Lucky billion players, you've never seen one before / I can accumulate my own luck

"Hmph... I'm rather curious about what will happen once it's fully standing up."

Nori didn't rush to make a move; she first observed the shadow.

"Your Highness," the head guard reminded her.

"I know."

Nori pulled the blindfold back up, and her golden eyes began to glow.

She turned her gaze and looked at the shadows of everyone in succession.

Crack, crack... a series of cracking sounds rang out.

Nori's magic eye created cracks and grooves in the concrete floor of the rooftop, but the writhing shadow remained completely unharmed.

She frowned her delicate brows and murmured, "A heartless doll."

The air trembled slightly.

Fan Xiao and the others turned their gaze and saw a very petite girl standing next to Nori, who was only about 1.3 meters tall.

Judging from the name "Heartless Doll," this little girl is probably not a real person.

However, her exquisite appearance is almost indistinguishable from that of a real person; at least to the naked eye, there is no difference whatsoever. She is like a work of art, without any uncanny valley effect.

"what……"

The mindless doll opened its small mouth, and the movements of its lips and chin had a slightly stiff, mechanical feel to them.

A melodious song rang out from her lips.

A gentle melody, a soothing tune, and a beautiful voice conveying the spirit of helping the poor... a piece of music with a tranquil atmosphere fell into the ears of Fan Xiao and the others.

They all felt a sense of peace.

At the same time, I also felt sleepy.

After a short while, their shadows stopped wriggling, and the upright parts pressed back against the cement ground, returning to normal.

Nori reminded her teammates, "The Shadow Monster has fallen into a beautiful dream."

Soothing Melody – This is one of the functions of the Mindless Doll, which allows the user to fall asleep quickly and have a sweet dream. The effect will last until the next morning.

This function can not only alleviate one's own insomnia and improve one's sleep quality, but it can also be used against enemies, essentially a sleeping spell.

As long as the target's mental strength is not too high, they will basically fall asleep within a short time after hearing the song.

At the same time, the mindless doll will also actively distinguish between enemies and friends according to its owner's will.

It can be described as a very practical tool.

"Hypnosis...it seems the psychological attack was effective." Gawain breathed a sigh of relief.

"If mental attacks are ineffective, then we don't need to worry about the threat level of this monster."

Fan Xiao said, "The dungeon level determines the difficulty of clearing the dungeon; the level is a direct indication to us players from the game."

"In a D-level dungeon, if a monster appears that is immune to both physical and mental attacks, then the monster's attack power against the player is definitely not very high."

As he spoke, he looked around intently, but found nothing amiss.

The shadow monster's form was not revealed.

Or rather, the other party has no physical form at all.

So even if you fall asleep and your abilities are interrupted, you won't be seen.

Nori put the mindless doll away, then pulled down the eye patch to cover her left eye again.

The head maid looked at Fan Xiao and said, "Let's continue with our previous question. Do you think we were assigned the role of researchers?"

"Well..."

Fan Xiao replied, "If the conjecture that 'the monster was a former psionicist' is true, then our identities are indeed researchers."

"Of course, this is only our temporary identity, it is not fixed, after all, identity can change over time."

"Researcher... is this the reason we're being attacked by monsters?"

Although Gao Wen used a question, he actually quite agreed with this viewpoint.

From a normal logical point of view, if people don't actively provoke monsters, then monsters won't attack humans for no reason, unless the monsters are hungry and want to hunt.

The fire monsters attacked them not to satisfy their appetites, but simply to kill them.

Monsters—that's just the name they use for creatures that have strange abilities; it doesn't mean they're mindless and only know how to kill.

If these "monsters" attack players not simply out of brutality, but with some motive, then the speculation that "monsters are equivalent to psionicists" is quite likely.

Coincidentally, the monsters use strange abilities, which correspond perfectly to psychic energy.

This reasoning is correct.

Following Fan Xiao's line of thought, Gao Wen then proposed a hypothesis: "Do you think we can avoid monster attacks by changing our identities? As long as we are no longer researchers, the monsters won't attack us?"

"Based on my conjecture, this is theoretically feasible."

Fan Xiao said, "However, our identities are assigned by the instance and cannot be changed by actively playing a certain role."

"To obtain a new identity, the only option at present is to wait and let the identity change over time."

"There might be other ways, but we'll have to explore the dungeon ourselves to find out."

"Of course, while we can't avoid monsters by changing our identity, we can use a little trick that might achieve the same effect."

"What little trick?" Gao Wen asked curiously.

Norrie and the other two also focused their attention on him.

“We can’t get a new identity, but we can work with our existing one.”

Fan Xiao laughed and said, "The monsters are psionicists who attack us researchers out of hatred. What are they after? Nothing more than venting their emotions."

“We can try to become their outlet for emotional expression.”

"For example, when we encounter monsters, we can hurt ourselves and bleed while shouting 'I was wrong, I will never do it again.' Once they get their fill of watching, they might just forget about it and forgive us."

"..." Gao Wen: "Are you sure?"

“How can we be sure?” Fan Xiao said, “It’s just a guess, of course we have to test it first.”

"That's too embarrassing, Earl."

Nori said, "However... considering the importance of taking each trial seriously, saving face isn't that important to us right now. Hmm... I'll give it a try when I encounter a monster."

"Your Highness, you are so young, yet you have such awareness?" Fan Xiao asked in surprise.

"Isn't the Earl, who can propose such a plan, also a person who can take things on and let them go?"

Nori's lips curled up as she said, "In the face of a life-or-death trial, face is worthless, and reserve seems ridiculous. What do you think, Earl?"

"What His Highness said is absolutely true."

“It seems we can become close friends, Earl.”

"Hehe, Your Highness flatters me."

Fan Xiao smiled.

"..." Gao Wen couldn't stand it anymore and forcibly steered the conversation back on track: "Let's discuss our next plan, where to go, and what to do."

"Two options."

Fan Xiao put aside his playful nature and said seriously, "The first thing is to hide. Choose a position that is not easy to be attacked, and keep hiding. When the monster attacks, you can passively fight back until the seven days are over."

"Second, we should proactively investigate the copy. Since this is a research institute, there might be some data left behind. We can collect this data and piece together intelligence and background."

"There are three kinds of dangers at night. Monsters are one of them. The other two dangers are unknown. If we can find out the information and predict what the specific crisis is in advance, then we can prepare in advance and take a great deal of initiative."

"Of course, it would be very dangerous to take the initiative to investigate. How many monsters are in this research institute is unknown."

He asked the four men, "Which one do you choose?"

“Earl, the choice of a plan naturally depends on the objective.”

Nori replied, "Do you know why I call the dungeon a trial?"

Because it's so childish... Fan Xiao thought to himself.

Before he could answer, Nori gave her answer directly: "I can access many safe instances, but... those places are too boring, and they also slow down one's progress."

"Hmph... A true strong person dares to challenge difficult things and savors the sweetness and beauty of the soul after overcoming hardships!"

"The real focus is not on the result, but on the process. Therefore, for me, the dungeon is equivalent to a challenge, equivalent to a trial."

She gave her opinion: "I choose option two, take the initiative and explore the dungeon."

"Your Highness's thoughts are my thoughts."

The head maid echoed.

The head guard nodded in agreement.

“I also choose option two,” Gawain said. “I want to find out some things.”

"Investigating something?" Fan Xiao asked curiously, "Your tone...you're not a local player from Division 007, are you?"

"I am indeed a local player."

Gao Wen nodded, making no attempt to downplay the point.

Fan Xiao then asked, "Since you're a local player, why don't you know much about this research institute? Isn't the Seventh Research Institute well-known in Division 007?"

"It has some fame, but not much."

Gawain shook his head: "Besides, isn't it normal not to know about research institutes? Do you think you can name every single research institute in your own country?"

“Sure,” Fan Xiao nodded. “I can name both the famous and the unknown, and I know their areas of expertise as well.”

"..."

Gao Wen was completely baffled and asked, "Really?"

"There's no point in delving into that."

Fan Xiao laughed and said, "Let's talk about your business. Even if you didn't know anything about this research institute before, with a ticket here, didn't you do some research before deciding to come in?"

"Or... are you deliberately not investigating the information because you want to get a perfect dungeon rating?"

"I don't have high expectations for myself."

Gao Wen sighed, "I've looked up the information from the Seventh Research Institute, but I've gained very little. What I found is even less than the information given in the background description of the copy."

"Before coming here, I didn't even know that this research institute had once focused its research on psionic energy."

"What I found were all very ordinary pieces of information."

"So what is it that you want to investigate in the instance?" Fan Xiao returned to the question from before.

"..."

Gao Wen was silent for a few seconds before saying, "I'm sorry, this involves my personal matters."

"Then forget it."

Fan Xiao didn't press further. After looking around at his four companions, he smiled and said, "It seems we share the same goal and none of us want to wait passively. There's no conflict of opinion, which is a good thing."

“Waiting passively isn’t necessarily safer,” the head maid said. “We still need to take the initiative.”

"No, it's safe to wait passively."

Fan Xiao said, "I can take you to the sky, to the extreme position, and wait there for seven days."

"Even if there are many monsters in this dungeon, I believe that only a minority of them can fly."

"If we fly into the sky, wouldn't the difficulty of doing this suddenly decrease significantly?"

"..." The head maid: "Is it too late to back out and choose again?"

“Maid,” Nori said disapprovingly, “don’t show your lack of ambition so easily.”

“Your Highness,” the head maid said expressionlessly, “I was just joking.”

Just as Nori was about to say something, she suddenly realized that she couldn't move her body and couldn't speak.

Not only her, but others also quickly noticed the abnormalities in their bodies.

Stiff and motionless, like a stagnant pool, the limbs and other parts are no longer under the control of the brain.