They received a very abstract blessing from the Little Mermaid. The protectors were alright, but the tourists had no way of checking whether they had been scammed.
"It's alright, we can go to the market and buy a few sea fish to try." The old man patted his granddaughter's shoulder reassuringly.
Lianrong touched her forehead where the little girl had kissed her and nodded slightly. If Lisa kept her word, they would make a fortune; if she didn't, it was something they couldn't help.
"What should we do next?" Cheng Shuang asked after sharing her blessings with everyone. They couldn't return to the Kingdom of Algard, and crossing the mountains would require traversing the middle of the forest—there were too many unknown dangers...
As everyone pondered, tiny sparks slowly approached from the beach. The guardian, with his keen senses, heard someone rowing a boat and groaning.
The group immediately perked up.
Algard and the Azure Forest were originally on the same coastline. Although the journey by sea was not as dangerous as crossing the forest, it was still quite long. Moreover, the sea was too mysterious and unpredictable for many people of this era. Without considerable strength, it was impossible for an ordinary person to reach the beach of the Azure Forest on their own.
Therefore, there is no need to guess who the visitor is.
Lianrong said angrily, "Desel is such a despicable person!" It was probably unwilling to be led by the nose by a few humans, so it wanted the Countess to confront them head-on, and whoever lived or died would relieve its hatred.
"Now that things have come to this, regardless of whether the mermaid revealed the information or not, the only way out is to enter the forest." Cheng Shuang didn't think much of it. If Bora was the Countess's elixir for maintaining her youth and beauty, even without Diesel, the Countess would never easily give up the pursuit of them.
"Then let's act immediately." The old man was also decisive. He grabbed Lianrong, who was looking at the sea with an indignant expression, and watched as Cheng Shuang and the other two took out the two small cars again. Without saying a word, he pulled his granddaughter into one of them.
The five people drove straight into the dark, sunless forest behind them.
Those floating on the sea saw the car lights swaying, and immediately the sound of horns being blown spread out. Cheng Shuang faintly heard shouts mixed in with the sound of waves, "Catch them! The Earl will reward you handsomely! Quickly, don't let them go deeper into the Azure Smoke Forest..."
Unfortunately, there's still quite a distance from the sea to the shore, and the car won't wait for anyone once it starts moving.
However, not long after entering the forest, the five of them smelled a faint fragrance and were instantly kicked out of the instance.
A loud, mechanical voice boomed: "Attention players! You and your team have entered the territory of the man-eating trees in the forest. You have been devoured by the tree's flower buds and are all dead! Attention players..."
Is this a case of main quest success followed by instance failure?
Sun Han's expression changed. He raised his hand to look at the score on his wrist. The success of the main quest should have given them at least 30 points, but the accidental death deducted another 20 points.
Combining the two, the five people's scores were just over 70 but less than 80.
Most importantly, they didn't even get a clear look at the so-called man-eating tree in the forest, so their deaths were incredibly unjust.
The group sat in the car, which was parked in front of the iron gate of the small villa. Now that they had left the dungeon, there was no need to squeeze into two small cars.
After everyone got out of the car, they carefully looked at the road in front of the small villa and found that there were no cameras or similar equipment around. Du Jun and Sun Han waved and put the car back into their spatial storage.
"Could it be that the buds of this so-called man-eating tree in the forest are blooming on the ground, and a car running over them would be like a lamb entering a tiger's den?" Cheng Shuang scratched her cheek and guessed.
"I can definitely smell the fragrance." Lianrong sighed dejectedly.
Anyway, they had to wait for Han Meimei and Li Lei. The five of them sat down by the corner of the iron gate to figure out what strange thing they had encountered that had caused their entire army to be wiped out.
"Finally, I saw a sea of red before my eyes," Sun Han recalled.
The old man shook his head. "I was focused on driving and didn't notice anything. But at least the main quest was completed, so at least the losses won't be too severe."
Du Jun lowered his sleeves, which were rolled up to his wrists, and calmly analyzed, "Sister Han said that this dungeon is worth 40 points. Presumably, if we can shake off the pursuers while staying alive, we can get more points."
"What a pity." The little girl shrugged. She glanced at the sky; after two days and one night in the dungeon, it was already dark here.
The group still didn't understand the man-eating tree's attack method until Han Meimei and Li Lei appeared, at which point Han Meimei cleared things up for them.
The gentle woman wore an extremely complicated expression. "The man-eating tree! I know now, you must have used too many items that didn't fit the dungeon's background. Otherwise, your luck wouldn't have been so bad!"
Li Lei also only vaguely understood, "Does it have anything to do with it?"
“Of course.” Han Meimei looked at her bewildered boyfriend and smiled sweetly. “If you frequently use items that are out of step with the game’s time in a dungeon, such as items with an ancient ghost or monster background or computer-related items, you will be rejected and unknown creatures like the man-eating tree will appear.
Okay, I get it now, it's the amphibious toy car's fault!
No wonder players don't carry much stuff. It seems that not only items, but also things from the real world should be brought into the dungeon as little as possible.
"There's no use worrying about this now." Han Meimei waved her hand, trying to comfort the group. "We entered the Odin Kingdom at a bad time. It was at war with the Algard Kingdom, and the only main quest we received was about the war. The two of us worked hard on the battlefield for half a month, and once we reached the minimum score for the quest, we left the instance on our own. Brother Li's score was also a bit low. I recommend that you find a relatively safe instance near the Western-style building and take a look around."
She took out a cell phone from her sleeve and explained as she searched, "Although I can't reveal the specific information about the dungeons, I can find out where there are dungeons with approximate point values. I'm already familiar with the ones near my home, but these are still quite unfamiliar to me."
Clearly, Han Meimei's score was so high that she could no longer act with them.
In the end, everyone voted and decided on a section of abandoned track two kilometers away from the small villa.
They weren't going to be foolish enough to keep traveling while exhausted, so they found a hotel nearby to rest for the time being.
Some hotel rooms are also connected to dungeons, mostly those with too low a score for the players to enter, allowing them to get a good night's sleep.
As soon as it was light, after having breakfast, the group walked to the railway. There were a few pedestrians gathered on the railway, who seemed to be there to enter this instance.
Han Meimei was also a little surprised, but she quickly realized what was happening and whispered to her companions, "This dungeon seems to be very good for farming points, similar to the Rat Man in the alley."
Cheng Shuang raised her head slightly, looked around, and noticed that these players were all burly men. She frowned, "Could it be a violent type... There isn't even a pretty girl among them!"
Du Jun's lips twitched. This kid has become quite obsessed with looks lately, and he also has some sexism... I still haven't given him enough homework!
Cheng Shuang: Suddenly, a shiver ran through me, and my scalp tingled. Why did I suddenly feel an uncontrollable longing for the days when I used to do my homework at my desk?!
Sun Han subconsciously pushed up his glasses, only to find his hand empty. He touched the bridge of his nose in discomfort and said, "Actually, have you noticed that the dungeons are related to the buildings or objects you enter? The Western-style building looks like a small castle, and the urban village is connected to the Twin Villages."
Everyone present was intelligent; they understood immediately.
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