Changsheng Building
Chapter 660: The audience is God, popularity is everything
In the darkness, the scarlet firelight flickered, reflecting in the depths of the man’s pitch-black eyes. White smoke curled around his fingers like some living creature.
Clack, clack, clack.
His solitary footsteps echoed in the empty, silent corridor.
“That’s enough.”
Wen Jianyan spoke up to stop him.
“Don’t come any closer.”
Clack.
The footsteps stopped.
Hugo stood still more than ten meters away, half his face hidden in the darkness, his gaze profound.
The two sides confronted each other silently.
At some point, the temperature had dropped to freezing, and the air felt like some thick, sticky substance.
“Although I guessed Nightmare wouldn’t let things go just like that,” the young man’s voice carried a smile as always, completely incongruous with the surrounding cold and tense atmosphere, “but… you?”
Hugo didn’t answer but took another drag of the cigarette between his fingers. Gray-white smoke rose in curls.
“—I really didn’t expect that.”
The corridor was pitch-black and profound. The shop doors on both sides were tightly closed, and red candles emitted a faint, cold light.
“Ah, but since things have reached this point,” Wen Jianyan shrugged, smiling lightly even in such a situation, “it shouldn’t matter if you answer a few of my questions, right? —At least for the sake of our past friendship.”
Hugo tapped the ash from his cigarette. After a few seconds, he finally spoke:
“Ask.”
“When did you start working for Nightmare?”
“…” In the darkness, the flickering red firelight reflected in the depths of the man’s profound eyes. He looked up at Wen Jianyan. “Do you still need to ask?”
Indeed, he didn’t need to.
Although Hugo hadn’t said a word, for a smart person like Wen Jianyan, his appearance already represented many things.
“Xingwang Hotel,” his voice carried a hint of a sigh, “that painting.”
There were already enough clues.
When Wen Jianyan first saw Hugo in the Sandbox, he was still a responsible captain with his own team and partners. However, when Wen Jianyan dealt with him in the real timeline, Hugo had already become a lone wolf without any guild, acting alone.
And in the secret council, Hugo was also a unique existence. He ranked fourth in Nightmare. The three ahead of him were the presidents of the three major guilds. Despite having a reclusive personality unwilling to deal with anyone, he controlled the entire council single-handedly and became its recognized actual manager.
More importantly…
In the Lucky Cruise instance, on the floor of cabins reserved for all Top Ten anchors, besides the top three, the only one [Checked In] was Hugo.
It should be known that among the Nightmare Top Ten, apart from himself, the alienation level of others was extremely high. Whether White Snow or Orange Candy, or even Gentleman who had the closest relationship with Nightmare and Oracle, they were merely “Check-in Available,” but Hugo was [Checked In].
Whether active or passive, regardless of the hidden circumstances, Hugo and Nightmare were already inseparable.
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, rubbing his fingers.
In Nightmare, all chances of survival and gifts had a price behind them.
Back deep in the corridor, when Wu Zhu wished for Hugo to die, it was probably not just out of pure jealousy. After all, as a non-human and the core of Nightmare’s operation, even with incomplete memory and fragmented consciousness, he possessed some beast-like intuition—those who walked out of this corridor would inevitably be entangled with Nightmare, becoming death warriors working for it.
Wen Jianyan raised his head, looking at Hugo across the corridor again, and asked:
“Then, does Nightmare want me alive or dead?”
Hugo slowly exhaled a puff of smoke, expression calm, voice without fluctuation: “Dead or alive, doesn’t matter.”
“Hiss,” Wen Jianyan drew in a light breath of cold air, but his tone sounded as unconcerned as if discussing someone else’s life and death. “So ruthless.”
But the next second, his eyes curved, and he actually smiled:
“Then it seems I really went in the right direction.”
This was the first time Nightmare had truly shown “fear.”
Previously, no matter what methods it tried or what traps it laid, it always held the initiative—after all, compared to killing Wen Jianyan, Nightmare preferred him to “become a god,” a brand new, controllable new god to replace Wu Zhu, the disobedient core.
But this time, it changed its style.
Nightmare had never acted against him so directly.
The tougher it appeared, the more fragile it meant it was.
As Wen Jianyan gradually broke free from control, Nightmare felt threatened for the first time.
Starting from a low-level anchor being watched and manipulated, Wen Jianyan advanced step by step, adding chips to himself bit by bit, finally reaching a point where Nightmare had to treat him seriously, even at the cost of abandoning all previous layouts, not hesitating even to kill him.
“Also…”
Before Wen Jianyan could finish, a cold voice suddenly came from behind.
“Brother Hugo, why waste time with him.”
Deep in the dark stairwell, a thin, hunched figure slowly walked up. Anise’s pale face gradually appeared under the light. A pair of bulging, protruding eyes moved slightly, focusing on Wen Jianyan—the moment he saw him, intense malice and viciousness instantly overflowed.
He let out a hoarse laugh and scolded in a low voice:
“Go.”
The next second, several cold figures lurking behind him immediately moved. Driven by Anise, they lunged forward mercilessly.
Instantly, the darkness in the entire corridor roiled, and the terrifying aura rose steeply!
Under the red light, the young man about to be caught by fierce ghosts turned his head and cast a glance at Hugo. His eyes held a faint smile, as if saying:
Him?
Are you serious?
Hugo’s eyes darkened, and he shouted angrily:
“Anise!”
The smoke lingering in the dark air instantly twisted into a thin but tough large net.
In the darkness, those several cold figures were tightly bound, frozen in mid-air in a bizarre state.
The next second, with terrifying agility unmatched by anyone, Wen Jianyan seized this fleeting, unattended state. He abruptly took a step back, stepping into the staircase that had thoroughly solidified under the red candlelight at some point.
All viewers focusing their gaze on these few live broadcast rooms boiled over.
[Holy shit!!]
[Ahhh holy crap!]
[This guy is too damn cunning. He told Hugo not to come closer just to exploit an angle Hugo couldn’t see to open the stairs! Seemingly waiting to be captured, actually prepared to slip away anytime!]
[Oh my god, this timing! I even suspect he guessed Anise would come and Hugo would stop him from acting…]
[Hugo, although his individual combat ability is unmatched, is ultimately too proud and has too much of a bottom line. He wouldn’t allow Anise to kill his opponent just like that.]
Everything happened in a flash.
When Hugo and Anise rushed to where Wen Jianyan stood just now, he had vanished. Annihilating along with the red candle was the staircase leading to the fifth floor that shouldn’t have existed.
“Damn it, damn it!” Anise’s face was extremely gloomy, unable to stop cursing. “We clearly cornered him, yet still let him run away!! That damned bit—”
Only half cursed, he was interrupted by a deep voice.
“Did I tell you to act?”
Anise was stunned, turning his head subconsciously, meeting Hugo’s profound eyes.
His imposing manner involuntarily weakened a notch: “Brother Hugo, you might not know, but I’ve dealt with that kid. Seeing him, you must act immediately. Absolutely cannot give him any opportunity to stall for time, otherwise he’ll find a loophole like now, just like just now—”
“I asked, did I tell you to act?” Hugo repeated slowly and calmly again.
“…”
Under the other’s unwavering, emotionless gaze, Anise’s anger, which had just expanded to the extreme, deflated rapidly like a punctured balloon the next second.
He still wanted to explain: “No, no, but—”
Hugo lowered his eyes. His brow was weary as always, but inexplicably emitted a suffocating oppression.
“Or do you distrust my ability, thinking I can’t handle him alone?”
Gray-white smoke lingered between his fingers.
“No, no, of course I didn’t mean that…” Anise retreated half a step somewhat pathetically, unable to lift his head under the other’s pressure. “With your strength, of course it’s impossible you can’t handle that kid…”
“Then, you think I would actively let him go?”
Hugo held the cigarette at his lips, tone still calm.
“No, no, of course I couldn’t think that…” Anise was forced into complete surrender by him.
As someone who also walked out of that corridor, no one knew better than him how strict the second contract was.
Regardless of Hugo’s true thoughts, he couldn’t stop hunting Pinocchio by his own will.
“Good.”
Hugo looked down at him from above, no emotion deep in his cold black eyes.
“I won’t show mercy to Pinocchio.”
“But if you act on your own over my head again next time, I’ll kill you first.” This sentence was said lightly, seemingly without threat, but Anise broke into a cold sweat upon hearing it.
He knew Hugo never joked.
“Yes, yes,” he could only agree, “won’t happen next time.”
“Finally,” Hugo withdrew his gaze coldly, “I’m not your brother. Don’t call me that in the future.”
Anise gritted his teeth tightly:
“…Understood.”
Surroundings were an extremely cold graveyard. In the middle of the graveyard was a winding path. At the end of the path, a dead silent courtyard house stood silently.
Wen Jianyan ran wildly on that small path.
The way to enter this layer had just been directly exposed by him. Since the instance had started for so long, the channels to obtain red candles or lamp oil were already revealed. That meant he could at most delay some time now, but couldn’t shake them off completely—especially anchors of Hugo’s level, even more impossible.
Sure enough, not long after Wen Jianyan fled, two figures appeared one after another at the very end of the path.
It was precisely Hugo and Anise.
“He’s there!” Anise sharply spotted that back running for his life not far ahead.
But this time, he didn’t dare act rashly again, instead turning to look at Hugo:
“Then do we now…”
Hugo was concise: “Follow.”
Wen Jianyan ran forward all the way. Suddenly, the “zzzt zzzt” mechanical sound rang in his ears again. He seized the opportunity to look down and scan—the live broadcast room, which had quieted down upon entering the path, actually started commotion again, struggling to reconnect.
He seemed to sense something, turning his head to glance behind.
Sure enough, two figures appeared not far behind.
“…” Wen Jianyan’s pupils contracted slightly.
He seemed to realize something.
Back in the Sandbox, he had already discovered that the control Nightmare exerted on this world was realized through the audience’s “observation.”
And this meant the more “observers,” the greater the control.
Whether Gentleman, Anise, or Hugo, they all ranked in the Nightmare Top Ten, having massive loyal audiences. Plus his existence, naturally huge amounts of viewers would be channeled into the live room, pushing traffic to the peak.
[The audience is God, popularity is everything.]
Wen Jianyan realized the true meaning behind this sentence for the first time.
Nightmare’s encirclement of him in this instance wasn’t just sending two extremely difficult opponents, but also to increase the frequency of his appearance in front of the camera.
And with such artificially created terrifying traffic, Nightmare could even bypass Wu Zhu’s heart interference, forcing his live broadcast room to go online again—
Popularity is everything.
Realizing this now was already somewhat late.
But even if he understood this early on, he still couldn’t change the status quo—to get the scroll fragment from Gentleman, he had to place himself under the spotlight. The better the “viewing effect,” the greater the traffic in the live room.
From any angle, this was an unavoidable dead end.
Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth, raised his hand, and pushed open the gate of the courtyard house.
No choice, can only continue.
Taking almost no time, Hugo and Anise arrived at the gate of the courtyard house.
The two crossed the threshold one after another, entering the courtyard house.
The area here wasn’t large. Red and white lanterns filled the courtyard. Combined with the old architectural style and paper figures with stiff smiles, everything looked so weird and terrifying, almost capable of destroying any normal person’s psychological defense. However, for Hugo and Anise, all this seemed non-existent. They both looked calm, seemingly accustomed to this long ago.
They ran right into the target of this trip.
Wen Jianyan’s forehead was covered in fine sweat, still somewhat breathless.
A sneer lifted the corner of Anise’s lips: “Run, why aren’t you running?”
He slowly looked around, gaze sweeping over those paper figures, eyes cold: “You don’t think this level of obstruction will have any effect on us, do you?”
“No choice,” Wen Jianyan panted, giving a short laugh: “One has to try.”
“…”
Hugo took the cigarette from his lips. The scarlet butt flickered, appearing extraordinarily piercing in the darkness.
He spoke slowly:
“Come back with me. I can spare your life.”
This was the biggest concession Hugo could make.
Nightmare didn’t require him to kill Wen Jianyan on the spot, but “dead or alive, doesn’t matter.” This meant there wasn’t absolutely no room for maneuver—if Wen Jianyan was willing to be captured, he could also refrain from using extreme measures.
“Really?” Wen Jianyan smiled. “Oh my, that’s truly generous.”
The smile on his face faded: “Unfortunately, I have to refuse this tempting offer.”
Gray-white smoke rose like a woven net.
Hugo looked at him coldly: “You can’t handle me.”
He had entered a instance with Wen Jianyan; he knew exactly what the other’s strength was.
Pinocchio was indeed good at dealing with instances and finding rules.
But in individual combat, he had almost no advantage.
Even against an ordinary high-level anchor, he would easily be at a disadvantage, let alone facing two Top Ten anchors this time, one of whom was even the strongest individual soldier in Nightmare.
“I know,” Wen Jianyan caught his breath, “I don’t plan to handle you either.”
“I advise you not to have any crooked ideas.”
Beside him, Anise said sinisterly.
“I can guess your purpose in leading us here, but don’t forget my talent—”
Before he could finish, Wen Jianyan laughed.
“Yes, controlling ghosts. Of course I remember.”
Admittedly, Hugo and Anise were unmatched in fighting humans.
But Wen Jianyan also had a unique advantage.
This was [Changsheng Building].
A instance he had platinum-cleared.
No one knew better than him what the rules of this instance were, what the essence was, and… what was truly irresistible.
“Then, try controlling this one?”
The next second, an old mirror appeared in Wen Jianyan’s hand at some point. He twirled a knife in his fingers. With a flash of cold light, a brass knife stabbed fiercely into the depths of the mirror in his hand. With a crisp “crack,” spiderweb-like cracks appeared on it.
The already cold temperature in the air plummeted!
He raised his hand, throwing the shattered mirror toward Hugo and Anise.
As the mirror surface turned, a cold red figure flickered faintly within.
“Bang!!” The mirror smashed heavily onto the ground, exploding into fragments.
Hugo’s pupils contracted.
The next second, all red and white lanterns in the courtyard lit up simultaneously.
An unprecedented, extremely terrifying aura permeated the entire courtyard house.
Without any division, simply briefly sealed in the mirror, the red-clothed female corpse was released directly by Wen Jianyan.
She was the true culprit behind why [Changsheng Building] was so terrifying.
Appearing even earlier than Nightmare, she was a fierce ghost even Nightmare couldn’t completely deal with, only able to divide and suppress.
Also the most unsolvable, fiercest existence to date.
Amidst the exploded mirror fragments on the ground, the figure of the female corpse wearing red clothes, red shoes, and with blood-red nails gradually solidified.
She left the mirror.
As the darkness thickened, a cold, high-pitched suona sounded. Endless terrifying aura overwhelmed everything. The courtyard house that was lifeless just now seemed to come alive instantly, turning this place into a true ghost realm of no return.
Staring at that cold figure, Anise’s face changed drastically—as a ghost controller, his perception of ghosts was also the keenest.
And at this moment, every cell in his body was screaming, every nerve trembling. From soul to body, the same signal was released:
This is a battle absolutely impossible to win, a crisis absolutely impossible to handle.
“I believe you will survive.”
Not far away, the young man had frivolous eyes and a smile on his lips.
“See you.”
