Chapter 693: V·Fanshaw Style Happiness
The instance upgrade brought not only increased authority for the holder but also higher player levels.
If you didn't approach the Si Fang Palace and excluded the Black Armored Men, this mental-type instance wasn't too strong. Evolved players would have their mental aspects somewhat strengthened, and with some special methods, it wasn't impossible to hold out until the end.
If you approached or entered the Si Fang Palace, that was another matter entirely.
Brother Xiao Yun seemed tempted by his words but quickly calmed down again. "Even if it's not that strong, you can't handle it either. The best outcome is just getting out alive."
That was right—for players, the result in this instance was simply surviving and leaving. But the people who originally lived in Si Fang Palace City might repeat this kind of life for years or decades, unable even to walk out of the county town.
"How do you know without trying?" Xu Huo returned to the original topic. "You can stay clear-headed. Are you sure that what you see with your eyes will also be shared by the Divine Eyes?"
"One player died that way before. Near Si Fang Palace, the Black Armored Men didn't find her, but I accidentally opened my eyes and saw her." Brother Xiao Yun lowered his head slightly and added, "And I didn't figure this out myself. Another player told me. By tomorrow morning when the sacrifice ends, whether you're clear-headed or not, your eyes will become like ours."
"Just shared vision? Information like what you hear or your own state of clear-headedness can't be shared?" Xu Huo asked.
Brother Xiao Yun hesitated for a moment. "That should be the case."
"You said you went to Si Fang Palace with a player earlier. Do you know how to get in?" Xu Huo asked again.
"There's a small door in the stone crevice behind the main hall," Brother Xiao Yun said. "A person can barely squeeze through, but the Black Armored Men generally don't go down there."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow slightly. "Did you go back to check later? Was there still no Black Armored Man guarding it?"
Brother Xiao Yun immediately understood. "So that was a trap!"
His expression looked somewhat sorrowful.
But for Xu Huo, this wasn't entirely bad news. Deliberately leaving a flaw to lure players in also confirmed some of his thoughts—at least in this instance, the instance boss couldn't openly come out to kill players.
The instance holder was just one link in the instance, able to interfere with the game process, but couldn't directly massacre all players through the instance game. The game had constraints on the holder. Doing so counted as a violation and might incur penalties.
As for penalties, they were nothing more than reclaiming the instance and issuing a wanted notice.
The specific standards definitely had some leeway. Those players who died from "medical accidents" at the Seventeenth Hospital were killed by his own hands, but the game didn't interfere.
But that was as far as it went.
If the hypothesis of "the Box Carrier might appear" didn't exist, burning down Si Fang Palace City and destroying the prop drum in front of the palace would be enough to clear the instance.
"After the sacrifice ends, will the county town residents continue to stay here?"
"Only when you're all dead or completely controlled will we leave." Brother Xiao Yun said without emotion.
Xu Huo then asked some more detailed questions, and Brother Xiao Yun answered them all, even telling him some things he had thought of himself. Finally, he asked, "Can I become a player?"
Xu Huo glanced at Xiao Yun, who was dancing tirelessly not far away. "Even if you become a player, you can't take people away."
But becoming a player was indeed a path. The preliminary review would forcibly take evolvers onto the Dimension Train. As long as you used a ticket to go to the next instance immediately after the preliminary review ended, you could permanently escape this place.
"Before becoming a player, there's still the threshold of becoming an evolver. You might also turn into a cannibal beast with no humanity left."
Not everyone who injected evolver blood could successfully become an evolver.
Brother Xiao Yun suddenly grabbed the window frame and said excitedly, "Do you have a way?! Please! I want to become a player! I can definitely become a player! I don't want to live like this anymore!"
"There's fresh flesh and blood everywhere here. You might not be able to resist."
"That's still better than living like this!" Brother Xiao Yun said firmly.
Xu Huo's eyes carried scrutiny. After a moment, he put down six vials of potions.
"These injections can change your body, but after injecting them, if you're lucky, you'll become an evolver. If you're unlucky, your mind will degenerate. Becoming an evolver doesn't mean safety either. You absolutely cannot eat people during the time before and after entering the game."
"The potions are self-healing agent and nutrient supplement. A newly evolved evolver needs a lot of energy. I hope this can help you get through the crisis."
As soon as he finished speaking, a "boom" came from the entrance. Xu Huo moved his feet and leaped out of the alley.
Hearing him leave, Brother Xiao Yun reached out to touch the windowsill. Finding two injections inside, he was first overjoyed, then quickly hugged them to his chest and solemnly said "thank you" toward the window.
Xu Huo left the alley and took out a lighter to set fires freely.
All the houses were wooden structures, plus a few combustion-promoting potions. In less than ten seconds, more than a dozen flames and six explosions appeared around him. The fire spread in an instant, and that wasn't the end. On the way to Si Fang Palace, the lighter never stopped. A path of fire opened all the way. For a moment, he experienced V·Fanshaw's happiness...
The flames quickly replaced the sacrificial lights, illuminating half the city. And with such a big fire, a little rain couldn't put it out. Soon, it spread into a continuous sheet.
The city's temperature rose, and Si Fang Palace also stirred.
At this time, the Black Armored Men inside Si Fang Palace City were roughly divided into four groups. Some were at the entrance, some stayed on the rooftops acting as "eyes," and besides those chasing Xu Huo, most of the rest were in front of Si Fang Palace City.
Xu Huo didn't get entangled with the Black Armored Men chasing him. While blocking their attacks, he used props to set small traps to buy time. At this moment, the advantage of having diverse potions and the weakness of mechanical men became apparent. Lubricants, strong adhesives, and smoke bombs could all delay the Black Armored Men to some extent.
And he was wearing an invisibility cloak. Relying solely on "eyes" to capture him was inefficient. Therefore, after completing the arson mission, he arrived at Si Fang Palace at the fastest speed.
By then, the Black Shirt Player and Yi Pei were already surrounded by Black Armored Men. Xu Huo stood on the roof of a two-story building opposite Si Fang Palace, set up a small energy cannon, and fired at the palace gate!
"Boom!!!" A earth-shattering explosion sounded. Wood and stone flew everywhere in front of Si Fang Palace, dust and fog rose. The Black Armored Men, along with the unconscious players and Yi Pei and the other, were all blasted flying!
They weren't the target of the attack, just caught by the shockwave at close range. So the Black Armored Men shed their skin and deformed under the shockwave, but not to the point of being completely unusable. Meanwhile, the dizzy Yi Pei got up, felt the prop drum land beside her, quickly grabbed it, and threw it into her luggage compartment.
As for the controlled players who had no defense, there were quite a few casualties.
But this way, Yi Pei and the Black Shirt Player's mission was accomplished. They immediately retreated toward Xu Huo's position. At this moment, the most important thing was to protect their success. However, Xu Huo didn't leave. He stared ahead and said, "The gate didn't open."
(Chapter End)