On the live stream platform, two new windows were added to the section called 'Lost Treasure.'
There were a few flashes of electricity from one of the live stream screens. After a pause that was visible to the naked eye, it completely darkened. It blended harmoniously with the 20 or so black screens above it.
In the other newly opened live stream room, the figure of Chi Ting appeared.
At the same time, players who followed Chi Ting during 'Love Apartment' received the notification that he had started streaming.
None of them expected Chi Ting to enter a new instance so quickly and they suddenly became energetic. Players who hadn't entered a new instance yet took advantage of the free period and poured in one after another. This was until they clearly saw the current number of survivors in the instance and were completely stunned.
Was this okay? Last time, he entered the Love Apartment. This time, it was even more terrible. 23/50 people survived. Wasn't half the group wiped out at the start?
This luck was worse than everyone else!
Qiu Ji, the captain of the Seven Seas team, had just finished watching the part of the video related to Chi Ting's personal skill. Then after seeing the notification about the start of the stream, he also entered the live stream room.
At a glance, he saw the complaining about Chi Ting's luck in the barrage and immediately understood what happened.
There were so many instances in the unlimited world. The genres were ever-changing, and the situation in the game was even more different.
There were some instances where the players' survival was never a criterion for determining the end of the game. Conversely, in order to ensure that the balance of the game was maintained during the operation, additional personnel were replenished if there was a situation where too many players died. This resulted in the so-called 'endgame instance.'
Generally speaking, being able to make an instance enter the endgame state was enough to indicate that the level of players in the instance was far below the basic level of the instance. In this situation, unless they could wait for a great rescuer to show mercy and save them from their dire straits, there was basically only a continuous, vicious cycle left.
Qiu Ji vaguely remembered that he had seen the instance of 'Lost Treasure' before. However, he had never seen the clearance strategy and didn't quite understand. There were bigshots who waited in front of the water curtain of the Sanctuary every day. How come none of them took over the rescue this time? Instead, a newcomer who only cleared an instance once was matched to it.
According to the rules, the players who filled the position of this endgame instance could equally share the rewards of all the players who died before they entered the instance. In other words, the more people who died in the early stages, the higher the rescue rewards obtained.
Now, even those professional rescuers of the Sanctuary were willing to give up rather than obtain the replacement rewards of over 20 people. This made Qiu Ji think of only one possibility. It was that the difficulty of this instance was hard to determine. It would probably be extremely annoying and troublesome to clear it.
Such speculation made Qiu Ji carefully look at the game introduction displayed in front of Chi Ting in the live stream
[Aleran used to be a simple and peaceful ancient city. It is rumored that the heroes defeated the demons and finally hid the treasures that the demons fought for in the castle. The ancient legend has spread and attracted a large number of adventurers. As more and more people come to admire it, the city has gradually become a world-renowned exploration destination.]
[You are an adventurer enthusiast who chose to come here to experience the joy of the adventure. Due to your ordinary physique, you are unable to realize your dream of becoming an explorer. Therefore, you chose to experience the fun of becoming an explorer. Please sign your own 'Guardian Contract' and enjoy the adventure world created by the residents of the small city. Experience the joy of finding treasure!]
[Please note, the initial rules are as follows:
1. Blessed by treasures, in the peaceful ancient city, all personal skills and items will be completely invalid in this instance.
2. Each player can only sign a contract with one slave. They might be your sharp sword when charging into battle, or they might become the poison that will make you splash blood. Be sure to choose carefully.
3. Residents' words might contain strong personal emotions. You need to judge whether they are true or false.
4. The ancient city still continues the tradition of a curfew. Please look for a place to stay early on and never go out after 8 p.m.
5. All the main plot lines in the ancient city are collective tasks. The greater the contribution made when clearing the instance, the more settlement rewards that will be obtained. Please note that individual daily tasks are also very important.
6. During the game, new main plot lines and side plot lines will be added in each stage. Please pay attention to updates.]
[Main task at this stage: Collect enough chests to prove yourself and qualify for the expedition to enter the castle.
Be careful, the residents of the ancient city respect the heroes. Unqualified explorers will be hated.]
In the instance, Chi Ting was already very familiar with the introduction of such an instance.
After scanning it with his eyes, his gaze finally fell back to the first rule.
"All personal skills and items are completely invalid…" Chi Ting pondered on it for a moment. He tried to put the beads in his hands back into the strange stone on his chest but failed.
He slightly raised an eyebrow.
It really didn't work. No wonder why the system was able to get Yue Ren away from him.
As Chi Ting found the answer, Qiu Ji watched the live stream and also understood why no one attempted to join this instance to rescue them.
The prerequisite for entering an instance alone undoubtedly depended on two things: absolute combat effectiveness or absolute intelligence.
In the treasure hunt game that was obviously not based on clearing it with intelligence, the failure of skills and tools had basically eliminated the possibility of using combat power.
For advanced players, the risks actually far outweighed the benefits. Naturally, no one wanted to take the endgame risk.
Qiu Ji originally wanted to observe the strength of this Chi Ting. The existence of the rule that directly eliminated this person's skills and exclusive tools made him feel like something was stuck in his throat.
Then at this moment, he saw the content of the barrage floating on the screen.
[Are my eyes dazzled? Why do I seem to see God Qiu's ID?]
[??? God Qiu? Which God Qiu? Is it the one I thought of?]
[F*k, it is really the Seven Seas team! God Qiu, have you seen me? I am your fan!!]
[Qiu Ji? Why is he here? Does the Seven Seas team want to recruit this newcomer?]
Qiu Ji: "..."
F*k, he was in such a hurry after seeing the start notice that he actually forgot to log in while incognito!
Qiu Ji quickly set up the incognito state. However, the barrage was like a stone that had stirred up a thousand waves. The news about his appearance in the live stream room had already spread completely. In the blink of an eye, it could be seen that the number of people online, which was originally two or three thousand, had suddenly increased visibly.
Chi Ting didn't know the lively scene that was happening in his live stream room. He finished confirming that all the items were indeed unusable and casually wrapped the beads around his wrist a few times.
He looked up and observed his surroundings.
The place where Chi Ting was located was a narrow alley in the ancient city. Unlike last time in the apartment lobby, there was no one around him. He couldn't find anyone to ask about the situation.
At this moment, Chi Ting suddenly missed Li Tao.
The kid was a bit verbose, but he could always answer Chi Ting's questions. This saved Chi Ting a lot of time inquiring about basic clues.
As if hearing Chi Ting's heartfelt wish, the light at the mouth of the alley suddenly dimmed. Suddenly, someone looked in from the outside and cried out after seeing Chi Ting, "F*k, there is really someone here?!"
With his back to the light, Chi Ting couldn't see the other person's appearance for a moment.
This was until the person took two or three steps closer to him. A square face could be seen.
The moment the other person approached, he came to Chi Ting's side very enthusiastically and looked at him expectantly. "Brother, are you from the Sanctuary?"
The Sanctuary?
Chi Ting shook his head. "No."
The other person was obviously taken aback but still kept his smile. "Don't make trouble. Brother, if you didn't come from the Sanctuary, how could you be automatically matched here?"
Chi Ting thought about the passage he took when he came in. "It was a random match."
The other person's face stiffened. It took a long time before he said, "You… are you a brother from the 13th World too?"
"Yes."
There was a brief silence before this person scratched his head with some despair. "What's the matter? Even the bigshots from the Sanctuary aren't willing to come rescue us? Does this mean our instance is really hopeless? Ahhhhhh! I am still waiting to hug the thigh of a bigshot! Now it is over. Can we only rely on ourselves??"
Chi Ting stood in place and watched silently. He felt that the transformation of human beings from great tragedy and joy was really interesting.
After a while, the face of the other person eased a bit. It was obvious that he didn't want to accept the path of self-reliance and self-improvement. He reluctantly held onto the last glimmer of hope. "Can I take the liberty to ask? Brother, how many times have you passed the instance?"
Chi Ting raised one finger. "I just cleared one instance."
The person with a square face, "..."
Facing the other person's overflowing collapse, Chi Ting decided to solve his current problem before this person went crazy again. He opened his mouth before the other person expressed his position. "Excuse me, are there other player entrances here? I'm looking for someone. He should've entered with me. I don't know why I haven't seen him."
"No, this is the only entrance for players." The other player remembered that the number of people who entered the instance had increased by two. Then when he heard that the other person was with Chi Ting, it was hard to hold out much hope when he thought they were both brothers from the 13th World.
He sighed deeply but didn't forget to remind Chi Ting. "Brother, you should've read the rules of the game. There is a curfew in this city. It is getting late. You had better go to the contract station first to pick a slave. Then go to the Adventurer's Hotel to settle down as soon as possible. In any case, don't rush to collect treasures. On the first day, it is recommended to observe first. After all, you have seen it. The players on our side… the casualties are indeed a bit heavy."
Hearing the other person's words, Chi Ting remembered the content of the second rule. "What is a contracted slave?"
" I don't know the specifics, but I heard the residents here saying that some descendants of demons sold their souls to the residents' ancestors. After we sign a contract with these indentured slaves, it is equivalent to establishing a master-servant relationship. They need to obey all our orders unconditionally. The setting of this game is that we need to rely on them to collect treasure."
The player with a square face pointed behind him. Chi Ting looked up and saw a tall figure waiting there.
"To be honest, these guys are worthy of being the descendants of legendary demons. Their combat effectiveness is indeed quite high. Some of our players have studied them together. I feel that the instance took into consideration the limitation of not being able to use personal skills and items. They configured puppet NPCs for us in order to increase our combat effectiveness and survivability."
Then he waved his hand.
There was a gust of wind around them for a moment. In the blink of an eye, the indentured slave standing at the mouth of the alley had already arrived and bowed respectfully to this player. "Can I ask what your orders are, my master?"
The man pointed at Chi Ting, "Ah Song, help send this friend to the contract station.
The slave Ah Song replied, "Yes."
Chi Ting took a lot. If he wasn't told in advance that this was the descendant of a demon, Ah Song wouldn't look that different from humans.
The attitude and tone when responding to the player were full of respect, but the moment Chi Tong looked back, he could feel a clear and distinct resentment. Large and small wounds were visible on his body, and his hatred became more and more obvious.
It could be seen that even if the contract was signed, the so-called master-servant relationship might not be as harmonious as it seemed.
However, at this moment, the focus of Chi Ting's attention had completely flown away.
He followed Ah Song all the way while occasionally looking up at the tall but scarred figure in front of him. With each step, his brow tightened a bit more due to the conjecture in his mind.
If there was really no other teleportation point, it meant that Yue Ren hadn't been sent to the player's entrance by the system.
In this way, it suddenly made him think of another possibility.
"We've arrived." Ah Song, who led the way, stopped.
Chi Ting looked up. His gaze swept over the big words' Contract Station' on the storefront. His mind was full of conjectures like ghost stories, and his expression was very complicated.
He shouldn't really be here…