A Player's Personal Opinion (I)
Lu Li drifted slowly through the starry sky, occasionally extending his dark tentacles to bind and devour asteroids, absorbing various energies from the universe. A message was transmitted from another world, which Lu Li did not resist.
That was information with game characteristics; the game panel on Lu Li's body flashed, and a prompt appeared:
[ID YZ0135]
[Your secondary Shadow Kingdom, has been verified to meet the requirements for a copy.]
This instance will be used for a low-level player's quest.
[The full script is as follows]
[...]
Do you agree to make it a single copy?
[If you agree, you will gain full access to this instance.]
[However, you must comply with the following management regulations]
[...]
[If you disagree, please ignore this notice]
Lu Li glanced at the script and management regulations, roughly understood what was going on, and then directly sent back a message indicating his agreement.
Tian Lan finished her investigation for the day with a puff of cigarette in her mouth. Every one to two years, a murder would occur in this small town, but because the murderers hid very well and the victims were all marginalized figures in society, these murders would eventually go unsolved and be suppressed.
Tian Lan is a detective at a detective agency. Because he has recently become famous, all the Red Light Faction in the town have requested him to investigate this series of murders. This is because the Red Light Faction are the ones most affected by this murder case, since fewer people are walking on the streets at night, and therefore fewer customers.
Standing at the entrance of the hair salon, Tian Lan smoked a cigarette, looked at the signs on the glass door saying "Wash and cut 20, wash, cut and blow-dry 200," shook her head, stubbed out her cigarette and threw it into the trash can, then suddenly clutched her chest, feeling nauseous.
Sweating profusely, Tian Lan's expression became incredibly complicated. The game notification had arrived, so he hurriedly returned to his rented room, took a cold shower, dressed neatly, and vanished from the room in an instant.
[ID YZ97975, you have joined this instance.]
[The current game instance is: Shadow Sacrifice]
[Instance Type: Multiplayer, Cooperative]
[Instance Description: Due to an accident, the crew of the Christopher arrived in the Shadow Kingdom. They accepted the Serpent Queen's invitation, but for the sake of their homeland, some of them believed they should escape...]
[Objective: Assist ten people, including the captain, scribe, navigator, helmsman, and combat personnel, in escaping the Shadow Kingdom.]
[Instance Note: The spaceship is your only means of escape.]
[Dungeon Completion Rewards: Captain survives 500 Game Points, Scribe survives 300 Game Points, Navigator survives 300 Game Points, Helmsman survives 200 Game Points, Combat Crew survives 100 Game Points.]
Have fun playing the game!
In the blink of an eye, Tian Lan found herself lying on a bed in a dimly lit room, her mind racing with information. They were people from the Starshine World who had come to the universe for a research project but had accidentally wandered into the Shadow Kingdom.
Tian Lan stood up and placed her hand on a table of unknown material. A flower on the table seemed to sense something, suddenly swayed twice, and emitted a large amount of light, illuminating the room.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Tian Lan quickly opened it and saw a stunningly beautiful woman with a cold expression standing outside. If she were to rate her out of 10, Tian Lan would give her a 9. Of course, it would be even better if she could ignore the snake tail behind her.
"Humans, the Snake Mother invites you. Come with me!" After saying that, the Snake Woman wriggled her tail and walked towards the other doors, waking up the people inside. Tian Lan knew that these were all her teammates and other gamers. She counted them and found that there were five people in total, including herself, for this mission.
Tian Lan smiled kindly at them, trying to make a good impression beforehand. Although the mission dungeon was a place where everyone was trying to outmaneuver each other, it was still a cooperative dungeon, so improving the impression score would still have some effect.
Then Tian Lan saw a man in a suit who gave her a polite smile. He seemed to be a polite person as well. Afterwards, Tian Lan and the other four were led into a large hall. Some plants released light as the group arrived, illuminating the hall.
After the Snake Woman brought the five people here, she said "Please wait a moment" and left the hall. Not knowing if there were any surveillance cameras, the five people did not have any obvious interaction. Tian Lan then began to observe some things in the hall.
Everything here seemed to be made of some unknown black material, appearing calm and orderly, while on the table were some vases filled with glowing flowers.
On the four walls are murals. The subject of the murals is unclear, but some information can be gleaned: half-human, half-snake creatures are praying to a huge, dark sun. Around them are various other creatures, among which, as conspicuous as the snake people are those eye-shaped creatures.
At the same time, there was a mask and countless little figures surrounding it. These little figures were dressed in black. Tian Lan felt that one of the little figures was particularly bouncy, and she had an urge to hit him.
Suddenly, Tian Lan felt her panel flashing and received a message: "[Teammate ID YZ96587 has sent you a probe message. Accept?]"
After clicking "Confirm," a data panel appeared in front of Tian Lan:
[Snake People - Purple Snake Species]
[Body Assessment: 3.32; Life Energy Derivation: 6.64]
[Soul Assessment: 2.13; Spiritual Energy Derivatives: 1.89; Shadow Magic: 8.04]
[Category: Family/Relatives]
[Reason for creation: Inspired by a great being, it evolved from an ordinary purple-scaled Giant Snake...]
[Special Abilities: (1) Healing Energy: Purple snakes are natural healers, possessing life-healing energy that can easily heal most external injuries; (2) Snake Swarm Rule: Each snake citizen can control a large number of low-level snakes, commanding them to do anything; (3) Shadow Poison: They worship xxxx and possess Shadow Magic, which not only multiplies their Shadow Magic but also allows them to create poisons from Shadow Magic; (4)?.]
Tian Lan turned her head and saw the man in the suit smiling at her. It seemed that he was the one who sent the message. Tian Lan nodded to him and began to analyze the mission. In other missions, these snake people could be considered a mini-boss. Based on the previous situation, there must be a higher-level snake mother above them. No wonder this mission was just about escaping.
Otherwise, if they face them head-on, a few more snake people would probably wipe out the remaining players. So, the correct way to pass the game is to seize the opportunity, find the crew of the Christopher, and then find a chance to escape on the spaceship.
"This dungeon is no easy task!" Tian Lan thought with a frown. The enemy's strength far exceeded theirs, and any carelessness could lead to a total annihilation.