Wrong! Everything Was Wrong!

A bright red lump of skinless flesh!

It was so rotten it made him sick!

A chill crept up Yu Qing's back, and nausea surged through him. He raised his hand without hesitation, but before he could thrust the Golden Needle forward, he saw a... human face grow out of the flesh?

It had a nose, eyes, and eyebrows. Then, for some unknown reason, it began screaming in agony.

"Aaaaaaaah-!"

The shrill sound stabbed at his eardrums. Soon, as though something were burning it away, the flesh steadily vanished from his shoulder.

Yu Qing hurriedly covered his ears. By now, the entire corridor had descended into chaos.

The female ghosts seemed to have sensed something. Every one of them screamed and fled the hidden level at lightning speed.

One was too slow. With a bang, she crashed to the floor, rolling back and forth as she convulsed in agony.

Enduring the pain in his nearly deafened ears, Yu Qing hurried forward, helped the ghost up, and sent her on her way.

The effort left him panting. Only when he walked back did he notice two pieces of yellow paper drifting out of the wall Qian Lai had broken open.

He quickened his pace. By the time he reached it, Qian Lai had already picked up the papers and was murmuring, "These are Ghost-Sealing Talismans."

Yu Qing rubbed his ears a couple of times and listened closely. "There are Ghost-Sealing Talismans buried in the walls. Countless talismans combined form a massive Ghost-Exorcism Formation, and this is the most powerful kind."

"So... they're all afraid."

Yu Qing finished the thought, his gaze gradually settling on the broken wall. Although the opening was small, only large enough to enter bent over, beyond it... lay the dark purple void.

This was the layer of color enveloping the dream. The Dream Core was inside!

It was their best hope of finding the key now!

With the Ghost-Sealing Talismans on the ground and all the supernatural creatures gone, the once-bustling corridor on the little third floor grew increasingly quiet. So quiet... that only two overlapping rhythms of breathing remained.

Walk over, pass through the wall, and enter that dark purple void, and they could find the Dream Core and the key.

It looked incredibly simple.

But...

Yu Qing lifted his eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly as he silently met Qian Lai's gaze. After a long moment, he asked, "How many points do you have left?"

Qian Lai said, "Fifty thousand."

Yu Qing lowered his gaze. Only now did he realize how generous his viewers had been when he first entered the instance. After a moment's thought, he simply turned around and gave the livestream's scrolling comments a gentle smile.

His soaking clothes had dried, draping loosely over his young frame and making him look even more like a nobleman who had stepped out of a painting.

Though... one who had fallen on hard times.

A delicate young master who could sell his body and be bullied at will, his eyes innocent and untouched by the world.

Sure enough, the livestream responded.

[Oh my, what's this? I'm going straight for it-hi, wifey!]

There it was.

Yu Qing fixed his eyes on that comment and replied softly, "Hi, hubby."

[Aaaaaaaah!] His soft, seductive voice and obedient expression instantly ignited the livestream's crowd of perverts.

[Here, baby, a little gift for calling me that! (Points tipped +100)]

[Cheapskate. (Points tipped +1,000)]

[Help, he really makes me feel like I could do whatever I wanted to him in bed. The BOSS is so lucky. (Points tipped +500)]

But... it was too little. He was still far short-at least thirty thousand!

Yu Qing kept watching the livestream, his mind racing. Just as he was about to ask, "Do you want to see the world outside the dream?" a comment broke through the others at astonishing speed and shot to the top.

It came with a cash envelope attached, and a viewer task was written on it.

The system explained: [Viewer tasks are livestream tasks posted by viewers. Complete one at random to claim its cash envelope.]

[Special notice: if a viewer task is failed, ten times the points received will be deducted.]

Yu Qing looked at the task: [The next time you meet, don't say a word. Just hug the BOSS and kiss! him! senseless!]

[Cash envelope amount: 1,000,000]

"..." Finding the Dream Core came first.

Yu Qing reached out and quickly tapped the cash envelope.

A second later, he stepped into that deep, dark purple realm with Qian Lai, one after the other.

Tap, tap, tap.

Their footsteps rapidly receded. They had no idea that, after they left the little third floor, the director walked out of the cafeteria on the left with a faint smile.

Under the warm yellow light, his wrinkle-covered face remained eerily horrifying. His small eyes stared at the opening, and his smile stretched wider and wider. "Well done."

No one answered. His voice seemed to dissipate into the air, but moments later, a trembling, terrified Xue Ziyi emerged from behind him.

He ventured cautiously, "D-Director... you said that if I passed information to you, you'd tell me how to get out."

"I already did," the director murmured. "I even gave you the Keycard. What more do you want?"

"But..." The Keycard didn't work!!

The answer struck Xue Ziyi like a bolt of lightning, and his hands and feet shook even harder.

Tears and snot streamed down his face, but he dared not ask anything else. In front of him, the director had already taken a few steps forward, leisurely picked up the yellow talismans, and pasted them back onto the wall.

Then the opening Qian Lai had worked so hard to smash through miraculously returned to normal. Everything... looked as though nothing had happened.

Before long, the director left, and Xue Ziyi collapsed where he stood, trembling.

[...]

In the instance's main livestream, the viewers had already erupted into curses at Xue Ziyi's stunt, which hurt others without benefiting himself.

[Fuck! This is the first instance I've ever seen go from level one to level five. They were about to fucking clear it! Why ruin it?!]

[I hate him, I hate him! I'm so fucking sick of him, that simpering, fake-ass, freeloading moron! And he's ugly, too! Can a ghost hurry up and eat him? Stop ruining everyone's viewing experience!]

[Waaah, wifey, my Qingqing wifey, is this really how you're going offline?]

[Boring, so boring. They're all going to die again. I'm out. Going to watch another instance.]

Tap, tap, tap.

Meanwhile, in the dark purple void, the livestream's viewer count kept falling. Qian Lai's breathing grew faster, and a vague sense of foreboding rose within him.

He followed behind Yu Qing, initially leaving two steps between them so he could observe their surroundings. Gradually, however, panic overcame reason. He hurried forward and began sticking close behind the young man.

Before long, he gently raised a hand and gripped the hem of those snow-white clothes.

Tap, tap, tap.

Their footsteps continued forward, and the livestream comments grew fewer and fewer. Qian Lai felt as though they had been walking for a long time. A very, very long time.

The mental torment stretched every second unbearably long. Their surroundings were terrifyingly quiet, and his heart was almost leaping into his throat.

Qian Lai suddenly called, "Yu Qing."

There was no reply.

He asked again, "Yu Qing... how far have we walked?"

God knew how afraid he was of getting separated from the young man. In this gloomy place, their footsteps echoed endlessly, and no one knew whether their next step would take them to their death.

But ahead of him, the young man shook his head. "I don't remember."

His voice remained earnest, his plump cheeks giving him a rather adorably blank look.

Tap, tap, tap.

They kept going. Many viewers in the livestream were already tearfully saying goodbye. An uncanny chill ate through Qian Lai's entire body, making the panic in his heart mount-

He clearly remembered that a Dream Core was never far from the dream. They should have found it within a hundred meters at most!

By now... how far had they walked?

There was nothing.

But... Yu Qing, ahead of him, seemed to have no intention of stopping. His gaze remained focused as he carefully surveyed their surroundings. Chitter, gurgle.

Faint noises sounded around them, accompanied by the smell of blood. Then something seemed to slither closer, occasionally making sticky chittering, gurgling sounds.

Suddenly, as though he had realized something, Yu Qing stopped, his eyes sharpening. "Wrong! Everything was wrong!"