Excited, Zheng Xun circled the new players, pressing up against each one.
He started soaking up their presence.
He was more restrained with the girls, stopping two steps away and smiling at them.
There were nine of them: seven men and two women. The men ranged in age from twenty to thirty-five, while the two women were close in age, both looking to be around twenty.
One wore a smoky purple business suit and was probably an office worker.
The other was the girl in sportswear who had been the first to greet him. She looked like a college student.
Everyone there was too startled by his odd behavior to speak. One of the bolder ones stepped forward and asked,
"Are you an NPC in this instance?"
"Me? No, I'm not." Zheng Xun turned his head. Suddenly, his gaze fixed on something, and he pointed behind the group. "She is."
All nine were startled and automatically split into two groups, clearing a path. A little girl in red had appeared at some point in the previously empty space behind them.
There were the familiar braids and little leather shoes, as well as the little bamboo basket hanging from her arm.
And the opening lines he had heard until he was sick of them.
"Hello, big brothers and sisters I don't know. Could I ask you for a favor? I'm Honghong, from the Lucky Residential Complex next door. My mother asked me to visit my grandmother, who lives in the Happiness Residential Complex."
Little Red Riding Hood's face was deathly pale as she stiffly forced out a sweet smile.
A young man in a hoodie stepped forward and asked curiously, "You're an NPC? This is my first time seeing a real White Tower NPC."
As the man in the hoodie spoke, a black raven glided down from the depths of the sky and landed in a dead tree above them.
The raven's arrival caught Zheng Xun's attention. After a thousand runs through the instance, he was now especially sensitive to sounds, sights, and smells.
He noticed the raven's eyes swivel unnaturally, a red light flash in them, and a buzzing electrical sound come from it, the kind only a machine made while running.
A camera?
"It's a livestream."
The girl in sportswear had come up beside him at some point. She seemed to have taken him for a clueless newcomer too, and explained in a quiet voice.
"A worldwide livestream."
Seeing that Zheng Xun still looked confused, the girl looked down and rolled up the left sleeve of her jacket, revealing a black smart wristband.
"A Little Genius phone watch?" Zheng Xun said instinctively.
"..." The girl fell silent for a moment before continuing. "This is a player wristband. It records information related to the player and also has livestreaming functions."
She operated the wristband as she spoke. Soon, a translucent virtual screen appeared above it, showing the ten of them standing at the instance entrance.
The number of viewers was in the upper left corner, and the streamer's avatar was in the upper right. It was black, with no other design, and the ID beneath it was "District 1089."
"1089? Such a big number. Looks like we're pretty awesome." Zheng Xun didn't understand a thing, but he sounded certain.
The girl's name had flashed past as she operated the wristband. She was Xu Li, nineteen years old, and attended X University.
Xu Li shook her head, rejecting Zheng Xun's baseless conclusion.
"The lower a district ranks, the weaker it is. Districts ranked past 1000 could be deleted at any time."
"Deleted?"
"It means... the whole district disappears completely."
Xu Li explained anxiously.
Zheng Xun nodded. He understood: it was a deadly game.
At that, Xu Li's eyes began to redden.
"This instance is crucial. If we don't succeed, I, and my family..."
But Zheng Xun wasn't listening to the girl's emotional speech at all. He was concentrating on the comments flashing rapidly past in the lower left corner of the screen.
: Seriously? This newbie doesn't even know what a wristband is!
: Where did this hidden dragon and crouching phoenix come from? District 1089 is finished.
: Isn't this a life-or-death battle for the district? And they sent out ten noobs like these?
: I heard the districts ranked below 1000 are a complete mess. All the capable players moved up to higher districts ages ago. The only ones left are the old, weak, sick, and disabled.
: District 1089? Isn't that the district that's never even entered an instance before?
: I think so. I can't believe their first one is a life-or-death battle for the district. No idea if that's lucky or unlucky.
: Someone give this newbie a "Newcomer's Guide." I feel sorry for him watching this.
The "Newcomer's Guide" was an introductory game manual issued by the White Tower. Only children who had just learned to read needed it; it was much like a preschool pinyin chart.
The comments were mocking Zheng Xun, but he didn't know that.
He asked Xu Li earnestly, "Is there a 'Newcomer's Guide'?"
Xu Li said, "Uh, once you get out, you can buy one at just about any bookstore."
"Okay, thanks."
He was quite polite.
Zheng Xun wasn't reading the comments for nothing. He was gathering information.
"What does a life-or-death battle for the district mean?"
The question seemed to touch Xu Li's fragile tear ducts, and her eyes filled with tears again.
"This is a life-or-death instance. It doesn't just determine whether we live or die; it affects everyone in the district. If we fail, then not only the ten of us, but also the people outside, will have all traces of our existence erased, like data in a game."
Xu Li said that a life-or-death battle for a district was nothing worth mentioning to the top-ranked districts, but for a district like theirs, where most people were elderly, it was practically a death sentence.
The ten people here were already the district's "elites."
Zheng Xun looked around at the ashen, lifeless faces of the other nine "elites."
They were probably ordinary people without any special abilities, who had stepped forward only for their respective families or loved ones.
Xu Li was already crying aloud beside him. With dark clouds filling the sky and ravens cawing mournfully, the fate of the ten seemed all the more tragic. Even the female office worker couldn't help wiping the corners of her eyes.
Everyone was overcome with sorrow. Only Zheng Xun still wore a blank expression, staring at Xu Li's face, which had been rubbed rosy by her arm.
The comments flew past.
: Has he fallen for the girl?
: At a time like this, he's still thinking about that?
: This instance is pretty scary. A little romance wouldn't hurt!
Zheng Xun wasn't looking at the comments and had no idea what everyone was discussing. He kept staring openly until Xu Li grew uncomfortable.
"S-sir?"
Xu Li thought, He can't really be interested in me-
"Hmm." Zheng Xun's gaze followed her arm as she lowered it. "That Little Genius of yours is pretty nice. Where did you buy it?"
"..."
His lack of tact interrupted Xu Li's sorrow and nearly made her choke.
"You can buy the regular version at any supermarket outside."
"Okay."
Zheng Xun gave her a polite smile.
While the two of them were talking, the NPC Little Red Riding Hood had finished introducing the story background and the task.
Xu Li hadn't heard all of it and thumped her head in annoyance.
"Oh no, oh no. I didn't hear a thing the NPC said. There should have been clues in there."
Zheng Xun glanced at her.
"It's fine. It doesn't matter if you didn't listen."
He could recite it backward by now.
Although he was a "newbie" like her, Xu Li saw how calm he looked and couldn't help growing curious.
"Sir, you..."
"My name is Zheng Xun."
"All right, Zheng Xun, aren't you scared? This is a life-or-death instance. The monsters inside are extremely hard to kill, and there's a very real chance we'll all be wiped out."
Zheng Xun gave her a reproachful look.
"A young girl like you shouldn't talk about fighting and killing all the time. It's not often you get a chance like this. Feel the breeze, enjoy the scenery by the road, and be a carefree tourist. Isn't that nice?"
Cold gusts of wind blew past, and a roadside billboard lay half-toppled. Xu Li looked as though she'd seen a ghost.
Zheng Xun paid her no attention and returned to the group.
What are they standing in a circle for?
The others had already gathered by the storage lockers, or rather, the weapon rack.
Unlike the previous thousand times Zheng Xun had been through the instance, there was now a rusty tin lottery machine. Its casing was covered in colorful light strips and a ring of letters, which were arranged in a somewhat strange order.
S came first, followed by A, B, C, D... all the way to Z, which sat right next to the S at the beginning.
What's this?
Zheng Xun looked questioningly at the others, and an honest-looking young man in a suit explained.
"This is for the difficulty of this instance. One player has to turn the handle."
"Oh, isn't the instance difficulty set in advance?" Zheng Xun asked, puzzled.
"It is," the man in the suit explained stiffly. "This is just a formality."
Zheng Xun understood a little.
Although the instance's difficulty had already been set, nobody wanted to scratch off the prize. If it turned out to be hell difficulty, whoever scratched it off would take the blame.
No wonder everyone was shrinking back.
"I'll do it. I'm lucky."
Zheng Xun stepped forward.
The voice system built into the lottery machine began chattering away.
"Welcome, welcome! Welcome, welcome! Another batch of fresh players has arrived! Hee-hee-hee, hee-hee-hee... The White Tower welcomes you! Please place your adorable little hands on the handle, turn it gently, and wait for good luck to arrive! Hee-hee... fresh players... Hee-hee, players, please keep your personal belongings with you, including your hearts, stomachs, arms, bones, hee-hee-"
The voice cut off abruptly.
Zheng Xun had found the wire connected to the player and torn it apart.
As everyone looked on in horror, Zheng Xun muttered,
"What a noisy piece of junk."
Then he followed the instructions and turned the handle.
Three orange-yellow balls came out of the machine's opening in succession.
S, S, S...
It was actually a 3S-level instance!