Li Mo's arrival meant Yin Xiu was safe. As long as he stayed with him until dawn, he would survive this ordeal.
But even though he had escaped the unseen presence, spending the night with another mysterious and eerie being still left Yin Xiu unsettled.
"Looking for me?" Li Mo pushed open the door and stood at the entrance with a smile. His figure blended into the darkness of the living room, and even though Yin Xiu couldn't see clearly, he could guess the smile on his face.
Yin Xiu exhaled slowly and sat up, briefly explaining what had just happened and how he now needed his roommate to fulfill his role.
"Staying in this room to admire you all night is an absolute pleasure for me." Li Mo's voice sounded delighted, with not a hint of refusal.
"There's no other bed in the room, and I won't let you sleep on mine either." Yin Xiu was wary. He had already resigned himself to curling up in the chair for the night.
But after entering and closing the door, Li Mo walked straight to the chair in the room and sat down properly, his usual smile still in place. "It's fine. I'll just sit here."
Yin Xiu silently stared at his figure. The room was dark, and so was he—utterly silent, as if he didn't exist in the room at all. Yet that gaze was unmistakably fixed on him, unrelenting.
Consider it punishment for accidentally triggering the rules. Even if he didn't die, enduring Li Mo's stare all night was punishment enough.
Yin Xiu turned over and lay back on the bed, wrapping himself tightly in the blanket to block out Li Mo's gaze. But he could still feel those eyes roaming over him, unobstructed.
Late into the night, most of the livestream viewers had gone to sleep, leaving only a handful still awake, waiting to see if anything else would happen. Occasionally, a few live comments drifted across the screen.
"Yin Xiu's roommate is so weird. Why is he just sitting there motionless, staring at him?"
"He really is strange... He hasn't moved an inch in over an hour. I almost thought he was a statue."
"Does he not sleep?"
"Not just not sleeping... He doesn't move, doesn't speak, just sits there with that smile, staring at Yin Xiu. My uncanny valley effect is kicking in-this is kinda scary..."
"Yin Xiu's roommate really isn't normal either. Too eerie."
"By the way, something just appeared in the living room..."
At this message, the few remaining players leaned closer to their screens. On every player's feed, a massive black shadow slowly emerged in the living room, pacing and patrolling.
"What the hell is that? The thing in the living room before was invisible—why can we see it now?"
"No, no... This feels really off, guys. This doesn't seem like the same one as before!"
"Could this actually be the 'it' mentioned in the instance rules?"
"No way... Then what was that earlier? The previous one was clearly following the rules, like sneaking into players' rooms and stuff."
"But this one feels more like an instance monster. And it's following the rules by staying in the living room and patrolling-perfectly fitting the 'don't go to the living room at night' rule."
"But the one before..."
After pondering for a few seconds, someone suddenly had an epiphany.
"I think I might have figured out the truth, guys!"
"Could it be that the one before wasn't actually the Monstrosity from the rules, but something imitating it?"
"Why do you say that?"
"Because I thought it was strange earlier. It could follow Players into their rooms, which clearly means it noticed them. But if it noticed them and didn't attack, that goes against the rules."
"It was obviously pretending not to see the motionless Players to follow them into their rooms, just to fit the development of the seventh rule."
"That makes some sense, but there's no proof."
But as soon as this doubt was voiced, the screen immediately provided evidence.
The Monstrosity wandering in the living room slowly moved its pitch-black figure to the Player's door after circling around and knocked.
"Who is it?" The Player inside, awakened by the knock, was still groggy when he heard a familiar voice—his roommate's—from outside.
"It's me. Open the door."
"What's wrong in the middle of the night?" Hearing his roommate's voice, the Player let his guard down and hurriedly got up to open the door.
But the moment the door opened, the shadowy figure darted into the room and stood motionless behind the Player.
Facing the empty living room, the groggy Player shuddered and instantly snapped awake. Trembling, he didn't dare look back at the presence behind him and immediately started calling for his roommate, as per the rules.
After several minutes of shouting and standing frozen at the door, his roommate finally opened his own door and stepped out.
The moment the roommate appeared, the shadow behind the Player vanished. The Player, eyes brimming with tears, rushed over to hug his roommate and quickly dragged him into the room.
This Player in the Instance was lucky enough to avoid death, but those watching the screen broke out in a cold sweat.
"Dude earlier... you're a real prophet, damn. This is the Monstrosity written in the rules! Its behavior fits perfectly."
"But the one before... what the hell was that invisible thing? Why did it imitate the Monstrosity from the rules?"
"If it appeared in the living room pretending to be the Rule-based Monstrosity, maybe it was trying to take its place."
"No way... wouldn't the Players realize the first one was fake once they noticed a second Rule-based Monstrosity in the living room?"
"I haven't figured it out yet. I don't think it's trying to kill a specific Player but has some other goal. If it wanted to kill, it could've done so in the living room. There's no need to sneak into the room unless it's to follow the rules."
"As for your question about the second Rule-based Monstrosity appearing..."
The Players watching the screen were stumped for a while, unable to guess how the imposter planned to handle this issue.
Then, something new appeared on the screen.
Unsurprisingly, the real instance monster also appeared in the living room outside Yin Xiu's door. After wandering around, it knocked on his door in an orderly manner.
However, the other party only knocked once. Li Mo, who had been sitting motionless in the chair for an hour, suddenly stood up and strode toward the door. Opening it, his face bathed in the night's darkness, he smiled and reminded, "Keep it down."
His actions instantly stunned the crowd watching the screen.
"What is he doing?! Why did he just open the door?! He's the roommate—this violates the rules!"
"Uh, wait... he is the roommate, and he's already in Yin Xiu's room. So... can the Monstrosity still come in?"
"Hold on! The answer's in the next screen! The Monstrosity dragged the roommate into the living room and killed him! That's the Player who was tricked by the fake Monstrosity earlier! His roommate was also in the room!"
"So what about Yin Xiu's roommate...?"
Everyone held their breath as they watched the shadowy figure at the door suddenly twist and extend a hand, grabbing Li Mo by the shoulder and dragging him into the darkness of the living room.
In the murky footage, what appeared to be liquid splattered, followed by the sound of chilling chewing in the pitch black—slow, deliberate, as if something was being devoured.
"He's dead... Yin Xiu's roommate really was a newbie. Died on the first night..."
"Ah, Yin Xiu will have to solo this. Wonder how he'll react when he wakes up and sees his roommate dead in the living room."
"Indifferent, definitely indifferent. That guy's always cold."
"Hard to say. Someone Yin Xiu accepted as a roommate must be someone he liked, right?"
As the live comments buzzed with discussion, the sounds of tearing and chewing in the living room gradually ceased after a few minutes—as if the meal was finished.
Just as everyone was sighing in lament, a dark figure calmly emerged from the living room's shadows and quietly returned to Yin Xiu's room, closing the door behind him.
"?!"
"Yin Xiu's roommate... is still alive?"
"He... why is he covered in blood? No, no—why is he alive? I clearly heard eating sounds earlier.
Wasn't the Monstrosity eating him?"
"Let me just say... is there a chance... that he ate the Monstrosity?"