The moment the word ‘time’ was mentioned, Lu Nanling, who had been deep in thought, was slightly stunned. In a short moment, he understood. “So that’s how it is.”
Ji Xingque looked between them eagerly, his already confused face becoming even more confused. “What?”
He turned to Song Xuefeng for help. “Old Song, do you know?”
Song Xuefeng had been raising the protective barrier in compliance with Chi Ting’s instructions. Hearing this, he raised his eyelids and replied after a while, “There is no need to know. I’m not interested.”
Ji Xingque: “.”
“Okay, I’ll explain it to you later.” Chi Ting patted Ji Xingque on the head. “Go, call everyone back. We have to keep going now.”
Ji Xingque blinked. “Go? Where to?”
Lou Yueren was in a good mood and answered his question patiently, “Of course, we are going to the safe zone of the No 2 stronghold.”
The more Ji Xingque listened, the more confused he became. However, when Chi Ting urged him again, he didn’t dare to delay and immediately rushed to find the members of the other teams.
Chi Ting looked towards Lu Nanling.
Lu Nanling nodded. “I’ll go and discuss it with Conrad.”
Both sides implemented it at the same time and received feedback quickly.
The NPC residents basically accepted Lu Nanling’s proposal very easily and started the action again in cooperation. This led to the other three teams having to follow the Dawn team’s lead despite still having some days. They found the Dawn team as soon as possible and waited for a reasonable explanation.
As for Chi Ting, he was ready to explain as long as it didn’t affect the speed of advancement.
“Time,” Chi Ting briefly and concisely put forward a conclusion. “The core of this instance has never been tower defense, but time.”
He didn’t stop. His voice was blown away by the window and smoothly fell into everyone’s ears. “From the countdown time of each alien army attack, the time we need to complete the migration before the aliens arrive, to the time we need to find the sources of infection before the infection breaks out. Every time is the force behind the operation of this instance. We need to hurry to kill the monsters, hurry to complete the migration, and hurry to solve the outbreak of the infection source.”
At this point, Chi Ting paused for a moment. Then he smiled and looked at all the players. “But everyone, think about it from another perspective. Are we attaching too much importance to the existence of these times?”
“Attaching too much importance to the existence of time…” Qiu Ji murmured. He recalled the direction of the discussion of their Seven Seas team just now, and his expression suddenly darkened.
It seemed to be true. Without realizing it, the moment they opened their mouths, they always subconsciously put the limited countdown first every time they gave a hypothesis.
It wasn’t just Qiu Ji, but other people’s faces also showed subtle expressions. Chi Ting glanced at them and smiled with satisfaction. “It seems that everyone has realized it. We were almost misled. You know, there is only one so-called side mission, which is to assist the residents in completing the transfer. Even though the so-called emergency mission was triggered, it is also based on the need to complete the side mission. Of course, even if we need to complete this emergency mission first, the task we need to complete is: Complete the processing.
He blinked lightly. “Do you feel that these words are very subtle in themselves?”
No one responded for a while, leaving only the sound of footsteps.
Yes, complete the processing.
Throughout all the content, it was indeed never mentioned that the way to deal with the source of infection was to kill it.
Qu Leng looked at Chi Ting steadily for a long time before he asked with a very humble attitude, “Then may I ask Captain Chi, how do you plan to deal with it? You should know that the mission rules have specifically emphasized that the infection is very dangerous. If we really send all these residents to the safe zone as you wish, once the countdown ends and the infection breaks out, it isn’t just the NPCs but also us players who will also face the risk of infection.”
This time, Chi Ting didn’t need to speak. Lou Yueren had already said with a half smile, “Oh~ Captain Qu, right? You see, you also know that the infection won’t break out until the countdown is over.”
Qu Leng had always been a complete egoist. Since he already knew that there might be hidden dangers in the future, he would naturally choose to deal with it comprehensively to prevent future troubles. His original intention was to quietly influence other people’s thinking by asking questions, so as to get more people to stand on the same front as him. He was stunned when he heard Lou Yueren’s ridicule, and the words that were on his lips suddenly fell silent.
Lou Yueren glanced at Qu Leng’s change of expression with a teasing look and whistled.’ It seems that with Captain Qu’s intelligence, he should’ve understood it. According to Rules 2 and 4, it is only by taking protective measures or avoiding close contact that there can be a chance of preventing infection. At the same time, according to Rule 3, the latent infection won’t fully break out until the countdown ends. In other words, we only need to complete all the transfer work before the countdown ends and take relative isolation measures. This is enough to perfectly prevent the infection before it breaks out.”
He chuckled softly. “Infection is very dangerous, so everyone, the numbers on the virtual panel aren’t a countdown to killing. It is the time left for us to complete the transfer and the response measures.”
“S*it, when I think about it carefully, this does seem to be the case.”
“No wonder why these NPCs suddenly turned into such a horrible appearance. It turns out that a trap was set here.”
“Indeed, if these NPCs still looked like ordinary residents, my first reaction wouldn’t be to take action.”
“Fortunately, we didn’t waste too much time. Otherwise, if we had just been waiting there without reaching a conclusion, it probably would’ve been too late even if we had finally thought of this aspect.”
“Hiss! This mission has such a vicious design!”
It wasn’t difficult to hear from the discussions around them that many people had already figured it out thoroughly.
Such words made Qu Leng frown slightly, and he asked the last question, “Even if we want to take measures, there are so many people after all. How can you be sure that there will be enough isolation space after arriving in the safe zone?”
This question was very realistic and tricky, but Chi Ting answered him with his usual calm tone, “Don’t worry, it will definitely be enough.”
Such an overly confident answer made the others exchange looks with each other.
Chi Ting continued walking forward calmly, as if he was completely unaware of the intense inquiry coming from the other players at this moment.
At the end of his field of view, he could vaguely see a stretch of desolate buildings.
The No 2 stronghold of Benisaf Fortress.
The distance actually wasn’t that far, but it still took them a lot of time because they were escorting such a large number of ordinary residents.
In the direction of the No 1 stronghold, the roars of monsters and gunfire had subsided a lot without anyone noticing. It wasn’t known what the current situation of the teams responsible for resisting the alien armies was like. Only the contribution values that were still jumping on the statistical rankings indirectly indicated the survival status of each team.
At present, the four teams responsible for carrying out the side mission were about to lead these residents and successfully enter the safe zone of the No 2 stronghold.
Just as this huge team passed through the gate one after another, the resident NPCs grew new skin as if they were reborn. They regained their appearance as ordinary humans. They looked at their new homes with happy expressions, as if the inhuman and ghostly appearances they had seen on the way here were just a temporary illusion.
Players from each team were delighted to find that as the residents’ trust value increased significantly, their contribution value was also increasing exponentially.
Unfortunately, this pleasant atmosphere didn’t last long.
Without giving them time to sigh with relief, the guards led by Conrad quickly brought everyone back to reality. “Everyone in the support team, please find all these sources of infection as soon as possible. We don’t have much time left.”
Time was running out. The players were naturally more aware of this than the NPCs.
Above the virtual panel, the eye-catching ticking timer had only less than half an hour left. Every tick seemed like a death signal.
“Conrad, you should know the pass order of Institute No 32, right?” Chi Ting asked.
Conrad nodded. “Follow me.”
They followed Conrad all the way deeper into the No 2 stronghold. Finally, a laboratory building came into everyone’s view.
Just as Chi Ting answered at the time, the independent rooms here were sufficient to meet the isolation needs of all residents. With the assistance of the players, all isolation operations were completed quickly.
Chi Ting finally sighed with relief when he closed the door of the last isolation room.
He felt someone standing behind him. He turned around and saw Lou Yueren standing at the corner. He smiled silently and asked, “What are you looking at me for?”
Lou Yueren walked over. “I was just looking to see which guy accidentally got himself into trouble again.”
Chi Ting instantly understood what Lou Yueren was talking about.
Indeed, if it was him, he would definitely become suspicious that someone could know the specific situation of the locations in the instance so well.
In response, Chi Ting just smiled. “It doesn’t matter.”
Compared to such unimportant things, he felt in a pretty good mood as he glanced at the tightly closed isolation doors behind him.
The Benisaf Fortress was unable to control the infection in time in the early stages, which led to the final tragedy.
This time in the instance, he almost fell into the designer’s confusing trap again. Fortunately, he managed to escape danger in the end.
Chi Ting leaned against the wall with his hands in his trouser pockets, preparing to take a short nap in the last few minutes.
Faintly, he could hear Lou Yueren’s footsteps approaching him. Then he felt a force falling on his head and pressing lightly, allowing him to lean very naturally against a broad shoulder.
Chi Ting was slightly stunned. His lips curled up a bit, but he didn’t open his eyes.
Soft light came in from the window, shining silently on the two of them.
In this murderous instance, it dragged the shadows of these two intertwined figures out long and slender.
Time passed by every second.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
The red countdown number finally reached zero with the last tick.
The quiet world became restless again.
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