Chapter 2873: Choose Now
Seeing that Xu Huo wasn't entirely unreasonable, the bearded man shared some experience regarding trait evolution with him. But overall, trait evolution still required a bit of luck. Sometimes an upgrade only expanded the scope, while other times it resulted in two completely different effects.
"It's said this is also related to professional talent," he said. "Some players might find it very difficult to achieve a qualitative leap for many years."
Xu Huo understood the difference. Traits were essentially the game conditionally helping players achieve some form of power manipulation. But evolving to the level of a Super Player meant traits became like Super Evolution Power—no longer able to be cut off by closing the personal panel. Being able to break free from the game's control was a manifestation of talent.
This was a height that hard training could absolutely never reach.
Time quickly came to evening. After discussing the instrument allocation with the bearded man and the others, they began waiting for eight o'clock to arrive.
When the countdown reached five seconds, Xu Huo nodded to the other two groups, then used his finger cuffs to knock open a space portal and entered another layer of space. At the same time, Bear Careful's group also left this space.
Both groups were lucky, entering different spaces respectively. And when they stepped into the other layer of space, the time also jumped to eight o'clock.
For those still remaining outside, their entry times into the instance were roughly the same, but the earliest was Sparrow Bird, so she was highly tense. However, after the lights in the research institute lit up, the danger did not appear as immediately as imagined.
The building was extremely quiet.
The three of them stood slightly apart, but within the same floor, they could see each other, making it convenient to handle emergencies and also convenient to escape.
But after waiting for quite a while, the instance boss showed no sign of appearing. Of course, they also hadn't received any clearance notification.
Regardless of whether the instance boss appeared or not, according to the previous plan, they would use noise to attract it.
However, the advantage of it not appearing in this space was that Xu Huo and the others had room to maneuver.
At Xu Huo's signal, the bearded man quickly used the instrument to open a space portal, allowing Xu Huo to explore in other spaces.
The two cooperated fairly closely. The bearded man had taken out all the instruments they had brought this time and opened three space portals in one go. Two corresponded to empty spaces, while the remaining one led to Bear Careful's group's space. As soon as they met, Bear Careful immediately informed them that Shen Ling'er's group also hadn't encountered the instance boss, telling them not to rush into breaking the rules to attract fire.
Was the instance boss not appearing, or was it like the previous days, appearing at irregular times?
But the fact that they hadn't cleared the instance immediately indicated something was off.
Xu Huo made a gesture, signaling Bear Careful to reduce the number of people.
On Xu Huo's side, Sparrow Bird entered a container item. On Bear Careful's side, another Hundred Forest Society member entered a container item. This way, only six players remained in the entire instance venue.
Still, no instance notification came, and the instance boss did not appear.
Things had reached a stalemate.
The remaining people dared not act rashly. They used silencing items and stood still, not moving, even their breathing was extremely light.
In this atmosphere where every second felt like a year, the six of them endured for over two hours. It wasn't until nearly eleven o'clock that footsteps sounded from the basement of the space Xu Huo was in.
The sound made both Xu Huo and the bearded man jolt. The two stood still, listening as the footsteps came and went, walking out of the basement, then arriving on the first floor, and then going up to the second floor.
Xu Huo and the bearded man were on the second floor.
Seeing the footsteps follow a swirl of dust into the corridor, both instinctively pressed themselves against the wall. Fortunately, the dust did not suddenly accelerate because it found them lingering outside. Instead, it slowly followed the footsteps until it reached Xu Huo's side.
The dust did not stop. The footsteps continued forward as usual.
It was still the same as before, walking back and forth along a corridor several times. But when it came to the last round, the dust suddenly stopped beside Xu Huo. It had no hands, feet, or face, but the silently floating dust seemed to be staring at him.
Xu Huo did not move. "Three Seconds of Life" and "Pure Heart" were already in his hands. A space barrier covered the surface of his body, isolating the sound of his breathing as much as possible. He just "gazed back" at the dust like this, until it came closer and closer...
More than ten meters away, the bearded man watched with his heart pounding. Just as he thought the instance boss was going to kill Xu Huo, it suddenly twisted around and pulled away!
But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he saw the dust heading toward him!
Don't move.
Xu Huo shook his head slightly, signaling him to stay calm.
The bearded man's entire body was tense, but seeing the dust moving slowly, he barely managed not to flee in panic. However, his mental fortitude wasn't good enough. When the dust slowly approached him in the same manner, he lasted less than three seconds before instinctively breaking away!
The moment he moved, the instance boss also came to life, quickly chasing after him!
After consuming two life-saving items, the bearded man avoided the first hunt. At the same time, he realized he absolutely couldn't escape the next one, so without thinking, he released the remaining Hundred Forest Society member from the container item!
Xu Huo's face darkened to the extreme. As soon as the few Hundred Forest Society members came out, they scattered in all directions, making it impossible to catch them. Watching the bearded man struggling to escape, he gave up on the idea of saving him and instead went to deal with the ones who had run out.
But what he never expected was that before twelve o'clock, all the doors to the small compartments actually opened!
Seeing the dust kill one Hundred Forest Society member who had gone to help the bearded man escape, the remaining few had long forgotten what Xu Huo had said. They immediately rushed into the nearest small compartment!
Coldly watching the bearded man, who was struck by the dust and disappeared, Xu Huo took the opportunity to open a space portal and notified Bear Careful and the others to enter the small compartments.
The players lingering outside were gone, but entering the small compartments still couldn't avoid the risk. After killing the bearded man, the instance boss killed two more Hundred Forest Society members. On Bear Careful's side, in order to spread the risk, they also released the remaining players. Before twelve o'clock, they also lost two people.
By twelve o'clock, the small compartments were still accessible as before. But at this point, whether inside or outside, the risk was considerable. Survival depended entirely on luck.
After the instance boss disappeared, Xu Huo walked out of the small compartment. Today's clearance had already failed. Even if he cleared out the small compartments again now, it would be useless. But he still went to the small compartment where the remaining Hundred Forest Society member was hiding and called him out.
"Get into my container item," he said directly. "Anyone who doesn't get in now, I'll kill first and then clear the instance."
"Your method is useless now," one of them said hatefully. "Otherwise, Big Brother wouldn't have died!"
"He died because he didn't follow what was agreed upon beforehand." Xu Huo couldn't be bothered to waste words with them. He said coldly, "Choose now."