Chapter 690: Uninvited guest
“It seems the difficulty of this instance lies in how to find Pinocchio.”
Staring at the ultimate bounty on his phone, an anchor dressed in tactical gear spoke slowly.
As everyone knew, Pinocchio was the only zero-combat-power anchor in the top ten. His terrifying aspect lay in his mind, and the group of powerful teammates gathered around him who moved like an extension of his own limbs. Once these people were pruned away one by one, an isolated Pinocchio would no longer be terrifying.
He looked up at a tall man with a sinister and ruthless expression standing not far away, and asked, “Just as that voice said, the opportunity is limited, first-come, first-served—time waits for no one. Vice President, are we taking action now?”
“……”
Qi Qian stood at the doorway. Hearing this, he turned his head. The light from outside the porthole fell on his emotionless profile, leaving a distinct line between light and shadow.
Behind him, several members of the Dark Fire Guild stood in orderly fashion, waiting for his answer.
There were six people in total, all elites.
An Xin was also among them.
He stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall. Half of his face was submerged in darkness, making his expression unreadable; only a slightly tense jawline was revealed.
Soon, Qi Qian’s lips parted, spitting out a cold word: “No.”
“Wait a bit longer.”
“But,” the person who had just asked the question hesitated for a moment before speaking, “didn’t the President say…”
“Is the one leading the team the President or the Vice President?” a light, airy voice drifted over from nearby.
Everyone turned solemn and looked in the direction of the voice in unison.
By the wall, An Xin unhurriedly straightened up. That habitually cynical face came into the light, wearing a trace of a careless smile, making it impossible for people to see his true emotions.
“Now that we’re in the instance, who exactly are you planning to listen to?”
“……Apologies.” The Dark Fire member who asked the question stiffened his back. He lowered his head and apologized, “I had no intention of questioning the leader’s decision.”
Qi Qian, however, didn’t seem prepared to make things difficult. He merely raised his hand indifferently, indicating he didn’t mind.
“Nightmare only provided the red dots of the targets, but it didn’t tell us exactly which target each red dot coordinate represents.”
Qi Qian’s indifferent voice echoed in the room.
“Do you want to run into Orange Candy? Or Bai Xue, Chen Cheng?”
The illustrious and vicious reputations of the first two were known to practically everyone.
One was a bloodthirsty maniac specializing in PVP, and the other was an extremely bizarre medium. While the remaining one’s reputation might not match theirs, his unstoppable momentum and aggressively high-profile style still made him someone impossible not to fear.
For a moment, the entire cabin fell silent. The expressions of the few people sank; they exchanged glances, and no one spoke up.
“That’s right.”
Qi Qian’s gaze swept over them, and he gave a short laugh, though there was no amusement in his voice.
“Let’s hold our ground for now.”
He withdrew his gaze and turned his head to look out the porthole again, his voice calm and cold.
“—Let the others go touch that bad luck.”
……
In a long, deep corridor, a solitary, slender figure was walking forward briskly. Suddenly, she abruptly stopped in her tracks.
Not far away, a dense mass of shadows was slowly approaching.
There were five people in total, varying in height and appearance, but their eyes shared a very similar fierce sharpness. Their movements were completely silent, clearly showing they were well-trained and excelled in combat.
Wen Ya stood her ground, narrowed her eyes, and slowly swept her gaze over these unfamiliar yet faintly familiar faces. Pulling out relevant memories from her mind, she spoke slowly:
“……Mercenaries?”
“As expected of Miss Wen,” the leader gave a slow laugh. “To think you’d still remember us after so long.”
Wen Ya remained impassive: “After all, our last collaboration was very pleasant.”
“Naturally. We were also very satisfied with Eternal Day’s payment speed,” another person chimed in.
“It’s just a pity I’ve already changed guilds.” Wen Ya’s deep gaze rested quietly on the several people opposite her. Her tone remained steady, seemingly oblivious to the dangerous undercurrents surging around her. “If you need it, I can pass you the contact information of Eternal Day’s current liaison.”
“There’s no need for that.” The smile on the mercenary leader’s face deepened. His eyes flickered slightly, hiding a disturbing, cold glint. “We’re looking for Miss Wen this time for a different matter.”
As he spoke, the other four were also slowly advancing. Their footsteps were silent; only the heavy, dark shadows approached beneath their feet, closing in from all sides.
Yet Wen Ya stood completely still.
In the narrow corridor, the atmosphere had at some point become oppressive to the extreme, seemingly inching ever closer to the critical point of an explosion.
“……No matter what you want to do,” Wen Ya’s gaze slowly swept over the few of them. She still didn’t move. In the center of the vortex, the slender figure stood firmly. Contrasted against the massive darkness pressing in from all sides, she appeared exceptionally tiny, yet remained as unshakable as a reef in rushing rapids. “—I suggest you abandon this idea.”
“Sorry, can’t do that.” The mercenary bared his teeth, revealing sharp fangs. He dropped the pretense, and the killing intent in his eyes was fully exposed. “However, for the sake of our past friendship, if Miss Wen is willing to give up resisting, it’s not completely impossible for us to spare your life… After all, our true target is the one above you, not you.”
Despite what he said, their encroaching encirclement didn’t look like they had any intention of letting her go.
“……”
Wen Ya coldly watched the men pressing in on her. When they were halfway through their approach, she suddenly spoke:
“I’m guessing you chose me because I’m at the very edge of the map, there are the fewest red dots nearby, and there are no signs of anyone else rushing over to rescue me. Am I right?”
The steps of the mercenary squad leader paused.
Seeing the other’s overly calm demeanor, for some reason, an ominous premonition suddenly surfaced in his heart.
Wen Ya had guessed correctly.
The reason they chose this red dot as their target was precisely because its surroundings were empty… Aside from this, almost all the other red dots were scattered on the other end of the map and were converging in the opposite direction.
This was how mercenaries operated.
Compared to tigers and leopards, they were more like jackals… cunning, utilitarian, and calculating. Rather than clashing head-on with the enemy’s elites, they preferred to hunt down the one straggling behind the group… After all, there was no reason not to do something that paid the highest return for the smallest cost, right?
“Captain!” Amidst his suspicion, a teammate’s voice suddenly came from behind.
The mercenary captain turned his head slightly: “Speak.”
“Look—”
Saying that, the man turned the freshly updated location interface toward him.
Just like the last time he checked, the other red dots were still on the other end of the map; there was no way they could arrive in time. Everything seemed fine—
Wait, no!
The mercenary captain’s gaze froze, focusing on the central area that should have been empty.
Since some unknown time, an additional tiny red dot had actually appeared there.
On the narrow screen, that red dot flashed once every five seconds. With every flash, the distance on the map shrank by a chunk.
“Still haven’t guessed the reason?” Ahead of them, the besieged Wen Ya smiled. Her expression was serene, her posture leisurely. “Alright then.”
Reason told them she was bluffing. In reality, even adding that rapidly approaching red dot, they were still only facing a mere two enemies. Furthermore, they had already surrounded one of them, secured the choke point before taking action, and scouted out potential retreat routes in advance.
From any angle, they occupied an absolutely advantageous position.
However, watching that steadily flashing red dot, a bizarre chill crept up their spines…
The red dot approached the position where they had set up a sentry. It flashed once, and paused.
A false alarm.
Before they could even let out a sigh of relief, the next second, that red dot actually started moving again!!
“—Anyway, you’ll be seeing them very soon.” At the same time, the woman’s gentle voice came from ahead.
How is this possible?!
How the hell was that guy standing guard? How could he let someone pass by so easily?
The mercenary captain almost couldn’t believe his eyes. He stared dead at the screen, his fingers gripping the phone abruptly tightening, veins popping on the back of his hand. He seemed to suddenly realize something, snapping his head up and issuing a stern command: “Quick, contact Old Three. Ask him what the hell he’s doing—”
Before he could finish his sentence, a thud sounded from not far away, like something heavy hitting the ground. The next second, the entire world seemed to fall silent along with it.
The several men almost immediately snapped their heads up, looking in the direction the sound came from.
Roll, roll.
A head rolled out crookedly from the darkness, leaving a broken, dripping trail of blood on the floor.
It came to a stop.
Revealing a face with eyes wide open in death.
Even though it appeared bizarre and stiff due to the effects of death, they could still recognize that familiar face…
“Old Three!!!” The leader’s eyes nearly split open. A furious and shocked bellow ripped from his throat—How is this possible?! How long has it even been? How could someone slit their man’s throat and behead him in the blink of an eye? This is absolutely—
At the same time, Wen Ya raised her head and looked into the distance.
With a smile on her lips, she raised her voice slightly and asked in a calm tone towards the direction the head rolled from, “I recall you used to be in the mercenary business as well? —How is it, any acquaintances?”
…Wait, what business? Catching the keyword in her sentence and seemingly thinking of a certain possibility, the leader’s expression changed drastically. An extremely ominous premonition began to bloom in his heart—for the first time, a nearly horrified emotion was born on that fierce face.
Accompanied by the sound of dragging metal, the silhouette of a tiny figure emerged from the darkness at the end of the corridor.
She walked forward unhurriedly, dragging a long saber almost as tall as herself. The mottled rust on the blade condensed like blood, and the tip of the blade scraped against the ground, letting out an extremely sharp, ear-piercing sound.
“There are.”
A lazy child’s voice rang out.
“But they’re all pretty much dead.”
“Did you kill them?” Wen Ya asked.
“How could that be? I’m not that excessive.” The other giggled twice. “—I killed half of them, at most.”
“……” The mercenary captain no longer possessed his previous calm self-control. The muscles all over his body tensed up, and bean-sized beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead. One could almost smell the scent of fear radiating from him—if there was anyone he was most terrified of encountering, there was probably no second besides Orange Candy. With the exception of her, even if it were any other top ten anchor, they wouldn’t be as panicked as they were now… To others, Orange Candy just possessed an illustrious, vicious reputation. But they had witnessed the rise of that vicious reputation with their own eyes.
“Retreat.” He squeezed a single syllable through his teeth.
“Don’t do that!” Orange Candy giggled and lifted her blade. The rusted, ice-cold edge reflected a bloody red light. “Stay and play with me for a bit before you go!”
“Don’t engage, retreat!!!”
“!!!”
Suddenly, the mercenary captain looked down in horror. He saw that the ground beneath his feet had, at some point, turned into a soft, viscous quagmire. Seemingly realizing something, he whipped his head around and glared viciously at Wen Ya standing not far away—Damn it, it’s that bitch!!
Just now, she appeared to be conversing and stalling with them, but in reality, she was sealing off their retreat routes in advance!!!
He saw the other party still standing completely still. She merely tilted her head gracefully and looked at Orange Candy not far away. “Don’t worry.”
Her tone was mild:
“They will stay and keep you company.”
On the other side.
Accompanied by the clatter-clatter sound of colliding metal, the heavy white iron chain was slowly retracted back into Chen Mo’s hands.
At his feet lay several corpses askew, their hollow eyes wide open, silently staring into the air.
Huge holes were blasted open in their chests. Boiling hot blood and fragments of shredded flesh were thickly plastered across the floor and walls of the corridor.
“What next?” Ji Guan panted. He was covered in a layer of hot sweat. His robust muscles rolled beneath his skin. Driven by the surging blood and qi, the evil ghost starting from his neck looked increasingly vivid; even its eyes seemed to be moving along with it—Everywhere else on his body was splattered with blood, yet the area where the evil ghost resided was completely clean and spotless, as if the blood that fell on it had been licked clean without a single drop left.
“Keep moving forward.” Chen Mo wrapped the chain around his wrist and said calmly, “Kill everyone blocking the way until we regroup with the others.”
“Something’s not quite right.”
At the same time, Blond withdrew his gaze, hesitating for a moment before speaking.
“What is it?” Chen Mo asked.
“There’s no one else here besides the three of us.” Blond said.
“What?” Ji Guan took a step forward, pressing, “Are you sure?”
“Of course.” Blond blinked somewhat displeased. Due to the use of his talent, his eyes took on a bizarre scarlet hue. When looking in a certain direction, they seemed to possess a hair-raising penetrative power. “You don’t believe me?”
“I didn’t mean that…”
Ji Guan got the creeps from being stared at by him and couldn’t help taking a step back—his talent was Spirit Vision, naturally making him more sensitive in this regard than others. He rubbed his arms and turned sideways to avoid Blond’s gaze. “Anyway, don’t look in my direction when you’re using your talent, it’s freaky.”
Chen Mo took out his phone and opened the interface.
Soon, he looked up: “I’m afraid that is indeed the case.”
The map displayed on the phone was smaller than expected. He checked the past movement trajectories of everyone just now. Over ten minutes ago, the red dot representing Orange Candy and the red dot representing Chen Cheng briefly intersected, but the two didn’t regroup; instead, they headed in opposite directions. Based on their past experience, the cruise ship had more than one floor.
Then it was highly likely they were scattered across different floors.
“Wait, but… I remember the cruise ship had a total of eighteen underground floors,” Blond drew in a sharp breath of cold air, his expression despairing. “How are we supposed to find them!”
“No, that was before.”
Chen Mo shook his head, shoving his phone back into his pocket, and said very affirmatively, “After the instance restarted, although the name is still the cruise ship, the internal layout has completely changed.”
“If the venue were truly as large as the last time we were here, Nightmare wouldn’t be able to initiate this current battle royale mode.”
Chen Mo said.
A full eighteen floors—let alone them not being able to find each other, the other anchors probably wouldn’t be able to find them either.
“Besides, if there really were eighteen floors,” Ji Guan shrugged, crossing his arms, “believe it or not, Nightmare would put each of us on a separate floor with absolutely zero chance of meeting?”
“……”
The other two fell silent for a moment.
Given the kind of shit Nightmare pulled, the probability of it doing exactly that was indeed very high.
“So I estimate this cruise ship should only have two floors… three at most.” Chen Mo lowered his eyes, saying thoughtfully, “Not more than that.”
He turned to Blond: “Can you find the location of the elevator?”
“Let me see…” Blond raised his eyes, the scarlet blood-light wandering deep within his eyeballs.
Soon, he withdrew his gaze and pointed in a direction not far away: “Yes, over there!”
An almost carnival-like atmosphere filled the entire Anchor Square.
This time, only one instance was running across the entire square, nothing else—and in truth, they no longer needed any other instances to distract their attention.
Everything they wanted to see, everything they needed, could all be satisfied within this single instance.
Multicolored images spun within every screen, stimulating the viewers’ nerves, stirring their emotions, pushing their excitement levels higher and higher in waves.
“Holy shit!! An internal bloodbath among the mercenaries, badass!!!”
“As expected of Orange Candy, she truly can always find the most thrilling ways to dismember people. Pure aesthetics of violence, this feels so good, so good.”
“Same on Wen Ya’s side. Her style is so magical, I’ve barely seen it in Nightmare. She moves so calmly and thoroughly, seemingly anticipating every situation. No matter what accident happens, she can silently cover all the bases. It’s truly so reassuring.”
“Right, right!”
“Orange Candy violently harvesting in the front, Wen Ya calmly laying out plans in the back. Simply invincible!”
“Oh!” “Hiss!” “Ouch!!”
Accompanied by spraying blood and severed heads, a series of excited exclamations echoed in front of the screens. The viewers’ eyes were glued tightly to the thrilling scenes on the screen, reluctant to look away for even a second.
“To think a server-wide wanted poster scenario could be pushed into such an evenly matched battle, and the wanted ones even seem to vaguely have the upper hand… I really didn’t expect this!”
“Where are the people hunting them down? Someone stronger come out and save the day! Otherwise, how boring!”
“What about Dark Fire? Have they entered the fray yet?”
“Not yet. Damn it, a bunch of scheming bastards, they’re just preparing to wait and reap the spoils. Shameless.”
“What about their President, Ye Lin? Is he not doing anything about it?”
“Not sure what’s going on. Anyway, both Ye Lin and Dan Zhu’s livestream rooms are still black screens, constantly showing ‘Waiting’. I don’t know what the situation is.”
Su Cheng’s livestream room also showed the word “Waiting,” clearly indicating it wouldn’t open anytime soon.
“What about Oracle?”
“Don’t even mention it, I didn’t even go check out Oracle’s side. Their main backbone was completely wiped out by Pinocchio in the previous few instances. It’s all support players, what’s there to fight? Although they still occupy the number one spot on the leaderboards, they can basically be considered past their prime. They can’t play this.”
“The most important question is here, where is Pinocchio, the one I want to see the most?”
Pinocchio’s livestream room was the most anticipated among all viewers, even among the top ten. He was the core of almost all the conflicting vortexes, and the key figure pushing all visual spectacles to their peak.
However, his livestream room remained a black screen, lacking even the words “Waiting.”
“Ahhhhhh, Pinocchio, I want Pinocchio!!”
“Hurry up and serve Pinocchio to me! I can’t take watching livestream rooms without Pinocchio anymore!!!”
“Damn it, is Nightmare running false advertising? How long has the instance been going on, and I haven’t even seen half a shadow of Pinocchio!!!”
Just as the viewers were wailing, suddenly, an anomaly occurred.
“Hey, what’s going on over on Chen Mo’s side?”
“I don’t know, but they stopped. Let’s go take a look.”
On the massive screen, accompanied by countless gazes converging upon it, the image inside became increasingly clear.
Invisible cameras looked down at the corridor from above.
In the flat space in front of the elevator, two groups of people confronted each other.
Suddenly, sharp-eyed viewers recognized the few anchors standing opposite Chen Mo and couldn’t help being somewhat surprised:
“Wait a minute, that’s—”
“Oracle.”
Chen Mo raised an eyebrow and slowly read out the name of the guild the opposing anchors belonged to, syllable by syllable.
His calm gaze slowly swept over the few people not far away, and he said, “I thought you wouldn’t be participating in this matter anymore.”
“……At least not participating in this manner.”
“Haha!” Ji Guan let out a loud, mocking laugh. “Indeed.”
He tilted his chin and said, “Shouldn’t you guys be finding a few big shots to cling to, plotting and scheming for them, making prophecies and what not?”
If anyone asked which faction suffered the biggest blow from Pinocchio’s rise, there was no second answer besides Oracle.
First, their monopoly on Seers was broken, then their points were stolen by the Good Citizen Guild using indiscriminate newcomer recruitment tactics. Moreover, the already small number of combat anchors and several core backbone members of their guild had all fallen at the hands of Wen Jianyan, one by one.
It could even be said that although Oracle still maintained a wealthy foundation, all that remained was an empty shell of its former glory.
“……”
Not far away, the several Oracle anchors stared at them without saying a word. Their expressions were as cold and tranquil as always, seemingly unaffected by the other party’s provocative words.
Ji Guan got the creeps from their emotionless stares.
He sidled up to Chen Mo’s ear and lowered his voice, his words sounding as if they were squeezed through his teeth:
“Hey…”
“Why do I feel like the atmosphere over there is a bit off?”
“Mm.” Chen Mo responded briefly.
He seemed to have realized the same problem. His right hand dropped silently, and the heavy white iron chain reflected a cold luster under the lights.
He lowered his voice: “So, get ready.”
“—Strike first!!!!!”
The moment Chen Mo’s words fell, accompanied by a sharp sound of breaking air, the iron chain carved out a heavy arc, carrying a thunderous momentum as it flew fiercely forward!!!
A ruthless glint flashed in Ji Guan’s eyes. The next second, the hideous evil ghost slowly crawled out from the back of his neck. Bizarre bluish-black colors spread across his skin, rapidly eroding his normal skin tone until it was completely gone.
In just an instant, the temperature in the air plummeted, and a chilling ghostly aura began to spread.
Standing in the back, Blond’s pupils flashed as he looked in the direction of Oracle.
In the bizarre field of vision created by his talent, everything was different from what ordinary people saw—
In this world composed of countless blocks of color, a certain area presented a bizarre, cold, dense, and viscous black. It was as if a hole had been gouged out of this space alive, with gurgling pitch continuously pouring out from it.
“……No, that’s not right!” Suddenly, Blond seemed to realize something. His voice shot up, becoming distorted and out of tune due to fear. “Wait a minute, wait—”
Before his voice could be completely let out, he could no longer speak. His throat felt as if it had been tightly wrapped by something, forcefully choking off all sound.
The next second, invisible thin threads hung down from the air, stringing him up like a puppet.
Blond’s eyes widened, looking in horror behind the Oracle group.
In the world before his eyes that was dyed blood-red, everything else seemed to vanish into nothingness in an instant. Only a person wearing a hood stood firmly.
Beneath the hood was a neat, handsome face. His complexion held not a trace of color. His pupils showed a bizarre, cold grayish-white, and his face lacked any human emotional fluctuation. On his neck stretched a hideous gash, the pale flesh rolling open, yet not a single drop of blood flowed out.
It was a face too familiar to be forgotten. A face he often saw when he woke up in a cold sweat from midnight dreams—that face leaning close with a cold, polite, malicious smile, fingers slowly reaching toward his eye sockets, seemingly about to gouge out his eyes alive—
The Vice President of Oracle, one of the top ten in Nightmare, a person who had already been removed from the system and confirmed dead.
Gentleman.
