Chapter 2275: A Trap
There was no suspense that morning. After lunch, Xu Huo, the Painting Woman, Zhu Xiaojin, Tang Yu, and Old Cai followed the local woman to her place of residence.
Probably because they saw him walking with a local, people along the way showed them goodwill. In just a few days, the cityscape of District 6 seemed to have changed significantly.
"When I was a kid, my dream was to change the world. That wish is probably hard to achieve, but changing a small city is doable too." Zhu Xiaojin enthusiastically responded to them.
Tang Yu didn't say anything beside him, but stopped him from accepting items. "Supplies are already scarce. If you take theirs, they won't have enough."
Zhu Xiaojin thought that made sense, so he symbolically took a little and even proactively paid.
The group soon arrived at the woman's residence. Only when they reached the building did they realize she lived in an old residential complex. The complex's shape was also strange—all the buildings were connected above the sixth floor, while the lower six floors were separate. Combined with the narrow gaps between the buildings, the entire complex looked like a large circle.
To be honest, from the exterior walls, this complex wasn't the oldest in District 6, but walking inside gave people a sense of oppression. People lived here, but not many. When they entered, quite a few heads poked out to look, but upon noticing their gaze, they quickly retreated back indoors.
"This place... doesn't look very auspicious," Zhu Xiaojin said.
The woman smiled. "This used to be a family welfare complex. Most of the residents were elderly, so funerals were held every few days. Over time, fewer and fewer people stayed, and outsiders didn't want to move in. Since there were plenty of empty houses, there was no need to live here... Those who remain are all long-time residents. They've grown attached to the place and can't bear to leave."
"I see." Xu Huo said indifferently, "In a city like Buliucheng, it's not easy for this complex to still have so many elderly people alive."
"Yes," the woman sighed along with him. "They're the ones who have the deepest feelings for this city. There's nothing about Buliucheng's past that they don't know."
"But many of them are old and it's inconvenient to go up and down stairs."
"Judging by their expressions, they don't seem particularly grateful," Tang Yu remarked.
"Old people tend to have strange tempers." The woman walked to the third floor and knocked on a door. Soon, the sound of a cane came to the door. When the old lady who opened it heard that Xu Huo was the new Archon, she enthusiastically invited them in for tea and then "naively" expressed her gratitude to the government and her hopes for the future—mainly about the inconvenience of getting around and hoping the city government would develop more mobility aids for the elderly.
"Who just makes requests right off the bat?" The woman awkwardly stopped the old lady's words. News spread quickly in the complex, and in no time, many elderly people gathered around, just as the woman had said, expressing their gratitude to Xu Huo and the others.
"It's making me a bit embarrassed," Zhu Xiaojin said after they broke free from the elderly crowd.
The visit seemed to be over. Just as the woman was about to see them off, it suddenly started raining. The rain was heavy, and the woman said she would get them some umbrellas. However, after going upstairs, she never came back down.
The rain grew heavier, gradually drowning out all other sounds in the complex.
Soon, Zhu Xiaojin felt something was wrong. "The people in the complex seem to have disappeared!"
"You're just now sensing it?" Tang Yu held a prop in her hand, warily observing their surroundings. "I felt something was off when we came in. It's impressive they managed to gather so many old folks to put on an act."
"An act?" Zhu Xiaojin's voice involuntarily rose. "No way, my props didn't detect anything."
"This is a city of criminals," Xu Huo said. "From the poisoned food and the behavior of entrapping out-of-town players, you can tell this habit won't change overnight. Compared to clearance players, they might hate us even more, since they're used to lawlessness. Earlier, I thought the city government people deliberately led us here, but now it doesn't seem like it."
"If it's a trap, they definitely wouldn't just prepare a bunch of old people," Old Cai said. "Let's leave."
As he spoke, he took out a teleportation prop, intending to directly leave the complex. But unexpectedly, the sky suddenly darkened. An old clock hanging on the balcony of a second-floor unit let out a rusty chime: "Current time, district time, eight o'clock in the evening."
Old Cai paused. "Am I seeing things? Is it an illusion?"
Whether it was an illusion could be verified. Xu Huo moved to the complex gate and pushed it open. The street scene outside was replaced by an identical circular complex.
"What's going on?" Zhu Xiaojin was about to step out, but Tang Yu stopped him. "Don't wander off. It just announced eight o'clock, and the sky is already dark."
Not only had the sky darkened, but the lights in the occupied units also turned on. The dim light seemed as if it might go out at any moment, making the complex even gloomier. Among them, some red-tinted lights were clearly used for sacrificial purposes.
"Empty houses used to hold memorial tablets?" Tang Yu looked toward a corner of the complex. "Someone is burning paper money."
Behind the green belt, several old women had appeared without warning. They muttered incantations while distributing yellow paper. The flickering flames carved alternating light and shadow across their faces, making it nearly impossible to see their features—only the same wooden and aged expressions.
Xu Huo and the others had strange expressions on their faces. To be honest, they had encountered intelligent inanimate objects and plants in instances, but never anything supernatural. In fact, most of the instances in the Dimensional Rift game were built on factual foundations, just like how players' strength increased—there was logic and reason. If supernatural beings were to oppose players, they would necessarily have physical forms or be a form of mental interference. In short, there were always traces to follow. Simply creating an atmosphere could no longer intimidate players. Similarly, unless it was an ultra-strong boss-level existence, nothing in an instance could completely overwhelm players.
So suddenly encountering a complex like this, the players' first reaction was bewilderment.
"An instance within an instance? Could there be random instances inside instances?" Zhu Xiaojin laughed. "This instance is something else. Suddenly makes Stellar Corporation look a bit weak."
"It's not an instance," Old Cai said. "Maybe it's a relatively strong interference prop. I've seen props with forced effects before. While such props are troublesome, they're not too big a problem. Generally, you just need to find the player holding the prop. Mandatory props have good effects but many restrictions. The player should be in the complex." (End of chapter)