Worship the Lady (1)

"So this was what that Evil God meant by..."

"'Take your pick'?"

Bo Yi stood on the narrow, winding mountain path, looking up at the mountain village that flickered in and out of sight through the thick fog not far away.

The village was almost entirely hidden deep in the mountains, hemmed in on three sides. Its only access was a rugged mountain path strewn with weeds and loose stones. The surrounding trees had long since died, and through the dense tangle of bare branches, he could just make out a few black, tiled rooftops. Several black birds perched on the dead branches, heads tilted as they watched him silently.

-What a picture of lifeless desolation!

If the "wish" Bo Yi had made to Mitian before entering the instance hadn't been "I want to enter an instance with aquatic anomalies," he probably would have been quite pleased with this eerie scene.

After reaching a temporary cooperation agreement with the man who called himself the "Evil God," Bo Yi had watched him reach up and remove a string of "patterns" from the collar of his clothes. Then Mitian had lightly tapped the wall of his laboratory, and those "patterns" had slowly writhed across it, forming a washbasin-sized design resembling a totem.

According to Mitian, this design was a "door." All Bo Yi had to do was touch it of his own accord, and he could enter the game directly, without waiting for the game to "call his number" like other players. Mitian could even help him choose the theme of the instance he entered.

So, after stating his request, Bo Yi had touched the design at Mitian's prompting, and then-he had appeared here.

Never mind aquatic anomalies. In this remote mountain wilderness, even getting a water supply was probably difficult.

"Bo Yi?" A woman's voice came from behind him, interrupting his thoughts.

Bo Yi turned around.

Bo Yu stood behind him. "It really is you..." She hurried over, but alongside the joy of seeing a familiar face, there was a trace of worry in her expression. "Why are you in this instance?"

"Hm?" What did she mean by that? He gave Bo Yu a questioning look.

"This is a high-level instance," Bo Yu explained. Unlike the earlier Doll Castle, high-level instances like this never included complete newcomers. In fact, a player like Bo Yi, who had only completed one instance, shouldn't have been here either.

Great...

Bo Yi ground his back teeth lightly.

It looked as though their very first collaboration had already fallen apart completely.

And to think he had made a point of bringing equipment specifically for catching anom... Huh?

Only then did Bo Yi notice that the small briefcase he had been carrying was gone. Inside it were the tools he had specifically brought to capture anomalies. But as soon as he entered the instance, he had been so absorbed in thinking about how he seemed to have been duped that he hadn't even noticed the case disappearing from his hand.

Bo Yu followed his gaze, only to see an empty hand. "What's wrong?" she asked, puzzled.

Bo Yi said, "The things I brought are gone."

Understanding dawned on Bo Yu. "Did you bring some kind of highly destructive weapon?" Come to think of it, her reaction after leaving her beginner instance back then had been exactly the same as Bo Yi's now...

"The game only lets players bring weapons for self-defense, like daggers and small knives. If a weapon is too destructive, the game automatically 'filters' it out when you enter the instance." In other words, the player entered the instance, while the weapon stayed behind.

Just wonderful...

Bo Yi's gaze grew colder still.

That Evil God hadn't told him any of this. Instead, he had rested his chin on his hand and watched Bo Yi pack his briefcase.

"It's getting late." Bo Yu glanced at the sky. "We should hurry over..."

Bo Yi nodded, setting aside the matter of settling accounts for now.

The two followed the uneven mountain path to the village entrance.

Quite a few players had already gathered outside the village. At a glance, every one of them was young. As soon as Bo Yi and Bo Yu arrived, a crisp system announcement rang out in all the players' minds:

[Ding-dong~ Welcome to the "Mist" game~]

[Current players logged in: 12/12. Instance commencing.]

[Instance name: Worship the Lady]

[Instance objective: Worship the Lady]

[Have fun~]

The players began murmuring among themselves:

"The instance objective is exactly the same as its name!"

"Doesn't that leave us with no useful clues at all?"

Bo Yu gave a wry smile as well. "This really is... just what you'd expect from a high-difficulty instance." Usually, an instance's name and objective provided players with some clues. But this was the first time she had encountered a situation like this.

Bo Yi was probably the only person present who was unaffected. After all, the moment he saw these remote mountains, he had known he'd been screwed over.

So he was the first to notice the NPC slowly approaching the village entrance. "Someone's coming," he reminded them.

The players immediately stopped talking and looked up. It was an old man with graying hair who still looked reasonably robust. He wore a loose, long tunic that billowed emptily in the wind, making him look like a walking sack from a distance.

"You're the university students here to research our folk customs?" The old man stopped before them and looked them up and down, appearing far from friendly.

So the game had assigned them the role of university students this time... Bo Yi understood. No wonder all the players were in the same age range.

The game was surprisingly meticulous.

"Yes." A young man wearing glasses stepped forward and asked politely, "May I ask who you are...?"

"I'm the village chief." The chief lifted his eyelids slightly, seemingly unwilling to talk much with them, then turned around. "Follow me. I'll take you inside first."

Seeing this, no one dared ask anything more. They could only follow the chief into the village.

The village looked ancient. Its houses were dilapidated, their walls peeling and mottled, their battered windows patched with nailed-on wooden strips. A thick layer of dust covered the roof tiles. As they walked, they saw hardly anyone in the village, and an ominous, deathly silence hung over the entire place.

"Chief, where is everyone else in your village?" one player suddenly asked.

The chief glanced back at the female player who had spoken. "They're busy..." he said expressionlessly.

"Aren't you here to do that... oh, 'social research'? That's what it's called, right..." The old chief lit a cigarette. "Anyway, I don't understand it. But since you've come to our village, you'll have to follow our rules."

"Everyone's busy preparing to worship the Lady these next few days. Don't get in our way."

"Otherwise..." he said, "we won't be responsible if anything happens to you."

The players exchanged glances.

The instance's key term had appeared.

The man with glasses stepped forward again and asked the chief, "Chief, we've come to do our research precisely because we want to learn about worshipping the Lady. When the time comes, could we..."

Before he could finish, the chief abruptly stopped walking.

The chief slowly turned his head. "What?"

His expression was obscured by the cigarette smoke, but there was a strange hint of delight in his voice. "You want to worship the Lady too?"