Chapter 156: Escape from the Research Institute 01

Chapter 156: Escape from the Research Institute 01

The annual individual showcase tournament is officially starting today!

Unlike the preliminary rounds where the quality of streamers varied greatly, the official showcase tournament was always known for its high threshold, high rewards, and high excitement.

"The excitement of the showcase tournament is incomparable to the preliminaries!"

At the entrance of the A-Class live streaming hall, a high-level spirit with fiery red hair and adorned with various punk decorations spoke enthusiastically.

A group of semi-transparent mid-to-low level spirits surrounded it.

Although the high-level spirit's words were quite exaggerated, no other spirit refuted them.

Because everyone knew that every word spoken by the high-level spirit was correct.

Through years of accumulated reputation, the individual showcase tournament and the guild tournament had become the most anticipated events.

On the day the tournament broadcasts began, spirits would gather early in front of the live streaming halls.

They would rub their hands in anticipation, waiting for the staff to open the doors of each live streaming hall, at which point they would rush inside like sharp arrows released from a bow!

"Whose stream are you here to watch?" The spirits at the entrance of the A-Class hall chatted as they queued up.

Although there were nearly 100 A-Class players, the audience's attention always tended to focus on the brightest stars.

Even within the same rank, the viewers couldn't help but categorize the streamers into different tiers.

The names that received the most attention in previous years echoed through the air.

Blackfeather, several high-ranking members of the Darkfire Guild, a few well-known mercenaries such as Jack the Ripper, and Mi Yang, who had performed exceptionally well in last year's showcase...

But in addition to these,

An increasing number of viewers mentioned the same name.

"Xiao Qin!"

"I'm here to watch Xiao Qin!"

"Me too! To see my darling wife, precious princess, the most charming kitty, Mr. Griffith!"

"Xiao Qin, you're the best! Xiao Qin, you're the greatest!"

Some spirits pulled out megaphones and homemade banners, as if welcoming a celebrity idol, and started performing before the live streams even began.

The normally quiet street suddenly became as lively as a bustling market.

Although Qin Fei had gained considerable fame over the past half-year, he had only streamed twice since entering the A-Class tier.

In front of the hall, many spectators who hadn't heard of him stared blankly at the princess fans grinning like aunties, their heads filled with question marks.

What was this? Who was this player, and why did they have so many titles?

What was this about a precious princess kitten—ew! The spirits shuddered, finding the streamer's fans disgustingly mushy.

And was the streamer male or female, being referred to as both princess and mister?

Qin Fei's fans were incredibly supportive, generating a lot of buzz for him before the live streams even started.

So when the gates of Area A opened, the spirits surged towards Qin Fei's light screen like an army storming a city.

Many spirits who hadn't heard of him and weren't interested in him also ran over involuntarily.

On the light screen that was lighting up, a line of prompt text appeared first.

"Individual Showcase Tournament - Rule World 01: Escape from the Research Institute"

Total participants: 200

Historical exploration rate: 0.00%

The audience that rushed into the live streaming hall glanced at the prompt information and instantly looked stunned.

"Holy crap, how is it 200 again??"

A spirit exclaimed in surprise.

In the previous preliminaries, the Genesis Ship instance had 200 participants, a super-large instance.

Now that the official competition had begun, wasn't the threshold supposed to be higher than the preliminaries?

After a moment of contemplation, a spirit deduced the answer: "It must be because there were more successful clearances in the preliminaries this year."

To put it bluntly, this was still due to Qin Fei's actions.

The C1 and C2 instances of the Genesis Ship had identical configurations.

Yet, the number of survivors who cleared C1 was more than twice that of C2!

This completely disrupted the system's arrangements.

"The total number of successful clearances for those two instances of the Genesis Ship has already exceeded 200. The 200 slots for the official tournament should still be based on headcount," the spirit said, gazing intently at the light screen.

On the light screen, the text faded away, gradually revealing an image.

It didn't matter that there were many people watching the live stream.

Anyway, following the pattern of previous years, there would definitely be a major purge just hours before the exhibition match went live.

The veteran viewers, well-versed in the rules, clutched their empty chests as their misshapen hearts pounded with excitement.

...

"Player consciousness loading—"

"The current live broadcast is: Special Exhibition Match Instance 'Escape from the Research Institute'"

"Live participants: 200; Clearing condition: Escape from the Research Institute; Time limit: None; Special requirements: None."

"Notification: Within the first 30 minutes of the instance, the streamer can open the attribute panel and click the exit button to end the live broadcast prematurely;

Ending the live broadcast will not grant any rewards nor deduct points, but it will disqualify you from participating in the rest of this year's exhibition matches."

This peculiar notification was like a bullet fired straight into the players' temples, leaving them dazed right from the start of the instance.

...

Qin Fei entered the instance with his eyes closed.

He tried to open them, but his eyelids seemed glued together, refusing to budge.

His body was immobile, but thankfully, his mind was clear, allowing him to still feel sensations.

He felt half of his body submerged in icy water that rippled around him.

A foul stench assaulted his nostrils, a nauseating rot that resembled the smell of sewage backing up in city sewers during winter.

Unlike the semi-conscious state he had experienced at the beginning of the snow mountain instance,

this time, Qin Fei's body was completely out of control. His brain had lost connection with his limbs, and every attempt to send signals to them vanished halfway.

If he had drawn some hellish starting scenario where he was paralyzed from the start of the live broadcast, his skin should have been unable to sense temperature or humidity, but that wasn't the case.

Qin Fei was more inclined to believe that his current state was imposed by the instance itself, akin to a forced debuff.

Unable to move, he simply sat there quietly.

Occasionally, he heard the sound of water and a strange squeaking noise. Qin Fei realized that it must be rats passing by.

Normally, if someone were sitting in a lit area, even with their eyes closed, they could still feel the external light.

But now, behind his thin eyelids, all Qin Fei saw was pitch black.

Clearly, he was in an extremely dark environment.

Was he really in a sewer?

When the live broadcast started, Qin Fei heard the system notification. Like last time, this was another massive live event with 200 participants.

Yet, his surroundings were eerily quiet.

Perhaps everyone else was in the same predicament as him.

"Ghost Baby?" Qin Fei tried calling out to his little NPC, but there was no response.

Until the instance lifted its restrictions on his body, he would have to remain submerged in the stinky water.

However, Qin Fei believed that this state wouldn't last long.

Firstly, such a live broadcast would be too dull. If the players could only sit idly, what would the audience watch?

Secondly, the system had announced a 30-minute window for exiting the instance.

In other words, at the latest, 30 minutes after the start, there would be the first significant threat to the players' lives.

Qin Fei let his thoughts wander as most of his body remained submerged in the putrid water, his longer, soft hair rippling on the surface.

Just a short distance from his face, a pile of miscellaneous objects floated in the water.

Cigarette butts, scraps of paper, empty drink bottles.

And some indiscernible lumps.

The person in the water didn't move, but the water seemed alive, slowly flowing. The trash on the surface drifted along with the water's movement, occasionally bumping into the young man, who showed no reaction.

Upon entering the instance, his outfit had been replaced by the system.

Now, Qin Fei wore a rough gray garment that looked stitched together from burlap sacks. The neckline was irregularly frayed, as if cut into a ragged hole with scissors.

Although Qin Fei couldn't see, just a short distance away, many players in similar states lay within a series of square, gray compartments.

Everyone wore the same burlap clothes and were trapped in the water.

However, not everyone shared Qin Fei's calm demeanor.

Many players, though unable to move, displayed signs of panic through subtle details.

Their eyelashes trembled, their facial muscles twitched, and their breathing grew increasingly rapid.

They struggled to regain control of their bodies but could only wriggle slightly like fish out of water.

Their appearances were utterly pitiful.

Amidst the growing tension among the players, Qin Fei, whose emotions remained consistently stable, stood out as an anomaly.

Several more minutes passed.

Just as Qin Fei was about to fall asleep, a voice suddenly sounded in his ears. "You have awakened." Qin Fei's eyes snapped open. Just as his earlier unconsciousness was uncontrollable, so too was his awakening now. His eyelids were as if propped open by a stick, and his eyeballs first moved to the left, then to the right. Amidst nearly blinding pain that felt like it would tear his eye sockets apart, Qin Fei was forced to see his surroundings. This place resembled an underground water prison, with crisscrossing pipes overhead. In the pitch-black space, dimly visible were narrow rooms divided from each other. Each room had no door but was separated by metal bars that ran from ceiling to floor. The gaps between the bars were very narrow; even an adult male's leg couldn't fit through. There was not a single source of light around. But perhaps because his eyes had adapted to the darkness for a long time, Qin Fei could barely make out the general outlines around him. People lay haphazardly in each room opposite him, presumably players like him. Qin Fei noticed that this space wasn't very large. Unless there were other areas beyond his line of sight. Otherwise, based on what Qin Fei could see, this place could hold at most fifty people. Where did the remaining one hundred and fifty players go? "Your head hurts, your whole body hurts. You try to recall how you ended up here?" Hearing this prompt, Qin Fei's gaze exploring his surroundings paused for a moment, and he silently cursed in his heart. Sure enough, in the next second, a sharp pain pierced through his skull, striking deep into his brain! Qin Fei trembled violently, and the various parts of his body, which had shown no signs of abnormality just now, soon began to ache intensely. This damned scenario really knows how to torment players! "You can't remember. Deep in your fragmented memories, you were searching for food on the surface when a team wearing white protective suits approached you... It's the Research Institute!!" Research Institute. That was the name of this scenario, called "Escape the Research Institute." Compared to the puzzle-solving and survival scenarios Qin Fei had entered before, "Escape the Research Institute" seemed far too easy. But all the players knew that this scenario wouldn't be as simple as it appeared on the surface. The system prompt continued. "You realize that you must have been brought underground by the Research Institute. Rumor has it they're collecting and capturing natural humans across the surface." "It's been fifty-five years since the 'Calamity' erupted. You've been wandering on the surface since birth, and from various fellow wanderers, you've heard countless rumors about the Research Institute. You know clearly that being caught by them can't end well." "You desperately want to leave here!!" Indeed. The time limit for this scenario wasn't unlimited as the system had broadcasted. The prompt didn't specifically tell the players what the Research Institute wanted to do with them. But since the system said "can't end well," something more terrifying than death awaited them. They had to find a way to leave the dungeon as soon as possible. After those prompts, Qin Fei's body suddenly moved—still uncontrollably. He used his hands and feet to struggle forward in the sewage. At the same moment, within every visible compartment to Qin Fei's eyes, the players were crawling toward the bars in the same posture as him. They were physically demonstrating the system prompt: "desperately wanting to leave." Qin Fei reacted very quickly. The moment he realized his body's actions were about to change, he held his breath and tightly pursed his lips. Sewage flowed past his cheeks and shoulders. His nose submerged in the water and then emerged again. Even without breathing, the stench still assaulted his brain in waves. Not all players had the same reaction speed as Qin Fei. Soon, coughing and choking sounds filled the air, accompanied by a few retches. Qin Fei had already crawled to the entrance of his water prison compartment. He opened the chat interface and saw a row of ellipses floating in the air before him, expressing speechlessness. "..." "F***." "Damn system, does it have to be this realistic? Suddenly turning into a 4D viewing experience, I'm almost getting dizzy from the smell in the live streaming hall." "And that slimy feeling of water on the skin... Ugh!" "Thankfully my wife is smart. A streamer in the next room choked and vomited directly."

The yellow and white vomit spread in the water, and the streamer's head was submerged in his own vomit.

Everything was faithfully reproduced by the system for the audience in front of the light screen, further worsening their already grim viewing experience.

Perhaps he could no longer bear it.

The player whose face was hit by his own vomit actually chose to exit the live stream directly.

A blinding beam of light flashed past the corner of Qin Fei's eye, and beside the "Exit Live Stream" button on the attribute panel, an additional line of text appeared.

"Number of Online Streamers: 199"

At the same time, an unclear sound of footsteps was approaching from afar.

Tap, tap.

Tap, tap, tap.

The players in the water prison instantly looked solemn.

The footsteps grew closer and closer.

Accompanied by a "beep" sound of a card being swiped, someone walked into the water prison.

This water prison wasn't just filled with water in the cells; rather, the entire place was submerged in sewage. The person walking through the water made quite a commotion, and the sound of their footsteps accompanied by splashing water was exceptionally clear.

The background narration arrived as expected.

"Someone has come!! You're terrified, you want to run away, you can't control your body at all. You suddenly slam into the cell door!"

Bang!

This time, the movement came abruptly and swiftly.

Qin Fei's entire head collided with the metal bars, and his vision went dark.

However, he wasn't particularly unlucky. The players closest to the NPC were the most unfortunate.

The sudden actions of the player seemed to have startled the NPC who had entered the water prison.

There were three people in total, all fully armed from head to toe. The NPCs wore grayish-white protective suits that covered even their faces, and they had long rubber boots on their feet.

The leading person walked forward while cursing.

From Qin Fei's vantage point, he could see the movements there if he turned his gaze slightly.

He saw the NPC raise his right hand and shine a light somewhere on the wall, and then the gate opened.

The NPC reached out and pulled a player out of the water.

Even now, the players were still completely unable to control themselves.

The player could only be dragged outside the water prison like a puppet on strings, his collar held by the NPC.

Another beam of light flashed, and the number of online players became 198.

The NPC stared at his suddenly empty hand, his figure pausing slightly, looking somewhat confused.

But soon, perhaps due to the restrictions of the instance, he seemed to forget the strange scene that had just occurred and continued walking deeper into the water prison.

"Damn it!"

A barrage of curses appeared in the chat, and the players in the water prison who witnessed this scene also cursed inwardly.

This unlucky guy had such a small courage.

Since he had already been caught by the NPC, why didn't he just hold on for a little longer? That way, they could have obtained more clues about the instance.

These three NPCs seemed to be patrolling the area. They circled around the water prison and soon turned to leave.

Now, more than 15 minutes had passed since the start of the instance.

The players still couldn't move.

Qin Fei had never experienced such a passive instance stream before.

He wasn't scared; instead, he found it somewhat novel.

Before the start of the stream, the players had received ten clues about the instance.

However, given their current situation, they couldn't connect the content of the instance with the clues.

After those three NPCs left, the restriction that had been suppressing the players gradually dissipated.

Everyone finally regained the ability to move freely, and sighs of relief echoed from every corner of the water prison.

Qin Fei moved his stiff fingers.

In the live stream panel, the number of online players changed again. Now, there were only 195 players left in the instance.

But no new beams of light appeared in the water prison.

This meant that players in other areas were also being eliminated.

Had they died, or had they exited the live stream?

In the water prison, after regaining their freedom, almost all the players did the same thing.

They squatted down, trying to suppress their nausea, and began searching through the water, attempting to find something valuable among the floating trash.

No one spoke. Not a single rule of the instance had appeared yet. To avoid violating any fatal rules and getting instantly eliminated by the instance, the players all kept their mouths tightly shut. The sound of rushing water filled the air, occasionally accompanied by the thuds of something hitting the walls. Qin Fei was also bent over, feeling around in the water. Now he could contact the ghost infant, who had been dragged out of his domain by Qin Fei. The poor little ghost plopped into the dirty water as soon as it left the domain. Its short stature meant that the sewage submerged its head entirely. Fortunately, being a corpse, it didn't need to breathe and wouldn't choke on the water. Still, the ghost infant looked ghastly and glared resentfully at its unscrupulous streamer. Although the ghost infant could enter the instance, its range of activity was confined to this water cell. Logically, it should have been able to pass through walls, but for some reason, it couldn't break through the door or the four walls of the water cell. Qin Fei believed that this was likely due to the low exploration level of the instance. After all, they were experiencing a live competition that targeted both spirits and players, and the system wouldn't allow anything too imbalanced. With the ghost infant helping out, Qin Fei decided to rest. After all, the ghost infant was far more agile than he was. The spots that Qin Fei might overlook or the high parts of the walls and ceiling that he couldn't reach were no obstacle for the ghost infant. The young man leaned against the wall where the water was shallowest, staring into the darkness while subconsciously twirling the ring on his finger. The source of contamination still hadn't made a move. Had It gone to find the last piece of the soul fragment? If the source of contamination could complete the soul, would It remember something? And what changes would that bring to Qin Fei's life? Such musings about fate floated in and out of Qin Fei's mind. As he zoned out in front of the tens of thousands of viewers in the live stream, the ghost infant delivered as expected and actually found something underwater. It was a rolled-up strip of cloth, similar in material to the prisoner uniform Qin Fei was wearing. Qin Fei unrolled the strip and saw a line of dark brown writing. Staring at the words, he slightly narrowed his eyes, his amber irises darkening. If he wasn't mistaken, this was written in blood. "B-6312" What did this seemingly meaningless string of numbers represent? Holding the note between two fingers, Qin Fei read its contents and then put it away in his personal storage space without showing any expression. At that moment, a voice came from the cell opposite Qin Fei. "Hey, buddy!" It was a young man's voice, sounding full of energy. "Did you find something?" Qin Fei raised an eyebrow in surprise. Who was brave enough to speak up at a time like this? However, when he looked up and noticed that the other players in the nearby cells showed no reaction, he realized that the speaker must have used some kind of dialogue item. Qin Fei scrutinized the other person's face through the darkness. Although he couldn't see clearly, he felt a sense of familiarity. It seemed to be the face that had peeked at him in the corridor of the Black Feather Guild the other day, the one that had vanished after being chased away by Cen San Ya.