Chapter 1199: Instance Entrance
During the meal, Liang Shuang bought a copy of the "Maze Guide" from the restaurant staff. He said, "There are plenty of guides like this in Card City. They might not be accurate, but there's a chance some reliable info slips through. Anyway, it's not expensive—no harm in buying one to check it out."
Xu Huo followed suit and bought a different version from another vendor.
After the maze upgrade, specific guides hadn't come out yet, and the details inside the maze naturally wouldn't spread through the streets so quickly. Therefore, these rumors only covered non-critical information, like the general layout of the maze.
For instance, what plants made up the maze walls, the characteristics of the mutant plants, how to guard against them, and their weaknesses—this information was also useful, as attacks from mutant plants were a major feature of the maze instance.
Additionally, there were common facts known to almost everyone, such as hidden doors on the maze walls that could be safe passages or conceal dangers.
Nothing more specific was available.
Xu Huo had originally planned to buy a previous instance guide but was told they had mostly been recalled and destroyed: in the era of cloud information storage, junk information was the main culprit clogging information channels. So, under the government's call, past instance information had largely been recalled, at least from vendors openly selling guides on the streets.
Liang Shuang looked a bit uneasy. "I do have an old instance guide, but I was afraid it might mislead you, and I thought it was pretty useless, so I didn't mention it."
He pulled out a micro-projector and placed it on the table. "This is the guide."
Xu Huo thanked him, took it, and stood up. "According to the guide, the entrance to the Thrilling Ball Castle instance has a higher probability of appearing about an hour's journey from here. Let's go try our luck."
Without a moment's hesitation, Liang Shuang summoned a flying vehicle.
The oval-shaped flying vehicle glided smoothly and silently through the air, automatically setting its track based on the destination. It was very safe, freeing up passengers' hands and minds, and everyone treated the vehicle like a sightseeing ride.
From mid-air, parts of the city streets were visible. Xu Huo spotted a giant playing card slowly emerging above a tall building in the city center. On the black card face, a golden pattern flickered for several seconds before settling into a crown.
"This is a special landmark of Card City. No one who's been here can forget that giant playing card," Liang Shuang said.
The vehicle soon reached the destination. As Liang Shuang reached for the door, Xu Huo suddenly said, "Can a car door count as an instance entrance?"
Liang Shuang immediately pulled his hand back and switched to sensor-activated door opening.
"It probably has nothing to do with how you open the door. As long as you walk through it, what difference does the method make?" Xu Huo said with a slight smile, then got out of the vehicle first.
Liang Shuang was stunned for a moment before chuckling and following. "That joke isn't funny at all. I almost thought I was really about to enter the maze. Now, forget about proper doors—I'll probably have to think twice before opening a window."
As they spoke, a huge round glass ball, as tall as two people, brushed past them. They only caught a glimpse of two faces twisted in shock before the glass ball was already two hundred meters away.
"Thrilling Ball Castle offers you an extraordinary adrenaline rush! Are you two guests interested in taking on the challenge?" A staff member on a single-person flying vehicle quickly approached them, playing a rotating holographic projection according to the customer service procedure, and said, "We have a 360-degree panoramic heartbeat pod, a rainbow pod that prioritizes heart safety, a semi-enclosed pod simulating real terrain, and a fence pod with maximum safety. You can choose freely. All our pods are the same price and come with low, medium, and high speed and altitude options, allowing guests to fully experience the ultimate challenge while ensuring safety!"
Liang Shuang glanced at the highest-tier trajectory plan and complained, "This thing jumps more wildly than the lines on an ECG monitor. Even if you don't have heart problems, you'll get shaken until you throw up."
"Please rest assured. Our pods are equipped with the most advanced medical sensing facilities, which can instantly detect the guest's physical condition and take responsibility for emergency rescue and hospital transport in critical situations. The process is tight and smooth, requiring no human intervention and is very efficient. However, to date, no guest from Thrilling Ball Castle has needed to be sent to the hospital," the staff member explained diligently, applying invisible pressure with a warm smile and intense gaze.
Liang Shuang checked the price and said he didn't need the thrill.
Xu Huo chose a heartbeat pod and, after entering, pointed to the seat opposite him.
Liang Shuang forced a smile. "Uh... I have a bit of a fear of heights."
"Get over it," Xu Huo said without changing expression. "After all, as a player, you can't avoid falling from heights."
After much hesitation, Liang Shuang finally stepped into the heartbeat pod. The moment the door closed, before he could even sit down, the luggage compartment suddenly accelerated and tilted toward the sky.
Liang Shuang seemed genuinely scared. He grabbed the handrail, quickly fastened his seatbelt, and refused to look down, stubbornly staring at the sky.
Xu Huo selected the medium mode, and the pod began to rapidly ascend and descend. Even with the pod's special protection, the occupants still bobbed up and down inside, the feeling of weightlessness making their heads spin.
Liang Shuang quickly lowered the mode and said to Xu Huo, "Let's take it slow... take it slow..."
Xu Huo was just doing this out of interest, so he stopped paying attention to the pod's operation mode and instead took out binoculars to observe the pods on the ground.
The project covered a large area. Thanks to high technology, almost any spot could serve as a landing point for the pods, so people were constantly getting on and off in the square. Apart from a few players here for fun, most were likely here for the instance entrance.
His eyes moved quickly between the pods, and he soon spotted an empty glass ball descending from the air. In the second before its door opened, there was still a person inside.
There were also people who disappeared just as they were about to enter a pod. The staff and tourists in the square took this in stride, occasionally bursting into cheers—some idle folks were betting on which players would enter or exit the pods.
As the pod slowed down, Xu Huo scanned about a third of the area and found four pods where people vanished upon opening the door. According to the guide, this indicated a relatively high probability.
"Let's go down," Liang Shuang said. "I think we can observe more carefully from the ground."
Xu Huo gave him a knowing smile but didn't insist, descending as he suggested.
As they stepped out of the pod, Liang Shuang let out a huge sigh of relief. Just as he was about to say something, another pod landed nearby, and a person stumbled out, falling to their knees and vomiting violently.
(Chapter End)