Chapter 1365: Improving Player Living Standards
The instance time limit hadn't expired yet, and most players still had at least a third of their time remaining. Spending a few more days in Twin Cities wouldn't matter, but if the instance disappeared or some link went wrong and no new Dr. Duo Er showed up, they'd be completely out of luck.
Failing to clear the instance meant not only losing the instance rewards but also lowering the player's clearance rate, which would affect their leveling. However, the good thing was that this wasn't an unlimited-time instance—once the fifteen days were up, they could still leave.
Zone 023 was a visibly barren city. Honestly, if not for the instance, no one would even take this place even if it were given away for free. So when news of the Ya Clan's retreat spread, players who knew a bit of the inside story had already prepared to return empty-handed. But just then, someone said they were planning to go big—it was hard not to be tempted.
Thus, more players came flocking. In just half an hour, this building, vacated due to player intrusion, had gathered thirty players, each with their own agenda.
During this time, Xu Huo had already checked his clearance rewards.
He had originally thought this instance would be just an ordinary clearance, nothing outstanding, and an A-grade perfect rating would be about right. He never expected the final result to be an S-grade rating.
This wasn't just because he had successfully delivered Dr. Duo Er to the Winter Wind Laboratory, completing the instance's surface-level "New Hope," but also because he had uncovered the truth of the instance and facilitated another kind of "New Hope."
The S-grade rating rewards were quite good: two B-grade items and three C-grade items. Additionally, under his accident-triggering constitution, an extended trait called "Reasonable Existence" was added.
[Given that Passerby A will actively and passively appear in various dangerous and non-dangerous situations, an identity that everyone naturally accepts is a necessity. Therefore, when Passerby A uses this trait, he will have a legitimate identity for three minutes—like a blade of grass in a meadow or a grain of rice on an ant's back. To anyone, it will seem perfectly reasonable, requiring no further questions.]
[It is said this trait is very suitable for fare evasion, but penny-wise and pound-foolish—it's not recommended to increase the workload for ticket sellers.]
[Note: Coordinating with a logical explanation can make things go more smoothly, but beware of people who never intended to believe you from the start—they might be directors. After all, only directors don't overlook a passerby.]
Xu Huo found this trait very interesting. The trait "Forgetting Switch" could temporarily make players within a hundred meters forget his identity, but it couldn't erase his existence. For example, if a group was in the middle of a heated fight and suddenly lost their target, even a fool would find it suspicious, and the stranger right in front of them would be the most obvious target.
If combined with "Reasonable Existence," anyone who saw him would automatically rationalize his presence, effectively ignoring him as well. This was more convenient than simply making people forget or overlook him, since a living person couldn't just vanish into thin air. But if he was like a pen on a desk, no one would find it odd.
Of course, the use of the passerby trait depended on the occasion—mostly to lower his presence. The one he used most was "Truth Transcends All," which had absolute defensive effects.
But the beauty of traits was that they could be upgraded, from small to large, whether in range or intensity, gradually matching a decent item. It was an investment that never lost value.
There were also some potions, tickets, and such that could be skipped. Probably because he had collected mutant plant seeds multiple times in instances, this batch of rewards included some unknown plant seeds—commonly known as blind boxes. What grew from them depended on personal luck.
These weren't the main event. The main event was an extra reward: a car.
That's right, an RV.
[Simple Mode of Transportation: After all, family members need to be considered, so Stellar Travel has lovingly developed this small RV that can accommodate three people for daily life. Besides basic living facilities, it is equipped with fully automatic repair skills. In case of mechanical failure, you don't need to learn repair knowledge on the spot—it can handle everything, including but not limited to changing tires, repairing energy tanks, and automatically correcting routes, freeing you from worries so you can fully immerse yourself in the journey.]
[Additionally, you don't need to worry about travel safety. The RV's outer shell is made of B-grade weapon-grade metal, capable of withstanding natural disasters, xenomorph attacks, and stranger assaults. It is internally equipped with automatic water storage, allowing you to rely on sufficient drinking water to hold out until rescue arrives, even if you are trapped and unable to escape.]
The simple mode of transportation was not simple at all. It was essentially a mobile shelter with anti-explosion features. It had all the functions a car should have, and even those a car shouldn't. Basic route correction, danger detection, and advance defense were all fully automated—a truly high-tech product.
Driving was certainly not as convenient as using long-distance teleportation items, but having this car would make things much easier. Even with cleaning agents, in instances with poor environments, washing up was still a problem.
Once a player's level and instance rating went up, the game began to proactively pay attention to details beyond mere survival.
Besides the instance rewards, there were also the remains of the fake player he had killed. The only standout item among his belongings was a container item called "Staff Dormitory." All those fake people were stuffed inside. He had used quite a few before, and there were still plenty left, showing how large the space was.
But controlling the fake people should have been that player's trait. Xu Huo had no item with such an effect, which was somewhat regrettable. However, the space of "Staff Dormitory" was much larger than "World Within the Painting," and the description stated it could hold living people for up to eight hours—well, about the time for a nap.
People entering "World Within the Painting" could survive for up to thirty days, after which they would die completely inside the painting. "Staff Dormitory" only had eight hours, but the good part was that it could store things that resembled people, such as mannequins, dolls, puppets, and so on... In the hands of that player who could control fake people, it was indeed a perfect match. In Xu Huo's hands, it was a bit less useful, but he could try stuffing things into the fake people's abdominal cavities to see if they could be preserved.
Now wasn't the right time.
Xu Huo opened his eyes and looked at the scar-handed player sitting next to him, who was drinking water in big gulps. The man fanned himself and grinned at him. "Sorry, I naturally sweat a lot, and this place is hot. I've gone rancid a few times already. I can't be bothered to wash—it'll stink again right after anyway. I'll sit a bit farther away."
He symbolically moved half his butt to the side. After all, no one here was much better off.
"I'm not picky. Real men don't wear cologne," he insinuated, glancing at the upright man sitting not far away. "Isn't being both fragrant and stinky even more rancid?"
The upright man wasn't annoyed at all. Instead, he smiled and said, "Although surviving in the game isn't easy, one should still live with dignity."
(Chapter End)