Residential instance world
Zhai Xiaoyi was sitting on the chair in front of the desk, holding a candle in his hands that the boy had handed him.
The other was currently sitting on the bed, his legs folded under himself. He appeared to be in deep thought at the moment.
‘So you just saw a ghost.’ He asked this, but his tone didn’t sound questioning at all.
Zhai Xiaoyi nodded, his discomfort apparent on his features. ‘A ghost or a monster, it’s kind of hard to discern at the moment.’
‘What you’ve told me all in all, this is a sort of game, like a real life one we can act out. There is something we have to find out and.. What else?’
‘We’re probably not the only players in the instance. Just now, I opened both the other doors, and there seemed to be people in the other bedroom. Of course, those can be NPCs as well as monsters or ghosts.’
‘That’s fine, we’ll see soon. So how does this all work exactly?’
‘What do you mean?’ Zhai Xiaoyi frowned as he stared at him. The atmosphere in the dimly lit room grew strange.
‘Do you guys just kidnap people like that?’ The young man lay back on the bed as if he was getting ready to rest. He spoke as he fixed his gaze on the ceiling, ‘I tried to find a better expression, but there really is none. Who are you really?’
Zhai Xiaoyi blinked. He had never before been.. ‘I’m a player, just like you. I’ve already told you.. Although I don’t agree with their methods, the Federal Bureau is and will continue to be able to force players into these scenarios.’
‘You want me to believe that you’re not one of them so bad. This only makes me think..’
‘Look, we can play around like this the whole night. If you don’t want to believe me, just say that.’ Zhai Xiaoyi tapped his fingers to the desk twice, ‘It won’t change the fact that you’re a newbie, and you know nothing of the process.’
The youth didn’t say anything to that. After a couple of slow minutes he asked, ‘What about you?’
‘Huh?’
‘How many worlds have you been through?’
Zhai Xiaoyi felt that this had to be a trick question. ‘Why?’
The youth closed his eyes. ‘Just making casual conversation. After all, a bigshot who knows so many things must not even be comparable to a newbie..’
‘I never said I was a bigshot.’
‘So you’re a newbie then?’
Zhai Xiaoyi pursed his lips. ‘Sort of. But I have an agent and I’ve been to the main office, it isn’t like it’s my first time at all.’
‘Mhm.’ There was a strange smile on the other’s lips. He yawned before he spoke, ‘I didn’t mean that.’
Zhai Xiaoyi shut his eyes only to rub the spot between his eyebrows as he asked, ‘What?’
‘When I asked who you were. I meant your name.’
Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t reply. The youth opened an eye to peek at him, ‘I’m Yu Qinyan. I’m not sure why you said all that just now if you don’t even trust me enough to tell your name.’
Zhai Xiaoyi shook his head, ‘Don’t take it like that. My name is Zhai Xiaoyi. I was just thinking.’
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
‘Thinking about what?’
‘Ct? Cybea kts kf’gf tfgf. Zs jufca abiv wf..’ Lf uba delfa obg j wbwfca. ‘Zs jufca abiv wf atja atlr kjr j D ifnfi lcrajcmf. Ktja rtbeiv yf qgfaas vloolmeia.’
‘Qf vbc’a xcbk tbk wjcs bo atf batfgr jgf jirb cfk, yea lc ageat.. Pc gfjilas, P’nf bcis yffc atgbeut bcf bo atfrf jcv P kjrc’a atf bcf ab rbinf atf mjrf.’
‘Judging by what I know, my first world was upgraded into a D rank one because of complications. Since we know that this is a B rank world, we can guess that there should be at least five levels, with B as the third most difficult.’
‘So I was thinking, why is this your first world? Is it based on abilities, or simply just luck? Are you generally a lucky person?’
‘No.’ Yu Qinyan didn’t bother to conceal the fact.
‘Well, me neither, which leaves two possibilities. One; you’re extremely capable and the main system has some misconceptions about me, or two; we’re both extremely unlucky and the world consciousness wants you, specifically, dead.’
‘I reckon it is the first one.’ Yu Qinyan flipped himself over, burying his face in the pillow as he looked for the most comfortable sleeping position.
‘What? Why?’ Zhai Xiaoyi frowned, but he didn’t get an answer. The other had already fallen asleep.
Zhai Xiaoyi admired his ability to leave the current dangerous situation completely out of consideration. He didn’t dare sleep, but kept his vigilance up for as long as he could.
He blew out the candle once it was burnt halfway. After all, he didn’t know if they had any more candles, so it was best to save the rest for later.
Time passed at an extremely slow pace. It had been some time before midnight when he woke up, so he estimated that there were about three or so hours left until daybreak.
Since this was a B rank world, it would surely be more difficult to survive than his first instance. After all, it didn’t even take more than a couple of minutes after waking up for him to meet a ghost. Didn’t that mean that the monsters here didn’t need any conditions fulfilled to appear?
Or maybe he had unknowingly already broken a taboo. If so, what had it been? Leaving the room at night? Getting out of bed? Knocking on others’ doors? His knowledge about this instance’s settings was way too small.
From the different objects he almost tripped in in the living room, he could evaluate that this world wasn’t much different from his reality. It was most likely that the position he woke up in could be considered safe, since the instance wouldn’t go as far as to pit him right from the start. Except..
If the world was trying to make an example out of his death for the other players, in which case it was good that he left the couch. That left behind another issue; if he really was supposed to die tonight but he escaped, they had no information concerning the death conditions, which would make for the group to fulfill one unknowingly in the near future.
After all, in his first world the death conditions were also fulfilled without the players’ knowledge, and actively fulfilling them had been the only way they could know what they were.
Of course, it was still a possibility that there was no group, and the two of them were the only players. Maybe Yu Qinyan wasn’t even a player, but a well designed NPC instead..
Zhai Xiaoyi decided to blame Nan Zhi for his paranoia. If the other had told him just a little more about the difference between ranks.. But hadn’t it been himself who asked to be put through all this? He couldn’t blame others for this at all.
If there really weren’t any other players, that made their job even more difficult. They didn’t know anything about the conditions, only that he had most likely already fulfilled one.
There was also the question of the storyline. Zhai Xiaoyi’s first instance had a story behind it, even if said story was somewhat messy. Back then there were certain things they had to do and doing these things sped up the course of events.
But what did they have to do here? Zhai Xiaoyi could finally rule out the chance of Yu Qinyan being an NPC. If he were one, wouldn’t he treat him as if they knew each other? That was evaluated from his experience with the woman in the last world.
So the person on the bed wasn’t a character from the instance. That was good to know. Who were the NPCs who were supposed to help them then? Whoever was asleep in the other bedroom? Or was this the difficulty in B level instances? Would there really be no helpers?
He held his chin in his hand as he tried to think. The chair he was sitting on was a simple wooden one. It wasn’t too bad for sitting down to do something, but after an hour’s time it felt rather uncomfortable. Zhai Xiaoyi tried to endure it.
Dawn was only a couple of hours away. He wished he could see the situation outside the apartment building at the moment. Was the lack of windows in this room supposed to have any meaning?
He yawned, and felt his mind become more muddled. He lit up one last match, grabbing a blanket Yu Qinyan had kicked down to make a bed for himself on the ground.
The carpet was already soft enough. He used his arms as a pillow, pulled up the cover and fell asleep in less than a couple of minutes.
The residential building was quiet this early in the morning.
There were seven floors with three flats on each of them. These were rented out to all kinds of people, except for the apartments on the very top floor.
The rooms on this floor were completely closed off. The few pieces of furniture inside, as well as the floorboards and the old curtains were all covered by a thick layer of dust.
Oddly enough though, it was much noisier up here than on the other floors that were engulfed in complete silence.
A woman with a solemn expression spoke. ‘Is everyone here? Can we begin?’
‘Ah Wei hasn’t come yet.’ An old man with a muddled gaze grabbed her sleeve. He blinked quickly as if he was trying to stay clear-headed. ‘Xiao Mo, just wait a bit longer. I know he’ll come tonight.’
The woman wore a somewhat displeased expression. ‘He..’ She sighed. ‘Alright. We’ll wait, but not more than half an hour.’
The old man nodded quickly. He declared, ‘He will come.’ No one present knew whether that was a promise or a wish.
‘Of course.’ Another woman patted his arm. ‘He’ll be here. While we’re waiting, should we discuss other affairs?’
The woman with the surname Mo seemed to be the leader here. She nodded. ‘What do you want to say?’
The woman swept her gaze across the numerous tenants sitting in the living room before she spoke. ‘My little nephew’s graduation is next month. My sister doesn’t know yet.. They sent me an invitation.’
She sent a helpless gaze towards the other women, her gaze stopping on the one who spoke up first. ‘Mo jie, I..’ She shook her head as she pursed her lips. ‘What is there to do?’
‘The woman thought about it. ‘Do you want to attend?’
‘Can I?’ The younger woman’s eyes brightened.
‘I can request a leave from the Union for you if you want to go. I’m sure they’ll let you see them, especially if we mention that this is the first time, as well as the last.’
The other felt assured. ‘Do you think I could.. You know?’
‘We’ll see. If you want to talk to them, that might be more difficult to arrange.’ The woman patted her shoulder as she smiled, making the bone-deep wounds on her face widen in a horrific way. ‘I’ll request the leave first and we can talk about the rest later. Alright, does anyone have anything else they want to share?’
A middle-aged man coughed twice. ‘I was in C3 just now. I thought that since old man Wang was already… I thought I could go in to see the situation, but unexpectedly it has already been rented out. Not even the furniture has been moved, but there’s already some brat wrecking havoc..’
‘In C3?’ One of the older women frowned. ‘That landlord Luo is a little restless these days. It hasn’t even been an entire week.’
The first woman who spoke wasn’t paying attention. She stared outside through the half-covered windows, at the tall houses of the residential district and even further.
The sky was already getting brighter outside. The impassable darkness from before gradually turned into a greyish red mass.
Although there wasn’t anything to see other than the tall buildings and the swirling mist beyond, it seemed like she found what she was looking for in that faraway void.
Daybreak arrived soon. The sky brightened even more, and the first sunrays cut their way through the dark clouds like sharp blades.
In C3, four people were sleeping peacefully. Zhai Xiaoyi woke up for a moment only to turn over to his other side. He closed his eyes again, and mumbled something to himself. But before he could immerse himself in the haze of dreams, a blood curdling scream filled the air of the apartment.
He jumped to his feet even though he was still feeling somewhat drowsy. Yu Qinyan had sat up too, but he didn’t look the least bit sleepy.
They looked at each other with mutual understanding before hurrying over to the door. While Yu Qinyan went to open it, Zhai Xiaoyi twisted the key once more.
‘……..’ Yu Qinyan looked at him. ‘What are you doing?’
Zhai Xiaoyi explained, ‘It is a scream in an instance world. It can’t mean anything good.’
Yu Qinyan only shook his head as he pushed him aside to open the door. ‘You don’t have to come out if you’re afraid. The room should be safe, just stay here then.’
Zhai Xiaoyi frowned as he watched him hurry towards the other bedroom. He still chose to follow in the end.
The voice of a girl could already be heard as she yelled loudly, ‘Who are you? Why were you in my bed? No.. Why am I here? Where is this? Are you a stalker? I knew I had stalkers! Did you kidnap me, or what?!’
Zhai Xiaoyi and Yu Qinyan arrived just in time to see her try to throw whatever she could touch at the man in front of her, before the man took a blanket to wrap her up quickly and efficiently.
Seeing Zhai Xiaoyi’s eyebrows jump up, he only shook his head. ‘In my last instance I also woke up in someone else’s bed.. I wonder what I had done for them to have such a grudge against me.’
He couldn’t let the wrapped up girl in his arms go, so he just nodded at the young men. ‘I’m Wei Cai, and this is my fifth world. I’m thirty-one, a private chef in the real world. What about you two?’
Yu Qinyan reciprocated the nod. ‘I’m Yu Qinyan, this is my first world. Twenty-two, an online streamer.’
Zhai Xiaoyi finally realised why the other had seemed familiar before. No wonder he didn’t recognise him, after all he only saw him once, in the IT department of the Federal Bureau’s office. The youth in front of him was an internet personality, going by the name of ‘Asterium’.
But Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t have time to be too surprised, as the man was already looking at him with an inquiring gaze.
‘I’m Zhai Xiaoyi, and this is my second world. I’m nineteen, in highschool. Somewhat of a supernatural investigator in private.’
‘Somewhat?’ It was Wei Cai’s turn to raise his eyebrow.
Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t intend to elaborate on the topic. ‘It’s a family business.’
Yu Qinyan nodded as he looked towards the woman wrapped in the blanket. ‘What about her?’
Wei Cai looked down at the woman too. He asked her, ‘Sorry about all of that just now. I do not wish to harm you. Can you promise not to throw a fit once I let you go?’
The woman blinked. She didn’t believe him at all, but agreed in the end after realising that she couldn’t run even if she tried to. She sniffled loudly as she threw the blanket to the ground.
‘I don’t know what you all are talking about, but.. My name is Yang Meili. I’m twenty-eight.. I’m a fashion designer.’
Yu Qinyan smiled a her. ‘That’s great. From what he told me,’ He nodded towards Zhai Xiaoyi again, ‘This is supposed to be a sort of game. Once we finish it, we get to go home.’
The woman’s expression grew confused. ‘We get to go home, but didn’t you say this was your however manieth world? So do we really..’
Wei Cai was busy thinking about another issue, and he didn’t have a chance to reply to her. He turned to Zhai Xiaoyi, ‘There are regulations concerning the number of players, at least that’s what I heard from my agent. There are four of us..’
Zhai Xiaoyi had just realised what he was going to say. ‘The two-third rule.’
The author has something to say:
I’m not going to lie, I hate a lot of the dialogue I originally wrote for this chapter. From the perspective of me reading stuff I wrote two months ago, I feel that I’ve improved a lot since. At least that’s good, no? With time, these chapters will actually become more readable. On another note, congratulations to the person who guessed who the new player was..:)
thanks for the chapter <3