Chapter 24: The King of Hell’s Wedding (1)
Among those remaining, the boss reacted the fastest.
He practically lunged forward in a sprint, jumping down the stairs and rushing straight to Jian Yuntai.
He recognized Jian Yuntai.
Just the night before, his wife had stayed up all night watching the recording of Jian Yuntai’s “Six Suns” livestream, screaming in the middle of the night, “That’s my wife!”
On one hand, there was his wife’s obsession. On the other, the boss was a shrewd businessman who, in his life, feared offending two types of people the most. One was those who held political power and controlled the guns. The other was someone like Jian Yuntai—someone who, given time, could easily steer public opinion.
With just a single sentence from either type, his business could suffer devastating losses, or even go bankrupt overnight.
“H-Hello, sir!” The boss looked left and right, awkwardly copying the salute as well.
With a flattering smile, he asked, “What would you like to buy? Oh dear, you really didn’t need to come in person. Next time, just give me a call and I’ll have someone deliver it straight to you…”
Before he could finish speaking, Jian Yuntai said calmly, “I’m not buying anymore.”
“Huh?” The boss froze.
Jian Yuntai lifted his gaze and said with a faint smile that did not reach his eyes, “It seems your store doesn’t welcome lowborns?” He lightly brushed some dust off the boss’s shoulder, his smiling eyes icy. “What a coincidence. I’m a lowborn too. Looks like you don’t welcome me either.”
“…………” The entire room fell into dead silence.
The onlookers sensed the strange atmosphere and did not dare speak. The crew-cut man and the assistants behind him exchanged glances, cold sweat unconsciously streaming down their foreheads.
Jian Yuntai had not shouted or shown anger. His tone had been calm—too calm. Yet they felt a deep fear rising from within, constantly worried that he might suddenly lose control.
The crew-cut man’s face tightened. Immediately, he redirected the blame toward the boss. “What is wrong with you? How dare you disrespect a senior officer of the Livestream Team? Are you tired of your noble status?!”
“Huh? N-No, I didn’t—”
Halfway through his sentence, the boss almost instantly realized what had happened—he knew his nephew’s rotten personality all too well.
Damn it!
He cursed his nephew inwardly, then turned sharply toward the second floor and barked, “Why aren’t you getting down here yet?!”
Upstairs, the clerk stood frozen like a statue.
He could not comprehend what was happening before his eyes. The young man was a lowborn—and so young at that… how could he possibly be a high-ranking officer of the Xiang’an Team?!
When the clerk remained unmoving upstairs, the boss panicked. He rushed up, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him down. As he did so, he muttered angrily under his breath, “You’ve caused a huge disaster this time! Even I can’t save you!”
“…?!” The clerk looked shocked. His heart pounded faster and faster, and the color drained from his face.
Why would the boss say that? He was a noble! Even Inspection Team squad leaders treated him with respect. What kind of powerful figure was this young man?!
Before the clerk could think further, the crew-cut man suddenly unclipped the gun at his waist and said, “According to Article 34 of the Alliance Law, provoking a core member of the Livestream Team can result in immediate execution.”
“?!!!”
The clerk’s mind exploded. His legs went weak and he collapsed to the floor. The dark muzzle of the gun hovered just inches from his forehead. His brain went completely blank.
“Wait, wait!” The boss forced himself to speak. If this had been any other employee, he truly would not have dared interfere, afraid of being implicated. But this foolish, snobbish creature was his own nephew. Clinging to a sliver of hope, he said, “Mr. Jian, he’s still young and inexperienced. I apologize on his behalf. Everything you buy today—I’ll sell it to you at one-tenth of the import price. And from now on, anything you purchase from my store will be half price. Would that be acceptable?”
This was practically a loss-making deal.
The boss was wealthy and assumed Jian Yuntai could not possibly buy much alone, which was why he proposed such terms.
Would Jian Yuntai agree?
The boss looked at him nervously. In the few seconds of silence that followed, everyone felt as though they had rolled shirtless in the snow, chilled to the bone.
Ding-dong—
A phone notification sounded, like a voice from heaven. It startled everyone.
Jian Yuntai took out his phone and glanced at it, one brow lifting slightly.
The Finger-Operation Compass had been sold. 250,000 livestream coins had been credited.
Converted to cash, that was 2.5 million yuan.
“It’s acceptable,” Jian Yuntai said lightly, “but I’m buying quite a lot. Are you sure you’re giving me a ninety percent discount?”
“Of course.” The boss brightened, smiling broadly.
He was not afraid of Jian Yuntai buying a lot. He was afraid Jian Yuntai would not care about money at all and insist on killing his foolish nephew. After all, how much could one person buy? If a small financial loss could exchange for his nephew’s life, it was worth it!
“What would you like to buy?”
“Compressed biscuits.”
“Good, good!” The boss’s smile widened. He repeated “good” twice, feeling even more relieved.
Compressed biscuits were among the cheapest foods in the Alliance. They tasted awful, were dry and hard to swallow, and had no flavor. Eating them was torture for the taste buds—they only served to fill the stomach.
The boss took out his ledger and was about to ask how many packs he wanted. But Jian Yuntai spoke first.
“How much inventory do you have left?”
“What?” The boss froze. Even now, he did not realize the severity of the situation and obediently gave a number.
Jian Yuntai calculated the price mentally, nodded calmly, and said, “I’ll take all the stock.”
“???!”
The boss’s eyes went blank. He looked at the people beside him in disbelief. The onlookers in the shop wore expressions of shock. Only then did the boss snap back to reality.
—Damn it! Buying out the entire stock?!
※※
The sun blazed overhead. Passersby stared curiously at this rare sight, some stopping to whisper among themselves.
About a dozen cargo trucks were parked in front of the wholesale market. Counting the Inspection Team captain and the buzz-cut man, there were seventeen of them. Normally imposing figures, they were now rolling up their pant legs under the scorching sun, drenched in sweat as they hauled goods.
Jian Yuntai had wanted to help too. After all, the more hands there were, the faster the job would be done.
But the moment he stepped toward the trucks, the seventeen of them reacted as if struck by lightning, their faces filled with fear and alarm.
Jian Yuntai could only let it go and rested in the shade.
Only then did the clerk snap back to his senses. He did not dare move anywhere near Jian Yuntai anymore. Although he did not know the young man’s identity, he was certain it was someone he could not afford to offend.
He deliberately took a long detour, circling around Jian Yuntai, and secretly ran to the crew-cut man’s side.
“Sir, about the Livestream Team quota you mentioned earlier…” The clerk still held a trace of hope in his heart.
The crew-cut man was startled and instinctively glanced back at Jian Yuntai. Did the clerk have no brain? At this distance, Jian Yuntai could definitely hear them!
At that moment, Jian Yuntai was standing in the dim shadows, slightly raising his eyes to look over, his gaze carrying a faint, ambiguous smile.
Cold sweat instantly broke out all over the crew-cut man’s body.
“There were no extra spots in the Livestream Team,” he immediately distanced himself, reminding himself inwardly that he absolutely must not let this person enter the Livestream Team.
“…” The clerk’s face turned ashen, his mind reeling.
After everyone had left, the clerk approached the boss in a mixture of regret and panic. “Who exactly was he?”
The boss had just suffered a heavy financial loss, and his expression was extremely unpleasant. All the anger in his heart was vented onto the clerk.
“You didn’t even know who he was, and you still dared to offend him? You really kicked a steel plate this time. Let me put it this way—he was previously detained under heavy guard by the Xiang’an Team… The fact that you were still alive meant you should go home and burn incense in gratitude. Don’t bother coming to work tomorrow. The price difference on everything Mr. Jian bought will be charged to you. You’ll spend the rest of your life paying off that debt!”
“The Xiang’an Team?!” The clerk cried out in horror.
Only then did fear truly sink in. It turned out that half an hour earlier, he had genuinely walked through the gates of hell!
But what was the use of surviving?
He could no longer enter the Livestream Team’s public office, and he had even lost his current job. On top of that, he was saddled with an enormous debt that he could never repay, even if he lost everything.
His life was completely ruined.
At that thought, the clerk burst into tears, wishing he could go back in time and strangle his past self who had judged others by appearances.
He had clearly been just one step away from soaring to the heavens, yet because of a single wrong thought, he had fallen into an even deeper mire.
Regretful. Agonized. But it was all too late now.
※※
More than a dozen truckloads of compressed biscuits were delivered to the dormitory and locked directly in the underground garage beneath the building. The security system there was powerful anyway, and no one could break in to steal food.
When Fatty saw the dark-skinned man downstairs, he burst out laughing. “Why are all of Hacker Bai’s men working for you? Did you recruit them to your side?”
“No. I just borrowed them for a bit.” Jian Yuntai stood on the balcony and glanced down.
Fatty laughed even harder. “Hacker Bai’s people are like bricks—move them wherever you need them.”
“Hm?”
“Half a year ago, that dark-skinned guy also came to our dorm. But he was looking for Yu Xingcao—the bastard roommate who abused cats. The dark-skinned guy brought people and bought a pile of furniture to fill his room. They turned a cheap dorm in the slum district into something downright luxurious. Of course, that bastard later threw all the furniture out and warned the dark-skinned guy not to come again.”
Note: the dark skinned guy refers to Hacker Bai.
“Did he know the dark-skinned guy?”
“No.” Fatty hesitated for a moment before saying, “I once heard a rumor—people were spreading it around in the Livestream Team.”
Jian Yuntai glanced sideways. “What rumor?”
“Yu Xingcao and Hacker Bai were from the same hometown. They had known each other since childhood.” Fatty spoke heavily. “That part wasn’t really a problem, but… the place Hacker Bai bombed was his own hometown. I heard Yu Xingcao had quite a few surviving relatives, all living in White River City. Then one missile went over, and Yu Xingcao became an orphan.”
“…….That’s tragic,” Jian Yuntai said with a sigh.
Over the following dozen days, Jian Yuntai ate compressed biscuits every day, trying to nourish his secondary personality.
The dorm was in constant chaos. Fatty and Yu Xingcao argued daily, fighting endlessly over the cat abuse and the power-cutting incidents. Jian Yuntai found them too noisy, and eventually he almost moved into the underground garage entirely—waking up to eat, eating before sleeping, then waking up to eat again.
There was one thing that puzzled him.
The compressed biscuits could indeed nourish the secondary personality—but they only nourished Red Lotus. After more than ten consecutive days of eating them, Red Lotus had grown from a tiny sprout into a budding flower. However, Black Lotus still looked as if it were on the verge of death, with no vitality at all.
Could it be that Black Lotus did not like compressed biscuits?
Then what kind of food did it like? Jian Yuntai tried many different types of food, but Black Lotus showed no reaction whatsoever.
He could only give up for the time being.
When the first petal of Red Lotus finally opened, his manager, Liang Yan, came to see him with a form in hand.
“The matter regarding your dissociative identity hasn’t reached a conclusion yet,” Liang Yan said regretfully. Then her expression suddenly turned serious. “But I brought you the basic information for your next instance. This will be a C-level incomplete instance, and it will open in three days.”
Jian Yuntai took the form and glanced at it, speaking with some surprise. “Why are Yu Xingcao and Fatty on the participant list? Is our entire dorm taking part in this instance?”
“Mm…” Liang Yan nodded solemnly. “This instance is rather special. The quotas are assigned by dormitory units. There are twenty-four participants in total, eight slum district dormitories altogether… You and your roommates will have to cooperate in the instance.”
“How many people are there in the instance in total?”
“Twenty-four.”
Jian Yuntai looked up again in surprise and frowned. “All the participants are streamers? Are there no slots for ordinary people in this instance?”
Liang Yan sighed.
“It seems you haven’t been paying much attention to social news. This instance is tied to a major social incident. Open your phone and check the trending topics. Once you’ve read them, you’ll understand why only streamers were participating.”
Puzzled, Jian Yuntai unlocked his phone.
After reading for a while, his pupils shrank slightly. He exclaimed in shock, “What exactly is going on with this instance?!”
※※
Most media workers had already fallen into chaos.
Inside one media building, someone clutched his head and cried out, “More people got trapped in the ‘King of Hell’s Wedding’ instance again. Time was up, and they still didn’t come out. No one knows what’s going on.”
“Didn’t three people come out last month?”
“The ones who came out all turned into idiots! I went to interview them—every survivor was dazed and incoherent. They couldn’t even form a complete sentence. They just kept repeating one word.”
“What word?”
“Uh… I think it was ‘soul contract’?”
Everyone was confused and even more worried.
Originally, this matter would not have drawn such widespread attention. After all, people died in instances every minute of every day; everyone had grown accustomed to it.
At first, people assumed the “King of Hell’s Wedding” instance was the same. Those who didn’t come out were simply dead. Perhaps no bodies had dropped out after the instance ended because they had not been left intact.
However… those people had not died.
They had merely been trapped inside the instance, and no one knew what had happened within it.
Gradually, more people began paying attention to this strange instance. Then one day, explosive news pushed the entire situation to its peak—three months earlier, the only son of a political elite had become trapped inside the instance.
This was a political elite!
There were only five identity classes among the populace, ranked from lowest to highest: the lowborns, ordinary citizens, nobles, political elites, and kings.
Kings across the world could be counted on one’s fingers. Political elites were similarly rare—at most, there were only close to ten thousand.
The political elite in question, distraught over his son, had spent enormous sums hiring numerous capable individuals to enter and rescue him.
The result was like throwing meat buns at a dog—none returned.
Those capable individuals either died inside the instance or became trapped within it. Even those who managed to come out were already mentally broken, unable to provide any useful information.
As of today, more than two hundred people had been trapped.
“How could such a difficult instance be rated only C-level?” the editor-in-chief could not understand. “This is practically a total wipeout. It should at least be B-level!”
Someone explained, “The difficulty rating of an instance is determined by player mortality. In this one, many players were only trapped, and some did make it out alive. The lowered death rate brought down the overall difficulty rating.”
The editor-in-chief felt an even worse headache.
That political elite had already pressured all media departments to suppress the news and prevent any leaks. However, it had been useless. Even if the media did not publish articles, the discussion surrounding the incident continued to grow.
Today, it had even climbed to the top of the trending charts, becoming a nationwide social issue.
“Editor-in-chief, we can’t publish any news related to the ‘King of Hell’s Wedding,’” a junior editor said uncertainly. “So what are we putting in this week’s magazine?”
The editor-in-chief pondered briefly and said, “Didn’t we already write that article about Jian Yuntai? The one praising his performance in the instance and speculating about his Sinister Types? Publish that!”
The junior editors all responded in agreement.
Who would have thought that less than ten minutes after the weekly issue went live, someone in the chaotic office building suddenly shouted, “The Livestream Team is intervening in the ‘King of Hell’s Wedding’ instance! They just released an announcement!”
At those words, everyone’s eyes lit up.
“Holy shit, we’ll finally find out what’s actually happening inside that instance. There’ve been way too many wild guesses online.”
“The Livestream Team actually sent twenty-four streamers in. That’s a huge move! Aren’t they afraid this might be a player-versus-player instance? Who knows how many of the twenty-four will survive in the end.”
“Sigh, my survival time’s running low. I was planning to enter an E-level instance next week to earn some more time… Forget it! I’m too damn curious about the ‘King of Hell’s Wedding’!”
Amid the heated discussions, the editor-in-chief carefully read the announcement on the Livestream Team’s homepage. Suddenly, his vision went dark.
“Why is Jian Yuntai entering this instance too?!”
You’ve got to be kidding.
They had published glowing praise about Jian Yuntai because they knew he had just joined the Livestream Team and would likely spend a long time clearing D-level instances. Given Jian Yuntai’s abilities, even if he did not achieve overwhelming victories in D-level instances, he certainly would not die miserably.
Who could have expected the Livestream Team to turn around and send him into a C-level incomplete instance to rescue a political elite’s son? Did they really have that much confidence in him?!
The editor-in-chief was utterly baffled.
A junior editor suddenly ran over, looking anxious. “This is bad. Our rival media outlet is also publishing articles about Jian Yuntai. I skimmed one—they’re saying he’s too young and inexperienced, and that he’s completely out of his depth in a C-level incomplete instance. They’re even implying that we were paid to hype him up.”
“What should we do?”
“A lot of people are starting to doubt us.”
The editor-in-chief had weathered plenty of storms before. He made a decisive call. “We’ve already hyped him up. What else can we do? We have to stand firmly behind Jian Yuntai to the very end!”
Over the next three days, the two major media platforms were practically at each other’s throats.
One side praised him; the other smeared him.
One side claimed Jian Yuntai might break the curse of the “King of Hell’s Wedding”; the other insisted he was finished this time.
Back and forth it went, driving attention to even greater heights. The instance itself, the political elite’s son, and the highly controversial streamer—these three elements combined to push public anticipation to its peak.
On the day of the livestream, many people had already gathered early in the twenty-four streamers’ broadcast rooms. Compared to last time, Jian Yuntai’s viewer count had multiplied several times over.
The people in the media building no longer cared about their regular work. This time, they had staked their reputation on the line. If Jian Yuntai performed poorly in the instance, they would end up worse off than he would.
Everyone in the office stared tensely at the projection screen as time ticked by. Then someone shouted excitedly:
“It’s starting! Jian Yuntai’s livestream just went live!”
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