He was just glad now that he had tested the waters with this gun first.
Otherwise, his level-five dining knife might have been ruined.
Zhu Yan expressionlessly stored the box and the gun into his ring, threw off the blanket, and climbed out of bed.
"I'm awake."
He nodded at Yang Zhanbai and Qi Yinming by the dining table, walking past them to wash up.
When he came out and sat at the table, he noticed that Yang Zhanbai and Qi Yinming were staring at their phones, both looking grim.
"The instance is over. The internet seems a bit better now, not as laggy."
Meeting Zhu Yan's gaze, Yang Zhanbai gave a brief explanation and pushed his lit phone screen toward Zhu Yan.
"It's chaos outside, look."
"Oh, and that Officer Guan En said he's looking for you. Keep an eye on your player messages."
Oh, Guan En?
This was a pleasant surprise; Guan En was much more proactive than he had expected.
Zhu Yan stared at his left palm and entered the Player Forum, while simultaneously pulling Yang Zhanbai's phone closer, scrolling through the current page little by little.
The instance had ended about an hour ago.
Those players who had been corroded into zombie-like states or eaten by terrifying creatures in the instance were granted the customary 10 minutes for their last words.
They were dropped back into various blocks of Anwu City in the real world, causing quite a commotion.
The trending searches quickly blew up, and the news popularity remained high.
Under the hashtags were many short videos and long posts, with shooting angles and techniques typical of ordinary bystanders.
Some had already been deleted, while others were still up.
Zhu Yan casually clicked on a longer video.
It actually showed a few students crying and screaming on the street!
"Dead! We're dead! We failed the instance, we're going to die!"
"The police department doomed us! Didn't they say they would come in..."
The main subjects in the video were hysterically breaking down, and there was a girl next to them laughing maniacally, desperately stuffing a giant lollipop into her mouth.
Zhu Yan recognized at a glance that this was an item from the instance, probably something the girl had stuffed in her pocket earlier when she was addicted.
"Go look at my photo album," Yang Zhanbai sneered. "The first video in the album, I specifically saved it."
The first video in the album was actually of Li Huisheng.
Li Huisheng seemed to not be fully lucid yet. His eyes were forced wide open, eyeballs bulging like a goldfish's, as he waved his bare right wrist, spraying blood everywhere.
"Zhu Zeyu! Yang Zhanbai! I finally managed to become a Hunter, and they want to kill me!"
"Remember!! If I die, they killed me, along with that guy named Qi Yinming!"
Li Huisheng tried hard to describe the whole event, but his words remained incoherent from beginning to end.
He soon collapsed on the ground and died, drawing a gasp from the onlookers.
Zhu Yan frowned and switched back to the trending search interface.
He wasn't worried about Li Huisheng's situation. By yelling like this, the guy had actually done him a small favor.
Now everyone knew that Zhu Zeyu wanted to kill the Hunters!
Besides videos on the trending page, there were quite a few truth-revealing posts detailing the various recent strange occurrences in Anwu City.
Zhu Yan scrolled through; the official response hadn't refreshed yet.
He entered the Player Forum to check Guan En's message, and red text quickly jumped into his vision.
"Zhu Zeyu, are you out of the instance?"
"We hope you can consider joining the official organization. I will add your contact info shortly. Please fill out the form and come over for an interview after the instance ends."
Whoa!
Zhu Yan was startled by this matter-of-fact tone.
But then again, it made sense.
Joining the official organization was equivalent to becoming a tenured civil servant.
In most people's minds, this was an incredibly good thing.
Who would refuse such a proactive recruitment?
"Additionally, regarding this instance, we have some questions to ask you. When the time comes, please come over together with your classmates."
Zhu Yan's heart skipped a beat, and he frowned warily.
Ask what...?
They wouldn't suspect the identity of Zhu Zeyu, would they?
He wanted to reply and ask a couple of questions.
Just then, however, a pleasant female voice echoed in his ears, interrupting his thoughts.
"Congratulations to some students for clearing the instance What Time is it, Old Wolf!"
Yang Zhanbai and Qi Yinming both paused slightly; clearly, they had heard it too.
"We will publicly announce the clearance status of all players and hunters to all students who participated in the instance—if you are still alive."
Holy crap.
Zhu Yan's hand under the table trembled imperceptibly.
The Hunters were going to be publicly announced too?!
"Yes," the female voice replied. "This sentence is on your private channel."
Holy crap.
Zhu Yan hurriedly muttered in his heart, "Can you not expose my main account?"
The female voice ignored him.
"Actual number of participants in the instance: 1354.
Number of survivors in the instance: 200."
"There are actually two hundred?!" Yang Zhanbai was startled. "Holy crap, besides us, who else from Xishan University survived?"
"This instance had 4 schools participating together."
On average, each school had dozens of surviving players.
Qi Yinming said, "When I went to the cafeteria earlier, I think I saw another group."
"They must be living in two ten-person rooms."
Qi Yinming couldn't muster any enthusiasm and looked rather gloomy.
"Expenses are a bit high. I don't know how much money I'll have left in my account."
Who knows? Regardless, Zhu Yan had made a killing.
Zhu Yan didn't chime in; he was waiting somewhat nervously for the female voice to broadcast the Hunter related content.
His heart felt heavy.
Doing the math, the total survival rate was less than 20 percent, much crueler than other instances.
"Among them, player Zhu Zeyu ranks first."
"Through a series of insidious and cunning designs, he forced the instance BOSS to expose itself and successfully killed the instance BOSS."
Instantly, Zhu Yan's heart settled.
Benevolent and righteous, truly benevolent and righteous!
It announced player Zhu Zeyu, not player HatersAreGay!
Yang Zhanbai gave Zhu Yan a thumbs-up: "Boss Zhu is awesome!"
"Player BreakUpWithGays ranks second. He cooperated with player Zhu Zeyu, assisting the other party in obtaining the key item and killing the instance BOSS."
Yang Zhanbai fell silent.
He opened his mouth wanting to curse, but the female voice didn't give him the chance.
"Dear players, please be cautious when choosing names. Player BreakUpWithGays, please calm down."
Hearing this, Zhu Yan could no longer hold back his laughter: "What the hell kind of crappy name did you pick?"
"Player Qi Yinming ranks third. He was the first to find a shop belonging to humans, which is worthy of praise."
"Player personal rewards will be distributed after the public broadcast ends."
Qi Yinming's expression finally relaxed a bit: "Ranking third, the reward should be a bit higher... Without some money here, it's probably going to be hard to get around."
That was true.
Even entering the library required swiping a card to pay, which was a huge rip-off.
"In addition to the players, we will give special commendation to the Hunters!"
Here it comes.
Zhu Yan's heart had been in his throat, and at this moment, he was trying his best to control his expression so as not to give himself away.
The three exchanged a look; Qi Yinming remained expressionless, but Yang Zhanbai raised his eyebrows.
"Could they be talking about Li Huisheng?"
Qi Yinming shook his head. "A special commendation for a dead man? That's highly unlikely."
The next second, the female voice proved him completely wrong.
"Congratulations to player HatersAreGay for successfully playing the role of the sole Hunter in the instance What Time is it, Mr. Wolf, twisting the other players around your little finger, and flawlessly completing the mission of harvesting fifteen lives!"
"Wh—"
Hearing the familiar nickname, Yang Zhanbai froze.
He quickly realized what had happened, his expression darkening.
Once the words "the sole Hunter" were spoken, how could anyone not understand?
This person had used his nickname to frame him, playing absolutely everyone for fools!
He remembered when Guan En had asked him for his Player Forum nickname.
It was because this traitor had been using his name to stir up trouble.
Zhu Yan glanced at Yang Zhanbai's pitch-black expression.
Hmm, his own cover hadn't been blown.
He just really, really wanted to laugh.
Zhu Yan teased, "Oh my, how come that name makes a matching pair with yours?"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
