Players who had yet to ascend a rung were all gathered outside the first floor of the Ladder Tower.
Only players ranked at the First Heavenly Ladder or above were qualified to enter the tower.
The main facilities here were the same as those in the instance hall: screens lined up side by side.
They showed videos or pictures of the instances, with the instance names and the number of players required to start them displayed alongside.
On the ground beneath the screens were circles of light. Stepping inside meant selecting the corresponding instance.
Some instances required more players, and their circles of light were correspondingly larger.
Compared with the instance hall, there were fewer players here. Many circles held only one or two people, nowhere near enough to start the instance.
Once the matchmaking time exceeded an hour, the people standing inside would be kicked out.
So, for efficiency, players formed teams of the required size in advance, then entered together.
By a rough estimate, there were over a hundred screens, giving players plenty to choose from.
"Route 412 Bus! Five here, one needed! Five here, one needed! We can start as soon as you join!"
"Desert Tour Group! Twenty-player instance! Just four more to start! Someone on the team has an item that produces unlimited drinking water! No need to worry about water!"
"Island Hotel, presidential suites! Unlimited food! Running this instance is like taking a vacation! Only six spots left!!"
Players stood beside the instances, pimping them out-scratch that, recruiting teammates.
Anyone who happened to be interested in an instance could follow the calls and join.
Others watched from the sidelines, worried that everyone else might be in it together and they would be at a disadvantage joining alone.
For a moment, Zuo Cheng'an was spoiled for choice and did not know what to pick.
He did have criteria in mind.
Nothing supernatural, and nothing that took too long. Ideally, he wanted to leave and return on the same day by safe-zone time.
If an instance provided very good accommodations or meals, he could relax the second condition a little.
With those restrictions in place, there were not many choices left.
"1-4779, Uncle Red-Eyes' Farm?"
Zuo Cheng'an paused, stopping in front of a screen.
The footage on the screen dutifully showed off the farm's lovely side.
There were fields of ripe tomatoes, chicks following an old hen on a stroll, sheep scattered across grassy slopes, dairy cows...
It looked pretty good.
Zuo Cheng'an was not the only one interested in the "1-4779, Uncle Red-Eyes' Farm" instance.
Beside him, two players who looked like twin sisters were also studying the footage on the screen.
"Sis, look at this. It looks like a task-based instance. We can come back once we finish the tasks."
"A farm... the hostile creatures should just be wolves, leopards, and things like that. Surely no zombies or female ghosts will wander in from another genre. How about this one?"
"It's fine, but there are only two of us. The instance needs five people to start."
"Then we just recruit three more, right? This screen's in a good spot. Someone should come along soon."
The twin sisters were right. Counting Zuo Cheng'an, it took less than ten minutes to attract another four male players.
But Zuo Cheng'an and the twin sisters had already entered the circle of light, taking three spots.
The four newcomers did not want to split up, so they could only look for another instance.
Two minutes later, a young couple came over, all lovey-dovey, and filled the last two spots.
The instant the couple entered the circle, without any warning, Zuo Cheng'an felt a slight tug.
The next second, he smelled the mingled fragrance of grass and earth. When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing beside a bus stop sign.
The sign clearly bore the large words: "Red-Eyed Uncle Uncle's Farm."
At the same time, he "saw" the instance information in his mind.
[Instance: Uncle Red-Eyes' Farm] [ID: 1-4779] [Task: Complete the work Red-Eyed Uncle assigns you.] [Time limit: 1 day] [Task background: Red-Eye owns a farm. The ketchup produced on the farm is very popular, but he has been troubled lately. Unable to recruit workers, the farm is severely understaffed. Fortunately, a group of hardworking, brave players arrived just in time to fill the vacancies!] [Friendly reminder: Red-Eyed Uncle is very gentle in this instance, but he hates lazy people. !!Please complete the tasks Red-Eyed Uncle assigns you before the instance ends!!]
The tasks had not appeared yet. It seemed they would have to wait for the NPC named "Red-Eyed Uncle" to assign them.
And compared with "Screaming Night," the beginner instance he had cleared before, this ladder instance included a task background.
The other four players were also near the sign. The twins stood together, while the couple clung to each other.
Zuo Cheng'an had entered alone, so naturally he was the odd one out.
But he had no time to consider that. Instead, he focused all his attention on the air around him.
The eyeballs trailing long tails of blood vessels had appeared again. There were far more of them than in "Screaming Night"!
If each player had been followed by just one eyeball on average in "Screaming Night,"
then in this instance, each player had an average of three to five eyeballs around them!
These eyeballs circled the players, transmitting every tiny change in expression and every movement to another group of people.
The barrage comments he had not seen for a while reappeared in his field of vision.
[Ladder instances really are better. None of them have been made public before, so a bunch of morons can't spoil them.] [Guys, you know what I mean? What I hate most is getting really into watching, only for a comment to spoil where a monster's going to jump out. It takes all the horror out of it.] [Tell me about it. And the instances are better quality than those idiotic ones outside. Hehe, mostly because the tasks have more traps. I love watching players get killed by task traps.] [Everything's great, except there are too few people in this one. If they're all stupid, they'll be dead in no time.] [It's a farm, though. Will they die that fast?] [Didn't you read the stream title? This is "Red-Eye's" farm! That big rabbit whose eyes light up at the sight of money!] [Ah↑↓~ I remember now. That rabbit who loves setting traps for players. If it's him, we're in for some fun.]
Zuo Cheng'an picked out the key information from the comments.
The "Red-Eyed Uncle" mentioned in the instance name was a rabbit? He also seemed to enjoy playing tricks on players and had an extremely nasty disposition.
Having learned this, Zuo Cheng'an was already somewhat on guard before even meeting this so-called "Red-Eye."
The other players were experienced. Instances with storylines like this generally had an NPC to meet them.
Since that NPC had not arrived yet, they could briefly introduce themselves first, to avoid the awkwardness of not knowing one another's names when they had to work together later.
The twin sisters introduced themselves first. "I'm Fu Yu, and this is my younger sister, Fu You. We've cleared four level-one instances. Of the three stats, everything except constitution is maxed out. Our sanity is above seventy, so we're quite safe."
The young couple followed right after, introducing themselves:
"Just call me Wang Guangfei. This is my girlfriend, Youyou. Our stats are a little lacking. We've only maxed out speed, but our sanity is high, both over eighty."
Zuo Cheng'an listened from the side. They all seemed to place great importance on their "sanity." Would something happen if it got too low?
Before you continue