This person is named Xun Xiaohuan, and his gaze had a certain sharpness as he wore a tight-fitting black tank top and utility pants, his muscles defined and his demeanor distinctive.
His level had also reached 9, the highest among everyone.
According to the team instance's matching mechanism, the level difference between players wouldn't surpass 5 levels; after all, the higher the level, the more attribute points could be allocated, which could lead to significant differences in strength.
No need to worry about being held back by weaker players, nor about being overwhelmed by players with much higher levels.
Only after Xun Xiaohuan's reminder did everyone turn their attention outside.
At that time, outside was a highway littered with abandoned cars and a mass of staggering zombies walking on the road.
The remnants of the setting sun shone through the blood-red clouds onto the rotting flesh of their faces, appearing both terrifying and disgusting.
"Is this a zombie instance?"
No one had answered yet when the system displayed a message.
[Instance CG and introduction loading...]
[Zz...Zz...]
Then a series of sounds came from the walkie-talkie, slowly sounding in everyone's ears.
[This is...zz...this is a city named Srilan, now turned into a city of death, with countless infected zombies wandering every corner of the city. In this silent and tragic city, the living struggle in despair as the remnants of the sunset fade, and you might become one of them...or their food.]
Subsequently, the sound ceased, and everyone's hearing returned to normal.
"It seems like it really is a zombie instance," Old Tomato pondered, "With our level, dealing with those cinematic zombies should not be difficult."
Night Guard also looked at the zombies outside, "Not only that, these guys are even slower, easier to cope with, but it must not be that simple..."
At this moment, Xun Xiaohuan spoke softly, "It seems like it's all your first time entering a team instance."
"Hmm?"
"The difficulty of team instances is a bit easier than solo instances, but it also correlates with the number and strength of the players," he said calmly, "Here we are, one Level 9, three Level 7s, and two Level 6s. This indicates that the hidden difficulty of this instance is higher than we might think. I advise you not to take it lightly and be cautious... Also, definitely don't do anything weird—like him."
Everyone followed Xun Xiaohuan's gaze to see Su Qi squatting next to a corpse, and Night Guard could not help asking, "Brother Su, what are you doing?"
"I was thinking there should be some information on him." Su Qi turned the rotten, disgusting body over and then ripped open the bloodstained clothes to reveal the corpse's hollow chest cavity.
Old Tomato squinted, not used to seeing such gore, and coughed uncomfortably, "Well... clues usually aren't on corpses that are so heavily decayed; and instead of searching this, why not try the bus's storage compartment first?"
"It seems there's indeed nothing in the pockets,"
Su Qi looked for a few moments and then incredibly reached his hand into the hole in the chest cavity!
"Damn!" Ah Qie and Ah Ti's eyes widened.
"Stop this!"
The others' expressions changed as well, although they had played several instances, they were still normal people after all.
"You guys are together?" Xun Xiaohuan also felt somewhat uncomfortable and looked askew towards Night Guard and Old Tomato.
"No, no, no."
They both shook their heads quickly, desperate to distance themselves from such a bizarre act.
But in the next moment.
Su Qi pulled out a bloodstained key, waved it in front of everyone, "See, I told you there was something."
"????"
Everyone's faces stiffened; there actually was something!
"This should be the bus key, it can be used to open the bus doors." Su Qi inserted it into the driver's slot, gave a slight twist, and the circuit connected, but the bus had no fuel. After pressing a button, the tightly closed bus doors opened.
"..."
Ah Ti couldn't help saying, "Actually, I think we could've just smashed the door to get out, no need to do something so... disgusting."
Su Qi looked at him, "True, but... then we would be immediately surrounded by zombies."
"Why?" Ah Qie wondered.
Old Tomato frowned slightly, then seemingly understood something and relaxed his brow, "Because the intro in the script already hinted that this is a silent city, making even a little noise could attract the nearby zombies, and then we would have to fight our way out if we wanted to leave the bus."
"Of course, that just means killing more zombies," Su Qi said, "But before we understand this world, I think it's very necessary to conserve our strength and physical strength."
"...Also, two things: direct contact with blood won't lead to infection, although it has become common knowledge in zombie movies, but the new environment might be different, and after the chest cavity is gouged out, zombies will not die."
"?? Isn't it already dead?" Ah Qie was surprised.
Su Qi shook his head, pointing to the driver's seat, "This is where it was bitten, you can see the obvious large bloodstains, it wobbled back and forth in this narrow bus aisle, and after how long, its cellular activity completely died, then it finally fell here."
Xun Xiaohuan looked at Su Qi a bit surprised.
Night Guard gave a thumbs up, "Brother Su... Can I duo with you?"
"Hey!" Old Tomato called out.
"Then next..."
Su Qi smiled and pulled out a small flag from the item compartment, waving it, "Ladies and gentlemen, please gather yourselves and get off the bus, follow your Guide Su to explore this city."
Everyone: "....."
"I was wrong, Brother Tomato, he's not sane, I'll duo with you instead," Night Guard grabbed Old Tomato's shoulder, expressing his apologies.
Everyone got off the bus.
But Su Qi noticed, aside from Xun Xiaohuan and Night Guard, one holding a Flying knife and the other a Fire Axe, the others hadn't taken out any weapons from their item slots.
"Where are your weapons?"
"Us? We don't have any," Ah Ti shook his head.
Old Tomato scratched his face, "Such weapon class equipment is hard to get, and in solo instances, you can't even take a sharp knife out."
"Then first let's see if there's any place that can supply you with some cold weapons."
"We're not in a rush."
"We really are in a rush," Su Qi looked at the distant sunset, "Do you still remember the phrase 'the remnants of the sunset are fading'?"
Night Guard narrowed his eyes,
"Does it mean we might face something terrible if we don't find a safe spot before dark?"
"Yes, so spending some time to find a few weapons is worth it, not only preventing you from being helpless viewers but also speeding up our search for a safe spot."
As soon as Su Qi finished speaking,
an interface with their mission appeared to everyone.
[Main quest 1 activated]
[Find the tower before dark]