Chapter 2439: Players Gathering
Obviously, he wasn’t the only one thinking this. To gather more players together, Bubble Bean and the others came up with an idea—placing a high-intensity illumination prop near the village.
The forest was thick with fog and there was hardly any wind. Making marks or using other tools to find people might create ambiguous movements that would make other players worry about traps. Using a light, though its penetrating power was somewhat reduced, was still noticeable in the dim forest. Once night fell, it became somewhat conspicuous, naturally drawing in players wandering aimlessly through the woods to gather.
Regardless, they had to first find the “Hidden Friend”; otherwise, the instance wouldn’t progress at all.
Yang Tian—the injured player living with Xu Huo and the Painting Woman—was very worried about this approach. Because of it, they might become targets. Not to mention players who hadn’t obtained role-playing permissions; what about those who had already taken on the identity of the “Hidden Friend”? If the game had any special effects or bonuses for that role, then those already staying in the village would be sitting ducks.
“Why are you so talkative?” The Painting Woman, who had a bad impression of him, raised her communicator irritably. “It’s already dark. You take the night watch.”
Yang Tian naturally had no objections. He didn’t believe anyone could sleep in this environment anyway; keeping watch or not made little difference.
Next door was slightly better—at least Bubble Bean and the Yin-Yang Master got along fairly well, so they could take turns sleeping.
Soon, the village fell completely silent.
Xu Huo wasn’t reassured about Yang Tian, so he asked the Painting Woman to keep an eye on him. “Call me if anything happens. Don’t go out easily.”
The Painting Woman said it was no problem. She could sleep or not as she pleased, so she grabbed a chair and went into the bedroom to play games.
However, nothing unusual happened that night. No strange cries were heard, and no new players arrived.
“Maybe the forest is too big, and they haven’t found this place yet,” the Yin-Yang Master said.
Bubble Bean also didn’t believe anyone would genuinely prefer to stay in the woods rather than come to the village to find other players, so the illumination prop remained hanging on the tree.
Having it lit during the day naturally drew the villagers’ attention, but they only glanced at it curiously before going about their own business.
Zhongmu Village was different from Shangmu Village. Here, most people came out to move around during the day, and even the few elderly would take walks through the village.
With more people out, it was inevitable that they would run into players. Some elderly villagers were quite willing to chat with outsiders about forest stories, though some embellished so much that when they told the same story a second time, certain details didn’t match at all. But even when called out on it, they would only brush it off with a phrase like, “I’m old, I don’t remember too clearly.”
It was clear they really weren’t afraid of death at all.
With too many stories being told, and the old folks rambling, Bubble Bean and the others couldn’t easily trust them. To be safe, they stayed close to the village during the day.
As “non-instance players,” Xu Huo and the Painting Woman followed the young man from yesterday to go chop firewood.
The village had stored-energy lighting tools, but those were rare and not usually lit. Since the villagers almost never went out after dark, they used resin from mutated plants as candles and oil lamps—it burned long and bright.
But cooking required firewood.
“Regular trees cut down won’t catch fire, but there’s a kind of mutated tree in the woods that grows fast and plentiful. Once you peel the bark, it burns easily.” The young man quickly found his target.
It was a crooked tree that looked no different from the other trees in the forest—not very thick, but its trunk was covered in vines, and the bark was damp. If no one mentioned it, you wouldn’t think it could burn.
Xu Huo helped fell the tree, and then the young man chopped it into small pieces and loaded them into his basket.
Xu Huo occasionally lent a hand, clearing away vines and such, but didn’t do much more. As they talked, the Painting Woman spotted another figure in the woods.
She didn’t sense any players nearby, but the figure seemed to be waving at them in a deliberate manner.
Last night, at the Painting Woman’s request, Xu Huo had also bought a prop that could create strong air currents. He took it out and aimed it at the figure’s position, blowing the fog away—but there was nothing there.
“Something wrong?” The young man looked up when he saw Xu Huo’s actions.
“Nothing. I thought a player was coming over.” Xu Huo put the prop away.
On the way back, they heard someone calling out from a distance. Not just Xu Huo and the Painting Woman—the young man heard it too. He tensed up at first, then listened carefully for a moment before saying, “I don’t know that person.”
It clearly wasn’t someone Xu Huo knew either—a real player had arrived. The player had spotted them and started shouting greetings from far away, first declaring that they weren’t the “Hidden Friend,” then introducing themselves.
When the player reached them, they not only stated their name, age, and other details but also emphasized that they were a White Player.
Standing face to face, the player named Chi Cai let out a heavy sigh and smiled. “Before I came over, I was really afraid you guys weren’t real people. Lucky me, I ran into two reasonable fellow travelers and a local resident.”
“You might be celebrating too early,” Xu Huo said. “Are you the Hidden Friend?”
The other shook their head repeatedly. “How could I be? If I were, why would I come out on my own?”
“Good that you’re not,” Xu Huo said, turning to continue walking. “My sister and I aren’t players in this instance. Calling us is useless.”
Hearing this, Chi Cai instead showed a look of surprise and eagerly began asking about the instance’s details. To seem trustworthy, they honestly shared their own situation.
They had been here for almost five days. Whether it was bad luck or a terrible sense of direction, in five days they hadn’t managed to reach any village. They had encountered two other players, but both had attacked without a word. Not being good at fighting, they had to rely on their talent for escape to stay alive.
“When I came in, the instance had 42 people. Now there are only 35 left.” Chi Cai sighed. “The forest is so big, I can’t even run into anyone, but others are busy fighting each other.”
Xu Huo had been here for four days now. Time-wise, Chi Cai had arrived on the same day, just earlier. So before Xu Huo came, three people had already died in the instance. On the second day, the number dropped to 37—two more dead. On the third day, yesterday, while Xu Huo and Bubble Bean were wandering in circles in the woods, another two died, bringing the count to 35. Today, there had been no activity yet.
“By the way, buddy, can I stay with you later?”