Chapter 55: The Dungeon of Left-Right Brain Combat

From Song Qiao's words, Cao Yu deduced one piece of information: presumably, quite a few descendants of the Federation's elites chose to stall their evolution progress at 11% and live as slackers.

Although a bit cowardly, avoiding the D-rank instance crisis could also be considered a survival strategy.

Moreover, E-rank instances only needed to be participated in once every six months, so choosing to be a pure slacker would undoubtedly allow one to live carefree for a very, very long time.

Cao Yu asked Song Qiao, "So, you aren't planning to level up?"

"No, I want to continue advancing," Song Qiao said. "However, my preparations are not yet sufficient, and I still need to wait for a while."

Hearing this, Cao Yu asked with considerable curiosity, "What kind of preparations are usually needed?"

Song Qiao: "..."

Anyone who could ask such a question was either devoid of common sense or... a powerhouse who entered instances whenever they pleased without the slightest hesitation in their heart.

She figured the other person was most likely the latter.

She replied:

"When participating in 'matched instances', people generally prepare sufficient potions and props. You can keep an eye out for these resources on the official trading platform or player black markets.

As for 'unmatched instances', there is much more one can do to prepare. Familiar players might temporarily exchange props with each other depending on the situation. For instance, knowing beforehand that you are heading into a supernatural instance, you could find a prop with spiritual attack capabilities in advance, exchange for it, and equip it. Such behavior cannot be considered cheating.

The rest involves finding a team. Generally, you would gather three types of players to enter an instance together, which enhances the team's comprehensive ability to handle crises."

"Hmm... There are quite a few tricks to it." Cao Yu dropped the subject and introduced himself: "I'm Cao Yu. Just like you guys, I'm a graduate of the Fourth Academy, class of this year."

"Zhou Fan," Zhou Fan said, "Also from this year."

"You must both be Superman-class players, right?" Song He, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly spoke up.

Only Superman-class players could rapidly increase their evolution progress in the early stages and master formidable combat power.

"Yes." Cao Yu did not hide it. "Let's stop the small talk here. Have you guys conducted an in-depth investigation of this residential compound?"

"Not yet. The orders we received were to eliminate the monsters,"

Song Qiao replied:

"We also eliminated the monsters from last night. However, after the monsters disappeared, the environmental anomalies within the compound vanished as well, which is different from tonight's situation. In short, we don't know any more than you do."

"The residents of the compound were evacuated last night,"

Song He continued after his sister, adding:

"As for the 27 missing residents... the data was just sent to you. The military and police team stationed here studied it last night and found no commonalities... No, wait, there is one: they are all adults."

Cao Yu had just reviewed the data and roughly memorized the appearances of those 27 individuals.

He would definitely recognize them upon seeing them.

With the enhancement of mental power, a player's memory would be significantly strengthened, making such a task not difficult at all.

A thoughtful look appeared on Cao Yu's face.

Among the military and police stationed in the outer areas of the compound, there were quite a few professional investigators. Since none of them found any commonalities, it meant that the personal profiles of these 27 people likely held little value.

He immediately made a decision:

"In teams of two, patrol around and see if we can run into any 'overlapping nodes'. If you find anything or if monsters appear again, shout or use your phone to alert the others. Remember, do not split up."

"If we discover an item-type 'overlapping node', should we destroy it on the spot?" Song Qiao inquired.

In the overlapping zones between instances and reality, "overlapping nodes" generally existed—nodes being the hubs connecting the two spaces.

Some nodes would manifest in the form of certain objects, which were relatively easy to resolve. One only needed to destroy the object to disrupt the spatial overlap and restore the area to normal.

As for most nodes, their forms of existence were rather abstract, making physical entities basically untraceable. For instance... a node might be an event that had previously occurred in the area, essentially a "story".

When encountering such a situation, the only way to make the node dissipate automatically was to enter the instance and clear it.

Song Qiao was not the person in charge of this operation, so whether or not to take action upon finding a destructible node was not hers to decide.

Because destruction meant abandoning the rescue of the 27 missing residents.

Hearing this question, the person who responded first was not Cao Yu, but Zhou Fan.

He said:

"The threat level of this intrusion incident is not high, and there are no obvious crises within the area. We haven't reached the point of abandoning the rescue yet. If you find an item-type node, notify me and Brother Cao immediately; do not act on your own initiative."

This woman actually wanted to prevent Brother Cao from "slacking off at work"?

Truly lacking situational awareness!

"Understood," Song Qiao nodded.

The four of them immediately split into two teams and began searching around the talent housing compound, leaving no corner unchecked.

Chilly, damp, with an indescribable bizarre odor—these were the characteristics of the overlapping zone here.

The area where these characteristics were most pronounced would undoubtedly be where the node was located.

More than half an hour later.

"Over here!!"

A loud shout reached the ears of Cao Yu and Zhou Fan.

The two immediately rushed toward the direction of the voice, ultimately arriving at a residential building situated in the western direction.

Upon entering an apartment on the first floor, Cao Yu felt a relatively noticeable change in the environment—the chilliness had intensified.

Only Song He was in the living room.

Seeing Cao Yu and Zhou Fan arrive, Song He pointed at the wedding photo hanging on the wall and said:

"My sister touched the wedding photo and instantly vanished. This should be the node."

"An item-type node?" Zhou Fan was quite surprised.

Should he call this good luck? Or bad luck?

Uh... it didn't seem to make much difference, right?

Anyway, they were definitely going into this instance.

Cao Yu observed the wedding photo. In the picture, both the man and the woman had slightly upturned mouths and smiling eyes, as if something called happiness had been frozen at the very moment the photo was taken.

It looked like an ordinary wedding photo, nothing special about it.

Cao Yu said, "Enter the instance!"

Hearing this, Zhou Fan stepped forward first, directly touched the photo, and then vanished from the living room.

Cao Yu and Song He followed closely behind, triggering the teleportation.

Their vision swayed for a moment, and once it stabilized, Cao Yu found himself in a spacious living room.

Sofa, coffee table, television... all kinds of furniture were fully equipped, the floor was clean as a mirror, and the interior decoration exuded a modern style.

The sunlight of dusk slanted into the living room, casting a golden glow across the floor and giving one a lazy, leisurely feeling.

The missing Song Qiao was standing by the window.

Zhou Fan and Song He stood beside her.

Aside from the four of them, there were six other people in the room—four men and two women. If nothing unexpected happened, they should be players who entered using instance invitation letters and happened to cross paths with them.

Song Qiao nodded toward the three of them, having no intention of concealing their familiarity, and walked right over.

There was no help for it; all four of them wore the Special Affairs Bureau's work uniforms. Upon entering, they had long since attracted the gazes of the other players, making concealment impossible.

Better to display their party relationship openly.

"Any discoveries?" Cao Yu asked Song Qiao in a low voice.

"I just looked outside through the window. This place seems to be a modernized town, though the buildings are mainly one to two stories tall," Song Qiao replied softly. "When I came in, there were only two players in the room, and everyone else entered after me."

"Hmm..."

Just as Cao Yu was about to walk over to the window to observe, his player panel suddenly popped up, and a prompt sounded simultaneously in his mind.

[E-rank instance "Happy Town" has opened]

[Happy Town is undoubtedly a holiday resort suitable for living. The mountains are bright, the waters are beautiful, and the leisurely and joyful atmosphere can make one forget many worries]

[If you are weary of a fast-paced life, troubled by trivial matters, or depressed by unfortunate past events... please come and take a look at Happy Town]

[You will surely fall in love with the life here]

[Hints:
1. Please be sure to obey the town's rules, otherwise you will encounter danger;
2. Please do not obey the town's rules, otherwise you will encounter danger]

[Task: Survive for 12 hours]

"..."

After reading the instance information, some players among the group were stunned, some were surprised, and others frowned.

These instance prompts... were so bizarre!

They gave off a contradictory feeling of the left and right brains fighting each other.