WTNL Chapter 329

Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 329: The street you can’t get out of

Wen Jianyan asked, “Did you find it? Where exactly is it?”

Blond pointed ahead, saying confidently, “It’s about thirty meters ahead, on the right side of the street. The door of a shop is half-open.”

“Good, so we head there next!”

Zhong Shan cracked his knuckles. “Let’s go.”

Chen Mo scanned the eerie, silent street and cautiously added, “There are too few shops with their doors open on this street. A shop that’s open at this time won’t be simple. We need to be extra cautious.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The cold, gloomy rain continued to fall from the gray sky, dripping steadily onto the cobblestone road, disturbing the puddles between the cracks. The water beneath the surface was murky and chaotic, unable to reflect any light.

On the street, several motionless figures stood scattered about.

They had their backs turned to the group, standing rigidly in place, as if nailed to the ground like stakes.

The group raised their alertness to the highest level and proceeded cautiously down the street.

They carefully avoided the corpses standing along the street, keeping their distance to avoid disturbing these eerie figures emanating strange auras.

Throughout the process, the corpses remained motionless.

Even when Wen Jianyan and his group passed by, the corpses did not react at all. They seemed like pure dead things, barely maintaining human form.

However, no matter from which direction they were viewed, the corpses always showed their backs.

Thirty meters was neither too close nor too far.

Soon, the group arrived at the “open shop” Blond had mentioned.

It was indeed “open.”

Unlike the other shops, the door to this one was not tightly shut, but it wasn’t half-open as Blond had said either…

On the contrary, the two doors were wide open, with no obstructions, silently conveying a message:

[Welcome]

Everyone was startled. Even without Wen Jianyan’s command, they instinctively stopped a few meters away from the shop.

Blond froze for a moment.

He instinctively turned to glance back at the direction they had just come from, his face showing confusion. “When I looked from that direction earlier, it was definitely only half-open… I didn’t see the door move at all. Could it be just an angle issue?”

“…”

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, “What’s inside the shop? Can you see anything?”

Blond looked into the fully open door and slowly shook his head, a look of embarrassment on his face. “I… I can’t see anything, just like before.”

Since the “Gate” had been closed and the shopping street had undergone an “alteration,” every building here seemed to be enveloped in an endless sticky darkness. No matter whether the door was open or closed, it was impossible to see through it. Even someone like Blond, with exceptional visual abilities, couldn’t do anything.

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Hiss, this is like the support position being banned.]

[This sense of the unknown is so scary… Can someone who’s seen this instance come out and give us a spoiler?]

[Did you guys forget? This instance was rebooted, and a lot of the settings are different from before, so spoilers won’t help.]

[Well, the previous “Xingwang Hotel” instance didn’t have so many mirrors, and the players didn’t have faction divisions. The mechanisms were pretty similar at the beginning, just pulling customers into the town and meeting their needs to pass the internship test. Of course, there were more dangers as it went on, but it didn’t feel as complex as this one…]

[Yeah, and basically, I’ve never seen an anchor stay in the town after the lights come on. After all, it’s three hours… Even if someone got unlucky and couldn’t escape in time, they’d mostly be dead within the first hour.]

[Because the difficulty of the previous instance wasn’t high, and the anchor’s levels were obvious, who would have thought that after the reboot, it would turn into a combat-based instance, and the rating would suddenly jump to S? It really shocked me.]

[Didn’t any team explore this place before?]

[I think so? But I forgot the specifics…]

[Hahaha, I forgot too.]

[Maybe it’s because so much time has passed, I really have no memory of it!]

As the discussions raged on in the livestream chat, Bai Xue, who had been silent in the team, suddenly raised his eerie black eyes and looked into the shop ahead.

“…”

He rarely spoke, but when he did, he said, “There is no immediate danger of death.”

Everyone froze and turned to look at him.

But after speaking, Bai Xue lowered his eyes again, falling silent, as though he had no intention of speaking further.

Honestly, even without Bai Xue’s words, Wen Jianyan and the others had no other choice.

As the time spent in the rain increased, the rotting smell from their human skin clothes grew stronger, almost impossible to mask by the damp air. The clothes, stirred by the cold wind, started to reveal terrifying shadowy shapes, which, if closely observed, resembled faces.

If they stayed outside much longer, they would eventually die from the gradual awakening of the human skin clothing.

And if they changed clothes without knowing their destination, whether their journey could continue was uncertain.

For them, finding shelter from the rain had now become the top priority.

Since Bai Xue had spoken, there was no more hesitation.

The group exchanged glances and cautiously moved toward the shop.

The inside of the shop was pitch black, emitting a damp, musty odor.

Wen Jianyan and the others carefully stopped at the side of the shop near the door, not immediately venturing deeper.

The damp rainwater dripped from their bodies, quickly forming puddles at their feet. They hastily took off their human skin clothes and placed them in areas that wouldn’t get wet by the rain or cast shadows onto the water.

The increasingly eerie human skin clothes stopped deteriorating. The human face shadows that had appeared on them gradually faded, eventually disappearing, leaving them looking like ordinary clothes once again.

“…”

The group couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

At least for the time being, they no longer had to worry about being killed by the human skin clothes.

Once they had resolved the most pressing issue, they finally had the energy to focus on their current location.

The anchors took out their phones and turned on the flashlights.

Though the darkness outside had been impenetrable, once they entered the shop, it was as if it had completely disappeared, no longer affecting their vision.

The dim light from the flashlight barely illuminated the shop ahead.

The shop wasn’t very large, much like the previous human skin clothing store.

Inside the dark and gloomy shop, rows of old-fashioned shelves were neatly arranged, covered in dust. The shelves and walls were filled with countless goods.

But the types of goods…

Completely exceeded their expectations.

It was a collection of masks.

Pale, ceramic-like masks were tightly packed, standing motionless in the darkness, as though they were silently “watching” the group, creating an eerie atmosphere.

Outside, the rain continued to fall, making the room feel even more deathly silent, like a tomb.

“Th-This… what is this…?”

Zhong Shan’s voice broke the silence, and despite trying to control himself, his tone still trembled slightly.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and stepped forward first:

“Let’s go in and see.”

Although the countless pale masks were terrifying, based on the information Bai Xue had provided earlier, it seemed that, for the time being, the shop should still be safe until they did something inside.

“…”

Seeing that Wen Jianyan entered without hesitation, the others exchanged glances, and despite their unease, they reluctantly followed.

The sound of rain outside was muffled by the walls, and the faint patter became weaker. Inside the room, only the sound of their deliberately soft footsteps echoed.

On every wall of the room, masks were densely hung.

Countless pale masks with various expressions stared down at the group, giving off an oppressive, chilling feeling.

Wen Jianyan approached one of the shelves and used his flashlight to shine on it.

On the shelf, plastic head models were neatly arranged, each one wearing a pale, ceramic-like mask under the dim light.

The eye holes of the masks were two penetrable openings, through which one could see the texture of the head model below.

“…”

Wen Jianyan’s pupils contracted slightly.

It seemed like he had remembered something, and his fingers, which were holding the flashlight, tightened ever so slightly.

The familiarity of this scene… was truly overwhelming.

Memories from the last instance flooded back like a wave.

Back on the second floor of Changsheng Building, he had used a brass mirror to enter the mirrored world of the second floor. He had witnessed the true nature of the second floor of Changsheng Building.

On the shelves there, head models with different faces were displayed, almost identical to the scene in front of him.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, forcing himself to shake off the memories from the previous instance.

He continued walking along the shelf, using his phone’s light to examine the masks before him.

Each mask’s expression had vague, almost identical features, as if they were all cast from the same mold, yet each mask had the same expression.

The corners of the stiff mouths were turned up into an eerie smile.

In the dark room, they looked terrifying, sending chills down anyone’s spine.

Wen Jianyan paused and frowned.

He didn’t think they had randomly entered this shop.

More importantly, this was the only shop they had encountered with its door wide open. The possibility that this was just a coincidence seemed even lower.

There was another key point…

The types of so-called “goods” were making Wen Jianyan subconsciously think back to the last instance he had experienced.

In the first shop they entered on this commercial street, the one closest to the entrance, with the lowest difficulty to enter, they found human skin clothing on the shelves.

In the second shop, there were plastic head models on the shelves.

And their next destination was the “Framing Shop.”

It’s worth noting that on the third floor of Changsheng Building, the walls were also covered with paintings.

However, while there were some similar elements, the essential function of these items was completely different, and the deeper logic of the instances was entirely different as well, which made Wen Jianyan unable to connect the two directly.

It was like a missing link in the logical chain.

Due to the missing information in this area, all the related speculations fell apart, like a broken hinge that could not properly connect.

Wen Jianyan raised his head and asked the others,

“Have you found any clues?”

Everyone shared their findings, but they were basically no different from Wen Jianyan’s observations, and there was nothing particularly special.

At least from the current perspective, apart from the bizarre items for sale, this place seemed to be just an abandoned, ordinary shop.

“Put on the human skin clothing, let’s leave here.”

Wen Jianyan thought for a moment and said.

After all, they still had too little information, and under these circumstances, any action could lead to death, so it was better to proceed cautiously.

More importantly, they were running out of time.

The longer they stayed here, the closer the black side would get to success, and the greater the possibility of Yun Bilan’s death.

Everyone nodded.

They quickly changed into the second set of human skin clothing, which had not yet been activated, and under Wen Jianyan’s lead, they left the shop full of strange masks.

Outside, everything was exactly the same as when they entered the shop.

The incessant rain continued to fall, the streets seemed endless, and there were countless corpses, motionless and with their backs turned toward them.

The group continued to hurry forward in the rain.

The rain was endless.

Although they had been walking for quite some time, the surrounding scenery seemed to have changed not at all.

Wen Jianyan wiped the rain from his face and turned to look in the direction of Blond.

“Have you found the framing shop?”

Blond shook his head, showing a defeated expression. “Not at all…”

Following Wen Jianyan’s instructions, Blond had been focusing on the shops on both sides of the road throughout the process. He had even stopped looking for the framing shop and was trying to match the street before him with the shops in the oil painting, but still, there was no result.

Although this street seemed so familiar, none of the scenes in the oil painting had ever appeared.

Due to the long time spent, the last piece of human skin clothing on them began to show signs of activation again, emitting the stench of decaying flesh.

“Damn…”

Zhong Shan couldn’t help but mutter a curse.

Chen Mo, standing next to him, turned to Wen Jianyan and raised his voice, suggesting, “Captain, why don’t we go back? At least head back to the mask shop to take shelter from the rain. It’s possible we missed some clues…”

Wen Jianyan didn’t answer.

He stood still, his eyes lowered, hiding his hesitation, as if he was torn about what to do next.

They had so few supplies, and this street seemed endless, with no trace of the framing shop from the oil painting. No one knew what would happen next, and whether they would find the shop that seemed not to exist in this mutated street.

“……”

Wen Jianyan raised his eyes and suddenly froze.

He suddenly realized…

They seemed to have not encountered any “corpses” for a long time.

At some point, those eerie, motionless figures standing in the rain had disappeared completely, and the entire street had returned to the original stillness, devoid of life.

Looking around, there was only a dim rain curtain, and nothing else could be seen.

“Keep going forward.”

Wen Jianyan said.

The others were stunned.

Wen Jianyan turned his head, his pale-colored eyes blurred by the rain, like a gem immersed in water, clear and bright.

He looked at Blond and said in an unquestionable tone:

“Pay attention to whether there are any open shops ahead.”

“Okay, okay.”

Though Blond was confused, he still nodded obediently.

The group continued their journey.

This time, Wen Jianyan’s pace quickened by several times, as if he was in a great hurry.

Soon, just a few minutes later, Blond suddenly called out, “There’s a shop ahead with its door open!!!”

Everyone was immediately alert.

Although they didn’t know what awaited them in the next shop, for them—who were almost out of supplies and whose human skin clothing was on the verge of malfunction—this was like a timely blessing.

An open shop meant that not only could they briefly take shelter from the rain and recover their strength, but if they were lucky, they might find more items to help them continue exploring, whether it was clothes or umbrellas.

However, as soon as they entered the shop, everyone was stunned.

The layout of the shop was so…

Familiar.

Clothes hung on the racks, blood stains on the floor, messy signs of a struggle, and—

Zhong Shan quickly stepped forward, peering toward the back of the shop.

In the dark corner of the shop, several “corpses” of the anchors lay in a disordered fashion. Although they showed no signs of life, they still barely seemed alive.

Aside from the corpse controlled by clothes that had disappeared, everything else was exactly the same as before they left.

“We’re back…”

Blond showed a dazed expression and muttered.

Everyone froze in place, almost unable to believe their eyes.

After leaving the shop for so long, they had somehow returned to the starting point!!!

The blow was too great.

Realizing this, the atmosphere among them grew heavy, their expressions grim, as if the gloom could be squeezed out into water.

In other words… everything they had just done was in vain.

Once they realized this, it became clear: after the passage between the Prosperous Hotel and the town was closed, this street was no longer the same as before. It had become a dead-end cycle, a ghostly loop.

Not only was the framing shop not here, but they were also trapped inside.

If everything returned to normal after the lights went out, that would be one thing, but if it didn’t…

They would almost certainly die.

After all, based on their previous observations, there were no oil paintings on this street.

No oil paintings meant no road back to the Prosperous Hotel, which meant…

Death.

“……Ha.”

A light laugh suddenly broke the silence and echoed in their ears.

The sound was soft, but it carried an undeniable sense of joy that made everyone freeze.

They turned their heads toward the source of the sound.

It was Wen Jianyan.

The tall young man stood in the center of the shop, his amber eyes slightly narrowed, a faint smile curving at the corners of his mouth, shining like a warm sun in the dim environment.

“So that’s how it is.”

—What?

Everyone was stunned.

How is it…?

“It’s still the same as before. Take two pieces of clothing.” Wen Jianyan didn’t explain further, only giving a brief and direct order.

The other anchors, although confused, still followed his instructions.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Wen Jianyan smiled slightly and was the first to step into the rainy outdoors.

His steps showed no hesitation, as if he didn’t mind walking on an endless dead-end path at all.

“…”

The others exchanged confused glances, but still, they followed suit, putting on the human skin clothing and trailing behind Wen Jianyan.

The group set off once again.

The scenery along the way was all too familiar.

The pitch-black shops with their doors tightly shut on both sides, the street stretching into the distance, and the gradually appearing rigid corpses with their backs turned to them.

This time, Wen Jianyan did not focus on avoiding these corpses.

But even as he walked directly past them, the corpses remained still, making no moves to attack them.

The group hurried through the rain.

Soon, a shop with its door wide open appeared before them.

“Go in!”

Wen Jianyan narrowed his wet eyelashes and shouted in the rain.

The others followed closely behind him and rushed into the shop.

It was still the same mask shop.

The walls on all sides and the rows of shelves were covered in countless pale masks. Their blurry features seemed to have melted like wax, with their stiff mouths curved upwards, giving an eerie smile as they stared at the humans before them.

Everything was exactly the same as last time.

Could it be…

He had discovered something they hadn’t found in this shop and planned to search again?

The others couldn’t help but speculate in their minds.

Wen Jianyan turned to look at them and said:

“Everyone take one mask.”

“…Huh?”

This time, everyone was stunned.

Although they were somewhat prepared, they were still shocked by Wen Jianyan’s extraordinary request.

After all, although these masks had shown no changes yet and did not seem to have any hostile intent, everything about them—the time and place of their appearance, as well as their appearance itself—indicated that these masks were strange.

There was no way they could be ordinary items; they must hold some terrifying curse.

More importantly… while the previous human skin clothes and human skin umbrellas, though bizarre, at least served the purpose of blocking rain, these masks were different.

Not only could they not block the rain, but they also carried something far more terrifying, something completely different from the other items, possibly even closely linked to the core of this twisted realm.

It was worth noting that all the anchors who had died in this realm, the inhabitants of this realm, and the hotel manager who appeared when the Prosperous Hotel realm first started—all of their faces had become eerily similar to these masks: pale faces, blurred features, mouths curved upwards as if in a smile.

That was exactly why they had avoided touching these masks the last time they entered the shop.

“Hurry up.”

Wen Jianyan didn’t offer any further explanation and simply urged them.

“…”

Trusting Wen Jianyan’s decision, the others gritted their teeth and reluctantly reached out to pick up a mask.

The moment they took the mask off the shelf, Huang Mao’s face suddenly turned pale.

He jumped up in fright and screamed:

“The corpses, the corpses are moving!!!”

Outside in the endless rain, the corpses, which had been motionless just moments ago, suddenly began moving in unison. They still maintained their backs turned to them, slowly taking steps backward toward the shop, inching closer to this place.

Everything happened silently, and by the time Huang Mao noticed, the corpses had already surrounded them.

The bodies, emitting the stench of decay, shuffled forward with stiff steps, retreating—retreating toward the store…

Wen Jianyan, however, seemed to have anticipated this. His expression remained exceptionally calm, as if there was no disturbance at all.

He said:

“Alright, now put on the masks.”

His voice was flat, but to everyone’s ears, it sounded like thunder, sending chills down their spines.

But now, there was no other choice but to follow his command.

The group gritted their teeth and pulled the pale masks over their faces.

In that instant.

All the corpses outside stopped moving.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, slightly shifting his position, and looked outside through the crooked window.

In the rain outside, countless corpses stood stiffly.

Through the holes in the mask, they could see that those corpses, which had been facing away from them just moments ago, were now all turned to face them!

The pale faces, with blurry features, mouths curved upward, and their eyes—black holes with nothing inside—stared directly at them, sending a chill down their spines.

One by one, the faces “gazed” in their direction, looking eerie and unsettling.

Wen Jianyan felt the hair on his back stand up, but at the same time, he let out a slow sigh of relief.

The stuffy air was trapped beneath the mask, dampening his face and eyelashes, giving him an odd sense of relief, as if a heavy weight had been lifted.

…He had guessed correctly.

The reason Wen Jianyan was the first to react and understood the deeper rules of this place was not by accident.

He was the only anchor who had experienced the Chengsheng Building instance.

And the rules here were indeed connected to the Chengsheng Building.

However, the rules were not the same—they were completely opposite.

In the Chengsheng Building the customers were ghosts. They gradually became whole by purchasing body parts and organs, and after obtaining their sacrifices, they were eventually buried in solitary graves within the mansion.

But in this small town’s commercial street, the customers were humans.

They had to wear one “medium” after another… to disguise themselves, or rather, to turn into “ghosts.”

One suppressed, the other created.

The reason they had been going back and forth between the first and second shops was not because they had entered some ordinary “ghost-wall” or had been trapped in a dream.

The reason was simple:

Because they were human.

And the area they had been trying to enter was clearly a place humans should not tread.

Only true “ghosts” could enter there.

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