"Mountain Inn": The Same Might Not Be True for You

In the real world.

Ji Yang had brought out a few spare phones specifically to play the other three players' livestreams alongside the computer screen showing Xu Xi's stream.

Having watched the entire sequence of events from both sides, he offered a merciless assessment. "Those two miscalculated."

The viewers watching the livestream with Ji Yang began chiming in.

[What was that? They tried to test their teammate and ended up pissing him off?]

[But I have to say, it was so satisfying watching Xu Xi curse them out.]

[That Burly Man really does look like he needs a beating. It was bad enough that he deliberately sent someone to lure the supernatural entity away alone, but then he locked him outside when he made it back. I'd be pissed too.]

[Good thing Xu Xi was clever. This is his third dungeon, right? I've decided to follow every dungeon this newbie enters from now on, until he croaks.]

[Three dungeons doesn't really make him a newbie anymore. It's just a shame our country's rankings are based only on the number of dungeons cleared. If they ranked players any other way, this player would definitely place pretty high.]

[It's only a matter of time. There are plenty of veteran players ahead of him, but plenty of them die every day too. The rankings change all the time, and a lot of players are tied because they've cleared the same number of dungeons. As long as this guy doesn't die along the way, he'll be able to climb the rankings after a few more dungeons.]

[Maybe it's because his two-minute-forty-eight-second dungeon run was so mind-blowing. He smashed the world record outright. I've always thought he was more badass than every other player.]

[Speaking of which, that dungeon's views across domestic and foreign sites must have reached several hundred million by now, right? That really was the peak.]

[The views are still shooting up. I bet it won't be long before everyone online knows about it.]

[This player's already really popular. Eight out of ten commentary videos on that video site are about him, and they get tons of traffic.]

[Can't blame them. Everyone's curious how far a player who reached that kind of peak can go.]

Ji Yang had wanted to say more, but the moment he looked, he saw the chat was having a lively discussion.

He cleared his throat and steered the conversation back. "Everyone, let's focus on the dungeon for now. The reason I say those two miscalculated is that they underestimated Xu Xi's strength."

"Both of them are very conceited. People who are too conceited often like to dominate others and control the whole situation. That's why the two of them were butting heads at the beginning."

[Huh? The Burly Man, sure, but the Refined Man doesn't look like that.]

"That's just how he looks. In reality, one of them throws his weight around openly, and the other does it behind the scenes."

"By rights, a teammate who noticed the problem with the candles so quickly and warned them about it couldn't have been weak, however you looked at it. But those two just don't think like ordinary people."

"When they met a fairly capable teammate, their first thought wasn't to win him over and cooperate. It was to put him down, test him, and then bring him under their control."

"If the burly man was targeting Xu Xi openly, then the refined man was fanning the flames behind the scenes."

"At the stairs, the burly man was clearly already unhappy with Xu Xi. But instead of letting him vent and then mediating, the refined man deliberately changed the subject, making the burly man bottle up his resentment."

"The longer emotions stay bottled up, the sharper they'll be when they erupt."

"The High-Ponytail Woman isn't simple either. While they were discussing the clues, the Burly Man glanced at Xu Xi several times. He was clearly irritated that Xu Xi wasn't saying a word, but the High-Ponytail Woman interrupted that too."

"I'm not sure whether she did it to help Xu Xi or, like the refined man, to deliberately push things along. But judging by how she later offered to light the candle in Xu Xi's place, it looks like she was trying to show him goodwill."

"Because she also suspected that the death of the short-haired woman with glasses had something to do with Xu Xi."

"She dared to take on such a dangerous task in Xu Xi's place, so she must have had some kind of safeguard. Perhaps she was doing it to show Xu Xi where she stood: she wasn't with the other two, and she meant him no harm."

[...Fuck, does everyone have eight hundred schemes up their sleeve?]

[Are you all watching with magnifying glasses?? How do you notice so many details?]

[Boss Xu Xi's last dungeon was too harmonious. I kept feeling like something was off while I watched it. Looking at this dungeon, sure enough, this is more like it.]

[Now I'm just waiting to see whether the Burly Man and the Refined Man die.]

[+1, me too.]

Xu Xi walked up to the door of room 101 and held up his flashlight, paying particular attention to the lock.

It was indeed unlocked.

But he really wouldn't have noticed without looking closely.

The High-Ponytail Woman was quite observant.

He reached out and gently pushed the door open, and the light immediately illuminated part of the room.

Unlike the empty room 106, this room was filled with assorted everyday items. It was obvious someone had been living there for a long time.

Remembering that there didn't seem to be a check-in record for room 101 in the register, Xu Xi had his answer.

This was probably the innkeeper's room.

He had just finished a quick look around when he saw the other three hurrying over with their flashlights.

They seemed surprised to find Xu Xi still standing at the door instead of going in, and all stopped in their tracks.

The atmosphere was extremely awkward, and no one spoke.

The burly man looked the most uncomfortable. He knew he was the one Xu Xi had called an idiot.

He's standing at the door instead of going in. Could there be a trap inside?

"Ahem, I'm really sorry about just now. He was afraid you'd been infected like Wang Xiuping from room 204, so he wanted you to prove yourself." After waiting a while and seeing that no one was speaking, the refined man tried to smooth things over in a gentle voice.

"We were actually about to open the door for you, but..."

But what?

Xu Xi sneered inwardly.

But I suddenly pretended to be a supernatural entity and scared you?

As if anyone would believe that.

You were obviously targeting me. Do you think I couldn't tell?

"Mm, so which of you two is going in first?" Xu Xi couldn't be bothered listening to such a clumsy explanation. He pointed straight at room 101, indicating that one of the two had to go in.

"Or you can go in together, if you'd rather."

Since they had sent him to lure away the supernatural entity and then refused to open the door for him, it wasn't too much for him to ask them to scout ahead, was it?

The refined man's expression stiffened, while the burly man had suspicion written all over his face.

"Why should we listen to you? Or do you know what's inside and want to send us in there to die? In that case, there's even less reason for us to go in." The burly man was tall and powerfully built to begin with, and his sideways glare made him look exceptionally fierce.

Xu Xi had no doubt the man could take down two of him with one punch, but...

"You wouldn't want me to let that thing in room 106 out again, would you?"

Ignoring the probe in the burly man's words, Xu Xi tossed the key in his hand and raised an eyebrow.

"I don't mind either way. I can't die anyway, but—"

"The same might not be true for you."