On a mountaintop surrounded by dead trees, Bo Yi stood alone before a large, rusted iron gate.
A Western Gothic building with pointed spires stood quietly a short distance beyond the gate. Time had left the white stone bricks mottled and pitted; nearly withered vines hung precariously from the walls, rustling in the wind. Every window was tightly shut, with curtains drawn firmly across the inside. Bo Yi even spotted wooden planks nailed across some of them.
"Why aren't you going in?" a voice asked from behind him.
Bo Yi turned. A player was walking toward him.
Bo Yi smoothly stepped aside, revealing a heavy lock hanging on the enormous, rust-covered iron gate.
"Holy crap..." The player approached the gate. "Is this Instance really that intense? We have to pick a lock right off the bat?" He reached between the bars, trying to turn the heavy lock hanging on the inside of the gate around to their side. But the lock was wider than the gap between the bars. He spent ages trying different angles without managing to pull it through.
While that player fiddled with the lock, other players appeared one after another. Without exception, they were drawn to the lock on the gate, and without exception, all their attempts ended in failure.
Bo Yi leaned off to one side, silently counting the players. Once he reached eighteen, the number stopped increasing.
Strangely, though, the Instance notification still hadn't sounded.
"What's going on?" The players gathered before the iron gate, growing restless. "Why hasn't this Instance started yet?"
"Do we seriously have to open the gate ourselves and go inside before it starts?"
"But there's no way to open this gate. We can't even see the keyhole. How are we supposed to pick the lock?"
While everyone discussed how