Chapter 32 Let's Set Sail, ███! This group of players is the "first..."
Under the clock, the game store had disappeared, replaced by normal walls, inside which was an interrogation room. Xue Chao, having done it before, simply sawed a hole in it and smashed it open.
The harbor was dark and moonless, with only a faint light from the distant lighthouse shining into the small, dark room that had been opened.
The headless man was holding the one-eyed head on the ground, its cavity facing Xue Chao. Upon seeing this damned creature, the man froze, but the head in his arms opened its mouth and let out a terrified scream, as if its tail had been stomped off. Xue Chao then slapped the head to the ground with a saw blade.
"Quiet." Xue Chao wedged the chainsaw into the headless man's body, snatched the head, but looked at the head that was originally inside his stomach on the ground, without eyes. "Senior, if you're alright, I can send you on your way."
The one-eyed head in his hand stopped screaming, while the eyeless head on the ground turned over and looked up at Xue Chao: "Do you know who I am?"
"It's hard to say, after all, this body isn't yours." Xue Chao used a flippant tone to expose his secret, "You were the leader of the only survey team that returned from the underwater temple a year ago. This body is yours, but the head on top of it belongs to your 'team member,' right—or rather, to another player?"
The copy was formerly known as "The Lost Orlaug".
During the standby time, Zhu Wen, in order to scare other players and also to scare him, a novice host, specifically mentioned that a member of his guild had once played this dungeon, the dungeon type was "Investigation Team", and the game identity was "Investigation Team Leader", and the ending was "total annihilation".
The Orlaug was also known as the Destiny. Although it was used by the navigators as a sacrifice to the underwater temple for the passengers, and it traveled back and forth between Giant Harbor and the sea, the only time it could truly be called "lost" was a year ago.
Only one person returned from the entire ship, which barely matches the description of "total annihilation".
He wondered if the survey team that sailed with the Orlog a year ago might have been a group of players, since the records showed that the "number of times the instance was opened" was 7.
In other words, besides their group, there have been 7 other groups of players who have entered this instance.
Therefore, the instance does not reset each time it opens. Instead, it develops linearly over time, and the impact left by each batch of players will not disappear and will still exist in subsequent openings.
Therefore, the dungeon may have a "former name", and the dungeon type may also change. The main quest and side quests are probably all different. Each time it is opened, it is a "new dungeon".
This isn't a game where boys and girls race forward. After one player completes a level, the mechanisms are reset, the track is cleared, and the next player takes on the same route and the same level.
This is a "series of works" where there's no turning back once the arrow is released.
If someone blew up the building in the previous season, it won't automatically repair itself in this season unless a character repairs it (whether it's an NPC or the protagonist of the new season). Even then, it might not be able to be repaired to its original state. If an important NPC is killed in this season, they won't reappear in the next season unless "the plot requires" and they are brought back to the stage by an unnatural force that is already present in the world view.
Each season is set in the same universe, but tells a different story.
This group of players is the first to appear in "Season 8".
This explains why, to the outside world, the entire group of players was wiped out, but inside the instance, one person returned alive.
Because this person did not die, but also failed to complete the main quest and leave the instance world, so he was "assimilated" by the instance.
He was the main character in the seventh season, but he couldn't escape the "drama" and became a supporting character in the eighth season, that is, an "NPC".
"'Player'...? Ha, this isn't some game on your phone, this is a million times more terrifying than any game... You guessed right, I cut off his head as a disguise to hide the Divine Eye, how did you find out?"
It seems that I have indeed been assimilated by the instance, and to a great extent. I have forgotten that this is an instance of an infinite game, that I was once a player, and that I have completely become a part of the instance.
Xue Chao: You mean this? My former teammate told me about it.
Xue Chao wasn't lying; he did indeed guess based on Lin Feng's words.
While Zhu Wen was boasting during the standby time, the other players in the car were all eavesdropping, but Lin Feng didn't react to the word "team leader".
Yan Bocheng and Zhu Wen were clearly from the same guild. They pretended not to know each other to mislead other players, while secretly cooperating to carry out their operation around Zhu Wen, their ace player, without ever contacting Lin Feng.
Lin Feng's knowledge of Zhu Wen was limited to being amazed by his "seventh place" ranking, unlike his attitude towards his guild's ace player. Therefore, it can be confirmed that Lin Feng is not from their guild.
Lin Feng didn't know about the team leader, but when he met the investigator, he referred to himself as the "team leader," indicating that he had obtained information from elsewhere that the only person to return from the Orlaug was the team leader.
But he couldn't keep his mouth shut and said, "He's quite similar to one of my seniors"... Guilds are definitely in competition. These bastards enter the dungeon, and for survival and rating, as long as there's profit to be made, they'll frame and fight each other. It's normal. Lin Feng isn't very brave, and he didn't hesitate to betray him when he was in danger. How easy is it to find a truly sincere "senior" outside?
Then it's highly likely they're senior members from the same guild.
Being in the same guild, you can barely be considered "family." Backed by the shared interests of the guild, senior members will guide promising juniors.
Guilds are probably the main mode of "wandering the world" for these players. They are scattered everywhere, and apart from the powerful big shots, it is probably not easy for them to make a living. Who knows, this "senior" might be the "master" who guided or even introduced Lin Feng to the guild.
The "team leader" is from Zhu Wen Guild, and the "senior" is from Lin Feng Guild. If there's no such thing as switching guilds, then there are two people.
These two players both participated in the same instance a year ago.
The leader returned, but the head is not now. It can only be that the navigator and the opposition switched the two heads while changing parts to confuse the monster.
"You've already taken the Divine Eye, what more do you want!" His mind seemed to suddenly go mad, and he let out a mournful scream, "I've fucking had enough! They won't let me die, and you're playing me too! If you have the guts, kill me!! Come on! Kill me... Waaah, I beg you, kill me..."
Xue Chao watched coldly, scrutinizing whether his words were true or false, and how much information he could extract. The cursing in his head had turned into pure wailing, like the last cry of a dying person uttering the cry of a newborn. The cry inexplicably startled him, like a distant call.
He felt inexplicably irritated and suddenly realized that it was both boring and absurd to make things difficult for a dead person who had forgotten where he came from. So he withdrew even his intimidating "coldness," stripped off his expression, and without any purpose, listlessly took the only remaining eye from the head. When he turned it over, the back of the eye was completely different, covered with strange, deep red stripes, as if another eye had grown behind the first one—a divine eye!
“It’s not that I don’t want you to die, but you didn’t just bring back one eye, you brought back a pair of eyes… I’ve said it before, if it were me, I would hide them in my own eyes. It seems we’re pretty much on the same page.” With a painful and bewildered sob in his head, he closed his empty eye sockets and said casually, “It’s nothing, go to sleep.”
The comments section was completely captivated by the fact that there was also a divine eye:
"That's amazing... The newbie noticed a long time ago that both eyes were on him."
"They fooled everyone, damn it. It was intentional to have Lin Feng retrieve it personally, wasn't it? Their attention was all focused on that divine eye."
"This is amazing... Did he know Lin Feng would betray him? He left a fake eyeball, and Lin Feng thought it was real. But when he took it out and found it was fake, his expression went through all sorts of twists and turns. It made me laugh."
"That divine eye is just a decoy, because once Lin Feng betrays us, he will definitely tell Zhu Wen about the divine eye, thus drawing the attention of the two opposite sides to that divine eye as well."
Xue Chao once again showed off his skills in the comments section, with people loudly spamming "666". The room, which had been rising steadily, jumped several more pages and reached the top 50 of the strongly recommended rankings!
Some audience members recognized the team leader, which sparked a discussion:
"I felt something was off before, but I just couldn't recognize it. This head... isn't that member of the Amusement Park Guild, Chen something, who did guild dungeons with Zhu Wen?"
"I guess every time before, players were sent to investigate the fog, but once they entered the fog, they were gone. Several batches died. They must be the ones the NPCs were talking about who 'went to investigate many times but never returned'."
What happened with Chen that time?
"If it had been the Destiny that had been sailing out to sea, some players might have discovered the clues left by other players. There would have been no solution to this problem. Just think about it, being trapped on this 'Titanic' that was bound to crash into the iceberg, how could anyone not go crazy? I estimate that some players, whether out of a gamble or a desire for a quick death, simply jumped into the sea and ended up at the underwater temple."
"Another possibility is that people trapped in the same inevitable predicament are most likely to break down and kill each other. I guess that's how they 'sabotaged' the ship, and as a result, they 'blessed it out of the blue'."
"Could the mission's initial objective have been to explore the temple...? The first few groups were all just cannon fodder who went in the wrong direction (doge)."
"Then why isn't the mission considered complete when Chen finally came back?"
"I don't know, who knows what their main storyline is?"
All the censored words regarding the team leader's identity have been unlocked, which is pretty much what Xue Chao expected. However, after looking for a long time, he didn't see any comments from viewers who had "watched previous seasons." Even if they knew Chen, it was from other instances.
Xue Chao speculated that since each instance world is a "series", the previous effects will remain to avoid spoilers. It is difficult for viewers to watch the later seasons after watching one season. If it is even more extreme, the viewers of each season may not overlap at all.
There are two items in the file: "Previous Host Evaluations" and "Achievements Obtained from the Copy". In theory, he should be able to see the former at least now, but there is no response.
Yes, these two lines are "no permission", not "to be unlocked", so he may not see them until the settlement.
The crying slowly faded away, like a candle flame blown out by the sea breeze. One body, two heads, one soul, finally met its end after a long year, as if it were a relief.
The rain had lessened at some point, turning into a drizzle that stung my face like needles. The sea breeze had calmed down, as if all the terror had been just an illusion, and the sea was now peaceful.
But the sky was still dark, the lighthouse was shrouded in mist, the calm before the storm.
"【██】My new husband has drawn all their attention away and quietly left the main battlefield of the terminal. What is he up to?"
"【██】I don't understand, just watch the newbie's gameplay, I'm truly impressed now."
"【██】I have an idea. For players, isn't the most important thing..."
"【██】Looking for a boat!"
“Found it.” On the other end of Xue Chao’s consciousness connection, far from the strife, Pu Fengchun, who had been searching for mythological elements during the intervals of his escape, said breathlessly, “There is a painting on the ceiling here.”
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