13TH WORLD (2)

At Li Tao's eloquent and detailed introduction, Chi Ting finally figured out some basic rules of the unlimited world, including the special existence of the 'Sanctuary.'

Only players who entered the top 1,000 of the personal leaderboard could have the qualification to enter the Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary contained the most luxurious item trading market of all servers and the top card auction building. Top players from different worlds could freely form teams and join forces. They could freely form their own gaming team.

For every ordinary player, this was absolutely fascinating, no matter whether it was to improve their own strength or increase the clearance rate of the instance.

Chi Ting could feel the longing that was overflowing from Li Tao's words. In this regard, he just asked a few questions that he was more concerned about. "Are there many people there?"

Li Tao shook his head. "Our 13th World is a new world that only opened over two months ago. The recent newcomers will come here. It must be a bit more lively than the Sanctuary."

Chi Ting asked the second question. "Will the food there be better than here?"

Li Tao replied, "…Stores in all worlds are chain stores. They should all be the same.

Chi Ting's last question was, "If you don't go there, will you be unable to buy and sell cards or items?"

Li Tao answered, "No, the low-grade items are definitely sold more in ordinary worlds. It is easier to find high-end items at a good price in the Sanctuary."

Chi Ting nodded. He didn't speak again, but his expression showed that he obviously wasn't very interested.

Li Tao felt worried. "Brother Chi, you are underestimating the Sanctuary. After all, the masters are all there. You have awakened an exclusive companion item and an awesome personal skill. There must already be someone paying attention to you. When the time comes to go there, you might be able to directly receive an invitation from a top team. Do you know what a good thing that is? If you have a good team, the instance clearance rate is absolutely guaranteed."

"You mean to form my own team?" Chi Ting asked while glancing at the beads on his wrist. He paused and shook his head with no interest. "I shouldn't have any plans to form a team for the time being."

Li Tao opened his mouth and wanted to say something else. Then he saw that Chi Ting had already turned around and was looking at Yue Ren. "Speaking of which, you went out of the instance with us. Will any players be summoned to the apartment again in the future? If that is the case, won't they be unable to clear the instance because you are missing?"

The change in topic was obviously very blunt from all angles, but it really attracted the attention of Li Tao. Out of curiosity, he defeated the instinct of fear in his heart for a while and looked at Yue Ren along with Chi Ting.

Yue Ren had been drinking soda and acting as a decoration on the side. He suddenly felt a fiery gaze, but he didn't break Chi Ting's careful idea of using him as a diversion. "Oh, this. The instance system has its own operation method. There have been small incidents in the instance before that were resolved quickly. If the first restart detects that I'm not there, the authority will be transferred to other neighbors, what you call NPCs."

Chi Ting slightly raised an eyebrow. "Small incidents?"

The dead silence after he slaughtered everyone in the building appeared in Yue Ren's mind. The corners of his lips curved up slightly. "It isn't important. It is a very small incident."

Chi Ting saw that Yue Ren didn't want to say much and didn't ask anything else.

Yue Ren glanced at the time. "So, are you going to sit here and talk the entire time?"

The short tea party ended with this sentence.

Li Tao went to pay the bill very enthusiastically.

Li Tao and Chi Ting were different.

The latter had to eat and sleep when in the instance. The combination of work and rest wasn't missed. Meanwhile, Li Tao and his other two friends were suffering from not being able to have a good sleep for a few nights.

During his explanation to Chi Ting just now, Li Tao had been holding back his sleepiness. At this moment, he couldn't help yawning. "Brother Chi, we've just passed the instance. Why don't you find a place to rest first? There is a seven day safety period after each instance is passed. We need to adjust our status within these seven days before entering the next instance. If there is anything else you don't understand, you can ask me at any time in the next few days."

Speaking of the safety period, Li Tao couldn't help thinking of the tragic experience from before. He said bitterly, "There is one thing you must pay attention to. No matter what, try not to get stuck when entering an instance. Last time, I didn't pay attention to the timing and was caught in an…"

It wasn't known whether it was intentional or unintentional, Li Tao noticed that Yue Ren glanced at him casually. He suddenly swallowed down the word 'abnormal' that had come to his lips. "…instance."

"Remember to enter the instance in advance, right? I remember." Chi Ting nodded.

Li Tao was obviously quite familiar with the area and led the two of them to a hotel.

He couldn't wait to rest. He handled the check-in procedures of himself and Chi Ting very easily but became completely stuck when it came to Yue Ren.

The hotel owner repeatedly scanned the identity several times. He confirmed that it couldn't be entered and said, "Sir, there is no information about you in the player database. I am sorry, but our hotel does a serious business. Black households absolutely aren't allowed to stay here."

Li Tao was stunned by this sentence. It took him a while to realize what the boss meant by a 'black household.'

In fact, he had only been in this unlimited world for a month. At most, he had heard that someone didn't come to this world through the invitation of the system, but from other channels. In other words, the legendary 'black household.'

Before, Li Tao had never been clear about what the so-called 'other channels' meant. Now that he thought about it, he suddenly realized. Yes, wasn't Yue Ren's situation one of them?!

He looked back with some hesitation, only to see that the man was touching his chin thoughtfully. He was obviously pondering on this identity word. "Black…"

Yue Ren had just listened to the conversation between Chi Ting and Li Tao. He naturally had already discovered his own difference.

Don't talk about the clearance rewards and account points. No matter how hard he tried, he had never even seen the appearance of the virtual panel.

Obviously, he was originally part of the instance. Even if he left together, according to the system, he was still different from players like Chi Ting.

Now he finally knew his other identity: A black household.

The corners of Yue Ren's mouth slowly raised in a smile. Regardless of Li Tao's expression of trying to stop him, he leaned over. He leaned against the counter and tapped the table lightly with his slender fingertips. His words sounded modest and polite. "Boss, excuse me again. If I want to formally get rid of the status of a black household, what should I do?"

Li Tao saw Yue Ren leaning toward the hotel owner and was afraid this ancestor would do something if he was unhappy.

At this time, he was slightly relieved to find that the other person didn't intend to make a move.

Then he really heard the hotel owner give an answer. "It is actually very simple for a black household to officially convert into a player identity. You just need to successfully clear an instance and complete the player qualification certification."

Yue Ren nodded. "I understand."

It seemed that due to his original NPC identity in Love Apartment, the system didn't judge him from a player's perspective when he left.

Originally, Yue Ren didn't have a good impression of the group of players. Whether he became a player or not didn't mean much to him. But in the current situation, everything in this world needed to be exchanged with points. In this way, he probably needed to get the identity of an official player first.

After all—in order to find the hidden designer and the truth about the world, he would eventually enter the instance again.

Yue Ren pondered on it for a moment before turning to look directly at Chi Ting. He raised his hand that was still bound and smiled slightly. "Shall we go first?"

Then he saw the person in front of him fall into a brief contemplation.

It was very ephemeral indeed.

A few seconds later, Chi Ting had already given an answer. "I got it. I'll go with you."

Faced with such excessive cooperation in order to keep an eye on him, Yue Ren couldn't hold back his smile and slightly provoked him. "Mr Chi is indeed righteous."

For a moment, it was only Li Tao who didn't react. "Go together? Go where?"

"Isn't he lacking a player status? I will go with him to another instance." Chi Ting patted Li Tao on the shoulder. Then in the blink of an eye, he had already dragged Yue Ren to the door. He didn't look back and left with a wave of his hand. "You stay here and rest well. If there is something, contact me through the friends list."

It was the first time he had seen someone say the next instance so lightly.

After all, they had just come out of an instance, and it hadn't even been half a day. Didn't this person feel tired?

He stood in place for a while before reacting. Then he shouted over a distance, "Brother Chi, do you know where the entrance to the instance is?"

However, before the words fully came out, the two figures in the distance had completely lost his sight.

The entrance of the instance was indeed not difficult to find. Even if there was no one to lead the way, Chi Ting saw a sign after walking a few steps and could reach his destination very easily despite being a newcomer who just arrived.

There were two passages at the entrance of the instance.

It was easy to see at a glance that the atmosphere on both sides was very different.

There was also a huge screen hanging on the outer wall of the left passage. The screen was divided into 24 areas from A to Z. Players who walked through each passage would almost all stop on this screen for a long time. Then after making a decision, they were afraid of missing it and ran all the way inside.

Chi Ting briefly observed it and found that there were eight game names listed in each area of this screen. Once the total number of people in an area was assembled or the countdown was over, all games would be launched, and eight new games would appear.

Chi Ting guessed that those players should be checking the content and difficulty of the games to make the best choice in their favor.

As for the passage to the right, it was a stark contrast to the one on the left.

All the players heading there looked devastated, as if they were looking at death.

Chi Ting wasn't very clear about the rules for selecting the instance entrance, but he followed Yue Ren and walked directly along the passage on the right side without hesitation.

It wasn't because of any tacit understanding but because the passage on the left had an authentication system similar to that seen in the hotel lobby. A black household like Yue Ren obviously didn't have such an 'identity.'

Apparently, the hotel owner still forgot to say some things.

If a person wanted to check from a black household to a regular player, they had to experience a 'randomly matched' instance and clear it. The difference in difficulty between 'random' and 'self-selected' wasn't small.

Chi Ting and Yue Ren walked into the right passage with the beads wrapped around their wrists. Even a few players passing by slightly restrained their expressions of despair for a moment. They couldn't help glancing at the desperate duo who were 'hand-in-hand' twice.

Finally, they arrived at the game import area. Chi Ting saw the virtual panel in front of him as soon as he walked in.

He didn't rush to operate it. Instead, he turned his head and looked over.

Yue Ren noticed his gaze and laughed silently. "It turns out that your virtual panel looks like this."

Chi Ting discovered that Yue Ren finally saw the same prompt as him and retracted his gaze with confidence.

He was just about to press confirm when he saw a new interface pop up.

[Hello, player. After testing, you have successfully enabled the live stream charging system in the instance. The current charging amount is 2 points per minute. Please confirm if it needs to be readjusted or not.

Yes or No.]

The live stream charging system?

Chi Ting blinked slowly. He remembered that among the two points rewards he received before, one seemed to be from a live stream platform.

So in the last instance, did so many people watch him the entire time?'

Chi Ting was used to being alone. For a moment, he couldn't be sure if this high-profile feeling was good or bad.

He thought about it for a moment and still felt a bit shy in the face of so many people. He simply opened the charging amount adjustment interface and pulled it to the highest amount.

[Hello, player. Your live stream room charging limit has been adjusted to 5,000 points per minute. Please check if you need to readjust it.

Yes or No.]

Chi Ting completed the modification with great satisfaction.

He returned to the final confirmation screen and entered the game.

Yue Ren stood by the side and waited without urging. At Chi Ting's final confirmation, a golden light slowly surrounded the two of them and completely engulfed them.

The familiar sound of the system announcement entered the two people's ears at almost the same time.

[Ding—!]

[Players are welcome to enter the instance: Lost Treasure.]

[Genre: Treasure hunt.]

[The number of people currently alive in the instance is 23/50.]

[The game is being imported.]

[Note: Please follow the rules of the game during the treasure hunt!]

A dazzling light flashed. His scattered consciousness came back, and Chi Ting opened his eyes.

The feeling of experiencing this for the second time was somewhat familiar. Then he quickly discovered the problem and looked back in a slightly stunned manner.

The beads hung loosely from the side of his hand.

Yue Ren, who was tied to him, was gone.