The Keeper.
Keep it.
By now, all players at the dining table had opened their panels right under the ghost's watchful eyes.
Upon seeing Xun Yi's message, He Yi was the first to reply.
He Yi: [You remember it quite clearly.]
Never missing a chance to retort.
After him, Shen Jing replied: [Are you saying... their appearance was because of that phone call?]
The chat channel fell silent for a moment.
The several B-rank players at the dining table fell into deep thought.
Now that they thought about it, that phone call had indeed been somewhat strange.
At the time, the experienced B-rank players had found it somewhat hard to believe.
Not to mention the fact that the investigation bureau on the other end of the line—who knew where it was—had been willing to continue providing information to the players afterward.
Something felt off.
However, after the phone was locked away, they had temporarily put the matter out of their minds. Now that they were back in the dining room, Chang Zhao had secretly glanced at the location of the landline phone as soon as he entered.
The landline phone and its cord were no longer on the table. At the moment, the phone was lying on its side not far behind his seat, and it was unclear whether it could still be used. The phone cord was nowhere to be seen, probably on the floor near He Yi and the others.
Messages in the chat channel continued to update.
He Yi: [Xiao Shi is really something. Back when we were on the third floor, it was also Xiao Shi who first brought up the investigation bureau. And just after that, the phone call came in.]
He Yi, sitting at the back of the dining table, curled his lips into a strange smile.
Given the situation at the time, anyone unaware might have thought the investigation bureau on the other end of the call existed solely for the E-rank player, calling specifically for him.
He Yi found this thought somewhat amusing.
Chang Zhao: [Then should we call for external assistance now?]
Chang Zhao hesitantly sent the message.
The very situation they had been most worried about from the beginning had still occurred.
After the train made an unexpected temporary stop—the dungeon was upgrading while in progress.
The group fell into silence once again.
In the end, it was Xun Yi who replied: [Let's wait a bit longer.]
They would assess the situation.
Chang Zhao felt somewhat irritated: [We were so close to succeeding.]
Now, catching the murderer would be more than twice as difficult.
With this thought, he cautiously raised his head, trying to appear natural as he glanced toward the far end of the dining car. But as he did, his eyes met the pitch-black gaze of the ghost butler—
The smile on the ghost's face seemed to widen slightly.
Its neck turned slowly.
Looking toward the right side of the dining table.
Chang Zhao shuddered and pulled his head back.
His body trembled with a chill.
...
While Wen Shichun was checking the instructions for using the [Wheel of Fate], the team channel's chat messages remained floating in the lower right corner of his panel. He didn’t miss the other players' concerns.
After reading the introduction to the Wheel of Fate, he roughly understood why his teammates had chosen to hold off on using it for now.
Wen Shichun’s gaze fell on the projection of the wheel displayed in the center of his panel.
Before his eyes, the transparent wheel was divided into six sections, each marked with one of the letters S, A, B, C, D, or E. Below these letters, the corresponding background colors of the wheel segments were: black, gold, blue, cyan, silver, and white.
The letters and colors represented the ranks of players who could be summoned into the dungeon.
...
So that’s how reinforcements were brought in.
No wonder it was called the Wheel of Fate.
Wen Shichun’s eyes flickered slightly.
However, while the description said it could summon reinforcements for players, a more accurate way to put it would be that this wheel was essentially a gamble on fate and human nature.
Wen Shichun's gaze fell once again on the letters representing player tiers on the roulette wheel.
Next to these letters hovered the probability values for each rank being selected.
S (5%)
A (50%)
B (20%)
C (10%)
D (10%)
E (5%)
These probability values were further divided based on the rating of the ongoing instance.
However, regardless of the original rating of the ongoing instance, the probability of landing on the rank to which the instance had been upgraded was always set at 50%.
Their current instance was originally rated B but had now been upgraded to A.
Therefore, the probability of selecting an A-rank external support was 50%.
Looking at these details, Wen Shichun thought to himself that compared to other roulette games, the success rate of calling for external support here was actually quite high.
Just then, the system popped up and casually chimed in: [Hm.]
...
But in reality, they only had this 50% chance of inviting an A-rank player capable of handling the upgraded instance. The other half was exactly as the numbers indicated.
Because—
Wen Shichun looked at a special note on the roulette wheel:
[S-rank players have the right to refuse entering an instance to provide assistance.]
...
So, after spinning the wheel, there was also nearly a 50% chance that the external support invited would be a player of the same rank as the original instance or even lower.
And if these lower-rank players were to enter a high-rank instance, it would be almost equivalent to a death sentence.
What's more, they did not have the right to refuse that S-rank players enjoyed.
……
When he reached this part, Wen Shichun's gaze paused for a moment.
Fortunately, the designer of this roulette wheel wasn’t completely insane.
His eyes continued downward.
There was another note there:
[If the selected external support’s rank is lower than the original dungeon rating, the player who spun the wheel in the dungeon will decide whether to allow the selected support to enter and provide assistance.]
[The player who contributed the most points to activate the wheel holds the right to spin and make decisions (this right can be transferred to any designated player).]
…
After reading this note, Wen Shichun lifted his eyes.
The butler at the far end had been watching the spot where he was seated since a moment ago.
This realization caused the long, slender eyelashes framing his icy blue eyes to tremble slightly.
Did it think he wouldn’t notice?
Then, he lowered his gaze again.
He finished reading the final note at the bottom of the Wheel of Fate.
[Before spinning the wheel, players are allowed to close one rank interval (once the wheel is activated, the closed interval cannot be selected).]
…
The option to close one rank.
From this perspective, the Wheel of Fate actually showed considerable consideration for lower-rank players. With the ability to close one interval, it meant that in a scenario like an E-rank player advancing to a D-rank dungeon, if the E-rank players chose to close the E-rank interval, they would be guaranteed to summon external support of D-rank or higher.
As long as the spinner’s luck wasn’t too terrible—like landing on S.
…
When Wen Shichun closed the wheel interface, he casually expanded the team chat window.
Looking at the messages, Chang Zhao and Shen Jing were discussing how to capture the dungeon’s boss under the watchful eyes of the two A-rank ghosts.
Wen Shichun grasped a piece of information and typed a few characters on the screen.
Shi: [What exactly does 'dungeon upgrade' mean?]
Earlier, Chang Zhao had mentioned that this dungeon had upgraded into a supernatural horror dungeon.
But judging from the team's chat, they seemed more afraid of the two ghosts than dealing with the dungeon boss.
This seemed somewhat illogical.
After his message appeared in the chat box, He Yi was the first to reply: [Almost forgot our Xiao Shi is still a fresh E-rank newbie.]
He Yi: [Haven't run into a dungeon upgrade before, have you, Xiao Shi?]
As he typed this, He Yi glanced sideways at Yue Cheng, as if to say: Why aren't you falling over yourself to explain things to the E-rank?
Yue Cheng, sitting beside him, paid him no mind.
Since the ghosts appeared, this guy from District 4 had become even less noticeable.
If you didn't deliberately think about him or look his way, he was almost impossible to notice.
Weird.
In the team channel, Shen Jing patiently explained: [There are several situations that can cause a dungeon upgrade. For example, the current dungeon upgraded because its nature changed.]
Chang Zhao added: [It was a mystery investigation dungeon before, now it's a supernatural horror dungeon.]
Mystery investigation dungeon?
Wen Shichun looked at the two contrasting terms in this message.
—So now it's a supernatural horror dungeon.
Shi: [How did you confirm there were no supernatural elements in the dungeon before?]
He thought to himself that his teammates really were high-level players.
So experienced.
It had taken him a long time to figure out that the creepy thing was most likely just a 'person.'
But this time, the B-rank players' reactions were unusually uniform:
Chang Zhao: [Huh???]
Xun Yi: […]
He Yi: [Hahaha.]
Shen Jing: [...]
Even Yue Cheng, who had been quiet for a long time, joined the group chat and sent an emoji:
Yue Cheng: [Peeking cat emoji]
...
The awkwardness lasted for about two seconds.
Xun Yi probably understood Wen Shichun's confusion, but...
Xun Yi: [If the instance is supernatural, the system will give a prompt.]
Xun Yi: [For example, right now, on our instance page, the top right corner of the instance name has turned blood red, indicating supernatural events exist in this instance.]
This is the game's clear warning to players.
Different types of instances have different colored markers.
It allows players to prepare accordingly.
...
Wen Shichun: ???
Why had the system never mentioned such an important thing to him?
The cold, aloof system, suddenly called out, felt a tiny bit guilty.
Wen Shichun lowered his gaze.
So everyone else had known all along that there were no ghosts in the instance before.
He was the only one who had been scared.
...
The guilty system was still cautiously trying to soothe: [It's not just that, these people are afraid of other things too.]
Trying to make up for it.
But Wen Shichun ignored it.
And in the world outside the instance, which the players had no mind to pay attention to for the moment.
Someone noticed that this instance was being upgraded.
They each looked at a special page on their personal panels that displayed "Upgrade in Progress," and some communication channels began to buzz with comments:
"Another instance is upgrading, huh."
"B to A... It's an instance in District 5."
"What kind of instance? Has anyone inside started a live stream?"
"I searched the live stream section—couldn't find anything."
"Are the people inside going to use the transfer wheel?"
"This is exciting. Let's see who the lucky one is this time."
"If it's upgrading from B to A, there's a high chance the external reinforcements summoned will be low-rank."
"Whenever an instance upgrades like this, the people inside are already at their wits' end.
Even if the wheel lands on a low-rank player, they'll drag them in—figuring they might as well all die together."
"Let's see which poor soul is about to get pulled in."
not them still thinkin our boi got someone backin him- MY BOI IS TOUGH
ReplyDeletewhen is the next chapter??? translatorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
ReplyDeleteam i the only one waiting for this??
ReplyDelete