WTNL Chapter 74

Streamer Hall
Chapter 74: How do you say I will punish you?

…What the hell is this?

Why was he still being pestered by this cursed thing even when he was dreaming?

Could it be that ever since the end of the last instance, he had been thinking non-stop about how to eliminate the other party, so what he thought about during the day became what he dreamed about at night?

Just as Wen Jianyan was profoundly reflecting on the contents of his own dream, the other party had unknowingly walked right up to him.

The man was extremely tall with a broad frame. Although Wen Jianyan didn’t consider himself to be the overly thin and weak type, whenever he stood in front of this man, he always had the illusion that he was very fragile.

The other party’s eyes were like molten gold, burning coldly in the darkness.

Even though this was his own lucid dream, upon meeting the other party’s gaze, Wen Jianyan still felt a phantom chill run down his spine.

This feeling made him extremely displeased.

The young man narrowed his eyes and leaned forward slightly, abruptly shortening the distance between the two of them.

Relying on the fact that he was dreaming, Wen Jianyan expressionlessly reached out a hand and patted the other’s pale cheek. “I don’t want to deal with you while I’m asleep, too.”

Saying this, he even frivolously pinched that patch of cold, smooth skin.

“Get lost, and let your daddy get a good sleep.”

“…”

Wu Zhu lowered his eyes, watching him without any joy or anger. His figure didn’t vanish the moment Wen Jianyan’s words fell; on the contrary, he remained standing right there, his form solid, showing no tendency to dissipate.

Wen Jianyan: ?

Why hasn’t he disappeared?

Generally speaking, in this kind of lucid dream, as long as he realized he was dreaming, he could control what happened in the dream and decide what he wanted to see.

He frowned and raised his hand again, but before he could do anything, his wrist was silently bound by the darkness.

???

Wen Jianyan was stunned. He subconsciously looked up at the man in front of him, his pupils involuntarily shrinking.

Huh?

No way, right?

Were the details in this dream really replicated this well? Even the proficiency of tying someone up was exactly the same as in real life?

The man’s deep, emotionless voice sounded. “A dream? So this is what you humans call it.”

Wen Jianyan froze.

Wait… what did that sentence mean?

In the next second, the man in front of him slowly took another step forward. The distance between the two had been shortened to a degree that made Wen Jianyan feel vigilant.

He realized that something was wrong with this “dream.”

Wen Jianyan’s face paled a few shades, his previous bravado instantly vanishing. Yielding, he tried to retreat, but was blocked by the solidified darkness, forced to reluctantly remain fixed in place.

The young man’s upper body involuntarily leaned back. The hem of his loose shirt parted, revealing a section of a slender, pale, and flexible waist, as well as the scarlet lines at the edge of his hip bone, half-submerged in shadow.

Wu Zhu lowered his eyes and unhurriedly reached out his hand. Under the pull of the darkness, the shirt was yanked open, and pale fingertips pressed onto that patch of skin without any hindrance.

The ice-cold pads of his fingers touched the human’s warm waist, absentmindedly tracing the flowing lines of the runic tattoo.

As if recalling the pain when the brand was first carved, that small patch of skin suddenly tensed, trembling slightly in time with his breathing.

“You always manage to find new ways to offend me.”

The man raised those cold golden eyes and slowly pressed his entire palm against that soft, delicate skin. Nearly half of the young man’s narrow waist was gripped in his palm, easily feeling the tense expansion and contraction of the other’s body.

In the dark room.

The young man’s sleep grew even more restless. His breathing was heavy and rapid, his head half-sunken into the pillow, his face flushed red all the way to the tips of his ears.

His shirt had somehow fallen open, exposing his taut chest and abdomen, his skin glowing white in the dark.

The scarlet tattoo near his hip bone was pressed down by some unknown force, shadows filling in the slightly indented lines.

“How do you think I should punish you?”

“My bishop.”

Wu Zhu’s ending note pitched up slightly. With a cruel smile in his eyes, he spoke the words airily.

“——!!!”

Wen Jianyan violently snapped his eyes open and sprang up from the bed, drenched in cold sweat.

Still in a state of shock, he looked around the room.

It was pitch-black before his eyes; he could only faintly make out the blurry outlines of the furniture.

The empty room was deathly still; the only sound was his own rapid and uneven panting.

Wen Jianyan took a forceful, deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and then reached out to grope along the wall—with a soft click, the room instantly brightened.

Under the bright, warm white light, every detail in the room was visible.

Other than him, there wasn’t a single soul.

What… just happened?

Panting, Wen Jianyan raised a hand and pressed it against his forehead, feeling a palm full of cold, wet sweat.

He forcefully squeezed his eyes shut. The scenes from the dream just now appeared in his mind clearly and unhindered.

In an endless expanse of varying depths of darkness, those golden, burning eyes had watched him, as if aiming to swallow him whole.

Along with the other party’s deep, smiling words.

—My bishop.

“…”

At the thought of this, Wen Jianyan’s sleepiness entirely evaporated.

He lowered his head and rolled up the hem of his shirt.

That scarlet, rune-like pattern was situated right at the junction of his hip bone and lower abdomen. Branded deeply into his skin, it rose and fell unevenly with his rapid panting, bringing a particularly ominous feeling.

The sensation of being touched by the other party just now still lingered on his skin, sending a chill down his spine.

Clearly, even while he was in the system space, Wu Zhu could still use this to invade his dreams.

Combined with the other party’s bizarre ability to control darkness…

Wen Jianyan’s eyes darkened.

He climbed out of bed and walked into the bathroom.

Turning on the faucet, a fierce stream of water splashed loudly into the white porcelain sink.

He scooped up some cold water, washed his face, and looked up at himself in the mirror.

The bathroom light spilled from overhead, falling onto the young man’s head and shoulders. His face and bangs were damp, and water droplets clung to his eyelashes, the tip of his nose, and his lips—hanging suspended, ready to fall, shimmering with a fine glimmer.

His amber eyes were half-narrowed, hidden beneath jet-black, wet eyelashes. An unnatural flush burned on his cheekbones, but his gaze was terrifyingly clear.

He couldn’t wait any longer.

He had to extricate himself from this absolutely disadvantaged, defenseless state as quickly as possible.

Wen Jianyan grabbed the towel on the side and simply wiped his face.

In his mind, he did a brief summary and consolidation of his entire day’s harvest.

Although the few instances he favored earlier had more suitable conditions, they essentially all required dragging things out for at least another week to finish preparing. Before tonight, those instances were clearly the more ideal choices, as he also needed time to adjust. However, after experiencing tonight’s encounter in the dream, Wen Jianyan decisively abandoned that idea.

The system space was no longer absolutely safe.

He managed to wake up successfully from the dream this time, but there was no guarantee for the next time.

The timeline to enter an instance suddenly became urgent.

Wen Jianyan pulled out his phone and filtered through his contacts.

Soon, his gaze locked onto the name of one particular guild.

In reality, he hadn’t planned on cooperating with this guild this time, not only because he had crossed paths with their people in previous instances, but also because the next instance they offered was just one day away. The timeframe was too tight. Furthermore, the difficulty was somewhere between B- and A, making it highly likely to be a type of instance Wen Jianyan had no understanding of and had never even dabbled in…

High difficulty, high mortality rate.

But Wen Jianyan couldn’t wait any longer.

Taking a deep breath, he sent a message to that guild.

Eternal Day Headquarters.

“What? The strongest newbie on the newcomer leaderboard is preparing to join us?”

Wang Man, the Vice President of the Eternal Day Guild, lit up and looked at the streamer in front of her.

After every broadcast, the newcomer leaderboard would update, and the track record of the number one newbie in this update had truly stunned all of their high-level streamers.

It wasn’t impossible to rely on sheer dumb luck to achieve a Platinum achievement.

After all, many instances had a limit on the number of times they could be cleared. There were frequently various instances that would permanently close for different reasons, and upon closure, the streamer who had obtained the highest unlock rate for that instance would automatically be awarded a solo Platinum achievement. Plus, in the later stages, many instances could be cleared as a team, so as long as someone in the team carried them, even if a streamer slacked off the whole time, they could still tag along and snag a team Platinum achievement.

After broadcasting for a long time, the vast majority of high-level streamers had more or less left their names in the Hall of Fame.

But to broadcast three times and get three Platinums—that was completely unheard of.

If one time could be dumb luck, or happening to run into a big shot taking a quest to carry a team in a low-level instance, then three times was absolutely related to true strength.

All the guilds had their eyes on this newbie’s potential, wanting to absorb him into their ranks.

Given time, this person might even be capable of crowning the top of the points leaderboard; he might even become a legendary SSS-rank streamer!

The number of streamers at each level varied greatly.

For every tier moved up, the number of streamers decreased significantly.

It was hard to calculate how many E-rank streamers there were, as most E-rank streamers didn’t survive their first instance, but the number of D-rank streamers already reached into the thousands. By the time it got to A-rank, there were only a little over a hundred left.

S-rank had 56 people, SS-rank had five people.

SSS-rank streamers had 0 people.

Streamers didn’t know why there wasn’t a single SSS-rank streamer. It could be because they died in the promotion instance from SS to SSS-rank, or it could be because, upon reaching that level, they directly redeemed their tickets and left the live broadcast room.

This newbie streamer was truly a fantastic prospect. If everything went smoothly, he might even be able to change the guild rankings that had been fixed for who knows how long!

Thinking of this, a trace of fervor flashed through Wang Man’s eyes.

The streamer in charge of contacting Wen Jianyan said, “Not entirely. He seems to have received invitations from quite a few guilds and is currently hesitating. Therefore, he hopes to cooperate with us in the next instance to determine whether he will join us in the future.”

Wang Man revealed a thoughtful expression.

Since this newbie was willing to team up with them in the next instance, it meant that compared to other guilds, he favored their guild more.

Then the possibility of him willingly joining Eternal Day was extremely high.

She looked at the streamer in front of her and asked, “Which instance is he preparing to enter?”

The streamer looked down and scrolled through his phone:

“One day later, B- to A+ difficulty. It might contain a high-lethality hard-level item targeting the boss.”

“He requested this on his own initiative?”

“Yes.”

Wang Man was somewhat surprised.

The first time she survived an instance of this difficulty, she had already experienced at least ten broadcasts. Yet, this person dared to challenge this level of difficulty on just his fourth time.

This newbie really had a lot of guts.

She pondered for a long time, then looked up at the streamer in front of her. “Alright. I will personally select the team members for this group.”

Wang Man’s rank wasn’t low. If she joined this instance, it would highly likely alter the original estimated difficulty. Therefore, even though she really wanted to meet this legendary strongest newbie in the instance, she had to drop the idea this time.

She curled her knuckles and knocked on the tabletop:

“You met with this streamer. What appearance did he use? If you ignore the appearance, what kind of person do you think he is?”

“This…”

The streamer recalled carefully, then said somewhat hesitantly, “I felt that his speech, behavior, and aura perfectly matched his appearance. I honestly have a hard time imagining that he bought an appearance.”

Wang Man nodded.

That was also possible.

After all, most newbie streamers didn’t have many opportunities to interact with other streamers, making the chances of forging life-and-death grudges even smaller. Furthermore, the points required for an appearance were truly a lot; it was excusable for a newbie streamer not to consider buying one. “Then what is he roughly like?”

“At least two meters tall,” the streamer gestured. “Has a habit of working out. Average facial features, maybe even a bit ugly. Very fierce, looks quite imposing.”

Wang Man nodded thoughtfully. “Understood.”

He might possess an attack-type talent.

Moreover…

For the sake of the team’s popularity, maybe she should stuff an appearance streamer in there too?

“Are you sure? The streamer who tricked you is the strongest newbie this time?”

Kong Laoliu gritted his teeth and said, “I’m sure.”

He jabbed at the screen, saying viciously, “The two Platinum instances he cleared happen to be the exact same ones—one my nephew was in, and one I was in. I refuse to believe you could find a second streamer in this entire Nightmare to fit that!”

However, the fact that the other party was actually a newbie streamer who had only cleared three instances was something he truly hadn’t expected…

Whenever he thought about how he and his nephew had been completely played for fools by a streamer who had just recently entered Nightmare, Kong Laoliu felt anger rising from his heart and fury boiling in his gut.

The other person asked:

“Then why don’t you tell your Vice President?”

Kong Laoliu sneered:

“What’s the use in telling them? They’re busy right now trying to recruit him. If I rushed up now, I might just hit the muzzle of the gun and become cannon fodder.”

Maybe Qi Qian would even reconsider whether to allow him to continue targeting this liar. Even worse, if he really joined Dark Fire, he might genuinely lose any chance of revenge.

Therefore, they suppressed this matter in their hearts. Not only did they not report it to the guild, they secretly sought out these streamers who took private jobs in the gray area.

“In short, you want to gang up on him and eliminate him, right?”

Kong Laoliu’s eyes lit up. “Exactly.”

The several streamers in front of him lowered their voices and communicated with each other for a moment. Then, one of them looked up: “50% advance payment in points, and you cover the employment fee for the Oracle streamer.”

Kong Laoliu gritted his teeth, secretly swallowed a mouthful of blood, and said:

“…Deal!”

“This fast?”

Upon hearing Wen Jianyan’s words, Su Cheng and Ji Guan both gasped. “Weren’t we supposed to get half a month of rest this time? Why are you preparing to enter the next instance so early?”

Wen Jianyan shrugged and sighed. “I can’t help it. I feel like the sooner this matter is resolved, the better… The longer this brand remains, the more dangerous it is.”

He didn’t plan on telling them about his bizarre dream.

A vicious ghost possessing the ability to invade the system space… the shock value of this matter was simply too great. Plus, even Wen Jianyan wasn’t entirely sure of the underlying reasons, so there was even less need to bring it up and cause alarmist panic.

However, the point he raised was irrefutable.

Although Su Cheng and Ji Guan were worried, they had no choice but to nod, no longer trying to change the decision he had made.

Wen Jianyan was now a wealthy man with a considerable reserve of points. Before entering the next instance, he took a stroll around the free trade zone.

Although there were many items in the free trade zone, truly powerful ones with high rarity were scarce. After all, while streamers wanted to earn points, it had to be on the premise that they could survive the next instance.

Although the items on the market were mostly insignificant, they were of great use to a streamer like Wen Jianyan, who had a low initial point pool upon entering an instance and a low unlocked store level.

Because he was temporarily not an official member of Eternal Day, although they could team up together, the teaming method was more skewed toward the way he and Su Cheng teamed up in the last instance. The connection wasn’t very tight, and there was a high possibility of being distributed to different locations.

Although Eternal Day had mentioned wanting Wen Jianyan to visit their headquarters and meet his teammates—implying that the teammates should get to know each other without wearing appearances—Wen Jianyan refused.

He was always cautious when it came to such matters.

Wen Jianyan didn’t have much interest in guilds, nor did he intend to tie himself to all the Eternal Day members and act strictly on the premise that they were his teammates.

On top of that, he had many enemies right now. Therefore, he declined the meeting and instead agreed on a secret signal with his teammates to recognize each other within the instance.

By doing this, it would leave him with a greater margin of freedom.

If the performance of these Eternal Day members inside the instance made him wary, he would stay as far away as possible. But if the situation reversed, or if they displayed a certain utility value under specific scenarios, Wen Jianyan could still team up with them again.

Soon, the time to enter the instance arrived.

The Streamer Square opened.

Various screens rotated, flashing dazzling light. Different leaderboards flickered on the screens; countless rankings were unveiled, and all kinds of broadcast instances were posted, accompanied by eye-catching, stimulating promotional slogans that attracted the gazes of the viewers in the square.

[Wow, there are so many newbie streamers this time. A full twelve low-level instances have been opened. I feel like we’re going to see a lot of thrilling scenes this time!]

[Sigh, it’s a pity the streamer I follow isn’t broadcasting today. How boring… Guess I’ll just wander around the square.]

[Oh my god! Quite a few high-level instances have been opened this time too!]

[Wow wow wow, we’re so lucky this time! Three S-rank instances are open, and there’s an A to S-rank promotion instance! We’re really in for a feast for the eyes this time!]

[Yeah! Several highly popular streamers are broadcasting this time! Did you guys go look at the solo leaderboard? Seven of them are big shots in the top thirty of the points rankings! There are also quite a few from the appearance section. So awesome!]

[I haven’t seen the square this lively in a long time! I feel like the traffic has multiplied by at least seven or eight times compared to usual.]

[Speaking of which, who is that streamer hanging at the tail end of the solo leaderboard? Why don’t I have any impression of him?]

[Ahhh! You actually have no impression of him! This is the newly risen strongest newbie!]

[Come on, the strongest newbie leaderboard is the one that rotates the most frequently. As long as a newbie completes three broadcasts, they can make the list, and when they complete their fourth broadcast, they’ll leave the list. This leaderboard is the most watered down, and its mortality rate is also the highest.]

[Exactly, what qualifications does he have to be on the solo leaderboard this time? Doesn’t he look at which big shots are around him… Did the system make a mistake?]

On the very bottom screen, an amber-eyed young man smiled. Next to him were his name and a quick entry portal to his broadcast room.

[Integrity First?]

[What kind of weird name is this? Sounds so strange.]

[But he’s unexpectedly good-looking. I wonder if he’s from the appearance section?]

[Whatever, I’ve got nothing to do anyway, might as well go in and have a look.]

[Wait a bit. Streamers should be assigned to their instances momentarily, right? Let’s see what his instance is this time before deciding whether to go in. After all, there are a lot of big shots broadcasting this time; there’s no need to waste time on a newbie like this.]

Soon, the characters on the screen next to the young man updated, and a line of small blood-red text emerged:

Fantasy Amusement Park lobby is now open.
Lobby Difficulty Level: A
Historical Highest Unlock Rate: 62%
Viewing Value: C

[What’s going on?!]

[!!! My eyes aren’t playing tricks on me, right?! Fantasy Amusement Park?!]

[Mother of god, you mean *the* Fantasy Amusement Park that wiped out all the streamers several times over?]

[Fuck!! Wasn’t this instance put on ice by the system because the mortality rate was too high? Why has it opened again!]

[Oh my god, the streamers assigned to this instance are too miserable…]

[What do you mean? Is this instance that hard? I see it’s only an A-rank, isn’t it?]

[No, this instance has nothing to do with being hard, it’s… sigh, it’s really hard to describe. You’ll know once you go in and watch for a few minutes.]

Dark currents surged.

Wu Zhu stood in an endless expanse of darkness, his golden eyes narrowing slightly.

…

Before he could even get to the main topic, he had let him run away again.

This new bishop of his was truly as slippery as an eel, vanishing without a trace the moment he stopped paying attention.

His power hadn’t recovered enough, and he temporarily couldn’t pierce through that powerful barrier. Although branded with a mark, the other party showed no inclination of learning to be obedient, resulting in him easily slipping through his fingers once again.

Wu Zhu rubbed his fingertips.

That flexible, warm waist with its smooth lines seemed to still linger in his palm. Above the fine, pale skin, scarlet patterns snaked along the border between shadow and light.

He originally only intended to make the other party fulfill his duties as a believer, but…

Before he could make a request, the other party had vanished.

An unknown desire surged in the depths of his heart.

Was it a desire to abuse? Was it appetite?

Perhaps it was both.

Sure enough, they still had to meet again.

The man revealed a greedy smile.

And, he couldn’t give him another chance to escape from his grasp again.

__

Author’s Note: J

Just keep chasing your wife like this. The more you chase your wife, the more he wants to kill you.