Chapter 925

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Main Character:

Shen Yao

【Drip——Welcome to the Ascension Game, the game is fully developed and operated by Ascension Company, opposition is invalid

Instance: Changming Botanical Garden

Time: One day

Clear Condition: Tour the entire park, stamp any location's seal within the park】

The vision before their eyes flickered between light and dark, and by the time it fully normalized, they had already changed locations.

Shen Yao immediately released her mental perception; good news, the whole family was together; bad news, they had entered the instance too quickly, their clothes were fine, but things like backpacks hadn't been brought in.

"Mom"

Shen Xi pulled Huo Mingjue over, looking around warily, while Huo Mingjue was still dazed, after all he had been thrown into a new place while still asleep, fortunately his clothes hadn't been changed, otherwise he would have gone out in pajamas.

Shen Yao raised her hand to touch Huo Mingjue's hair for simple comfort, then turned to look at her side, where Huo Xunqi and Huo Mingze were.

These two had been dozens of meters away from them when they entered.

"How is it?"

Shen Yao raised her hand to take Huo Mingze; this child also looked listless, and together with Huo Mingjue they lay motionless in Shen Yao's arms, their tall figures directly wrapping Shen Yao in their encirclement.

Huo Xunqi shook his head, first glancing at the red subtitles hanging above the botanical garden gate not far away, then glancing at the people constantly appearing one after another around them, "It should be that the Spiritual Qi Revival suddenly erupted, the Spiritual Qi Vortex expanded, and drew everyone within a certain range into the instance."

It had been mentioned before that not everyone drawn in could enter an instance; they would be isolated and scattered into different spaces.

The reason the whole family hadn't even changed clothes before sleeping was to prevent the Spiritual Qi Revival from suddenly erupting and leaving them unprepared; they hadn't expected the eruption to come so quickly.

The botanical garden gate not far away had not opened; beneath the tall arch-shaped gate were locked iron bars, surrounded by high walls built of stone and cement, as if intentionally isolating the inside from the outside.

The two characters "Changming" at the very top were somewhat weathered, and the name of the botanical garden could still be vaguely seen; in the corner was a small square pavilion with "Ticket Booth" written below, suggesting one needed to buy a ticket to enter the botanical garden.

"The game hasn't started yet, I'll go check the situation," Shen Xi casually moved her wrist, the Universal Wristband just worn on her body.

"Mm, be careful."

Shen Yao didn't say much; Shen Xi was a player with some experience, and besides, Changming Botanical Garden hadn't officially opened yet, so choosing to gather information first was very normal.

"I'll go find the Special Investigation Bureau people; they have more detailed information," Huo Xunqi took a long stride, then disappeared into the constantly increasing crowd.

Huo Mingjue and Huo Mingze only then reluctantly released the large body pillow "Shen Yao" from their arms, the two brothers scratched their heads embarrassedly.

"Mom, do we need to gather information too?"

"Mom, I saw the people who went up the mountain before; they live in the courtyard house in front."

Huo Mingjue and Huo Mingze shrank their bodies and lowered their voices to recount their discoveries; the two little ones had excellent memories, needing no deliberate memorization to recall many previously overlooked details.

Shen Yao smiled and encouraged them to continue; Huo Mingze and Huo Mingjue grew more excited the more they spoke, wishing they could pour out all the stored information in their heads.

Shen Xi, who had left first, soon returned, also bringing not-so-good news; she had seen the hotel staff who had handled their check-in in the crowd.

"Changming Botanical Garden is an old botanical garden with a total of five garden areas, each planting unique plant varieties.

Opens at 8:00 AM, closes at 6:00 PM, ticket checking stops at 5:00 PM.

Changming Botanical Garden tickets: Adults 50 Instance Coins, seniors (over 60) and children (under 16) 25 Instance Coins."

Shen Xi held a flyer in her hand, an introduction to Changming Zoo, but the font on it was too poorly preserved to read clearly; the content just mentioned was what Shen Xi had learned through inquiries and asking around.

Shen Xi had a Punctual Pocket Watch on her person; besides its overly heaven-defying functions, it could also be used as a timing tool; it was now 7:40 AM, with 20 minutes until the botanical garden opened.

Shen Yao took the flyer from Shen Xi's hand, and Huo Mingjue and Huo Mingze also came over to look, only to see a large mass of blurred font.

Huo Mingjue and Huo Mingze:...

Shen Yao turned the flyer over front and back, then pointed out a few images whose outlines were still visible, seemingly pictures, to the three of them.

"These should be several garden areas within the botanical garden; regarding the clear condition, the seal is normally at the entrance gate of each garden area," very similar to museums in modern society, a stamping collection activity.

Seeing this, Shen Xi and the others nodded; Huo Mingjue and Huo Mingze couldn't see anything, but Shen Xi frowned slightly, feeling a bit of resistance toward the garden areas inside Changming Botanical Garden.

Shen Yao raised her hand and patted Shen Xi's shoulder, "Those with strong mental power are naturally sensitive to danger;" the seals inside Changming Botanical Garden definitely weren't easy to obtain, and the instance interior was full of crises; who knew what tricks existed inside an old garden area like the one before them!

Without waiting for Huo Xunqi to return, Shen Yao had Shen Xi and the others stay in place, while she planned to go to the ticket booth first to buy entrance tickets.

Instance Coins weren't something everyone had; even players who had entered instances might be penniless and never heard of this thing.

Shen Yao had previously been in the Slaughterhouse Instance, earning quite a few Instance Coins through her own labor, and these Instance Coins now had their use.

The ticket booth was a pitch-black small pavilion; people outside couldn't see inside, and ticket prices were posted on the window beside it.

Shen Yao pressed the red button according to the prompt, then a green vine as thick as a finger crawled out from under the button; it attached to Shen Yao's wrist, and the surface patterns flickered.

5000 Instance Coins instantly became 4825 Instance Coins.

Huh?

Wrong!

Normally, it should be 4800 Instance Coins; in a family of five, three adults and two children (Shen Xi counts as an adult at sixteen).

The vine attached to the wrist withdrew, then the green button lit up for an instant, and five card-sized tickets were spat out.

Shen Yao picked up the tickets, seeing three adult tickets and two child tickets written on them, confirming the problem lay with herself.

"Employee Discount Ticket"

Half-price discount, so 25 Instance Coins were saved; Shen Yao opened her item bar, and sure enough, her identity information appeared on the originally clean Instance ID Card, with the description at the bottom being Changming Botanical Garden employee.

Shen Yao:...

The tickets were registered, with the information of players and ordinary people on them; players would have their nicknames printed, while ordinary people had their own names.

As Shen Yao safely left the ticket booth, others noticing the ticket booth quickly moved toward this place, and some stopped Shen Yao to ask about ticket matters, wanting to extract more valuable information.

"The ticket booth has the ticket prices written; Changming Botanical Garden will open soon, hurry up."

Shen Yao finished speaking and walked back past the other party, causing those who still wanted to pry to express dissatisfaction one after another, "What's there to be proud of? It's just buying tickets, what's so hard about it."

"Yes yes, let's go buy quickly, whatever garden zone seals, you definitely have to go inside to clear the instance."

"Tsk, originally a perfectly good weekend outing, and we ended up entering an instance, what are those people even doing? Wasting us taxpayers' money."

"Shh, stop talking nonsense, the world has changed, danger can be encountered just walking along, let's survive this first."

"Easy for you to say, the internet says instances are hard to clear, when will the officials send people to save us? How can we clear it relying on ourselves alone?"

"..."

Thanks to the officials' continuous leniency over this past half year, ordinary people also understand how terrifying instances are, so when they first entered, even though they were panicked, no one would foolishly shout and scream, or babble nonsense.

But as time dragged on, and with so many ordinary people around, the suppressed panic emotions once again took the high ground; they attempted to calm themselves through words and actions, but the effect wasn't great, instead making the surroundings a chaotic mess, as if several hundred ducks were quacking by their ears, noisy enough to make one restless and burning with anger.

Shen Yao had already returned to her family's side; seeing Huo Xunqi was also there, she simply didn't think twice and distributed the tickets she bought back according to their corresponding recipients.

The card-sized tickets had a few lines of introduction on the front, with the outline of Changming Botanical Garden as the background; Shen Yao could still see the arched main gate.

The back of the card had a few precautions:

One, please visitors strictly abide by Changming Botanical Garden's rules and regulations, must not damage the garden zone's plants.

Two, please visitors tour Changming Botanical Garden's five garden zones in sequence, must not miss any, must not skip.

Three, inside Changming Botanical Garden there are only five garden zones, no extra garden zones exist; if you accidentally go wrong, please call for staff.

Four, Changming Botanical Garden tickets are real-name system, please guarantee the person-ticket consistency principle, must not violate.

Five, relevant seals are inside the garden zones, please stamp well then return items to original owners.

Six, please confirm stamping position; once stamped, must not change, consequences at your own risk.

Six rules in total, more than the Slaughterhouse Instance, but the key points are also explained.

Shen Yao touched her chin, asking Shen Xi how much longer until 8:00.

"Five minutes"

Shen Xi made a hand gesture, then brought up the sixth rule: confirm stamping position and cannot change it, especially with that line "consequences at your own risk" following behind; she always felt this was a trap.

"Stamp on the front of the ticket, remember, don't obscure your own name," Shen Yao shook her own Changming Botanical Garden staff card, thinking internal personnel indeed have an advantage; this stamping is truly insidious.

Shen Xi and the others nodded upon hearing this; then Huo Xunqi told the newly returned Shen Yao the information he had pried; Shen Xi and the other two had already been instructed, so taking the opportunity, Shen Yao had them carefully study the six rules on the back of the card; after entering Changming Botanical Garden, they must absolutely abide by them.

As 8:00 arrived, the instance characters originally hanging above Changming Botanical Garden disappeared like flowing water; the tightly shut main gate only made a *crack* sound, then slowly opened from inside to outside.

Changming Botanical Garden looked dilapidated on the outside, but actually looking inside through the open main gate, the internal buildings were still very new and clean.

"Could it be a bit too clean? Even the toys I buy aren't this clean," Huo Mingze's little mouth opened and closed, simultaneously giving everyone a reminder.

Changming Botanical Garden is somewhat fake.

"Be careful after entering, if there's a problem speak up timely, don't be afraid," Shen Yao touched Huo Mingze and Huo Mingjue's little heads, then the family of five walked forward.

When they passed through Changming Botanical Garden's main gate, the originally static instance panel showed time changes; the relevant countdown started, and the instance officially began operation.

At the same time, a large expanse of fog enveloped the Spiritual Qi Revival zone outside.

Quite a few official vehicles were parked at the park entrance; the survivors' emotions were agitated, after all no one can accept the collapse of suddenly having one less person beside them after sleeping soundly.

Official staff inevitably bore the brunt of displaced anger; civilians who lost track of family members spoke without restraint, even demanding officials must rescue the people.

"Made contact with Huo Xunqi?" Inside the Special Investigation Bureau, relevant leaders were trying to find a way.

Right now the Special Affairs Bureau is not yet operational; Huo Xunqi is still the Special Investigation Bureau's Director.

"Director Huo's phone can't get through; locate him," they wouldn't dare locate Director Huo even if given the courage, that's just waiting to be cleaned up.

The leader waved a hand, "Continue searching; simultaneously arrange other Special Investigation Bureau players to enter the instance to gather people as much as possible," this Spiritual Qi Revival eruption was too sudden; although the missing count doesn't match the Jinghua University Instance, the location here is special — not just Jing Shi citizens, but also citizens from surrounding provinces and cities; the public opinion pressure won't be small if it blows up.

The Special Investigation Bureau people heard and hurriedly nodded in agreement; the atmosphere inside the tent was tense, hating that they couldn't immediately solve the problem here.

The lens shifts, returning once more to the Changming Botanical Garden Instance.

Shen Yao's group, now inside the garden zone, didn't know that not long after they entered, something terrifying happened at the ticket booth.

Everyone knows ticket sales need money — that is, Instance Coins — and tickets are real-name, meaning ticket and person info must match.

But there are just those who like to play petty tricks; not only do they not pay when buying tickets, unwilling to spend money themselves, they even snatch other people's tickets.

"Ah!!! What's going on?"

"No Instance Coins then use real-world currency; if you have neither you can offset with body organs; don't tell me you still want to white-loot? This is an instance, not reality!"

In the reality world being unreasonable can gain benefits; the instance world doesn't coddle these stinking bad habits — all those greedy for petty advantages died miserably, especially those attempting to evade tickets and snatch theirs; all were pressed into meat patties, unrecognizable as human.

The restless people became honest and law-abiding again; players hiding among them hurriedly bought tickets to enter Changming Botanical Garden; even if players had no Instance Coins and no money, they could still offset with items; in short, they had more guarantees than ordinary people.

People staying outside Changming Botanical Garden grew fewer and fewer, until everyone who could walk had entered the garden, and those remaining were simply determined to die without moving.

Both sides had their own calculations: one side planned to stake it all on a clearance attempt, at least keeping fate in their own hands; the other side played ostrich, taking one step at a time, both cherishing life yet actively giving up on life.

The distant ticket booth stood lonely; the surrounding crimson bloodstains slowly disappeared; with a gust of wind blowing past, the few people originally waiting outside seemed to have been erased; following closely behind were Special Investigation Bureau players wearing uniforms.

When the Special Investigation Bureau players bought tickets and entered the garden, the ticket booth disappeared.