Chapter 733: The Hidden Time Rules of the Instance
The needle mountain therapy might refer to human experiments, but the content of the Mad Prison and the Doll Clothing Store exceeded the game's background.
If the connection between the venue stories holds, then the museum isn't just about missing persons—confinement, abuse, torture, and human experiments are the true facts hidden beneath the missing persons cover-up.
"For some reason, someone is imprisoning a large number of people in the museum for human experiments. These people suffered inhuman abuse before death, not entirely due to the experiments. Judging by the venue themes, if it's not deliberate revenge, there may be religious factors involved. These people would be beheaded and then buried in the same place."
"Additionally, they would make the imprisoned women pregnant, and the children born would also be test subjects."
Xu Huo submitted this answer, and the progress of the clearance mission jumped to 36. He clicked on the progress bar and saw the corresponding puzzle-solving locations: the first was the Wax Museum, the second was the Mad Prison, and the third was the Doll Clothing Store.
This meant his guess about the museum was correct. On the surface, the mystery of the missing persons referred to those who had disappeared intermittently in the museum, but what actually needed to be uncovered was the content riddles of the venues.
However, the content riddles of the venues seemed quite far from the mission-required mystery of the missing persons.
He pondered this question for a moment before setting it aside. At least his direction was correct for now. There were still many venues left, and perhaps the themes of the later venues could fill in the gaps.
Removing the "Silent Figure," he quietly leaped down from upstairs, pushed open the shop door, and lowered his voice, "Search the mannequins one by one. We'll circle around from the side to the shops they've already searched."
The group played hide-and-seek with the mannequins, dodging them as they moved, and eventually circled back near the Mad Prison.
Xiao Ling wanted to go to the Crossroads because it had the most venues in the middle and the most shops, making it easier to hide. However, Xu Ruosi objected. The mannequins in the venues near the Mad Prison could move at night, and it was hard to guarantee that other venues didn't have moving things. At least they now had some understanding of the mannequins; going to other venues would be uncertain.
"What time is it now?" Xu Huo suddenly asked Xu Ruosi.
Xu Ruosi understood his intention and took out a timing item. "Almost midnight."
The group crouched under a counter, staring at the time on the item. As it passed midnight, the date still didn't change.
"It's unlikely that the item is wrong," Yu Guangnan said at this point. "If the date doesn't change, there must be some issue with the instance."
"What issue could there be if the date doesn't change?" Xu Ruosi frowned. "We haven't lost our memory, and the instance hasn't restarted. It has no effect on us at all."
"It does have an effect," Xu Huo said. "If the instance's date stays on the first day we entered, we might never be able to leave here."
"What!" The group showed varying degrees of surprise. Xiao Ling's gaze darkened. "The game system's time is moving forward, but the instance isn't. If we can't clear it within seven days, and every day stays as the first day, it means we can never reach the day of clearance failure."
Normally, even if an instance clearance fails, players can still leave—they just don't get a return ticket. As D-level players, they certainly have plenty of tickets. But if the instance time is always the first day, they'll never reach the seventh day, and the "clearance failure" path is blocked.
Without the option of clearance failure, if they can't clear the instance within the game's seven-day timeframe, they'll be permanently trapped in the Sun Museum!
"Doesn't that mean this instance will be permanently open?" Xie Ling's face paled slightly. "If it drags on for three months, even if we get out, we'd be dead anyway!"
"Wait a minute," Xu Ruosi interrupted. "That doesn't make sense. The game gives a seven-day clearance time. How can the instance stay open forever? In that case, if we clear it after seven days, does it count as a clearance or not?"
"If clearing after seven days doesn't count, then it's based on game time. Once seven days pass, even if the instance time is still the first day, we should be considered as having failed the clearance!"
Conversely, if it's based on instance time, we're always on the first day of entry, meaning no matter when we clear the instance, it's always the first day, and there's no such thing as clearance failure.
"This is indeed a contradiction," Xu Huo said. "But you can look at it from another angle. Regardless of which time standard is used, game time is moving forward. Exceed seven days, and we fail the clearance. Exceed one month, and we'll have a high-risk random instance. Exceed three months, and it's equivalent to going straight to a high-risk instance to die."
"So we have to clear it within seven days. In other words, this is a clearance-only instance, because no one knows what will happen after seven days."
In his view, this instance likely operates on game time. The clearance time is indeed seven days, and failing after seven days counts as clearance failure. But whether a new ticket can be used is another matter, because this instance is permanently open, and it's basic knowledge that you can't use a new ticket in an open instance.
If they could still leave through successful puzzle-solving after seven days, a little delay wouldn't matter. But if player clearance is based on game time, and the instance, due to its special time structure, operates outside game rules, then players would likely never escape this instance unless it's destroyed one day.
Regardless of the final outcome, exceeding the time limit carries the risk of entering a high-risk instance.
"What kind of damn instance is this!" Xu Ruosi clenched his fists. "To encounter such an instance right after Zone 009 fully opened—it's just too unlucky!"
"Look on the bright side," Xu Huo added. "With so many shops here, if we can't leave, we could take a spot and start a business. First come, first served. We might even settle here and escape the fate of constantly jumping between instances."
Xiao Ling glanced at him. "Are you serious?"
"First of all, we don't know if the instance will truly stay open forever. What if a high-level player shows up? This time bomb could explode at any moment."
How could that be about escaping fate? It's like holding a knife to your throat every day.
"I was joking," Xu Huo said with a slight smile.
"That's not funny at all." Xie Ling looked at her legs. "Let's focus on clearing the instance. Do you have any clues from the venues we visited?"
"After all my looking, I only saw human experiments," Xu Ruosi shook his head. "But when I submitted the answer... it didn't succeed in clearing."
"Besides human experiments, there's also the confinement of living people," Xiao Ling said with a half-smile, glancing at her. "Confining living people for human experiments—that gets you one-sixth progress."
Then she turned to Xu Huo. "You made progress at the Wax Museum, right. Fair exchange—shouldn't you tell me about that one-sixth too?"