Xu Xi! A True Big Shot!!!

The intense white light made Xu Xi close his eyes instinctively.

When he opened them again, he was back in the Player Space.

The golden stairs still rose before him, tier upon tier, immense and spectacular.

Yet Xu Xi somehow sensed that he was closer to the great staircase at the very top than before.

So this was what climbing the ladder meant.

It was different from what he had imagined. He had thought he would have to climb it himself.

The physical and mental exhaustion from going through an instance, as well as the dizziness and nausea from being cooped up in a car for so long, now seemed to have been washed away by a gentle rain. His whole body felt more relaxed than ever.

Xu Xi paid no attention to appearances and plopped down on the floor.

The second instance hadn't lasted very long either. Most of the time had been spent on the road.

He had died eight times in the first instance, and this one hadn't been much better: he had died six times.

"Let's review what happened."

With nothing else to do, and the space having restored him to peak condition, Xu Xi didn't feel like resting just yet. He decided to sum up the second instance.

This was the first multiplayer instance he had experienced.

Tan Xingyun, the uncle with a beer belly, was calm, bold and meticulous, yet he wasn't stubborn or overbearing. He took his teammates' opinions into account in everything he did.

Xu Xiuman, the woman in the denim skirt, was a careful thinker and attentive to details, often noticing little things.

Both of them were smart.

Although there was nothing particularly special about Li Kang, he followed his teammates' lead and never held them back.

He could count himself lucky to have met those three reasonably reliable teammates on his first multiplayer instance.

As for the content of this instance... all he could say was that it had plenty of pitfalls.

In any case, Xu Xi, who had died six times, didn't think the instance was all that easy.

He was actually quite self-aware.

He knew he might be a little clever, but compared with truly smart people, he was just an ordinary person.

Without his special ability, he would have been just one of the countless players who died in instances, without making even the slightest ripple.

Speaking of his special ability, something had puzzled him before.

If he could return to the very beginning every time he died, then in later instances, would he return to the beginning of the first instance or the beginning of the current one?

To his surprise, neither guess was correct.

In this instance, he had only returned to the moment when he needed to make a choice.

That wasn't quite accurate either.

As Xu Xi understood it, he had returned to the point that would lead to his death later on.

He also had a few tentative ideas about why he had gone back to different points in time in the two instances.

Perhaps the ability had detected that returning to the very beginning of his first instance could effectively prevent his death.

That was right. Xu Xi was now almost certain that "rebirth after death" was too general a name. He preferred to call the ability "death rollback."

It was like playing a game: when a character died, they were reset to an earlier point in time.

The difference was that in a game, he could choose when to save and load, whereas he could only load a random save point.

Even so, it was an incredibly overpowered ability!

As for how long he could use it... he couldn't reach a conclusion anyway, so he didn't look too deeply into it.

If asked whether he was worried that the ability might have a limited number of uses or disappear, of course he was.

But no matter how much he worried, he couldn't control it, unless he could guarantee he would never die once. And how was that possible?

If he were capable of that, would he still need to worry so much?

So when circumstances left him no choice but to test the rules with his life, he wouldn't hold back.

Perhaps, after he had experienced more instances and gained more experience, the number of times he died would decrease.

Looking up at the golden stairs that seemed to have no end, Xu Xi, whose outlook had gradually and imperceptibly changed, felt a flicker of anticipation in his eyes.

No player had yet climbed all nine hundred and ninety-nine levels and reached the top. Perhaps he would have a chance.

After spending quite a while looking ahead to the future, Xu Xi reluctantly drew his wandering thoughts back and pulled two pieces of wedding candy and two notes of spirit money from his pocket.

He hadn't expected them to really be items, or that he would bring them out with him.

Now, in the Player Space, Xu Xi knew their effects naturally at first glance.

The candy in patterned wrapping removed all negative statuses from the user, while the pure white candy healed all physical injuries.

Xu Xi was pleasantly surprised.

The effects of the two pieces of wedding candy were far beyond his expectations.

No one could guarantee they wouldn't be injured in an instance. Even if someone was hurt so badly that they had only one breath left, eating the pure white candy could restore them to full health and vigor.

The patterned candy was even more useful in instances involving certain kinds of contamination or curses.

Thanks to the beer-bellied uncle for the gifts!

He wondered whether the uncle would regret sharing them once he saw the two candies' overpowered effects.

The spirit money's description was much simpler: it was a special currency used in instances, with no mention of what it could buy.

The two notes only added up to 20 yuan, which didn't seem like enough to do much.

Xu Xi shook his head and put everything back in his pocket.

Next, he could either wait in the space for the third instance to arrive or choose to enter it early.

#Digging into the player who cleared a solo instance in 2 minutes and 48 seconds#

#After 2 minutes and 48 seconds, another easy instance clear#

#Xu Xi! A true big shot!!!#

#Did you understand everything the big shot did?#

#2 minutes and 48 seconds was the peak! And also the beginning!#

Xu Xi still didn't know that his exploits were continuing to stir up discussion in the real world. After he cleared his second instance, his influence reached its peak.

More than half the trending topics were about him, and on every platform, videos at random featured clips from his livestream.

It was fair to say that Xu Xi had become thoroughly famous.

Of course, that was also thanks to the numerous distinctions surrounding him, such as "2 minutes and 48 seconds" and "speedrunning an instance."

In particular, after he seemingly cleared the second instance with ease, the comment sections were full of discussions about him.

Thread: [Discussion] If you see the words Xu Xi, come on in

1F (OP): Starting the thread with a handsome picture of the big shot!

Attached: image.jpg (In the photo, the young man was sitting in the back seat, his head propped on his hand and his eyes closed as if resting.)

2F: Damn, the big shot gives off a "strangers keep away" vibe from head to toe.

3F (OP): Ahem (tactical throat clearing). I assume everyone who clicked in already knows about the big shot Xu Xi, right? The first player to speedrun a solo instance in under three minutes! When I first saw the news, I thought those video creators and marketing accounts had all eaten magic mushrooms, until I went and watched the big shot's first instance...