Chapter 913

·

·

·

Main Character:

Shen Yao

At the same time, Shen Yao, who was still driving toward Jing City University, received a sharp, explosive shriek from the System!

System: …?!!!!

"Host, hurry hurry hurry, there's a problem!" This was their main mission, after all!

Shen Yao: …

The accelerator under her foot was suddenly floored, and the hands gripping the steering wheel tightened immediately; Shen Yao didn't need to ask to know that something had happened to Shen Xi.

Only when Shen Xi was involved would the System suddenly go from a gossipy posture to acute stress — this was naturally not because it valued Shen Xi, but because Shen Xi was tied to the System's rewards; fundamentally, it was a matter of vested interest.

"What exactly happened? Spiritual Qi Revival?" That seemed to be the only possibility; if it were just some accidental mishap at Jinghua University, Shen Xi could handle it herself, and the System would instead sideways praise her capability.

"Spiritual Qi Revival — most likely a Spiritual Qi Vortex will appear," the System finished, then let out another sharp, explosive shriek, "No time! The Spiritual Qi Vortex has already appeared and is expanding to cover the entire Experimental Building of Jinghua University."

Shen Yao fell silent; today Shen Xi had gone to school for a research experiment, so she was definitely in the Experimental Building. Moreover, Jinghua University had many experimental buildings — even if Shen Xi could run out of her own building, she couldn't run out of the entire experimental building area, and would still be sucked into the Spiritual Qi Vortex.

"What does the Special Investigation Bureau say?" She didn't ask about Jinghua University's response plan; ordinary people played a limited role in this Instance event — at most they just fed a few more Cannon Fodder to the Spiritual Qi Vortex. The clearance standards were bizarrely varied; who knew what this Instance's content would be.

"The Special Investigation Bureau has already received the news and is dispatching manpower to Jinghua University," the words rushed out, then the System paused and added, "Huo Xunqi is leading the team."

Shen Yao scoffed, "Huo Xunqi leading the team? He's a Bureau Chief — why would he be so busy unless someone important was inside Jinghua University?"

The System indicated that Jinghua University was one of the top schools in the country, housing numerous academic experts and Academician Big Shots year-round; this time, reportedly several of them were trapped inside. Jinghua University had contacted the Special Investigation Bureau the moment they got the news, precisely to fish out these rare talents.

"No wonder," Shen Yao's speed gradually dropped, prompting the System to shriek in alarm, urging her to go faster.

"Even if you go, you can't get in. Huo Xunqi isn't the type to pull strings.

Besides, with so many experts and scholars trapped in Jinghua University, the Special Investigation Bureau will definitely increase rescue efforts. I'm very confident about that child Shen Xi — she won't let herself fall into danger."

And with Shen Xi's intelligence, as long as it isn't an unsolvable Instance, her probability of clearing it is very high.

System: …

Although the Host's words weren't wrong, as a System it was still extremely nervous — Spiritual Qi Vortices brought Instances of all strange kinds, with countless different attribute types; what if?

"No 'what ifs' — think on the bright side," Shen Yao cut off the System's crow's-beak, "If this Instance happens to be a rare Resource Instance, Shen Xi could soar to the heavens, and she'd have confidence for the upcoming Fixed Instances too."

"…Host, Resource Instances are one in ten thousand; if it's a Battle Royale Instance, wouldn't that be even worse?"

"Instances are mainly divided into a few major categories. The most common are Leveling Instances, which include fixed-requirement types like Reasoning Instances. The rest — Escape/Killing Instances, Strange Phenomenon Instances, Resource Instances, Vacation Instances, and so on — are all rare Special Instances. Judging from the numerous Instances discovered so far, we haven't yet reached the point where survival-difficulty-extreme Instances appear."

Spiritual Qi Revival is gradual — just like the last Task World, evolution wasn't fierce from the start; first all creatures were given an adaptation process, then quantitative change triggered qualitative change, completely detonating the entire planet's evolution.

The later it gets, the more creatures that can't keep up with evolution will be eliminated — even with a strong mental Esper like Shen Yao protecting them, she can't save everyone.

Worry breeds chaos; once she determined the danger wasn't as strong as imagined, Shen Yao's rationality returned. She began carefully analyzing this Spiritual Qi Revival at Jinghua University — all signs indicated it was an accident.

An accident?

Shen Yao bent her fingers and tapped the steering wheel, simultaneously signaling and merging into the road ahead through the traffic flow.

On the other side, Huo Xunqi also found it strange — this Spiritual Qi Revival at Jinghua University had erupted too directly, without the slightest prior sign.

"Chief, what do we do? The higher-ups are pressing us to rescue these experts and professors quickly."

Huo Xunqi leaned back in the carriage, eyes slightly narrowed. His appearance was refined and handsome, a far cry from his personality — especially after becoming the Special Investigation Bureau Chief, he had become even more taciturn and coldly fearless.

"We do what we must — do our best." It wasn't as if the higher-ups' word could make a rescue happen; besides, whether they could even enter the Instance was still up in the air. If luck was bad, the Instance would launch as soon as its quota was filled, and they could only wait for those inside to clear it.

"Chief, this time the Spiritual Qi Revival concentration at Jinghua University has been measured — here, this is the report," someone handed over a detection slip, the top line showing the number 88.

Huo Xunqi breathed a sigh of relief — good, it looked like a fairly conventional Instance.

The materials for this detection tool were all brought out of Instances by Huo Xunqi's team; the measured data wasn't precise, but it could roughly estimate the degree of Spiritual Qi Revival. Below 50, the probability of a Spiritual Qi Vortex appearing was low — people inside just needed to be cautious and avoid the rampages of plants, trees, and small animals to stay safe. Between 50 and 100, the probability of a Spiritual Qi Vortex was high, but the generated Instance difficulty was low — mostly conventional Leveling Instances; as long as they followed the Instance's rules, they could clear it.

Above 100, the detection machine currently couldn't measure — those were the key targets of their Investigation Bureau's observation. The current special situation at Jinghua University warranted Huo Xunqi's team mobilizing for rescue precisely because the people inside were relatively important.

"Speed up. Try to reach the Jinghua University Experimental Building before the Instance opens.

Right — has Jinghua University provided the personnel roster for the Experimental Building?"

As Huo Xunqi's words fell, the team member ahead hemmed and hawed, saying the Jinghua University Management Office was still tallying. Because it was a holiday, there were still many students and teachers, and the entire Experimental Building was enveloped; to avoid missing anyone, they had to carefully verify.

Brows furrowed tight, Huo Xunqi was clearly displeased. "Urge them to hurry. We need to formulate a rescue plan based on the roster. If they delay, they'll be held responsible."

"Yes, I'll urge them right now," the team member turned back to continue calling, adding that they could provide a confirmed roster first, then supplement it later.

Shen Xi felt a bit dazed. She had just run down from upstairs wanting to get out, but was blocked inside by white mist that suddenly emerged.

None of the crowd had ever seen this scene, so their first reaction was panic.

Shen Xi only remembered grabbing Wang Ying's arm, thinking retreating to a corner would be safer — but they hadn't taken two steps before feeling a massive suction force from behind, followed by piercing screams.

Shen Xi's vision went dark for a brief moment; when her sight recovered, she was already standing in the middle of a street plaza.

Hm?

More and more people were appearing around the plaza. Shen Xi observed carefully — she hadn't heard any Instance notification, nor seen any obvious location markers — until the plaza was so packed there was barely standing room, when suddenly a patch of red text appeared in mid-air.

【Drip——————

Welcome to the Ascension Game. This game is fully developed and operated by Ascension Company. Objections invalid.

Instance: Happy Street

Time: Three Days

Clearance Requirement: Obtain Little Red Flowers 【the more the better】

Everyone, Little Red Flowers are limited in quantity — please do your best and strive to become Players!】

As the mid-air text slowly disappeared, the same screen appeared in everyone's minds — they could see it just by silently thinking "view."

"Th-this is an Instance? I-I want to go home, I want to go home!"

"**&&#＞＝. *"

"sjdgmvcowot……"

Shen Xi endured the speech she could understand yet sounded bizarre in tone, silently sizing up the crowd around her.

Not looking, she wouldn't know; one look and she was startled — these people had different hair and eyes of varying colors, some even bore animal characteristics; they were unlucky souls from different worlds!

Shen Xi didn't know what Little Red Flower was, but by her inference, this thing might be a Reward; the Instance was even called Happy Street — could it be that the people here were happy?

The Plaza served as their spawn point; there were truly too many people here. Shen Xi planned to first look for acquaintances to form a team; facing an Instance with zero information, forming an alliance was certainly safer than going solo.

The three-day Life Countdown did not appear; Shen Xi felt this was probably because they were still in the Plaza, but since she hadn't verified this, she wasn't entirely certain.

She skirted past the crowds who had already set off, her eyes scanning the surroundings efficiently — and she actually found two Senior Brothers and Sisters she wasn't exactly close to but had met before.

The three huddled together, mutually much more relaxed — this was the effect of familiar faces.

One was named Gao Zhihui, the other Li Yuan; both were Shen Xi's Senior Brothers and Sisters, their research also overlapped, but because they weren't under the same advisor, they merely nodded greetings in passing, rarely having deeper exchanges.

"Junior Sister Shen, what do we do now? East, South, West, North — all four directions are street zones," and the Plaza they stood in was right at the Center; a large clock sat in the middle, its time frozen at twelve o'clock sharp, yet it showed no sign of moving — clearly it couldn't be used as a timing tool.

"East Side and West Side have the most people; the Font reminder says Little Red Flowers are limited. We can head to the streets with fewer people first," seize a Little Red Flower a step ahead.

"Let's go to the North," Shen Xi pondered a moment, explaining there was a shop with clock traces on the North Side; they needed a timekeeping device right now.

"Perhaps once we leave the Plaza, the Instance Life Countdown will display," Li Yuan noted that without a timing tool, they could still use the Instance's time.

Gao Zhihui shook her head, "The Life Countdown is just a Life Countdown; we still need to know the specific time."

"Exactly. Daytime travel or night, when it's dangerous, when to explore — all rely on tools; getting a timing tool has no Harm."

Two against one; Li Yuan, in the minority, deferred to the majority. The three continued analyzing their respective observations, finally reaching a simple Conclusion: to Clear the Instance, they could only strive according to the Instance's Little Red Flower prompt. "Perhaps this is a space, and there are identical spaces around; others were scattered away; only by Clearing can we leave."

Shen Xi felt Jinghua University had so many students and teachers — impossible they'd die the moment they entered; more likely they were separated.

And there were people from Other Worlds here, looking exactly like themselves; the Instance had no legal constraints. "We'll be extra careful, try not to be too Gaochao."

Wood stands out in the forest; the Wind will surely destroy it.

A genius who hasn't grown yet is the Most Dangerous; with not a shred of Self-preservation capability, they're just fatty meat in others' eyes.

Shen Xi had long known different-world players would appear in the Instance; despite no deep hatred between them, cooperation was still immensely difficult — at the very least, different lifestyles and Environments forged different personalities and Tempers; one mishap and internal strife erupts, its destructive power greater than acting alone.

The three briefly said what needed saying, then turned and skirted the crowd, heading for the North Side street.

Sure enough, the moment they stepped past the Plaza Edge, the Instance time in their minds displayed a Life Countdown: 71:59:58.

Shen Xi: ……

Fine then; sure enough, the moment they left it was a Life Countdown. But staying in the Plaza was merely a stopgap; this Instance was very clear — get Little Red Flowers to Clear; the more Little Red Flowers obtained, the higher the evaluation.

Little Red Flower is very important, but — what on earth is Little Red Flower!

On this side, Shen Xi, Gao Zhihui, and Li Yuan headed to the North Side street to Explore; outside, Jinghua University had long been Sealed Off by Police and Special Investigation Bureau personnel, especially around the Experimental Building — the Special Investigation Bureau refused entry to anyone without cause.

Management Office teachers sent over the Missing Personnel List; the vast Majority were students, a small portion experts, scholars, and professors — their schedules were normally Tight; who could've imagined that in the time it takes to hold a meeting they'd be sucked into an Instance?

"Captain, this is the final list."

A Team Member held out a sheet of paper to Huo Xunqi, then waited for Huo Xunqi's Arrangement.

Special Investigation Bureau players had already entered the sealed Experimental Building in batches; among them were some smoothly sucked into the Instance, and some who circled around and returned the same way, reporting the Spiritual Energy Vortex didn't suck them in — suspected the Instance headcount was full.

Huo Xunqi looked at the names on the list, his Gaze finally settling on Shen Xi's line.

Tsk.

This kid really was a Jinghua University student; never expected her to be caught up in this event too. Huo Xunqi's Impression of Shen Xi was a genius girl — from childhood to adulthood she never gave Shen Yao a moment's worry. As her stepfather for those years, he and Shen Xi got along quite well; later Shen Yao took Shen Xi away, and their meetings became far fewer.

He raised a hand, folded the list neatly, tucked it into his pocket. Huo Xunqi told the Team Members to seize time and rest; in ten minutes, he would lead the team into the Experimental Building.