Chapter 2850: Believe It or Not
The moment she saw Xu Huo, the hairs on Xing Xiaoyu's back stood on end. Instinctively, she felt fear.
Her mind went blank for a split second, leaving her unable to understand why. She only felt a vague confusion about how a person could be so drastically different from before, as if she were facing two completely different opponents...
But she understood soon enough.
While being interfered with by spiritual power, she was frozen by temporal power. That instant of stagnation cost her the last chance to save herself. As several passively generated defense barriers were repeatedly cut apart by spatial tangents, her body was also sliced open, silently scattering to the ground.
By the time Xu Huo went back out, the battle outside had also ended. Neither side had won or lost; instead, after fighting more fiercely, they had repeatedly attacked the instance building. Fearing it would affect the instance, the Hundred Forest Society forcefully mediated, and a temporary truce was called.
"Where's Xing Xiaoyu?" Yue Yanei, who had stood back up, asked.
"Dead," the ruby necklace said sarcastically.
"She fell into another space." Whether they believed it or not, Xu Huo only had this one explanation.
"It seems that item really is useful," the silver-armored woman commented noncommittally.
The Purple Life Research Institute people thought Xu Huo was a newcomer, and since he hadn't been particularly aggressive, often yielding to others, they hadn't considered him a threat. Now, of the three who had been fighting, only Xing Xiaoyu, who had chased after him, had disappeared. The others couldn't help but re-evaluate him, while also feeling a bit annoyed at themselves for judging by appearances—someone who pretended to be honest wasn't necessarily truly honest. In the game, there were no easy A-rank players!
Of course, a few had caught on. Compared to other players, Xu Huo had been at the center of the storm ever since he entered. Someone asking him for help was a signal. Given only a brief encounter on the train, why would the sparrow girl have unhesitatingly given him an item?
Could it be that she was hoping he would fight two against many?
So the only possibility was that this person was strong.
It was a simple logic, but later, when Xu Huo had handed over the item without much talk, it seemed to give others the false impression of weakness. Thus, many had overlooked him, instead thinking the difficult-to-deal-with Wang Xin was a strong opponent.
However, a spatial evolver couldn't possibly be weak. It was hard to say whether other factors had influenced the entire process.
Wang Xin and Yue Yanei, who were teamed with Xu Huo, also had complicated expressions. But given the current situation, teaming with Xu Huo was beneficial to them, so they didn't bring up splitting up.
The sparrow girl on the side said, "It's a pity I'm not a spatial evolver. Otherwise, I really wouldn't have been willing to give up such a good item."
Xu Huo gave her a faint, ambiguous smile. The sparrow girl responded with a gentle smile of her own, then flipped the short, stocky old man the middle finger.
The fight for the item ended with Xing Xiaoyu's disappearance. The others from Purple Life Research naturally wouldn't make another move. The Hundred Forest Society people observed Xu Huo from the side, concluding that his spatial evolution was relatively high, and besides that, he was good at close combat. They showed no intention of competing for the item, instead moving some of their people to the central courtyard—very close to where Xu Huo and his group were resting.
The short, stocky old man's group couldn't be pried for information. The burly bearded man was sleeping behind a defense barrier, snoring loudly. No one knew if he was really asleep, but no one could wake him up.
So the Purple Life Research Institute pinned their hopes on the two people who had joined the Hundred Forest Society.
Shen Ling'er stepped forward to negotiate with the Hundred Forest Society, wanting to learn more about the instance.
The Hundred Forest Society people generously shared some of the information they had gathered.
"After staying in the instance for a long time, the people in the small compartments become the main targets of the instance boss?" Shen Ling'er summarized after hearing some scattered details. "What about outside the small compartments?"
"They get killed too. You saw the situation with the small compartments. Although there are many players, they are spread across different spaces, so there are enough small compartments in each space. Not many players are forced to stay outside at night," said a female player with a nose stud. "The instance boss seems to kill without any pattern, just doing whatever it wants. But the longer it goes on, the fewer players come out of the small compartments each day, and the numbers change."
The change was due to players from other spaces entering. Judging from Xu Huo's group's situation, the number of interacting players wasn't actually that high. This meant at least half of the missing players had been killed, rather than having coincidentally hidden in other spaces.
"How many people are killed each day?" Wang Xin pressed.
"Who knows?" the nose-studded female player said. "I still don't know how many people are in this instance."
"Then how many layers of space are there?" Shen Ling'er continued. "I saw quite a few marks on the doors of the small compartments."
"More than two," the nose-studded female player stated the obvious, but it was also the truth.
Although players made marks on the doors, the space would become chaotic in the latter half of the night. Sometimes players couldn't even be sure if they had entered another space. If they were lucky enough to return to their original small compartment, they might not be able to tell if the location had changed due to spatial shifts.
The research institute and the small compartments were shared. The players were in different spaces, but the active buildings were the same.
"You've been in here for so long. Do you have any clues on how to clear it?" the purple-haired man asked. "Is it just about avoiding the instance boss every day?"
"Aside from finding two items, we've found nothing," the nose-studded female player said bluntly. "Believe it or not, that's the truth."
"I've said it again. Figure out the rest of your questions yourselves. I need to rest."
With that, she found a room and closed the door.
Whether she had any other clues or not, it was clear the Purple Life Research Institute couldn't get any more information out of her.
"Do you know how long those two have actually been in here?" Xu Huo suddenly asked the bearded man.
"The instance hasn't been open for long," the bearded man replied, avoiding a direct answer.
Right. The instance hadn't been formed for long. The publicly announced time was one month. Even if there were discrepancies, it shouldn't be too far off. So if the earliest batch of players who entered were still alive, it would be around that number.
But one month was too long.
Staying in this godforsaken place for a whole month would drive anyone a little crazy. Not daring to sleep at night, unable to rest peacefully during the day—a normal person couldn't hold out for long.
This would be directly reflected in the players' states. But looking at the nose-studded female player's condition, she was actually still in decent shape. She was also one of the players Xu Huo's group had encountered who had been in the instance the longest. Under the spatial interaction, everyone seemed to be doing okay. No one was particularly out of sorts.
If the spaces weren't completely isolated, it could only mean that the earliest players to enter were already all dead.