WTNL Chapter 654

Thank you @MsKend_a for the Kofi.

Changsheng Building
Chapter 654: Indiscriminate killing

Seeing through the deadly darkness and lighting the oil lamps in the shop was absolutely not a difficulty for Gentleman and his team.

A stale smell filled the air. An ashen corpse oil lamp flickered faintly on the counter. Several naked plastic mannequins stood motionless, half in the light and half in the dark, their pale limbs stiff and bizarre.

Gazing at the terrifying aura permeating the shop, Gentleman slightly narrowed his eyes. He turned to a Prophet beside him:

“What threats are there here?”

However, before he even finished speaking, two strange “clack-clack” sounds came from the corner.

“!”

Gentleman was startled and abruptly raised his head, looking toward the source of the sound.

Under the ashen light, a faceless plastic mannequin had somehow turned its head, staring at him with hollow eye sockets.

Clack-clack.

Clack-clack.

A teeth-grinding sound of limbs rubbing together echoed. The mannequin, which had been motionless just a moment ago, came to life under the light, walking step by step towards the humans.

Such a terrifying scene was like an everyday occurrence to Gentleman. He merely nodded and ordered calmly:

“Dispose of it.”

In the live broadcast room, the number of online viewers was rising rapidly.

[This efficiency is satisfying!]

[Of course! Coming to the live broadcast room of a Nightmare Top Ten is just a comfortable experience. Look at this level!]

However, amidst the praise from the regular viewers in Gentleman’s live broadcast room, some viewers from other live broadcast rooms seemed very confused:

[…Huh? Do these mannequins move this early?]

[Am I remembering wrong? I thought this instance wasn’t about fighting monsters, but rule-based?]

[Could it be that even the rules changed after the instance reopened?]

The animated plastic mannequins were indeed a threat, but for a well-trained team like Gentleman’s, they were not a life-or-death problem.

While they focused entirely on dealing with the plastic mannequins, no one noticed the gray glass doors of the building slowly opening. Stiff footsteps slowly walked in, and an overwhelming darkness descended.

Jingle-jingle!

The old brass bell chimed as the shop door was pushed open with a creak.

Sensing something, Gentleman turned his head to look.

The wick of the oil lamp flickered for a moment. The light that had filled the entire shop was instantly compressed to within the counter, while endless chilling air surged in from outside.

His pupils shrank violently.

Having experienced so many instances, Gentleman knew well enough that the “thing” entering the shop now was terrifyingly powerful.

“Fall back!!” A hint of tension seeped into Gentleman’s usually calm voice. “Full power against the ghost entering now!”

In the dark shop, the crisis escalated and intensified in the conflict.

One threat was not yet resolved.

A second set of footsteps began to approach from behind.

Even Gentleman hadn’t expected that the situation would become so dangerous so quickly after the instance had just begun, to the point where even he found it hard to control!

Layers of darkness pressed in from the outside. The customer they were struggling to block remained in place; all their previous attacks had been useless against it, and their defense line was crumbling bit by bit.

Gentleman, however, seemed to realize something. He turned his head and looked at the streamer who had worn the bracelet to draw the key earlier:

“Go to the front.”

The man’s face paled, but he still braced himself and stepped forward.

In the next second, the “thing” that had entered the shop seemed to be attracted by some irresistible force, changing its direction and walking toward that streamer.

The human hair bracelet had side effects. Rather than saying it could alter one’s luck, it was more of a cursed token. For a long time after using it, the user would be entangled by supernatural forces, becoming the most vulnerable target.

Gentleman ordered the others: “Use all means, attack with full force.”

However, all their attack methods vanished into the darkness without producing the slightest effect.

“V-Vice President, something’s wrong!” one of the streamers gritted his teeth. “All items are ineffective against it; this thing is unsolvable!”

Gentleman had clearly discovered the same problem.

This was an unsolvable ghost.

It was common knowledge that unsolvable ghosts only appeared in rule-based instances, not in combat-based instances.

This meant their approach had been wrong from the very beginning.

“Ahhhh, ahhhhh!!” The streamer at the front let out a miserable scream. Under the control of some invisible force, the skin on his body began to peel off bit by bit, revealing bloody red meat, as if a human skin glove was being taken off.

Gentleman glanced at the messy shop, his face looking very ugly:

“We thought wrong. These things aren’t monsters, they are ‘customers’. What we need to do is not fight them, but sell the clothes in the shop to them.”

It took Wen Jianyan twenty minutes to figure out the rules of the instance, but due to the misleading clues in the shop at the beginning, it took Gentleman and his team a full forty minutes.

Jingle-jingle.

The brass bell rang.

The footsteps walked out of the shop, and as the darkness slowly retreated, the light brightened once again.

The first business deal was concluded, and an ashen Spirit Money was left on the counter.

The shop was a mess.

Ring-ring-ring!

The phone rang.

It was the call notifying them that they could continue upwards.

“Hiss, such a huge consumption on the first floor.”

“Yeah, the streamer’s luck is really bad. I don’t know why the plastic mannequins in this shop didn’t have human skin clothes on them. If they had the human skin clothes suppressing them, they would only activate after the first customer arrived, so it wouldn’t be so misleading.”

“Can’t be helped, the more experienced the streamer, the easier it is to make mistakes in this kind of place. This setup is a bit too unconventional, you can’t blame his preconceived notions.”

Putting down the phone, Gentleman picked up the Spirit Money, his expression darkening for a moment.

Clearly, even he hadn’t expected to be caught off guard on the first floor of this instance.

But it didn’t matter.

As a veteran streamer, Gentleman knew perfectly well how high the chances of accidents in Nightmare were. Regardless of the instance level or the streamer level, one could not be careless; otherwise, it was easy to capsize in a small ditch.

Gentleman took a deep breath, quickly returning to his usual elegant demeanor, and smiled:

“Rested enough? If so, let’s keep moving. Let’s go upstairs and take a look.”

The more veteran a streamer was, the more they understood the layout of Nightmare, and the easier it was for them to fall into a fixed mindset.

A slight tweak to the pattern could bring unexpected rewards.

Outside the shop, in the darkness far from the light, Wen Jianyan stood with his arms crossed, chuckling lightly.

However… he wasn’t too surprised that Gentleman had successfully resolved the crisis and smoothly entered the second floor.

After all, Gentleman was one of Nightmare’s top ten. For him, an ordinary misjudgment was nothing. While such things were not common, they did not exceed the scope of what he could accept.

Such a small setback, he could quickly stabilize his footing again.

And for Wen Jianyan, this was just a simple probe.

After all, even in the Changsheng Building instance, the dangers on the first floor were not that great. Wen Jianyan had never intended to finish them off on this floor.

If he went too far right from the start, he would easily alert the snake by beating the grass.

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes.

The real show was still to come.

However…

Watching Gentleman’s retreating figure and recalling everything he had just seen, Wen Jianyan’s expression gradually became unpredictable, as if he were contemplating something.

While he was deep in thought, his left shoulder suddenly felt heavy, sinking slightly under a weight.

“What are you thinking about?”

In the next second, a cold breath touched his earlobe.

Wen Jianyan shuddered reflexively.

He threw a sidelong glance at Wu Zhu. Perhaps he was already used to it, or perhaps he couldn’t be bothered to argue with him, he merely moved his head symbolically in the opposite direction: “I’m thinking, there are still too many people around him.”

Gentleman was firmly guarded by his team members. He would push everyone in front of him, blocking the vast majority of the dangers. Although Gentleman’s team had indeed been depleted, he himself had not been affected in any strict sense—even if the terror level of the Changsheng Building instance was high enough, wanting to drive Gentleman into a corner under these circumstances still presented significant resistance.

Wu Zhu: “Do you want me to kill them all?”

“Really, can’t you be a bit more peaceful?” Wen Jianyan laughed carelessly. “Why always resort to fighting and killing?”

It wasn’t that he cared about their lives. After all, anyone who could climb to Gentleman’s team in Oracle was a bird of a feather. Given what they had done in previous instances, Wen Jianyan had never intended to show mercy from the start.

“Anyway, there’s no need to make a move,” Wen Jianyan said lazily. “The live broadcast rooms are still open. If you get caught, the loss will outweigh the gain, understand?”

Having Wu Zhu strike would be the fastest way, but it was blunt and rough, and the risk was not small.

After all, Nightmare was still glaring like a tiger watching its prey; it really wasn’t worth it for this.

Seeming to realize something, the corner of Wu Zhu’s mouth curved up: “Hmm.”

Wen Jianyan paused and added: “…Don’t overthink it, I don’t mean I’m worried about your safety.”

Wu Zhu nodded: “Hmm.”

“…” Wen Jianyan sighed.

Forget it.

“Anyway, I have a better way.”

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes, thinking for a moment. In his brief silence, it seemed countless plans and layouts had unfolded in his mind. Soon, he spoke again, saying:

“We make our move on the third floor.”

“Of course, the fourth floor would definitely be the safest,” Wen Jianyan shrugged. “But Hugo and Anise are also in this instance. Their levels are too high, I don’t want a long delay to cause complications.”

He wasn’t sure if their appearance was a coincidence, or if there was a deeper meaning behind it. But regardless, a quick battle to force a quick decision was best.

“…Hugo?”

Wu Zhu paused, seeming to think of something, his eyes growing cold.

“Oh, that person.”

“You wanted me to save him,” the icy cheek nuzzled into the human’s warm shoulder hollow. Although the tone was cold, as usual, the arm around Wen Jianyan’s waist slowly tightened. “And you also took the medicine he gave you.”

Wen Jianyan: “…”

Ha, he knew this guy would bring up old scores!

He had an impression of these two incidents as well. The first happened at the end of the Xingwang Hotel, and the second occurred during the Yuying Comprehensive University.

It had to be said, Wu Zhu’s memory in this regard was astonishing.

Even though the situations didn’t involve the same soul fragment, it didn’t affect his main body holding grudges one by one.

“First of all, I didn’t want you to save him.” Recalling the situation at the time, Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “I just told you not to kill him.”

Unexpectedly, Wu Zhu answered without thinking:

“Same thing.”

“Same thing my ass.”

“As for the second thing…” Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes and turned to look at him. Despite wearing a smile, he looked inexplicably terrifying. “At least he gave me medicine to stop the pain. Think about what you were doing at the time? Oh right, you threw away my mineral water bottle, wanting me to die.”

Wu Zhu: “…”

“Let go,” Wen Jianyan said expressionlessly. “And stay away from me.”

Knowing he was in the wrong, Wu Zhu dejectedly let go.

“Do not come near me for twenty minutes, reflect on yourself.”

“…” Wu Zhu thought for a moment, trying to bargain, “Can I just hold your hand?”

“No!”

The second floor of the Changsheng Building instance was the electronics store.

“What number is on the key?”

While walking up the stairs, Gentleman asked.

“Number 3.” The teammate looked down, glancing at the blurry text on it, and answered.

In the live broadcast room, the viewers who hadn’t watched the Changsheng Building Platinum process had no reaction, but those who had watched it all exploded.

“Wait, what’s going on?!”

“It was a coincidence being in Shop 04 on the first floor just now, how could it be a coincidence this time too?”

Shop 03, the most vicious shop in the entire Changsheng Building.

And also, the shop Pinocchio had once stayed in.

Furthermore… his selection of this shop was pushed by Oracle from behind the scenes.

“Something’s wrong, something’s absolutely wrong!!”

Due to the spoiler-prevention mechanism in the live broadcast room, Gentleman knew nothing about the discussion in his live broadcast room.

They had dawdled too long on the first floor, so they had almost no time to linger in the corridor, directly entering the shop.

“Selling electronics?”

Gentleman narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Should we look for products with supernatural power and display them in advance?”

A teammate suggested.

Gentleman lowered his eyes. A turtle shell covered in cracks appeared in his palm. With a “crack”, the turtle shell let out a splitting sound, and more lines appeared on it. Clearly, this wasn’t the first time it was used—once the usage count was exhausted, the turtle shell could no longer be used.

No one knew which streamer’s death birthed it.

And no one would remember.

It was just another item to be used and consumed.

After a brief read for a few seconds, Gentleman looked up: “No need.”

“This floor is different from the last one, doing so in advance has no meaning,” Gentleman said slowly. “But this floor is very vicious, everyone be prepared, don’t be stingy with any items, if you need them I’ll replenish them for you.”

The viewers in the live broadcast room clicked their tongues in amazement:

[As expected of Oracle, what does it mean to be wealthy and imposing, they can use prophetic items of this level casually.]

[And I remember Pinocchio suffered a huge loss in this shop before, right?]

[Yeah, they didn’t have so many good things in their hands back then, they tested all the traps step by step, it was thrilling. Compared to Gentleman’s lavish spending, the gap is really too big.]

[The previous floor was probably just because they weren’t ready. Now that all the rules are figured out, won’t it just be a massacre for a streamer of Gentleman’s level?]

[Exactly, a massacre!]

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