Chapter 863: Friendship Forever
[Instance Mission: Obtain Friendship.]
[Instance Time: Seven days.]
[Note: Only pure friendship can be called friendship.]
After reading the content on the game panel, Xu Huo observed the situation inside the vehicle.
Besides him, the female player from the same car and Xiao Xianglin had also come along, one in front and one behind.
However, there were three more cars behind them. The vehicles had special coloring on the outside, making it impossible to see inside, but like this car, they were all fully occupied.
Xu Huo swept his gaze across the car. Aside from players, there were some people who were clearly ordinary individuals. Unlike the players, these people looked tense, filled with fear and worry, and three or four of them had panicked expressions, constantly wiping away tears.
The woman next to him was crying.
He handed her a handkerchief and asked, "Are you alright?"
The woman covered her mouth and shook her head, refusing to take it.
Xu Huo didn't insist. He placed a bottle of water on the small table in front of her and leaned back against the seat to rest.
Xiao Xianglin, up ahead, was asking other passengers for information. Someone told him that they were going to a reality show, and passing it would allow them to become residents of Sea World, legitimately receive resource benefits, and never worry about being expelled again.
"Is it really that good?" Xiao Xianglin didn't believe it. "Then doesn't everyone want to go?"
"Do you think just anyone can sign up?" The speaker said smugly. "For ordinary people, getting this spot requires connections."
Player instances certainly wouldn't be easy to clear, and for ordinary people, it would only be more dangerous. Unexpectedly, there were actually people in Sea World voluntarily signing up to participate.
"You're a player, right?" The man said to Xiao Xianglin again. "To be honest, this show is a bit dangerous for you players."
Xiao Xianglin wanted to ask for more details, but the man refused to say more, being cryptic. "You'll find out when you get there."
Just looking at the game mission, it was clear this instance was no easy feat. Previous instances often had tangible tasks that generally didn't involve others, but this one was "Obtain Friendship," and friendship could only be directed at others.
Combined with the instance note, it gave off an overwhelming sense of a death trap.
"Three hours until arrival at Friendship Garden," a broadcast announced inside the car.
Xu Huo felt the woman beside him tremble. Then she suddenly stood up, rushed out of her seat, and shouted, "I don't want to go! I want to get off!"
This was a driverless car, with moving cameras both front and back. Before the woman stood up, two cameras had already quickly moved to her front and back. The woman was shouting at the cameras.
However, the people behind the cameras didn't respond to her. Instead, another long-haired woman sitting behind her came out, hugged her, and persuaded, "Xiao Xiao, don't cause trouble. Once you're on the car, you can't back out."
The woman named Xiao Xiao hugged her back. "But I'm scared... I don't want to die..."
The long-haired woman cupped Xiao Xiao's face and kissed her, comforting her. "Trust me, as long as we get through this, we can have a good life from now on!"
"What if we can't make it..." Xiao Xiao sobbed.
"If we can't make it, we'll die together!" The long-haired woman said firmly. "I'll be with you, and you'll be with me!"
Xiao Xiao gradually calmed down. As the two walked hand in hand back to their seats, Xu Huo had already voluntarily moved to the back row.
"Thank you." The long-haired woman nodded at him and sat down in front with her partner.
"Woman and woman, no wonder they can't survive and have to come to Sea World!" The man who had been talking to Xiao Xianglin earlier sneered. "If you ask me, people who go against human nature should be forcibly isolated and made to do what they're supposed to..."
"We're all here because we can't survive, taking a gamble," a man with a buzz cut interrupted him. "If you could survive, why would you be on this car?"
The man in front stood up. "I'm different from you people. I'm going to start a new life!"
The buzz-cut man snorted. "Let's see if you survive first!"
The man wanted to say more, but his companion pulled him back. He paused, then issued a threat. "I'll see how you die!"
No one spoke for the rest of the time. Under the cameras, the closer they got to their destination, the more visibly tense the people on the car became. When the car entered a dark tunnel, two people on board started crying.
Three minutes later, the car stopped. There was the sound of machinery working outside, and then the entire outer shell of the car was split in two. Dazzling spotlights shone in, followed by thunderous applause and shouting.
"The last batch of guests for this show has arrived! Four fully loaded cars, totaling one hundred and twenty people!" A voice came from above. The spotlights then moved away, and a humanoid projection appeared in the air. The figure, wearing a glittering silver suit, politely nodded to everyone from above.
Xu Huo looked around and realized the car had brought him to a huge indoor plaza. The floor and the arched dome were both made of silver blocks. The blocks on the dome weren't just for lighting; some had changing numbers floating on them. At a rough glance, there were at least a hundred such blocks.
The floor looked much simpler, with only a large glass screen standing in the center.
As for the earlier cheers and applause, they seemed to come from the dome, but there was no one outside the dome, so the show's audience wasn't near this plaza.
"So many people." Xiao Xianglin leaned toward Xu Huo.
Xu Huo nodded slightly. Besides the one hundred and twenty who had just arrived, there were at least two hundred people already here, young and old, male and female. He noticed that some of them, like those on the car, had come in pairs.
Clearly, these people had already chosen their "targets for obtaining friendship," but he didn't know if this instance would distinguish between players and ordinary evolved humans.
"I heard someone say that this show allows two-person cooperation," Xiao Xianglin said with a smile. "We're in the same car and the same instance. That's quite a connection. How about we team up?"
Xu Huo had also gathered some information from the fragmented discussions of the people around him, but they weren't very clear, possibly because they didn't know the details themselves. However, one thing was certain—this game required two-person cooperation, and partners could be freely chosen.
But before he could agree, the host above began to speak:
"Today is the annual Friendship Day in Sea World. As everyone knows, since the Friendship Law was enacted, this is already the twentieth Friendship Day. On this special occasion, coinciding with the double tenth celebration, I am truly honored and especially excited to host today's 'You're Good, I'm Good'!"
"I believe the audience watching the show feels the same way. You can see that the Friendship Garden has been specially renovated this time, and the number of participants has reached an unprecedented three hundred and eighty-one. To celebrate this special day and to let the audience witness the birth of friendship, we have made some benevolent changes to the rules of this 'You're Good, I'm Good'!"
(Chapter End)