WTNL Chapter 40

by Aria

Streamer Hall
Chapter 40: Kiss the ghost

The black shadow dissipated, the other party’s figure rapidly collapsing.

The countdown in his ear continued […5, 4, 3…]

In just a few seconds, the entire instance would close, and the other party wouldn’t be able to catch up anymore.

However, under the gaze of those golden eyes, Wen Jianyan felt a chill shoot straight up his back, like an icy snake slithering up his skin, making his hair stand on end and sending shivers down his spine.

We shouldn’t… shouldn’t ever meet again in the future, right?

[…2, 1]

The countdown reached zero.

Wen Jianyan’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he quietly took a step back.

…Right?

[Live broadcast ended]

The cold, mechanical voice rang in the ears of all the streamers across the entire instance.

Wen Jianyan’s vision went black as he lost consciousness.

[Streamer has logged off.]

[The “Integrity First” live broadcast room will close in one minute. Countdown: 60, 59…]

None of the viewers had recovered their senses yet. They subconsciously looked up at the red and black win rate bar at the top of the Streamer Hall.

The Red team held an absolute advantage with a win rate as high as 99%, while the Black team only had a pitiful 1%, squeezed to the very end of the corner, but…

On the win rate bar, however, four striking, blood-red words flashed:

[Black Team Victory]

The Black team… the Black team won?

After being madly targeted by the entire instance, intercepted and hunted by eight veteran Red team streamers, who even used a rule-breaking item to pull in a BOSS from another instance as outside help…

The Black team actually won?!

Unbelievable!

Too brilliant! This team battle was simply so spectacular it left people speechless!

Compared to those past hunting instances that were always one-sided, this live broadcast was absurdly intense!

[Ahhhhhhhhhhh the Black team is so badass!]

[The Black team captain is too amazing ahhhhhhhhhhh!]

[Ahhhhhh, oh my god, I’m so excited I can’t speak!]

[I really thought he was done for so many times, but he actually survived every single time! Not only did he survive, this was a complete desperate counter-kill, a comeback from behind!]

[Dog scammer is awesome!]

[Integrity First is awesome!!!]

[How can I be so worthy as to meet such a sexy and badass wife! Tears of excitement are falling from the corner of my mouth, so strong ahhhhhhhhh!]

[Speaking of which, am I the only one who thinks that BOSS is so pitiful? Not only was he deceived by the streamer in the last instance, he got backstabbed by the same person again in this one, hahahahahaha I’m dying of laughter!]

[Hahahahahaha indeed!]

[But! He kissed my wife twice, and both times it was the wife taking the initiative! A massive profit, no loss!]

[Whether he’s pitiful or not is one thing, I’m mainly feeling a bit worried… I’ve never seen a BOSS with such powerful strength before. And you all saw the live broadcast just now, right? It seems like many system items were ineffective against him? With such a guy awakened, I always feel like he’ll become a huge trouble in the future.]

[Hahahaha, probably not!]

[If you’re actually right, isn’t that dog scammer finished? He deceived him twice and stabbed him once; just wait for him to come knocking to collect the debt!]

Wen Jianyan’s eyelashes trembled, and he slowly opened his eyes.

He found himself back in that enormous white space. On the huge screen not far away, a blood-red [LIVE] was displayed. Everything felt excessively familiar.

However, unlike last time, there were only two other people in the entire plaza besides him: Su Cheng and the Mohawk guy.

The two of them were slowly waking up, holding their heads as they sat up.

Wen Jianyan panted slightly.

The blood on his fingertips felt cold and sticky, branded onto his skin like an incurable disease. The pair of golden eyes he saw before his consciousness faded were etched into his mind; even thinking about them now made his heart pound with fear.

Just now was really… too close.

One slight misstep, and he definitely would have become the evil ghost’s meal on a plate.

[Ding! Congratulations to the streamer for completing your first live broadcast! Now issuing your rewards…]

[Your live broadcast room’s peak concurrent viewership reached 95,789. Reward points have been credited to the streamer’s account.]

[Achievement Unlocked: Rising Star!]

The live broadcast room received 254,000 reward points. The remaining points have been credited to the streamer’s account.

[Achievement Unlocked: Money-Making Expert!]

[Congratulations on becoming the most popular streamer in this live broadcast. Reward points: 10,000, already credited to the streamer’s account.]

[Achievement Unlocked: The Prettiest Cub in the Live Broadcast Room]

“You’re alright!”

The moment he saw Wen Jianyan, Su Cheng’s eyes lit up and he cried out in surprise, “That’s great, I was scared to death just now on the fourth floor…”

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by the familiar mechanical voice from above.

[Ding! Congratulations to the Black team faction for winning the team battle instance!]

The clinking sound of coins colliding rang in their ears, and the system’s voice became enthusiastic and high-pitched:
[Congratulations to the Black team for winning under the odds of 20:1! All viewer betting pools will be multiplied by twenty!]

On the massive screen, a string of astronomical numbers began to jump.

[As the Black team streamers, you will also receive a massive share!]

Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but let his eyes light up.

Good heavens, is this the feeling of getting rich overnight!

He rolled his wrists and sighed with some regret. “It’s just a pity that this time we only got 100% unlock progress and cleared the main quest, but didn’t collect all the hidden items. Otherwise, we could have unlocked the Platinum achievement again.”

“No.”

Su Cheng blinked at him and smiled mysteriously. “We collected them all.”

Wen Jianyan was startled. “What?”

Su Cheng: “After you disappeared from the fourth floor, did you think we would just wait around doing nothing?”

He pointed at the Mohawk guy: “This guy redeemed an Intermediate Guiding Hand from the system shop, and I redeemed a Basic one. The Red team seemed to think victory was already in their grasp, so they completely failed to notice our movements.”

The Mohawk guy bared his teeth, showing a pained expression. “The Intermediate Guiding Hand was way too expensive. It almost used up over half of the points in my account.”

He turned his head to look at the numbers on the big screen and chuckled. “Hehe, but now it’s absolutely worth it.”

“Oh right, we confirmed with the system. In a team battle instance, the items found by streamers in the same team can be counted together towards the achievement!”

Sure enough, the next second, bright and festive fireworks exploded on the screen for the second time.

[Congratulations to the Black team for unlocking the Fukang Private General Hospital Platinum achievement!]

On the screen, the name of the instance turned gray, and a stamp was struck next to it—”Permanently Closed”.

[Please name your team!]

“…”

Wen Jianyan paused, turning his head to look at Su Cheng and the Mohawk guy, only to see the two of them looking back at him with encouraging eyes. “Captain, name it!”

“…Mm.”

Wen Jianyan nodded, took a deep breath, turned back to the screen, and solemnly declared:

“Let’s call it… the Law-Abiding Good Citizen team.”

Su Cheng: “…”

The Mohawk guy: “…”

They regretted it.

They should have been the ones to come up with the team name.

The moment his voice fell, a massive trophy engraved with “Law-Abiding Good Citizen” slowly rose onto the screen, gradually ascending into the Hall of Fame.

Wen Jianyan retracted his gaze, imperceptibly scanning the scene before him.

It seemed team battles did have an advantage. At least after the instance ended, for the sake of the streamers’ personal safety, the Red team and Black team would wake up in separate areas.

Otherwise…

Recalling the wicked things he had done to the Red team in the last instance, even Wen Jianyan had to admit that he would probably be in mortal danger.

Right at this moment, Su Cheng seemed to notice something:

“Eh?”

He leaned in closer with some surprise. “What happened to your lips?”

Besides the bite wound on his lips, Wen Jianyan hadn’t sustained any injuries in this instance, so the system hadn’t spent points to automatically heal his body.

“Did you bump into something?”

Wen Jianyan said nonchalantly, “Don’t worry, I just got bitten while passionately kissing a malicious ghost, that’s all.”

Su Cheng: “…”

The lies you tell are getting more and more fucking outrageous! Do you take me for an idiot?!

Wen Jianyan raised his hand and touched the corner of his mouth.

“…Hss.”

It still hurt a bit.

How should he put it… this was his first time kissing an entity of the same sex.

Oh right, if he counted the last instance, that would make it the second time.

Although every time was for the sake of preserving his life, Wen Jianyan could hardly say he was used to it.

This strange feeling didn’t just stem from gender.

More importantly, during that extremely close-quarters process, Wen Jianyan could clearly realize that even though the other party wore human skin, hiding beneath that similar exterior was an indescribable, eerie entity. He always felt as if he would be literally eaten as food in the very next second.

The smile on the other’s face just before the instance ended—a smile that made him shudder—flashed through his mind again.

Wen Jianyan felt a familiar cramp in his stomach. His facial features scrunched up uncontrollably as a slow, ominous premonition swelled in his heart.

…In, in the future, we definitely won’t meet again, right?!

Definitely not!

After all, if they met again, considering what he had done during their short two encounters, he would probably be screwed to death next time.

Please, my luck couldn’t possibly be that bad, right?

—Wen Jianyan prayed devoutly.

At this time, the Mohawk guy also climbed up from the ground. Although his wounds had been healed, he still walked with a bit of a limp. His eyes flickered as he looked at Wen Jianyan hesitantly, speaking in a bashful and embarrassed manner:

“Um, boss, may I ask, is your guild still recruiting?”

“…”

Su Cheng slowly turned his face away, revealing an expression that couldn’t bear to look straight at this.

What guild?

They didn’t have a fucking guild!

At this moment, Wen Jianyan finally remembered that there was still this person in his team. He turned to look at the Mohawk guy and suddenly recalled something he had forgotten earlier. “Ah, speaking of which, do you remember your promise on the third floor of Fukang Hospital?”

The Mohawk guy didn’t quite react in time. “…Hm? What?”

Wen Jianyan patiently repeated what the other party had once promised him. “You said that if we could make it out alive, you would tell me why, even though you clearly aren’t a rookie, your reaction at the hospital entrance was so huge.”

Reminded by Wen Jianyan, the Mohawk guy finally recalled this matter.

He hesitated for a few seconds, then took a deep breath and raised a hand to wipe his face. Seeming to have finally made up his mind, he slowly spoke, “Because… Fukang Private General Hospital is located right near my home.”

Wen Jianyan blanked, clearly not expecting to hear such an answer. “…What?”

The contents of every instance were far too bizarre and eerie; they absolutely didn’t seem like places that would appear in the real world. Yet, the Mohawk guy had just said…

Fukang Private General Hospital actually existed in reality?!

“Fukang Private Hospital doesn’t have a very good reputation in our local area. There have always been rumors about them doing some weird, shady business in private, so my family never wanted me wandering around there.”

The Mohawk guy’s expression looked somewhat grim. “I accidentally went there once when I was a kid, and then… after I came home, I had a fever for three whole days. It scared my parents half to death; they almost thought I was going to lose my life.”

“Later, even though my condition slowly improved, my memories of those three days had completely vanished. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember anything,” the Mohawk guy gritted his teeth, his voice a bit strained. “When I was on the bus earlier, I kept thinking it was just the same name, or some kind of coincidence, but…”

He lifted his eyes, looking at Wen Jianyan with a gaze that was visibly startled, almost terrified:

“But, after getting off the bus, I saw the outer wall of Fukang General Hospital.”

“At that moment, I remembered some fragments…”

“This place is exactly the same as the hospital I went to when I was a kid.”

The air fell dead silent.

Wen Jianyan fell into silence.

He hadn’t expected the other party to show such an exaggerated reaction after getting off the bus, almost faring worse than a rookie.

However, the information this guy revealed also made Wen Jianyan feel a faint sense of shock.

If the Mohawk guy wasn’t lying, and Fukang Private General Hospital truly existed in the real world, then everything they experienced in the instance…

Could it have really happened?

The monster stitched together from corpse parts, the crazed pregnant woman like a mother mosquito, the densely packed bluish-purple infants, Dr. Lin Qing who sacrificed herself for justice and truth, and the frenzied hospital director whose motives remained unknown…

Were all of these real?

…How is that possible?

Wen Jianyan’s mind was a chaotic mess.

Right then, the Mohawk guy seemed to remember something else. “Oh right, back on the third floor. Didn’t you also say that after everything was over, you would tell me which number instance this was for you?”

Wen Jianyan was pulled out of his deep thoughts by the other’s words.

“Oh, that.”

He looked up, seemingly taking two seconds to register what the other had said. “Right, I think I did promise you that.”

The Mohawk guy was a bit uneasy. “Um, if it’s inconvenient, you really don’t have to say it, boss…”

“Why would it be inconvenient?”

Wen Jianyan said nonchalantly, “That was the second instance I’ve entered.”

“…”

The Mohawk guy stood frozen in place.

His expression was vacant and dazed, seemingly unable to believe his own ears, as he slowly squeezed a thin syllable from his throat. “…Ah?”

Su Cheng unnaturally averted his gaze.

Wen Jianyan raised his eyes and extended a hand toward the dumbstruck Mohawk guy, introducing himself without changing his expression:

“Forgot to mention, I’m an E-rank rookie streamer.”