WTNL Chapter 16.1

Decai Middle School
Chapter 16.1

“……………………”

Su Cheng had a blank look on his face.

He stood rooted to the spot, unable to move, and could only stare blankly at the young man in front of him who called himself a “rookie streamer.”

Wen Jianyan propped himself up against the wall with one hand, bent down to pat the dust off his body, and sighed to himself:

“Ah… this current situation is a bit troublesome.”

He really, absolutely did not want to return to the fourth floor.

Not only was that mirror coveting his soul, but those two veteran streamers he had ruthlessly screwed over were still on the fourth floor and hadn’t come down. Not to mention that hair-raising “Father God.” It was simply an assembly of everyone he least wanted to run into.

Furthermore, a plot modification degree of 62% had already given Wen Jianyan a massive headache, but now it had unwittingly reached 83%! No one knew if any more unexpected things would happen next.

Originally, the points he had on hand were enough to rest easy.

However, because that apple seedling took matters into its own hands and wiped out all the points Wen Jianyan had, he was forced to make a deal with Xu Yuan, who worked for the mirror, and complete the mission she issued.

And it was the kind where he would die immediately if he didn’t complete it.

…So frustrating!

Wen Jianyan turned to look at Su Cheng, who was like a clay idol or wooden puppet, and waved his hand in front of the other’s face: “Hey, still there?”

“…”

Su Cheng was in a trance.

His overworked brain came to a standstill, turning into a pile of mush. His whole person fell into repeated self-doubt.

Ah?

What?

What’s going on?

Could it be…

Wait, that shouldn’t be, or is it…

While his mind was wandering, Wen Jianyan leaned in close and asked with concern:

“Are you okay?”

The young man’s handsome face abruptly magnified before his eyes. The intense visual impact made Su Cheng jerk backward.

“!”

The sudden weightlessness finally snapped him back to his senses.

After two seconds of a blank expression, Su Cheng belatedly and slowly widened his eyes:

“You…”

He pointed a slightly trembling finger at the young man right in front of him, unable to form coherent words for a long time:

“You, you, you…”

Wen Jianyan put one hand in his pocket and blinked: “Me?”

He seemed completely lacking in self-awareness, asking back with 100% sincerity and confusion: “What about me?”

But Su Cheng wouldn’t be fooled this time. He screamed in an off-key voice:

“You… you’re a streamer?!”

Wen Jianyan nodded naturally, without a shred of guilt on his face: “Yeah, didn’t I just say that?”

“…”

His attitude was simply too matter-of-fact, leaving Su Cheng tongue-tied. He stared blankly at the other party, momentarily unable to utter a single word.

How could there be such a shameless person in this world?!

“Speaking of which, the shop should have unlocked more goods, right?”

That shameless scammer lowered his head and fiddled with his live stream interface on his own, occasionally exclaiming:

“Ah, it’s true. Pity the prices are too high.”

Su Cheng pressed his throbbing temples, stumbling and somewhat laboriously summarizing:

“So… then, that Xu Wen…”

Hearing the other’s voice, Wen Jianyan closed the live stream interface, looked up, and said matter-of-factly:

“Yeah, I made it up, along with the storyline.”

He thought about it: “However, if you find it troublesome, you can continue calling me Brother Xiao Wen.”

“By the way, what’s your name?”

“…Su Cheng.”

“How old are you?”

Su Cheng was having a bit of trouble keeping up with the other’s train of thought and answered blankly: “Twenty-five…”

“Oh, it seems you are a bit older than me.” Wen Jianyan leaned forward with a smile:

“It looks like I should be calling you ‘brother.'”

His face was already incredibly handsome, and now he looked exceptionally friendly and endearing. His voice was intimate, the magnetic ending note tilting up slightly, clearly enunciating the word “brother,” making it almost impossible for anyone to put their guard up against him.

“Right, Brother Su?”

Su Cheng’s mind was in utter chaos.

The other party’s previously cold, ruthless, business-like, and reliable appearance was still deeply branded in his mind, but now he was revealing a completely different, half-evil, half-innocent, lazy look. This massive, diametrically opposite contrast left Su Cheng at a loss, speechless, and completely unsure of how to respond.

“Y-you don’t try to get buddy-buddy with me…!”

Su Cheng tried hard to maintain his bottom line, stammering as he tried to pull the topic back on track:

“Then… then your sister… and those stories…”

Wen Jianyan patiently repeated his answer: “Of course, they were made up to fit the character.”

He paused, as if suddenly remembering something:

“Oh, but Xu Yuan is real.”

Su Cheng: “Eh?”

He only heard the young man say casually:

“You saw her just now too. The one with disheveled hair and a very scary smile.”

Su Cheng: “…”

Fuck!

That Xu Yuan is actually the boss!!

Wen Jianyan touched the bridge of his nose and let out two dry laughs:

“Speaking of which, she seems quite unhappy about me pretending to be her brother. I’m afraid she’ll hold a grudge against me. I hope the difficulty of our mission doesn’t increase because of this.”

Su Cheng: “……………………”

You actually impersonated the BOSS’s brother right to her face?

You are a true warrior.

Speaking of this, Wen Jianyan thought of something and turned to look at Su Cheng: “By the way, you still remember our mission, right?”

—Our?

Su Cheng froze.

The next second, the memories that had been selectively forgotten due to intense shock rushed back into his mind.

“Trigger the ultimate main storyline mission of the Decai Middle School instance.”

“Completion time limit: Two hours.”

“Mission failure will result in the deduction of all survival time and points, and the streamer’s live broadcast room will be immediately closed.”

Simply translated: Complete the mission within two hours, or die.

“.”

Su Cheng cracked.

Based on his many years of gaming experience, th-the difficulty of this mission was equivalent to making a hero who just stepped out of the novice village go solo against the Demon King with starter gear… This was no longer just skipping levels to challenge something; this was courting death!

Su Cheng was struck by lightning; his whole person struck dumb on the spot.

Wen Jianyan studied the other party’s expression.

Mm, looks like he remembered.

He raised his hand and patted Su Cheng on the shoulder, comforting him in a gentle tone: “It’s fine. We’re grasshoppers tied to the same rope now. No matter what, at least you have me with you, right?”

Su Cheng’s expression cracked once again: “…”

Ptooi, it was you who fucking dragged me into this in the first place!

However, he had suffered too many blows today, to the point where he now had absolutely no energy left to react to this sentence.

In the live broadcast room 789326qwk:

[Hahahahahaha suicide truck, no survivors!]

[Hahahahahahahahahaha, the expression changes on the opposing streamer’s face are truly too rich. After this instance is over, I’m going to watch the replay a hundred times!]

[The opposing streamer is probably going to be left with psychological trauma hahahahaha. The NPC he spent so much time with is actually another streamer. If it were me, I’d probably start questioning the entire world.]

[I really hate to see him not live up to expectations. The opposing streamer clearly could have taken the initiative. After all, having been scammed the whole way, he could have at least made this dog scammer pay a little price. But he ended up being led by the nose by this dog scammer again. I hate it.]

[Wuwu, I also want the streamer to affectionately call me brother; I’d be willing to be scammed!]

[?]

Thus, the topic in the live broadcast room once again shifted in a bizarre direction, like a runaway horse never to return.

Wen Jianyan didn’t notice the strange direction of the topics in the live broadcast room.

He opened his backpack and took out the Epic-rank hidden item that had just been placed inside.

The moment the item appeared, the familiar system voice rang in his ears.

[Congratulations to the streamer for obtaining the hidden item (Epic) in the instance!]
[Collection Progress: 3/3]

Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes to look at his palm. It was still a red cloth bundle, tied tightly, taking him a few seconds to open it.

Unexpectedly, the item this time was not some human tissue used for sacrifice, but rather…

A shard of a mirror.

It was crystal clear and transparent, its surface hard and smooth, and the irregular edges faintly reflected a cold luster.

Compared to things like “teeth,” “hair,” and “severed fingers,” this hidden item looked exceptionally normal. But for some reason, such a small and thin shard felt heavy in his palm. A trace of icy chill spread from the point of contact, seeping into his heart bit by bit.

Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but shiver.

Just then, the system notification sound rang in his ears again: [System Notification: Ding! Detecting that the streamer has collected all hidden items. Now issuing the core hint for the hidden storyline: Return the object to its original place; the beginning is the end.]

The content of this hint was very easy to understand. In other words, as long as this mirror shard was put back in its rightful place, everything would end.

Following a conventional line of thought, the next step would be to return to the fourth floor.

But the problem was…

As someone who had already had close contact with the mirror, Wen Jianyan remembered very clearly that, apart from the crack that split open at the very end, there wasn’t a single chip on the mirror.

Taking ten thousand steps back, even if this shard was really from that mirror on the fourth floor, why would completing it end all of this? Wouldn’t it instead enhance its power?

Wen Jianyan couldn’t quite figure it out.

He frowned, turning the mirror shard over and over in his hands, trying to find some clues he had overlooked.

Su Cheng noticed that Wen Jianyan hadn’t moved for a long time. Although he still felt a bit awkward inside, he couldn’t control his curiosity and leaned over to ask:

“What’s wrong?”

The two of them were completely tied together now, so Wen Jianyan had no need to hide things from him. He readily informed the other party of the intel he had obtained.

After listening, Su Cheng’s thoughts were exactly the same as his initial ones:

“In other words, as long as we put this shard back into the mirror, our mission will be completed?”

An excited look finally surfaced on his face: “Then what are we hesitating for? Let’s go, to the fourth floor!”

Upon learning the method to escape their predicament, the awkwardness from a moment ago vanished into thin air, and even the scammer in front of him looked a bit more approachable.

But Wen Jianyan didn’t answer; he just silently scrutinized the mirror shard in his palm.

Seeing no reaction from the other, Su Cheng couldn’t help but lean in closer again, waving his hand in front of the other’s face:

“Are you still listening?”

The flashlight swayed slightly with his movements. The beam of light scattered on the wall, smearing a patch of cool white light.

Wen Jianyan seemed to realize something and froze slightly:

“This…”

Su Cheng: “Hm?”

Wen Jianyan: “Don’t move.”

His command was brief and precise, carrying an unquestionable tone. Su Cheng involuntarily forgot the other party’s identity as a scammer and habitually followed his instructions, subconsciously standing still.

A few dozen seconds later.

“…I understand.”

Support me on Ko-fi