Chapter 2361: Easter Egg and News
"But making them fight isn't hard either. Every floor has a banquet hall, but the nightly lottery draws from a shared whale every ten floors. If luck is on your side, the masks drawn from each set of ten floors will be different. There are only thirteen types of masks in the Fish Feast in total, and excluding the Mermaid, almost all of them are included."
"Last night was interesting. Everything below the thirtieth floor drew Mermaids."
"The Mermaid is so beautiful, why target it?" the Painting Woman asked indignantly, while still remembering the main point. "Can I be a whale?"
"Wanting to be a whale isn't hard either." The Formal Wear Player actually explained to her. "You just need to collect a full set of thirteen masks."
The Painting Woman already knew that ten invitations could upgrade a mask once. She did the math. "I'd have to kill a hundred and thirty people?"
"That's not necessary. You have one invitation yourself." The Formal Wear Player said precisely. "Besides, the thirteenth type of fish only requires killing one. It's like an Easter egg—rare, with no fixed pattern. You have to rely on luck to encounter it."
After hearing this, the Painting Woman immediately lost interest. "Finding it across a hundred floors would take forever."
Then she reminded the Formal Wear Player, "You haven't finished your meal yet."
The smile vanished from the Formal Wear Player's face.
Waving at him, the Painting Woman followed Xu Huo out of the dining hall.
The tenth floor had some leisure areas, but the two of them tacitly headed upstairs after leaving the restaurant.
This time, they took the elevator straight to the fifteenth floor.
The fifteenth floor was much better than the floors below. Here, piranhas were almost nowhere to be seen in the open areas, with octopuses and giant-eyed fish being more common. Compared to the chaos downstairs, the fifteenth floor was much quieter. It felt like the players walking through the building were all very polite—when they met face to face, they would even make way for each other—if you ignored the dense scratches covering the walls.
However, it was early morning, and there were no conflicts. As Xu Huo and the Painting Woman passed by an open lounge, they overheard a group of players discussing the evening's carnival.
They were planning to set up a betting pool, wagering on who would kill the most lottery-drawn masks tonight, and had even designated specific floors.
It wasn't just them. As the two walked past the small garden ahead, a few more players gathered together, rolling dice to decide which masks they would hunt tonight. A casual glance showed the dice were marked with patterns of piranhas, mermaids, octopuses, and giant-eyed fish, but nothing beyond that.
These people didn't seem to care if anyone was watching. When their luck was good, they cheered; when it was bad, they grumbled a few complaints. It was as if everyone here was a gambler.
"They seem a bit strange," the Painting Woman said to Xu Huo after a while. "Not like the players outside."
Naturally, they were different from the players outside. When Xu Huo and the others traveled, whether on the train or in instances, they encountered people struggling to survive. A thousand people had a thousand faces—some were emotionally stable, while others, even knowing the danger of their environment, would still vent recklessly without regard for consequences. Everyone bore considerable pressure, like gas tanks ready to explode at any moment.
The players in the Fish Feast were different. A significant portion of them lacked that sense of urgency, as if they had come here specifically to have fun, without worrying about whether they might lose their lives.
That made sense. Most players with limited time or insufficient strength wouldn't actively seek out the Fish Feast. Of course, some were forced in by necessity, but those people wouldn't be so leisurely as to form groups and set up gambling dens.
Those still active outside naturally included players looking for companions. As Xu Huo and the Painting Woman walked along, three groups had already approached them to strike up a conversation.
Xu Huo's main goal was to find someone, so he didn't need to team up for now.
Given the Food Guest's account of uncertain authenticity, he couldn't openly inquire either. He could only probe for information about the more famous players in the Fish Feast or any major events that had occurred there.
He didn't find out anything about the Food Guest, but he did hear that someone had placed an Easter egg between the tenth and twentieth floors. It had been released by a player from a higher floor, and whoever found it could redeem it for a high-level item provided by the Fish Feast. Many players were searching for it openly and covertly.
"Is the information reliable?" Xu Huo asked the player who had tipped him off. "I don't see much interest from the players on the fifteenth floor."
"You don't understand." The slightly chubby player speaking to him had a round face with a hint of a mocking smile. "There's only one Easter egg, and it's not fixed. Who knows which corner it's hiding in? It might even be inside a room. If you go searching door to door, you won't find it even by nightfall."
"But since I've given you this tip, you can give me a little reward."
"Let me be clear—I'm not forcing a sale. If you want to ask about anything later, or find out where the Easter egg is, feel free to come to me."
The round-faced player handed over a business card. "I also have good intel on players drawn in the lottery, and I know good hiding spots that are hard for other players to find..."
He lowered his voice mysteriously. "I don't usually share this information lightly."
Xu Huo gave a faint, knowing smile. "How many people have you said that to?"
The round-faced player immediately straightened up. "I'm a legitimate businessman. Everything I sell comes with a quality guarantee."
Xu Huo paid on the spot to buy the information about the Formal Wear Player.
"Personal information about players is actually hard to come by. Look at all these people coming and going in the Fish Feast—no one stays here long-term," the round-faced player said, before making a sharp turn. "But the person you mentioned, I actually know a little about him."
"He's a regular here, always coming to the Fish Feast. Does he like to cook his own food, make it taste terrible, and still insist on finishing it? Sometimes, if he can't finish it, does he ask others to help him eat it?"
The last part was uncertain, but the earlier details matched.
"Don't provoke this guy. He looks normal, but he's actually a lunatic. Sometimes a single word can trigger him, even if it wasn't directed at him, and he'll suddenly go on a killing spree."
"He seemed pretty normal to me," Xu Huo said.
"That's because no one provoked him." The round-faced player glanced at the Painting Woman beside him. "But I've heard he's a lecher and goes easy on female players. If you get into trouble with him, you can let your companion handle it."
A lecher... not necessarily. Going easy on female players... also not necessarily.
Xu Huo paid a few White Notes and prepared to leave.
The round-faced player's eyes lit up at the money, and he followed again. "Do you want to know anything else? You can ask anything. The price is negotiable."
Xu Huo smiled. "Do you have any information on the owner of the Fish Feast?"
The round-faced player immediately looked sheepish. "How could I possibly have that? But I do know that a player from a high-level wormhole point is staying on one of the floors. I saw him fight someone else, and his defense barrier was activated from inside his body."