Chapter 2855: Until Clearance Is Achieved
Since the instance boss can prioritize handling certain rule violations, players can exploit this to slow down its progress, minimizing the danger in the small compartments as much as possible.
At night, moving around freely is not allowed, but judging from the situation on the first night, "wandering around recklessly" was not a priority for the instance boss. In the latter half of the night, this condition was quite lenient—as long as the instance boss didn't suddenly appear in that space, players moving outside were safe.
Making noise clearly attracted the instance boss immediately, causing it to linger in that space for a long time, unwilling to leave.
The rule about maintaining cleanliness was still uncertain, given that so many instruments were destroyed at night without any incidents occurring.
Combining this with the clues provided by the Hundred Forest Society, the currently known high-risk situations for players are as follows:
1. Making noise will result in immediate death.
2. Having too many people in a small compartment will also result in random deaths.
3. Leaving the small compartment at night will result in random deaths.
Risk level: 1 > 2 > 3.
Making noise immediately attracts the instance boss, causing it to ignore other violations and kill players near the noise first.
Based on last night's situation, although it also killed two nearby players who failed to escape in time, its attack range was not wide. At least it did not target players on other floors or in other buildings who were also outside the small compartments. Therefore, wandering around in the latter half of the night might not necessarily attract the instance boss.
However, if the instance boss is in the same space, the small compartments are no longer absolutely safe—it will kill those inside them.
Thus, the silver-armored woman's description of the instance boss's activity times was not entirely accurate.
A more precise description would be:
From 8 PM to 12 AM, and from 4 AM to 6 AM, when the small compartments are completely sealed, the instance boss will prioritize killing players outside the small compartments, followed by players who have been inside the small compartments for a longer time and have triggered the hunting rules.
Behaviors that may trigger the hunting rules include, but are not limited to, having too many people in the compartment or the door not being tightly closed.
From 12 AM to 4 AM, when the small compartments can be entered and exited normally, the instance boss will prioritize hunting players who have been inside the small compartments for a longer time, followed by those moving around outside. The fact that they didn't detect any trace of the instance boss after 12 AM on their first night was likely because it went to other spaces to hunt players in the small compartments.
As for the boundaries of "being inside the small compartment for a longer time" and "triggering the hunting rules" during this period, there is no clear line yet. Triggering the rules but staying for a short time, or not triggering the rules but simply staying inside for a long time, could both make someone a target.
Summarizing all the information, during the sealed period of the small compartments, it is relatively safe for a player to be alone inside one. During the unsealed period, leaving the small compartment and causing trouble to attract the instance boss's attention offers a higher survival rate.
After all, last night, when the noise occurred, many players were outside, but the instance boss killed three people and then started dealing with those in the small compartments. This means that if someone draws its fire at that moment, the instance boss will likely kill them and leave, without continuing to kill other players in the small compartments.
"There's probably no upper limit on the number of people the instance boss kills each day," Shen Linger said.
The six piles of ash they saw when they woke up yesterday morning were not fake, and this didn't even include those who might have died in other spaces.
So as time goes on, regardless of the time period or whether one stays inside or outside the small compartments, the survival clues summarized so far will no longer apply—unless they can precisely avoid the instance boss. For example, if the instance boss lingered in their space yesterday, it was unlikely that another boss would appear in other spaces to kill people.
Realizing this, the players' expressions were no longer as calm as they had been in the first two days. Clearly, the foundation of this instance was that others must break the rules for oneself to survive, and the large number of players had become their only bargaining chip to buy time.
"Let's take a walk around the building," Wang Xin said to Xu Huo.
Xu Huo was about to stand up when the bearded man from the Hundred Forest Society stopped him: "He can't leave."
Half of the Hundred Forest Society players stood up, their eyes locked tightly on Xu Huo.
"He's the only one carrying an item that can enter other spaces," the bearded man said, sitting on a piece of rubble in the courtyard. His tone was calm but brooked no refusal. "He can't move around freely. If he wants to leave, he has to leave the item behind."
The Purple Life Research Institute side also united. Yesterday, the Hundred Forest Society had made an example of them, and tonight they would surely try the same trick. If they got their hands on an item that could enter other spaces, that would be disastrous.
"I actually have another idea," Xu Huo said without panic, smiling instead. "It's still unclear how to stop the institute's operations, but it's easy to identify everyone who has entered a small compartment within a day."
"Starting from 12 AM, if no one enters a small compartment, and they hold out until 6 AM, they likely won't count as 'people who have entered a small compartment.' As long as the instance boss doesn't intend to kill everyone during this period, they can endure it."
"Then, find and kill everyone in other spaces who has entered a small compartment, and naturally, the instance will be cleared."
"Are you joking?!" the nose-ringed woman sneered. "From 4 AM to 6 AM, the small compartments are sealed. Anyone staying outside will definitely be killed. 'Endure it'? How can you say that?!"
The others clearly shared the same thought. Even if each of them carried an item that allowed free passage through spaces, the risk of this approach was too high. Could they outrun the instance boss?
"Since this method isn't feasible, we can only try the first clearance task," Xu Huo said slowly. "The requirement to stop operations is both hard and easy to guess. So far, there are only two things that all the players who have entered this instance have never tried."
"First, destroying the instance venue."
"Absolutely impossible!" the silver-armored woman immediately said. "This is a Class A spatial instance, and the spatial power is unstable. A force strong enough to destroy the venue could also cause the space to collapse. No one would survive."
"Then we can only try the second thing," Xu Huo continued. "In the month since this instance opened, the number of players inside has never dropped below ten, right?"
The venue was set, and they were helpless against the instance boss. The only variable was the number of players. "Killing everyone who has entered a small compartment" essentially meant minimizing the number of surviving players in the instance. The first clearance task was likely tied to this. Coincidentally, since the instance opened, players had been pouring in continuously, and the count had never reached just a few people.
So this was very likely the way to clear it.
"What if ten people isn't enough?" the painter asked.
"Keep reducing," Xu Huo said calmly. "Until clearance is achieved."