Chapter 2589: News from the Instance Forbidden Zone
Over at Blue Water Wu, the city had fallen into chaos due to the massacre, especially after the city was locked down. Citizens who had always believed their fate was in their own hands began desperately seeking ways to survive. Wearing helmets or hoods was standard practice; people putting iron frames or metal boxes over their heads were everywhere. Those with some organizational ability started rallying people to actively attack the suddenly appearing hoods, or divided people by physical strength for better care and to control the situation in time, lest someone suddenly get a hood put on and those around them fail to react in time.
Finding a place to hide was relatively conventional. The unconventional ones had already run to the edge of the lockdown zone, trying to break out.
The little old man, though advanced in age, was still in good health. After listening to Xu Huo, he found a semi-transparent metal helmet for his head, gripped a beam shortsword, and picked up people along the way, leading a string of followers toward the location Xu Huo had indicated.
"The southeast direction is huge—where do we hide?" The little old man scared off a young man trying to snatch his helmet before asking.
Xiao Wu had already provided a larger map projection and zoomed in on the Blue Water Wu area.
Xu Huo compared the buildings on the map, thought briefly, and said, "Go to Xinxin Elderly Care Community."
"Xinxin Elderly Care Community has complete elderly care facilities, many buildings, dense housing, and quite a few service robots."
Unlike the ghost-themed night tour, the religious-themed night tour's massacre seemed to favor relatively open spaces. Several instance forbidden zones didn't seem to prefer occupying large, high-rise buildings like the ghost theme did, but rather leaned toward more open venues. This might be a trait derived from different themes, but since the themes hadn't shown signs of crossing over yet, hiding in a pigeon-cage-like place like Xinxin Elderly Care Community, with its small but dense houses, should somewhat avoid triggering conditions.
"Isn't this religious brainwashing? Wouldn't a bunch of old folks gathered together get their heads collectively lopped off?" The little old man immediately said.
"Do you think you're easily brainwashed?" Xu Huo asked.
"Definitely not!" The little old man answered matter-of-factly. "I haven't lived this long for nothing!"
That was the point. In common perception, the elderly were an easy group to deceive, but in reality, gullible people were gullible at any age. The reason there were so many news stories about elderly people being scammed was largely due to their significantly declining physical fitness. Once their bodies were no longer healthy, their mental dependence increased. But in a district like Zone 001, ordinary people were too healthy due to evolution agents. As long as there were no side effects from the agents, they could run and jump until they died of old age. Add to that service robots and abundant entertainment options—things obtained with a flick of a finger—and people's dependence on others wasn't that strong.
Besides, looking at the little old man's state made it clear: in a district that revered martial prowess and self-belief, trusting yourself was better than trusting anyone else, and the older you got, the more true that was.
"Then I'll go with your suggestion." The little old man turned and called to the people behind him, "Someone who can drive a big vehicle."
Air traffic had already gone haywire; flying vehicles were temporarily unusable. Many places on the ground were also blocked, but there was a dedicated tourist loop line. This route was usually unoccupied, and the vehicle happened to pass near Xinxin Elderly Care Community. By now, there were no tourists on the vehicle, but it couldn't rely on autopilot—someone needed to manually control it.
The number of people following the little old man had grown to over twenty. Few were elderly; most were young people around twenty, half of whom were probably students from some school, just clustering together and following along.
A young man stepped forward. "I've studied it for a few days, but I'm not very familiar..."
"Familiar or not, it's you." The little old man pushed him forward. "Just drive casually. There's an emergency collision avoidance mode, so no one will die."
The young man sat in the driver's seat, calmed himself, and started operating on the panel. Though his movements weren't fast, the vehicle still started up.
The little old man called for the others to get on. Once the vehicle was moving, he turned back to Xu Huo and said, "I'll contact you when I arrive. Little Xu, don't die on me first. If you die first, I'll have to save the items I owe you."
Xu Huo gave a slight smile. "If I die, someone will come to collect the debt."
The Painting Woman appeared behind him at the right moment, smiling and waving at the little old man.
The little old man chuckled too, then cut off the communication.
Seeing how methodically he arranged for Old Sir Xi to find a place to hide, and that he had only casually browsed the messages on the Message Collection Terminal, Mr. Wang looked at Xu Huo with newfound respect. As soon as the communication ended, he immediately asked, "Mr. Xu, is our situation here similar to Blue Water Wu? Should we also find a place with dense buildings to hide?"
"We're probably the opposite," Xu Huo said. "In places like Yangming Building, people are densely packed. Spreading out a bit is safer."
Whether in Blue Water Wu or Xia City, the conditions for instance forbidden zones and instance killings were still being guessed at. The slight difference was that a night tour group had appeared on the outskirts of Xia City, which was also a small-scale massacre, happening precisely in an open area under the premise of unprecedented crowd density.
"Then we'll stay here," Mr. Wang quickly said.
Comparing the constantly refreshing messages on the Message Collection Terminal with the actual situation in the villa area, aside from the two attacks just now, the villa area did seem safer.
"News from the instance forbidden zone is out!" the Short-Haired Female Player suddenly shouted.
Others also received the message. The instance forbidden zone had been confirmed to be a small space overlapping with the current space. Some people who entered would directly get a hood put on them, while others would be continuously chased by hooded people and the hoods themselves. Moreover, the night tour group would appear every two hours. According to the player who sent back the message, the moment he entered the instance forbidden zone, he was being chased every second, with no respite, let alone the chance to send out information immediately.
And every time the night tour group appeared, there would be fewer players nearby. Since the person sending the information hadn't faced the night tour group directly, he didn't know what happened to the players who disappeared.
The local government directly released the player's message in its original form. The situation was urgent, and the player's description was somewhat chaotic, but the key points were basically two: first, entering the instance forbidden zone meant being constantly chased; second, facing the night tour group directly had an extremely high mortality rate.
"By now, quite a few players should have entered the instance forbidden zone, right? Could it be that there are so many people in the night tour group inside the zone that they don't even give the players a chance to communicate?" The Short-Haired Female Player couldn't help but say after reading it. "Is this news real or fake?"