Chapter 2368: Scattering Everywhere
"Is there such a place?" Xu Huo said. "Can instances coexist with each other?"
"Instances can't coexist, but instance items can," the middle-aged man said. "Take a look at those instances—the items naturally born within them might not be limited to just one."
Is that so?
Xu Huo had visited quite a few instances where naturally born items served as the instance boss, but he rarely saw two or more similar entities within a single instance, unless someone had artificially combined these naturally born items, such as Rose Castle or the Bauhinia Restaurant.
However, compared to instance holders, other items within an instance had much less autonomy, and this space seemed to be completely occupied by that kind of white thread.
Footsteps came from ahead, and the middle-aged man immediately said, "Light footsteps, definitely a beauty! Let's go check it out!"
With that, he dashed forward, and just as a new corridor formed ahead, a female player ran out, colliding with the middle-aged man—this was hardly a big deal. Players were vigilant; in such situations, defense items and attack items were fully deployed, and not attacking on first contact was already considered rational. But the middle-aged man was an exception. Instead of being cautious, he relied on his defense items to protect himself and spread his arms wide, striking a pose of intoxicated embrace.
"Who are you!" The female player across from him immediately frowned at his antics and shouted, "Get lost!"
The middle-aged man ignored her words entirely and introduced himself, "My name is Shi Shuai. You can call me Handsome or Handsome Squared."
This cringe-inducing awkwardness that made every goosebump on one's body uncontrollably rise was truly unbearable. The female player barely restrained herself from charging at him, instead brushing past him along the wall without looking back as she ran off.
"My charm is too dazzling to behold." The middle-aged man was still showing off when he turned around and found that Xu Huo and the Painting Woman had also followed the woman. Surprised, he realized that a massive wave of white threads was surging from the direction the female player had come from!
Thus, the fleeing group expanded from three to four.
Originally, they thought this space was very narrow—at least, on the surface, it seemed designed to restrict player movement. But unexpectedly, every time they seemed to hit a dead end, a new corridor would form. Once they ran into it, the original corridor wouldn't disappear either, as if it had become fixed.
They scattered wildly through this space, and the white threads scattered wildly as well, until more and more players were being chased, and threads came from different directions, eventually tangling together at the intersection of several corridors, unable to move.
By then, Xu Huo's group had grown to seven. Besides the initial female player, there were two older male players, and finally, a young girl with unstable emotions who looked only about ten years old.
"What the hell is this thing!" The girl hadn't stopped crying the entire time, wailing loudly as she ran, her energy seemingly boundless.
"Are you done or not?" One of the male players couldn't take it anymore and shouted, "You've been crying the whole way—do you want to attract more threads?"
The girl paused mid-sob, "What! They can hear!"
The male player took a deep breath, "Even if they can't hear, can't they sense your movements? Otherwise, how did they catch up?"
Naturally, no one spoke up for the girl at this point. Honestly, if she weren't fast enough, the others might have considered throwing her out as a distraction. Having an emotionally unstable teammate was frustrating, but using them as cannon fodder could yield unexpected results.
"Wasn't it because you opened the window that it followed you?" The girl had met this person earlier and immediately retorted.
The man had no comeback. Indeed, the white threads had burst out when he opened the small window.
Without lingering on the topic, he said, "All the white threads come from the window openings. Has anyone gone inside? Its main body should be in there."
"Go inside? Didn't everyone who went inside end up with their heads placed on the windowsills?" The female player said irritably. "Do you want to open the window and take a look?"
"I've been in here for three hours now. The paths keep increasing, but there's no way out. I'm afraid the only way to break the situation is inside," the man said. After a pause, he greeted the others, "Hello, my name is Tang Xian. The nearby corridors are all blocked, and I don't dare go outside, so I have to take a gamble and go inside. That's my idea. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to speak up, and we can discuss them together."
The female player was named Zuo Lei, and she was the most opposed to opening the window. Another male player, Ai Jiangping, agreed with Tang Xian. The middle-aged man who had followed Xu Huo in—assuming his name really was Shi Shuai—stated he would never open the window again.
The remaining young girl introduced her player nickname as "Ma Nai Lao Lao." There were plenty of messy nicknames in the game, but this one was rare. However, her next sentence made everyone understand why she chose it.
"You can call me Ma, Nai, or Lao Lao—whatever you like."
"We're too nice; otherwise, you'd have been beaten to death by now!" Tang Xian was especially impatient with her.
But the girl started crying again, wailing, "Come on, come and kill me! If you can't kill me, I'm your mother!"
Someone this skilled at getting under people's skin was truly rare.
Tang Xian really wanted to attack, but seeing no one around trying to mediate or stop him, he swallowed his anger and said, "Let's get down to business. What do you say?"
He was asking Xu Huo and the Painting Woman.
The Painting Woman didn't express an opinion, simply raising her communicator to indicate, "I'm mute. I can't speak."
Naturally, the attention fell on Xu Huo, who said, "These white threads come from the window openings, which means the thing releasing them is inside. Is it possible that we've run all over and haven't seen a door because someone wants to lock this item inside, and its main body might be very large?"
This remark made everyone pause. Zuo Lei said, "A sealed place—going inside would only be more dangerous, unless we're confident we can subdue that item. But right now, we can't even handle these threads."
These threads were strange. Although they could be easily cut with a black blade, fire couldn't burn them. Simply cutting them was useless given their sheer numbers. Fire should have been a quick solution, but it couldn't ignite them.
"Have you tried blowing them up?" Xu Huo asked. He had been busy leading Shi Shuai around earlier and hadn't bothered with the window openings again.
"I tried," the girl said quietly. "I used space bombs, gunpowder bombs, and new energy bombs, but they all became duds as soon as I threw them in."