Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 302: Instance Malice
After the oil painting, they found themselves in the familiar rainy, gloomy town.
This place was entirely different from the Xingwang Hotel.
The sky was pitch-black and overcast, with cold raindrops falling, striking the cobblestone path with a fine, dense sound.
In the distance stood a two-story building with its doors wide open.
Having already experienced this once before, this time no one dared to pause; they rushed as quickly as possible towards the small building.
Cold rain soaked them, and their life force and warmth rapidly drained away.
Fortunately, this small building was much closer to the “door” than the abandoned hut from last time.
Soon, both teams made it through the door within the time limit.
Raindrops dripped overhead, producing a muffled sound, while the air carried a damp, moldy smell.
Wen Jianyan was panting heavily, his face a bit pale.
He lifted his hand, grabbed his hair, and wrung it out forcefully, letting cold raindrops fall, forming a small puddle beside his feet.
If he’d had short hair, he could just shake it off, but with his waist-length hair, it clung wetly to his body, heavy and cold—troublesome to no end.
The others stood in the room as well, waiting for the rain’s effect to fade from their bodies.
Wen Jianyan turned to Blond:
“Go observe the structure of the ‘door’.”
No matter what, they couldn’t return the way they came; that area had been sealed off by the “resident.” Going back would mean certain death. So now, their only option was to search within the town for another door leading to the Xingwang Hotel. Only by doing this could they bypass the sealed-off area and enter other rooms or floors in the Xingwang Hotel.
Blond nodded and looked outside.
The sky over the town was dark and gloomy, and the rain obstructed visibility, making it impossible for an ordinary person to see anything far off—but he was different.
However, after searching carefully in the rain, Blond’s face turned pale.
“The door…the door is gone.”
“What do you mean?” Chen Mo’s expression froze. “What do you mean the door is gone?”
“I mean, it literally disappeared.”
Blond stared intently at the place they had just run from, seemingly doubting his own vision, and stammered, “…It’s completely gone.”
In his view, the area they’d just come from was now shrouded in a dark rain curtain. The end of the cobblestone path was swallowed by an endless grayness, and in the distance, he could vaguely see countless low rooftops undulating, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see the door leading back to the Xingwang Hotel.
It was as if the door had automatically disappeared once they left Xingwang Hotel.
In an instant, everyone felt a sinking feeling in their hearts.
“Wait, what’s going on?” Yun Bilan frowned. “This wasn’t the case last time.”
Wen Jianyan was also taken aback.
To be honest, they hadn’t paid attention to this issue the last time they entered the town.
After they’d entered the abandoned hut, the second team had appeared shortly after, diverting all of their attention. After that, they’d started searching the hut and hadn’t thought to look back at the door of the “Xingwang Hotel.”
However, when they returned, the door was still there.
…No, not quite.
Because when they returned, there was only one door.
Only the door to their own room remained, while the door Zong Shan’s team had used was gone.
“No.”
Wen Jianyan quickly figured out the connection.
“It’s actually the same.”
Yun Bilan paused, turning to look at him. “What?”
“The door back to Xingwang Hotel only reappears after inviting a resident and obtaining a ‘painting,’” Wen Jianyan raised his hand, wiped the rain from his face, and said slowly,
“The reason we managed to return to the hotel last time was that we had already obtained the painting in advance, so we weren’t stuck at this step.”
Although he now knew the answer, Wen Jianyan didn’t feel any sense of relief.
This meant that the existence of the “door” in this rainy town was hidden.
Only after obtaining the painting would the “door” reappear.
This also meant that, to return to the Xingwang Hotel, they would have to bring another resident into it.
Wen Jianyan had a feeling that he was slowly piecing together the missing rules of the “Xingwang Hotel” instance.
The more he pieced things together, the more Wen Jianyan’s heart pounded with dread.
This meant that the Xingwang Hotel instance had entirely blocked the anchor’s last route to peacefully clearing the level.
Although the previous room competition mechanism would spark conflict between the red and black factions, this was still a team-versus-team instance, not a life-or-death elimination game.
Thus, it was at least somewhat possible that both factions could avoid conflict and cooperate.
After all, as long as no guests were invited into the instance, the Xingwang Hotel remained relatively safe. However… as soon as any team invited even a handful of guests at the start, the entire instance would inevitably spiral into an endless death loop.
The “residents” could move freely and block paths.
To escape that area, they had to enter the painting, but upon entering the town, the way back would disappear. If they wanted to open a “door” again, they would have to invite another “resident” within an hour.
Otherwise, the anchors would be trapped there, never finding a way back to the hotel.
The entire instance would inevitably fall into a vicious cycle.
Perhaps because he was soaked by the rain, Wen Jianyan felt a chill run through him.
In theory, this situation could be avoided.
After all, the identity cards clearly stated that “the main mission does not need to be completed.”
Unfortunately…Nightmare prohibited spoilers.
Any attempt to reveal the instance’s mechanisms was strictly forbidden.
So, for all the anchors entering the Xingwang Hotel, there was absolutely no way to understand its insidious mechanics in advance. Among over two hundred anchors, someone was bound to attempt completing the main mission, inviting guests and thus triggering this terrifying cycle.
No matter how they looked at it, this was a death trap everyone would inevitably step into.
And it would reveal to them, mid-instance:
Surprise! This all could’ve been avoided!
Devious.
Utterly devious.
“Still, if we look at the bright side,” Yun Bilan said, “once we left the hotel, the passage closed, so those two residents shouldn’t follow us, right?”
Wen Jianyan pulled himself out of his thoughts.
He looked out at the misty rain, shook his head, and said, “Hard to say.”
From his observations so far, the Xingwang Hotel instance was brimming with malice. This malice was even more apparent than in Fantasy Amusement Park or Changsheng Building.
Unlike other instances that provided some safe zones or certain protective rules for anchors, the Xingwang Hotel was different…
It was like a greedy monster feeding on human misery, with all its mechanisms and rules pushing the anchors toward mutual destruction and self-destruction.
So even if those two residents didn’t follow them, what awaited them probably wouldn’t be any better.
“But for now, that’s not our main concern.”
Wen Jianyan paused. “Right now, we need to focus on finding a door—or, rather, a painting.”
He turned to the black team and said:
“Let’s start by searching this building and see if we can find anything useful.”
He and his teammates had not hidden their discussion from the nearby black team.
Although the two teams were on opposing sides, under the current circumstances, separating would mean a low survival rate for both. More importantly, Wen Jianyan had yet to figure out the relationship between the “door” in the Xingwang Hotel and the layout of the rainy town. If he did find an exit, but it happened to lead to the black team’s area, he would be like a lamb walking into a lion’s den.
Acting together with the black team significantly increased their odds of success.
The black team didn’t object.
They nodded, and the group split up to search the first and second floors.
The black team went upstairs, while Wen Jianyan’s group stayed on the first floor.
As the black team headed upstairs, Chen Mo glanced at Wen Jianyan thoughtfully and asked,
“Captain, why do you think there’s anything useful here?”
Earlier, they had thoroughly searched the broken-down house in the previous painting, only to be greatly disappointed. Besides the eerie painting of a woman, there had been almost nothing useful—just dusty odds and ends.
Since Wen Jianyan had just said they couldn’t rule out the possibility of the residents following them into the painting…
The smartest choice now should be to leave as quickly as possible to avoid those terrifying residents catching up.
Unexpectedly, Wen Jianyan had drawn the opposite conclusion:
To stay.
“Because the paintings in this building certainly can’t be taken outside. Otherwise, we’d end up back at square one. So, to get back to the Xingwang Hotel, we need to leave this building and find another painting.”
Wen Jianyan looked out into the rain-drenched door and said slowly:
“But the size and layout of this town are still unknown, and the rain outside limits our range. Rushing out blindly would be suicide.”
“Most importantly…”
Wen Jianyan gestured around.
“Don’t you feel it has too much of a lived-in feel?”
Everyone followed his gaze around the room.
Indeed, compared to the previous house, this place felt far more lived-in.
Wallpaper decorated the walls, furniture was neatly arranged, and clothes hung on a rack.
Four chairs were placed around the table, with dishes matching the number of chairs, and remnants of food still remained in the dishes. Given the damp environment, the food should have rotted long ago, yet somehow it remained in its original state.
The chopsticks, spoons, and dishes were all still in a very natural state of use.
Some chopsticks lay across bowls, some were beside plates, and some were partially tipped over on the table.
It was as if…
A family had suddenly disappeared in the middle of a meal.
“It’s as though time froze here.”
Wen Jianyan voiced the thought that had come to everyone’s minds.
“So I suspect that the time and space within this town are frozen. The previous house we entered probably had nothing of value because it was abandoned, not because the entire town lacks useful items.”
Wen Jianyan raised his gaze, scanning the room.
“And this building, before the town froze, was definitely occupied, so I suspect… we won’t leave empty-handed this time.”
As if to confirm his suspicion, a voice called out from the black team upstairs. Muffled through the staircase and ceiling, it still sparked excitement.
“Hey! Come upstairs; we found something!”
