"Tonight, the vigil will be kept by the Eldest Young Miss."
Inside the Ancestral Temple, the incense that everyone had offered earlier was burning quietly, its smoke curling upwards.
As the Steward's words fell, Shi Weiwei, standing before the Altar Table, nodded calmly with a composed expression.
Everyone had already speculated about the order of players for keeping vigil, so they had no objections.
"The rules for keeping vigil..."
"Wait."
A voice suddenly interrupted the Steward's words.
Everyone followed the sound—
The one who spoke was that young man who had been aloof and detached from the beginning to the end, seemingly indifferent to everything.
"Third Young Master, do you have some issue?" The Steward's expression remained unchanged, his voice still flat and toneless.
Shi Weiwei, Yu Hao, and the others also looked at the young man, unclear why he had suddenly spoken up at this moment.
The young man stood at the back, his posture relaxed. His gaze wasn't fixed on any particular spot; he seemed to be examining something, or perhaps confirming something.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, he finally spoke:
"Change the person keeping vigil."
The breathing of the few people present subtly hitched for a moment.
The Steward also seemed somewhat surprised. He slowly asked, "Third Young Master, what do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I'll keep vigil tonight."
Shi Weiwei's brow twitched almost imperceptibly.
As if seeing the Steward's lack of response, the young man slightly raised an eyebrow and spoke again: "What, is it not allowed?"
Though it should have been a questioning statement, his tone was faint, as if certain the Steward would agree.
"... Naturally, it is allowed." The Steward fell silent for a moment before finally speaking slowly.
Thus, the person keeping vigil on the second night was changed.
*
Beside the Moon Gate.
Yu Hao held his folding fan tightly in his hand, looking thoughtful. "What do you all think?"
Xing Ge leaned against the stone wall with his arms crossed. Hearing this, he said, "You should ask, what is *he* thinking."
Yu Hao sighed. "I want to ask too, but I haven't had the chance, have I?"
Shi Weiwei stood to the side, her eyelids lowered, clearly also deep in thought.
Tonight was originally her turn to keep vigil. She even felt she had prepared herself for it. Yet, with one light, casual sentence from the young man, the risk that should have been hers was taken away.
So...
"Why did he do that?" Lin Zuo asked.
No one answered.
Because that's what the others wanted to know as well.
That young man didn't speak much. His presence wasn't exactly high, but it wasn't low either.
Like Xing Ge, he was a man of few words, but he didn't carry the same oppressive aura.
He was just... faint. An indescribable sense of detachment enveloped him, like a thin layer of mist.
It wasn't cold indifference, nor was it arrogance.
It was just... distance.
Too calm, too composed, and too casual.
Silence spread among the five of them.
The white lanterns under the corridor swayed gently, casting flickering light and shadow.
"Perhaps he has grasped some clue we don't know about," Shi Weiwei said softly after a while.
Yu Hao sighed with a groan. "Probably."
He could clearly feel that as the number of floors climbed, the difficulty of the instance was also increasing layer by layer.
He was ranked 72nd. Generally, the strength of the players matched with him should be roughly on par with his own.
At this stage, there were no fools, no people who thought themselves clever, and no arrogant people.
Apart from some special circumstances, there was already a kind of tacit understanding among veteran players like them—
Cooperate, but don't bare your heart. Travel together, but don't entrust your life to them.
When they could lend a hand, they wouldn't stand idly by. But if it truly came down to a life-or-death moment, no one would expect anyone else to save them.
Scheming and plotting? Conspiracies and calculations?
Utterly meaningless.
These players didn't know each other before entering the instance, let alone have any life-or-death enmity. There was no reason to push someone to their death, as it offered no benefit to oneself.
Better to cooperate.
Of course, there were always people who thought they could climb faster by stepping on others. There were always people who believed that with one more teammate dead, they had one more chance to survive.
But those kinds of people were basically already dead at this stage.
Those who remained were people who understood that "cooperation is more cost-effective than mutual attrition."
Because fundamentally, everyone actually had only one goal: to survive.
If it were during his novice period, Yu Hao would definitely keep a respectful distance from a teammate like this young man—someone who had information but kept quiet, didn't participate in team discussions, and made decisions entirely on his own.
Who knew what schemes the other person was harboring? They might very well sell him out for a chance to live.
But now, he no longer thought that way.
The reasons were as above.
That young man... perhaps he just had his own rhythm.
Even if he appeared so unsociable.
*
[Although I don't know why Master Xu Xi suddenly decided to keep vigil—]
[He must have his reasons for doing this!!]
[248 has once again managed to alienate all his teammates single-handedly ()]
[Yu Hao, don't sigh. He doesn't just ignore you guys; he ignores everyone.]
[Actually, I feel that although Master Xu Xi is a bit emotionally detached, he's not exactly cold.]
[Right, right. Across several instances, apart from those who provoked him, 248 has hardly targeted anyone. He even occasionally gives a kind reminder.]
[And he doesn't mind taking teammates along to clear the instance as a casual favor.]
In the car.
Ji Yang saw those live stream comments discussing Xu Xi's personality and conduct and couldn't help but smile.
[Streamer, why are you suddenly laughing?]
[The child is just born with a love for laughter, be tolerant.]
"It's nothing," Ji Yang said with a laugh. "I just suddenly remembered my initial impression of 248."
[Oh? What was it?]
[Personally, I thought he was a master at first glance.]
[+1, his aura is too unique.]
Ji Yang didn't continue to say what his initial impression of Xu Xi actually was, letting the comments keep asking.
[Ah, speaking of which, I suddenly feel a bit nostalgic for the beginning when everyone was actively analyzing 248's various moves.]
[There are still plenty of people analyzing now, aren't there?]
[It's not the same.]
Where was it different?
When Ji Yang saw that comment, he thought the same thing.
But soon, he figured it out.
It really was different.
Before, the analysis was because they didn't understand. The comments and the streamer would scratch their heads together, dissecting the young man's words and actions frame by frame. After dissecting, they'd have a collective moment of realization, then shout "amazing!" together.
Now, the analysis was more about wanting to confirm whether the young man had discovered something again, whether a certain move had some deeper meaning.
From "What on earth is he doing?" to "He must be up to something again."
That was truly different.
And his own thoughts had inadvertently changed as well.
At the very beginning, he was drawn by that 2 minutes 48 seconds instance, analyzing his moves and dissecting his logic with a bystander's mindset of "this guy is pretty amazing," like solving an interesting puzzle.
Later, after watching more, that "bystander" feeling slowly turned into "anticipation."
Later still, "anticipation" turned into "certainty."
Ji Yang remembered his own evaluation of the young man back then—
The Seed of Hope.
...
Xu Xi never expected that his reload point this time would be at this moment.
