[Expensive Roast Chicken]
[Attributes: Increases satiety, increases energy (reduces need for sleep)]
[Description: An expensive yet unpretentious delicious roast chicken.]
[Ordinary Beer]
[Attributes: Increases courage, increases resistance to stress.]
[Description: Drink if you’re scared. If you accidentally drink too much… ah, someone as undisciplined as you dying in an Instance wouldn’t be surprising at all!]
Though the Instance was like a game, it ultimately wasn’t one. Every sensation was real—whether pain or fatigue.
He didn’t have much information right now, but the one thing he could be certain of was that the night here was definitely not safe.
Especially since Old Xie had just said that “everyone” here was very interested in him.
Who exactly was this “everyone”?
Whoever it was, it definitely wasn’t anything good.
Nine times out of ten, they wanted his life.
On top of that, the earlier newbie protection prompt had said not to sleep too deeply and not to get close to the darkness of night.
That proved there was absolutely some hidden danger lurking in the dark.
There was less than two hours until nightfall now. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to observe anything, so… he simply wouldn’t fall asleep tonight at all, until he could determine what exactly this danger was.
This roast chicken and beer were his investment for getting through tonight.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Yan Huang lay alone on the bed, lights off, quietly staring at the ceiling.
All around was pitch black—so dark he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face, as if swallowed whole by the darkness, heavy and suffocating.
A hollow feeling crept into his chest, like gravity amplified countless times, tugging at his heart alone, dragging it downward.
He’d been in this state for over six hours now.
It was 11 PM.
Less than ten minutes remained until midnight.
Perhaps it was from using his Talent continuously earlier, but exhaustion pressed down on him like Mount Tai, making it hard to breathe, yet he didn’t dare close his eyes.
Blood vessels crawled across his eyes, one after another, intertwining and spreading like underground roots.
But everything was as usual. Nothing was different.
Except he was extraordinarily sleepy.
He remained completely still, doing nothing, and his livestream numbers kept dropping.
The viewer count was now hovering at just fifty or sixty people.
His recommendation slot had also fallen from the rare newbie main feature to a corner position labeled [Casual Tier Five Newbie Recommendation].
The remaining viewers were silent too.
Too normal.
So normal it was eerie.
So normal it made you want to just fall asleep.
Around him, there was nothing but the rhythmic “tick-tock” of the clock hanging above the door.
He could even hear his own breathing quickening.
Maybe… just sleep?
He’d thought about it.
But he’d also thought that if he fell asleep like this, he might never wake up again.
This wooden plank bed beneath him was his coffin lid.
A buzzing sound rang in his ears, like his brainwaves were being jammed.
Even moving his eyes hurt—they were so dry and sore.
Finally.
When the clock struck exactly twelve, the hour, minute, and second hands aligned. Perhaps the clock was too old, and the mechanism had developed a slight positional error, because at that moment, all three hands moved and scraped together simultaneously, producing a “tick” louder than any before it.
Crisp yet chaotic—a jarring, contradictory noise.
And in that instant—
“Pat, pat—”
A knock came at the door, neither light nor heavy.
Yan Huang, who had been on the verge of succumbing to drowsiness, instantly snapped his eyes wide open, fully alert.
That thing… was it coming?
But if it was coming, why would it knock?
At this hour, the logical approach would be to strike silently. Wouldn’t knocking just alert the prey?
Could it be that it wasn’t that?
Or… was it that “it” couldn’t break in silently from outside?
Every possibility raced through his mind, and the more he thought, the more his brain tensed up.
The viewer count in the livestream was skyrocketing.
At a terrifying speed unprecedented before, it returned to its original numbers.
Even surpassing them.
【Congratulations, Player, on achieving the achievement “Two Thousand Viewers Watching Simultaneously.” Reward: 200 Points.】
【Right on schedule! Midnight… wuwuwu, I’m lying in bed right now, so scared!】
【It’s been so long since I’ve seen anyone take this route in the City of Incubation—almost everyone goes the Hatching route… Am I about to see that scene again? My newbie-period trauma is coming back!】
…
They were all anticipating it.
The livestream’s recommended placement had also returned to its original position.
But Yan Huang had no mind to care about that. Watching the barrage of comments, he only felt his scalp crawl.
What kind of scene could possibly be called a “trauma”?
“Bang, bang—”
The knocking came again, far louder than before, and the frequency was accelerating, as if it wanted to smash the door to pieces!
No, not “as if”—it absolutely did!
That thing absolutely wanted to smash the door down!!
Realizing this, Yan Huang felt his blood circulation quicken throughout his body, his body heat surging wildly.
Without a second thought, he leapt out of bed and dragged the nearby table to the door, pressing it firmly against the gap.
The other party seemed to sense something was off inside the room, and the force and speed of the banging increased. Even with the table bracing it, he could feel the door vibrating.
The table wasn’t enough!
Yan Huang immediately turned around and dragged over the bedside cabinet, the chairs, and even the bed itself, piling them all against the door until there was nothing left in the room that could be moved.
The other party seemed unaware that he was awake and had taken measures, still slamming against it frantically.
Yan Huang really wanted to curse out loud. Can you stop banging?! Believe me, I’ll jump straight out this window!!
Then.
The banging actually stopped.
No footsteps. No sound.
Nothing at all.
As if nothing had ever happened.
” It ” had left?
That was what Yan Huang thought.
But that was all he could think. He absolutely wouldn’t casually move those things away.
What if, after he moved them, the other party had prepared a surprise gift package for him?
He hesitated for a moment, then ultimately chose to investigate.
In his current state, he had no other choice.
The only option was to purchase a 【Night Vision Permanent Enhancement】 from the Points Mall for five hundred points.
After purchasing it, the surrounding scene indeed became much clearer—at least he could see the corners and edges more distinctly—but the actual effect still couldn’t compare to daylight.
He carefully climbed onto the pile of items he had stacked, trying his best not to make any noise, inching his body closer to the door.
Finally, he pressed half his body against the door and peered through the peephole.
Left side… nothing.
Right side? Nothing either.
Could it really have left?
And just then, he noticed something strange at the bottom of his field of vision.
Looking down, his vision shifted.
Without any warning whatsoever!
A single enormous eye filled his entire field of view!
There were no other facial features—just one eye, as wide as an outstretched arm, with a pupil the size of an adult’s head… an eye.
As his vision widened further, Yan Huang’s face turned deathly pale.
It was an egg-shaped creature. Aside from the massive eye at its upper center, the entire egg-like body was densely covered with countless normal-sized eyes, scattered haphazardly, all blinking and rolling their pupils in unison.
All of its eyes stared at the peephole from a short distance away, as if locking gazes with Yan Huang.
A chill ran down Yan Huang’s spine, his scalp prickling with dread.