chapter 149

Through the goggles, Lu Li watched how the edges of the grid changed and where all the Players were standing.

When they first entered the Instance, everyone’s starting position had been on the squares in the middle.

Now, after two rounds of choices, everyone’s positions had shifted.

Luo Jia Bai, Mirella, and Gu Yu Chu were relatively close to him. The other four were scattered in a 2+1+1 formation.

As for the two Players who had chosen to run.

They were indeed experiencing what Cheng Liang had described-the grid in front of them, in the direction they were facing, had extended to more than twice its previous length.

During the punishment phase,

the more desperately a Player who had already made a mistake tried to run,

the harder it became for them to reach the edge of all the squares.

The harder it became to escape.

Lu Li looked toward the other two sides that hadn’t extended.

He had an idea, but he needed one more countdown to verify it.

Lu Li lowered his eyes, staring at the ground.

The stone pillar successfully struck the two Players as intended. It wobbled as it returned to position, and just as it stood fully upright again, a new countdown appeared on the ground.

Four seconds.

Without hesitation, Lu Li picked one of the sides.

He darted forward at his fastest speed, moving lightly over the ground. In the blink of an eye, he had crossed more than a dozen squares.

He finally stopped on top of a triangular pattern at the exact moment the countdown jumped from 1 to 0.

This time, every Player was standing on a triangle.

The stone pillar bent slightly, found no target to punish, and slowly straightened back up.

While the stone pillar was changing shape, Lu Li observed the edge line on his side.

It had not extended forward.

Because he had followed a certain set of game rules.

With his theory confirmed, Lu Li looked at the three not far away and said, “The way to clear this is indeed to get off these squares, but you have to move according to how the game runs.”

“No hints, no Instance title, this A Grade is really weird…” Luo Jia Bai shook and tapped his seemingly unresponsive Wristband again. Hearing Lu Li, he looked up. “What rules?”

Lu Li chose his words. “During the countdown and during the punishment phase, you can move however you want. But when the countdown shows 0, you must be standing on a triangle.”

“If we want to get out of these hundreds of squares, the shortest path is a straight line-we need to run toward an edge.”

Lu Li pointed to the side in front of him and then to another side. “Right now, these two sides are the closest to the outer edge. The other two sides extended earlier because those two Players ignored the rules, so the distance to the boundary got longer. Don’t run in those two directions.”

He had just finished explaining his inferred game rules when the countdown appeared again.

“Follow the rules. Run for the edge. Go as far as you can each time-we have to get out of here as fast as possible!”

After Lu Li laid it out for them, the three immediately had a clear direction.

The other four Players, after a few more countdowns, also noticed something strange.

“Did I see that wrong? Why did this countdown start from 3 this time?!”

“You didn’t. I’ve been watching the ground carefully. After it repeated five times, the first number of the countdown went from 4 down to 3!”

“The time is getting shorter and shorter!”

“If we keep going at this rate, in another fifteen rounds it’ll become a continuous attack with no gap in between.”

“I remember the patterns on the squares change with every refresh, right? If it becomes continuous, we won’t have time to run at all! Life-Saving Items cost extra Points every time you redeem one. Even if we have plenty of balance on our accounts right now, we can’t afford to burn through them like this!”
“Brother Liang, look at those four. Since when did they get so far away from us? Why do I feel like they’re about to run right out of these tiles?!”

After watching one round of the countdown, Cheng Liang finally figured out how Lu Li’s group was moving forward. He gritted his teeth and said,

“They’ve found a way out. Hurry up and follow them! We’re still stuck in the middle of the grid!”

“If this turns into continuous attacks with no gaps, the edge line will extend forever and we’ll never get out!”

–

Gu Yu Chu was the last of the four to make it outside the grid.

He had already pushed himself to his limit, sprinting as fast as he could while forcing his mind to stay razor-sharp, constantly scanning for the nearest triangle pattern beneath his feet so he could stand on it precisely when the countdown hit zero.

The time kept shrinking.

It had already switched to counting down from 2.

Once they left the outermost row of tiles, even when they just sat down on the ground, the five upright stone pillars didn’t attack them anymore.

The other four Players, however, were looking more and more miserable.

They still had one-third of the distance left to reach the edge line.

“It’s already counting down from 1. Stop hoarding your Points! If you die here, don’t blame me for not warning you!”

Burning through a huge amount of Points to redeem speed-boost Items from the Shop, Cheng Liang’s team of four barely managed to rush out of the grid on the very last second while the countdown was stuck at 1.

They collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted, forming a sharp contrast with Lu Li’s group of four, who had already been resting for a long while-breathing steady, even starting to chat idly.

The five stone pillars halted their attacks once all the Players had left the grid.

–

Fenny suddenly received a reminder urging him to get to work.

Reluctantly, he paced back and forth on Mirella’s shoulder, dragging out the time before finally replying to his superior’s message. Then he covered his beak with one wing and lowered his voice beside Mirella’s ear.

“I have to go to work.”

“Go on.” Mirella nodded, reassuring Fenny. “You don’t need to stay with me during the Game Day. Even if this is a Bug Instance, with them here, it doesn’t feel all that hard to clear.”

Fenny hopped down from Mirella’s shoulder to the ground, deliberately brushing his wing over the spot on the outermost row of tiles where the pattern had appeared.

Just in time to head back to work.

He needed to ask his colleagues a question.

Who had added the power of an Evil God into this Instance.

That kind of thing interfered with the Instance’s operation.

It violated the agreement they had signed with the Necromancer Game in the first place.

–

Once all the Players were gathered, the eight Wristbands vibrated and a cold mechanical voice rang out:

[Congratulations, Players, you have discovered key clue 1: the special triangle.]

[Circles, squares, and triangles are the basic geometric shapes used to construct Witch Runes and patterns.]

[Finding the special triangle means you have received recognition from witchcraft power.]

[The gates of the Saint Witch Kingdom have opened for you. A horrifying serial murder case has recently taken place in this country. Your identities in this Instance are: eight investigators invited from afar.]

At the same time, the Instance information began to load:

[Instance Name: Through Thick and Thin]

[Clearance Guide: In this Instance, you will face a series of bizarre and inexplicable deaths. These incidents all seem to be related to witchcraft and curses. Please set off for the Saint Witch Kingdom as soon as possible.]

[Find the murderer. Find the innocent. Protect the innocent, and you will clear the Instance successfully.]