Chapter 914

·

·

·

Main Character:

Shen Yao

"Huo Xunqi went in too?"

"That's right, Jinghua University has had several expert professors trapped this time, all leading authorities in their respective fields," the Official side will certainly spare no effort to fish them out.

However, those who fall into an Instance are not necessarily together; the concept of parallel spaces is involved here, meaning that everyone who enters the Instance is separated by different spaces and appears in the same Instance, each completing the same task but unable to see one another.

This information was also first revealed as fact by those who became Players earlier.

Because people from different worlds appear in the Instance, their appearances and languages differ, yet due to the Instance's function they can converse with each other; even to this day, the Special Investigation Bureau has still not found a method to reach other worlds (it may also be related to the insufficient degree of Spiritual Qi Revival in this world), they only know that not everyone who was sucked in is together, and only after completing their tasks individually can they return.

Signs of traffic jams have already appeared up ahead, especially on that main road leading to Jinghua University.

Shen Yao looked at the Police on duty not far away, pondered for a moment, then simply made a U-turn up ahead.

System:... Hm?

"Even if I got there I couldn't get in; better to find a hotel nearby to rest first, then wait for the latest news on Jinghua University."

Shen Yao is currently just an Ordinary Person; her spiritual power is strong only relatively speaking — in reality her offensive capability is very weak, and she still cannot cope with those who have already become Players.

One can believe that at this very moment, every position of Jinghua University's Experimental Building is held by numerous Special Investigation Bureau personnel patrolling back and forth; these people are utterly impartial, and Shen Yao had experienced their methods firsthand earlier.

Shen Yao picked a hotel very close to Jinghua University to park and rest; through the High Level window she could still gaze at the school scenery not far away.

Shen Yao's eyesight is quite good; she could see the direction of Jinghua University's Experimental Building, dense white mist enveloping it, surrounded by Special Operations Personnel in Uniforms.

The System helps broadcast the situation in real time; it can only see things happening right under its nose — for example, the interior of the Spiritual Energy Vortex Instance, it knows completely nothing about, and even the laboratory interior wrapped in white mist, the System can only explore inch by inch; its full scan cannot penetrate this thick layer of white mist.

Thump thump thump

The Room door was knocked; it was service staff, coming up to deliver food to Shen Yao.

The service staff here are all young and beautiful, and the price per night is also Expensive; Shen Yao used to accompany Shen Xi and would often stay here.

"Ms. Shen, if there's any problem, contact us Anytime."

Shen Yao smiled faintly and nodded; before the service staff withdrew, she asked whether the hotel was already fully booked today.

"That's right, the surrounding hotels are the same," the service staff didn't know what happened at Jinghua University, but she had seen many Police Cars go over earlier, followed by Jinghua University's faculty and students being uniformly arranged to stay in surrounding hotels; Shen Yao is a VIP client here with a separate vacant suite, which is why she could rest.

Shen Yao watched the service staff leave, then walked to the Living Room and sat down to eat.

The hotel's prepared food tasted good, very much suiting Shen Yao's Appetite; earlier at the banquet, Shen Yao hadn't touched her Chopsticks much at all.

The System was still there live-streaming Jinghua University's situation, including but not limited to the Experimental Building shrouded in white mist, and the Special Operations Personnel constantly trying to enter the Experimental Building to trigger the Instance.

"These people truly aren't afraid of death, but the white mist doesn't look as dense as just now; the Spiritual Energy Vortex should be about to disappear," they can only wait until someone clears the Instance and comes out; only then can more people go in.

"About the same; in terms of time, the Spiritual Energy Vortex doesn't last long, and a Random Instance doesn't endlessly devour humans."

They have an underlying operating Logic; even if people inside the Instance die halfway, it won't re-absorb new people to Supplement.

Soon finishing the food on the table, Shen Yao pressed the doorbell beside her; shortly a Robot would come up to take away the Tableware.

The corridor outside the Door was very quiet; due to the Gate's sound insulation not a shred of quarreling could be heard; in reality even this hotel is chaotic, many people sent over were in a state of shock and suspicion, especially with very few people to comfort them, and the Special Investigation Bureau having to go into the Instance to fish people back — those whose nerves couldn't take it would probably go mad.

Although Jinghua University's faculty and students are objective geniuses, temperament and mood are subjective Emotions; just in the gap while the Robot came to collect the dishes, Shen Yao noticed scattered drops of blood in the Corner of the corridor.

Mm

Feels like outside isn't any more relaxed than inside the Instance; there's quite a Lively show to watch today.

"Don't just watch the excitement, come help!"

Shen Xi frowned tightly, staring at the space of only several dozen square meters before her, thinking that a newly opened Watch Shop actually has this many Antiques.

Li Yuan felt displeased because of Shen Xi's words, muttering that they shouldn't have come, what use are timing tools in such a strange place, better to go to other shops to obtain Little Red Flowers.

Gao Zhihui helplessly soothed Li Yuan's Emotions, saying every shop is like this; the Instance doesn't require them to obtain a certain number of Little Red Flowers; taking advantage of their ample time now, they must first figure out some rules.

Rules? What rules could there be here.

Li Yuan was irritable and wanted to lose his temper; although he himself isn't an easily impatient person, ever since entering this Happy Clock Shop, it's as if a clock constantly ticking tick-tock was stuffed into his brain, wave after wave of Anger and resentment surging up.

Shen Xi naturally noticed Li Yuan's abnormality, so she planned to use a distraction method to let Li Yuan recover somewhat; the result was predictable — it didn't work.

At this moment they had already bypassed the First Floor Lobby and arrived at the Second Floor; the clocks here were obviously far fewer compared to the First Floor where clocks hung all over the surrounding Walls, but the clocks here were more Delicate and antique, mostly handcrafted mechanical watches, their driving force also handcrafted, not modern tools like Batteries.

Gao Zhihui walked quickly to Shen Yao's side, eyes still occasionally watching Li Yuan wandering everywhere, "What to do?"

Shen Xi shook her head lightly, "Let's look first; two floors total, we've seen both, no Little Red Flowers found."

There's no one here; the First Floor cashier counter is empty; besides a few labeled clock introductions, not even a notebook for records exists.

Shen Xi raised her hand and touched a rectangular one; on top a clock face, below a pendulum swinging left and right — a vintage Clock.

Tick tock tick tock

As the pendulum paused, the clock's hands reached exactly twelve o'clock; a small hole hidden in the center of the hands suddenly popped out a wooden cuckoo bird no bigger than a thumb.

"Cuckoo cuckoo, cuckoo cuckoo, twelve o'clock has arrived, twelve o'clock has arrived, today is also a joyful day."

Li Yuan was startled by the sound, jumped up and shouted "What noise?"

As his words fell, the clocks which originally all showed different times suddenly unanimously began chiming the hour.

Some popped out cuckoo birds, some popped out Cat Head owls, and some flowers, grasses, even wooden figurines.

"... Twelve o'clock has arrived, twelve o'clock has arrived, today is also a happy day."

Shen Xi and Gao Zhihui:...

The two subconsciously retreated back to the Stair position; wherever something was Abnormal they would run outside.

Li Yuan became increasingly manic; Shen Xi and Gao Zhihui tried to restrain him, but they had absolutely no way, only able to watch helplessly as Li Yuan walked up to the clocks and brutally smashed them on the ground.

"Li Yuan, Wake Up! The things here cannot be touched randomly."

Gao Zhihui lowered her voice and shouted twice, but Li Yuan completely ignored her; Shen Xi looked up at the surroundings, discovering that basically useless Wooden Sticks were left in the Corner, so she simply ran over, picked up two, held one in her own hand, and shoved one to Gao Zhihui.

The two planned to knock Li Yuan unconscious, but before they could act, they saw Li Yuan, who had smashed the watch, suddenly freeze with both hands spread flat, and then, like a doll forcibly torn limb from limb, severed limbs, broken bones, and fresh blood were scattered everywhere.

Gao Zhihui's eyes widened, and before she could cry out, she hurriedly raised her hand to cover her mouth; her whole body trembled uncontrollably, the wooden stick had already fallen to the ground, and she herself knelt there along with it.

Shen Xi's mind also suffered a shock, but she was stronger than Gao Zhihui; knowing that a death had occurred here and they should not linger, she hurriedly raised her hand to grab Gao Zhihui's wrist, dragging and pulling her downstairs to the first floor.

Gao Zhihui was still in a daze; after all, no matter what, modern youth would find it hard to experience a scene where a living person explodes directly in just one second, so she completely failed to notice the one thing Shen Xi hastily picked up from the ground before leaving.

The two went down the stairs; facing a room full of watches, Gao Zhihui suddenly came to her senses — she, she had just seen Li Yuan's body suddenly explode, as if a bomb had been strapped on, body torn apart, dead beyond dead.

Right, dead, Li Yuan is dead!

"Shen, Shen Junior Sister," Gao Zhihui's lips pressed slightly, her eyes warily scanning the surroundings, wishing she could just rush out and run away.

It's too dangerous, everything here is too dangerous, the shadow of death envelops her whole body; only now does Gao Zhihui realize what an Instance is; those past bold words become laughable to the extreme under Li Yuan's death — no matter how talented, they cannot soothe herself.

"Don't be afraid, there is no danger here for the moment," Shen Xi lightly patted Gao Zhihui's arm, then stood up and explored along the surrounding paths; as for Gao Zhihui, she was left in the original place to wait for her return.

It was during this time that Shen Xi finally got to examine the thing she had just taken back.

A pendant-style pocket watch no more than two circles larger than a coin, and on the back of the pocket watch, a red five-petaled little red flower stuck on.

Is this the little red flower hinted at by the Instance?

Shen Xi didn't know; she even reached out and touched the little red flower, and discovering it couldn't be pulled off, simply put it away in her pocket along with the pocket watch.

She didn't know why this pocket watch would appear, but it was very obvious that it had a connection with the dead Li Yuan.

Perhaps when Li Yuan died, this pocket watch played a role; pity, Li Yuan was already dead beyond dead, and even if Shen Xi wanted to ask, there was no one to choose.

The watches on the first floor began to run normally, the times on them all different; there was no unified time here, and the incident upstairs at that time was very likely also related to time.

She walked a circle and gained nothing; in the end Shen Xi took an alarm-clock-style watch; today she was wearing a mid-length casual trench coat, the inner pockets were relatively deep, and the watch fit just right inside.

Gao Zhihui had already recovered quite a bit; at least she didn't look as deathly pale as before; although her speech was still a bit halting, at least this person now understood that only self-rescue could ensure survival inside an Instance.

Seeing Shen Xi return, with an alarm clock still stuffed in her pocket, Gao Zhihui thought it over and accompanied Shen Xi together; she didn't know the alarm clock's function, but Shen Xi was calmer and cleverer than herself, following a clever person definitely wouldn't be wrong.

"Wait."

Before going out, Shen Xi called Gao Zhihui to a stop, then she rummaged over her whole body, pulled out a cute little wallet from her trouser pocket, inside which was pocket money not yet spent.

Gao Zhihui:...

Shen Junior Sister truly overturns my understanding again and again.

To tell the truth, society is already the era of electronic payment; those who still spend cash are few to the point of being pitiful; at least university students rely on a single phone to travel the world.

Like this time when they entered, all electronic devices on their bodies had long since disappeared without a trace; only some paper things still existed on them.

Shen Xi's little wallet belonged to the slipped-through-the-net fish; she took out a few red banknotes from inside, then compared them against the price under the alarm clock, and seriously placed the money the two of them needed to spend on the cashier counter.

Gao Zhihui:...

Gao Zhihui was even more embarrassed, raised her hand to touch her nose tip indicating she would definitely change money when she went out.

"It's fine, let's go."

Shen Xi waved her hand, put the little wallet back into her clothes pocket, and the two walked out of Happy Clock Shop one after another.

Simultaneously, Huo Xunqi and the others also came out of a cake shop on South Street.

Several people's faces more or less carried a bit of post-calamity relief; they hadn't expected this Instance to be so dangerous, simply unable to associate with "Happy" at all.

"Move fast, we need to get as many little red flowers as possible to satisfy the clearance condition."

Huo Xunqi finished coldly, and then the group walked along South Street inward; when they entered, their luck was relatively good — although personnel were still separated and scattered, those by their sides were all recognized player colleagues.

Players have skills in hand, which can save lives at critical moments.

As a result, they nearly capsized into total annihilation at the very first exploration point; in the end it was still relying on Huo Xunqi's capability that the remaining people were fished out, but there were also those who died — even players cannot guarantee Instance survival.

The other team members dared not speak much, because they had previously been a bit unscrupulous in the cake shop; who could have thought those people would be made into bloody splatter cakes, simply a nightmare.

Besides South Street and North Street, even East Street and West Street are all experiencing death events.

Everyone pulled into the Instance faces equal danger; one blooming blood flower after another is like a signal — if one could leave this Happy Street, they would discover that the originally clean and tidy place had long since become permeated with blood color, whether the buildings inside or the people, all carried a layer of ominous curse.