Chapter 83
Chapter 83
At the same time, in Room 205.
“Huh?!” Huang Xinze stared at Lao Wang, dumbfounded. “Beyond the Ice Wall, at the end of the sea… is Dragon Nation?!”
Lao Wang said, “I’ve cleared eight Instances in total. Over that time, I’ve had many teammates, and lost many teammates. Based on the information I’ve gathered so far, I’m afraid that’s the case.”
Huang Xinze’s expression turned serious. He lowered his head and pondered for a moment before saying, “I once carried out a mission on top of the Ice Wall. I always thought Civilization City was the center of the entire world. Now it seems… heh. My horizons were far too narrow.”
Lao Wang took a deep breath and said with a sigh, “Xiao Ze, there are some things you know more about than I do, aren’t there?”
Huang Xinze fell silent for a moment, then smiled. “Ever since I came here, I’ve realized that something has been slowly destroying everything I used to believe…”
“No matter what, stay alive. There are things they’re doing everything they can to hide, but you and I may be able to find the truth in this world!”
“And then? What happens after we know the truth?” Huang Xinze’s gaze was so steady he seemed like a different person as he stared at Lao Wang in front of him.
Lao Wang’s lips moved. He turned his head aside and said, “People just don’t want to live their whole lives in ignorance. Since we’ve been chosen by God, we have the chance to understand more about this world.”
“Knowing too much isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
Lao Wang frowned and looked at Huang Xinze. “You… still haven’t moved on.”
Huang Xinze smiled, stepped forward, and hooked an arm around Lao Wang’s shoulders. “We’ve been talking for ages. Aren’t you hungry? Come on, let’s get some food!”
Seeing this, Lao Wang tactfully stopped bringing up the matter.
Before long, after everyone had finished getting ready, they all arrived at the dining room.
“I feel like there aren’t many rules this time, and so far there isn’t anything especially strange about the whole inn either. It’s giving me the illusion that I’m actually here on vacation,” Lin Xiaoxue said.
“Don’t get careless. This is an S-Rank Instance,” Xu You reminded her.
Lin Xiaoxue nodded like a chick pecking at rice. “Don’t worry. I’m only saying that, but I’m still very alert!”
He Xu looked at the two of them and said, “The more rules there are, the lower the difficulty of the Instance tends to be. After all, rules are there to protect us. The fewer rules there are, the more hidden Killing Rules there will be, and the more dangerous it is for everyone!”
“Ah… so that’s how it is!” Lin Xiaoxue’s face couldn’t help but pale a little.
Wei Sen checked the time. It was exactly 6:00 p.m.
Meiya pushed a dining cart out from the direction of the back kitchen and neatly arranged the insulated food containers on the long table by the dining room windows.
“Everyone, all three meals at our inn are served buffet-style. The tableware is in the cabinet. Take whatever you’d like to eat, but please be sure not to waste food. The manager hates wasteful people most of all.”
The manager. They still hadn’t met that mysterious person yet, Wei Sen thought to herself.
“I know that!” A chubby man stepped forward and was the first to take a plate from the cabinet. “It’s a buffet, right? If you waste more than two hundred grams, you pay extra. This big brother’s got plenty of Merit Points, so I’m not scared!”
After saying that, the chubby man went up and started choosing food from the buffet, piling pieces of lamb chop onto his plate as if they were free.
Meiya’s lips moved, as though she wanted to say something more, but her peripheral vision flicked toward the staircase. Then she stepped aside and said, “In that case, please enjoy your meal. I’ll come back later to clean up.”
“Sister Sen, want to see what there is to eat?” Chen Lin and Xu You walked over to Wei Sen.
“Mm.”
Wei Sen, Chen Lin, and Xu You took plates and began choosing their dinner. Guo Lan and Lin Xiaoxue followed soon after.
Tonight’s dinner included lamb chops, pasta, broccoli, French fries, and a pot of blood-red tomato bisque.
Her experience from the previous few Instances had taught Wei Sen one thing: it was best not to eat meat in the Eerie World!
It wasn’t an absolute rule, but caution never hurt.
So Wei Sen put some pasta and broccoli on her plate.
Guo Lan glanced at Wei Sen with a hint of suspicion. This woman was quite vigilant.
Seeing that Wei Sen hadn’t chosen the lamb chops, Chen Lin and Lin Xiaoxue played it safe and skipped them too.
Xu You leaned in and sniffed carefully. “It’s lamb. Nothing wrong with it.”
With that, she put two pieces on her own plate.
“Then I want one too.” Lin Xiaoxue held her plate out to Xu You. It really did smell so good~~~
After everyone had chosen their food, they sat around the table. Xia Susu dragged Liu Shuang over to another table, where He Xu and Zhou Jie were sitting separately.
“Hey, what’s that Lao Wang guy to you?” Xu You speared an entire lamb chop with her fork and brought it to her mouth, her eyes fixed on Huang Xinze across from her.
Huang Xinze glanced out of the corner of his eye at Lao Wang, who had already returned to the Blue Team, and said, “An old friend. Speaking of that, I finally know why we couldn’t get in touch with each other! It’s because we really aren’t from the same place!”
Wei Sen said, “Mm, I know that too. Did Lao Wang tell you?”
“Yes.”
Wei Sen and Huang Xinze compared what they each knew about Civilization City and Dragon Nation. In the end, just as Guo Lan had said, neither of them could prove where they were, nor could they determine whether they were on the same Earth.
Wei Sen suddenly thought of something and paused mid-motion.
Huang Xinze hadn’t received an Invitation from The Organization. Could it be because of… geography?
The Organization couldn’t contact people from Civilization City either!
But that was only her guess. She couldn’t go around asking every Civilization City person present whether they knew about The Organization. She could only wait until they cleared this Instance to find out the answer…
“Sister Sen, why did you stop eating? I think this tastes pretty good!” Lin Xiaoxue looked at Wei Sen.
Wei Sen snapped back to her senses and continued eating. Thinking of what Meiya had said earlier, she reminded everyone, “Everyone had better finish everything on their plates. So far, we still haven’t seen the manager Meiya mentioned. We don’t know what kind of character they are, so it’s best to be careful about everything.”
“Got it, Sister Sen!” Xu You said, then stood up. “I’m going to get another steak!!!”
“Sister You looks like…” Lin Xiaoxue frowned. “Like she hasn’t eaten meat in a really long time…”
“Ahem!” Wei Sen nearly choked on a mouthful of noodles.
Honestly, Xiaoxue’s instincts were pretty good.
It seemed the Daoist profession really had fallen on hard times. Poor Xu You could barely even get a proper meat dish on normal days.
Xu You soon returned to her seat with her tray. “Haven’t you noticed? A lot of people are missing.”
Wei Sen had counted the number of people when she arrived at the dining hall. There had originally been thirty of them, but now there were only twenty-four. Six people still hadn’t shown up.
“Six are missing,” Guo Lan, who had been silent until now, said.
“They’re from the Purple Team,” Wei Sen added.
“Are you sure?” Guo Lan had only paid attention to the number of people, not which specific ones were missing.
“Mm.”
When everyone first gathered at the entrance of the inn, Wei Sen had already memorized their faces and teams, so it wasn’t hard to tell that the late ones were from the Purple Team.
“Mealtime is almost over. Are they seriously not coming to eat?” Lin Xiaoxue asked in confusion.
“Holy crap!” Huang Xinze stared at his watch in shock. “Six people are dead! It’s them!”
Everyone checked their watches as well. Sure enough, in the main group chat, the names of the six Purple Team members had already turned gray.