Shaking off the snow covering his body, Qin Guan frowned in irritation and walked into the room, surveying it from all angles.
Including him, there were six people in the room: the burly man, the old man, the young man, that couple, and a little girl huddled in the corner who looked to be only seven or eight years old.
A few of them clearly looked like newcomers. As for the wheelchair old man and the young man…
Qin Guan made no effort to hide his picky gaze. In just a few looks, he had completely figured out everyone in the room and silently formed a plan in his mind.
Since someone was willing to step forward, he naturally had no desire to be the bird that got shot.
It would be better to stay with those people, pretend to be a newcomer first, and watch what happened.
Besides, he had always used anonymous live stream mode before. There was no way anyone could know that he was the legendary “G.”
『Wow, this guy is handsome. Is he a newcomer too? I’ve never seen him before.』
『Hmph, what use is being handsome? He’s just a pretty boy who’s good for nothing. Just wait and see, I bet he won’t survive three days.』
『Haha, brother, great minds think alike!』
While the barrage comments were chatting idly, Qin Guan had already gone in as naturally as possible. As if he could not read the atmosphere at all, he walked straight through the tense group and even casually tossed his coat onto the burly man’s raised arm.
“Hang it up. Iron it too, if possible.”
He ordered without the slightest politeness.
『Pfft hahahaha what is wrong with this guy?』
『Seriously, are all newcomers this arrogant now?』
『Why not just clear the instance for us and then transfer 20,000 points while you’re at it?』
『Wait! Brothers, there’s a twist! That burly man looked familiar, so I checked him out on a whim. He’s actually a cadre of the Lynx Group! His name is Wang Ze!』
The moment those words were spoken, the barrage comments exploded.
『The Lynx Group?! You mean that Lynx Group that specializes in bullying newcomers in instances, tricking them into becoming cannon fodder, and then earning points for themselves?』
『I’m afraid so. These newcomers have never dealt with them before. They’re probably in for a rough time this round.』
『Especially that pretty boy at the end. He looks like he has no scheming at all. Rest in peace.』
Because instance games have their own independent processes and do not connect with the external livestream system, the others had no idea about Wang Ze’s real identity and were still completely in the dark.
And faced with such sudden, rude orders, the burly man was also completely caught off guard.
He looked at the clothes in his hand in disbelief, then at Qin Guan, widening his eyes. “What did you say?”
Qin Guan, on the other hand, looked perfectly justified. “Hmm? I’m here traveling. Aren’t you staff here? What’s wrong with helping me hold my clothes for a moment?”
The burly man looked him over. With his level of experience, there was no way he could tell what brands Qin Guan was wearing. He only felt that this person was so flashy and refined it was almost infuriating, utterly unlike people like them, who scraped by every day on the edge of life and death.
But then again, the burly man’s eyes rolled.
Looking at that pretty boy appearance, he might be some rich young master from who knows where. It wasn’t entirely impossible that he had been swept into an instance while traveling in the snowy mountains.
Maybe he could make use of that…
As his thoughts turned, Wang Ze immediately put on a fake smile and actually hung Qin Guan’s coat up for him.
“Oh, little brother, you’re a newcomer entering an instance for the first time too, right? You just got here, so you probably don’t know…”
Qin Guan chose a seat near the fireplace and sat down, half-listening as the burly man muttered beside him, explaining various instance precautions that could not have been more basic.
“…For newcomers like you, you don’t need to worry about anything. Just stay close to me, follow my commands, and I guarantee you’ll survive.”
On the surface, Qin Guan rested his head on his hand as if listening carefully to the burly man’s explanation, but in reality, those half-true, half-false words left no ripple in his heart.
What a joke. If he actually listened to this man, he probably would not even know how he died.
Seeing that the burly man was still dramatically feeding Qin Guan all kinds of misleading ideas, the old man in the distance had probably also guessed Wang Ze’s true identity. But compared to his earlier kind protection of the high-ponytail girl, this time he only watched from afar and did not speak up.
Jiang Gu, however, looked at Qin Guan a little longer, wearing an expression that seemed to say he wanted to speak but did not.
The Filth Room was an extremely cruel place. It had its own survival laws.
They had helped the high-ponytail girl because they had seen her potential to remain calm in a crisis. But as for Qin Guan, who was about to be tricked into becoming cannon fodder…
To be honest, they had not found a single trace of potential in this guy, who had nothing going for him except his looks.
Or rather, they tacitly accepted that some people had to be sacrificed as “cannon fodder.” Only in this instance, someone else was doing it for them.
『It’s over. This newcomer is getting trapped from every angle with no way out. He’s probably going to be the first to die.』
『No way, he’s so handsome. I still want to look at his face more.』
『Serves him right, honestly. Look at him. He obviously looks like some young master who ran out from nowhere. People like that can only show off outside. Once they enter an instance, heh heh.』
『Enough talk. Let’s open the betting! I bet 50 points that this pretty boy dies first.』
『I bet 100!』
『I refuse to believe it. 120! I’m betting that girl dies first!』
『70 on the pretty boy!』
『150!』
As the barrage comments placed their bets one after another, the prize pool kept rising and quickly accumulated to a truly alarming amount.
『Total System Announcement: The current prize pool totals 65,343 points. The betting channel closes once the game officially begins.』
『Hahaha, so much money! If I win, won’t I become a super rich tycoon?』
『Please, I’ve bet my entire fortune on the pretty boy. Can he hurry up and die already? I’m begging you.』
『Die, die, die, die, die!』
At that moment, a black barrage comment suddenly drifted across the screen full of white barrage comments. Though it was not eye-catching, the instant it appeared, everyone’s attention was drawn to it.
In the Filth Room livestream system, the color of barrage comments was also an important marker of user identity. White text indicated an ordinary user, which was also the standard font used by the vast majority of players.
But black barrage comments were different.
Only one kind of person was qualified to use black barrage comments…
“Guests.”
They were the native residents of the Filth Room live stream, and also the true audience of the livestream system. They included all kinds of unknowable Grotesques, Secret Gods, and evil entities.
They craved the Filth Room live stream, savoring the sight of human death in instance story after instance story, and rejoicing in it immensely.
For a black barrage comment, which existed only in legend, to appear in a low-level livestream room… this bizarre sense of separation left many viewers who had only just entered the Filth Room and had little worldly experience feeling utterly shocked.
However, when they made out the content of that black barrage comment, even those veterans who had been through countless instance trials were so stunned their eyes nearly fell out.
『Add a 100,000-point bet. I’m betting that Qin Guan survives until the end.』
This barrage comment was like a vulture waiting in the wings, circling ominously above everyone’s heads.
On the other side, Qin Guan also seemed to sense something and looked up.
Just a moment ago, his private mailbox had suddenly received a deduction notice.
『Your account is debited 100,000 points at 16:29. Current remaining points: 238.』
Qin Guan: ?
Where did his money go???