Chapter 780: Special Trait "Please Sit"
[Congratulations, player, for obtaining a special trait. Special traits differ from professional traits; they are randomly generated based on the player's performance in an instance and are usually unrelated to professional traits but closely tied to the instance content.]
[Please Sit: A house or a room, regardless of whether it is registered under a specific person's name or whether its owner is still alive, when someone enters this space, an appropriate host-guest relationship should arise.]
[When the host says "Please sit," a qualified guest should politely take a seat as instructed by the host and maintain a three-minute host-guest friendly period. If the guest attempts to violate the host-guest relationship, they will be forcibly "seated" for half a minute. If the host violates the host-guest relationship, the relationship ends.]
[However, please note that the scope of "Please Sit" is limited to separate, room-like spaces. The "Please Sit" space must contain at least one chair. Additionally, in specific spaces, such as inside large props, whether the trait takes effect depends on the specific circumstances.]
[Of course, the player must also carefully choose the target of "Please Sit." A hot-tempered guest often flips the table after the host-guest period ends. And if the guest successfully refuses the host's "Please Sit" from the start, then the host-guest relationship does not exist.]
[Can only be used once per day.]
In simple terms, the "Please Sit" trait can only be used in a small, separate space, such as a bedroom, living room, or dining room. When the host says "Please sit," anyone except players who can shake off the trait's effect will automatically take a seat and must maintain that for three minutes.
During these three minutes, if a player turns hostile, that player will be forcibly trapped in the chair for half a minute. This means that during the three-minute "Please Sit" period, players can move freely. Whether they can attack other guests remains to be tested, but they certainly cannot attack the host.
However, since it is a host-guest friendly period, guests likely cannot attack each other either.
Naturally, during these three minutes, the host of "Please Sit" also cannot attempt to attack the guests, or the trait's effect ends.
Players who were not affected by the trait from the start are not part of the host-guest relationship, so they can attack the host or be attacked by the host. But it is unknown what would happen if someone attacked a seated guest.
This is a trait well-suited for a high-profile opening. Beyond the host-guest relationship, it might have some unexpected clever uses.
Getting such a good trait from a not-too-difficult instance was a pleasant surprise. Xu Huo was satisfied and opened his item slot, planning to merge an item first.
There were three options available for merging. He selected "Escape Probability" and the newly obtained C-grade item "Aim Assist," because merging these two could exchange for a special item.
After selecting them, the exchanged item quickly appeared in the item slot:
[Ant Nest Mark: A small body contains great power. As insects that have brought endless trouble to dam maintenance workers throughout history, after several evolutions, they developed the ability to drill holes in various materials. With the repeated upgrades of building materials, ants finally achieved a qualitative leap, gaining a new ability to easily find weak points in any whole object.]
[Artificers drew inspiration from these tiny insects, and thus the Ant Nest Mark was successfully created. Using it, you can mark a relatively weak area within a confined space. No matter whether this location shifts or disguises itself, the mark will never disappear. However, whether you can successfully escape from this marked point depends on the player's own ability.]
This item was a good deal. Although "Escape Probability" could specifically calculate escape values, testing them one by one was troublesome. "Ant Nest Mark" was simpler and more intuitive, and no matter how the position changed, the mark would not disappear. The numerical value was not that important because if trapped in a place with no way out, the value's level didn't matter much—there was only that one path.
Closing the game panel, Xu Huo logged into the network platform to check messages.
One of the two hired detectives had replied. Among the two children who had emigrated abroad, the boy and his parents had died, swept away by a tsunami five years ago. Their bodies were never found, and the authorities had declared them dead.
After transferring the remaining payment, Xu Huo cleaned up his online traces and left the immigration office.
An empty house attracted more attention, as many wandering players were looking for places to stay.
After leaving the immigration office, he found a hotel in a relatively safe area.
Unexpectedly, he ran into Ye Yingdong again while checking in. Ye was resting in the lobby with his sister and a few other players.
Xu Huo nodded from a distance. From the conversations around him, he learned that this hotel was owned by a player organization. A third of the security guards had been replaced with players, so many politicians and wealthy people were willing to pay high prices to stay here. However, some rooms were still reserved specifically for players.
Having not rested properly for several days, Xu Huo took a shower first before having the hotel deliver food to his room.
A bottle of wine was also included on the meal cart.
"I didn't order wine."
"This is a complimentary gift from the hotel," the waiter said with a polite smile. "It's a special wine infused with a self-healing agent. The taste and effects are quite good. Every player staying at the hotel can drink it for free."
Xu Huo wasn't very interested. He told the waiter to leave the items and go.
He ate by the window, overlooking the street below. The security near the hotel was surprisingly good, but the situation farther away was less pleasant. In the distance, several plumes of thick smoke were rising into the sky, and the sounds of sirens and alarms never stopped.
He also browsed trending topics online. A large portion condemned the players who came to Zone 009 but didn't enter instances, instead looting and killing. Netizens called these people "Refugee Players."
"Refugee" originally referred to people displaced by disasters, without any emotional connotation. But when applied to players, it was a blunt satire, implying that these players were essentially no different from refugees—though they were players, they had no fixed residence or ability, only drifting around, bullying ordinary people for some benefits. Real players were all out fighting in instances, especially since instances had just opened and it was the perfect time to find items.
This was just the first wave. The second wave was expected to come out soon, focusing on stealing items. Perhaps this time, many high-grade items with concrete evidence would surface.
"I wonder if super items will appear..." Xu Huo paused in his movements. If a high-grade item appeared in Zone 009, the scene would certainly be more brutal than what had happened in Zone 014.
"Knock, knock, knock!" Someone knocked on the door.