As a real man, be a coward when you should!

[Hahahahahaha, why was he caught so soon!]

[Hahahahahaha I declared that I will live in this live room from now on. It has brought me so much happiness.]

[Hahahahahaha why is it so funny to watch the anchor rollover? Hahahahah!]

[I wanna see what story he is going to make this time hahaha!]

Inside the corridor.

The temperature in the air dropped sharply, and the icy cold air penetrated into the skin, infiltrating the heart.

Zzzz, zzzz—

The harsh sound of electric current echoed in the empty corridor, scratching the eardrum like a thin, sharp needle.

Before he knew it, that face had completely changed back to its original appearance.

Under the flickering light, that terrifying face was coated with a layer of blue-grey light. The curvature of the corners of its mouth was exaggerated and eerie, and the skin was white as if swollen. A pair of pure black pupils stared straight at him. The cold gaze full of maliciousness was like gangrene attached to the bones, snaking up his back.

The young man was standing a few steps away, looking calm and expressionless.

He took a deep breath slowly——

Then turned around and ran away!

"..."

Question marks and ellipses floated across the barrage.

[?]

[???]

[That's it? That's it?]

As a swindler who cherished his life, Wen Jianyan always firmly believed in a life rule.

As a real man, when it's time to be cowardly, be cowardly!

Wen Jianyan look ahead and ran like mad.

It was as if he was not running away, but rushing toward a better tomorrow with big strides.

Not only was he caught lying in front of the main boss, but the other party also had strength that he could not compete with. At this time, he only had the last magic weapon at the bottom of the box——

Escape!

Behind him, the smiling face was like a shadow.

From the corner of his eyes, Wen Jianyan saw that Xu Yuan's face appeared in the glass window beside him from time to time, and a pair of dark eyes stared straight at him.

Approaching him step by step.

The face drew closer, and the distance between them slowly and irreversibly shortened.

The corners of the pale and twisted lips rose strangely, and the facial features became more and more similar to Wen Jianyan's.

Wen Jianyan's heart skipped a beat.

He found that the speed of the other party's assimilation this time was much faster than the last time. In just a few tens of seconds, the face was already seven or eight points similar to his.

But it doesn't matter, it's almost here.

Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth and took off his coat while speeding up.

He rushed toward the stairwell with large strides, and suddenly raised his arm——

The coat was thrown upward and smashed precisely at the light bulb above his head with a sound!

"Crack!"

The clear sound of glass shattering sounded!

Fragments of the hot bulb scattered, and the red-burning wick quickly dimmed. The next second, the only light went out, and the entire corridor was plunged into darkness.

Wen Jianyan stood in the darkness, his chest heaving up and down quickly, and his heart was thumping in his chest cavity.

"..."

There was dead silence in his ears.

Nothing was catching up anymore.

Well, it looked like he made the right choice.

Wen Jianyan let out a long sigh, leaned against the cold wall a little out of strength, and gasped for breath.

According to his previous experience in dealing with Xu Yuan, the other party was mostly inside the mirror, and only after robbing the identity of a living person could she move outside the mirror.

Wen Jianyan noticed the state of the anchor when he was on the fourth floor before. Judging from his increasingly stiff and deformed face, Xu Yuan's time outside the mirror was most likely limited.

Therefore, in order to be able to leave the mirror all the time, she must constantly seize other people's identities.

Obviously, the time limit for the unlucky anchor had arrived and he was the next victim to be targeted.

Fortunately, however, there was a time lag in between.

Since Xu Yuan wanted to get his identity, she must give up the identity of the anchor first. So during this time, she returned to the mirror.

And Wen Jianyan seized this opportunity.

The premise that the mirror could reflect the object was that there was a light source, so if the light source could be made to disappear, the other party couldn't move.

Wen Jianyan raised his hand and rubbed the small blood marks on his cheeks that had been scratched by the glass fragments. The pain was minimal under the action of adrenaline, and he could only feel the warm and sticky touch when the blood flowed across his cheeks.

He adjusted his breathing.

It was fine so far.

Finally caught up.

The human skin portrait in the pocket was heavy.

In fact, at the moment when he was just blocked by Xu Yuan, Wen Jianyan had the idea of handing over her "face" to the other party so that he could escape the disaster and complete the task, wouldn't that be the best for both sides?

However, the idea was quickly rejected by him.

This was not enough.

If that person with an inverted face was really "Xu Yuan", Wen Jianyan would never hesitate.

But the problem was that now this "Xu Yuan" had absolutely nothing in common with the one in the diary. According to the information revealed by the audience in the barrage, Xu Yuan was now the most difficult monster in the entire instance.

Her aggression was too strong.

All the monsters Wen Jianyan had seen since entering the instance have a core obsession as the driving force.

Xiao Jie's obsession was to "help her mother", while the obsession of that person with an inverted face was to "take Xu Yuan's identity", but what about Xu Yuan?

Take back her face?

Normally that should be the case.

But… Wen Jianyan always felt that something was not right, so he didn't dare to draw conclusions so easily.

After all, according to the information he had obtained from another anchor, the reason why they went back to the fourth floor was that the anchor whose body was occupied by Xu Yuan led them there.

She repeatedly seized the identity of a living person, left the mirror, and led more people to the fourth floor.

——This was not something that a ghost who wanted to take back their identity would do.

If Wen Jianyan's intuition wasn't wrong, even if he had just returned the human skin portrait, it wouldn't do anything to save his life.

Although the task would be completed, the person would also be gone, which was too worthless.

So, after a quick weighing of the pros and cons, Wen Jianyan decided to settle for the next best thing and risked going to the stairwell to cut off the light source.

Although the mission has not yet been completed, at least his life was safe.

After groping around in the corridor, Wen Jianyan slowly stood up.

After losing the only light source, the entire corridor seemed to be immersed in bottomless darkness, and nothing could be seen.

Wen Jianyan asked tentatively in his mind:

"Does the light from the live broadcast interface count as a light source in the instance?"

[No]The system's flat and cold voice sounded: [Live broadcast interface can only be seen by the host, so it can't create real light in the instance.]

That's good.

Wen Jianyan calmed down and opened the live broadcast interface.

As soon as the interface was opened, all the clanging sounds that had been blocked rang together.

[Ding! The number of people online in the live broadcast room exceeded 10,000!]

[Congratulations to the anchor for his achievement: Popular Newcomer King

Wow, the popularity of your live broadcast room is steadily increasing. Although you are just a newcomer, more and more viewers are pouring into your live broadcast room, deeply impressed by your charm! Sending you to the throne of the popular newcomer king in this instance!

Please make persistent efforts to create a more exciting and novel live broadcast experience for the audience!]

Wen Jianyan exchanged some points for survival time. The remaining points now, plus the reward points should last until the end of the instance without any problem.

That being the case, he had enough points to hide from the old witch. So he could now slack off and wait for the instance to end automatically.

Wen Jianyan let out a breath slowly, the pressure brought by the 20-minute survival time in the beginning was too great, so he was in an extremely tense state from the beginning. Now he can finally not be afraid all the time that he would die violently in five minutes.

He opened the backpack.

The "Hand of Guidance" and the "Concealment Robe" that he had purchased before were all used up, and now the entire backpack was empty, which also made the apple seedling icon in the upper right corner look extraordinarily lush.

The following two lines of small print look particularly clear and eye-catching.

[The second stage of growth has been achieved.]

[Unlock conditions have been met.]

Wen Jianyan: ?

He remembered that in the first stage, there seemed to be no unlocking of this program?

Under his puzzled gaze, a line of small words popped up on the screen:

[Detecting that the host is out of danger, the system is automatically unlocking it for you.]

Wen Jianyan: ??

Wait?

Wait???

He suddenly had a very ominous premonition.

No way?!

Wen Jianyan hurriedly opened the backstage again and looked at his remaining points in a panic — the next second, the numbers on it came into view, which suddenly made his eyes go blank, his breath suffocated, and he almost had a cardiac arrest.

[Remaining points: 0]

Wen Jianyan: "..."

After working hard for half a day, he returned to the pre-liberation period overnight.

Fuck your uncle!

Wen Jianyan was dizzy with anger. He stared at the apple seedling, and almost put himself on a ventilator.

After finally earning enough points to ensure that he could clear the instance, the result was suddenly destroyed by this useless thing.

What luck!

Under his furious stare, a small tip slowly emerged from the top branch of the apple seedling, green and round, only the size of a fingernail.

Wen Jianyan was stunned.

He frowned and reached out to poke the icon.

A line of small print appeared.

[The Fruit of Lies]

Wen Jianyan was startled.

In the Old Testament, the human beings in the Garden of Eden were deceived to eat the forbidden fruit by the devil who turned into a snake. All desires, disasters, greed, and destruction began with this lie.

This was a novice gift customized by the system according to his soul quality.

Indeed…

Unique.

Just as Wen Jianyan was muttering, the sound of footsteps came from overhead, and a faint light swayed, gradually illuminating the dark stairs.

Not good, light source!

Wen Jianyan suddenly came back to his senses, and his expression froze.

Su Cheng held the flashlight he forgot to return in his hand and walked down the stairs step by step.

His heart was as heavy as his pace.

Although he understood intellectually that the senior anchor's approach was the most efficient and safest. He was just an NPC, even if he was coaxed into a dangerous place and sacrificed, it didn't matter.

But…

Whenever Brother Xu Wen who went into danger alone in order to find his younger sister, even when he encountered danger, his first reaction was to protect these "students", flashed in his mind, Su Cheng's heart couldn't help but faintly ache.

He didn't think that was the right thing to do.

Whenever he thought of himself who didn't stand up and stop loudly at that time, Su Cheng regretted it so much that he wanted to slap himself.

Anger and remorse collided in his heart, causing him to turn away without hesitation.

The group of senior anchors was guarding in front of 408, and Su Cheng couldn't go in to find him, so the only thing he could do now was to try his best to help Xu Wen fulfill his wish——

To find his sister.

Su Cheng took a deep breath and his eyes became firm.

At this moment, he suddenly noticed that he had walked into darkness unknowingly.

The lights in the stairwell on this floor at some point actually went out.

Too dark.

It was like being alone in a swamp, with an impenetrable heavy darkness in front of you. The sound and the light disappeared together, leaving only an uneasy abyss of nothingness.

Su Cheng stopped in surprise.

What happened?

What exactly happened here?

Before he could figure out why a black figure suddenly rushed over from the darkness and pressed him against the wall!

"Eh…!"

Su Cheng's breathing stopped, and his pupils instantly tightened in shock and fear.

The flashlight was brutally snatched away.

In the next second, the only light source disappeared, leaving only bottomless darkness in front of him.

No!

Need to escape!

Su Cheng gasped in horror, his back was firmly pressed against the hard wall, and he struggled desperately with all his strength, until——

"Quiet."

A deliberately lowered voice sounded in his ears. A clear voice with a slightly hurried enunciation, seemingly familiar.

"…!"

Su Cheng slowly widened his eyes, and his tense limbs relaxed little by little.

He took a deep breath and whispered cautiously, almost in disbelief, "Brother XiaoWen…?"

"It's me."

After hearing this familiar answer, Su Cheng's eyes became hot and he almost shed tears:

"I, I thought—"

"Me too."

Wen Jianyan interrupted him and said quickly.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, examining the other person's blurred silhouette in the darkness.

If the people who came were those senior anchors, Wen Jianyan would definitely not take the flashlight. He would just turn around and run away. As for whether anyone would die under Xu Yuan's hands this time, it was not something he care about.

However, after discovering that it was Su Cheng, Wen Jianyan immediately changed his strategy.

A living comrade was more useful than a dead one.

——However, First, he had to know how much the other party understood about what had happened before.

Wen Jianyan let go of Su Cheng's hand:

"What about the other students? How did you get separated from them?"

Contrary to his indifferent expression, his voice was full of warmth, as if he genuinely cared about the other party and his companions.

"After you entered 408, I took the initiative to leave."

Su Cheng sniffed and looked at him in the dark. With a rare solemnity and calmness in his voice: "Brother XiaoWen, I have to confess something to you."

"I'm not a student, and the people I met on the fourth floor before are not students either. We all came here with the same purpose. They have bad intentions. The reason why they acted with you just now is to use you to get something and trick you into exploring dangerous places."

He took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and said the words that he had been holding in his heart for a long time:

"And… in fact, I am the same as them, we all have bad intentions."

There was silence in front of him.

Su Cheng looked into the darkness and waited anxiously.

After a long time, he only heard a sigh from the opposite side: "Don't say that."

The young man's voice was particularly soft in the darkness:

"After all, didn't I also start working with you because I want you to help me? "

Su Cheng's nose was sour.

He didn't expect that the other party would actually use this way to comfort him…

Ah! What a good man!!

[…D@mn.]

[…F*ck.]

[…Unexpectedly, the anchor didn't lie this time.]

[But he was still regarded as a good person hahahahaha!]

[Wake up! This is the person in front of you who really has bad intentions!]

[Hahahahahahaha, the anchors who were trying to pit this scammer had already been slaughtered. This silly kid is caring about the wrong person hahahahaha!]

After being pulled up by Wen Jianyan, Su Cheng asked, "Brother XiaoWen, what are you going to do next? What's the plan?"

"..."

If this question had been asked ten minutes ago, Wen Jianyan would have chosen to slack off and wait for the time to pass.

However, thinking of the bright [0] in his account now, Wen Jianyan could only swallow a mouthful of old blood back into his stomach. He endure the toothache, and tried his best to answer in a calm voice:

"I know how to find my sister."

——After all, he had just smashed the light bulb, forcing his "sister" to be unable to show up.

However, the situation now has been completely reversed.

At that time, the points in the account were enough, and the task of returning the face to Xu Yuan wasn't necessary to do.

But now Wen Jianyan has to do it.

Otherwise, he won't be able to survive the next few hours!

"What?!" Su Cheng was startled and suddenly looked up at the young man in front of him: "You, have you found a clue?"

"Almost."

Wen Jianyan paused and said, "It's just that this may require your help."

Unexpectedly, after he confessed, the other party was still willing to cooperate.

Su Cheng, who was already ashamed, was even more moved at the moment. He nodded quickly: "Okay, no problem."

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes, smiled silently in the darkness, and said in a sincere tone, "Thank you very much."

The third floor of the dormitory building.

There was no light in the entire corridor, only bottomless darkness.

Wen Jianyan touched the door of the room where he woke up according to his memory.

He took a deep breath, raised his hand, and pushed open the door.

A hoarse creaking sound rang out in the dead silence, seeming particularly permeable to the ears.

Wen Jianyan stood at the door, without moving forward, and said in a calm and peaceful voice,

"Hello."

The voice sounded like a stone falling into the abyss. It didn't stir up at all and disappeared directly into the vast darkness.

No one answered.

The opened door was like a black mouth, waiting to devour the next figure who stepped into it.

Wen Jianyan wasn't going to go in again this time:

"What, are you still waiting for me to go in?"

"..."

There was still a dead silence in his ears.

Wen Jianyan's fingertips trembled as he unfolded the human skin portrait:

"Or… do you not want this anymore?"

The young man's voice was low. His tone was rising and falling as if he was singing an aria, which sounded extremely…

Worthy of beating.

Before he could finish speaking, a strange voice sounded from the dark doorway in front of him——

"Ka ka, ka ka…"

It was the sound of the neck bones turning, or like the rubbing sound of a utility knife when it was slowly opened.

Sharp, harsh, and creepy-sounding.

Very good.

Wen Jianyan slowly took two steps back, and before the voice approached, he suddenly turned around and rushed toward a direction in the darkness.

The sound of the rapid footsteps echoed in the corridor, matching the rhythm of the heartbeat.

Behind him was the creepy clucking sound, chasing after him like a ghost who wants vengeance.

After losing the light source, he couldn't see anything clearly in front of him. He could only rely on his own memory to sprint in the dark.

Almost — It's almost there!

The ground under his feet creaked, and he faintly saw a familiar blurred silhouette not far away. Wen Jianyan shouted sharply:

"Now—!"

With a snapping sound, the flashlight suddenly lit up, which was particularly abrupt in the dark corridor.

Then Wen Jianyan's slender figure turned toward the side nimbly.

There were several mirrors collected from different bedrooms. They were leaning against the wall, and countless pieces of glass shards were scattered on the ground. The light of the flashlight was reflected in each piece, and in an instant, it was as bright as day.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh——"

An extremely sharp scream sounded, fierce and harsh as if a sharp needle was pierced straight through the eardrums!

Wen Jianyan raised his hand to block the light. His eyes which were stung by the bright light narrowed slightly, and he looked in the direction from where the voice came.

The female student in the old school uniform was standing upright among the countless pieces of glass at the moment. She seemed to want to struggle, but she couldn't move, and the bones on her body were distorted into strange angles.

Her figure was reflected in every mirror on the ground.

With a "click", the utility knife in her hand fell to the ground.

The arm of the shadow was raised unnaturally and slowly. Her pale, twisted fingers bent inward little by little, choking her own neck tightly.

In the next second, a shrill scream resounded throughout the building.

Wen Jianyan turned sideways subconsciously, avoiding the sudden glare of light.

At the place where he first woke up, in the mirror, the first time he was entangled with Xu Yuan, and the second time when he passively received the hidden item task, Xu Yuan was present there as well as her roommate who tried to snatch her identity. In other words, there were two ghosts in that room, but they did not appear at the same time.

The imposter who posted the task showed low aggression while high aggression was shown by Xu Yuan. Although Wen Jianyan didn't know the reason, he still decided to take a gamble.

——Simply put, it was to divert the attention and hatred of the other party.

At least not to get slaughtered immediately.

Soon, the light disappeared.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and looked up not far away.

Among the glass shards on the ground, a pale figure gradually solidified.

Wet, pitch-black hair, stiff and weird smile on the mask-like face, and pure black eyes.

Xu Yuan.

She slowly stepped forward and walked in this direction. Her figure seemed to be unstable, and her shadow kept glowing.

Wen Jianyan stood up and handed over the human skin portrait in his hand:

"I think this should be yours."

Behind him, Su Cheng stared at the strange scene in front of him without blinking. His fingers clutching the flashlight trembled slightly, and every nerve in his body was tense to the extreme.

He remembered Wen Jianyan's instructions just now.

As soon as you find something was wrong, turn off the light immediately.

Xu Yuan lowered her head slowly, her gaze fixed on the portrait in Wen Jianyan's hand.

The pale mask seemed to crack a gap, and a touch of human emotion appeared on her face, but it quickly disappeared: "Do you think it's what I've been looking for?"

Her voice was rough, hoarse, and gloomy with distinct malice:

"—you guessed wrong."

"No."

Wen Jianyan shook his head and said in a calm voice: "If your purpose was to find your own face, you won't steal the identity of a living person and lead more people to the fourth floor."

To be precise, the person who is eager to get this "face" was not Xu Yuan standing in front of him, but the fake "Xu Yuan" who tried to steal Xu Yuan's identity.

The task of "returning the face to Xu Yuan" was a pit itself.

As a fraudster, Wen Jianyan was very clear about one thing — desire is a weakness.

If you want to achieve your goals through trading, you must find what the other party desires most.

So, what does Xu Yuan long for?

Wen Jianyan recalled the few words he saw in the notebook, organized the messy clues in an orderly manner, and gradually more and more specific guesses emerged in his mind.

He continued:

"I guess, you should have also made a deal with the mirror, but the price was to attract more sacrifices for the mirror, right?"

Xu Yuan raised her head suddenly, her face became more terrifying under the light, as if she was laughing silently, and seemed to be making silent roars and wailing.

"Don't you want freedom?"

The young man looked at her with sincere eyes and said earnestly: "Don't you want to be freed from endless slavery?"

He took a step forward and handed over the human skin portrait in his hand:

"I can help you."

Time passed little by little, the air was as heavy as it was saturated with moisture, and the people who were pressed could not get through it.

Don't know how long had passed——

Wen Jianyan found that the weight in his hand became light. The next second, Xu Yuan's figure disappeared, and she slowly returned to the mirror.

In the mirror, Wen Jianyan saw his face showing him a weird smile:

"I'll give you two hours."

In the next second, the figure in the mirror disappeared.

A mechanical sound rang in his ears:

[Ding! Congratulations to the anchor for returning Xu Yuan's face to the original owner, reward points: 5000]

[The Hidden Item (legend) task has been completed! Rewards are being given …]

[Plot modification at this stage: 83%, Reward points: 20,000]

"..."

Wen Jianyan took two steps backward weakly, leaning back against the wall, and slowly slid down.

After relaxing, the physiological reaction caused by the tension suddenly appeared in the body. The thin and straight back of the young man became tense, the slender arms of his hands trembled slightly, and he retched against the wall.

Su Cheng hurried over and patted Wen Jianyan's back nervously:

"Brother Wen, you, are you okay?"

Just as he was anxious and worried, a mechanical sound suddenly sounded in his ear:

[Ding! Congratulations on assisting another anchor in triggering the final hidden line task of the instance Decai Middle School: ? ? ? ]

[Completion time limit: two hours]

[Note: If the task fails, all survival time and points will be deducted, and the anchor's live broadcast room will be closed immediately.]

Su Cheng: ? ? ?

Wait a minute?

What's the situation?

Another anchor?

The final hidden line task?

The amount of information in this system prompt was too large. Su Cheng's brain was like an overloaded CPU, completely unable to process such complex information.

He can understand every word separately, but when they are combined together… why is it so hard to understand?

Su Cheng immediately became quiet, stunned in place, unable to recover for a long time.

"Ah, it seems there is no way out."

The young man on the side straightened up and looked sideways.

There were fine beads of sweat floating on his forehead, his face was pale and bleeding, and his black hair was wet with sweat, sticking to his cheeks. He looked extra weak and helpless.

The young man sighed softly:

"Let's get to know each other again."

The long and soft eyelashes were raised, and the amber eyes looked extraordinarily dignified in the light and shadow. It was still the same handsome and pale face, but at this moment, it contained a little bit of almost evil beauty, looking dangerous and puzzling in the darkness.

He stretched out a hand toward Su Cheng:

"Wen Jianyan, a rookie anchor."

Wen Jianyan winked at him and said with a smile:

"First time meeting, please take care of me."