Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 357: Pretty good deal, right?
The dimly lit store was eerily silent.
Everyone stared fixedly at the blurry figure behind the counter, instinctively holding their breath.
After repeating that sentence, it fell silent again, not making another sound or moving an inch. Like a stain on the wall, it remained motionless, submerged in the shadows. But no one could afford to ignore it.
Whether it was an illusion or not, the air in the shop seemed to have grown thicker, saturated with a pungent, rotting stench that was nearly suffocating.
Wen Jianyan glanced behind him. Including himself, there were eight people in the store.
In other words, the fee was based on the number of human-skin garments they had taken.
One yuan per garment.
Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze, looking back at the shadow behind the counter as his mind raced.
This situation might seem unexpected, but it was actually entirely logical.
Clearly, the Xingwang Hotel and Changsheng Hotel shared a similar framework, likely originating from the same source. Elements like spirit money, oil lamps, human-skin garments, masks, and so on all served as evidence of this. Given that, their core rules should naturally overlap—one of which was: goods for payment.
However, in the Changsheng Building instance, the “customers” purchasing goods were ghosts. They handed over spirit money in exchange for body parts until they could finally “consume the offerings.”
In the Xingwang Hotel, the “customers” buying from the shops were humans. They could also obtain “parts” by acquiring spirit money, but their goal was to disguise themselves as ghosts to enter that mysterious street.
In the original Xingwang Hotel instance, the logic was clearly self-consistent.
The problem was, Wen Jianyan had previously been in the false mirrored world.
Obviously, in the mirrored world’s version of this street, the boundaries between reflections were blurred. There were even corpses of anchors left behind, but strictly speaking—
It still leaned more toward being a reflection.
After all, in the false mirrored world, though Wen Jianyan could see the corpses of anchors, the corpses of the original inhabitants—the truly terrifying vengeful ghosts—had not appeared.
In other words, Nightmare still held the upper hand in control.
It could still keep the real “ghosts” outside the mirrored world.
This was precisely why they had been able to bypass this rule back then, taking goods from the street without paying any price.
From this perspective, although the reopened Xingwang Hotel instance had increased in overall difficulty, the danger of entering this street had actually decreased.
Which meant…
This time, they probably couldn’t get away without paying.
Wen Jianyan realized that this was an opportunity—a chance to test the degree of overlap between the instances.
Due to Nightmare’s interference, the Xingwang Hotel he had entered wasn’t the original instance but a reconstructed, reprocessed version using the original as raw material. Though the two were related, how much they overlapped was something Wen Jianyan didn’t know.
After all…
From what he had seen and heard so far, Nightmare’s modifications had far exceeded his expectations.
Whether it was the drastically different map layout or the “rain” that hadn’t existed in the original instance, all of it had caught Wen Jianyan off guard. Precisely because even the most fundamental settings were altered, Wen Jianyan now had to tread carefully in both speech and action.
If he inadvertently revealed any ignorance about basic information or asked questions that seemed ordinary but were actually strange—no matter how quickly he tried to recover—the seeds of doubt would be sown, and the identity he was currently disguising himself as might crumble.
“…”
Wen Jianyan turned his head slightly, his gaze landing on Hugo beside him.
Hugo was staring unblinkingly at the counter in the distance, his expression tense, his eyes flickering slightly as if deep in thought.
Would he pay?
If he did…
Then it would mean that in the original Xingwang Hotel instance, the element of “trade” also existed, and there were ways to obtain spirit money.
“Captain, what do we do?” an anchor nearby whispered. “Should we—”
The person tilted their head subtly, casting a furtive glance at the wide-open shop door behind them.
Not far away, the shadow behind the counter remained motionless, showing no intention of stopping them—it didn’t even move an inch.
Hugo didn’t answer immediately.
He glanced at Wen Jianyan. “Are there more shops like this ahead?”
Wen Jianyan nodded.
“How many more?”
Hugo asked.
“One,” Wen Jianyan said. “It sells masks.”
In other words, if they wanted to continue forward, they’d have to pay again.
Hugo: “The price?”
This…
Wen Jianyan actually didn’t know.
After all, last time, he had gotten in without paying a single cent.
Without blinking, he answered, “Two yuan.”
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[?]
[?]
[Wait, I’m shocked—does he actually know the price of those masks? Didn’t he just take them last time?]
[Could he have deduced it?]
[But… that doesn’t make sense. How could he deduce that? I can’t figure it out.]
[I don’t think it’s possible either. Did he just make it up?]
[But what’s the point of making that up? Wouldn’t he be exposed as soon as they reach the next shop?]
Hugo nodded, then glanced at the team members behind him, seemingly deep in thought. Soon, he made a decision and called out a few names:
“You few, put the human-skin garments back and wait for us at the street entrance.”
“Captain—” The named members were startled and instinctively stepped forward.
Hugo said coolly, “Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon.”
Then, he looked down at Wen Jianyan standing beside him and said meaningfully, “Besides, we have a psychographer leading the way.”
The girl in the white dress nodded, flattered. “I—I won’t let you down!”
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Damn! I get it now! This damn scammer’s calculations are way too precise!]
[Huh? What do you mean?]
[He has no idea how much the masks in the mask shop cost—that ‘two yuan’ was absolutely made up!]
[But if he just made it up, wouldn’t he be exposed immediately if it’s wrong?]
[Because this guy has ulterior motives!]
[Huh?]
[After hearing the eight-yuan fee, when the teammate asked if they should just run without paying, Hugo didn’t answer directly. Instead, he asked if there were other shops ahead. What do you think that means?]
[Oh, you mean…]
[Hugo must have spirit money on him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even consider the option of ‘paying’—he’d just choose to fight head-on. But since he did consider it, it means he has money, but not enough to cover everything. That’s why he asked about the next shop—he’s calculating future expenses.]
[!!!]
[The anchor probably realized this immediately. That’s why he answered ‘two yuan’—it wasn’t a random guess. This number benefits him the most. If he’d said one yuan, Hugo might have thought they could afford to pay for everything and kept the whole team. If he’d said three yuan, Hugo might have decided to fight it out in the first shop instead.]
[Damn, and since he’s the only one who’s survived coming out of this street, Hugo has no choice but to believe him.]
[If the anchor does this, he can at least reduce Hugo’s team size by two-thirds. What the hell is he planning?!]
After the named members hung the human-skin garments back on the racks, Hugo stepped forward, took three spirit notes from his pocket, and placed them on the counter.
The next second, the shadow behind the counter moved.
A rotting, bluish-black hand slowly reached out, pressed down on the spirit money, then withdrew just as slowly.
Soon, under everyone’s watchful eyes, the shadow gradually disappeared.
Hugo raised his arm, using the lantern in his hand to illuminate the area behind the counter. Just like when they had first entered the shop, the space behind the counter was now empty.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
“Let’s go,” Hugo nodded.
With that, he turned and led the way into the street.
Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered on his retreating figure, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Hugo had paid three yuan.
That meant the total amount of spirit money he had on him was likely nine yuan.
Not bad.
But looking at it another way, in the original Xingwang Hotel instance, a team that had pushed the exploration rate to 92% and nearly collected all the items had only managed to gather nine yuan in total. Clearly, in the original setup, obtaining spirit money was far more difficult than in the mirrored instance.
Wen Jianyan followed Hugo out of the shop.
Just as he stepped outside, a shrill scream suddenly rang out from behind. Startled, Wen Jianyan whipped his head around.
One of the team members had turned deathly pale, stumbling back in horror as he frantically tore off the human-skin garment on his arm—which was rapidly swelling and emitting a foul stench—and threw it back into the shop.
Hugo frowned.
The teammate gasped for breath, still shaken. Noticing Hugo’s gaze, he stammered, “I—I just wanted to try…”
Turns out, after seeing the shadow disappear, the teammate had gotten greedy.
He had secretly kept one of the human-skin garments, wanting to see if he could take it out of the shop. But the moment he stepped outside, the garment began to inflate like a balloon, its outline distorting as if it were transforming from clothing into a complete ghost.
He panicked and immediately threw it back.
After hearing the explanation, Wen Jianyan’s heart stirred.
So that’s how it was.
This was why the human-skin garments they took from the shop would gradually rot, and why, when viewed through water, the person wearing it would appear to be entangled with a vengeful ghost.
This was the true nature of all human-skin products.
If you paid, it was an item. If you didn’t, it was a ghost.
Previously, in the mirrored instance, since all transactions had been bypassed, they hadn’t realized this. But now, the moment they tried to take something without paying, the “item” would immediately begin transforming, attempting to kill its holder.
While Wen Jianyan was lost in thought, Hugo gave brief instructions to the rest of the team, then turned to the two he had selected:
“Let’s go.”
With that, he put on the suit jacket and strode into the street. Wen Jianyan snapped out of his thoughts.
He adjusted the shawl over his shoulders, waved at the others, then hurried after Hugo.
Behind them, though the remaining teammates were reluctant, they had just witnessed what happened when someone tried to take a human-skin garment out of the shop without paying. So, no matter how unwilling they were, circumstances forced them to stay at the street entrance and wait for the others to return.
Hugo, the teammate he had chosen, and Wen Jianyan walked down the street in silence.
Apart from the absence of rain, the street looked almost identical to Wen Jianyan’s memories.
The buildings on either side were low and silent, the surroundings pitch-black except for the faint, eerie glow of Hugo’s lantern.
Many corpses stood motionlessly along the road.
Unlike in the mirrored world, these corpses faced them directly, their heads slightly bowed, their features obscured in shadow. These were likely the anchors who had died on this street.
Even without Wen Jianyan’s warning, Hugo and the others had no intention of touching them, carefully detouring around the bodies and maintaining a safe distance.
Wen Jianyan’s gaze landed on a shop up ahead.
Its door was wide open—this had to be the mask shop. He stopped and turned around.
Behind him, Hugo and his chosen teammate also halted.
“What’s wrong?” the teammate asked. “Why’d you stop?”
“Alright, let’s stop pretending and speak frankly.”
Wen Jianyan smiled.
His face was still gentle and harmless, utterly non-threatening, but his eyes had subtly changed, carrying an inexplicable, unnerving pressure.
“Wait—”
The teammate sensed something was off, narrowing his eyes as he stared warily at Wen Jianyan.
“What do you mean?”
“From the very beginning, none of us has trusted the others. At this point, there’s no need to keep up the act, don’t you think?” Wen Jianyan’s gaze rested on Hugo as he spoke, his smile unwavering.
“True.”
Hugo had one hand in his pocket, his sharp-featured face expressionless.
The teammate was stunned. “Captain…?”
Hugo’s eyes remained fixed on Wen Jianyan as he said coolly, “Since entering this instance, I don’t recall seeing this face before.”
Normally, most people wouldn’t remember every single face they encountered in an instance, so when meeting someone unfamiliar, they’d assume they simply hadn’t noticed them before or that the person had blended into the background. But for someone like Hugo, that didn’t apply—subconsciously, he didn’t trust any unfamiliar face.
Wen Jianyan didn’t seem surprised by this answer.
Unlike the others, he knew this guy’s future. Though Hugo was just an A-rank anchor now, Wen Jianyan didn’t believe he’d be as easy to fool as everyone else. So, from the start, he hadn’t planned on deceiving Hugo.
“Then is she—”
The teammate sucked in a sharp breath, his gaze instinctively darting toward the nearby corpses.
Clearly, he thought Wen Jianyan was some kind of high-intelligence NPC designed to lure them to their deaths.
“No, no, I really am human.”
Wen Jianyan shook his head.
He looked at Hugo. “The reason you followed my lead, bringing only one teammate and daring to follow me into this street, isn’t just because you wanted to see what I was up to or figure out how much I knew. There’s another important reason, isn’t there?”
He grinned. “Because you were confident that even with just two of you, subduing me would be more than enough. Right?”
Hugo took another step forward, his face blank. “Correct.”
Tch.
Wen Jianyan bared his teeth.
As someone whose talents weren’t combat-oriented and who had no intention of engaging in physical confrontations, he stood no chance against Hugo—or even an average attack-type anchor, for that matter. So…
From the very beginning, he hadn’t planned on clashing with Hugo.
“However, there’s one thing you might’ve gotten wrong.”
Wen Jianyan blinked. “I don’t actually want to kill you. To be precise, I’ve already succeeded.”
“What do you mean?”
The teammate stepped forward, his expression cold and hostile as he glared at Wen Jianyan.
“It means, even if you kill me, unless you find a way out, you’ll never leave this street. You’ll be trapped here forever.” Wen Jianyan twirled a finger in the air before pointing at the nearby corpses. “Just like them.”
Previously, in the mirrored instance, Wen Jianyan’s team had already experienced falling into a ghostly labyrinth, trapped to death on this street—now it seems that in the original instance, none of the anchors who entered this street survived, likely for the same reason. After all, in the real Prosperity Hotel, there were no rules like “lights off” or “lights on,” so the businesses in this instance wouldn’t adjust the street’s state based on the hotel’s lighting like in the mirrored instance. In other words, this place has maintained a state where entry is open from the start, and anyone entering would immediately get lost.
Hearing this, the two people in front of him tensed visibly.
“If you don’t believe me, you can try it yourselves.”
Wen Jianyan took a step back, politely making way and adopting a very reasonable demeanor.
The anchor glanced at Hugo, seemingly seeking his opinion. Hugo nodded.
The anchor turned and ran back in the direction they had come from.
Time passed minute by minute.
Wen Jianyan and Hugo stood facing each other, maintaining a cautious distance between them. The air grew heavy and oppressive, almost reaching a breaking point.
It was impossible to tell how much time had passed.
From the darkness in the opposite direction, a figure gradually emerged.
The anchor reappeared in their line of sight, panting heavily, his expression grim as he shook his head at Hugo.
The street seemed to have transformed into a complete loop—not only was there no way out, but the legendary framing shop was nowhere to be found either.
Hugo turned to look at Wen Jianyan, his usually weary eyes now carrying a distinct edge of killing intent.
“Don’t look at me like that. Wasn’t this street your idea from the beginning?” Wen Jianyan shrugged innocently.
“Even without me, you’d still be in the same predicament, wouldn’t you?”
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Damn, that’s so shameless.]
[Seriously, so shameless!]
[But what can I do? Compared to the gentle beauty, I actually like the pretty villain more now—so cute, wuwu!]
[???]
“You—”
The man was furious and took a sudden step forward, as if ready to attack immediately.
Wen Jianyan hastily retreated. “Let’s talk nicely; there’s no need for violence!”
Hugo raised a hand, stopping his teammate.
“You may not believe it, but—”
Wen Jianyan pressed his wrists together and extended them outward, adopting a harmless posture:
“I’ve been ready to cooperate with you obediently from the very beginning.”
Under the dim light, his loosely cuffed sleeves slid down, revealing his pale, slender wrists, which looked fragile and easily breakable.
“How to enter this street, how to leave it, where the framing shop is, how to get in—if you want to know, I can tell you everything.”
Wen Jianyan chuckled:
“Hold nothing back, leave nothing unsaid.”
He was a very pragmatic person.
Since there was no expectation of delivering a 100% flawless lie, everything he did next was in preparation for “exposing the lie.”
For someone like Hugo, the seemingly harmless facade Wen Jianyan had adopted earlier would only be a hindrance.
Tangible exchanges of interest and unabashed displays of strength were the best ways to establish cooperation with him.
And this approach couldn’t be used when Hugo had too many teammates around.
Because the other side had far too much to rely on. When in an absolute position of advantage, it was difficult to view a single individual as an equal. But now, Wen Jianyan had created leverage for himself, earning a position where he could negotiate face-to-face with the other party.
Hugo paused.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, as if weighing the truth of Wen Jianyan’s words.
A few seconds later, he asked:
“What do you want?”
Good, it’s settled.
Wen Jianyan knew his goal had basically been achieved.
He looked at Hugo and said, “You just need to answer a few questions for me.”
Hugo frowned slightly. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
The curve of Wen Jianyan’s lips deepened slightly:
“A very cost-effective deal, don’t you think?”
Uhuhuhuh, i love him, i love hiiiimmmmmmmmm soooooo muuuuuchhhhh🥴
That number 4 really interesting, wanna now how he’s still alive