Chapter 31 Swan Castle Matryoshka Dolls, ... and Matryoshka Dolls Again
When Yu Naixin walked into the banquet hall, the tone of the live stream comments had already changed.
[Wasn't this show supposed to feature unconventional bigwigs, rising stars of the new generation, always pulling off mind-blowing stunts? To me, it's nothing special.]
[I've wanted to say this for a while now. Aside from asking a couple of questions about that so-called Domain Lord-level special artifact at the beginning, what's so special about it? The artifact was something she obtained in the previous dungeon. She hasn't done anything particularly special in this dungeon show for so long; isn't she just an ordinary show guest?]
[Her actions weren't actually problematic. I'd believe you if you said she was an experienced and daring guest on the show, but she's not as amazing as you guys claimed.]
[Hilarious! Being a viewer for so long means you'll encounter all sorts of bizarre things. Now even "Heartbeat 1000%" has paid trolls?]
[What a waste of time! The content was incredibly boring, and I never even saw Gao Potian's good looks. Who knows if that's true!]
[I'm off, the next livestream is even better!]
Those who are unworthy of their position will fall hardest when they are praised too highly.
Many viewers who came to listen were disappointed and bored, and left one after another, resulting in the first time that Yu Naixin's live broadcast room experienced a negative growth in the number of online viewers.
Even many viewers who have been following the show since the last episode are quite puzzled.
Yu Naixin's performance in this Swan Castle instance is so normal it's almost abnormal!
[The little witch is, after all, a newcomer who just came out of the beginner's dungeon. It's not uncommon for show guests to have drastically different playstyles before and after a dungeon run. Perhaps she felt her playstyle in the last dungeon run was too inconsistent, so this time she wants to try a more stable approach?]
[Didn't she only rest for less than 24 hours before starting the second instance? What happened in such a short time that could have changed her so much?]
[Could she really have run out of ideas...? I follow her livestreams because I want to see novel and exciting tricks. If I wanted to see something steady and reliable, why wouldn't I watch the old guests on those shows with consistent and effective content?]
As the central figure in the controversy, Yu Naixin, as always, did not turn on the bullet screen interface. Anyway, the production team would remind her if there were any donations, so what those viewers said was completely unimportant to her.
The moment Yu Naixin stepped into the banquet hall, she felt as if she were being overwhelmed by its opulent splendor. The corridors of Swan Castle were already incredibly magnificent, but she hadn't expected this place to be even more breathtaking.
Besides its appearance, another important difference between the lobby and other places is the information that NPCs can provide.
So far, the NPCs in Swan Castle have been quite friendly. Yu Naixin was initially worried that some NPCs might look down on her because of her lowly status as a cleaning maid, but she found that this had not happened at all.
As a result, Yu Naixin easily struck up conversations with a large number of NPCs.
But no matter how easy-going these NPCs are, the information they provide outside the banquet hall is limited.
Yu Naixin spent a full forty minutes on this, which is quite a long time. A lot of repetitive information was mentioned repeatedly, which was indeed tedious and boring, and this was an important reason for the loss of viewers in the live broadcast room.
Once inside the banquet hall, the NPCs suddenly have access to a much wider range of information.
It was already past four in the afternoon. Yu Naixin seemed to have finally remembered that this instance program had a certain time limit. Instead of asking every NPC she could find, she first chose to ask the NPCs who had higher status and were older.
Just then, a gray-haired butler walked by. Yu Naixin gently lifted her skirt and stepped forward, politely greeting him before getting straight to the point: "Butler, I've heard that some of the distinguished guests who have come to propose to Her Highness the Princess seem to have some strained relationships?"
"Could you tell me which distinguished guests you don't get along with? I'm afraid I might accidentally offend them..."
Even with an ordinary face, Yu Naixin's clear, innocent eyes, tinged with worry and fear, coupled with her sweet, humble voice, softened the male butler's heart, prompting him to offer her a few words of advice.
"There are four distinguished guests seeking to marry Her Highness the Princess. The Vampire Duke and the Elf Prince are from Rose Spire, while the Ghost Wizard and the Werewolf Knight are from Moonlight Town."
“These high-ranking figures have far more to consider than we servants do. It’s perfectly normal for them to have some differences of opinion when they interact.”
The gray-haired butler used very tactful language, not directly answering Yu Naixin's question, but he had already given her the answer.
Combining the information that the Swan Castle instance is a fusion of two original regular instances, Yu Naixin not only learned how the male guests in the previous instance were paired up, but also the names of the original two instance locations.
Only one guest can be on the show at any given time, a point that Priest Folding Fan explicitly mentioned to Yu Naixin.
With only one guest on the show, the competition between the two co-hosts is naturally much fiercer than with three or four guests, and their conflicts will be more intense and obvious.
Even though the scenarios have now been merged, and the original one competitor has become three, the competitor that each male guest hates the most remains unchanged.
That's why Yu Naixin asked that question.
Using male guests to deal with other male guests is a very cost-effective and high-success-rate method.
Almost immediately after hearing the butler's words, Yu Naixin felt a scorching gaze piercing straight at her.
On the other side of the hall, the vampire duke, seated in the VIP section, had a deep, dark light gleaming in his crimson eyes.
—I've found you, new Miss Lamb.
[Holy crap, the vampire spotted the female guest so quickly?!]
[This guy's the kind who can completely distort the original story; recognizing a new guest on a TV show wouldn't be a problem for him, would it?]
[The female guest was at least wearing an invisibility mask from the system's special store, and I watched her put it on and she seemed like a completely different person. How could a vampire sense something was wrong in such a short time...]
[The invisibility mask only changes the guest's face, not her entire behavior and demeanor. The guest in this kind of altered scenario is a seasoned veteran with incredibly high spiritual power; they'll definitely be able to spot her!]
[I get it! The female guest was dragging her feet all this time just to prolong her life, since meeting the male guest would have meant certain death, hahaha!]
[I remember someone saying she made a fortune in the last episode of the reality show, and was rolling in sweet coins, right? Well, let's wait and see how she uses all those props to escape from the male guest. Maybe she'll actually succeed!]
...Tsk.
Yu Naixin frowned.
Knowing that none of the male guests on this episode were easy to deal with, she went straight to the NPC most likely to provide information after arriving at the banquet hall, and deliberately avoided looking in the direction of the Vampire Duke.
Knowing that only the Vampire Duke was a male guest at the banquet hall, and being able to immediately identify the focal point of the entire banquet hall, Yu Naixin knew who it was even without glancing in that direction.
As it turns out, the male guest this time was indeed quite difficult to deal with. Yu Naixin only asked the NPC one question, and the Vampire Duke locked her in from among so many people in the entire hall.
[After being bored in this live stream for so long, finally something exciting has happened! This is the first time I've seen a guest capable of distorting the original dungeon level. Let me see how he kills the show's guests!]
[What good were all those careful, hesitant actions by the female guest? The other guests on this show are all monsters who've fought their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood; all her little tricks were utterly useless!]
[Just go die! I'm so fed up with those idiots treating her like some kind of savior. What makes her so special?!]
Now that it's been exposed, Yu Naixin no longer needs to cover it up.
She straightened her back, stepped forward to shield the gray-haired butler behind her, and waved with a smile at the vampire duke: "Hi~"
Their smiles were so warm and their movements so enthusiastic, it was as if they were seeing a long-lost old friend.
This startled even the vampire duke for a moment.
Having managed to escape from the previous instance, the Vampire Duke had encountered dozens of program guests, and nearly ten of them had been devoured by the Elf Prince, but he had never met anyone like Yu Naixin.
When facing him, the female guests couldn't help but feel fear to varying degrees. Even the female guests with the best mental fortitude couldn't suppress their subconscious vigilance when they were around him.
However, this new female guest really didn't have any feelings about that at all.
The Vampire Duke could even sense a rather cheerful mood emanating from Yu Naixin.
Yu Naixin lifted her skirt and jogged towards the Vampire Duke.
What is she doing?
[Don't you want to die fast enough?!]
[Knowing that death was the only outcome, they might as well seek an early end and a better life.]
Vampire Duke: "...?"
No, why is this new lamb lady even more eager than him? Doesn't she know that confronting him head-on would be nothing more than a lamb entering a tiger's den?
I doubt that "Heartbeat 1000%" would bring in an idiot to participate in the show.
Just as the vampire duke was puzzled, a sharp, clearly aggressive aura suddenly approached from behind him.
Without turning his head, the vampire duke's right hand had already created a blur in the air, precisely intercepting the thing.
Yu Naixin, who had only run a few steps and was still more than half a banquet hall away from the Vampire Duke, also stopped and refused to go any further.
The vampire duke's face darkened.
...He said that a guest who could be put into the Fusion Mutation Dungeon by the "Heartbeat 1000%" program team could not possibly be someone without a brain.
Even in the previous instances, those who entered were all veteran guests who had successfully cleared at least three instances. Now, this instance will only welcome an even more troublesome female guest.
So that's where they were waiting, planning to distract him from the front while launching a sneak attack from behind?
Yu Naixin must have used expensive props to inflict harm on him.
Let him see what kind of welcoming gift this new Miss Lamb has prepared for him.
Bringing the object in his right hand to his eyes, the Vampire Duke realized it was... a fruit knife?
The vampire duke couldn't help but take a second look, confirming that it was just an ordinary fruit knife, not a magical weapon, and had no special effects.
Moreover, the quality of this fruit knife was quite average; even the cutlery on the banquet table beside him was of much better quality.
This is practically like something you'd just grab from a street stall!
The vampire duke instantly stood up from his seat, his face clearly showing his fury.
Using something like this as a weapon to attack him, Yu Naixin wasn't trying to launch a sneak attack at all, but rather to humiliate him!
[Holy crap, she's playing a vampire!]
[Even when death is imminent, they're still jumping around!]
To be honest, this female guest has a really good mentality; she managed to pull off something like this under these circumstances...
Immediately, the Vampire Duke's spiritual power overflowed, crushing the fruit knife to pieces.
He had to teach this arrogant lamb a lesson!
The fragments in his palm scatter, and a thick mist of blood rises as the vampire duke attacks directly towards Yu Naixin.
In just a few seconds, the distance between the two had been reduced to less than ten meters.
However, at that moment, another hostile attack came from the vampire duke's side and rear.
The paper puppy, which had been following Yu Naixin's orders and hiding itself in the shadows and corners, fiercely bit the vampire duke's body.
A palm-sized wound instantly appeared on the vampire duke's left calf. Although it was only a shallow wound because the paper dog's spiritual power coefficient was not high, it still broke the skin and bled.
Furthermore, the paper puppy had infused all its yin energy into the wound, causing the vampire duke to feel significant pain.
He lost his footing and was forced to stop his rapid advance towards Yu Naixin.
Less than ten meters away from him, Yu Naixin saw the vampire duke wince in pain and burst out laughing: "Hahahaha!"
The enemy's suffering is the best source of one's own happiness.
It was worth the waste of a fruit knife she bought from the system store; the effect was really good.
[?? So her goal wasn't to distract the vampire with her counterintuitive breathing technique and then ambush him with the knife, but rather to have the prop attack the vampire when he was enraged by the knife and focused on attacking her?!]
[Is this yet another instance of using a feint attack to the east, following a previous feint attack to the west?!]
Wait, how did she throw the fruit knife behind the vampire?
[I just switched the view to the vampire's side and saw it; it was that little dog that threw the artifact out of its mouth, and then hid it again!]
This puppy is so useful!
The lamb's joyful laughter was a blatant mockery.
The vampire duke kicked it, crushing the paper puppy into pieces.
Yu Naixin's order to the paper puppy was to deal a blow to the vampire duke and then immediately escape. However, even though the paper puppy carried out the order perfectly, its speed was still far inferior to that of the vampire duke.
The paper puppy has the same spiritual power coefficient as the paper doll boy. Although it is pitifully weaker than any of the male guests Yu Naixin has met, it is still much stronger than Yu Naixin herself.
Yu Naixin glanced at the pile of shredded paper at the vampire duke's feet; the paper puppy was truly dead.
One of her only three special magical artifacts was thus rendered useless.
"See that, you reckless young lady?" The vampire duke stared intently at Yu Naixin, his deep, resonant voice filled with suppressed rage. "With such an absolute difference in strength, no amount of trickery will suffice!"
"Whoosh—!"
From directly behind the Vampire Duke, a folding fan floating in the air attacked at lightning speed.
Vampire Duke: "...?!"
The priest's folding fan is not like a paper dog. As a special spiritual artifact of the domain lord level, its appearance can make even a powerful dungeon guest like the vampire duke feel wary.
However, with attention once again drawn to Yu Naixin herself, the Vampire Duke was a step too slow to react.
The priest's folding fan, carrying a sharp, piercing wind blade, sliced straight through the vampire duke's back, revealing a deep, bone-revealing wound!
"Ah—!" The intense pain caused the vampire duke to let out a cry of agony.
His vision blurred for a moment, but the Vampire Duke still clearly saw Yu Naixin's undisguised, joyful smile.
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry," Yu Naixin said, her eyes crinkling into a smile, her tone light and clear, "I forgot to tell you, nesting dolls are so much fun, I definitely want to make a lot of them!"
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2024-07-06 20:57:30 and 2024-07-09 02:48:09!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Did the author update today? 10 bottles; Iron Pot Stewed Goose 2 bottles; Yun Yanxin 9, Ravenclaw Office Worker 1 bottle;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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