Changsheng Building
Chapter 651: The instance reopens
Since the instance had long been closed, no “new employees” would appear, so this time, the security guard responsible for guiding the way did not show up. The dusty glass doors were wide open, as if silently welcoming the arrival of customers.
Wen Jianyan walked slowly into the building.
What appeared before him was the familiar square layout of an old-fashioned department store.
The air here was cold and eerie, floating with a heavy stench of corpses.
Inside the closed shops on both sides, brass oil lamps were burning, illuminating the eerily smiling faces of paper figures.
The dim light of the oil lamps acted like guiding beacons. Stiff footsteps moved forward in the darkness, heading towards different shops.
“Ding-ling!”
The crisp sound of copper bells hanging on the door rang out. The glass door was pushed open. The next second, accompanied by footsteps, darkness as thick as substance instantly flooded into the shop, immediately compressing the light of the oil lamp lit in front of the counter to its limit.
No one knew better than Wen Jianyan what this represented.
—A customer had entered the shop.
Feeling the familiar tension from his nerve endings, Wen Jianyan exhaled, forcing himself to withdraw his gaze.
At least this time, he wasn’t the one waiting behind the counter, facing imminent danger of death.
For him, this was somewhat of a comfort.
The fingers hanging by his side were squeezed. Wen Jianyan turned his head, meeting Wu Zhu’s gaze directly.
“So, what are you looking for?” Wu Zhu lowered his eyes and asked.
Wen Jianyan thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head: “Not sure yet.”
Although “oil lamps” had appeared in places other than the Changsheng Building, it was only here that they became the most important part of the rules and were consumed in large quantities.
That is to say, the corpse oil refined from living people in the orphanage instance was basically all sent here.
But Wen Jianyan still didn’t know the reason, nor did he know which direction he should search in.
“Let’s go, find a shop to check out first,” Wen Jianyan said.
As they walked toward one of the shops, he suddenly realized he was still holding hands with Wu Zhu, and couldn’t help but feel a subtle illusion.
Although they weren’t shopping in a proper mall, this…
Why did it feel a bit like a date?
He paused in his steps, suddenly feeling uncomfortable, but before Wen Jianyan could actually do anything, he felt the fingers holding his suddenly tighten, pulling him in that direction.
“?!” Wen Jianyan shuddered, suddenly feeling an extremely cold aura brush past the back of his neck, raising a layer of goosebumps.
He turned his head to look.
Heavy darkness shrouded behind them. From the center of the darkness came stiff, slow footsteps.
It was a customer.
It brushed past Wen Jianyan, walking into the shop ahead.
“Ding-ling!”
The brass bell rang, and the shop door opened and closed.
Wu Zhu lowered his head, his cold lips almost brushing Wen Jianyan’s ear, “Don’t get too far from me.”
Wen Jianyan: “…Got it.”
Fine, let’s keep holding hands then.
With the arrival of the train, this batch of customers sent here had all entered the building.
Even though there was still some time before the next batch arrived, the number of fierce ghosts on the entire floor had reached an unsettling level.
Wen Jianyan glanced back at the first floor of the building, which was almost completely shrouded in darkness, and said, “There are too many ‘customers’ on this floor. Let’s go check other floors.”
Changsheng Building had broken free from Nightmare’s control and was operating on its own. “Customers” arrived by train, entered the building to complete their bodies, and finally received offerings on the last floor, falling into a complete slumber.
According to his impression, except for selling different things, the shop structures on the first two floors were almost identical. Going directly to the second floor made no difference from being on the first.
Wu Zhu nodded.
Without Nightmare’s interference and the “sales turnover” restriction specifically designed for death, they encountered no obstacles going to the second floor of the building this time.
As imagined, the second floor of the building was empty and deserted. Except for them, no “customers” had come up here for the time being.
Wen Jianyan quickly found the shop where he had previously “worked” and walked in.
Accompanied by the crisp sound of brass bells shaking, the dusty glass door closed behind him, and a gloomy shop appeared before him.
Pitch-black shelves extended into the distance, filled with old-fashioned televisions and radios. All the machines were turned off, covered with a thick layer of dust, as if no one had entered for a long time.
A dim oil lamp was lit on the counter, its swaying light and shadow falling on the smiling face of the paper figure, making it creepy.
Wen Jianyan walked forward along the shelves—everything here was so familiar to him.
Whether it was the television from which the woman in red walked out backwards, or the radio playing death prophecies… each could bring back many unpleasant memories for him.
However, this time, even though he had walked to the end of the shop, still no anomalies occurred.
Wen Jianyan quickly found the warehouse door at the back of the shop. He pushed it tentatively—the warehouse door wasn’t locked and slowly opened directly in front of him.
In the middle of the empty warehouse was that familiar dressing table.
However, compared to the eerie bloody color in his memory that was thick enough to seep out, this time, the color of the dressing table seemed much duller, completely devoid of its previous terrifying appearance.
Wu Zhu withdrew his hand, rubbed the dust on his fingertips, and said:
“There is no residual supernatural power left on it.”
True.
The reason this dressing table was terrifying before was because the core of the Changsheng Building instance, that woman in red, was suppressed here after being cut up.
After they released her, this dressing table naturally lost its original function and became just an ordinary piece of furniture.
Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.
He and Wu Zhu walked around the shop together, but ultimately found nothing.
Throughout the process, the paper figure with a stiff smile remained sitting motionless behind the counter, staring fixedly at them with lifeless eyes, giving no reaction.
From outside the door came footsteps rising and falling, meaning that this batch of “customers” had already obtained the “human skin” they needed on the first floor and began entering the second floor to possibly acquire “sight” and “hearing.”
Even acting with Wu Zhu this time, Wen Jianyan still didn’t want to run directly into them, so he left the shop directly.
They quickly put some distance between them, watching from afar as darkness spread from the first floor, flooding into the shops on the second floor.
“What next,” Wu Zhu turned his head, his gaze falling on Wen Jianyan, “go to the third floor?”
Wen Jianyan didn’t answer immediately.
He lowered his eyes, seeming lost in thought.
After a long while, he finally spoke slowly: “…No.”
Since the second floor had become like this, the third floor probably wouldn’t be much different.
This was the first time Wen Jianyan had returned to a instance he had previously experienced, and also the first time he so clearly recognized why instances that had been platinum-cleared would not reopen—not because Nightmare didn’t want to, but because it couldn’t.
After being platinum-cleared, the current 【Changsheng Building】 couldn’t completely count as a instance anymore.
Especially after the vicious traps set by Nightmare to obtain more deaths and higher ratings were removed, this place had thoroughly returned to its original functionality.
Admittedly, he could still enter the hidden fifth floor in this instance this time and find the courtyard where the female corpse in red slept.
However…
He had already done this when he entered this instance last time. Wen Jianyan was confident in his observation skills and didn’t think he missed anything.
Inside the completed Changsheng Building, there were far more restrictions than answers.
“Unless…”
Wen Jianyan’s eyes flickered, his voice low, as if talking to himself.
Wu Zhu: “Hmm?”
Wen Jianyan looked up at him. Under the weak light, endless shadows seemed to settle in his light-colored eyes.
“Wake up that female corpse.” He said softly, word by word,
“Make this instance open one more time.”
Reopening an instance was no small matter.
He would have to give up the results he obtained here last time, and must restore everything after it ended, meaning he had to platinum-clear it again.
Otherwise, the incomplete state of the Changsheng Building would cause endless harm.
This didn’t just mean the reopening of a terrifying meat grinder, but also represented that Nightmare would use it to transport countless incomplete fierce ghosts to the human world, letting them slaughter wantonly in reality.
Wu Zhu looked at him: “Are you sure?”
“Mm.” Wen Jianyan nodded. “Sure.”
Doing this was extremely dangerous, tantamount to dancing on a wire.
But this was a risk that had to be taken to achieve the goal.
“Theoretically speaking, the transition between open and non-open for this instance isn’t complicated.”
As the person who personally pushed this instance’s progress to 100% and successfully closed it, no one was more familiar with this instance’s original mechanism than Wen Jianyan.
“There is only one core key,” he raised his eyes, “the red-clothed female corpse herself.”
The instance opened because the red-clothed female corpse sitting in the coffin was taken away and sealed inside the dressing table, and the key item in this process happened to be in Wen Jianyan’s hands.
—That brass knife.
The blade capable of killing gods was deeply embedded in the coffin, obtained by him in this instance, and brought back by him in the same way now.
It also became the key to Wen Jianyan making this decision.
“Of course, we don’t need to go as far as Nightmare did.”
Nightmare cut the female corpse into fragments and sealed her main body inside the mirror of the dressing table on the second floor, obviously to prevent anyone from liberating her.
But Wen Jianyan’s goal wasn’t this.
He didn’t wish for the ‘Changsheng Building’ to reopen permanently, but planned to close it again after opening it briefly.
So, he only needed to take the female corpse away from the coffin and ensure she couldn’t return for a period of time.
“Also.”
Wen Jianyan seemed to think of something. He looked up at Wu Zhu and suddenly asked,
“Can you still travel through dreams now?”
If he remembered correctly, when he was previously under Nightmare’s control, Wu Zhu had visited him in dreams more than once.
“Yes.” Wu Zhu nodded.
“Good.” Wen Jianyan blinked. “Then I need you to help me send a message to my friends.”
“They don’t need to participate in this instance, but make sure one person enters this instance.”
“Vice President of Oracle Guild, Gentleman.”
He might be able to get the answers he wanted from the reopened Changsheng Building, figuring out Nightmare Live Room’s purpose in creating corpse oil and helping humans, or maybe not.
But regardless, he needed one thing from Gentleman.
That piece of human skin paper torn from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
With that human skin paper, the Dead Sea Scrolls could be restored and help him decipher the information contained in the black box from Yuying Comprehensive University.
“And, if I remember correctly…” Under the dim light, the young man hooked the corner of his lips slightly, his eyes sparkling with amusement, “Last time he sent someone to sabotage me, it seems it was in this instance, right?”
He was someone who held grudges very well.
“Is that so?” Not knowing what he thought of, the light in Wu Zhu’s eyes dimmed. “Mm, I remember.”
“There did seem to be someone putting dirty things on you.” He said slowly, his voice carrying an unsettlingly intense chill.
“Right, sent by him.”
Mu Sen, manipulation type talent.
Of course, he quickly paid the price for his actions.
“Alright, go quickly.”
Seeing Wu Zhu’s expression growing darker, Wen Jianyan raised his hand, pulled him over directly, and gave him a playful kiss.
He raised an eyebrow, the smile on his lips frivolous and wicked.
“The party is about to start.”
Author’s Note:
Couple Villain Group
