Chapter 2340: Exchanging Compliments
Filtering through a large amount of information was no easy task, and Xu Huo didn't know much about the "Food Guest" to begin with, so he needed to use this information to determine which one might be the real "Food Guest."
He spent the entire morning without finishing, only stopping when Yuan Yao and the others returned from fishing.
"Look at our haul today!" Yuan Yao raised his bucket from afar, filled to the brim with fish. They weren't big, but there were plenty of them.
"I'll cook today," Gu Yu said. "I'm pretty good at making fish."
"We can't finish all these fish. Let's pick out the small ones and fry them into dried fish snacks," Shen Xin, a life expert, added. "They're great as a snack."
Xu Huo and Nie Xuan also went out to help. Besides the fish, there were vegetables and fruits to prepare.
"This location item of yours is really nice," Yuan Yao said to Gu Yu while cleaning the fish. "I want to buy one like this too, but it's too expensive. I'll have to settle for a motorhome."
"A motorhome isn't bad," Gu Yu replied. "If your level isn't high, using too good an item can easily attract unwanted attention."
"That's true." Yuan Yao nodded, tossing the cleaned fish into a bowl. "Last time in the game, I ran into a lunatic who chased me with a blade. I thought I had some deep grudge with him, but he said he just didn't like the look of me being rich. Who do you complain to about that?"
"Why do you always run into these weird people in games?" Liu Jia asked curiously. "The instances you do are strange too."
Yuan Yao chuckled. "Strange is fine, as long as there's no real danger. Compared to your instances, I think I've got it easy."
"I once went to an interesting instance," Nie Xuan suddenly chimed in. "It was a folklore horror instance."
"I rarely come across horror instances. What made it interesting?" Xu Huo asked.
"The unique part of this instance was gender swapping." Nie Xuan smiled. "Sounds interesting, but experiencing it firsthand felt like being trapped in a nightmare."
"Gender swapping? Men become women, women become men?" Zhou Ning asked.
Nie Xuan nodded slightly. "It was a closed instance. As time passed, everyone who entered started developing physical traits of the opposite sex. The most obvious was with men—first, chest development, then muscle atrophy, gradually leaning toward the weaker female physique."
"And the women?" Liu Jia couldn't help but ask further.
"Women mainly grew beards. As for whether they grew anything else, I'm not sure," Nie Xuan said.
This made Yuan Yao involuntarily glance at his chest, wanting to say something but holding back.
Meeting their probing gazes, Nie Xuan calmly continued, "Later, I found out the instance boss had disguised himself among the clearing players and mixed enhanced hormonal drugs into everyone's food and drink."
Everyone present gasped. The hormonal drugs in the game were far more potent than anything in District 014.
"Why would the instance boss do something like that?" Zhou Ning didn't understand. "It doesn't really stop players from clearing the instance, does it? Was it necessary?"
"Because he himself was a victim," Nie Xuan said. "He became the instance holder by accident. He stumbled into that place by chance and was still reveling in the joy of obtaining the instance when he unknowingly turned into a woman... or part of a woman."
He adjusted his wording. "Probably the half-male, half-female state twisted his mind, so he devoted himself to making every player who entered become like him. Whether the players lived or died didn't matter—what mattered was that they changed."
Yuan Yao shuddered at the story and then said, "Your instance doesn't sound interesting..."
It was actually a bit disgusting.
"What was interesting wasn't the instance holder, but the fact that every player who entered that instance had a 'drowning person' mentality. Once they got hit, they would go out of their way to drag others down with them," Nie Xuan said. "Driven by panic over their drastic physical changes, they were more eager than anyone in any other instance to pull others into the pit. As a result, whether they were ordinary people or players, everyone became an accomplice to the instance boss. During the clearing process, some players even covered for the boss."
That was something that hadn't happened in other instances.
"Were those people insane?" Shen Xin said. "Couldn't they just clear the instance properly and go out to get treated? Turning others into freaks wouldn't improve their situation at all."
"People with normal thinking would agree with you, but the players who entered that instance were all a bit dim-witted—people who wouldn't live long anyway," Nie Xuan gave his assessment.
Without needing to think, everyone knew what had happened to those people. Yuan Yao scooted a little further away from him.
"You've always cleared instances with high ratings. The tickets the game gives you must be harder than those of ordinary players. Do you have any memorable instances?" Nie Xuan asked Xu Huo.
Xu Huo thought for a moment and then mentioned the Ember Maiden instance.
Omitting the names of the key figures, he briefly described the entire clearing process. When he got to the part about the girl sealed in amber, everyone fell silent.
"No matter how technology develops, ordinary people always suffer the most," Zhou Ning said. "An innocent person got caught up among a group of innocent people."
"Hopefully, we won't end up like that."
Xu Huo patted Nie Xuan on the shoulder. "That depends on the elites of our country."
Nie Xuan glanced at his wet hand but didn't shake him off. Instead, he said, "Right now, the biggest threat to ordinary people is random instances. You should work hard too and bring back a super instance someday."
"You're really piling on the flattery." Xu Huo withdrew his hand and continued washing vegetables.
"Right back at you." Nie Xuan also got back to work.
"Haha!" Yuan Yao suddenly jumped up, laughing loudly. "Don't be modest, you two! Who knows, maybe you'll actually pull it off someday? We're witnessing history today! When I'm old and writing my memoirs, I'll definitely include today!"
The others agreed. Gu Yu even cupped her face in a dreamy expression. "Often, the major turning points that change history start with a small thing. Who knows, this might even influence the future of District 014!"
"To commemorate this special day, we need a drink!" Yuan Yao wiped his hands, ready to fetch some alcohol.
Liu Jia stopped him. "You just want to drink, don't you? Don't forget we still have work to do tonight."
Yuan Yao looked guilty at being caught out. "Forgot, forgot. We'll drink tonight then."
In the afternoon, Nie Xuan and the others rested to conserve their energy, while Xu Huo continued searching for information on the "Food Guest."
So far, he had narrowed it down to four candidates. All four were advanced players with some local fame, each calling themselves the "Food Guest." Many people knew or had heard of them, and two had even been on the rankings, though they weren't on the list anymore.