Su Ya reflexively wanted to argue back.
She wanted to say, “The quests were decided by everyone's show of hands.”
She wanted to say, “I didn't expect things to turn out like this either,” and, “I've been afflicted just like the rest of you.”
But the words caught in her throat, and she swallowed them back down.
She had originally thought their team was in the best situation—strength in numbers, which would surely allow them to leave the Instance as quickly as possible.
But she had forgotten one thing, or rather, overlooked the fact that everyone had their own hidden agendas.
The other players' eyes flickered, and none of them spoke up to defend her; their gazes were filled entirely with blame.
A heavy sense of responsibility gripped Su Ya's throat like a tight hand, making it hard for her to breathe.
She parted her lips, her voice a bit hoarse. “I'm sorry. I... I didn't know doing quests would turn us into rats.”
She truly hadn't known.
In the previous Taiping Cemetery Instance, although there were quests that involved contacting ghosts, there had never been a rat transformation curse like this.
Naturally, Su Ya had believed that doing quests was the best and fastest way to escape the Instance.
...
“A simple 'I'm sorry' is all we get?!”
Another player kicked her while she was down, their days of pent-up dissatisfaction bursting forth. “If we all turn into rats, can you afford to take responsibility for that?!”
“Exactly. You're a veteran player, how could you make such a bad judgment call?”
Someone else chimed in, “I think you did it on purpose! You just wanted to get the rewards for yourself and dragged us along to take the fall!”
“Are you guys out of your minds? Even the pigs I raise know right from wrong!”
Yang Asha stepped forward, shielding Su Ya. Her face was tense as she said,
“Who could have known there was a problem with the quests? Besides, if it weren't for Sister Su Ya, you all would have died on the first day.”
“For our own good?”
Xiao Ding sneered, looking askance at Yang Asha as she spoke in a sarcastic tone, “Of course you're defending her. The two of you are in cahoots.”
“Don't think I didn't see the two of you sneaking food behind everyone's backs.”
“Well, look at you now. Both of you have turned into hairy-faced monsters. Are you satisfied—ah?!”
Yang Asha was a child raised in the mountains; she carried a wild streak and knew how to protect herself, never letting herself be pushed around.
Before Xiao Ding could even finish her sentence, Yang Asha grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked it hard. “That's what you get for running your mouth! Bad people have black hearts!”
Seeing how fierce she was—starting a physical fight after barely a couple of words—the others were startled and quickly rushed over to pull them apart.
“You're only good at talking. You failed your quest and still have the nerve to complain.”
Yang Asha casually tossed aside the clump of hair in her hand and spat at several of the players.
“Can you force a cow's head down if it doesn't want to drink? Weren't you the ones who insisted on following my Sister Su Ya the whole time? Now that something's gone wrong, you turn around and blame her. Have you no shame?”
Her words left several of them red-faced. Xiao Ding clutched her messy hair, about to throw a tantrum, when Lin Jianguo suddenly barked,
“What's all this shouting about?”
He seemed completely unbothered by the rat fur on his face as he looked at the group. “It's just like doing business. No one objected at the time, so now that something went wrong, it's not right to dump all the blame on a young person like Su Ya.”
With that, he gave Su Ya a meaningful look. “And you, too. You just apologize because they demand it? Is this really your fault?”
Su Ya knew Lin Jianguo was helping her, so she kept quiet.
“Why isn't it right?”
A player muttered, “She's the veteran player! She knows more! She should be responsible!”
Su Ya had only been slightly angry, but hearing this, she finally snapped.
She looked at Xiao Ding's face, which was full of rage, then at the undisguised schadenfreude in the eyes of the other players, and finally at the faint condemnation from Xiao Zhuang and Xiao Qian.
—These quest points were truly hard to earn.
Su Ya felt a bitter chill in her heart.
She had originally thought there was strength in numbers, but reality had dealt her a harsh slap in the face.
A strong sense of frustration and guilt intertwined, leaving her chest feeling incredibly tight.
A day and a night, consecutive death announcements, constant bizarre events... everyone was harboring a pent-up rage.
Now, this fire had finally found an outlet.
Just like that, the ten-person team split into two groups in silence.
On one side were the four aberrated players: Su Ya, Yang Asha, Lin Jianguo, and Yang Hexuan.
On the other side was Xiao Ding, along with the other five players who hadn't undergone rat transformation.
They were clearly divided, with an invisible chasm separating them.
...
Yang Hexuan had initially hesitated, clearly conflicted over which side to choose.
After all, he was also afraid of turning into a rat.
Human nature was complex; even if he logically knew he shouldn't blame Su Ya, he couldn't help but think that if he hadn't listened to her and hadn't done the quest...
Lin Jianguo glared at him, and the latter immediately backed down, obediently stepping over with a slightly flushed face.
If it weren't for Su Ya, let alone growing rat fur, he would have died long ago.
“I believe in Sister Su Ya,” he said, stiffening his neck. “Even if I turn into a rat, it's still better than dying in this Instance.”
—Su Ya had previously shared information about Taiping Cemetery, so they all knew that two players who had undergone aberrations were still alive after leaving the Instance.
One had half of their body made of paper-craft, and the other had an umbilical cord growing from their neck.
Thinking about it this way, growing a bit of hair didn't seem like such a big deal.
At worst, they could just shave it off every day like a beard.
...
Su Ya glanced at them, feeling slightly comforted.
She took a deep breath and addressed Xiao Ding's group:
“I bear responsibility for this matter. I admit it was my error in judgment.”
“But now is not the time for infighting and placing blame. Our priority is to find a way to break the curse, figure out the other rules of this Instance, complete the main quest, and get out of here alive.”
She tried to emulate Chen Xi, attempting to calm everyone with a steady tone and bring the derailed discussion back on track.
But the people opposite her clearly didn't think so.
“Get out alive?”
Xiao Ding sneered, a reckless, desperate look on her face. “If we keep following you to do quests, we'll turn into rats before we even get out.”
“I finally understand. There's no need to do any quests in this Instance at all.”
She raised her voice, as if trying to convince everyone. “Those who didn't do quests yesterday, aren't they also doing perfectly fine?”
“Maybe this Instance doesn't require any puzzle-solving at all. If we just stay put until the seventh day and wait for the old lady's birthday feast to end, we can go home.”
“The more we struggle, the faster we die! The more quests we do, the heavier the curse becomes!”
These words struck a chord with many of them.
Several players immediately nodded in agreement:
“I think Xiao Ding is right! Doing nothing keeps us safe, while doing quests turns us into monsters. Whoever wants to do these quests can do them, but count me out!”
“I'm not doing them either!”
“Just stay safe for seven days. Why take such risks?”
“Exactly! At worst, we don't get the rewards. Our lives are more important!”
Many of them were already terrified and had no desire to risk their lives doing quests.
Now that they had the excuse of "doing quests turns you into a rat," they could comfortably choose to do absolutely nothing.
Laying low was so much better.
The villagers were welcoming, they had a place to stay, and they didn't have to worry about freezing to death. If they just stayed quietly in the village for seven days, they could leave.
Only an idiot would do quests.
The "idiot," Su Ya, looked at them. Waves of disappointment washed over her, leaving her feeling exhausted.
“So, what are you trying to say now?”
She looked at them and asked calmly, “What do you actually want to do? Are you just not going to do any more quests from now on?”
Xiao Ding's eyes flickered.
She actually hadn't thought about what she wanted to do exactly.
She was just terrified, wanted someone to take the blame, and didn't want to do quests.
But Su Ya's question suddenly reminded her of something—something she had been observing and coveting for a long time.
Her gaze instinctively fell on Su Ya's collar:
She had been constantly protecting her neck; beneath her collar, there seemed to be something hanging from a string.
Rate on N.U.
