[Escape Room] Instance Contents

"You need to be careful," he reminded him anyway. "We have physical bodies now, too. They're just a bit tougher than normal. If we run into a fantasy world where people can use battle qi or cultivate immortality, we won't be much of a match for them."

"Then you could go up and insult him a few times, so he'll contradict you..."

"Didn't you just circle right back to that?!"

Even so, Old Lu's rule... was so powerful. Ren Yi was a little jealous.

The two little anomalies were bickering noisily when Lu Zihan's uncle, Lu Zi, pushed the door open and walked in.

"All right, little ones." He wore a tired but gentle smile. "Get ready to go in. You'll have an hour to prepare once you're inside, and the world rules will give you some hints. As for the details of your tactics... you can take your time discussing them in there."

He pulled aside a piece of cloth nearby, revealing a mirror as tall as a person.

Following Lu Zi's instructions, Ren Yi and Lu Zihan passed through the mirror. Their vision blurred, and the two of them appeared inside a room.

The room was long and narrow, roughly the size and shape of two basketball courts placed end to end. Sculptures and oil paintings were displayed throughout, making it look like an exhibition gallery.

"So the mirror is the entrance to the Instance..." Ren Yi looked around.

So Younglings were drawn to mirrors because they instinctively wanted to enter Instances and work?

Before they could get a clear look, lines of text appeared before their eyes.

[Welcome to the "Escape Room" Instance. The difficulty of this Instance has been temporarily lowered to beginner level]

[This Instance is a "Pasture Hunt," with no special objectives or auxiliary rules]

[Restrictive rule: For the first twenty minutes after the Instance begins, you must remain in your designated location and cannot move of your own accord]

[Your basic task is to ensure that none of the participants escape]

[Number of participants: 10]

[Countdown to Instance start: 00:59:59]

"Why is there a restrictive rule too?" Lu Zihan held his head, sounding disgruntled.

"Resistance from the other world's rules, I guess," Ren Yi replied. "Since it's called 'Escape Room,' the participants have to be given time to solve the puzzles."

"Come on, let's see what this Instance has."

The adults had left them entirely to their own devices, telling them nothing about the Instance's layout, Pasture World, or anything else.

The two of them released their senses, sending invisible waves sweeping through the entire space like a tide. Under the anomalies' perception, every last detail stood out clearly.

It was a simple linear maze made up of five consecutive small rooms of identical shape. Each room had a few mechanisms and little contraptions to distract the participants or delay them.

In short, the first room contained a clue pointing to a key in the third room, which could be used to open the door in the fifth room and escape.

The rooms were separated by sturdy iron-barred gates. When the two reached out and touched one, another rule appeared in their minds: [After the first closing, it cannot be destroyed until 10 minutes have passed].

But...

"If I remember right, you can teleport, can't you?" Ren Yi looked at Lu Zihan.

Lu Zihan nodded. "Right, as long as someone contradicts me."

Ren Yi nodded. "Is your teleportation passive or active? Do you have to slash them immediately when they contradict you?"

Lu Zihan shook his head. "No, I can delay it, but the person who contradicts me has to be within fifty meters of me. Whether they contradict me from beyond fifty meters or escape beyond that range, I'll lose the lock on them."

Ren Yi did the math. That was roughly the length of an entire room. Lu Zihan could slash someone in the second room from the first, but not if there was another room between them.

"What about you?" Lu Zihan asked Ren Yi. "I can get around this restriction, but what will you do?"

"My true form can change shape and squeeze through. Besides, if things go according to my plan, we might not need this gate."

Ren Yi answered as he looked at the gaps between the security gate's bars, which were wide enough to fit an entire arm through.

"Then what's the point of this gate?" Lu Zihan stared at the virtually useless bars. After a moment of silence, he posed the piercing question.

"No idea. Maybe it's there to fool people." Ren Yi shrugged. "Perhaps it's meant to make the participants 'feel' like they're in an escape room?"

Time slipped quietly by, and half an hour passed. The two briefly discussed their plan and returned to their designated position, a display platform in room one.

"So I have to stand here like a statue for twenty minutes?" Lu Zihan glared at the platform, his voice full of reluctance.

"It's a safe zone. I guarantee you'll be invincible up there." Ren Yi smiled and patted his shoulder. "Besides, the main purpose is to scare the participants when they first come in. And we can still chat through the Ghost Net, can't we?"

"That's not fair." Lu Zihan held his head. "Why is there a position for me but not for you? Why don't you have to be a statue?"

"Don't worry, I'll be your accessory," Ren Yi replied. Then, under Lu Zihan's puzzled gaze, he returned to his true form.

A vast, distorted white cloud slowly gathered and contracted in the air, gradually changing from its original semigaseous state into a solid.

In the end, Ren Yi became a white jade pendant half the size of a palm, hanging from Lu Zihan's wrist.

A simply drawn mouth appeared on the pendant's surface and said with a grin, "I'll stay like this from now on. Your personal charm, always here for you."

Over the past few days, aside from working hard to mold his Humanoid Form, Ren Yi had also discovered some of his "racial traits." Shapeshifting was one of them.

For now, though, he could only transform into simple objects. He was still a long way from a special ability like "disguising himself as another person."

The two bickered for a while longer, and the countdown entered its final minute.

Lu Zihan took a deep breath. His body began to swell and transform, revealing blue-black steel skin, an imposing three-meter-tall frame, vicious bone blades at his elbows, and that signature, fully enclosed angular mask.

He struck a pose he thought was imposing and stepped onto the platform, the jade pendant on his wrist swaying gently.

They began communicating through the Ghost Net.

[Lu Zihan: How's this pose?]

[Ren Yi: Don't talk. Stay cool. You're the Instance boss now, so you need some style.]

As the countdown hit zero, they both felt a strange restriction descend upon them, fixing them in place.

But it didn't matter. Ren Yi didn't need to move, and he barely intended to move until the entire Instance was over.

Immediately afterward, a halo of light flashed, and ten people in different outfits appeared in the room.

There were seven men and three women in total. Though they wore modern clothes, every one of them was in rags, sallow and gaunt, as if they had just crawled out of the ruins. Their clothes still bore dust and sweat stains that wouldn't wash away.

Ren Yi and Lu Zihan's gazes instantly locked onto three of them.

The two communicated through the Ghost Net.

[Lu Zihan: They have guns, Ban Deng'er. Holy shit, this is my first time seeing a machine gun. So cool!]

[Ren Yi: Don't get excited. It can't kill you.]

Even so, Ren Yi couldn't help feeling a little worried. The true forms of "Younglings" like them were still made of flesh. Although a gun couldn't kill Lu Zihan, the wounds a machine gun inflicted would be enough to hold him up for a while.

The three wore matching camouflage combat uniforms and were clearly well trained. The middle-aged man leading them carried a heavy light machine gun on his back, while the bulges at the other two's waists made it clear they were carrying pistols.

After waking up, they quickly gathered together, their gazes sweeping warily over the other seven people and the motionless steel monster on the display platform not far away.

"Ah—!!"

A piercing scream shattered the silence. The other seven participants woke up, and several of the more timid ones screamed at the sight of Lu Zihan. They scrambled into a corner, only stopping and trembling when they realized the three-meter-tall monster statue wasn't moving.