Nothing is more suffocating than having two children run up, hug your legs, and call you "Daddy" right when you're proclaiming "I love you" to your idol.
That soft utterance of "Daddy" carried the explosive force of a bomb.
It felt a bit disillusioning.
"Well, well!" Someone next to Ling Xiao whistled. "Just the other day, people said you liked men. Now you show up with two kids—so which man gave birth to them for you? I mean, impressive!"
Ning Su: "..."
Ning Su could only see Ling Xiao's profile and couldn't make out his exact expression. Ling Xiao looked down at the two children. "Are you three years old?"
The two children didn't speak, just stared back at him.
"Three years old, plus ten months of pregnancy, that's nearly four years. Four years ago, I was still a minor. If I really fathered you two, that would be quite something."
Ning Su: "........"
"Enough nonsense, let's get into the instance," said the captain of the Cannibal Squad.
Ling Xiao pried the children's hands off his legs. As his fingers touched theirs, he paused for a moment, then glanced at them again.
Their team had only five members—the smallest among the top ten squads.
Though the five of them took up little space as they entered the game hall, their presence was overwhelmingly noticeable.
Other squads filed in after them, and soon the game hall was packed.
At 9 AM, all players inside and outside the game hall vanished, leaving the game base completely empty.
[Instance No. 00-303010, <Self-Salvation>, is now open for the first time.]
[Beneath the crimson clouds lies the Kingdom of Self-Salvation, a place adored by monsters. Desire Monsters lurk everywhere here, each formed from a story and a specific desire. Players must uncover and pass judgment on these Desire Monsters.]
[Warning! Desire Monsters possess the ability to devour and amplify corresponding human desires, and they are also aggressive.]
[Instance Mission: Judge and eliminate 10 Desire Monsters.]
[Instance Duration: 30 days.]
[Wishing the players a pleasant game.]
The entry announcement was similar to what Ning Su had experienced in his original world, but the instance number "00-303010" was particularly intriguing.
Ning Su didn't know if the instance numbering in this world followed the same rules as his own.
In their world, the instance ID starts with the difficulty level, followed by the sequence number of that level.
For example, 2-9101 is the 9101st instance at Level 2, or you could say it's the 9101st instance opened at Level 2.
If this world follows the same numbering system, then what does "00" mean?
Level 1 instances are the easiest. He had heard many Level 1 instances can achieve a 90% survival rate. Is this universal instance even simpler than Level 1?
In a universal instance, players' skill levels are uneven. If it were a normal instance, it shouldn't be extremely difficult nor extremely easy—just like their individual and guild competitions, where the instance difficulty is usually controlled between Levels 4 and 6.
Judging by the instance mission, the difficulty of this instance is clearly tied to the strength of the desire monsters.
The task is to judge and eliminate ten desire monsters. If the desire monsters aren't terribly powerful, the instance shouldn't be too hard.
But if the desire monsters are extremely strong, perhaps even at the level of ghost masters, then this instance would exceed Level 10 difficulty.
Ning Su still remembers Ling Xiao saying, just before sending him in, that this was a rather difficult instance.
Ning Su pursed his lips and looked up to survey his surroundings.
The sky was veiled in thin, red haze-like clouds. The reddish light cast an oppressive and eerie feeling over the people coming and going.
Especially when they smiled—their eyes glowed red, and their teeth seemed stained with a reddish tint.
It was a universal instance, with tens of millions of players all participating, but Ning Su didn't see many players around. Of course, it could also be because he didn't recognize them.
He was currently standing in front of a dilapidated tube building that looked ready for demolition. The crowded floors were dotted with densely packed, grayish windows, and the walls were stained with watermarks and cracks, with patches of moss here and there.
As Ning Su looked up, a drop of liquid fell onto the corner of his eye.
He wiped it off. On his pale fingertip, the red liquid stood out starkly.
The clouds in the sky were red, most like thin veils of crimson gauze, with one or two in the distance resembling blood-soaked cotton. But this wasn't red rain falling from the red clouds.
Ning Su walked into the compound and scanned the wide, old building.
Each floor had at least twenty units, with rows upon rows of small, cramped, and oppressive windows. Most were covered by thick curtains.
Among these numerous small windows, two—one in the southeast corner and one in the middle—had their curtains slightly parted. Behind them, someone was watching him through the gaps, revealing only a pair of dark, pitch-black eyes.
Ning Su glanced down at his outfit. He was still wearing the clothes he had on when he entered, except now his pocket contained a key card and some paper money.
The key card had his room number on it.
Just as Ning Su was about to enter, he spotted a familiar person stepping out of a standalone room on his right.
It was the girl who had recognized Shao Ruoyang in the game lobby when he first entered the game, the one who had told him Ling Xiao’s name.
The girl also noticed Ning Su and happily jogged over. "It's you!"
In this confusing instance, running into someone you know always felt like a relief.
Ning Su was also pleased. "Hello, I'm Ning Su."
The girl said, "I'm Tang Xin, a former student of Professor Shao."
Tang Xin also had a key card—it seemed everyone in this world was a resident of this cylindrical building.
Tang Xin asked, "You look much younger than me. Are you a junior student mentored by Professor Shao?"
Ning Su: "I'm 23."
Tang Xin: "...Brother."
She eyed him skeptically for a moment. "But you look even younger than Ling Xiao."
Ning Su: "How old is he?"
Tang Xin: "19."
Ning Su: "..."
It really was unlikely for someone to have two children aged three or four.
Ning Su: "Didn't you say he's cleared over two thousand instances? How can he be so... young?"
Tang Xin: "He was born in the game base. He started running instances at just five years old."
Ning Su was momentarily stunned. When he had heard Tang Xin say Ling Xiao started at five, he assumed it was just a one-time thing.
In their game base, the system required everyone to start running instances at six, though it was allowed earlier if one wished.
So he had thought Ling Xiao was just testing the waters at five.
But if that was the case, it meant he had been frequently diving into instances since he was five.
Ning Su pressed his lips together and said, "He's... really impressive."
What he wanted to say wasn't "really impressive." He hesitated, the words stuck in his mouth, and it came out as "really impressive."
Tang Xin said, "Yeah! When he was six or seven, he was already the little monster of the base!"
Tang Xin wasn't very old and probably hadn't been at the base for long, but she seemed to know all about Ling Xiao's life since childhood — clearly a hardcore fan.
Ning Su brought it up casually, "The instance's serial number?"
"Right, I was going to mention that too. Instance serial number 00 — what level is that? Schrödinger's difficulty?" Tang Xin said.
Ning Su immediately understood that the instance numbering here was the same as in their world, and that there was indeed something unusual about this instance's number.
Ning Su: "The difficulty is probably related to the Desire Monsters."
Tang Xin: "There might already be Desire Monsters in this building. It feels gloomy and really off."
Ning Su nodded. "The system said this world has many Desire Monsters. It's normal for them to be here, and there's probably more than one."
