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

She was the last of the three girls, and she looked very nervous at the moment, speaking haltingly, as if she were even more delicate than the younger sister among the high school sisters.

However, she was not as beautiful as her two sisters, so not many people paid attention to her.

Fan Xiao was the first to respond: "You mean the metaverse? Virtual reality? I think that's unlikely."

The frail woman quickly asked, "Why?"

"If games are virtual reality and directly connect to consciousness, why bother evolving our bodies first? Don't you think that's a bit redundant?"

"But the timing doesn't match..."

"The number of evolved beings on Earth is estimated to be quite large. If the number of copies is limited and it cannot be guaranteed that there is one for every eight people, then this 'selection copy' will definitely be used repeatedly."

Fan Xiao made a simple deduction: "So it's normal that the time doesn't match. Maybe one second on Earth is equivalent to several days here. After we clear the dungeon, others can come in immediately. Otherwise, if everyone queues up to enter the dungeon at the normal time, the later players will have to wait for ages."

As he spoke, Fan Xiao mentally gave nicknames to the four men and three women in the room.

The three girls are, in order, a high school older sister, a high school younger sister, and a frail girl.

The four men are a college student, a male executive, a greasy middle-aged man, and a hooded youth.

Both the male executive and the hooded youth covered their hair with their hats.

"This is a very interesting guess. If it's true, manipulating time... that's practically the power of a god."

The college student looked somewhat shocked.

"Whether it's a god or not is meaningless to us right now; the most important thing is the dungeon quest."

The executive stepped forward and suggested, "Since we all have the same task, why don't we team up and overcome this challenge together? The game hints say that this dungeon is inhabited by a large number of monsters, and one wrong move could lead to death. What are your opinions?"

The college student, lacking any independent thought, chimed in, "I agree to form a team."

The three girls and the hooded young man nodded.

The greasy middle-aged man didn't agree immediately. Instead, he squinted at the executive and said, "Teaming up is fine, but since it's a team, there has to be a captain to make decisions, right? Who will be the captain? Don't tell me it's you?"

"We don't need a captain, it's just a temporary group," the executive replied. "We're all evolved beings, and I doubt anyone will submit to anyone else. If we have differing opinions, we can vote to decide, with the minority obeying the majority. Of course, if you don't want to obey, we won't force you; you can just split up and act separately."

Upon hearing this, the greasy middle-aged man clicked his tongue slightly: "Alright, I'll join."

Judging from his appearance, it seems he wanted to compete for the captain's position, but he didn't get what he wanted.

Everyone then turned their attention to Fan Xiao.

Fan Xiao casually replied, "I'll join too."

He had now completed the search of his personal belongings.

He frowned when he discovered that his clothes pockets and pants pockets were empty.

Cell phones, windproof lighters, tear gas, stun guns, utility knives, restraint straps, wrenches... all these tools have disappeared.

Apart from the clothes they were wearing, nothing else was brought into the instance.

This made Fan Xiao, who often had bad luck because of his superpowers, feel very bad.

He suddenly felt a little insecure.

"what happened?"

The high school girl holding the doll was closest to him. Seeing his furrowed brow, she asked him a question.

Fan Xiao sighed, "Some of my everyday belongings that I always carry with me are missing."

His words drew everyone's attention, and they all began to examine themselves.

"Oh no! My phone is gone."

"My phone is gone too!"

"My kitchen knife..."

Listening to the commotion, Fan Xiao seemed to be deep in thought.

He suggested, "No need to look anymore. It's probably because the game added restrictions on carrying items for balance."

"Balance?" The high school girl looked at him curiously and asked, "What do you mean?"

Fan Xiao met her clear eyes and smiled: "Balance is about putting all players on roughly the same starting line. Otherwise, if someone comes in carrying a rocket or driving a tank, everyone else will be out of the game."

"Um...thank you."

The high school girl withdrew her head.

She seemed a little shy and didn't dare to make eye contact with people for long.

Fan Xiao shifted his gaze from her to her sister—focusing on the doll the other woman was holding.

I have no idea how this doll ended up in the instance.

Could it be a game item?

Chapter 4 The Doll Sister

"Sigh, I wonder where the game has taken our phones and other items."

The college student's tone was somewhat complaining.

It's currently summer vacation, and he happened to be at home when he was selected as a prospective player. He rushed into the kitchen during the 10-second countdown of the dungeon and grabbed a kitchen knife as a weapon.

The result was that it was useless.

"I guess the items were left where we left them before we entered the dungeon."

"That's what the executive guessed."

He was in his office before he came in, so he didn't have to worry about his phone being picked up.

"There is a time indicator in the lower right corner of the game panel."

The high school girl, who was holding a doll, suddenly said, "It's 7:38 in the morning. We can leave the safe house now."

"Huh? It really is there! Why is it showing up so small? I almost didn't notice it."

The college student quickly summoned the control panel and looked at it, then excitedly suggested, "From 7:30 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening, the monsters in Vibe City will go into hibernation. Should we take advantage of this time to find all of these monsters and kill them? That way, our subsequent operations will be safe."

"Hmph! You can choose to court death, but if you dare drag me into it, hehe..."

Upon hearing the college student's speech, the greasy middle-aged man stared intently at him and let out a cold laugh.

The imposing presence of his burly frame intimidated the college student, who instinctively took a step back.

"Alright, we've just formed teams, let's all get along well."

The senior executive stepped in to smooth things over: "Forget about killing monsters. If we fail and wake them up, causing a commotion and waking up even more monsters, we'll be in big trouble. In short, be careful when exploring."

"Are you leaving now?"

The hooded youth, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up: "Monsters only begin to hibernate at 7:30. Just to be on the safe side, should we wait until 8 o'clock before going out?"

“We could also wait until nine o’clock, that would be safer,” the frail woman quickly said. “Hibernation can have light and deep sleep, we’ll wait until the monster is in a deep sleep…”

"It's best not to waste time unnecessarily," Fan Xiao suddenly said.

Upon hearing this, everyone turned to look at him.

Judging from his previous remarks, Fan Xiao has a very flexible mind, and his opinions should not be ignored.

"Although there are no explicit time limits for dungeon quests, there are hidden ones."

Fan Xiao cautioned, "The game hints that this is an abandoned, lost city. The chances of finding food are slim, and without supplies, our stamina will gradually decrease. If we keep moving around, we won't last more than a few days. Finding a time station in a city requires an enormous amount of exploration, and we can only move around during the day... In short, our time is very limited."

"Um... I'm sorry. I... I didn't think of that." The frail woman shrank her neck.

Everyone's faces looked unhappy.

It felt like the game's difficulty had suddenly increased dramatically.

The male executive was the first to recover: "I almost forgot about the food issue! In that case, let's get moving."

After saying that, he took the lead and walked towards the metal gate.

Others followed.

Fan Xiao walked at the very back, quietly observing the male executive and the hooded youth.

Could it be them?

He muttered to himself.

Fan Xiao hadn't forgotten that before becoming a prospective player, he had just been attacked by an evolved being who had a predatory appetite for humans.

The consequence of indulging one's appetite is to degenerate into a cannibalistic monster.

Among the seven people mentioned earlier, there might be one such monstrous player.

In other words, this instance may not be a simple exploration game.

They might also play Werewolf at the same time.

Both the executive and the hooded youth had their hair completely covered by their hats, a detail that caught Fan Xiao's attention.

Of course, they might just like wearing hats.

Fan Xiao kept a slight eye on things.

soon.

The heavy metal door was pushed open.

The group arrived outside the safe house.

Looking around, a modern urban streetscape comes into view.

Ahead was a dilapidated square with broken paving stones and many potholes, and there were some scattered human bones on the ground.

Further away, very few of the tall buildings are well-preserved; most are dilapidated or broken.

It looked like it had been through a war.

I don’t know how long this city has been abandoned and deserted; vines and weeds can be seen everywhere.

A scene reminiscent of the apocalypse.

"That's...shocking!"

The college students were the first to exclaim in amazement: "I've only ever seen this kind of scene in games."

The hooded youth reminded him, "This is the game."

"Uh... Brother, can they be the same?" The college student was speechless.

During a break from observing the city, the male executive suggested that everyone give a brief self-introduction to make it easier to address each other and communicate.

From left to right, the first one is the younger sister, a high school student.

However, as soon as she uttered the word "road," her older sister covered her mouth and then gave her their game nicknames—Doll (older sister) and Gardenia (younger sister).

Wow, sister, you're quick on the uptake.

Fan Xiao praised her in his heart.

However, being a high school student, he wasn't cautious enough and only considered not revealing his real name casually, unaware that the same applied to players' nicknames.

Players can develop a talent, and who knows, someone's talent might be something like casting a curse on their name.

And what if a player's nickname is recorded on the game panel and has the same function as their real name?

Of course, the high school girl might be using a fake nickname.

But judging from her expression and tone, Fan Xiao felt it was unlikely.

Next, the others also became wary, and no one revealed their real names.

They either used their game nickname or made up a random name.

When it was Fan Xiao's turn, he said three words: "Fan Jianqiang" (meaning "Fan Strong").

"..."

The seven people looked at him with subtle expressions.

……

"Trouble!"