Gather the Body and Bones into the Mourning Hall

The chat was stunned by Li Xian's maneuver.

[Holy shit??]

[You can do that??]

[I never imagined you could play a role-playing instance like this...]

[Streamer: when you're out in the world, your identity is whatever you say it is.]

[Is he exploiting a bug? Any experts care to explain the proper solution?]

[I can't think of a more sensible solution than this...]

[More like the streamer forced a dead end into a way out. Think about it: the system's task was to reach the village chief's house and meet the other players, but every NPC in Stone River Village, including the chief, wants to lock the bride up. Without changing identities, he would always end up dragged back to the bridal chamber and locked up until he died.]

[And the village is only so big. Running or hiding wouldn't help. Not only would he get caught sooner or later, he'd also lose his chance to progress through the instance.]

[In other words, as long as the streamer keeps playing "Li Xiaojuan," he'll die sooner or later.]

[The streamer thought through all that in such a short time? That's fucking incredible...]

[Tch, aren't you embarrassed, hyping up a newbie like some god? I don't think changing identities means he'll survive.]

The chat soon dissolved into an argument. Some had faith in Li Xian, while others didn't believe he would survive, but the stream's viewer count kept climbing, reaching several hundred in no time.

Li Xian followed the village chief, trudging through the muddy ground. He had no watch, but judging by the sky, dusk was approaching. The air after the rain was wonderfully fresh, yet throughout the sprawling village, there was no sign of anyone except him and the chief.

Li Xian followed the chief in silence. After turning down several branching paths, he saw a Western-style house several times larger than the other villagers' homes.

The chief pushed open the front door. The house had a strange layout, as though it had been deliberately designed to accommodate a large number of people. The entrance opened onto a living-room-like space furnished with a wooden table and chairs, cabinets, and similar furniture. A corridor ran along the right, with four doors on either side and a tightly shut iron door at the far end.

Several people were gathered around the table, their expressions grave. They all looked up when the door opened. Li Xian swept his gaze over them and found five men and one woman seated there, watching him with varying expressions.

Li Xian noticed one empty chair left at the table, presumably reserved for him. He gestured to the chief, then sat down.

The moment the last chair was occupied, a notification sounded:

[Ding! Personal task: reach the village chief's house before nightfall tonight and meet the other six players. Completed]

The chief began swinging the hand holding his axe back and forth again. Looking at the people sitting around the table, all silent with fear, he said:

"If you want to leave the village, you'll have to do me a favor."

"Li Xiaojuan is a bride from our village."

"But she ran away from her wedding."

"If you want to live, you'll have to find her."

"Otherwise, everyone dies."

As soon as the chief finished speaking, a loud notification followed:

[Ding!]

[Clearance task issued: place the bride's corpse in the coffin]

Li Xian's heart lurched, and the final line of the folk song he had heard inside the sedan chair came back to him.

"At the third farewell, may we never meet again in this life; gather the body and bones into the mourning hall."

The chief gave them all a long look, then turned and walked outside. Once his figure disappeared around the corner, a gust of cold wind blew the door shut with a bang.

Beneath the table, Li Xian rubbed his fingers together.

...The bride-did that mean Li Xiaojuan, the character I'm playing?

Whatever the answer, everyone around him clearly believed she was the bride named in the task.

So did the viewers watching the screen.

[What's going on? Was this always the instance's clearance condition?]

[...Yes and no.]

[Stone River Village's clearance condition has always been to survive three days in the village. But to stay alive there, you have to follow the villagers' demands and put the bride's corpse in the coffin after she dies.]

[So it's not wrong to say this is part of Stone River Village's clearance conditions... but it really is strange for an instance to change its clearance task.]

[What about the bride, then? I remember Stone River Village only having one bride, right?]

[Right, the character the streamer is playing now.]

[What the hell is wrong with this instance? Doesn't this mean the streamer is still guaranteed to die?]

[And he still hasn't so much as blinked. Is he just that calm, or does he have no idea how serious this is...?]

The viewers in the chat were utterly confused. Only one person had begun to piece things together.

"Hey, Deputy Captain Lin, what are you standing around here for?"

Without looking up, Lin Shiming gave a brief reply. "Taking notes."

Undeterred by Lin Shiming's icy attitude, the newcomer strode over to his side and looked up at the light screen in the middle of the plaza.

The shot happened to sweep across Li Xian's face.

"...Didn't know that was your type."

Lin Shiming finally gave him an icy look. "Cheng Xin, if you've got nothing to do, go run another instance."

The man called Cheng Xin spread his hands. "I'm serious. Haven't you already collected all the information on Stone River Village, that beginner instance? What's there to watch?"

"This instance might be TOD."

"Oh, TOD... wait, what did you say?!"

Lin Shiming seemed to consider the question too idiotic to answer.

Cheng Xin clicked his tongue, pressing him in disbelief. "This is an F-rank instance. Probably half the people in there are newbies, right? Them? Running into TOD?"

Cheng Xin's voice was rather loud, drawing glances from the passersby. One of them couldn't resist coming over to ask:

"What's this TOD you're talking about?"

Lin Shiming quickly flipped to a page in his notebook and held it open for the passerby.

"TOD, short for 'true or die,' is a special type of instance named by players. The system has neither recognized nor classified it."

"Common signs of encountering TOD include a sudden increase in instance difficulty, changes to clearance conditions and main quests, and so on."

"These changes often cut off any route to clearing an instance with a low completion rate, which is why players jokingly call it 'true or die': either reach the true ending or die."

"After a TOD instance is cleared, the system awards players triple the points for a true ending, citing 'abnormal instance content' as the reason."

"All TOD instances discovered so far have been B-rank or above."

"The specific cause remains unknown."

After reading the explanation in the notebook, the passerby's eyes widened. "Is that for real? I only moved up to the advanced zone a few days ago. Don't mess with me."

Lin Shiming put his notebook away, ignoring the passerby's skepticism. Cheng Xin, standing beside him, pointed at himself instead. "We're not messing with you. I've run into one."

"Huh?" The passerby paid little attention to Cheng Xin's claim, assuming he was bragging. "If that's how it works, these newbies are probably done for. People in the beginner zone rarely manage to get a true ending."

"Exactly. What a shame." Cheng Xin folded his arms and settled beside Lin Shiming, looking up at the screen. "Let's hope there aren't any promising talents in this batch of newbies. Otherwise, this'll be where they meet their end."

Lin Shiming didn't agree with Cheng Xin. Instead, he frowned at the definition of TOD instances in his notebook, as though something still puzzled him.

"...Even if it is TOD, this instance is targeting that newbie far too much."