Chapter 581: Two Years

Chapter 581 Two Years?!

“If it is as difficult as you said, I suggest we not make contact with the two monster-like existences that you mentioned,” said Chen Xiaolian with a frown. “This is just an instance dungeon. Although everyone here is not lacking in courage, there is no need to kick our legs at what we know to be a block of iron.”

“That is right, just follow the system’s instructions and collect the quest items. No Players would appear to disrupt us or compete against us, so we should be able to quickly finish it.” Nagase Komi nodded.

Phoenix said coolly, “I don’t mind. However… … not having to risk our lives is not a bad thing. After all, each of us has only one life each.”

Tian Lie looked at them and saw that all of them were in agreement. He smiled wryly and said, “Normally, I would agree. It would also seem that everyone here is in agreement. However… … this instance dungeon is not that simple.”

After saying that, Tian Lie pulled out an item and placed it in front of everyone.

It was a metal fragment. It was different from the fragment that Chen Xiaolian discovered. It was slightly curved.

“This is?”

“The fragment of a bell, one of the quest items,” said Tian Lie. “We found it on the fourth floor.”

“This one is mine.” Sawakita Mitsuo put a thigh bone forward.

Seeing the item caused Lin Leyan to jump in fright. Soo Soo, who was beside her, thoughtfully reached for Lin Leyan’s hand and said in a whisper, “Sister, don’t be afraid.”

All the participants there where characters who’d had to brave through a mountain of blades and the sea of flames. A thigh bone was nothing in their eyes.

“I also found something.” Chen Xiaolian pulled out the sword fragment and several of the severed nails. “So, there are four in total here. Meaning, we have four out of the five items needed to complete the quest.”

“Right, four out of five items are found. By finding another one, we will be able to complete the quest and leave this instance dungeon. This castle is not that big anyway. If we can’t find it, we can just upend the whole place. Surely, we would be able to find it then.”

Phoenix had said.

Tian Lie listened to Phoenix quietly before shaking his head.

“I am sorry, that thing you mentioned would never happen.” Tian Lie smiled bitterly and continued, “If I am not mistaken, this castle only has four of the items. The fifth one is definitely not here.”

“… … why?”

“Because of the BUG that everyone can now see.” Tian Lie sighed.

Chen Xiaolian’s face flickered as his mind raced.

Tian Lie then continued, “Time has stopped… … no, I believe you all have seen through this as well. It is not that time has stopped, rather, it has been slowed down! It is now 3,600 times slower.”

“And?”

“To be able to do something like this, causing a BUG to occur in the system, forcibly disrupting the instance dungeon’s rules that the system put in place… only the two old monsters could do something like this. The two old monsters hid here and changed the time for their own convenience. You can think of it as the equivalent of… … eternal life,” said Tian Lie coolly. “How terrifying must they be to be able to accomplish something like this? Let us not go to how they did this first. The issue now is, we have already searched through this castle a few times. Forget the quest items… … did any of you encounter the two monsters?”

Clearly, they had not.

“In other words, the two monsters are not residing in this castle at all. Maybe they possess extraordinary powers and could shrug off the area restraint imposed by the instance dungeon, allowing them to leave this castle. Maybe they had artificially expanded this instance dungeon’s area.” Tian Lie then sighed. “Of course, that is just a guess. However, there is one thing that I know for certain.”

Chen Xiaolian’s tone was serious as he asked, “What?”

“In order to slow down time and cause a BUG to appear in this instance dungeon, a premise is required. This instance dungeon cannot be refreshed. The core rules of the system cannot be violated. Once the refresh process is over, any BUGs would disappear. At present, it would seem that they have created a small BUG in this instance dungeon. As long as this instance dungeon does not undergo the refresh process, time would remain this slow forever. Once it is refreshed, this BUG will disappear – that would be counter to their intentions.”

After saying that, Tian Lie turned to face Chen Xiaolian. “What do you think is the best method to prevent this instance dungeon from undergoing a refresh process?”

Chen Xiaolian replied immediately, “It is very simple, the best method is to not complete it!”

Tian Lie snapped his fingers. “Correct.”

After a pause, Tian Lie continued, “However, this is an instance dungeon after all. Since that is the case, participants would definitely be sent in to try and complete the quest. Once the quest gets completed, wouldn’t everything go to waste? Chen Xiaolian, if you are that superhuman existence, what would you do?”

Chen Xiaolian thought about it. “There is no way I would let the instance dungeon undergo refresh repeatedly and go re-create the time-slowing BUG again and again. What expert would have the mood to repeat something like this so many times? In order to make it final, the best way is… …” His eyes suddenly lit up and his face turned ugly to behold. “I understand now.”

“What is it?” Frowning, Nagase Komi asked.

Phoenix, who was listening to them from the side, also gave a faint sigh. “… … if that is the case, we would have no chance anymore.”

“You figured it out as well?” The frown on Nagase Komi’s face deepened and she said, “Hey! I say, can you people stop with the riddles? Think about those who are not as smart as you, will you?”

“Assume there is a jigsaw puzzle with a total of five jigsaw pieces. If you want to make it so the jigsaw puzzle can never be completed, what is the best way to go about it?” asked Chen Xiaolian with a wry smile. “The best method is to first take away one of the jigsaw pieces! After that, the remaining four pieces can never be used to complete the jigsaw puzzle! Never!”

“In other words, the fifth quest item was most likely… … taken away by the two old fellows? It is no longer in this castle?”

“When you think about it, it is most likely that they had taken it away. This is also the simplest and most convenient method to make it so that others could never complete the quest. Besides… … as long as the quest cannot be completed, this instance dungeon will never be refreshed. The BUG will exist in perpetuity.” Chen Xiaolian sighed.

“It is not like there is no way around it.” Nagase Komi suddenly spoke up. She tugged Sawakita Mitsuo’s sleeve and said, “Teacher, I have a way.”

“Oh, tell us about it.”

“If it comes down to it… … we can just admit defeat and let this instance dungeon end in failure. Failing to complete an instance dungeon, at most, we would be thrown into a punishment instance dungeon. Big deal! It is not as though we have never gone through a punishment instance dungeon before. Besides, consider the people on our side. After entering the instance dungeon, as long as we cooperate, would it not be easy for us to trample over our opponents?” Nagase Komi smiled and said, “Let us not do this quest! We will wait for the instance dungeon’s timer to run out. Then, we will be able to leave this place and prepare for the punishment instance dungeon. It is not an insurmountable obstacle.”

Chen Xiaolian knitted his brows without saying anything.

Phoenix turned to cast a speechless stare at the near-bald young woman. Then, she said, “Nagase Komi, you forgot something, the time here! It is 3,600 times slower compared to normal.”

“… … ei?”

“The duration for this instance dungeon is 300 minutes, the equivalent of 5 hours. Under normal circumstances, we can follow your suggestion and just waste away the time. It would not be an issue. However, if we are to multiply the 5 hours by 3,600, just calculate for yourself how long we have to stay here for the countdown timer to end?”

Nagase Komi began counting with her fingers.

Soo Soo, who was beside them, was unable to stop herself from sighing. “Enough, sis Komi, there is no need for you to calculate. Multiplying 5 hours 3,600 times gives 18,000 hours. It is the equivalent of 750 days, or roughly more than 2 years.”

“Two years?!” Nagase Komi jumped to her feet. “What a joke! How can I waste two years in a place like this?”

Phoenix said indifferently, “Two years, for the outside world, it is probably just a moment. At any rate, the flow of time inside an instance dungeon works different compared to the flow of time outside. I also agree with Nagase Komi. There is no way we can stay here for two years. Even if we have the patience to do that, we cannot… … Chen Xiaolian, how much supplies did you bring with you in your storage equipment?”

Chen Xiaolian answered with a wry smile. “Food wise, there is quite a lot. It is mostly of the hardtack and instant food type. There is enough for about one or two months. I don’t have that much water, though. There is probably enough for half a month. If we are to ration it, we may be able to stretch it to 20 days. I am only talking about me and Soo Soo. If there are more people, then we would not be able to last that long.” 

Phoenix said weakly, “Coming with you, I only brought one week’s worth of supply in my storage equipment. That is for me alone.” 

“The supplies on me is enough for one month. That includes both me and Komi.” Sawakita Mitsuo was straight to the point.

“Don’t look at me.” Tian Lie spread his hands. “I do not have the habit of bringing supplies with me. Mm, what I have can last me for about three days. As for Nicole… …”

“I did not bring any supplies.” Nicole shook her head.

“I did not bring any as well.” Tom Huggins said coldly. “I was snatched out from my home. I have not prepared any combat equipment or supplies in my storage equipment.”

“All right, it is obvious now. Even if we are willing, it would be impossible for us to stay here for two years.” Tian Lie shook his head and said, “If we are to gather everyone’s food and water supply together and hand out the average amount to everyone here, we will likely be unable to last for even a month. You all have searched through the castle, right? Is there any food here?”

“No.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head.

“So, unless someone here has a special skill that allows him or her to subsist by eating stones… … but a skill of that extraordinary level is something that I, Master Tian Lie do not have. If any of you know of such a skill, I would like to learn from you.”

A look of severity suddenly flashed across Sawakita Mitsuo’s face. Sensing that they were in a desperate situation, this highly inscrutable Shogunate Generalissimo finally revealed an outstanding visage.

Taking a deep breath, he turned to face Chen Xiaolian and said gravely, “According to Sir Tian Lie, there are two experts who could rival Guild Leader Shen here. I do not know how powerful these two figures are… … I have also never encountered Guild Leader Shen before. However, consider the number of people we have on our side. We are all dragons and phoenixes among men. If we are to take action together, could there be no hope at all? Since we have no choice, why don’t we fight?”

Shua!

After saying that, the old man folded his fan with a flick of his hand. Holding the folded fan, his body exuded an atmosphere of majesty.

Chen Xiaolian stared with gaping mouth. After pondering the question, he said slowly, “I did see Guild Leader Shen fight before. I have also fought against him once.”

“Mm, how powerful is he?”

“Back then… … the leaders from two resident guilds and an Angel Corps leader, a total of three [S] class titans, besieged Guild Leader Shen, who was alone. The result… … the three titans from Zero City were defeated, one of them died while the others were seriously injured.”

“… … …” The corners of Sawakita Mitsuo’s eyes twitched. “They… … how long did their fight last?”

“I think it was less than one minute.” Chen Xiaolian sighed. “I believe Guild Leader Shen had not gone all out in the fight. He was not even injured.”

Instantly, a look of absolute shock overcame Sawakita Mitsuo’s face.

The old man suddenly burst into laughter. “Ha ha ha ha ha ha! I suddenly think… … err, it is just two years. Let’s just consider this a holiday. Considering how big the castle is, even if we cannot eat stones, the castle must have some rats, or cats, or dogs. I can also make a trap for birds. Right, have you fellows tasted barbecued rats before? This old man had tasted a barbecued muskrat back when I was in South America. That taste is simply ichiban (number one)! Ha ha ha ha ha ha… … …”

Nagase Komi, who sat beside him, lifted her hand weakly to cover her face while she surreptitiously nudged her butt to the side, putting some distance between her and her teacher…

…