Chapter 2853: Testing the Hunting Rules
Hearing Xu Huo's voice, the bird cautiously opened the door just a crack, and only after confirming it was him did she let him in.
"What just happened?" she asked eagerly. "Did you find something?"
"No," Xu Huo said. "I just felt a ripple in space, but by the time I got there, nothing had happened."
This wasn't the truth. What really happened was that he sensed a spatial force rapidly approaching them, so he didn't hesitate to leave the basement. But things didn't develop as he expected—all six of the bird's group safely entered the small compartments.
And that force came and went quickly. He first tossed a small device down, then returned to the basement, only to find that three of the six people had disappeared.
"They came in one after another, and as soon as they entered, they vanished," the bird explained. "They must have gone into another space."
Earlier, she had also noticed unfamiliar players and familiar players walking out of the same room one after another. Since exiting was possible, entering could also lead to different spaces.
She glanced at Xu Huo and added, "The small compartments aren't very stable either. Maybe we should meet up with Wang Xin and the others first?"
"Let's talk about it upstairs," Xu Huo nodded.
The group headed upstairs, and they didn't encounter any other players until they returned to ground level. Wang Xin and Yue Yan'er were waiting with the door open. When they heard Xu Huo planned to go further upstairs, the two followed as well.
"Shouldn't someone stay to guard the door?" the bird asked. "What if we can't find an empty small compartment later?"
Forcing one open definitely wouldn't work, but Xu Huo and the others had gone out and returned safely, suggesting that the period after midnight was relatively safe—a good time to search for items. They hadn't come here just for the reward from the Purple Life Research Institute.
"Why don't you stay?" Xu Huo turned to ask the bird.
The bird twitched the corner of her mouth. "Not afraid I won't open the door for you?"
"We're all here for items, and there's no foundation of trust between us. Does it matter who stays?" Xu Huo said flatly.
His words left the others speechless.
Just then, the short old man from the opposite room pulled open his door and stepped out, smiling amiably. "Instead of wasting time, it's better to go early and return early. Besides, there are so many small compartments—it's not like one person has to occupy one."
With that, he left with the red gem necklace, the tall white-haired man, and the painter.
The bird clearly disliked the old man. After they were far enough away, she muttered, "See? Those guys are definitely going to get screwed by that old bastard."
Players gradually emerged from their small compartments. Seeing more empty rooms, everyone grew more at ease. In the end, the bird didn't stay behind either and followed Xu Huo's group.
The Hundred Forest Society had a large number of members. The first night, they had gathered in the east building, but tonight they were much more scattered. Xu Huo glanced at the two people following him and said, "The two players cooperating with your Hundred Forest Society—did they say that players gathered in small compartments are more likely to be attacked by the instance boss?"
The two were caught off guard by the question. Though they controlled their expressions, the shift in their emotions gave them away.
But Xu Huo wasn't trying to pry information from them. He continued, "Whether gathered or not, being attacked is unavoidable. If having many people is a condition for being hunted, then the players who came in earlier wouldn't have been moving in groups for so long."
"This shows that having more or fewer people doesn't make much difference."
"On the contrary, moving together in a larger group is better. Unless the instance boss can kill everyone at once, there will always be witnesses. At the very least, we can figure out how the instance boss operates."
After saying this, Xu Huo shifted his gaze and continued walking forward, ignoring the subtle glances around him.
The two Hundred Forest Society members exchanged a look. One of them immediately turned and left, presumably to find their companions.
"If numbers aren't the condition for the small compartments being attacked, then what is the instance boss's hunting condition?" Wang Xin pressed.
"Numbers are definitely one of the hunting conditions, no doubt about it," Xu Huo said. "You've all seen the small compartments in the basement. Based on their size, they can't hold many people."
"Since the instance boss follows the He Xin Research Institute's schedule and patrols the building at night, having too many people in a small compartment is naturally a problem. The question is just what the limit is."
"Then what you said earlier..." the remaining person said indignantly. "You deliberately misled us!"
"If someone tells you something, you just believe it?" Xu Huo feigned surprise. "I didn't realize the Hundred Forest Society was so naive."
Yue Yan'er and the bird both laughed. The former said, "Aren't we just discussing information? The Hundred Forest Society relies on their numbers and refuses to share useful intel. Can't we at least make some guesses?"
Xu Huo smiled but said nothing more.
The number of people wasn't his main concern. The instance rules clearly stated that the longer one stayed inside, the more dangerous the small compartments became.
Those who came later could never compare to those who arrived earlier. If the instance boss strictly followed a chronological order for killing, then the players who entered first would have almost no chance of survival.
Players outside the small compartments at night could all face danger. Judging from the ash pile discovered this morning, there was no limit on numbers. But the small compartments definitely had restrictions; otherwise, the players who entered wouldn't be able to withstand the killing.
The instance boss's nightly patrols had no pattern—they appeared randomly. Between eight and twelve, and the two hours before dawn, it would be very difficult for players to avoid it by playing hide-and-seek outside the small compartments.
The only solution was to stall for time and let others break the rules first. If the small compartments imposed restrictions on the instance boss, then forcing someone else to violate the rules so the boss could "meet its quota" was also feasible.
Making noise was a viable method.
Among the surviving players encountered so far, the longest anyone had been inside was about ten days. They were all A-rank players, here to pioneer the instance. Many were experienced. Unless the instance boss truly killed in chronological order, some should have survived.
Just as Xu Huo was considering whether to create some commotion to test the rules, a piercing scream suddenly rang out from the east building. The distorted sound was like a classic horror movie shriek. At the same time, the few remaining lights in the research institute began to flicker, and the entire instance venue seemed to shake violently with the lights!
Under the tremors of spatial power, a very faint, barely perceptible force suddenly appeared in the east building. The next second, the player who had been frantically fleeing after making noise disintegrated into ash before everyone's eyes!
It was a direct transformation into ash. In the blink of an eye, a lively person, without any warning, peeled away like dried wall plaster. The player himself didn't even have time to realize what was happening before the instance claimed his life!
The players who witnessed this scene turned pale and immediately fled toward the nearest small compartments. But they weren't fast enough. Two players lagging behind were killed one after another—as if the instance boss had suddenly realized someone had sneaked out of the small compartments and began chasing them down!