Inside the player space.
Scrolling through the forum is addictive.
Xu Xi didn't know exactly how long he had been scrolling, but by the time he snapped back to reality, the three balls of white light were still floating in the air beside him.
"......" He closed the panel, deciding to check his rewards first.
The truth was, he really didn't want to stumble upon any more posts about himself.
Because it was genuinely awkward, like watching an acquaintance show off.
And that acquaintance was himself.
Xu Xi raised his hand and summoned the three balls of white light over. A slightly cool sensation landed in his palm.
As he willed it, the white light gradually dissipated, revealing the true forms of the three items.
The first was a small glass hourglass that could be hung around the neck, only half a finger long. The sand inside was nearly transparent, shimmering with extremely faint specks of light like stardust, quietly piled at the bottom.
Simultaneously, Xu Xi learned its function.
Actively inverting this hourglass could rewind the current state within a certain range around the holder to what it was one minute ago.
It was somewhat like time reversal but not entirely the same.
Time itself wasn't truly flowing backwards; it was just that the state of matter, energy, and even living beings within the range would be forcibly overwritten to their state from one minute prior.
The cost was that the sand within the hourglass would gradually grow dimmer with each inversion until it completely lost its luster, at which point this hourglass would be destroyed.
Not bad.
He then looked at the second item.
A single monocle lens made of crystal. When worn, it could briefly distort or overwrite a target's perception.
The limitation was that its effectiveness decreased against targets with higher intelligence and stronger willpower. It had a cooldown of 24 hours per use.
Also acceptable.
He looked at the final item.
A small, worn ceramic piggy bank. The opening was sealed with wax, and it made strange, fragmented sounds when shaken.
Its function was that the holder could actively store currently suffered negative status effects (such as poisoning, curses, weakness, or even misfortune, etc.) into it, temporarily exempting themselves from their effects.
The jar could store up to three negative statuses. Each time one was stored, a crack would appear on the jar's body until it completely shattered.
Not terrible.
Xu Xi juggled the three items in his hand.
If he didn't have his reload ability, these items would indeed be exceptionally useful to him.
Even so, they might still play unexpected roles at certain critical moments.
Putting away his newly acquired items, he reopened his panel. Sure enough, the items section had changed.
「Owned Items: Pure White Wedding Candy, Patterned Wedding Candy, 10 Yuan Spirit Money ×2, Fruit Knife, Phone, Sands of Temporal Reversion, Perception Overwrite Lens, Misfortune-Sealing Savings Jar」
Suppressing the restless urge to click open the forum, Xu Xi warned himself internally.
The forum is endless, but the stone steps can be climbed.
His gaze swept over the minimalist icon below; its flickering glow seemed to carry a silent temptation.
He took a deep breath, forcibly shifted his gaze, and silently chanted to himself, enter the instance, enter the instance.
Only 501 floors left.
He needed to strive! He needed to reach the summit!
If the original Xu Xi still approached this so-called God Hunt game with a bit of probing and going with the flow, then now, this concrete, measurable number had thoroughly ignited his dormant fighting spirit.
...
Gloomy, lead-gray clouds pressed low upon the blue-black tile eaves. A fine rain fell like silk, silently soaking the smooth backs of the two stone lions flanking the entrance and dampening the seven figures standing outside, each with a different expression.
While being scrutinized by the other six, Xu Xi was also sizing them up.
Four men and two women.
The first was a young man who didn't look very old, with short black hair and two silver studs in his right earlobe. He was looking around, seeming somewhat restless.
The second was a young woman with her long hair pinned up with a wooden hairpin. Her expression was composed, her demeanor calm.
The third was a chubby man, smiling, also appearing quite young.
The fourth woman had a ponytail, wheat-colored skin, and a short scar above her left eyebrow.
The fifth was a man with a crew cut, whose face looked somewhat fierce.
The final young man had a rather artistic air, with a small bun tied at the back of his head.
Xu Xi suddenly noticed they were all wearing either cheongsams, long gowns with mandarin jackets, or modified student uniforms.
He looked down. A dark blue long gown fitted him snugly.
...Was this instance set in the Republican era??
Xu Xi looked up. Before him was a tightly shut, vermilion-painted door with peeling lacquer, and above it, a plaque washed by the rain to an even darker hue. On it were two flamboyant, sweeping characters: Shen Residence.
——
【Here we go, saving my spot】
【Huh? Master Xu Xi isn't taking a few more days off? How come he's entering another instance right after finishing the mixed-team competition?】
【I hereby crown 248 as the number one workaholic】
【Maybe entering instances is just leisure for him?】
【Wait, those people opposite look a bit familiar... Holy crap! Hang Ze??】
【Why is Yu Hao here too?】
【And Xing Ge, Shi Weiwei, Lin Zuo, Tang Shutong... they're all players ranked in the sixties and seventies】
【Oh no, how did this kid Hang Ze end up in the same instance as Master Xu Xi? I hope his terrible luck doesn't rub off on my master】
【...This instance isn't going to get mutated again because of this kid, is it?!】
【Guaranteed mutation (lights a cigarette with world-weary expression.jpg)】
【248 + Hang Ze, this epic-level jinx... I suddenly don't dare to imagine】
【Hang Ze, restrain yourself this time, okay? Don't touch random things or say random stuff. Don't make me get on my knees and beg you】
【Plague God Bro: Wouldn't even give you the time of day】
【Master, remember to stay away from that guy with the ear studs opposite you! He's not right! He's cursed!】
The live stream comments, having witnessed how unlucky Hang Ze was, were spinning with anxiety, wishing they could jump into the screen to remind Xu Xi and the other players to stay far away from that unlucky young man.
He was notoriously unlucky in every instance, always managing to step on the most outrageous landmines with pinpoint accuracy, even single-handedly raising the supernatural weirdness and danger level of an instance by a whole magnitude. Yet, he always managed to survive perfectly fine until the end.
【248 isn't even afraid of Flash Play, why would he fear Hang Ze? Definitely no problem... probably, maybe, perhaps】
【If your tone was less hesitant, it might comfort me :)】
【Now we can only hope Master Xu Xi's aura is strong enough to suppress this kid's bad luck... (prays with hands together.jpg)】
——
Inside the instance.
The boy with the ear studs, namely Hang Ze, inexplicably hunched his shoulders.
He suddenly felt a chill down his back.
He looked up at the tightly shut mansion before him and muttered quietly, "This place looks seriously yin-heavy."
He scanned the group once more. When his gaze landed on Xu Xi in the dark blue long gown, his eyes immediately lit up. "Bro, that outfit looks really sharp on you! You look super reliable!"
Xu Xi: "...?"
Meanwhile, the live stream comments erupted in groundhog-like screams.
