Chapter 1068: Only With a Ticket Can You Leave
But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that Uncle Guan and the others had all been rained on, and they were now feeling hungry too!
The group fell silent, their expressions grim as they watched those still fighting over the biscuits—if degeneration into xenomorphs occurred, everything would be irreversible!
An indescribable feeling filled their hearts, until finally Chi Minghong cursed, "Damn it!"
"Don't be so pessimistic," Xu Huo said. "This is a high-risk instance, but it's still an instance. A one hundred percent death rate goes against the purpose of an instance. If we survive these fourteen days and leave the instance, things might be fine."
"Besides, gluttony doesn't necessarily mean degeneration into a xenomorph. The main thing is to be especially careful—no matter how hungry you get, don't eat people."
After hearing this, the group felt it made sense, but Lin Qiao was pessimistic. "This is only the first day. Could it form a vicious cycle?"
Under the influence of gluttony, their food supply was definitely insufficient. Since it wasn't enough, they might end up eating things from the instance venue, but nothing here was safe. This could in turn fuel a new wave of gluttonous desires. Whether they could hold out for fourteen days was uncertain, after all, before the preliminary trial, their hunger hadn't lasted that long, and it hadn't been this intense from the start.
"Grrrrr..." The sound of growling stomachs was unsettling.
"You still have food, right? Can you share some with the child?" A man stared at them, his gaze unfriendly.
Uncle Guan and the others were in a difficult position and could only distribute food.
To avoid what had just happened, everyone had to eat the biscuits in front of the players.
No one objected at first, but after everyone had received their biscuits, two men swallowed their saliva and said, "Adults need more energy. Can we have two more pieces?"
Uncle Guan looked up at them. "Don't break the rules I've set."
As soon as he finished speaking, he and Zhou Yuanzhu and the others all took out bladed weapons for close combat.
These people tied together were no match for the players. Although the two men were dissatisfied, they obediently lowered their heads.
At that moment, a commotion came from outside. Chi Minghong moved to the door and looked out. "Mutant beasts are moving, but not toward us."
"Which direction are they heading?" This news lifted everyone's spirits.
"Northwest," Xu Huo answered on her behalf. "It seems something over there has attracted the xenomorphs. The specifics are unclear—it's too far away."
"Whatever it is, isn't it better that they're far away?" Chi Minghong said hurriedly. "Since the xenomorph herd is leaving, we should move too."
She turned to look at Uncle Guan, but he said, "I need to confirm the xenomorphs won't be back for a while before I can retrieve the item."
That was standard procedure. Xu Huo raised his telescope and kept watching until the stampeding xenomorph herd disappeared over the horizon before saying, "That should be enough."
Only then did Uncle Guan retract the bar.
The first thing that hit them was a strong, foul stench. Several of those with weaker stomachs vomited on the spot.
Uncle Guan glanced at them. "Let's move quickly. It won't be good if the xenomorph herd comes back."
The players led the way, with the group closely following, jogging across the open ground and re-entering the woods.
In the game districts, it was common for ordinary people to take special evolution agents. In places like Snow City, regular citizens usually didn't lack evolution agents, so their physical fitness was decent. They managed to cross the woods in an hour or two without falling behind.
When they emerged from the north side, they finally saw the lush vegetation Xu Huo had mentioned—a shallow layer of green grass covering the ground. Looking out, the wilderness also had many bare patches.
But that wasn't the most despairing part. The most despairing part was that as far as the eye could see, there were no tall plants, let alone human structures.
"How about we find a place with a good view and stay put?" someone suggested. "It's not like we can get out anyway..."
"You can't get out, but the players need to leave," another person said. "At least we should find a relatively safe spot. Maybe if we go further, there will be a remnant city!"
Whether players or ordinary people, they could all enter the instance venue. Like players, ordinary people wouldn't be forcibly expelled by the instance; they just had to wait until the instance opened again to leave.
Of course, random instances and ticket instances were different. Some ticket instances were in places ordinary people generally couldn't enter, while random instances could arbitrarily select targets. An instance could contain ticket players, non-ticket players, and ordinary people.
For example, in the random instances Xu Huo had experienced before, they usually randomly pulled in people who needed to clear the instance. They had to meet the clearance requirements to leave, unlike ticket instances, where even if clearance failed, they could leave when the time limit ended.
So if players entered a random instance and couldn't clear it, they were usually trapped in the instance forever. Therefore, once ordinary people got caught up in one, they basically couldn't survive.
But high-risk random instances were slightly different. Based on the information from Under Dimension, not all high-risk random instances had clearance requirements—it depended on luck.
This was where they differed from ordinary random instances. Ordinary random instances had the same requirements for ordinary people and players. That is, if a player informed them and the ordinary person followed the clearance requirements, the random instance would spit them out. In other words, they left the way they came, including the players.
As for the high-risk random instance Xu Huo and the others entered today, it wasn't like ordinary random instances that allowed easy entry and exit nearby. The ways to enter were either through game punishment or accidental situations like theirs. So there was no direct condition to leave the instance. After fourteen days, when the ticket channel opened, you still needed a ticket to leave.
Of course, this requirement applied equally to ordinary people caught up by accident, but the game had no obligation to inform them.
Only with a ticket could you leave. Given the strength of Xu Huo and the Holy Sword Society members, casting a wide net to buy some non-player tickets shouldn't be too hard—someone would always sell.
The question was how many of these people would survive.
They walked for several more hours without reaching the end of the wilderness. The group stopped to rest, and Xu Huo also came down from the air. He opened his umbrella to release the two children from the painting, only to find bloodstains on the girl's mouth. The boy who came out afterward had both arms covered in blood, and near his neck, there was a bite mark. The skin wasn't broken, but a piece of flesh had been bitten into the shape of a dumpling.
Seeing Xu Huo look at her, the girl quickly said, "I-I-I didn't mean to! I don't know what happened—I suddenly got so hungry..."
But before she could finish, Xu Huo grabbed her by the jaw and lifted her up. "If there's a next time, I'll knock out all your teeth."
The girl's eyes were filled with terror and tears as she mumbled indistinctly, "I was wrong... I won't dare again..."
(Chapter End)