Chapter 278 Analysis

Chapter 278 Analysis

The surroundings began to change the moment Qin Fei picked up the plastic wrapper on the ground.

The yin energy dissipated, the black fog vanished, and the entire reception room flickered like a television with poor signal.

Qin Fei felt a momentary blur in his vision, and when it returned to normal, the reception room had transformed into its real-world appearance.

The packages and letters on the rack were scattered, even the Hundred Ghosts Map had disappeared, leaving only the tattered gray plastic wrapper clutched tightly in Qin Fei's hand.

Qin Fei: "…"

Although he had already guessed that this was the crux of the entire porcelain factory ghost story, the feeling of having worked so hard only to find garbage was somewhat frustrating.

The door to the reception room was pushed from the outside, and the fragile lock creaked under the strain, as if it might break at any moment.

Qin Fei looked up, and at the same time, the person at the door realized it was locked and kicked it open!

"Bang!"

The metal door slammed against the wall and bounced back. Mi Yang raised his elbow to shield himself from the door panel and rushed in, shouting, "Xiao Qin?"

Following Mi Yang were a group of people and ghosts.

Lu Cheng and Xie Jingtian were among them.

Seeing Qin Fei unharmed, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened?" Qin Fei was a bit confused by their panic.

The three who entered explained quickly, clarifying the situation.

It turned out that when Qin Fei entered the reception room in the inner world, the three of them also experienced similar situations.

However, their mental immunity was not as high as Qin Fei's, and when they sank into the inner world, their SAN values fluctuated noticeably.

The fluctuation in SAN value caused their reaction speeds to drop, and when confronted by the monster Lao Zhang, they inadvertently fell for his trap.

What happened next could be guessed: the frenzied Lao Zhang attacked the players, and once combat began, the reception room door automatically locked, leaving no escape. The players had to fight Lao Zhang in the confined space.

"The monster gained a health bar when it entered combat mode," said Mi Yang. "It was very thick and extremely difficult to defeat."

As the three battled the monster, they were struggling when suddenly, Lao Zhang disappeared.

A gap opened in the reception room door, and they pushed it open, returning to the entrance of the factory in the real world.

They looked at each other, noticing Xiao Qin was missing, leading to Mi Yang kicking the door open.

By now, everyone guessed that something Qin Fei did must have rescued them from the inner world's predicament early.

Lu Cheng scratched the back of his head and smiled bitterly. "I think the players on the butterfly side probably encountered the same situation as us."

Chased around by the monster Lao Zhang.

Without a teammate like Xiao Qin, they would have had to deplete Lao Zhang's health bar completely to leave the reception room.

Since those players couldn't handle Lao Zhang, they devised a plan to lure others there.

"But…" Lu Cheng's expression turned slightly strange. "That boss Lao Zhang really seemed abnormal. I felt that the monster's damage output was set based on the highest limit of the player's overall strength."

Lu Cheng, Xie Jingtian, and Mi Yang had varying levels of combat power.

Especially Lu Cheng, who served as a scout and messenger within the Guild.

A monster that Mi Yang could barely handle would likely overwhelm Lu Cheng.

Yet, all three emerged unscathed.

Recalling Baiqiu and The Third, they also showed no visible injuries.

Something felt off.

Why would the ghost story include such a strange challenge?

High difficulty, yet not lethal to the players.

Recalling the experience, frenzied Lao Zhang was indeed tough to beat, with both high damage output and health. The only flaw was his speed.

Slow attack speed meant players had a chance to dodge. Lu Cheng, despite being weak in combat, managed to evade Lao Zhang for ten minutes in the reception room, using five stamina potions without getting hit once.

What was the point of this? Toying with the players?

After pondering, Lu Cheng asked curiously, "So, what exactly happened on your end, Xiao Qin?"

Qin Fei blinked. "Oh, pretty much the same."

"Everything was the same until before Lao Zhang went berserk, I found the Hundred Ghosts Map."

Under the gaze of three pairs of human eyes and a bunch of ghost eyes, the young man in the center remained calm, seemingly unaware of the bombshell he was about to drop. He shrugged indifferently:

"Then, the worlds flipped, and I returned to the normal reception room."

Lu Cheng, Mi Yang, and Xie Jingtian: "!!!"

"Hundred Ghosts Map???"

The trio almost screamed but quickly lowered their voices.

Mi Yang clenched his jaw. "Why didn't you tell us about this sooner?"

Qin Fei wore an innocent expression. "Didn't you just ask?"

He had seen the three of them engaged in their conversation and didn't want to interrupt.

Xie Jingtian's eyes sparkled as he rubbed his hands together and asked, "So, where is the Scroll of Hundred Ghosts?"

The Scroll of Hundred Ghosts was the source of all the hauntings in the porcelain factory. In essence, obtaining that scroll meant holding the key to ending the strange tale.

Ending the haunting at the porcelain factory would mean concluding the Guild competition, which in turn would ensure that Black Feather could maintain its top position on the Guild rankings for the next year.

However, what Qin Fei said next almost made the trio's eyes pop out.

"The Scroll of Hundred Ghosts is gone," Qin Fei said calmly. "It disappeared into the Inner World when the Real and Inner Worlds switched."

The Inner World was set on October 5th, and at that time, the Scroll of Hundred Ghosts was still intact in the reception room.

But now, it had completely vanished, dispersing into individual ghosts attached to porcelain bottles.

The Scroll of Hundred Ghosts couldn't be brought out of the Inner World because it wasn't supposed to exist in the Real World.

After hearing Qin Fei's explanation, Lu Cheng couldn't help but gape. "...Then, what about the Scroll of Hundred Ghosts? What now?"

Thinking back, they never really had concrete evidence proving that obtaining the scroll would end the instance.

This was merely the players' speculation.

If their guess was wrong...

Qin Fei never disappointed when it came to delivering heart-piercing truths.

Qin Fei nodded slightly. "Yes, you're right. Whether we have the Scroll of Hundred Ghosts or not doesn't significantly affect whether this strange tale can be ended."

"This strange tale won't end."

"Because it never started."

The porcelain factory was indeed haunted, but this had nothing to do with the players or the Guild competition.

No matter how much effort the players put into deciphering the background of the instance or solving the haunting events, it wouldn't bring any benefits to them personally.

Lu Cheng: "????"

His mouth opened wider, from being able to fit an egg to fitting a fist, his round eyes filled with disbelief. "You..."

Are you even listening to yourself?

How can your 37-degree mouth utter such cold and heartless words??

Qin Fei raised the gray plastic cover in his hand. "Although I didn't get the Scroll of Hundred Ghosts, I did get something else."

The young man spoke earnestly. "Something more important than the Scroll of Hundred Ghosts."

The trio looked at Qin Fei's serious expression and then at the item in his hand, which looked like trash picked up from outside a delivery station, feeling speechless.

They weren't doubting Qin Fei's honesty.

Everyone knew Xiao Qin's professionalism; he wasn't someone who spoke without basis.

They just felt that this chaotic strange tale was too careless, making such an important item look like garbage.

It was fortunate that Xiao Qin had sharp eyes; if it were them, they probably wouldn't have noticed such an unremarkable item.

The three heads leaned in together, staring at the words on the delivery slip.

"Red Mountain Ancient Building," Lu Cheng read softly.

Qin Fei looked at those four words, his gaze dark and inscrutable.

When he saw this location name, everything that previously didn't make sense suddenly became clear.

Why there was no system prompt or completion requirement when this strange tale began.

Why the danger level of this strange tale should be extremely high, yet most of the creatures within it didn't pose a life-threatening threat to the players.

Why he couldn't find the source of contamination here, nor feel the presence of the entity.

Because this wasn't the strange tale the players wanted to enter.

This wasn't the core strange tale.

This was just a ticket to the core strange tale, like Train No. 444.

Qin Fei analyzed logically, and the players' expressions turned grim.

"Damn it." Mi Yang's face darkened. "Is this a joke?"

Players used insider information to take shortcuts and enter the core strange tale, hoping to end the Guild competition early.

This was essentially challenging the system's authority.

It made sense that the system would retaliate by obstructing the players' progress in the instance.

Mi Yang and the others shared this thought.

Only Qin Fei understood that the system's obstruction wasn't due to some abstract issue of face but truly concerned the system's survival.

Xie Jingtian frowned slightly. "What do we do now?"

Find the Red Mountain Ancient Building?

Qin Fei shifted his gaze to the entrance of the porcelain factory.

As night fell deeper, the scene outside the entrance became extremely blurry. If one didn't pay close attention, they might mistakenly think that the thick fog from earlier still lingered outside.

But Qin Fei knew that the fog had already dissipated.

Now, players could leave through this entrance.

The system did not welcome them to head towards the Red Mountain Ancient Building; in fact, it probably wished no one would ever go there.

The exact location of the ancient building still needed to be investigated by themselves.

The young man's long eyelashes lowered slightly, his eyes flickering with an indiscernible light.

"Let's find the others from Black Feather," he said softly. "We need to speed up."