PFRG: Chapter 182

The news of the triggering of the side quest spread and the live stream screen of the Dawn team was unknowingly filled with people.

Judging from the number alone, it was even better than the top teams next to them.

At this moment, the players had almost forgotten the original purpose of coming to watch, and were completely confused by such a conversation.

Huh? What did they mean?

So they weren’t kidding before. This instance was actually the original world of the Dawn team?

The commotion outside didn’t reach the instance, but the mood of the people inside was equally complicated.

Return to the Benisaf Fortress of five years ago.

Such a thing was unbelievable at any time.

Ji Xingque was stunned for a long time. Then he caught a flash of information in his mind. “Captain, are you trying to say that we are now just like we were in… the Ark Laboratory?”

“Yes, do you remember what No 4 said in the Ark Laboratory? He said he was just the creator of the rules, and the person who gave him the Ark Laboratory was No 7. At that time, I was skeptical about such words. Now thinking back, he really didn’t deceive us on this point…” Chi Ting looked back and saw that Conrad was standing at the door at some point. He stared at them with no expression on his face, looking just like a bystander.

There was a brief pause before Chi Ting smiled slightly. His slow words echoed faintly in the closed space. “Perhaps if we find the designer of this instance, we can really know the final answer.”

Ji Xingque asked, “The designer of this instance?”

This time, Lou Yueren’s low, half-smiling voice sounded. “No 7.”

He walked forward slowly, naturally put a hand on Chi Ting’s shoulder, and led him outside. “Okay, now we have successfully determined the important goals of the next stage. Let’s take a good look at how many surprises are hidden in this instance that we don’t know about.”

Chi Ting followed Lou Yueren very cooperatively, silently glancing at the other person’s expression which showed no flaws at all.

He sounded relatively calm, but the moment he leaned in, the strength he used to hug Chi Ting was obviously a bit stronger than usual.

As everyone returned to the main storyline, Conrad continued to lead the Dawn people inside.

The deeper they went, the lower the surrounding brightness.

Finally, they passed through the last door in the depths of this bottomless passage. The scene inside clearly came into view.

At this moment, their vision seemed to suddenly open up. At the same time, they were stared at from all directions.

It was full of scrutiny, but what couldn’t be ignored was the fear and uneasiness behind such gazes.

Chi Ting seemed to have returned to the day when he first came to the Benisaf Fortress.

It was exactly the same.

Lu Nanling murmured, “These people…”

Chi Ting knew what he was going to say, and said in an ambiguous tone, “I have to admit, these are all old faces.”

After a thorough inspection, he found that this instance had indeed almost perfectly preserved the members of the guard army at that time.

In addition to Conrad, who led the way for them, there were Yan Pian, Yun Ruiguang, Dennis… such familiar faces appeared in front of them. It was as if time had gone back, inevitably reminding people of the extremely tragic final battle.

Chi Ting sighed softly.

He had long been accustomed to facing life and death, but he still felt sad when his comrades, who had died in front of him, reappeared as NPCs.

After all, these were the people he had failed to successfully snatch from the hands of death.

“What is going on? Captain Chi is feeling sad again?” Lou Yueren’s voice was heard, bringing Chi Ting back to his senses.

At this time, Ji Xingque and the others were busy helping the guards take care of the residents.

With such actions, one could see that the contribution value of the Dawn team column had started to increase visibly. In terms of affinity alone, Little Bird was still the undisputed leader.

Chi Ting glanced at the enthusiastic and busy figure and replied to Lou Yueren. “It can’t be considered as a sad and sorrowful thing. After all, I really couldn’t save these people back then. Look, when I arrived, even their bones had basically been eaten away. I wanted to save their souls and take them back to find a peaceful land to bury them, but I didn’t have time. In particular, Conrad and the others. We had a drink together on the roadside at that time. Tsk.”

Lou Yueren looked at Chi Ting with amusement at this rare moment of dwelling on the past. “I thought Captain Chi would always look forward.”

“As a human, we naturally can’t dwell on the past but this doesn’t prevent the past from coming back to us.” Chi Ting smiled and blinked. “Take these people in front of me for example. Even though I don’t know why they are trapped in this instance, no matter what, I can’t let what happened in the Benisaf Fortress happen again.”

Lou Yueren raised an eyebrow. “Is this what you call ‘getting up where you fell’?”

Chi Ting shook his head. “No, I can only say that my fragile heart can’t accept the same tragedy happening a second time.”

The smile on his face was faint. Lou Yueren stared at him intently. After a moment, Lou Yueren could only sigh. “Only you would treat the NPCs here as real people.”

“Perhaps they are in the same situation as you were at the time, and they are originally living people?”

This idea made Lou Yueren really think about it seriously. “If it wasn’t for the fact that you said earlier that they were killed in battle, I would’ve thought that it was really possible.”

Chi Ting was amused when he heard this. He lowered his head and glanced at the beads wrapped around his wrist, gently playing with them a few times. “Speaking of which, Tate and Julien were all recruited by me in the Benisaf Fortress. I originally thought that if I could meet them, it would be interesting to send out their phantoms to tease these NPCs. I didn’t expect that they weren’t among the guards here.”

Lou Yueren asked, “Are they important?”

“Yes, they were also members of the guards back then. Julien was a great partner for Conrad,” Chi Ting replied. “Oh yes, I don’t see any traces of Tong Zhe and the others either…”

He was speaking casually but suddenly stopped.

“Captain Chi is indeed a very nostalgic person. It has been so long, but he still remembers every name.” Lou Yueren was still teasing this person. Once he finished his words, he caught Chi Ting’s sudden contemplative look and paused. “What’s wrong?”

Chi Ting raised his eyes and met this person’s gaze directly. “Thinking carefully, it seems that I didn’t perform any salvation for the NPCs that appeared here back then. Those who were transformed into my bone beads through my ability have never appeared again.”

The words passed by his words. Faintly, he seemed to feel a slight chill passing through the sealed underground.

Lou Yueren turned around and slowly looked at the busy scene underground. The smile on his face faded a bit. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Chi Ting stretched out his hand and counted them one by one. “Let’s not mention Conrad’s partner, Julien. The team over there is Team 4423. There were supposed to be eight people among them. Two of them escaped death and reached the edge of the area. They happened to meet my team returning. I sent their bone beads back to their homeland for burial. The person in charge of the logistics department over there should be Dale. I handed over the bone beads to her fiance. Now her former assistant Jasmine has replaced her…”

He didn’t continue.

At this point, Chi Ting knew that Lou Yueren should’ve understood everything, and he smiled silently. “If all of this isn’t a coincidence, I don’t know whether this instance is aimed at me, or if it has brought some interesting interference to the composition of this instance world in a place that I don’t know about.”

It must be said that this was definitely an old idea, but once he opened his mind in this regard, Lou Yueren’s eyes showed a hint of excitement. “Thinking carefully, weren’t Ji Xingque and the others also helped to find peace after death by you? According to your idea, perhaps this is related to the fact that they didn’t become NPCs in the instance but entered the unlimited world as players?”

After hearing his name from a distance, Ji Xingque looked over with some confusion. Then he continued to be busy.

Chi Ting sometimes really liked Lou Yueren’s way of thinking, which was very easy to communicate with. But at this moment, he thought about it and slowly shook his head. “That isn’t quite right.”

Lou Yueren asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Qi Xiu.”

The originally happy expression on Lou Yueren’s face became a bit gloomy after hearing this name again out of the blue.

Chi Ting smiled at the change in expression and continued, “Qi Xiu and I became partners in my early years. At that time, I didn’t know how to use my ability well, so there was no such thing as ‘helping the soul find peace.’ If it is really as you said, and Little Bird and the others were able to become players because I used my ability on them, then what about Qi Xiu?”

“I don’t know about that.” Lou Yueren obviously didn’t want to discuss topics related to other men at all. “For this, I suggest you ask him in person.”

There was a pause before he corrected himself, “You can entrust me to ask him personally.”

Chi Ting burst out laughing. “You really are…”

Lou Yueren raised an eyebrow. “What am I?”

“It’s okay. I think you look cute when you are jealous,” Chi Ting said. He clicked on his virtual panel to check the time, and called Lou Yueren to walk towards the crowd. “Let’s go and do the side quest. We don’t have much time left.”

Lou Yueren put his hands in his trouser pockets and immediately followed, reminding, “It seems that there are still four hours before the second wave of enemy attacks.”

Chi Ting knew what Lou Yueren meant but didn’t slow down his pace. “Of course, we have time to rush back to resist the second wave but don’t forget the content of the side quest. Our problem now is that we need to complete the transfer of these residents after the second wave of enemy attacks is repelled and before the third wave breaks out. Otherwise…”

Recalling the tragedy that broke out in the Benisaf Fortress, a trace of profoundness flashed in his eyes. “If No 7 is determined to recreate the history that happened here in this instance, it is precisely because the first resident transfer wasn’t carried out in time that a series of internal infection outbreaks occurred.”

Lou Yueren vaguely realized something. “What does an infection outbreak mean?”

Chi Ting glanced at him. “At that time, a large-scale infection mutation occurred among ordinary residents that was completely uncontrollable.”