Chapter 75: The Changkong City Trap
The moment the announcement went live, the player base exploded. In an instant, tens of thousands of posts flooded the official forums, a tidal wave of confusion and excitement.
"Holy crap, a World Instance?! Which faction do I pick? Which one?! Somebody drop a guide, stat!"
"I just slapped my sleeping roommate awake to tell him. Brothers, did I do the right thing?"
"I just slapped my sleeping husband awake. Sisters, did I do the right thing?"
"I just slapped my sleeping wife awake. Bros, I was just dazed from sleep, I don't actually have a wife."
…
A deluge of players began pouring into Honkai. The sudden opening of a "World Instance" just two days after the last major update had caught everyone completely off guard.
In the midst of the chaos, Yuki Suou immediately placed a call to Rovel.
"Brother, the World Instance opened! It's right in Changkong City! Are you alright?" Yuki's anxious voice crackled through the connection.
"Don't worry, I'm fine for now," Rovel's calm voice was a steady anchor in the storm. "Yuki, listen to me. It would be better if you didn't participate in this World Instance. The danger level here might far exceed anything you can imagine."
"Huh?" Yuki was stunned. She had been about to ask which faction he was joining so she could follow him, but his immediate warning threw her off balance.
"The concentration of Honkai Energy in the center of Changkong City has already surpassed 1000 HW," Rovel explained, his tone grave. "Even on the absolute outskirts, it's hovering near 300 HW. To put it simply, this World Instance is not something players at the current stage can handle."
"So that's how it is… Okay, I trust you, Brother!" Yuki nodded without hesitation. Her faith in Rovel was unconditional.
She had listened to his advice before and joined World Serpent, which led her to a powerful mentor. This time, she would trust him again.
Yuki logged off and made her way to the head of the family's study. Through the heavy wooden door, she could hear him shouting.
"Hurry, wake everyone up! The Zhou Family must seize the initiative in this World Instance!"
"Father." Yuki knocked firmly on the door.
It swung open instantly, revealing her father, his face flushed with impatient ambition.
"Yuki, what are you still standing there for? Go and prepare!" he urged, his voice sharp.
"Father, we cannot participate in this instance," Yuki said, her voice a calm counterpoint to his frantic energy. "It might be a trap."
"A trap? What nonsense are you spouting?" Her father's brows furrowed in annoyance.
"Brother told me that the lowest concentration of Honkai Energy in Changkong City exceeds 300 HW, and at its center, it's as high as 1000 HW," Yuki explained patiently. "Among the thousands of members in our Zhou Family, how many have a Honkai Energy resistance that high?"
"That Rovel fellow said that?" Her father's expression soured further. "Could he be saying this on purpose? A petty revenge scheme against the Zhou Family?"
Yuki took a deep, steadying breath. The retort, 'Do you even think you're important enough for that?' burned on her tongue, but she held it back.
"Brother would never lie to me. I trust him. Besides…" Yuki's entire aura shifted. Her posture straightened, her gaze sharpened, and her voice dropped, shedding the warmth of a daughter for the steel of an heir. "Family Head."
The change in address made him flinch.
"I am standing here speaking to you now as the designated heir to the Zhou Family. If this information proves incorrect, I am willing to bear any and all consequences."
The muscles in her father's jaw twitched violently. He stared at his daughter, truly seeing the determined woman she had become, and held her gaze for a long, tense moment before nodding reluctantly.
"If your decision causes the Zhou Family to miss this opportunity," he snarled, turning his back on her, his tone dripping with resentment, "don't even think about seeing that person ever again!"
"Thank you, Family Head." Yuki gave a slight, formal bow before turning and returning to her room.
When she tried to contact Rovel again, however, a cold system prompt appeared before her.
[The other party is in an area with an abnormal magnetic field and cannot be contacted.]
…
At that very moment, more and more players were flooding into the "World Instance."
The guilds led by the prominent player Apollo, who had long planned to align with Schicksal, eagerly joined the "Kill the Herrscher of Thunder" faction.
Meanwhile, those aiming to join Anti-Entropy, led by the Funahiki Family under Funahiki Shin, chose the "Recover the Herrscher of Thunder" faction.
"Hey, I just realized something," a player in the crowd remarked, a hint of confusion in his voice. "It seems… I can't log off."
He had tried to open his menu to handle something in the real world, but a system prompt blocked him.
[Ding! You are currently in a combat state and cannot log off.]
"Holy crap, it's true! And my Honkai Energy infection meter is slowly rising!"
"What the hell?! Damn, why does it feel like we've been tricked?"
A seed of unease began to sprout, and the situation started spiraling in a strange direction. Some tried to send messages to friends outside, to post on the forums, but they were met with the same chilling notification.
[You are in an area with an abnormal magnetic field and cannot make contact with the outside world.]
Unable to log off. Unable to communicate. Every single player who had entered Changkong City was now completely cut off, trapped in a digital cage.
Then, a new notification flashed in their vision.
[Faction 1 objective updated: Head to ME Corp to assemble.]
"Where is ME Corp?" The question echoed through the confused masses. Most players had no knowledge of Changkong City's layout; they were utterly lost.
Before they could even begin to get their bearings, figures began to shamble out of the surrounding alleyways and ruined buildings. Honkai Beasts over level 30, flanked by countless Death Soldiers, were already walking toward them, their movements stiff and unnatural.
"Ah!"
A scream tore through the air. A low-level player, too slow to react, was instantly cleaved in two by the rusted blade of a Death Soldier.
Just as his friends thought he would simply log off to escape the death penalty, a system prompt rang out like a death knell for all to see.
[You have died. As you are currently in a World Instance, XP will be reduced by 20%. You will be randomly respawned in a safe area!]
But even in the face of this, some saw an opportunity.
"So many Death Soldiers! I was just complaining about how hard they are to find back home!" a cocky player shouted, charging forward.
He found his target, a lone Death Soldier. But the text floating above its head was a glaring, blood-red warning.
[Guard Death Soldier, Level 20]
In both speed and strength, it was more than twice as powerful as the level 10 Death Soldiers he was used to fighting. Before the player could even process the difference, a blade flashed. He dissolved into a shower of data particles, vanishing only to respawn somewhere else in the besieged city.
The horrifying truth began to dawn on them. This wasn't an instance. This was a trap. This was a slaughter, carefully planned by the system itself.
Level 20 Death Soldiers. Level 30 Charger-class Honkai Beasts. Level 40 Knight-class Honkai Beasts. Level 50 Chariot-class Honkai Beasts. And in the distance, the colossal silhouettes of Temple-class Honkai Beasts whose levels they couldn't even see.
If the Honkai Eruption had followed the original plot, occurring on March 28th of the following year, perhaps humanity—and the players—would have had the strength to fight back.
But with the arrival of the Descenders, the timeline of the world had irrevocably changed.
And at this point in time, ninety-nine percent of the players trapped in Changkong City were nothing more than lambs waiting for the slaughter.
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