Chapter 56 Strange Rules

After finishing reading the instance dungeon information, Zhou Fan glanced at the time displayed in the bottom right corner of the player panel: 6:00 PM.

Survive for 12 hours, which meant until 6:00 tomorrow morning... To endure a night inside a supernatural instance?

"Brother Cao, the two prompts of the instance contradict each other. Could it be a difference in time?" Zhou Fan asked Cao Yu while pondering, "For instance, are there certain periods when we need to follow the rules, and other periods when we need to break them?"

"If that's the case, we'll need to focus on observing how the residents of this town live their lives," Song Qiao chimed in with her own conjecture at the appropriate moment. "And then, imitate them to avoid danger?"

"Brother Cao, what do you think?" Zhou Fan asked.

Imitate the townspeople to avoid danger? He felt it couldn't possibly be that simple.

What if the townspeople themselves were the danger?

"Don't let yourselves get tangled up by the instance prompts right from the start. In which instance do players not encounter danger? Are you really expecting to get through this peacefully?"

Cao Yu reminded them:

"The instance prompts don't necessarily contradict each other. For example, the two prompts might correspond to two different kinds of danger respectively, in which case they wouldn't be contradictory.

As for which prompt to act on, we first need to figure out what the specific dangers here are, and then..."

Pausing for a moment, he offered a conjectural conclusion:

"We might face a situation where we have to 'choose the lesser of two evils'."

Hearing this, Zhou Fan's thoughts suddenly cleared up.

It had to be said that a veteran expert was truly a veteran expert, capable of grasping the crux of the matter right away.

Although it was only a guess and might not be correct, compared to agonizing over the contradictory nature of the instance prompts, this line of thinking was undoubtedly much more conducive to launching an investigation, and the direction was very clear.

For a moment, Song Qiao and Song He, just like Zhou Fan, changed their expressions and pricked up their ears.

They heard Cao Yu continue:

"First, go and interact with the townspeople, ask about the rules of the town, and inquire about past events related to potential dangers.

As for those 27 missing persons... if we happen to run into them, we'll ask about the situation; if we don't, leave them be for now until everything becomes clear."

"Do we need to split up?" Song Qiao asked.

"There isn't much intel to investigate yet, so no need for now," Cao Yu replied.

While speaking, he briefly observed the other six players, noticing that their formations vaguely divided them into two teams.

Without any surprise, these should be players who were familiar with each other in reality and had teamed up to enter the instance together.

The characteristics of the first team were the most obvious—a young lady of high status, accompanied by a male and a female bodyguard... It wasn't that he possessed the ability to confirm others' identities at a glance, but rather that the two bodyguards were directly wearing black work uniforms printed with the words "Qingshan Security Company".

Furthermore... both the male and female bodyguards were wearing iconic sunglasses on their faces, striking a posture that screamed, "I am a professional bodyguard."

This was the first time Cao Yu had encountered such a situation.

He genuinely hadn't expected that a player organization would actually advertise inside an instance... Tsk tsk, they really knew how to play.

The other three-member team consisted of three males—a bearded man, a tall guy over one meter nine in height, and a very slender youth... Cao Yu temporarily decided to call him "Skinny Dog".

Although Skinny Dog looked the weakest, the bearded man and the tall guy vaguely treated him as their leader.

Cao Yu kept his guard up; this Skinny Dog was probably not a simple player whose capabilities could be judged by his appearance and demeanor.

Just as he was thinking this, the young lady's team left the living room without saying a word and headed outside.

Instead, Skinny Dog, bringing along the bearded man and the tall guy, took the initiative to approach his side.

Seeing this, Zhou Fan and the Song siblings grew alert.

Cao Yu maintained a normal expression and asked, "Can I help you?"

"Judging by your uniforms, you must be members of the local Special Affairs Bureau from the Eastern Union, right? Here to execute a mission?"

Skinny Dog said in a friendly tone:

"I'm a special agent from the Western Union side. Although we're far apart, we can still be considered colleagues. This town doesn't look very large; if you encounter trouble and need help, you can come find me."

"People from the Western Union?" Song He was somewhat surprised.

Although the Federation had unified the world, it hadn't reached the point where there was only a single political voice.

Especially the Eastern Union and the Western Union; due to regional and cultural differences, their governance was actually somewhat fractured.

However, the Evolution Game didn't care about political issues. Even an E-grade instance could simultaneously transport players from all over the globe who had torn open their invitation letters right into the instance.

The three Song family members looked at Cao Yu.

Cao Yu accepted this goodwill with a smile and said:

"Eastern Union, Western Union, what does it matter? Since we're all members of the Special Affairs Bureau, we're one big family. Rest assured, if I really run into trouble, I won't stand on ceremony with you."

Skinny Dog smiled.

After a brief exchange between the two teams, they parted ways.

After leaving the house, Cao Yu observed the surrounding environment.

The air was extremely fresh, and everything was just as mentioned in the instance background—bright mountains, beautiful waters, and a leisurely atmosphere.

Moreover, the mountains here were not particularly tall, resembling rolling hills. Looking out as far as the eye could see, there was no visual sense of oppression whatsoever. A clear river flowed through the town, the babbling sound of water reaching the ears, small bridges flowing over water beside people's homes... it truly was a place suitable for vacation and pleasant to live in.

"The players who entered this time are quite interesting," Cao Yu suddenly remarked.

"Interesting?" Zhou Fan took up the conversation. "In what aspect?"

"No one proposed teaming up. No one proposed splitting up to investigate first and then gathering to exchange intel," Cao Yu smiled. "The three teams had completely no intention of communicating... If not for the fact that we were wearing work uniforms, those three Western Union players probably wouldn't have come over to strike up a conversation."

"Everyone is very confident," Song Qiao pointed out the crux of the matter.

This was just a minor episode, and the four of them didn't pay too much attention to it, beginning to visit the town residents living nearby.

It was now a little past 6:00 PM, the sky was gradually darkening, and night was descending.

To save time, the four of them began their visits separately—though not in the true sense of separation, as they all kept each other within their fields of vision.

Not long after Cao Yu knocked on a door, a smiling middle-aged man opened it and asked in a very enthusiastic tone:

"Young man, is there something you need?"

"Hello, mister." Cao Yu put on a smile and started his polite spiel: "I'm here to inspect this town. I have the intention of moving here. I heard that settling in requires following the rul—"

"You're a player, aren't you?" the middle-aged man asked.

Cao Yu: "..."

Ah, this... being so direct?

"You know about players?" Cao Yu asked.

"Quite a few players have come to our town one after another. The moment they open their mouths, they all claim they want to move here, and then they start asking questions about everything. As a result, very few actually end up staying... Anyway, after it happening so many times, we've come to understand it."

The middle-aged man smiled and said:

"Young man, if you have anything you want to ask, just ask directly. There's no need to try to get so chummy; we don't do that here. If new townspeople can join us, everyone will be very happy."

"You mean some players have stayed in this town?" Cao Yu didn't overlook this and asked, "Who are they? Where do they live?"

The middle-aged man stretched out his hand and pointed toward the west side of the town, saying:

"They all live over that way. I remember there are..."

He rattled off a few names and addresses.

After noting them down, Cao Yu continued to ask: "I heard that people living here have to abide by the town's rules?"

"They aren't really rules, strictly speaking. To be precise, they are four customs and cultures—when in Rome, do as the Romans do."

The middle-aged man smiled as he introduced them:

"The first is praying to the Fortune God at least three times during the day to pray for a smooth and peaceful life."

As he spoke, he raised both hands, palms facing upward, making a motion as if he were holding up some object, slowly lifting them above his head while murmuring under his breath:

"May my life continue to be happy hereafter."

After finishing this gesture, he smiled at Cao Yu:

"The prayer ritual is pretty much like this."

Cao Yu: "..."

Looking at this posture, it didn't look like a prayer at all.

It looked much more like offering something up... Cao Yu asked: "Is there a god here? The Fortune God... what kind of god is that?"

"What god could there be?" The middle-aged man laughed. "It's just for spiritual comfort. Everyone does it, and over time it became a custom. The Fortune God is just a name. As for the second custom..."

He stretched out his hand to point toward the left-hand direction and said:

"In the center of the town, there is a public cafeteria. When mealtime arrives, we go to the cafeteria to dine together. Dinner time is at 6:30... Oh, it'll be time in another twenty minutes."

Without waiting for Cao Yu to say anything, he continued:

"The third custom is very simple: everyone in our town goes to sleep at 10:00 PM.

As for the fourth custom... it's not really a custom either. To make it convenient for visitors from outside the town to fully experience our customs and culture and integrate into them, the town residents jointly formulated a regulation.

That is to say, outside guests must split up and go stay as guests in the homes of the town residents, one person per household. That's pretty much it."