Chapter 892: Free Instance Guide
Someone sent a message saying they had seen the Box Carrier in areas 009 and 004 respectively. His appearance matched the description, but he was injured.
As a notorious Super Player with a bad reputation, many people didn't believe the Box Carrier would be wounded and moving between different game zones. However, someone quickly added another fact: someone had seen him fighting with the Paper Servant Master. It seemed both sides had suffered losses, but the reason for the fight was still unclear.
Many players were interested in this news and were asking about the location of the incident.
"Super Player battles are usually big scenes. If you don't destroy at least one or two cities, you can't even say you've fought," someone replied below. "But the Box Carrier is different. He holds an Instance in his hand, so he can fight inside it. Few people who enter his Instance come out alive. Probably only players of the same level."
"Isn't the Box Carrier a wanted criminal? Can wanted criminals hold Instances?" another person asked.
"I don't know about that, but look at those Instance holders—how many haven't killed or burned things? Although the game hasn't openly supported these people, could those underground industry chains really exist without the game turning a blind eye?"
"The person above thinks the Game Government people are all saints? Let alone letting wanted criminals hold Instances, some can even become Gray Players and work for the Game Government. There are wanted criminals who run chain stores—just switch to a different wormhole point, or get a temporary pass."
"Where do you get a temporary pass?"
"Stop dreaming. Whether you can get a temporary pass depends entirely on luck. Even A-level players might not have one."
"As long as you have enough return tickets, having a temporary pass or not is the same. Last time I went to an Instance at wormhole point E12, I almost couldn't get out!"
"Some Instances are really twisted. Like random Instances, they have no time limit. If you can clear it, you clear it. If you can't, you either die inside or wait three months for a random high-risk Instance. Quite a few high-level players have been screwed over like that."
"Instances with small time differences are okay. But if the time difference is big, damn, you could get married and have kids inside. When you come out, less than a month has passed. I almost lost my mind once!"
"What's that compared to this? There's a player on the B-level leaderboard who had a child inside an Instance. He came out for a while, went back, and the kid was almost as old as him... If I didn't know such Instance spaces really existed, I wouldn't believe it."
Time difference.
Xu Huo searched for related information. It was actually quite simple, related to the curved time he had encountered during the dimensional storm. If every space had to be given a unit of length for material evolution, then this "time" wasn't necessarily the same. So it was possible that less than a month had passed outside the Instance, but inside, it had been a long several months or even years.
However, Instances that required years to complete were generally rare. And time only moves forward for a person. Staying in an Instance for a month or two might mean only a few years had passed in the original space. But this didn't mean the player could return to being young. The units of time calculation were different, but the degree of the player's body aging wouldn't change because of it.
He continued reading, but the topic had already shifted from time difference to "how to use time difference rules to raise more offspring in a limited lifespan."
Closing this interface, Xu Huo went to the D-level player message board and published the "Shared Eye" Instance guide for area 009.
Back then, he had abandoned the Paper Servant Master's plane to provoke a fight. It was an unexpected bonus that the Box Carrier and the Paper Servant Master had clashed. But it was a pity they hadn't blown up the Instance.
No matter. He could give away the guide for free.
After posting, he found information about area 007 at wormhole point E21 and carefully browsed it.
"Passenger, your lunch is ready. Please choose to dine in the car or the restaurant." The projected text appeared directly before his eyes.
Xu Huo chose the restaurant. He washed his face, put on his glasses, attached the "Shared Location," pinned "Heartbeat Discount," "Thick Protective Coloring," and "Magic Escape" to the inside of his clothes, wrapped the "Balloon String" around his wrist, put on the simple ring that was "Dead End," changed into "Gentleman's Poise," and replaced the button on his sleeve with "Destination Arrival."
With basic defenses in place, he walked out of the room.
The One-Eyed Man and the Short-Haired Female Player were already sitting on the sofa. On the surface, it seemed the Short-Haired Female Player had suffered some external injuries. But since they had settled the matter peacefully, both sides had likely taken losses.
"You're going to the restaurant to eat?" The player who had boarded the train with Xu Huo stood up, took two quick steps, and caught up to him. "Let's go together."
Xu Huo didn't refuse. As they went to the restaurant, they exchanged basic information.
"Sharing nicknames makes it easier to check the leaderboards later," said the player with the nickname "Lord of All Gods."
Xu Huo gave him a deep look, but the other person didn't realize that this nickname might cause immediate social death for anyone who said it out loud. He continued on his own, "Maybe we'll meet someone on the leaderboards later. We're both people with some reputation. What rank are you now?"
D-level players could already be on the leaderboard, usually a ten-thousand-person list for five zones combined. The C-level player leaderboard expanded to the entire wormhole point, with the number increasing to twenty thousand.
Twenty thousand seemed like a huge number, but the population of a single zone could reach several billion. Even if some zones were small, the total for one wormhole point was still considerable.
Such a twenty-thousand-person leaderboard was even more competitive than the five-zone ten-thousand-person sub-leaderboard.
"I just leveled up. I probably won't be on the leaderboard." Xu Huo wasn't very concerned about this.
"Who says you can't be ranked just because you just leveled up!" the other person said quickly. "The Instance results accumulated during D-level also count. It's all based on the overall rating. After you complete two or three C-level Instances, your rank might go up."
"If your rating was high during D-level and you completed fewer Instances, you'll definitely be on the leaderboard." He said with some pride, "I'm currently ranked 19,888!"
Reaching C-level meant you could be on the leaderboard, which meant your D-level Instance ratings were good. It wasn't about completing more Instances to get a higher rank. If you got low ratings for each Instance, your rank would actually drop.
"What's your nickname? I'll help you find it," said "Lord of All Gods."
"Passerby A." Xu Huo stepped into the restaurant.
Only a few people had come to eat. A young man and woman sat facing each other by the window on the right, chatting happily while enjoying the view. On the left, a middle-aged man with bandages wrapped around his upper body was eating frantically, with many empty plates beside him.
At a table in the middle, a woman was reading a book.
The four people showed no interest in the newcomers. Xu Huo chose a table in the middle and sat down. A floating robot quickly came to serve the food. Just as he picked up his utensils, "Lord of All Gods" rushed over and sat down opposite him, staring at him with shining eyes.
(Chapter End)