Recap
Song Yang said calmly, “Dreams are bizarre and illogical. Everything in a dream may be the result of distorted and deformed real elements. So in this dream, Huang Mo, just like in reality, is a student who is often called to the teacher’s office by his classmates and doesn’t have a close relationship with other students. That’s why you found that school rules manual in the school broadcasting room. However, apart from this, the school in this dream is completely different from the school in Huang Mo’s reality.”
“But a dream is also a projection of one’s heart. In Huang Mo’s heart, this school must be a nightmare.”
“‘Don’t think about it’ itself is a kind of inducement. Its purpose is to induce us to have terrifying imaginations, and it actually has nothing to do with ‘study hard’. But in the dream world, whether it’s the teacher or the school broadcast, they repeatedly link these two things. This must also be because Huang Mo had some imagination when he saw the cover and the instance title ‘Don’t Think About It’.”
“This imagination is related to studying, to teachers and students, and also to parents.”
Liu Yi’s eyes widened, and he suddenly started to whimper.
Trigger warning: Mentions of su*cide
He said emotionally, “Huang Mo once told me that his high school was very strict, the study pressure was great, and his head teacher always told them that students shouldn’t think about or do anything else, just focus on studying! It was because his grades weren’t very good, and he liked to play basketball, that he was often called to the teacher’s office. Every time his mother went to school, his head teacher would ask his mother to remind him to focus on studying and not think about other things…”
The banging on the door became more and more intense, and the door panel was almost falling off the frame.
Xia Jing quickly raised the next question, “But the teachers are in the school, there’s no need to contact them through mobile phones. The things that appear from the mobile phone must not be anything in the school.”
Liu Yi nodded quickly and said tremblingly, “Huang Mo’s original family was also very bad. His father had violent tendencies and always beat his mother in front of him, it had always been like this since he was a child. If Huang Mo went up to stop him, his father would beat him too. He cried and told me many times that his mother didn’t let him protect her. Every time his father started hitting people, his mother would tell him to go into the room, not to listen, not to look…”
Everyone’s nerves were tense.
“Don’t listen, don’t look” appeared here!
Liu Yi’s tears fell, “Calling the police was useless, and taking his mother to his grandmother’s house was useless. As long as his father begged, his mother would soften her heart, and even felt that even for Huang Mo’s sake, they couldn’t get a divorce… Then Huang Mo also despaired.”
“Later, his mother may have had mental problems. After being called to school a few times by his head teacher, she repeatedly told him that studying was the most important thing. She endured such a marriage for him, and he had to study hard for her, become successful, so that they could escape from this family.”
“His mother wanted him to listen to the teacher, listen to her, not listen to anything else, not look at anything else, not even think about anything else, just study, study, study! He lived at school in high school. Later, whenever he was beaten by his father, his mother would call him and repeat this sentence to him over and over again!”
“I remember in his senior year of high school, Huang Mo told me that he was going crazy.”
“Once his mother called him in the middle of the night, and he was startled because he knew that when his mother made this call, she must be being beaten again. But when he was about to answer the phone, he suddenly felt very confused. He was thinking, if he answered this call, what should he do? He seemed to be unable to do anything!”
“He told me that he was stunned at that time. He looked at his roommates blankly, wanting to ask for help, but his roommates were all sleeping, they were sleeping so peacefully, why could they sleep so peacefully, why was he the only one going crazy?”
“He wanted to kill his father and then commit suicide several times. Hearing the phone vibrate, he felt like his heart was going to explode, and he was about to die—”
Everyone felt heavy hearted and chilled to the bone after hearing this.
This instance actually started from the tragedy of a family.
And at this moment, the mobile phones in everyone’s pockets suddenly vibrated at the same time.
Wang Yueran and the others were startled by this vibration.
The next second, with a loud “bang”, everyone turned their heads to see—the door panel had been completely knocked askew, revealing a gap.
The NPC outside glared at them fiercely, pulling the door panel hard, trying to break in.
Xia Jing made a decisive decision, “—Answer the phone!”
Everyone’s minds cleared, and they quickly took out their mobile phones. Seeing the caller ID “Mom”, their hearts tightened.
Looking at each other, the six people answered the phone at the same time, and then they heard the sounds of kicking and crying and screaming from the six mobile phones, creepy and chilling.
“Mo Mo! Mo Mo!! Don’t listen, don’t look, don’t think!! You just need to study, you have to study hard for me, Mom is all for you—”
“Ha, you can’t save yourself by calling anyone, come back to me!”
The eerie male voice sneered on the other end, and there was a hint of brutality in the laughter.
Then the voice moved away, as if the man had pulled the woman over, but the screams, cries, and triumphant laughter pierced everyone’s hearts—
The old lady’s hands were trembling with heartache, and the others’ faces were also very ugly. Coupled with the NPC about to break in, Jia Qing asked with red eyes, “I’m already thinking that this is a dream, why, why can’t I leave this place?”
Suddenly, Wang Yueran screamed, and at the same time, Liu Yi and Jia Qing were so scared that they threw their phones away.
—Two huge heads suddenly emerged from each phone, appearing in the dormitory like balloons.
One male and one female, the man had a ferocious face, like an evil ghost.
The woman had a cut on her forehead, and blood flowed down her cheeks, mixing with her tears.
Six identical male heads sneered maliciously, “No matter where you run, no one will save you, no one will save you, bitch!”
Six identical female heads cried, “Mo Mo, don’t listen, don’t look, don’t think!!”
“Don’t listen, don’t look, don’t think!!”
The cries became more and more shrill.
The six female heads and six male heads quickly turned black, as if they were soaked in ink, or as if they were melting. Except for the two eyes and a mouth embedded in the darkness, no other facial features could be seen, like skulls.
And those eyes quickly turned into crescent moon shapes, and the mouths grinned eerily, as if mocking their fear.
Jia Qing was horrified, “They mutated! His parents turned into octopus monsters!”
Wang Yueran exclaimed, “Not just his parents!”
Several people followed her gaze and saw that the NPC had already broken in, and those NPCs no longer looked human, they had all turned into dark masses, eerie and grinning monsters!
—On that cover, Huang Mo saw the faces of his parents and teachers!
The NPCs rushed towards them, and the monsters in the mobile phones kept screaming and shouting “Don’t listen, don’t look, don’t think”!
Everyone’s hearts suddenly beat faster, the beating speed rapidly increasing to an abnormal level, their hearts almost exploding, their heads also about to explode!
A terrifying premonition descended on everyone—they were about to be completely devoured by these monsters in the next second!
Xia Jing and Song Yang’s cold voices woke everyone up, refreshing their spirits, “Don’t forget, this is a dream!”
—This is a dream!
This wasn’t the real instance world, Huang Mo’s parents, and the teacher NPCs in this school were all just overlapping with the identity of monsters in his dream!
These weren’t the real main monsters of the instance!
They had to escape from this initial dream world!
The moment this thought was born and became firm, a strong dizziness hit everyone—
…
In the quiet space, the ticking of the second hand was particularly clear.
Liu Yi suddenly opened his eyes in the darkness, his eyes bloodshot, his pupils trembling constantly.
He was breathing heavily, his chest heaving.
A small round clock was close at hand, embedded on a metal panel.
Liu Yi realized that he was in a narrow metal cabin, unable to move at all.
Because he suddenly woke up from a deep sleep, his consciousness was still a little blurry, and he didn’t even remember what he was doing or what he was going to do next.
In this daze, suddenly, with a “bang”, the metal panel in front of him was forcefully lifted open and flew out completely deformed.
Before Liu Yi could react, a thick black tentacle had quickly reached in, wrapped him up, lifted him out of the sleeping cabin, and lifted him into the air—
The tentacle almost broke his body in half, and a huge pain swept through his body. Liu Yi let out a cry of pain and fear from his throat!
The next second, a silver light flashed, and the tentacle was cut off at the root. The monster’s scream pierced Liu Yi’s eardrums!
Liu Yi and the severed tentacle fell heavily onto the metal floor together. His whole body was in severe pain, and his vision blurred for a moment.
He gasped, his body trembling as he propped himself up and looked up—
A slender figure stood with his back to him, like a sharp sword, standing straight on the top cover of a sleeping cabin, splitting his vision.
The man was holding a huge machete, and the dark monster blood slowly flowed down the blade, and a lot of it splashed onto the man’s white shirt.
At this moment, the entire “laboratory” was in chaos, with shouts and fighting sounds mixed together, props and tentacles flying.
In this chaos, Xia Jing laughed happily and let out a satisfied sigh, “The main course is finally about to begin.”
*
The vast space was made of metal on all six sides.
Nine sleeping cabins were placed in the center of the space, six of which had their top covers open.
The monster had obviously barged in from outside the door. At this moment, some of its tentacles were still squeezed outside, unable to get in, almost deforming the door frame.
Black mist lingered around its body, its thick black tentacles waving frantically. The main body was also like an octopus, with crescent-shaped, thin and curved eyes embedded on its pitch-black body, and an eerie pale mouth wide open, revealing fine sharp teeth inside.
In the chaos, Wang Yueran screamed while she and the old lady stood back to back, forcefully cutting off the tentacles that were coiling towards them one by one.
The severed tentacles flew in all directions!
Just as Jia Qing cut off a tentacle, another one hit him in the face and smashed him into a corner, hitting the wall. He cried out, “Ouch, holy crap!”
Behind him was a row of wall-mounted file cabinets. When he bumped into it, a drawer fell down, and a document fell out of it.
Jia Qing took a closer look—”Nightmare Sleep Experiment No. 417″.
The experimental site was some kind of base, needless to say, it must be the place where they were now.
The document stated that Nightmares were a large number of man-eating monsters. They could not only directly devour humans, but also make humans dream and devour their souls in their dreams.
This experiment was reached after humans made a deal with the Nightmare race. The content of the experiment was to separate the Nightmare and the participants, each locked in a room, and use sleeping cabins to record the participants’ dream process.
…And their current situation was obviously that the Nightmare had violated the agreement, broken out of the room where it was being held, and came directly to eat people!
“Damn, what kind of instance is this, so convoluted and it’s only two-star?!” Jia Qing couldn’t help but complain.
Just after complaining, he thought—only three out of nine players had died, judging from this mortality rate, it was indeed a two-star instance!
Jia Qing was speechless!
Not far away, Song Yang found the dagger inconvenient and switched to a machete of the same style as Xia Jing’s from his spatial bag—everyone bought them from the official supermarket—he rolled over to dodge a tentacle that was flung at him, jumped high, and with a wave downwards, several tentacles were cut off at the same time!
The monster hissed and wailed, and because of the pain, its tentacles danced even more violently!
Song Yang turned around and cut off all the tentacles around him. As soon as his vision was clear, he saw Xia Jing stepping on a thick tentacle and rushing towards the main body of the monster.
The young man curled his lips and said without looking back, “I’ll cut it, and its main body will belong to me!”
Song Yang: “…Who agreed with you!”
For a player of Song Yang’s level, how could he enter an instance just for the points? Harvesting monsters was a must.
Everyone could work together in the instance, and when it came to the end, they would become competitors.
No matter how good a person Song Yang was, he wouldn’t be modest at this time.
Thinking this, he let out a chuckle, stabbed a tentacle attacking him, and used the force to jump. After climbing onto the tentacle, he lightly tossed the machete, held the handle in reverse grip, and rushed towards the main body of the monster!
The monster’s tentacles were almost all cut off, and black blood sprayed everywhere.
It kept struggling, roaring, it wanted to devour all these hateful humans!
However, when it focused and saw the two players who were most happily cutting it rushing towards its face, its eyes emitted a strong green light of desire, as if they had seen fried chicken legs…
It froze, it froze!
Its crescent-shaped eyes finally turned into round ones in shock!
Without giving it a chance to turn around and run, Xia Jing and Song Yang jumped up at the same time, gripped their machetes, and stabbed downwards—
“Ow—”
After the ear-piercing scream, all movement stopped…
Wang Yueran, the old lady, Jia Qing, and Liu Yi were covered in black blood, as if they had rolled in ink.
They were panting, tired like dogs, and looked forward. They saw Xia Jing and Song Yang already silently and quickly cutting the main body of the monster, looking like “no one helps anyone, no one stops anyone, whoever cuts faster and more gets more”.
The other four people: “…………”
Damn, these two are not human!
At the same time, they also clearly felt it.
In their consciousness, the option to “exit the instance” appeared.
This instance was finally over.
*
After most instances ended, players were given twenty minutes to exit.
The laboratory was full of tentacles on the ground. Song Yang and Xia Jing alone definitely couldn’t collect them all, so Liu Yi, Jia Qing, Wang Yueran, and the old lady picked up some.
At the main body of the monster, Xia Jing had almost filled his spatial bag.
Only monster body parts with an energy density of 100 or more could be used by him to extract energy.
Different monsters and different monster body parts had different energy densities, so he had to wait until he returned to the Safe House and weighed them with a scale to know if they qualified.
Of course, it wasn’t like Xia Jing hadn’t worked hard to bring back a bunch of monster body parts before, only to find that none of them qualified.
So in order not to come to the instance in vain, besides collecting ordinary monster body parts, Xia Jing naturally also had to obtain the monster’s attack parts, that is, monster props, to enrich the inventory of his small supermarket.
However, at this moment, he hadn’t found the Nightmare’s attack parts yet.
Xia Jing straightened up, his body already blackened. He raised his arm, wiped his face, and gasped.
When a player obtained a monster prop, the system would automatically give a prompt in their mind and give the corresponding usage method.
As if having a premonition, Xia Jing turned his head and saw Song Yang holding the only piece of white bone from the Nightmare’s main body in his hand, looking down silently.
After a few seconds of silence, he raised his head and gave Xia Jing a meaningful smile.
Xia Jing: “…………”
Xia Jing’s tone was a bit higher, “You got it?”
“Yes, the Nightmare’s bone. Holding it in your hand gives you three chances to disturb other people’s minds in their dreams,” Song Yang said slowly with a lazy smile, “Although it’s not very useful, I’ll take it. I can exchange it with others for props when I have the chance.”
Xia Jing narrowed his eyes and stared at Song Yang as he put the thing back into his spatial bag, his gaze too intense.
Song Yang had never seen him like this before and couldn’t help but laugh, “What, you want it that badly?”
Xia Jing immediately met his eyes and nodded seriously, nodding.
Song Yang curled his lips and gave his encouragement annoyingly, “Then student Xia, work harder next time.”
Xia Jing: “…………”
He stared at Song Yang’s back as he turned and walked towards Jia Qing with a smile, his eyes unfathomable.
Jia Qing and the others had opened the remaining three sleeping cabins, and as expected, Huang Mo, Xu Jin, and Jin Nan were “sleeping” inside.
Liu Yi and Wang Yueran were crying uncontrollably. It was time for them to officially say goodbye to their friends.
Jia Qing was a little sad and a little scared. When Song Yang approached, he whispered, “Yang-ge, if it weren’t for Liu Yi being childhood friends with Huang Mo and knowing what happened to him before, would it have been very difficult for us to pass the last level?”
After the NPC broke in, they would inevitably have a conflict with them, and some of them would definitely be locked in the little black room.
And what would they encounter if they couldn’t leave the initial dream world?
Song Yang thought for a moment and said, “In this instance, once the player starts ‘going back’, they won’t dream and create new dreams anymore, they will only stay in the initial dream world.”
“But the instance can’t leave unlimited time for players to explore, so the most likely possibility is that the instance will shorten the time limit. If they can’t clear the instance within the limited time, the instance will be closed directly, and everyone will never be able to get out.”
Ordinary instances would give players up to seven to ten days of in-instance time at most.
And for this kind of instance, it was very likely that when they reached the last stage, the players would only have one or two days left.
Thinking of this, Jia Qing shivered.
No instance of any star rating should be underestimated.
Wang Yueran had calmed down and was talking to the old lady.
Song Yang thought for a moment, walked over, and handed the old lady a key.
This key was entirely silver-white and looked like the most ordinary key, but it was engraved with a “: )” symbol, indicating that it was a product of Smiley City.
The old lady looked puzzled, “Child, what is this you’re giving me?”
Xia Jing had also walked over at some point, glancing at the key and then at Song Yang.
Song Yang explained, “In addition to selling some props, Smiley City’s official supermarket also sells personal spaces for players, each personal space is equipped with five keys. This key can open my personal space, Grandma, you can take it. As long as you hold the key in your hand and think ‘open the door’, you can come in. After that, if you encounter any problems in Smiley City, you can come to my space to find me at any time.”
The price of a personal space started at 100 points, which wasn’t something ordinary players could afford, so when Wang Yueran and Liu Yi saw this key, they showed envious looks.
The old lady was also a little surprised and quickly declined, “This is too much…”
“There’s no point in leaving the extra keys idle,” Song Yang still put the key in the old lady’s hand, “Just keep it.”
“Oh, this, thank you so much…” The old lady said with a wry smile, “But I’m so old, it’s already lucky that I passed one level. What will happen next is really hard to say.”
Wang Yueran immediately said, “Grandma, don’t say that! Look, after we leave the instance, we will go to a game hall. After you go out, stand there and don’t move, I’ll go find you and show you around this place, let you understand the rules, and then we can enter instances together and look after each other!”
“Oh right, Grandma, were you sucked into Smiley City after being hit by an electric car? Smiley City only sucks people in when newcomers are in places where there are no surveillance cameras or passersby—after you were hit by the electric car, that perpetrator must have run away, right?”
Wang Yueran became angry as she analyzed.
The old lady nodded, “It seems, it seems so, that person should have run away before I fainted…”
“What a scumbag!” Wang Yueran cursed on the spot, “After leaving Smiley City, most of the injuries players suffer in reality will also heal, but you still have to go to the hospital quickly…”
The old lady had no relatives in reality.
She watched Wang Yueran nagging, tears welling up in her eyes, and she replied with a smile, “Okay”, “Okay”, “Grandma knows”.
On the other side, Song Yang noticed that Xia Jing had been glancing at the key.
Song Yang was amused again, and he teased, “What, you want this too?”
A thought suddenly occurred to him, and he said, “It’s not impossible to give you one, but you have to exchange it with your real identity.”
Xia Jing raised his eyes and looked at him with a half-smile.
Song Yang also looked back at him with a half-smile.
“No,” Xia Jing glanced at him lightly, his tone certain, “I will find a way to get what I want.”
Song Yang: Oh ho.
After Xia Jing finished speaking, he closed his eyes and clicked the “Exit Instance” option.
His consciousness fell into darkness, and at the same time, the system’s mechanical voice sounded in his mind…
“Congratulations to player Xia Jing for clearing the two-star instance ‘Don’t Think About It!’!”
“The full score for a two-star instance is 30 points, player Xia Jing cleared the instance with a score of 30 points!”
“Player Huang Mo has died, a total of 96 points will be distributed; Player Xu Jin has died, a total of 58 points will be distributed; Player Jin Nan has died, a total of 159 points will be distributed.”
“The total points to be distributed are 313 points. Player Xia Jing will receive one-sixth, which is 52.17 points, rounded to 52 points.”
“Player Xia Jing’s total clearance points are 82 points, and the current accumulated points are 82 points. Please keep up the good work!”
*
After Xia Jing came out of the login room, he glanced at the time.
They had been playing in the instance for so long, but only an hour had passed in the game hall.
He put his hands in his trouser pockets, turned around, and walked briskly towards the official supermarket.
Spending was a must for Xia Jing every time he cleared an instance, and the official supermarket at this moment was as crowded as it was before he entered the instance.
When Xia Jing entered the supermarket, Song Yang and Jia Qing also happened to come out of two adjacent login rooms.
Jia Qing had sharp eyes and recognized Xia Jing at a glance. He said, “Hey, Yang-ge, isn’t that Xia Jing? Let’s go, let’s go buy some supplies too!”
As soon as they entered the supermarket, they saw Xia Jing… spending frantically.
Most players still cherished their points very much.
Buying props was a last resort. No one felt safe entering an instance without a knife.
For someone like Song Yang who would spend a lot of money to buy a personal space, it was because he had enough points and needed a private area to discuss plans with friends.
But other than that, who would buy other goods in the supermarket, such as puffed food, skewers, bonsai… It’s not like they were really going to live in Smiley City!
But Xia Jing was shopping around like no one else was there, as if he was going to spend all the points he earned from clearing the instance. This caused the people around him to look at him frequently. Song Yang and Jia Qing also had strange expressions on their faces.
Xia Jing had done an experiment before.
He wanted to see if he could accumulate points up to 10,000 like a normal player.
The result was a failure. If his points weren’t spent within ten days after obtaining them, they would be cleared to zero, as if the system had found a bug and fixed it.
This “ten days” naturally referred to the time in the game hall, but Xia Jing himself could only enter here every seven “game hall days”. Therefore, after that, he would immediately spend most of his points after clearing an instance, leaving only a small amount for entering the login room a week later.
At this moment, he finally picked up the hotpot base from the shelf.
He hadn’t been interested in this thing before, but after hearing what Jia Qing said in the instance, he suddenly wanted to try it.
As soon as he picked it up, Song Yang’s low and cold voice sounded behind him, “Are you planning to settle down here?”
Xia Jing turned around.
Song Yang looked amazed, “The points from a two-star instance aren’t enough to be spent like this, right? How long will it take you to accumulate 10,000 points this way?”
“That’s right, Brother Jing, you can eat hotpot anywhere,” Jia Qing also came over and said with heartache, “If you don’t have money in the three-dimensional world recently, let’s exchange contact information, and I’ll treat you after we go out, let’s go tonight, how about it?”
Xia Jing blinked and asked, “What do you usually put in hotpot?”
Jia Qing: “There are so many things, first a plate of lamb rolls and beef rolls, then tripe and beef honeycomb tripe, then some small county liver, big knife loin slices, chicken cartilage, and baby fish—”
Xia Jing looked around the official supermarket and said with narrowed eyes, “There don’t seem to be so many kinds of ingredients here.”
Jia Qing almost fell to the ground—after he said so much, this guy was still thinking about buying it here to eat?!
Did he think that eating with the sad faces of the players was particularly appetizing?!
The strangeness in Song Yang’s heart grew stronger, but before he could speak, someone suddenly shouted, “This week’s points ranking is out!”
Immediately, many people put down the things in their hands, rushed out of the supermarket, and ran outside.
Jia Qing also hurriedly pulled Song Yang to see the ranking.
Xia Jing unhurriedly went to the holographic “cashier” of the official supermarket to check out.
He walked out of the supermarket and looked towards the largest holographic screen in the center of Smiley City.
At this moment, the left half of the holographic screen, the system announcement board, anonymously displayed the points of the top 200 players.
First place, 1781 points.
Second place, 1778 points.
Third place, 1736 points.
Fourth place, 1622 points.
…
Many people were bowing their heads and quickly copying this ranking.
Many players would compare the changes in the ranking every week. Although the ranking list was anonymous, at least in the top twenty, if there was a significant change in someone’s points, then the players could get a lot of information.
“The identity of the first place shouldn’t have changed, it increased by 238 points this week… There was no four-star instance opened this week, so this big shot probably entered two three-star instances or one three-star and one two-star.”
“Damn, it seems like the eleventh place from last week is gone!”
“Gone?”
“There was originally a gap in points between the eleventh and twelfth places, now the gap is between the tenth and eleventh places!”
“Another one fell…sigh…”
“Or maybe they spent a lot of points?”
“It doesn’t seem like the points were reduced due to spending, because the points trend after the eleventh place is the same as the points trend after the twelfth place last week. The eleventh place from last week should be gone.”
In the game hall, countless people looked up at this ranking.
This ranking represented the progress of their collective efforts as players towards the goal of “escaping Smiley City”.
They longed for the vanguard to reach 10,000 points faster, faster.
They wanted to know if everything would really be over once they reached 10,000 points.
However, every time the ranking was announced, there were surprises and sorrows.
Some people moved forward, and some people completely fell.
Their road ahead was still very long.
After scanning the ranking, Song Yang glanced at the young man beside him.
The young man’s strength was extraordinary. If he had been in Smiley City for a while, the accumulated points should have been quite high, and it wouldn’t be surprising for him to break into the top 200.
However, if he spent all his points like this every time he cleared an instance, then he wouldn’t be on this ranking at all.
How could a player not care about his points at all?
The suspicion in Song Yang’s heart grew stronger.
As if noticing his gaze, Xia Jing looked at him, chuckled softly, turned around, and left.
Song Yang paused, but didn’t call out to him in the end.
By the time Jia Qing reacted, Xia Jing had already disappeared.
He looked around dumbfoundedly and wondered, “Yang-ge, why didn’t you ask him for his contact information in Smiley City? He’s a brother after all!”
“Who’s a brother to whom?” Song Yang said coldly, “Is it that easy to make brothers in this place?”
Jia Qing was speechless.
Song Yang’s black eyes calmed down.
He slowly said, “The gameplay of Smiley City’s instances is ever-changing. Next time we meet, we might be opponents.”
*
In the corner of Smiley City, at the end of the winding narrow corridor.
The Safe House was just as it was when Xia Jing left.
Flowers were quietly blooming by the window, two goldfish were sleeping head to head in the fish tank, and the golden retriever was nestled next to the sofa leg, closing its eyes and wagging its tail listlessly.
As soon as the sound of the door opening rang out, Tuanzi twitched its ears and jumped up.
A figure was projected on the floor of the Safe House.
Tuanzi wagged its tail and walked to the feet of the young man who opened the door, rubbing against his trousers affectionately, welcoming his return.
Xia Jing chuckled softly, bent down and scratched its chin, and said gently, “I’m back, you haven’t waited long, have you?”
Tuanzi “awooed” and responded to him happily.
Xia Jing’s eyes curved into a smile, and after giving the dog’s head a good rub, he straightened up, summoned the remaining monster body parts from his account before entering the instance, extracted their energy, transformed it into a huge cushion, and spread it on the living room floor.
He took out the spatial bag, untied the straps, and poured it out—
The monster body parts in the spatial bag kept falling out, and in a moment, they filled the entire living room of the Safe House.
The mountain-like, fishy, and smelly body parts scared Tuanzi so much that it “awooed” and ran away with its tail between its legs.
Xia Jing laughed.
He bent down and happily found the pitiful little microphone monster covered in black blood from the sticky pile of flesh. After wiping it clean, he gently placed it on the windowsill.
Xia Jing smiled, his slender fingers tapping the little microphone monster’s head, “Okay, now you can play music.”
The little microphone monster trembled, grinning with an ingratiating smile.
Xia Jing curled his lips, and the scenery outside the Safe House suddenly changed, starting this drifting journey again.
At the same time, the little microphone monster opened its mouth and released passionate rock music.
…
The electric guitar and bass played together, the rapid drumbeat almost lifted the roof, the intense music was deafening, and it could almost shake one’s brain into a pulp.
Outside the Safe House, a group of players were about to completely sink into the forest swamp.
They saw the Safe House that suddenly appeared. An experienced player’s eyes lit up, and before he could shout “Help”, the rock music from inside the Safe House vibrated the swamp under them, swallowing them a little deeper. The group of players were dumbfounded by their lowered vision…
And Xia Jing was humming and counting the spoils of victory inside the house.
…
The scenery outside the window changed rapidly, and they came to a graveyard.
A group of players were being hugged and gnawed by zombies that popped up from coffins. In their wailing, they suddenly saw the Safe House that appeared. They cried and shouted, and in the next second, they saw the rock music from the Safe House shake off a piece of rotten flesh from the zombie.
The zombie hurriedly pressed the rotten flesh back onto its bones, and then took another bite even harder.
The players: “Holy shit—”
And Xia Jing was excitedly extracting energy from the monster body parts in the Safe House.
…
The scenery outside the window changed again, and they came to the seabed.
A group of players were struggling to swim and escape from the sea monster’s pursuit. Seeing a house suddenly appear in front of them, they “woo woo wooed” to each other underwater, excitedly trying to swim over…
Then the rock music vibrated into substantial waves, throwing them towards the sea monster’s wide open bloody mouth…
The players: What the fuck!!!
And Xia Jing directly expanded the Safe House with abundant monster energy, adding two new double rooms.
He stretched out his arms with satisfaction, raised his head, closed his eyes, and felt this increasingly huge “small kingdom”.
…
That night, the Smiley City forum went crazy.
A post was pinned at the top, and soon became “HOT”.
The title of the post was “Holy crap, how many people encountered the Safe House today, did anyone successfully get in?”
A row of replies below.
1L: “Oh, I saw it, and I also heard very exciting rock music. I’ve never heard of rock music being played in the Safe House. Didn’t they say that the shopkeeper is beautiful, kind, and peaceful? I thought it was a trap set by the instance to confuse me, so I didn’t dare to go in…”
2L: “Upstairs, the shopkeeper is beautiful for sure, but kind? What misconception do you have!! [laughing crying]”
3L: “Don’t mention it, I was bitten on the kidney by a zombie at that time, and the rock music shook the flesh off the zombie’s face. The zombie probably wanted to replenish its body and almost took my other kidney…”
4L: “Laughing to death, did the brother on the fourth floor get his kidney back after leaving the instance?”
5L: “Shocking, the great beauty doesn’t love planting flowers but loves rock and roll?”
6L: “Damn, I’ve been to the Safe House before, how come the beautiful shopkeeper’s style has changed so much [covering face]”
7L: “Front row warning, front row warning, all players stay away from the Safe House as soon as you see it, rock music is very dangerous, rock music is very dangerous!”
8L: “That, that, actually I’m very good at singing rock and roll, my salary requirement is not high, just a little bit of monster props is enough, shopkeeper, look at me [pointing fingers]”
9L: “That, that, actually I can be a resident singer, my salary requirement is not high either, just one monster prop per week is enough, shopkeeper, look at me [pointing fingers]”
10L: “That, that, actually I can warm the bed for the shopkeeper and rock and roll with him, is the shopkeeper willing to love me forever [shy]”
11L: “The three upstairs, you can have anything in your dreams [dog head]”
…
After leaving the game hall, Song Yang and Jia Qing didn’t immediately return to the real world, but went back to Song Yang’s personal space and met with their other friend, Feng Shi.
In just a short while, another big event happened in Smiley City.
Feng Shi said, “A four-star instance just appeared.”
Hearing this, Song Yang’s expression turned serious. He went straight to the login room that came with the personal space, spent two points to check it out. The four-star instance was currently in the “0/5” state.
This wasn’t surprising.
Unlike the one-star, two-star, and three-star instances that were constantly updated, permanently retained, and could be entered repeatedly, four-star and five-star instances were rare. Once they were cleared, they would automatically disappear from the instance menu and were one-time instances.
And even if these two types of instances appeared, ordinary players wouldn’t dare to enter them at all—entering meant certain death.
Therefore, every time a four-star instance appeared in Smiley City, someone would start a post on the forum to gather high-scoring players.
After confirming the number of people, they would enter the instance together.
Song Yang carefully confirmed the title and cover of the four-star instance. After coming out, Feng Shi and Jia Qing looked at him, “Are you planning to go in this time too?”
Song Yang nodded without hesitation.
Although it was dangerous, he never intended to miss any four-star or five-star instance.
And even though it was such a dangerous thing, he still looked very relaxed, as if he had just decided to go on a trip somewhere.
He sat down on the sofa and asked, “Has anyone opened a gathering post yet?”
Feng Shi shook his head, “Not yet, this four-star instance just appeared, someone should post it later.”
Song Yang listened, opened the forum, and saw a post about the Safe House pinned at the top.
Song Yang paused.
He had been in Smiley City for ninety days, and had entered a total of fourteen instances. This frequency wasn’t high, it was just barely meeting the once-every-seven-days requirement.
But he had entered instances fourteen times after all.
Yet he had never encountered the Safe House.
All he knew about this mysterious house came from fragmented information on the forum.
Song Yang clicked into today’s post and casually scanned it.
Seeing the three words “rock music”, his eyes focused, and he subconsciously recalled the demonic sound released by the broadcasting room during the lunch break on the first day in the “Don’t Think About It!” instance…
___
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