Yue Ren didn't seem to realize the tension that his appearance brought to the scene.
Under the four pairs of eyes, he even smiled and asked, "So, how do you need me to reciprocate now?"
Such words were like a terrifying ghost story in anyone's ears. Chi Ting waved his hand and accepted it quite naturally. "It was simple. There was no need."
Yue Ren smiled and said nothing.
Chi Ting withdrew his gaze from Yue Ren and looked at the corner of the stairs again.
In just the blink of an eye, Li Hou only had a very small piece of his skull left. Then little by little, he was finally completely eaten away.
After being almost completely engulfed, all the players present saw a new message pop up on the virtual screen.
[Progress of identity transition:
Senior owners achieved (3/3);
New owners achieved (3/3)!]
[Congratulations to the player team for successfully completing the instance's hidden mission: 'I want to be a Homeowner Too!']
[How can such a warm and loving family lack the replacement of members? Of course, more people should be given the opportunity to live here! Let's get ready and look forward to the arrival of the new neighbors who have won the election!]
Looking at the two (3/3) in succession, the already ugly faces of the three people became even paler.
Previously when Chi Ting was talking to Li Hou, the content had made them feel confused. At this time, they still couldn't guess the ultimate goal of the child who tried every means to kill them.
If senior owners referred to NPCs, there was no doubt that the so-called 'new owners' were naturally the players who entered the instance.
From the initial (0/3) to (3/3), a series of things happened in the middle. They didn't dare think about it at all.
So Fan Pengyue and Cheng Chao were really killed by Li Hou?
Cheng Chao even entered the instance with him. This inhuman thing actually took the life of a friend to pave the way for his own clearance?!
Even Xiang Xianwan, who had always been mild, couldn't help glancing at the location of Li Hou's death and felt that it was too cheap for him to die like this.
The new message that popped up was like a signal that everything around them was slowly starting to change.
It could be seen from the dense cracks that appeared on the surrounding existences that Chi Ting judged to be 'people.'
Layer after layer of shell-like fragments slowly peeled off their bodies. Mottled cracks spread over their featureless faces in an instant before finally collapsing like a shattered mirror.
At this moment, the scarlet mist also faded and silently dissipated.
Everyone couldn't help gasping in unison when they clearly saw the faces exposed after the fragments were peeled off.
There were all types of faces: male and female, young and old. The only thing that was the same was the empty and numb gaze that made it seem like their souls had been sucked out. At this moment, they seemed completely frozen in place and stared straight into the distance into nothingness.
"This… this…" Li Tao spent a long time stuttering without knowing what to say next.
Chi Ting said before that these were all human beings, but they obviously couldn't accept it. After all, apart from being humanoid, such ghosts had nothing to do with being 'people.'
This was until now.
There was a very subtle feeling that instantly spread up from the soles of his feet. It wasn't just Li Tao. Even Xiang Xianwan and Gong Jing fell into a long silence.
But even if no one spoke, they knew that the others undoubtedly had the same conjecture. They just unanimously chose not to say it. If they were left forever in this instance, they would also become like this, relying on cruel 'competition' to fight for the senior living qualifications.
In the live stream room, the barrage had long been restless.
These new players in the instance must not know it, but the old viewers who had followed the instance several times had already seen many familiar faces among these 'people.'
[Ah, I remember that high school student. He was Zou Li, a player in the fourth group!]
Isn't this group of three the unlucky bastards who came in for the sixth time!]
[Sister Yang is here as well! Sister Yang came in with a group for the first time and almost led the team to kill crazily!]
[F*k, I'm so excited. It turns out that the completion of the sacrifice will give such a result!]
...
[D-Did I see it right? Is that… Ma Zizhou?]
This barrage that floated by quickly attracted the attention of other audience members. After reminding them, they carefully identified it. They finally saw the tall and thin figure standing where Li Hou died.
It was Ma Zizhou.
It must be admitted that Ma Zizhou, who wasn't in a combat state, was indeed very deceptive. He looked weak and like he had a good temper. At this moment, he stood there with a slightly lowered head. He 'looked' at the ground where Li Hou had disappeared, and it wasn't known what he was thinking.
The audience naturally didn't pay attention to the thoughts of these 'former players'. They were more worried about whether someone with the memory of that time would be stimulated again due to the appearance of this familiar face.
After all, the scene of Yue Ren slaughtering the entire building was too impressive. If he went crazy again because of Ma Zizhou's appearance, the consequences would be really unimaginable.
The audience instinctively held their breaths. Then they soon realized that their worries were a bit superfluous.
Forget going crazy. Yue Ren didn't even take a second look in Ma Zizhou's direction from beginning to end.
His gaze fell on Chi Ting's body the whole time. It started to wander over every inch of his clothes little by little. His expression was clearly full of curiosity and inquiry.
In the end, he straightened up a bit and calmly walked down the stairs. "Do you want to go downstairs? I'll send you down."
Chi Ting had already felt the overly blatant gaze of Yue Ren. Seeing Yue Ren looking at him like this and seemingly taking the initiative to show courtesy, he couldn't help glancing over.
The corners of Chi Ting's mouth slightly twitched, but he didn't say anything in the end. He quietly pulled up his hood and placed it on his head as he passed by Yue Ren.
Under such an action, the beads in his hands very naturally rubbed against the tip of the man's nose.
Just now, he used this string of beads to send Li Hou to hell.
Such a small action that was close to a threat fell into Yue Ren's eyes, and the corners of his lips curved up slightly. Even so, he wasn't angry.
He stepped forward to keep up. Then as he passed by Ma Zizhou, the shadow under his feet suddenly rose without warning. Like a sharp blade, it cut the wandering soul that was fixed in place into pieces.
The audience in the live stream room: "..."
What the! Sure enough, it was still impossible for him to not take revenge!
There was still a psychological shadow left in Li Tao. Even though there was a message notification about completing the hidden mission, he was still very vigilant along the way out of fear that the wandering spirits fixed in place would suddenly attack and make them go through a chilling stair chase.
Fortunately, what Li Tao was worried about didn't happen.
Instead, they went down this way to the 7th floor, the 6th floor, the 5th floor… Li Tao brushed shoulders with the wandering spirits scattered on each floor again and again. He had complicated feelings at the thought that he would probably turn into this type of thing if he was also trapped here.
The other two also seemed to have their own thoughts. In the end, Xiang Xianwan couldn't help calling out, "Brother Chi."
"Huh?" Chi Ting stopped and looked back.
Xiang Xianwan hesitated for a moment when their eyes met. Even so, she still asked, "What if… I mean, if there was no Li Hou. Would we have to choose to sacrifice others if we want to successfully clear this instance?"
Chi Ting's personality was that he only paid attention to the present. He felt the eyes that fell on him in unison and was a bit surprised that these people were still worrying about previous events.
He thought about it and still patiently replied, "No, I didn't lie to Li Hou at the time. What he used isn't the correct method to clear the instance. Since it is a hidden mission, it means it is a special clearance channel. How can normal people do such a brutal thing?"
Hearing this answer, Xiang Xianwan finally sighed with relief. "So there are really other ways. Then let's go."
She hadn't spoken a word along the way because she was thinking about this problem.
After all, they were now able to go downstairs smoothly. In a way, Li Hou had paved the way in advance. If she was placed in Li Hou's position in a different place, would she also make the choice to sacrifice players in front of a clearance opportunity?
This idea was undoubtedly very cruel. What made Xiang Xianwan feel even more terrifying was that she found she had really fallen into hesitation…
The other two were obviously thinking about the same question. They sighed in relief. Then Li Tao discovered the deep meaning in Chi Ting's words and was surprised. "Brother Chi, listening to what you mean by this, you already know how to clear the level?"
"Pretty much. It is very simple," Chi Ting replied. "Isn't this a warm capture strategy game? Then just do the strategy."
For a while, he no longer had the energy to worry over whether the game was warm or not. He just felt dazed. "Capture strategy? How to capture? The people downstairs don't have the favorability task."
"Not downstairs, but upstairs." Chi Ting laughed silently and asked the other people to try and recall it. "Every time you accepted a task, didn't you find that there was something special on the task panel?"
By this time, Chi Ting had basically no intention of avoiding Yue Ren during the discussion.
This made a certain NPC following him cast a deep look at him.
"Special?" Li Tao asked directly.
Xiang Xianwan, "You mean, the 'unknown' of the hidden effect?"
Once she said this, the other two vaguely remembered that there seemed to be such a reminder every time they accepted a task. They just gradually forgot about it because they never found any negative effects.
Sure enough, every piece of information in the instance couldn't be underestimated!
Li Tao felt as if he understood something. "So this unknown effect is actually?"
"It should no longer be unknown> "Chi Ting stopped and looked back. He asked quite politely, "Mr Yue, would you mind sending us a favorability task at this time?"
Li Tao had asked casually. He hadn't expected that Chi Ting would actually want to use Yue Ren as a teaching panel. He was frightened and was about to open his mouth to block it when he heard the NPC laugh slightly. He acted quite approachable. "Of course."
It wasn't just Live. Even the audience in the live stream room never thought that the word 'approachable' would one day be used for Yue Ren.
[Task Name: Dinner Invitation.]
[Task introduction: A dinner that suits your taste can always make you happy. Yue Ren really hopes to maintain a good mood forever. Can you invite him to your house to share dinner again?
Task reward: Yue Ren's favorability +20.
Hidden Effect: Anger of the hidden residents group +20.
Do you want to accept the mission? Yes or no.]
Chi Ting couldn't help glancing at Yue Ren when he saw the title of this task.
How much did this guy want to come to his house to eat and drink?
The attention of the others had undoubtedly fallen on the 'hidden effect' below.
It went without saying who the so-called hidden residents group referred to.
So every time they conscientiously increased the favorability of the upper floor residents, they were actually increasing the anger value of the lower level residents?
Li Tao felt a sense of enlightenment. Then he found that something was still wrong. "The normal way of clearing the instance should be to control the progress of the capture strategy? But that doesn't seem to work. You can't go downstairs if you don't gain enough favorability. But if you want to go downstairs, you inevitably have to increase the hidden anger value, right?"
Chi Ting retracted his gaze from Yue Ren and replied, "It doesn't matter if the anger value is too high. Just find a way to reduce the favorability value of the NPCs upstairs to the red value. It is all linked. The moment the favorability value upstairs is low, the anger value below is naturally low."
Li Tao was stunned, "…A reverse capture strategy? I-I this okay?"
Chi Ting smiled.
In fact, Chi Ting felt it was a bit strange when Li Hou told him that the favorability of Room 1001 had dropped to a red value, but he could continue to go downstairs.
After all, such a setting was more like a bug from all angles.
This doubt was officially solved when they were attacked on the 8th floor.
Other people might not be aware of it in the chaos, but Chi Ting always paid attention to everyone's safety. It could clearly be found that these 'people' had an obvious priority when it came to their targets. They always went around him and Li Hou and gave priority to those next to him.
Ever since entering the game, everything had a certain judgment standard. In this situation, the only explanation that Chi Ting could find was that these 'people' should have similar indicators similar to favorability. The biggest difference between him and Li Hou and the others was that the two of them had both angered the NPC residents of this Love Apartment. It was likely that this affected those 'people.'
Following this line of thought, everything became easy to deduce.
Of course, Chi Ting only knew that this indicator was called 'anger value' when he saw Yue Ren's task.
The thorough analysis was finished. Li Tao made an expression that said 'so it is like this'. It was undoubtedly a true portrayal of the audience in the live stream room.
[I declare that choosing to follow this live stream is definitely my wisest choice!]
[F*k, I just said that the means of sacrificing people are evil. Sure enough, this should be the correct way of clearing the instance!]
[It's okay, it's okay. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to be so ruthless if I entered this instance. Chi Ting is an eternal god ahhhh!]
[Comparing these two instance clearance ideas, it seems like Li Hou is just bad and stupid…]
[I earned a fortune. The first pass is going to occur. Even if I encounter this instance in the future, I won't be afraid!]
[Hahaha, are you really not afraid? Aren't you afraid to encounter Yue Ren?]
[Great. In any case, it is a matter of heart. God knows how many times I have watched this instance.]
[By the way, it isn't right. Why is the progress only 80%? Shouldn't it be more than 95%? Opening the last door accounts for 20%?]
At this reminder, the originally harmonious and relaxed atmosphere in the live stream room slightly froze.
Oh, this progress bar obviously wasn't quite right!
At this time, everyone in the instance finally returned to the lobby on the first floor.
They finally returned to this original scene after a few days. For a while, all of them felt like they were worlds away.
"It is fate to meet each other. Let's add each other as friends when we go out. If not, I'll teach you when the time comes." Li Tao was already smiling and started to talk about the situation after clearing the instance. "I'm finally saying goodbye to this d*mn instance. I must be more vigilant next time and not randomly open an instance again! By the way, do you want to make sure there are other players going downstairs? There is still a day left. If there is time…"
Xiang Xianwan shook her head. "I have already contacted them just now. There should be no one."
Li Tao was silent for a moment. He suddenly felt that the joy of clearing the instance had faded a lot.
Then he looked up and found that Gong Jing had suddenly stopped in his tracks. He walked over with a forced smile and patted his good brother on the shoulder. "Why aren't you leaving? Are you reluctant to leave us all of a sudden?"
Gong Jing raised his hand in a trembling manner. "No, that isn't it."
The slightly changed words fell into his ears. It was only then that Li Tao realized something wasn't right. He looked in the direction that Gong Jing pointed at, and his expression changed slightly.
Gong Jing tried hard to control his despair. "I remember that in the beginning, the door should be in this direction, right?"
The words came out, and no one answered.
At this moment, in front of them, there was only a pink wall where the apartment door should be. It perfectly blended with the surrounding decorations and cut off all sunlight.
The door to the apartment building was missing.
Did this mean that the exit from this instance didn't exist?
Chi Ting turned around.
At the exit of the safe passage, Yue Ren who 'sent' them downstairs just leaned against the wall. He looked at the panicked expressions in a natural manner.
On his face, there was a casual smile as always.
Chi Ting slowly looked up.
The final clearance method of this instance was really related to this person.