“Why don’t we make a deal?”

The number of people on the red side was slowly and continuously decreasing, but there was no sign of refinement of the soul lock altar.

In this endless attrition, all the anchors have reached the critical point of collapse.

But at this moment, something even worse happened.

Those teammates whose names were written on the yellow paper by themselves unexpectedly appeared in front of them again for some unknown reason!

Moreover, they obviously knew why they fell into such a situation before. Soon, under the catalysis of revenge and anger, these former teammates started to tear each other apart one by one, and the red faction fell into chaos.

In the "Integrity First" live broadcast room:

[So Exciting!]

[Ahhhhhhh, it's actually such a big melee. I haven't seen such an exciting instance for a long time!]

[Speaking of which, the black side really knows how to play. Without losing even a single thing, he turned the red side into a mess. Now the red side can't take care of themselves, let alone complete the main task.]

[Right, it's really amazing. The original disadvantage was reversed in an instant. No wonder there is only one person on the black side in this faction battle. The instance is really reliable in terms of strength distribution.]

[Aaahhhh, nooo!! I regret it. I shouldn't have been on the red side from the beginning without thinking about anything. After this wave, the black side's winning rate will definitely be high! Right, I have to go to the black side's live broadcast room to reward points quickly!]

[Me too!]

During faction battles and team battles, in the instances, the reward points given by the audience would be used as betting. If the anchor they bet on won, they could receive a share after the instance was over. However, during the live broadcast, the audience could go into different live broadcast rooms and give rewards to both sides.

The system would close the betting function and settle the audience rewards half an hour before the instance ended. Whichever side received the most reward points from the audience member, that side's betting would be counted as successful. If the betting points on both sides were the same, then all those points were counted as normal rewards and weren't added to the final point dividend.

That is to say, if the audience realized that the side they were currently supporting had a lower winning rate while watching the live broadcast, and if they wanted to change their support faction, they must go to the opposite live broadcast room to reward a higher amount of points.

In terms of being a capitalist, Nightmare Live Room could be regarded as one of the best.

[But speaking of it, now that the situation has become so obvious, why hasn't the winning rate determined by the system changed much?]

[Huh, indeed, it seems that since the faction battle started, the winning rate prediction bar has not been moved…]

[? Is it a bug?]

In this kind of instance where anchors were divided into factions and teams, in order to entice viewers to reward and bet, the system would use the data in the instance to calculate the winning percentage of the two factions and display it in the live broadcast square in the form of data bars.

This win rate would also be refreshed and changed at any time.

However, after the faction battle mode of this instance, "Antai Community", was turned on, the winning rate bar calculated by the system had not changed and had always remained around 50%. Whether Wen Jianyan began to recruit and convert believers or use the hatred of believers to cause internal strife on the red side, the winning rate had never shifted to the black side, and there was even a tendency to favor the red.

Wang Hanyu's complexion was very bad.

After he was unable to provide a new name for Granny Wen and refused to write his own name on it, he was kicked out of Granny Wen's apartment.

Saying "kicked out" was not quite accurate.

To be precise, he found that "Granny Wen's apartment" in front of him was slowly fading away. Whether it was the decorations in the room, Granny Wen sitting in front of the table not far away, or the other players in the room, they all dissipated from his vision like a phantom, and when he came back to his senses, he found himself standing alone in the empty corridor with nothing around him.

…D*mmit.

Wang Hanyu gritted his teeth secretly.

He knew that in the current situation, he had no chance of competing for the main line task.

Then, according to his experience with instances, the most important thing now was to protect himself and redeem enough points to ensure that he would not die before the end of the main task.

Wang Hanyu took a deep breath, lowered his head, and glanced at the comparison of the numbers of anchors in the two factions in his Nightmare app.

It's okay; no matter what, the red side should still have the upper hand, after all…

Wang Hanyu reached into his pocket.

The hard and cold touch of the wall of the soul-locking altar came from his fingertips, which made him feel strangely at ease.

According to logic, if they have to create the tenth soul-locking altar, then the black side's mission should be the opposite of theirs, which would be to destroy the soul-locking altars.

This soul-locking altar was obtained by him in the scuffle before the faction battle started.

That is to say, as long as this soul-locking altar was still in his hands, the opponent should not be able to complete the main task, and the red side would not be annihilated.

But...

Wang Hanyu didn't know why, he felt an inexplicable sense of uneasiness in his heart.

For no reason, the words of that fake prophesier kept echoing in his mind.

"The tower is upright."

"Everything about you will collapse and disintegrate from the depths, and all the bad things you have done will come back to you."

...Don't make jokes.

Wang Hanyu gritted his teeth; his pale face twisted slightly involuntarily under the strain of strong emotions.

This was the case in the Nightmare live broadcast room. If you killed someone, you would be killed. This was an undeniable truth! Not to mention, the other party had become an obstacle for him!

In the Nightmare, the qualifications for creating a were rare and harsh. Even if it was only a small guild, the creation process was not easy, but the guild would receive more rewards and preferential treatment. Many large guilds would raise some shadow guilds to obtain double benefits and enhance the competitiveness of their main guild in the entire anchor hall.

The guild "Obsidian" ranked in the top 20 on the entire ranking list and had recently been in the limelight. They tried to include themselves in Obsidian and use their guild as its shadow guild, but such favorable conditions were rejected by the guild leader, Chen Mo. No matter how Wang Hanyu, the vice president, persuaded him, he would not listen.

Therefore, Wang Hanyu decided to plan for his future.

Ever since Chen Mo's name was written on the yellow paper until now, Wang Hanyu has firmly believed that he has made the right choice.

At this moment, Wang Hanyu's cell phone vibrated suddenly.

"Buzz."

Wang Hanyu was stunned and looked down at his mobile phone screen. In an instant, his face turned pale.

[Your guild leader is visiting your location.]

How, how is it possible?

This function could only be used within the guild, and it cost a lot of points. If it was not a very urgent situation, almost no one would use it.

More importantly...

Shouldn't his guild leader be dead?!

"Tap tap tap."

In the corridor not far away, there was the sound of approaching footsteps.

Wang Hanyu's face turned pale, and he took a few steps back slowly. Then he turned around suddenly and ran in the opposite direction from where the voice came from!

However, before he could take a few steps, the scarlet chain suddenly appeared in front of him without warning, firmly blocking his way.

Wang Hanyu's forehead was covered with cold sweat, his facial features were stiff, and he stood firmly in place, not daring to move.

A familiar, indifferent voice came from behind:

"Didn't expect that?"

Wang Hanyu stiffly turned his head little by little and looked behind him.

His teammate, who should have died, appeared at the end of the corridor without warning. His face was pale, and there was still a scarlet wound on his forehead, which seemed to be corroded.

He looked as if he had climbed up from the depths of hell.

"We could actually meet again."

Chen Mo smiled and said coldly: "I didn't think of it either."

***

The baptism of the anchor whose san value had been reduced to a critical point had been completed.

Wen Jianyan stood up and turned around to walk out.

Ji Guan walked over, with an eager look on his face: "How is it? How many people are left for us to occupy the entire instance?"

As one of the earliest old believers, he was very enthusiastic about developing offline.

Wen Jianyan: "..."

He took out his phone from his pocket, opened the Nightmare app, and glanced at it.

Although the number of people on the black side was still 1, the number of people on the red side had been reduced to less than 10. Apart from those who were converted into believers by him, there should be many who died in the battle. Anyway, the current power ratio should definitely have shifted.

But...

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes, showing a thoughtful expression.

Strange, why was Granny Wen still continuing to import people into the mirror? If she didn't realize that someone was playing tricks the first time and the second time, she should have realized now that the previous failures were not accidents. But she still didn't stop her actions and change her strategy.

Could it be that—

Wen Jianyan turned his head to look at Ji Guan and Su Cheng and hurriedly confessed: "The next things in this mirror world will be left to you two."

"...Eh?"

Ji Guan was dumbfounded: "What?"

Su Cheng, who had just arrived, was also suddenly alert: "Wait? What do you mean?"

However, before they could find out why, the young man in front of them took out the Bagua mirror from his pocket. A pale arm stuck out from the mirror and grabbed the other party's collar.

In the next second, their eyes blurred, and the figure of the young man disappeared instantly.

? ? ?

Only Ji Guan and Su Cheng were left speechless, looking at each other in blank dismay.

What the hell was to be left to the both of us?!

You are too irresponsible as a leader!

Just as Wen Jianyan left the mirror world, his phone buzzed.

"...?"

This was something he did not expect.

Wen Jianyan was slightly taken aback and looked down at the phone screen.

It was an unknown call.

Wen Jianyan picked up the phone.

Chen Mo's voice sounded from the other end of the microphone, and after simply announcing the number of an apartment, he immediately hung up.

Wen Jianyan raised his eyebrows but still walked in that direction, according to his memory.

Soon, Chen Mo's figure appeared not far away.

One of his hands was hanging by his side; the wound on the palm was split open, and the scarlet blood trickled down his fingertips, dripped onto the ground, and gathered into a pool of blood.

Chen Mo's chest rose and fell rapidly, and the sound of heavy breathing echoed in the corridor.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, Chen Mo looked in Wen Jianyan's direction, lowered his eyes, and said in a calm and suppressed voice: "Someone wants to make a deal with you."

He turned slightly sideways.

There was a figure in a state of embarrassment slumped on the ground, trembling slightly all over.

Wang Hanyu raised his pale face that was full of tears, looked at Wen Jianyan, who was not far away, and said in a trembling voice: "I, I know where the last soul-locking altar is!"

Wen Jianyan raised his eyebrows and stepped forward: "Oh?"

The last soul-locking altar was definitely on the body of a certain anchor. As long as he continued to assimilate the anchor and gradually pulled most of the red anchors into his faction, the probability of finding it would gradually increase—of course, this premise was that he was prepared to get the soul-locking altar from the very beginning.

Wen Jianyan squatted down in front of Wang Hanyu, stared at his distorted face, and said softly:

"You know that, right? If I get the soul-locking altar and complete the main task, the rest of your red side anchors will die, including you."

Wang Hanyu stepped forward on his knees and grabbed Wen Jianyan's sleeve firmly: "Bu-but you know how to let the anchors get rid of the shackles of the faction! Right!"

He looked at Wen Jianyan with longing eyes: "I am willing to give you the soul-locking altar, as long as you also convert me into your person!"

"Is it okay even if the other red anchors are all wiped out?"

Wen Jianyan confirmed.

"I, I don't want to do this either, but…" Wang Hanyu raised his teary face: "The rules are like this! This live broadcast is cruel, and everyone will do whatever it takes to survive—"

Chen Mo stood aside speechlessly; his face was pale and cold.

He lowered his eyes, clenched his fingers silently, and his flat nails pierced fiercely into the soft palm.

"But it's not enough."

Wen Jianyan lightly interrupted the other party.

Wang Hanyu was taken aback: "…what?"

"Just knowing where the soul-locking altar is not enough."

Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes slightly: "The situation in the instance has changed too much. Your knowledge may have been invalidated, and it isn't even as easy as using a hand of guidance. Although the number of exchanges for my hand of guidance has been exhausted, I believe most of the red anchors would be willing to give a hand of guidance in exchange for a chance to survive, right?"

Wang Hanyu's expression froze.

"You should understand this, but even so, you still proposed this deal to me…"

Wen Jianyan smiled and moved closer: "It's because the altar is on your body, right?"

This level of lying was easy to see through.

Wang Hanyu's heart trembled, he clenched his teeth subconsciously and instantly tasted the taste of blood in his mouth.

——He was aware that if he stated that the soul-locking altar was on his body, the other party could kill him and search his body for it. That's why he lied to Chen Mo and told him he knew where the soul-locking altar was and let the other party call the black side anchor to give himself a little bargaining power.

But what he didn't expect was that…the other party would see through it directly and expose it mercilessly.

A strong sense of despair welled up in Wang Hanyu's heart.

It's really over now.

Wen Jianyan blinked: "But, it's alright."

"!!!" After hearing the other party's reply, Wang Hanyu showed a look of surprise and joy on his face.

He obviously found out that he was lying, but the black side anchor actually agreed to this deal that was only beneficial to him! Could it be that...

Wang Hanyu secretly looked at the young man in front of him; a glimmer of light flashed in his eyes.

Was there actually such a selfless person in this live broadcast?

In order to prevent the other party from going back on his word, Wang Hanyu hurriedly took out the soul-locking altar and handed it to the other party.

Wen Jianyan weighed the soul-locking altar in his hand and heard the familiar sound from the system.

Great, it's the real thing.

During this process, Chen Mo remained silent, standing firmly a few meters away, looking away, and standing like a wooden sculpture made of clay. It was as if his whole person had merged into the darkness.

Wang Hanyu half-knelt on the ground and raised his head, staring eagerly at the young man in front of him:

"You, can you join me right now?"

"Of course."

The young man with amber eyes lowered his eyes: "Do you know what the purpose of our cult is?"

"Wh-what?"

"Honesty and redemption." Wen Jianyan leaned down slightly, caressed the other's cheek lovingly, and then slowly turned sideways, revealing Chen Mo not far behind:

"So, sincerely atone for your sins to the other party."

He smiled softly, like a devil in an angel's shell: "I will allow you to join only if my precious congregation agrees to your atonement, understand?"

Wang Hanyu couldn't react for a while.

He stared blankly at the young man in front of him. His gaze wandered over his former teammates and the black side anchor. Soon, after realizing what the other party was talking about, his facial color began to fade a little bit and finally looked as pale and fragile as paper.

Chen Mo in the distance was stunned.

He raised his eyes and looked at Wen Jianyan, who was not far away, in disbelief. He opened his mouth slightly, but no sound came out.

...Why?

According to his habits and style, he would never allow this kind of person who betrayed and stabbed him to live, but Chen Mo also knew that, although he wanted to kill the two-faced villain in front of him from the bottom of his heart, Wen Jianyan had once said that he wasn't going to complete the main line task. So after hearing Wang Hanyu's tearful pleading, he still chose to stop taking revenge and called Wen Jianyan.

He always remembered that no matter what his purpose was, this man saved himself and pulled him out of the near-death situation.

Chen Mo didn't like to owe favors to others.

Wen Jianyan walked over, patted Chen Mo's shoulder lightly, and said in a low voice with a smile:

"It's up to you now."

After speaking, he put the soul-locking altar in his pocket, turned around, and left.

Chen Mo stared blankly at the back of the other party.

The young man's slender figure somehow coincided with the figure that was shrouded in bloody holy light in his chaotic memory because of low san value.

He felt his heart being struck hard, the shock and feelings he had deliberately suppressed returning so strongly that he felt overwhelmed in an instant. As if a floodgate had been opened, countless emotions gushed out like a flood, leaving Chen Mo befuddled for a while.

Just like...

He was really the other party's believer.

Too strange.

Too… terrible.

He didn't like to owe favors to others.

But now he didn't know why, but the debt was getting deeper and deeper.

Wang Hanyu sat on the spot blankly, four words echoing in his mind:

"The tower is upright."

"Everything about you will crumble and disintegrate from the depths, and all the bad things you have done will come back to you.

***

After parting with Chen Mo and the others, Wen Jianyan went back to the destination he had decided on from the beginning.

He had one thing to confirm.

Wen Jianyan deftly navigated around the map and finally stopped in front of a familiar door.

1326.

He stretched out his hand and slowly pushed the door open.

In the original world at the beginning, it was located directly opposite 1304. As long as one went out and crossed the corridor, they could enter the room where the massacre had occurred.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and walked into the room.

The familiar smell of incense and ashes came, and the cramped, messy, and narrow room opened before his eyes. The scarlet electronic candle was lit in front of the small Buddha statue, barely dispelling the heavy darkness.

The rocking chair let out a creaking sound.

When the door was pushed open, the sound of the rocking chair paused for a moment, and an old voice sounded from the depths of the house: "Xiuqing, is that you?"

"It's me."

Wen Jianyan walked toward the depths of the house and replied.

As the distance drew closer, the figure of the old woman was already close in front of his eyes. Just like before Wen Jianyan left, she was leaning back on the rocking chair, her lower body covered with a thick blanket.

She raised her cloudy and loving eyes, looking in the air for the figure of the person coming, and then slowly stretched out her hand tremblingly to Wen Jianyan: "Why have you been out for so long? Xiuqing, spend more time with your mom."

Wen Jianyan stood there without moving, his eyes lowered, sweeping his gaze lightly across the opponent's body.

His voice was gentle and soft:

"Of course."

Wen Jianyan looked around the hall as if looking for something.

Soon, his eyes fell on a corner of the hall, and his eyes could not help but light up slightly.

"I'm busy with work after all." Wen Jianyan leaned over to pick up the clothes pole in the corner and replied with a normal and even smiling voice.

He weighed the heavy metal pole in his hand, squinted his eyes, glanced at the distance between him and the opponent, and then swung his arms silently:

"But don't worry, I will definitely accompany you more in the future."

"Whoosh—"

He waved the clothes pole in the air.

"..."

The old lady on the rocking chair stood up slowly, her face changed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and she changed into the appearance of Granny Wen in the blink of an eye.

Her eyeballs were covered with white clouds, and her wrinkled, loose skin trembled with the frequency of her speech. Although the smile on her face was the same as before, it had a particularly sinister and gloomy meaning no matter how one looked at it:

"Young man, don't you know what it means to respect the old and love the young?"

Unfortunately, it didn't hit.

Wen Jianyan threw away the clothes pole regretfully.

"Old lady, to be so old and not die is thieving*; have you heard of it?" He said with a smile: "Birth, old age, sickness, and death are natural laws."

[*T/N: used to scorn an old person that lacks morality or proper behavior.]

The wrinkles on Granny Wen's face trembled again, and a pair of eyes covered with white clouds stared at the young man in front of her.

The hatred for the other party for breaking into her house and destroying the Bodhisattva statue was superimposed, making her expression look extraordinarily ferocious.

Granny Wen asked coldly:

"How did you find out?"

"You mean, how do I find out you're an imposter?"

Wen Jianyan leaned his back against the door and said with a smile: "You stayed in the rocking chair all this time, but your posture hasn't changed. Your right hand is always placed below your chest, just five centimeters above the blanket I tuck in. It's no different from when I left."

Wen Jianyan's gaze swept across the blanket that fell on the ground

"As long as it is a living person, isn't it impossible not to move for such a long time?"

"This is the first point."

"…and the second point?" Granny Wen narrowed her eyes slowly.

Wen Jianyan nodded: "Naturally."

He leaned loosely against the door panel, looking frivolous and carefree, "Because this isn't really the outside world, right?"

"..."

When he said this, Granny Wen's expression suddenly became gloomy.

At first, Wen Jianyan was just guessing.

After all, even after she realized that he was playing tricks behind her back, the other party continued to import new anchors into the inner world. Wen Jianyan didn't think that Granny Wen would be so clueless.

On the contrary, the other party's mind was much more sinister than that.

It could be seen from the fact that she tried to sacrifice all the anchors from the beginning.

It was Granny Wen's consistent way that betrayed her.

Desire and massacre—only these two could be refined into a soul-locking altar, and the betrayal of those anchors to their teammates by writing their names on yellow paper in order to survive was itself a ruthless self-inflicted massacre.

Regarding the map they were currently in, Wen Jianyan had initially thought that the external world and the internal world had been merged, but after discovering the abnormality in Granny Wen's behavior, Wen Jianyan began to re-analyze his previous conclusions and then realized that things were not so simple.

Granny Wen in the instance did not know the existence of the instance or the Nightmare system, and it was even more impossible for her to know about the alienation of the instance. Then, if this premise were removed and we looked at it from the other party's prospective—he destroyed the statue inside the other party's room, found the key letter from the base of the statue, and then turned around and fled into the mirror.

As the instigator behind all this, Granny Wen, who was not prepared to enter the mirror from the very beginning, what would she do?

The most efficient way, naturally, was to take advantage of the trend and continue refining the soul-locking altar according to the original plan.

She didn't even need to change the entire map; just a few changes in many details toward the real world to fool the anchors into thinking the two worlds had merged, and then make them kill and betray each other just like now.

This was also why Granny Wen couldn't affect the area where Wen Jianyan was before—according to the content of the paper that Wen Jianyan found in the other party's room, the dimensions between the two mirrors were superimposed on each other rather than merged like matryoshka dolls. Granny Wen could only affect the layer closest to her and could also send the anchor into a deeper layer, but she couldn't directly exert control over the second layer.

Of course, these were just Wen Jianyan's guesses.

He didn't have any very tangible evidence and only had some doubts about the logic of Granny Wen's behavior, but this was enough for him.

After entering 1304 and seeing Granny Wen disguised as the old lady, Wen Jianyan was completely sure that his thoughts were correct.

If he was really located in the outermost layer of the superimposed worlds right now, no matter whether the inner and outer worlds overlap or not, the people in the room would not change. Granny Wen didn't have that much power to control the real world.

Since the old lady was not here, this was by no means the outermost layer.

Granny Wen stared at the young man not far away; the wrinkles on her face trembled slightly, but there was no excess emotion on her old face:

"Pity."

"You are a bright young man."

The moment Granny Wen's voice fell, the scene around her changed in an instant. Although the inside of 1326 was chaotic, it was full of warmth. The internal environment gradually disappeared and faded, like a faded oil painting. All kinds of weird magic weapons and many items that were very evil at first glance appeared in the narrow space.

A brass Bodhisattva statue as tall as a person appeared in front of Wen Jianyan.

In the dim light, only the two scarlet, blood-like electronic candles in front of the Bodhisattva statue remained unchanged and were still dimly lit.

Granny Wen showed a loving, even happy smile at Wen Jianyan:

"—You still stepped into my room."

"Since you have already guessed a lot, it doesn't matter if I reveal a little more to you."

Leaning on the walking stick, Granny Wen walked slowly to the table and sat down, staring fixedly at the young man not far away with her eyes covered with white clouds, and the smile on her face gradually deepened: "Indeed, my influence in this world is limited, but as long as you step into my room in this world, you have entered my world—no matter how smart you are, you can't step out of here without my permission."

A sinister smile appeared on Granny Wen's old and ugly face: "What a pity, you are so close to the truth, but you still—"

The rest of her words were stuck in her throat.

The young man in front of her didn't seem to notice what she was talking about at all. He looked left and right, and finally walked to the side of the tall Bodhisattva statue. He leaned over to look closer, and even stretched out his hand and curled his knuckles—

"What are you doing?!"

Granny Wen's voice suddenly sharpened.

Wen Jianyan paused, withdrew his hand without any shame, and turned to look at Granny Wen: "Ah, it's nothing. I just want to make sure that I didn't break it before."

A regretful expression appeared on his face:

"Modern craftsmanship can make it so finely, but there are really not many."

Granny Wen: "..."

She was so angry that her nose was crooked, her facial features shifted under the intense anger, and her voice contained terrible anger that seemed to be able to burn everything: "You have to pay the price for your disrespect——"

Before she could finish her sentence, she saw the young man slowly taking something out of his pocket.

"Thud."

A pitch-black pottery jar was placed on the table and made a slight sound.

At that moment, Granny Wen's neck seemed to be stuck by an invisible force; her eyes trembled slightly, and she looked at the soul-locking altar in front of her in disbelief.

"Is this enough?"

Wen Jianyan asked with a smile.

He pulled out a chair and sat down opposite Granny Wen: "You should know, this is the last soul-locking altar. As long as it is destroyed, the evil spirit will be released—and, since there is only the last step left, I can release it now if I want to."

Wen Jianyan gently tapped the mouth of the altar with his fingertips; his amber eyes narrowed slightly, and a smile flickered in his eyes:

"Guess why I took the initiative to enter your territory?"

"Naturally, it's because I don't want to see that happen either."

Wen Jianyan leaned over slightly, with a sincere expression on his face:

"Why don't we make a deal?"

The author has something to say:

#Kind and benevolent old Granny

#Honest and trustworthy Wen Jianyan