Chapter 935: Bound to Childbirth System, Became Life Winner Chapter 936: Survival Instance Loading (26)

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Main Character:

Shen Yao

The pitch-black night, the kind of environment where you can't see your hand in front of your face, deepened the fear emanating from the depths of people's hearts even further.

This unstable emotion doesn't require people to actually see anything scary; its very appearance represents that people's current mental state is off, and many unexpected situations will occur.

Feng Jingjing widened her eyes, gripping the dagger in her hand tightly. Although it was only a C-grade item, it was of immense help in the instance, and it was also the only means of attack she could currently produce.

Thump thump thump

Feng Jingjing heard a violent heartbeat, coming from within her own body. Despite constantly suggesting to herself not to be afraid, the effect was poor; the shadows of nearly dying several times before followed her like a shadow.

Glug glug

The corner of her mouth unconsciously swallowed saliva. Feng Jingjing looked around vigilantly. She didn't know where this was, only that she had woken up in the middle of the night to suddenly discover she wasn't in her room, and Tian Ying, who had been sleeping beside her, had also vanished without a trace.

The accumulation of emotion was like a burden constantly adding weight; her thin and weak shoulders couldn't bear the overwhelming malice either. It was dangerous here; she most likely wouldn't make it out alive.

"Host, are you really not going to care about Feng Jingjing? I feel this person has a bit of a self-harm tendency."

What proper person sleeps while holding a dagger in their hand and gives themselves a slash? Feng Jingjing is truly a ruthless person; the cut on her palm is still seeping blood, and now she looks like she wants to give herself another one.

"System, she just can't distinguish between dreams and reality," not that she actually likes self-torture.

Shen Yao mobilized her mental resistance against the attack coming from Changbai Apartment. After these days of fermentation, the danger this group of players faced had officially upgraded. Now, all beings in Changbai Apartment were equal; whether they could survive depended entirely on their own abilities.

"Host, dreams are often frightening precisely because they feel real.

Changbai Apartment is alive; it mobilizes the things people worry about and fear most in their hearts at every moment, absorbing negative energy for its own use."

To put it bluntly, the people in Changbai Apartment are all sacrifices for Changbai Apartment. From the moment they stepped into this apartment, their endings were already predestined.

Zhou Minghai was handed over as experience and gave up his head as early as the second day he entered. This person even spoke harsh words about finding trouble with Shen Yao, but he never even touched the corner of Shen Yao's clothes.

Not only that, but because of Zhou Minghai's death, the originally quite calm team developed disagreements. Among them, quite a few people followed and died one after another. The fact that Changbai Apartment has been able to evolve this fast is also thanks to them delivering themselves to its door.

"Yes, all residents of the entire Changbai Apartment are sacrifices marked with a brand. When they die, new sacrifices will be packaged and sent in.

Mingzhu Technology are merely opportunists utilizing Changbai Apartment's characteristics. The true mastermind behind the scenes hasn't revealed a trace yet."

It's somewhat terrifying. If instances are all this boss mode, it's hard to imagine what the world will turn into when the entire world is completely instanced.

Shen Yao didn't want to equate certain things with pessimistic emotions, but facts prove that often the things one least wants to happen will happen.

"Go keep an eye on that man. Zhou Minghai's death, he surely has to pull some strings." The man Shen Yao referred to was the one who verbally restrained Zhou Minghai when the two sides first met. Ordinary, plain, and unremarkable, yet he has survived until now without a single injury.

Heh!

Ordinary person? Background character? Passerby A? How could Shen Yao not believe it? All the people inside Changbai Apartment added together don't have as many vests as this one person alone.

The system immediately indicated it was watching him, but it was a bit strange. That man was actually also in a state of sound sleep. Logically speaking, that shouldn't be right. Although Changbai Apartment can pull people into dreams, this person has real skills; shouldn't he be awake like the Host?

Shen Yao: ……

"Pull up his surveillance," she said in a deep voice. Shen Yao reminded the system that they might be under the other party's illusion.

Illusion?

What do you mean?

"That man sleeping is faked?" But whether it's heart rate or breathing frequency, those can't be faked.

"Just a skill to disguise it. Haven't you been tricked by me few enough times?" Shen Yao revealed an expression of smiling without the smile reaching her eyes. The footage of the man's room was playing before her eyes: an ordinary single room, a man lying in the center of the single bed with eyes tightly closed and breathing steady.

However, in just a moment, Shen Yao coldly pointed out that the man's breathing frequency was too even, as if deliberately displayed.

System: ……

The system exploded. It also hadn't expected the man to be so insidious and cunning, deceiving even an artificial intelligence like it. It must raise its vigilance against this person, mark him as a key target, strike first next time they meet...

Blah blah blah, the system spoke righteously. Those who didn't know would think it was some great impartiality. In reality, it was nothing but a retaliatory psychology from being deceived, wanting to win back face in front of the other party.

"Next time?" Shen Yao suddenly moved her fingertips. A gentle strand of spiritual power ran out from her body. It went along the corridor and stairs all the way up, finally twisting its agile little body and drilling directly into the single room where the man was.

The last second before pouncing on him, the spiritual power paused, then hid in the night color, instantly disappearing without a trace.

System: ……?!!!

"Host, he, you, this..." The system was at a loss for words, thinking this man's act was quite convincing, but in reality, his vigilance hadn't dropped a single bit.

Shen Yao lightly retracted her fingers, as if the spiritual power released just now wasn't her.

The man, thrown off by the sudden rhythm, simply didn't continue lying in bed pretending to sleep. He got up and sat on the chair to the side, turned on the fan, and with a cold expression flipped through the notebook on the desk.

【2】 ·

【3】 ·

【4】 Main Character:

【5】 Shen Yao

【6】 The pitch-black night, the kind of environment where you can't see your hand in front of your face, deepened the fear emanating from the depths of people's hearts even further.

【7】 This unstable emotion doesn't require people to actually see anything scary; its very appearance represents that people's current mental state is off, and many unexpected situations will occur.

【8】 Feng Jingjing widened her eyes, gripping the dagger in her hand tightly. Although it was only a C-grade item, it was of immense help in the instance, and it was also the only means of attack she could currently produce.

【9】 Thump thump thump

【10】 Feng Jingjing heard a violent heartbeat, coming from within her own body. Despite constantly suggesting to herself not to be afraid, the effect was poor; the shadows of nearly dying several times before followed her like a shadow.

【11】 Glug glug

【12】 The corner of her mouth unconsciously swallowed saliva. Feng Jingjing looked around vigilantly. She didn't know where this was, only that she had woken up in the middle of the night to suddenly discover she wasn't in her room, and Tian Ying, who had been sleeping beside her, had also vanished without a trace.

【13】 The accumulation of emotion was like a burden constantly adding weight; her thin and weak shoulders couldn't bear the overwhelming malice either. It was dangerous here; she most likely wouldn't make it out alive.

【14】 "Host, are you really not going to care about Feng Jingjing? I feel this person has a bit of a self-harm tendency."

【15】 What proper person sleeps while holding a dagger in their hand and gives themselves a slash? Feng Jingjing is truly a ruthless person; the cut on her palm is still seeping blood, and now she looks like she wants to give herself another one.

【16】 "System, she just can't distinguish between dreams and reality," not that she actually likes self-torture.

【17】 Shen Yao mobilized her mental resistance against the attack coming from Changbai Apartment. After these days of fermentation, the danger this group of players faced had officially upgraded. Now, all beings in Changbai Apartment were equal; whether they could survive depended entirely on their own abilities.

【18】 "Host, dreams are often frightening precisely because they feel real.

【19】 Changbai Apartment is alive; it mobilizes the things people worry about and fear most in their hearts at every moment, absorbing negative energy for its own use."

【20】 To put it bluntly, the people in Changbai Apartment are all sacrifices for Changbai Apartment. From the moment they stepped into this apartment, their endings were already predestined.

【21】 Zhou Minghai was handed over as experience and gave up his head as early as the second day he entered. This person even spoke harsh words about finding trouble with Shen Yao, but he never even touched the corner of Shen Yao's clothes.

【22】 Not only that, but because of Zhou Minghai's death, the originally quite calm team developed disagreements. Among them, quite a few people followed and died one after another. The fact that Changbai Apartment has been able to evolve this fast is also thanks to them delivering themselves to its door.

【23】 "Yes, all residents of the entire Changbai Apartment are sacrifices marked with a brand. When they die, new sacrifices will be packaged and sent in.

【24】 Mingzhu Technology are merely opportunists utilizing Changbai Apartment's characteristics. The true mastermind behind the scenes hasn't revealed a trace yet."

【25】 It's somewhat terrifying. If instances are all this boss mode, it's hard to imagine what the world will turn into when the entire world is completely instanced.

【26】 Shen Yao didn't want to equate certain things with pessimistic emotions, but facts prove that often the things one least wants to happen will happen.

【27】 "Go keep an eye on that man. Zhou Minghai's death, he surely has to pull some strings." The man Shen Yao referred to was the one who verbally restrained Zhou Minghai when the two sides first met. Ordinary, plain, and unremarkable, yet he has survived until now without a single injury.

【28】 Heh!

【29】 Ordinary person? Background character? Passerby A? How could Shen Yao not believe it? All the people inside Changbai Apartment added together don't have as many vests as this one person alone.

【30】 The system immediately indicated it was watching him, but it was a bit strange. That man was actually also in a state of sound sleep. Logically speaking, that shouldn't be right. Although Changbai Apartment can pull people into dreams, this person has real skills; shouldn't he be awake like the Host?

【31】 Shen Yao: ……

【32】 "Pull up his surveillance," she said in a deep voice. Shen Yao reminded the system that they might be under the other party's illusion.

【33】 Illusion?

【34】 What do you mean?

【35】 "That man sleeping is faked?" But whether it's heart rate or breathing frequency, those can't be faked.

【36】 "Just a skill to disguise it. Haven't you been tricked by me few enough times?" Shen Yao revealed an expression of smiling without the smile reaching her eyes. The footage of the man's room was playing before her eyes: an ordinary single room, a man lying in the center of the single bed with eyes tightly closed and breathing steady.

【37】 However, in just a moment, Shen Yao coldly pointed out that the man's breathing frequency was too even, as if deliberately displayed.

【38】 System: ……

【39】 The system exploded. It also hadn't expected the man to be so insidious and cunning, deceiving even an artificial intelligence like it. It must raise its vigilance against this person, mark him as a key target, strike first next time they meet...

【40】 Blah blah blah, the system spoke righteously. Those who didn't know would think it was some great impartiality. In reality, it was nothing but a retaliatory psychology from being deceived, wanting to win back face in front of the other party.

【41】 "Next time?" Shen Yao suddenly moved her fingertips. A gentle strand of spiritual power ran out from her body. It went along the corridor and stairs all the way up, finally twisting its agile little body and drilling directly into the single room where the man was.

【42】 The last second before pouncing on him, the spiritual power paused, then hid in the night color, instantly disappearing without a trace.

【43】 System: ……?!!!

【44】 "Host, he, you, this..." The system was at a loss for words, thinking this man's act was quite convincing, but in reality, his vigilance hadn't dropped a single bit.

【45】 Shen Yao lightly retracted her fingers, as if the spiritual power released just now wasn't her.

【46】 The man, disrupted by the sudden rhythm, simply didn't continue lying on the bed pretending to sleep. He stood up and sat on the chair to the side, turned on the fan, but with a cold face flipped through the notebook on the desk.

The system this time finally detected the change in the man's heartbeat and breathing. Mhm, it should be quite flustered and exasperated, frightened by the Host's action just now?

"Won't he suspect us?" Looking at him, he's also a ruthless character who holds a grudge over the slightest offense. They've formed enmity in the instance; if they run into each other in the future, they'll just have to be enemies forever.

"Suspecting doesn't matter," Shen Yao didn't put the man's change to heart at all. She still had to really thank these idiots who delivered their heads; while accelerating Changbai Apartment's evolution, they also propelled her spiritual power growth.

Although the negative effects of spiritual power growing too fast weren't very friendly to Shen Yao's body, this kind of opportunity isn't available every day either. Like the spiritual power manifestation just now, in the last task world Shen Yao waited several months; in this task world, less than a month and she could already use it.

When it comes down to it, it's still that Changbai Apartment's instance suits spiritual-strengthening players. She'd have to tell Shen Xi about this when she gets out; if she's lucky enough to encounter this instance in the future, she must grab the benefits.

The night grew deeper and deeper. The people of Changbai Apartment struggled bitterly, little knowing their efforts wouldn't achieve half a bit of effect; the long-predestined result couldn't be changed much.

…………

"Xiao Xi, you really want to go in?" Shang Ting looked at her serious-faced colleague and couldn't understand. A perfectly good girl, why did she have to run into an instance? "Those instances eat people."

Attempting to frighten Shen Xi into giving up the idea, Shang Ting waved her hands, baring fangs and brandishing claws.

Shen Xi: ……

Shen Xi shook her head helplessly. "Sister Ting, this random instance's range isn't large, and I'm already an Official Player's identity." Having cleared two fixed instances, entering a small-range random instance, the danger isn't great.

After coming to the Special Affairs Bureau, Shen Xi learned quite a bit of intelligence not released to the public, including how to judge the range of Spiritual Qi Revival and instance difficulty.

Every time she entered an instance, Shen Xi would calculate using the knowledge she'd learned. She abruptly discovered the Special Affairs Bureau's capabilities were truly not small. Uncle Huo's words weren't wrong; for ordinary players, joining the Special Affairs Bureau counts as the advantages outweighing the disadvantages.

"Xiao Xi, you can't speak too absolutely. Just our Special Affairs Bureau colleagues have quite a few who've flipped; you mustn't learn from them." Shang Ting's position was mainly responsible for logistics support. She occasionally came into contact with some Special Affairs Bureau file organization and discovered the contents inside were quite spectacular.

Tsk tsk tsk.

In private, Shang Ting shared quite a lot with Shen Xi; after all, in Shang Ting's view, Shen Xi was young yet already an Official Player, so she was definitely a key cultivation target of the Special Affairs Bureau. She herself might be a salted fish, but that absolutely didn't stop her from finding a backer to cling to — just in case her luck turned bad in the future, she could still forge some good karma.

Shen Xi hummed twice in agreement, guaranteeing she would absolutely never become proud, complacent, conceited, or arrogant. As the vehicle beneath her slowly arrived at this random Instance site, she pushed open the car door and waved at Shang Ting with a smile.

"Sister Ting, go on back."

"Sigh, you take care of yourself, be careful in everything, I'll wait for you to return."

"..."

Watching the departing figure, Shang Ting pursed her lips sadly, muttering softly: why be so foolish as to insist on entering? She should have listened to her and stayed steadily at the Special Affairs Bureau.

She looked up at the empty back seat, then glanced at the driver preparing to leave. Shang Ting suddenly didn't want to return to the Special Affairs Bureau — it was meaningless. Better to finish her unfinished work; she could also apply for two days off.

"Oh my, Little Shang working so hard? That's not your usual style."

The driver was an elderly man. Although he had no connection to Players, his family had a Player. The Special Affairs Bureau's recruitment couldn't possibly assign all daily maintenance logistics personnel to Players either — no amount of funding could sustain that.

Most of these logistics personnel had intricate ties to the Special Affairs Bureau. In the Bureau's words, it was to guarantee Players had no rear worries when entering Instances — even if they died, they needn't worry about their family's survival.

"Sun Shu, I'm a Player too." Although she usually slacked off and fished a bit, the professional dedication she should have was still there. Chatting cheerfully with driver Sun Shu, Shang Ting shifted her attention back.

No matter what, Shen Xi wasn't someone she needed to worry about. She had long since probed the relationship between the Bureau Chief and Shen Xi. She believed Shen Xi, with someone covering for her, would definitely return safely.

"Sun Shu, let's hurry over. Then you can get home early to pick up your grandson. I'm still thinking of eating at that street-side roast duck place — if we go too late we won't get any..."

Rambling chatter drifted from the car. As the stationary black car departed again, the sound dissipated into the surrounding air.

People are like this — attention comes fast and goes fast. Everyone has their own life. All those extra thoughts only get spent on themselves.

On the other side, Huo Xunqi stared with both eyes bloodshot at the white mist before him.

This was Jincheng's location. Originally there should have been a city of over a million people, but only a vast white fog remained. Walking past it led to the road to the neighboring uptown.

Special Affairs Bureau and Special Investigation Bureau personnel had been investigating the truth of Jincheng's disappearance here. Unfortunately, no matter how many people came, the conclusion was always absurd yet real: there was no Jincheng location, as if the original land had been erased out of thin air, without even a trace of ground collapse.

The leaders above had only one sentence: spare no effort to find Jincheng, no matter how great the cost.

The Special Affairs Bureau and Special Investigation Bureau brought out their trump-card treasures to try. In the end, it was still Players holding high-level Spatial Artifacts who discovered the secret: there were traces of spatial severing here.

Huo Xunqi arrived at the place where the problem was discovered. After carefully sensing, he also detected the fluctuation — extremely feeble, practically nonexistent. If not for the Players holding high-level Spatial Artifacts who inherently possessed spatial enhancement traits, they wouldn't have detected anything at all.

"Bureau Chief."

"Xunqi."

"Little Huo."

"..."

All sorts of addresses landed on Huo Xunqi. But Huo Xunqi had long been prepared. He took out a thin sheet of paper from his item bar.

The moment the paper touched the spatial traces, it directly extended outward into a peeled-open door.

Sesame Open Door: a special paper product called Sesame. Its function is to open a door leading inside at places where spatial fluctuations exist. As for what's behind the door, you have to go see for yourself to know.

Huo Xunqi didn't need to explain; others could understand the significance this door represented.

This — if they go in, can they come out? The key point is whether they can bring out the people of Jincheng.

"No one can guarantee it, but we can try." Huo Xunqi pointed at the not-yet-pulled-open gate. "Its duration is forty-eight hours. After that time it will turn back into a sheet of paper. To use it again requires waiting half a month."

That is to say, if they cannot bring back more useful intelligence regarding Jincheng within forty-eight hours, the opening half a month later will have no significance whatsoever.

Jincheng cannot wait that long. They themselves cannot just drag it out and ignore it.

In the end, it was still the Leader who made the final decision. Huo Xunqi led the Elite Players of the Special Affairs Bureau and Special Investigation Bureau through the door, to thoroughly investigate the truth of Jincheng's disappearance.

Without special instructions, without special explanations, a group of people carried enough supplies for food, clothing, and daily needs, and one after another stepped across this gate.

"Oh my, you young man? Wake up quick. This is no place to rest. Be careful the constables don't catch you and throw you in jail."

Huo Xunqi opened his eyes, meeting a pair of dust-covered hands. Looking further up, it was an aged, hardworking old man. On his back he carried a back basket large enough to completely cover himself. He wore ancient-style clothes and trousers, even his shoes appeared to be woven from dry grass.

Huo Xunqi:...

Terrible. Didn't expect an Instance with an Ancient Times background. Looks like this trouble won't be small.

Swiftly adjusting his mood, he climbed up from the ground. Huo Xunqi lowered his voice and explained to the old man that he had accidentally fallen and that was why he was lying here. "Many thanks to the old sir for the rescue. May I ask where this is?"

The old man exclaimed "Aiyo" at those words. "Injured the brain. This is Canglan Commandery City. Young man, hurry into the city. Spend money to find a doctor to take a good look."

Perfectly fine yet suddenly gone stupid. What a calamity!