As Ah'Ming sat there, pondering like the spiderman meme. out of nowhere, a large ring popped up around the room.
a glowing circle surrounded him, and little pretty effects flashed everywhere. there was a cheerful noise and background.
a bright blue screen, the first screen he'd seen working since the start of the instance, popped up in front of him. it was very cheerful.
|Congratulations!
|You have received a gift from AN AUDIENCE MEMBER (ANONYMOUS)
Ah'Ming blinked. he looked up into the air.
"Thanks?" he half said, half questioned the air.
So. what was this gift?
suddenly, next to the views and likes numbers in the corner of his eye, he could see a little red exclamation point.
He clicked on it, and his face turned dark as he read the description of the gift.
|SKILL GAINED: Well Wishes
|Upon meeting other sentient beings, user may use common greetings and well wishes against these beings.
?!
what?
|Warning: Each greeting and/or well wish may only be used once per instance
huh. did it do something? or was it just wishing the thing well? was it a buff or a debuff?
Ah'Ming shook his head. this skill clearly wouldn't be used often. anyways, back to the current matter at hand. He needed to find a key, for the clock. unless it was another misdirection? Hmm.
Say, if this was an orphanage, wouldn't there be a director's office or something?
He was sick of this instance, and wanted out. it was boring, exhausting, and also over-complicated.
Ah'Ming slunk around, trying once more to map out the entire orphanage. frankly, he had no idea what was meant to happen soon. For one, the time table couldn't really be used, since he didn't know what time it was.
he walked all around the orphanage once, twice, even thrice. there weren't any doors he hadn't already been in, and he couldn't find any secret entrances behind closets. not that he'd solves any puzzles, he'd just ripped the closets off the walls.
none of them were system protected.
after he'd wrecked all the furniture, he moved onto the walls. claws left massive marks along all of the wallpapers, shredding the antique patterns of flowers.
What else was there?
Secret areas had secret entrances... Behind closets, secret doors...
trapdoors.
the floors!
why didn't he think of that sooner? Ah'Ming face palmed.
the floors were covered in carpets, so obviously a trapdoor would be easily hidden. if only he could use his antennae, but those only helped when there was external movement to sense vibrations.
he went around, stomping every so often, just incase the floor underneath was hollow. it took a while, because his luck was really bad.
a mossy carpet covered a chunk of hollow wood. Ah'Ming had found it by accident, to be honest. he'd stomped a little too hard out of frustration, and his foot went straight through.
he'd fallen, rather stupidly, and it was down a chute, ladder and all.
maybe a few dozen feet down, Ah'Ming clutched his foot sadly.
it was a dark room, without any light at all. papers were strewn across the floor, and they made crinkling noises with Ah'Ming's every step.
there was a desk, though, and a mural. or was it a tapestry? anyways, the only one that was on a long piece of paper, hanging n the wall.
Ah'Ming couldn't tell what was drawn on it, but when he stepped close, he could hear a faint whisper in his ears.
it was a soft cooing, slimy and greasy.
"Child, why are you here? Should you not be with the others?"
a soft, grandfatherly sigh.
"If I were still alive, I would have put you in charge of the younger ones. You'd have tried so hard not to fail them."
Ah'Ming, the one who was always commanded to stay away from the nymphs no matter what: ?
he blinked.
why would it compliment hi-
ah, manipulation tactics. that makes sense.
say, where was the voice coming from?
Ooh! Maybe Ah'Ming could try the new skill. what was the way of using it, again? right. to greet the enemy with well wishes.
He opened his mouth, then closed it, trying to think of a good one. "八方来财" - may wealth come in from all directions.
there was a startled scream, and the loud noise of many thunks hitting something. with his vibration sense, Ah'Ming could tell that several small coin-like object had materialised, and hit the wall in front of him with a startling amount of speed.
huh.
so it was an attack spell!
he grinned. "八方来财!", hoping for it to happen again. maybe he could even keep the coins!
...
nothing happend.
right.
only once per greeting, per instance.
he clicked his tongue.
"万象新生" May it be renewed or something, he couldn't remember what it meant.
the paper thing burned up, with a scream.
Ah'Ming: ?
this instance was very confusing. did this mean that the painting wasn't the evil boss-
never mind.
the space started fading to white.
|Punishment instance: Cleared
back to the bright blindness, he supposed.