Chapter 2843: Just a Suggestion
“I estimate that even if the spaces are different, the time in each space is the same,” the black-haired woman said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t run into any players who entered the day before, so I’m not sure what exactly happens at night.”
“How many players entered in your batch?” Wang Xin sized her up. “You should be an Instance player, right?”
The black-haired woman didn’t try to hide this point and admitted it frankly. “About twenty or so players. Only two of them entered at the same time as me. The others didn’t look like they were from this district, so they were probably Instance players from other districts too.”
Moreover, their preparations didn’t seem as thorough—unlike Xu Huo and his group, who each carried a box.
“I think the situation on both sides is similar.” The black-haired woman glanced toward the research institute. “Most of the time, it’s calm.”
“Haven’t you run into anyone from 033?” Yue Yan’er pressed. “That’s not normal. According to the Purple Life Research Institute, at least three batches of people have entered here already. It can’t be that every batch ended up in a different space, can it?”
“If they just ended up in different spaces, that would still be a good thing,” Xing Xiaoyu said.
“That’s true,” the purple-haired man nodded. “If the spaces are hard to connect, the Instance’s difficulty drops significantly.”
“But if that’s the case, the research institute would never be able to stop its operations,” the buzz-cut middle-aged man added.
Not just stopping operations—neither of the two clearance tasks could be completed.
“I have a question,” Shen Ling’er said. “How exactly do we make the research institute stop operating? Do we have to kill the Instance boss together?”
Demolishing the place was clearly impossible.
“We still don’t know why the research institute is still running,” Wang Xin said. “Before I came, I looked up information on Hexin Research Institute. There were some bad rumors—live experiments, and not just on animals.”
“High-paying recruitment for drug testers is normal,” Yue Yan’er said. “A lot of labs do that. It’s legal in District 033, and the lower limit is very low. If there were such rumors but the institute wasn’t investigated, it means there was no problem.”
She looked around at everyone. “You should all understand District 033’s laws. If Hexin Research Institute was really conducting illegal drug trials, they couldn’t have hidden it from the District Government.”
“Then why did Hexin Research Institute go bankrupt?” the black-haired woman asked. “And the bankruptcy was several years ago. The Message Collection Terminal said it was poor management. That can’t be the real reason, can it?”
“I know about this,” Wang Xin said. “I asked someone who works in the District Government. It wasn’t poor management—it was looted by players. The formulas, the drugs, and some labs that were about to produce results were all robbed. Apparently, it was the boss’s enemy, so the boss had to sell the formulas to other labs and take the money and run.”
“Generally, labs like this keep very valuable raw materials. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t interrupt operations. Even during rest hours, there would be multiple people on rotating shifts,” Xing Xiaoyu said. “Unless they encountered an unexpected situation, like the energy being destroyed, or, as Wang Xin said, a robbery.”
“When Hexin Research Institute was still open, were there any other strange rumors?” Xu Huo asked. “A space-type Instance being born here must have a reason.”
Generally, the birth of an Instance is related to the location or something that happened there. Whether it involves specific people or legends, there’s always a source.
“That’s hard to find out now,” Wang Xin said. “What happened inside Hexin Research Institute during the robbery is unknown to outsiders. By the time people discovered it, the important things were already taken. The boss sold off everything he could to recover his losses.”
“As for why the place has been vacant all this time, there’s a rumor that the land lease hasn’t expired yet, but I couldn’t verify the specifics.”
“What about the boss of the research institute?” Yue Yan’er pressed.
“I checked. He’s alive and well, doing the same business in another district,” Wang Xin said, somewhat speechless. “He’s probably been doing well in business and never thought to come back to deal with this piece of land. Now that the place has become an Instance, the District Government will have to pay him a large compensation.”
“But none of this is really important information,” he added. “It doesn’t seem to be related to the formation of the space Instance.”
“The key should still be in the basement compartment,” Shen Ling’er said. “The Instance is named after it, so it must be significant.”
“Isn’t the robot down there?” the buzz-cut middle-aged man said, crossing his arms. “There’s no movement either.”
“But I have an idea,” he continued. “The second clearance task is to kill everyone who has entered the small compartment. Maybe when there’s no one left in the small compartment, that’s when the research institute stops operating. After all, there would be no more live experimental subjects.”
“The only troublesome part is that everyone isn’t in the same space,” he said, lifting his chin toward Xu Huo. “Didn’t you just get a prop that can open space channels? Since someone was able to come out just now, under specific circumstances, you should be able to get in too. Then we can go and convince the others.”
“You mean we should all stay outside at night?” Xing Xiaoyu’s voice rose slightly. “I disagree. The first day’s difficulty is definitely outside the small compartment. This is an A-rank space-type Instance. Not following the Instance rules means only death. Don’t forget those people who turned to ash!”
“I’m just suggesting,” the buzz-cut middle-aged man shrugged. “Think it over. The rules also say that the risk level of the small compartment increases over time. The longer we stay in the Instance, the more dangerous the small compartment becomes. Who can pinpoint that middle value?”
“Let’s keep this as a backup plan,” the purple-haired man said. “Maybe there’s another way to make the research institute stop operating.”
After a brainstorming session, the group still hadn’t come up with a good countermeasure. After all, they had very little information and couldn’t preset more scenarios to avoid risks.
“I don’t trust him,” Xing Xiaoyu brought the topic back to Xu Huo. “What if he takes the prop and runs when there’s danger?”
“If we go to another space, we should all go together.”
That made sense. Although the prop belonged to Xu Huo, under these circumstances, he couldn’t refuse to hand it over.
“I’m not saying the prop should change owners,” Xing Xiaoyu said again. “It’s his prop, but it would be safer if someone else held onto it.”
No one in the room objected. After a brief pause, Wang Xin looked at Xu Huo. “You can temporarily hand the prop over to me. I’ll give it back to you when you need to use it. This is for everyone’s safety.”
It was hard to defy the crowd’s will. Even as teammates, Wang Xin and Yue Yan’er couldn’t go against everyone else.
Xu Huo readily took off the finger sheath and handed it to him.
Seeing this, everyone was satisfied again.
The black-haired woman’s gaze swept subtly over Xu Huo’s face before she casually looked toward Yue Yan’er. “I see you’re carrying more instruments than anyone else. Are you good at operating them?”