Free Web NovelChapter 2424: Chapter 2424: Hidden Friend
"Would you like to look at something else?" the player who collected the money asked attentively.
"Are there any that can talk like humans?" Xu Huo asked.
"With what you’re asking, plants don’t have vocal cords, how can they speak." The other person said with a smile, "But since the customer has requests, I must do my best to satisfy them."
As he spoke, he took out a bag of white seeds, "This type of grass is called Echo Grass. When it grows, it forms dense patches. Although it can’t speak, if it’s wind-blown or someone talks to it and it feels the vibrations, it will start to rub against each other, creating strange tones that sometimes really sound like human voices. But this needs a large area, small patches don’t have any effect. Do you still want it?"
"This is cheap, one thousand White Notes per large bag."
"Buy it, buy it," the Girl in the painting held up her communicator to Xu Huo’s face, "I want to hear if they really can talk."
Besides Echo Grass, Xu Huo picked out a few more seeds and bought them all.
"It’s rare to encounter a customer who loves plants so much," the man said and took out a small plant fruit, "this Seal Fruit is a free gift. It can stamp on animals, and humans too. Before using it, carve an image onto it, and when stamped, the area with the image will secrete corrosive liquid, imprinting the same image, effective for quite a while—the wound won’t heal for a day or two!"
This sounded interesting, Xu Huo accepted it.
Two days later, the train arrived safely at C31-020.
Just after disembarking, the instance automatically activated:
[Passerby A has successfully arrived at Beautiful Tomorrow Station, triggering the Rank-B instance "Hidden Friend."]
[Instance Background: Hundreds of years ago, in this place covered by dense fog, a legend was popular. When a lonely person looks into the distance, amidst the depths of the mountains or the thick fog, a human figure often appears. When the person waves, the figure waves; when the person calls, the figure calls. If the person responds to its call, the figure will walk out from the woods and take away their friend.]
[As time passed, people gradually discovered that those taken away never appeared again, thus this figure hiding in the woods is called "Hidden Friend."]
[Living here requires attention to three things:]
[1. Do not respond randomly to anyone, because you never know if the one calling is the "Hidden Friend."]
[2. Being alone makes it easier to be considered a friend by the "Hidden Friend."]
[3. The "Hidden Friend" needs only one friend each day.]
[Instance Task: Play the role of "Hidden Friend" and as "Hidden Friend" find your friend hidden in the forest.]
[Be aware, failing to find a friend or considering anyone other than an instance player as a friend will lose the opportunity to play "Hidden Friend."]
[Instance Duration: Thirty days.]
[Clear Count: 1.]
[Current Instance Count: 39.]
After reading the instance-related content, Xu Huo frowned. Simply from the instance task, it didn’t seem difficult to clear; you just need to play "Hidden Friend" and successfully find another instance player.
But this instance specifies the clear count as 1? Doesn’t that mean only one player can clear it?
If only one person can clear it, it means the other 38 people must fail.
The task given by the instance only mentions playing the role and what must be done after, but lacks specific criteria. If not simply entering as a pre-clear participant upon task completion, then only one person can complete this task.
If the latter, it matches the instance time limit. If "Hidden Friend’s" role rotates, reducing player count enough could indeed lead to only one actor remaining.
However, the instance doesn’t mention how the "Hidden Friend" role is obtained, whether given by the instance or self-disguised, or whether one or multiple roles exist each day.
Probably only when the first "Hidden Friend" appears will we find out.
After going through the instance introduction, Xu Huo waited for a bit but didn’t receive more prompts or physical changes, then closed the personal panel.
He already observed the surroundings when getting off the train. Vast stretches of primeval forest-like vegetation rose and fell without end. The dense fog immersed every corner like milky water, limiting the visible range to about twenty meters and somewhat affecting senses—spiritual world and spatial sensing both reduced, but it’s not a big problem.
However, the vision was mostly deep green, combined with enormous trees and fog obscuring the sky, oppressive and stifling, giving a suffocating feeling, especially when looking afar—the spatial perception shrinking seemed to compress one’s body from a distance.
Fortunately, there weren’t any large animals nearby.
It didn’t seem like anyone lived nearby, so Xu Huo decided to explore further. From the instance description, it’s unlikely there’d be a large city here, but some inhabited place should be found. freewebnσvel.cøm
With spatial power limited, he and the Girl in the painting had to rely on short-distance teleportation props to move through the forest. However, despite traveling a long way in one direction, they didn’t find any traces of people, so they stopped temporarily to re-plan the direction.
While organizing the marks, the Girl in the painting suddenly sat beside him, silently pointing a short distance away.
"Someone." Her communicator screen reminded Xu Huo with two words, prompting him to look in the direction she pointed. He only found a bundle of vines which, probably due to distance and fog, looked like a person’s shadow.
To be cautious, he still prepared to check closely.
Indeed, there was no one. The spiritual world and spatial sensing detected no human presence, no trampling traces around the vines, and no special scent left in the air.
"Do you really think there was a person standing here earlier?" he asked the Girl in the painting again.
The Girl in the painting nodded, thought for a while, then added with the communicator, "It looked quite like a person." ƒгeewebnovёl.com
After a bit of deliberation, Xu Huo decided to continue forward. The instance asking players to mimic the "Hidden Friend" doesn’t mean there aren’t actual "Hidden Friends" here. If it’s an unknown force within the instance, it might be something naturally formed, and no matter what it is, best avoid direct contact.
Half an hour passed without seeing any living humans. However, the Girl in the painting spotted another shadow, which even deceived Xu Huo’s eyes. As he looked over, the shadow seemed to be waving at him!
But it was just a momentary illusion. Upon closer inspection, it’d easily be distinguished as merely an extended tree trunk and its leaves.
Xu Huo retrieved an instrument, intending to detect any special forces present in this area.
