Chapter 303 Hide From What?
Player mode… second phase… instance dungeon…
Merging?
Chen Xiaolian was utterly shell shocked.
What is that supposed to mean?
Is it because of me?
Did I activate Player mode?
Naturally, Chen Xiaolian was quick to consider the critical point of this issue.
If he had followed Ta Wang’s method of hiding inside the safe zone and do nothing, he would be able to wait for the instance dungeon to end just like that. By not participating in the ‘Player quest’, the Player mode would not be activated.
Unexpectedly, the Fallen Avenger appeared, making it impossible to continue staying inside the safe zone. After he was forced to run out of the safe zone, he had to kill those ravenous wolves and run away from the little town… all those actions resulted in him completing the quest for Player mode.
By default, the system then activated Player mode.
In other words, the ‘Players’ that the system was referring to here…
Was…
“Me? I became a Player?” Chen Xiaolian did not know if he should be laughing or crying.
After reaching this line of thinking, Chen Xiaolian jumped to his feet and walked back and forth within the room.
“What do I do?”
Chen Xiaolian began to ponder the situation in his mind.
This could potentially end up terribly. Would the system issue him the quests for Player mode later on?
GM had mentioned that he was not someone who had failed to complete the previous instance dungeon. Thus, he was not actually constrained by the quest requirements of this punishment instance dungeon.
But…
Since Player mode had been activated.
Then…
This punishment instance dungeon was meant specifically for Awakened ones.
But now that Player mode had activated…
Then this punishment instance dungeon would no longer continue to be a punishment instance dungeon.
It would become a normal instance dungeon.
If this was now a normal instance dungeon, would he be subjected to the requirements of the system quests?
If the system bestowed on him a wondrous ‘Player quest’, did he have to go complete it?
If he did not…
Would that count as a failure to complete an instance dungeon?
After that… when he exited this instance dungeon, he will then be thrown into a punishment instance dungeon?
What the bloody mess.
“One hour…”
Chen Xiaolian checked his personal system and saw a countdown timer appear in his system.
Time left: 59 minutes and 28 seconds.
He turned to Qimu Xi to find the girl looking at him with widened eyes.
Chen Xiaolian exhaled and asked, “You got it too?”
“Mm… this, what is going on?” There was a tearful look in Qimu Xi’s face.
“Don’t panic.” Chen Xiaolian sighed.
Chen Xiaolian suddenly recalled something.
He walked around the room and began searching the dusty floor for something.
A few minutes later, Chen Xiaolian bent his waist and picked something up from the ground. Then, he quietly slipped it into his pocket.
It was a…
Metal sphere.
“Let’s leave.” Chen Xiaolian called out to Qimu Xi before leading her out of the rundown safe room.
Stepping outside, he looked at the little town that had mostly been reduced to ruins. Chen Xiaolian could not help but feel strange inside.
Assuming that Kaiser’s guild really was a Player guild… then, who were they waging a battle against here?
Assuming Kaiser was not just boasting and that his guild was truly the pinnacle in terms of strength, then what kind of existence could wipe out a guild such as theirs?
Observing the damaged remnants left on the battlefield, it was obvious to Chen Xiaolian that the participants of this battle possessed powers of the technological and magical types. Machines, mechs, magical weapons, cold weapons…
The scale of destructive power here was humongous.
Just what kind of power could utterly wipe out such a powerful guild here?
Who was it that had attacked them? Or rather… what.
Naturally, there was another important matter.
In the recording that Kaiser left, he mentioned that he had left behind a powerful weapon.
The weapon…
Chen Xiaolian looked around in search of it.
Turning around, he jumped onto the roof of a house and carefully assessed the town layout.
The battle seemed to have started from the left side of the town…
There appeared to be a military withdrawal where they resisted all the way while retreating until they reached the safe zone area.
Kaiser’s guild members all died during the withdrawal operation. In the end, only Kaiser made it into the safe zone and died inside.
If so… the weapon that he was talking about, where could it be?
Chen Xiaolian who was on the roof looked around. Suddenly, he caught sight of a figure walking through a street located far away. Chen Xiaolian was greatly startled and he quickly climbed down, eventually sliding down through the walls.
He grabbed the dazed Qimu Xi and said in a lowered tone of voice, “Let’s go.”
“Go?”
“Hurry, the monster has chased us all the way here.” Chen Xiaolian dragged Qimu Xi as he quickly moved toward the other side of the town.
After moving past a street, Chen Xiaolian spied a house beside the street. He went toward the house and attempted to push open the door. Finding the door to be locked, Chen Xiaolian exerted more force and broke the door lock. He then pulled Qimu Xi with him into the house and slammed the door shut.
Qimu Xi’s face was pale and she said, “We…”
“Shush, we’ll hide here first.” Chen Xiaolian gritted his teeth and smiled bitterly. “Right now, we can only delay. Think of a way to make it through this one hour. We are now trapped in here. Even if we run out of this town, we can’t go anywhere but return here. That is the equivalent of being trapped in here.
“Did you not read the system prompt? In one hour, the instance dungeons will finish merging and we might be able to leave this place.
“Now, we need to make it through this one hour and think of a way to avoid being found by the monster.”
After saying that, Chen Xiaolian quickly pulled Qimu Xi up to the second floor. They entered a room that was facing the street. He then crept toward the window and closed the window curtains, leaving only a gap. After that, he carefully looked at the street outside the window.
After one minute of observation, Chen Xiaolian gave a sigh of relief. The Fallen Avenger had not chased them here.
However, when he turned his head back, he found that Qimu Xi was standing beside a cabinet. She was curiously looking at the items lined atop the cabinet.
“What are you looking at?”
Qimu Xi turned around and she pointed at the furnishings on the cabinet. “Look, these… these items.”
Chen Xiaolian’s heart skipped a beat.
He went toward the cabinet to look at it and became stunned.
…
Normally speaking, there shouldn’t be anything strange about the items on the cabinet.
Those were the items that ordinary humans would use as furnishings.
Some small ornaments and some personal items.
There was also a drawing board next to the cabinet.
Chen Xiaolian pulled the drawing board out and inspected it.
It was a charcoal art, drawn with rough strokes. The lines were thick and the painting was nothing impressive. However, the content of the artwork left Chen Xiaolian surprised.
The artwork was surprisingly of…
A mech.
The design of the mech was simplistic. On the whole however, it was clear that it was of the same type as the damaged ones that Chen Xiaolian had seen in the streets of this little town. It was of the same small infantry-type mech and was not too big.
On the surface of the mech inside the drawing was a symbol.
It was a symbol that Chen Xiaolian had seen before – the symbol on the stone book.
It was the symbol of a sword and axe crossed together.
This was clearly the symbol of Conqueror Guild.
In the drawing, a man was standing beside the mech in skin-tight uniform. The man sported a moustache and a beard and he was laughing heartily.
Seeing that shocked Chen Xiaolian.
He quickly pulled open the drawers.
The items inside the drawer were a mess.
There were some worn out clothes that would tear with just a gentle pinch. There were also robes with linen texture that had gone to ruin.
Chen Xiaolian found a badge among those items.
It was a round shaped metal badge the size of a normal cup’s mouth. It was unknown what exact type of metal was used to make the badge.
However, for him to find this here…
Was exceptionally abnormal.
…
From what Chen Xiaolian could understand, this town should have been a region within the system’s instance dungeon, an empty town created by the system.
The houses inside the little town… in the little town that he was in earlier, the houses also had furniture. However, there were no furnishings.
A glance would be sufficient to indicate that no one was living there.
Empty.
Let’s put it this way. It was the equivalent of movie props that were simply put there for show.
At that moment however, in the little town where Conqueror Guild was wiped out, Chen Xiaolian had found…
Within this house…
Traces to show that someone had lived here before.
Additionally…
Judging from the symbol on the badge and the drawing of the mech on the drawing board…
“Conqueror Guild? They… they actually lived inside this little town before?”
Also, by the looks of the clothes he found inside the cabinet, they were not just staying here for one night.
The number of damaged clothes inside the cabinet showed that…
They seemed to have lived here for… a long time?
The absurdly ridiculous thought popped into his mind.
How is that possible?
He suddenly pushed Qimu Xi away and rushed out of the room to go downstairs.
Chen Xiaolian barged into the kitchen area downstairs and carefully surveyed the area. What he saw left him stunned.
This place… someone had definitely lived here before.
Scorch marks could be seen at the bottom part of the pot hanging on the wall of the kitchen.
Traces of wear could be seen on the kitchen knives blade.
Someone had definitely lived in here.
These items were not mere props in an empty house.
The Conqueror Guild… could they have lived in here?
Chen Xiaolian’s heart pounded furiously.
He got the sense that he may have come across a very important clue.
Chen Xiaolian went to the door and clenched his teeth as he peeked outside to check the outside street. After confirming that the Fallen Avenger was not outside, he quickly dashed out.
He ran across the street.
There was a little bar across the street.
In one breath, Chen Xiaolian dashed through the street and into the bar.
Looking around, he saw that the furnishings on the bar were very normal.
There was a thick layer of dust build up. However, when Chen Xiaolian walked until he was beside the bar counter and swept his sleeve across the surface of the counter, he found scratch marks on the surface of the counter.
There were also marks left by knives. A grimacing face, a badge…
This meant that… someone had once drank and messed about here.
Chen Xiaolian then rushed toward the beer cabinet beside the counter and inspected the contents.
Bottles of beer were lined up orderly inside the cabinet. Some were sealed, but there were also those that had been opened.
Chen Xiaolian took a deep breath and ran up to the second floor.
A small room awaited him in the second floor.
The items furnishing the room were dilapidated. However, Chen Xiaolian saw something familiar hanging on the wall.
It was a Cross Medallion Sword.
Although it was merely a low-grade weapon of the system, it remained a weapon of the system! Chen Xiaolian himself had used it before during his early days.
He retrieved the sword from the wall and was quick to receive a system prompt.
System prompt: Picked up a Cross Medallion Sword. State: Slightly damaged.
After swinging it twice, Chen Xiaolian suddenly felt suffocated. He felt a desire to roar out until his throat went dry.
This…
Just what in the world is going on here?
He then saw a symbol drawn on the surface of the wall.
Surprisingly, it was the symbol of Conqueror Guild.
This place and the houses within it all contained traces showing that someone had once lived here.
Additionally, the people who lived here were…
Conqueror Guild members…
And the fellow known as Kaiser.
But…
But this was clearly a background within an instance dungeon!
Why would Players live inside an instance dungeon for an extended period of time?
How was it possible for them to have lived in an instance dungeon for so long?
As Players, after completing instance dungeons, shouldn’t they immediately return back to the Upper Plane?
Logically speaking, only high-rank Players like Miao Yan should be able to possess an Exclusive Account, allowing her to stay within this world for an extended period of time.
But… but…
From what Chen Xiaolian could gather, it would appear that every member of Conqueror Guild was staying inside this little town area for a long time. This little town that existed within an instance dungeon. They were practically living here.
Chen Xiaolian was not able to wrap his head around this information.
His grip on the Cross Medallion Sword grew tighter and he panted for breath.
He quickly forced himself to calm down and looked around the room.
The images he saw when he first stepped into this little town replayed itself within his mind…
Those members of Conqueror Guild fought while withdrawing without abandoning this little town. Little by little, they retreated until their very last member…
A question that he had previously ignored suddenly came to mind!
They… why did they fight to the death here?
If they were incapable of facing the enemy head on, why did they not run away?
Why not just evacuate?
Why not leave?
Why did they fight to the last in this place?
Not a single one escaped?
Why would they throw their lives away to protect this place? Why throw everything away?
Considering how powerful this Conqueror Guild was, even if they did encounter an enemy they cannot defeat, they could still escape from the enemy. First, retreat. Then think of how to start up again from zero…
Mm? Wait a…
From zero…
Chen Xiaolian’s body shuddered.
“Zero… City…”
He abruptly landed a punch on the wall and said.
“I get it now… this place… this place is the equivalent of Zero City! A Zero City that belongs to Conqueror Guild!”
…
Zero City!
Chen Xiaolian had once discussed the matter with Mr San. After their conversation, Chen Xiaolian came to the understanding that Mr San and a group of Irregularities from the older generation had been the ones to create Zero City. They did so in order to obtain freedom, to escape the control of the system.
It was a small space that could avoid the scanning powers of the system, a safe paradise.
It was a little space meant to escape the system scan, a safe island.
A shelter.
A mouse hole
It was a place they could call home and a base of operations.
If so…
Could it be that this Conqueror Guild was also doing the same thing?
They had also created such a place? Was this little town the isolated space that they had created?
A place they could call home, a… Zero City?
However, this brought up an even more puzzling question for Chen Xiaolian.
Mr San and the others were Irregularities and Awakened ones. They created and hid inside Zero City to elude the system, hoping to be free of the constraints of the system.
However, the members of Conqueror Guild and that Kaiser…
They were obviously Players.
Players!
Why would Players want to a Zero City? Why would Players want to hide from the system?
What were they trying to hide from?
