HI Chapter 87

Yan Mingguang leaned down quickly.

Yan Wei closed his eyes, only able to feel the light in front of him dim for a moment, and the next second, a warm sensation brushed against the corner of his eye, leaving him no time to react. Yan Mingguang’s breath fell on his forehead, and his own breath nearly faltered.

Fortunately, in that brief moment of shock, he quickly maintained a slow breathing rhythm. The physical data enhancements he had gained from the past few instances were all used to stabilize his heartbeat and breathing, as he tried hard to pretend to be asleep.

Yan Mingguang’s movement was swift, like an instinctive action that erupted suddenly, followed closely by an impulsive urge.

The warm sensation at the corner of Yan Wei’s eye shifted slightly downward.

But in the next moment, Yan Mingguang’s actions were consistent, and everything that had been released was instantly retracted with restraint.

The lips that gently brushed against his cheek seemed to tremble slightly, and then he suddenly stood up and quickly left the room.

The sound of the door opening and closing reached Yan Wei, and he knew that Yan Mingguang had already left. The few light kisses from earlier seemed to have made him even more intoxicated; he buried himself deep into the bed, his cheeks flushed as he curled up under the blanket, and in just a moment, he fell into a drunken, muddled sleep.

This sleep was very solid.

Perhaps it was because he was surrounded by Yan Mingguang’s scent before sleeping, Yan Wei dreamt of some scattered fragments again.

Like his previous dreams, they were inconsequential, fragmented, and fleeting images, but this time, Yan Mingguang was by his side. In some of the scenes, the Ghost/Monster was clearly not very scary, but in others, the surrounding dangers were bizarre and alarming.

Yan Wei woke up with these blurry images that flashed by and were almost forgotten, realizing that the sunlight outside the window was shining straight down.

He had slept until noon.

He quickly washed up, lazily stretched, and walked out of the room, just in time to see Yan Mingguang tidying up the mess on the table.

Yan Wei instinctively paused his steps, subconsciously wanting to touch the corner of his right eye, but thankfully realized it just in time as he raised his hand.

Yan Mingguang merely turned his head to look at him, his pure black pupils deep and unfathomable. He paused for a moment, then withdrew his gaze, continuing to throw the items on the table into a garbage bag without any difference from before.

Yesterday… Yan Mingguang probably didn’t know that Yan Wei was pretending to be asleep.

He blinked uncomfortably, then stepped forward and asked, “Where are the others?”

“They woke up earlier than you and left.”

“Oh, then you—”

Yan Wei’s words halted.

The windows in the apartment’s living room were all open, letting in the bright afternoon light. But suddenly, his vision went dark, and he felt as if all his strength had been drained, causing him to stagger.

Yan Mingguang rushed over a few steps to catch him. Yan Wei felt dazed for a moment, and it took him a while to recover from the state of sudden exhaustion.

“What happened?” Yan Mingguang asked him, his cold voice wrapped in a layer of barely perceptible concern.

Yan Wei frowned slightly, using Yan Mingguang’s strength to steady himself, and slowly raised his hand—the last missing piece of the Moon Wheel appeared in his palm.

The incomplete moon emitted a bright white light, blending with the sunlight, soft and tranquil.

“Moon Wheel…” he suddenly understood, “So that’s how it is.”

“Mm?”

“The incomplete Moon Wheel, in order to maintain its state, will automatically absorb energy—it’s drawing energy from me as nourishment to maintain its form. It turns out that a damaged Legendary Item indiscriminately absorbs the energy of its owner, so…”

“The last piece must be obtained.”

Legendary Items cannot actively unbind.

Either it stays like this, and Yan Wei continuously supplies energy to the incomplete Moon Wheel, which will only lead to his own exhaustion and eventual death. Or the owner must die to unbind the Legendary Item.

—He must obtain that last Moon Wheel Fragment.

Yan Wei had previously thought that the appearance of the Moon Wheel Fragment on the forty-ninth floor might be related to the balance mechanism of the building that Lin Qing mentioned. But now… he suddenly felt as if he was being pulled forward. If he had to obtain the last Moon Wheel Fragment, then no matter where that fragment was in any instance, he would have to go for it.

He put away the Moon Wheel and directly opened the information panel, sending a call request to Lin Qing.

“Lin Qing, it’s me.”

“…”

“Weren’t you asking if I was interested in entering the Arena Instance? I don’t need to think about it anymore; give me one of the four slots for Blackbird in the Arena Instance—”

Beside him, Yan Mingguang’s gaze shifted slightly, meeting Yan Wei’s eyes.

Yan Wei changed his words: “Leave two. …Mm, I’ve made up my mind; I won’t change it, no need to think it through again.”

“…”

“About a month from now, right? I got it.”

Yan Wei ended the call.

He glanced at Yan Mingguang, raising an eyebrow: “Forty-ninth floor, Teacher Yan, are you coming with me?”

“Mm.”

Yan Wei chuckled lightly, said nothing more, patted his shoulder, and said, “Before we take on the Arena Instance, first accompany me to a place.”

Yan Mingguang looked at him, puzzled.

“The gambling area.”

In the following days, Yan Wei appeared in the gambling area openly and without any disguise.

After the Death Schoolhouse instance, the fact that Yan Wei was Yan had become an unspoken assumption among everyone—after all, the best player in the end was Yan, and anyone who survived from that instance could confirm that Yan Wei had undoubtedly performed the best in the entire instance.

Once it became an unverified fact that Yan Mingguang was the day and Yan Wei was Yan, their simultaneous appearance in the gambling area naturally attracted the attention of various organizations.

Many organizations had originally planned to find them during their instance cooldown, and now that Yan Wei had taken the initiative to appear, other players from different organizations would naturally not let this opportunity slip by. However, because Yan Wei was too blatant, the Moon organization, which had intended to find an opportunity to deal with him, found it impossible to act.

No matter which gambling building Yan Wei stood in front of, players from organizations with recruitment intentions surrounded him. The Moon organization was also well aware that if they acted at this time, it would only be an opportunity for other organizations to show goodwill to Yan Wei, so they naturally would not take action. Meanwhile, Lin Qing had secretly arranged for some high-ranking players from Blackbird to wander around the gambling area, providing Yan Wei with an absolutely safe environment.

In this delicate balance, Yan Wei ignored all recruitment from any organization and simply spent an entire week with Yan Mingguang in the gambling area.

He did not place any bets on any instances; he just watched.

A week later, Yan Wei silently finished watching a gambling building instance on the forty-ninth floor, resting his chin on one hand, and thoughtfully said, “Ice block, after watching so much with me, do you have any thoughts?”

Yan Mingguang lowered his gaze and said, “You already have thoughts.”

“You could at least cooperate a little; it’s no fun if I talk alone.” Yan Wei pouted, “I’ve noticed that the instances above don’t actually have a stable data range. In the lower levels, the NPCs’ data would fall within a general range, but as the levels increase, how powerful the NPCs are and how dangerous the dilemmas in the instances are is not fixed. An instance on the thirtieth floor might have NPC data similar to that of an ordinary player on the tenth floor, or it could be comparable to that of the fortieth or fiftieth floors. Because at the mid-levels, the gap in player skill is actually quite large, so there are many possibilities for instances on the same floor, and the damage data of these NPCs depends on the general level of the players.”

“In other words, the instances adjust the NPC data to allow all players a chance to struggle, even if that chance is very low. So actually, even if we directly ascend to the forty-ninth floor, we won’t be completely defenseless, especially since we also have One-Half Immortality and Live Towards Death. And as the instance progresses, the small rewards we gain within the instance will gradually give us higher data.”

This undoubtedly reassured Yan Wei.

Confidence is one thing, but having a solid foundation is another. Even though Yan Wei was confident in his abilities, he needed to have a glimmer of hope to take the gamble. If not, it would be better to let Lin Qing find a few players from the fortieth floor to go in.

“You have another conclusion,” Yan Mingguang said.

Yan Wei raised an eyebrow: “You figured it out, Teacher Yan. There is another conclusion, but this actually has nothing to do with our clearing the instance; I was just thinking… don’t you think the instances in the building have a common characteristic?”

“Mm?”

“These instances amplify all the evil thoughts, reflecting the darkness and unresolved emotions of various people. And just a few days ago, we looked at the records of older instances on the Endless Monument; the earlier instances didn’t have as much evil, or rather, the instances in the building… seem to be getting ‘more evil.'”

A fleeting depth flashed in Yan Mingguang’s indifferent eyes, but Yan Wei, standing in front of him, did not notice the momentary emotion.

He continued, “But this has nothing to do with us right now. No matter what I have to face next, let’s first clear this forty-ninth floor.”

More than a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Lin Qing did not let Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang come to Blackbird; instead, he had Yan Wei wait at home while he brought along two other Blackbird players who entered with him.

Yan Wei naturally had no objections, and on the day the Arena Instance opened, he and Yan Mingguang waited early together.

—Then Lin Zhen and Yu Feizhou arrived.

Yan Wei: “…”

Lin Qing’s expression was serious: “They are the other two players entering.”

“Hey, little pet, what does that expression mean?” Lin Zhen scoffed, “Looking down on us? Let me tell you, while you were analyzing for a month, Yu Feizhou and I rushed through three instances and just came out yesterday.”

“So you also ascended? Can Blackbird not find two reliable ones?”

Yu Feizhou said earnestly, “Yan Wei, we won’t hold you back; it’s actually Lin Zhen who wants to help you, he just doesn’t know how to say it. We just cleared the thirty-fifth floor; although we ascended, at least we’ve narrowed the gap. While there are also seed players in Blackbird on the fortieth floor, you still need to rebuild your synergy and trust with them, so it might not be as beneficial as us going in together…”

Yan Wei was about to refute when Yan Mingguang suddenly said, “He’s afraid of dragging you down, making excuses.”

“…Teacher Yan, you really don’t have to be so direct.”

“Okay.”

Yan Wei: “…” What’s the point of saying ‘okay’ now that everything has been said!

Lin Zhen was about to retort when Lin Qing shot him a look, making him swallow all his words and quietly wait aside.

Lin Qing took out four invitation letters, completely ignoring the previous conversation, and said, “The Arena Instance is a special instance for organizations to compete for resources and distribution of instance bonuses, opening at fixed times. Each invitation letter is directly sent to each organization, with each one corresponding to a player. You will each sign your names on these four, and when it opens, you will go in together.”

“This time, you need to pay attention. When I received the invitation letters, I also got a notification from the building. This time, in addition to the players entering through the invitation letters from various organizations, the Arena Instance will also forcibly pull some players from those who failed in the gambling building into the instance. In other words…”

Yan Wei frowned: “This is a potential instance where players might continuously die.” So they would pull some people in to increase the probability of player deaths.

Lin Qing nodded, distributing the invitation letters to them.

Yan Wei and the others took them and signed their names without hesitation.

Lin Zhen then reminded, “The special aspect of the Arena Instance lies in its instance mechanism. This instance still requires finding the Stairway to leave, but each organization will also have a scoring ranking within the instance. The scoring ranking is similar to a rapid response mode, but it ranks by organization, and there is a time limit; you must be the fastest to reach first place within the specified time. As for how to score, each Arena Instance is different, and you will only know the game rules once you enter.”

“I also looked at the previous records in the Endless Monument,” Yan Wei said, “From my understanding, it’s essentially a real-life game where players score, rank, and clear levels, right?”

“Exactly.”

Yan Wei flipped over the pure black invitation letter; apart from his signed name, there was only a humanoid figure on it, with no indication of the specific content of this instance.

He held the invitation letter tightly, took a deep breath, scanned the few people around him, and finally gave Lin Qing a reassuring glance without anyone noticing.

Then he smiled and said, “Isn’t it just forty-nine?”

Since he had been there before, he naturally wouldn’t be afraid now.

Ten minutes later, the invitation letter stirred, emitting a faint glow.

Yan Wei’s world turned upside down.

[Welcome to the building’s instance.]

[This instance’s level: 49.]

[This instance’s location: Puppet Castle.]