Chapter 100.1: Xishan Residential Area (20)

Although it was in the hotel lobby, the players were in a corner of the hotel where few people would come, and their conversations were hushed.

However, the voice of Lu Rufeng was not small when he spoke, and it carried a hint of oppression, which naturally caught the attention of other players.

They all looked over at the two of them.

Ruan Qing remained calm. He lowered his voice, and his voice was somewhat hoarse as he said, “Player, Li Die.”

Ruan Qing’s voice was extremely hoarse and unpleasant to listen to, almost like the sound of a cat scratching glass, making people feel uncomfortable, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time.

“You are not.” Lu Rufeng spoke with great certainty, his gaze fixed on Ruan Qing’s sunglasses, as if he could see through them and into Ruan Qing’s eyes.

“I don’t remember someone like you among the players.”

Other players widened their eyes at his words and became vigilant, knowing that bosses in infinite dungeons could sometimes infiltrate the ranks of players from the beginning. There had even been several instances where players didn’t realize a dungeon boss was among them, leading to the death of all players in the dungeon.

“He is indeed a player.” The advanced male player immediately stepped forward, speaking with a steady expression. “I can vouch for that.”

“He simply didn’t start with us.”

“Is that so?” Lu Rufeng’s tone was emotionless, impossible to gauge whether he believed it or not.

His gaze did not waver from Ruan Qing, and he spoke coldly, “If you’re a player, then prove it.”

To prove that you’re a player, you naturally had to reveal something that only players would know.

After some thought, Ruan Qing spoke slowly, his tone devoid of any guilt or panic. “This is my second dungeon. The first one I experienced was ‘Horror Livestream Room’, and I earned 50 reward points upon completion.”

“And the mission of this dungeon is to survive for five days or find the murderer of ‘Xiao Xi’.”

Regarding this statement, which couldn’t be verified, Lu Rufeng neither confirmed nor denied it. He simply said coldly, “Since you’ve already experienced a dungeon, you should have started a livestream, right?”

Although Lu Rufeng phrased it as a question, he used a tone of certainty.

For new players, most of them would definitely start a livestream for the sake of the few points they could earn from audience tips.

The other players immediately understood Lu Rufeng’s meaning upon hearing his words, and the player with yellow hair immediately looked at Ruan Qing and asked, “What’s your livestream room number?”

In fact, this question was quite audacious; ordinary players would not disclose their livestream room numbers to others.

But who made Li Die appear to be a suspected non-player now, and also a new player at that? So, others didn’t say anything when they saw this.

Ruan Qing, upon hearing this, spoke in her mind, ‘System, what is my livestream room number?’

[Unknown.] The system replied emotionlessly in Ruan Qing’s mind. [Livestream room numbers are usually generated the first time you open a livestream. Do you want to start a livestream?]

Ruan Qing paused for a moment. ‘So, you mean once the live stream room number is generated, it won’t change, right?’

[Correct.] The system confirmed.

The system asked again, seemingly wanting to confirm, [May I ask if the player wants to start a live stream?]

Ruan Qing didn’t answer the system’s question but looked at Lu Rufeng and calmly stated a series of numbers, “20220413.”

Thinking that Ruan Qing would definitely start the live stream this time, the system wondered, ‘??? Hasn’t it started yet?’

Where did this string of numbers come from?

The system silently checked; this string of numbers was the live stream room number of an advanced male player.

When did he find out?

Each player’s live stream room number was unique. Even if they shared the same name, their live stream room IDs would never be the same.

This was just like a player’s ID number.

However, players in the instance could not know whether the live stream room number was genuine or fake, and they could not check.

They could only make a rough judgment based on the number and rules.

There was nothing wrong with the live stream room number Li Die reported.

It didn’t seem like he casually made it up.

After all, the length of a new player’s live stream room number was usually eight digits, and it’s generally composed of the year and month of the first live stream day, followed by the player’s sequence number.

Even if it’s a boss in the instance, they wouldn’t know the live stream room number generation rules.

Li Die was most likely a player, and the players’ nervousness was slightly relieved.

However, players in the instance couldn’t be checked, but the live stream room audience could.

If you haven’t followed a player’s live stream room, there were only two ways to enter.

The first method was to enter the live stream room by clicking on it from the live lobby. However, this method only allowed access to live stream rooms that were currently live.

The second method was to enter the live stream room ID for searching.

So, many viewers immediately input this string of numbers when they heard it, only to discover it wasn’t someone else’s ID; it was the advanced male player’s live stream room ID.

Furthermore, it was displayed as “offline.”

Upon seeing this, the viewers quickly sent barrage messages in the live stream room to inform their own streamer.

​ [Streamer, don’t believe him! The ID he mentioned isn’t his! It belongs to the player next to him! He’s lying!!!]

[I didn’t believe it at first when someone said that player was hypnotized, but now I do. Could he really be a dungeon boss?]

[Oh no, this is bad. Having one team infiltrated by a Crazy Lu was one thing, but now it seems like a suspected dungeon boss has joined. They’re probably going to be wiped out. I can’t bear to watch anymore.]

[Well, you never know. The Crazy Lu and the dungeon boss haven’t teamed up. They might end up fighting each other. It could get interesting.]

[Wow, the way you put it, it does sound exciting. Between the lunatic and the suspected boss, who will come out on top in the end?]

[Come on, let’s start a betting pool! Who do you think will be the ultimate winner? The Crazy Lu? Or the chubby guy who might be the boss?]

The viewers in the live stream room hesitated and didn’t rush to bet on anyone.

While the Crazy Lu was undeniably strong, the identity of the chubby guy, who might be a dungeon boss, hadn’t been confirmed, and nobody knew his true strength.

If he really was a dungeon boss, he would naturally not be weaker than the Crazy Lu.

But if he wasn’t a dungeon boss, it was a different story.

Typically, at the beginning of a betting pool, there was a period of observation, and there was no need to rush.

Because of Ruan Qing’s unique identity, this also involved dungeon-related clues, and the barrage messages were completely blocked.

So, the players didn’t know that the ID Ruan Qing had just reported wasn’t his own live stream room ID.

Even Lu Rufeng couldn’t find anything unusual.

However, Lu Rufeng was absolutely certain that the chubby guy in front of him had a problem.

Although the dungeon had been reset by Su Zhen, Lu Rufeng possessed a special protective magic card that could prevent his memories from being tampered with by any means.

So, with the card’s protection, his memories hadn’t been reset.

Before Lu Rufeng confirmed the reset of the instance, there was absolutely no one named “Li Die.”

However, the copy’s NPCs absolutely had no knowledge of the livestream room number; this was not allowed by the game’s main system.

Could it be the player brought in by Su Zhen?

Lu Rufeng knew Su Zhen, a player who roamed in the dungeon instances.

No one knew Su Zhen’s origin, and he never did livestreams.

Not livestreaming was quite normal; as long as you reached a certain level, you would uncover some secrets of the game. Few high-level players were willing to open livestreams because once you did, the game’s main system could monitor your every move.

But he had never heard that Su Zhen would bring someone along.

Lu Rufeng squinted his eyes, feeling that something was off.

Moreover, the person in front of him always made him feel inexplicable.

He felt somewhat familiar and subtly affected his mood.

Lu Rufeng attributed all of this to his dislike of “Li Die.” He slightly raised his chin, speaking with a commanding tone, “Take off the sunglasses.”

Ruan Qing paused upon hearing this, not moving immediately, seeming hesitant.

Lu Rufeng looked down at the person in front of him. His eyes narrowed, revealing a hint of danger. “What’s the matter?”

“Don’t want to show your face like this?”

Even though Lu Rufeng appeared expressionless and his tone remained unchanged, it inexplicably made people feel uneasy from the bottom of their hearts.

Although the other players were somewhat puzzled, they all looked at the “Li Die” who seemed reluctant to take off his sunglasses.

Wrapped up so tightly and still unwilling to remove them, it was indeed somewhat strange.

Lu Rufeng’s tone was obviously not to be refused, giving people a sense of “if he offers you dignity, and you don’t accept it, then he will help you find dignity.”

Moreover, Ruan Qing had no doubt about Li Shuyang’s strength; the male player he had hypnotized probably couldn’t defeat him.

Clearly, not taking off the sunglasses was not an option.

Ruan Qing slowly reached out and took off the sunglasses on his face.

As the sunglasses were removed, a pair of small and shrewd eyes were revealed.

Perhaps because his face was too fat, his eyes were squeezed to the point where they could hardly open, appearing very small, and it was almost impossible to see any pupils.

And the skin near his eyes appeared dark yellow and swollen, as if he had an allergic reaction, making him look exceptionally fat and extraordinarily ugly.

It gave people a cunning and vile feeling.

Other players, after seeing clearly, suddenly somewhat understood why the fat guy was wearing sunglasses.

As for Lu Ruifeng, he frowned slightly and didn’t say anything more.

Ruan Qing let out a slight sigh of relief in his heart and put the sunglasses back on.

Fortunately, he had prepared for this.

The most difficult thing to hide about a person is their gaze. No matter how much you disguise it, it will reveal something.

So why not just make people unable to see his gaze directly?

That’s why Ruan Qing chose to disguise himself as a fat guy.

Because fat people’s facial features tend to be slightly smaller due to their overall plumpness.

As for making the face look chubby, it was just a special effect makeup.

Fortunately, this group of players had little experience with makeup, so they couldn’t tell.

However, the viewers in the advanced male player’s live stream room were already beginning to doubt their lives when they saw Ruan Qing’s eyes.

Wasn’t the person/NPC they saw this afternoon that stunning beauty?!

Why had it turned into this vile fat guy? What happened during this time!?

At this point, not to mention that others wouldn’t believe it if they were told what happened, even they themselves were starting to suspect if they had been hypnotized with the advanced male player this afternoon.

After all, some of the dungeon bosses were incredibly powerful and could cause mental contamination to those who saw them, even affecting the viewers in the live stream room.

Once the suspicion of the fat guy was ruled out, players no longer paid attention to him and continued discussing matters related to the Xishan Kindergarten.

In the end, the players decided to go to Xishan Kindergarten for investigation.

Xishan Kindergarten wasn’t too far away, and the players quickly arrived.

By now, the sky had completely darkened, and the entire Xishan Kindergarten gave off a sense of danger and unease.

The lights in the security room were still on, but no one knew if there was any danger there.

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