# Chapter 223: The Blinking Portrait
This art gallery was enormous in size, with the distance from the entrance to the mural wall at the deepest end visually estimated to be at least three hundred meters, roughly the length of three football fields. It resembled a palace more than an art gallery.
Both side walls and the dome ceiling above were adorned with relief murals. Three massive crystal chandeliers hung beneath the dome, their light sufficient to reach every corner of this gallery, while slightly shaded areas behind the massive pillars were equipped with soft, gentle lighting to facilitate viewing of the paintings.
The paintings in the gallery were all hung around the circular pillars.
Rounding the door-blocking pillar, Xu Huo and the others saw the other players participating in this instance.
Six men and four women.
"Everyone's here." The first to speak was a male player standing directly in front of the door-blocking pillar. "The game has already mentioned all the information we need to know. There are twelve people total. The first task is to find one fake painting. The latter two tasks are hidden and should only appear after the first task is completed."
"Usually in instances like this, completing just one task is enough to pass with a low score, so as long as we find the fake painting, we can get our return tickets."
After he finished speaking and saw that no one else responded, he took the initiative to introduce himself. "My name is Pan Siming. I've completed four E-rank instances before this. White player."
Several gazes turned toward him, but Pan Siming just smiled and said, "Player classification began on the Preliminary Train. Just because someone hasn't killed anyone on the train doesn't mean they lack combat ability."
Not far from him, a gloomy man with a dimpled chin sneered coldly, "I don't know about your combat ability, but this instance definitely isn't about finding one fake painting and having all players clear it together. Instead of putting on a fake show of building relationships here, why not check whether there are actually twelve fake paintings in the gallery?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a young man wearing a headscarf beside him said, "I just looked around. Every pillar here has at least two paintings hanging on it. Excluding some blank ones, there are about seventy to eighty paintings."
"But to be honest, all these paintings look fake. They have absolutely no exhibition value."
"So it's quite possible there really are twelve fake paintings."
The gloomy man snorted and left on his own.
Just as he left, the woman in a leather jacket standing behind the others popped her bubble gum with a loud "smack," flicked her half-head of small braids, and also walked away.
The others exchanged glances, then Pan Siming added, "It's better to look out for each other, but I won't force it."
As soon as he finished speaking, a tall, burly man in a vest and shorts grabbed the hand of the young girl in a maid outfit beside him and dragged her deeper into the gallery. The girl seemed to want to turn back and say something, but before she could speak, the burly man pulled her again, and she had to trot along behind him.
"Pervert." A short-haired, attractive woman hugged her arms and muttered under her breath.
The man standing beside her said, "Don't be fooled by appearances. That young girl is still a player no matter what."
The attractive woman looked at him, and the man introduced himself. "My name is Deng Yu. Black player. This should be my third instance. Compared to you all, I'm a junior."
The attractive woman rolled her eyes. "Xie Man."
The remaining people introduced themselves one by one.
Aside from the gloomy man, the leather jacket woman, the burly man, and the maid girl who had left, those who stayed included Pan Siming, Deng Yu, Xie Man, plus Xu Huo and Fan Shiji. The remaining three were Gao Jun, Ni Tian, and a player whose nickname was Octopus Card Bear — he was the headscarf-wearing man who had counted the paintings.
Among everyone present, whether using real names or fake names, only he used a player nickname.
The headscarf man rubbed his head and said somewhat sheepishly, "This is only my second instance. I'm not too clear on the rules. Is it okay to use a nickname?"
"Of course it is." Ni Tian revealed a charming smile. "It's not like we'll run into each other again anyway."
The headscarf man laughed along. "You can call me Big Bear too."
Of the eight players, aside from Pan Siming, Deng Yu, and Fan Shiji, the others were all black players.
"It's really great that there are no cannibal players." Big Bear patted his chest in relief.
"You've only done one instance, so you don't know the situation yet. Actually, the more instances you complete, the less advantage cannibal players have." Ni Tian said. "Because under normal circumstances, you can get evolution agents from instances. It's not like only cannibal players can undergo physical evolution. Plus, there are traits to compensate for weaknesses."
Big Bear looked like he was being taught a lesson.
"Since we've all gotten to know each other, let's go look at the paintings first." Pan Siming said. "There are still three hours until lights out. That's enough time for us to look at all the paintings."
After matching names to faces and obtaining a bit of information that seemed half-true and half-false, the players still split up to look at the paintings separately.
Xu Huo stood in front of the door-blocking pillar, studying the two paintings on it.
The first was an oil painting of a person. A ragged man stood in front of a glass window, his face gaunt and his eyes bulging. Paired with the black background behind him, it was a downright horrifying painting.
The second was a sketch. On the black-and-white paper, only a paper umbrella with a torn edge was placed diagonally. The ground and background were largely blacked out, with heavy shadows.
Below each painting was an electronic screen with numbers constantly jumping.
"Still Time, Silent Umbrella..." Fan Shiji read out the names of these two paintings from behind, puzzled. "These painting names are way too strange. And they look so grotesque. Not at all like proper paintings."
"Is that a clock below? It looks a bit like a countdown."
Xu Huo rubbed his chin. "Neither of these looks like a real painting."
"Should we take them down and take a look?" Fan Shiji asked.
Xu Huo nodded. Just as the two were about to remove the paintings, Pan Siming, who was watching their movements from not far away, stopped them. "It's best not to touch the paintings casually before confirming."
But Fan Shiji had already taken the painting in his hands.
"Why didn't you say so earlier!" Fan Shiji said with some urgency, trying to hang the painting back, but his hand slipped and the painting fell to the ground.
The "clatter" made all the players scattered throughout the gallery raise their heads. The gloomy man immediately cursed, "Are you stupid or what? The prerequisite for identifying authenticity is not damaging the paintings. If your brain isn't working, keep your hands to yourself. If you cause any trouble, I'll kill you first!"
Fan Shiji was scolded until his face was red. Although the other players didn't say anything, their expressions weren't good.
Xu Huo picked up the painting, checked it, and confirmed it wasn't damaged. He wanted to hang it back up, but when he turned around, he saw the man in the painting blink.
Pan Siming saw him standing still and immediately walked over. "Is it damaged?"
"No." Xu Huo hung the painting back up.
Pan Siming's gaze lingered on him for two seconds, then wandered over the painting before he said, "Be careful."
Xu Huo nodded and moved to the adjacent pillar to continue looking at other paintings.
Fan Shiji followed behind him and whispered, "Pan Siming is still staring at us. It was just a slip of the hand. Does he have to guard against us like we're thieves?"