Chapter 186: Empty Elevator Shaft
Passing through here, ahead lay a spacious office area, over fifty meters in both length and width. Already, a considerable crowd had gathered—players and ordinary people alike, numbering more than a hundred.
"What is this place? How did I get here?"
"I don't know either. I was walking down the road just fine when suddenly a thick fog rolled in, and the next thing I knew, I was here!"
"Could it be outer zone players again? Are they here to kill?"
"I don't want to die!!!"
"...This looks like one of those instance dungeons I've heard about online," someone said with a sob. "Didn't someone say that besides players, us ordinary people can get pulled into instances too? And they're high-mortality random instances!"
"It's over! We're done for..."
"Ah!!! There's a human head here!" A woman screamed, kicking a skull out from somewhere.
The people around her recoiled as if afraid of catching a disease, clearing a path down the middle.
The skull rolled toward the far wall and bumped into the rear of a small car.
"Why is there a car here?"
Zheng Liang, who had been thrown aside, shook his head and climbed to his feet. He quickly walked over to the car and pulled open the door, dragging out Gu Yu, who was bleeding from a head wound.
Gu Yu had intended to speed out of the fog zone at full throttle, so when the car slammed into the wall at close range, she had no time to react. Fortunately, though the front of the car was crushed, she only had a cut on her forehead from the glass.
At that moment, several other players who had entered with them also approached. The young man in the skull-print t-shirt went to help Gu Yu. "Sister Gu Yu, are you okay? Want to drink some potion?"
Gu Yu shook her head and asked, "How many of our people made it in?"
One by one, more people pushed through the crowd and gathered around. All of the dozen or so players who had chased Xu Huo from the bar were here.
"Damn it, that bastard Xu screwed us over good!" a stubbled player said angrily, scanning the crowd. "Did that kid get in?"
"He must have. Since we're all in the instance, no one can escape. Let's beat him up first and see where he runs this time!" Zheng Liang looked around, his sharp eyes spotting Xu Huo standing behind the crowd. He pushed people aside and strode toward him, with other players following.
The others quickly backed away, clearing the center space. Zheng Liang and his group surrounded Xu Huo, sneering. "Go on, try running now!"
Xu Huo toyed with his lighter, glancing at Zheng Liang. "If I were you, I'd think about your own situation first."
"We can think after we've beaten you!" Zheng Liang rolled up his sleeves.
"Snap!" Xu Huo flicked the lighter, and a table three meters away burst into flames.
Zheng Liang jumped back in shock, instinctively retreating.
"This entire floor is within my fire-setting range. I don't mind killing a few people before cracking the instance. It just depends on who dies first."
The dozen or so players exchanged glances. Most of them had no personal grudge against Xu Huo—they were only after the White Notes. None wanted to be the sacrificial lamb.
"What are you doing!" Gu Yu shoved Zheng Liang. "Didn't you check the instance info before coming in? This is a D-rank instance with high risk. If we start killing each other right away, who can guarantee they'll survive to the end?"
"I already checked. There's no danger here." The stubbled player cracked his knuckles. "Doesn't the instance description just hint at possible mutant animals and plants?"
"But look at this floor. You can see everything at a glance. Where are the mutant animals?"
"The game says this place has been abandoned for a long time. Maybe the animals starved to death!"
"Brother Tie is right," another player with a mole near his mouth chimed in. "And there are over a dozen of us. This instance only requires ninety hours. Even if we run into some mutant animals, can't we handle them?"
Compared to the random instances Gu Yu and other organization players had encountered before, "Little Flower Red Red Building" gave a specific time limit instead of just "unlimited." So theoretically, surviving ninety hours was enough.
It was safer to passively endure ninety hours of risk than to blindly seek out ways to crack the instance.
"But that's no reason for us to fight among ourselves," Gu Yu said after a pause. "Mutual destruction benefits no one."
"How is it mutual destruction?" the stubbled player said. "We just beat him until he can't take care of himself."
His words made the other players restless. Just then, Xu Huo pointed to the fog-shrouded window. "Do you know how high we are?"
"Should be less than fifty meters," Gu Yu said, glancing back at the nearby elevators. The several elevators facing the office area were all stopped on the fifteenth floor.
"If this were a normal building, that would be about right. But buildings in instances might be different."
Xu Huo lit a cigarette. "Based on the floor height here, the fifteenth floor is at least close to a hundred meters."
"The elevator doors won't open. All the window glass is shattered. And there's blood everywhere—doesn't look like it's from infighting."
"The elevator doors won't open?" Zheng Liang was startled. He hurried over to press the elevator button. He tried several, but none budged. Just as he was about to force the doors open, the skull-print t-shirt player quickly stopped him. "Don't! Can't you see the blood trails all coming from the elevators? The danger might be inside!"
"Let's find out." Xu Huo picked up a stapler and threw it hard against the elevator door. After a loud "thump," a faint echo seemed to come from behind the elevator.
Zheng Liang's face changed. "Something's off. The space behind the elevator seems empty."
Xu Huo listened carefully for a moment. "There shouldn't be anything alive in the elevator shaft, but mutant plants aren't out of the question."
"So what?" the mole-player said. "We'll just stay on the fifteenth floor and not go down!"
"You idiot!" another player in glasses slapped him. "Look at the glass fragments on this floor—they're all scattered inward. That means the attack came from outside!"
"At a height of a hundred meters, something attacked from outside. Think about what kind of creature that must be!"
This made those near the windows panic and push inward.
"We'll need the elevator for the next ninety hours," Xu Huo said, scanning the crowd. "If you don't want to fight, maybe check if the elevator works first."
Zheng Liang's anger had already subsided considerably. He shot a look at the still-unwilling stubbled player. "We'll settle this after we get out."
Brother Tie clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction but still walked over to the elevator. He pulled out a thin metal piece, inserted it into the door crack, and pried it open, creating a gap wide enough for two palms side by side.
He stuck his head in. "It's pitch black—can't see a thing. Give me some light."
The skull-print t-shirt player handed him a lighting tool. The moment the light shone inside, a flesh-colored sucker-like thing suddenly appeared in the dark elevator shaft, splitting open and grabbing Brother Tie's head!