Chapter 1825: Some Jokes Can't Be Made
The small tavern had a bar counter, guest tables, and two old pool tables, with about a dozen players idling inside. Outer zone players were easy to recognize—unless they deliberately concealed it, those with cleaner appearances and smoother skin were mostly from outer zones.
And in this tavern, two tables were actually occupied by outer zone players.
The player who had just spoken to Xu Huo walked over to one of those tables and introduced them, "These are new friends, Old Black, Brother Xu, and Brother Gao. They just entered the instance."
"Just entered the instance?" One of them sized up Xu Huo and the others, his gaze stopping on Gao Dawei. "This guy doesn't look like someone entering an instance."
Gao Dawei had obvious traits of Zone 010 natives, and the Black Thorn disease on him was a very distinct feature—it could be recognized as soon as he took off his gloves.
Xu Huo nodded to Deng Xiahei and Gao Dawei, and the three of them sat down at an empty table nearby.
The man who had spoken set down his drink, then reached into the bag the player who had led Xu Huo in had placed down, pulling out a fresh fruit and taking a bite. Grinning, he said, "Is the instance you're doing around here?"
"What kind of instance is it? Why not tell us so we can all discuss it together? Maybe we brothers can give you a hand."
Among the three, Deng Xiahei was a B-rank player, so the words were naturally directed at him. Deng Xiahei's face showed no trace of a smile. "Why don't you tell us about your instance first? Judging by your setup, you've been here for more than a couple of days. If you haven't cleared your own instance, don't go coveting others'."
In untimed instances, there could be stranded players who hadn't cleared. Normally, these people and those entering to clear the instance kept their distance, but if the instance involved a wide scope and was the kind that might disappear once cleared, some players might obstruct later arrivals from completing it.
"Don't be afraid." The man propped his legs up on the table, grinning cheekily. "Look at this crappy place. Even if we've exceeded the time limit, we'd be more than happy to have later arrivals clear it with us. Spending a lifetime in a place like this is worse than running a high-risk random instance."
"Right?"
He directed the last words at the other two at his table, who wore the same expression as him. They nodded in agreement, raised their glasses, and clinked them together, as if celebrating something worth rejoicing over.
Those who sat at the same table naturally got along. The player who had brought Xu Huo and the others in leaned back in his chair, raised his glass, and gulped down his drink. After finishing, he shouted to the tavern owner, "Come on, come on, fill up the drinks for my new friends here. My treat!"
The Zone 010-specific blended liquor was quickly brought over. Though not particularly thirsty, Xu Huo and the others drank it out of courtesy and exchanged a few words with the neighboring table about the instance.
These four had been in Zone 010 for quite a while. They were in the same instance as Deng Xiahei, had run through the Sand Sea Safe Zone, and had visited other major safe zones. It was only after exceeding the one-month limit of their original home district that they slowed down. By now, at least one of them had missed an instance, and the one joking with Xu Huo was about to miss his third instance deadline.
But their state matched their attitude—since they had to accept reality, they might as well lie back and enjoy it.
"Don't even get me started. I used to think dried meat and biscuits were hard to swallow, but after spending some time here, hey, I suddenly learned to cherish food!" The player who had brought Xu Huo in ran his hand through his sand-laden hair, finding joy in misery. "My grandma taught me for thirty years and couldn't get through to me, but two or three months here, and I had an epiphany!" The three at his table laughed along, then divided up all the fresh fruit they had bought.
While gnawing on a fruit, the man turned back to look at Xu Huo and the others. "If you respect us, call me Brother Wu. You can ask us anything you want to know—free of charge."
The three at the table exchanged glances. Gao Dawei looked at Xu Huo, Xu Huo looked at Deng Xiahei, and Deng Xiahei caught on. He took the initiative to tell them he was doing the same instance and shared his understanding of it.
"No, no," Brother Wu waved his hand. "Look at the situation in the Sand Sea Safe Zone. The key to clearing can't possibly be there. I think it should be somewhere else."
The three at his table clearly thought the same. The grinning player said, "The lighthouse could be symbolic, right? Maybe it's about igniting the spirit of revenge in Zone 010? The Sand Sea Safe Zone and the Zone 010 people have a long-standing grudge. Unfortunately, the hot-blooded people in Zone 010 have mostly died off in recent years. No one dares to provoke those cannibal players in the Sand Sea Safe Zone anymore. We've run through several major safe zones, and no one took the bait."
Actually, it wasn't just that. To clear the instance, they had even disguised themselves as Sand Sea Safe Zone people to harass the nearest safe zones, hoping to provoke a joint attack on the Sand Sea Safe Zone. But those safe zones just took the harassment lying down.
Of course, they weren't unwilling to do something more extreme, but the safe zones that still existed had some manpower, and they couldn't take on ten opponents alone, so they had to give up.
"Could the lighthouse refer to something else?" Deng Xiahei pretended to ponder deeply. "Like curing the Black Thorn disease for Zone 010 people and restoring their fertility?"
Brother Wu and the others looked at each other, then burst into laughter. After laughing, they said, "Do we look like doctors to you? Before entering the instance, I was a cop. But once I got in, no one took cops seriously."
"You're telling me," the grinning player said. "I was a minor celebrity, and this place has worn me down into a rough-faced, thick-skinned middle-aged man. I can't even look in the mirror!"
The group veered off topic, chattering away, and Deng Xiahei struggled to pull the conversation back. "Doesn't Zone 010 have any newborn children? What if the lighthouse refers to newborns? If we spread that news, it should give Zone 010 people some hope, right?"
"You want to find children here?" Brother Wu stopped, rolling his eyes up to glance at Deng Xiahei. "Then I advise you to drop that idea. Zone 010 hasn't had a newborn in ten years. The locals have already accepted this fact. Even if you go out and tell outsiders now, they won't believe you."
"Last month, a player used an outer zone child to impersonate a Zone 010 native and enter the safe zone. He probably wanted to use the child to get the safe zone players to do something. But he was killed in less than two days."
"You understand, right?"
He said solemnly, "What do you think happens when a bunch of madmen barely holding on in despair find out the hope you brought is fake?"
What were the players still willing to stay in Zone 010 after? Nothing but a refusal to give up until the very end. Newborns were the only spark, and everything else was built on that hope—one that might or might not come true.
"Zone 010 has been like this for twenty or thirty years since the upheaval. Anyone who's held out this long is a bit twisted mentally. Other things can be discussed, but the newborn joke is off-limits."
"And you can't get out of this instance anyway."
Some people die, but not completely...