Chapter 419: Don't Open the Door After Dark
Chu Yuan rolled his eyes. "How could there possibly be ghosts in the world? You actually believe rumors like that?"
"It's better to believe in them just in case," Xu Huo said. "What if they really exist?"
Chu Yuan was about to say something more when the curly-haired female player standing beside them smiled and leaned in. "Want to buy some talismans? Specifically designed to counter ghosts and monsters, guaranteed effective, threefold refund if fake."
Xu Huo was slightly surprised. In all his time in the game, this was the first time he'd seen someone associated with supernatural forces. Were there really players evolving in that direction?
"Revealing talismans, lightning talismans, home-protecting talismans, illness-curing talismans, love talismans... basically, whatever effect you want, I've got it." She pulled a banner from her sleeve, covered in yellow talismans of various sizes.
Just one glance and Xu Huo understood what these talismans really were.
"Static electricity powder, miniature electric shock mechanisms, electrified door locks, self-healing agents, hormone stimulants... You actually have the nerve to claim these specifically counter ghosts and monsters?" Chu Yuan had figured it out too.
"Keeping up with the times," Wan Yunrong, the curly-haired female player, said without any anger at being exposed. Instead, she laughed. "The names are different, but the effects are absolutely solid."
"Only an idiot would buy..." Chu Yuan hadn't finished his sentence when he saw Xu Huo pulling out money. His eyes widened, and then he said, "More money than brains." But he didn't stop them.
The transaction between Xu Huo and Wan Yunrong was just a minor episode. The crew only knew surface-level things about the island, like common toxic plant and animal knowledge, and the characteristics of rare ores. But when it came to the internal situation of the Deep Blue Laboratory that players most wanted to know, they were clueless. Things that couldn't be found online, the crew didn't know either.
In other words, even though so many players had been to the Deep Blue Laboratory, no one had leaked internal information about the instance. Maybe there was no suitable price, or maybe the instance was too dangerous—either you died or you left, with no opportunity to share.
"What terrible luck. Why did it have to be this instance? For other instances, you can find some guides online," He Chunsheng complained.
The remaining players didn't say anything, but their expressions weren't relaxed.
The large ship docked at the island's original port, and the players began to disembark.
About twenty people remained on the ship. Nine had gone with the ship, and only twelve got off here.
Besides Xu Huo, Chu Yuan, the masked player Mao Wei, the short-haired female player Miao Yu, He Chunsheng who had fought with her, Wan Yunrong who sold "yellow talismans," there were six others.
"The water is really blue," Wan Yunrong said, gazing at the sea. "It would be nice to vacation here."
"Vacation? Look at what's behind you," Chu Yuan said.
A few meters away from them, dense climbing vines grew along the shipping containers, forming a continuous "mountain range" on the dock. Connecting these small mountains was a vast primeval forest.
The wildly growing but strangely shaped plants and trees compressed the island's scenery into a uniform black. From the dock's perspective, it was completely a green-to-black black hole. There were sounds of animals running and crawling in the vegetation, occasionally mixed with strange bird calls. Even before dark, several pairs of glowing moving dots could be seen flashing briefly in the depths of the forest.
It didn't look like a safe place at all.
Xu Huo followed Chu Yuan for a couple of steps, then turned back to look at the large ship gradually sailing away. On the deck, Dr. Deng was gazing toward the center of Deep Blue Island, whispering something to a man and woman beside him.
The distance was too great, and with the sound of waves and wind, he couldn't make out the content. But it was clear that the remaining nine people knew each other.
"Do you think there will be mutant animals everywhere in there?" A fair-skinned, refined middle-aged woman said nervously. "The dock is still nearly ten kilometers from the laboratory entrance. Isn't the risk too high?"
"It shouldn't be that bad," Miao Yu said. "People built a laboratory here before, so there should at least be some protective measures. If there were no external defenses, then there probably aren't any large animals. The main thing to watch out for is toxic plants and animals."
"Besides, haven't previous players already cleared a path?"
Her reasoning made sense, and several players nodded slightly.
"What are you looking at?" Chu Yuan tugged at the rope. "The ship will come back eventually."
Xu Huo watched the large ship disappear behind the island's rocks, then withdrew his gaze. "The instance message has arrived."
[Player Passerby A has entered Deep Blue Island, automatically participating in D-rank instance "Don't Open the Door After Dark."]
[Background Introduction: Deep Blue Island was once a natural island famous for its plant and animal resources. The island's complete ecological environment made it the best experimental base for researchers. According to incomplete statistics, after the establishment of the Deep Blue Laboratory, a total of thirteen stubborn diseases were conquered, making a huge contribution to human health.]
[After the world began to evolve, the plants and animals on Deep Blue Island also underwent strange changes. The overgrown vegetation completely occupied the laboratory built beneath the island. To protect the mutated plants and animals, laboratory personnel collected sample data and sealed the laboratory, leaving it completely abandoned. Over time, rumors of ghostly incidents spread.]
["'This is a world of science.' This was the life motto of Professor Wu, the founder of the Deep Blue Laboratory, and also the motto of the laboratory members and their successors. To break the rumors and seek the truth, batch after batch of scholars landed on the island and played the laboratory's traditional game—Humans Catch Ghosts."]
[Please enter the Deep Blue Laboratory before midnight tonight. Special note: The rules for the Humans Catch Ghosts game are posted on the laboratory's bulletin board.]
[Instance Task One: Participate in the game.]
[Instance Task Two: Catch the "ghost."]
[Instance Duration: Seven days.]
After reading the game introduction, He Chunsheng said with a complicated expression, "A game within a game?"
"Just from the introduction, this instance doesn't seem like a pure survival instance. Mutant animals might be tough to deal with, but surviving seven days safely shouldn't be hard," said a middle-aged man dressed like a hippie. "The difficulty should lie in this 'Humans Catch Ghosts' game."
"We'll have to see the game rules to know for sure," said a bespectacled middle-aged man standing behind him, speaking politely. "Let's set off first. While we enter the island, we might as well introduce ourselves, so we don't end up not knowing each other's names."
"My name is Ge Pan. I used to be a director."
"Gan Qing," the middle-aged hippie nodded.
The group introduced themselves as they ventured deeper into the forest. Besides those Xu Huo already knew, the others were the fair-skinned middle-aged woman who had spoken earlier, Zhu Rumin; a young woman with a bun, Wu Xiaonan; a man in work clothes, Chang Chengyong; and a man in floral shirt and pants with a tropical vibe, Qiu Xiangdong.
It was their first meeting, and the players were all cautious. Aside from Ge Pan, who was originally a director, and Wu Xiaonan, a former single-player game streamer who had switched to being an instance commentary streamer, no one else revealed more information.