Chapter 576: Before This Instance Dungeon Began?

Chapter 576 Before This Instance Dungeon Began? 

The youngster with the tiger head-pattern sweater scratched his head as he eyed the gate of the castle. “As expected, there are people on the first floor.”

There was another figure behind the youngster. The figure was in protective attire. He had not attempted to hide the fact that he was wearing those protective attire by wearing them openly. He also wore a metal mask over his face. Hearing what the youngster said, he gave a snort. “So what if there are people?”

“Boss, if they are from the Player faction, then just start killing them. Even if they are Awakened ones, we must still let them know how powerful we are. We’ll use this opportunity to suppress some of them. We must display our prowess in this instance dungeon so that some ignorant fools do not go mess things up.”

The masked youngster was silent for a moment. Then, he spoke slowly, “Don’t be too flashy. Just go probe around for a bit. It is just… … I wonder if there are any experts participating in this instance dungeon.”

“Hah!” The sweater-wearing youngster laughed in a slightly maniacal manner. “With Boss War Tiger here, what expert do we need fear?”

The masked youngster turned around and reached out with one hand to press the sweater-wearing youngster. He then said in a hushed tone, “Some words, although I have already told you about it, you don’t seem to care. I will tell you one more time; if you still cannot get it through your head, after this instance dungeon is over, there is no need for you to follow me anymore.”

“… … …” The sweater-wearing youngster’s face sank. He looked at War Tiger and his body shuddered.

“Listen up, Wang Sheng!” War Tiger said in a heavy tone, “When it comes to being an Awakened, I have more experience than you. At any rate, you had only just become part of this world for a short time. Thus, now that you possess some superhuman abilities, you feel that you have become someone great. Additionally, in the last few instance dungeons, you have been following me. Whenever we encountered some strong figures, I had naturally stepped forward to deal with them – also, our luck in the last few instance dungeons had been pretty good. We did not encounter any real experts. As a result, you have arrived at the rather incorrect understanding that the difficulty of this world is only at that level. However, you are gravely mistaken, do you understand?  You have never seen the amount of power that some of the experts in this world possess. Forget you, should I encounter those bona fide experts, staying alive is about all I would be capable of. Sooner or later, this unreasonable arrogance of yours is only going to get you killed, get it?”

The eyes behind the mask hid a hint of seriousness and vigilance.

The sweater-wearing youngster, Wang Sheng, dared not argue with his boss. Additionally, there was the air of superiority of his boss. At that moment, Wang Sheng could only lower his head, fearful of saying anything else. However, in his eyes, besides the respect he had for his boss, there was still a hint of disagreement.

He was young, after all. As a youngster, he was full of vigour. His strength was not lacking either. Additionally, he was now following a rather powerful boss. In the past few instance dungeons, they had completed them smoothly, just like cutting a water melon. It was only natural for him to view others as insignificant – given his current state of mind, advice from others would likely not work on him. It may very well require him slamming his head onto the proverbial rock to the point of him bleeding for him to wake up.

Seeing that his little bro was not saying anything, War Tiger assumed that he had understood. He then patted Wang Sheng’s shoulder and said, “Let’s go. We will go outside and check things out. When we meet the other Awakened ones, do not put on an overbearing attitude. At any rate, we are in the same faction. If we meet Players… … then go for the kill.”

…

Within the barracks outside the castle, Chen Xiaolian, Phoenix and Soo Soo quickly made their way to the large tent in the centre. They looked at the dried-up blood, which was all over the place, the hacked tables and chairs, the surfaces of the tent that had been slashed… …

“An expert.” There was a serious look on Chen Xiaolian’s face.

His weapon of choice was a sword and he had, until recently, been using the Sword in the Stone. He also possessed sword skills. Thus, he had a certain degree of understanding when it came to these matters. After looking at the scene for a bit, he said, “What a powerful sword.”

Phoenix shook her head and said, “It is strange. Assuming that the Bloodclan Primogenitor BOSS in the basement was killed off by someone, what about this place? Could it be the BOSS here was also killed by someone else?”

“Maybe every area has its own game BOSS.” Chen Xiaolian smiled wryly and continued, “This barracks located outside the castle may be where the BOSS was located. If so, there should be some quest items here.”

“I have already examined this place before, there is nothing suspicious here. There is nothing like the severed nails that you spoke of – there are none of that here. Unless… … unless… … the bloodstains on the ground?” said Phoenix as she shook her head.

A flash of light flickered through Chen Xiaolian’s eyes. “There is an issue here. These bloodstains are very suspicious.”

Phoenix’s eyes lit up and she turned to look at Chen Xiaolian. Chen Xiaolian, on the other hand, lowered his head to look at Soo Soo. “What do you think?”

“Mm, I understand.” Soo Soo nodded her head vigorously.

“Will you two stop talking in riddles?” Phoenix gave an angry smile. “You keep using this method to remind me about it repeatedly. Do you take me as an outsider?”

“I did not mean it that way.” Chen Xiaolian immediately broke into a smile. Next, his face took on a serious expression and he said, “Under normal circumstances, how long would it take for blood to dry up? Look at the bloodstains on the ground. They are all black… … although some time had passed since the instance dungeon began, it is not that long… … and if the blood had been left here for over a year, it would not look like this now. Given the state of dryness of these bloodstains, its colour and form, the fight here had probably only occurred a few days ago.”

“A few days… …” Phoenix gave a wry smile and said, “That is why this is strange. How long has this instance dungeon been going on? Even if the timer has stopped, we can still gauge the passage of time. At this point in time, at the very best, only around half an hour has passed since. Or what? The fight occurred a few days before this instance dungeon began? The monsters inside an instance dungeon having a go at each other? NPCs fighting one another? How could something so ridiculous happen?”

Naturally, Chen Xiaolian understood the absurdity of the situation.

It is comparable to playing Kings of Glory (Arena of Valour) and you, the player, had yet to log in, but Yang Jian had already killed Dongfang Taiyi…

Is that not absurd?   [1]

“If that is the case, then this instance dungeon becomes even weirder. What is going on with this instance dungeon? Its timer stopped, then… … the instance dungeon’s bosses died even before we entered.” Chen Xiaolian frowned and continued, “At present, we have only checked two areas. I wonder how things are in the other areas.”

Suddenly, their faces flickered in unison. 

The three of them had received a system prompt at the same time.

[System prompt: As a participant from the Non-Player faction has found the special quest item (2/5), access to a new instance dungeon area is now granted. Participants from the aforementioned faction is to enter the new area to search for the quest items. Instance dungeon countdown: 299 minutes 59 seconds… …]

Next, another one appeared.

[System prompt: As a participant from the Non-Player faction has found the special quest item (3/5), access to a new instance dungeon area is now granted. Participants from the aforementioned faction is to enter the new area to search for the quest items. Instance dungeon countdown: 299 minutes 59 seconds… …]

The two consecutive prompts meant that two parties from the Awakened faction had found their respective quest item.

Having collected three out of five of the quest items, it meant that three out of five areas within the instance dungeon have been unsealed.

…

On the third floor of the castle, the young woman with the near-bald crew cut hairstyle looked on at her teacher with a rather discontented expression. “Teacher, although your guess is correct, can you first put down that thing?”

An old man in black coloured clothes and clogs flicked open the fan in one hand and fanned himself for a bit with a smile. “Komi-chan, I have told you many times. If a string is too tight, it will break easily. You being so nervous all the time is not a good state to be in.”

As he spoke, he kept the item that his other hand was gripping into his chest.

Shockingly, the item was… … a femur (thighbone)!

…

On the fourth floor of the castle.

Tian Lie picked up one of the fragments of a broken bell and examined it for a moment. Next, he casually stuffed it into his pocket. After that, he turned to look at his companions. “All right, it seems the fellows on our side don’t appear too useless. We have already gathered three out of five items, more than half. It is time to go meet up with those fellows. Hopefully, we will be able to meet some interesting fellows in this instance dungeon.”

Nicole had her hands crossed before her chest, a look of indifference on her face.

Behind Nicole was Tom Huggins, also known as Knight Ivan, who was tightly hugging his wife, Jenny. There was also Lin Leyan, who had a look of confusion and anxiousness on her face.

“Don’t worry, the prop I used would allow you to stay inside this instance dungeon for at least several hours. We need to do something here. It would not do to leave you outside – what should we do if you run away?” Tian Lie did not bother concealing the smile on his face and his eyes stared intently at Lin Leyan. “Especially you, little girl. I keep getting the feeling that you might know something interesting.”

…

[TL: I still haven't grasped the intricacies of this new site's footnotes function; i believe our Technomancer is currently out of mana and have gone into secluded meditation. It should be fixed in a few days' time. Sorry.]

[1] Kings of Glory is a MOBA game for mobile phones. Yang Jian and Dongfang Taiyi are the champions for the game.