Chapter 125
Chapter 125
“Ding! Welcome, players, to the instance [Reversed World]. Survive inside Reversed World until noon on the fourth day to clear the instance.”
“Hint: Be yourself, exclamation point.”
Cheng Miao raised an eyebrow. This was the first time she had heard a notification actually read out a punctuation mark, but the exclamation point only emphasized how important the hint was.
Generally speaking, hints concerned rules that had to be followed to avoid death. However, for experienced veteran players, breaking a rule did not always mean dying.
Lian Ge was one example. Qin Musong, who had been locked outside in the previous instance yet still made it out alive, was another.
But this time, the hint had specifically mentioned an exclamation point…
Cheng Miao had a bad feeling.
The instance officially began. Although everyone was hungry, no one touched the food on the table.
Every one of them was a player who had applied to enter a temporary instance. None would let down their guard so easily.
Qin Musong suddenly turned toward a nearby wooden door. Cheng Miao followed his gaze, held her breath, and listened carefully. Someone was approaching.
No one spoke. Before long, a kindly old woman pushed open the door. She looked surprised to find every player watching her intently.
“Guests, why aren’t you eating? What will you do if you don’t replenish your strength?”
Cheng Miao studied her without revealing anything. A player sitting nearby asked, “Hello, ma’am. Is there something you need us to do?”
The old woman’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. She merely repeated what she had said before. “Guests, why aren’t you eating? What will you do if you don’t replenish your strength?”
Cheng Miao bit the soft flesh inside her cheek. It looked like they definitely had to eat.
This old woman felt more like a preprogrammed NPC than the instance natives they had met before, who possessed their own joys, anger, sorrows, and pleasures. There was no reasoning with her.
Cheng Miao picked up her chopsticks, took a small piece of fish, and placed it in her mouth.
Her eyes lit up. This fish was delicious!
She didn’t normally like fish because picking out the bones was too much trouble. This one, however, was boneless like snowflake fish, only more flavorful, tender, and succulent. Cheng Miao ate a little more.
Lin Zhu picked up his chopsticks as well. The shadow of the last instance hadn’t completely left him, and he still couldn’t stomach meat very well. His eyes shone as he ate the nuts from the small dish in front of him.
Qin Musong began eating the ribs. If he dared to eat them, that proved there was nothing wrong with the meat. It couldn’t be human flesh.
Qi Jiajia ate exactly what Cheng Miao ate, taking a bite every time Cheng Miao did.
To hell with the big picture. She was sticking with Cheng Miao no matter what.
Cheng Miao noticed that Qian Ming and Qiao Jin were also eating different foods. It seemed the veteran players had all prepared for what might happen.
Qian Ming ate the same thing as Qin Musong. Qiao Jin didn’t touch anything else and ate only the rice in front of her.
Cheng Miao remembered that Qiao Jin hadn’t eaten much meat in the [Tan Tao’s School Life] instance either. She had stuck to rice and vegetables.
Some of the other players sampled a little of everything, while some ate only vegetables.
They had been eating for a while, and the players were just starting to wonder how the instance was supposed to proceed when an irresistible wave of drowsiness swept over them. One by one, they fell asleep in a stupor.
A long, snow-white tail appeared behind the old woman. Looking over the roomful of sleeping players, she shook her head. “Outsiders are such a nuisance. Locals are much easier to handle.”
When Cheng Miao woke, her first reaction was to feel for her ring. Thank goodness. It was still there.
She examined her surroundings. She had been locked inside a metal cage. It was small and cramped, with only just enough room for her to stand. There was a toilet inside, and several plates of fish and water had been placed beside it.
Cheng Miao was utterly baffled by her situation. Fortunately, Qi Jiajia was here too.
Qi Jiajia woke shortly after she did. She looked around, then grabbed the corner of Cheng Miao’s shirt in disinterest.
There were three other people in the cage. They looked vaguely familiar and were all players.
The two women and one man didn’t know one another. They were keeping a wary, safe distance between themselves, but panic still showed in their eyes.
Cheng Miao went to the bars and craned her neck, straining to see outside. The room was enormous, even larger than the one in The Three Little Bears’ Home.
The room held many cages just like theirs, all of them filled with people.
Some people were sleeping, while others pounded on the bars and roared.
“What is this place? What kind of lousy instance is this!?”
Well, that one was obviously a player.
Cheng Miao tried to find her teammates or anyone she knew, but the only familiar face she spotted was Qian Ming, sitting grimly inside a cage in the corner.
Qiao Jin wasn’t here.
Neither were Lin Zhu or Qin Musong.
A wave of panic surged through Cheng Miao. She instinctively touched her wrist. Feeling the steady vitality of her teammates, she let out a long breath.
Cheng Miao closed her eyes and calmed herself.
Everyone had been alone when they first entered the Game. Her teammates would be fine, and so would she.
No longer allowing herself to dwell on her worries, Cheng Miao calmly surveyed her surroundings. Her nose twitched. She seemed to smell something.
What was that smell…?
Qi Jiajia leaned closer. “What’s wrong?”
Cheng Miao patted her head. “Take a sniff. Do you smell anything strange?”
Qi Jiajia did have a keen nose, but only when blood was involved.
After sniffing for a long while, she frowned in disgust. “There are so many people here. Of course it smells bad.”
Cheng Miao said nothing. What was that smell? It felt incredibly familiar.
When Lin Zhu awoke, he found himself in a wide-open space surrounded on all sides by towering walls. Over a dozen people were nearby.
The area was open, yet the way everyone had crowded together made it feel particularly cramped.
Lin Zhu walked over to a wall. It was so high that no human could climb over it. Only after confirming that fact several times did he sit down nearby with his head drooping. Sister Miaomiao, Jiajia, and Brother Qin were all gone.
Qin Musong’s body tensed the instant he woke. When his hand found the gun at his waist, he relaxed slightly.
He narrowed his sharp, wolf-like eyes as he studied his surroundings. This was a huge room, and seven or eight people stood nearby. Like him, all of them were tall, powerfully built men.
He stood against the wall, his thoughts unreadable.
Qiao Jin stood inside a wooden cage, her expression ugly. A bowl of rice had been placed beside her. She was alone in her cage, but she could see other cages around her holding men and women of every age.
She clutched the bars and looked around. After a long while, she pouted unhappily. Sure enough, she had been separated from Xiao Ming. How annoying.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Vibrations traveled through the floor. The familiar sensation instantly made Cheng Miao’s and Qi Jiajia’s expressions turn ugly.
Cheng Miao’s temple twitched. No way. Was this another fairy-tale instance like the one with the three bears?
The thought had barely occurred to her when the enormous door in the distance opened. Cheng Miao’s eyes widened at the creature that entered.
Lin Zhu jumped at the enormous figure that suddenly appeared. Once he saw what it was, he heard the players behind him scream in terror.