Chapter 45
Chapter 45
As soon as the instance began, some people at headquarters recognized it.
“You Are a Security Guard… Why did it have to be this instance?”
There were far too many instances in the Horror Game for everyone to know them all. The staff quickly pulled up archived footage of successful clears from the Livestream Room and compiled the available information on this instance.
The security office contained records on the residents of the residential complex. Newbie players could use them to determine whether the entities trying to enter were genuine residents or impostors.
When they saw that Yu Lingling had found the records and begun reading through them, they breathed a sigh of relief – only to remember the most terrifying part of this instance.
“This instance has an extremely low clear rate. The biggest challenge isn’t identifying the residents. It’s whether the newbie player can discover the trap. Entities that don’t belong in the complex have already infiltrated the building. The player has to find them and drive them out.”
“And the time limit is only twenty-four hours.”
The woman whose hair was completely white had already read the information her subordinates had compiled on Yu Lingling from the Livestream Room.
“Her first instance was Auspicious Village, and her second was Happy Family.”
Everyone in the command room fell silent.
The young man in a black baseball cap who had been sitting in the corner suddenly spoke. “She still doesn’t have an Exclusive Skill.”
“What?”
Everyone turned to look at him. Although there was doubt in their eyes, no one interrupted. They waited for him to continue.
“There’s no skill signature. As for the entities around her…” The young man paused to choose his words before continuing, “Could they be controlled by some special item?”
“If it is a special item, that might actually be a good thing.”
At least they would not have to worry about the entities under her control breaking free someday.
The young man in the cap glanced at the speaker. Sure enough, they were an ordinary person. He offered an extra explanation. “Control through an item is even more likely to backfire on its owner.”
The person who had just relaxed immediately went pale.
Leaning back in his chair, the young man said, “Instead of worrying about her, you should worry about yourselves. The fact that she cleared Auspicious Village and Happy Family proves she’s extraordinary.”
Those two instances had just as many traps as this one.
He tipped the brim of his cap slightly lower. “Besides, her second instance was no ordinary clear.”
“If Yu Huan had told her about the Horror Game earlier, she could at least have learned about the instances and how to deal with them ahead of time.”
No one responded. Yu Huan was already gone, and no one knew why he had made that decision.
The command room was not the only place discussing Yu Lingling. The viewers in the Livestream Room were doing the same.
“This newbie is seriously unlucky.”
“If I ever run into her in the future… Actually, forget it. Better not to. Every instance she enters has an incredibly low survival rate.”
Agents from countries outside Hua Nation were also gathering intelligence on Yu Lingling.
Meanwhile, Yu Lingling had memorized all the records after a single pass. She was now searching the security office. Contrary to what everyone outside believed, she was not looking for clues. She was checking whether there were any items she could take with her.
Ten minutes later, the first entity appeared at the entrance.
“Open the gate. I want to go home.”
The security office had a small service window. As long as a newbie player remained inside the office, they were safe.
But if they stayed there, they would never discover the instance’s hidden trap.
Under normal circumstances, most people would choose to remain in the security office at first and observe the situation. Some newbies would eventually risk venturing outside, while others would stay in the office the entire time.
Everyone assumed that since Yu Lingling had cleared her first two instances, she had to be both intelligent and cautious. Surely she would observe the instance and its entities before deciding what to do next.
That was exactly what the other newbie players who had entered the instance at the same time as Yu Lingling were doing.
In the command room, the feed from Yu Lingling’s Livestream Room occupied the largest screen in the center. Surrounding it were dozens of feeds belonging to other newbie players from Hua Nation.
Under the eyes of everyone in the command room and the viewers in the Livestream Room, Yu Lingling pushed open the security office door and walked straight outside.
“Does she have a death wish?”
“I’ve never seen a newbie this eager to get herself killed.”
Yu Lingling looked at the aberration trying to enter the residential complex and gave him two choices. “Are you leaving on your own, or should I make you leave?”
[If I remember correctly, the previous aberrations in this instance were all real residents.]
[Could she not tell?]
The suited aberration’s gaze changed the moment Yu Lingling came out. He forced himself to maintain his human form and kept himself from drooling. Unfortunately, he had drawn the first slot this time. The newcomer had yet to violate any rules, so even though she had left the security booth, he still couldn’t eat her outright.
He could only wait until the instance ended.
This newcomer didn’t look capable of clearing it anyway. When the time came, he would be the first to rush out and tear her apart.
He liked her eyes. They would surely taste delicious.
When the aberration failed to answer, Yu Lingling took that to mean he had chosen the second option. Without warning, she plunged her dagger into his chest.
The suited aberration stared at Yu Lingling in shock, then split his mouth into a grin. “You think this is enough to kill me? I…”
Before he could finish, Yu Lingling drove her wrist downward. The battered, rust-covered dagger ripped him open from chest to belly.
The suited aberration grew even more excited as his body began to mutate. “A security guard dared to attack a real homeowner!”
[She broke the rules.]
[If she hadn’t hurt that aberration, it wouldn’t have been able to attack her. How stupid.]
As if frightened, Yu Lingling yanked out her dagger and retreated several steps.
The aberration’s swelling body shook with laughter. “It’s too late to run now!”
Just as the aberration reached for Yu Lingling, a little girl in a pink puffy dress appeared. Her hand wasn’t large, but it fit perfectly into the gash Yu Lingling had cut open. Before the stunned aberration could react, the girl reached inside and ripped out his heart.
The little girl in the pink puffy dress smiled even more happily than he had, then devoured the aberration’s heart in a single bite.
The command center fell silent.
The young man in the black baseball cap let out a rare laugh. “The weak point of most aberrations in D-rank instances and below is their heart. It’s also where their energy is concentrated.”
The Grand Slaughter Instance alone used the special SSS-rank and SS-rank classifications. All other instances in the Horror Game were divided into eight ranks based on their clearing difficulty: SS-rank, S-rank, A-rank, B-rank, C-rank, D-rank, E-rank, and F-rank.
No one had ever cleared an SS-rank instance. To become an S-rank Full-fledged Player, one had to clear at least three S-rank instances.
Outside those eight ranks were the Novice Instances.
The difficulty of a Novice Instance fell somewhere between E-rank and F-rank. Which one a newcomer encountered depended entirely on luck.
Yu Lingling was clearly rather unlucky. Her Novice Instance was E-rank at the very least, and it was one with a relatively high fatality rate even among E-rank instances.
The young man in the black baseball cap swept his gaze over the others, who had all breathed sighs of relief after seeing Yu Lingling’s actions. “The stronger the aberrations become, the more help they’ll be to her. Let’s hope she can always keep them under control.”
The implication was clear. If she ever lost control, the aberrations she had nurtured into ever-greater strength would become blades turned against her.
The white-haired woman looked at the players proceeding by the book in the other Livestream Room feeds. “Maybe this is why Yu Huan kept her from coming into contact with us and refused to let her prepare in advance.”
Training could improve newcomers’ clear rates in their first three instances, but it had also made them dependent on such assistance.
“Then should we cut back on this kind of training too?”
“Not everyone has what it takes to become a Full-fledged Player on their own.”
“Could we select a group with exceptional aptitude and withhold information about the instances from them beforehand?”
The young man in the baseball cap listened to their discussion, but his eyes remained fixed on Yu Lingling’s Livestream Room. After watching her dispatch the second aberration with crisp efficiency, he finally voiced his first question. “Does she genuinely not know the rules for clearing the instance, or is she venting her anger and taking revenge on this Horror Game Instance?”
No one but Yu Lingling could answer that question. Yet Yu Lingling clearly wanted nothing to do with them. She even hated them.