When a normal person sees something like this, their first reaction should be that the platform used mannequins. Even if they truly empathized with the story, they would feel anger, but mostly sympathy.
However, these viewers felt genuine rage and hatred. That oppressive, cursed emotion was constantly infecting those outside the screen, even through the glass.
What finally made Nan Yue certain was that many people could be said to have died right in front of the streaming screen, yet the audience's reaction was flat.
Forget calling the police; at most, they would be startled. More often, they would simply discuss how the streamer wasn't actually that capable.
Perhaps it was a case of entertainment to death. In this distorted world, it was possible that some people treated human lives as a form of amusement. They might have become so accustomed to seeing streamers die on screen that they felt no psychological fluctuation.
But combining the two points above, Nan Yue felt it was far more likely that there was something wrong with the viewers themselves.
"But..."
Zhang Qixu had been standing quite far away, but what Nan Yue was saying now concerned him as well.
He was the one who, after coming down from the pavilion, was still nearly a thousand tips short of the requirement.
If Nan Yue could truly reach an agreement with the audience, he wouldn't have to risk a near-certain death to continue struggling for survival in a mission that had already bared its fangs.
He wasn't a despicable person; he just wanted to live.
"But high-level player, I heard the locals say before that they had watched previous streams of this program outside. This show really exists."
Nan Yue gave a soft hum of acknowledgment. She had heard that too, which was why she had initially assumed the viewers were also NPCs.
"There is only one explanation."
She stared at the reactions in the bullet comments on the streaming screen while explaining to Zhang Qixu, "It's not that this platform's broadcasts are legitimate, nor did they see them by accident."
"They were chosen."
Nan Yue could never understand why, if only one person truly made it out alive every time, it never drew the attention of others.
People should have noticed their friends disappearing, and an investigation should have easily tracked down this streaming platform.
Yet almost everyone here had seen it before and then appeared as a streamer. That was very subtle.
The only one who hadn't seen it but ended up here was the unlucky Bai Qing, who had been tricked by a boy she liked.
Nan Yue suspected that the Entertainment to Death Live Streaming Platform was consciously recruiting people. Their goal wasn't to find streamers to make the platform popular, nor was it to take a cut of the profits.
They were there to serve the audience.
And who was the audience?
The vengeful spirits of the locations chosen for each stream.
They were trapped here, unable to leave, and this was their only form of entertainment and a way to vent the resentment in their hearts.
So, Nan Yue wanted to strike a deal with them.
The most important thing for the platform was to serve the audience. The most important thing for the streamers was not to go against the audience's wishes. That meant the audience was God.
As long as the audience agreed, the platform had no way to keep the streamers trapped.
Zhang Qixu wasn't a fool. He understood, and he was now extremely excited.
He didn't dare get too close, only staring at his own screen to see the viewers' reactions.
【You guessed it.】
【Smart people always live long lives.】
【Do you want to be a savior?】
Nan Yue keenly noticed that the audience's mood wasn't very good. It made sense; when they needed a savior, no one could save them. They lived in darkness and met deaths devoid of dignity.
Humans always harbor a subtle kind of jealousy.
"I don't want to be a savior. I just feel that no matter how many streamers die, it won't alleviate your resentment. You'll still be trapped here. To you, this is just a boring pastime."
"Don't you want to leave?"
The bullet comments went silent for a moment before surging out frantically again.
【We can't get out.】
【We are trapped to death in this array. No one can save us.】
【You want to lie to us!】
【DIE!】
【DIE!】
【YOU SHOULD DIE!】
Watching Nan Yue communicate from the side, Zhu Xi Ning felt a bit nervous. While the audience could be reasoned with before, once their identities were exposed, their gentle masks of pretending to be human were torn away.
They bared the fangs of vengeful spirits.
They were full of despair, rage, resentment, and aggression.
They weren't going to be easy to talk to.
"We can sign a contract,"
Nan Yue said nonchalantly. "Wasn't it a similar contract when you required us to do certain tasks on the streaming platform and then gave us tips?"
Although nothing was signed on paper, as long as it appeared in the bullet comments and the streamer followed through, they indeed provided the tips.
Of course, it couldn't be ruled out that they were simply honorable people who kept their word, but Nan Yue leaned toward the idea that the platform itself possessed a certain binding power.
The bullet comments sent by the viewers were like part of a contract; if you fulfilled it, they had to honor their promise.
【Fine, but if you can't do it, you have to stay.】
【Yes, stay and become another sunken corpse at the bottom of the lake.】
【Stay with us.】
【Stay with us.】
Nan Yue smiled, but the emotion in her eyes turned cold. Anyone who knew her would know she was angry.
"I thought this was a fair and just business deal, but it turns out the scales are rigged."
"The condition I offered is to release you from your imprisonment. In exchange, once you leave, you won't need the remaining lives for your amusement or to vent your anger. To me, that seems very fair."
"But you actually want to drag my life into this?"
The smile at the corners of Nan Yue's mouth grew colder. "Since there's no sincerity, the deal is off. You can just kill these people and remain trapped here forever. As for me, I can already leave."
Zhang Qixu, who had been eavesdropping, was so terrified by these words that he was drenched in a cold sweat. He was afraid those "viewers" would get angry and immediately set a live stream mission with hellish difficulty.
But after the bullet comments disappeared for a long time, one finally appeared reluctantly.
【Then we'll do as you say. You release us, and we let the others go.】
Zhang Qixu breathed a sigh of relief. He wiped the sweat from his face, feeling as though he had just walked through the gates of hell.
"A-Nan, destroying this array isn't that difficult, but these focal points have too much yin energy..."
Zhu Xi Ning furrowed her brows. The tortoise shell had made it very clear that the Zhou manor itself was an array. They had moved Liping Garden into the estate to fill the ground beneath the Zhou manor with corpses, making it a residence built upon a burial mound.
The two focal points of the array were the barren mountain and the lake, both used for locking in grievances and gathering souls. To break this array, one had to start with one of these two places.
However, the difficulty was immense. Moreover, as focal points that had absorbed so much resentment, a normal person wouldn't be able to withstand the energy.
Nan Yue nodded. "Actually, their physical forms as focal points aren't important. What matters is the energy they carry."
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