As someone who prioritizes killing others, I'm forced to stream a death game.

"The next level above the Evil Spirit level is the Fiend Soul level, and above that is the Demonic Wraith level. Anyone who masters these three levels of artifacts will receive treatment at least at the P4 level, no matter where they go. Even without an actual position, their treatment will definitely not be bad."

"Demon-level..." Upon hearing these three words, Liu Ren immediately recalled what Sun Yujie had said before, "That leader of the Crimson Demons seems to be a Demon-level Ghostly Being?"

"That's right! So, you must have accumulated a lot of good karma in your past life to be able to come back alive from this person."

"..."

To be precise, it can't really be said that they came back "alive".

Instead, after dying countless times, he used kill points to boost his physical attributes and, with the help of his unreasonable regenerative abilities, managed to bring himself back to life.

Moreover, that was just a casual strike by Otsuka Masashi after projecting it from an extremely long distance using special methods...

The gap between them is beyond description.

After listening to Pi Xinjie's introduction to the levels of the ghost artifacts, the live stream chat was once again filled with exclamations of surprise.

In other words, the streamer miraculously escaped death from a top-tier player and came back completely unharmed?

[Holy crap, the streamer said he had some connections with the King of Hell, and I didn't believe him at first. Now I do.]

[A demon-level monster... How could it survive and come back alive? What kind of monster is it?]

[I have to say, the streamer is really lucky.]

【…】

"Is the Demon-level the highest-grade artifact?" Liu Ren asked, resting his chin on his hand and looking out the car window at the rapidly receding scenery.

“Currently, the highest level of ghost tools is indeed the Demon Wraith level,” Pi Xinjie explained. “But the highest level of ghosts is not just the Demon Wraith level. As I just said, this classification is for ghosts, and also for ghost tools. For ghosts, above the Demon Wraith level, there are the pre-set Abyss level and Chaos level. However, no one has seen them yet; it is only inferred from the condition of the Ghost Imprisonment Tower that there should be two more levels below, so they were identified in advance.”

"No one has seen it?"

"The Tower of Ghosts is very deep. The deeper you go, the stronger the ghosts become. The stronger the ghost, the greater the risk and danger of 'coexisting' with it. By the way, not only are the ghost techniques sold in the special shops special, but the ghost tools are also special!"

What's so special about it?

"The most primitive and barbaric way to enter a demonic state is to directly let the demon enter the body and then try to survive. If the danger of this method is 10 out of 10, then using the demonic tools from special shops to enter a demonic state is only 5 out of 10. But even if it is only 5 out of 10, it is far from something that ordinary people can easily access and endure. Therefore, if you want to enter a demonic state, you must go through enough trials, otherwise, once you are corrupted, the consequences will be more painful than having your head chopped off."

"..."

You don't need to subtly remind me that it's normal that I can't get the artifacts now.

Liu Ren stared blankly out the window, silently muttering a complaint to himself.

After glancing at the comments, he asked again, "Why does the guild have to get the Beacon Tower?"

"..." Pi Xinjie did not give a satisfactory explanation for this question.

He pondered for a moment before carefully answering, "Because the Beacon Tower can unlock the Prison Tower, special shops, and regular shops within a certain area."

"But aren't there neutral NPC shops in other places too?"

"That's true. But your spending in the neutral zone will be stored in 'neutral funds'—that is, in the beacon towers that have not yet appeared and have not yet become 'capable'."

"..." After listening to Pi Xinjie's explanation, Liu Ren was silent for two seconds, then suddenly turned his head, "So, the NPC income in the neutral zone will all be stored in the 'neutral beacon tower' in that area that has not yet been occupied. And the NPC income within the beacon tower area occupied by the guild actually flows directly into the guild's treasury?"

“That’s right.” Pi Xinjie lit a cigarette and rolled down the car window.

The wind blowing in from outside caused a tuft of stray hairs on his head to fly back and forth.

Liu Ren finally understood.

The reason why the gang's internal rules are so strict.

All the logic behind their actions became crystal clear in an instant.

Those in the live stream who reacted quickly immediately understood.

[Holy crap, so they call themselves a "gang," but they're actually functioning like a government?!]

[No wonder so many third-rate, low-level gangs dream of building a beacon tower; now I know why!]

[Damn it, hurry up and take notes!]

[The strategy section for "Eternal Night" is updated again!]

So that's how it is. These little gangs in the courtyard really are mini-governments.

This is even worse than Zhou Bapi (a notorious exploiter in Chinese folklore)! You already lose life points just to stay alive, then you have to spend life points to eat, and in the end, all the life points end up in the guild's hands. And the guild even wants people to "mine"!

Holy crap, I already knew the rules in the central courtyard were shady, but now I realize just how shady they really are!

No wonder it's called "Eternal Night"!

It truly is a long, dark night, with no light in sight.

[I just remembered, weren't all those new recruits thrown into the courtyard supposed to be "criminals"?]

[Some researchers had previously said that this setting definitely didn't come from nowhere, and now it seems that might actually be true!]

This is definitely a place for exiling criminals.

But why? Why throw criminals into the central courtyard?

[The anchor quickly asked Pi Xinjie about the situation outside!]

A group of story-driven fans were all incredibly excited.

In the past, most streamers barely survived their broadcasts; just getting by was extremely difficult.

There are almost no anchors like Liu Ren who can easily obtain a lot of information—although this is because his status and position are now high.

After seeing the comments, Liu Ren immediately asked, "Can I ask another question?"

"Ask me anything, as long as it's not highly classified information, I can answer you," Pi Xinjie said magnanimously.

He showed a considerable degree of "indulgence" towards Liu Ren.

"I want to know, what's it like outside the courtyard?"

"Outside the central courtyard?" Pi Xinjie couldn't help but laugh when he heard the question. "How the hell would I know what's outside the central courtyard?"

Seeing this, the viewers in the live stream who were expecting an answer were immediately disappointed.

Sigh, so that's how it is?

【What do you mean? 】

In other virtual reality games, while current technology allows NPCs to exhibit a degree of independent thought, they tend to evade issues related to breaking the fourth wall, blurring the relevant concepts and thus appearing unable to "break the wall."

[...This is too complicated. Could you explain it in simpler terms?]

In short, we set the condition that AI cannot know that it is actually a mass of data.

So if you ask it, "Are you AI?", it will tell you, "I am AI."

If you set it to "human," it will reply, "Actually, I am human."

But if you try to test it by asking roundabout questions, it will evade the questions it can't answer.

Just like this Pi Xinjie.

[It turns out this alien game is no different from our virtual online games.]

To be honest, the world-building in this game is rather simplistic.

【…】

Just when the viewers in the live stream were all somewhat disappointed.

Pi Xinjie followed up with, "If you ask a hundred people this question, a hundred people will give you different answers. This world basically only has one central courtyard, and four gates in the east, west, south, and north—you can only enter, not exit. When you come in, you should be able to see that the outside is ordinary, no different from reality. Do you know what reality is?"

"..." Liu Ren paused for a moment, then looked somewhat taken aback.

You're just an NPC in a game, and you're asking me if I know what reality is?