"But why would you want to solve the instance's main story?" Was a baffled question from Huipao.
"Why wouldn't you? Doesn't solving it give rewards?" countered Ah'Ming.
"Yeah, but like, the main storyline would increase the entire instance's difficulty. So like, it would basically ruin the instance for all the big guilds."
Under Ah'Ming's confused gaze, Bianheng started to explain.
"Because the resentful resort is a really easy starter resort, guilds who are trying to train newbies will bring them here. Upping the difficulty will basically turn half of the broadcasters into your enemies."
What a great explanation!
Too bad there was no way that Ah'Ming would follow the advice.
"Whatever. Have you guys seen a kind of pavilion anywhere?" He asked.
Zhaoying laughed. "We're in a resort in Orient. Where are you not going to see a pavilion?"
Fair point.
He thought about it for a second.
It hadn't had any really defining characteristics.
"Um, its counterpart had red wood poles and a black roof. It had a bronze incense burner in it. So, the other one should be pretty similar?"
It hadn't had any talismans, and it wasn't even special except for being out in the boonies. Now that he thought about it, why hadn't Ah'Ming attempted to light the incense anywhere else?
He took a piece, under the shadowblackdagger (?) guild's confused gaze, and tried to light it with a cigarette lighter. The flames bent around the incense stick, though. It was clear that it was system managed, or system protected.
Ah'Ming glared at the air.
"Why not just give me the hint?"
|The system must remain impartial to all broadcasters
Bianheng tilted his head, furrowing his eyebrows. "You talk to the system?"
"I mean like, yeah? It talks back too?"
"strange"
He shrugged. The shadowbalck(?) guild wouldn't be able to help him in this case.
But... he had one more question.
"If I level high enough, will I be able to see audience comments during an instance?"
Zhaoying rolled her eyes.
"Obviously. You can just buy the comment reader skill in the marketplace."
"How much is it?"
"Not much, maybe around ten grand?"
...
Stupid rich people.
Ah'Ming decided to try and find the other pavilion. If the one he'd already been to had been outside, maybe the other matched as well. It would be a waste of time to try and track the building through the woods, so he decided to climb the tallest tower for a good viewpoint.
Most of the buildings were short, apart from the main residential building and the clock tower nearby. Hmm.
The main building, the one where guests stayed, would be the easiest to climb. He could probably just take the elevator up to the top floor, and climb to the roof from there.
He nodded, then walked to the building and got in the elevator. It was a little bit chilly, at night, but it was mostly okay.
A little pink slip caught Ah'Ming's eye in the elevator, though. He reached for it, and tugged a sheet of pink/orange paper out of the maintenance panel.
TOURIST RULES FOR THE ELEVATOR
#1 The elevator doesn't work [][][][] 1 AM - 6AM
#2 There are no mirrors in the elevator
#3 Tourists should use the elevator mirror to freshen up
#4 Please do not loiter in the elevator
#5 [][] stay][][] 4[] min[][]es [][] [][][][. ][][
#6 If tourists are [][][][], they are not [][][][]
#7 Don't pay [][][] [][] the [][][][]
Some of the rules for tourists (probably the players) were smudged, and dirty.
Well... That didn't bode well, but not much could harm Ah'Ming. He looked at the buttons, and saw that the elevator only went up to level nine. At least nine was a lucky number. he hoped it wouldn't be a case of 九九归一, nine returning to one in a fashion that was too fast: The elevator breaking and falling to the first floor.
Nope: Don't think negatively. Ah'Ming chanted this mantra in his head, back to the wall. A hand tapped his shoulder.
He ignored it.
The hand tapped again.
He ignored it once more.
Two hands, three, four.
Five hands, six, seven.
Ten hands, eleven, twelve.
Twenty hands, twenty one, twenty two.
What felt like a hundred hands were crawling up and down from his calves, thighs and lower abdomen. They had migrated from his shoulder. Still, he gave no reaction.
Though his skin was crawling and he could feel the physiological reaction called sweat being produced, his antennae told him there was nothing there. There were no gusts of wind either.
Ghosts, or at least some form of not contracted NPC.
The hands, although they should have been scary, felt very pervy. It was very uncomfortable. Ah'Ming was just a little bug, he didn't consent, ok?!
At least he knew what the sixth rule was: If tourists are alone, they are not alone. At least the seventh was probably something along the lines of 'Don't pay the hands attention' or something.
A finger trailed down his spine.
The moment the elevator doors opened, Ah'Ming bolted out, leaving the stupid pervert ghost hands away.
Thankfully, this floor had a far nicer carpet pattern compared to the one next to his room. Hmm. There didn't seem to be a direct way to access the roof, but Ah'Ming could just make one. He paced over to where he thought the outside wall was (since there were no windows at all), and punched the wall.
The wall was surprisingly reinforced. It actually took Ah'Ming two punches to get through, and many more to make a hole big enough to crawl through.
His fingertips extended into claws, and he climbed the outside of the building to reach the rooftop.
A rooftop... which was covered in some sort of ritual.
Huh.
Well, if it was hidden and out of sight, it probably wasn't important, right? He kicked the candles over, and messed up the writing.
Evil ghosts nearby: ?!
Immediately, the sky started to grow a little bit heavier, the air a bit denser.
"Huh. Nothing happened. Hey, can I have a clue?" He asked.
|The system must remain impartial to all broadcasters
He pouted "All I'm hearing is that you don't love me enough"
|System hopes you trip off of the building
"Hah! I knew you had it in you!" Ah'Ming snickered.
|System hopes you fall miserably.
"Yeah, yeah. Love you too XD"
He looked around, using his frankly horrible eyesight to try and find another pavilion. "If my eyesight's really bad, that means that a hint ain't really partial, right? It's more like, leveling the playing field?"
The system let out an ever suffering sigh.
|Wow, the vibes over there are very nice today
|Almost like there's a nice pa-
|p
|P-
|p
"Are you glitching?"
|Pa-
"It's okay, keep trying!"
|P
|pav
"System?"
No answer.
"System? No!"
Whoops. Ah'Ming fried the system.