The Three Players

It was not just Yue Zhenqiao—the escort guards and Fei Dao were all on high alert.

Li Nian and Lin Yu likewise stared at the doorway as if facing a formidable enemy.

At the same time, the voices of Li Nian and Old Zheng nearly overlapped in Lin Yu's ears and mind.

"Three people. All players."

"Three players. Be careful."

The [Fear Torch] silently appeared in Lin Yu's hand. He stood and looked toward the doorway.

Compared with Li Nian and Old Zheng, Lin Yu was not particularly on guard.

Because...

Since these three "players" had appeared in this stone house, they might not necessarily have come with hostile intentions.

Based on Lin Yu's understanding of [Confrontation Instances], among all the experience gathered from [Confrontation Instances] so far, there had never been a "Clearance Condition" that directly required killing every member of the opposing side—a rule that demanded a fight to the death.

Usually, the "players" participating in a [Confrontation Instance] were divided into several factions, whose "Clearance Conditions" differed and were mutually exclusive to a certain degree.

For example, one faction's players might need to assassinate someone, while the other faction's players needed to protect them.

Or several sides might need to help NPCs from absolutely irreconcilable forces achieve their respective goals.

In short... although the situation was basically one of "kill or be killed," that "kill or be killed" was not directly written into the rules. It had to be deduced.

Thus, a certain "high-level player," the founder of a certain "player organization," had once proposed a bold idea...

Perhaps [Confrontation Instances] allowed for cooperation, mutual benefit, and clearing the instance together.

So, after that "high-level player" personally led his organization's members into a certain [Confrontation Instance], he conducted an experiment—and it actually succeeded!

Although not everyone survived,