WTNL Chapter 48

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Antai Community
Chapter 48: Did you fvcking offend the ghost again?!

No, no, maybe he was just thinking too much?

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

Although certain elements in the Decai Middle School and Antai Community were similar, there was a big variable here, and that was the so-called “Bodhisattva”.

What’s more, except for the hidden line, Wen Jianyan had never seen any ghosts appear until now. Only the individual elements that appeared on the surface were similar, but the internal differences were still very big.

And… running into the same ghost boss who was offended by him in three consecutive instances?

The probability of this was too small; how could it really happen?!

Wen Jianyan shook his head, putting aside the ominous premonition in his heart.

However, speaking of…

He narrowed his eyes slightly, and looked thoughtfully at the figure standing at the door——

This guard was a bit strange.

The other party obviously left the community under his persuasion; why did he come back before the Zhongyuan Festival?

The moment he saw the other party, he had already conceived an excuse in his mind, but the guard didn’t mention the previous incident at all, and his eyes swept over him blankly, as if he didn’t know him at all.

And his face… he had a feeling something wasn’t right.

At this moment, a low “crack” sound came from behind, very subtle, mixed with the conversation between the anchor and the guard, and almost inaudible.

The rest of the anchors were gathered at the door, and all of their attention was on Chen Mo and the guard.

Except for Wen Jianyan, who stood behind from the beginning and was absent-minded all this time, no one heard this strange sound.

Wen Jianyan was startled and turned to look in the direction from which the voice came.

At that moment, a layer of goosebumps rushed over his skin.

He didn’t know since when, but the four paper figurines were sitting together on the sofa in the dark. The four pale faces were smiling and facing the door; their painted eyes were dark, without any light, and the corners of their mouths were upturned. With scarlet, messy lines smeared on their faces, they looked particularly terrifying in the darkness.

They stared fixedly at the humans not far away with stiff smiles on their faces.

…….Fvck!

Wen Jianyan’s pupils constricted, and he suddenly realized something. He immediately turned to look in the direction of the door.

“The Zhongyuan Festival will start soon.”

Under the dim light in the corridor, the guard’s facial features and demeanor looked no different from ordinary people.

But if one looked carefully, they could find that his face was a bit too pale, and the corners of his mouth were slightly curled up when speaking; the opening and closing of his lips were very small, looking a bit dull.

“Since you are not leaving now,” The corner of the guard’s mouth suddenly rose, evoking a gloomy arc.

“Then you don’t have to —”

“Woosh!”

A figure rushed out from behind without warning.

Delivering a flying kick!

The guard was caught off guard and took a few steps back, only to hear a crackling sound of paper; the wrist holding the door knob broke off, leaving only a paper hand on the door.

“Fvck! Let’s go!”

Wen Jianyan jumped out and ran along the gap, shouting nervously:

“This thing is a paper doll!”

After all, the other anchors were also C-level, and they had experienced at least a few instances. The moment Wen Jianyan rushed out, they also reacted immediately and ran forward quickly, one after the other!

None of them had good expressions.

These anchors were different from Wen Jianyan. They had experienced many such role-playing, time-limited instances. 

This kind of instance usually issues main line tasks according to the content of the identity card for each anchor in the later stage, so it was basically peaceful and calm until the time came, leaving time for the anchor to collect information in the early stage.

In addition, they had been communicating with neighbors on the 9th and 10th floors before, looking for information, and all the NPCs they came into contact with were normal and could communicate. They had never dealt with this kind of weird paper man.

They relied too much on their own experience, so no one could have imagined that this instance would start to change before the time node of the Zhongyuan Festival at twelve o’clock!

This instance was a bit too dark!

The other anchors’ live broadcast room was filled with sighs:

[Alas, what a pity… Not even a single anchor fell into the trap this time. I’m so disappointed.]

[You’re right. After all, this kind of role-playing instance does not change until the time node is reached. The instance “Antai Community” is different. It started to change slowly before the Zhongyuan Festival. I thought this time I would be able to see a few downfalls, but I didn’t expect to be interrupted! D@mn.]

[Actually, even if someone is locked in a room, they will be given a chance to survive. 1304 is actually not too fierce. What I wanted to see was the horrified expressions of the anchors when they found out that things had exceeded their expectations. It would have been super entertaining, alas.]

[Don’t sigh, it’s actually quite interesting now. The kick just now made me laugh so hard, but it interrupted the paper man.]

[Who was that person just now? Why didn’t I remember that there was such an NPC in this instance?]

[I haven’t seen him either. I was very surprised when I saw him play just now. Could it be that the system has adjusted the content of the instance?]

[Fvck, I just went to the next door to check. He’s not an NPC at all, he’s an anchor!]

[Oh God, his disguise was so good. What level is he? I don’t remember seeing this one before.]

[Do you usually just pick intermediate and high-level instances to watch? He is a rookie anchor who gained a lot of momentum a while ago. He has only passed two instances and has just been promoted to level-D. He is directing the “Integrity First” live broadcast room next door. ]

[??]

[????]

[What? Level-D?! Are you kidding me?!]

Wen Jianyan rushed forward with all his strength, completely unaware that he had unknowingly attracted a new wave of audience.

The lights in the corridor were flickering, and the faint light flowed into 1304 through the open door, illuminating the four smiling paper figurines on the sofa.

They nestled together, motionless, no different from dead things, but they seemed to be alive.

“Zzzzz…”

The mantra-chanting machine made an intermittent electric current sound, with the changed tune resonating in the empty space.

Electronic candles beside the shrine lit up with two scarlet dots.

The faint light shone on the Bodhisattva’s face, making its seemingly benevolent and serene appearance extraordinarily strange.

The guard raised his head slowly. The human skin complexion on his face faded, showing the rough texture of paper under the light.

He walked toward the door step by step, took off the paper palm hanging from the doorknob, and put it back on again. Then he raised his head, staring at the backs of the anchors not far away with his dark eyes, the corners of his mouth raising stiffly.

He smiled and completed the sentence he was about to say, word by word:

“—no need to leave.”

***

The light outside the window had completely disappeared. The deep and thick darkness was like insoluble ink, surrounding the whole building as if it was an entity that wanted to seep in through the window.

The sound of messy footsteps and rapid panting echoed in the corridor, and all the anchors quickly ran toward the way they came. The lights above their heads were dim, scattering in the narrow and deep space.

Every once in a while, they could see rice offerings placed on the ground. The incense stick stuck on them had been lit since who knew when, and the faint green smoke was like a straight line, slowly floating up.

Finally, the old, rusty elevator door was in sight.

Wen Jianyan stood still, his chest heaving up and down in a hurry.

He paused, then turned to look behind.

In the bottomless dark tunnel, the paper man did not catch up.

Although he didn’t run in circles this time, Wen Jianyan could clearly feel that the return journey had undergone a subtle change.

The path became longer and took at least three times as long as it had before.

The most important thing was that this building was supposed to be a straight cylindrical structure, but as Wen Jianyan ran over, several dark corners appeared in his peripheral vision!

More passages were connected to the corridor, like bottomless, dark holes, waiting for the arrival of victims.

There was a trace of solemnity in Wen Jianyan’s eyes.

This showed that the map in his memory would soon be useless.

So many things had changed before twelve o’clock. Then after twelve o’clock in the middle of the night, when the Zhongyuan Festival officially arrived…

What else might happen was completely unknown.

Soon, several other anchors who were left behind also caught up, panting.

Although their physical fitness was not bad, they were still far behind Wen Jianyan, who ran like a rabbit. This NPC was like a horse while running, and they couldn’t catch up to him at all. They might be out of practice.

As soon as they stood still, the young man turned his head and looked over. His face was pale, his expression panicked, and he asked slowly in a trembling tone, half panicked, half disbelieving:

“Just now, what the hell was that just now?!”

The anchors who worked so hard to catch up with him: “……”

?

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Hahahahahahahaha d@mmit, hahaha this dog liar is so good at acting hahahahahahaha!]

[You act, you just act!]

[Hahahahahahahaha, he’s just an innocent NPC involved in a weird event!]

[Bah! When you kicked the NPC just now and ran faster than anyone else as if there was oil on your feet, why didn’t you think of pretending to be innocent!]

Finally, Chen Mo came forward and briefly explained the current situation to this “poor and frightened NPC”.

They were obviously very skilled in this area and had summed up a set of the most efficient words in multiple instances — hide the existence of the Nightmare live broadcast room, continue to maintain the identity on their identity cards, and at the same time describe the current level of danger so that the NPC could continue to cooperate.

“As for your mother, there should be no need to worry.”

Chen Mo added: “As long as she stays in the room, there shouldn’t be a big problem in terms of safety. It would be better for you to act together with us now to see if there is a way to solve all this.”

Several anchors stood in front of the elevator, whispering to each other. Su Cheng listened briefly and found that they were discussing the next plan of action.

Saying that going to 1306 was probably not a good choice right now. They should retreat temporarily and go to other floors to see if they can get any new clues.

Su Cheng turned around and walked in Wen Jianyan’s direction.

The conversation between Wen Jianyan and Chen Mo was over, and he was standing away from the elevator at the moment, staring thoughtfully at the dark and deep corridor not far away, wondering what he was thinking about.

He looked around cautiously, making sure that no one nearby noticed him, and then said in a low voice:

“Hey.”

Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Su Cheng, who was on the side:

“I remember……”

He paused and seemed to think of something: “Wang Runcheng, right?”

The young man’s eyes drooped slightly, and his amber eyes were calm, as if he was facing a stranger he didn’t know at all.

Su Cheng: “……”

Too awesome.

If they hadn’t already experienced three instances together, he would have thought this was the first time they had met.

However, he also understood that Wen Jianyan’s caution was justified, so he nodded, coughed unnaturally, and followed the other party’s words:

“Yes, that’s right.”

Su Cheng followed his gaze to the depths of the corridor and asked nonchalantly:

“What are you going to do next? What are your thoughts? Continue to act with us, or…?”

“Not necessarily.” Wen Jianyan pondered for a few seconds before saying:

“In this situation, it’s not easy to act separately. But I can’t follow you all the time. After all, my mother is still here…”

He turned his head and glanced at the other anchors not far behind, saying meaningfully:

“I think they won’t need me anytime soon.”

In the end, the anchors decided on the final plan and pressed the elevator button.

“Ding—”

The elevator door opened.

Chen Mo looked at Wang Hanyu. Wang Hanyu nodded and closed his eyes as if he was feeling something.

After dozens of seconds, he opened his eyes: “It’s safe.”

Wen Jianyan showed a thoughtful look.

It seems… The ability of this anchor may be related to insight, similar to the existence of yin and yang eyes.

It was a bit like Ji Guan.

After any anchor entered the nightmare, he would get an “ability”, which was the so-called novice gift pack. However, the novice gift pack was not immediately usable at the beginning, it had different activating conditions. Most of the anchors often died before activating their abilities. 

However, most anchors could often activate their abilities after going through two or three instances, and the number of people like Wen Jianyan who could activate it in the first instance was very small.

The specific content of the ability had a lot to do with the “soul quality” of the anchor himself, and it would be enhanced with each level, obtaining better effects and even new skills.

For example, Ji Guan, perhaps because he saw ghosts in Fukang Hospital when he was a child, had the ability of spiritual vision, which allowed him to sense the existence of nearby spirit bodies.

However, his ability was low level, and he couldn’t use it actively at this stage; otherwise, he wouldn’t be entangled by ghost babies in Fukang Hospital.

This C-level anchor obviously had a higher level of ability, so he could also actively choose whether to enable it or not.

All the anchors entered the elevator.

“What’s next? Where are we going?” an anchor asked.

Wang Hanyu: “Let’s go to the notice board in the lobby on the first floor first; maybe we can find more clues there.”

As he spoke, he pressed the button on the first floor.

The elevator buzzed and started smoothly, and soon there was another “ding,” and the elevator door slowly opened to both sides.

However, what appeared outside the elevator door was not the lobby on the first floor.

It was the familiar, pitch-black corridor.

The lights above were flickering, the rice offering was placed in the corner on the ground, and there were illegible advertisements and paper talismans stuck on the peeling wall, and strong yin energy rushed toward them.

It was the 13th floor.

“……”

The expressions of all the anchors couldn’t help but change.

In the depths of the corridor, not far away, there seemed to be vague figures.

Fvck.

Wang Hanyu pressed the door close button of the elevator as quickly as possible, pressing all the elevator buttons from the 12th floor to the 2nd floor.

The elevator started humming again.

Soon, a “ding” sounded.

The elevator door opened again.

The lights on the 13th floor were dim, and there was a sound of unsteady electricity. The figure in the distance was getting closer. His pale face was hidden in the darkness, and the uniform on the guard’s body could be vaguely seen.

Behind the “guard”, there seemed to be several vague shadows following.

“Pat” “Pat” “Pat”.

The sound of footsteps rubbing against the ground echoed in the depths of the corridor, making one’s scalp almost numb.

Now, anyone with eyes could see that they might not be able to leave the 13th floor.

“Go, get out of the elevator.”

Chen Mo made a decisive decision and left the elevator first.

Compared with ten minutes ago, the 13th floor had changed even more.

There was a strange smell floating in the cold air, like the stench of decaying corpses mixed with incense, giving people an extremely ominous feeling.

Several new corridors had been extended on both sides of the straight passage they had been walking, and each corridor was exactly the same as that on the floors of ordinary residents.

The overhead light seemed to be dyed a dark red.

There seemed to be murmurs of chanting in the distance.

“Do you want to use props?” an anchor asked in a low voice.

At their current level, they also had a certain reserve of points and a fixed audience, and the cost of purchasing props was no longer as high as that of a novice anchor. It was not a difficult ghost, so it was no problem to fight it.

“Yes, it’s just a paper man after all.” Another anchor echoed, “Didn’t that N…that young man make a move just now? It shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“No.”

Chen Mo shook his head.

“It’s only been three hours since we came in, and we already needed to use points. What if we encounter another crisis later?” He narrowed his eyes slightly and said, “We don’t know much about the rules here, so we can’t fight blindly.”

In the depths of the corridor, in the distance, the guard’s seemingly ordinary voice came:

“It seems that you are all residents here.”

“Chacha.”

The sound of paper rubbing echoed in the depths of the corridor.

“It’s so late; why are you still wandering in the corridor?” As the distance shortened, the guard’s pale face was revealed under the light, and the previous face that was at least ninety percent like a human had completely changed.

The corners of its mouth were raised greatly, showing a smile; its paper-like cheeks were smeared with two glaring scarlets, almost no different from those paper figurines: “On July 15th, the gate of hell will open.”

The guard smiled and asked with concern:

“Aren’t you afraid of bumping into something dirty?”

“……”

Wen Jianyan, who pretended to be low-key at the end of the line, twitched his eyes.

You still have the nerve to call other ghosts dirty things?

Chen Mo gritted his teeth and said, “Let’s run separately.”

All of them gathering together was too big of a target, and it was easy to get into trouble. Now that the layout of the entire floor had become more complicated, running separately could at least increase the chance of more people surviving.

“After this wave of crisis passes, buy a prop to communicate.”

The black shadow gradually approached, and the pale, smiling face loomed in the darkness.

There was no time to hesitate now. The anchors quickly divided into two groups, each running toward the corridor in different directions.

Wen Jianyan and Su Cheng quickly looked at each other and chose the same path.

The corridor was dark and oppressive, the air was filled with a dizzying burning fragrance, and the copper coins wrapped in the red paper were pressed against the window, like red eyes in the darkness. As they ran forward, small offerings flashed from time to time at the corners. Every stick of incense on the white rice was lit, and wisps of green smoke floated straight up as if they were being swallowed by unknown ghosts.

As Wen Jianyan ran forward, he glanced at the closed doors on both sides with his peripheral vision.

Although all the corridors on both sides appeared out of thin air, the layout was still exactly the same as the other floors of this building. There were sundries piled up in the narrow passages, the doors on both sides were closed, and there was a bottomless, thick darkness on the other side of the windows.

Under the dim light, the numbers on the bronze plate could be vaguely seen.

1101, 1102, 1103…

This was the eleventh floor?

Wen Jianyan was taken aback.

He suddenly understood that this was not going in circles in the traditional sense, nor was the elevator malfunctioning, but that all the floors were concentrated on the thirteenth floor!

The corridors extending from the thirteenth floor were the other floors of the entire building!

He seemed to have thought of something, took out his phone from his pocket, and glanced down at the screen.

11:42.

There are 18 minutes left until midnight.

At that time, it was the official time for the gate of hell to open.

Behind him, Wang Hanyu was panting while running. He looked gentle, with a pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose. He should be engaged in clerical work before entering the live broadcast room.

Although his physical strength was not bad compared to ordinary people, it was relatively poor among this group of level-C anchors, and his speed had gradually slowed down after a long chase.

Wang Hanyu turned his head and glanced behind him at the right time; his face suddenly turned pale.

He subconsciously quickened his pace, uttered a rude curse, and shouted, half puzzled and half collapsing: “D@mn, why the hell are these paper figurines just following us?!”

Obviously, the anchors were divided into two groups, but these paper figurines were not scattered as they imagined.

On the contrary, they seemed to have found the right person, and they all chased in this direction without any hesitation.

Wen Jianyan also turned his head and glanced back.

Under the flickering red light, he saw the guard whose wrist had been kicked off by himself. It smiled and supported its broken wrist with one hand, staring at him with a pair of dull black eyes.

And behind the guard…

The familiar female paper figurine was holding the two dolls, and all their eyes were on Wen Jianyan.

“Dad, Dad, come and play with us.” The paper kid’s voice came from the end of the corridor, laughing.

And Zhou Xiuqing, whose identity was inexplicably replaced and whose wife and children were taken away, also looked at Wen Jianyan firmly, with a strange smile on its painted face.

Wen Jianyan: “……”

Sorry.

I seem to know why.

Su Cheng, who was running beside Wen Jianyan, noticed his little movements and turned his head to look over.

“……”

The young man gave a dry cough and avoided looking at him.

Su Cheng: “………”

Looking at the scene where they were being chased and intercepted by all the paper figurines, a very possible guess slowly emerged from the bottom of his heart, causing him to collapse immediately.

No way?

Did you fvcking offend the ghosts again?!

This… Wen Jianyan suddenly thought of something.

He was slightly taken aback.

Wait, this scene…

It seems that waste can be turned into treasure!

Wen Jianyan slowed down a little, took out the phone from his pocket again, turned on the recording function, and ran forward while aiming the camera of the phone at the paper figurines following behind him.

The scarlet REC appeared in the upper right corner of the screen, recording the horrifying scene behind it.

【Countdown starts: 10:00】

Wen Jianyan raised the corners of his lips.

There was no fixed shooting location for his main line task this time, so, according to his identity card as a paranormal investigator, there should be no problem as long as it was a ghost scene.

Simply perfect!

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[……]

[…Fvck.]

[Hahahahahahaha grass! Killing two birds with one stone!]

[Hahahahahahahahaha I’m afraid the system that releases tasks will be pissed off. How can this dog liar find bugs every time?]

[I can’t laugh anymore. The paper figurine who was forced to participate in the main task: Where are your manners?]

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The author has something to say:

Paper Man: Although I am not human, you are a real dog.

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