Chapter 27: Guess Where I Am?

Yin Luo stared at the female mannequin straight in the eyes for a full minute. Only after confirming it wasn’t planning to do anything did he lower his head.

The time displayed on his phone was 9:38 PM, synchronized with real-world time. As expected, there was absolutely no signal.

However, the All Beings APP was clearly unaffected by network issues.

This time, Yin Luo clicked into the Personal Center. Of the only two options, [Quests] and [Exchange], he chose Quests.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t curious about the Sinless Abyss exchange system, but he simply couldn’t access it!

Unlocking this section actually required points.

He, who might or might not even be a legitimate player but a bug, only completed the two mandatory Main Quests. The moment he sent the other players off, he was kicked out of the game and back to reality. There had been no settlement mentioned by the players, let alone rewards.

Damn it.

Yin Luo poked the screen forcefully twice, feeling a surge of annoyance.

He felt like a conscript forcefully dragged into the game—high risk, low pay.

In the next Instance World, those low-risk, high-pay players better not expect an easy time of it. 🙂

Resting his chin on the head of the white rabbit plushie in his arms, Yin Luo put on his mask and continued browsing.

The All Beings APP’s quest section also had two subsections, maintaining its simple and plain style: “Available Quests” and “My Quests.”

“Available Quests” showed as locked. In “My Quests,” one entry was already occupying space.

It was precisely the Reality Quest Ying Zixin had shared, now showing the status “Accepted.”

Even though Yin Luo had never clicked “Accept.”

[Instance Name: Guess Where I Am? (Reality Quest)]

[Quest Difficulty: Normal]

[Participating Players: 7 (All Arrived)]

[Quest Entrance: Fourth Floor Corner, East Staircase, Rongcheng Circle Center Mall.]

[Main Quest: Survive until dawn.]

[Quest Hint: No hints. Figure it out yourself.]

This time, the quest displayed much more information than before acceptance. It even included the photo of the discarded plastic mannequin that Ying Zixin had sent earlier.

Yin Luo stared at the seven-word quest hint, which was about as informative as nothing at all, and roughly understood the mindset of the players in the previous instance.

He wasn’t in a hurry to act. Instead, he first read through the introductory guide about Reality Quests on the forum.

The post was described in great detail, very friendly for newcomers—a stark contrast to the pure malice radiating from the quest hints.

In short, Reality Quests were triggered in reality and possessed randomness and uncertainty. Once triggered, the game would issue the quest and send out a summons to players within a certain radius, centered on the quest entrance. Players could choose whether to accept or not.

If an insufficient number of eligible players volunteered, the game might also forcibly pull people in.

The advantage of Reality Quests over Instance Quests was that players could know more information beforehand, like the Center Department Store in this case.

Furthermore, the game would provide a certain degree of support, most notably by allowing players to bring some items with them—for example, their phone with the All Beings APP installed.

The post described it like this: “A powerful APP integrating chat and team functions, allows you to confirm your teammates’ locations and life/death status instantly. Lost phones are not our responsibility.”

It seemed the Sinless Abyss game was quite keen on players participating in Reality Quests.

No wonder the players in the previous instance world were led around in circles by that Fierce Ghost.

The young man in the wheelchair held a relaxed posture, his fingers swiping across the screen nonchalantly.

Surrounding him was complete darkness. Not a sound could be heard. Where the other six players were scattered, no one knew. The only source of light in the entire space was Yin Luo’s phone.

Just then, a hand appeared from nowhere.

Pale, bloodless, it approached silently.

Three meters… two meters… one meter… closer and closer.

The young man seemed completely unaware. His pale neck looked like the most tempting prey, utterly unguarded.

Finally, the hand landed on his shoulder.

Cold, light.

The dark-haired prey turned his head in apparent panic, his pupils reflecting a plastic dummy face.

The plastic eyelashes were very long but covered in dust, even holding the carcasses of flying insects. The skin on the face was patchy, an eyebrow missing a chunk. The head seemed to have struck something heavy, leaving a dent.

The printed, flat eyes were utterly lifeless. Clearly a dead object, yet in this silent night, it had placed its hand upon the visitor’s shoulder.

“You’re a bit dirty,” the visitor remarked.

“Where is this?” Zhang Hengheng took off his cap and scratched his hair.

Ying Zixin focused, turning on his phone’s flashlight to examine the documents Yin Luo had printed and given them. “This should be the first floor, west side of the Center Department Store. The stairs to the second floor are on the left. The area we’re in now used to sell electrical appliances.”

“Has the quest changed?”

“Shouldn’t have. It still requires us to survive the night… Wait.” Ying Zixin looked at his friends list and froze. “Yin Luo is here.”

“Yin Luo? Who… Wait, Alice?!” Zhang Hengheng pulled out his own phone to confirm. “Why is he here?!”

On the friends list, the profile picture of the player with the ID Alice was faintly lit—a situation that only occurred when both players were in the same game.

The two exchanged a glance, realizing things were spiraling out of control.