In the player space, one couldn't feel the passage of time, and bodily functions were maintained at a peak, frozen state. Xu Xi wanted to sleep but couldn't.
However, inside the instance, players regained their original physical constitution; they would get tired, sleepy, and hungry.
After integrating all the information he had obtained, Xu Xi felt a trace of drowsiness for the first time in a long while.
This was actually his first time spending the night inside an instance.
Xu Xi lay down on the bed without even taking off his shoes.
Anyway, he was just clearing an instance; there was no need to be so particular.
What? You say the netizens in the real world would see it through the live stream?
Come on, he wasn't some famous person. Who would be so bored as to watch him every day?
And at this moment, the lively stream comments were jumping up and down inside the live stream.
[Master Xu Xi is just going to sleep so peacefully? At least keep one eye open and stand guard!]
[The master fell asleep so fast. That baseball cap guy next door is still pondering the instance's background.]
[Not gonna lie, Xu Xi seems much more approachable after falling asleep. When he's awake, his expression is always cold and indifferent, looking like he keeps strangers at a distance and tells acquaintances to get lost.]
[No, I can't stand seeing him not brush his teeth, wash his face, or take off his shoes.]
[You there, are you obsessive-compulsive?]
[What are you all so worried about? Three instances have passed already. Don't you understand Master Xu Xi's strength by now? He must have determined there was no danger before sleeping.]
[Bro, did you forget 'Glittering Play'?]
[...Damn, I really did forget.]
[This instance definitely can't be viewed with common sense anymore. Even if Master Xu Xi is awesome, I'm really afraid he can't resist the toxicity of 'Glittering Play'.]
[That's true. The players it broadcasted all died mysteriously. Even Detective Conan would have to stay for two episodes before leaving.]
Thinking of himself as a nobody, Xu Xi drowsily fell asleep.
As for supernatural beings attacking players secretly in the dead of night while they slept soundly?
No problem. Dying in one's sleep isn't painful anyway.
If the reload was still there, the reload would save his sorry life.
If the reload wasn't there, well, then his sorry life was gone, and that was that.
Xu Xi was sleeping soundly. He didn't know how long he had slept when he was suddenly startled awake by knocking sounds from outside the house.
The sound seemed quite distant, yet it clearly drilled into his ears.
Too annoyed to sleep, Xu Xi simply gave up on sleeping. He got up, left the bed, walked to the window, and looked in the direction of the sound through the glass, using the moonlight.
Unfortunately, the perspective was limited; he couldn't see what was knocking.
The knocking didn't continue incessantly. It would stop for a while, then start again, knock a few times, then stop, repeating this cycle.
It's just that each time it started again, the sound seemed to get a little closer to this side.
Was there something going door-to-door knocking?
This thought suddenly flashed through Xu Xi's mind. He even imagined the scene of a terrifying, horrifying supernatural being dragging heavy footsteps, knocking on doors one by one.
Several villagers on the field ridge in the afternoon had warned them not to go out at night and not to pay attention to knocking sounds. Presumably, they were referring to that thing.
Indeed, no one opened their door, which was why that thing kept moving to the next house to knock.
Xu Xi also had no intention of being the exception who opened the door.
He planned to turn around and go back to sleep after that unknown thing finished knocking on their house and moved on to the next one.
He still had to spend three days in the instance. Tomorrow during the day, he also needed to gather clues in the village. He couldn't afford not to get enough rest.
Soon, the knocking sound grew closer and closer, and Xu Xi could see clearly through the window what was knocking.
It was a... villager?
Xu Xi couldn't help but be stunned.
It wasn't the ghostly monster he imagined, nor did it have any horrifying appearance. It was just an ordinary, plain villager.
In a short while, that villager had finished knocking on the houses of the two players next door and arrived in front of their house.
"Bang bang bang—"
The villager kept knocking on the door.
Just as Xu Xi thought it would leave after a few more knocks, the villager gradually started using more force.
"Bang— Bang— Bang——!"
"Bang—— Bang—— Bang——!!"
As the villager's actions became increasingly violent, the door was also being slapped, trembling more and more.
Xu Xi frowned.
When he walked out of the room and entered the main hall, he saw the baseball cap young man was already there.
The other was looking warily at the door being knocked on, his expression grave.
"Why did it only knock a few times at other houses and leave, but it keeps knocking here at our place?"
Seeing the other player had also come out, the baseball cap young man couldn't wait to discuss countermeasures.
"Could it be that something about this house is special?"
At this moment, he felt somewhat regretful. If he had known earlier, he wouldn't have chosen this house.
He also suspected whether one of them, or both he and the hoodie-wearing young man, had attracted the thing outside the door.
But that didn't make sense. They had been staying together and hadn't done anything that seemed out of line.
The only thing that could be considered problematic was the two of them going to observe the wheat field.
Could it be that the fishy smell from the wheat field had lingered on their bodies, attracting the attention of the thing outside the door?
Just as the baseball cap young man was about to tell his guess to the young man opposite him, he saw the other had already walked towards the main door.
"Wait—" As he reached out in shock to stop him, he saw the young man wearing the hoodie decisively pull open the main door.
It's over, my life is finished!
Over there, Xu Xi naturally also felt it was strange.
His first thought was that, similar to the last instance, there was something in this house, or on him and the baseball cap young man, that had attracted the villager outside the door.
For now, he didn't know what that thing was. That villager obviously didn't intend to give them time to find out either. The other had progressed from initially knocking to pounding, and now it had developed into ramming the door.
Even if they didn't open the door, in a little while, this door would be rammed down.
Possessing such abnormal strength, one could imagine the "villager" outside wasn't a real villager either.
Xu Xi opened the door directly to save a bit of time.
Looking at the relentless persistence of the "villager" outside the door, he knew the other wouldn't leave easily.
He planned to test what this "villager's" attack method was, to see if he could determine the reason for its continuous knocking and avoid it in the next reload.
Pulling the door open, Xu Xi sidestepped, unsurprisingly letting the "villager" who was ramming the door fall to the ground.
There was no cry of pain, nor any roar.
As if feeling no pain, the "villager" slowly and leisurely got up from the ground.
The baseball cap young man had long since hidden inside a room, tightly closing the door.
Seeing this, Xu Xi finally realized that when he opened the door, he seemed to have neglected the other's feelings.
He suddenly remembered again that in the last instance, when he was ramming the wall in the underground passage to kill himself, he probably hadn't said a word to his teammates either.
...So in the eyes of the others, it looked like a perfectly normal person suddenly went crazy, ramming the wall and killing himself?
"..." Cringing hard enough to dig a hole with his toes.
After a moment of silence, Xu Xi quickly comforted himself.
It's fine. I reloaded.
No one remembers, no one cares.