Just then, the only darkened screen on the live stream disappeared, and the E-rank streamer reappeared in the second-floor corridor. However, the other player who had been in the corridor earlier was nowhere to be seen.
[What happened to that B-rank who was on his last breath in the corridor just now?]
[He's gone already?]
[Just checked… Yue Cheng's codename has turned gray.]
A grayed-out codename meant the player had died inside the instance.
[This is a District 5 instance… don't players turn into… that thing when they die?]
[Holy shit! They turn into ghosts!!!]
[Ahhh, Xiao Shi, run!!!]
[What? Turn into ghosts? Where's the ghost?!]
…
In the dim, silent corridor.
Wen Shichun rose to his feet. The spot against the wall where Yue Cheng had been was now empty, and the entire hallway had grown even more oppressive.
As soon as he returned to the real space, the spirit detector sounded again. Wen Shichun stowed it back into his item card. In his field of vision, aside from his own room with its door wide open, only three rooms in the corridor still had light spilling from beneath the doors.
The lit room on the left was He Yi's. Across the stairwell, the two lit rooms on the right were the one Xun Ji and Chang Zhao shared, and the one where Shen Jing was staying.
Wen Shichun had no idea about the others' situations, and none of the messages he had sent in the team channel had received any reply.
But right now, the situation in the corridor was urgent.
After emerging from the safe space, Wen Shichun had stayed on high alert, listening for any movement in the hallway. And in his field of vision, he could already see something emerging from his room.
***
In the District 10 villa, a few people were watching the same live stream.
Xie Huai said, "The deceased from his bedroom have all come out."
Could the streamer handle these ghosts now?
E-rank…
Xiao Qi stared at the footage of the corridor on one screen and the footage from the external support team on the other, and said, "What are they doing just standing at the door?!"
Hurry up and go in to save them!!!
Gu Heng glanced at Xiao Qi with amusement. "Don't rush them."
Ge Baiyuan also spoke to Xiao Qi in a gentle tone. "District 2 and District 9 are hostile districts... those two running into each other inside the instance."
He had a feeling this was not going to be anything good.
Hearing Ge Baiyuan's explanation, Xiao Qi, who had just caught on, fell silent: "..."
Yan Shang...
De Yuechen...
District 2...
District 9...
Xiao Qi wanted to cry.
Those two districts weren't just hostile — they were practically mortal enemies.
And now they had entered the same instance at the same time. Could that possibly be a good thing?
Would they end up fighting each other inside the instance?
But sometimes, fate is just like that.
The more you fear something, the more likely it is to happen.
***
Inside the instance, on the second-floor corridor.
The first thing that entered Wen Shichun's field of vision was a bluish-green right foot covered with purplish-red mottled spots.
Then the entire body stepped out.
Its body moved forward, but it seemed to have already pinpointed the exact location of the living person in the corridor, because its head remained twisted to the right. The moment Wen Shichun raised his eyes, he found himself face-to-face with that bluish-green demon's visage.
...
The bluish-green demon that had appeared a few times in the dreamscape now stood on the same horizontal line as Wen Shichun. After stepping out of the room, 'his' rigid body slowly turned to the right as well, facing the person on that side.
The white-haired beauty leaning against the wall — the expression on that face froze into ice almost in an instant.
Wen Shichun stood ramrod straight, his eyes already searching for the best escape route.
...
At the same time, above the haunted mansion, 'Yin Chu' watched the two figures who had appeared outside the main gate.
"What are these two doing here?"
Had they also discovered what was on the E-rank?
'Yin Chu' pondered for a moment.
The last three who had entered the E-rank novice instance were the administrators of the District 1, the District 7, and the District 10.
There had been no word of anyone from District 2 or District 9 getting involved.
And the ones entering the instance now weren't even the heads of Districts 2 and 9.
Two external support players?
What were they coming in for now?
A moment later, having finished his observation, 'Yin Chu' stopped paying attention to the two external support members outside the gate. He shifted his view back to the second-floor corridor, where the newcomer friend had already run straight into the demons from the bedrooms.
After catching sight of the beauty's ice-cold face — utterly unruffled — 'Yin Chu' let out a soft laugh and once again exercised his authority, issuing a command to the demons:
"Don't kill him just yet. Give him a good scare first."
Then he vanished from above the mansion.
***
Official Livestream:
[Help!!!]
[Ahhhh it's over]
[??? What's going on, why is he standing in the corridor?]
[Good thing he's in the corridor... those demons came out of the room he was sleeping in earlier...]
And on the livestream feed, after the first bluish demon emerged from Shi's room, the doors on that side of the corridor all seemed to activate like triggered mechanisms at that very moment — one by one, the doors swung open neatly and slowly.
***
Inside the instance, Wen Shichun's entire body had long since been taut with tension. He held a knife in his left hand, and on the back of that hand, veins in interwoven stripes of pale blue and light purple were clearly visible.
As the doors ahead swung open one by one, Wen Shichun turned on his heel and sprinted toward the corridor on the right.
Just before he moved, out of the corner of his eye he caught the only sliver of light spilling from the left corridor.
He Yi's door had also been opened from inside. But that did not affect his course of action. Those opening rooms were just like his own bedroom — bluish-green 'people' kept emerging from them one after another. In almost two seconds, Wen Shichun had already reached the stairway entrance.
As he passed through the stairwell connecting the two corridors, his gaze instinctively flicked toward the staircase.
In the dim stairway, dull light fell upon one bluish-green face after another lining the steps above and below. At some unknown point, the staircase had become filled with 'people' as well — and 'they' were now moving up toward the second floor.
Wen Shichun's breath caught. There was no time to think about where all these demons had come from. In the end, he covered the distance in barely a second, threw open the first door on the right corridor — the room where Xun Yi and Chang Zhao were temporarily staying — and ducked inside in a flash.
Before the door could close behind him, Wen Shichun felt the bluish-green hands reaching for him, so close they nearly grazed his back.
