A dog dangling by its collar

The thought occurred to Zuo Cheng'an, and he promptly tried it out.

Under his control, the eyeballs obstructing his vision gradually became translucent, but the scrolling comments remained clearly visible.

With no time to admire the newly revealed canyon scenery, Zuo Cheng'an carefully read the comments, trying to glean information about the instance.

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[Huh? There's a doggo among this batch of players!! So cute! Bet it'd scream something awful if I kicked it in the belly!]

[Hehe, so cute. So cute I want to sit on it and crush it to death.]

[Another batch is here. How many days do you guys think they'll last?]

[Three days. Definitely three. I've been camping here ever since the Sunny Village livestream first opened. The one who lasted longest made it to day seven. The rest either ran away or died on day three.]

[I agree. This tour gets harder every three days. Even the biggest group got wiped out on day four.]

[I say five days. See that player in the front row of the sightseeing vehicle? I've seen him in other instances. Ruthless and vicious. I like him. Someone like that will definitely survive a long time.]

[Instead of guessing how many days they'll last, why not guess how many will fall off when the mountain monkeys attack in a bit?]

[Good idea! I bet at least one!]

[I reckon two will fall. The puppy's definitely getting carried off in those monkeys' mouths.]

The comments provided plenty of clues,

such as why, when simply holding on to the rails behind the sightseeing vehicle's seats would keep them secure,

the Wavebreaker Guild players had gone to the extra trouble of tying themselves down with rope.

Not only did it hamper their movements, but it probably hadn't been easy to get hold of, either.

After all, only items could be brought into an instance, and any item with unlimited uses cost a considerable amount.

Whether that rope had been bought or borrowed, obtaining it would have been a hassle.

So the reason they had gone to the trouble of giving themselves a safety line was that monsters would attack shortly.

Zuo Cheng'an looked around, searching for places where hostile creatures might be hiding.

From his earlier experiment, he had discovered that his Eye of Truth skill had roughly three settings.

At the highest setting, he could see the densely packed eyeballs all around him.

At the medium setting, he could see the scrolling comments.

At the lowest setting, he could see hostile creatures' health bars, as well as annotations when he focused on a particular object.

At the moment, Zuo Cheng'an had set the skill to medium,

a setting where the eyeballs wouldn't obstruct his vision, but he could still use most of its practical functions normally.

Below the canyon to the left lay the canopy of a primeval forest, wreathed in thin mist.

Through studying the skill, Zuo Cheng'an had found that he couldn't see things that were too far away, either.

To the right was a rock wall, which looked perfectly ordinary. He only needed to make sure his flesh-and-blood body didn't touch it.

Above, however, was a different story.

Amid the thick shrubs on the sheer cliff, at least a hundred health bars flickered in and out of sight!

And those health bars were moving along with the sightseeing vehicle!

The vehicle was going at least sixty miles an hour!

The vehicle defied science. Could the monsters also...

The monsters really did defy science.

Since he had watched for quite a while without seeing anyone in the comments mention when those "mountain monkeys" would attack,

Zuo Cheng'an could only tell Li Yueqiu and Zheng Ren to tear their clothes into strips and make ropes to tie themselves to the vehicle first.

With that, he took off his jacket before anyone else.

With his strength of 20, the polyester garment he had bought in the real world, which had no special effects whatsoever,

was soon torn into strips with a series of ripping sounds.

Joining the strips together, Zuo Cheng'an first tied himself and Mo Dou together, then secured them to the sightseeing vehicle's railing.

Since the vehicle wouldn't overturn no matter what, all he needed to do was secure himself to it.

Feeling the tether attached, Mo Dou grew even bolder.

Before, he had only dared stick his head out into the breeze, but now he dared lean half his body out of the vehicle, his eyes blissfully unfocused and his tongue hanging out as he enjoyed himself immensely.

Worried that the collar might end up tragically hanging the dog by the neck, Zuo Cheng'an could only rearrange the cloth strips into a chest harness,

so that even if Mo Dou fell out of the vehicle, it wouldn't strangle him.

With Zuo Cheng'an demonstrating, Zheng Ren followed his example without hesitation.

Li Yueqiu followed close behind.

The floating eyeball cameras around them instantly stirred, crowding insistently toward Li Yueqiu.

But Li Yueqiu's clothes were loose, and after she tore off enough strips, her top merely became a crop top.

The sight the "viewers" had been hoping for never appeared.

These eyeballs were made of a special material that let them pass straight through objects in the instance, and the same went for the players' flesh-and-blood bodies.

Otherwise, a few cameras would inevitably get smashed whenever players fought.

But the insides of their bodies were solid and pitch-black, so the eyeballs couldn't see anything even if they burrowed inside.

Zuo Cheng'an took in all the eyeballs' agitation.

To escape surveillance inside an instance, he would have to use something that could touch the eyeballs.

Watching a mass of fist-sized, bloodshot eyeballs drag their tangled, slender blood vessels in and out of his body certainly wouldn't be a pleasant experience.

So when Zuo Cheng'an saw the eyeballs stirring, he promptly adjusted the skill back to medium.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Li Yueqiu was wearing an ordinary short-sleeved school uniform top and a knee-length skirt. She estimated the amount of fabric she had,

then tore a section off her skirt first. After joining it into a rope and finding it too short, she tore off another two strips from below her chest.

In an instant, her loose, short-sleeved student top became a sexy crop top.

It was Li Yueqiu's first time trying this style, and she wasn't quite used to it yet. She murmured to herself, "This should be long enough, right?"

Naturally, the movements of Zuo Cheng'an and the others at the rear of the sightseeing vehicle hadn't escaped the notice of the four people up front.

"Brother Zhang, they've tied themselves down too." The girl in tight sportswear snickered. "What a bunch of copycats."

Clearly, she thought Zuo Cheng'an and the others had seen them adding a layer of protection with their ropes and copied them by rigging up their own.

Brother Zhang, who had a small mustache and sat at the very front, waved a hand. "Huihui, ignore them. A bunch of players who can't even afford a set of outdoor gear are nothing but cannon fodder in an instance."

"Bleh! I just thought it was funny."

Despite saying that, Tan Huihui had great faith in their big brother Zhang Zhuang, and she obediently sat properly at his words.