The square looked no different from before. After Gan Yi stepped back, Xu Huo and Sha Jia also maintained a certain distance.
The more perceptive players had noticed the confrontation here, and most chose to avoid it—nobody wanted to risk involving bystanders if someone died, or worse, feed the piranhas.
Meanwhile, Xu Huo and the others remained in a standoff.
Gan Yi’s mention of the game had actually been a psychological ploy using a prop, which wasn’t hard to decipher. However, Xu Huo’s success in employing a similar strategy with his own prop was somewhat unexpected.
During their confrontation in Zone 011, Xu Huo felt that his opponent was a player whose mental evolution was not inferior to his own.
Could he have mistaken the person?
"Didn’t expect all three of us to be birds of a feather," Sha Jia said. "Since we met by chance and have no grudges against each other, why don’t we just keep to our own, to avoid unnecessary casualties? Wouldn’t you agree?"
Right now, fighting was of no benefit to anyone, unless they no longer desired to clear the game.
Seconds later, Gan Yi left voluntarily.
The instance was still on its first day; it would be too hasty to give up now.
With someone withdrawing, this probe ended inconclusively.
"Do you know Gan Yi?" Sha Jia looked back and asked. "His move just now seemed to be targeting you."
Considering Gan Yi’s attitude, the likelihood of mistaken identity was small. Xu Huo raised his hand, "Maybe because I glanced at him once more in the crowd."
Sha Jia shook his head with a smile, "Then be careful."
At that moment, You Si returned and wasn’t interested in their past conflicts, only reminding Xu Huo that Gan Yi and the female player Zhuang Mengtian had grouped together.
"To be honest, I suspect she was the one chopping heads in the car," You Si said.
Xu Huo looked over, "It shouldn’t be her controlling the entire train."
"It seems beyond her, but fishing in troubled waters is possible," You Si curled his lips and pointed with his chin to the freshly returned capsule, "The guy in the raincoat is back."
The man in the raincoat was soaked all over, with numerous flesh wounds oozing blood mixed with seawater. However, instead of immediately taking a Self-Healing Potion, he took out a small electric hairdryer and a comb, bowing his head to blow dry his fringe until it fluttered elegantly, concealing his eyes completely before he began treating his wounds.
"Told you he’s socially anxious," You Si laughed heartily, approaching and offering help, "Need a hand?"
The man in the raincoat retreated steadily backward, then threw a ring on the ground which emitted a light barrier, isolating him from the outside. He also placed a hand-written sign on the ground warning: Danger, Keep Away.
This put off You Si from getting closer, leaving physical intervention as his only option. However, not being an ordinary person, You Si simply sat outside, rotating his position in sync with the raincoat man, and kept talking, "Have you cooperated with others before? Do you also stay silent during cooperation?"
"I see you’re physically intact and handsome, shouldn’t be resorting to murder, are you a stutterer?"
Unable to shake off You Si, the man in the raincoat finally put on some earphones.
You Si, unable to see his eyes, waved a hand outside, but receiving no response, he finally gave up disappointedly.
"This guy is really no fun," he came back and told Xu Huo.
"Has no one ever wanted to hit you?" Xu Huo thought his chattiness might not be due to alcohol.
You Si snorted coldly, "How could there not be? Plenty, but they all died by my hand."
"Killing those who can’t even tolerate a few idle words also proves they’re up to no good; taking them out is a service to the people!"
Xu Huo gave a thumbs up.
"What time is it?" Sha Jia suddenly asked.
"It should be deep into the night," Xu Huo replied. They had arrived at noon, and the first round of the tricolor contest was nearing its end, taking up almost ten hours.
However, the lights in Friendship Park remained unchanged, and the host hadn’t announced the game’s halt.
"Do the viewers outside not rest for such long periods?" You Si frowned. "Could it be that staying up all night to watch shows is popular in Sea World?"
Though ordinary people who’d taken the Evolution Potion couldn’t compare to players, their stamina and vigor had improved; staying up all night wasn’t difficult, but the show wasn’t designed to run overnight.
"When the tricolor contest reached a third of its duration, the broadcast for the viewers likely ceased to be live," Xu Huo stated, observing that the reaction times from the viewers had become regular, and the frequency had reduced.
"The highlights of this program include the selection of the ball colors and the process of participants completing missions," Sha Jia remarked calmly. "The mission completion must be the main event."
The spectators were interested in watching the combat process.
"Do you think outside of this Friendship Park is actually Sea World?" You Si asked in a subdued voice.
"The mission site isn’t small, and there are plenty of dangerous animals; it’s probably far from the urban areas," Sha Jia commented.
When they arrived by car, they only saw a white cityscape. However, based on the number and scale of the current mission sites, the area they saw from outside was likely all part of the program’s venue. How far this place was from the actual Sea World was debatable.
Xu Huo observed the pattern in which missions were assigned at random. It was rare for two consecutive tasks to occur in the same venue; the three-minute interval set for selecting ball colors in the tricolor contest—balanced by the host’s prolonged speeches and some participants accelerating their selection—meant an average of three minutes per venue, and so far, at least eight different venues had appeared. This meant that aside from the game’s start, it would be nearly half an hour before a venue repeated.
Of course, some venues appeared more frequently, like the botanical garden and the zoo, but these places also had higher mortality rates.
Thus, one fact was evident: the program, by controlling the number of participants per venue, likely wasn’t as large as some believed. The deserts shown earlier in holographic projections definitely weren’t as expansive as they seemed.
To manage players entering these mission sites, Sea World likely had other effective measures.
Xu Huo’s gaze landed on the floor.
Beneath the surface, besides the channels for entering and exiting the cabins, there was also a marine museum part of the mission venues. If this Friendship Park was a standalone entity, then it was highly probable that directly underneath was a large mutated fish breeding area.
Passing midnight, the first round of the tricolor contest nearly concluded. The number of people returning from their mission adventures was less than a third of those who’d left. Adding those who remained from selecting ball colors and those who completed their missions, there were about two hundred thirty people on the square.
"Time has flown unnoticed; of the three hundred eighty-one guests participating in our show, two hundred ninety-seven are still with us—not a small number. Our guests have traveled from afar and shown their sincerity. Thus, Sea World will also demonstrate our sincerity. Please look forward to it. We will spare no effort in creating a favorable environment for making friends. Perhaps by tomorrow, you will gain a friend, a sincere friendship!"