PFRG: Chapter 1 Part 2

In the lobby on the first floor, the notification sound disappeared, and dead silence returned to the surroundings.

At this time, the existence of newcomers became very easy to distinguish. The group of ashen-faced people were almost indistinguishable.

Chi Ting had already noticed it before. Besides the cannon fodder brother from before, there should be at least three other people like him who were new to this strange situation.

For the two people watching the fun, it obviously wasn’t the first time they had entered an instance.

After listening to the rules, one of the men went straight to the central counter and rummaged around. Finally, he opened a drawer, poured the contents on the table, and said, “Okay, come here and get your room cards. The game has officially begun.”

The hard cardboard packaging that was dug out by the man had detailed names written on it. Several old players claimed it one after another. The remaining clueless newcomers also found their names.

Chi Ting got his room card and looked at it carefully with a bit of curiosity on his face.

It was worthy of something from the peacetime era. The access cards they used were all basic models with an extremely low security factor.

The man distributing the cards glanced over. He happened to see Chi Ting’s room number and raised an eyebrow. “The 12th floor? That is just above me. What a coincidence.”

He extended his hand enthusiastically. “My name is Li Hou. How about you?”

“Chi Ting.”

The two of them reached out and shook hands gently.

A seemingly kind smile appeared on Li Hou’s face. “How many times have you cleared an instance?”

From his perspective, compared to the frightened newcomers, Chi Ting had always behaved calmly and was undoubtedly enough to be labeled as an ‘old player.’

Chi Ting smiled slightly but didn’t answer. He instead asked, “Why don’t you guess?

Li Hou: “……”

Li Hou obviously hadn’t expected such an answer. His first reaction was that this person was being perfunctory with him. However, his words of dissatisfaction completely stopped the moment he met Chi Ting’s gaze.

How to say it? In the process of communication, every smile of the person in front of him seemed to exude a strong kindness all the time. Combine this with his narrow and beautiful eyes, and there was even a hint of the illusion of affection.

It was straightforward and explicit, like teasing a favorite little animal, but it was also a very natural desire to make him happy.

Li Hou’s heart unexpectedly skipped a beat. A thought flashed through his mind. ‘D*mn, none of my previous girlfriends have looked at me with such eyes. This kid looks like this. He won’t be gay, right?’

Chi Ting saw that Li Hou didn’t answer for a long time and blinked doubtfully. “Aren’t you guessing?”

Such an expression fell into Li Hou’s eyes and, combined with his previous guesses, made alarm bells ring in his heart. He immediately lost the thought of continuing to test this person. “No, there is no need to guess.”

Then he walked straight toward his companion without looking back.

Chi Ting instinctively pinched the red stone hanging under his choke with two fingers. Thoughtfully, his fingers tapped rhythmically one after another. This was his habitual movement when he was thinking.

Why did he feel like this person ran away on purpose?

Could he be that he hadn’t communicated normally with humans in so long that he didn’t perform well enough?

Just as Chi Ting was feeling puzzled, he heard someone shout, “The elevator is coming! It is an elevator!”

At this time, everyone realized that there was an elevator inside the side door that the previous man had wanted to escape through in a panic.

However, this discovery didn’t make anyone smile.

After all, it meant that even if the man had managed to get through the door, there would be nowhere to escape to.

In the dead silence, everyone stepped onto the elevator one after another.

This elevator had a card-swiping mode. Only the corresponding room card could trigger the floor. This limited everyone’s range of activities in a disguised way. According to the previous rules, it should be possible to open the permission to go to other floors after acquiring favorability from the NPCs on the same floor.

Starting from the 8th floor, players walked out of the elevator one after another after arriving at their own floor. The crowded space slowly became empty as the number of people decreased.

Some people started to talk as if they were comforting themselves.

“Ah, it is really unlucky. No one has seen the clearance strategy for this instance?”

“For this type of NPC-oriented game, it generally isn’t too difficult as long as we don’t violate the rules of the game, right?”

“We should just need to gain enough favorability to clear the level.”

“But the higher the floor, the more difficult it should be. How many NPCs do you need to gain it from before returning to the first floor?”

“Woo woo woo, stop talking. I’m on the highest 20th floor!”

“There are only 12 of us. The lower floors below the 8th floor look empty. There shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“Don’t worry. If it is just pleasing NPCs, I am the best at this!”

After reaching the 11th floor, the man called Li Hou also got out of the elevator.

Chi Ting felt someone gently pat him. He looked back and found it was the first human he had met here, Li Tao.

He was caught off guard before, so he strangled Li Tao and touched his face. This meant Li Tao’s mood was very complicated when he faced Chi Ting again.

He felt that Chi Ting was strange, but he still chose to whisper, “That person just now is called Li Hou, right? You should pay attention to him. Li Hou and his companion gave me a very uncomfortable feeling just now. There are many people in the world who won’t hesitate to step on the corpses of others in order to survive. My personal skill allows me to feel the malice in others. Believe me, stay away from them, and don’t be taken advantage of.”

“Thank you for the reminder.” It wasn’t known if Chi Ting listened to the advice. He just blinked and replied, “Your skill is quite useful. The fact that you suddenly reminded me of this means that in your eyes, I should be…”

Li Tao hadn’t expected Chi Ting to be so keen and paused slightly. “……”

He might have nothing bad to say, but this person clearly wasn’t normal anywhere, okay!

Li Tao had experienced a few instances before this. However, this was the first time he saw a person like Chi Ting in the unlimited world, who was kind to everyone.

This kindness was so radiant that it almost blinded him due to his personal skill!

Li Tao cleared his throat and changed the topic. “In short, you just need to remember that my name is Li Tao, and I live on the 15th floor. After you open the activity permission, you are welcome to come and visit me.”

Once he finished speaking, he pointed to the elevator doors that opened again.

“Okay, see you later.” Chi Ting smiled and waved to Li Tao. Then he walked out, strides long due to his long legs.

The elevator doors closed behind him, and it continued to move up.

The ‘click’ of the machinery gradually got far away, and the surroundings became quiet.

It was so good that he could get to know so many people at once. He would definitely work hard to be kind to people in the future!

With this thought, Chi Ting put his hands in his trouser pockets and observed his surroundings.

He was very satisfied with his adventure so far, but his long-term experience of surviving in the apocalyptic environment made him habitually want to grasp all the details.

This should be a very common apartment design in peaceful times. There were three families on one floor. The 1202 he lived in was in the most central position. Room 1201 was on the right, and there was an aisle on the left. After passing through it, he could see the other Room 1203.

The people living here should be the good neighbors he needed to capture.

Chi Ting wasn’t in a hurry to return to his ‘home.’ He scanned around before pushing open the door next to the elevator room that was marked as the ‘safety exit.’

Just like with any regular apartment design, this was a staircase leading to the upper and lower floors. Apart from the pink color that was the same as the lobby on the first floor, everything was very normal.

There were even several empty cardboard boxes piled up in a corner. They looked like garbage that hadn’t been picked up yet.

Chi Ting touched his chin and habitually confirmed the escape route he would choose in case of an accident. He was about to turn around and leave when suddenly, a childish female voice was heard.

In such a quiet environment, it was enough to raise a chill in an instant.

“Brother, have you seen my doll?”

Chi Ting looked up and found that a little girl had appeared at an unknown time at the entrance of the stairs leading to the 13th floor. She wore a delicate and beautiful Lolita-style dress, making her look like a realistic doll.

The little girl met Chi Ting’s eyes and showed a sweet smile. Then she asked again. “Brother, I lost my doll. Can you help me find my doll?”

At the same time, Chi Ting heard a ‘ding-dong’ sound in his mind.

He already had the experience of the lobby on the first floor, so he easily realized what was happening.

Sure enough, a virtual interface was immediately displayed in front of him.

[Task name: Find the doll.]

[Task introduction: Gloria on the 13th floor is a little girl who likes to collect dolls, but she accidentally lost her doll. Can you help her get it back?

Task reward: Gloria’s favorability +20.

Hidden effect: Unknown (???).

Do you want to accept the mission? Yes or no.]

The few people in the live stream room, who saw Chi Ting exploring the map in advance and thought that this newcomer had some potential, were also stunned at this moment.

[Is this Gloria? What type of opening is this?!]

[Fortunately, it doesn’t look like they live on the same floor.]

[Is this okay? It is over as soon as he accepts the task!]

[Perhaps. Or he might refuse.]

[Hehe, when you were a newcomer, could you withstand the temptation when an NPC sent a task to your door?]

[…You’re right. I couldn’t.]

Just as several players in the live stream room were sweating, Chi Ting’s eyes lingered on the content of the panel for a moment. He recalled the initial rules heard on the first floor before looking up at the expectant Gloria with a kind smile.

Under such clear kindness, the live stream room was filled with ‘it’s over.’ Gloria also seemed to have a hunch, and the corners of her mouth curved up even more.

The next second, she heard the other person’s answer.

Chi Ting’s expression was sincere and full of apologies. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I am too busy. You can find a way to find it yourself. Be obedient, and I will definitely bring you candy to eat in the future.”

Obviously, she never expected such an answer. The girl’s smile froze together with the barrage in the live stream room.