachable child!!!”
Doing bad things requires such a partner!
Too much potential!
Inside the shop.
Suddenly, a medium sensed something and slowly turned to look behind.
On the dusty pitch-black shelf, a TV was on at some point. The screen was pitch black, only emitting a soft rustling sound.
TV… on?
But why was the screen empty?
Could it be…
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind like lightning. His voice changed pitch, almost unrecognizable from its original tone: “Something came out of the TV!! Careful!!!”
In the live broadcast room, bullet comments became denser:
[Ahhh finally you discovered it!]
[I’ve been screaming for five minutes already!!]
[But, so strange. Didn’t only one customer come just now? Why are there two types of supernatural items causing trouble?]
[I watched previous streams of Changsheng Building. If the radios really had problems, everyone hearing the voice would be eroded and alienated, with corpse spots appearing on their bodies. But when the radios turned on, the listeners’ bodies didn’t suffer much physical damage. So, in my opinion, the radios are just a smokescreen. What the customer really bought was ‘vision,’ so only the TV has a ghost inside!]
[…Damn, is this instance so smart now?]
[By the way, did any of you see clearly just now, what clothes was the ghost coming out of the TV wearing?]
[Uh, forgot, gray probably?]
[Yeah, anyway similar to other shops.]
[That’s really weird… how come in my memory, the ghost in the TV in this shop wore red clothes? And it was the particularly fierce kind?]
While the live room audience had conflicting opinions, Gentleman was nervously interrogating everyone in the team. Although the situation was critical, he wasn’t unfamiliar with this setting of “inexplicable addition of fierce ghosts in the team.” Soon, he locked onto one person in the team.
“Me? Why are you looking at me like that?” That person looked panicked, retreating repeatedly under everyone’s glare. He still tried to argue, “You, you wake up… it’s me, I haven’t been replaced by a ghost, really…”
“Vice President, this…” A teammate close to him couldn’t bear it.
“No mistake.”
Gentleman raised his head. On the turtle shell item in his hand, several cracks had been added. He said indifferently:
“Kill him.”
However, before he could act, a “ding-ling” sound was heard; the brass bell on the door rang again.
Gentleman’s pupils contracted:
“Retreat into the light!”
A customer walked into the shop. After brief darkness, it left again accompanied by the bell sound.
The moment the light returned, Gentleman immediately attacked, setting about resolving the hidden danger in the team. With a “crack,” that person’s neck broke in a weird shape, hanging down limply. The gradually cooling body fell to the ground, chest no longer rising, completely lifeless.
Killed wrong?
Gentleman frowned, but he quickly dismissed his doubts.
No, impossible.
The ghost mixed in the team just now must have sensed its exposure, so taking advantage of the darkness descending then, it abandoned the previous skin bag—it seemed, starting from the second floor, these ghosts no longer acted solely on killing instinct like before but possessed certain intelligence.
He lowered his head, took out the turtle shell, trying to find the ghost’s trace again.
“Ding-ling!”
The brass bell sounded again.
What?!
Everyone turned their heads in astonishment, looking toward the sound source.
But, it had only been a dozen seconds… why so fast?!
Gentleman’s eyes moved, looking outside the dusty shop door—in that darkness, something seemed to be flickering with faint red light. However, because it was too weirdly dark outside the shop, relying solely on his own eyes, it was hard to see clearly what exactly that was. A regretful thought quickly flashed through his mind—what a pity. If he had dug out that guy’s eyeballs on the cruise ship back then, that vision capable of piercing all darkness would definitely have been useful in this instance.
Even if he couldn’t see clearly, as a Nightmare Top Ten, he still had intuition and judgment in this regard.
“Customers” coming too fast was definitely not normal.
“Something outside is attracting ghosts to us.” Gentleman said slowly.
Everyone’s pupils contracted.
“Must solve this first.” Gentleman took a deep breath, making a prompt decision. “Otherwise, we will never be able to spare time to solve the current situation.”
Customers were increasing, and every time a customer entered, they were trapped behind the front desk unable to move. The accumulated crisis in the shop would only increase constantly. Although the ghost mixed in the team hadn’t been ferreted out yet, given its habit of “disguise” and “deception,” its immediate threat was far less than the red light attracting ghosts outside.
The others were silent as cicadas in winter.
They knew Gentleman was absolutely right.
But…
They also knew that if they wanted to solve this matter, someone had to leave the light and enter the boundless darkness outside.
And the oil lamp sustaining their survival in the darkness absolutely could not leave the shop.
“Vice President, we have about enough ghost money now,” someone tried to struggle desperately. “Why don’t we wait for one more customer to enter, then go directly to the third floor…”
“No!” Gentleman said coldly.
His eyes were still fixed on the external red light.
“This instance is too strange. There must be something… or someone playing tricks. It will only get harder next. If we don’t solve it, we’ll die even faster when we reach the next floor.”
He turned his head; his cold, emotionless gaze fell on one of the team members.
That team member held his arm which had lost its skin. Having expected this in his heart, his face couldn’t help but pale slightly.
Gentleman showed a gentle and refined smile, “Don’t worry, nothing will happen.”
Like the time he asked him to draw the key before, he took out an item and handed it over:
“Go, we will wait for you here.”
“Creak.”
The glass door was pushed open. With a pale face and clenched teeth, the man slowly stepped into the darkness.
As soon as he stepped out of the shop door, thick, turbid darkness coiled up his body.
Cold air sliced his skin like ice knives, bringing substantive pain.
Yes, Gentleman’s promise wasn’t wrong.
Although stepping out of the light’s protection range, he didn’t directly turn into a lifeless corpse. This was obviously the protection of the item given.
But…
What was the price of such protection?
That voice mixed with weird electric currents seemed to ring in his ears again, whispering in his mind, asking over and over.
You already have a guess in your heart, right…
Why not dare to verify it?
As if possessed, he reached toward his arm wrapped in white cloth. After untying the bandage, the bright red tendons below, having lost skin protection, were exposed. Even so, he could still clearly see a palm-like mark branded on it.
No, no, not like this.
Whether to resist inner fear or to deceive himself, the man trembled his palm, covering the bandage back. He forced himself to look away and stepped forward again.
This is necessary.
The Vice President must have more considerations. Definitely not, definitely not…
Definitely not what?
He couldn’t answer.
Unknowingly, the thing emitting faint red light in the darkness was closer.
Finally, he saw the source of the red light clearly.
It was a candle.
A red candle.
The candle burned quietly, a faint flame lit atop, but emitting an aura that made his hair stand on end, as if something alive was wriggling in the air. Every cell in his body was screaming, seemingly telling him—
Right, it’s it. It’s this evil object attracting all surrounding fierce ghosts.
The man didn’t notice… or rather, couldn’t notice.
The moment he stepped into the red light, buzzing electric sounds began echoing in his live room, as if the signal received some interference.
“What’s happening?”
“Why did the signal get bad?”
“God, not again. Hasn’t Nightmare fixed it yet? How many glitches recently?”
“Speaking of which, do you guys know what exactly happened with the previous glitches?”
“Uh… no impression.”
“Me neither.”
“Who cares. As long as there’s a stream to watch, care about glitches or not.”
The big stone pressing on his chest grew heavier. The anchor’s breathing became increasingly rapid, quickening his pace bit by bit.
Must extinguish it.
Otherwise, all of them would die!
His eyes stared fixedly at that red candle. In the darkness, only it burned quietly, releasing weird ominous red light. Red images seemed burned onto his retinas, like ignition points pressed down by cigarette butts.
However, the next second, a pale hand covered in corpse spots reached from the darkness, grabbing his ankle firmly.
The anchor was dragged to the ground caught off guard, instantly horrified.
Bad!!
It’s a ghost attracted by that candlelight!!
He turned awkwardly, preparing to defend, but before he could do anything, he heard a lazy voice from not far away—”…Chase away those obstructive things, good.”
In the confusion, the anchor didn’t hear clearly what the other said.
But, through the roar of blood in his ears, he vaguely felt that voice seemed familiar.
Immediately after, the surrounding darkness surged as if alive. Soon, that ghost hand tightly gripping his ankle retracted, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Wh… what happened?
The anchor sprawled on the ground, panting heavily in shock, looking around blankly.
In the chaotic darkness, only that weird red candle still burned.
The next second, a slender hand reached from deep in the darkness, gently picking up that red candle.
“Wh…?!”
The red candlelight was like an oily film smeared on distinct knuckles. As the candle was lifted bit by bit, a handsome, fair face was gradually illuminated by that weird light.
The man’s pupils constricted tight, completely unexpected of this situation.
The young man stood before him holding the red candle. Deep red candlelight danced in the depths of his light-colored eyes, behind him boundless heavy shadows.
Without the weird electric noise, his voice sounded exceptionally soft and pleasant:
“Good evening.”
“Like my radio program?” He chuckled lightly.
“You… it’s you?!” The man’s pupils contracted, intense fear magnifying in the darkness, his voice trembling and changing pitch because of it, “Pinocchio?!”
But… didn’t Pinocchio die on the Lucky Cruise?
What was going on?!
Is it a ghost? Or…
“Oh my, seems you know me.”
Wen Jianyan chuckled lightly, looking somewhat pleased.
“All these things, were your doing?” The anchor’s throat felt strangled by an invisible hand. “Those radios, TVs, and those customers…”
“Yeah.”
Wen Jianyan admitted airily, without hesitation.
His excessive honesty conversely choked all the other’s words back down. All of a sudden, he couldn’t ask a single question.
“Your Vice President and I… hmm, how to say?” Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, playing with the lit red candle in his hand absentmindedly. He paused, raising his eyes. Though smiling on his face, there was no smile in his eyes. “Have a little private grudge.”
Framing and scheming again and again and again, malice and entrapment again and again and again.
Him not pursuing with extreme means for so long was already very magnanimous.
But, inducing Su Cheng under Nightmare’s orders, intensifying his alienation, severing Ji Guan’s limbs at the racecourse, attempting to take Blond’s eyeballs… item by item, had completely exceeded the scope Wen Jianyan was willing to tolerate.
Saying there was a private grudge between them wasn’t an exaggeration at all.
“You…”
That anchor swallowed saliva, trying to moisten his dry throat.
“Why tell me these things? Aren’t you afraid I’ll go back and tell…”
Before he could finish, he was interrupted by Wen Jianyan.
“Will you?”
The young man looked at him smilingly.
Under the weird red light, his eyes were like vortexes one dared not look directly at, seeming to have a terrible power penetrating the human heart.
Wen Jianyan squatted down in front of him.
“So,”
His gaze lingered on the loose bandage on the anchor’s wrist, the smile in his eyes seeming to deepen, “You verified it, right?”
“…” The anchor opened his mouth, voice stuck in his throat.
“Let’s put it this way,” unlike the gentle harmless nice smile on Wen Jianyan’s face, his voice seemed to carry chilling terrible coldness, “I will kill Gentleman in this instance, and, I don’t mind collateral damage this time.”
“This means, you might die.”
The young man spoke terrible words with a smile.
“Maybe not, but who knows.”
But no one dared question the truthfulness of his words.
Because the one saying this was a Nightmare Top Ten with a record-breaking terrifying battle record, and his opponent was another Nightmare Top Ten, the Vice President of Nightmare’s largest guild, Oracle—when immortals fight, little ghosts suffer. In the duel between them, all outsiders dragged in would be crushed and trampled like bugs under tires.
“Just, what are you giving your life for?”
“A team leader who will use your lives to block disasters for himself anytime, who can be indifferent to accidentally injuring companions to verify his own guesses, and who might turn valueless people into items anytime?”
“Honestly, compared to dying by my hand, the probability of you dying by his hand is even greater.”
“Are you really reconciled?”
In the darkness, the red candle flickered.
Without the radio as a medium, the irresistible power in the other’s soft voice appeared even more clear and distinct, like the whisper of a devil.
“Alright, now tell me.”
“Would you prefer gaining an enemy, or a friend?”
Author’s Note:
Wen Jianyan as instance boss → And Then There Were None
