Chapter 700: Chapter 471: Outside the Manor_2
Except for Rufus, most of the others had only entered micro or small Mysterious Realms, and Rufus himself had only entered a medium-sized Mysterious Realm on a Mysterious Ship once. Although he had successfully passed through, he had not engaged in any formal combat throughout the process.
Rufus belonged to that category of individuals who had maxed out their diplomatic abilities but whose actual combat power was quite weak. Therefore, when he was accidentally swept into this Mysterious Realm, he took the initiative to make connections with others, hoping to leave the Mysterious Realm safely like the last time.
Just as Rufus was preparing to invite Dong Tianyu to join their team, several beams of light appeared in the sky. As the beams faded, a few newcomers appeared nearby.
Rufus had long noticed that Dong Tianyu had no intention of interacting with him, but had reluctantly pretended not to know and deliberately stayed behind.
Rufus had been ready to shamelessly insist on Dong Tianyu joining his team, but unexpectedly, a few new people had appeared around them.
With the strategy of tackling easier tasks first, Rufus decisively shifted his target, putting the tough nut that was Dong Tianyu aside for the time being. He looked to see if he could first lure the newcomers into his group. When there was time later, he would come back to persuade them.
Seeing Rufus take his leave, Dong Tianyu wasn’t particularly bothered and had originally planned to observe the surroundings using his Divine Sense, only to suddenly find that the range of his Divine Sense had significantly shrunk.
At first, Dong Tianyu thought the shrinking of his Divine Sense range was due to the restraint of the Mysterious Realm’s barrier. But before long, he was surprised to find that, although the Mysterious Realm’s barrier did block the probing of Divine Sense, the main reason for the reduction in range was that Dong Tianyu’s Cultivation Level had dropped significantly,
Realizing his Cultivation Level had decreased, Dong Tianyu checked his Golden Core in a somewhat panicked manner.
Seeing that the Golden Core was still properly situated in the Dantian and had not disappeared, Dong Tianyu finally breathed a sigh of relief. He could now be certain that his cultivation was not disappearing into thin air but was temporarily suppressed.
After repeatedly confirming that his Cultivation Level was only suppressed and not vanished, Dong Tianyu felt more relaxed.
Watching Rufus confidently talking to the newcomers, Dong Tianyu turned his gaze to the mansion. Everyone was standing outside the mansion’s gates, and using his Divine Sense, Dong Tianyu had realized that, apart from the mansion, the other three directions seemed to have invisible walls, restricting them to this specific area.
If there were no surprises, to break the Mysterious Realm and obtain the Mysterious Core within, they would need to enter the mansion.
Hence, without much thought, Dong Tianyu walked straight to the mansion’s gate to try pushing it open.
While attempting to push and pull the mansion’s gate, Dong Tianyu found that his Cultivation Level continued to decrease. It seemed as long as he stayed in this Mysterious Realm, his own Cultivation Level would continuously be sealed by it.
Just as Dong Tianyu stopped to ponder the rate at which his Cultivation Level was decreasing, he suddenly heard other people’s voices from behind: "Don’t waste your strength. We arrived a few days before you.
After repeated tests, neither pushing the door nor climbing the wall works. It seems like we’ll need to meet some condition to enter the mansion, and only then will the gate open."
Dong Tianyu didn’t turn to look at who was speaking to him but directly responded, "Could it be that the main reason the mansion’s gate won’t open is that there aren’t enough participants?"
Seeing Dong Tianyu turn around, the other person smiled and said, "Talking with a smart person is so simple. Let me introduce myself, you can call me Fruity here, and these are my brothers Er Zhuang, Big Pear, Harold, and Henry."
Although Fruity claimed the others were his brothers, when Dong Tianyu heard their unrelated nicknames, he knew their friendship wasn’t deep.
However, seeing them only give nicknames rather than real names to strangers, Dong Tianyu knew they were wary of outsiders. Without saying anything else, at least they appeared to be sufficiently vigilant for now.
Zachary did not have the mindset of a Lone Wolf. Although he often spent time alone, it was because he was slightly socially anxious, but in such a completely unfamiliar environment, regardless of one’s strength, Zachary actually preferred to be with others.
However, if someone was always clumsy and causing trouble, or if they were a sanctimonious hypocrite, Zachary would definitely keep his distance without hesitation.
In the post-apocalyptic world, there was actually no need to eliminate the sanctimonious first because a true sanctimonious person would not survive long in dangerous periods. Those who lived longer were the despised sanctimonious hypocrites.
To tell the truth, if a sanctimonious person fell into the water, and if it did not endanger their own safety, everyone would believe that they would go to save that sanctimonious person.
After all, everyone knew that if it were themselves in the water, the true sanctimonious person, even at the risk to their own safety, would still take the risk to save them. Therefore, in situations that did not affect their own safety, many people would subconsciously protect the sanctimonious person.
But if the sanctimonious person put themselves in danger to save others, Zachary did not know how others would react, but in situations where his own safety was not endangered, he was still willing to lend a helping hand.
Because Zachary also did not want the sanctimonious person to think he was heartless. After all, although sanctimonious people were kind-hearted, they also had personal feelings, and when many people were in danger and needed the sanctimonious person to rescue them, they would definitely save those they approved of first.
However, if the danger encountered by the sanctimonious person or when they saved others would endanger Zachary himself, although he would actively stop the sanctimonious person from rescuing others, he would also stay far away and would not forcefully intervene.
What everyone meant by eliminating the sanctimonious first in the apocalypse was actually to eliminate the sanctimonious hypocrites first.
But if cooperation was needed during the apocalypse, even though there was no worry about the sanctimonious person stabbing them in the back, everyone was still more willing to cooperate with intelligent people.
Although they had only a few words of communication, Zachary felt that Guozi and the others could be considered quite good cooperative partners for the time being.
Therefore, Zachary did not speak to them with the cold tone he had used with Rufus, but instead introduced himself with a smile, "You can call me Old Five. You’ve been here for a few days; I wonder if you have any suitable clues to share with me."
Hearing Zachary speak this way, Guozi and the others understood that Zachary was willing to cooperate with them. At least when they had not encountered any danger, Zachary should be a pretty good partner.
Since both parties were keen to make friends, and since Guozi and the others had arrived a few days earlier but had actually not discovered any useful clues, Guozi shared with Zachary everything they had experienced over the past few days.
"We were not the first ones to enter this Mysterious Realm. Just now you saw Rufus trying to make contact with you, but it looked like you rejected him.
Don’t worry, we are not one of them. Do you see that old man over there? He entered before us, though we don’t know exactly when he came in.
But after observing for these few days, we don’t know if that old man really hasn’t eaten at all or has been hiding somewhere eating by himself. We’ve watched for a long time but have never seen the old man eat anything. Therefore, we feel that there might be something off about that old man.
When Rufus first came in, we actually warned him, but he seemed not to care, so we didn’t say anything more.
Apart from this old man, there are a few others in Rufus’s team that are problematic. You must have seen the scene when the newcomer arrived; that woman over there had a different entrance from everyone else, appearing mysteriously among us.
If your entrance had been different from the majority like that woman’s, we would not have approached you.
After all, you must have also realized by now that your Cultivation Level seems to be suppressed. Right now, we are only a bit stronger than ordinary people."
