A few hours earlier.
Outside the instance, in the live stream of the only E-rank player, "Shi," who had turned on his broadcast within this leveling instance, the viewers' screens had gone black after the streamer closed his eyes.
—A peaceful black.
But it wasn't long before a strange sound emerged from within that darkness.
It sounded like something—perhaps fingernails—slowly scraping across a wooden board.
The live stream chat erupted.
[?]
[Friends?]
[Did you guys hear that?]
[!!!]
…
[Help—there's something inside the room!]
[Wait… what… what’s making that noise…?]
[Streamer, don’t sleep! Wake up!!!]
[Shi, honey!!!]
…
But no matter how the barrage of comments flooded the screen, it couldn’t affect the person already fast asleep within the instance in the slightest.
[…]
[No way.]
[Did the streamer really fall asleep?]
[Is this for real?]
[Wait, they fell asleep that quickly?!]
[It’s over]
[Such a beautiful person, and they’re just going to be gone like this??]
[I just sponsored with my points!! They can’t just be wasted!! Shi, wake up!!! (Sponsored +10 points)]
***
Outside the instance.
In the villa in District 10. Apart from Xiao Qi, who had hung the blacked-out livestream screen on one side of his panel—keeping an eye on it at all times—the other three had gone back to playing different board games.
So when a strange sound came from the livestream, Xiao Qi noticed it almost immediately.
But a few minutes after the sound started, the screen in front of him remained black.
Wen Shichun did not wake up.
“It’s over.”
Xiao Qi let out a groan.
“What now?”
Gu Heng shot him a glance, but his hand didn’t stop reaching for the stack of cards on the table.
Among the group, Xie Huai was still the one who understood the young man on the opposite sofa best. Without even looking up, Xie Huai said, “Something happened in the E-rank dungeon?”
Xiao Qi nodded immediately and looked at his Brother Xie. “Yeah… but the streamer really did fall asleep…”
“He’s pretty carefree.” Gu Heng chuckled at that.
“Didn’t the detector wake him?” Ge Baiyuan asked.
Hearing that, Xiao Qi suddenly realized something.
“Right! Why didn’t the detector go off?”
With that, his gaze returned to the black screen. This time, Xiao Qi listened more carefully, but his brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
Because the livestream was currently in first‑person mode, the audience’s auditory perception was essentially aligned with the streamer’s location.
“The sound seems to be coming from under the bed…” Xiao Qi said, a trace of confusion on his face as he looked across at Xie Huai. He ventured uncertainly, “It couldn’t be that the dungeon boss is hiding under the streamer’s bed, could it?”
But those sounds…
“Didn’t go off?” Xie Huai looked up at Xiao Qi’s words, then set down his board game card and pulled up the livestream feed again.
“Something wrong?”
Seeing Xie Huai staring intently at the screen for a good while, Gu Heng set his own card face down on the table.
"What's wrong, Old Xie?" Ge Baiyuan asked from the side.
"Mm..." Xie Huai replied absently, his gaze drifting toward the livestream screen from time to time.
Seeing Xie Huai like this, the others in the entertainment room knew immediately that something serious was going on. So, aside from Xiao Qi, who had been keeping the livestream on the whole time, the other two also reopened the promotion dungeon's livestream page—though the screen was completely black at the moment.
Ge Baiyuan listened for a moment.
Then he turned to Xie Huai and asked, "That item of yours... was it not as advertised?"
He was beginning to suspect that his friend had sold a counterfeit item.
Otherwise, with an obvious supernatural creature approaching, why hadn't the item gone off...?
That poor new streamer was still sleeping so soundly...
Gu Heng also remembered how the young streamer had fallen asleep with peace of mind after buying the item.
It was truly hard to bear.
When Xiao Qi heard Ge Baiyuan's words, his curly hair nearly shot up in alarm: "What! Brother Xie, you sold him a fake?!!!"
Shoddy goods!!!
"Of course not..." Xie Huai looked up with an awkward laugh, then replied in a serious tone: "How could I? It was just a bit overpriced—the item itself is definitely good."
Then Xie Huai added, "This dungeon is problematic."
"I mentioned earlier that there were quite a few things buried in his room. But because of the dungeon's level bracket restriction, this was originally only a B-rank dungeon—the dungeon's energy isn't enough to activate some dormant creatures."
As Xie Huai spoke, his expression turned unusually serious.
But the current energy range of this dungeon had some strange fluctuations.
The detector hadn't gone off, meaning those creatures hadn't yet manifested physically or spiritually—but those sounds...
After a moment of thought, Xie Huai finally looked toward Gu Heng, who was sitting on the opposite sofa, and said, "Keep an eye on it."
Xie Huai signaled with his eyes: 'You're an Enforcer—take a look and see if this dungeon requires external Enforcer intervention.'
What exactly was going on inside, whether it was man-made or a legitimate change, all required monitoring by an Enforcer.
After this, the group ended up watching a black screen along with the viewers in the livestream for several hours. They could even tell how deeply the young streamer was sleeping—after all, the strange sounds in his room had already changed several times, yet the new streamer still showed no sign of opening his eyes.
The few people in the villa were passing the time while keeping an eye on the live stream of the instance.
Finally, as the time approached two in the morning.
In Wen Shichun's room, all sounds came to an abrupt halt.
...
Those outside the instance had no idea that the lights in the room they were watching had already gone out shortly after Wen Shichun fell asleep.
The lights had gone out almost at the same time those eerie sounds began.
Now, the live stream had gone quiet again, making Xiao Qi nervously lift his head.
The disappearance of those sounds should have been a good thing, but this sudden silence made everyone uneasy—and sure enough, within seconds, another faint rustling sound came from the pitch-black screen.
It was as if something had climbed onto the streamer's bed in the darkness and lay down on its side right beside him.
"!!!"
In that moment, Xiao Qi's reaction was almost identical to that of most viewers in the live stream.
"It's the dungeon boss!"
Right behind the streamer!
He's done for!
It's over!
Xiao Qi, the spectator outside, felt his heart leap into his throat. Nervous, he looked around at the people near him, as if hoping to find someone who shared his feelings. Instead, he found that everyone else in the room seemed calm as they watched the dark screen.
Then, a moment later, an even stranger sound came from the darkness.
It sounded a bit like...
The sounds of a struggle?
Had the streamer woken up?
Xiao Qi wondered.
Just like most of the other people watching the live stream.
They were all thinking—
Why is the screen still black?
Just as Xiao Qi was feeling confused, the black screen suddenly lit up before his eyes.
***
The livestream, restored to light:
[The streamer is awake!]
[Xiao Shi!]
[White-haired little angel!]
…
When the screen appeared, what the livestream audience saw was the hand pulling back from the desk lamp.
[Wait, was the room dark just now? I clearly remember the lights were all on in this room before Xiao Shi went to sleep!]
[Which ghost did that?!]
…
[Hold on, is that mass of air in front of him spitting blood…?]
[That’s the dungeon boss, right?!]
[So I wasn’t hearing things? There really was the sound of a fight just now.]
The next second, everyone saw from a first-person perspective “themselves” pick up a bloodstained knife.
[This knife… that mass of air… that moving blood… could it be that Xiao Shi just stabbed it in the dark? (shock)]
[Probably can’t be wrong. The sound earlier was the knife going in and out… and that thud of something hitting the wall in the dark… someone threw that knife away, didn’t they.]
[Yeah, even though your analyses might be correct, and I think so too, but…]
[Ah… Xiao Shi, the little angel… how many times did he stab that boss?]
[Wait… look at that boss… boss… is it trying to make a run for it?]
In the livestream screen, the blood that had been spilled into the air was now spraying all the way toward the bedroom door.
…
[What's going on with this boss?! You're a B-rank instance boss! How did you end up being chased from behind by an E-rank cutie carrying a knife?!]
[This scene is too beautiful, I'm feeling a bit dazed… What do you all think, folks?]
[I'm having a hard time connecting this scene with the white-haired little angel I saw earlier.]
[With all due respect… this might be a real tough one.]
