The carpets were ugly.
Not the charming kind of ugly either. Not "so bad it loops around to interesting.". They were just really ugly. They were a weird hexagonal pattern, of reds, oranges, and black. Looking at it for too long, the shapes seemed to shift, and would give someone a headache.
It seemed pretty ominous, but Ah'Ming couldn't tell were it seemed familiar from. He couldn't place it, and that bothered him more than it should have.
The walls were pretty ugly too.
They weren't bad, per se, but it was just that he was in a bad mood. No cracks or stains, or bones in the wall or anything, which was a bonus. It was just that points were taken off because the finish was uneven, not quite smooth, not quite textured.
An off-white, off-beige, with a not-so-smooth finish.
He ran his hand across it as he walked, skipping over any doorways.
The wall felt faintly warm. Or maybe that was just him.
424….
That was the doorway that had originally been across from the stairwell.
He glanced back over his shoulder, half-expecting to see the exit still there. It wasn't. The stairwell had vanished completely, hidden behind a large painting that hadn't existed earlier. It was far more hidden than the entrance. The ugly statue would have scared off most people anyways.
It was of pretty good make, out of oil perhaps?
423….
There were some little fancy tables every so often, with little vases of flowers. They were vibrant, full of life. Reds and yellows and blues that looked freshly picked, petals unblemished. Ah'Ming would have sniffed if not for the pile of bones next to one. They were old, thankfully, so there was no smell.
422…..
Strangely though, some of the doors seemed a bit sticky. It wasn't like they had smell, or left residue on his hands, they just existed. His fingers brushed past one and met a resistance, as though the door didn't want to be acknowledged.
421….
Cool.
420…
Pretty..
419…
He was running out of interesting things to think about. The hallway seemed to stretch on endlessly, the dizzying effect of reds and oranges burning into his eyes.
The hallway stretched on, numbers ticking down too slow.
The hallways stretching on?
He decided to follow his thoughts, and run as well.
418…
417…
He ran faster.
His footsteps echoed, swallowed, echoed again.
415…
Faster…
413….
"Oh, come on," he snapped aloud.
Seriously?!
How long was this queen-awful corridor?!
409…
Hurry up, he was tired!
406…
405….
404.
Finally!
thankfully, it wasn't a 404 not found scenario. That would have been horrible.
Ah'Ming fumbled the key out of his pocket, smacking it against the reader a few times.
The door slid open.
The inside of the room was a lot nicer than the outside, thankfully. It was a low bar, since the corridor was really ugly.
The lights turned on the moment he slid the card into its place. It didn't even flicker, surprisingly. There was a large plush bed that he couldn't wait to suffocate in, and a high ceiling, giving the room a sense of space that made his shoulders loosen despite himself. It even had a walk in closet!
he opened the door to the bathroom, and was pleasantly shocked at the fact that it had a large bathtub.
Ah'Ming stared at it for a long moment, then grinned.
"Yeah," he muttered. "I'm using all of the water."
If the hotel was evil enough to torture him like this, it could foot the bill.
He was not going to feel guilty for the water wastage at all.
He soaked for the next hour, muscles slowly unknotting, steam fogging the edges of his thoughts. He didn't fully relax, though. He kept his wits about him, and he focused on learning more about the system.
There was still the panel about his information and stats, though they hadn't changed much. It now included all of the titles and achievements he'd gotten.
There was an inventory, but it only had fifty slots unlocked. Apparently, it would take more points to unlock more slots. He didn't have anything important thus far, so Ah'Ming left it for now. It was still something to pay attention to, since he kept getting random junk as rewards. The junk had white backgrounds, the egg tarts framed in blue, and the book of the lost in green. Strangely enough, the branch and the spyglass were in blue. It was something to pay attention to later.
Additional to the inventory, there was a monsterpedia! He was pretty excited for that. Remembering his old days, being a pro-gamer, the monsterpedia was one of his favorite things about most games. DEEM, the light ages, Dredged the fishing game, heck even sundew valley had it!
it was the first thing he rushed to clear every time.
What could he say?
Old habits died hard.
He flipped to it immediately, but was slightly disappointed that it wouldn't tell him his current discovery progress. It did tell him that he'd discovered four types of monsters so far! Two from the egg tart instance, and another two from the library.
Apparently, you wouldn't even know how many monsters there were in an instance. The book would quite literally only document the monsters you'd encountered personally, but would helpfully categorize them based on substory. Perhaps when he did more instances, they'd be split into larger sections.
Ah'Ming thought back to the original egg tart instance. They'd taken the kitchen route, right? But, there hadn't been any monsters there. The other routes had too many.
Perhaps they'd all left the kitchen to go to the other routes?
it was a disheartening thought, since it meant there could be far more monsters that he hadn't collected yet.
Based on logic, there was the waitress monster in the cafe, and the paper people in the cafe, so there should be one type f monster in the kitchen.
It would probably be a chef, with a couple of assistants or something.
But, there were the other routes too! The painting and the cashier route! That meant another two, or more monsters.
A whole three that he hadn't unlocked!
Wow.
The gamer in him was dying of shame.
Would they let him re-do it?
The gamer part of his soul curled up and screamed even louder.
what of the library instance?
he checked, and saw that the page was lit in green. It had a [Collect] option. He clicked it, and got another item. It had a blue background.
|Recieved: Library card
Huh.
Maybe it was a reward for finding all of the monsters in that substory. The reward wasn't that great though, since it was just a sub-story.
He clicked on it to see if there was more description.
To his delight, there was!
Allows broadcaster a 10% chance to survive a death-level injury within a library, chance resets at midnight
"…That's actually cracked."
Wow. That was actually a pretty great reward. A ten percent chance may seem low, but it didn't seem as though it was a limited use item.
Maybe the rest of his items had descriptions too. Checking them would take time. Ah'Ming did the normal thing and decided to leave that kind of work for a later date.
He zoomed in on the monsters.
It showed the shadow monsters, but even those had separate tabs. Apparently, there had been different types of shadow monsters. They'd all been in the shapes of different animals, but it had been dark, so he hadn't noticed. They were still close enough to be grouped under one broad name though.
The librarian, on the other hand, was both more and less complex.
It had a picture of a pretty woman on the front. The current subtag read: Librarian; Human form. It only showed the weakness that Ah'Ming had discovered, which was slashing with claws. The same problem was there under the shadow monsters.
In order to have their weaknesses listed, you had to test them out yourself. How novel!
the other subtab belonging to the librarian was: Librarian; Hybrid form.
It basically listed the same thing, but with a few lines of dialogue. It also had her attack patterns too. Maybe he could sell that on the forum.
He snorted and moved on.
Ah'Ming closed the monsterpedia, and looked at the next tab.
It was labeled 'teammates', and was still greyed out. He needed to find HuiPao and the others soon.
The next page was listed as 'quests'.
It was mostly empty, but it had one.
|Survive for seven days in the resort of your dreams!
|Rewards: [][][][][][][]
Interesting. Maybe during the sub stories, there'd be more quests. That was probably how the people in the library had known automatically what they were meant to do.
He skipped it, ignoring the redacted part.
Finally, the long awaited forum.
It was chock-full of information. Hundreds of posts, but they all had to do with the current instance. He looked over and, yes, it was limited. according to the little screen that popped up when he tried to get rid of the 'resentful resort' tab, he could only view the information regarding other instances when he exited this one.
He looked closer at one that was pinned at the top.
|ADVICE FOR NEWBIES
Sponsored by GUILD: Prophet
Perfect! Finally, a good explanation for whatever is going on right now. Huipao had tried, the strange dear that he was, but it really hand't helped much. The other two, the moss person and the maybe-spyglass person had been moderately informational, yet they hadn't provided anything for a newbie. Ah'Ming's fault, since he didn't want them to know.
|Welcome, you unlucky fools, to the broadcast.
That wasn't a very auspicious opening. He shrugged, and continued on reading.
|If you are actually a real newbie and aren't reading this for shits and giggles, listen up.
|This is a live broadcast where you should try and be as entertaining as possible. Countless entities called the audience are out there, watching your every move. They don't even stop when you're in the bathroom-
Pause, what?
he looked around, suspicious at the viewers, before realizing that nothing that he could do would change the fact the audience had already seen his… um. Crown Jewels.
Yeesh, warn a guy first!
|or when you're busy dying. They will always be watching.
|Next up on the list, teaching you about important things!
|You can probably see the system, right? It takes a different form for every person. There are notebooks, normal screens, even poker cards. It depends on what the broadcaster, or player (as some people call it), is most comfortable with.
|You will see many different tabs, including common ones like Inventory, Shop, Forum etc. the problem is, the system follows what you think is best. So, if you forget that the shop exists, the tab will disappear on your system. You need to remember, and know about the roles and rules for them to appear. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO MONSTERS. IF YOU FORGET ABOUT THE MONSTERS, THEY ARE STILL THERE. THEY WILL KILL YOU. Love, Xianxia Maniac
|Written by PLAYER: [][][] [][][][][][]
|Up next: monsters.
|Note: this post is not system endorsed, follow at viewer's own caution.
Huh.
He clicked on the next, since the author was a vibe.
|So You're Trapped in the Broadcast: A Beginner's Guide to Not Dying Immediately
Sponsored by GUILD: Prophet
If you're reading this, congratulations. You're either very new, very lost, or already dead and don't know it yet. This guide will not save you, but it may delay your funeral.
|First, the basics. You are now a broadcaster. Everything you do is being livestreamed to an audience you cannot see and cannot interact with directly. They watch for entertainment, not fairness. The system tracks their engagement through views, likes, and evaluations. These do not measure morality. They measure interest.
|Instances are the main environments you are trapped in. Think of them as long-running stages with a theme, rules, and a time limit you may or may not be shown. Most instances contain safe zones, escalation periods, and failure states. Leaving an instance usually requires surviving long enough, clearing its core objective, or being forcibly removed.
|Sub-stories are smaller scenarios that occur within or alongside an instance. They can trigger automatically or through interaction. Clearing a sub-story often grants rewards, items, or permanent modifiers. Failing one can still kill you. Completing one does not guarantee safety afterward.
|The system will present information in a format it thinks you understand. If a tab disappears, it is because you stopped thinking about it. This does not mean the thing itself has disappeared. Monsters do not respect your attention span.
|Entertainment matters. Talking, thinking out loud, making choices, and escalating situations tend to increase engagement. Silence and caution keep you alive longer but may starve you of rewards. There is no universally correct balance.
|Finally, a warning. NPCs are not props, and players are not allies by default. Both can lie. Both can kill you. The system does not care which one does it, only that it happens in an interesting way.
|Good luck.
|You will need it more than you think.
|Understanding Instance Types: Survival vs Investigation
|written by PLAYER: Wayfinder_17
|Not all instances want the same thing from you. Figuring out what an instance expects is often the difference between clearing it and becoming part of the set dressing. Broadly speaking, most known instances fall into two main categories.
|The first is the Survival-type instance. These have one simple requirement: do not die until the timer runs out. The shorter the duration, the "easier" the instance is considered, but that ease is deceptive. Short survival instances tend to escalate quickly, compressing danger into dense, lethal bursts. Mistakes are punished immediately, and brute force or mobility is often more valuable than subtlety. Rewards scale with risk, and so does the body count.
|The second is the Investigation-type instance. These require you to uncover a storyline, solve a mystery, or identify key answers before time expires. Unlike survival instances, longer durations generally make these easier, giving players more room to observe patterns, interact with NPCs, and test theories. Rushing an investigation instance is one of the most common newbie mistakes and one of the fastest ways to trigger a bad ending.
|While both types can overlap, most instances strongly favor one approach. Trying to brute-force an investigation instance usually leads to soft failure, while overthinking a survival instance often ends with something tearing you apart mid-thought.
|After joining a guild, players gain access to instance tickets, allowing limited choice over what type of instance they enter. This has led to most experienced broadcasters specializing. Survival specialists focus on combat, endurance, and crowd-pleasing spectacle. Investigation specialists invest in observation, social navigation, and lore comprehension.
|Neither path is safer. They are simply dangerous in different ways.
|Choose based on what you are good at, not what you think looks impressive on a highlight reel.
|How to tell if you're either possessed, stalked, or being watched by paranormal entities
Sponsored by GUILD: Exorcisers
|You are reading here today, either because you are a pro-active survivalist, or because you are unfortunately in the status of one of the three mentioned in the total. First of all, you need to understand that there are differences between the three statuses.
|Possesion is done by either ghosts, or demons. Generally, insects or other kinds of parasites only count towards parasitism, not possession. Possession comes in two main types. Passive, or active. The passive type is when the being resides within you, but is not actually commandeering your body. They might be there to avoid detection, rest, or just for fun. You can either try to force them out, or make a deal with them. If you leave them be, there is a chance they will try to completely take over the body, or rip your body in half gruesomely when they emerge.
|if you are being stalked, you can usually feel a heavy gaze setting on you. Anything can stalk you, and anything will stalk you. For better reasons, like scouting, or worse ones, like a serial killer marking you as their target. See: STALKING: THE BLOG to learn more
|PARANORMAL ENTITIES…..
…..
…
|How to access the dining hall or other 'safe' restaurants, for foodies
|written by PLAYER: Xu Ah'Wei
|In the Resentful Resort, starvation is rarely what kills you. Unfortunately, poor table manners might. This guide walks you through identifying genuinely safe dining locations, how to spot illusionary menus, and which waitstaff are allowed to make eye contact without trying to harvest your organs later.
|In the resentful resort, there are actually quite a few great places to eat! It's not all doom and gloom. The only problem is, sometimes your table mates in the cafes are dead meat, or dead men walking. Both literally, and figuratively.
….
..
|TOP 10 PLACES TO EAT IN THE RESENTFUL RESORT
|written by TEAM: Runners
|Yes, this list was compiled by survivors. No, we did not all agree on the ranking. From pastries worth risking a curse for to noodle stalls that only exist between 2:00 and 2:17 a.m., these are the places most likely to fill your stomach without emptying your lifespan.
…
..
|Basics for unlocking talents
written by GUILD: Monarchs
|Talents are not "skills you level up naturally." They are closer to bad habits the system finds entertaining. This article explains common triggers, why desperation helps, and why copying other broadcasters almost never works the way you want it to.
…
|Telling time in paranormal instance
|written by PLAYER: Timekeeper
|If you want to know when an instance is about to escalate, collapse, or reset, you'll need to stop relying on watches and start paying attention to.....
|Reading NPC languages
|written by TEAM: Readers
|No, the symbols are not random. Yes, they rearrange themselves when you blink. This guide covers…..
|The current known parallel worlds, links to forums. Try to find your planet mates!
|Sponsored by GUILD: Saviors
|How to take care of children
|Written by PLAYER: Loreal lorealis
|Dating NPCs, the ins, outs, dangers and benefits
|Written by PLAYER: Tamer.
|Yes, it's possible. No, it's not always a good idea.
He spent the next hour reading, conveniently ignoring the massive red bar floating above his head. It was steadily decreasing, a little bit at a time. according to one of the numerous, numerous, blogs that he'd read, it was basically a time bar that told you how much time you had left in your room safely.
Once it was under an hour's worth of time, minor ghosts or monsters could come bother you.
Under ten minutes? Major ghosts.
If you survived long enough to reach zero, it was theorized instant death. No one had ever reached that far.
Funky.
E looked atop his head. There weren't any numbers or anything. But, int the last hour or so, it had decreased by a little bit.he looked back to the page.
It listed a few values.
Hmm.
Interesting.
If there's a B and a B+, that should be enough for the rest of the day plus night. If he didn't oversleep.
He abandoned the nice, amazing, still-warm bath. The water drained away with a sound like really gross gurgle. Ah'Ming toweled off, dressed in record time, and immediately sprinted for the bed as if it might vanish out from under him.
He jumped.
The mattress accepted him with alarming enthusiasm, swallowing him nearly a foot deep like a marshmallow with delusions of grandeur. Pillows shifted while blankets cocooned, making a massive ripple. He wriggled until comfort was achieved and civilization was restored.
Settled at last, warm and safe and very nicely unpunctured, Ah'Ming reopened the forum and kept reading, letting other people's near-death experiences lull him toward something almost like peace.
He probably wouldn't, so he didn't set an alarm.
G'night mister system.
|Good night, [][][][]
/////
When he opened his eyes, he was still on the bed. The room was dark, which was nice to his sore yes.
Ah'Ming pushed himself upright and yawned, spine popping in a way that felt deeply earned. Mmmmmm.
How nice.
And then blinked as the scent of the sea hit him like a freight train.
"What the actual f-"
He cut himself off, sitting there as the fog in his brain scrambled to reorganize.
No, did he oversleep?
crap.
Oh dear.
At least he wasn't dead, which was always a bonus. If it wasn't an insta-kill scenario, maybe he was being transported to a punishment scenario? Clearly something related to the ocean. Maybe he'd even get to meet eldritch monsters or something.
However,
…That was a problem for future him.
Present him, on the other hand, was exhausted.
"At least I'm not dead," he mumbled, rolling onto his side. "That's still my favorite status effect."
He lied back down, and went back to sleep.
Ah'Ming pulled the blanket up, turned his face into the pillow, and closed his eyes.
The sea could wait.
He ignored the constant pings from the system.