Chapter 2287: The Second Game
Xu Huo continued reading.
The content afterward was much more concise.
After understanding the rules of the first game, the players sent by the district government, having won the first game, began entering the second game. However, every single player who entered the second game went missing without exception. Due to the lack of evidence confirming their deaths, they could only be recorded as missing. Naturally, not a single word of information about the second game was ever transmitted back.
After losing a considerable number of elite players, the district government decided to abandon the exploration of Buliucheng, even forbidding players from entering the first game anymore. They were uncertain whether the game area would remain stable, the risk of entry was high, and the rewards were minimal—it simply wasn't worth it.
There were two unclear points in the district government's archives.
First, what changes occurred to those players who lost their "future" after leaving Buliucheng? Local zone players who entered Buliucheng by entering other instances in advance were not forcibly detained there, meaning they could leave regardless of winning or losing. However, there were no records of what happened to these people afterward.
Second, the method of entering the second game. There were no precise rules, nor was it clear whether players who lost the first game could also enter the second. However, the trigger method had changed somewhat. After the first game, players who had clearly avoided the trigger rules might also be pulled into the game, as if the game was simply selecting randomly.
This was not good news for Xu Huo. Assuming the district government's information was correct, his first bet would certainly be "future." If he lost in the second game, the "future" he lost might no longer be as simple as "memory," because the future has no "memory" yet—so it would inevitably be exchanged for something else.
"What happened to those who lost their future in the end?" Xu Huo asked the female player.
"How would I know?" the female player replied. "Top-secret archives. I don't even know who participated, how could I track and observe them for you?"
"I've done what I promised you. Shouldn't you let me go?"
Xu Huo stared at her fixedly, then after a moment said, "This information is incomplete. It seems your friend doesn't want to save your life."
The female player's face changed drastically. "What do you mean? Trying to back out? Don't forget where this is. You can't leave Buliucheng. If I die, the district government won't let you off!"
"Is that so?" Xu Huo said. "It seems you're planning to divert the district government's attention to me. I just wonder if the district government is willing to waste more time."
The female player said darkly, "As long as there's enough benefit. If someone from Buliucheng returns alive from the second game..."
She didn't finish the sentence, but the meaning was clear.
"You've got my life in your hands, but you're not much better off!" the female player asserted.
"Is that so?" Xu Huo said calmly. "At worst, we'll both die together. The temporal-spatial chaos in Buliucheng is my advantage. I can't leave, but it's easy enough to drag a few players into the game."
"I wonder how many people the district government is willing to send. If the losses are severe, will they trace it back to your companions? When that happens, I'll definitely hand you over. You're a local, so I'm sure they'll be especially lenient with you."
The female player's face turned even uglier. She shouted, "Fine! Let's see who dies first, you or me!"
The Painting Woman kicked her to the ground, raised the communicator, and said to her, "You've been captured, and you're still provoking him? Do you want to die?"
The female player was wary of Xu Huo and also afraid of the Painting Woman. She snorted coldly and fell silent.
Xu Huo didn't stay in the room any longer. Only after coming out did he say to the Painting Woman, "At least keep her locked up until I clear the instance. Don't let her escape. And don't hit her anymore. She's pitiful enough."
The Painting Woman felt a moment of guilt and quickly added, "I gave her medicine. She keeps trying to run."
Xu Huo looked at her. "You don't have any potions?"
The Painting Woman reluctantly nodded.
"Young people don't know their own strength, it's normal," Old Cai interjected as a peacemaker. "Besides, that woman had malicious intentions to kill us. Hitting her was light."
Xu Huo ignored him and emphasized to the Painting Woman, "Remember what I said."
The Painting Woman lazily tapped a few times on the communicator. "Got it, got it."
Then she turned and went into the room.
After the door closed, Old Cai said, "I think the young lady understands reason well enough. No need to be so strict."
"When power swells, humanity swells too." Xu Huo said this cryptic sentence and left the location item.
Old Cai thoughtfully glanced toward the room, then followed.
For the rest of the half-day, Xu Huo spent his time catching people. The number of wanted criminals he had accumulated so far, including those in the game, might already exceed half of what was needed to clear the instance—this was a conservative estimate.
If not for the one-third game, as more and more players followed the rules, he should be able to clear the instance in a few days, given the city's population base.
But he hadn't expected the second game to come so quickly. Just as night fell and he returned to the location item to grab something from his room, a fingertip-sized Water Cube silently appeared beside his hand. As he reached for the item, it touched his skin. The next moment, he felt temporal-spatial energy flow through him, and then he appeared in an empty room.
There were already many people in this room—so many that it was clearly impossible for them all to be winners of the first game. It was also unclear whether they had all been through the first game; for some, this might be their first game.
The room looked very ordinary, with no decorations at all, and no game prompt had appeared. If there was anything unusual, it was a hanging corpse in one corner.
The corpse was suspended by a rope growing from the ceiling, its face twisted in a grimace, looking as if it had died recently. Several players were gathered around the corpse, most of them newcomers like Xu Huo. Meanwhile, other players leaning against the walls or completely ignoring the corpse had been there for who knows how long, their mental states entirely different.
"Who is this? Where are we?" A player who had entered just before or after Xu Huo went over to the corpse and started chatting with the few people gathered around it.
They couldn't figure anything out. They only knew that the corpse had been hanging there when they entered. Most of the players who had been in the room from the start were unwilling to talk to them.
"Stop talking! Aren't you annoying!" A player with dark circles under his eyes in the corner suddenly burst out, shouting at the group. "Shut up! Shut up! All of you, shut up!"
Those few players weren't easy to mess with either. They were about to get angry when they saw the shouting player suddenly grab his head and slam it violently against the wall, as if trying to kill himself.
The people around showed no reaction, as if this was nothing new. As that player collapsed unconscious, several audible swallowing sounds echoed through the room.