Matryoshka Off-Limits Chapter 83 Part 2

Chapter 83.2 Crimson Sunset Expedition

With the thirty-minute layover, there was ample time for a prolonged standoff. Similar to the terminal station, the people in the waiting hall of Common Rich Pile didn’t seem like passengers but more like they had been stuck here for an extended stay.

The waiting hall was divided into two storeys. Players emerged on the second floor, while the tour guide was on the first floor.

Most of the monsters were on the first floor, while they were spaced out at intervals on the second floor, maintaining a manageable situation.

These monsters shared a common trait: they hold great hostility towards those who emerged from the platform. After Shadow Li Nan eliminated a few that got too close, the surrounding monster passengers dispersed backward.

However, they simply retreated to their original positions, their expressions showing little fear. The monsters continued to eye those who could board the train, still restless, as if ready to launch their next attack at any moment.

Shadow Xiao Hua calculated the time. “One and a half minutes.”

Starting from their arrival, every one and a half minutes, the monsters would launch an attack.

“The flag is here!” On such a scorching day, even speaking felt exhausting, yet someone tirelessly shouted.

The waiting hall lacked air conditioning and was barely a couple of degrees cooler than outside. The guide was playing a cat-and-mouse game, holding the flag, standing on a metal chair, and cheerfully exclaimed, “Come and catch me!”

Shadow Li Nan glanced downstairs, but more of his attention was on a few players on the second floor, who were also staying far away.

Since the pursuit of the tour guide began earlier, it seemed that the players hadn’t been taking it seriously. They had fallen behind consistently and now seemed to have given up entirely.

“Why does your original self look like a trapped spirit just standing there?” Shadow Xiao Hua was equally surprised as she looked in a certain direction, deepening her suspicions.

Li Nan stood alongside the players near the entrance far from the monsters in the waiting hall. This was a safer environment, but it also meant they had created a considerable distance between themselves and the tour guide, putting them at a disadvantage during the flag capture.

The heat made Shadow Crew Cut Guy somewhat impatient. “Who cares what they’re doing? First, focus on capturing the flag.”

Shadow Xiao Hua said, “Capturing the flag isn’t hard, but we need to get close to the tour guide and break through the encirclement of monsters, which will consume a lot of stamina. The second-floor monsters have a lower attack frequency, but I’m worried about game mechanics throwing a smoke bomb.”

Between the first and second floors was a direct staircase connection. That stretch of distance was the most troublesome and perilous. Once they descended, they could potentially face non-stop slaughter by first-floor monsters.

Another shadow spoke up, “I’m more concerned about potential flaws that could appear during the flag capture moment.”

Shadow Li Nan was also worried about this point, so his original self kept a safe distance for surveillance, clearly having a backup plan.

Shadow Crew Cut Guy pondered and asked, “Could they intentionally be setting up a confusing array? Trying to make us give up the peach we’re about to pick?”

“What about Pei Wenwei’s shadow?” Shadow Li Nan suddenly asked.

Just as he finished speaking, the teenager arrived belatedly, using a freight elevator to come up and avoiding the players at the staircase entrance.

The girl was like a little tail, following him wherever he went. She glanced at the monsters in the waiting hall with a gaze full of killing intent. Without any reason, she directly snapped the neck of a nearby passenger blocking their way.

When she turned to killing, her movements were as light and swift as a cat, yet her strength was surprisingly great. The monsters’ neck bones were crushed together.

The teenager gave her a look and before he could scold her, the girl apologized softly, “I know, I’ll definitely change next time.”

“I’ll say this one last time, this task emphasizes the ‘tourists’ as the focus. Don’t act rashly.”

This girl had the strength to deal with the monsters, but the game didn’t impose any restrictions. Surely she was digging a pit for herself here.

Shadow Li Nan walked straight to the teenager’s side, as if convinced he had a reservation. “I don’t want to waste energy. You better tell the truth.”

Just a moment ago, the girl who said she’d change her temper swung a cardboard fan over. If the shadow hadn’t moved quickly, his face would have swollen from the blow.

“No one can speak disrespectfully about my dear grandson!”

Li Nan, who was observing from a distance, shook his head upon seeing this. “It must hurt a lot.”

The edge of the cardboard scraped against the shadow’s neck, creating a cut. Compared to this, the old lady on their train was so gentle.

Shadow Li Nan wiped the blood off his neck expressionlessly.

He wasn’t afraid of the girl. The game would balance any uneven factors. The stronger and more arrogant she became, the swifter the downfall of the teenager beside her would be. The latter must also be mindful of this point and not overly rely on others’ strength.

Shadow Li Nan focused his main energy on thinking about another matter.

Could it be that the players’ focus wasn’t on the tour guide, but on them, the shadows?

When the tour guide entered the waiting hall, the players would have to follow inside if they wanted to observe their actions. Even so, these people still watched blatantly, as if waiting for them to capture the flag, and then do something.

There had to be a reason, something that rendered any alternative approach impossible.

He looked at the teenager, a sharp gleam flickering in his eyes. In those few seconds of eye contact, he suddenly thought of a possibility, “You have…”

“Food chain,” the teenager calmly interrupted him. “This instance is like an animal kingdom. The tour guide is petite, and while she was running earlier, her skin had a silver-white reflection under the sunlight. She’s probably an incarnation of some kind of animal. Our best approach is to find a type of beastkin above her in the food chain, and borrow their power to help us catch her.”

After finding a beastkin that could suppress the tour guide, they could threaten or entice them to negotiate conditions. However, the most likely scenario was that the beastkin itself might carry quests that could be triggered.

Completing the quest by getting the beastkin’s help was more in line with the game’s intended way out.

His suggestion received silent agreement from the other shadows.

There were many monsters downstairs, and the tour guide wouldn’t just stand there and let them take the flag. Chasing or being chased would likely consume a lot of their stamina. Utilizing a natural predator, implementing a pincer attack, was indeed the most effortless approach.

After the cooldown period, more monsters recklessly charged up.

The nearby shadow, sweating profusely as he eradicated monster passengers, seemed indifferent. The teenager took a few steps forward, leaned over to look downstairs, and finally squinted. “Looks somewhat like… silver ant.”

He withdrew his gaze. “Divide into three groups. One group watches the players, one group looks for a lizard passenger—silver ants don’t have many natural enemies, and lizards can barely be counted as one. The last group is in charge of finding inflammable and explosive materials.” Hearing the last sentence, Shadow Li Nan’s pupils contracted. “Arson?”

“We have to be fully prepared.” The teenager’s lips curled into a cruel smile. “Even withstanding heat has its limits. If we don’t go down, we’ll make her come up willingly.”

His naturally light pupils were mixed with a touch of dreamy colors, as if he could already see the downstairs turning into a sea of flames.

Killing and arson.

Those were the methods Wen Shi had suppressed during his teens, his ways of retaliating that he had contemplated returning to.

Covering all aspects, the teenager, however, conveyed extreme suppression to those around him. Many shadows retracted their disdainful attitudes, perceiving the horrifying desire for bloodshed lurking beneath this remarkably youthful exterior.

Since the plan was devised by the teenager himself, it was only natural for him to allocate teams. He assigned the thin man who had followed Xiao Hua to the restroom, along with another shadow who had been disrespectful to him before, to watch over the players alongside Yu Xingzhou. Others were distributed according to a sensible approach. As the shadows dispersed to quickly complete their tasks, the teenager turned his head to look in Li Nan’s direction.

Li Nan understood his proposal. The teenager was undoubtedly hinting that this might be an opportunity for Yu Xingzhou to go back.

After Yu Xingzhou completed the quest of hunting shadows, he definitely wouldn’t be able to escape alone. This was the time for someone to provide backup.

Contacting other players via phone now might not be fast enough. If Li Nan and the others chose to provide backup, they couldn’t continue observing, and consequently, Wen Shi wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the timing of using the refresh item.

The sportswear clung to his body, soaked with sweat, and large droplets trickled down his forehead along the strands of his hair. The teenager’s lips moved, forming words without sound, “Tell him, no one can control me.”

At a safe distance, Li Nan responded with a smile, his true emotions hidden. He then spoke into the phone that had been in constant communication. “Your shadow embodies your way of dealing with things deeply. He has found a way to break the deadlock.”

Faced with the game, shadows only possessed memories of players’ previous instances. Theory and practice were quite distinct, causing their thought processes to lag slightly behind the players initially. However, as they became more involved, the shadows would become increasingly adept.

Li Nan asked, “Do you want to fight?”

If they wanted to fight, using the refresh item now would be equivalent to taking a loss in silence.

Without achieving the effect of depleting the shadows’ strength, an invaluable item had to be sacrificed as well.

“Let them fuss around.” Wen Shi laughed at the words. “The penalty for failing a side quest is the temperature rising, but the game is probably going to be busy with temperature control soon.”

Li Nan frowned, unable to discern anything from that sentence for the first time. “What do you mean?”

A sigh was the response he received.

In the carriage of train K6666, probably around twenty minutes ago when the train entered the station, Wen Shi felt the pendant against his skin heating up.

Jian Qingrong had said that this pendant, crafted with his own blood, concentrated the most potent contaminant. His eyeball could perceive it, and he would try to find himself through the pendant.

Earlier, Wen Shi didn’t think Jian Qingrong could actually find his way here. Last time, he had hitched a ride on a passing car during afternoon tea, and only entered the Sealed Coffin Village through A’Sang. Normally, even the most powerful NPCs couldn’t cross servers without being summoned.

However, the unusual warmth of the pendant kept reminding him that Jian Qingrong might actually be coming to find him.

Clinging to a glimmer of hope, Wen Shi asked Xiao Hua, who had seen a lot on the train, “I’ve drawn a lot of aggro from NPCs in previous instances. What if one day I encounter a bss from another instance in one instance…?”

Xiao Hua burst into hearty laughter, momentarily forgetting the discomfort brought on by the heat. “What are you thinking? Wouldn’t those veteran players have even more enemies? How would they survive? Such a situation is completely impossible, unless…”

Shit!

An unsettling turning point emerged.

Xiao Hua shrugged. “Unless they’ve reached the legendary true spirit level, then it’s possible.”

Wen Shi was pretty certain that Jian Qingrong hadn’t reached that level. He couldn’t even defeat the Earl.

“True spirit…”

He repeated the words softly, his nails almost piercing his palms unconsciously. Wen Shi realized he had made a fatal mistake.

Faced with some peculiarities, he had been too dismissive. Instances contained all sorts of monsters and strange situations, so he hadn’t paid too much attention to the abnormality in Jian Qingrong’s eyes.

Now, in hindsight, he understood that the single eyeball held power far beyond its owner.

At the start, if the game wanted to use him to erase Jian Qingrong’s file, was there another reason behind it?

The pendant’s heat grew more intense. Yet, Wen Shi held onto it tightly, praying fervently, hoping to convey his thoughts through the pendant—

Jian Qingrong, please don’t come over!

Even if he could ignore the abnormality in the eyeball itself, there was no trace of anything positive in the other’s personality.

If his shadow appeared, who knew how much the temperature might rise.

“Grandma’s arrival raised the temperature by over ten degrees, but this is the result after the game fixed the bugs. The initial temperature must have been much higher.”

Wen Shi had a strong feeling that if Jian Qingrong came over, things would get out of control.

Whether it was a response to his call or not, the pendant’s emitted heat gradually decreased. Wen Shi breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.”

Before he could fully exhale, the temperature around him suddenly shot up dramatically.

Passengers in other carriages exclaimed, “The sun!”

Players on the train instinctively looked out of the window. Apart from the blazing sun, there were a few blurry figures beside it.

“One, two, three…” As they counted to nine, someone stumbled and nearly fainted.

Three suns were enough to destroy the world. The other eight suns hadn’t fully materialized yet. To use an inappropriate analogy, it was as if the sky was struggling in labor, the suns were trying hard to be born, but they couldn’t quite make it.

“Notice: Serious data disruption detected in this instance, undergoing adjustments.”

The hazy outlines of the suns disappeared for a moment, but soon they reappeared like mushrooms after rain, popping back into view.

“Notice: Undergoing repair…”

“Notice: Undergoing repair…”

The human eye couldn’t directly look at the sky, else it would get burned. Without any thunder, a deafening roar erupted from the cloudless sky. It was as if something was awakening in the void, and around him, no living beings dared to approach.

This terrifying entity could keenly sense that something was passing through his eyes to replicate his power, specifically the darker aspects of his power.

His eyes remained shut. He could sense the pervasive will of the game becoming restless. On one hand, it was foolishly attempting to replicate his power, and on the other, it was frantically patching itself.

In reality, the game had become something more than just restlessness. What had entered was an eye, under the setting of light and shadow. It could only replicate the power of the eye’s original form.

Ignoring the game, the terrifying entity continued to use its consciousness to perceive the presence of the eye.

At this moment, outside a station entrance.

An invisible barrier was blocking the scarecrow’s entry.

After the afternoon tea, Jian Qingrong had been holed up in the laboratory, upgrading the scarecrow’s body to better suit the presence of the contaminants. He had originally planned to find a more powerful body, but so far, he hadn’t succeeded. The newly developed body could host the eye for at most half a day.

However, Jian Qingrong still brought along the failed experiment as a precaution.

The failed experiment was a mechanical cat with a long tail, intricately designed, and it was currently held in the scarecrow’s hand.

“Why can’t I get in?”

The mini scarecrow attempted to melt the barrier using contaminants, launching a second charge.

With a snap, it managed to squeeze its head halfway through, only to be immediately bounced back. The mini scarecrow, along with the mechanical cat, plopped onto the ground.

Let’s try again.

The mini scarecrow persistently attempted a third charge.

Wen Shi, I’m coming!

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