Chapter 2052: Instance Trigger Conditions
As player levels increased, the ways to enter instances became diverse. For example, the last Melissa instance only officially started after he encountered district personnel.
Locations and people could both become triggers for instances. But he had already entered Tin City, and the instance still hadn't triggered. Perhaps neither location nor person was the key—had he been looking in the wrong place, or was the instance opened in some other way?
Xu Huo casually picked an instance entrance. "Let's go here."
He brought the Painting Woman along but didn't approach the entrance directly. Instead, he chose to observe from a thousand meters away.
Near the entrance, some Outer Zone players were indeed peering around, but no one rashly entered. Probably because even near the instance, it hadn't activated. Some players came and went, with rapid personnel turnover.
"Is the stuff in the manual fake? Nobody believes it," the Painting Woman said.
It wasn't certain whether it was fake, but it couldn't be guaranteed to be real. Not to mention random instances—if they accidentally entered another ticket instance, catching up to their own would be extremely difficult.
"Let's watch a bit more." Xu Huo was about to turn back when he suddenly saw a massive blaze erupt from the city center. A shockwave followed, toppling buildings across two or three streets. At the same time, several players draped in white robes leaped into the air, clashing with about a dozen players who were clearly members of the Shadow Eater Sect.
The white-robed players belonged to another religion within the city. The two sides fought without regard for the other people in the city, not suppressing their strength, not using items to reduce the collateral damage from their battle, completely indifferent to the lives and deaths of the ordinary people caught in the center of the conflict.
Screams and cries for help came from that direction, but they quickly faded. As the battle expanded, these desperate sounds rose and fell several more times.
"Let's go," Xu Huo said to the Painting Woman.
Just as they were about to leave, someone suddenly charged out from ahead. Probably bloodthirsty from the fight, seeing the Painting Woman step onto Xu Huo's shadow, the man's long blade swiftly carved a "cross." The cross-shaped light shot out over a hundred meters, covering the entire building that included the two of them.
"Boom!" The light sliced the building into three pieces. The upper half of the attack was blocked by Xu Huo's defense item. Not intending to get entangled with this person, he took the Painting Woman and stepped two thousand meters away in one stride.
What surprised him slightly was that this Shadow Eater Sect player actually pursued him.
"No one can violate the Shadow Eater Sect's rules within Tin City!" the man spouted fanatical rhetoric and even summoned several companions.
Xu Huo looked at the people surrounding him and asked with some confusion, "Dragging outsiders into an internal conflict—aren't you afraid of losing more than you gain?"
The player replied, "Family matters need handling, and guests who don't know the rules also need handling."
"That's not wrong." Xu Huo nodded slightly. "Your territory, your rules—it's reasonable to demand others follow them."
"But," he paused, looking at them again, "I've just made a rule too: any Shadow Eater Sect disciple who appears within my line of sight can only be dead men."
Their expressions changed, then they attacked in fury.
Xu Huo didn't plan to fight them all at once. He opened his Spiritual Realm and sliced them into different spiritual spaces. Using Materialized Objects, Space Rays, and "All Things Want to Cut Everything," he ended the battle without much effort.
The Painting Woman watched happily, pointing to one side. "Look there, look there! There are more! Kill them all!"
Xu Huo turned around, but the few onlookers had already slipped away—C11-011 players were battle-hardened, but that didn't mean they would knowingly throw their lives away for a meaningless reason.
The chaos in Tin City probably wouldn't end anytime soon. When they left the city, they saw many people fleeing for refuge. But the wild Xenomorphs hadn't been completely cleared, so ordinary people could only escape the city to take temporary shelter.
Many Outer Zone players also withdrew. Some headed for farther cities, while others, like Xu Huo, chose the nearest city, Ye City.
The atmosphere in Ye City was somewhat strange. As soon as they entered, they saw light screens floating everywhere in the sky, displaying messages like "Congratulations to Zhao Shouming on Another Funeral," "President Wang Joyfully Acquires Twenty-One Gold Coffins, Pan Ren and Fuxiang Tower Hereby Congratulate," or "I Will Host a Housewarming Banquet at Six Tomorrow Evening, Specially Inviting One-Eyed Sister of Lotus Street to Bring Her Family." The city's buildings were like tofu blocks, one patch connected to another, each patch planted with flags representing different factions. A single street or intersection might be divided among three to five factions. Those text light screens were probably mutual taunts between these factions, quite like street-side cursing matches.
There were plenty of people on the streets, but most were injured—both players and ordinary people. For instance, the two factions that had just fought outside the city were now confronting each other at the hospital entrance over bed space, neither willing to yield.
As Xu Huo and the Painting Woman passed by, the hospital director was shouting through a megaphone, "If you're not here for treatment, get lost! Are you holding a funeral blocking the entrance!"
"Director, this is a hospital, you can't say that!" a nearby doctor quickly advised. But the director shoved the megaphone in his face. "You get lost too!"
The megaphone faced downstairs again as the old director shouted, "Are you leaving or not?! If not, I'll go euthanize all the inpatients right now!"
Only then did the players and injured family members blocking the entrance back down. After some discussion, most dispersed, selecting a few ordinary people as representatives to enter the hospital.
"What are you looking at!" Someone passing by Xu Huo snapped when meeting his gaze. "Move it!"
Xu Huo moved aside and went to a nearby shop to buy five copies of the instance manual—there was no choice. Every player faction that could claim territory had published their own instance manuals: encrypted editions, special editions, upgraded editions, all kinds. There was even an instance check-in manual... They probably didn't know whose money they were trying to earn.
But better than Tin City, their manuals complemented each other. Some entrances were marked as ticket instances or random instances, and a few were likely frequented by local players, with not only instance names but decent guides.
These were all instances near the station. Xu Huo planned to try his luck.
But before he and the Painting Woman could reach the nearest entrance, an instance introduction popped up:
[Player Passerby A has entered the trigger range of the instance "Puppet." As twenty-four personnel have now entered this instance's range, meeting the instance activation conditions, you will be teleported to the instance location within one minute.]