Before the individual competition officially began, Ning Changfeng repeatedly had people move things into Ning Su’s house.
Ning Changfeng lived in a large flat. Initially, he wanted Ning Su to come to his place to watch the competition, but later, even he himself thought that Ning Su’s place was more comfortable.
He came alone and also called Ling Xiao over for another purpose.
He heard that this house was considered unlucky, so Ning Changfeng wanted to bring more people and positive energy into it.
The two of them were not enough, so these days he often had people come to Ning Su’s house to deliver things, adding to the positive energy.
Finally, there was the food.
When Ning Changfeng arranged for someone to drive over and deliver food, they ran into the Yinhua Guild’s car.
Shi Tianzhu had people send a set to Ning Su, which was the high-tech projector Ning Su saw during the Yinhua Guild’s debriefing, capable of projecting different scenarios on the six walls.
Ning Su: “Do we need to watch on so many sides?”
Although Ning Changfeng occasionally made sarcastic remarks, he greatly appreciated Shi Tianzhu’s gift and didn’t hesitate to speak well of her in front of his son. “Yes, we need it very much. This gift is timely and practical.”
“The preliminary round of the individual competition opens 100 instances simultaneously, with hundreds of player perspectives available in each instance. How could one side be enough to watch?”
Ning Su murmured in agreement, feeling even more excited.
Just as the competition was about to begin, Ling Xiao arrived leisurely.
After spending a long time among humans, he also learned that it’s appropriate to bring gifts on such occasions.
In addition to some food, he brought a basket of flowers.
Ning Su wasn’t sure whether to ask first if the food he bought was purchased with points earned from the previous instance, or if he picked each lingxiao flower in the basket himself.
Ning Changfeng was somewhat surprised. “Ling Xiao, you’re giving... flowers?”
Ling Xiao: “They’re edible.”
Ning Changfeng thought to himself, “Do you think I’m blind?”
As he was thinking this, he saw his son skillfully pick up a red and eerie flower and put it in his mouth.
Ning Changfeng: “...”
“How does it taste?” he asked.
Ning Su: “It tastes very good.”
The taste was indeed very good. Previously, Ning Su had grown accustomed to the taste of lingxiao flowers, with their slightly bitter grassy flavor. This time, amidst the bitterness, there was unexpectedly a hint of sweetness.
Perhaps it was because these were four-petaled lingxiao flowers.
A basket full of four-petaled blood flowers.
Ning Changfeng said puzzledly, “This flower looks familiar to me. Wasn’t it three-petaled in the <Flower Servant> instance?”
Ning Su placed the basket on the coffee table, and the two children tiptoed and leaned over the basket to look.
Gui Sheng said, “Four petals!”
Ning Changfeng nodded. “Yes, perhaps four petals are more precious, just like four-leaf clovers.”
“Please sit down. It’s about to start. I’ll go get a plate of melon seeds.”
The base game hall was filled with people bustling in front of a hundred screens.
Usually, the screens show previews of the instance world, but this time it was a panoramic view of the instance world.
On the central street outside the game hall, each major guild’s entrance or wall also had giant screens showing the live broadcast of the instances.
Even the surface of the river in the base area was covered with gaming screens, projected by some unknown guild or player. Many players on the bridge and in the bridge tunnels were engaged in lively discussions.
There were even more players at home, preparing a table full of fruits, snacks, and drinks.
[Welcome players to enter the instance.]
This announcement echoed throughout the entire base, pushing the atmosphere that had been building up for days to a climax.
In the suburban courtyard, Ning Su seemed to hear the cheers from outside.
Every wall in the room lit up with the immersive instance world.
In such excitement, Ning Su’s fair and slender fingers flipped the four-petaled blood flower, then turned to look at Ling Xiao, softly asking the question he had been curious about but hadn’t fully understood.
“What’s the difference between a three-petaled flower and a four-petaled one?”
Ling Xiao replied, “Four petals, it’s me.”
Ning Su was stunned, staring at him in disbelief.
Just then, as they faced each other, the instance world unfolded on the wall. The shadows of various evil spirits wandering in hell fell on his high and rugged nose, shimmering vividly in his chaotic eyes.
He turned to look at Ning Su. “Aren’t you hungry?”
Ning Su put a petal into his mouth, the thick red blood flowers contrasting sharply with his pale skin, more eye-catching than the world of the instance itself.
“Hey, isn’t that person called Zhu Shuangshuang?”
Ning Changfeng put the melon seeds on the coffee table, originally intending to sit between Ning Su and Ling Xiao, but after some thought, he sat on Ning Su’s left side and pushed him slightly, saying, “Why sit so far away? Sit closer to your uncle and squeeze in.”
“...”
Ning Su squeezed over, and Ling Xiao withdrew his gaze.
Ning Changfeng sat down satisfied. “Is it Zhu Shuangshuang? What kind of instance is this?”
Ning Su looked up at the instance on the opposite wall, and indeed, there was Zhu Shuangshuang inside, and the instance was called <Cause and Effect>.
“This is somewhat similar to the final hell judgment in our last instance,” Ning Su remarked.
However, in their <Ghost Embodiment> instance, the hell judgment was just a final checkpoint along the underworld path, while <Cause and Effect> had the judgment spanning the entire instance.
Ning Changfeng, after looking at the system’s announcement, said, “This instance is too difficult.”
He hadn’t really looked at the other instances before, expressing how difficult this one seemed.
Ning Su knew what he meant. If this instance wasn’t public, like how instances usually were, it wouldn’t have been considered difficult by Ning Changfeng.
The difficulty lay in its public nature.
Public judgment.
In this copy, players had to undergo ten trials, including ghostly trials and judgments between players, involving issues like life, killing, cruelty, deception, laziness, etc. It was akin to public execution, where players had no privacy whatsoever.
Whose life was without dirtiness?
However, Ning Su was quite confident in Zhu Shuangshuang. He believed that while Zhu Shuangshuang might have done some wrong things, she probably hadn’t done anything unforgivable or embarrassing for all the base players to witness.
Ning Su found Su Wangsheng in the midst of numerous instances.
The timid Taoist Su Wangsheng was in a classic “Campus + Ghost” instance called <Ghost Pen>.
Ning Su: “...”
Ji Mingrui was in a instance called <Sweet>, but it was still unclear what kind of instance it was.
Ning Su hadn’t found Fang Qi after searching for a while.
They finished the previous instance early, and the registration deadline for the individual competition was the day before the event started. He still had time to join, as he had mentioned at the last gathering, that he would participate.
Ning Su wasn’t sure why he didn’t appear.
