Chapter 146

Shi Jian was extremely sensitive to this sort of thing—after all, she’d seen it too many times.

...

And it wasn’t paranoia on her part—Bai Xiangnan had indeed recognized Shi Jian the moment he entered the instance.

After all, Shi Jian’s looks were unmistakable. Her face was her best calling card.

Shi Jian ran her streaming career with enthusiasm, usually staying in the transit station only briefly, and she didn’t socialize with other streamers.

No need to—it was a waste of time. Better to go shopping for pretty clothes or get skincare treatments.

But beauty was rare everywhere, and Shi Jian not only had beauty, but strength. No one else advanced as rapidly as she did—it was rocket-speed progress.

From entering the top 100 to reaching the middle ranks, she only needed a single instance.

Barring unexpected events, she’d soon break into the top ten—or even take first place.

Shi Jian’s performance during the storytelling round was exactly as the streamers had rumored—and even more impactful in person.

Bai Xiangnan loved hyping up CP dynamics with teammates, and he also tried to cozy up to other popular, attractive streamers encountered in instances.

Regardless of gender.

Before coming here, Bai Xiangnan had been a somewhat well-known internet celebrity-turned-performer. So at first, like most, he focused purely on survival—but once he understood the nature of these horror game instances, he quickly adapted, and his points each round were consistently high.

Now that he’d run into Shi Jian, Bai Xiangnan naturally wouldn’t let the opportunity pass.

Especially because—

Once he got closer, he saw that from head to toe, the woman had no flaw exposed. He even caught a faint whiff of fragrance—had she just washed up?

Bai Xiangnan kept his cheerful smile, still looking bright and sunny, but his gaze darkened slightly.

Logically speaking, Bai Xiangnan felt he’d timed things perfectly. The “hero saves beauty” trope never went out of style. But what he hadn’t expected was that Shi Jian not only looked stunning—she was also interacting with a child.

So right now, his attempt looked absolutely foolish.

Shi Jian acted like she’d just noticed his presence. She turned her head slightly. “You don’t need anything from me, do you?”

It was phrased as a question, but it clearly meant this conversation is over.

Bai Xiangnan: “…”

Anything he said now would just be awkward.

Xu An had removed Tang Tian’s negative effects. Tang Tian felt that oppressive fear vanish and let out a breath of relief, gratefully saying, “Thanks, Xu An.”

Xu An shook his head. “No need to thank me.”

But his attention remained on Shi Jian. He wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Bai Xiangnan get shut down.

...

“Damn crow!”

After being inexplicably cursed by that prophetic-sounding statement—and nearly having their minds affected—even though the crow’s actual power wasn’t that strong, it still caused significant panic among the streamers.

Bai Xiangnan’s teammate shouted, “Why the hell is there still no staff around? Isn’t someone going to deal with this crow?”The streamer whose face had been scratched was furious—she had already acted.

“What do you need staff for? Even if they came, it’d be useless. Just kill it!”

Her weapon was a bow and arrow. Shi Jian had originally assumed the crow would be tricky to deal with, but unexpectedly, once the arrow struck, it flapped twice and then fell to the tiles.

Dead.

The crow incident was temporarily resolved. Shi Jian lowered her voice and quietly discussed it with Tang Tian and the others.

“Did they receive the mission? Is it the same as ours?”

“They did,” Xu An answered firmly.

When Shi Jian and Tang Tian looked over, Xu An explained, “They were talking about whether to call their teammate in.”

He was referring to the relatively modest-looking team.

Shi Jian hadn’t seen the top-scoring exam student in the hall—that was because he really couldn’t bring himself to hand over one of his organs.

The hostess had set harsh requirements. Forget something like a tooth—the required offerings were things like eyeballs, arms, legs… And even the eyeball had already been considered the most “optimal” option.

Otherwise, missing a limb in the instance would severely impact survival.

The exam top-scorer wanted to see if there was another way in. He was still trying to gamble, or maybe thinking—what’s the big deal if I don’t get in?

But now that the mission had been issued, there was no completing the “revive the innocent spirit” quest without entering—the innocent spirit was clearly inside the mountain lodge.

So after receiving the mission, his teammates realized he was wasting time.

“Should we call him in?”

Someone had already gone out to bring the top-scorer in—but they soon returned in a panic.

They brought back terrible news.

“H-he’s frozen…”

Everyone looked out through the lodge’s front doors. It hadn’t even been that long since they’d entered. His teammates had even left him thick clothing.

But he had already frozen into a large, crystal-clear block of ice—his terrified expression locked in place.

Shi Jian: “…”

Tang Tian: “…”

Confirmed once again—they absolutely could not be thrown out.

...

Maybe because this was a team instance, the groups were already inherently in competition, and none of them mentioned anything about the mission.

Everyone hurried back to their rooms, and Shi Jian’s team began studying the mission themselves.

One question loomed in front of them.

Tang Tian wore a troubled expression. “It tells us to revive the innocent spirits, but… who are the innocent ones?”Shi Jian had encountered similar missions before. She didn’t know who the "Cinderella" equivalent was here, but she was certain: “...Feels like there are quite a few spirits here, and definitely some guilty ones who’ll try to snatch that thing.”

The potion capable of reviving spirits—just thinking with your toes, you could guess how deadly attractive that would be to the dead.

Considering that, Shi Jian felt like the potion in her inventory was basically a death sentence.

Tang Tian thought for a moment and felt Shi Jian had nailed the truth.

There probably really would be some.

They were destined to have no peace in this mountain lodge—it was easy to imagine how “lively” things would get later.

Shi Jian also remembered, “We still have to tell stories every day.”

They’d need to come up with fitting stories each day, move the hostess enough to earn their right to stay, while also looking for innocent spirits to revive—and judging from the situation, there might also be guilty ones trying to steal the potion…

Team-based instances really weren’t easy.

The three of them tried searching for clues about innocent spirits, but after a full round of searching, they turned up empty. The sky gradually darkened, and during that time the hostess even reminded everyone not to wander around.

Tang Tian planned to get closer to the staff and see if she could dig up useful information.

Everyone had to return to their rooms.

The hostess even specifically stopped Shi Jian—Tang Tian thought she was going to harm Shi Jian and immediately tensed up.

But the hostess just impatiently, yet eagerly, asked Shi Jian, “What happens next?”

The next part of the story.

She wanted to know Shi Jian’s revenge plan. Even if it was made up, she had to admit it was compelling.

The hostess wasn’t just physically invested—she was mentally obsessed with knowing more.

Shi Jian acted even cockier than the hostess. Now that she knew the hostess couldn’t touch her, progressing or not depended entirely on whether she could make her cry.

So Shi Jian shrugged. “You didn’t prepare me a full tub of hot water. I’ll tell you the rest tomorrow.”

Shi Jian: It’s not that she’s breaking her promise—it’s the hostess’s fault for not prepping hot water.

Though, honestly, Shi Jian had already planned to save the second half of the story for tomorrow anyway.

With that, Shi Jian led the bride ghost away, strutting past the hostess who stood there looking annoyed.

What Shi Jian didn’t expect, though, was to open her door and see a crow—identical to the one in the main hall—perched on the windowsill, staring at her with those blood-red eyes.

There were countless crows in this Snowy Mountain Lodge. Killing them all was impossible.

But Shi Jian was a seasoned horror game streamer. After witnessing firsthand in the hall that the crows weren’t particularly dangerous, her heart only skipped a beat.

Then she calmly picked up the bride ghost.

She held her up toward the crow and explained to the confused little ghost, “Here, kitty, catch the bird.”

“You like to scratch things, right? I’ll let you take this one.”

Ever since shrinking, the bride ghost couldn’t use her claws to hurt people anymore, but she still retained her habit of wanting to scratch things.

Shi Jian figured she could use the crow to help the bride ghost burn off some energy.Audience: You’re using the crow as a talking puppet—Shi Jian, how rude.

But honestly, we do want to see that scene. Bride Ghost Kitty receiving a gift—can we request that on stream?

...

The crow was once again used by Shi Jian as a prop for teaching speech, and now was nearly handed over to the “cat” as a scratching toy.

But this wasn’t some warm family-friendly program. The crow’s appearance here wasn’t by chance either.

It blinked its beady eyes and swayed its body side to side as it opened its beak: “A hole appears in a whole skull.”

Shi Jian: ?

Though confused, Shi Jian immediately went on high alert.

And just as the words left its mouth—bang!—a deafening crash rang out, and Shi Jian’s pupils contracted sharply.

A massive chunk of the ceiling suddenly caved in, plummeting straight toward Shi Jian.

Luckily, Shi Jian—wearing bright Barbie-pink heels—reacted fast. The moment she sensed danger, she grabbed the Bride Ghost and dodged.

She felt that if this scene were captured, it would totally look like it had CG-enhanced effects.

Even so, Shi Jian could feel the dust and gust from the falling cement block—it missed her by just a hair.

But the lodge, though old, wasn’t in disrepair—there was no sign that it should be collapsing like this!

Shi Jian was losing it: That almost hit her face!

And she wasn’t the only one—Shi Jian could hear more loud crashes coming from other rooms.

The soundproofing here wasn’t great. She even heard distant cries of pain: “My head! So much blood...”

From the audience’s god-view perspective, everything was even clearer.

Other streamers’ rooms had crows too. After the crow uttered that phrase, everyone instinctively started trying to avoid risk.

The female streamer who’d been scratched by a crow earlier managed to dodge a crashing chandelier from above—but then her foot inexplicably slipped and she smashed her head against the table corner.

Her skull was dented, and blood splattered instantly.

And it wasn’t over yet!

The crow kept speaking: “A corpse lies in a pool of water.”

Shi Jian had once died from slipping in a bathroom—she was thankful she wasn’t in one now.

Even the streamers who were in bathrooms bolted the moment they heard the line.

But this time, the danger wasn’t quite as expected. A member from the relatively low-key team didn’t dare stay in his room and dragged a teammate toward the main hall.

He figured the lobby had no large water sources and would be safer.

But as he ran, he crashed into a chef pushing a cart full of boiling oil. The scalding oil toppled and drenched him entirely.

The male streamer died on the spot.

He lay lifeless in the pool of liquid, eyes wide open in disbelief, as a nearby staff member tried desperately to cool him down with buckets of water.That matched exactly with the phrase: “A corpse lies in a pool of water.”

Shi Jian sensed that the crow was about to speak again, so she swiftly reached out and clamped its beak shut.

Crow: “Gaa…”

Manual mic mute.

Shi Jian narrowed her eyes and warned the crow, “Stop squawking.”

The crow in Shi Jian’s room was temporarily silenced.

The viewers in the livestream were on edge from the string of nonstop incidents—this was way too frequent, no time to even breathe.

In just a few minutes, one streamer had been seriously injured, another had been boiled alive in oil—all matching what the crow had said.

So now, seeing Shi Jian clamp the crow’s beak shut, everyone had a glimmer of hope.

Would that work?

Clearly not.

The Bride Ghost sat obediently on the bed and pointed toward the door.

Even without her gesture, Shi Jian had already heard it—a pale, skeletal claw was reaching through the crack under the door.

Shi Jian: “……” Headache incoming.

She let go of the crow’s beak. Whether it talked or not, bad things were still going to happen.

The crow, finally free to speak, flapped its wings frantically like it had been holding it in, its voice hoarse but pitch excited: “A revenant will rip you open and spill your guts!”

Laced with heavy schadenfreude.

“Who's getting gutted? That’s not set in stone yet.”

“Baby, watch Mommy show you a trick.”

Shi Jian raised her eyebrows. Since it was happening, she had no choice but to face it. She grabbed a chainsaw and aimed it at the hand reaching in!

Time for a taste of her chainsaw!

Was she cool or what?!

But Shi Jian quickly realized—the chainsaw passed right through the skeletal hand.

This revenant had no physical body. Her physical attacks were useless.

Shi Jian’s eyelid twitched. This time, she was really panicking.

The skeletal revenant had already squeezed half its head through the door. Black mist coiled around its form, and Shi Jian’s attack only enraged it further, speeding up its entry.

It had caught the enticing scent of the potion that could bring it back to life.

Tear apart the person in front of it, and then it could seize what it wanted…

Everything happened so fast—Shi Jian watched as it forced even more of its body through. She swallowed dryly and suddenly shouted at it:

“Out!”

“You are not allowed in here.”The chainsaw couldn’t hurt the revenant—in fact, instead of slowing it down, it sped it up. But Shi Jian’s righteously firm command actually made the revenant pause slightly.

It thought: it seemed... it hadn’t asked for her permission.

Shi Jian set down the now-useless chainsaw, eyes brimming with tears, and tearfully, miserably, heart-wrenchingly accused the revenant that was about to break in:

“Widows attract trouble—how am I supposed to live like this?!”