Wen Ruyu truly had not seen that someone had sent him gifts worth three hundred thousand yuan. He assumed the other side simply had not received many gifts, which was why he had won.
As for why he ended the livestream so quickly, it was because there had been a knock on the door outside.
His takeout had arrived.
He had not eaten much instant noodles earlier, nowhere near enough to feel full. He had deliberately left space while waiting for the takeout.
After the unhurried knocking ended, a deep and polite male voice sounded outside the door.
"Hello."
"Your delivery has arrived."
Wen Ruyu picked up the black baseball cap on the table beside him and put it on. His fingers pressed the brim down firmly until the shadow completely covered his picturesque brows and eyes, leaving only his pale chin exposed. Only then did he walk toward the door of the rental room.
Because of the loan shark debt, the original host had very little money on him. The place he rented was in a run down old district.
The residents here were a mixed crowd. Most of them had little money, and there were quite a few idle hooligans living here as well. Occasionally when entering or leaving, he would receive a few malicious looks mixed into the stares.
In terms of safety, there was practically none.
Wen Ruyu did not open the door fully. He simply held the doorknob and gently pulled it open into a gap only wide enough for a single hand to pass through, then extended his hand through the crack.
From the outside, one could probably see only his hand.
And that was indeed the case.
The delivery rider was not delivering food for the first time. He often encountered customers who, for their own safety, would only stretch out a hand to take the delivery.
He was already used to it.
But when his gaze landed on the hand that reached out through the crack in the door, it was as if someone had cast a freezing spell on him. He froze instantly.
Because that hand was simply too beautiful.
It was an extremely beautiful hand. The bone structure was distinct, the joints clearly defined. The long fingers were slender like freshly cut scallion stalks, without the slightest trace of excess flesh. The lines were clean and sharp, as if carefully carved by God himself.
The skin was so pale it was almost translucent. Under the dim yellow light of the corridor, it carried a gentle jade like sheen.
Even the faint bluish veins on the back of the hand added an indescribable hint of sensuality, making the pale skin look even more dazzling.
The delivery rider's breathing slowed for half a beat. For a moment he forgot what he was supposed to do.
Seeing that there was no movement outside, Wen Ruyu's beautiful fingertips curled slightly, signaling for the other party to place the food in his hand.
This subtle movement finally snapped the delivery rider out of his daze. He suddenly came back to himself and hurriedly handed over the meal box.
Because he was too rushed, his fingertips accidentally brushed across the back of Wen Ruyu's hand.
A warm and delicate sensation spread through his skin, causing the delivery rider to freeze once again.
So... soft.
Before he could recover, the beautiful hand had already steadily taken the meal box and quickly withdrawn behind the door.
The next second there was a crisp click as the security door shut mercilessly, separating the two worlds.
The delivery rider stood there blankly, staring at the tightly closed door panel for a long time before he came back to his senses.
He lowered his head and looked at his fingertips. It felt as though a trace of warmth still lingered there. That faint warmth was like a tiny flame, making his fingertips inexplicably hot.
That person's hand was really soft...
Delivery riders were not allowed to linger in front of a customer's door. Once the food was delivered, they had to leave immediately. The rider forced himself not to think about those unnecessary things and stiffly lifted his foot to walk toward the staircase.
As he went downstairs, he could not help rubbing his fingertips together. That bit of lingering warmth seemed to have taken root, slowly spreading through his chest.
So soft...
If only...
Just as the delivery rider was lost in thought, his phone suddenly made a "ding" sound in his pocket. It was a text message notification.
The rider finally snapped out of his daze. He quickly took out his phone and unlocked it. Two new messages popped up on the screen.
They were from a contact labeled "Boss."
"Did the delivery arrive?"
"What does he look like?"
Above those messages were earlier ones.
"Transfer: 1000 yuan."
"When you deliver the food, help me see what he looks like."
"Try to take a photo if possible."
Someone had clearly bribed the delivery rider so that while delivering the food, he would take a look at the customer's appearance.
One thousand yuan was not a small amount for a delivery rider who spent every day riding through wind and rain.
Besides, it was only a matter of sneaking a glance at the customer's appearance.
No one would refuse such a deal.
He himself had accepted jobs like this before.
But at this moment, an inexplicable trace of resistance rose in his heart. His Adam's apple bobbed awkwardly. In the end, he suppressed every emotion in his eyes and began typing a reply.
"I didn't see."
The other party seemed to have been waiting for the message. Less than three seconds after it was sent, a large question mark appeared.
"?"
The delivery rider took a deep breath and replied honestly.
"He only opened a small crack in the door and reached out his hand to take it. I didn't see what he looked like."
A new message quickly popped up from the other side, the words carrying a trace of doubt and disdain.
"Is he that ashamed to show his face?"
Ashamed to show his face?
The delivery rider instinctively rejected that idea. He had seen many customers who avoided meeting people because they were insecure about their appearance, but the owner of that hand definitely was not one of them.
Just that hand alone looked so delicate and noble that it was impossible to imagine its owner being insecure.
His intuition told him that this customer's appearance would definitely not be ugly.
It might even be... extremely beautiful.
But he did not tell the person on the other side. Instead, he followed their line of thought and typed three words.
"Very likely."
Just as the delivery rider assumed the other party would stop replying, he slipped his phone back into his pocket and prepared to continue downstairs.
But the phone screen lit up again.
This time it was a picture.
The rider opened it.
"Image.JPG."
In the photo, a young man wore a white shirt and stood beneath the plane trees on a university campus. His brows and eyes were handsome and refined, his smile gentle like a breeze. He looked like a bright and attractive college student.
Immediately after the image came another message.
"Is the person in the photo him?"
The delivery rider stared at the photo for several seconds. His gaze did not linger on the young man's handsome face but instead fell on the hand hanging at his side.
The hand in the photo was not ugly. It was clean, pale, and slender.
But it lacked that breathtaking beauty.
Compared to the hand that had appeared through the crack in the door earlier, the difference was not just a little.
There was simply no comparison.
This time the delivery rider did not hesitate at all. His fingers quickly typed a reply, his tone extremely certain.
"No."
"The person in the photo is not him."
...
Wen Ruyu had no idea the delivery rider had been bribed.
After receiving the food, he began eating slowly.
As expected of takeout from a high end restaurant. The taste was excellent, not much different from the food he had eaten in the past.
He ate unhurriedly. The dim yellow light fell over his lowered brows, outlining a graceful curve.
Although he was sitting at a peeling wooden table inside a shabby rental room, an aloof and noble air still emanated from him. It made the mottled walls around him seem somewhat out of place.
He looked like a delicate young master who should have been living in a luxurious villa, enjoying everything from a lofty position, rather than curling up in this dilapidated rental room.
Under such a sharp contrast, it inexplicably stirred a trace of pity in others. At the same time, it made people unable to take their eyes off him, giving rise to certain dark thoughts that should not exist.
But he himself had no awareness of this.
While eating, Wen Ruyu continued scrolling through the chat logs.
He had already read the conversations two or three times, yet he could not find anything unusual. These people were not particularly interested in the original host.
If the original host had not taken the initiative almost humbly, constantly sharing details of his daily life with them, these people probably would not even remember who he was.
It was impossible to see anyone among them hiding some unknown motive.
Could it be that the breakthrough was not here?
Just as Wen Ruyu was about to continue reading, his phone received a text message.
The sender was an unknown number.
Loan shark debt collectors?
The original host had owed the loan sharks for quite some time. Their methods were ruthless, and debt collection messages were almost a daily occurrence.
But had they not just reached an agreement earlier?
Wen Ruyu's fingertips paused briefly before he casually opened the message.
In the next second, his pupils suddenly contracted.
There were no threatening words on the screen. Only several clear lines of text.
"Name: Wen Ruyu
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: January 12, 2005
ID Number: 520100xxxx0521"
Wen Ruyu's fingers tightened violently around the phone. His beautiful knuckles turned pale, and his heart began to pound uncontrollably.
This was the original host's identification information.
The system had said that when Special Players were inserted into a dungeon, in order to avoid exposing their identity immediately, their name and appearance would be distorted into the player's own. However, the actual information and identity would still belong to the original host.
And the message contained exactly the original host's identification details.
Before Wen Ruyu could recover, another text message immediately appeared.
The content made the hairs all over his body stand on end.
"On September 1, 2024, enrolled in the Computer Science Department of xx University. On September 6, 2024, joined the xx Anime Club and met Yang Ruiqing from the Finance Department of the same university. Beginning in October 2025, stole Yang Ruiqing's photos to conduct online romance scams. Current fraud amount has reached 137300 yuan."
It was merely a cold, emotionless statement of facts.
Yet it carried an indescribable sense of eeriness and oppression, causing Wen Ruyu's breathing to instantly become uneven.
The air inside the rental room seemed to freeze.
These two messages clearly showed that the person on the other side had investigated the original host and knew everything about him.
Wen Ruyu's long eyelashes trembled slightly as he quickly typed a line of text.
"Who are you?"
The message had barely finished sending when the reply arrived almost instantly.
"Does that matter?"
Indeed, it no longer mattered.
Whoever the other person was, someone now knew everything the original host had done.
Wen Ruyu was not afraid of the fact that the photo stealing romance scam might be exposed.
But he was afraid that it would implicate Yang Ruiqing.
He was also afraid that his death would have no impact on the storyline.
Among the ninety eight people before him, it was impossible that none of them had thought about exposing the original host's scam and letting the victims seek revenge on him. In that case, the one who died would only be the original host.
As long as Yang Ruiqing did not die, or did not die with overwhelming resentment, it would not matter even if the player died in the dungeon.
But all ninety eight people had failed.
Which meant that even if the original host's identity died, it would have no effect on the entire dungeon. He was merely the trigger that allowed the dungeon to form.
Even without him, there would be another trigger.
And his death would pass without a ripple.
He could not die.
At least not now.
Wen Ruyu's fingertips turned pale from the force. Lowering his eyes to the information on the screen, he sent another message.
"What do you want?"
Since this person had not exposed the matter directly but had come to contact him first, it meant they wanted something else.
The other party was threatening him.
Wen Ruyu unconsciously pressed his lips together and stared quietly at the screen in front of him, like a condemned prisoner waiting for the final sentence.
But this time the other side did not reply immediately.
After three minutes passed and Wen Ruyu thought there would be no response, a message finally appeared.
"Breathe for me."