Staying in the Instance: That's How Anglers Are

Xu Kai still didn't know what the Stone Statue Weird was planning. He only knew that his next instance would be incredibly difficult.

The Stone Statue Weird would certainly discuss it with the Weird Duke when he returned, and they would soon learn that Xu Kai possessed two portions of Source Weird Qi and was only one instance away from qualifying for an entry ticket.

So the Stone Statue Weird really would go all out in this instance.

Come to think of it, Xu Kai still didn't know where this so-called "entry ticket" would lead. Could it be a special instance?

Xu Kai didn't dwell on it. He looked up and saw that, after the instance ended, the area around the crematorium had suddenly changed: the funeral hall that had been set up and the food that had been laid out had vanished, and the crematorium was now closed. The guests who had fled the crematorium earlier had returned one after another, each busy with their usual work.

It was as if everything that had just happened had been a long dream. Now the dream had shattered, and everything had returned to its original state, as though this were reality.

Xu Kai's Funeral Car was even parked at its original spot by the entrance, as if Xu Kai had only just arrived at the instance and hadn't driven it yet.

The door to the cremation workshop was locked, and everything had fallen quiet. Seeing this, Xu Kai rose from the ground.

He had changed too. The wear on his clothes from his fight with the master of ceremonies had been repaired. Even the fine dust he had picked up while pushing the coffin had vanished.

His body had changed as well. He felt more energetic, and his minor wounds had healed.

Xu Kai walked slowly. The crematorium usually had few people around, but he could still sense a little of the bustle of everyday life. It was the only color he could perceive in his black-and-white world.

He walked to the dormitory door, took out his key, and opened it, revealing the scene inside.

The gray, human-shaped plastic bag was still there, as were the human fragments inside it. The game hadn't been able to restore any of it, so after all that, Xu Kai still had to throw them out himself.

Xu Kai felt a little dazed. For a moment, he had almost thought the instance he had experienced was nothing but a fleeting dream and that he had simply transmigrated to this world.

But everything in the room was still there, and even a faint smell of blood lingered, reminding Xu Kai that what he had experienced was no dream.

Ignoring it all, Xu Kai opened the wardrobe with practiced ease and took a tin box from a hidden compartment. Weird Energy extended from his hand and formed a key, which he inserted into the keyhole to turn the gears. With a click, the box opened.

The box contained the hearse driver's secret stash of money, amounting to several tens of thousands of yuan.

Xu Kai took a thousand yuan, put the box back, locked the door, and left.

He needed to prepare, and he absolutely couldn't do that without money, so he had taken a thousand yuan. He also brought a notebook with a map tucked inside it—the map that had previously been pressed against the windshield.

Xu Kai looked at the map and decided to return to Maple Town.

For no other reason than that he hoped to familiarize himself with the terrain as much as possible, so he could face the Stone Statue Weird's frenzied killing scheme. The crematorium was the Stone Statue Weird's home turf. Xu Kai had already explored it and noted several places that might become killing zones. Maple Town was next.

That was what Xu Kai thought, and that was what he did. But halfway there, he found a vehicle parked sideways across the road, blocking his way.

The instance was closed now, and the Stone Statue Weird had left. Could the one stopping him be "Evil"?

Faced with this situation, Xu Kai focused and cautiously approached the van ahead. He peered into the driver's cab, only to find it empty.

He used his Weird Energy to sense the surroundings and detected an elderly presence by the lake. Xu Kai looked in that direction and saw an angler. His scent was clean; he was just an ordinary person.

"Hey! Sir! Could you move your van? I can't get through!"

"What did you say? Come down here, and keep your voice down! You'll scare the fish!"

Xu Kai heard the full-throated shout and thought that the old man was louder than he was. Wouldn't that really scare the fish?

Xu Kai walked closer and got a good look at the old man. His hair was graying, and he was still lively, though his complexion wasn't very good.

The old man sat on a small stool beneath a large umbrella, his eyes fixed on the calm surface of the lake. He paid Xu Kai no attention even when he arrived, as though he hadn't been the one who had just shouted.

"Sir..."

"Shh..."

The float moved. The old man jerked the rod up hard, and the line suddenly snapped with a twang.

"Oh, young man! I told you to keep your voice down! You scared the fish!"

The old man was upset. He had waited a long time for that fish, only for it to come to nothing.

Xu Kai was at a loss for words. He wasn't taking the blame for that; anglers had all sorts of excuses for coming up empty.

"Ah well, the next one will be bigger! Let me apologize. Sir, would you like a cigarette?"

Xu Kai offered him a cigarette. Once the old man took it, Xu Kai looked to his left and saw a large fish basket. It held just one fish, which almost filled it.

"Whoa! That's a big fish! Must be nearly twenty jin, right?"

"Oh, it's not that big. I caught it this morning. If that one just now hadn't gotten off the hook, it would definitely have been bigger than the one in the basket!"

The old man laughed, his smile utterly genuine and his eyes shining.

"How about taking a break, sir? That van up there is yours, right? Could you move it for me? My vehicle's a bit wide, so I can't quite get through."

"Ah, that's my fault. I got so caught up in fishing that I forgot and didn't park properly. You're being polite, young man. I'm the one who parked badly. How wide could your vehicle be? This is a good cigarette. What brand is it?"

"A Maple Town specialty, I think. I've forgotten too. The crematorium handed them out."

"Oh! You've got a job, then. Good for you!"

That got the old man talking. He followed Xu Kai up the slope, chatting as they went.

"I heard something happened at your crematorium. Those two brothers from Big Tree Street died?"

At this, Xu Kai's attention sharpened. Could the old man be talking about Wang Bangzheng and Wang Hua's father?

"Yes, those two."

"More than that, wasn't it? Word's spread everywhere: the whole Wang family is gone! Ah, poor family. It was that hoodlum Zhang Dekai who did it."

Xu Kai understood that this was the instance's power, directly changing what people believed. But this seemed to be the background to the incident, and Xu Kai thought it was connected to clues about the instance, so he continued listening carefully.

"Zhang Dekai? I only started working here recently, so I don't know much about the local goings-on. Who is he?"

"Zhang Dekai's a loan shark and a thug. Wang Bangfang owed him more than a million! Oh, Wang Bangfang was Wang Bangzheng's older brother. Now there's nobody left in the Wang family, so Zhang Dekai used the mortgage contract to seize their house and the shopfront out front. Ugh! What a bastard! People around here are saying Zhang Dekai drove Wang Bangfang to jump off the building."

The old man smoked his cigarette, seeming like the head of an intelligence bureau, as though he knew every little thing that happened in town.

Xu Kai wanted to keep asking, because the fragments he carried had reacted. The High-Altitude Ghost Fragment and Flame Ghost Fragment rewarded by the game were shaking wildly, even though they were still in the game's storage.

"Where is this Zhang Dekai? Is he still in Building Three?"

"He is. Where else would he be? He brings a bunch of shady types along and causes trouble in the building every day. Whenever I go down that street, I tell you..."

The old man went on about a lot of trivial things. Xu Kai pieced it all together and felt that, while exploring Maple Town, he needed to have a proper chat with Zhang Dekai.

At the same time, he could use this to determine how the game performed its so-called instance reset on this world after an instance ended, so it could receive the next player.