"The invitation must be yours, right? How did someone with your 'blood-selling' style get an invitation that involves puzzle-solving?" Gu Shanhai asked, curious.
"I rely on it to solve puzzles." Qingcheng White Fox said, somewhat gloomily, gesturing with his fire axe.
Meaning, he would simply chop down the mechanisms, the puzzle creators, and so forth—naturally, the puzzles would be solved that way.
From what we can tell so far, his style aligns with urban supernatural art, which is why he has all this equipment and 'blood-selling' style. Once fully developed, it could stack with styles like the Deceiver and mesh well together.
Most of what he encounters now likely involves the mentally ill, some bio-engineered foes, or perhaps mixes of Evil God-like horror creatures, but not yet those indestructible and immortal oddities that operate like rules of nature.
That's why he can brute-force his way through for now... and could do so later as well—there are myriad styles, and being immortal isn't anything special.
As long as the player's operation is slick, a few small skills could combine into various powerful styles.
"That's good. It seems to be working for solving puzzles so far." Gu Shanhai wasn't too worried, since he had enough compatibility with Qingcheng White Fox, and as long as he performed normally, he basically could clear the instance.
The others were more or less just supporting roles. This was Qingcheng White Fox's invitation, centering around him, not those who came to freeload off the instance.
"To be honest, with such a bizarre skill system and still alive, your strength isn't weak. Interested in freelancing with our Qingcheng Team?" Qingcheng White Fox asked.
He wasn't qualified to recruit team members since that required a contract, but it was feasible to involve people on a freelance basis, where they could take a cut.
They only needed to provide the networking channels, and the other party would provide the effort.
In fact, they had already recruited quite a few freelancers. Like Gu Shanhai, it didn't matter if his abilities were a bit strange; he could reassemble a set in a few days by grinding in beginner instances.
"I just play occasionally for fun, otherwise I would have already compiled a good set of skills on the forums," Gu Shanhai said, outright refusing. He did see the appeal – a club certainly facilitated networking and made sourcing items convenient.
Unfortunately, he lacked various system functions afforded to players, so he was destined to go it alone.
His plan was straightforward: gather cultivation resources as quickly as possible and push back into the top tier of players. The direction of many future events would be decided by these top-tier players.
"If you change your mind next time, remember to look me up." Qingcheng White Fox wasn't holding a grudge or feeling the need to suppress Gu Shanhai after his refusal; instead, he thought there might still be opportunities for cooperation in the future, like hiring them for leading instances or making client referrals. Essentially, they were in the service industry—why make enemies needlessly?
The other party wasn't a competitor, after all, just an ordinary player.
"Archives room? Let's go in and see if we can find any clues."
"Don't all horror games follow this trope?"
Gu Shanhai noticed a sign for the archives room not too far away, in the corner, which piqued his interest.
"It's locked. We need a key," Qingcheng White Fox said, reaching for the doorknob but unable to open it.
"What do we need a key for? Just break the door down with the fire axe," Gu Shanhai said, exasperated.
Qingcheng White Fox suddenly realized, "I got restricted by game habits again."
Saying that, he swung his fire axe at the door and smashed it open in no time.
Gu Shanhai shone his flashlight into the room, and they saw what appeared to be a person hanging from the ceiling fan inside.
"Do you find this figure familiar?" Gu Shanhai said.
"Don't focus on the legs, look at the face below," Qingcheng White Fox snarked.
"Damn, Luo Sheng Gate, how did she end up hanged here?" As the flashlight beam moved downward, it revealed her face.
It was that female player from Luo Sheng Gate, bleeding from all orifices, eyes wide open in terror.
"How would I know, she was also alone," Qingcheng White Fox clearly had no idea but then added, "But she was most likely here with the same plan as you, investigating the archives."
The floor was a mess, clearly a result of the person being attacked while rummaging through the shelves.
"So does that mean the monster that attacked her is still in the archive room?" Gu Shanhai said, swinging his flashlight up towards the ceiling.
The scheme usually goes like this, if not the ceiling then the corners.
Then they saw a large patch of fungus-like slime stuck to the ceiling, rhythmically pulsating.
"What do you think about it exploding?" Gu Shanhai suddenly jumped behind Qingcheng White Fox, asking in a rather cheeky tone.
"What?" Qingcheng White Fox was puzzled.
Boom~
Luo Sheng Gate's corpse burst open, not with flesh and bones, but with a mass of thick mycelium.
Clearly, Gu Shanhai's previous action had triggered a response from the mycelium on the ceiling, causing Luo Sheng Gate to explode.
Luo Sheng Gate's body had actually been hollowed out long ago, leaving only a skin shell, hanging upside down because her feet were bound by the fungus, which is why Gu Shanhai checked the ceiling first rather than the corners.
"Damn, couldn't you just warn me directly?" Qingcheng White Fox looked at the Flame Shield materializing in front of him, blocking all the splattering mycelium, appearing quite irritated.
Some of the mycelium wasn't stopped by the Flame Shield and pierced through due to the impact force, luckily they died upon hitting him, having been sterilized by the high temperature. The fungus wasn't so resilient.
Thus, it wasn't too disgusting, but it did hurt a bit and confirmed that Gu Shanhai wasn't fooling him. This Flame Shield, while providing shield, also saps health.
He didn't understand why the game "First Era" had such weird skills.
"Quick, set it on fire," Qingcheng White Fox glanced at his fire axe then decisively directed Gu Shanhai to act.
He dealt physical damage, which he guessed wouldn't do much against that thing, and it seemed weak to fire.
"I think we should run now," Gu Shanhai said before sprinting away.
Qingcheng White Fox was puzzled by Gu Shanhai's actions, then he realized something, cutting the door with his fire axe might have been too noisy.
Watching the shadowy outline of a monster drawing closer, he swallowed and hurriedly followed Gu Shanhai.
"Wait for me!" Watching Gu Shanhai getting further away, he felt his teammate oscillated between being helpful and a liability.
Helpful, because his skills were timely, but a liability when it came to abandoning his teammate with such speed.
"What's the duration on your Flame Shield, anyway? Answer me~" Qingcheng White Fox watched as his health kept dropping and his powers and abilities surged, fearing he might die due to the BUFF his teammate added.