Heaven · Addiction

[Welcome to the Weird Instance: Heaven · Addiction...]

[Player 106 has entered]

"I'm already number 106?" The pink-haired girl gracefully waved away the blood-red words brimming with malice before her. As she secured a chainsaw half her height to her waist, she poked Qin Rang beside her.

"Isn't something off about the anomaly in the Qihua Danger Zone this time? There were ninety of us who came in, and half of them haven't entered yet. How are there already over a hundred players?"

Qin Rang lowered his gaze. "Not only that, quite a few wandering anomalies have been roaming around the Qihua Danger Zone. This hundred-player instance..."

He trailed off, his brows furrowing slightly.

"The name of this instance sounds pretty nice. Heaven... It sounds like something from old Western mythology. It's nothing like the buildings we saw on our way in," the brown-haired boy muttered.

An Ying rested the tip of his umbrella on the ground. The wind blew his white hair behind his ears as he narrowed his pink eyes and surveyed their surroundings. "I'm afraid this isn't just a hundred-player world. It's also... an open one—"

"So it's an open Weird World." At the same time, Lin Nieran also murmured in surprise.

Lin Nieran had received a message about the official livestream after closing up shop and had been waiting since early that morning.

In a world overrun by anomalies, electronic devices had also been corrupted, acquiring many deadly rules.

Now people could only receive news by radio. Only the authorities had the ability to broadcast a livestream without interference, allowing everyone in the residential zones to watch it.

They only had to select an area for the broadcast, and everyone there could share the feed.

This kind of livestream let all of humanity communicate and discuss things together for the first time in a long while, without anyone missing out.

Livestreaming opportunities were hard to come by. The authorities only started one when they encountered a large, rare Weird World like today's.

The first reason was to pool everyone's ideas and help the people inside clear it; the second was to accumulate experience, so that when people entered similar anomalies later, ignorance would not lead to widespread casualties.

In a Weird World, information equaled life. Even if this entire group died, the livestream could still bring them information.

The large screen before Lin Nieran was divided in two.

One half showed the inside of the instance, following the most famous squad, which was also the protagonist group of this world: the Calamity Crossing Squad.

The other half showed the people who had yet to enter. They were gathered outside the Qihua Danger Zone, waiting for the anomaly to pull them into the Weird World.

Lin Nieran had entered Weird Worlds many times, sometimes by choice and sometimes against his will. Though he had never been to the Qihua Danger Zone, he could already tell from the livestream that it was different.

The Qihua Residential Zone had become the Qihua Danger Zone three years ago and had recently been reclassified as a B-rank danger zone. Only a small number of people had yet to evacuate, and most of the area had already been completely swallowed by anomalies.

Presumably, it would not be long before it became a full-fledged Weird Zone.

The anomaly was affecting a large area this time. Judging by the blood-red aura filling the sky in the livestream, it had probably affected nearly half of the Qihua Danger Zone.

As everyone knew, the larger an anomaly's territory, the more dangerous it was.

When a Weird Instance opened, people who entered the anomaly's territory would be pulled directly into the instance. They shouldn't have been left waiting for over ten minutes without getting in, as they were now, gathered together and discussing something.

After several more minutes, the instance still hadn't appeared. Instead, through the blood-red haze filling the sky, they saw several anomalies of indistinct shape slowly moving toward them, seemingly carrying enormous spiked hammers.

The hammers dragged along the ground, leaving streaks of blood behind.

Their expressions grew grave as they slowly retreated.

Generally, if a Weird World hadn't been cleared, the anomalies inside couldn't get out and would only keep expanding their territory. But there were always exceptions.

"...Is this an open Weird World?" someone asked, trembling.

No one answered. They were all thinking of pulling out now. An open, hundred-player battle royale Weird Instance—how many people would die? Were there enough of them here to die?

As the name suggested, an open instance was unlike an ordinary one, which was "locked": once enough people had entered, the entrance would close.

An open instance was different. The anomalies inside could escape, and the players inside could come and go.

On the livestream, the scrolling comments on the screen were moving too fast to read. Analyses from the professional analysis team and many other people kept appearing.

The sight made Lin Nieran's eyes swim, so he turned the comments off and focused on the Calamity Crossing Squad, who had already entered the instance.

"I was the 108th to enter, but the instance still hasn't started." The brown-haired boy, Sheng Qingqiao, tapped the instance's transparent wall with the back of his blade. "Just how many people does this anomaly instance need before it's full?"

"Too bad Sister Chu and the old stick-in-the-mud are still in other Weird Worlds. If they were here, things would be a lot easier for us."

The pink-haired girl rapped him on the forehead in annoyance. "Sheng Qingqiao, watch what you say. We're live."

Sheng Qingqiao immediately covered his mouth and chuckled. "Heh heh, what's the big deal? It doesn't matter if they hear me, does it?"

The girl rested one hand on the pink chainsaw at her waist and gave him an elegant yet polite smile. "Want to say that again?"

They were being broadcast to the whole world, so they couldn't show the slightest hint of fear. Even a single joking remark could set many people's imaginations running.

While the two bickered, Qin Rang and An Ying had already searched every place around them they could reach.

Before the instance began, they couldn't leave the area around them. Only when everyone had arrived and the instance started would the Air Wall blocking their movement disappear.

The scenery around them was all blurry for now. The only thing they could see clearly was the wooden floor beneath their feet.

Qin Rang searched the area and found only a single die beneath a table nearby.

"Tao Yuan, take a look." Qin Rang handed it to the pink-haired girl.

Tao Yuan took it, felt it carefully, and sniffed it. "It's a die commonly found at gambling tables," she said with certainty. "The setting this time might be a gambling house or some kind of underground establishment."

As soon as she finished speaking, the blurry scene before them suddenly came into focus.

A blood moon hung high in the oppressive, dark red sky. It filled half the sky, hanging low overhead, as though it might fall at any moment.

They stood on an old, dusty wooden floor, surrounded by a spacious expanse of dilapidated buildings that bore signs of everyday life.

The buildings stood far apart and varied in height. Some were lavishly decorated, hung with exquisite lanterns and painted with beautiful patterns. Others were simple, so bare that they looked unfinished, as though construction had never been completed.

They were standing in an open space when a sudden gust of wind swept up a pile of playing cards and dust from the ground.

[Whoa, this feels creepy.]

[Does the name of this instance have anything to do with it at all?]

[Go, Calamity Crossing Squad!]

[This looks a lot like a place for some kind of shady illegal activity...]

[What era do you think this is? Illegal?]

Qin Rang narrowed his eyes. Once the cloud of dust had settled, he reached into the jumble of flying trash and scrap paper and caught a sheet. He unfolded it and saw that it was a colorful flyer.