Chapter 7

Chapter 7

“My room is so small, and it’s just a single bed. Where would you sleep?”

“I can sleep on the floor.”

It was one thing to have one idiot around, but it was another thing entirely when they started clustering together.

The Slightly Chubby Man let out a cold sneer and couldn’t help but raise his voice in warning. “I advise you two not to mess around. It’s best to stay in your own rooms. If you accidentally violate a rule and die, there won’t be anyone to cry for you.”

Having said his piece, he turned and returned to his own room. He had said all he needed to say; if someone was hell-bent on seeking death, he wasn’t going to stop them.

These words were like a bucket of cold water, instantly dousing Brother Crocodile’s enthusiasm.

Although the streamer known as the Slightly Chubby Man seemed difficult to get along with, he wasn’t a bad person. Brother Crocodile took his advice to heart and abandoned the idea of clinging to Qiao Yu’s leg.

He lowered his eyes dejectedly, his mood hitting rock bottom. Qiao Yu thought for a moment and stiffly changed the subject. “By the way, I wanted to explain earlier-I didn’t mean to insult you. I was saying that my ID name is ‘I’m Your Dad.'”

Brother Crocodile was simple-minded and quite innocent. Realizing he had misunderstood, he immediately apologized with a sincere face. “I’m sorry! I really thought you were cursing at me. Though, I have to say, that ID name of yours is pretty obnoxious.”

Qiao Yu: “…”

As they spoke, Brother Crocodile tapped his finger a few times. He averted his gaze from his Live Stream Room’s bullet chat and pulled up the streamer list for their current Instance. Sure enough, he saw the irritating ID name “I’m Your Dad.”

“What are you looking at?” Qiao Yu asked.

“Checking to see who the other streamers in our Instance are, seeing if there’s a pro we can rely on,” Brother Crocodile answered, his tone tinged with disappointment.

Unfortunately, there weren’t any.

A row of unremarkable White Names was displayed, offering nothing of interest.

It made sense. This was only his second stream, and he was still rotating through Beginner Instances. How could he possibly run into a big shot?

He could only blame himself for entering this Live Stream Room too late and failing to meet the various legends back when they were still nobodies. Sigh.

“Is there anyone to rely on?” Qiao Yu also pulled up his Live Stream Room interface and clicked on the current Instance’s streamer list.

Just look at their IDs: Pozhan, Chenxi, Wulong Tea, Canyue Wushuang, First Blood.

Compared to the ID “I’m Your Dad,” even “Man-Eating Crocodile” seemed low-profile and unremarkable.

Qiao Yu couldn’t help but feel a surge of shame.

This damn Live Stream Room!!!

“No, they’re all White Names,” Brother Crocodile said regretfully as he closed his stream interface.

“What’s wrong with being a White Name?”

Man-Eating Crocodile answered every question posed to him: “White Names are rookie and beginner streamers. Above them are Blue-Name Streamers, then Red Name Streamers. The most powerful are the Black-Name Streamers, but there are very few of them. They’re all legendary big shots you hear about but never see.”

“How do you promote?” Qiao Yu suddenly felt like he was playing an RPG, and he couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity.

“I heard there are two ways to promote. You’re either an experienced streamer who has participated in ten streams and survived, or you’re a talented streamer who gets an exceptional promotion from the Live Stream Room for managing to Clear the Instance.”

“How do you Clear the Instance?”

“It means uncovering over ninety percent of the Instance’s storyline and successfully sealing the Instance Boss. Once successful, the Instance will disappear and never open again. I’ve only heard about it, though. As for the specifics of how to do it, I’ve never experienced it myself.”

Brother Crocodile’s eyes shone with admiration; he was cowardly, yet he clearly possessed a bit of a chuunibyou streak.

Qiao Yu nodded thoughtfully.

-You? You want to Clear the Instance?

-You might be beautiful, but thinking you can pull that off is just going too far.

-Go ahead and try to solve it now. I hope you stay in the Instance forever!

-Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to see him cry after he fails. I love watching beauties cry; he’ll definitely taste delicious.

Qiao Yu hadn’t received any notification for donations from the Live Stream Room, so he didn’t bother wasting words on the viewers. Instead, he switched the interface to the Live Stream Shop.

The shop was divided into four stages: exclusive channels for White Name, Blue Name, Red Name, and Black Name.
Simply put, a White Name can only purchase items from the shop associated with their specific channel.

It was clear that a pecking order existed within the Live Stream Room.

There were only two items available in the White Name shop: Clue Cards and Review Cards.

Review Cards were expensive, costing 100 gold coins each, while Clue Cards were quite cheap at only 1 gold coin per card.

Of course, the price difference made sense. Once a Review Card was used, all attacks from Ghosts would be forcibly halted. However, if the review failed, the player would be erased by the Instance after a 24-hour time limit.

In other words, those 24 hours were a period of invincibility for the player who used the Review Card. They could recklessly gather clues, but the high reward came with high risk. The killing intent of an Instance was revealed step by step, and clues appeared bit by bit. If the clues collected within those 24 hours weren’t enough to piece together at least 70% of the Instance’s storyline, death remained inevitable.

As for the Clue Cards, they were self-explanatory: you paid for information. What the Clue Cards said was always true, but whether the information was actually useful for the Instance was another matter entirely.

Qiao Yu thought about the Review Card he had received at the start of the Instance. Perhaps his luck wasn’t so bad after all?

Grit-ting his teeth, he spent five gold coins to buy five Clue Cards.

Soon, five virtual Clue Cards appeared on the live stream interface. The system was fair in one regard: only the person who bought the clues could see them. Whether or not to share them was entirely up to the streamer’s discretion.

As Qiao Yu flipped through the cards, he briefly offered the Live Stream Room a rare moment of internal praise.

The next second, his refined upbringing nearly crumbled, and a string of curses almost burst from his lips. Written on the first Clue Card in bold, black script was a single line:

[Fun Fact: Eating canned yellow peaches when you have a cold is actually useless.]

I’ll give you a fun fact about your mother!

[People really do die in the Nine Lives Live Stream.]

Screw off!!

[The one thousand yuan rent will not be refunded.]

Dammit!!!

[Today is Monday, Sunny, 32°C.]

…

[A friendly tip for streamers in the Ghostly Apartment: Never open your door after 10:00 PM.]

Huh?

Finally, a piece of information that actually looked useful.

If all five Clue Cards had been duds, Qiao Yu would have plucked his own head off just to give this dog of a Live Stream Room some entertainment!

Beside him, Brother Crocodile saw Qiao Yu’s expression shift from dark to calm and couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Did you actually get a useful clue?”

Qiao Yu nodded. “It says never to open the door after 10:00 PM.”

After saying that, he tapped the ‘Share Clue’ button in the bottom right corner of the screen. A flipped Clue Card appeared in front of Man-Eating Crocodile, showing the exact same words Qiao Yu had just spoken. It was clear that Qiao Yu was a good person-a truly great person!

“I just used the coins from my tips to buy some Clue Cards too, but they were all useless nonsense. By the way, how many did you exchange for?” Brother Crocodile huffed and shared his own results with Qiao Yu.

The first card read: [Remember to wear extra clothes when it’s cold!]

Wear your sister!

This Live Stream Room was truly obnoxious.

Qiao Yu looked at the stack of nearly twenty Clue Cards in the other man’s hand, then pursed his lips. “Five.”

Well, looking at it that way, maybe the Live Stream Room was actually being nice to him?

Qiao Yu wore a look of sympathy, but internally, he resolved never to buy these trash Clue Cards again. It was a total scam! A massive pit!!!

Five gold coins could be exchanged for 500 yuan, tsk…

Man-Eating Crocodile, however, grew even more envious. How could this guy’s luck be so good?

If he knew that Qiao Yu had started the game with a Review Card, his envy would likely have turned into pure jealousy. This guy was a total Luck Emperor!

Many streamers poured in hundreds of gold coins without getting a single useful hint, yet Qiao Yu had ‘hit the jackpot’ after exchanging for only five cards. He was seriously on another level!

As it turned out, the joys and sorrows of humanity were truly not shared.