Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 352: True Xingwang Hotel
“Damn it!” Yun Bilan caught sight of the scene from the corner of her eye.
She cursed viciously and turned to sprint in that direction.
In the next second, no one knew what kind of item she had activated, but an invisible blade sliced through the air, and the pale, lifeless hands gripping Wen Jianyan’s ankle were all severed at once.
Wen Jianyan instantly felt his body lighten.
Chen Mo also turned back and ran over, helping Yun Bilan pull Wen Jianyan up. One on each side, they clamped onto Wen Jianyan and bolted forward. “Block the door!”
“Captain, hurry!” Blond pressed against the door, shouting anxiously.
Under the overwhelming swarm of pale hands, the three of them stumbled into the open secret door. Zhong Shan and Blond joined forces, and at the last moment, they slammed the door shut!
The three of them, unable to stop in time, fell flat on the ground. “Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Gritting their teeth, Zhong Shan and the others used their bodies to brace against the door. The secret door and even the surrounding walls trembled violently. Dust and brick fragments fell as the door was struck repeatedly from the outside, occasionally cracking open a small gap. From within, countless writhing, pallid arms could be seen, making one’s scalp tingle.
Chen Mo and Yun Bilan quickly scrambled to their feet, pressing their bodies against the door as well.
The heavy banging gradually weakened.
Through the slightly deformed gap in the door, they could see the pale hands slowly retreating into the well. Accompanied by wet, slithering sounds, they gradually disappeared from sight. Everyone gasped for breath, still shaken.
Although they no longer needed to press their weight against the door, no one dared to step back carelessly.
“I-I… f***, what were those things?” Blond’s face was deathly pale, and he stammered.
“Ghosts.” Yun Bilan rolled her eyes and said bluntly, “What else could they be?”
Blond: “…” Well, that… does make sense.
“Looks like it’s best not to get near the well.”
Chen Mo wiped the sweat from his forehead, his expression solemn as he stared at the door. “Based on Rui Rui’s description, the corpses in the well should be those things.”
“Huh? Then what do we do next?” Zhong Shan grabbed his hair, looking lost.
Just approaching it would get them dragged into the well. That attack trigger was way too simple.
But if they wanted to figure out what the well actually was and why that woman in the white dress had lured them here… there was no avoiding getting closer to the well.
“If you ask me…”
Chen Mo frowned in thought before saying, “The best option right now is to give up on earning tips and find another way to increase revenue.” Like attracting more guests to the hotel and fulfilling their requests. Though they were at a disadvantage for now, it wasn’t a lost cause.
“Agreed.” Yun Bilan nodded, affirming Chen Mo’s idea. “Winning is still the most important thing right now.” Since victory in this competition was the goal, the key was to follow the instance’s guiding path.
Obtaining masks, gaining entry into the final banquet, and finding ways to increase revenue—only by doing this could they win the competition and ensure their captain’s survival.
“Captain, what do you think?”
Chen Mo turned to look at Wen Jianyan.
Wen Jianyan still maintained his earlier posture, sitting cross-legged on the ground. His hair and clothes were drenched, and cold rainwater trickled down his jawline, dripping onto the ground.
The hem of his pants had rolled up slightly, revealing his pale, slender ankle and a small part of his toned calf. On his skin, faintly visible, were the gradually darkening bruises left by the small hands.
He lowered his head, seemingly deep in thought, staring at the marks, looking oddly dazed.
“Captain?” Chen Mo raised his voice.
“Huh? Mm?” Wen Jianyan seemed to snap out of his thoughts, belatedly lifting his head.
“What do you plan to do next?” Chen Mo asked.
“Mm…”
Wen Jianyan, still lost in his thoughts, nodded.
Chen Mo: “…”
What do you mean, “Mm”?!
This isn’t a yes-or-no question!
In the “Integrity First” live room barrage:
[Why does the anchor look so absent-minded? Was he scared stiff?]
[Hahaha, probably! The anchor does have a small heart, after all.]
[He looks kinda cute… dazed like this.]
[Yeah, normally the anchor is way too sharp. Seeing him in a daze now, he looks so soft and pinchable.]
Wen Jianyan was deep in thought.
Unlike his teammates, he wasn’t thinking about “how to win this instance.”
To be precise, Wen Jianyan was trying to piece together a timeline within the instance.
“…”
He hesitated, then raised his hand and opened the livestream interface.
But instead of going to the mission screen, he directly entered the live broadcast barrage.
Since entering this instance, aside from taking a quick glance at the barrage at the beginning, this was the first time Wen Jianyan had returned to the broadcasting interface to interact with his audience.
The moment the “Anchor Has Entered the Chat” message appeared, [Integrity First] exploded with activity. The already numerous comments flooded the screen, overlapping into an unreadable blur.
[AHHHHHH!!! IT’S BEEN SO LONG! THE ANCHOR FINALLY CHECKED THE CHAT!!!]
[WIFE LOOK AT ME WIFE LOOK AT ME!!!!]
[AHHHHH CONFESSING TO THE ANCHOR!!!]
The moment he opened the bullet comment interface, the normally muted reward notification sound within the instance started ringing “ding ding dang dang,” making the once deathly silent surroundings turn noisy and jarring again.
Wen Jianyan remained expressionless. He raised his hand, waved at the screen in front of him, and greeted with a smile:
“Long time no see.”
The bullet comments exploded even more frantically.
His teammates stood beside him, looking at each other in confusion.
They genuinely hadn’t expected their captain to suddenly choose this moment to open the live-stream interface and seamlessly switch into business mode, effortlessly exuding charm and interacting with the audience… What was even going on?!
Wen Jianyan quickly got to the point:
“Speaking of which, I remember seeing somewhere before… that the ‘Xingwang Hotel’ instance was closed for a while in the past, right?”
[Yes, yes!]
[That’s right! Back then, ‘Xingwang Hotel’ was just an ordinary A-rank instance. Who would’ve thought that after reopening, it would become an S-rank one?!]
[The entire instance has changed drastically. It’s completely unrecognizable now!]
[Even the process has changed. I never expected this!]
Wen Jianyan: “So, do any of you remember the reason why the ‘Xingwang Hotel’ instance was closed last time?”
For a moment, the bullet comments noticeably decreased in volume. What had been densely packed, overlapping comments now revealed gaps of empty space.
[I can’t really remember…]
[Me neither; it’s been too long.]
[Besides, back then, ‘Xingwang Hotel’ wasn’t even a particularly famous instance. It wasn’t exceptionally difficult or structurally unique. I just glanced at it and forgot about it.]
[But I do recall that the exploration progress of this instance was quite high at the time, right?]
[That’s true. People thought it could be cleared at platinum rank, but unexpectedly, it got shut down due to a bug…]
[As for what kind of bug, how would I remember? I forgot a long time ago!]
[I think the instance replay for ‘Xingwang Hotel’ was also disabled back then?]
[Yeah, that’s right!]
Wen Jianyan carefully scanned through every single bullet comment, not missing any potential bits of information.
This seemed to be the most he could extract from them.
He smiled charmingly at the screen. “Alright, thanks, everyone.”
Seeing the surge in bullet comments and rewards, Wen Jianyan skillfully blew a kiss, grinned, and swiftly exited the live stream.
The moment he turned off the bullet comments, the reward sounds automatically ceased.
Silence returned once again.
Phew.
Wen Jianyan let out a soft breath and lifted his head—only to meet several hesitant, conflicted gazes.
“?”
Wen Jianyan blinked. “What’s wrong?”
The others had complicated expressions.
Well… nothing, really.
It was just… this was their first time seeing him so adept at switching into his anchor persona, effortlessly engaging his audience with an almost excessive level of natural charm.
Now, they sort of understood why this guy was not only skyrocketing up the rankings on the points leaderboard but also ranked highly on the attractiveness chart—a list heavily reliant on die-hard fans.
He was just too smooth, to the point of seeming like a professional scammer.
Wen Jianyan lowered his gaze slightly, his expression thoughtful.
First, the “Xingwang Hotel” instance had once been an unremarkable A-rank instance.
Although it wasn’t exactly easy, neither its structure nor its unique aspects made it particularly notable. Among viewers, it wasn’t especially well-known—certainly nowhere near the popularity level of instances like “Fantasy Amusement Park” or “Changsheng Building”.
Until, in one particular run, its exploration progress shot up, and it was even on the verge of achieving a platinum-clear… Then, the instance was shut down due to a bug.
The instance replays, which could only be accessed by viewers, were disabled, and even the audience’s memories had been altered to some extent.
And now, he had entered the instance.
“Xingwang Hotel” had reopened.
Wen Jianyan slowly clenched his fingers and took a deep breath.
At that moment, a previously vague feeling in his mind gradually became crystal clear.
This instance was very likely reopened specifically for him.
Just for him alone.
When he first woke up in the instance, his starting room was 408.
And the woman in white inside 408 happened to be deeply connected to the secrets of this instance…
She was not only the one person in town who wasn’t at home when “the darkness engulfed the town”, but also the only teacher in the town’s elementary school. Even every clue she provided was strikingly precise, directly pointing to areas that others—even if they scoured the entire instance—would never be able to reach.
Wen Jianyan had never considered himself particularly lucky.
And this time, his “luck” seemed far too good to be true.
Why had the Gentleman been so eager to join his team?
Because he had already learned through some channel what Wen Jianyan’s next instance would be. In other words, even before Wen Jianyan attended the secret council meeting…
The “Xingwang Hotel” instance had already been set for reopening.
What’s more, before even entering this instance, Wen Jianyan had already received a “task” from Nightmare: eliminate the bug.
Countless previously overlooked pieces of information, like scattered puzzle fragments with no apparent connection, finally clicked into place.
Wen Jianyan clenched his teeth, suppressing a slight tremor.
Fear?
Maybe.
But also, a hint of excitement.
Like finding a crucial thread in a tangled web of chaos.
In Nightmare, an anchor could only earn a platinum achievement by progressing an instance to the point where it could never be restarted. Otherwise, at the end of each run, everything would reset. Based on this logic, they had entered what should have been a reset instance.
But the problem was…
Had the last run of “Xingwang Hotel” really been reset?
Had it reached the platinum achievement? No.
Had the timer run out? Probably not.
Because the last run of “Xingwang Hotel” had been forcibly shut down due to a bug—trapping many anchors inside.
If Nightmare was bound by its own rules, then the “Xingwang Hotel” instance had never actually ended, which meant its progress could not have been reset.
Wen Jianyan recalled what he had seen on that “commercial street”—
Countless motionless corpses.
But their clothing was new, not those of the original residents of this instance.
At the time, Wen Jianyan had only thought that their attack power must not be very high, but he had neglected to consider one critical detail—
If the instance had truly reset, how could they still see the corpses of previous anchors?
All clues pointed to the same conclusion.
They had not entered a newly reset “Xingwang Hotel” instance.
Instead, they had directly entered the continuation of the previous run—a half-explored instance left behind by the previous group of anchors.
Then, how had Nightmare accomplished this?
It had thrown hundreds of people into an instance that had already been largely explored, one that was even on the verge of collapsing due to a bug—yet it had left no trace of this manipulation.
Wen Jianyan recalled the broken, desperate voice of that previous anchor:
“You must… You must go to the real Xingwang Hotel…”
The real Xingwang Hotel?
That meant… there was a fake one?
A chill ran down his spine.
He understood now.
It was the mirrors.
A mirroring effect.
At the moment of realization, many mysteries suddenly became clear.
Wen Jianyan’s breathing quickened.
He had found it.
This instance contained one final mirrored layer.
Nightmare had created a mirror version of “Xingwang Hotel” and placed them inside it.
This mirror contained both the hotel and the surrounding town. While they appeared identical in structure, their underlying rules were vastly different—which was why he had felt such a strong sense of dissonance.
And that nonexistent street served as the passage connecting the two mirrored spaces.
The employee dormitory where they had rested last night was likely located in the real Xingwang Hotel. That was why it had been safe at night—why it hadn’t been infiltrated. That was why their elevator seemed to go up when it was actually going down and down when it was actually going up.
That was why Wu Zhu could only appear in the employee dormitory and that nonexistent street—because he was a bug sealed within the mirror.
He was the root cause of everything.
And he could only move within the real “Xingwang Hotel”.
So, as long as Wen Jianyan remained inside the fake Xingwang Hotel, Wu Zhu wouldn’t be able to follow him.
Which meant…
From the very beginning, they had entered a fake hotel. A fake instance.
That was why this “hotel” was so malicious—why it was filled with rules designed to pit people against each other, forcing them to turn on one another.
Because this place was crafted by Nightmare itself.
Whether it was the “opposing factions”, the “red and black teams”, or even the current competitive structure—none of it had anything to do with Xingwang Hotel.
They were all independent mechanics created within this fake instance.
Meanwhile, the real Xingwang Hotel was broken, fractured, and nearly destroyed by the bug.
But at the same time, it had trapped the bug inside.
The truth Wen Jianyan had glimpsed inside Ouroboros was actually the hidden reality of the instance.
And now, as time passed, the true instance was gradually bleeding through Nightmare’s fabricated illusion—revealing itself within the fake hotel.
What was Nightmare trying to do?
What was its goal?
A thought suddenly struck Wen Jianyan.
…The banquet.
Although the past two days of competition had taken place inside the fake Xingwang Hotel, the third day’s banquet would be held in the real Xingwang Hotel.
A shiver ran down his spine.
Nightmare’s real objective—
Was the banquet on the third day.
Soo that’s it…. interesting