Chapter 9: Treating Big Bro to Breakfast

Sheng Wen was stumped by Lin Kuo’s question for a moment.

He felt quite conflicted.

Why did I add you with a smurf account? Isn’t it because you restricted my speech? Don’t you have any self-awareness? Besides, if it wasn’t for your sake, why would I spend a whopping fifty thousand points on a smurf account?

Although Sheng Wen held deep resentment in his heart, when he saw Lin Kuo’s ice-cold face in the livestream, he still decided to keep his alternate identity under wraps.

He couldn’t afford to lose that much face.

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[Sweet as the Wind]: It’s a long story.
[Sweet as the Wind]: Actually—
[Sweet as the Wind]: …

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Sheng Wen really couldn’t make anything up.

He thought about just giving up and letting it all hang out.

[Lin Kuo]: Don’t say it if it’s inconvenient.

Sheng Wen was slightly taken aback, then the corners of his lips curled up slightly.

He had almost forgotten the little streamer’s special characteristic.

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[Sweet as the Wind]: The truth is a little inconvenient to tell you, big brother.
[Sweet as the Wind]: Please believe me, big brother. I have no ill intentions.

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Sheng Wen noticed the micro-expression on Lin Kuo’s face in the livestream.
Sure enough, the chat box displayed “The other party is typing…”, and in the next second, Lin Kuo’s message came through:

[Lin Kuo]: Mmm.

A little awkward, but very cute.

The smile on Sheng Wen’s lips slowly widened, and the speed of his typing became much lighter.

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[Sweet as the Wind]: Thank you for your understanding, big brother.
[Sweet as the Wind]: Also, big brother, you must remember what I said~
[Lin Kuo]: Okay.
[Sweet as the Wind]: Big brother, you should rest now. Good night and sweet dreams.

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It was already late at night in the livestream.

Lin Kuo replied stiffly, “Thanks.”

His malice was also selective.

Lin Kuo himself could have guessed Sweet as the Wind‘s advice, but that didn’t stop him from thanking her for her kindness.

The chat ended after his thanks.

Lin Kuo tossed his phone aside and refocused his attention on the piano in the small partitioned room.

The black lacquer shimmered under the moonlight.

He watched it for a long time but couldn’t retrieve that fleeting thought from his mind.

Just then, Li Yinan woke up.

She rubbed her eyes and looked at the livestream’s progress bar.

She had slept for four hours.

She sat up with a start.

“Boss, why didn’t you wake me up?”

With his life no longer in immediate danger, Lin Kuo had been wrestling with his own thoughts and hadn’t noticed the passage of time.

Li Yinan quickly urged Lin Kuo to rest.

Lin Kuo obediently nodded and then closed his eyes.

When he woke up from his sleep, a ray of dawn was just breaking outside the window.

Although the dawn was an eerie red, it was enough to prove that the first night had passed.

They were temporarily safe.

The two of them quickly tidied up and opened the door, just in time to run into the other five.

Lin Kuo glanced at them.

When they saw Lin Kuo and Li Yinan, their expressions froze for a moment in shock, as if they had just witnessed the dead come back to life.

And that was indeed the case.

The other five had left their rooms earlier than Lin Kuo and his companion.

With the preconceived notion that someone was bound to die that night—since their two rooms were fully staffed—it was very likely that misfortune had befallen Lin Kuo and his companion.

So when they saw Lin Kuo and Li Yinan appear alive and well, they couldn’t help but show such an expression.

Liang Sihong gave an awkward laugh, his tone a bit strange.

“It’s good that everyone is fine.”

He then adjusted his demeanor.

“Good morning.”

Lin Kuo silently retracted his gaze without a word.

The others didn’t respond either.

Everyone’s expression was just as strange as Liang Sihong’s “It’s good that everyone is fine.”

They didn’t have a third eye.

They couldn’t see and therefore didn’t know whether no one had actually died last night, or if the one who died had rejoined the team like a ghost.

When they arrived at the dining room, the strange expressions on everyone’s faces became even harder to maintain.

The butler was already waiting at the entrance of the dining room.

On the round table behind him, only six sets of tableware were laid out.

He kept muttering to himself, “Six, it’s six. No mistake today.”

This sentence brought back the unresolved question from yesterday, weighing heavily on everyone’s hearts.

This ghost, whose name they still hadn’t figured out—Henry Lee Lucas or Ted Bundy—was it mixed in among them, or did it exist separately?

“Please… please enjoy.”

The butler’s first reaction upon seeing them was to lower his head.

He said, trembling, “If… if you need anything, just call me.”

After speaking, he pushed his way through the crowd and left the dining room directly.

The breakfast on the table was a 100% repeat of yesterday’s.

However, no one was willing to sit at the spot without tableware.

They practically fought for their seats, as if doing so could prove they were living people and not the ghost that had infiltrated the team.

Li Yinan was also fighting for a spot.

She even saved a seat for Lin Kuo, but the scar-faced man grabbed her by the collar and pushed her away. “Little lady, don’t cause trouble!”

Saying this, he plopped down onto the chair Li Yinan had saved for Lin Kuo.

Li Yinan was afraid of the scar-faced man and could only look aggrievedly at Lin Kuo, who was watching all this with a faint expression.

She stood up and offered her seat to Lin Kuo. “Boss, you sit here.”

Lin Kuo stepped forward and pulled out a chair.

Li Yinan said anxiously, “Boss.”

The chair Lin Kuo chose had no tableware in front of it and was even far from the food.

“It’s okay.” Lin Kuo wasn’t used to being protected.

He just slightly reined in his indifferent aura.

The light in the dining room cast upon him, softening his features.

Given that Lin Kuo had proven yesterday that the food on the table was edible for humans, they didn’t hesitate much today and started to eat.

Li Yinan picked up a fried dough stick and an egg on her plate.

She was about to push it to Lin Kuo when she was stopped midway.

The scar-faced man snatched the plate from Li Yinan’s hand. “There’s no share for him.”

The others were all eating their own breakfast, turning a blind eye to this.

Li Yinan couldn’t help but say, “On what grounds?”

The scar-faced man said viciously, “There’s no share for him. What if you trigger the killing condition by giving it to him? Can you, a woman, take responsibility for that?”

“But—”

“Yeah, if you want to die, don’t drag us down with you.” Wang Miao stopped eating and stared at her.

Li Yinan looked around and found that the people who had been minding their own business eating breakfast were now all looking at her, as if her act of sharing food would really cause the team to be wiped out.

Even Liang Sihong, who had always played the role of the good guy, gave Lin Kuo an apologetic smile.

“Lin Kuo, this is a two-star instance, and last night there was no… so today we must be even more careful.”

Lin Kuo leaned back in his chair, watching this scene indifferently.

He had already tested these people’s characters yesterday, so he was prepared and not surprised by their actions now.

“Li Yinan,” Lin Kuo spoke, “don’t mind me.”

Li Yinan’s eyes immediately turned red.

Lin Kuo watched them eat the breakfast prepared by the butler.

He watched for a while, then got up and walked out, planning to look for clues in other rooms.

He wandered around the storage room and the living room but found no clues.

He pushed open another door.

Behind this door was a study, with all kinds of books neatly arranged on the shelves.

Lin Kuo randomly pulled out a book.

The title was Goethe’s Maxims and Reflections.

After flipping through a couple of pages, Lin Kuo still found nothing unusual.

He put the book back in its place and picked up a few other books to look at.

Similarly, he didn’t find the clues he was looking for in the books.

Giving up on the study, he went to the next room.

After going through all 12 doors like this, Lin Kuo still came up empty-handed.

He had no choice but to return to the dining room.

Before he reached it, he heard clamor and crying from inside.

“So, you encountered a ghost yesterday?”

“The ghost didn’t dare to kill you? Are you its mother, or is Lin Kuo its father? It even played the piano for you? Why don’t you say it kowtowed to you both? Full of shit!”

“Tell the truth! Are you a human or a ghost!”

Li Yinan cried and said, “I’m human, I’m really human.”

“Then Lin Kuo is the ghost?”

Li Yinan denied, “Boss is not, Boss he…”

“On what grounds are you sure Lin Kuo isn’t the ghost mixed in with us? You should know that human strength can’t compete with a ghost’s. How did you two miraculously survive?”

Li Yinan sobbed, “I… I think Boss is human.”

“You think? Have you considered that the reason you survived might be because Lin Kuo was trying to win people over? Otherwise, how do you explain there being only six breakfasts yesterday and today? How do you explain no one dying last night?”

Outside the door, Lin Kuo pursed his lips into a thin line.

He recognized the last sentence as coming from Liang Sihong.

It seemed someone had fanned the flames while he was out looking for clues.

Before entering, he deliberately knocked heavily on the door panel, giving these backstabbers a chance at social death.

However, their skin was thicker than Lin Kuo had imagined.

Although they all fell silent, there was no embarrassment on their faces.

Lin Kuo walked into the dining room, sat down in his previous chair, and tapped the table with his knuckles.

“I’m here. If you have something to say, ask me to my face.”

Liang Sihong spoke up, “I suggest everyone talk about what happened last night. Li Yinan told us you encountered a ghost.”

Lin Kuo nodded. “Yes.”

“You survived. Can you tell us why?”

Lin Kuo frowned. He couldn’t understand how survived and why were connected. He gave Liang Sihong a light glance and said with disgust, “It’s just as Li Yinan said.”

Everyone’s expression changed instantly, and they all looked at Lin Kuo warily.

After the incident with the doors of life and death, Lin Kuo had been given the halo of a boss by everyone, so they had all unconsciously followed his ideas.

Thinking about it carefully, when everyone mentioned a ghost being mixed in, Lin Kuo had been trying to divert their attention with other theories—like the peach wood patterns on the doors or those two murderers.

Thinking of this, Liang Sihong broke out in a cold sweat in hindsight.
He tried his best to maintain his composure.
“Can you prove your identity?”

Lin Kuo looked at him.
“If I were a ghost, would I be here letting you interrogate me?”

Liang Sihong fell silent.
The scar-faced man spoke anxiously, “Maybe we just haven’t triggered your killing condition, so you have to act like a wimp.”

Lin Kuo didn’t even want to look at him.
“Then you’d better be careful tonight.”

The scar-faced man deflated like a punctured balloon and didn’t dare to make another sound.

The dining room quieted down.
Lin Kuo, enduring the annoyance of speaking in long sentences, opened his mouth.
“The bedroom I chose was indeed haunted. The reason we survived, Li Yinan has already explained to you. I suggest you focus on the piano, not on suspicion—”

“Who knows if you’re trying to lure us. Maybe the piano is your killing condition.”
Someone interrupted his narrative.

Lin Kuo followed the voice and looked.
It was Wang Miao, whom he had helped at the doors of life and death.

Lin Kuo sneered and fell silent.

It seemed his teammates had already decided he was the ghost mixed in among them.
Then there was no need for him to explain further.

But the others took his silence as a tacit admission.
The scar-faced man was the first to take the lead in wanting to kill Lin Kuo, and he got the response he wanted from the others.

Li Yinan was helplessly anxious.
“Boss, say something!”

Although Lin Kuo was skilled, two fists were no match for four hands—let alone five people.

Seeing the dining room on the verge of a fight, Li Yinan had a stroke of genius.
“I can prove that Boss is human!”

After saying this, she gave Lin Kuo a meaningful look.
“Boss, take out your phone and show them your livestream.”

Liang Sihong understood Li Yinan’s meaning.

Only players participating in the instance would have a livestream assigned by the Main God System.

This could prove whether Lin Kuo was human or a ghost.

Lin Kuo was unwilling from the bottom of his heart, but seeing Li Yinan desperately trying to explain for him, he hesitated for a moment and still took out his phone.

Li Yinan quickly handed Lin Kuo’s phone to the others. “Look, Boss has a livestream.”

She waited expectantly for their reaction, but she didn’t expect the expressions of those who saw the phone to change drastically.

Noticing the change in their expressions, Li Yinan glanced at the phone screen—and then froze.

Lin Kuo’s phone screen was flooded with bullet comments:

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[He’s the ghost.]
[I can prove it, he’s the ghost.]
[He’s the ghost mixed in among you.]
[He’s the ghost, hurry up and kill this dog streamer.]
[Fight, fight, oh no, kill, kill.]

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Because it wasn’t a correct clue, the room manager couldn’t ban these bullet comments.

These rapidly scrolling comments fell into everyone’s eyes, adding another layer of certainty that

Lin Kuo was the ghost.

Li Yinan didn’t know what to say for a moment.

She somewhat hated herself for this terrible idea.

Given Lin Kuo’s relationship with the viewers, how could she not have considered that they would take the opportunity to stir up trouble?

“Phone.” Lin Kuo took back his phone.

Li Yinan looked at Lin Kuo with teary eyes. “Boss… I’m sorry, I…”

Lin Kuo put away his phone and picked up a small silver knife from the table, tossing it in front of the scar-faced man. “I won’t resist—if you’re not afraid of the punishment.”

Liang Sihong had said that the Main God System did not allow players to be killed by other players.

So Lin Kuo’s words made the scar-faced man abruptly stop his clamor.

Seeing this, Liang Sihong was also quite hesitant.

He thought for a moment and said, “If you are a ghost, I don’t think it would be difficult to fake a livestream. How about this: the room manager has the authority to send flowers to the streamer for free. Have your room manager send you flowers.”

Liang Sihong cleverly used the words send flowers to replace prove.

He was a veteran and knew some small ways to exploit bugs, so this didn’t count as violating the system’s rule of no posting instance-related clues in the livestream.

If Lin Kuo was really a player, he would have his own instance room manager. And the room manager earned points through the streamer, so they definitely wouldn’t be willing for their streamer to be forced offline so early under such circumstances.

Li Yinan breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, she had reminded Lin Kuo last night to be polite to the room manager.
She just didn’t know if Lin Kuo’s room manager was willing to help.

She held her breath and waited, silently praying in her heart.

Even though Boss’s expression is foul right now, even though Boss doesn’t care about the room manager, even though Boss’s politeness last night was very perfunctory… Boss is a good boss. I hope the room manager isn’t ungrateful—oh no, I hope the room manager…

Before she finished praying, she heard a ding-dong.

This sound had no source but was loud and clear, accompanied by a special effect-like glow in mid-air.

Liang Sihong and the scar-faced man exchanged a glance.

The newbies might not know what this meant, but they knew clearly.

Someone had donated an item to the streamer through the donation channel.

As the light shone, a few small fireworks bloomed in mid-air.

Then the light dissipated, and a box with Lin Kuo’s name on it appeared on the table.

Li Yinan was overjoyed. “Are those the flowers sent by the boss’s room manager?”

Lin Kuo pursed his lips.

He didn’t think S, whom he had restricted from speaking, would help him.

The box was closed.

Lin Kuo was more inclined to believe it contained a bomb.

Everyone was shocked.

Liang Sihong coughed and said to Lin Kuo, “Sorry, I had to do this for everyone’s safety.

Although it’s not the free flowers from the room manager, since someone donated an item for you, I think we really misunderstood you.”

After hearing Liang Sihong’s speech, Lin Kuo keenly caught a few keywords: not the room manager, someone, item.

He was sure that room manager S wouldn’t interfere, but he hadn’t expected someone else to appear.

Liang Sihong said, “Only you can open the item box.”

Lin Kuo remained silent.

Only after several urgings from Liang Sihong did he silently reach out his hand.

Just as he was about to touch the item box, it opened automatically, and a sweet, sticky fragrance wafted out.

Seeing the contents of the item box, Lin Kuo was stunned.

London gull egg rolls, truffles, champagne, Kaka donuts, pudding.

And a note: A treat for big brother’s breakfast — Sweet as the Wind.

“…”