Inside the hunter cabin.
As the clock gradually ticked toward eight, the players gathered in the hall, though the expressions on their faces were generally not very pleasant.
Jiang Gu scanned the crowd, his gaze dark.
“You all heard it, right?”
He was naturally referring to the instance upgrade.
Because of the group-task arrangement, until just a moment ago everyone had been assigned to their respective task spaces and did not know what was happening outside. They also hadn’t heard the intense noise from Qin Guan’s side.
But a server-wide announcement like the Main System notification was known by everyone.
Fang Yuan and Liu Yang looked hesitant. They were both newcomers who had entered the instance for the first time and had not even received their exclusive Systems yet. Being able to understand the basic rules and work hard to complete their tasks was already good enough; an instance upgrade was still far beyond them.
Jiang Gu had no choice but to give the newcomers a brief round of training, and finally summarized:
“A situation like this, where an ‘investor’ personally steps in to manipulate instance difficulty, is extremely, extremely rare. We are very likely being targeted by some guest at an extremely high level.”
“And you already heard the System broadcast just now. The instance level has been raised to S. No one knows what will happen. From now on, everyone must stay together by any means possible. Do not act on your own.”
Fang Ai nodded, indicating that she understood.
Jiang Gu looked at the little girl who had been curled up alone in the corner since earlier. His gaze softened, and his voice grew much gentler.
“Did you hear clearly?”
The little girl stared at him blankly, unmoved.
Fang Yuan hesitated before explaining, “This child… seems to be deaf and mute.”
“Deaf and mute?”
Fang Yuan nodded. “We found out when Little Ai and I took her along to do tasks just now. She probably can’t hear or speak, but luckily she can read, so we can still barely communicate.”
“But she’s very well-behaved and obedient. Let her stay with us. I’ll take care of her.”
Jiang Gu nodded and said nothing more.
The Filth Room was such a cruel place. Whether this girl’s body had already been in bad shape before entering the instance, or whether she had suffered misfortune in the instance like Uncle Ming, it was not something he was in a position to pity.
As eight o’clock drew near, the hunter draped in a bearskin stumbled down from the second floor. His face had an unnatural dark red tint, clearly the result of drinking quite a bit.
The atmosphere in the room instantly turned tense.
The hunter’s gaze carefully swept over each of them, then he let out a sneer of unclear meaning, his voice deep as an iron tower.
“How come there are a few people missing?”
Indeed, Qin Guan, Lu Chuan, and the burly man were all absent.
The group exchanged glances, each knowing what the others meant.
The instance environment was already dangerous and unpredictable, and just moments ago the System had inexplicably raised the difficulty to S-rank.
Those three… were probably doomed.
The grandfather clock was about to strike eight. The hunter lifted a bottle of liquor and gulped it down, muttering to himself.
“I didn’t expect this to end so soon…”
That mutter was very quiet, yet Jiang Gu, the one standing closest to him, heard it clearly.
End so soon?
A bad feeling suddenly rose in Jiang Gu’s heart. He frowned and pressed, “What did you say? What is ending?”
The hunter wiped his mouth with his sleeve, then raised a hand and threw the liquor bottle into the fire. Glass shards burst apart in the flames like clusters of crystal-clear flowers.
Gazing at the flickering flames, the hunter casually unhooked a hunting rifle from the wall, aimed it at everyone, and said briefly, “Your lives.”
Everyone’s faces changed drastically.
『What does this mean? Why did the hunter suddenly turn hostile?』
『That doesn’t make sense. I watched Little Yuan complete her solo task myself. There were no issues.』
『Jiang Gu and Uncle Ming’s side didn’t have any problems either. Why did the task suddenly fail?』
A barrage comment boldly speculated:
『Could it be because of… the skins group?』
『That’s true. Why hasn’t the Hunting for Skins group come back yet? Did they really die out there?』
『Brothers, has anyone been watching the perspectives of those newcomers? Quick, tell us what happened.』
『No idea. I skipped them because I thought the newcomers were too trash.』
『Wait, wait, wait. Even if something went wrong with their group, it still doesn’t add up. Didn’t the hunter say that failing the task on the first day doesn’t count?』
『…Could it be because of the instance upgrade?』
『No way…』
As if to confirm everyone’s speculation, the hunter skillfully pulled back the safety catch and aimed the barrel at Fang Ai’s forehead.
“Originally, I thought that since it’s your first night staying here, I’d give you a one-day grace period on the rent… But who knew you not only wouldn’t pay the rent on time, but also trashed my house like this…”
“I changed my mind.” As the crosshairs aligned with the girl’s terrified face, the hunter stiffly curled his lips into a cruel smile.
“If you can’t come up with the rent today, not a single one of you is getting out alive.”
“Wait!”
Seeing the hunter’s fingers about to squeeze the trigger, Jiang Gu hurriedly shouted.
“Hm?”
The barrel swung around, the dark muzzle pressing directly against Jiang Gu’s brow.
His Adam’s apple bobbing, Jiang Gu glanced at the grandfather clock beside them and forced himself to stay calm as he spoke.
“Didn’t you say that you’d only start officially collecting rent at eight? Maybe they’re still on their way.”
The hunter followed his gaze. A muffled rumble that sounded like laughter came from his chest, and even the gun barrel shook twice.
It was now seven fifty-nine and three seconds.
There was still one minute until the designated rent collection time.
“It’s only one minute. You don’t really think they can come back alive, do you?”
On the other side, Jiang Gu met the hunter’s eyes directly, still insisting.
“Wait until eight o’clock. If they really haven’t brought back the rent, it won’t be too late to kill us then.”
The hunter’s sudden change of heart was likely tied to the instance level increase, but rules were rules. They couldn’t be easily changed.
Sure enough, after a moment of thought, the hunter silently nodded, reluctantly agreeing to his request.
Now they could only hope those people would hurry back.
Otherwise, they really… might face total annihilation.
Jiang Gu gritted his teeth and thought.
In a deathly silence, the hunter and the players faced off, everyone’s eyes fixed on the numbers on the grandfather clock.
Twenty-seven seconds.
Thirty-nine seconds.
Fifty-seven seconds.
…
Finally, the hour hand pointed to exactly eight.
Dong, dong, dong…
The long chimes rang out, and no miracle occurred.
The hunter’s gaze shifted back. He revealed a stiff smile, his pale lips moving, silently mouthing a word to the group as his fingers settled on the trigger.
He was clearly saying… “Goodbye.”
Jiang Gu’s nerves snapped taut, and a brilliant silver light erupted from between his fingers!
No choice. Even though using this would likely kill everyone present except himself and Uncle Ming, for the sake of ultimate victory…!
“Clang… !”
The worn wooden door was pushed open. Covered in wind and snow, Qin Guan led Lu Chuan into the room.
At that moment, the eight o’clock chime was just striking its final note.
“I’m not late, am I?” he said.
“Can’t be helped. There was just too much prey. It took a while to process them.”
He untied the bundle in his hand and poured out hundreds of stripped rat skins, which clattered onto the table.