The live stream comments in the million-viewer stream were absolutely buzzing, making Ji Yang's head spin.
Countless comments would vanish before he could even read them, buried under an endless flood of new ones. Ji Yang could only pick and reply to the ones he managed to catch.
Was this what it felt like to blow up?
Ji Yang struggled to suppress the grin threatening to split his face.
He couldn't keep up. He simply couldn't keep up.
However, very quickly, the chaotic chatter in the comments suddenly unified around a single topic.
[Holy shit holy shit, that instance analysis channel on J Province TV is planning to feature Master Xu Xi in their next live stream!!!]
[...Don't tell me the show is called 'The Glittering Players'?]
[YESSSSS, that's the one!!!]
[That show? The one dubbed 'Final Destination of the TV world', 'The Ultimate Jinx', 'The Divine Chosen God Hunt Bootlicker Saint'?]
[That 'Glittering Play' that has streamed hundreds of matches and killed every single player they featured?]
[The 'Glittering Play' where no player has ever survived their broadcast?]
[...Yes, that's the one. I didn't realize our J Province TV station was so famous.]
[Famous? It's reached us here in B Province!]
[What a coincidence, it's reached S Province too.]
[NOOOOOO! I haven't even had time to warm up to our new master before he falls victim to 'Glittering Play's' curse!]
[Why did they have to pick Master Xu Xi?]
[Because Xu Xi is from J Province, plus he's super hot right now. Naturally, they set their sights on him.]
[Does this production team have no self-awareness? Don't they know how toxic they are? Are they only happy after ruining all the talented players?]
[That's why there are basically no top-ranked players from J Province. Most got jinxed by this show during their rookie phase.]
[No one's putting a stop to this? With a track record that toxic, it should have been axed ages ago.]
[They have connections, backstage support is solid. Besides, their statement is so 'reasonable': 'It's not that our show is toxic, it's that the players themselves aren't strong enough.' (Just quoting, don't shoot the messenger.)]
[Dammit, my hand is itching to slap someone.]
[Players dying can pollute reality! They don't care about that either?]
[Probably proves the national pollution level is still under control. I bet the higher-ups will only panic when half of Hua Nation is overrun.]
[Why the hell doesn't God Hunt just select that dumbass production team into an instance?]
[We're screwed. Is Master Xu Xi really going to fall just like that? Wuwuwu, my master...]
[Not necessarily. Maybe Xu Xi can break the show's curse. Remember his 248!]
[But hundreds of matches. All dead. Think about what that means.]
"..." The smile on Ji Yang's face instantly vanished.
Of course he had heard of 'Glittering Play'. He had even watched a few of their live streams. Unsurprisingly, not a single player they featured survived.
He never imagined this production team would set their sights on Xu Xi?!
In his heart, Xu Xi was absolutely the next Great God Zhang Song, perhaps even destined to go further than Zhang Song ever did.
And now the comments were telling him Xu Xi was about to get jinxed?
How could he tolerate this?
"Ahem, it's getting late. I'll be signing off for now. As for what everyone's saying about 'Glittering Play' wanting to stream Xu Xi... my only thought is, the production team should wash up and go to bed early if they have nothing better to do."
[Will you still stream Master Xu Xi's next instance?]
"That depends. If 'Glittering Play' streams it, then I won't."
He was going to tear that production team to shreds!
After ending the stream, Ji Yang went straight to 'Glittering Play's' official account.
He couldn't openly incite viewers to oppose this in his stream, but there was nothing stopping him from subtly steering public opinion online, right?
He was a professional when it came to keyboard warfare!
...
Eyes closed, then opened. The massive, golden-glowing staircase appeared before him once more.
Xu Xi focused inward. While he still couldn't pinpoint exactly how many steps he had climbed, he had a vague sense it was more than after clearing the second instance.
It seemed this instance was probably a bit more difficult than the last one.
Even though this was only his third instance, Xu Xi had already developed the habit of reviewing everything as soon as an instance ended.
Relaxing on the warm, golden stone steps, Xu Xi first analyzed his teammates this time.
The other four players—
The short-haired glasses girl died too early, so she wasn't worth discussing.
The most intelligent was definitely the Refined Man. A master at analyzing clues, and he always managed to react swiftly at critical moments.
Next was the High-Ponytailed Woman. While not as obviously sharp as the Refined Man, she could not only keep up with his train of thought but was also exceptionally observant.
As for the final Burly Man... he had some brains, and his abilities were passable.
He just never expected that while everyone survived the last instance, three out of five players died in this one, leaving only the High-Ponytailed Woman and himself alive.
However, Xu Xi did the math. In this instance, he had only died four times!
Looking at it that way, he had improved, right? At least he was dying less and less.
The thought put Xu Xi in a rather good mood, but before his happiness could fully blossom, a sudden realization hit him.
Was he actually happy about dying fewer times??
Did that mean he had unconsciously grown accustomed to death?!
"I'm doomed. Am I really becoming psychologically twisted?" Xu Xi muttered to himself.
He still remembered headbutting the wall to kill himself in this instance. What had he felt back then?
Oh, right. It hurt a bit, but it was acceptable.
After two seconds of silence, Xu Xi finally accepted the fact that he seemed to have genuinely become psychologically twisted.
He didn't think getting used to death was a good thing. It meant his fear of death was gradually diminishing, potentially disappearing entirely.
If his reloads were limited, then losing his fear of death would eventually lead to his real, permanent death...
Wait, did it even matter?
Given the difficulty of God Hunt instances, without his reload ability, no amount of caution would give him much chance of successfully climbing this staircase.
In that case, why worry so much? He wasn't even afraid of dying anymore.
Live if you can, die if you can't. Dying didn't seem like such a big deal anyway.
Having reached this conclusion, Xu Xi felt a wave of refreshing clarity wash over him.
On with the review!
This instance wasn't exactly hard, but it wasn't simple either.
Xu Xi carefully recalled everything. The entire instance's difficulty seemed to stem from that young man.
Without the young man's series of interlocking traps, the hardest part for them would have just been finding the cellar.
Gather clues, piece together the backstory, find the cellar, make a call, the Anomaly Management Bureau arrives, they get rescued, instance cleared!
It should have been an ultra-simple process, but the young man had to butt in and complicate everything.
Tsk. Xu Xi clicked his tongue and felt his pockets.
The two wedding candies and the spirit money were still there. He hadn't used them this entire instance because there was no need.
Perhaps the patterned wedding candy could have cleared the white humanoid thing's mental contamination, but he had been completely paralyzed at the time, unable to eat it.
Items that required manual activation like that had their flaws. Something like the High-Ponytailed Woman's passive-trigger item would have been perfect.