Blue Star, Hua Nation.
In a certain high-end residential complex.
Ji Yang was a gaming streamer who specialized in broadcasting horror games of all sizes from various platforms. Afterwards, he would also edit the recordings and post them to a certain video site to serve as reference guides for those who were both unskilled yet loved to play.
His account had over five million followers, making him a veritable major streamer.
Ever since the God Hunt game descended upon Blue Star, Ji Yang had been paying attention to various instances every day.
Whether they were streams from veteran players or new players, he would watch a few and select the most exciting live streams to edit and post to his own account. Sometimes he would even directly stream those players' live streams, watching alongside his fans.
With a real survival game existing in the real world, and one featuring the most thrilling live-streaming format, all the various horror games online naturally lost their appeal.
Ji Yang did this partly to continue maintaining his account, and partly to use it as an opportunity to cultivate both his own and his fans' understanding of different types of instances.
The God Hunt game selected players with no discernible pattern; no one could guarantee they wouldn't be the next one chosen.
Therefore, watching a massive number of various live streams to accumulate relevant instance experience was the only preparation they could make for themselves.
At least if they were possibly selected in the future, they wouldn't be so panicked and helpless, and might even avoid the same patterned traps within instances.
It wasn't just Ji Yang doing this.
Soon after the God Hunt game first descended, the authorities, who reacted quickly, issued a series of related policies.
For example, local television stations added instance analysis channels, hosted daily by carefully selected professionals from various fields. Similarly, schools for different age groups all opened new courses specifically to train students in how to cope with instances.
The authorities couldn't know which members of the public would be selected each day; they could only hope, through these measures, that those chosen could rely on the instance knowledge they instilled to survive as best they could.
Not to mention that the instance clearance rate also affected the pollution levels in reality.
That day, Ji Yang habitually scrolled through the category page within the [God Hunt] app and randomly picked a live stream from the new player category to enter.
The new player didn't look very old; it was unclear if they had graduated from university yet.
He felt a bit sorry for them, but not overly so.
After all, he had even seen high school students pulled into the game.
This game didn't care whether you were an adult or not. According to official statistics, the youngest selected player was 13 years old, and the oldest was 56.
Whether this age range would change in the future was something no one could say for sure.
However, what struck him as somewhat peculiar was that after this new player regained consciousness, they weren't afraid, wary, or defensive like most people suddenly transported to an unfamiliar environment. Instead, they were exceptionally calm.
The only emotion the other person leaked was a persistent sense of irritability on their face, as if being pulled into the game instance was especially annoying to them.
Ji Yang thought he might have seen wrong. His originally casual attitude diminished considerably, replaced by curiosity as he focused his attention, preparing to observe this seemingly quite special newcomer.
Even veteran players who had experienced multiple instances only appeared calmer than new players each time they entered a new instance. As for being as utterly unconcerned as this newcomer, there were practically none.
This kind of situation either meant they were incredibly carefree or they had a well-thought-out plan.
Although the God Hunt game had been around for a year now, and people understood daily through large and small live streams how eerie and dangerous instances could be, there were still those who thought too highly of themselves, believing they were the chosen ones who couldn't die no matter how recklessly they acted, and thus behaved particularly chuunibyou.
Ji Yang didn't know which type this newcomer was, but subconsciously he leaned towards the first one.
This completely unworried demeanor couldn't even be maintained by the big shots who were permanent fixtures on the recommendation charts.
However, the series of actions that followed successfully froze his expression into one of stunned disbelief.
Ji Yang simply watched, wide-eyed, as this newcomer he thought was carefree scratched their head, seemingly venting frustration at being selected. Then, it was as if they suddenly realized that simply venting was useless.
He thought this person was going to start properly observing the instance and thinking about how to clear it. Instead, the person, without even blinking, left the bedroom and headed straight for the master bedroom opposite, even politely knocked twice on the door, and then—under Ji Yang's astonished gaze—roughly hauled the unrecognizable corpse from the bed over to the chair beside the dining table.
Ji Yang: "...?"
That wasn't the end of it. He then watched, wide-eyed, as this person rushed to the kitchen, skillfully took a pot from the refrigerator that looked very wrong indeed—a stew pot—and placed it on the chair next to the corpse.
Ji Yang: "...??"
When he saw this newcomer calmly sit down opposite the dining table, calmly light the candles on the cake, then start making a wish with a devout expression, followed by calmly blowing out the candles, and finally calmly start eating the cake—and the next second, the white light indicating clearance shone upon them—Ji Yang was completely numb.
He suspected he had clicked on a fake live stream.
Otherwise, how could someone possibly clear an instance so casually... haha!
The sudden flood of question marks rolling wildly across the screen after a moment of silence in the live stream chat finally made it impossible for Ji Yang to deceive himself any longer.
He scrambled up from his ergonomic chair, and with quick reflexes, clicked to follow the player just before the live stream—which had gone black after the white light—disappeared.
He really! Saw! Someone! Clear! An instance! In under! Three minutes!!!
It wasn't fake!!!
For a moment, not knowing how to describe his feelings, Ji Yang could only tremble and frantically navigate to his follow list.
His follow list only contained a few relatively famous top players or new players he considered quite promising. The list, which rarely saw updates, had gained another one today.
Scrolling to the very bottom, the two characters "Xu Xi" came into view.
Trembling, he clicked on the avatar. The other person's streaming history indeed showed only one stream; they were indeed a newcomer. The stream duration read 2 minutes and 48 seconds. He hadn't been seeing things.
"..." Ji Yang said nothing, just kept rewatching the recording.
That night at 8 PM, an edited video on a certain video site hit the trending searches.
It exploded.
——
Remaining Warmth: ? Am I still asleep? Someone come here quick so I can slap myself!
What's Wrong With Being Unbalanced: 2 minutes 48 seconds... hahahaha must be that my nearsightedness has gotten worse hehehe
Don't Know What to Name This: How did he know... know... I mean, how on earth did he know that doing that would clear the instance???
Don't You Dare Scream at Me: Awesome!! I declare! This is the real deal!!! (voice cracking)
...
I Am Good: Can someone analyze this instance?
If You See Me Please Send Me 50: There are already quite a few related videos on [the video site], person above, you can go search for them
——
Ji Yang kept a close watch on the comments under the trending topic.
That's right, the video was the one he edited.
He couldn't be the only one shocked by this!
The video's explosive popularity was completely within his expectations.
It could be said that in a short time, the name "Xu Xi" dominated the headlines of various platforms, and even attracted the attention of the authorities.
Netizens across the nation were without exception discussing this newcomer player who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
Clearing an instance in under three minutes, and as a newcomer no less—not only was it record-breaking, it could be recorded as a world miracle!
Ji Yang also went to watch a few videos analyzing that live stream... Let's just say very few analyzed it accurately; most were just speculation.
This was also because the newcomer cleared it so fast; the live stream didn't reveal many more clues. They could only guess based on the newcomer's actions.
As for how that newcomer named Xu Xi managed to clear the instance directly without gathering any clues... maybe they just didn't need clues to know how to clear it?
Players who could see through the essence of an instance at a glance weren't unheard of, okay.
Well, there weren't any before... but there is one now!
Ji Yang had already made up his mind: he would be the first viewer for every future live stream by this new player!!!