The entire corridor returned to silence; no one spoke again.
Their minds had been briefly relaxed for a period, which counted as an effective rest. About twenty minutes later, when the youth returned, Zhou Qi’an’s fatigue had eased considerably.
“Found them. We agreed to meet near the food cart.”
Of course, the youth wouldn’t bring the other two players directly up here.
The group took the elevator down.
In the lobby, Mu Ge was boredly playing with a small knife. She had just found a lot of clues, giving her more bargaining chips. Wang Cai stood beside her, looking as fierce and ready to kill as when they first met.
The peaceful and stylish scene was slightly shattered when they saw that Kerr and Zhao Sanxun were not among the people who came down.
Mu Ge’s grip on her knife tightened. Not just A’Ling, but the other two were also taken care of?
Not long ago, Zhao Sanxun had approached her, claiming to have gotten some special elevator password from A’Ling and asking if she wanted to make a deal to go up together.
At that time, Mu Ge was halfway through a side quest and refused.
With A’Ling in such a miserable state, Zhao Sanxun, who had made a deal with her, probably couldn’t have escaped either.
As for the presence of Ying Yu and the others, the youth had mentioned when he came down to find them that they had met up with the surviving players from the previous wave in this instance, so Mu Ge was not too surprised.
“The final main quest has already begun.” Zhou Qi’an believed the youth had already covered the main points and got straight to it, “Do you want to cooperate?”
Mu Ge nodded decisively, “We can.”
These few were clearly already tied together like grasshoppers on a string; she had to get on that string too.
Mu Ge took the initiative to show her sincerity first, “Starting from the third floor, besides the safety door in the stairwell, each department also has a separate emergency exit and safety door at the end.”
Seeing that most of them didn’t show much reaction, she knew they were likely already aware and continued:
“Wang Cai and I found a notebook fragment in the outpatient building. It records a secret passage, but the door to the passage won’t open.”
Zhou Qi’an finally showed some expression. Kerr had also gotten his information about Xianlai Lake from a fragment.
No wonder Mu Ge was so eager to share; without the universal key card, they couldn’t open the door.
But just as he and Shen Zhiyi had discussed before, they both tended to believe the universal key card was more suited for escaping, and forcing open a certain door could be very dangerous.
Mu Ge’s next sentence immediately solidified Zhou Qi’an’s determination to enter.
“The notebook fragment says that the other end of the passage is the doctor’s secret garden.”
Zhou Qi’an repeated the last four words and found the connection.
The pharmacy was also a large greenhouse for cultivating cyclamen and patients. With the most flowers in the entire hospital, it could certainly be described as a garden.
“Mr. Si has been guarding that place. There must still be undiscovered secrets.”
This casual remark made Mu Ge’s expression change instantly, “Mr. Si?”
She quickly suppressed her surprise. With players from a previous wave, it was certain that there would also be staff members.
“Let’s go.”
Mu Ge was surprised, “Right now?”
Zhou Qi’an nodded.
After leaving the dream, the current instance difficulty had risen to four stars. They were already in the final quest stage. If they didn’t go now, were they going to wait for the difficulty to rise even further?
On this point, everyone agreed. After some communication along the way, they all headed towards the outpatient building.
Aside from the night he first arrived at the instance and the time in the dream, this was Zhou Qi’an’s first formal visit to the outpatient building.
The outpatient building was as quiet as ever, exuding an air of desolation everywhere.
The inpatient department at least had some medical staff walking around during the day, but here, not a single person could be seen. There were a few corpses of flesh mound monsters at the entrance, killed by Mu Ge while she was doing a quest wearing the morgue’s protective suit.
Zhou Qi’an carefully observed his surroundings.
“There’s one more strange thing.”
Mu Ge paused for a moment, then said upon seeing Ying Yu and the University Student, “But seeing them, it’s not so strange anymore.”
“The secret passage door I found has the Whaler’s Association logo painted on it…” Mu Ge didn’t notice Zhou Qi’an’s gaze darken for a moment and continued, “It seems someone from the Whaler’s Association has been to this instance before. We just don’t know which wave of players they were.”
They hadn’t just been here; they were the designers.
It only took Zhou Qi’an a second to reach this conclusion.
When the members of the Whaler’s Association cleared this instance, the association’s name, with its targeted meaning, had not yet been born, let alone leaving behind a logo.
It could only be a masterpiece created after they cleared it.
In his memory, the association had indeed participated in designing instances.
A blurry fragment seemed to appear in his mind.
When he tried to think about it in more detail, the headache that had just subsided surged back in waves, and Zhou Qi’an’s body swayed violently.
“Are you okay!” The sudden violent reaction startled Mu Ge.
Shen Zhiyi had already arrived at Zhou Qi’an’s side a step ahead. Feeling the thin muscles twitching slightly, he said in a deep voice, “Qi’an, look at me.”
Now it was Mu Ge and the others who had a headache.
For some reason, when Shen Zhiyi spoke, they couldn’t hear what he was saying at all, and a sharp pain briefly pierced their minds.
The sealing power within his special blue eyes had weakened a lot. The hand Shen Zhiyi placed on his shoulder permeated with an invisible force.
The Heart of the Nightmare operated slightly, accelerating blood circulation.
Zhou Qi’an’s pupils, which were about to tremble along with his body, calmed down a bit.
The blurry image from his memory flashed for an instant:
“Your suggestion for the game to create a Holy Artifact is good. Building on that, I’ve thought of a good idea.”
Zhou Qi’an saw a younger version of himself asking with a less-than-genuine smile, “What good idea?”
“I don’t know if it will work yet. I’ll tell you in the future when it does.”
The image came to an abrupt end again.
Normally, Zhou Qi’an hated riddle-talkers the most. Now that his own memory was playing riddle-talker with him, he almost laughed in anger.
Half of his body was soaked in cold sweat. Zhou Qi’an took a moment to regulate his breathing, straightened up again, and said in a hoarse voice, “I’m fine, just low blood sugar. Let’s keep going.”
As they started walking again, the team was noticeably much quieter.
Mu Ge’s puzzled gaze wandered between Zhou Qi’an and Shen Zhiyi, finally settling on Shen Zhiyi. Was that a sound-proofing item?
Is that why she couldn’t hear him speak just now?
But things didn’t seem that simple.
As she pondered, she had already led the way to the secret door.
“This is it.”
The so-called secret passage was actually built behind an ATM on the first floor of the outpatient building. The machine had been moved aside, revealing a narrow, small, dark red secret door behind it. Large cyclamen flower carvings were etched onto the door.
The entire door was almost perfectly flush with the wall, revealing only a sensor.
Compared to the cyclamen, Zhou Qi’an was more focused on the small, palm-sized blue logo below: the image was of a whale spouting a mist of water. Upon closer inspection, you could see it was spouting blood.
Zhou Qi’an’s face showed no expression, but he sneered inwardly: No wonder the Cyclamen instance has so many disgusting designs.
This was an instance that required a high degree of player cooperation. How could a group of strangers possibly cooperate with each other?
The instance also deliberately placed a hidden item to incite infighting, not to mention that during the clearance process, you had to guard against the virus and also be careful of being seriously injured and sent to the ICU.
Zhou Qi’an took out the universal key card. As the small white card approached the secret passage door, an indescribable coldness lingered around them.
That feeling… was like being cursed with bad luck.
The players behind him also felt an unusual chill, as if using this key card to open the door would bring misfortune.
Mu Ge hesitated, “Should we open it?”
Zhou Qi’an didn’t speak. He first touched the door with his palm alone. The texture had changed. At first, it felt like cold concrete, but now the door seemed to have softened. Having dealt with monsters so many times, he was sure it was a texture close to that of flesh paste.
The door began to feel incredibly alive.
Strangely, just standing in front of the door would involuntarily breed fear. The longer they stood, the deeper the fear grew.
“We can’t go on like this.”
Zhou Qi’an closed his eyes, hardened his heart, and pressed the key card directly against it. He wanted to see what was inside.
Along with a strange, screeching sliding sound, a gust of sinister wind crept out from under their feet. A sudden drop in temperature enveloped everyone, and the frantic beating of their hearts in their chests involuntarily intensified.
Zhou Qi’an subconsciously wanted to move the key card away, but at this moment, the card was stuck tightly to the sensor. With a click, the door popped open like a delivery locker, and a cold system prompt followed:
“You have successfully opened the door to the Secret Garden.”
“Hint: Because the [Death Curse Bone] has been obtained in instance #47814, a hidden gameplay mechanic has been triggered. The instance difficulty has been changed from four stars to five and a half stars.”
The difficulty level on the players’ mission panels instantly changed to six stars. In the position of the sixth star, a half-gray star appeared.
Zhou Qi’an: “…”
·
The number of online users on the forum was exceptionally high today. The shock from one hidden item was limited, but when its holder was the same person as the owner of the Holy Artifact, it was practically explosive news.
Players were browsing the forum, constantly refreshing posts, and frantically typing. In the process, the forum screen suddenly experienced a strange stutter and flicker.
Did it lag?
Before the thought could even form, their phones even made a few crackling sounds. The next moment, a new pop-up announcement suddenly appeared at the top of the forum.
[Due to the acquisition of a hidden item, the first five-and-a-half-star instance (#47814) has been unlocked. All players, please be advised.]
[There are still other instances with hidden items that have not been unlocked. Players, please do not be discouraged, and continue to strive!]
The players who were passionately posting all stopped their actions. Just now it was the system lagging; at this moment, it was as if they themselves were lagging.
Five and a half stars.
At first glance, the unfamiliar difficulty level didn’t bring about any emotional change. But the moment their minds processed it, their emotions were on the verge of exploding.
The game actually has five-and-a-half-star instances!! What kind of outrageous statement is this.
Can you even get out of there alive?
The most terrifying thing was, from the sound of it, there were several similar hidden instances.
They were no longer just spectators. They instantly felt an immersive sense of substitution, especially some players who themselves possessed high-quality items. They became even more nervous.
Once the game determined they had the strength to enter a related instance… many people browsing the forum swallowed hard, their fingers clenching so tightly they could almost shatter the screen.
Red Cloak, who was actively raising the price to sell information about the Holy Artifact holder, saw the news, and the color of her doll-like, creamy white skin changed.
The several players who had been in contact with her a second ago immediately cut off communication.
A five-and-a-half-star instance. If you die, buying information is useless.
If he comes out alive… they’d have to be crazy to provoke him!
Who would have thought that in a wondrous place far away, someone was indeed setting up an inescapable trap to provoke him.
The environment here was very nice. Only a hint of sinister energy permeating the air confirmed that it was not the real world, nor the new world.
The man sitting next to the computer saw the forum announcement, his smiling gaze fixed on it.
The inspiration for this instance mechanism was all thanks to Zhou Qi’an.
From there, he had branched out and thought of using high-quality hidden items to increase the instance’s difficulty.
For an instance with an unfixed difficulty level, if the hidden item was not discovered, the difficulty would stay at four to four and a half stars. But once a player had the ability to obtain a heaven-defying item, the instance’s difficulty would reasonably surge.
A woman came in with fruit and asked with a half-smile, “Aren’t you afraid he’ll write our names into the Death Curse Bone?”
Seeing the man remain silent.
The woman’s smile gradually faded. “You think he’ll die so easily in a five-and-a-half-star instance.”
Her second statement was not a question.
