WTNL Chapter 15.1

Decai Middle School
Chapter 15.1: As a real man, be a coward when you should!

[Hahahahahahahaha LOL, why did he get caught so fast!]

[Hahahahahaha I announce that I’m living in this live broadcast room from now on; it brings me too much joy.]

[Hahahahahahahaha, why is it so funny to watch the streamer fail hahahahahaha!]

[Let’s see how you make this up this time hahahahahaha!]

In the corridor.

The temperature in the air plummeted sharply. The icy, bone-chilling air pierced straight into the flesh, seeping into the lungs.

Bzz, bzz—

The ear-piercing sound of electric current echoed in the empty corridor, scraping against the eardrums like fine, sharp needles.

Unknowingly, that face had completely reverted to its original appearance.

Under the flickering light, that terrifying face was coated with a cyan-gray glow. The curve of its smiling mouth was exaggerated and bizarre. The skin was pale as if soaked and swollen. A pair of pure black pupils stared straight over. The malicious, chilling gaze was like a maggot attached to the bone, slithering up the spine like a snake.

The young man stood a few steps away, looking back calmly and expressionlessly.

He was seen slowly taking a deep breath—

And then he turned and ran for his life!

“…”

A wave of question marks and ellipses floated across the barrage.

[?]

[???]

[That’s it? That’s it?]

As a scammer who valued his life, Wen Jianyan had always firmly believed in one life principle:

A true man knows when to cower!

Wen Jianyan ran wildly, his gaze determined.

His posture suggested he wasn’t fleeing in panic, but rather striding confidently towards a beautiful tomorrow.

Not only had he been caught lying right in front of the person involved, but the other party also possessed power he couldn’t contend with. Therefore, at a time like this, he was left with only his ultimate trump card at the bottom of his box—

Run for his life!

Behind him, that smiling face followed like a shadow.

From his peripheral vision, Wen Jianyan saw Xu Yuan’s face appear from time to time in the glass windows beside him, a pair of eyes staring fixedly at him.

Pressing closer step by step.

That face drew nearer bit by bit. The distance between them shrank slowly but irreversibly.

The pale, twisted corners of the mouth curled up bizarrely, and the facial features became more and more similar to Wen Jianyan’s.

Wen Jianyan’s heart skipped a beat.

He noticed that the other party’s assimilation speed this time was several times faster than the last. In just a few dozen seconds, that face already looked seventy or eighty percent similar to his.

But it didn’t matter; he was almost there.

Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth, accelerating his pace while taking off his jacket.

He darted into the stairwell and abruptly raised his arm—

With a whoosh, the jacket was thrown up, accurately smashing towards the lightbulb overhead!

“Crash!”

The clear sound of shattering glass rang out!

Scalding hot shards of the lightbulb scattered, and the red-hot filament quickly dimmed. The next second, the only light went out, and the entire corridor plunged into pitch-black darkness where one couldn’t even see their own fingers.

Wen Jianyan stood in the darkness, his chest heaving rapidly, his heart thumping wildly in his chest cavity.

“…”

There was a dead silence in his ears.

Nothing chased after him anymore.

Good, it seemed he had bet correctly.

Wen Jianyan let out a long breath, leaning weakly against the cold wall, panting heavily.

Based on his previous experiences dealing with Xu Yuan, the other party was mostly confined within mirrors. Only after snatching a living person’s identity could she move outside the mirrors.

Earlier, when Wen Jianyan was on the fourth floor, he had noticed the state of that streamer. Judging by his increasingly stiff and deformed face, Xu Yuan’s active time outside the mirror was estimated to be limited.

Therefore, in order to constantly leave the mirror, she had to continuously seize the identities of other people.

Clearly, that unlucky streamer’s time limit was up, and he was the next targeted sacrifice.

However, fortunately, there was a time gap in between.

Since Xu Yuan wanted to obtain his identity, she had to first give up that streamer’s identity. Thus, during this period, she would have to return to the mirror surface.

And this was exactly the opportunity Wen Jianyan seized.

The prerequisite for a mirror surface to reflect objects is the presence of a light source. Therefore, if the light source disappeared, the other party would also be unable to act.

Wen Jianyan raised his hand and wiped the tiny bloodstain scratched out by a glass shard on his cheek. The pain was minimal under the effect of adrenaline; he could only feel the warm, sticky touch of blood flowing across his cheek.

He adjusted his breathing.

Thank goodness.

He managed to make it just in time.

The human skin portrait in his pocket felt heavy.

Actually, in the instant he was blocked by Xu Yuan just now, Wen Jianyan had entertained the thought of returning the “face” to the other party—escaping disaster and completing the mission at the same time; wouldn’t that be the best of both worlds?

However, this thought was quickly vetoed by him.

This bargaining chip wasn’t enough.

If that inverted-face person was truly “Xu Yuan” herself, Wen Jianyan absolutely wouldn’t have hesitated.

But the problem was, this current “Xu Yuan” had completely lost any similarities to the one in the diary. According to the information revealed by the viewers in the barrage, Xu Yuan was now the most troublesome monster in the entire instance.

Her aggressiveness was simply too strong.

All the monsters Wen Jianyan had seen since entering the instance had a core obsession acting as their driving force.

Xiao Jie’s obsession was to “help her mother”; the inverted-face person’s obsession was to “seize Xu Yuan’s identity.” Then what about Xu Yuan?

To reclaim her own face?

Logically speaking, that should be it.

But… Wen Jianyan just felt something wasn’t quite right, making him hesitant to draw a conclusion so easily.

After all, according to the information he coaxed out of the other streamer, the reason they went to the fourth floor was that they were lured there by the streamer whose identity Xu Yuan had taken over.

She repeatedly seized the identities of living people to leave the mirror, and then lured more people to the fourth floor.

—This didn’t seem like something a ghost wanting to reclaim her identity would do.

If Wen Jianyan’s intuition wasn’t wrong, even if he had returned the human skin portrait just now, it wouldn’t have helped save his life one bit.

The mission would be completed, but he’d be dead. That would simply be too unworthwhile.

So, after rapidly weighing the pros and cons, Wen Jianyan decided to settle for the next best thing and risk going to the stairwell to cut off the light source.

Although the mission wasn’t completed yet, at least his life was not in danger.

Groping his way in the corridor, Wen Jianyan slowly straightened up.

Having lost the only light source, the entire corridor seemed submerged in bottomless darkness; nothing could be seen.

Wen Jianyan tentatively asked in his mind:

“Does the light emitted by the live broadcast interface count as a light source within the instance?”

[No.] The system’s flat, cold voice sounded:
[The live broadcast interface can only be seen by the streamer. It cannot create real light within the instance.]

That’s good then.

Wen Jianyan composed himself and opened the live broadcast backstage.

As soon as he opened the backstage, all the clinking and clanking sounds that had been muted previously rang out together.

[Ding! The number of online viewers in the live broadcast room has broken ten thousand!]

[Congratulations to the streamer for achieving the achievement: Most Popular Rookie!
Wow, the popularity of your live broadcast room is steadily rising. Although just a newly-arrived rookie streamer, more and more viewers have flooded into your live broadcast room, deeply captivated by your charm! Sending you onto the throne of Most Popular Rookie in this instance!
Please keep up the good work and create an even more thrilling and novel live broadcast experience for the viewers!]

Wen Jianyan did a rough calculation. With his current remaining points, plus the tips in the backstage, it should be no problem to survive until the end of the instance.

Since that was the case, all he needed to do next was hide well from the old witch, slack off, and wait for time to pass until the instance automatically ended.

Wen Jianyan let out a slow breath. The pressure brought by the twenty-minute initial survival time death opening was simply too immense, keeping him in a state of extreme tension the whole time. Now, he finally didn’t have to be in a constant state of fear, afraid of dropping dead in five minutes.

He opened his backpack.

The Guiding Hand and Cloak of Concealment he bought previously were all used up. Now the entire backpack was empty, which made the apple seedling icon in the upper right corner look exceptionally lush and green.

The two lines of small text below it looked exceptionally clear and eye-catching.

[Growth Stage Two achieved.]

[Unlock conditions met.]

Wen Jianyan: ?

He remembered there didn’t seem to be this unlocking process during the first stage, right?

Under his puzzled gaze, a line of small text popped up on the screen:

[Detecting that the streamer is out of life-threatening danger. The system is automatically unlocking for you.]

Wen Jianyan: ???

Wait?

Wait???

He suddenly had a very bad premonition.

No way?!

Wen Jianyan scrambled to open the backstage again, looking at his remaining points in panic—the next second, the numbers on it caught his eye, instantly making his vision go black and his breath hitch, almost causing a cardiac arrest.

[Remaining Points: 0]

Wen Jianyan: “……………………”

Working hard for half the day, returning to pre-liberation overnight.

Fuck your granduncle!

Wen Jianyan was so angry he felt dizzy. He glared at that apple seedling, just short of needing a ventilator himself.

He had finally earned enough points to guarantee clearing the instance, only to have it all squandered away at once by this prodigal thing.

What kind of luck is this!

Under his exasperated glare, a small tip slowly emerged from the topmost branch of that apple seedling. It was green, round, and only the size of a fingernail.

Wen Jianyan froze.

He frowned and reached out to poke the icon.

A line of small text surfaced.

[Fruit of Lies]

Wen Jianyan was taken aback.

In the Old Testament, humans in the Garden of Eden were tricked by the devil, disguised as a snake, into eating the forbidden fruit. All desires, disasters, greed, and destruction originated from this single lie.

This was the newbie gift custom-made by the system based on the quality of his soul.

Indeed…

Unique and unmatched.

Just as Wen Jianyan’s mind was wandering, a footstep sounded from overhead. A faint bit of light swayed, gradually illuminating the pitch-black stairs.

Oh no, a light source!

Wen Jianyan abruptly snapped back to reality, his expression turning stern.

Su Cheng, holding the flashlight he forgot to return, was walking down the stairs step by step.

His mood was as heavy as his footsteps.

Although rationally he understood that the veteran streamer’s method was the most efficient and the safest—an NPC is just an NPC. Even if he was tricked into a dangerous place and sacrificed, it didn’t matter.

But…

Whenever the image of that Brother Xu Wen—who ventured deep into danger alone to find his sister, and whose first reaction, even when encountering danger, was to protect them “students”—flashed through his mind, Su Cheng couldn’t help but feel a dull ache in his heart.

He didn’t think doing this was right.

Every time he remembered that he didn’t stand up and loudly object at that time, Su Cheng regretted it so much he wanted to slap himself.

Anger and remorse collided in his heart, making him turn and leave without hesitation.

Those veteran streamers were guarding in front of 408, so Su Cheng had no way to go in and find him. Therefore, the only thing he could do now was to use his meager strength to try and help Xu Wen complete his wish—

Find his sister.

Su Cheng took a deep breath, his gaze becoming determined.

Just then, he suddenly noticed that he had unknowingly walked into a patch of darkness.

For some reason, the lights in the stairwell on this floor had gone out.

It was too dark.

It was like being alone, sinking into a swamp. In front of him was heavy darkness that couldn’t be illuminated. Sound vanished along with light, leaving only a disconcerting abyss of nothingness.

Su Cheng stopped in his tracks in shock and uncertainty.

What’s going on?

What exactly happened here?

Before he could figure anything out, a dark shadow violently lunged over from the darkness, fiercely pinning him against the wall!

“Mmph…!”

Su Cheng’s breath hitched, his pupils instantly constricting in shock and terror.

The flashlight was violently snatched away.

The next second, the only light source also disappeared, leaving only a bottomless darkness before his eyes.

No!

Must escape!

Su Cheng panted heavily in terror, his back pressed tightly against the hard wall. He used all his strength to struggle desperately, until—

“Quiet.”

A deliberately lowered voice sounded in his ear. A clean tone, slightly hurried articulation, everything felt so familiar.

“…!”

Su Cheng slowly widened his eyes, his tense limbs relaxing bit by bit.

He took a deep breath and whispered cautiously, almost in disbelief: “Brother Xiao Wen…?”

“It’s me.”

Hearing this familiar response, Su Cheng’s eyes grew hot, nearly shedding tears:

“I, I thought—”

“Me too.”

Support me on Ko-fi