WTNL Chapter 46

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Antai Community
Chapter 46: Oh, dog liar, it’s you again!!!

Apartment 1326

Apart from being a little messier, this place was not much different from the hidden line. The room was full of all sizes of objects, and it was almost difficult to settle in the narrow space. The strong smell of incense and dust in the air had disappeared, replaced by a strong aroma of food.

Wen Jianyan helped the old woman sit down on the rocking chair, raised his eyes, and looked around the room.

In the passage near the kitchen, there was a shrine identical to that of 1304. The strange Bodhisattva in the shrine had its eyes opened, staring into the distance with a smile on its face.

The electric candles were still lit, like two scarlet eyes.

Although the whole room looked messy and crowded and apparently had not been taken care of for a long time, the vicinity of the shrine was still clean and spotless, and there were fresh fruits and offerings placed in front of the shrine.

The old woman used her thin, wrinkled fingers to hold Wen Jianyan’s arm tightly, as if she feared that he would disappear as soon as she let it go.

She kneaded and groped Wen Jianyan’s wrist:

“Xiuqing, are you too busy with work after your promotion? Look, you’ve lost weight.”

The old woman grabbed Wen Jianyan’s hand and kept babbling: “I’ve told you before, you should come home to eat at night. Don’t eat out, it’s not healthy. Don’t go home so late, and let A-Ning be worried…”

The young man sat beside the old woman’s rocking chair, letting the other party hold his hand and talk amiably.

The young man’s eyes were lowered, and his expression was calm and soft. He responded from time to time without showing any sign of impatience.

Suddenly, the old woman stopped talking.

She turned her head and looked over with those white-shaded eyes as if she wanted to look deeply into the other person’s heart with her half-blind eyes. Her voice was old and vague:

“Xiuqing, the Bodhisattva knows everything.”

“…!”

Wen Jianyan’s heart trembled slightly, and he quickly realized that he seemed to have touched a crucial clue.

He held the old woman’s cold, wrinkled palm back and replied in a natural, almost inaudible voice:

“Mom, what did you say? What does the Bodhisattva know?”

The old woman did not go on.

She raised her hand tremblingly, groped around her wrist, and pulled off the beads on her wrist with difficulty, shoving them into Wen Jianyan’s hand tremblingly:

“Xiuqing, take it.”

“It’s more useful in your hands than it is with me.”

【Ding! Congratulations to the anchor for getting the hidden item (difficult) in the instance!】

【Collection degree: 1/5】

Wen Jianyan was stunned for a while, then looked down at the string of beads in his hand.

The dark red beads were particularly bright because they were worn all the time. They were engraved with strange runes in small golden characters. It was impossible to tell the quality of the material, but they were heavy in the hand.

“Okay, Mom is sleepy.”

The old woman patted Wen Jianyan’s arm with her palm, a smile on her wrinkled face: “Mom is going to sleep.”

After speaking, she withdrew her hand, leaned back on the reclining chair, and closed her eyes.

Soon, the old woman’s vague breathing sounded in the room.

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

After a while, he took out his phone from his pocket and turned on the screen.

The two main line tasks had been completed. Although the new task had not been released, the information on the ID card had already been updated at some point. 

【Identify card】
Name: Wu Qinghe
Age: 22
Occupation: Paranormal Investigator 

Related Plot: [Your name is Wu Qinghe, and you are a paranormal investigator who signed a contract with a streaming platform. Recently, you heard that there were many supernatural incidents in the Antai community, so on July 14th, you came here with your equipment, ready to shoot material for your new video, “Zhongyuan Festival”.
You entered apartment 1304, where the murder occurred a month ago. Here, you met the mother of the victim, who had gone mad. So, in order to get more information, you decided to disguise yourself as the other party’s dead son, Zhou Xiuqing.]

【More information is being unlocked…】

Wen Jianyan raised his eyebrows in surprise.

After going through multiple instances, it was the first time he saw that the relevant plot would be updated immediately following his actions.

With ten minutes left until the end of the two hours, Wen Jianyan put his mobile phone in his pocket and decided to go back to apartment 1304 again.

He had a feeling that there seemed to be some clues that he had missed.

Facing the gloomy environment inside 1304, Wen Jianyan was no longer as frightened as before. Although the three paper figurines in the dining room still made him panic, as long as he didn’t look at them, it wouldn’t have much effect.

He rummaged through the house systematically.

After all, this was a case that happened a month ago, and the police in this instance probably had already taken away most of the clues as evidence. However, with the sharp vision that Wen Jianyan had cultivated in his career for so many years, he still found some clues.

First of all, Zhou Xiuqing and his wife slept in separate rooms.

Not only that, but their belongings were clearly separated, and they appeared to be unconcerned about each other; in the man’s room, there were numerous gifts from women.

Thinking of the rambling words from the old woman before, Wen Jianyan had some guesses in his heart.

Promotion, late return, husband-and-wife disagreement…

…Cheating?

But it didn’t seem to be that simple.

And… “The Bodhisattva knows everything?”

Could it be that Zhou Xiuqing himself did something against his conscience?

Wen Jianyan frowned slightly and subconsciously looked in the direction of the Bodhisattva.

In the next second, his pupils shrank slightly, and the hairs on his back suddenly stood up.

The sinister-looking bodhisattva had its eyes open, smiling. Its dark eyes had changed direction at some point, now looking straight at him.

In the darkness, that silent stare looked extraordinarily eerie and terrifying, making one feel chills all over.

Wen Jianyan: “……”

Well, he should go.

His little life was more important.

The young man’s adam’s apple moved, and he carefully moved toward the door step by step.

His slender figure was reflected in the full-length mirror at the door, which was covered with a thin layer of dust. In the chaotic darkness, the shadow in the mirror was obviously half a beat slower.

***

Because he teamed up with Wen Jianyan, Su Cheng also entered the instance “Antai Community” this time.

He confirmed it several times before finally accepting the reality… That’s right, as a novice anchor who had just been promoted to level D, the third instance he participated in would be a level B…

Was just a bolt from the blue.

The audience in Su Cheng’s live broadcast room was also stunned.

[How is this possible? Why is it a level B?]

[Yeah, the anchor hasn’t done anything out of the ordinary in the previous instances. It’s not like his teammate… is overturning every day, he’s just on the way to overturn…]

[Wait, did he team up with his teammate again this time?]

[Hahahahahaha, I’ve watched the “Integrity First” live room next door, which is broadcasting the same instance as this live room.]

[Laughing to death, I got it.]

[The anchor fell into his teammate’s pit!]

[I’m back from next door, hahahahaha. The ID card drawn by the dog liar is of the Paranormal Investigator!]

[Hahahahahaha, then our anchor’s luck is better. At least as a resident in the building, he won’t have so many deadly tasks.]

[Suddenly balanced.]

Su Cheng’s ID card was that of a math teacher. Not long after he moved into the 9th floor, the first main line task related to the ID card was released: greet the neighbors within two hours.

Soon, he met the other anchors in this instance.

He knew very well that he was not the kind of person who could talk nonsense without changing his expression, so he didn’t plan to hide his identity as an anchor but instead formed a team with several other anchors.

All the anchors other than him were basically level-C, and the lowest was a C–.

Because of what he learned about the Oracle from Wen Jianyan before entering the instance, Su Cheng was especially wary of other anchors. Whether it was his level or information, he was tight-lipped and kept a low profile in the team along the way. 

Different from the C-level instance, the first two hours of the B-level instance “Antai Community” were quite peaceful, and they did not encounter the same dangers as at the beginning of “Fukang Private General Hospital”.

However, Su Cheng wasn’t feeling relieved at all.

According to the content discussed by fellow anchors, this limited-time role-playing instance was often not difficult from the beginning; all of its anomalies were hidden under the appearance of seemingly calm and simple daily life.

Over time, the level of risk increased exponentially.

Not only that, but the system would also randomly release main line tasks to the anchor according to the ID card. The main-line tasks here were no longer optional like in C- or D-level instances, but they must be completed as long as they were released.

If one was deceived by the peaceful appearance at the beginning of the time-limited instance and didn’t find the hidden information and rules in the instance in time, they would definitely die after the beginning of the time node.

Therefore, since entering this instance, the anchor team that Su Cheng joined has been trying to collect more information, but the residents in this building were always silent in many key places, and they seem to be unwilling to talk about it.

However, one of the anchors found a new clue.

It was an old newspaper. The newspaper published a massacre that took place on the 13th floor two months ago. Although it didn’t describe the details of the case, it gave them a clear path.

“The 13th floor…”

Chen Mo frowned slightly, with a serious expression on his face: “According to the information disclosed in the newspaper, this floor is definitely more fierce than the 9th floor, where we are now. With the clues we have, isn’t it too early to go to this dangerous floor right now?”

“I disagree.”

Wang Hanyu shook his head and objected to the C-level anchor who discovered the newspaper:

“The two-hour time limit is almost over, but we are now on the 9th floor with almost nothing.

Tonight is the Zhongyuan Festival. Judging from the information on the ID card, there is a high possibility that the time node for the change to occur is twelve o’clock in the evening. That is to say, there is only a little more than an hour left until midnight, and without purpose, blindly probing for information from neighbors layer by layer is too inefficient.”

He pushed on his glasses: “If you don’t enter the tiger’s den, you won’t get a tiger cub.”

The two sides were at a stalemate, so they began to vote by show of hands.

Wang Hanyu’s proposal passed with a slight advantage, and the anchors finally decided to go to the 13th floor to explore the way.

Su Cheng had no opinion on this.

The group took the elevator and quickly came to the 13th floor.

As soon as the elevator door opened, a unique and eerie atmosphere came into view. The faint stench was floating in the icy air. The dim light, offerings, and incense with white rice were placed every few steps on the ground; everything was deeply disturbing.

The anchors looked at each other and walked forward cautiously.

“The newspaper said that the massacre occurred in apartment 1306.”

Wang Hanyu lowered his voice and said, “In order to avoid danger, let’s not go to the murder scene first, and find the living residents on the 13th floor to inquire about the news.”

“Okay.” Everyone nodded.

A presenter said:

“According to the residents on the 9th floor that I visited, there seems to be a crazy old woman living in 1326.”

“Crazy?” Chen Mo was slightly startled and slowly narrowed his eyes: “Although it is very difficult to communicate with this kind of NPC, but the information told by them is usually very important.”

Wang Hanyu said, “Let’s go and knock on the door to ask.”

The six-person team was divided into two groups; three of them went to knock on the door, and the other three were waiting at the elevator entrance. Su Cheng was one of the anchors who was left at the elevator entrance.

Although the risk of staying behind and waiting was lower, the exposure to first-hand information was also less.

In the first two hours, when the instance had just started and there was not much danger, the anchors who were left behind were actually less dominant.

Soon, an anchor came running out of breath, with bright eyes: “There is a clue!”

“Really?” The three of them at the elevator entrance were refreshed.

“Yes, the crazy old woman in 1326 actually has a son who can communicate!” The anchor said excitedly: “Come on!”

“!!!”

Hearing this news, Su Cheng couldn’t help but get excited.

Could it be that they finally succeeded in finding a breakthrough this time?!

It seemed that their decision to go to the thirteenth floor was very correct!

He involuntarily quickened his pace, followed the other three anchors, and ran forward.

As the distance shortened, the rancid stench of the air grew stronger, and an apartment with an open door gradually appeared in the field of vision.

Dim light and shadow emerged from the crack of the door smearing in the dimly lit corridor.

A slender young man was standing at the door. He was talking to Chen Mo and Wang Hanyu in a low voice. Half of his face was immersed in the shadows, and the outline of his facial features seemed blurred and distant.

The youth seemed to be holding something in the palm of his hand, but it was hidden in the darkness, so he couldn’t see it clearly.

However, Su Cheng noticed that during the conversation, Chen Mo and Wang Hanyu’s eyes couldn’t help glancing at his palm from time to time.

Could it be… an important item?

Su Cheng’s heart lifted slightly, he held his breath subconsciously, and his eyes couldn’t help being attracted.

After getting closer, he finally saw clearly—

The other party was holding a light yellow paper coin.

As if hearing footsteps, the young man turned his head and looked in this direction.

Under the dim lights of the corridor, his facial features became clear.

A handsome, well-defined face with slightly pale skin, soft and slightly curled lips, harmless amber eyes, a sincere expression, and focused eyes. He inexplicably gave people a wonderful sense of trust, and it was almost impossible not to trust the words spoken by him.

“………………”

Su Cheng slowly closed his eyes.

He took a deep breath with no expression on his face, and his excited pace slowed down instantly. The whole person seemed to calm down immediately and had completely lost his expectations for the information and props that he might get next.

Oh, it’s you again.

Dog liar!!!

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The author has something to say:

*Wen Jianyan Victims Association starts recruiting

*Senior victim Su Cheng quits group chat

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