Chapter 1424: A Fairy Tale Related Instance
"Brother Xu is very strong, I know that," Li Kun said immediately. "Splitting it three ways might seem like you're at a disadvantage, but the instance information was brought by Duan Cheng, and I have a trait for finding things, so we each contributed. However, if you think it's unfair, we can discuss it further."
Items placed within an instance belong to whoever finds them. This temptation is enormous for players, and with great temptation comes exponentially increased danger—especially from companions. That's why they didn't dare cooperate with B-level players and instead chose Xu Huo, who had kept his promise after reaching an agreement with Li Kun. At the same time, for self-preservation, their strategy was two against one.
Xu Huo might have some bottom line, but they didn't know if that bottom line would lower when faced with immense temptation. Two people were safer.
"Two against one—no matter how you look at it, I'm the one at a disadvantage." Xu Huo tapped his fingers on the table. "In this instance, I should be acting as the role of a fighter, putting in more effort and taking higher risks. If I get injured, how can I guarantee I'll leave the instance safely?"
Empty promises wouldn't work. "Also, I don't trust that whole contract-making routine. Contracts between players without the game acting as a third party are unreliable."
This was different from Artificers who had a direct cooperative relationship with the game. After completing an item, Artificers would follow the process to have the game certify it, and they could even add personal touches, like language-triggered mediums or usage rules for convenience. Going through the game's process maximized protection of the Artificer's interests. Of course, items that formed naturally or those where players weren't afraid of defaulting were another story.
Contract items obtained by players often lacked strong binding power. There were plenty of ways to exploit loopholes, making them insufficient as a trust bond.
"Do you want to invite someone else to join?" Duan Cheng tentatively asked. "A friend you know?"
Xu Huo nodded. "Also a C-level player. Two against two is fair."
Even without knowing what kind of role his friend was, adding one person would break the balance. Duan Cheng smiled. "Brother Xu, please also consider our situation."
Xu Huo took a sip of water. "Don't sell yourselves short, especially Mr. Duan. Your evolution rate should be the highest among us. As for my strength, Li Kun basically knows it. Each side reveals one trump card and keeps one hidden—that's fair."
"Besides, only you two know the instance information. I don't even know if the instance is real or fake. You already have the advantage."
"But we can discuss this after we reach an agreement."
Duan Cheng looked at Li Kun, who nodded slightly.
Li Kun's understanding of Xu Huo came from the Bauhinia Restaurant. Xu Huo had held off the restaurant staff and then turned back to save him. It couldn't be said that he would definitely defeat the restaurant staff, but being able to restrain one while rescuing someone from another showed he was definitely not weak. Moreover, he was a Super Evolver. During the robot attack on the way to the New District Government, it was clear that his control over Super Evolution Power was also decent.
They had separated at the New District Government city. Li Kun wasn't sure what happened in between, but later, Xu Huo and two other players came out with a lot of potions, likely having stolen them from the laboratory during the chaos—Xu Huo not getting involved in the city attack was one of the reasons Li Kun decided to cooperate with him. Weak players wouldn't do, but overly strong ones wouldn't either.
Another reason was that Xu Huo had not only saved him but also hadn't harmed him when he was severely injured. In the restaurant room, Xu Huo could have killed him and taken the instrument alone. At the very least, there were two other players he could have cooperated with. But Xu Huo didn't. His attitude directly determined whether the other two players dared to act, and it was also key to Li Kun's safe departure from the instance. Not to mention later coming to Platinum Eye together, which essentially guaranteed his safety during the journey.
In the game, players who don't take advantage of others in vulnerable moments deserve praise for their moral character—and that was tens of millions of White Notes.
He couldn't guarantee Xu Huo was a completely upright gentleman, but at least ordinary items weren't worth killing for, unless they were incredibly lucky and stumbled upon rare B-level or A-level items.
"Alright then. Since Mr. Xu trusts us, we'll trust Mr. Xu this once." Duan Cheng relented and said, "I've already prepared the tickets, but we can't add any more people."
Xu Huo said that was fine and directly contacted Yan Jiayu.
Yan Jiayu came without a second word. When Li Kun and Duan Cheng saw it was a young woman in her early twenties, they visibly relaxed. Players who were young and leveled up quickly generally fell into three categories.
First, they were inherently strong, surpassing not only their peers but also older individuals with more social experience and life experience.
Second, they came from wealthy and powerful families and relied on guides to clear instances.
Third, they were lucky. Some players were special—either with strange traits or simply blessed with good fortune. Such people were very fortunate. Compared to other players' difficult paths to clearing instances, they often seemed to inexplicably turn danger into safety.
With a two-thirds probability, the two preferred to believe that this seemingly harmless young girl was one of the latter two cases.
"Have you eaten?" Xu Huo poured her a glass of water.
"Not yet," Yan Jiayu smoothed down her hair, damp from the hood. "Business was too good today. I haven't had a break."
Xu Huo called up the menu and pushed it in front of her. "Order whatever you want. My treat."
"Then I won't be polite." Yan Jiayu scrolled down the menu and selected a long list, then asked the others, "Do you want anything else?"
Li Kun was a bit surprised by the long list of dishes, but only for a moment, then declined.
The robot quickly brought the food. As Yan Jiayu ate, she said, "Where were you in the conversation? You can keep going. I'll just listen."
Since they had agreed to cooperate, the next topic was information related to the instance.
The newly generated instance had no guides yet. Duan Cheng had only learned from a player preparing to enter it a second time that the new instance was probably related to fairy tales.
"Fairy tales? A fairy tale setting?" Xu Huo asked.
"It seems to be a fairy tale world," Duan Cheng said. "Unlike those instances where stories are just background introductions, this one appears to be entirely composed of fairy tales."
"That person you know is already preparing for a second run, which means the instance isn't that hard, right? Otherwise, why would he go again immediately?" Yan Jiayu interjected.
"That's true, but it's still a C-level instance. Just because he didn't encounter danger doesn't mean there's no danger," Duan Cheng said. "It's better to be safe than sorry."
"The instance was born in Zone 002. Are there any particularly special fairy tales here?" Xu Huo asked again.
"Too many," Li Kun said with a troubled expression. "Zone 002 places great emphasis on early childhood education. There are no less than ten thousand famous fairy tale collections alone. This isn't the first instance related to fairy tales to appear in Zone 002."