Chapter 1231: Rampaging Players
Mu Yan turned her head to look at him, her expression clearly saying, "Are you serious?"
The trio who had been eavesdropping nearby wore the same look. The master of the maze, the holder of a C-rank instance—was he really going to grow fruit to sell for money?
It would be more believable to say he was growing them for fun or to satisfy his own appetite.
"Why not?" As if seeing through their thoughts, Xu Huo said unhurriedly, "Such a large space, it would be a waste to leave it empty. Don't you all want to grow something?"
"Not even a little," Mu Yan replied. She followed his gaze to the maze wall ahead, thought for a moment, then said, "If it were used as a laboratory, it could make a few separate compartments."
The two finished their fruit and returned to the shelter.
The masked man and the scarred man had already treated the short-haired woman's wounds. Staring at the constantly writhing maze wall, the former said, "This maze wall seems to be squeezing inward."
The trio hurried over to check and found that the slime left by the mutant plants on the ground had already been covered. This meant the maze corridor they were in was continuously shrinking.
"What do we do?" the trio asked their companion.
"How should I know?" The black-shirted player who had been lying on the ground shrugged. "No use rushing. Let's just wait. Maybe a passage will appear soon. The maze can't possibly kill all of us, right? I'm sure we're not the only ones in this situation. If everyone dies, who's going to play the instance?"
As he finished speaking, the expressions of Mu Yan and the scarred man visibly darkened.
Because the instance's player count wasn't fixed. This sudden change in the maze was likely a way to thin the ranks. The players who entered first had grabbed most of the cards, leaving latecomers with none to collect.
"So this is the difficulty of the second half of the maze," the scarred man said. "It's very easy for the maze to randomly kill players."
They didn't even need to be killed. The maze could simply trap them here. If they couldn't break through the maze walls, they could only wait until the instance time ran out.
"Isn't that cheating?" Mu Yan muttered. "If that's the case, who can clear it?"
Xu Huo didn't think so. The second half of the maze would definitely reduce the number of players, but it might not be random, nor would it necessarily wipe out the majority. It might have something to do with the cards they held.
If anyone could quickly clear the instance by holding just one card, the maze would lose all its challenge. It was only natural for the maze to find ways to eliminate such people.
At least, if it were him, he would do the same.
Those who touched the maze walls or killed people to obtain playing cards in the middle of the instance were more in line with the instance's requirements. Such players might even kill others to get special number cards or flower cards after collecting six cards. Before clearing the instance, these players would likely become the final barrier.
Unfortunately, the cooldown for the Mini Mushroom Cloud hadn't ended yet. Otherwise, he could have blown up the wall.
Although the maze wall was slowly closing in, its movement speed wasn't fast. Seeing that the maze didn't intend to kill them all at once, the players relaxed.
The trio, led by the black-shirted player, started to pass the time. The items in their hands happened to be playing cards.
Xu Huo glanced over and took the initiative to walk over. After briefly understanding the rules of the cards, he said, "Is this a specialty of Card City?"
"That's right. Card City has a huge variety of card games," the black-shirted player said. "When I bought it, the merchant said this deck was the closest to the cards in the maze."
Besides number cards and flower cards, Xu Huo also had a crown card.
"There doesn't seem to be a crown card in the maze," he said.
"I said it's the closest, not exactly the same," the black-shirted player replied. "According to Card City's rules, you need to ignore five cards, so the crown card is an extra. It can be used as a flower card or a number card."
Xu Huo nodded slightly and played the crown card.
The black-shirted player looked at him in surprise. "Leading with a good card right away? That's not how you play."
Xu Huo just smiled. "Good things should be brought out first to make a statement. If you play badly, even a good card can't turn the tide, and that would be a waste, wouldn't it?"
The black-shirted player and his group had probably never heard this reasoning before. They found it novel and exchanged glances before deliberately ganging up on Xu Huo during the game.
A few minutes later, the black-shirted player threw his cards on the ground. "No way! You only had small cards in your hand, and you still won!"
"Thank the playing card rules of Card City," Xu Huo said.
"No, I don't believe I can't win a single round. Again, again!" As the black-shirted player was picking up the cards, a sound of movement suddenly came from the maze wall—cards fluttered to the ground, and everyone present was on high alert.
A moment later, the passage that had disappeared earlier reappeared.
The closed wall slowly opened, dragging out two long trails of blood. The short-haired woman's two companions were still embedded in the maze wall, their limbs twisted, already dead.
The short-haired woman's group paused as they passed the bodies. The scarred man wanted to close their eyes, but the masked man stopped him. "If we provoke another maze disturbance, we'll be in danger with Xiaoqing."
The scarred man lowered his hand.
The three of them, plus the black-shirted player's group of three, and Xu Huo and Mu Yan at the back—eight people in total—walked out of this passage under the dull gaze of the corpses.
"The fruit you ate earlier might have been grown from the nutrients of dead people," the black-shirted player said cheekily, turning back. "Don't you find that disgusting?"
Mu Yan was completely unfazed and revealed an inside story. "Most of the vegetables and fruits in Card City's market are grown using secondary cycle fertilizer. Do you know what secondary cycle fertilizer is? It's xenomorph feces."
"Did you not eat before you came?"
"Oh, besides xenomorph feces, there's also..."
This time, it was the black-shirted player who felt sick. He covered his ears and raised his voice: "I didn't hear that! I didn't hear that! I didn't hear that!"
Mu Yan said flatly, "What's growing out of a pile of dead bodies? You can even eat dead people."
This wasn't a good topic, because when they walked out of this passage, they really did see someone eating a corpse. The person was a cannibal player, but his eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging on his face and neck, and his expression had become somewhat deranged.
"Is there a plant here that induces gluttony?" Xu Huo asked.
"Of course there is..." Mu Yan dodged the cannibal player charging straight at them and added, "But it shouldn't drive a cannibal player mad. And normal players wouldn't touch the plants on the maze wall anyway!"
Many of the mutant plants on the maze wall were poisonous, so people usually wore gloves or protective suits when touching them. Even if they got a little on them, a player's physique shouldn't cause them to lose their mind.
Xu Huo also avoided that person, but when he reached the front of the passage, he found two more cannibal players being driven over there!