Prev | Table of Contents | 1WTNL Chapter 197
Anchor Hall
Chapter 196: “Your new guild leader.”
“……”
After the voice fell, there was dead silence around him, and he never heard the other party’s response.
Wen Jianyan didn’t mind.
He yawned, lazily laid back on the bed, and leisurely closed his eyes in the darkness.
It didn’t matter; he had patience and could wait.
It was a dreamless night.
After a night of rest, Wen Jianyan felt unusually refreshed when he woke up.
He opened the Nightmare app.
After the “Ping An Asylum” instance ended, he directly blocked the system broadcast without listening to all the rewards. Now, he finally had the chance to carefully look at the points and achievements he had obtained.
Obviously, during the time his live broadcast was offline, the number of viewers in his live room skyrocketed to a frightening number. Therefore, after the last instance, his anchor level jumped two levels from B directly to A!
It’s important to know that the level of a Nightmare anchor can only be improved through reward points from viewers being online, and viewer donations don’t count. So, to reach this level, an anchor must have considerable experience in clearing instances and have accumulated a certain number of stable viewers, basically making them the backbone of major guilds.
For a newcomer like him, who didn’t even have a guild, to reach this level after just five instances was truly terrifying.
Even more terrifying was his current total score.
The viewer rewards from the last instance, plus the high revenue brought by the “Double Champion,” even with the reduced share due to level-up and a 20% deduction by the black-hearted system, still added up to a frightening number, which directly placed Wen Jianyan among the top scorers.
34th on the Nightmare Live Room Anchor Points Leaderboard.
In front and behind this ranking were all prominent figures from major guilds, each with a row of shiny trophies behind them, looking very impressive. Only the 34th place had a dull initial avatar, a string of random code as a name, and a bare trophy section, standing out conspicuously among the big shots.
This newcomer, who suddenly appeared in the top 50 of the leaderboard, had almost attracted the attention of all the anchors.
The forum was buzzing.
[Who is this 34th place? They stand out so much on the leaderboard… Did some big shot suddenly decide to change their name, avatar, and trophies?]
[Probably not, right? I scanned the top positions, and none of them have changed or gone missing.]
[Case solved, it’s a newcomer! Remember the strongest newcomer who achieved a lot of platinum accomplishments a while ago? Our guild even sent him an invitation back then, and he was using this avatar.]
[Wow, it’s actually that strongest newcomer?! How long has it been… He climbed up so quickly, that’s terrifying!]
[So which guild finally recruited him? You can’t tell from his profile, it’s all blank.]
[That’s unclear… but I bet it’s one of the top guilds, right? Regular guilds can’t handle such an impressive character.]
After closing the forum, Wen Jianyan didn’t contact Luce directly.
He opened the public guild rankings, scrolled to the lower positions, patiently found a contact method for one of them, and directly sent a message using his account.
Clearly, his name had become quite famous by now, and the other party quickly replied.
Seeing the message, Wen Jianyan smiled and jumped up from the bed.
Outside, Ji Guan and Su Cheng were having breakfast and discussing the instances they had just gone through.
After Wen Jianyan entered the instance to find Su Cheng, Ji Guan soon reached the mandatory live broadcast time limit, so he had to enter the instance alone.
Without Wen Jianyan, the difficulty disruptor, Ji Guan finally entered a normally difficult instance.
Although it was still a near-death experience, he managed to come out alive.
Ji Guan felt very proud of this, but after hearing Su Cheng’s description of their instance, he was deeply disheartened.
“Heavens, an A-level instance…?!”
Although Su Cheng didn’t go into details, based on what he did reveal, Ji Guan could sense the terrifying danger of the whole instance.
It was full of taboos and deadly traps.
And the final God-making plan, which was deeply tied to the instance’s core structure, was simply an inhumanly achievable outcome!
Just hearing about it made Ji Guan’s heart race.
He couldn’t help but ask, “So, you entered this instance really because of the Oracle?”
Su Cheng’s expression was serious, “I’m afraid so.”
“Hiss…”
Ji Guan couldn’t help but take a sharp breath.
Even though he wasn’t usually sensitive to guild matters, he could sense the dangers of opposing the top guild on the Nightmare leaderboard.
At this moment, the door opened, and Wen Jianyan walked out, looking completely refreshed, not at all like someone who had just completed two intense live broadcasts in a row.
He walked lightly to the dining table, picked up a piece of bread, and stuffed it into his mouth, greeting indistinctly, “Morning.”
Su Cheng was startled, his gaze falling on Wen Jianyan’s head:
“Your hair…?”
The hair that had been silver-white in the instance had now reverted to its normal black, which Su Cheng found a bit jarring.
“Yes, it slowly changed back after returning to the system space,” Wen Jianyan shrugged, seeming quite pleased with it.
This was a good thing for him.
After all, having a head of white hair made him too recognizable, whether in the system space or in an instance. Although he didn’t know if it would change again later, Wen Jianyan sincerely hoped it would stay low-key and black.
Ji Guan, on the side, showed a disappointed expression, “Ah… what? It was only temporary?”
He had noticed Wen Jianyan’s hair color change yesterday but hadn’t had the chance to ask because he was focused on Su Cheng’s condition. Seeing it return to normal now made Ji Guan very disappointed.
“I thought you finally had a sense of fashion. The white hair looked so good!”
He shook his head regretfully.
“……”
Wen Jianyan paused, his gaze falling on Ji Guan.
His eyes slowly moved from Ji Guan’s face to his head, making Ji Guan feel uneasy, “What, what are you looking at? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Wen Jianyan shook his head, withdrawing his gaze from Ji Guan’s conspicuous cockscomb hairstyle, and said slowly, “Just thought you should have a lot in common with someone.”
—At least in terms of hairstyle preferences.
Ji Guan: “?”
While Ji Guan was still puzzled, Wen Jianyan turned to Su Cheng and beckoned, “Come on, accompany me out for a bit.”
Su Cheng was stunned, then remembered the conversation between him and Luce yesterday and looked enlightened, “Oh, you’re meeting with Luce and the others, right?”
Unexpectedly, Wen Jianyan shook his head and said, “No, there’s something else to do first.”
This left Su Cheng dumbfounded, “Huh?”
“Did you forget? I’m going to be the president of your future guild now.” The young man smiled and spread his hands, “Of course, we need to have a guild first.”
Su Cheng: “……”
Oh right, I forgot about that.
Ji Guan couldn’t help but speak up, “But recently, there doesn’t seem to be an auction for guild establishment qualifications in Nightmare, right? I haven’t seen any notifications about it…”
In Nightmare, establishing a guild is far more stringent than one might imagine.
To create a guild, one must obtain the establishment qualification.
There are two ways to obtain the qualification.
A small number of establishment qualifications can be obtained through tasks or achievements, but such tasks are extremely rare and random, and very few anchors can find and complete them.
Apart from this, there is another method.
At regular intervals, Nightmare also distributes a very limited number of guild establishment qualifications across the server and organizes an auction where the highest bidder wins.
Some anchors speculate in the forum that Nightmare might distribute establishment qualifications based on the number of existing guilds. In other words, if anchors are eliminated too quickly and too many guilds are dissolved, Nightmare will release a certain amount of guild establishment qualifications. If the number of guilds remains stable, it will control the growth in the number of guilds.
This means it’s a matter of luck.
“Indeed, there are none,” Wen Jianyan said lightly.
Ji Guan was stunned for a moment:
“Then…”
“Even if there were auctions, I wouldn’t participate,” Wen Jianyan blinked, showing an innocent expression, “I’m very poor.”
The two of them: “…”
However, in some sense, Wen Jianyan was indeed right.
Most of the auctioned guild qualifications are bought at high prices by the large, established guilds.
Almost no individual anchor can outbid them.
These large guilds often have at least four or five shadow guilds, using the benefits they extract to support their main guild members. This is why so many people try so hard to get into the top-ranked guilds; entering them means receiving rewards several times higher than going solo.
So, to attract more potential talents, major guilds will also compete fiercely for more establishment qualifications.
—Even willing to play dirty tricks.
In Nightmare, everything except an anchor’s talents and bound items can be traded.
“You mean…” Ji Guan realized, “You’re planning to buy a guild?”
Wen Jianyan: “Yes.”
Su Cheng frowned, “Is the other party willing?”
Those willing to sell would have done so when the major guilds offered high prices, and those unwilling to sell would never sell.
“Not willing,” Wen Jianyan said with a smile on his lips.
He shook his phone, “See, they just rejected my offer.”
Su Cheng: “…How much did you offer?”
Wen Jianyan: “100 points.”
Su Cheng and Ji Guan both fell silent.
After a brief silence, Su Cheng couldn’t help but ask slowly, “Do you even know what you’re saying?”
It sounded like his mental state might be a bit off.
“Of course.”
During the conversation, Wen Jianyan had already put on his clothes and walked to the door.
He turned to Su Cheng, raising an eyebrow, “So, are you coming?”
Su Cheng: “…”
I can’t believe I’m going along with this.
But he eventually sighed, stood up, and followed him.
***
Soon, the two of them arrived at the target guild.
Su Cheng looked up at the unremarkable guild headquarters—this was the guild Wen Jianyan had set his sights on?
He secretly took out his phone and searched.
The guild ranking wasn’t high, but as an independent small guild, its position was already quite advanced, and it was considered a rising star.
Su Cheng turned to look at Wen Jianyan’s profile, wanting to say something but he hesitated.
Although he didn’t want to use the term “wishful thinking” to describe Wen Jianyan’s idea, there didn’t seem to be a better term for it.
While Su Cheng was struggling with this, Wen Jianyan had already walked up calmly.
He curled his fingers and knocked on the door, patiently waiting.
Soon, the door opened, and a guild member appeared at the entrance.
“Hello,” Wen Jianyan flashed a friendly smile, his amber eyes shining brightly, looking particularly sincere, “I’m your new member.”
The other person was taken aback, “Our guild doesn’t seem to be recruiting…”
“I was specially recruited,” Wen Jianyan blinked, “Your guild leader gave me a special position.”
Saying this, he opened his phone screen, revealing his personal profile.
34th place on the total points leaderboard.
The hottest and brightest newcomer on the forum.
“!!!”
The member was shocked, a self-doubting look of bewilderment on their face.
Is our guild leader really this impressive? Recruiting even this top-tier newcomer?
Su Cheng: “…”
He sensibly decided to keep his mouth shut.
Soon, the two were cautiously welcomed inside the guild.
Unlike what one might expect, the guild wasn’t very large. Including the person who opened the door, there were only two permanent members inside.
Wen Jianyan drank tea while looking around, a satisfied expression on his face—as if he were looking at his future private office.
Su Cheng stared at the tea in his hand, completely distracted, with no desire to drink it.
This is it.
He had a strong feeling they would be thrown out soon.
“When will your guild leader return?”
Wen Jianyan asked the member.
The member was startled and quickly replied, “I’ve already notified the guild leader, and he said he’s coming right away… But our guild leader said he didn’t…”
He glanced at his phone screen, showing a confused expression, and then looked up, “What special position did he give you?”
Su Cheng’s heart was in his throat.
Unsurprisingly, Wen Jianyan calmly replied, “Your new guild leader.”
Member: “…”
Su Cheng: “…”
He slowly put his tea back on the table.
Yeah, we’re definitely getting kicked out.
In that moment, the entire room’s atmosphere changed. The guild member in front of them looked hostile: “Sorry, but our guild is not for sale. Please leave.”
Just as the tension peaked, the sound of a door opening came from outside.
Hearing footsteps, both of them perked up:
“Guild leader, you’re back. There’s another person overestimating themselves…”
When he saw the person who came in, Chen Mo suddenly stopped in his tracks, a look of surprise appearing on his usually impassive face.
“…It’s you?”
“!” The member was stunned.
Wait a minute, why is this developing differently than expected?
Su Cheng stared wide-eyed at the familiar face he had seen in the “Antai Community” instance and was also stunned.
Wait, it’s him?!
This was clearly their temporary teammate from back then, Chen Mo!
At that time, he and his guild members had entered the instance together, acting with them in the early stages. In the middle of the instance, they got separated accidentally. When they met again, Chen Mo had been successfully betrayed by his teammates and left to die in the mirror world.
After that, Wen Jianyan had converted him into an evil spirit believer in his faction.
As for what happened between them afterward, Su Cheng wasn’t too sure.
Wen Jianyan was the only one who remained calm.
He gently placed the white porcelain teacup back on the table with a soft clink, smiled, and waved familiarly:
“Long time no see, my follower.”
Author’s Note:
Wen Jianyan: I don’t have the money to bid for a guild establishment qualification, but I’m great at scamming and swindling.
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XD
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Thanks for the update ❤️