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When this message appeared in the streaming lobby, the faces of all “Players” changed at once — including many high-level players, and even some veteran players who had long since built their reputations.
The City of Incubation was considered the most difficult novice Instance, but no matter how hard it was, it was still just a novice Instance.
Novice Instances were only watched by bored casuals when the big names weren’t streaming. True veterans couldn’t even be bothered to spare them a glance.
And now, everything had changed.
Whether high-tier or low-tier players, all traces of their amused, watch-and-laugh expressions vanished.
“First Instance? A complete newcomer?! How is that possible… His awareness and overall performance are better than players who’ve cleared several Instances. A pure newcomer playing like this — does he have to be this competitive?!”
“Looks like… this season’s Rookie King competition is fierce. First there’s The Doctor, and now this one. I really want to see who ends up as the final Rookie King.”
“The Doctor? Damn… with the Deceiver performing like this, The Doctor is bound to notice, right? I remember The Doctor has already joined [Tarot], and [The King] intends to groom him into the next [The Hierophant]. The resources at his disposal are insane. If he decides to target this guy, wouldn’t he be dead for sure? What a shame, what a shame…”
However, at that very moment, a man in a white lab coat with gold-rimmed glasses walked out with a smile, hands tucked into his pockets. His aura was peculiar, his movements relaxed.
He walked up to the speaker, patted him on the back, and spoke in a voice both casual and seductive: “Ah… I think I heard someone talking about me. Let me hear what’s going on?”
His palm slid down the other’s spine, inch by inch, feeling out every vertebra.
The speaker’s entire body went numb as if struck by an electric current, quickly replaced by trembling and terror.
“D-Doctor?”
The Doctor didn’t acknowledge him. Instead, he looked at Yan Huang, who had been featured on the Newcomer Front Page.
At that moment, Yan Huang was moving furniture around in his room.
The Doctor kept smiling: “Mm… quite an impressive newcomer. Such an impressive newcomer — a rose made from his spine would surely be beautiful. Giving it to Lin Na, she’d definitely love it, wouldn’t she?”
“But I wouldn’t do something so cruel—”
He paused for a moment, then slowly leaned down, bringing his mouth close to the man’s ear, breathing hot air:
“Don’t you think?”
“Ah, y-yes…”
Before the man could even finish his words, the sound of flesh being pierced and organs being churned erupted simultaneously. Blood churned thickly and viscously. The man’s eyes bulged wide, his mouth agape, his remaining life force unable to sustain even a single syllable.
In terror, he shifted his pupils toward The Doctor.
The Doctor was still smiling with his eyes narrowed into slits.
“My apologies. It seems I used a bit too much force when I was patting your back. I’m terribly sorry.”
“But since it’s already happened, there’s nothing to be done… I can only ask you to have a good sleep now.”
With that, one of his blood-soaked hands swept over the man’s eyes — eyes that refused to close in death — and shut them.
He slowly pulled the man’s spine out of his body, and only then did everyone notice that the spine was covered in beautiful knife marks—the Doctor had sliced it apart in an instant!
After pulling it out, as if admiring his own work, he finally opened his eyes. His narrow fox-like eyes scanned it up and down, seemingly dissatisfied, and casually tossed the spine aside.
“What an ugly spine.”
The people around him sat on pins and needles, their faces pale with terror.
Staring at the Doctor before them, they couldn’t speak.
They couldn’t breathe either.
The Doctor casually took out a cleaning spray, spritzed himself, and all the bloodstains on his hands vanished.
Suddenly, an angry child’s voice rang out in the livestream hall.
[Warning! Warning! Red card issued once! Player Doctor—Lin Qi has committed a serious violation. Please report to the confinement room immediately for processing! Warning… Warning!]
Everyone finally let out a breath of relief. This unpredictable, creepy freak… no one wanted to provoke him.
However, the Doctor didn’t take the warning to heart. He casually swiped a hundred thousand points to buy [Sin Cleansing Solution], poured it over his head, and the warning abruptly cut off.
“Alright, shut up now. So noisy.”
Everyone stopped breathing again.
This Lin Qi was truly extravagant… spending a hundred thousand points like it was nothing. It seemed his Talent, [Tarot], really valued him.
Suddenly, as if noticing something, the Doctor excitedly looked up toward the door of the livestream hall.
“Lin Na, you’ve come to see me?”
Everyone looked over. It was a stunningly beautiful woman with golden wavy hair—in the real world, she was a top-tier actress.
Her ability was Perfect Performance.
She could act flawlessly, disguise herself, and infiltrate without a trace.
How perfect?
So perfect that… you wouldn’t dare guess what form she might appear in next.
Several times, she had used this Talent to silently stir up infighting among teamed players in Instances, or… directly kill other players at point-blank range.
Yet, even so, she couldn’t be bothered to put on an act for the Doctor. She openly showed her disgust: “Doctor, stop causing trouble… or you’ll die an ugly death.”
The Doctor didn’t care about her Curse at all. He simply stepped forward, hooked his arm around her neck, and gazed at her face with obsession.
“If I were to die at Lin Na’s hands… no matter how I died, I’d die willingly.”
Lin Na gritted her teeth, fury burning within her. Her red high heel came down hard on the Doctor’s leather shoe.
“You sick freak, don’t touch me!”
After cursing, she immediately turned and left, leaving only the lingering fragrance of a mature woman behind.
The Doctor was both in pain and ecstasy. He touched his face and laughed maniacally: “This feeling… this is the feeling, Lin Na… wait for me!”
The Doctor chased after her, and only then did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
“Psycho!”
“If it weren’t for [The King]’s connection, he’d have been killed long ago!”
Her status in [Tarot] wasn’t high, and the recent rise in her standing was only because of the Doctor’s infatuation with her—[Tarot] needed her to keep the Doctor in check.
But the Doctor was so unpredictable… no one knew what he’d do next.
For someone like him to grow stronger, the variables were too great.
Variables were fatal weaknesses for Instance Players like them.
…
Yan Huang finally finished moving all the furniture.
He sat on the sofa, buying a can of [Energy Drink] to replenish his stamina and clear some of his fatigue.
He replayed everything that had just happened.
Even while still in the egg, Xie Fumu’s ability was enough to turn the adult across from him into nutrient fluid the moment they made contact.
Without a doubt… after successfully hatching, Xie Fumu’s ability was absolutely beyond what it had been in the egg state.
In such a state, if Xie Fumu had intended to kill him, he absolutely could not have been bouncing around like he was now.
He guessed that Xie Fumu didn’t have the heart to kill him.
At least not today.
Tomorrow… that was hard to say.
Yes, he was gambling—gambling that Xie Fumu wouldn’t kill him today.
He had to go out and investigate more clues. He couldn’t afford to waste time.
Currently, the best source of information was the door across from him.
Before dying, the man across the hall had kept weeping about his own “purpose”—he could write manuscripts to attract more people to the “City of Incubation,” becoming everyone’s “nutrient fluid.”
He must have seen those missing person notices posted at the inn’s entrance earlier.
Those people had long since turned into a pool of nutrient fluid, just like him.
Perhaps he was a writer.
His words between the lines revealed that he must have known something.
Yan Huang checked his points.
The points he currently had available totaled “1479”—for a newcomer, that was already a lot.
Although Yan Huang was gambling, he only had one life, and relying on this Schrödinger’s gamble wasn’t reliable.
So he exchanged for a [Low-Level Omnidirectional Detection] and also exchanged for another item.
This item could save his life at a critical moment.