CH 34

Soon, all the red team members met on the first floor.

The four people including Wen Ya and Li Zongze had stunned expressions on their faces. Kong Laoliu shrank to the back, rubbing his wrists, which were still bluish-black, with lingering fears. The atmosphere between them was very depressing, and their eyes were filled with anger and frustration.

Cheng Mi raised his eyes, looked at the four people who came out of the elevator, and he greeted them coldly: “You came down?”

Wen Ya bit her lip, avoiding the other party’s gaze, and making a low “um”.

“Looking at the good side, in the hunt, if the black team loses, they will die; but if the red team loses, although they will return empty-handed, their life won’t be in danger.”

Cheng Mi snorted: “It’s just that it would be very unpleasant to hear.”

There was an undisguised hint of mockery in his voice, causing the four people on the opposite side to lower their heads.

True.

Their main mission was to hunt down the black team, and the black team’s main mission was just to survive, so even if their mission failed, their life would be safe. That’s why the hunt was very profitable, with high returns and low risks.

In this hunt, although the instance didn’t give them a green light because they were the red team, the inclination between resources was very obvious. In the hunt, the red team almost never loses.

But this time…

All of them gritted their teeth bitterly.

They were all the next batch of anchors that big guilds had focused on training, but they were overturned in the gutter in the hunt, wasting the opportunity that the guild had won for them, and finally returned empty-handed… 

So humiliating.

“But don’t worry too much.”

Cheng Mi changed the conversation and said in a dragging voice: “Well… I have a solution here, maybe it can reverse the situation.”    

“What?”

The four people on the opposite side were taken aback. They all raised their head and looked straight at him in disbelief.

Cheng Mi narrowed his eyes slightly and said slowly:

“What I know is that we are not the only ones who have been offended by the captain of the black team.”

The four people on the opposite side weren’t shocked by this conclusion at all.

——Seriously, according to the gameplay of Captain Black on the other side, it would be a miracle not to offend people.

What’s more, the reason why the Oracle was the number one guild was that this guild had poached almost all the anchors with precognition talent. The precognition talent was very rare. In an instance, if there were such anchors in the team, the survival rate of the entire team could be greatly improved. 

Since Cheng Mi made such an inference, he must have his own basis.

“Then what?” Li Zongze stepped forward, his tone urgent and hopeful: “Do you have any plan?”

“I have a tool that can summon the ghosts and monsters who have karmic entanglement with the other party, which should be able to reverse our defeat. “

Cheng Mi gritted his teeth and said somewhat unwillingly:

“Actually, before you came down, I tried it, but…”

“But…?”

“Failed.” Cheng Mi sighed: “I don’t know what kind of instance he go through last time, all the ghosts and monsters who had karmic entanglement with him were all mixed together, and there was a terrifying power buried deep in it, beyond my imagination…”

A hint of fear flashed in his eyes.

“That power was really too powerful. To be precise, I have never heard of such a powerful ghost in a nightmare.”

Cheng Mi took a deep breath and looked at the few people in front of him: “If you have anything left by the anchor on the other side, it’ll be good. If not, then we will have to start a throughout search in the instance, looking for all the places the other party had stepped on, otherwise, there is no way to succeed.”

Kong Laoliu seemed to have thought of something, and his eyes widened suddenly: “Hey, speaking of it, I seem to have—”

“…What?” Cheng Mi was overjoyed.

Then they saw Kong Laoliu take out a dagger from his backpack. The blade of the dagger was barbed and looked extremely sharp and terrifying. On one of the small edges in the middle, there was still blood that had not dried up.

When the young man was running away, he used this knife to cut the rope on his wrist. Although he moved skillfully and quickly, he was inevitably cut a little. The bleeding wasn’t much, so there was only a thin layer of blood on the dagger, which was almost wiped off by now.

“It’s just, I almost wiped off all the blood on it.” Kong Laoliu said with some regret.

“It doesn’t matter.” Cheng took the dagger: “As long as there was the opponent’s blood on it, this dagger can still be used even if you wipe it all clean.”

He smiled, his eyes flashing with the light of victory.

“In the Nightmare, blood is the best medium.”

“Especially if the ghost on the opposite side also has his blood on itself, then the success rate is 100%.”

***

​​After leaving the fifth floor, Wen Jianyan didn’t take the elevator.

Elevators were too conspicuous and could be easily blocked, and fire escaping stairs were the best choice.

He was walking briskly. His eyes were narrowed slightly, the corners of his light-colored lips were slightly hooked, his expression was lazy and relaxed, and he was humming a tune.

Before the end of the instance, the hidden items couldn’t be stored in the system backpack. Only after the instance was over, the hidden items collected in the instance would become usable props that could be stored in the system backpack, so that the anchor could take it out at any time.

That meant, the discoverer of the hidden item might not necessarily be the real winner in the end.

As long as the instance wasn’t over, the winner was uncertain.

Wen Jianyan guessed that this was probably also one of the methods used by the Nightmare Live Room to increase the conflict within the instance and improve the viewing experience of the audience.

After all, with strife and competition, there would be more exciting and bloody internal conflicts.

Just like now.

He lowered his head, and his eyes fell on the small jar in his hand that contained the body of the strange baby.

According to the system prompt just now, this legendary hidden item was “the core of the most critical ritual in this instance”, and it was linked to several keywords in this instance — “Obstetrics and Gynecology”, “Ghost babies”, ” “Mother of the World”…

Although he hadn’t understood the whole picture of the entire instance for the time being, Wen Jianyan already had a rough guess in his heart.

He stuffed the jar into his jacket pocket, clicked in the void, and opened the live broadcast interface.

Although he already had psychological expectations, Wen Jianyan was still shocked when he saw the number of online viewers in the upper right corner.

【Online audience: 58735】

It was close to 60,000!

That’s amazing!

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room, there was a prompt of the anchor opening the barrage. In the next second, the density of the barrage instantly increased by more than five times!

[Aaaaaahhhh, the anchor has opened the barrage!]

[Mommy, mommy!]

[Aaaahhhh wife! My wife is here to deceive me! (500 reward points)]

[This is the first time the black team had the upper hand in the hunt. Aaaaahhh, just because of this, I want to shout out, awesome!]

[Black is awesome! Black will win! (100 reward points)]

[Black is awesome!!! (100 reward points)]

The surging barrage made Wen Jianyan a little dazed.

“Alright, alright, everyone is exaggerating too much.” 

The young man’s eyebrows and eyes curled up. Although he was still dressed in that outfit, the blood on the white coat on his body had dried, showing a dim rust red under the light, but his temperament became completely different from before.

Gentle, harmful, and approachable.

Like a poisonous candy, wrapped in a layer of softly woven sugar coating; knowing fully well that it was false and deadly, but always couldn’t help but be willingly deceived. The excessive contrast almost made people’s heart stop.

“Thank you for liking, I love you too.”

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Wife, do you know how bewitching you are! I don’t allow you to know! (100 reward points)]

[Aaaaaahhhhh, I thought I would only be tempted by the gentle, scum, and perverted doctor, but I can stand this gentle and spoiled type at all. What’s going on!]

[Woooooooooo, I know he’s lying to me, but I still can’t control my hand! (100 reward points)]

[But he said he loves me. ( 100 reward points)]

[But he said he loves me. ( 200 reward points)]

“What are you talking about?” 

Wen Jianyan said while looking at the screen, his expression suddenly turned serious: “I wasn’t lying just now.” 

The next second, after a brief silence in the barrage area, the screen was once again overwhelmed by “Aaaaahhhhhhh”.

Because of the rewards, the points in Wen Jianyan’s account doubled once again.

Ah, happy.

Wen Jianyan closed the barrage with satisfaction and opened the system store.

It was unknown when it started but the lush apple seedling rose a bit again.

【Apple seedling: lv1】

【Flower of Delusion: 0/1 has developed.】

【Fruit of Lies: 1/1 has matured.】

A line of small characters popped out:

【The apple seedling has reached the upgrade conditions.】

【Do you want to upgrade it?】

Wen Jianyan was slightly startled.

This speed was much faster than the last instance. Not only the Fruit of Lies had matured, but even the apple seedling had reached the upgrade conditions.

Although he hadn’t yet figured out the working mechanism of this apple seedling, after two instances, Wen Jianyan had a rough guess in his heart that the growth of the apple seedling was definitely related to the “lie”.

Quantity? Quality? Or the number of people who got deceived?

Were these related?

Wen Jianyan wasn’t sure.

Maybe he needed to test it later.

Wen Jianyan stared at the words “Do you want to upgrade it?” on the screen, glanced at the number of points remaining in the account, gritted his teeth, and finally made up his mind to cut off the hesitation—

Just upgrade it!

Those anchors who had been scammed would never sit still. Not only did they have the points and props accumulated from multiple instances, but they also had the support of the big guild behind them. Wen Jianyan was also not sure if they have any other means to suppress at the bottom of the box that had not been used yet.

If the points were gone, they could be earned again, but if the life was gone, there would be nothing left.

In the next second he made up his mind, and the number of points in the upper right corner began to decrease rapidly.

Ones, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand…

Wen Jianyan felt that his heart bleeding.

These were the points he had saved with his life on the line! All Gone!

Finally, the reduction of points stopped.

There were only 10,000 points left in the account, including the 5,000 points that were already in the account.

The corners of Wen Jianyan’s eyes twitched, and his heartache further increased, but he could only grit his teeth and comfort himself—

At least it was better than the last time when there were no points left, right?

At this moment, strange footsteps appeared again below the stairs not far away. The footsteps were suppressed very low, but they were very rapid as if rushing up.

Wen Jianyan’s heart skipped a beat.

He quickly closed the live broadcast interface, moved toward the temporary fire escape next to him, and hid in it deftly and skillfully.

Soon, under the dim light, the flickering shadows appeared on the wall of the stairwell, approaching upward rapidly at the moment.

There were a lot of footsteps, and it sounded like more than one person.

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes and looked slightly sideways.

Soon, the face of the man in front appeared under the light, with short black hair and a gentle face, looking wary and cautious.

It was Su Cheng.

A familiar cockscomb head followed him closely, standing out in the dim light.

Wen Jianyan breathed a sigh of relief and walked out of the hiding place.

Su Cheng was startled by the sudden appearance of a human figure, and the striking white coat on the other party’s body made his vigilance instantly rise to the highest peak. He subconsciously reached into his pocket and held the prop tightly.

But in the next second, an all too familiar voice sounded:

“It’s me.”

“……”

Su Cheng was stunned, and the hand holding the prop slowly relaxed.

The young man stepped out of the shadows. It was the captain of the black team, Wen Jianyan, who had acted separately from them from the beginning.

“…You scared me to death.”

Su Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders slackened as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

The cockscomb head was even more excited, and his eyes almost burst into tears: “Boss! You are finally here! When I heard that the black team surrendered, I was so frightened that my heart almost stopped beating, woo woo woo.”

Wen Jianyan looked toward Su Cheng and raised his eyebrows:

“It seems that you understood what I meant right away, not bad.”

After all, he had ghost babies by his side. As long as he wasn’t dealing with the monster on the third floor, he has basically nothing to worry about.

Previously on the fifth floor, Wen Jianyan chose to surrender for three main reasons.

First, he was against four people. Even if he had the ghost babies protecting him, the other side still had a lot of props in their hands. Wen Jianyan was sure that it would restrict his freedom of movement, so it was better to lower the vigilance of the other side and wait for an opportunity to escape.

Second, although he got the legendary hidden item on the fifth floor, he couldn’t find the key to the second underground floor. After losing the hidden item, the red team would definitely want to go to the second underground floor to find a way to overturn the situation. He had to take the key away to cut off their back route.

The third and most important point was that the other members of the black team were acting separately from him for too long. The number of people on the red team had been increasing, and the situation they were facing was certainly the most dangerous.     

Wen Jianyan wasn’t sure whether his teammates had been caught, so he had to rely on the internal communication channel of the red team to find out, so as to determine whether he could slip away directly next, or continue to disguise and wait for an opportunity to rescue his teammates. 

Su Cheng glanced at the tearful cockscomb head beside him, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he said dryly: 

“…Haha, it was just intuition.” 

——The intuition of a former victim. 

He looked up and down Wen Jianyan’s current attire, and asked in confusion: “You, this is…” 

Qi Shen seemed to have suddenly noticed something. He exclaimed, and stared at the sign on Wen Jianyan’s white coat chest: “Ah, is that my sister’s name!” 

…I almost forgot about it.  

Wen Jianyan’s eyelids twitched, and he looked down at the white coat on his body:     

“Ah, this, the situation is more complicated…” 

Qi Shen was stunned and decisively interrupt the other party:    

“Don’t say it.” 

He stared at the young man in front of him with a touch of emotion in his eyes, and said slowly: “I understand.”   

Cockscomb head: “?”

Su Cheng: “……” 

You didn’t understand a damn thing!   

Qi Shen thought of something and pulled out his mobile phone from his pocket: “By the way, this is yours.”   

Wen Jianyan took the mobile phone: “Thank you.   

The two looked at each other and smiled. The atmosphere between them was like brother-in-law and brother-in-law sympathizing with one another. 

Cockscomb head: “??”  

Su Cheng: “…………”

I don’t want to complain anymore.

At this moment, he seemed to have suddenly thought of something, and opened his mouth to break the strange atmosphere in front of him: “By the way, we also met an acquaintance of yours on the way, and she helped us escape when we were surrounded by the red team.”

Wen Jian Yan was startled: “…what?”

Acquaintance?

What acquaintances could he have in this instance?

With so many people crammed into the narrow staircase, it was really hard to see the whole picture.

Su Cheng turned sideways to make room.

A girl with short hair was standing at the back of the team. She smile shyly at Wen Jianyan, and greeted him: “Hi, classmate, we meet again.” 

It was actually… Cheng Mei?

Wen Jianyan’s face showed obvious surprise.

The cockscomb head interjected at this time: “I didn’t expect to meet her again after separating from her on the third floor. When we were stuck on the second floor just now, if it wasn’t for her, it would be really difficult to escape from the encirclement…”

Yes, during the first round of patrols, Cheng Mei and the cockscomb head were assigned to patrol the third floor together.

Other people might not have any idea, but Wen Jianyan has passed through from the first floor to the fifth floor alone. According to his personal experience, the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department on the third floor was the most dangerous in the entire instance of Fukang Private General Hospital.

If he hadn’t found a way to use ghost babies to counter the rules, Wen Jianyan wasn’t sure if he would be able to survive.

…But, as an NPC, Cheng Mei was unscathed after being left behind for a long time?

A sense of disobedience rose in his heart.

Wen Jianyan’s expression didn’t change, and he smiled a the other party: “I’m relieved to see that you are safe. Let’s go. We should get out here first. I’m afraid it’s too convenient to talk in the stairwell.” 

After speaking, he turned around and took the lead in walking outside the fire exit.

Using the movement as a cover, Wen Jianyan unlocked the phone with his fingerprint and opened the Nightmare app.

【Optional side quest refresh: Find the trainee nurses who were patrolling on the third floor.】

【Completion Degree: 1/3】

Wen Jianyan slammed off the screen and held the phone tightly, his fingertips appearing slightly white due to the force.

The temperature around him seemed to drop instantly, and there was a dense layer of cold sweat on his back, and the chill penetrated into the skin through the sticky clothes.

When he found the cockscomb head, the completion degree had changed from 0/3 to 1/3, but the number had not changed after meeting Cheng Mei, which proved one thing.

This person in the team…

Was not Cheng Mei.