They were running out of time...
Bo Yi reached that conclusion as he watched the fish surge forward, one wave after another.
Although this instance had imposed no time limit on their task, making it seem as though they had all the time they needed to clear it, the speed at which these fish were "evolving" suggested that they actually had very little time left.
After all, judging by how the players were faring against the fish, they were already struggling. If they dragged things out any longer, the fish alone might eventually wipe them all out.
Yet even now, they had barely gathered any useful information about their objective-"worship the Maiden." Although the villager NPCs had told them that all they needed to do was obey the village's rules, Bo Yi's experience in the previous instance made him doubt that dutifully following the villagers' instructions would let them leave without a hitch.
Given this game's nasty tendencies, "completing the task" and "leaving the instance" could easily be two entirely separate things.
As he thought, he smoothly caught a fish that lunged at him. He glanced at the fish that had delivered itself into his hands. The thick, muscular arms on its body kept twisting and struggling, thoroughly disrupting his train of thought. Bo Yi simply drew his knife and cleanly chopped off the troublesome arms.
The two arms hit the ground with a pair of heavy thuds. The moment they were severed from the fish, they rapidly shriveled. Their skin lost its original sheen, turning dull and pale like an old, faded painting. Even after landing, the arms continued to wither and shrink. The once-muscular limbs gradually grew thinner, fine cracks appearing across their skin. As time passed, the cracks multiplied and deepened, as though the arms would split