Chapter 726: The Second Batch of Players
"The weather is a bit strange, it feels like it just became blazing sun not long ago." Long Aotian also took off his clothes, revealing his vest and the black number on his back. He didn't care at all about others seeing his number and even deliberately showed off his custom tattoo.
"Numbers can't be tattooed, but the edges can. What do you think of my 'Beast Unleashed' design?"
Most people didn't care about his tattoo, only Xie Ling glanced at it curiously and said, "I used to want a tattoo too, but my boyfriend was strongly against it, so I never got one."
"Sis, that's not good. How can you give up something you want to do for a partner?" Long Aotian took a sip of water. "If my girlfriend didn't allow it, I'd definitely break up with her."
"Breaking up or not, it's the same anyway. He's already dead." Xie Ling said indifferently.
"That's a bit harsh," Long Aotian said with a meaningful tone.
"It wasn't me," Xie Ling quickly explained. "Kill someone over a tattoo? I'm not that insane. He evolved himself, went out to show off, and got killed by someone else."
"Cool!" Long Aotian gave a thumbs up.
Xie Ling smiled shyly and checked the time again. "It's already noon."
Indeed, they had left the Wax Museum at dawn, around six in the morning. From meeting up with the others, resting, and now heading to the Human Model Building, it shouldn't have taken more than six hours.
"Could our perception be off?" The middle-aged man quickly checked his game panel. "The watch time matches the instance time shown in the game prompt."
Watches were often adjusted to game time after arriving in an instance, and the consistency indicated no issue.
Not only that, but many shops and public rest areas in the Museum City had timers, and those timers also matched their own.
"Could it be exhaustion?" Xu Ruosi said. "It's impossible for the game system time to be wrong too."
If the time wasn't wrong, then they were collectively experiencing a perception issue.
Xu Huo looked at the short shadow beneath his feet and suddenly turned toward the entrance of the Museum City.
A moment later, the long-haired woman said, "Someone's coming, and quite a few!"
By then, most of those present had sensed it. After exchanging glances, they sensed trouble and quickly took cover in the nearby shops.
Xu Huo chose a small two-story dessert shop. He silently went upstairs and picked a suitable spot to observe the entrance.
The Museum City's door was pushed open from outside, and a group of over a dozen players filed in. Like them yesterday, these people didn't rush to explore but gathered together to observe the general layout of the Museum City.
"Why are so many players coming in again?" Long Aotian followed behind him, taking out a silencing item before speaking.
"Have you ever encountered an instance where players entered in batches?" Xu Huo asked without turning around.
"Except for random instances, aren't fixed instances usually opened all at once?" Long Aotian was also puzzled. "If they come in waves, everyone's instance progress would be different, and someone would always be at a disadvantage. The game wouldn't play it that way."
"Fixed instances, fixed modes—that's just the general rule. It doesn't mean it's absolutely impossible," Xu Huo said, almost to himself. The Four Directions Palace was an example, but the "Shared Eye" was a survival instance, so the situation was different.
The "1/6" on the game panel hadn't changed. They had indeed completed one-sixth of the task progress. Players entering now would be behind in progress and could be ambushed by earlier players. Similarly, if earlier players were injured, the newcomers would be a threat... Was the Museum City instance designed this way?
If a batch of players came in every day, would this instance never close?
Given the scale of the Museum City, a dozen or so players did seem a bit sparse. If a new batch arrived daily, the Museum City might indeed become a lively game city over time.
"But since we came first, we have the advantage," Long Aotian added.
Xu Huo thought of the two fresh corpses in the Wax Museum. Had they arrived early that same day, or had they come the day before?
"Should we meet up with these people?" Long Aotian asked. "Energy is limited. Cooperating with others gives a better chance of clearing."
True, while cooperating with players carried risks, the death rate in this instance was too high. With so many venues, they couldn't be sure which five of the remaining progress bars were where. Overall, cooperation was necessary.
"We'll talk later." Xu Huo moved away from the window, went downstairs, and quickly entered the adjacent shop to check.
"What are you looking for? I can help," Long Aotian said eagerly.
"Dates," Xu Huo replied. "Besides the clocks recording time, there don't seem to be any calendars in the Museum City."
No paper calendars, no electronic ones.
"Is the date that important?" Long Aotian was puzzled. "Can't we just check the date on the game panel?"
The date and time on the game panel were perfectly normal.
Xu Huo couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong, but he acted on instinct, searching shop after shop.
The newly arrived batch of players had already reached the intersection. Xie Ling and the others regrouped with him. When they heard Xu Huo was looking for a calendar, Xu Ruosi said, "I have a time-display item."
She took out a calendar-like paper device. The front of the square paper showed the date, and the back showed the time.
"The year, month, and day numbers vary across game zones. Usually, self-prepared watches can adjust the time, but the year-month-day counting across zones is complex, so few clocks or timers have that function."
"This item can automatically adjust the date and time based on the wormhole point and location of the zone."
She pressed the button on top of the item, and the time numbers on the paper quickly jumped before stopping at 12:53.
"The time matches."
Next came the date.
The year and month matched the game panel, but when it came to the specific day, the item's number differed from the game panel's.
The group fell silent for a moment. Long Aotian said, "Is your item broken?"
"Impossible." Xu Ruosi pressed the button again, but got the same number. After two more tries, she had to admit, "The item's time is a day earlier than the game time. Maybe the item is malfunctioning."
"Is it the item?" Xie Ling turned to ask Xu Huo.
Xu Huo shook his head. "I'm not sure. Let's go to the Human Model Building first."
He didn't show it on his face, but his mood was far from good.
A full day's discrepancy couldn't appear out of nowhere, especially when it involved time. Although the concept of "time" was a human invention, the game followed time rules. The game panel's time couldn't be wrong, so the problem lay with the Museum City.
(Chapter End)