"Didn't he already complete the game? Why is he still here after six years?!"
Which instance did he enter this time?
"Small town monster".
"Thank goodness, it's not my instance."
"But what about this time? He cleared all the previous dungeons, and even let the other players from the same batch in the town slack off and get through. We can't let him do that again this time, can we?"
"The only solution is to increase the difficulty! First, we need to apply for a rule change so that he can't harm the monsters."
"What about those monsters in this dungeon..."
"Get a new one! Get one that doesn't even know Yin Xiu!"
"This is the only way."
After a brief murmur of discussion, the instance officially began.
The player information displayed on the big screen slowly disappeared, the darkness faded, and the screen began to appear.
In the town square, the large projection screen was packed with densely packed shadowy figures; even the Night Goddess was crouching there watching, her face full of displeasure. Inside the town's houses, countless players abandoned their sleep to crouch in front of the television to watch the live stream of the dungeon.
The instance had only just begun, yet messages were already flooding the entire screen.
"Am I seeing things? It's Yin Xiu who entered the dungeon??"
"It's Yin Xiu. I live in the same alley as him. There was such a commotion just now. I guess something must have happened tonight."
"It feels like a dream... I can actually see Yin Xiu in the dungeon..."
"Some people said he was actually very good, but I think they were just bragging. It's rare for him to enter a dungeon, so I want to see how good he is in the dungeon."
"I also think it's mostly boasting, but it's certain that he himself is abnormal."
"The other town players who participated in this instance have also awakened. Let's take a look at this instance."
"I've cleared this dungeon before; it's a beginner survival dungeon, not difficult."
"Yin Xiu actually started from the beginner dungeon... He really had never been to a dungeon before, right?"
"You didn't see the player information from just now, did you? Yin Xiu is a master who has completed all levels."
"real???"
Amidst a flurry of messages flying across the screen, Yin Xiu slowly opened his eyes.
"They've come in again..." he muttered to himself, sitting up in bed. He looked tired for a few seconds before looking up at his surroundings.
This seemed to be a woman's room; he couldn't quite recall it, but the foreground prompt for the dungeon echoed in his mind:
"The theme of this instance: The Monsters of the Town."
"A happy little girl moves in with her mother to her grandmother's monster town. The little girl's mother has to leave home for three days. In this town full of monsters, you need to help the poor little girl, who is alone at home, survive for three days and wait for her mother to return."
"There seems to be some danger in her room. You must follow the notes your mother left to help her survive, and always be careful of the monsters around you."
After the sound rang out, Yin Xiu tried hard to recall anything related to this instance, but it was too long ago, and his memories were too vague to be of any help.
"Let's go out and take a look first." Muttering to himself, Yin Xiu got up and opened the door.
The room is very simple, with only items belonging to an adult woman and a child, which basically corresponds to the characters in the background. Since the mother is not home, there must be a little girl in the room.
Yin Xiu didn't rush to look for it. He wandered around the living room and noticed two notes on the table.
One has a familiar black, regular font, and the other has handwritten font.
The black text displays the survival rules, which are familiar to all players.
[Dungeon Survival Rule 1: Don't let the little girl see the dungeon rules.]
At the same time Yin Xiu saw this message, another door in the living room opened.
A little girl in a red dress, holding a rabbit doll, peeked out of the room. She looked at Yin Xiu with a puzzled expression on her innocent face. "Are you the person my mother sent to take care of me?"
"Hmm." Yin Xiu responded lazily, ignoring the little girl and continuing to read.
[Second rule for survival in this instance: You cannot refuse the little girl's request.]
"Brother." The little girl in the red dress appeared beside Yin Xiu at some point. She tugged at his sleeve and smiled. "What are you looking at? Is it a note Mom left for me? Can I see what Mom wrote to me?"
The moment she spoke, a piercing scream suddenly came from the next room. The sound was so heart-wrenching that it sent a chill down one's spine.
Yin Xiu stared at the little girl expressionlessly, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the two slips of paper in his hand. One was the copy of the rules, and the other was indeed a slip of paper from his mother, but it also contained rules—rules for surviving at home.
Not letting her see the rules inside the copy means that she can't see any of the rules, including her mother's note.
But they couldn't refuse the little girl's request...
Yin Xiu seemed to know where the screams from the next house came from.
"Brother, please let me see it." The little girl smiled strangely and innocently asked Yin Xiu for the rules in his hand.
Giving or not giving, it seems like a choice that leads to certain death.
Not only Yin Xiu fell silent, but the players outside the screen also fell silent.
Did you see what happened in the next room just now?
"I saw it... The little girl who was rejected instantly turned into a monster and bit off the man's limbs."
"Holy crap, my hands and feet are freezing! This dungeon is nothing like the ones I've been through before! Is it going to be this deadly right from the start?!"
"I remember this was a beginner dungeon, right? It wasn't this difficult. What happened?"
"You call this a newbie dungeon? If I had entered this when I was a newbie, I would be dead by now, just like that player in the room next to Yin Xiu!"
"They're in a dilemma right from the start. The players in the other rooms are all stuck. Now it's up to Yin Xiu to figure out how to get through this. I think Yin Xiu is going to die anyway."
All eyes were focused on Yin Xiu inside the instance.
With a cold expression, he remained silent for a few seconds before reaching out to touch the little girl's hair. Despite his efforts to appear gentle, his cold face betrayed no tenderness as he said in a low voice, "Don't rush, I'll show you after I've finished reading."
"Hmm..." The little girl's face showed a conflicted expression.
After thinking for a few seconds, she reluctantly nodded. It wasn't that she refused to show it to her, but that she would show it to her later, which wasn't exactly a rejection.
"Good girl." Yin Xiu gave her a perfunctory reassurance and then carried her to the sofa. "Sit and play for a while."
He leaned back on the sofa in the living room to check the rules, while the little girl sat obediently beside him, playing with her doll. The scene looked harmonious, with no trace of the danger from before.
Some viewers in the live chat were surprised: "Is this even possible?"
"It's not that it's impossible, it's just that he's so calm... isn't he afraid at all?"
"Yeah, going back to the dungeon feels like coming home..."
"Perhaps he had no idea that this little girl was also a vicious monster."
The chat was filled with confused mutterings. After watching Yin Xiu and then glancing at the bloody scene in the next room, it was hard to believe that this was the same instance.
After comforting the little girl, Yin Xiu continued reading down the note.
[Dungeon Survival Rules:]
3. Help the little girl follow the note her mother wrote.
Fourth, do not give little girls any weapons.
5. Do not open the door to anyone outside, and keep the little girl's existence a secret.
6. Stay in your room at night and don't go to the living room, so it won't find you.
7. If you feel something enter your room, immediately shout for your roommate to come find you, and then stay together until dawn.
Yin Xiu tilted his head slightly. Regardless of what the "it" in the sixth point is, if the seventh point involves roommates, then he must have a roommate.
The rules are absolute. If the town rules include a sacrifice to the Night Goddess, then the town must have the Night Goddess. If the dungeon rules say he has a roommate, then he definitely has a roommate.
As if in response to Yin Xiu's idea, another door in the living room suddenly clicked open, and someone Yin Xiu did not expect walked out.