Chapter 76
Chapter 76
“I’m fine with it,” Wei Sen said, then looked toward Huang Xinze and Chen Lin, who had yet to state their positions, politely asking for their opinions.
Huang Xinze had been secretly locking eyes with Zhou Jie in a silent contest. Only when he noticed Wei Sen’s gaze from the corner of his eye did he put on a serious front.
“No problem. Susu is part of our group to begin with. And if she’s one of ours, then of course I, the only real man here, will protect her!” Huang Xinze declared with absolute conviction.
Xia Susu let out a mocking laugh. “Ah Ze, maybe wait until you’re on the Hero Ranking before saying things like that.”
Huang Xinze did not get angry. Instead, he said with a perfectly serious expression, “Don’t be fooled by appearances. Sooner or later, you’ll understand who truly treats you well.”
Chen Lin pushed up her glasses, her voice still very soft. “I’m fine with it too.”
Once everyone reached an agreement, they went together to the edge of the plaza, chose the nearest path, and headed toward the Gate of Xuanpin at the end of it.
“There are so many doors here. Do we have to check them one by one to find an S-Rank Instance?” Lin Xiaoxue asked Guo Lan beside her.
“No. Once you stand before the Gate of Xuanpin, think of the Instance rank you want to enter, and the Gate of Xuanpin will change on its own,” Guo Lan explained.
“That’s amazing!” Lin Xiaoxue said with a smile.
Soon, everyone arrived before the Gate of Xuanpin. As the most experienced person among them, Guo Lan stepped forward on her own initiative.
She placed her hand on the white door. The instant she touched it, a cloud of black mist spread outward from beneath her palm. In just a few seconds, the entire door turned pitch-black.
Then crimson text appeared on the door:
[Instance: Snowy Night Traveler
Difficulty: S-Rank (Mortality Rate: 80%)
Participants: 30]
The moment they saw the prompt on the door, everyone’s heart leaped into their throat.
Thirty Order Keepers, yet an 80% mortality rate!
Their current team had ten people. It would probably be extremely difficult for all of them to make it out alive.
“That mortality rate is an average statistic. There have been precedents where every participant survived an S-Rank Instance, so there’s no need to worry too much,” He Xu said, stepping forward to encourage them.
“Let’s go.” Guo Lan pushed open the door and walked in first.
Seeing this, the others followed one after another.
Wei Sen was the last. She stopped outside the Gate of Xuanpin and did not immediately enter.
There were thirty people in this Instance altogether, which meant that, at this very moment, twenty other people should also be entering through other Gates of Xuanpin.
They had not performed any formal team-forming ritual. It seemed that entering through the same door would automatically place them in the same group.
And if they wanted all ten members of their group to survive, then the mortality rate of this Instance would have to be reduced to no more than 66.66%.
Wei Sen knew very clearly that this was almost impossible.
[System, I want to do two Card Draws!] Wei Sen thought, deciding to make every possible preparation before entering the Instance.
///Ding~ Very well, Host. Performing two Card Draws for the Host now!
Ding~ Congratulations, Host, you have obtained an S-Rank Anomalous Artifact, Ghost Axe x1: This Anomalous Artifact can slay Eerie Entities and remains effective for 72 hours after activation.
Ding~ Congratulations, Host, you have obtained a B-Rank Anomalous Artifact, Soul-Returning Lamp x1: Light the Soul-Returning Lamp and place a deceased person’s hair in the flame to burn. The deceased person’s soul can return for one hour.///
Compared with offensive Anomalous Artifacts, Wei Sen actually wanted life-saving ones more. After all, her current Merit Points were not particularly high, and she had no idea whether she could bear the cost of slaying an Eerie Entity.
But since these were the two Anomalous Artifacts she had drawn, she could only accept it.
At the very least, with two Anomalous Artifacts on hand, she was already far better off than an ordinary Order Keeper.
With that thought, Wei Sen also entered the Gate of Xuanpin.
After passing through the Gate of Xuanpin, the group arrived in a snow-covered forest. The entire forest was terrifyingly silent. Fine snowflakes drifted down from the sky, and the cold air bit into them. As far as the eye could see, the snowfield was a vast expanse of white, with no hint of where the road might be.
“Achoo!”
“It’s so cold!”
“Where are we?”
Everyone looked at one another. They were dressed in thick clothing, and each person was either pulling a suitcase or carrying a heavy backpack. They looked like a group of tourists who had gotten lost in the forest.
“Why is it still just us? Didn’t this Instance have thirty people?” Xia Susu asked in confusion.
“That’s normal. People’s ‘spawn points’ inside an Instance aren’t necessarily in the same place,” He Xu said, glancing at her watch. “It’s 17:00 now. Nighttime in the Instance World is very dangerous. Before night falls, we need to find a way out of this forest.”
“Ahem!” Liu Shuang stepped forward with his hands clasped behind his back and raised his head. “First, we should check the things we’re carrying and see if there are any rules or information related to the Instance!”
“As expected of a big shot. Clear thinking!” Lin Xiaoxue gave him a thumbs-up.
“Just the basics.” Liu Shuang waved it off.
“Hurry up and look around. It gets dark very early in winter,” He Xu said, her face grim.
Liu Shuang nodded. “Right, right, right. Let’s make it quick!”
Everyone began searching through their personal belongings.
Wei Sen only had one suitcase. It was filled with thick clothes and toiletries, and in one of the suitcase’s inner compartments, she found an ID card. Unsurprisingly, the information on it was her own.
There was actually a phone in the pocket of the down jacket she was wearing. However, out here in the middle of these deep mountains and old forests, the phone had no signal at all, just as expected.
“How’s it looking? Did anyone find any information or rules? Mine’s all personal stuff. Completely useless,” Liu Shuang said.
Chen Lin held out her phone. “I have a phone on me, but there’s no signal anymore. From the last WeChat chat screen, it looks like we came here on a tour bus to see the Aurora tonight.”
“Mm. The chat history on my phone says the same thing,” Wei Sen said.
One after another, everyone found their own phones. From their phones, they learned that each of them had been preparing to head to a place called Aurora Village in order to see the Aurora.
He Xu said, “Looks like in this Instance, the phones are only information carriers. They aren’t meant for us to contact anyone.”
“Hey, hey, hey! Look!” Huang Xinze excitedly held up the picture on his phone. “It’s a map of Aurora Village!”
The map showed a vast forest. To the north of the forest was the entrance to Aurora Village. Farther north was an inn, while to the northeast was an area where the villagers lived.
Wei Sen opened the built-in compass on her phone and quickly identified north. “If we follow this direction, we’ll reach the entrance to Aurora Village.”
Xu You rubbed her chin and said, “But this map’s got an inn and a place where the villagers live. It’s about to get dark, so we need somewhere to stay. Do we go straight to the inn, or ask to stay with some villagers?”
Everyone fell into thought.
After all, this was the Eerie World. Where they stayed at night was undoubtedly a matter of life and death, so naturally, no one dared to be careless.
On top of that, they had no idea how far apart the locations on the map actually were. If they could successfully reach even one place before dark, that would already be the best possible outcome.
“I know!” Liu Shuang suddenly shouted. “The Instance is called Snowy Night Traveler. It’s obvious that we’re the travelers, and this inn must be our destination! No mistake about it. We’re going to the inn!”
“Sister Sen, what do you think?” Lin Xiaoxue and the others looked toward Wei Sen.
Although this round included Guo Lan, He Xu, and Zhou Jie, three people on the Hero Ranking, they still subconsciously asked Wei Sen for her opinion first.
Wei Sen glanced at Liu Shuang. Although this man was extremely unreliable, the name of the Instance was indeed a kind of clue. “Traveler” was definitely a key point in this round.
She also felt they should go to the inn, but not solely because of the Instance name. It was because a total of thirty Order Keepers were participating in this round. If all of them had appeared here as tourists, there was no way that many people could all lodge with the villagers.
So in all likelihood, the inn was their best choice.
Wei Sen nodded. “Mm, what he said makes sense. Let’s go. It would be best to reach the inn before dark. If we can’t make it, then we need to find somewhere safe to spend the night.”
“Let’s go, let’s go!” After hearing Wei Sen say the same thing, Lin Xiaoxue grabbed her suitcase, full of energy.
He Xu and Zhou Jie exchanged a look, both struggling not to laugh.
Hadn’t they said this woman named Wei Sen was very impressive? Last time, they even said she never forgot anything on the Hero Ranking and had immediately stated their rankings.
And now she actually believed something an idiot said?
Going to the inn was indeed the best choice, because there were so many people in the Instance. If they wanted to accommodate everyone at once, only an inn could do that. It absolutely wasn’t something that idiot Liu Shuang had figured out based on the Instance name.
“Let’s go.” Zhou Jie gave a slight shrug and followed along.
He Xu lowered her voice as she started walking too. “Looks like this Instance may be easier than we imagined.”
Because aside from Guo Lan, weren’t all these people in front of them just cannon fodder?