Chapter 145

【! I thought Xu An was the only proper teammate, and he got simplified too?】

Wife and child—already secured.

The streamers felt like their entire worldview had just been reshuffled.

Males typically don’t like the offspring of other males—male lions will even kill cubs that aren’t theirs. Humans are different from beasts, but even so, it’s rare for someone to be truly unbothered.

Yet this male streamer, who looked and felt so decent, had just thrown out a huge line.

He was a top-tier simp!

The key thing was, when the other streamers glanced over at Shi Jian, who was standing there holding the “child” as a “divorced” mother, it actually… kind of made sense?

It did look like a good deal.

Shi Jian realized she’d underestimated Xu An. While he wasn’t a professional performer, and his expressions and body language were just average, that final line of his? That should absolutely earn him a room key.

Silent, devoted, unrequited love second lead role — check.

Sure enough, the receptionist’s tears spurted out again. She didn’t seem to harbor the same level of hostility toward Xu An as she did toward Shi Jian. She handed the room key over to him quite decisively, though her gaze toward him was somewhat complicated.

Xu An acted like he didn’t notice at all. He took the key and strode toward Shi Jian.

“Let’s go,” he said quietly to her.

Shi Jian was already feeling pretty uncomfortable from the cold—she didn’t show it on her face, but she was shuffling her feet in the snow.

Now that all the teammates could enter the villa, there was no reason for her to keep freezing outside.

Once they were a little away from the crowd, Shi Jian whispered praise to Xu An, “Didn’t expect you to be this shady too. That’s a relief!”

She’d been worried that her new teammate might not be able to keep up with her antics—turns out they were exactly the same kind of people.

Faced with such a compliment, Xu An smiled slightly in thanks—but he felt he still had a ways to go.

Compared to Shi Jian, he was still lacking.

“Bad, bad, bad, bad…”

Just like now—the bride ghost, after struggling in vain, let out a string of curses. Viewers in the bullet chat were already enthusiastically coming up with a whole range of poetic insult lines on her behalf.

Shi Jian still had the gall to twist the narrative.

She called out loudly, “Baby, you’re saying it’s too cold? Mommy will hurry up and take you to our room, okay?”

A top-tier actress, a scheming livestreamer, bullying a low-IQ female ghost online—now in her toddler form, no less.

Bride ghost: “…Liar.”

She’d been bottling it up for a while. Shi Jian thought she was about to let out something dramatic, but in the end, she only managed to blurt two words.

It was obvious that day when the ghost yelled “Only I can kill the bad ones!” she’d already been putting in a ton of effort. Clearly, this took more energy from her than slaying actual ghosts.

Shi Jian figured people behind them probably couldn’t hear anymore, so she simply nodded. “Yup, I lied to you.”

Bride ghost: “……”Shi Jian and Xu An had teamed up in their mischief, but even with two people passing successfully in a row, it didn’t mean entering the mountain villa was easy.

Right after Xu An, a male streamer failed his storytelling attempt. Shi Jian heard his teammate urging him with a warning.

“Dashan, don’t drag us down.”

Soon after, Shi Jian heard a pained cry.

That person had given up one of his own organs to exchange for entry into the mountain villa.

If it were before, Shi Jian would have been horrified, on the verge of gagging, covered in goosebumps. But now, even as she caught the scent of blood mixed into the frigid air, all she did was tighten her hold on the bride ghost and quicken her pace slightly, throwing those sounds and smells behind her.

The environment forces people to grow. If you don’t grow, you die.

...

Shi Jian’s three-person mini team—plus the bride ghost—successfully entered the villa. Never before had a dungeon consumed so much energy just for the entrance.

Upon arrival, the first thing Shi Jian saw was the sign reading “Blizzard Mountain Villa.” The courtyard was quite spacious, filled with snowmen and ice sculptures in various shapes and sizes. It must have once been a grand place, though clearly it had fallen into decline at some point. Even though renovations had been done, the gold trim and excessive use of marble still gave off a kind of outdated tackiness.

Shi Jian said to the bride ghost, “Baby, don’t stare. When we have time, mommy will take you to build snowmen, but for now we need to go warm up in our room.”

Tang Tian had already reunited with Shi Jian and Xu An. After entering the building, the temperature rose, and they finally felt a bit alive again.

Tang Tian silently lit incense in her heart for the long-suffering bride ghost. Every snack the ghost had eaten was well earned. At least Shi Jian wasn’t calling her “Little Xin” anymore—“baby” was a step up. Hopefully it felt better to the bride ghost.

“There’s no one around right now,” Tang Tian pointed out. Shi Jian didn’t really need to stay in character so deeply.

But Shi Jian had her own reasoning. “If you’re going to put on a show, you’ve got to commit fully.”

Tang Tian was just worried Shi Jian would get too immersed and tire herself out, but Shi Jian wasn’t tired at all—she was enjoying herself.

Seeing this, Tang Tian didn’t try to stop her. Full commitment really was better.

Shi Jian set the bride ghost down and turned to Tang Tian, saying, “Sleep in my room with me.”

Tang Tian had snuck in without a room card, and Shi Jian had already figured it out: she, Tang Tian, and the bride ghost could share a room.

But Tang Tian shook her head. “Two people and a ghost is too crowded. Besides, I’m worried sneaking in like this might cause trouble later…”

Shi Jian immediately frowned. “Then what should we do?”

Should she come up with a melodramatic story for Tang Tian and do emergency training on facial expressions?

But Tang Tian had another idea. “I want to try blending in with the villa’s staff.”

She was asking Shi Jian what she thought.

Shi Jian thought for one second and found it very viable.

The two of them high-fived. Let’s try it!

If it worked, it wouldn’t just solve the issue of sneaking in—it could also help them gather intelligence on the enemy.

Viewers who had just entered their shared livestream couldn’t help but fall into deep thought. What kind of team was this?

The stream was filled with comments saying: 【Birds of a feather】 — though it was quickly corrected.【"Foul-mouthed camaraderie" sounds too harsh—this is called being like-minded.】

【Or you could say, "Birds of a feather flock together!"】

Anyway, the three of them were clearly cut from the same cloth.

...

Aside from the hostess, there were indeed other staff in the villa. Shi Jian didn’t feel at ease letting Tang Tian go in alone, so she and Xu An found a more hidden spot to observe just in case.

But Tang Tian did not disappoint.

Maybe it was because there were a lot of staff and they weren’t all that familiar with each other, but Tang Tian slipped in seamlessly. After sneaking into the villa, she managed to blend into the staff ranks too.

This meant Tang Tian could stay with the staff, and her lodging issue was successfully resolved. Meanwhile, Shi Jian and Xu An each returned to their own rooms.

Their rooms were on the same floor, though a bit apart. Xu An first walked Shi Jian to her door.

Everything seemed calm, and it looked no different from an ordinary vacation lodge.

What puzzled Shi Jian, though, was: “We still haven’t received a mission for this dungeon.”

“Surely the storytelling wasn’t the mission, right?”

Xu An remained calm and optimistic. “Let’s wait a bit longer. Last time, didn’t we also get our mission on the second day?”

Shi Jian thought that was true. Right now, the most important thing to her was a hot bath.

The hostess didn’t fill the whole tub for her, but there was still hot water in the bathroom. After washing up, Shi Jian finally felt fully alive again.

She didn’t linger too long, because the mission arrived.

Her phone, left to the side, buzzed once. She snatched it up to see the message—

【In the snowy Blizzard Mountain Villa, innocent souls wander. Warriors with hearts as pure as crystal, please resurrect these innocent spirits.】

Resurrect innocent spirits?

Shi Jian groaned as soon as she saw that. She only knew how to send spirits off, not bring them back. She also noticed a test tube with blue liquid had appeared on the table in her room.

She guessed it was the item used for resurrection.

Now, she felt she needed to regroup with her teammates to discuss the mission.

Just as she stepped out of the room, she saw Xu An nearby—he was waiting for her.

Shi Jian was a bit surprised he didn’t knock on her door, but before she could ask, she realized he probably knew she was bathing.

“Did you get the mission and the potion?” Shi Jian asked urgently.

Xu An’s eyes landed on Shi Jian’s steamed, rosy cheeks—like a ripened peach—and he nodded. “I did.”

They were about to go look for Tang Tian when she came running down from upstairs.

Tang Tian had also received the mission and potion. She brought another update: “This thing can’t be stored in the phone inventory.”

Before they could discuss the mission and the potion any further, a bloodcurdling scream echoed from downstairs.

The three of them locked eyes, then made their decision without a word—they all took off running down the stairs.They had to go check out what was going on.

Of course, if it turned out to be too dangerous, they would retreat after gathering information.

Shi Jian didn’t forget to scoop up the bride ghost on the way.

Even though the bride ghost currently had no combat power, based on their research, the ghost couldn’t actually die. Leaving her alone in the room was technically safe—but Shi Jian was a loving mom, after all.

The dazed bride ghost in the room was once again forced to take off.

...

The shrill scream had come from the villa’s main hall, but when Shi Jian and the others arrived, the scene wasn’t quite as tragic as expected.

There were two groups standing clearly separated from one another in the hall. Including Shi Jian’s team, that made three teams in total for this dungeon.

One group was the team of the first person who’d told a story—the top scorer on the college entrance exam. Shi Jian didn’t see the top scorer himself, but his teammates were there trying to comfort him. One of them had lost an eye and was crying in pain, being comforted by another teammate.

The second team was dressed fashionably, with good looks all around. One tall young man from that group had a hole where his eye used to be, and someone was trying to comfort him too.

That person was wearing a sympathetic expression as he said, “Da Shan, lower your head a bit, I’ll bandage it for you.”

The tall male streamer named Da Shan instinctively stepped back with a mocking look on his face.

Shi Jian remembered the name Da Shan—earlier his teammate had impatiently told him to hurry up and stop dragging the group down when he couldn’t get into the villa.

Although it wasn’t this particular guy offering to bandage him who’d said it, no one else had spoken up either.

Shi Jian immediately understood: they were farming drama and shipping fanservice CPs.

She’d seen plenty of that in the entertainment world. Still, in this environment most of the streamers hadn’t adapted to this kind of thinking yet—just surviving was hard enough.

She hadn’t expected to see such a familiar tactic on her first time in a team dungeon.

Shi Jian didn’t give them much more attention. Her focus remained on what had actually happened.

Those without eyeballs were likely streamers who failed to tell a good enough story and didn’t want to freeze outside, so they paid the price—literally—with their eyes.

And the scream had come from the group with the trendy fashion.

One of them had been scratched on the face.

“You're making such a big fuss over nothing. It was just a crow.”

The streamer who got scratched shouted angrily at his teammate, “If it were your face that got clawed, would you be saying that?”

“Alright, that’s enough, both of you. Why the hell is there a crow in here anyway?”

The person who cut in was the same guy who had offered to bandage Da Shan earlier—and he was indeed the best-looking in their group.

He had bleached golden hair, pale skin, and an elegant appearance that hovered between boyish and androgynous—very delicate.

Following his cue, Shi Jian’s group also looked toward the crow in the hall.

What kind of vacation villa had a crow in it?

The crow stood on top of the hall’s grandfather clock, its claws still stained with fresh blood from the earlier scratch. It was leisurely grooming its feathers with its beak.

And maybe it sensed all the eyes now focused on it—because suddenly, the crow turned toward the streamers…

And spoke in a human voice.“You’re all going to die soon.”

“Gaa gaa gaa—”

The bird spoke in human language, delivering a prophetic-sounding line. While it had been grooming its feathers just now, many hadn’t noticed—it actually had a pair of blood-red eyes!

No matter how you looked at it, the entire scene was saturated with ominous dread.

Everyone had only just managed to escape the freezing outdoors and get inside, only to be greeted by this. Some streamers completely broke down.

“I want to leave the instance! I want out! I regret everything…”

The one screaming and crying to exit the instance, even trying to dash outside, was the male streamer who had gouged out his own eyeball.

His teammates held him back.

“Going out is just asking to die!”

“What’s wrong with you? Snap out of it!”

His breakdown was so abrupt that many people were stunned.

“That crow seems to exert a certain psychological effect. The weaker someone’s mental defense, the easier they are to fall under its influence…” Xu An explained quietly to Shi Jian and Tang Tian.

He could remove the negative effects for them.

But Xu An noticed—Shi Jian didn’t seem to need it at all.

At the same time Xu An was quietly explaining this, another voice spoke up—loud and clear. It was the blonde male streamer. Unlike Xu An’s hushed tone, he made sure every streamer present could hear him.

Then he smiled and walked toward Shi Jian.

“Jiejie.”

He grinned, revealing sharp canine teeth. “I’m Bai Xiangnan, a mental-type streamer. I can remove the effects for you. Are you feeling unwell?”

Bai Xiangnan didn’t prioritize helping his clearly suffering teammates. Instead, he immediately tried to cozy up to Shi Jian.

Shi Jian didn’t respond to Bai Xiangnan. She was busy interacting with the bride ghost, her voice filled with delight.

“Baby, look, the bird can talk! You can learn to speak from it!”

While all the other streamers were focused on—

The crow just said we’re going to die.

Shi Jian’s focus was: Baby, you can learn to talk from the bird.

Shi Jian’s dedication to performance was truly professional. She was so fully immersed in her single-mom persona that she showed zero sign of being affected by any mental influence.

She also instantly saw through Bai Xiangnan’s attempt to ride her popularity wave.

No one was allowed to piggyback off her clout.

Oh? I’m talking to my baby, I didn’t hear you!