How on Earth Did He Know That Would Clear the Instance???

Blue Star, Huaguo.

In a building in an upscale residential complex.

Ji Yang was a gaming streamer who specialized in streaming horror games of all sizes from various platforms. Afterward, he would edit the recordings and post them on a video site as guides for people who were bad at games but loved playing them.

His account had over five million followers, making him a major streamer in every sense of the word.

Ever since the God Hunt Game descended on Blue Star, Ji Yang had kept an eye on all kinds of instances every day.

Whether they belonged to veteran or newbie players, he would watch a few streams, pick out the highlights, edit them, and post them on his account. Sometimes, he even streamed the players' broadcasts directly, watching them alongside his fans.

Now that a real survival game existed in the real world, and in the most thrilling form of livestreams at that, all the horror games online had naturally lost their appeal.

Ji Yang did this partly to keep his account going and partly to help himself and his fans become familiar with different types of instances.

The God Hunt Game selected players without any discernible pattern. Nobody could guarantee they wouldn't be chosen next.

Watching lots of streams to build up experience with different instances was therefore the only preparation they could make for themselves.

At least, if they were selected in the future, they wouldn't be so panicked and helpless, and might even avoid the same kinds of traps in the instances.

Ji Yang wasn't the only one doing this.

Not long after the God Hunt Game descended, the authorities quickly grasped the situation and issued a series of related policies.

For example, local television stations added instance analysis channels, hosted daily by carefully selected professionals from all walks of life. Likewise, schools serving different age groups introduced new courses specifically to train students to deal with instances.

The authorities had no way of knowing which citizens would be selected each day, so they could only hope that, with these measures, those selected would use the knowledge of instances they had been taught to stay alive as best they could.

Not to mention that the instance clearance rate also affected the level of pollution in the real world.

That day, Ji Yang was browsing the category pages on the [God Hunt] app as usual when he randomly picked a stream from the newbie player category.

The newbie player looked young. Ji Yang didn't know whether he had graduated from university yet.

He felt a little sorry for him, but not much.

After all, he had even seen high school students dragged into the game.

The game didn't care whether you were an adult. According to official statistics, the youngest player selected was thirteen, and the oldest was fifty-six.

Nobody could say whether that age range would change in the future.

What struck him as somewhat unusual, though, was that after this newbie regained consciousness, he showed none of the fear, wariness, or defensiveness most people would have felt upon being inexplicably transported to an unfamiliar place. Instead, he was exceptionally calm.

The only emotion he showed was the lingering irritation on his face, as though being dragged into a game instance had particularly upset him.

Ji Yang thought he had seen wrong. Much of his previous casualness vanished at once, and he focused his attention with curiosity, ready to observe this rather unusual-looking newbie.

Even veteran players who had been through many instances were only a little calmer than new players each time they entered a new one. Hardly any were as unconcerned as this newbie.

Someone who acted like this was either carefree or supremely confident.

Although the God Hunt Game had been around for a year and people had learned every day just how bizarre and dangerous instances were through streams big and small, there were still conceited people who thought they were the chosen ones and couldn't possibly die no matter what they did, so they acted especially edgy.

Ji Yang didn't know which kind this newbie was, but subconsciously, he leaned toward the former.

Even the big shots who were regulars on the recommendation rankings couldn't look this utterly unconcerned.

Yet the series of actions that followed left him staring blankly.

Ji Yang watched as the newbie he thought was carefree scratched his head, seemingly venting his resentment at being selected. Then he seemed to realize that merely venting was useless.

Ji Yang thought he was about to examine the instance carefully and figure out how to clear it. Instead, without batting an eye, the man left the bedroom and headed straight for the master bedroom across the way. He even politely knocked twice before, under Ji Yang's astonished gaze, roughly hauling the corpse on the bed, whose appearance could not be made out, onto a chair beside the dining table.

Ji Yang: "...?"

That wasn't all. He watched as the man rushed into the kitchen, skillfully carried a pot of stew that was obviously wrong out of the fridge, and set it on the chair beside the corpse.

Ji Yang: "...??"

Ji Yang watched the newbie calmly sit down on the other side of the dining table, calmly light the candles on the cake, make a wish with a devout expression, then calmly blow out the candles and finally calmly start eating the cake. The next second, a white light signaling that he had cleared the instance shone on him, and Ji Yang was completely stunned.

He suspected he had clicked into a fake stream.

Otherwise, how could someone possibly clear an instance so casually... haha!

After a moment of silence, the stream chat suddenly filled with frantically scrolling question marks, finally making it impossible for Ji Yang to keep deceiving himself.

He sat bolt upright in his ergonomic chair and, quick as lightning, clicked to follow the player before the stream, which had gone black after the white light appeared, disappeared.

He really! Saw! Someone! Speedrun! An instance! In under! Three minutes!!!

It wasn't fake!!!

At a loss for words to describe how he felt, Ji Yang could only scroll through his following list with trembling, stiff hands.

His following list contained only a few fairly famous big-shot players or newbie players he considered promising. The list, which rarely changed, had gained another name today.

When he scrolled to the bottom, the name Xu Xi came into view.

He clicked the profile picture with trembling fingers. There was indeed only one stream in the other man's history, so he really was a newbie. The stream length was listed as two minutes and forty-eight seconds, so his eyes hadn't deceived him either.

"..." Ji Yang said nothing, merely replaying the recording over and over.

At eight that evening, an edited video on the site made the trending searches.

It was a massive hit.

Lingering Warmth for a Moment: ? Am I still asleep? Somebody hurry up and let me slap you!

What's Wrong with Being Good at Only Some Subjects: Two minutes and forty-eight seconds... hahahaha my eyesight must have gotten even worse again, hehehe.

Don't Know What Name to Pick: How did he know... know... no, how on earth did he know doing that would clear the instance???

Don't You Fucking Scream and Yell: Awesome!! I declare! This is a real big shot!!! (voice cracks)

I Am Kind: Can anyone analyze this instance?

If You See Me Please Send Me 50: There are already quite a few related videos on the site. Person above, you can search for them.

Ji Yang kept a close eye on the comments under the trending topic.

That was right, he was the one who had edited the video.

He couldn't be the only one left stunned!

The video's explosive popularity was entirely within his expectations.

For a while, the name Xu Xi dominated the headlines across various platforms and even drew the attention of the authorities.

Netizens all over the country, without exception, were discussing this newbie player who had appeared out of nowhere.

He had cleared an instance in under three minutes, and he was a newbie. Forget breaking a record; it could be recorded as a world miracle!

Ji Yang also watched a few videos analyzing that stream... he could only say that very few of them got the analysis right. Most were just speculation.

That was also because the newbie had cleared it too quickly, and no further clues had been revealed in the stream, so they could only guess based on his actions.

As for how the newbie named Xu Xi had managed to clear it directly without gathering any clues... maybe he simply knew how to clear it without needing clues?

It wasn't as if there had never been players who could see through the essence of an instance at a glance, okay?

Although there hadn't been any before... there was one now!

Ji Yang had made up his mind: he would be the first viewer at every one of this newbie player's streams from now on!!!