# Chapter 1010: Snow White Villa
The Dong family was not far from Snow White Villa, and could be reached directly by crossing a space passage.
Similar to using a space teleportation item, there was almost no sensation when passing through the passage, and the place he emerged happened to be right in front of the main entrance of Snow White Villa. Seeing the lights lit in the hall and the people coming from behind, Xu Huo frowned. The next second, he felt a strange force seal off the area including the villa:
Bad timing.
"Huh? Did the game start so quickly?" A female player with a round baby face walked over from behind him. She reached the door and released goodwill toward Xu Huo, "The game has started, hurry up and go in."
Xu Huo followed her into the villa lobby without changing his expression, coming face to face with six players in the hall.
Four men and two women, all around thirty years old. The six of them had no communication with each other. One local zone player was intently examining the old objects in the hall, while a player with a lip piercing was leaning back on the sofa, noisily chewing gum.
Of the remaining two male players, one was rummaging through the coffee table, and the other was flipping through an old magazine.
The two female players were taking photos around the hall.
Additionally, there were five other people on different floors of the villa—two on the fifth floor, and the remaining three distributed across the fourth, third, and second floors.
Adding the round-faced female player who came after him, that made twelve people total.
It seemed this instance was also a twelve-person format, but he had arrived at an unlucky time, just as the instance venue was closing, making him the thirteenth player in this instance.
A non-instance player. He hadn't entered with a ticket, so he couldn't receive game notifications either. If he wanted to leave, he'd have to wait until this instance ended.
Soon, the players lingering upstairs came down. Three male players walked behind, two female players in front, and among them was a familiar face.
Chi Minghong looked at Xu Huo in surprise, "You're in this instance too? You should have said we were going the same way."
The other four players seemed to be strangers to each other, each finding a place to sit.
Xu Huo sized them up like everyone else before answering Chi Minghong, "Got held up by something. Didn't expect it to be such a coincidence."
"Yeah, yeah." Chi Minghong grinned, jumped in front of the sofa, and said, "Everyone, let's sit down first. You've all seen the instance notification, so don't hold back. How about we discuss a way to clear it?"
The ones who arrived earlier had already inspected the villa. The reason they gathered in the hall was to wait for the game to start. Hearing this, two impatient players were about to speak when the villa door suddenly burst open. A man wearing glasses hurried in, saying with slight apology, "Sorry, I'm a bit late. I'm not disturbing anyone, am I?"
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow: A fourteenth player?
The lip-piercing player said lazily, "Everyone's here for the instance. You're being too polite."
As if not hearing the sarcasm in the other's words, the glasses-wearing man said cheerfully, "I was really afraid of delaying everyone's discussion of the instance, and worried about missing some clues that might make it hard to clear in the end."
A male player wearing a hat who had come down from upstairs said, "If you have clues, it's better to clear on your own. Who's stupid enough to tell others?"
This wasn't just a reply to the glasses-wearing man, but also a response to Chi Minghong's earlier words.
How could clues possibly be shared?
The others in the hall didn't speak, which counted as taking a stance.
Chi Minghong spread his hands, "Although we're in competition, there's no need to be so defensive. Put the rules on the table, compete fairly and openly—that's better than wasting energy behind the scenes, right? With only a few days, spending time figuring out the rules is completely unnecessary!"
A long-haired female player who had been taking photos earlier snorted with a laugh, "You're very confident in your abilities."
"Isn't my proposal good?" Chi Minghong also laughed, "If none of you want to know about others' clues, why gather here? Since the little notes haven't appeared yet, wouldn't it be better to go sleep in the rooms?"
"Would you share what you've found?" the long-haired female player countered.
"What's there to hide about that?" Chi Minghong said without hesitation, "I found that on the second floor, at least three rooms have hidden compartments. The little notes definitely won't appear in obvious places. When the time comes, we'll need to search for them. Places like hidden compartments are the most likely. How about that? Am I generous enough?"
"Who doesn't know what you just said?" the long-haired female player said. "Hidden compartments? I even found a wallet hidden in the ceiling. As a C-level player, what's so hard about finding places like that? You call that sincerity?"
The two were at odds when a muscular man who had come down from upstairs spoke up, "Actually, this instance isn't that complicated. The key is still the content of the little notes. How about we wait until the first note appears before talking?"
The others neither agreed nor disagreed, but none of them planned to leave the hall.
Xu Huo sat in the corner, sorting through the information he knew so far.
First, the background introduction for this instance should be very simple, and it seemed to have little to do with the villa, which was why these players came down after a brief search of the rooms.
Second, a key point of the instance was the little notes that hadn't appeared yet. The players were all staying in the hall without rushing to search, which meant the appearance of the notes had a specific time—no need to rush now.
Third, the players were very wary of each other, which meant this wasn't a survival instance or a team instance. The players were in competition, and what they were competing for should be the little notes.
Snow White Villa had limited space. The key was still the notes, which might contain other requirements for the instance.
"I'm going to take a look around upstairs." Xu Huo stood up and casually greeted Chi Minghong.
The round-faced female player and the glasses-wearing man also said they wanted to take a turn.
The three of them had arrived later. The others were already familiar with the environment, so only they needed to leave the hall.
However, Chi Minghong followed Xu Huo. "We're familiar with each other. Where do you think the little notes are most likely to appear?"
The rooms in the villa had all been rented out. Most were old and damaged, and with the dim lighting, they didn't look bright enough, giving a slightly oppressive feeling.
The bedrooms and bathrooms all had windows, but they weren't big—about the width of two people and half a person's height. Several rooms in a row had this same layout.
"Are all the upstairs rooms like this?" he asked.
Chi Minghong nodded. "Except for the large floor-to-ceiling windows in the hall, every bedroom is like this. There's no study or lounge here either—they must have been converted into bedrooms for rent."
"Rented-out rooms, many and shabby, with plenty of paper items. How could it be so easy to find an extra note?"
"Not necessarily." Xu Huo said, "The notes are for the players. Don't overthink it."
"Only one note appears each day. By then, there'll definitely be a bloody fight." Chi Minghong checked the time. "We still have to wait until after midnight. Before that, let's pick a room to rest in."
(Chapter End)