Chapter 771: From Other Wormhole Points
That player showed fear in his eyes, but his tone was unyielding. "Am I wrong?"
Xu Huo turned and went downstairs.
Some players staying on the third floor last night chuckled and patted that player on the shoulder. "Go ahead and try if you dare. But this is a second-floor matter, not much to do with us on the third floor. We'll take our leave first."
The other players ignored him, brushing past him one by one.
Lu Zhen, having traveled with him, stayed behind to say, "Dong Qiu, you really shouldn't say things like that anymore. You'll offend everyone."
The game hadn't clearly stated whether a guest damaging the villa would lose their "host qualification." Only a fool would waste their own opportunity just to find a "temporary host."
Dong Qiu said dejectedly, "I'm just worried about being the next one killed. Haven't you figured it out yet? We... are probably the weakest among this batch of players. Most likely cannon fodder."
So whether it was to flush out the killer player or to stir up infighting among the players, it would benefit them.
Lu Zhen found it hard to respond. He didn't seem very bright.
You can't just walk into a game and expect everyone else to be an idiot, can you?
How lucky would a real idiot have to be to survive all the way to D-rank?
But Lu Zhen was in the same boat. She gave an encouraging look to her two traveling companions, then quickly went to find Xu Huo.
Unable to leave the villa, and with the game rules so straightforward, there didn't seem to be much the players could do. Some were trying to get close to others, while the rest scattered, standing in corners or other easily defensible positions, seemingly killing time casually. But occasionally, sharp glances swept over others—clearly, no one was letting their guard down.
Everyone was subconsciously wary of everyone else.
So far, it hadn't been confirmed whether a guest damaging the villa would also lose their "temporary host" qualification. Naturally, everyone had to be careful not to be set up by others, since one mistake could trap them in this instance forever.
Xu Huo took a lap around the first floor.
The layout was simple: a basic living room, dining room, tea room, kitchen, bathroom, three maids' rooms, a dedicated cleaning room, and an elderly person's room.
It seemed like an abandoned villa. The basic furniture was still there, but the closets were empty, and the kitchen and storage cabinets had no food.
Lu Zhen opened the cleaning room cabinet, pulled out some cleaning supplies, looked them over, and put them back. After this meaningless action, she finally couldn't help asking Xu Huo, "Are you looking for something?"
"No, just familiarizing myself with the environment." Xu Huo gave a cursory glance and went to the second floor.
During the day, players could enter rooms where others were staying, though it wasn't clear if those rooms had been rigged with items. Since rooms were fixed once chosen, they became temporary private spaces, and forcing entry could spark conflict.
So Xu Huo picked rooms that no one was watching or that were unoccupied.
The most richly furnished room was the study. For some reason, most of the books in this study were about etiquette—different countries, different races, and even some about animals and plants.
That's right. Even animals and plants had etiquette. According to the books, this was a strange phenomenon arising from specially evolved creatures. It wasn't about normal reproduction, feeding, or hunting behaviors. Instead, like humans, two different species or animals meeting for the first time would greet each other in a special way while maintaining a safe distance.
The author called it "primary human behavior." It was said that long ago, when human society was first establishing order, honesty and keeping promises were the norms people used to regulate themselves. For example, when two countries went to war, they would first send a formal declaration of war to set a time and place. Before fighting, they would notify each other, and only when both sides were ready would the battle begin. If one side found it unsuitable, they could even postpone.
Evolved animals and plants seemed to have a similar tendency.
Although it was unclear how animals and plants developed this behavior, researchers enthusiastically promoted this phenomenon of "animal and plant intellectualization."
The result was obvious—they could even publish books solely on the etiquette of how these animals and plants greeted each other or visited one another.
However, the evolution of these animals and plants was very interesting. From another perspective, their intelligence was growing, and the way they spread their aura was also evolving. Moreover, these "highly evolved" creatures hadn't appeared in any of the game zones Xu Huo had visited so far.
This meant the instance venue might come from a higher-ranked E27 game zone, or perhaps from a different wormhole point entirely.
He found a book about the origin and disappearance of the "hand-supporting salute."
As the name implied, the hand-supporting salute involved two people meeting, where the person of lower status would use both hands to support the left hand of the higher-status person while bowing half a head lower to show respect. This etiquette was originally a specific custom of a country's nobility. After that country grew stronger, the hand-supporting salute spread rapidly, no longer limited to nobles but also used by commoners.
Until players appeared. A noble was manipulated upon contact during a large family gathering, nearly wiping out everyone on the family tree. After that, the nobility banned this etiquette. No one in the entire country was allowed to use it anymore. At the same time, nobles and their bodyguards and servants all had to follow the "three-meter distance" rule—anyone meeting a noble had to maintain a distance of at least three meters, or they would be considered an enemy.
Xu Huo was interested in this book not because of the unique etiquette it recorded, but because it mentioned a specific surname—Field. A noblewoman from this country had married into the Field family. In the final part of the book, it mentioned how this noblewoman who married far away successfully promoted the Field family's etiquette within her own family and the game government.
He had heard the surname Field many times—from the Skinner instance, where a descendant of the Field family's elite became an administrative officer, to the later Super Item relic incident. It seemed this family had a very close relationship with the game government, far beyond the level of "prestigious figures in important positions."
The fact that the Field family's etiquette could be promoted within the game zone's government was very telling. He just didn't know what relationship this family had with the Star Group.
Speaking of which, so far, Xu Huo hadn't encountered the Star Group or its subsidiaries in any game zone. The chairman of the Star Group, whose face was printed on the White Note, had no available information at all.
He urgently wanted to raise his player level.
Perhaps after leaving Zone 009, he would increase the number of instances he took on each month.
Putting the book back, Xu Huo turned to leave the study. But at the door, he suddenly stopped and summoned the "Crimson Sword."