WTNL Chapter 60

Antai Community
Chapter 60 – Mission updated: Awaken the fragment of the Evil Spirit

Although Su Cheng didn’t know exactly what Wen Jianyan intended to do, he still executed his command with a quick reaction.

Soon, with a dizzying spin, the scene before his eyes abruptly transformed.

The light shifted from pale to deep, and an overwhelming scarlet blood-red color shrouded everything. The next second, whether it was the pale, smiling paper figurines or the gloomy-faced Granny Wen, they all vanished from sight.

The corridor before them was empty, twisted, and bizarre.

Su Cheng stood in place, still in shock, panting heavily, somewhat unable to process what had happened.

He turned his head to look at Wen Jianyan beside him.

He saw the other party take two steps back as if collapsing, leaning his back against the wall.

Wen Jianyan raised a hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead and let out a long, slow sigh of relief.

His bluffing tactic had actually worked…

The mechanical system notification sounded in his ear:

[Ding! Current stage plot modification degree: 65%. Reward points: 20000.]

Wen Jianyan: ???

No way? He felt like he hadn’t done anything! Why did the plot modification degree inexplicably increase again!

And according to his experience, a modification degree over sixty percent had already reached an extremely dangerous level. Very bad things could easily happen…

Right at this moment, the familiar system voice rang out again:

[Ding! Detected that the plot deviation has reached the threshold. The instance is producing uncontrollable changes!]
[New plotline unlocking…]
[Instance Mutation Countdown: 20:00]

Wen Jianyan: “…”

Hehe.

I fucking knew it.

“I…”

Su Cheng took a deep breath, steadied his mind, and asked with some confusion: “Why did we come back in here?”

Wasn’t this the most dangerous place in the entire instance?

“Because the key to breaking the deadlock is here.”

Wen Jianyan looked toward Su Cheng and slowly stretched his shoulders, which were stiff from excessive tension. “Besides… given the situation just now, do you think we had anywhere else to run?”

Su Cheng: “…”

Although I really don’t want to admit it, you are right.

“But… aren’t you afraid of pulling Granny Wen and the others in here too?” Su Cheng continued to ask.

“This is the place she uses to refine the urns; how could she possibly come in here herself?” Wen Jianyan straightened up: “And if she really did come in, that would be wonderful. After all, there’s a bunch of bloodthirsty streamers in here. As long as we use a few tricks to make the two groups meet, we can escape completely unscathed.”

Su Cheng: “…”

Good heavens, you are truly sinister.

Just then, Su Cheng seemed to think of something. His gaze moved to Wen Jianyan’s arm hanging on the other side. The other party’s sleeve had automatically rolled down at some point, hiding the bizarrely patterned symbol underneath.

He asked in confusion:

“Speaking of which… what was that thing you showed Granny Wen just now?”

Although Su Cheng wasn’t the type to pay close attention to whether his companions had special marks on their skin, such a large, conspicuous tattoo… if it had been there before, he definitely wouldn’t have overlooked it.

Wen Jianyan imperceptibly moved his wrist, letting the sleeve drop a bit further to cover the patterns on the back of his hand as well.

He smiled, narrowing his eyes: “Temporary tattoos, bet you didn’t expect that?”

Su Cheng: “?”

Wen Jianyan spouted nonsense without changing his expression: “This one I have is just the beginner’s model for the arm. But some people with not-so-bright brains buy the full-body version. I wouldn’t recommend doing that. After all, although it looks cool, these things fade like crazy when you take a shower.”

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room, a wave of “…” floated by.

[…Fuck, what a ‘fade’!]

[Hahahahahahaha I’m dying of laughter, Evil Spirit Boss: ?]

[Temporary tattoos that fade in the shower, killing me, is he sick in the head!]

[Hahahahahahahaha as expected of you, dog scammer, you really have a knack for badmouthing people behind their backs.]

[Honestly, every time I see this dog scammer running his mouth, my heart trembles in fear. Does this guy completely lack awareness of his own jinx constitution?]

Suddenly, rapid footsteps sounded in the corridor ahead, approaching their direction at an extremely fast speed—

The next second, shrouded in the dim red light, several streamers appeared not far away. They looked as if they had just been through a fierce battle, covered in dirt and looking extremely wretched.

One of them abruptly froze upon seeing Su Cheng and Wen Jianyan not far away, subconsciously halting his steps.

Su Cheng was dazed for a moment before he barely managed to distinguish the familiar facial features from beneath the dirt and blood covering the other party’s face.

Wait, opposite them is…

Wang Hanyu’s eyes widened. He gasped, his gaze darting back and forth between Wen Jianyan and Su Cheng:

“You two…?”

This was the first time Su Cheng had been caught red-handed after lying and deceiving someone. He was so scared his face went pale, his back hairs standing on end. He opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say.

Wen Jianyan, on the other hand, appeared much calmer.

He took a step forward, speaking with ease: “Hello, I—”

However, before Wen Jianyan could start using sweet words to cover up his lie, an old voice suddenly sounded in their ears without any warning.

That voice drifted hauntingly through the deep, cold corridor, transmitting unimpeded to the ears of every streamer:

“On the fifteenth of July, the gates of hell open. Today will be the day the evil spirit’s power is at its strongest.”

“Among you, there is a follower of the evil spirit. He bears the mark of that evil god on his body. He came to this place solely to destroy the Bodhisattva’s blessings before the fifteenth of July and release that terrifying evil spirit!”

Toward the end, Granny Wen’s voice became shrill and mournful, sounding simply like nails scratching on glass, making one’s scalp tingle.

But soon, her voice returned to its usual old and raspy tone, carrying an aloof and unfathomable implication:

“The Bodhisattva’s merit is profound, and her heart is compassionate, but she will not tolerate such a villain wreaking havoc upon the world.

Whoever finds the evil spirit’s follower and brings him to me, I will unconditionally grant him one wish. No matter what you desire, the Bodhisattva shall reward your devotion and dedication.”

The lingering echoes of Granny Wen’s voice drifted hauntingly in the air.

“Buzz buzz.” “Buzz buzz.”

The phones of all the streamers vibrated.

Whether they were still engaged in fierce battles, standoffs, or slaughter, all streamers unanimously stopped. They took out their phones from their pockets and looked at the newly updated mission card.

[High-Difficulty Side Mission Updated: Find the evil spirit’s follower bearing the evil mark and hand him over to Granny Wen.]

[Completion Progress: 0%]

Wang Hanyu’s gaze moved, slowly landing on Wen Jianyan’s arm hanging by his side.

Although the sleeve hung down, covering half the back of his hand, those pitch-black, talisman-like patterns had completely spread past the back of his hand at this moment, even crawling and extending along his fair, slender fingers. They looked exceptionally clear and conspicuous, full of a bizarre and uncanny hue.

He looked down and glanced at his own mission card.

[Completion Progress: 50%]

Wen Jianyan: “…”

Fuck.

“Concealment Cloak! Quick!” Wen Jianyan grabbed Su Cheng’s arm and screamed softly in his ear.

Su Cheng also snapped out of his brief daze and hastily scrambled to activate the Concealment Cloak. The figures of the two men instantly vanished at the end of the corridor.

Opposite them, Wang Hanyu also quickly came to his senses:

“That person is the evil spirit’s follower! Who has a tracking item! Quick!”

Although he wasn’t clear on exactly what had happened earlier, seeing Su Cheng together with that streamer disguised as an NPC, a strong feeling of being deceived surged in Wang Hanyu’s heart.

While the others were searching for items, Wang Hanyu seemed to suddenly think of something. He took the paper copper coin out of his pocket and handed it to a person beside him:

“This, what grade of item is this?”

That streamer froze, clearly not expecting Wang Hanyu to make such a move. He subconsciously took the paper copper coin, and then a confused expression appeared on his face:

“Is this an item?”

The system notification didn’t sound.

“…” Wang Hanyu’s expression instantly darkened. He gritted his teeth and said:

“That Dark Fire member played us all for fools! Let’s kill him!”

Hidden beneath the Concealment Cloaks, Wen Jianyan and Su Cheng sprinted rapidly down the corridor.

At the same time, the sign outside the live broadcast lobby slowly displayed a tiny change.

[Antai Community]

Lobby Difficulty Level: B-
Historical Highest Unlock Progress: 56%
Viewing Value: B

The instance [Antai Community] slowly floated up several levels on the recommended viewing list, suddenly jumping from the second or third page to the first page.

The viewers in the live broadcast plaza: ???

The first half of the [Antai Community] instance had almost no twists or turns; one merely had to complete the missions on their identity card. The only highly difficult identity card also had a very high mortality rate, almost never surviving past the first two missions. The second half was basically streamers fighting each other. If one was willing to bide their time, the survival rate was still quite high.

Therefore, although the difficulty of this instance wasn’t low, its viewing value had always hovered between D-rank and C-rank, rarely being mentioned at the same level as its difficulty level.

But this time… the viewing value had suddenly skyrocketed!

Did some great master break the instance inside?

Many viewers who loved to watch drama instantly grew excited and swarmed toward this live broadcast in droves.

Upon entering, the viewers who had seen this instance before were all stunned.

Wait a minute…

Why does this instance feel quite different from my memory?

An awesome big boss breaking the instance… doesn’t seem to be here either?

But the style has definitely gotten weird!

Meanwhile, the viewers inside “Integrity First” were going crazy with joy:

[Hahahahahahahahahaha who would’ve thought a role-playing time-limited instance would end up being played like a game of ‘Who is the Undercover’!]

[Dying of laughter. Not only did he fail to break the instance, but he’s also being targeted by both the NPCs and the streamers!]

[He even turned into a follower of a BOSS who desperately wants to kill him… hahahahahaha what kind of bizarre plot development is this!]

[As expected of you, my jinx streamer!]

Su Cheng opened his system shop, his face involuntarily turning slightly pale: “My Concealment Cloak is about to reach the purchase limit.”

All items had a limit on the number of times they could be purchased. It was just that most streamers rarely managed to save enough points to buy all the available uses.

However, led by Wen Jianyan, their method of clearing instances basically consisted of walking the tightrope between life and death, biding their time, quietly building strength, and never engaging in direct conflict. So basically, they bought Concealment Cloaks whenever they could.

They had actually managed to hit the purchase limit by sheer persistence.

Wen Jianyan looked down and opened his phone.

At some unknown point, his identity card had updated again.

[Identity Card]
Name: Wu Qinghe
Age: 22
Occupation: Paranormal Streamer / Evil Spirit Follower
Related Plot: Your outward identity is a paranormal streamer, but in reality, you are a devout follower of an evil spirit. To awaken the true god of your faith, on the fifteenth of July, you came to the Antai Community, attempting to destroy the seal and release the evil spirit you fanatically worship.

At the same time, you persist in filming videos, not just to make yourself famous, but more so to spread your evil faith and gain more devout followers for the evil spirit.

However, in the process, your true identity was discovered by the residents of the building. To prevent the evil spirit from manifesting in the world, they decided to unite and eliminate you.

[Main Mission Updated: Escape the encirclement of the other residents.]

[High-Difficulty Side Mission Updated: Awaken the fragment of the evil spirit.]

Wen Jianyan: “…”

He had to admit, this identity card was truly professional at rounding out a story.

He was originally just running his mouth to scare that old woman. How on earth did the instance actually acknowledge this identity, turning him directly into a follower of the evil spirit!

Wen Jianyan stared at his newly refreshed high-difficulty mission. The events that occurred at the end of the previous instance and the one before that flashed through his mind. His expression gradually lost control, bit by bit.

He gripped his phone fiercely.

In this instance, absolutely no one wanted to avoid awakening this evil spirit fragment more than him!

How did things turn out like this!!

__

Author’s Note:

This wave, ah, is the tool man turning the tables (not really).