WTNL Chapter 53

Antai Community
Chapter 53: Wife, our child has been swapped

[Fukang Private General Hospital]

The cold black-and-white words looked exceptionally glaring under the dim light.

Wen Jianyan felt a hair-raising chill slowly crawl up his spine.

His mind couldn’t help but recall the words Ji Guan had said to him at the end of the last instance—”Fukang Private General Hospital is located right near my home.”

Whether it was the mirror similar to the one in Decai Middle School or the medical record from Fukang Private General Hospital, they both seemed to be faintly revealing a dangerous message to him:

These instances originated from the real world and were mysteriously connected to each other in some way.

Upon realizing this, Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but feel his hair stand on end.

Signing a soul contract with the eerie “Nightmare Live Broadcast Room” to become a streamer, and then being forced to enter instances filled with death and weirdness one after another… all of this was already enough to make Wen Jianyan feel it was a thorny situation. And now, they were actually telling him that these terrifying instances might actually exist in the real world?

This possibility was truly too terrifying, making him almost afraid to think deeply about it.

However, no matter what, the timeline these instances were in should be different from the real world. Although no exact dates were mentioned in Decai Middle School or Antai Community, it was mentioned in Fukang Private General Hospital.

The day they entered the instance was April 24, 2014. According to Ji Guan’s description, Fukang Hospital had been abandoned since then.

In that case, the timeline of Antai Community should be even further back.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

Everything that happened here, even if it were real, only existed in the past.

Regardless, the most important thing to do right now was to find the other two Soul-Locking Urns before the other streamers did.

He handed the medical record back to Su Cheng and briefly recounted the information he had found in the living room.

Su Cheng frowned slightly: “You mean, there is more than one team of streamers collecting Soul-Locking Urns right now?”

“Yes.”

“But aren’t our goals in collecting the Soul-Locking Urns the same?” A look of confusion appeared on Su Cheng’s face: “No matter which streamer collects the Soul-Locking Urns, they all have to return them to Granny Wen so she can cast a spell to suppress the evil spirits again. Since that’s the case, what does it matter who gets their hands on them?”

“Because the points are different, of course.”

Wen Jianyan shrugged: “And, of course, the items.”

According to the system’s prompts, there were a total of five hidden items in the Antai Community instance. In all instances below A-rank, there was only one Epic-level hidden item, while the number of Hard and Normal items was unfixed.

If the Soul-Locking Urn in 1304 was a hidden item, then it was highly likely that the other Soul-Locking Urns were also hidden items. Furthermore, they might even be Hard or even Epic-level.

As his understanding of the related mechanics within the Nightmare Live Broadcast Room increased, Wen Jianyan gradually realized just how rare and coveted items of Hard-level and above were.

All hidden items of Hard-level and above could be brought out of the instance and used as items.

Moreover, depending on the difficulty of the instance, even if the rarity was the same, the quality of the item was like heaven and earth.

The Hard-level item [Xiaojie’s Tooth] that Wen Jianyan obtained in Decai Middle School had the effect of blocking damage from a single monster for one minute. However, the Medical License obtained from Fukang Hospital allowed him to directly escape a certain-death attack once and gain one minute of invincibility.

This was practically giving him an extra life.

And this was only a C+ rank instance.

A Hard-level item found in a B-rank instance, even if the streamer didn’t use it themselves but sold it on the black market after leaving the instance, could fetch an astronomical sum of money.

Why these streamers would be so fanatic could thus be perfectly explained.

Su Cheng: “Then what do we do next…”

Before he could finish speaking, the phones in both of their pockets buzzed twice at the same time, sounding exceptionally clear and piercing in the dead silent space.

Both Wen Jianyan and Su Cheng were startled.

They exchanged a glance and then each took their phones out of their pockets.

The main quest had updated.

Seeing his main quest, Su Cheng slowly furrowed his brows: “My… my main quest requires me to find a second streamer besides you and me within one hour.”

His identity card was that of a cowardly and timid teacher who was scared out of his wits after entering the other world and always wanted to stay with the main group.

However, according to the information Wen Jianyan had just provided, the other streamers in this instance had already formed a competitive relationship with them. If they met, a conflict would probably be inevitable…

A bit tricky to handle.

Su Cheng sighed, raised his head, and looked at Wen Jianyan: “Has your main quest updated? What is it?”

“…”

Wen Jianyan stared expressionlessly at his phone screen, slowly reading through the newly updated identity card information once again.

[Under Granny Wen’s guidance, you and the others entered another world. Here, although you encountered many crises beyond imagination, relying on your luck, you managed to turn ill luck into good and escape death time and time again.
You never expected that you would actually be able to personally enter a world filled with the paranormal, and even have the opportunity to film all of this and overturn the worldview of all humanity. Thus, to make your video more credible and to make yourself the most popular streamer in the paranormal section, you decided to hold a soul-summoning ritual in Room 1306.]

[Main Quest 1: Hold a soul-summoning ritual in Room 1306 (Time limit: one hour)]

[Main Quest 2: Film the soul-summoning ritual; the duration must not be less than ten minutes.]

Wen Jianyan: “……………………”

What I’m doing now isn’t even fucking courting death anymore.

It’s purely having a screw loose in the brain, right?

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Hahahahahahahahaha oh my god, what kind of quest is this!]

[I can’t stop laughing. Will other people who drew the paranormal investigator streamer identity card also get this quest?]

[Hahahahaha I don’t know; no other paranormal investigator streamer has ever lived this long…]

[Now I understand why… With quests like these, it would be a miracle to survive hahahahahaha!]

After hearing Wen Jianyan’s main quest, Su Cheng also fell silent.

“In this world…” He stared at the young man standing in front of him, his expression slowly cracking again: “Can someone really be this purely idiotic?”

Wen Jianyan: “…”

To be honest, I also really want to know the answer to this question.

He took a deep breath, raised his hand to wipe his face, and forcefully swallowed down the curses in his heart that were enough to get him censored by the platform: “Although this quest is really a trap, this timing should be alright.”

After all, that group of streamers had just fought a bloody battle here, and the paper dolls in 1306 had basically all been cleared out once…

The danger shouldn’t be too great, right?

Wen Jianyan lowered his head, rapidly scanning the soul-summoning ritual recorded on his identity card at a glance, and summarized:

“It’s quite simple. It doesn’t feel like a very professional ritual; it’s quite half-baked.”

The corner of Su Cheng’s mouth twitched:

“…If we were in real life right now, it might indeed have no effect.”

But this was the bona fide underworld!

Let alone holding this kind of half-baked soul-summoning ritual, even shouting slightly loudly might cause eight or ten ghosts to pop out and chase you in circles!

This main quest simply didn’t want people to live!

Soon, following the prompts on the identity card, Wen Jianyan gathered all the items needed to complete the ritual and arranged them one by one in the living room.

Su Cheng stood to the side, holding up his phone, ready to start recording at any moment.

Wen Jianyan cast a glance at Su Cheng, and the other nodded, indicating he was ready.

Thus, he began to proceed with the ritual according to the procedure.

The young man’s deliberately lowered, clear voice rang out. Bizarre syllables with unknown specific meanings spilled from his mouth, swirling in the room like a curse.

The countdown changed steadily and continuously.

He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but Su Cheng felt the temperature of the air around him seem to drop considerably. Under his long sleeves, a layer of goosebumps slowly broke out on his arms.

Zzzt… zzzt…

The image on the camera lens began to destabilize, and quite a bit of static snow appeared on the screen.

[Ding! Detected that conditions have been met, hidden side quest unlocking…]

The system’s mechanical voice rang in both of their ears simultaneously. However, this time the scene didn’t change like the last time; instead, it maintained the appearance right before their eyes.

Only a scalp-numbing rustling sound, cha cha, could be heard coming from the bedroom not far away.

Su Cheng could almost imagine how that paper doll, whose stomach was stuffed full of human internal organs, stiffly sat up and slowly walked out of the bed.

Cha cha.

Cha cha.

The sound of footsteps rubbing against the floor came closer, seemingly slowly approaching the door.

Unknowingly, Su Cheng had already aimed the camera at the bedroom door, uncontrollably swallowing his saliva.

Creak—

The sound of a cabinet door opening was heard.

It seemed something had been taken out of the cabinet.

Screech—

An ear-piercing sound rang out, like some kind of sharp metal object being dragged and colliding with the floor, emitting a chilling friction sound.

A bit of cold sweat seeped from Su Cheng’s forehead. He subconsciously took a slow step back, his heel bumping into the remains of the sofa on the floor, making a soft sound.

That sound rang out in the dead silent room like a hammer suddenly dropping right next to one’s ear, making one’s scalp tingle and heart constrict.

The system’s notification sound rang out again:

[Congratulations to the streamer for triggering the scene: Flashback]
[Please find all the body parts of the child hidden by the male host.]

The next second, a tall figure slowly appeared at the bedroom doorway.

That paper doll wore a stiff smile. Its body was dyed blackish-red by fresh blood, and it held a long axe in one hand. The blade of the axe dragged on the floor, emitting an ear-piercing sound.

It spoke incoherently:

“Wife, our child was switched. Our child was eaten by it. I can’t find him.”

It raised that ghastly pale face bearing a chilling smile, staring fixedly at Wen Jianyan not far away.

The paper doll dragging the axe slowly approached step by step, asking in a mad tone that made one’s whole body run cold:

“Did you hide it? Hand it over quickly.”

“If we cut open its stomach, maybe we can find our child.”

The corners of the paper doll’s mouth curled up weirdly:

“Don’t you think so? Wife.”

__

Author’s Note:

Why are you stealing someone else’s wife? Do you not have a wife of your own? .jpg