[Escape room live stream, another person got scared offline]

Zhang Huai and his companions were quick; in less than half an hour, they gathered eight people. After another half hour or so, all eight arrived at the shop.

They had come, but all eight were still skeptical about the effectiveness of the escape room game.

“Can it really consume 100,000 R of spiritual power?” Ling Ling’s friend, a sophisticated beauty, quietly asked her.

“Absolutely. Didn’t I just send you a screenshot? I only stayed in there for half an hour and lost 60,000 R. If you can clear it, 100,000 R is definitely no problem; I might even have underestimated it.” Ling Ling didn’t overstate it, considering that everyone’s courage was different. Her friend had been a contractor longer and had experienced more horror games, so she was definitely braver than Ling Ling.

“Okay,” the beauty nodded, her face beaming with joy.

At this moment, Zhang Huai led a pale young man over to Tong Yu. “Little Yu, this is my friend, Shang Letian.”

“Hello,” Shang Letian nodded to Tong Yu.

“Hello,” Tong Yu returned a smile.

“Little Yu, Letian’s partner’s spiritual power is at a critical level, so during the game later, could you please let Letian consume more spiritual power?” Zhang Huai requested.

Consuming more spiritual power means scaring him more, doesn’t it?

Tong Yu suggested, “That’s simple. Once you’re inside, just be proactive in doing the tasks.”

“Okay,” Shang Letian replied.

Just then, another muscular man walked over. This man was dark-skinned, tall, and heavily built, somewhat similar in demeanor to the disconnected Brother Gangyi. “Boss, is your game really that scary?”

At his question, everyone else’s gaze also turned to Tong Yu.

Tong Yu chuckled, “Whether it’s scary or not, you’ll know once you experience it yourselves, won’t you?”

“True. Shall we go in now?” The muscular man was impatient.

“Alright,” Tong Yu led them to the escape room entrance and began explaining the game mechanics. “This game is actually very simple, with no complicated rules, just puzzles and escape. You have three hours. If you escape within three hours, it counts as a successful clear. During the game, you cannot damage property or assault NPCs. If you want to give up halfway, you can use the help button on the wall to call for my assistance. This is the story background; you can take a look.”

After Tong Yu finished, he handed the script to one of them. Just as he was about to open the entrance, he suddenly remembered something and asked, “This game will be live-streamed the entire time. Do you mind?”

“No, we don’t mind,” everyone agreed.

Tong Yu had no further concerns and opened the passage, letting them in.

The shop assistant had already enabled the live-streaming function, so as soon as they entered, the live stream began simultaneously outside.

Zhang Huai, Little Fei, and the others immediately started sending flowers and tips, continuously showering the stream with three interstellar battleships, which boosted the live room’s ranking by several hundred spots.

Tong Yu glanced at the price of an interstellar battleship and quickly stopped them. “Don’t send any more; one of those is 10,000 star coins!”

“It’s fine. You didn’t charge us when you let us play the game earlier, did you?”

“Exactly! Besides, live streams only get popular if you send gifts.”

Tong Yu: “But I said I was inviting you to experience it.”

“Then just consider it a gift for your new shop’s grand opening,” Ling Ling said with a smile. “I’m planning to use this as leverage. If I come to play again later, you’ll have to give me special arrangements through the back door.”

“No problem at all; you can come anytime,” Tong Yu replied. Since they had put it that way, he couldn’t say much more.

In the live stream, the eight people had already knocked on the Li Mansion’s gate. The sleazy, hunched butler came out with a lantern, and the game officially began.

At this point, a floating comment appeared on the screen:

[What is this? A movie? I remember entering a game live stream, right?]

[This house looks like it’s made entirely of wood. Is this some new type of architecture?]

[The title of this live stream is too arrogant: “Play once, and your spiritual sea will be calm.” How dare they use such a title? Aren’t they afraid of being banned? Reported, reported.]

Tong Yu immediately grew tense: “Will the live stream be banned?”

“It’s fine,” Zhang Huai reassured him. “As long as it doesn’t involve sensitive words, like ‘definitely’ or ‘absolutely,’ it won’t be banned.”

Tong Yu felt relieved and continued watching the live stream.

Inside the Escape Room

The muscular man and Shang Letian walked at the front. Shang Letian, remembering what Tong Yu told him about actively participating in tasks, proactively moved closer to the old butler and asked, “Excuse me, where are we going?”

Under the dim light, the old butler’s wrinkled face slowly lifted. His murky eyes exuded an aura of death: “To die.”

Shang Letian’s pupils contracted. He felt a chill shoot straight from his feet to his head, and his hair stood on end from fright.

“Ah!”

A sudden scream startled Tong Yu. He turned his head and saw Ling Ling covering her eyes with her hands, screaming, yet unable to resist peeking through her fingers.

“H-how does it feel scarier than when we were actually inside?” Ling Ling said with a trembling voice.

“Back then, none of us looked at the butler’s face,” Zhang Huai replied. Just the voice alone was terrifying.

Indeed, in the live stream, the eight people who had been calmly walking instantly huddled together.

[Holy cow, that was really scary just now.]

[That old man’s voice is so grating, like someone’s scraping sandpaper against my heart. I feel like listening to him talk could shorten my lifespan.]

[They said it was a game, but how do you play this? Streamer, are you in the wrong channel?]

[This is too fake, eight people, and they’re scared by an old man? The acting is way too fake.]

As more people watched the live stream, more and more comments appeared.

By this time, the eight people had entered the east wing and saw the clothes inside, discussing who would “marry” the Ghost Bride.

“I’ll go,” Shang Letian volunteered.

The others looked at him worriedly: “Letian, are you sure? I saw you were pretty scared outside just now.”

“I’m sure,” Shang Letian gritted his teeth. He had to do it, even if he wasn’t sure, to consume more energy.

The others understood his intention and didn’t stop him. The muscular man directly handed him the clothes: “You go first. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll go.”

Shang Letian nodded, changed into the clothes, and walked out of the room alone.

“Let’s go. It’s time for the wedding ceremony.” The hunched old butler led the way, and Shang Letian followed closely behind, clutching the red silk ball tied to his chest.

[Bai Tang ^[1] Traditional Chinese ceremony where newlyweds bow to heaven/earth, ancestors, and each other.? This seems to be an ancient Earth wedding ritual.]

[An ancient Earth wedding ritual? So this scene and these clothes are from ancient Earth?]

[Though I don’t know if it’s real or fake, looking at it so far, the scene design is very detailed. Haven’t found anything to complain about yet.]

[Is this streamer insane? If you want to do cultural popularization, go to a cultural popularization channel. Why are you in a game channel? And claiming to consume spiritual energy? Isn’t this fraud?]

[Fraud +1]

[Fraud +2]

As more and more “fraud” comments flooded the screen, the Ghost Bride made her appearance. The room was filled with red candles, and the bride in her wedding dress stood with her back to the door.

“My husband, you’ve come,” the bride said, as if she had eyes in the back of her head.

Shang Letian had been feeling anxious the whole way, but when he arrived at the brightly lit hall, he instantly felt a little better.

“I… I’ve come,” Shang Letian stood at the doorway, hesitant to go further.

“Come closer to me.”

For some reason, even though the other person’s voice was gentle and pleasant, Shang Letian felt a chill. But remembering the purpose of his visit, he plucked up his courage and walked over. The moment he approached, something strange happened: the Ghost Bride suddenly turned, a cold wind swept through, revealing a face streaked with blood and tears beneath the red veil. Before Shang Letian’s brain could fully process this terrifying, almost face-to-face encounter, all the red candles in the room were extinguished by the wind, plunging the entire hall into darkness.

“Why did you harm me, why?!!” A sharp, piercing question tore through their eardrums. The bride’s fingernails abruptly lengthened, and she tightly clutched Shang Letian’s neck.

“Ahhhhhhh~~~”

Screams erupted almost simultaneously both in and out of the live stream.

Tong Yu jumped, quickly dodging to the side.

“So this is… what happened to Gangyi?” Zhang Huai finally understood. No wonder Gangyi screamed like that; if it were him, he probably would have been scared offline by now.

Little Fei, though silent, his pale face and constant nodding, said it all.

In the live stream, Shang Letian was utterly terrified. He instinctively struggled, howling and screaming, finally managing to break free from the Ghost Bride’s grip. He ran out like a headless chicken, but after only two steps, he tripped over a chair and fell to the ground. The Ghost Bride, who had pursued him, grabbed his leg and dragged him back.

“My beloved Li, where are you going? We haven’t completed the wedding ceremony yet,” the Ghost Bride’s voice softened again.

“Let go of me, let go of me!” Shang Letian had completely forgotten it was a game; he just wanted to run away. “Help me!!!”

Shang Letian desperately kicked his legs, breaking free from the Ghost Bride’s hold, and continued running towards the door. But after only two steps, he was dragged back by the Ghost Bride again. This cycle continued, making Tong Yu feel exhausted just watching.

He had set it so that if a player reached the door within three seconds, the Ghost Bride wouldn’t drag them back. Why did Shang Letian keep falling?

Just as Tong Yu was wondering whether to subtly intervene to let Shang Letian escape, someone rushed in from outside the door: “Letian, I’m here to save you!”

The muscular man burst into the hall. Seeing someone grabbing Shang Letian’s leg, he lunged forward and threw a punch!

The Ghost Bride’s body tilted from the blow, her veil completely falling off, revealing glowing green eyes in the darkness that fixated on the muscular man. Her body rose from the ground, floating in mid-air.

“Damn you, you all deserve to die!”

The muscular man swore, pulled the prone Shang Letian to his feet, and bolted. Fortunately, this time, the two finally ran out of the main door within three seconds, and the Ghost Bride did not drag them back.

The two rushed back to the east wing, closed the door, and gasped for breath. The muscular man leaned against the door, while Shang Letian lay on the ground, his soul practically gone.

The others didn’t know what had happened but were affected by the terrifying atmosphere, and no one dared to speak.

For a moment, it was eerily quiet both inside and outside the live stream.

Only Tong Yu muttered discontentedly, “Didn’t I say no hitting NPCs? Good thing it’s not a real person.”

[Holy crap! Scared the living daylights out of me!]

[I was just eating, got so scared I crushed my bowl with my bare hands.]

[N-word, I’m drenched in cold sweat right now?]

[The comments were all scared away.]

With that reminder, everyone realized that from the moment the Ghost Bride transformed, there had been no comments in the live stream, until now.

[Oh my god, one second I was admiring the bride’s beautiful dress, the next second she pulled that on me. My heart almost gave out.]

[Same, but I was looking at the hall’s decor.]

[Is the streamer okay? Feels like they’re about to fall apart.]

[Spiritual power must have dropped everywhere.]

[Streamer, show us the spiritual power consumptio], please.w

[Show it +1.】

Zhang Huai turned to Tong Yu and said, “Put their spiritual power consumption on the right side of the screen for comparison.”

“Wouldn’t that be a bit intrusive? That’s personal privacy,” Tong Yu said.

Zhang Huai: “They agreed to live stream, which means they agreed to you displaying their energy consumption.”

Little Fei also said, “Right, putting the spiritual power consumption values next to it for comparison will make the live stream more effective.”

Ling Ling also nodded.

Seeing them agree, Tong Yu instructed the shop assistant to bring up the energy consumption values and display them on the right side of the live stream, playing in real-time.

Currently, Shang Letian was ranked first in consumption: 98,871 R.

Others varied but were mostly around 30,000.

[Holy cow! You’re kidding, right? It’s almost 100,000 R from just that one instance?]

The moment the values appeared, the comments section exploded.

[Others didn’t do anything at all, just looked for stuff in that room, and they still consumed over 30,000.]

[Faking it will get you banned. Already reported.]

Outside the escape room, Zhang Huai was incredibly excited: “It’s 100,000! It’s almost 100,000! At this rate, one more chase from the Ghost Bride and it’ll be about there.”

In the live stream, some people in the room had found the Daoist priest’s message and were now preparing to split up to find the Soul-Locking Nails. The eight people split into pairs, deciding to rush out together.

[Good idea. There’s only one Ghost Bride; she can’t chase four directions at once.]

[Exactly. Let Big Bear attract the Ghost Bride’s attention, and the others can look for the Soul-Locking Nails.]

Big Bear was the muscular man’s online name. Since he had saved Shang Letian earlier, the two naturally became a pair. Soon, all eight people rushed out, running in four different directions. Inevitably, someone would encounter the Ghost Bride.

The two who encountered the Ghost Bride were running towards the west wing. Their spiritual consumption values were ranked third and fourth, and it was clear from their rankings that they were relatively timid. They ran head-on into the Ghost Bride, who was in her crazed form, with blood-tears, glowing green eyes, and long hair hanging down. They couldn’t withstand the fright and screamed, immediately turning back to run the other way.

Big Bear and Shang Letian were running eastward. When they turned around and saw the Ghost Bride chasing their companions towards them, their scalps tightened: “Don’t run towards us, ahhhhhhh!”

So, a one-chasing-two scenario turned into a one-chasing-four. And as they ran, the consumption values of the four players shot up like a stopwatch timer.

The comments section was filled with strings of “holy crap” and dumbfounded emojis.

Of course, some smart people who couldn’t stand it offered a reminder: [Run into a room! Are you stupid?]

Unfortunately, the eight players in the live stream couldn’t see the comments.

Thankfully, Big Bear finally reacted, remembering they could hide in a room. He rushed in first: “Quick, hide in here!”

Big Bear called out to the two who were running slower behind him.

Seeing this, Tong Yu quietly moved his chair back a bit more.

Just as the last person was about to run into the room, the Ghost Bride suddenly teleported, grabbing the last person: “Got you.”

Blood and tears dripped from her head, streaming down her face.

“Ahhhh!!!”

Suddenly, the Ghost Bride’s embrace was empty; the person was gone.

In an instant, outside and inside the door, the Ghost Bride and Big Bear stared at each other in shock. Then, with a “bang,” Big Bear reacted first and slammed the door shut.

The Ghost Bride looked at her empty embrace, then at the closed door. Her program was slightly disoriented for a moment: Didn’t catch anyone, what’s next?

[Is this… offline?!]

[This guy’s final energy consumption was 109,887 R!]

[When the Ghost Bride grabbed him, he instantly dropped 15,000.]

[How can you drop that much energy at once? It must be fake. Streamer, can you at least fake it professionally?]

[Uh… should we check our own energy consumption? I’ll report mine first: since the stream started, I’ve dropped 12,361 R.]

When this comment appeared, the screen was still for a moment, then rows of numerical comments flooded in.

[14987.]

[9875.]

[12999.]

……

A series of energy consumption values appeared, all between 9,000 and 15,000.

At this moment, someone, out of nowhere, suddenly sent a Starfleet warship as a gift.

This seemed to be a signal, as the live stream was instantly flooded with Starfleet warships, meteor showers, and roller coasters, making it impossible for Tong Yu to see the screen. He had no choice but to ask the shop assistant to turn off the gift effects.

The shop assistant reminded him, “If you turn off the effects, viewers can’t send gifts, which will reduce your income.”

Upon hearing this, Tong Yu immediately thought, ‘This won’t do! I need to make money!’ “Is there any way to keep the gift channel open without affecting the viewing experience?”

Shop assistant: “Set a gift display threshold. Only when the corresponding amount is reached will the gift effect appear. Based on the number of gifts in the live stream just now, I suggest setting the amount at 100,000 star coins.”

Tong Yu: “Won’t that be too high?”

Shop assistant: “No. Ten viewers have already sent 100,000.”

‘What?! Ten people have already sent 100,000?!!’

Tong Yu’s hands started trembling with excitement. He couldn’t help but tug at Zhang Huai.

Seeing his reaction, Zhang Huai comforted him, “Don’t be scared; they’ve already hidden inside the house.”

‘No, that’s not what I’m scared about.’

But Zhang Huai clearly wasn’t focused on him anymore. Inside the escape room, the people who had hidden in the room had all found clues.

“This must be the Soul-Locking Nail, but how do we open this box?”

“There’s paper here.”

“The box’s key is hidden by the Ghost Bride in the wedding hall. Hint: it’s related to the Bai Tiandi ritual.” Big Bear instantly collapsed, “We have to go to the wedding hall again? And what in the world is this ‘Bai Tiandi ^[2] it’s a culturally specific term for the “bow to heaven/earth” wedding rite ritual’?”

While Big Bear and his two companions were quickly losing it, the comments section was having a blast.

[Hahaha, so miserable, but why am I having so much fun watching?]

[Upstairs, you’re not alone.]

[I know the Bai Tiandi ritual! I just looked it up. Bai Tiandi is when the bride and groom get married: they bow to heaven and earth once, then bow to their parents twice, then bow to each other as husband and wife, and the wedding is complete after three bows.]

[So where would the key be hidden? Does anyone remember the layout of the wedding hall?]

[That’s not the point, is it? The point is, does the streamer still have the courage to enter the wedding hall?]

At the same time, the other two groups also found boxes containing Soul-Locking Nails, but without exception, the keys were all hidden by the Ghost Bride.

[Didn’t the note left by the Daoist priest say the Ghost Bride sleeps at Wugeng? Let’s go then.]

[Upstairs is so clever, but didn’t you see the game has a time limit? Only an hour and a half left.]

[Looks like we’ll have to sacrifice someone to the Ghost Bride.]

[Holy crap, the way that phrase is used is brilliant. I think Big Bear is a good choice. He had the lowest energy loss; he shouldn’t get scared offline.]

[Yes, Big Bear go.]

[Big Bear go, I’ll send a Starfleet warship.]

Unlike the cheerfulness in the comments, the players inside the escape room were filled with despair. Outside, a chilling wind blew, and the Ghost Bride’s mournful calls of “My beloved Li harmed me~” echoed intermittently. No one dared to go out.

Just then, Shang Letian suddenly found a box: “There’s something here.”

“Soul-Returning Incense: Lighting this incense can summon the soul of the heartless man, Young Master Li, recreating the scene of their first encounter. This incense lasts for five minutes and then becomes ineffective.”

“How many sticks of incense in total?”

“Three.”

“A total of three chances. Let’s go, gather the others and try to find it together.”

When they left the east wing, the eight had agreed to meet back there after finding the Soul-Locking Nails. By the time Big Bear and his group returned to the east wing, the other four had also returned, and had even found the missing Soul-Locking Nail that the offline player hadn’t found.

“Where’s Li Qian?” Someone noticed one person was missing.

“He went offline.”

This answer instantly stunned the other four.

“How did he go offline?”

“He was hugged by the Ghost Bride.”

“How terrible,” everyone mourned silently.

Shang Letian, seeing that they didn’t look too well either, asked curiously, “What about you guys? The Ghost Bride was on our side, so you should be fine, right?”

“We were chased by the butler with the servants all the way.”

“Did they hit you?”

“I wish they had just hit us; we could have just fought back. But they… they were too scary,” one of the big brothers couldn’t help but shed bitter tears.

The beautiful and imposing woman in his group, however, couldn’t help but laugh out loud, making the others stare in bewilderment. In such a terrifying environment, how could she still laugh?

The elegant woman suppressed her laughter and said, “That house servant looked exactly like you, but wearing a skirt, lipstick, and hair ornaments. And they didn’t hit anyone they caught, they just kissed them.”

Everyone looked at Big Bear, then imagined the scene, and couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

[Hahaha… I just switched over to watch the other live stream’s replay, I’m dying of laughter, everyone go watch!]

[The house servant is truly as beautiful as a flower.]

[In some ways, the level of horror isn’t inferior to the Ghost Bride.]

[Hahaha…]

While the audience in the comments section collectively went to appreciate the house servant’s “beauty,” the players inside the escape room were already discussing how to retrieve the key.