Chapter 2248: Newly Appointed Enforcement Officers
In short, the players Xu Huo and his group encountered who were willing to cooperate but had already decided to settle down in Buliucheng mostly took a laissez-faire attitude. They had no intention of clearing the instance, nor did they want to figure out what the One-Third Game was really about. They simply tried their best not to trigger the game.
"Not many people know about the Water Cube's existence? Aren't they afraid?" Tang Yu asked in confusion. Logically speaking, news like this had reached even them, so there was no reason for those who had been in this district longer not to know.
"Maybe those who did know entered the game and then forgot," Zhu Xiaojin said. "Or else they know how to avoid the Water Cube."
"The most crucial point is that we haven't heard anyone mention whether any player has cleared the instance yet," Qiao Jieping said with a deep frown. "This is just too abnormal."
Whether in Buliucheng or Under Dimension, most of the information about this instance was false. Even the clearance guides sold at high prices were half-truths. This was rarely seen in other instances, as if all the players who entered this instance were hell-bent on tricking outsiders into coming in.
"This is the first time I've seen an instance you can enter but can't leave," Cheng Zhongzhi said. He had already written down the newly added rule: "Killing non-wanted criminals can trigger the game." He looked at Xu Huo. "Is this enough?"
Xu Huo nodded and had the Painting Woman help him post it on the billboard.
He then summarized the information they had gathered so far.
First, regarding the One-Third City instance, the original unlocked areas of Buliucheng targeted locals, not players. However, killing wanted criminals could expand the unlocked areas for clearance players. This might be due to the instance or the One-Third Game.
Second, killing enough wanted criminals might not necessarily lead to clearance. Using Zhu Xiaojin and the others as examples, there must be players who could complete the task of killing dozens of players within a month, and it would be even easier if ordinary people were included. But this method hadn't become widespread, indicating that something had gone wrong somewhere. Either killing the wrong people resulted in penalties, or the meaning of "wanted criminal" had changed, no longer defined by Buliucheng's original laws.
Third, failing to clear the instance most likely meant you couldn't leave. This was a situation that had never occurred in previous time-limited instances.
"Could there be another possibility?" the Painting Woman raised her communicator. "Maybe all the wanted criminals from before have been killed off. The people who came in later aren't wanted criminals, so killing them is useless. Naturally, no one clears the instance."
Cheng Zhongzhi first laughed at this, then was about to refute it, but the words died in his throat.
Everyone looked at each other, realizing this was also a possibility.
Buliucheng's laws were strict, but they targeted all the criminals released in the city. Past offenses were not pursued, and subsequent criminal acts were re-sentenced. However, the concept of "wanted criminal" was based on the normal operation of the Buliucheng city government. If the city government's wanted list hadn't been updated for a long time, then later criminal acts might not be included on the wanted list, including players' killings.
"So the difficulty of this instance might be in re-establishing the city government?" Qiao Jieping said.
"That's not right," Tang Yu said. "If that were the case, then our guess that killing the wrong person might be the method to trigger the One-Third Game wouldn't hold up. Moreover, the expansion of our unlocked areas is based on us actually killing wanted criminals. If wanted criminals are scarce in this city, how could our unlocked areas keep expanding?"
"What if our unlocked areas are actually the unlocked areas of the One-Third Game?" Zhu Xiaojin suddenly had a flash of insight. "Maybe the unlocked areas we had when we first entered have nothing to do with the instance. They belong to the One-Third Game. Our real task for clearing the instance isn't to complete the mission of killing wanted criminals, but to complete this game. Only by winning the game can we leave the instance!"
"You mean we've already started playing the One-Third Game since we entered, and we're just waiting for the time?" Cheng Zhongzhi couldn't help but say. "Are you saying that to clear the instance, we have to enter the game?"
"Let me interrupt," Shen Fu said. "I think you guys shouldn't overthink it. If that game were so easy to win, there wouldn't be so many people losing their memories. Why don't we just wait until Shi Meng and I reach our clearance time and see what happens?"
Although they had previously said they would wait and see, after interacting with so many players, it seemed that even when the time came, there was a ninety percent chance they wouldn't be able to leave.
"How big are your unlocked areas?" Tang Yu asked the others. "Could it be that the unlocked area is related to the mission progress? When you complete one-third of it or the unlocked area covers one-third of Buliucheng, the game is automatically triggered."
"An unlocked area that large is unlikely," Xu Huo said. "Buliucheng's area is comparable to a sizable country. Unless the unlocked area is directly tied to the mission progress, you'd have to kill a lot of people to unlock at least fifteen areas."
Xu Huo himself had killed nearly thirty players. He paid special attention to his own unlocked area. Currently, he had only unlocked about two areas. This was something he only noticed because he deliberately unlocked along the borders. These two areas were already dozens of times the size of his spiritual realm. During this time, other players had also been increasing their unlocked areas. This meant that if he killed someone next time without being at the border of his unlocked area, he would most likely never be able to figure out where the boundary of his activity range was again.
However, he could roughly estimate the increase each time, though the direction of the increase was uncertain. Considering that he had entered Buliucheng from a corner, the basic direction was toward the city center. He just needed to pay more attention during his movements.
Based on his own numbers, there was no clear relationship between the wanted criminal hunting progress and the unlocked area ratio.
"It's best not to enter the One-Third Game, but since things have come to this, we should also prepare to enter the game," Xu Huo reminded everyone.
Zhu Xiaojin found some paper and a pen. "It's better to develop the good habit of keeping a diary. I think recording devices and the like are unreliable."
This was also a solution. At least they could remember how long they had been here and what they had done.
Losing memory and starting over was not something Xu Huo had experienced for the first time. Last time, in Pumpkin City, it was related to Curved Time. This time, he hoped it wouldn't involve Time Power.
After a brief conversation, Xu Huo and his group returned to work. Once District 5 was mostly registered, they applied to the city government to also take over Districts 6 and 7. This time, the application went surprisingly smoothly. Not only did the city government assign Districts 4, 5, 6, and 7 to him, but they also proactively handed over Districts 9 through 12, appointing him as the temporary joint administrator of these eight districts, responsible for all affairs within them.
Shortly after, Xu Huo saw the photos of three other temporary enforcement officers on the internal announcement network.