Chapter 261: A Hot Potato Hat
"The amusement park sells a guide that only has a route map, but the upgraded version includes not only the route map but also the trigger locations for the quiz games. To clear the instance, you need both," one of them said, pulling out two different colored paper bags. "The Silver Edition adds the quiz game trigger locations, and the Gold Edition includes both the quiz games and clearance tips—absolutely reliable, all verified by other players."
"Take a look, the Silver Edition is only five hundred White Notes, and it comes with a free little hat. The Gold Edition is a thousand White Notes and comes with two little hats."
The players in the amusement park seemed unfazed by this scene, glancing over briefly before looking away.
Xu Huo showed a hesitant expression, about to say something when suddenly someone nearby let out a cold laugh. "Still tricking new players, huh? Can't you come up with something else? Aren't you afraid of getting beaten to death?"
Xu Huo turned around and saw a young man covered front and back with little hats sitting on top of a small shop, his expression disdainful.
The two players immediately changed their expressions, pointing at the speaker and shouting, "Tang Xiao, are you asking for trouble?!"
Tang Xiao jumped down, walked straight up to them, and patted the several strings of little hats hanging on his chest. "If you've got the guts, come at me."
The two men looked at the dense array of little hats, their faces souring as if they'd swallowed flies, and finally spat on the ground before walking away.
Tang Xiao walked over to Xu Huo and extended his hand. "Hello, I'm Tang Xiao. Those two are repeat offenders who specialize in scamming newcomers. Actually, the upgraded guide is useless. If you stay in the instance for a few days, you'll figure out everything you need to know."
Xu Huo shook his hand, introduced himself, and then asked, "With all these little hats, you still can't clear the instance?"
Tang Xiao nodded at Yan Jiayu as a greeting, gestured for them to walk inside, and then said, "Clearing the instance requires a certain number of little hats, but it's not entirely about quantity. Besides the ten games on the guide, you also need to get little hats from five additional quiz points to clear it."
He pointed to a tent ahead. "That mirror tent is one of the quiz game locations."
"You've probably seen the guide, so you know that answering questions correctly doesn't guarantee a little hat."
"But there are so many people here," Yan Jiayu said. "Even if you try over and over, you should be able to collect all the little hats eventually."
Tang Xiao shook his head. "If only it were that simple. The guide only marks the ten game points, right? Those points are fixed, and you can find them with a map. But the trigger locations for the quiz games aren't fixed—they can appear anywhere in the instance. As far as I know, no one has found all five quiz games yet."
"And even if you do find them and get all fifteen little hats, you still can't clear the instance."
"What do you mean?" Xu Huo asked.
"It's because of the extra hats." Tang Xiao pointed to the hats on himself. "It's easy to get hats at the game points, but for every extra hat, you need to complete another full set of fifteen, or you can't clear the instance."
"Can't you trade hats with others?" Yan Jiayu asked. "If someone has extras, they can share."
"That won't work. The hats have no markings, so no one knows which game point they came from. Trading might result in not only failing to get what you want but also ending up with even more extra hats."
"So the difficulty of clearing this instance isn't about whether you can get little hats, but whether you can get the matching ones," Xu Huo summarized.
"Exactly." Tang Xiao nodded. "So you'd better not accept hats from others. The safest way is to find them all yourself."
"How did you get all these hats?" Yan Jiayu pointed at him. "Have you been in this instance for a long time?"
"Not really..." Tang Xiao paused mid-sentence, then pursed his lips to signal them to look behind.
The commotion came from the tent where multiple players were queuing. The front curtain suddenly burst open, and a player rolled out while pinning a plush bear to the ground. With a ferocious expression, he pressed a knife to the bear's neck. "Hand over the little hats, or I'll kill you!"
"You answered the question wrong, so Bear Bear can't give you a little hat." The plush bear's tone remained unchanged even though it was pinned down, and it added, "Please step aside, player. Harming staff will result in punishment."
"Trying to fool me?" The player snorted. "Don't think I don't know—game time doesn't count!"
With that, he cut off the plush bear's head. The bear's eyes lost their luster, and fluffy stuffing burst out from the severed neck. Then, one by one, small pink hats popped out, more than a dozen in total, scattering all over the ground.
The player's face turned green. Just as he tried to stand up, a little hat appeared under his foot without warning. A crisp *crack* sounded, and the hat shattered. The player, as if crushed himself, developed cracks across his body before bursting into pieces of flesh of varying sizes!
Some of the onlookers had calm expressions, while others looked surprised but quickly masked it. A few even sneered and muttered, "Idiot."
Before the crowd dispersed, several plush toys ran over from different directions, quickly cleaning up the mess. One plush monkey picked up all the little hats from the pool of blood, cleaned them, and then hopped over to a female player watching nearby. "These are yours!"
The female player was stunned at first, then quickly realized what was happening. Her face turned pale as she reluctantly accepted the items.
"Why did the plush toy give the hats to her?" someone nearby whispered.
"I didn't expect it to be like this." Yan Jiayu said with relief, "Good thing we didn't kill that rabbit earlier."
Xu Huo remained silent. Just like the rabbit giving them extra hats, the loophole in the game rules was a trap. If someone thought killing a plush toy during game time wouldn't break the rules, they'd end up like that player—getting a big pile of hats and stepping into the pit that came with them.
Destroying hats or deliberately letting others destroy them was also a no-go. The former would get you killed by the game, and the latter, like the female player who secretly slipped a hat under someone's foot, would force you to inherit the hats of players killed by the rules.
"You see, that's how I got my hats." Tang Xiao said helplessly. "You can't destroy hats, and you can't deliberately let others destroy yours. You can't even throw them away. First, if you can't find the matching ones, you can't complete the set. Second, if someone accidentally breaks a hat, you'll only end up with more."
"But the best part of this game is that no one can force you to take their little hats, so carrying a lot of hats actually ensures your safety. Since you just arrived, you might want to buy a hat from the plush toy shop to wear. That way, players who see you with few hats won't try to make you break theirs to reduce their own count."