Several people revealed surprised expressions.
Xia Xueqin opened her mouth wide: “Sister, you…”
Wang Dama pulled them along: “Shh, don’t talk outside. Everyone, get inside first.”
Several people found a house that was still somewhat intact and gathered together.
The high temperature made sweat drip nonstop from their foreheads. Mu Shan’s face was pale, but she still spoke: “The Chinese definition of 【Sufficient】 is: reaching the required or satisfactory level.”
“Since the system said that, it means it has a 【demand】 for human players. Since it’s about reaching a satisfactory level, it implies there exists a 【scale of high and low values】.”
She picked up the half-empty water bottle in her hand: “In simple terms, half a bottle of water isn’t enough, one bottle is.”
Xia Xueqin shivered: “It won’t be like in those sci-fi movies, treating us as some kind of energy reserve, like human-generated electricity or something…”
Wang Dama knocked her on the head: “What level of technology is the Main God System at? It’s far beyond developed countries. Why would it need electricity?”
Mu Shan shook her head: “Too little can be inferred from a single word. I hope we can still find the third-person captain and ask his opinion.”
Zong Rui’s expression was serious: “I understand.”
【Self-Service Q&A Opportunity:
Extra reward for 100% task completion
Player may ask the system one question
System will answer under compliant permissions】
Amid the expectant gazes of those around her, Mu Shan spoke: “I want to know, how can human players leave instances and return to the real world?”
Three floating dots appeared before her eyes, like the voice output on a phone. The three dots bobbed up and down, emitting an emotionless electronic synthesized voice.
“This question cannot be answered. Please change the question.”
“…”
Those around her made small commotions. Wang Dama clenched her fists tightly, while Zong Rui, Li Gang, and the others all looked grim.
Mu Shan remained expressionless: “I do not accept your answer. I insist on asking this question.”
Everyone’s movements paused. They watched as those three dots bobbed up and down, as if thinking, until after more than 20 seconds, it finally gave a response.
System: “Answering Player 537099. After clearing 100 instances, one may return to reality.”
As soon as this answer came out, everyone couldn’t help but erupt in chaos. Xia Xueqin jumped up directly: “What bullshit!”
System: “This Self-Service Q&A Opportunity has been u…”
Mu Shan: “You are deceiving us.”
“…”
The three dots hovering in the void disappeared, and the system quickly went offline.
Wang Dama grabbed her arm: “Shanshan, what do you mean by deceiving? Can the system lie?”
“What it does most is interfere. If that counts as a form of deception.”
The usually taciturn Yu Da suddenly spoke: “100 instances. Fundamentally impossible.”
Zong Rui rubbed the weapon at her waist: “The instance worlds have been open for a year and a half at most. The most senior four-digit ID players have only gone through fewer than 30 instances. And as everyone knows, the ones still alive are all in mentally unstable states…”
Everyone tacitly glanced at the man standing motionless behind Mu Shan.
Zong Rui’s expression was odd: “Whether physically or mentally, humans cannot withstand the torment of 100 horror instances.”
Xia Xueqin took a deep breath: “By that time, I’d probably have mechanically ascended.”
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
Mu Shan spoke: “The system refused to answer the first time, but not due to ‘lack of answering permission.’ I believe more than one player has asked this question before, and the system refused them all.”
“This means it has no standard answer template. It doesn’t know how players should leave the instance worlds.”
Xia Xueqin was somewhat baffled: “It’s the one who created all this mess. How could it not know?”
Zong Rui looked at her: “Don’t you get it yet? The system never intended for players to leave!”
Mu Shan: “Or rather, before my question, there was no assumption of players ‘escaping instances.’ At least not until then.”
Li Gang said softly: “…Then what do we do? Really endure until 100 instances?”
“That’s unlikely.”
“We need to figure out what the system really wants from players. When its ‘level value’ reaches the peak.”
This long day finally ended. The Insect King and the village chief were successively killed, and the NPC villagers had already left one after another. Everyone stood at the ruined village entrance, bidding each other farewell.
Mu Shan had no raft left, so she had to walk back to her safe house on foot.
The sky gradually darkened, and the sunset turned into an orange-red halo, dyeing the horizon red.
She arrived at the position of Safe House No. 1 and stopped. The person walking behind her, however, did not stop and bumped straight into her back.
Mu Shan lowered her head and saw the long, dark arms hanging at her sides. He Yuncong’s shadow, cast on the ground by the sunset, was tall and eerie, with two beast ears standing erect on his head and sharp canine teeth bared beneath the long muzzle.
Before the shadow could start clawing wildly, Mu Shan turned her head.
“Why didn’t you go back to rest? You suffered such serious injuries today. You’ve been overexerting for a long time.”
The man tilted his head and stared at her for a good while without speaking.
Seeing communication futile, Mu Shan directly grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Safe House No. 1 had no defensive installations outside. Trees broken by the storm and earthquake almost completely blocked the entrance. If not for the number ① still floating in midair, she might not have found the basement door.
Her arm was suddenly gripped in reverse.
“Shanshan.”
He Yuncong tried to remove the mask, but the pitch-black wolf head seemed fused to his face. Veins bulged on the back of his hand as he panted.
Mu Shan stopped his movement.
He Yuncong grasped her hand: “My time is running out. Tomorrow, I will leave this instance.”
He could no longer hear the sounds around him. His ears were filled with strange noises: believers’ prayers, camel bells, wind and sand, hissing snakes, buzzing. Before his eyes was a mess of exclamation marks and prompts.
【Warning! Warning! Assimilation level too high! Player monstrosity 41%, divinity 44%. About to lose self-consciousness control】
【Player 7771, Main Quest countdown 1 day
Growth: Poor, Mental: Critical】
【Player emotions growing detached from original [Social Judgment Post] path. Please discard unnecessary (love) emotions】
He wasn’t looking at the system at all.
In his chaotic, blood-red vision, he just stared fixedly at Mu Shan’s face.
“I will definitely come find you.”
Through those eyes, Mu Shan saw certain hysterical emotions.
The next moment, she was pulled into a scorching, hard embrace. The person holding her seemed to use all his strength, yet was strongly suppressing something. His muscles trembled. After a while, she felt something brush the top of her head.
For the two who had lost their parents, they were each other’s only salvation to stay alive.
Mu Shan didn’t know what he was struggling against and could only lift her hand to embrace his back, silently soothing him.
In the end, He Yuncong did not enter the safe house. He vanished beneath the pyramid that had sprouted out of nowhere in the forest.
She wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but she felt the pyramid was growing taller.
Every time she looked back, Mu Shan felt a gaze from the pyramid’s apex watching her.
The vegetation in the Humid Heat Forest wilted under the high temperature, and many short trees had died. Mu Shan followed the river for a short while and discovered several giant insect corpses killed by players on the roadside—all lepidopteran butterflies.
Perhaps due to the high-temperature environment, the giant insect monsters rotted very quickly after death. Soon, their bodies crawled with carnivorous small bugs.
These butterflies’ torsos were riddled with holes, but their wing pairs were intact. Mu Shan quickly drew her knife and raced against time to cut down three pairs of butterfly wings.
Given that she had previously made arm guards from cockroach shells, these beautiful wings might have some use.
She entered the safe house with the last ray of sunlight before sunset.
After closing the door, the sweat pouring down like rain finally eased. Mu Shan slumped in the chair, catching her rapid breath.
She first went to the bathroom to clean herself simply and change her sanitary products, then brewed a cup of tea and sat in the comfortably temperate basement to tally her rewards.
First, she processed the butterfly wings picked up roadside.
【Random Armor Crafting. System will automatically select based on materials provided by player
Finished product quality random, type random, style random
Higher material quality yields higher armor quality
No returns or exchanges
Single use fee: 20 gold coins】
【Random armor production in progress
Raw materials: Lepidopteran giant insect monster wings x6
Progress bar: 1/100】
Mu Shan guessed it would likely produce flight-related items. It would be great if it could fill the gap left by the Confession Balloon.
The Prop Mystery Box yielded only one item: a gray metal brooch that looked both ugly and ordinary.
【Anonymous Player (Auxiliary)
Quality: Common
Description: Hides player ID, name, profession, etc., from others
Use: Pin on clothing
Note: “Anonymous speech is the beginning of conflict”】
Mu Shan held the brooch but felt no joy. She began to sense the system’s ill intent.
After finishing her tea, she opened the next white gift box.
【Safe House Gift Pack:
Choose one of the following three upgrades
1. Add sunroom windows (outdoor-facing default space)
2. Basement safe house expansion (+1m)
3. Sunroom expansion (+1m)】
Mu Shan’s current resource reserves filled every corner of the safe house. She even slept between two layers of supplies. Though she wanted to expand the bedroom area, compared to the other two options, the first one stood out.
The sunroom had an openable ceiling and an outdoor entry door. It didn’t seem like it needed windows at all. This seemingly useless option became Mu Shan’s final choice.
【Player obtained: Ground-level sunroom windows (to outdoors)】
【Engineering construction period 1 minute. Sunroom inaccessible during this time
Countdown: 59 seconds】
Mu Shan patiently counted down. After the sounds of hammers and nails stopped, she opened the double safety doors and entered the sunroom, seeing a window embedded in the concrete wall.
Ordinary glass, not even aluminum alloy frames.
No screen, but the system thoughtfully included blinds, identical to those in a certain deputy director’s office at the C City Research Institute from the previous instance.
Mu Shan pulled the blinds shut with a swish and saw the view outside.
Trees, grass, sky.
She tried leaning half her body out. Nothing unusual.
Alright, just an utterly ordinary window +1.
【Pastoral Gift Pack
Player obtained pastoral planting kit, containing:
Rooted bok choy x10, seeds x1 pack
Cabbage x2, seeds x1 pack
Carrots x3, seeds x1 pack
Potatoes x3, seeds x1 pack】
For system rewards, this amount was rather small. Even for one person, it would only last a week.
Mu Shan put all vegetables except potatoes in the fridge and stored the seeds properly, planning to find time in the Blank Zone to plant them.
The last blank gift box contained only a card.
【Medical Insurance Voucher (Treatment)
Description: With this voucher, player receives one free medical assurance from the system
Treats all conditions except physiological death and assimilation aftereffects
Note: “Origin Star Medical · Accompanying You on Your Journey”】
The card looked like those promotional ones from private hospitals before, with a logo in the upper right corner. The front listed treatments, hospital name, address, phone, etc. The back even listed several professor-level doctors’ names, all mosaicked.
Mu Shan: As far as items go, this one was made too realistically.
Dusk fell. The thermometer showed indoor 26°C, outdoor symbolically lower but still sustained at 55°C.
In the muggy, humid forest, Mu Shan prepared dinner.
She washed the potatoes rescued that stormy night clean, peeled off their skins, cut them into small pieces, and steamed them in a pot.
She poked them with chopsticks. If they smoothly allowed a small hole, they were fully cooked.
Smoke curled up in the basement’s simple kitchen as she patiently mashed the potatoes bit by bit into a paste with a spoon and placed it in a large bowl.
Once potatoes sprouted, they could not be eaten. They were toxic.
Steamed like this into mashed potatoes, mixed with rice and some pickled vegetables, dried small fish, or egg sauce, they could fill her stomach anytime.
Mu Shan ate her homemade Northeastern-style big rice bun and stared blankly at the rapidly rising “electricity bill” in the constant-temperature air-conditioned room.
She had no idea how high the outside temperature would climb tomorrow.
Main Quest (Day 9)