A World of One's Own

Zhu Yan ran quickly to the bottom of the stairs, aimed at the inscribed copper plate, and snapped two more crooked photos.

Then, he returned behind the bar counter to photograph the dining knives the boss had left on the table before he died.

Zhu Yan wasn't in a hurry to send these photos.

It took him less than two minutes to take the pictures. If it were a terrified newcomer walking on thin ice, it would have taken at least ten minutes.

Having finally entered a small base of terrifying creatures, he had to take this opportunity to thoroughly loot the Bar!

Zhu Yan stored all the dining knives into his Storage Silver Ring. While rummaging through the cabinets, he chatted in the group.

"Guys, I've come down. It's totally dark down here..."

"It's too scary. I'm muting myself for now; I'm afraid something might jump out."

Deep inside a drawer of the bar counter was a small pile of bone gold coins and a few bone silver coins. Zhu Yan's eyes lit up, and he immediately collected them.

Good stuff!

This was genuinely good stuff!

His phone buzzed.

Qi Yinming: "Stay safe. We are almost at the flower shop, haven't seen the boss yet."

Yes, yes, of course they couldn't see him.

Because the "boss's" remains were right here in the cabinet, and the black substance on them had already dried.

Zhu Yan took the remains out and stuffed them into the extra folding space given by the art student.

He couldn't let it dirty his food and blankets!

Deep in the cabinet were over a dozen bowling-pin-shaped glass bottles filled with a sparkling pink potion, with a sludge-like substance settled at the bottom.

Zhu Yan took out a bottle that had a crooked label stuck to it.

"Trembling Pleasure 1:1"

"Recitative Stage Special Supply Aerosol Edition, Tier One World Exclusive"

What kind of term was "Tier One World"?

He had been in the Carnival Paradise for so long, and he had never heard of any "Tier Two, Three, or Four Worlds".

And what was this "Recitative Stage" special supply?

Zhu Yan thought of the second page of the catalog that Vine Cage Girl had held down.

Was this the item sold on the second page of the catalog?

It should be worth some money, right?

Zhu Yan pulled all the bottles out. Just as the boss had said, there were also 1:2 and 1:3 versions here.

They were his now!

Zhu Yan simply pulled open all the cabinets and looted all the alcohol as well.

Once the folding space was stuffed full, he pulled over a red velvet chair and sat down swaggeringly to scroll through his phone.

Yang Zhanbai and the others were probably still on the move; there were no new messages in the small group chat.

Zhu Yan opened the large group chat and scrolled up, finding an announcement that had caused a flood of messages.

The announcement was issued directly by the school, and the wording was intense.

"Forwarded Police Department Warning:

There are no police officers inside the instance!! Repeat, there are no police officers inside the instance!! No police officers have entered the instance!!"

"Students, please do not consume any food from inside the instance!"

"Students who still have a clear mind, please contact the police immediately through this account, or send a private message to the account Guan En via the player forum."

The police department must have seen those photos and started panicking.

Below this message, the chat was boiling with activity.

"When I received that thing this morning, I was completely stunned..."

"I can only say it's a good thing I didn't participate. These days, monsters can even disguise themselves as police officers."

"Let's start a betting pool, how many people will survive this round, bros?"

Zhu Yan thought for a moment and first sent the photo of the copper plate to the small group chat.

"There is information here," he left a message. "I'll go up and take a look. When I came down, there were dining knives on the bar counter. They might be weapons meant to deal with the boss."

He had to put on a full show.

Two minutes later, Zhu Yan sent the photo of the dining knives to the group.

"Found them. The boss hasn't come back, I'll see what else is here."

No one spoke in the small group chat; it seemed Qi Yinming and the others were still focused on traveling.

Zhu Yan went back to browsing the large group chat and found that the messages were extremely monotonous, without a single piece of useful information.

It was nothing more than shock that the instance actually existed, conspiracy theories, baseless worrying, blessings, and nonsense appeals for official action.

He exited and browsed the web.

Probably to maintain public stability, after a brief stint on the trending searches, the news was quickly suppressed.

"...Pretty useless," Zhu Yan muttered to himself, then chuckled on his own.

He stared at his palm and entered the Player Forum.

Under Guan En's account, there were only a few consecutive warnings posted in an official tone saying "Do not trust the police officers."

There were a few comments under the post, but their tone did not sound like students trapped in the instance; rather, they sounded like players outside watching the spectacle.

"The official personnel can't get in, and the people inside are living in constant fear."

"Except for bold people like Yang Zhanbai, who might think to proactively contact the officials..."

"However, the officials haven't released any warnings about the Hunter yet."

"Which means that under these tense conditions, no one has thought of this simple method yet..."

Zhu Yan repeatedly scrolled through Guan En's account page.

If he had Yang Zhanbai privately message Guan En with fake information about the Hunter, would it work?

Zhu Yan pondered for a moment and dismissed the idea.

No.

No, no, no.

Yang Zhanbai was good in many ways, but he was too prone to running his mouth, likely to recount every detail of what he had experienced along the way.

The officials knew about Zhu Yan's Roleplay ability. Even if they didn't know the exact details, after these few encounters, they could guess pretty accurately.

That group of people could also deduce his player level, and based on his aunt's previous confession and the game rules, they would know he had more than one ability.

If his aunt's confession was accurate enough, his Humiliation ability was also highly likely to be exposed.

If the two sides cross-checked their stories, he would easily be exposed.

In that case, he might as well play a bigger game.

The Carnival Paradise had already provided information about the Hunter. It wouldn't be too much for him to change his nickname and avatar to exploit a bug, right?

Zhu Yan searched for the user "Yang Zhanbai" on the forum's homepage, but found nothing.

He searched for the user "HatersAreGay" and got the same blank result.

Yang Zhanbai hadn't used either of these names as his Player Forum account name.

Excellent. This meant Guan En couldn't search for these two names either, so Zhu Yan could easily impersonate him.

If Yang Zhanbai could claim to be the Hunter, it wasn't too much for him to impersonate a learning app avatar, right?

Zhu Yan exited the forum page and silently changed his nickname and avatar.

Nickname: HatersAreGay.

For the avatar, he opened the learning app icon from Yang Zhanbai's profile picture, held it in front of his eyes, and took a photo.

Then he returned to the forum, swaggeringly followed the account "Guan En," and sent him a private message.

"Hello, I am a player inside the instance, and my mind is still clear. I have instance clues to provide regarding the new task announced by the instance broadcast."

Tens of kilometers away in a conference room, this private message silently popped onto Guan En's retinas.

He looked at the new message impassively, his gaze subtly sweeping over the leaders around him.

The large-scale instance "What Time Is It, Old Wolf" was an alarm bell striking right into everyone's hearts.

The people participating in the meeting had changed from top police department leaders and local military region commanders to an expert group dispatched by the central government. Guan En glanced at the nameplate in front of him, a hint of mockery in his eyes.

—Also present at the meeting was him, a player who appeared loyal to the government.

The leader was speaking passionately at the front of the conference room.

"...designate Anwu City as a Class A quarantine zone, centralize all supplies, and distribute them to every household according to their needs..."

"Please go ahead." Guan En shifted his gaze back and quickly replied to the private message.

In the real world, all the freshmen group chats were under their surveillance.

Guan En pinched a document on the table tightly between his fingers.

This contained the information of the freshmen from two of Xishan University's group chats who had participated in the instance. He had specially printed it out to carry with him.

He remembered this Xuexitong avatar.

This was the only known player in the freshmen group who had cleared an instance once. His real name was Yang Zhanbai.

However, the person sending him private messages on the Player Forum might not necessarily be Yang Zhanbai.

Guan En looked at the text floating on his retina; the other party's status showed Typing...

He exited the chat box and searched for the user Yang Zhanbai on the forum's homepage, but found nothing.

Searching again for HatersAreGay, he only found this guy who had sent him the private message.

...Could it really be Yang Zhanbai?

Guan En waited in silence, watching the intermittent messages pop up on his retina.

"There is a Hunter in the instance," the person said. "The broadcast stated that the Hunter will reap the lives of players."

"As long as you kill the Hunter or the Alpha Wolf, you can gain 48 continuous hours of daylight."

Guan En's eyes changed, immediately recalling the words left by that wanted criminal after the last instance ended.

He had said that Paradise had a mission for him.

What exactly that meant, the other party had not explained.

Then, could this Hunter who reaps the lives of players possibly be that person?

"...All registered players who have passed the selection test are to be dispatched to the newly established Human Alliance Department Nine. Guan En!"

Guan En turned his head, pulling himself out of his chaotic thoughts.

"Here, Chief."