The instances of the three people were all on the wall, and Ning Changfeng chose another instance to watch, looking at a player he bet on.
Just as the instance began, many barrage messages from players appeared on the screen. Before the plot of the instance emerged, there wasn’t much analysis of the instance. Instead, it was all about discussing players and cheering them on.
Gui Sheng watched quietly for a while. As soon as Zhu Shuangshuang appeared, he popped up his little head, “Huh?”
Gui Sheng waved his little arms quickly. “Go! Go!”
Ning Su: “...”
Manman obediently sat on the carpet in front of Ning Su and Ling Xiao, nibbling on lingxiao flowers. She seemed to be not interested in any of the players on the screen.
Ning Su asked the other two people, “Which instance are you more interested in?”
Ning Changfeng said, “I prefer Zhu Shuangshuang’s <Cause and Effect>. I like to see different people’s life stories.”
Ling Xiao: “<Sweet>, I guess.”
<Cause and Effect> was a kind of voyeurism, but what about <Sweet>?
Ning Su’s gaze shifted to the bright screen of <Sweet>, where more than a hundred players entered a world of rapid industrial development in the mid to late 19th century.
Their identities varied, with most being workers from different factories, each with daily work tasks to complete.
Ji Mingrui was a worker in a coal factory. Ning Su followed him for a while.
A female player beside him asked him, “Ji Mingrui, do you smell anything?”
Ji Mingrui sniffed. “It seems to be a sweet smell?”
It matched the name of the instance.
<Sweet>.
They lived and worked hard in a city permeated by a sweet fragrance in the air.
Ning Su watched for a while but didn’t see much.
Ning Changfeng, seeing that they were all watching this instance, also looked over. “We’ll know soon. Individual competition is slightly different from regular instances. In these large-scale screening instances, players won’t slowly ‘die,’ but rather quickly and ruthlessly.”
He was right.
In the simultaneous opening of one hundred instances, each instance had more than a hundred players, and the time wasn’t long. Basically, it was three to five days of base time and double-speed instance time.
In Zhu Shuangshuang’s <Cause and Effect> instance, the first round of player trials had already ended, and shortly after starting, twelve players had already died.
Therefore, the viewing count of that instance was particularly high.
Many players enjoy watching such death-filled yet story-driven content.
Fortunately, death in individual and guild competitions only meant exiting the game and failing the competition, not actual death.
Half an hour later, both kids had moved to Ning Changfeng’s side. Besides watching Zhu Shuangshuang’s instance, Ning Changfeng was mainly focused on another instance called <Blood Play>.
In that instance, players checked in to different rides in a bloody amusement park.
The roller coaster traveled through a copy of intestines.
The carousel consisted of long, rotating arms instead.
The performers on stage were a combination of human bodies and machinery.
As he looked over, he saw a group of players sitting on the carousel. Suddenly, the long arms started thrashing wildly, hurling several players into the air.
The two children’s eyes sparkled.
They looked towards the roller coaster on the other side.
The intestines under the car began to squirm, and players without any protection bounced up and down in the speeding roller coaster, screaming in terror.
Gui Sheng: “Wow~”
Ning Su: “...”
In individual competition and guild competition, players wouldn’t really die, but the injuries and pain were real. Otherwise, Shi Tianzhu wouldn’t have left lingering effects on her ankle.
These two kids seemed to derive some twisted pleasure from the misfortune of others, but Ning Su also felt that they simply found these games entertaining in their innocence.
One could be thrown high, flipping and soaring.
At lunchtime, the main storylines of several instances finally appeared.
At night, in the <Ghost Pen> instance where Su Wangsheng was, ghosts finally emerged on campus.
Su Wangsheng used his skill weapon, the New Groom Seal.
Ning Su remembered in the <Flower Servant> instance, the Holy Maiden mentioned that the New Groom Seal had the function of confusion and manipulation, when used on female ghosts
— Su Wangsheng became the player most favored by the female ghost.
Female ghosts surrounded him.
Ning Su: “...”
Girls were indeed more sensitive.
Ning Su remembered that when Su Wangsheng got that skill weapon in an instance that ended at the same time as the <Manman> instance. Just as they came out of the instance, Zhu Shuangshuang noticed the slap mark on his face and asked him where he got it, and he said that a female ghost slapped him.
What did Su Wangsheng say at the time?
What can a small Taoist priest do?
Ning Su: “...”
On the other side, the main storyline of the <Sweet> instance also came out.
Players worked diligently, actively completing the evening work tasks. Suddenly, syrup spurted out of a sugar factory, and the syrup flood spread throughout the city.
This turned out to be a disaster instance.
The scorching, sticky, and heavy syrup submerged one player after another. Players struggled in the scalding syrup, unable to break free, their skin cracking open.
The most terrifying thing was the players whose faces were buried in the syrup. As the syrup began to solidify, they would slowly suffocate to death, becoming human candy.
<Sweet>: Sweet suffocation.
Ning Changfeng: “This kind of disaster instance is common in large-scale competitions such as individual and guild competitions, capable of quickly eliminating numerous players.”
Ling Xiao: “This seems to be a hidden environmental protection instance.”
Ning Changfeng: “?”
He took another look at this instance and also figured it out, “Indeed, the era and background, as well as the factories one by one, are reminding players that this instance is related to environmental protection.”
Ning Su looked at the screen again and understood.
This was the background of rapid industrialization. Players were workers who have to complete a certain amount of work every day.
They were contributing to the industrialization process, particularly being in the factories known for high pollution levels. Each task they completed added to environmental degradation, similar to the coal-burning work performed by Ji Mingrui and a few other players.
Their work caused the syrup outbreak in that sugar factory.
Ning Su speculated that the more work tasks they completed, the greater the workload, and thus the larger the range of the syrup outbreak. Eventually, it might completely submerge the entire city, putting all players in danger.
But players still had to complete their daily tasks. How could they reduce the workload?
There were plenty of opportunities for maneuvering within this framework.
Ning Su thought about <Manman>, where players had to protect their ghost friend and avoid being killed by monster children. However, if the monster children didn’t kill a ghost friend, they would go berserk and destroy the mother body. If the mother body died, all players would perish.
This instance served as both a disaster scenario and an environmental protection theme, but above all, it tested human nature.
Zhu Shuangshuang’s <Cause and Effect> instance wasn’t a test of human nature; rather, it directly showcased human nature.
Many players voluntarily quit the game to avoid exposing the things they had done.
Relatively speaking, Su Wangsheng’s instance was somewhat easier.
Although Su Wangsheng was chased by female ghosts every day, it was like a campus version of <Runaway Groom>.
Thank you for the new chapter😁😁
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update 🤗 🤗
ReplyDelete