Chapter 2839: Facing the Instance Boss Head-On
[Instance Background: As a once-renowned high-output medical research institute, Hexin Medical Research Institute's employees were famous for their dedication, believing in devoting their lives to work. This belief seems to have soaked into the land itself. Even though the institute was later destroyed in a great fire, it still operates according to its past rules.]
[When clearing the instance, players must strictly remember the following rules:]
[1. During the period from 8 PM to 6 AM the next day, do not wander around or speak loudly.]
[2. Whether or not you enter a small compartment, there is a certain chance of surviving the night safely.]
[3. Once the door of a small compartment is closed, do not force it open.]
[4. The danger level of small compartments increases with the length of time spent in the instance.]
[5. Maintain cleanliness.]
[Clearance Tasks:]
[1. Cause the institute to enter a state of suspended operation.]
[2. Kill everyone who enters a small compartment within one day.]
[Completing either task will allow clearance.]
Xu Huo and the other five finished reading the instance-related information. After exchanging glances, Wang Xin spoke first, "A-rank instance rules must be absolutely obeyed. We entered at 1 PM, and the instance time is the same. We have seven hours until 8 PM. During this time, we can first inspect the institute's condition."
"Better to find the small compartments first." Shen Ling'er, dressed in a cheongsam with a graceful figure, said softly, "Although the rules say there might be danger whether or not you enter a small compartment, staying in one for the first few days should be safer than staying outside."
As for the two clearance tasks, the first one—stopping the institute's operations—had no leads yet. Theoretically, destroying the instance venue should count as a solution, but since this was a spatial-type instance, blowing it up might not be enough.
As for the second task, although it was obvious there wouldn't be enough small compartments for the corresponding number of people, killing everyone who had ever entered a small compartment was clearly unrealistic.
"Once the small compartment doors are closed, they can't be forced open. Maybe each room also has a limit on the number of people." Yue Yan'er added.
The six reached a basic consensus and began walking along the corridor while observing their surroundings.
"A lot of players came in earlier, but we haven't run into any of them. If they died, there should be corpses..." said Lei Ke, Shen Ling'er's teammate, but he stopped mid-sentence. The instance rules required maintaining cleanliness, so perhaps the bodies had been cleaned up.
"Well, at least the personal panel is accessible, even if we can't contact the outside world." Another female player named He He remarked.
"But can this really be considered cleanliness?" Yue Yan'er looked at the walls, which were covered in burn marks, along with damaged doors and windows and holes everywhere. "Any more broken, and this place will be a condemned building."
Wang Xin suddenly glanced at a corner, then deliberately walked over and wiped some dust off the floor. Using an instrument to examine it, he said with some surprise, "This is bone ash."
Although the floor showed signs of being swept, dust was inevitable, and no one had paid it much attention. Hearing his words, Yue Yan'er and the others also wiped dust from other places, only to find it mixed with bone ash as well.
"Could the instance burn players who break the rules?" Lei Ke asked. "The background says the institute still operates according to its original rules. That routine probably isn't limited to the schedule."
He He said, "Maybe so many people were burned that a fire-loving instance boss was born here. But turning people directly to ash is a bit exaggerated."
"Players aren't dead people; they'd resist and try to escape. To burn them like that, maybe they were killed by other methods first."
She paused and added, "Do you think the boss might have a skill similar to Spider Lock?"
"In instances of other ranks, naturally born instance bosses rarely confront players directly and have their own activity patterns. But A-rank instances are different. At this level, instance bosses often participate in hunting players." Wang Xin, looking out for Xu Huo as a newcomer, specifically explained. "When testing the boundaries of instance rules, you also need to pay attention to the boss's activity patterns. Going head-to-head with the boss is absolutely hopeless. Avoiding it is the best choice."
"From 8 PM to 6 AM the next day should be the instance boss's hunting time." Xu Huo said. "Does that mean it doesn't come out during the day?"
"Hard to say." Wang Xin replied. "Right now, we don't know what the instance boss actually is. There's a chance it has no physical form, so we need to pay special attention to spatial changes around us."
"You're a spatial evolver. Have you sensed anything?"
"I can vaguely feel that the spatial power here is quite complex, but overall, nothing particularly strange." Xu Huo was carrying the "Cube Space," and with the instrument's enhancement, his perception was more refined. He could clearly sense that many places in the institute had spatial barriers—not completely cutting off space, but like walls with doors and windows left open. He didn't know if these walls would change at night, but for now, there was no danger.
Additionally, the institute was indeed very large, but within the range of his perception, he hadn't found any of the players who entered earlier. This made him suspect that even during the day, the institute might have multiple layers of space, with players entering at different times not being in the same space.
Of course, it was also possible those players were hiding in small compartments and hadn't come out.
They were inspecting the west side of the institute, which was separated from the central and east buildings by partitions, connected by corridors. There were also several underground floors.
The layout of the above-ground rooms mostly looked like daily office and rest areas. Most rooms were quite spacious, and most of the facilities and furnishings had been removed, but some old desks and chairs remained, along with a few scattered handwritten documents.
They seemed to be unimportant temporary data. The writing style and what it represented were completely incomprehensible to the players, but some papers that looked like doodles had data similar to weight and height.
"Looks like some kind of data comparison." Xu Huo said. "Small experimental animals?"
"Possibly. Nothing important." Yue Yan'er glanced at it and looked away, then found half an institute schedule under a desk, recording the institute's daytime work and rest times.
"Only approximate times." She said. "6 to 8 is washing up, 9 to 12 is work, 12 to 3 is lunch and nap. The rest is missing."
"Then let's put cleaning time from 6 to 8 AM." Shen Ling'er said. "Let's act according to the institute's schedule first."
The others had no objections.
There wasn't much to find above ground, so they then headed underground.
The first and second underground floors were laboratories, built with high-quality materials. The relocation hadn't even stripped the wall coverings, so they looked almost new.
The third, fourth, and fifth floors felt much worse.