Chapter 134: Where is Su Cheng?
The room was dimly lit.
Most of the young man’s body was buried under a soft velvet blanket, his well-defined chest rising and falling in the darkness. His tousled hair scattered on the pillow, partially obscuring his sharp profile.
His figure was quite attractive, with thin yet well-proportioned muscles that hid powerful explosiveness. While at rest, he appeared supple and relaxed.
His waist was slender, and the soft curves along his spine formed a delicate indentation, creating a curvature that was perfect to be held.
Scattered by the pillow, a shard of mirror lay in a pile of fabric.
A faint, thin shadow slowly emanated from it, as if light smoke, faint and subtle, flowed unconsciously toward the person in bed, winding around his slender, fair forearm, following the texture of his muscles, tightening and entwining.
It resembled a snake’s tight embrace, both like hunting and caressing.
***
Wen Jianyan rubbed his tousled hair as he climbed out of bed.
He sat on the edge of the bed, looking fatigued, and glanced at his phone to check the time.
Since he had returned, he had slept for a full twelve hours, yet he still felt tired, his muscles sore and exhausted, as if he had fought with someone in his sleep.
The quality of this sleep was indeed quite poor.
At least this time, that guy Wu Zhu hadn’t come to disturb him in his dreams again, but Wen Jianyan had had a nightmare that left him feeling bound and unable to move.
He tossed his phone aside, buried his face in his hands, and let out a long sigh.
…Sure enough, the psychological shadow that guy brought to him was too deep.
Wen Jianyan lowered his hands, turned his head, and saw the shard of the mirror on the pillow.
It lay quietly in its original place, its smooth surface reflecting a faint light.
“…”
Wen Jianyan reached out and picked up the shard.
The irregular edges of the mirror were hard and cold, slightly painful in his palm. In the dim light, he could only see his own blurry reflection.
He opened the Nightmare app and tried several times, but he still couldn’t put it in his backpack.
It was truly puzzling.
Wen Jianyan threw the shard back to its original position and opened the Nightmare Anchor’s internal forum, and as soon as he opened the forum homepage, his eyes were met with a flurry of lively posts.
[Did I read it wrong? Did the Fantasy Amusement Park instance achieve a platinum achievement? Where did this ‘Integrity First’ live broadcast room come from?]
Inside the Nightmare live broadcast rooms, unless an instance achieved permanent closure by achieving a platinum achievement, anchors were not allowed to reveal or discuss the content of the instance, nor were they allowed to post related threads in the forum.
However, after an instance achieved permanent closure, this restriction would be lifted, allowing discussion in various public areas.
[Huh? I don’t understand. Is the Fantasy Amusement Park instance famous?]
[I haven’t heard of it either…]
[I checked the forum just now, and there are several posts related to this instance. What’s going on?]
[At the beginning, not knowing about this instance is normal. After all, there aren’t many anchors left who have impressions of this instance since the Fantasy Amusement Park instance hasn’t been open for a long time. But during the time it was open, it was practically a gold mine for potential anchors.]
[Yeah, that’s right. For a period of time, B-level and C-level guild rookies were basically taken away by this instance. As soon as it opened, the rankings would be filled with it.]
[I remember back then, several guilds were heavily investing in nurturing rookies, but they were all taken away by this instance. It was really tragic.]
When anchors die in an instance, they don’t immediately disappear from the rankings. Their live broadcast rooms would become grayed out, and their names would display the instance they are currently in. It takes twenty-four hours for them to be removed.
So, even though the “No Spoilers” rule prohibits anchors from discussing instance content, the anchors who always keep an eye on the rankings could still form impressions of instances based on how frequently live broadcast rooms go gray.
[So, who’s the big shot that cleared the Fantasy Amusement Park instance this time? I don’t think I’ve heard of this live broadcast room.]
[It definitely isn’t one of the level S or above. I just checked, and their live broadcast room names haven’t changed.]
[Could it be an alt account?]
The mysterious anchor who achieved a platinum achievement was the subject of much speculation on the forum.
At this moment, Wen Jianyan, who was at the center of public discussion, saw a notification pop up on his screen.
[Dear Nightmare contracted anchor Wen Jianyan, hello! Congratulations on your anchor level promotion to level B! You have become a senior intermediate anchor on this platform!
Your anchor account’s backend permissions have been upgraded, and the online guild system, bounty system, achievement system, and various ranking backends are now open to you. Please update your personal information promptly to ensure that your live broadcast room is displayed correctly on the rankings!]
Wen Jianyan clicked on it, following the prompt.
Upon entering his own live broadcast backend, a series of achievement notifications popped up. Wen Jianyan quickly glanced through them and realized that these were all achievements he had previously achieved. There were platinum achievements from closed instances and some achievements with peculiar names, with gold, silver, and bronze trophies sparkling on the screen, likely categorized by difficulty.
Anchors could choose different achievements to display in the frontend, which would appear directly on the rankings.
Since he hadn’t joined any guilds yet, the online guild system was still empty.
The bounty system was only partially open, with most of the bounties related to props or team-up invitations posted by freelance anchors.
Wen Jianyan opened the ranking system.
Having completed four instances, his live broadcast room had already been removed from the newcomer rankings and entered the overall server rankings.
However, due to the limited number of instances he had been through, while Wen Jianyan’s live broadcast room was rapidly climbing in the rankings, it still ranked quite low on the overall server score and popularity rankings.
But what surprised him was that his live broadcast room had actually appeared on the Beauty List.
Among a sea of handsome men and beautiful women with profile pictures and attractive full-screen images, his live broadcast room, with a blank profile picture and an initial combination of numbers and letters, stood out conspicuously.
After some thought, Wen Jianyan decided not to change his initial information.
After all, he wasn’t very concerned about rankings, guilds, or attracting followers through these means. Moreover, Wen Jianyan had a clear understanding of his capabilities for making enemies, so he preferred to keep a low profile.
After casually selecting three bronze trophies to place on his homepage, Wen Jianyan exited the backend.
There were indeed some benefits to becoming a level B anchor. At the very least, the forum had opened up basic search functionality for him.
Wen Jianyan tried searching for any information on the “Ouroboros prop” on the forum, but apart from some theoretical concepts he already knew, he found nothing.
He sighed, got dressed, and left the room.
“You’re awake?”
Hearing the sound of the door opening and closing, Ji Guan, who was standing at the door, looked up and showed a surprised expression. “You slept for a long time. Still tired?”
“Umm…”
Wen Jianyan ran his hand through his messy hair and responded vaguely, “Sort of.”
He looked around and furrowed his brow slightly.
“Su Cheng hasn’t come back yet?”
Ji Guan shook his head, his expression turning solemn. “No.”
“I was actually getting ready to go out and look for him.” He said, raising his hand and showing Wen Jianyan his phone screen, looking worried:
“I tried to contact him several times just now, but he hasn’t replied to my messages, and he’s not answering his calls. It’s like he disappeared out of thin air.”
Wen Jianyan slowly frowned.
While it was forbidden for anchors to fight privately within the system space, that didn’t mean that this place was absolutely safe. Plus, Su Cheng had a unique ability that had brought him into contact with the Oracle’s group, making it difficult to believe that he was absolutely safe right now.
“Did he mention where he was going when he left?” Wen Jianyan asked.
Ji Guan blinked, shaking his head in confusion. “No…”
“In that case, what’s the use of you going out to look for him? Are you hoping to stumble upon him while wandering the streets?”
Wen Jianyan’s words were not very polite, but they were indeed true. The system space was simply too vast, and searching aimlessly for someone was almost impossible.
Ji Guan had no words in response and could only lower his head in frustration.
Wen Jianyan lowered his gaze, lost in thought.
Although there was still some room for maneuver within the system space, there were strict rules against private combat, and it was basically impossible to directly threaten someone’s life.
If someone was really planning to harm an anchor, there was only one way…
Go to an instance.
Wen Jianyan seemed to have thought of something. He took out his phone from his pocket and quickly opened the Nightmare app.
On the list of strongest newcomers, he found Su Cheng’s live broadcast room in the middle of the list, and it hadn’t turned gray yet, indicating that his life was currently not in danger.
However, below Su Cheng’s live broadcast room, a line of small text suddenly appeared.
[Matching for Instance…]
In the Nightmare live room, instances couldn’t start whenever they wanted. There needed to be enough instances and anchors in the broadcast square for it to officially begin.
To enter an instance, you had to sign up for matching.
Once you signed up, you couldn’t cancel it, and the matching time could be as short as a few dozen minutes or as long as over ten hours.
In other words… Su Cheng, without notifying anyone and with several days of rest time left, had signed up for the next round of live broadcast.
This didn’t seem like something he would do.
Ji Guan’s face turned even paler. “So, what should we do now?”
Sign up now?
But even if they signed up now, without forming a team in advance, there was no guarantee that they would be placed in the same instance as the other player.
Wen Jianyan lowered his gaze and pondered for a while.
“Don’t worry, I know a way.”
Wen Jianyan indeed didn’t know how to ensure they would be placed in the same instance without forming a team, but someone else did, and that was enough.
***
“…”
Blond blinked blankly and repeated in disbelief: “Wait a minute? What do you mean? Are you going to contact the organization I was with before…?”
Wen Jianyan nodded: “Yes.”
Blond looked perplexed. “And do you know that, with them, the bounty on you hasn’t actually been removed?”
Wen Jianyan nodded again, unperturbed: “Yes.”
Blond: “…”
You’re really something!
In fact, after leaving the Fantasy Amusement Park, the organization tried to contact Blond several times, but he avoided all their attempts. Wen Jianyan’s words when they left the instance had a significant impact on him, and combined with what he had seen and heard in the Fantasy Amusement Park, Blond’s internal scales had already shifted towards Wen Jianyan.
However, he was timid and indecisive, lacking the courage to actively leave the organization, so he had been evading their attempts by pretending not to have seen the contacts from above.
But deep down, he knew that this kind of avoidance was not a long-term solution… He would have to find an opportunity to settle things.
“Huh.”
Blond sighed, ran his hand through his hair in frustration, and finally gave in:
“Okay, I’ll take you there, but…”
“But?”
Wen Jianyan was puzzled, urging him to continue.
Blond took a deep breath, gathered his courage, looked up at Wen Jianyan, and his face turned a little red as he stuttered:
“You, you, do you have to use this appearance?”
“Hmm?”
Wen Jianyan blinked as the soft and gentle girl in a long white dress, her voice low and sweet with a hint of Wu dialect, looked exceptionally gentle and non-threatening, exuding an instinctual sense of endearment.
Wen Jianyan glanced down at his attire and suddenly realized.
“Oh, so you prefer the previous type? Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Blond: “…”
The author has something to say:
Wen Jianyan, an anchor who loves to change appearances and transform into various characters, and a seasoned Miracle Nikki player who treats the nightmare live room as a dress-up game.
Chapter 134: Where is Su Cheng?
The room was dimly lit.
Most of the young man’s body was buried under a soft velvet blanket, his well-defined chest rising and falling in the darkness. His tousled hair scattered on the pillow, partially obscuring his sharp profile.
His figure was quite attractive, with thin yet well-proportioned muscles that hid powerful explosiveness. While at rest, he appeared supple and relaxed.
His waist was slender, and the soft curves along his spine formed a delicate indentation, creating a curvature that was perfect to be held.
Scattered by the pillow, a shard of mirror lay in a pile of fabric.
A faint, thin shadow slowly emanated from it, as if light smoke, faint and subtle, flowed unconsciously toward the person in bed, winding around his slender, fair forearm, following the texture of his muscles, tightening and entwining.
It resembled a snake’s tight embrace, both like hunting and caressing.
***
Wen Jianyan rubbed his tousled hair as he climbed out of bed.
He sat on the edge of the bed, looking fatigued, and glanced at his phone to check the time.
Since he had returned, he had slept for a full twelve hours, yet he still felt tired, his muscles sore and exhausted, as if he had fought with someone in his sleep.
The quality of this sleep was indeed quite poor.
At least this time, that guy Wu Zhu hadn’t come to disturb him in his dreams again, but Wen Jianyan had had a nightmare that left him feeling bound and unable to move.
He tossed his phone aside, buried his face in his hands, and let out a long sigh.
…Sure enough, the psychological shadow that guy brought to him was too deep.
Wen Jianyan lowered his hands, turned his head, and saw the shard of the mirror on the pillow.
It lay quietly in its original place, its smooth surface reflecting a faint light.
“…”
Wen Jianyan reached out and picked up the shard.
The irregular edges of the mirror were hard and cold, slightly painful in his palm. In the dim light, he could only see his own blurry reflection.
He opened the Nightmare app and tried several times, but he still couldn’t put it in his backpack.
It was truly puzzling.
Wen Jianyan threw the shard back to its original position and opened the Nightmare Anchor’s internal forum, and as soon as he opened the forum homepage, his eyes were met with a flurry of lively posts.
[Did I read it wrong? Did the Fantasy Amusement Park instance achieve a platinum achievement? Where did this ‘Integrity First’ live broadcast room come from?]
Inside the Nightmare live broadcast rooms, unless an instance achieved permanent closure by achieving a platinum achievement, anchors were not allowed to reveal or discuss the content of the instance, nor were they allowed to post related threads in the forum.
However, after an instance achieved permanent closure, this restriction would be lifted, allowing discussion in various public areas.
[Huh? I don’t understand. Is the Fantasy Amusement Park instance famous?]
[I haven’t heard of it either…]
[I checked the forum just now, and there are several posts related to this instance. What’s going on?]
[At the beginning, not knowing about this instance is normal. After all, there aren’t many anchors left who have impressions of this instance since the Fantasy Amusement Park instance hasn’t been open for a long time. But during the time it was open, it was practically a gold mine for potential anchors.]
[Yeah, that’s right. For a period of time, B-level and C-level guild rookies were basically taken away by this instance. As soon as it opened, the rankings would be filled with it.]
[I remember back then, several guilds were heavily investing in nurturing rookies, but they were all taken away by this instance. It was really tragic.]
When anchors die in an instance, they don’t immediately disappear from the rankings. Their live broadcast rooms would become grayed out, and their names would display the instance they are currently in. It takes twenty-four hours for them to be removed.
So, even though the “No Spoilers” rule prohibits anchors from discussing instance content, the anchors who always keep an eye on the rankings could still form impressions of instances based on how frequently live broadcast rooms go gray.
[So, who’s the big shot that cleared the Fantasy Amusement Park instance this time? I don’t think I’ve heard of this live broadcast room.]
[It definitely isn’t one of the level S or above. I just checked, and their live broadcast room names haven’t changed.]
[Could it be an alt account?]
The mysterious anchor who achieved a platinum achievement was the subject of much speculation on the forum.
At this moment, Wen Jianyan, who was at the center of public discussion, saw a notification pop up on his screen.
[Dear Nightmare contracted anchor Wen Jianyan, hello! Congratulations on your anchor level promotion to level B! You have become a senior intermediate anchor on this platform!
Your anchor account’s backend permissions have been upgraded, and the online guild system, bounty system, achievement system, and various ranking backends are now open to you. Please update your personal information promptly to ensure that your live broadcast room is displayed correctly on the rankings!]
Wen Jianyan clicked on it, following the prompt.
Upon entering his own live broadcast backend, a series of achievement notifications popped up. Wen Jianyan quickly glanced through them and realized that these were all achievements he had previously achieved. There were platinum achievements from closed instances and some achievements with peculiar names, with gold, silver, and bronze trophies sparkling on the screen, likely categorized by difficulty.
Anchors could choose different achievements to display in the frontend, which would appear directly on the rankings.
Since he hadn’t joined any guilds yet, the online guild system was still empty.
The bounty system was only partially open, with most of the bounties related to props or team-up invitations posted by freelance anchors.
Wen Jianyan opened the ranking system.
Having completed four instances, his live broadcast room had already been removed from the newcomer rankings and entered the overall server rankings.
However, due to the limited number of instances he had been through, while Wen Jianyan’s live broadcast room was rapidly climbing in the rankings, it still ranked quite low on the overall server score and popularity rankings.
But what surprised him was that his live broadcast room had actually appeared on the Beauty List.
Among a sea of handsome men and beautiful women with profile pictures and attractive full-screen images, his live broadcast room, with a blank profile picture and an initial combination of numbers and letters, stood out conspicuously.
After some thought, Wen Jianyan decided not to change his initial information.
After all, he wasn’t very concerned about rankings, guilds, or attracting followers through these means. Moreover, Wen Jianyan had a clear understanding of his capabilities for making enemies, so he preferred to keep a low profile.
After casually selecting three bronze trophies to place on his homepage, Wen Jianyan exited the backend.
There were indeed some benefits to becoming a level B anchor. At the very least, the forum had opened up basic search functionality for him.
Wen Jianyan tried searching for any information on the “Ouroboros prop” on the forum, but apart from some theoretical concepts he already knew, he found nothing.
He sighed, got dressed, and left the room.
“You’re awake?”
Hearing the sound of the door opening and closing, Ji Guan, who was standing at the door, looked up and showed a surprised expression. “You slept for a long time. Still tired?”
“Umm…”
Wen Jianyan ran his hand through his messy hair and responded vaguely, “Sort of.”
He looked around and furrowed his brow slightly.
“Su Cheng hasn’t come back yet?”
Ji Guan shook his head, his expression turning solemn. “No.”
“I was actually getting ready to go out and look for him.” He said, raising his hand and showing Wen Jianyan his phone screen, looking worried:
“I tried to contact him several times just now, but he hasn’t replied to my messages, and he’s not answering his calls. It’s like he disappeared out of thin air.”
Wen Jianyan slowly frowned.
While it was forbidden for anchors to fight privately within the system space, that didn’t mean that this place was absolutely safe. Plus, Su Cheng had a unique ability that had brought him into contact with the Oracle’s group, making it difficult to believe that he was absolutely safe right now.
“Did he mention where he was going when he left?” Wen Jianyan asked.
Ji Guan blinked, shaking his head in confusion. “No…”
“In that case, what’s the use of you going out to look for him? Are you hoping to stumble upon him while wandering the streets?”
Wen Jianyan’s words were not very polite, but they were indeed true. The system space was simply too vast, and searching aimlessly for someone was almost impossible.
Ji Guan had no words in response and could only lower his head in frustration.
Wen Jianyan lowered his gaze, lost in thought.
Although there was still some room for maneuver within the system space, there were strict rules against private combat, and it was basically impossible to directly threaten someone’s life.
If someone was really planning to harm an anchor, there was only one way…
Go to an instance.
Wen Jianyan seemed to have thought of something. He took out his phone from his pocket and quickly opened the Nightmare app.
On the list of strongest newcomers, he found Su Cheng’s live broadcast room in the middle of the list, and it hadn’t turned gray yet, indicating that his life was currently not in danger.
However, below Su Cheng’s live broadcast room, a line of small text suddenly appeared.
[Matching for Instance…]
In the Nightmare live room, instances couldn’t start whenever they wanted. There needed to be enough instances and anchors in the broadcast square for it to officially begin.
To enter an instance, you had to sign up for matching.
Once you signed up, you couldn’t cancel it, and the matching time could be as short as a few dozen minutes or as long as over ten hours.
In other words… Su Cheng, without notifying anyone and with several days of rest time left, had signed up for the next round of live broadcast.
This didn’t seem like something he would do.
Ji Guan’s face turned even paler. “So, what should we do now?”
Sign up now?
But even if they signed up now, without forming a team in advance, there was no guarantee that they would be placed in the same instance as the other player.
Wen Jianyan lowered his gaze and pondered for a while.
“Don’t worry, I know a way.”
Wen Jianyan indeed didn’t know how to ensure they would be placed in the same instance without forming a team, but someone else did, and that was enough.
***
“…”
Blond blinked blankly and repeated in disbelief: “Wait a minute? What do you mean? Are you going to contact the organization I was with before…?”
Wen Jianyan nodded: “Yes.”
Blond looked perplexed. “And do you know that, with them, the bounty on you hasn’t actually been removed?”
Wen Jianyan nodded again, unperturbed: “Yes.”
Blond: “…”
You’re really something!
In fact, after leaving the Fantasy Amusement Park, the organization tried to contact Blond several times, but he avoided all their attempts. Wen Jianyan’s words when they left the instance had a significant impact on him, and combined with what he had seen and heard in the Fantasy Amusement Park, Blond’s internal scales had already shifted towards Wen Jianyan.
However, he was timid and indecisive, lacking the courage to actively leave the organization, so he had been evading their attempts by pretending not to have seen the contacts from above.
But deep down, he knew that this kind of avoidance was not a long-term solution… He would have to find an opportunity to settle things.
“Huh.”
Blond sighed, ran his hand through his hair in frustration, and finally gave in:
“Okay, I’ll take you there, but…”
“But?”
Wen Jianyan was puzzled, urging him to continue.
Blond took a deep breath, gathered his courage, looked up at Wen Jianyan, and his face turned a little red as he stuttered:
“You, you, do you have to use this appearance?”
“Hmm?”
Wen Jianyan blinked as the soft and gentle girl in a long white dress, her voice low and sweet with a hint of Wu dialect, looked exceptionally gentle and non-threatening, exuding an instinctual sense of endearment.
Wen Jianyan glanced down at his attire and suddenly realized.
“Oh, so you prefer the previous type? Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Blond: “…”
The author has something to say:
Wen Jianyan, an anchor who loves to change appearances and transform into various characters, and a seasoned Miracle Nikki player who treats the nightmare live room as a dress-up game.
