Chapter 2584: Rank-A Instance "Night Tour
Jing Shi remained silent; under such circumstances, she couldn’t in good conscience force Xu Huo to leave. The city was in chaos, and the Enforcement Department was probably powerless, even rescue operations were conditional.
Indeed, when they arrived at the Enforcement Department building near the Yangming Building, it was already crowded inside and out. Apart from those seeking help due to missing relatives, the rest were people afraid to move around, hoping the Enforcement Department could arrange their departure. Jing Shi and the others couldn’t squeeze in at the moment.
In the end, it was Jing Shi who contacted a friend in the Enforcement Department, and only then were they called inside.
They were received by a squad leader from a Law Enforcement Team, who was very straightforward with Jing Shi, "All the available personnel from the Enforcement Team have been deployed. There are people already assigned to the Yangming Building, and if the missing individuals can be found, your family’s child will also be rescued. Rest assured, a large number of Rank-A Players have already arrived from other cities."
Sending someone alone for rescue is impossible.
The squad leader was also very busy and left hurriedly after finishing his instructions.
Jing Shi held onto her resolve and refused to leave. Soon, the two players protecting Xiao Chuan arrived, having just come from the Yangming Building. They quickly explained the situation inside.
Initially, they followed Xiao Chuan and his friends. After visiting the museum, the children suggested finding a place to play. The Yangming Building was a fun spot, so the children stayed here until dark.
Xiao Chuan suddenly disappeared while he was with a companion in the restroom. The signal from his locator vanished instantly, prompting the two players to rush in and search for him, but he was already gone. Three adults in the restroom were interrogated and had indeed seen the child entering a stall, but they genuinely didn’t know how he disappeared.
The two players initially suspected a kidnapping. After notifying the Law Enforcement Team, they began investigating surveillance footage to see if anyone was tailing them—sudden disappearance led them to believe it was player action. Without blocking the scene initially, catching the person afterward would be difficult, forcing them to first search for clues and wait for the abductors to make contact.
But merely ten minutes later, more people began disappearing from the Yangming Building. The remaining children were taken away by the Enforcement Department, while the two players commenced a search within the building.
As the number of missing persons grew, they realized this wasn’t an ordinary disappearance case. To find Xiao Chuan, they wandered around the building, hoping to enter the instance themselves. However, they surprisingly ended up going in circles without success.
At this point, they also understood that the Yangming Building was an entrance to a dungeon restricted area rather than a portal to a standard random instance.
Xu Huo had already reviewed the dungeon background and known clues released by the local government.
Firstly, the dungeon background centered around the Night Tour activity on Cultural Street, combined with the customs and culture of District 001, creating a massive Night Tour performance venue. Besides last night’s horror theme, all Night Tour themes on Cultural Street’s scheduled program had become part of the dungeon. Everyone within the dungeon venue could be randomly selected as a member of the Night Tour Team.
The clearance requirement is simple: survive in the dungeon for seven days.
Yes, this is a timed instance; players pass by staying alive for seven days.
One difficulty of Advanced Dungeons is that they are not timed. In untimed dungeons, if players cannot clear it by the last deadline of the next instance, it’s basically considered a failure to clear, and those who remain would face high-risk randomness upon leaving the dungeon.
Dungeons below Rank-C are mostly timed; once the time is up, players can leave the instance regardless of success, but this mode in an Advanced Dungeon, especially in Rank-A Instances, implies a significantly higher difficulty level.
Feedback from players who subsequently entered the instance matches this observation.
The currently known clue is that everyone within the dungeon venue could be randomly selected as a "Night Tour" member. Once selected, the individual wears a headgear which attaches to them and cannot be removed.
Individuals wearing the headgear have a certain chance of losing their sanity, and some may randomly kill. However, if killed, their headgear transfers to their killer—no one is exempt from this rule.
Currently, Advanced Players have already donned the headgear, and props and surgical tools cannot remove it.
Secondly, those wearing headgear aren’t only the selected members but also members of the original Night Tour Team. These "members" include some imposters and some activity props, including the dungeon boss.
If original Night Tour Team members are killed, whether imposters or props, their headgear also transfers to their killer—this is also why several Advanced Players are now wearing headgear.
The dungeon has not been active for long, and being a survival dungeon, players don’t have many clearance requirements, thus cannot grasp more specific dungeon details in advance.
For now, the biggest trap and warning is, not to kill the Night Tour Team members wearing headgear.
No news has yet come from the dungeon restricted area.
However, Rank-A Players from other cities have gradually arrived. There aren’t enough tickets at the moment, so some have opted to enter the dungeon restricted area, both for rescue and to explore the dungeon.
For anyone in the dungeon venue, as long as their freedom isn’t restricted, they can leave and enter the instance. But entering the dungeon restricted area is different; at least before the dungeon ends, it’s tough to come out.
Of course, not all news is positive; some rescuing players have arrived, but several cities have also recently experienced random killings and dungeon restricted areas caused by ghost headgear, indicating this Rank-A Instance’s coverage far exceeds the government’s prediction.
"It’s one thing for the dungeon venue to be large, but for dungeon restricted areas to appear in every city," the Bearded Player standing behind Jing Shi looked grim, "and no information has come from the dungeon restricted areas yet."
This must account for the possibility that dungeon restricted area space can disconnect players from the game.
"Normally, this wouldn’t happen," Xu Huo said. Unless under specific conditions, restricting personal panel access to players entering the instance is outright cheating; how is this different from pulling regular people into the instance?
"If not, the government probably sealed the information," the Bearded Player said, "and if the government sealed the information, the single reason is to prevent panic at present."
The dungeon level, background, clearance requirements, and some clues have been released, only the dungeon restricted area remains silent—what extent of severity would warrant the government to take such measures?