June 29, 2023 by Wyrd
The player threw the white candle on the ground, and it immediately went out. However, in the eyes of that player, the white candle had already returned to its original appearance, with no trace of a venomous snake.
Others looked at him, one after another.
The player himself knew that he had fallen into an illusion, and his expression was quite unpleasant. “I saw the candle turn into a venomous snake and bite towards me.”
Others furrowed their brows, and a tall player spoke up, “Even if you saw a venomous snake coming at you, you shouldn’t have thrown away the candle.”
After all, they were players, not ordinary NPCs. They had long been on guard and couldn’t be easily misled by illusions.
The player nodded. “Yes, but that illusion was strange. It not only affected my vision, but also seemed to affect my brain. It felt as if it was real. At that moment, my mind went blank, and I couldn’t suppress the fear in my heart.”
“By the time I snapped out of it, I had already thrown away the white candle.”
The faces of the other players grew even more grim. If it could affect their brains, it would be difficult to restrain their instinctive reactions.
Just as everyone was uncertain about what was happening, one of the players turned around. “God Pei, why did you hit me?”
Pei Yan glanced at him indifferently. “I didn’t hit you.”
The player’s face immediately turned pale. He remembered Pei Yan’s cold and aloof temperament. How could he have possibly hit him?
Pei Yan was sitting at the back, in the second-to-last row. There was only Pei Yan behind him. If it wasn’t Pei Yan who hit him...
Rule Three: If you hear any sound or if someone touches an area the white candle cannot illuminate, please do not turn around.
The player clenched his lips tightly. He... had violated Rule Three.
The atmosphere in the livestream room became tense.
[It’s over, it’s over. This is the fourth streamer to violate the rules. Are they going to be wiped out!?]
[It’s simply impossible to guard against. Is this instance really only of intermediate difficulty? It’s so challenging!]
[This instance can no longer be considered an intermediate one. As long as there are the words ‘intermediate promotion’ in front of the instance, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes an advanced instance. The current difficulty should be somewhere between intermediate and advanced. What’s even worse is that if the instance promotion succeeds before they clear it, it will become an advanced instance in terms of difficulty.]
[Even God Pei would find it difficult to clear an advanced instance, let alone an instance that promotes itself.]
[Let alone God Pei, even high-level players would have a hard time clearing such a self-promoting instance.]
The players couldn’t see these spoiler comments, but they realized that something was off about the difficulty of this instance.
Usually, the clues in instances couldn’t be buried so deeply. As long as they investigated carefully, they would usually find some traces.
But in this instance, they were constantly wasting their efforts and being toyed with by NPCs. Even the side quests provided them with hints, something that had never happened before in previous instances.
Even in extremely dangerous instances before, the clues would not be so obscure.
The players’ hearts sank. Was the difficulty of this instance really just intermediate?
There were only seven white candles still lit in the classroom, and out of these seven, three violated the rules. Strictly speaking, there were only four left: two on Ruan Qing’s side and two on the players’ side.
And there were thirteen minutes left until 1 AM.
Everyone had never felt these thirteen minutes to be so agonizing. Each movement of the second hand affected everyone’s hearts.
Time ticked away second by second, leaving only the final ten minutes.
Just when everyone was extremely nervous, footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.
Dah!
Dah!
Dah!
Was it an illusion?
The players whose candles were still burning exchanged glances and saw unease and fear in each other’s eyes.
No, it’s not an illusion!
There were indeed footsteps approaching!
Their hearts tightened, and they all lowered their heads, not daring to look towards the door.
Because they all remembered the content of Rule Five.
Rule Five: If someone enters the classroom during the process of invoking blessings, ignore them, do not speak to them, and do not make eye contact with them for more than three seconds.
A person? How could someone come at this early hour?
When the group of classmates left earlier, they didn’t close the classroom door. The footsteps were getting closer, and even though no one looked up, everyone knew that someone had entered the classroom from outside the door.
Ruan Qing also lowered his head, tightly gripping his hands until his palms turned pale.
Rule Five stated that if eye contact lasted less than three seconds, it should be fine.
Ruan Qing lifted his head, and many players had the same thought and also looked up.
There... there was no one...
But the footsteps were still clearly audible.
And they were getting closer.
Ruan Qing struggled to swallow a mouthful of saliva and quickly lowered his head the next second. He was the first one to lower his head.
The time definitely didn’t exceed three seconds.
However, the footsteps were just inches away, and finally... they stopped next to him.
More precisely, they stopped next to Mo Ran because Mo Ran was sitting on the edge.
Ruan Qing tightly held the white candle, biting his lower lip. Cold sweat started forming on his forehead, and his body began to tremble involuntarily.
If he hadn’t been sitting on a chair, he would probably have awkwardly fallen to the ground.
And Mo Ran, who was closest to the aisle, seemed not to have heard the footsteps. Not only him, but those whose candles had extinguished, and those who had violated the rules also seemed not to have heard the footsteps.
It seemed as if it was only targeting those whose white candles hadn’t extinguished yet.
Ruan Qing tried to calm himself down. His candle hadn’t gone out, so there shouldn’t be any problem.
After all, Rule Seven had made it clear that as long as they were within the illumination of their own white candle, they would be absolutely safe.
Besides, apart from his own candle still burning, Li Shuyang’s white candle hadn’t gone out either, so it might not necessarily be stopping for him.
However, in the next moment, Ruan Qing felt something slide across his face, chilling and eerie.
It felt as if... something had brushed against him.
Ruan Qing’s face turned pale, the corners of his eyes instantly reddened, and a layer of mist clouded his gaze. It seemed as though he would burst into tears the next second.
Ruan Qing nervously bit his lower lip, his pale lips turning rosy from the pressure. Fear and dread filled his eyes.
It... must be the wind, right?
It had to be the wind.
It definitely was the wind!
It was early summer now, and there was already a significant temperature difference between day and night. The nighttime breeze was a bit chilly... which was normal.
Just as Ruan Qing tried to calm himself down, it felt as if a gust of cold wind blew past, enveloping him, making him shudder as if he had been chilled to the bone.
At this moment, Li Shuyang’s white candle extinguished.
Li Shuyang widened his eyes, completely losing his previous composure. He looked around fearfully, but there was nothing to be seen. He swallowed nervously and looked at Ruan Qing, “Brother Su Qing, did you feel it just now... as if a gust of wind passed by?”
Ruan Qing didn’t say anything, nor did he raise his head, as if he hadn’t heard Li Shuyang’s words at all.
Because Ruan Qing found it difficult to judge whether responding to Li Shuyang would be regarded as responding to “others.”
Candles could be extinguished, but the rule he least wanted to violate was Rule Five. Just repeating Rule Five in his mind would evoke a sense of fear.
Let alone actually violating it.
Li Shuyang thought Ruan Qing hadn’t heard him when he didn’t respond, so he asked again.
Xiao Shiyi gave him a cold glance on behalf of Ruan Qing and replied, “It’s your illusion. We didn’t feel anything. Stop talking.”
Mo Ran smiled beside them, a smile that made people uncomfortable. “Classmate Li, you should behave and not imitate those two before you. Our Brother Su likes obedient people.”
Although they had been waiting for a long time without hearing any sound, Ruan Qing kept his head down and remained silent.
There were only five minutes left until one o’clock in the morning.
Ruan Qing’s hand holding the white candle started trembling uncontrollably.
He wanted to extinguish the white candle, but he didn’t dare now.
Carefully thinking about the legend and rules of receiving blessings at midnight, several people didn’t actually violate any rules, yet the white candle inexplicably went out. Moreover, the blessed individuals became exceptionally intelligent...
Tears started to well up in Ruan Qing’s eyes.
This prayer for blessings didn’t seem like a desire for blessings at all. Instead, it felt like there was something or someone selecting... bodies.
If one wasn’t chosen, even if they didn’t violate the ten rules, the candle would still be extinguished.
If one was chosen... it was highly likely, just as Ruan Qing suspected, that they wouldn’t be themselves anymore.
The white candle must not burn until one o’clock.
But Ruan Qing didn’t dare to extinguish the candle now because the footsteps beside him had stopped, and they hadn’t been heard again.
It was as if it had all been an illusion.
He was only completely safe under the illumination of his white candle. But if the white candle burned, even a bit beyond the designated time, he might be in trouble before anyone else.
Perhaps by the time one o’clock struck, he would never be able to walk out of this classroom alive.
No, he could walk out, but the ‘person’ walking out wouldn’t be him anymore.
Time seemed to have passed for a long time, yet it also felt like only a few seconds had gone by.
Ruan Qing was now caught in a dilemma. He was afraid the white candle would extinguish, but he was also afraid it wouldn’t.
He struggled to hold back his tears and tried to control his mind from wandering.
Just because he was chosen didn’t necessarily mean it would be him who would be replaced.
After all, there were still three candles left unextinguished. He was just one of them.
However, in the next second, a cold gust of wind blew through, causing the temperature of the entire classroom to drop by several degrees.
Then, suddenly, the classroom dimmed, losing its previous brightness. Darkness once again engulfed the corners.
It was as if the entire classroom had been reduced to only one candle.
Ruan Qing’s heart sank. His face turned ashen, devoid of any color. His body trembled lightly, his muscles stiffened, and he slowly turned around, trembling, with the white candle in his hand.
The white candles of the other players... had all been extinguished.
The entire classroom was left with... only the glow emitted by the candle in his hand.
June 29, 2023 by Wyrd
The player threw the white candle on the ground, and it immediately went out. However, in the eyes of that player, the white candle had already returned to its original appearance, with no trace of a venomous snake.
Others looked at him, one after another.
The player himself knew that he had fallen into an illusion, and his expression was quite unpleasant. “I saw the candle turn into a venomous snake and bite towards me.”
Others furrowed their brows, and a tall player spoke up, “Even if you saw a venomous snake coming at you, you shouldn’t have thrown away the candle.”
After all, they were players, not ordinary NPCs. They had long been on guard and couldn’t be easily misled by illusions.
The player nodded. “Yes, but that illusion was strange. It not only affected my vision, but also seemed to affect my brain. It felt as if it was real. At that moment, my mind went blank, and I couldn’t suppress the fear in my heart.”
“By the time I snapped out of it, I had already thrown away the white candle.”
The faces of the other players grew even more grim. If it could affect their brains, it would be difficult to restrain their instinctive reactions.
Just as everyone was uncertain about what was happening, one of the players turned around. “God Pei, why did you hit me?”
Pei Yan glanced at him indifferently. “I didn’t hit you.”
The player’s face immediately turned pale. He remembered Pei Yan’s cold and aloof temperament. How could he have possibly hit him?
Pei Yan was sitting at the back, in the second-to-last row. There was only Pei Yan behind him. If it wasn’t Pei Yan who hit him...
Rule Three: If you hear any sound or if someone touches an area the white candle cannot illuminate, please do not turn around.
The player clenched his lips tightly. He... had violated Rule Three.
The atmosphere in the livestream room became tense.
[It’s over, it’s over. This is the fourth streamer to violate the rules. Are they going to be wiped out!?]
[It’s simply impossible to guard against. Is this instance really only of intermediate difficulty? It’s so challenging!]
[This instance can no longer be considered an intermediate one. As long as there are the words ‘intermediate promotion’ in front of the instance, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes an advanced instance. The current difficulty should be somewhere between intermediate and advanced. What’s even worse is that if the instance promotion succeeds before they clear it, it will become an advanced instance in terms of difficulty.]
[Even God Pei would find it difficult to clear an advanced instance, let alone an instance that promotes itself.]
[Let alone God Pei, even high-level players would have a hard time clearing such a self-promoting instance.]
The players couldn’t see these spoiler comments, but they realized that something was off about the difficulty of this instance.
Usually, the clues in instances couldn’t be buried so deeply. As long as they investigated carefully, they would usually find some traces.
But in this instance, they were constantly wasting their efforts and being toyed with by NPCs. Even the side quests provided them with hints, something that had never happened before in previous instances.
Even in extremely dangerous instances before, the clues would not be so obscure.
The players’ hearts sank. Was the difficulty of this instance really just intermediate?
There were only seven white candles still lit in the classroom, and out of these seven, three violated the rules. Strictly speaking, there were only four left: two on Ruan Qing’s side and two on the players’ side.
And there were thirteen minutes left until 1 AM.
Everyone had never felt these thirteen minutes to be so agonizing. Each movement of the second hand affected everyone’s hearts.
Time ticked away second by second, leaving only the final ten minutes.
Just when everyone was extremely nervous, footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.
Dah!
Dah!
Dah!
Was it an illusion?
The players whose candles were still burning exchanged glances and saw unease and fear in each other’s eyes.
No, it’s not an illusion!
There were indeed footsteps approaching!
Their hearts tightened, and they all lowered their heads, not daring to look towards the door.
Because they all remembered the content of Rule Five.
Rule Five: If someone enters the classroom during the process of invoking blessings, ignore them, do not speak to them, and do not make eye contact with them for more than three seconds.
A person? How could someone come at this early hour?
When the group of classmates left earlier, they didn’t close the classroom door. The footsteps were getting closer, and even though no one looked up, everyone knew that someone had entered the classroom from outside the door.
Ruan Qing also lowered his head, tightly gripping his hands until his palms turned pale.
Rule Five stated that if eye contact lasted less than three seconds, it should be fine.
Ruan Qing lifted his head, and many players had the same thought and also looked up.
There... there was no one...
But the footsteps were still clearly audible.
And they were getting closer.
Ruan Qing struggled to swallow a mouthful of saliva and quickly lowered his head the next second. He was the first one to lower his head.
The time definitely didn’t exceed three seconds.
However, the footsteps were just inches away, and finally... they stopped next to him.
More precisely, they stopped next to Mo Ran because Mo Ran was sitting on the edge.
Ruan Qing tightly held the white candle, biting his lower lip. Cold sweat started forming on his forehead, and his body began to tremble involuntarily.
If he hadn’t been sitting on a chair, he would probably have awkwardly fallen to the ground.
And Mo Ran, who was closest to the aisle, seemed not to have heard the footsteps. Not only him, but those whose candles had extinguished, and those who had violated the rules also seemed not to have heard the footsteps.
It seemed as if it was only targeting those whose white candles hadn’t extinguished yet.
Ruan Qing tried to calm himself down. His candle hadn’t gone out, so there shouldn’t be any problem.
After all, Rule Seven had made it clear that as long as they were within the illumination of their own white candle, they would be absolutely safe.
Besides, apart from his own candle still burning, Li Shuyang’s white candle hadn’t gone out either, so it might not necessarily be stopping for him.
However, in the next moment, Ruan Qing felt something slide across his face, chilling and eerie.
It felt as if... something had brushed against him.
Ruan Qing’s face turned pale, the corners of his eyes instantly reddened, and a layer of mist clouded his gaze. It seemed as though he would burst into tears the next second.
Ruan Qing nervously bit his lower lip, his pale lips turning rosy from the pressure. Fear and dread filled his eyes.
It... must be the wind, right?
It had to be the wind.
It definitely was the wind!
It was early summer now, and there was already a significant temperature difference between day and night. The nighttime breeze was a bit chilly... which was normal.
Just as Ruan Qing tried to calm himself down, it felt as if a gust of cold wind blew past, enveloping him, making him shudder as if he had been chilled to the bone.
At this moment, Li Shuyang’s white candle extinguished.
Li Shuyang widened his eyes, completely losing his previous composure. He looked around fearfully, but there was nothing to be seen. He swallowed nervously and looked at Ruan Qing, “Brother Su Qing, did you feel it just now... as if a gust of wind passed by?”
Ruan Qing didn’t say anything, nor did he raise his head, as if he hadn’t heard Li Shuyang’s words at all.
Because Ruan Qing found it difficult to judge whether responding to Li Shuyang would be regarded as responding to “others.”
Candles could be extinguished, but the rule he least wanted to violate was Rule Five. Just repeating Rule Five in his mind would evoke a sense of fear.
Let alone actually violating it.
Li Shuyang thought Ruan Qing hadn’t heard him when he didn’t respond, so he asked again.
Xiao Shiyi gave him a cold glance on behalf of Ruan Qing and replied, “It’s your illusion. We didn’t feel anything. Stop talking.”
Mo Ran smiled beside them, a smile that made people uncomfortable. “Classmate Li, you should behave and not imitate those two before you. Our Brother Su likes obedient people.”
Although they had been waiting for a long time without hearing any sound, Ruan Qing kept his head down and remained silent.
There were only five minutes left until one o’clock in the morning.
Ruan Qing’s hand holding the white candle started trembling uncontrollably.
He wanted to extinguish the white candle, but he didn’t dare now.
Carefully thinking about the legend and rules of receiving blessings at midnight, several people didn’t actually violate any rules, yet the white candle inexplicably went out. Moreover, the blessed individuals became exceptionally intelligent...
Tears started to well up in Ruan Qing’s eyes.
This prayer for blessings didn’t seem like a desire for blessings at all. Instead, it felt like there was something or someone selecting... bodies.
If one wasn’t chosen, even if they didn’t violate the ten rules, the candle would still be extinguished.
If one was chosen... it was highly likely, just as Ruan Qing suspected, that they wouldn’t be themselves anymore.
The white candle must not burn until one o’clock.
But Ruan Qing didn’t dare to extinguish the candle now because the footsteps beside him had stopped, and they hadn’t been heard again.
It was as if it had all been an illusion.
He was only completely safe under the illumination of his white candle. But if the white candle burned, even a bit beyond the designated time, he might be in trouble before anyone else.
Perhaps by the time one o’clock struck, he would never be able to walk out of this classroom alive.
No, he could walk out, but the ‘person’ walking out wouldn’t be him anymore.
Time seemed to have passed for a long time, yet it also felt like only a few seconds had gone by.
Ruan Qing was now caught in a dilemma. He was afraid the white candle would extinguish, but he was also afraid it wouldn’t.
He struggled to hold back his tears and tried to control his mind from wandering.
Just because he was chosen didn’t necessarily mean it would be him who would be replaced.
After all, there were still three candles left unextinguished. He was just one of them.
However, in the next second, a cold gust of wind blew through, causing the temperature of the entire classroom to drop by several degrees.
Then, suddenly, the classroom dimmed, losing its previous brightness. Darkness once again engulfed the corners.
It was as if the entire classroom had been reduced to only one candle.
Ruan Qing’s heart sank. His face turned ashen, devoid of any color. His body trembled lightly, his muscles stiffened, and he slowly turned around, trembling, with the white candle in his hand.
The white candles of the other players... had all been extinguished.
The entire classroom was left with... only the glow emitted by the candle in his hand.
