In an empty room of roughly one hundred square meters, twenty-seven players stood or sat about.
As time passed, they intentionally or unintentionally spread apart, then naturally formed several small groups based on traits such as gender, age, temperament, and guild affiliation.
At that moment, they were all discussing their own views on the Instance.
"It's already been an hour and a half. Why hasn't the main quest appeared yet? Not only is there no main quest, there isn't even a ghost in sight..."
"Is this Instance bugged? Other than Ms. Medina showing up at the beginning, nothing meaningful has happened. Nothing even grows in this godforsaken place—no clues, no mechanisms. Don't tell me we're supposed to survive in the wilderness."
"Should we be like those two and try walking down that corridor? But it doesn't look right. It clearly leads to the detention room—they only went there because they broke The Rules..."
"Let's wait until they come back from scouting. Everyone's here anyway. It's not like all twenty-seven of us are going to die together."
If there had been fewer than ten players in this Instance, then with its progress stalled and a corridor leading into the unknown, all it would take was someone like Chen Lidong stepping forward with a suggestion and taking Zhou Datong along. No matter how afraid the others were, there was a good chance that, driven by herd mentality, they would be persuaded to enter the corridor and explore together.
But when there were more than twenty people, the bystander effect took over.
Chen Lidong and Zhou Datong carried too little weight. Those who were still afraid and hesitant were more inclined to wait for the larger group to reach a unified decision. Seeing that no one else intended to move, they naturally had