He lowered his head, his gaze falling on the pocket on the back of the seat in front of him. Spotting a news magazine stuffed inside, he casually pulled it out.
Flipping through it randomly, he found it was all filled with reports on current affairs.
But soon, one particular news story caught his attention.
"At XX:XX on XX/XX/19XX, flight XXX from XX to XX lost contact over XX. After several days of search and rescue, the wreckage of the crashed plane was finally discovered in the XX sea area. All XX passengers and crew members on board were killed, with no survivors..."
Apart from those few simple lines of reporting, there was no further information about the air disaster.
"..." Itanu couldn't help but glance around the cabin again, wondering if the flight that crashed in that news report was the very one they were currently on.
At that moment, a woman slowly approached from the other end of the aisle.
She was tall and sturdy, with light blonde hair tied into a neat low ponytail. Her left ring finger was missing, replaced by a silver metal finger sheath.
Just as she was about to pass by him, Itanu instinctively made eye contact with her.
After being stared at by those seemingly emotionless gray-blue eyes, he couldn't help but feel a stir in his heart.
This was a player.
Itanu affirmed inwardly.
Seeing her head towards the bathroom, he thought for a moment, stuffed the magazine back into the pocket, and got up to follow.
*
Xu Xi was looking down, flipping through the magazine in his hands, when his peripheral vision suddenly caught several figures passing by one after another.
"Huh?"
He looked up just in time to meet a scrutinizing gaze.
It was a man with black short hair and heavy bangs. He was on the thin side, with a prominent small mole at the corner of his mouth. His eyes weren't exactly friendly, but they didn't hold hostility either; it was more like an instinctive appraisal.
The two locked eyes for a moment before the other man looked away first, striding towards the rear of the cabin.
...Confirmed. A teammate matched for this instance.
So... is this a gathering?
Thinking this, Xu Xi stood up without hesitation.
*
Inside the bathroom.
Alekseye scanned the interior environment. Seeing nothing unusual, she stood quietly to the side, waiting.
It wasn't long before she saw the people she was waiting for.
First was a lean, wiry man with very short, dark brown curly hair and a tattoo on his neck depicting a hummingbird in flight.
Next was a woman with a well-proportioned build. Her skin was a deep dark brown, with pronounced crow's feet at the outer corners of her eyes. Her gaze was steady, her mouth corners downturned, giving her an overall rather serious appearance.
Finally, there was a man with East Asian features and a small mole near the corner of his mouth.
The space wasn't large, but it was more than enough to squeeze in the few of them.
Alekseye crossed her arms, leaning against the edge of the sink. Her gaze calmly lingered on each person's face for a second.
"Is everyone here?" she spoke up.
The man with the mole at his mouth corner turned his head slightly, glancing towards the door.
The door wasn't shut tight, leaving a crack.
A few seconds later, the door was pushed open from the outside.
It was another East Asian young man whose appearance style was noticeably different from theirs.
Alekseye and the others' expressions remained largely unchanged. Only the man with the hummingbird tattoo on his neck—Itanu—had a slight twitch at the corner of his eye, as if he had thought of something.
But their respective live streams were far from calm.
Starting with Itanu's live stream.
[Who was the friend who said we couldn't possibly run into Hua Nation players every single time? Come out!]
[Why can we see Hua Nation players in just any random mixed instance??]
[Maybe... because there are a lot of them?]
[No, that's not right... wait a minute]
[What, isn't that the reason?]
[No, no, no—I mean, don't you guys think he looks familiar?!]
[Familiar?]
[Oh no... he really does seem a bit familiar...]
[Oh my god! It's him!! That Hua Nation player from the Fourth Mixed-Team Competition!!!]
The live stream comments recognizing who the young man was immediately erupted into an uproar.
After experiencing the Fourth Mixed-Nation Team Competition, anyone who had watched the live stream had an exceptionally deep impression of that Hua Nation player who single-handedly speed-ran the instance. One could even say it was hard to forget him.
[I told you Itanu was unlucky. Matching with a Hua Nation player again is one thing, but matching with *that one*!!]
Although Coffee Nation did not participate in the Fourth Mixed-Team Competition, it didn't stop them from developing a sense of awe towards that Hua Nation player named Xu Xi.
[Itanu, I told you you were unlucky! They didn't believe me!]
[Actually, it might not be so bad. That Hua Nation player didn't scheme against other players in the mixed-team competition, and his strength is so formidable. Maybe Itanu can hitch a ride to a clear this time?]
As soon as this optimistic comment popped up, it was doused with cold water by another ruthless wave of comments.
[...Friend, are you seriously not joking?]
[In the Fourth Mixed-Team Competition, no one survived except that Hua Nation player. And now you're saying he can hitch a ride to a clear? Hitch a ride to what, a coffin lid?]
[The elites from several major nations were wiped out in there, let alone Itanu.]
[You can't say that. Itanu isn't weak either...]
[That depends on who you compare him to. Compared to that Hua Nation player, what does Itanu have? His rock-hard body that lets him be swung like a long pole?]
[Alright, alright, he's already here. We can't kick him out.]
Inside Itanu's live stream, the comments were in chaos, but the viewership was skyrocketing. Clearly, everyone had heard that an "unlucky fellow" had been matched with that Hua Nation player from the Fourth Mixed-Team Competition and had come rushing to watch the spectacle.
At the same time, similar scenes played out one after another in the live streams of the other players.
Most netizens' attitudes were not very optimistic.
After all, in their view, although the Hua Nation young man didn't scheme against anyone throughout the entire event, the fact that in the end, no one else survived except him was precisely what sent the deepest chill down their spines.
This very fact indicated that the other party had been certain of the outcome from the start. In his eyes, those other players weren't even worth considering from the very beginning.
*
"..." Xu Xi stood at the doorway, his gaze sweeping over the other four people in the bathroom besides himself.
Now he was completely certain.
It really is a mixed instance.
Although he didn't know why he had been matched into a mixed instance, he wasn't particularly averse to it.
It was all the same to him anyway.
Gently closing the door, he moved to stand on the other side, leaning against the wall, ready to listen in.
Alekseye was completely unaware that her live stream audience was currently wary of this newly arrived East Asian young man.
In her understanding, players matched together, regardless of nationality, generally had roughly similar strength levels.
So, she just glanced at him and then looked away, speaking up: "Time is limited, so let's skip the unnecessary talk. I assume everyone has flipped through that magazine?"
The serious-looking woman, Marniya, gave an "Mm" of acknowledgment. "Plane crash, all personnel killed. So, we've boarded a plane that's destined to crash?"
