[Nether God Sacrifice] At sea

As it turned out, even the cleverest, most meticulous person could slip up.

Back then, everyone had only just entered the Instance. After introducing themselves, they knew only how each other's names sounded. Few bothered asking which characters were used to write them.

Xu Jiawei might have asked, but perhaps she had forgotten, or perhaps she had been pressed for time and her hand had slipped. Whatever the reason, she had carved it wrong.

But even with the mistake, it had been enough at the time.

"Xu Jiawei carved the names, then teamed up with the other Xu Family Village players to coax us into taking rooms accordingly."

"The Instance never had that rule. It was a fake rule Xu Jiawei invented."

The players hadn't needed to pair up and check in as couples. Xu Jiawei had wanted them to.

As it turned out, that room arrangement had paid off handsomely.

"Think about it. If we hadn't taken rooms according to the names, would we have lost so many people on the first night?"

The answer was clearly no.

If Song Liru hadn't had to room with Xu Nan, she wouldn't have been so upset, and Xu Jiaojiao would have struggled to find an opportunity to comfort her and earn her trust.

Even if she had disappeared, anyone else who knew about it and kept quiet all night would have seemed suspicious. Only Xu Nan could just about explain it away by citing their bad relationship.

People like Qin Ning and Shao Lan might have chosen to stay elsewhere. Once players settled down in public areas such as the corridor or lobby, the Xu family would have had little room to make a move.

And if the Xu family members had stayed together, they could easily have given away their alliance without realizing it, allowing the Sacrifice Faction players to catch on.

"Xu Jiawei really is clever," Shao Lan said with a sigh. "She forced every sacrifice to pair up with a Xu family member. Not only did that make it easier for the Xu family to act, it also separated the sacrifices, who were already at a disadvantage in terms of information. They couldn't communicate freely with one another, making it even harder to gather intel."

"Looking at it that way, this Instance is very unfair," Qin Ning said.

"The four players in the Xu Family Faction started out knowing more than we did. With help from NPCs like the Village Chief, they could start working together right from the beginning."

Shao Lan nodded. "You're right."

"But they have a weakness, too. They can't go near the sea."

"The blind fish in the sea lost their eyes, and they attack every Xu family member who has eyes out of hatred-because every pair was stolen from them."

"Only the children who haven't received eyes yet are safe, which makes them the only people in the village who can go out to sea to fish."

"The Xu family's weakness is our strength."

Shao Lan looked out toward the distant sea.

"Our way out must lie at sea."

"Shao Lan must have figured out by now that their way out lies at sea."

By the shore, Xu Jiawei sat on a reef, the sea breeze stirring her long hair. Her expression was grim, her eyes beneath thick lashes as black as night.

"Starting now, burn every boat in Xu Family Village. Don't spare even the smallest raft."

"Trust me, we absolutely cannot leave him even a sliver of hope. Otherwise, we'll be the ones who die."

Shao Lan didn't know that while he found Xu Jiawei frightening, she found him even more so.

When Xu Jiawei first entered this Instance, the thought running through her mind had been, I've got this.

As a veteran player, she actually had far more experience than she let on.

After receiving the information for her side in the elevator, she quickly concluded that in this game of opposing factions, hers held almost every advantage at the outset.

But the key was making full use of that head start.

They had to bring all the sacrifices under control quickly at the beginning, killing some and contaminating the rest. Otherwise, the longer things went on, the more likely the sacrifices were to notice something was wrong and start fighting back.

Once they fought back, the Xu Family Village faction's players would no longer have the upper hand.

The fishing village had mountains on one side and sea on the other three. Once the sacrifices broke free of their control, they were finished.

The Xu family couldn't enter the sea. As long as the sacrifices could take enough survival supplies and escape by boat, they would be completely free.

That was why they had to deal with the sacrifices quickly.

And that was exactly what Xu Jiawei had done.

The first night had been a dream opening-Zhang Fang had been bitten right off the bat, and blind fish fry had entered his wound when he went to the Health Station for ointment; Xu Jiaojiao had lured Song Liru outside, where Xu Zijian had forced her to swallow a large quantity of blind fish fry before throwing her into the sea; Shao Lan had heard Zhang Fang's Sacrificial Song while completely unprepared and had begun hallucinating.

But after that, everything had gone terribly wrong.

By the end of the second day, Shao Lan and Qin Ning were completely unharmed, while her faction had lost Xu Nan.

"Jiajia, there's no need to be so anxious," Xu Jiaojiao said. "Xu Nan wasn't anyone important. His death isn't much of a loss for us."

Xu Jiawei shook her head. "Do as I say."

"Do we really have to burn every boat?" Xu Zijian hesitated. "Once we burn them, Xu Family Village won't be able to fish anymore. If we cut off their means of feeding their families, the villagers will hate us-you know how easily provoking NPCs' hatred in an Instance can raise the death rate."

Especially when this would antagonize the entire village at once.

"I'll talk to them." Xu Jiawei pushed herself up, her gaze cold. "Boats can be rebuilt, and fish can be caught again. But the children's eyes can't wait."

"They'll have to choose one or the other."

Shao Lan watched the distant flames.

Xu Jiawei's burning the boats," Qin Ning said, her gaze darkening slightly.

"Mm." Shao Lan briefly closed his eyes. "Ruthless enough."

"Aren't you going to stop her?"

"We can't," Shao Lan said softly. "She's already handed over two sacrifices, Song Liru and Zhang Fang, and proved her ability to Xu Family Village. All the villagers listen to her. If one won't burn a boat, someone else will do it for them-after all, there are so many children without eyes. If they miss this sacrifice, who knows how long they'll have to wait for the next?"

With only Qin Ning and Shao Lan, there was no way they could stop the whole of Xu Family Village.

"Do you have a plan?" Qin Ning looked at Shao Lan. He seemed very calm.

"Mm." Shao Lan opened his eyes, the distant flames reflected in his black pupils. "We can't convince all of Xu Family Village, but there's always someone we can persuade."

"By the way, weren't you just telling me about the attempt on your life?" Shao Lan said. "Finish that story first."