Chapter 204: Game Prompt: Unknown Plant
"We can take two more players. That way we'll be much safer." Xu Huo paused and added, "The rest of you will fill in the gaps."
"What gives you the right to decide who lives and dies!" A man in his fifties or sixties stood up from the back, shouting emotionally.
"Because my fists are bigger!" Brother Tie turned back and glared fiercely at the man. "Don't forget, there are a hundred and eight people on this floor. By the next floor down, there'll be four more."
The man flinched and quickly looked away, then suddenly turned his gaze to Xu Huo and the others, saying angrily, "Didn't you just say you had a way out? That everyone could survive? Now you're telling us to just wait floor by floor to die!"
This was what Kang Hong and Chen Shu had said earlier to calm everyone down. The two of them now looked both helpless and angry at being confronted.
"...It's all your fault. It's the players' fault. If there were no players, there wouldn't be any damn game instances, and we wouldn't be in this mess today..."
"What happened a few days ago too—those people who came from other places were trying to snatch a powerful item. If that hadn't happened, so many people wouldn't have died. The world would still be peaceful, and I'd be sitting in an air-conditioned room eating watermelon... This is a dream!"
Some people were clearly in a bad mental state.
The atmosphere on the ninth floor suddenly became tense. Over a dozen players were surrounded by the crowd, dozens of pairs of eyes filled with mixed emotions making everyone uneasy.
"What does this have to do with us?" Xiao Ba muttered quietly. "It's not like we chose to become players."
As long as ordinary people didn't get caught up in random instances or encounter unexpected incidents, they could probably live their lives just fine. But once someone became a player, it was an endless cycle of game instances until the day they died.
"Heh!" Zheng Liang sneered at this point. "Some people really have no conscience. We risked our lives to test the game rules—wasn't that to save more people?"
"Otherwise, we could just make sure we get to the first floor ourselves and not care who lives or dies!"
"Why are we wasting so many words!" Brother Tie clenched his fists. "Kill a few of them, and they'll quiet down naturally."
This time, not many people lowered their heads. Instead, they glared at the players with even more anger.
"Anyone willing to come with us into the overloaded elevator can step forward." Xu Huo's calm voice broke the tense atmosphere. He said, "Whether you're a player or not, people are going to die."
"Instead of internal conflict, it's better to make some contribution."
"Just because the upper floors aren't too dangerous doesn't mean the lower ones are safe. There are no absolutes in an instance. Killing all the players and others won't guarantee you survive to the end."
Gu Yu and the others were stunned for a moment, then Zhang Biao laughed out loud. "Are they trying to kill us all?"
Xu Huo looked at him until the smile completely faded from the other's face and he nervously rolled his eyes. Then Xu Huo stood up and said, "I'm going to the thirteenth floor."
"To get the mutated plants? I'll help too." Gu Yu said.
"No rush." Xu Huo said. "I'll go up and take a look first."
"You're not planning to pull something, are you?" Brother Tie eyed him suspiciously.
"You can come too." Xu Huo stepped aside.
Brother Tie said nothing.
Jiang Yihua and Da Zhi worked together to pry the elevator door open just a crack. After confirming there were no other mutated animals inside, they opened it about a third of the way.
After Xu Huo went in, Jiang Yihua added, "We don't need to close the elevator door, right? We'll be right here to support you from below."
Xu Huo glanced at the silent elevator shaft and said, "If the man-eating flowers start moving, throw the potted plants down."
Jiang Yihua nodded.
Then he asked Wei Bin, "Do you have some resistance to the poison gas?"
Wei Bin hesitated for a moment before saying, "I can manage."
"Then come up with me."
Wei Bin looked at Gu Yu, and only agreed after she nodded.
Xu Huo grabbed the qin string and brought him up to the thirteenth floor. Through the elevator door, Wei Bin pressed his face to the gap and sniffed hard. "No problem for now, but opening the door a little wider would be more accurate."
Xu Huo held his breath and signaled for him to proceed.
Wei Bin opened the elevator door a crack, waited a few seconds, then said, "The air is fine."
Xu Huo nodded. "Want to go in together?"
Wei Bin quickly shook his head. "You're the one with the skills and guts. I'll pass."
Xu Huo sent him back down, then returned to the thirteenth floor. After opening the elevator door, he first observed the mantis corpse he had left inside, then retrieved his phone and cautiously stepped into the floor.
The thirteenth floor showed no reaction.
He placed the mantis corpse in a glass room in the corner, set down another phone with a full battery, then walked to the glass room Jiang Yihua had mentioned earlier. There, he found a small purple potted plant with only a trace of energy value.
[Unknown Plant: No name, no classification. A small flower that grows like a weed. It can grow anywhere in the game. Some wormhole points have it in abundance, while others have almost none.]
Although the game had a description for this plant, it couldn't be stored in the item slot. So Xu Huo picked it up, along with a few other potted plants from the same glass room, before leaving.
After going back down, Jiang Yihua and the others took the potted plants first, then asked, "How was it up there?"
"I didn't run into any trouble." Xu Huo watched as Jiang Yihua casually placed the small purple flower in the middle of the cart, right next to the potted plants that sprayed pollen.
"In that case, what are we waiting for?" Brother Tie walked over. "Let's go up and move the flowers first."
Xu Huo didn't stop them. Brother Tie and Zhang Biao led a few players up to the thirteenth floor.
Dai Wenqian walked over, glanced into the elevator, and said coolly, "Lucky break."
Zheng Liang watched Brother Tie and the others going up and down moving the flowers and couldn't help but say, "The thirteenth floor is safe. Why don't we just stay there?"
"We could break open the windows to ventilate."
Xu Huo and Dai Wenqian both remained silent. Wei Bin explained, "The thirteenth floor looks safe now, but it's actually more unpredictable than the other floors."
"When you go into the other floors, you encounter mutated animals or plants. But on the thirteenth floor, with so many plants gathered together, there might be an unusual chemical reaction."
Zheng Liang's eyes widened slightly. "Then why are they still bringing the flowers down?"
"How many flowers can just a few people move?" Wei Bin pointed to the windows. "The air circulation here is good."
Just then, Gu Yu walked over and said to Xu Huo, "I've called two more people to help you."
The two players who followed were one tall and one short. Both had martial arts training before becoming players and had decent physical strength.
"These two are among the more capable fighters in our group."
Xu Huo nodded. That made eight players now.
There were currently a hundred and eight people on the ninth floor. The four extra people had to go with them.
That meant they still needed nine more.
"A few of us have decided to go with you." The middle-aged woman who had harshly criticized Zhang Biao and the others on the fourteenth floor walked over with three other people. She said, "We're all people with nothing left to lose. If we can help find a way out for the others, it'll be worth it."