Tang Mianmian turned to look at Xiao Tangqiu, “Qiuqiu, what do you think?”

Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly and spoke in a low voice, “I have heard the story of the Virgin Spring …but it’s completely different from what she said.”

Tang Mianmian’s eyes shone with suspicion, “Oh? Is she lying to us? “

“I don’t think so, maybe it’s not the same story,” Xiao Tangqiu frowned. “But I have an inkling that the story behind this Virgin Spring is the key to this mission.”

Tang Mianmian nodded, “This subject will review the matter!”

Xiao Tangqiu smiled, “No matter what, we must remember this story clearly.”

When the two people in the back were done whispering, they noticed that the others had entered the castle gate, and they quickly followed after.

As soon as the last two entered the castle, the castle doors slowly closed on its own.

Thud

The huge, old wooden door made a dull noise, and the newbies turned pale with fear, “The door……. the door closed by itself”

The moment the light from outside disappeared, the castle was plunged into darkness. Just as everyone started to grow uneasy, candles suddenly lit up in the distance. Then, one by one, the candles slowly lit up by themselves, from afar to where they were standing.

It wasn’t until the nearby candles were burning and the flickering yellow light dimly illuminated the hall that they discovered a man not far away. It was a middle-aged man in a wooden wheelchair.

The man was about 50 years old, younger than the housekeeper, but those eyes that were like a stagnant pool of water seemed to reveal the harsh vicissitudes of life. He sat motionless in his wheelchair; not even his eyes moved, just like a statue.

Xiao Tangqiu was startled and unconsciously took a step back but his reaction was still calm. Several newbies were frightened and screamed at the sudden appearance of the man. However, their rude screams still hadn’t attracted the attention of the man in the wheelchair. He merely looked straight ahead with an unfocused gaze.

“Master…… I’ve brought the guests.”

Only when the housekeeper came forward to announce their arrival did the man finally move – his eyes looked up as he slowly turned to face the crowd.

His gaze fell onto them, and immediately, the newbies shuffled backwards in fear. Xiao Tangqiu gritted his teeth and stayed in place.

“I apologize, Master’s movements are limited.” The housekeeper behaved as if she hadn’t seen any disrespect from the guests and calmly explained, “He welcomes you very much and hopes you can have a pleasant vacation here…..”

“The second floor is the dining hall and the third to the fifth floor are the guest rooms. You may choose your rooms at will.” The housekeeper smiled, “….Except for the attic, you may enter all other rooms. But please remember, you are forbidden to enter the attic.”

Under the flickering candlelight, her smile appeared somewhat strange. Xiao Tangqiu felt his hair stand on end, but his brain immediately responded –  the attic must be the key to the mission.

Just then, one of the women on Shen Yuan’s team who hadn’t spoken the entire time opened her mouth to laugh. She twirled a lock of hair and asked the housekeeper with a grin, “What will happen if we enter the attic?”

The moment her voice fell, Xiao Tangqiu instantly felt the surrounding atmosphere change. The temperature seemed to fall by several degrees. He suddenly thought of something and launched his special skill card -“Sexy Streamer’s Live Stream Channel.”

The next second, a semi-transparent screen of his channel page appeared in front of his eyes as a barrage of comments rained down at once.

“If the characters in the plot say they can’t go to a certain place, then all the more they have to go! No zuo, no die, you must try! Streamer, GO ah!!!!”

“My poor streamer QAQ. Then, I’ll give the streamer a nuclear powered flashlight!”

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly felt something heavy in his pocket. He instinctively reached out felt it…… The next second, he actually pulled out a flashlight.

This was a very common looking flashlight, but there was a small piece of paper with a line of cursive handwriting on it under the switch –

“Nuclear Powered Flashlight”.

………Hello! This was clearly a common flashlight with an extra piece of paper!

He was poor, don’t lie to him!

At this time, Xiao Tangqiu suddenly remembered the holy water and yellow talismans he had seen them comment before, and immediately wondered why the holy water and yellow talismans weren’t in his hands.

……..That’s right, those holy water and yellow talismans were awarded by his “fans” after the end of the instance. Could it be that once the instance ends the rewards won’t appear in physical form? But where did those holy water and yellow talismans rewards go? Were they all cleared once a new instance starts?

But if that was the case, what’s the point of rewarding those holy water and yellow talismans?

Then again, who were these fans of his live stream channel? Were they also players?

Xiao Tangqiu immediately wanted to open the live stream’s behind-the-scenes. Just as he thought of that, the semi-transparent live stream’s backstage interface appeared in front of him. It was similar to his previous live stream backstage interface. However, the column that was supposed to show gift rewards wasn’t there. Instead, it was something he had never seen before – “Roast Value”.

………Roast Value? What the hell? What was that for?

He was confused for a second but after seeing the number after the “Roast Value”, he was even more puzzled – “250.”

250? Where did he get that Roast Value from?

Xiao Tangqiu paused and suddenly came up with an idea. Could this Roast Value be…….  those holy water and yellow talisman rewards after they were converted from gift rewards? Was this Roast Value equivalent to his gift rewards?

Right then, he suddenly noticed a small line above his live stream channel – “this skill has been used 1/3 times in this instance, the skill lasts for 1 minute. It requires 1,000 Roast Value before the next skill upgrade.” This was followed by a countdown of – 6

Xiao Tangqiu, “?”

5, 4……

Xiao Tangqiu, “???”

3, 2, 1……

End of skill.

The live stream channel interface in front of him disappeared instantly.

Xiao Tangqiu, “……”

…… Fucking hell? What kind of useless skill was this?!

Never mind that in an instance, it could only be used three times and only for one minute at a time, but no matter how he looked at it, it was only useful for roasting send him some useless things.

What damn chicken rib skill was this?! *Flips Table!* Not only was it useless, but there was also limitations to the number of times he could use it!!

Just as Xiao Tangqiu was raving madly inside, Tang Mianmian suddenly interrupted his one-man drama, “Let’s share a room?”

He came back to his senses, only to find that everyone was already discussing how to allocate the rooms. In addition to Shen Yuan’s group of four and themselves, there were four other old players. The remaining ten people were newbies. The old players naturally wanted to stick together, and none of them were willing to take the new players into their team. After all, this wasn’t an ordinary game. At most, they might lose a bit if they had newbies dragging their feet in a normal difficulty mission, but in this game, they would definitely lose their lives in minutes.

A few newcomers had the cheek to look for those old players to hold onto their thighs, but they were met with a rebuff and could only return to the newbies’ side despondently. Of course, some people also noticed that Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian were calm unlike the newbies, and tried to get them to form a team. Tang Mianmian refused without even thinking. Apart from Xiao Tangqiu, he didn’t trust anyone, let alone the newbies who would keep dragging them down.

When Xiao Tangqiu came back to his senses, the ten newbies was almost done with allocating their rooms. They happened to have five men and five women, and planned for the men to share one room and the women to share another. Although it was a bit crowded, they seemed to think it was safer to have more people. In case something really happened at night, having more people would serve as a cushion in a deadly situation.

“Then, the men will sleep in one room and the women can take another.” The middle-aged Suit Man was obviously a leader who was used to giving orders. He seems to have completely stepped out of the embarrassing situation earlier and had gotten back his previous cockiness. He spoke with a voice of authority, “More people means more strength so the more people there are the safer we are. In such a terrible place, if something really happens at night, we should help each other! Unity is strength; the flame burns higher when more people gather firewood!”

He stuck out his beer belly as he swept his gaze over the newbies, “… Does anyone have a problem with that?”

A middle-aged woman stood up.

“You?” The middle-aged man frowned and asked, “What’s your opinion?”

“I want to share a room with my son!” The middle-aged woman pulled her son out of the crowd. It was a seven-year-old boy. He kept struggling to break free from the middle-aged woman’s grip, but the woman was so strong that she pulled him away at once.

“Is this your son?” The middle-aged man frowned. “Your son is still so young, and you’re just a weak woman. It’s safer to stay with us.”

The middle-aged woman looked at the others warily, “How do I know that you’re not one of the bad guys? Who knows if you’re kidnappers or traffickers who want to take away my son! I don’t believe you, I want to share a room with my son!”

The little boy kept kicking at the middle-aged woman, “You’re not my mother! I don’t want to share a room with you!”

One of the newbies who looked like a college student immediately cried, “He said you’re not his mother! Are you a human trafficker?”

The middle-aged woman gave the female college student a stern look, “He’s my son! I had three daughters before I finally gave birth to my dearest son. How can he be someone else’s child? He’s just throwing a temper! Mind your own business!”

“You’re not my mother! You’re a human trafficker!” The boy was still making a scene and had even sat his butt down, rolling about on the floor.

“You’re still making a fuss! Still won’t behave?!” The middle-aged woman got angry, tore off the boy’s trousers and began to spank him.

The female college student immediately stepped back after seeing this.

“…… If that’s the case, then you, mother and son, will stay in one room,” the middle-aged man looked impatient. “The others will stay in two rooms – four women in one room, four men in another, is that ok?”

“Such a naughty child,” Tang Mianmian whispered to Xiao Tangqiu. “This Flag had been raised so high ah….”

Xiao Tangqiu pursed his lips. Just then, the old housekeeper’s voice rang out again, “……Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll take you to the guest rooms now…… Someone will be there to inform you when it’s dinner time.”

They weren’t aware of when she had appeared by the spiral staircase holding a candlestick, and the Master in the wheelchair had disappeared when they weren’t paying attention.

Although the crowd was afraid, they could only follow after her.

As they were walking, Windbreaker Man at the front suddenly cried out “Eh” and said in a lazy tone, “Captain, there seems to be something on the wall…….”

There was something on the wall?!

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly froze. The castle was dark and gloomy. There wasn’t even a window. There were only a few candles spread out here and there, so visibility was very low. It was so dim that it would be impossible to tell if it was a man or a woman if someone stood a meter away or if it was a person or an animal if it was five meters away. They had to be careful when walking just in case they accidentally stepped on something and fell over like a dead dog.

Windbreaker Man could actually see something on the wall in lighting?! How sharp were his eyes?

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly remembered his nuclear powered flashlight. He hesitated, took out the flashlight from his pocket and shined it at the wall.

After hearing what Windbreaker Man had said, everyone subconsciously turned towards the wall, but because it was too dark they couldn’t see anything. When Xiao Tangqiu turned on the flashlight, they were shocked but before they could suspect anything about the flashlight, they had all shifted their attention once they saw the items on the wall.

Paintings.

The wall was covered in paintings.

~~~

P.S. Thanks for the well wishes