Chapter 2602: Best If No One Leaves
The soft metal in his hand took the shape of a pig's head. He casually pressed it onto a metal railing by the roadside, and within half a minute, centered on that railing, every visible metal surface in the vicinity—broken streetlights, urban decorative pieces, building signage, and the like—rapidly deformed, with pig head shapes emerging one after another.
"Quite distinctive," the old man remarked, then added, "Are you trying to distinguish the spaces with this method?"
Xu Huo nodded slightly. "I suspect the restricted zone is only divided into a few different layers, not to the extent of having a separate space every hundred meters or kilometer. The spatial gates appear for too short a time and are vastly different from the items and Evolvers players encounter daily, which makes them easy to confuse."
"These spatial gates appear scattered and face different directions, which confirms this."
"That's still troublesome enough," the old man said. "Even if there are only five layers of space here, the Night Parade can completely avoid the players. If the exit portals aren't fixed either, then we probably won't be able to get out before the instance ends."
"Whether the portals are fixed or not, we'll only know by checking," Xu Huo said, turning to the Metal Badge player. "Have your people encountered the Night Parade?"
The Metal Badge player hadn't been idle either, constantly communicating with his colleagues. His expression darkened as he replied, "The Night Parade appeared in the center of Blue Water City. It was a horror-themed Night Parade. It only lasted a minute, moving five hundred meters along the main road through the city center. Within a five-hundred-meter radius on both sides of the procession, fifty-one people had their heads severed. Within a hundred-meter radius, thirty-six people were dragged into the Night Parade and vanished without a trace."
"Not all of those beheaded had discovered or even noticed the Night Parade. Some patients had their heads sliced off in their sleep. There were no restrictions on age or gender. Among the fifty-one, there were three C-rank players and two D-rank players. None of them had adequate protection when the incident occurred. The rescue players within that same range all wore high-level defensive items or devices throughout the entire Night Parade and came out unscathed."
"However, among the thirty-six who were dragged into the Night Parade, ten were high-level players. Most of them were attacked by the larger demons in the procession and were quickly swallowed up after being pulled in. After that, there was no news of them."
Moreover, the Night Parade had appeared in the city center for only a minute before vanishing again, with no warning or special indication—as if it had randomly chosen a location, killed people, and then quickly left.
"Did the ghosts at the end of the Night Parade appear?" Xu Huo asked.
"See for yourself." The Metal Badge player sent the video footage from his colleague to Xu Huo and added, "To avoid complications, no holographic technology can be used for any materials related to this instance."
Since people could serve as mediums, projecting a recorded Night Parade might very well attract the real one.
Xu Huo, the Painting Woman, and the old man gathered to watch.
The video matched the description, but the ghosts Xu Huo had seen at the end of the procession on Culture Street didn't appear. There were only monsters, demons, and giant demons—no humanoid ghosts at the tail end. Moreover, the ominous gloom that had accompanied the Culture Street Night Parade was also absent.
Honestly, the ghosts at the end of the Culture Street Night Parade weren't particularly strong, or they wouldn't have let the Painting Woman and the others off so easily. Why hadn't they appeared in this procession? Was it because the players wearing the ghost costumes hadn't been found yet? Or had the ghost costumes upgraded into key figures in the instance, or even become the instance boss?
Thinking this over, Xu Huo's brow furrowed. In this Night Parade instance, District 001 had already lost the initiative.
The constant expansion of the instance grounds was likely meant to find suitable targets for the Night Parade. Fortunately, this instance had just been upgraded to A-rank, and most of the players originally inside were B-rank—not too strong. But the misfortune lay in the same fact: because they didn't understand it, A-rank players were sent in according to the instance level to reduce casualties. Those rescue players who died or went missing would very likely become part of the Night Parade.
The fact that no ghosts appeared in either of the horror-themed Night Parades already spoke volumes.
High-level players being dragged into the Night Parade and disappearing was a chilling thought.
"The local government should have realized the problem by now," Xu Huo said, looking at the Metal Badge player. "Death is one thing, but even the missing high-level players will eventually join the Night Parade."
It wasn't that pulling A-rank players out of the instance restricted zone could suppress the instance's power growth—it was hard to say whether the restricted zone would eventually cover the entire instance grounds—but at least they could cut their losses now.
The Metal Badge player didn't say it outright, but from the expression on his face, the local government had likely already started limiting high-level players from entering the instance grounds.
Unfortunately, the number of players already in these eight cities was still considerable. The only hope was that Ticket Players and Non-Ticket Players had different restrictions in this instance.
"Did you enter with a ticket?" Xu Huo asked.
The Metal Badge player replied, "The ticket I got happens to not be for this instance."
Ticket information only showed the district and station details. Only a few instance stations shared names with instances. Crossovers in A-rank non-closed instance grounds were normal.
"Then you're lucky," the old man said from the side. "I think Ticket Players are probably the head covers' main targets. And since Ticket Players are all B- and A-rank, if they joined the Night Parade, wouldn't they be unstoppable?"
The Metal Badge player's face darkened. "Mr. Xi, don't make sarcastic remarks. We're all in this instance together."
The old man waved his hand without a hint of self-awareness. "I'm not being sarcastic. I'm telling you to face reality and stop clinging to false hope."
"Tell your companions to leave the instance restricted zone first. Being stuffed into a container item won't kill them for now, and it's better than dying here and harming others."
"The Night Parade has already appeared. Wait outside and see how things develop. Leave those already trapped in the restricted zone alone. Since they're in here, the chances of ordinary people getting out alive are slim. Don't sacrifice more people for them."
The Metal Badge player straightened his expression. "Mr. Xi, please take back what you just said. Not only does that belittle the lives of those trapped, but it also insults the players who sacrificed themselves to save others. Everyone who came in here believes that saving others is worth the risk. That's the cost of rescue work!"
"Whether you leave or stay, why are you yelling at me?" The old man bristled. "You think this makes you a hero? It just means you don't want to use your brain!"
Seeing they were about to argue, Xu Huo smashed a head cover that was persistently trying to wrap around his head and said, "Best if no one leaves."
He pointed at the Metal Badge player. "We need him to get the government's information in real time."
Then he gestured to the few people at the back of the group. "And these ones can be used to test the waters."