Chapter 1023: Verifying the Clearance Method
"Are you sure this is the clearance method?" the lip-pierced player said first. "You've obtained both the note with your number and the book."
"I'm not an instance player," Xu Huo stated directly. "I just happened to enter this instance by chance."
The others' expressions shifted slightly, their wariness increasing by a notch.
If they were instance players, they would most likely all be C-rank players. But if not, that was a different story.
"Let's go downstairs." Xu Huo looked at the player who had ambushed him.
That person had been unwilling to let go of the fact that Xu Huo had confiscated several of his items earlier, but now meeting his gaze, he quickly became more obedient. "We can try whether we can clear it or not. If it works, it'll benefit everyone."
Currently, players who had obtained a note but killed the player with the corresponding number could not clear the instance.
Players who had obtained a note but failed to kill the player with the corresponding number also could not clear it.
What remained was for the players whose numbers were written on the notes to try using their own corresponding numbers.
As for Note No. 10, Xu Huo had snatched it away, but since Xu Huo wasn't an instance player, he couldn't verify it, so he gave the opportunity to Player No. 10.
In the current situation, this was naturally good news for Player No. 10. If he could clear the instance, he could leave immediately. Even the muscular man who had stolen his note had been dealt with by Xu Huo, and since Xu Huo had taken the note just to verify the clearance method, there was no chance he would withhold it.
But for the other players, it might not be the same.
Of course, the later arrivals—Liang Zong, Ding Xiang, Teacher Fan, Zhou Yuanzhu, and the others—currently had no major issues. They just needed to wait for the notes corresponding to their numbers to appear.
However, as the muscular man had said, the local zone player, the lip-pierced player, the spotted player, and Chi Minghong could all be the ones on the second note. That second note had already been taken by some player, and getting them to voluntarily hand it over would likely be very difficult. This meant that even if all the players ended up exchanging different notes in a staggered manner, the second note would probably never surface. If each number only appeared once, then one of these four people might never be able to clear the instance in the end.
In such a scenario, the likelihood of these four hiding the note after finding it was very high. If their own number appeared, they would produce the note; if not, then sorry.
Moreover, under normal circumstances, obtained notes wouldn't pair up perfectly. The chance of you having mine and me having yours was very low. At minimum, three people would be needed to form a closed loop. But as long as the player on the second note had obtained another player's number, coordination issues could arise, potentially triggering a chain reaction.
Assuming the clearance method Xu Huo provided was correct, the possibility of players hiding notes from each other was very high. To ensure their own numbers would appear, players would try their best to keep others alive, which would invisibly prolong the clearance time.
Of course, if among the four possible candidates for the second note, someone knew or suspected they wouldn't be able to get a note, they might choose to destroy the note they found or even kill someone—but this possibility was very low.
Most likely, everyone would try to ensure they had at least one note in hand.
This situation would make it even easier to prolong the clearance time compared to when players didn't know the method. Under the previous model, players who obtained notes would immediately target their victims, exposing themselves faster, whether by reducing numbers or obtaining notes.
The muscular man had hidden Note No. 10 and tried to persuade Xu Huo in order to force later players who found notes to expose themselves. This was a smart person's move. It was likely that if a third person guessed this method, they would also remain silent, hoping to find their own note in the process.
But Xu Huo wasn't buying it.
The group went downstairs, and all eleven of them searched together. To prevent anyone from hiding books, each person was assigned a certain number of books and took a separate area to avoid disputes later.
The one who found the book was the lip-pierced player. The moment his hand holding the book paused, Xu Huo caught his reaction. "You got it?"
Xu Huo was sitting in the center of the hall, about four to five meters away from everyone, but when the lip-pierced player looked up, he felt as if Xu Huo's presence was right in front of him. He hesitated for a moment before handing the book over.
"Let me see, let me see!" The ambush player quickly rushed over, took the book, and slapped the page. "This is it!"
He then turned and gave it to Xu Huo.
Xu Huo took it, glanced at it, and casually handed both the note and the book back to him.
The ambush player hesitated for a moment before taking them. The next second, his brows shot up. "I cleared it!"
"So the clearance method was this simple!" He paused for a second or two, probably checking his personal rewards, but soon smiled and gave Xu Huo a contact method. "Brother Xu, if something good comes up after we get out, contact me. I'm not great at much, but I can still lend a hand!"
"Go ahead." Xu Huo accepted the business card.
Player No. 10 had successfully cleared the instance. He took out a long-distance movement item and added, "Once I'm out of the villa area, I'll fire a signal flare to let you know."
Then he vanished from the villa. Within less than five minutes, a colorful signal flare shaped like a tiger's head lit up in the direction of the city.
"The clearance method was really that simple?" The glasses-wearing man still found it hard to believe. "Wouldn't anyone who killed the player who obtained the note be able to clear it?"
"Did you think of these books?" the lip-pierced player said sarcastically.
The glasses-wearing man glanced at him. "It was only a matter of time."
Once all possibilities had been exhausted, the players' attention would eventually turn to the items in the villa.
"Not necessarily," Chi Minghong said. "Even if you knew these books belonged to the original owner, Jin Li, who would think to match the book content with the notes? After all, the drawings on the notes were so abstract, and the corresponding content wasn't even about the main characters in the books."
"With so many books, who would read them all in detail? I was just checking if anything was tucked inside."
Everyone turned their gaze to Xu Huo.
Xu Huo's attention wasn't here. "Player No. 10 successfully cleared the instance, proving the notes are real. If the second note wasn't forged by Teacher Fan, then the number of notes appearing each day should be variable."
"I absolutely did not forge anything!" Teacher Fan, still tied up, quickly tried to prove his innocence. "If you don't believe me, you can test me with an item!"
"Item tests aren't necessarily accurate," the spotted player said maliciously.
"You shut up." Zhou Yuanzhu kicked him. "In your current state, you're still picking a fight? If we didn't need you to find notes, you'd be dead already!"
The spotted player gave a sinister smile, but just as he was about to say something, he saw Xu Huo looking at him and immediately swallowed his words.
Other players might show some restraint because they needed the notes, but Xu Huo didn't need to clear the instance. As long as he ensured most players could get their notes, who would object to him killing one or two?
(Chapter End)