By the time the players returned to Frostwater Harbor, escorted the important witnesses to the church, and successfully woke up Priest Louis... it was already three in the morning.
According to Annan, the number of instances for this game seemed to be refreshed every day at six in the morning.
So not playing an instance today would be equivalent to falling behind by one CD.
—Although they didn’t know what the instance was about, what it gave, or when it would be useful. But for the players, missing one CD felt like a huge loss.
So after they settled the escorted persons, they quickly returned to their residences.
Priest Louis originally wanted to invite them for tea and a chat, but the players politely declined—with the excuse that they were very tired and would talk after they had slept.
By the time Lin Yiyi lay down in her bed, it was already half-past three in the morning.
And the forum was still very active.
Although the game only had forty players, the level of activity was frightening:
GourmetGeese: "Is the expedition team ready? Shall we start? Shall we start?"
Wandering Child: "Geez, Old Goose, if you’re so eager, why don’t you go in first..."
Yiyi: "Can this instance be done in a party?"
GourmetGeese: "No, what I mean is, remember to livestream and record when you enter the instance, I’ll study the mechanism first."
GourmetGeese: "I know you guys too well, you won’t even think about the mechanisms once you start fighting. I’ll open a thread later, capture your livestreams, and explain the mechanism to everyone."
GourmetGeese: "Once you enter the instance, you might not be able to access the forum. Just to be safe, when the time comes, have a few people send my analysis to the strategy team in the form of bullet comments."
Jiu’er: "I’ll do it, I’ll do it!"
Yiyi: "Seriously, Jiu’er, you should go into the instance since you’re so good..."
Jiu’er: "I’m not going!"
Jiu’er took a deep breath.
Actually, when Lin Yiyi said, "This couldn’t be a horror game, could it?" Jiu’er’s heart had shuddered.
Intuition told her that this instance might truly be a freaking horror game...
So she naturally didn’t respond, choosing instead to first watch Lin Yiyi’s livestream and cloud it up before deciding.
Yes, she and GourmetGeese had come to the same conclusion.
...Honestly, how can you do a livestream without clouding it up?
To create an effective livestream, you definitely need to understand the game in advance. And you need to find those narrative moments that make for good streaming, have a rough idea of how to handle them... In short, you need to write a simple script.
Maintaining intense concentration while immersing yourself in the game and interacting intensely with the viewers is not human work—either you focus on the game and fail to interact, or you’re so caught up in the interaction that you miss several lines of key information.
However, Jiu’er wasn’t feeling any psychological pressure.
For a horror game, as long as you observe it first before playing, you’re generally not going to get scared...
On the other hand, Lin Yiyi hadn’t thought so much about it.
Her brain was very simple.
She took a deep breath, started the livestream and recording, and then murmured softly:
Suddenly, a deep, echoing whisper resonated in her mind.
Without any psychological preparation, Lin Yiyi was startled.
Am I getting scared by you even before I’ve entered the game?!
Her heart was seized with fear, and her back was soaked with cold sweat.
The next moment, a stream of data suddenly appeared before her eyes, offering a slight reprieve from the panic:
[Falling into the nightmare in ten seconds, ten, nine... three, two, one]
[Falling into the nightmare, instance generation in progress...]
Lin Yiyi suddenly felt an intense dizziness, accompanied by great fatigue, causing her to lose consciousness.
In a daze, she felt as if she was dropping, the speed getting faster and faster—suddenly, she woke up.
By then, she saw a bunch of fleeting streams of data:
[Difficulty level of this instance is Twisted]
[This instance does not provide introductory narrative, but there are decryption rewards]
[Instance loading complete]
As the data streams were about to fade, Lin Yiyi caught sight of the brightly lit gallery.
This thought popped into her mind unconsciously.
Before Lin Yiyi could ponder further, she heard an ethereal and ghostly whisper behind her:
"Do not look back. Never look back..."
It was an aged and feeble voice. As if something was clinging close to her from behind... whispering into her ear, making it tickle.
Lin Yiyi’s body suddenly went numb, her heart seemed to nearly stop, her mind went blank, and she couldn’t help but scream out loud.
Although the voice had told her not to turn around, she still subconsciously looked back:
But she found only an ordinary door behind her. Besides that, there was nothing different.
...Don’t turn around? Why shouldn’t I turn around?
Should I listen to that person? Or is it a trap?
Soon, Lin Yiyi saw a flurry of bullet comments suddenly shoot across her vision:
"——Don’t randomly turn around, ahhh, why don’t you listen, ahhh!"
"——You can still take a glance behind you now, but don’t turn around once you enter the next door!"
"——Remember sister, you can’t die in vain, learn from it!"
"...What? I’ve died once already?"
Lin Yiyi was somewhat puzzled.
Then, she suddenly realized something and asked the other players watching the livestream, "Wait a second, guys, which loop am I in now?"
"——Second loop, right?"
"——Wait, Sister, don’t you remember?"
Lin Yiyi immediately answered, "I just heard ’instanced dungeon loading completed’... and that ’don’t turn back’."
It was at this time that a torrent of bullet comments suddenly flashed in front of her:
"——Current summarized strategy: don’t turn back, especially not after entering the second door, there’s an instant death turn-back kill; remember to watch out for the chandeliers on the ceiling, walk slowly and bait them; after death memories will reset, bullet comments, remember to report which loop and how the host died before."
With the appearance of the bullet comments containing the strategy, the fear in Lin Yiyi’s heart was not nearly as profound as it was at the start.
It was like watching a horror movie with someone else.
It wasn’t that the horror element had diminished, but the sensation of being able to pinch the flesh on a friend’s waist in fright provided great relief from the fear.
"...Thank goodness for old Goose."
Lin Yiyi breathed a little easier, and even had the guts to make a joke, "Sure enough, a reliable middle-aged streamer..."
"——Crazy Goose is the big boss who plays games with his hair."
"——He’s gone bald, and he’s gotten stronger."
As she said this, she was about to move forward.
But at that moment, a sharp pain washed away her thoughts.
She felt a severe pain in her abdomen... as if her organs were churning, and even though her sense of pain was only one-third, it made her involuntarily cry out in pain and crouch down.
"Hey, guys, is this wound on my stomach from last week’s loop?"
The bullet comments responded immediately:
"——No, it’s because you moved forward."
"——It’s not a big deal, the first round doesn’t involve combat."
"——Don’t waste time, there’s nothing much to investigate around here, no exciting action. Just move forward confidently."
The bullet comments tried to remotely command the host.
You come and confidently take a walk and see...
My organs are injured!
Lin Yiyi hissed in pain again, couldn’t help but bend over, bit her teeth, and tore open her clothes.
She discovered that blood had already stuck to the clothes.
And this body seemed to be a man’s...
...Eh, wasn’t this the body I created?
She hesitated for a moment, but still gave up the idea of groping herself in front of everyone. She just exposed the wound, tried her best to prevent the clothes from rubbing against it, and moved forward slowly in a somewhat ugly posture with a slightly bent waist.
"You said there’s no excitement... Then I can just move forward with confidence, right?"
Lin Yiyi still felt a bit uneasy.
On the other side, Delicious Wind Goose was nervously watching the livestream of the player advancing the plot the fastest.
This was "Wandering Child"’s progress.
Of course, he was not the fastest for any special reason. It wasn’t because he was extremely brave, nor because he was very quick at gathering information.
Instead, it was because he had chosen a different strategy...
Charge forward without hesitation.
Don’t look at anything. Don’t acknowledge anything. Don’t investigate anything. Don’t think about anything.
Just keep running at full speed, with your head down...
And the result was surprisingly effective.
In the blink of an eye.
——He had already reached the third layer of the nightmare.