Changsheng Building
Chapter 653: Coincide?
Separated by the dusty, gray doors of the mall, deep within a corner beyond anyone’s line of sight, stood a figure.
His silhouette blended almost completely into the infinitely quiet darkness, appearing as if he had become a part of this world.
“Has everyone entered?”
As if sensing something, Wen Jianyan tilted his head slightly and asked softly.
Following his voice, another figure emerged from the darkness. He leaned down behind Wen Jianyan, their black hair intimately draping over each other’s shoulders, their shadows overlapping, indistinguishable from one another.
“Yes.”
“And next,” captivating golden-red eyes lowered, gazing at the young man in his arms, his whisper brushing against his ear, “what do you want to do?”
“It’s simple. First, force him to use his items in this instance.”
When items are stored in an anchor’s backpack, their ownership cannot be transferred.
Regardless of the grudges between Wen Jianyan and Gentleman, the latter was a far more successful Nightmare anchor. He was cold-hearted and shrewd enough that he could not be coerced, let alone blackmailed. Forcing him to willingly take out items from his backpack and hand them over while he still had all his trump cards would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.
Therefore, what Wen Jianyan needed to do was deplete his vital forces, grinding away his trump cards step by step until he had no other choices left.
“And then?”
“And then,” Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes, habitually playing with the ring on his finger, and said carelessly, “just snatch them away.”
He was indeed accustomed to deceiving and playing with people’s minds, but that didn’t mean it was his only specialty.
Lies were reserved for situations where there was a vast disparity in power.
Deception was the means by which the weak played the strong. But when he already held overwhelming superiority, what need was there for feigned compliance?
The positions of predator and prey had already quietly reversed.
[Changsheng Building] was his grand web, and Gentleman was merely the flying insect caught within it.
He turned his head, his eyes crinkling in a smile: “Are you ready?”
“…” Wu Zhu lowered his eyes, the depths of his golden pupils reflecting the young man’s face. Even having seen this look on him more than once, he was captivated every time by this undisguised aggression and the vitality it contained.
Wu Zhu’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He buried his face in the other’s hair, inhaling deeply, his voice slightly hoarse:
“Always.”
“Good.”
Wen Jianyan raised his hand and jokingly pinched Wu Zhu’s chin, pushing his face away from his neck. He raised an eyebrow, a smile playing on his lips, a sinful mirage reflecting in his eyes:
“Alright, give me some space.”
“We’ve got business to attend to.”
“How have you been since we parted at the hotel?” Gentleman wore a flawless smile. “It’s been so long, I didn’t even know you were still participating in instances.”
No one knew how Anise had survived the position-exchange battle where one party was guaranteed to die.
But Gentleman was different.
After all, the so-called method that allowed Anise to survive came from his intelligence network.
“Just the usual.” Anise’s stiff face twitched twice, forming an expression that vaguely resembled a smile. “What can I say, a man’s gotta make a living. I’m also here on a commission; I had no choice.”
“What a coincidence.” Gentleman gave a mock bow, tipping the brim of his hat with a finger.
“Ah, you have a task too?” Anise chuckled twice, his laughter carrying an eerie, hissing guttural sound. “In that case, I won’t bother you.”
He waved his hand: “See you in the instance.”
Watching Anise’s back gradually disappear, the smile on Gentleman’s face also slowly faded.
He truly hadn’t expected to run into Anise again in such a setting.
Moreover… this was an instance containing three of Nightmare’s top ten.
Gentleman looked around. Although the instance hadn’t officially begun and everything within sight appeared normal, he couldn’t help but feel inexplicably restless.
As expected, the commission from Dark Fire wasn’t going to be that easy to fulfill.
Gentleman quickly withdrew his gaze, his expression returning to a calm state.
However, the problem wasn’t too significant.
Although the number of people he brought this time was limited, and they weren’t his most capable subordinates, if it truly came down to a dead end, he was confident he could withdraw unscathed.
However, the viewers in the live broadcast rooms were clearly not as calm as he was.
[Wait… why does all this look so familiar?]
[Am I remembering wrong? I thought this instance was closed?]
[Yeah, I think I have the same impression…]
The doors of the Changsheng Building were pushed open from the inside. The buzzing conversation across the square vanished instantly, and everyone’s gaze fell upon the security guard with a ghastly pale complexion.
“Come in.”
The security guard dropped that single sentence and turned to walk into the dusty, gray building.
The crowd quickly followed, filing in one by one.
The moment they entered the building, even a high-ranking anchor like Gentleman couldn’t help but frown.
A chilling aura rose from the ground, seemingly cooling the blood in one’s body. An unsettling substance hung heavy in the air, instantly conveying that the difficulty of this instance was far from ordinary.
As members of each team stepped forward to draw their shop keys, the barrages in every live broadcast room became doubly active.
[Ahhh, I’m absolutely certain, this is the instance from my memory! The entire process is exactly the same!]
[Yes, I remember too. This instance was ranked quite high on the live viewer charts back then! I went in and watched it too!]
[Wait a minute… wasn’t this instance cleared with a Platinum rating by Pinocchio? Why is it open again?]
[Could it be a bug?]
[But this doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that can be bugged!]
No matter how intensely the viewers discussed, these comments related to the instance’s history were unilaterally censored for violating the live broadcast room’s confidentiality rules. Consequently, no anchor within the instance saw any of these discussions.
The instance’s process continued according to memory, and the anchors successively received their number plates.
In this instance, every team operated in groups; only one person stood out as a lone wolf.
Despite being in a specialized team instance, Hugo remained unteamed.
He stood alone in the lobby, hands in his pockets, his eyes downcast. Although he was doing nothing, a vacuum zone formed around him; no one dared approach.
He clearly had no teammates.
Some teams began to stir, exchanging glances with the intention of approaching him to extend an invitation and latch onto a powerful ally. Unfortunately, before they could even step forward, Hugo had already made his move.
He walked straight to the blood-red wooden box at the front and drew a shop door plate.
Then, without waiting for anyone to strike up a conversation, he walked away without a shred of lingering attachment.
Watching Hugo’s retreating back, everyone left behind looked stunned.
Although they had all heard of Hugo’s reputation as a lone wolf, they truly hadn’t expected him to be so independent even in an instance with mandatory team requirements.
Gentleman shot a glance, then calmly withdrew his gaze, unsurprised.
While he and Hugo were by no means on good terms, as fellow top-ten Nightmare anchors, he naturally knew the other’s temperament and had no intention of provoking him.
Although he didn’t know how the other had managed to enter a team instance solo, according to his intelligence network, this wasn’t the first time Hugo had done so.
He scanned the area and quickly located Anise.
The man was surrounded by another team. These individuals were clearly far lower in rank than Anise, clustering around him like stars around the moon.
It seemed he really hadn’t lied in the square earlier; he had indeed been hired to come in.
He just didn’t know what kind of chips they had paid to be able to hire Anise, who had been reclusive for so long.
“Vice President, I’ll go then.”
A member of his team said softly.
However, he had barely taken a step when Gentleman stopped him:
“Wait a moment.”
“?” The man stopped and turned around. “Vice President, what’s wrong?”
Gentleman raised his hand and handed him a blood-red bracelet, seemingly woven from human hair. The object emanated a bizarre, chilling aura, looking extremely sinister.
“Wear this before drawing the key.”
“Yes.”
Watching his team member’s retreating back, Gentleman’s brow furrowed tightly.
Generally, he rarely used items of this caliber so early in an instance. However, for some reason, this instance gave him such a terrible feeling that he preferred to secure some insurance beforehand. Of course, as for how much of a backlash an item that twisted fate would have, and the price the user would have to pay, he cared far less.
After all, they always had replacements.
The useful ones would be kept, the useless ones would be filtered out or turned into reusable “products.” This was the only way to maximize their value.
Soon, the team member returned from the front.
Despite everything going smoothly, his face looked terrible. As he handed the key back to Gentleman, he mumbled, “Vice President, this item you gave me…”
Gentleman looked down, his gaze falling upon the team member’s palm, and his pupils couldn’t help but shrink.
The bracelet woven from human hair had somehow turned from red to black and had snapped into two pieces.
The item… failed?
His gaze landed on the team member’s wrist, where a blood-red bruise in the shape of a handprint had surfaced, and he immediately dismissed his own guess.
No, it hadn’t failed.
It had been destroyed by another, much more powerful curse.
“I-I’m very sorry…” The team member looked at Gentleman with obvious fear in his eyes. “I don’t know how…”
Gentleman gave him a cold look: “You are truly useless.”
Unfortunately, since things had already come to this, he had no other options.
“Enough,” Gentleman took a deep breath and grabbed the key, his voice sounding as if squeezed through gritted teeth, “Let’s go.”
The group turned and walked toward the shop corresponding to the number plate.
The shop door was tightly shut, with a small brass plate carved into the wall bearing a tiny number:
Number 04.
In the live broadcast rooms, viewers who had watched previous streams were stunned.
[…Shop Number 04?]
[Isn’t that the shop Pinocchio was assigned to the last time this instance was open?!]
[I just went back and checked the replay, it really is…!]
[Huh? What’s going on?]
[Is it a coincidence?]
But… could there really be such coincidences in the world?
o sonho do oprimido é ser o opressor