The four discussed the instance. In reality, it was just Gao Xiaowen and Xu Haoran talking, while Lu Li played the part of a newbie on the sidelines. Hu Wenxu closed his eyes with a cold expression and began cultivating again.
None of them seemed easy to deal with. The names they'd given were probably fake, and aside from some basic information, no one had revealed anything important. Xu Haoran had shared information about the Merfolk, but that had only been for the sake of the mission.
Xu Haoran hadn't revealed his other skill or his basic enhancement abilities. Instead, after letting slip that he had a scouting skill, he seemed to have become the leader of this temporary team. Gao Xiaowen, who had always served as the link between the others, had inexplicably taken a step back and handed him the lead. During their discussion of the instance's mission, she kept backing Xu Haoran's opinions.
"I have a question. The game has assigned us an instance mission, but it hasn't said we have to complete it. There's no punishment for failing, either. Can we abandon the mission and go kill monsters somewhere else to get equipment?" Lu Li asked curiously when their discussion seemed to have reached a pause.
"You think this is still a test instance? In official instances, monsters almost never drop modules unless they're powerful bosses. You generally get rewards by completing missions. Besides, your completion rate affects the reward draw at the end. If you fail the mission, do you really think those five cards you draw won't all be blank?"
"That's not even the most important part. If you don't make an effort to complete the mission, you'll run into terrifying events. In the end, you might even get trapped in the instance world and suffer endlessly!" Xu Haoran said with a cold laugh. The game hadn't spelled it out, but people who deliberately failed their missions never ended well. If you tried to complete the mission, even if you failed, you might still make it out alive. Xu Haoran thought of the Second-Instar Burrowing Demon Worm, covered in tentacles, that he'd encountered after avoiding an overly difficult mission in the previous instance. A trace of Fear flashed in his eyes.
"Guests, please follow me!" A Merfolk swam into the palace and addressed the four of them. Lu Li and the others exchanged glances, ended their conversation, and climbed the icy stairs up to the lake's surface.
Following a hidden stream on the island, the Merfolk led the way through the water while the four players followed along the narrow bank. Before long, they reached the island's shore. A small boat was moored nearby, with some belongings inside—including the clothes Lu Li had changed out of.
"The princess ordered you to set off as soon as possible. Just get aboard, and we'll take you there!" The Merfolk's words weren't the least bit courteous, but its distinctive voice was so sweet that it made you want to lose yourself in its melody.
Without any objections, the group quickly climbed aboard. They saw many shapes moving beneath the water, fish tails swimming all around them, and the boat set off toward their destination at tremendous speed.
The sea wind was brisk, and its briny smell grew nauseating the longer they breathed it in. The ocean stretched as far as the eye could see, while the island behind them grew more distant until it soon became a tiny black dot. Now, with nothing around them but water and no solid ground beneath their feet, Lu Li and the others couldn't help feeling uneasy.
Especially when they saw those fish tails thrashing beneath the surface, their thoughts began to wander. There were too many unknown things down there. People always feared the unknown, and the greatest unknown on this planet had to be what lay beneath the sea. Compared to the seemingly boundless ocean, they felt like ants walking before a giant, as if they could die at any moment.
Fortunately, these players were no ordinary people. Their panic gradually faded with time, and Lu Li had long since stopped caring about such negative emotions. Still, for the sake of playing the newbie, he pretended to be shaken and asked the others in a flustered voice, "What was that just now? Why did I suddenly feel afraid?"
"So this instance has one of those beings, too!" A lingering fear crossed Xu Haoran's face. He glanced at Gao Xiaowen and Hu Wenxu, whose expressions showed that they understood, then looked at Lu Li, who seemed utterly confused. Forcing a smile, he spoke as if to bolster his own courage.
"Newbies are newbies. The instances we enter can have things that are beyond the rules. They're usually sealed or asleep. In any case, these beings can't move around, but every so often, they turn their gaze toward us. Even just their gaze can trigger strange reactions in us. Sometimes, their gaze even leaks something that directly causes an event to mutate."
"Somewhere far beneath the sea, there might be one of those beings," Hu Wenxu said, unusually talkative for once. But the next moment, the matter-of-fact look on his face gave way to feverish excitement. "I really want to dissect one someday and see how it differs from normal humans, what form of existence it has, and how an organ that receives light, like the eyes, can become a magical organ that emits all kinds of substances..."
The other two men's expressions changed. They'd thought he was just a cold-faced man focused on cultivation—perhaps the strongest among them, but at most a hired hand. Now they realized he was a research-mad lunatic. One day, before you even knew what was happening, he might knock you out and dump you on a dissection table.
People like that were the most dangerous. Their thought processes were completely different from everyone else's. They could do anything for the sake of research. Worse still, people like that tended to become powerful.
"Hey, Big Brother Hu, do you know how to dissect things? It sounds pretty interesting. Could I join you for your next experiment?" The newbie they'd been worried about asked with eager interest, just as Xu Haoran and Gao Xiaowen were wondering how to keep Hu Wenxu in check.
"Are you interested in dissection? Perfect. I'm still short an assistant. I'll teach you a few things. This game is amazing—there are all kinds of strange specimens everywhere. This place is our paradise!" Hu Wenxu said excitedly. Every now and then, he glanced down at the Merfolk beneath the boat. His intentions were obvious.
Xu Haoran and Gao Xiaowen exchanged a look. What the hell? How had they ended up with such a terrible team? What was wrong with all of them?
The contract has been sent out. I'm finally about to sign! Thanks so much for all your support, everyone!
Before you continue