WTNL Chapter 63.1

Antai Community
Chapter 63.1

Su Cheng waited anxiously in the corridor.

Not far away, the door to Room 1316 was tightly shut.

The paint on the door panel was mottled and peeling, and the numbers on the brass door plate looked exceptionally glaring in the dark.

It was too quiet.

It was truly far too quiet.

The cold air was filled with a heavy scent of blood, a rust-like smell lingering near his nose, bringing a strong sense of unease. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, as if it could shatter his ribs.

What exactly happened inside?

Su Cheng didn’t know.

He only knew that the instant Wen Jianyan opened the door, his figure was swept away by some invisible force, vanishing from his sight in the blink of an eye. The next second, the door slammed shut, hiding all sounds and movements behind it.

The last thing he heard, a second before the door closed, was the sound of flesh being pierced.

After that, he could only fall into a long wait.

Su Cheng stood in the corridor not far away, frowning tightly, feeling distracted, occasionally turning his head to look at the tightly closed door of 1316.

From the beginning until now, nothing had happened.

He hadn’t heard any sounds, nor received any signals. Apart from the thickening smell of blood in the air, there was absolutely no movement.

The young man dragged into the room was like a stone dropped into the ocean, vanishing without a trace.

Was that scammer still alive?

He didn’t know.

Su Cheng still remembered that before entering 1316, Wen Jianyan told him that if he was inside for more than five minutes, there was no need to keep waiting; he should just leave.

Although he didn’t explicitly state the reason, Su Cheng knew this meant the other party had probably already met his demise inside.

Su Cheng uncontrollably looked down again, glancing at his phone.

Four minutes had already passed.

However, 1316 was still dead silent. It felt like a stone pressing on his chest, making him almost unable to catch his breath.

In the live broadcast lobby of [Antai Community], the blood-red twenty-minute countdown floating at the top was ticking away, the numbers steadily decreasing as time passed.

All the viewers occasionally looked up, anticipating the changes that might occur in the instance after the countdown ended.

Finally, the countdown hit zero.

“Ding!”

In that instant, the mechanical system voice rang in the ears of all streamers:

[“Antai Community” Instance Mutation Successful! Difficulty Increased! Upcoming Unlock: Brand New Team Mode: Non-Confrontational Faction Battle.]

“???”

Su Cheng’s eyes widened slightly.

The pursuit mission Granny Wen issued to everyone actually wasn’t the mutated content? There was more?!

And what the hell was a non-confrontational faction battle!

He was breaking down a bit.

The other streamers who were still fighting also involuntarily stopped.

They were equally stunned.

Wait a minute, does this mean the faction battle is only just starting now?… Then what was the melee they just had with the Dark Fire guild’s evil spirit follower faction all about?

[Streamers can spend points to call for help from designated targets outside the instance. The system will take a 20% commission.]

[The summoned helper and the requester will belong to the same faction.]

[Once all personnel have arrived, the upgraded version of the map will be unlocked. New identity card contents will be distributed to all streamers, and factions will be randomly assigned.]

[Faction Instance Victory Rule: The faction that first completes the faction’s main mission wins.]

[All members of the winning faction survive. All members of the losing faction are obliterated.]

After hearing all the rules, Su Cheng’s heart couldn’t help but skip a beat.

All members obliterated?!

This was completely different from the previous hunting battle. Under such cruel system rules, fighting to the death had become the only option. As long as the faction failed, all streamers within the faction would be implicated…

The winners live, the losers die.

Even just hearing it made one’s heart race with fear.

Su Cheng looked down and opened the Nightmare backstage on his phone.

The new faction selection interface had appeared.

The Red Faction was the Bodhisattva Faction; the Black Faction was the Evil Spirit Faction.

However, this time, the number of people in both the Red and Black factions was 0. Streamers themselves couldn’t actively choose a faction; they could only wait for the system to randomly assign them.

“Rumble—”

Faint rumbling came from deep within the walls. The crimson lights overhead flickered slightly, and the ground seemed to be shaking invisibly.

Su Cheng felt a bit dizzy and had to lean against the wall to steady himself.

The brief tremors vanished. Su Cheng looked up, subconsciously looking in the direction of 1316.

The next second, he couldn’t help but gasp.

The door panel was covered with talismans having yellow backgrounds and red text. Cold, thick iron chains hung on both sides of the door panel, the padlock crooked to the side as if someone had pried it open.

This was clearly… its appearance in the outer world!

However, the lighting overhead was still a terrifying crimson color, and the walls remained twisted and bizarre—clearly the appearance inside the Bagua mirror.

Was this… the upgraded new map?

The world outside the mirror was basically completely controlled by Granny Wen and her paper figurines. They had entered the mirror world solely to escape pursuit. If the worlds inside and outside the mirror truly merged into one, then…

Su Cheng shivered, looked down, and opened the call-for-help interface.

There were two options for calling for help: one was to call a designated target, the other was to indiscriminately call available streamers. Su Cheng gritted his teeth and issued a specific call for help.

“Call the designated target for help?”

“Yes.”

A balance of ten thousand points was quickly deducted from his account.

Su Cheng waited anxiously. Soon, the system’s cold voice rang by his ear: [Ding! The requested target has accepted your invitation!]

In the empty space nearby, a familiar figure appeared out of thin air.

Ji Guan fell flat on his butt onto the cold, hard floor. His expression twisted slightly as he cursed, bearing his teeth: “Fuck, that hurts!”

Su Cheng was both surprised and happy: “You accepted my invitation!”

Ji Guan dusted off his pants and stood up: “Of course! You called for help, so you obviously need my help!”

He hadn’t entered the instance with Wen Jianyan and the others this time mainly because the number of people in a squad was limited across different streamer ranks. Guildless, free-agent D-rank streamers could form a squad of two at most, while streamers from the same guild could form a squad of three. As a streamer highly likely targeted by Oracle, entering an instance alone was too dangerous for Su Cheng. So this time, Ji Guan entered an instance alone, while Wen Jianyan and Su Cheng formed a squad to enter this instance.

“I entered a C-rank instance this time. Compared to the previous Fukang Hospital, the difficulty was more than just a little different… Anyway, I survived and earned quite a few points. I should be leveling up very soon.”

Ji Guan sighed, rambling on: “I didn’t expect to receive your call for help right after I came out. I knew it, Wen Jianyan is definitely not a restless one. He definitely changed the instance difficulty again, right?”

“Speaking of which…”

He turned around and scanned the area. Not seeing that familiar figure, he couldn’t help but show a confused expression:

“Where is that guy?”

Su Cheng pointed to the tightly shut door of 1316 nearby: “Inside.”

Following the direction Su Cheng pointed, Ji Guan looked over. Upon seeing the room covered in talismans, he couldn’t help but gasp: “Holy shit, it’s that fierce?”

He rolled up his sleeves: “So this is why you called me here! Wen Jianyan is in danger? Let’s go, let’s go—”

Su Cheng pulled Ji Guan back: “Wait, wait, wait…”

Next, Su Cheng briefly explained what had happened previously. Although his description was very concise, Ji Guan was still frightened upon hearing it: “Wait, why does the difficulty of your instance sound so high? What rank is it?”

Su Cheng was also stunned for a moment: “You didn’t get a notification when you came in?”

Ji Guan looked bewildered: “…No.”

Su Cheng blinked, slowly spitting out two characters: “B-“

Ji Guan: “…”

After a brief few seconds of silence, he spoke in a daze: “…Ah?”

What…

What rank?!

Just then, that mechanical system voice sounded again:

[Ding, all personnel within the instance are present. Identity card contents are being distributed…]

[Member factions have been assigned.]

Hearing this, Su Cheng looked down and opened the Nightmare APP backstage on his phone. The moment he saw the faction he was randomly assigned to, his pupils involuntarily shrank.

[Congratulations on entering the Red Faction.]

[Main Mission Updated: Refine the tenth Soul-Locking Urn and completely suppress the evil spirit.]

Red Faction?!

Meaning Granny Wen’s faction? H-how could this happen?!

In a panic, Su Cheng opened the system shop but couldn’t find any item that would allow him to switch factions.

As the summoned helper, Ji Guan was also assigned to the Red Faction alongside him.

Although he hadn’t yet recovered from the explosive news just now, he still noticed the overly grave expression on Su Cheng’s face and subconsciously asked: “What’s wrong?”

Su Cheng slowly looked up: “We… have been assigned to the Red Faction, not the Black Faction.”

Ji Guan wasn’t very clear on the forces within the instance right now and showed a bewildered expression:

“So what?”

Su Cheng took a deep breath, raised his hand to wipe his face, and gritted his teeth: “Wen Jianyan’s identity card is an evil spirit follower.”

An absolute, hardcore Black Faction member!!!