Chapter 1277: 412. Universe Wonders
The eagerly awaited location of the plot NPC, as called for by players thousands of times, was finally revealed on the game’s official website.
However, the game’s planners did not specify the exact spatial coordinates directly. Instead, they provided players with three clues, like a riddle master, letting them search for the NPC themselves.
These three clues were described in characters with no images for reference.
Ordinary players, faced with such rough content, accused the planners of being inhuman and sat waiting for the Cucumber Slice Team and other story seekers to help solve the puzzle for them.
Members of the Cucumber Slice Team actually weren’t doing much better than the ordinary players.
Because no matter how you looked at it, the three clues published on the official website seemed to have nothing to do with the Underground Treasure Chamber on the Lisom-13 Planet.
...
Inside the workspace of the Cucumber Slice Team, the players gathered in the conference room and began a brainstorming session.
The in-game appearances of the players were not much different from their real-life ones, as everyone chose not to utilize the game’s beautification tools too much.
This was a rule set up by the Cucumber Slice to prevent the situation of someone’s real appearance being used maliciously by someone with intent to deceive.
The group sat in the conference room, deep in thought about the clues provided by the official website.
“Why do I feel like the location described in the clues isn’t Lisom-13?”
A younger player spoke up, breaking the silence.
Everyone nodded in agreement and turned to look at the Cucumber Slice.
The Cucumber Slice sat with arms crossed in a chair, eyebrows tightly knitted, and spoke solemnly:
“Yes, that’s what I think too. I had Strawberry Juice check the game’s database, but we couldn’t find a location that completely matches these three clues.”
The game’s database, created by the officials, allows players to look up basic data of known star systems and panoramic images for reference.
The first clue provided by the game’s official website was: EC9-DT5-4ER-TGF.
This was a string of standard space coordinates, written according to the United Bureau’s navigation guide. Players could input it directly into the database, and it would be translated into a more detailed text description.
The coordinates pointed to the Deep Space Zone of the Lisom Star System.
The so-called deep space zone refers to areas that cannot be reached directly through quantum leaps.
Any interstellar ship must first send deep space detectors into the deep space zone and then follow the signals relayed by the detectors to reach the destination.
As seasoned story seeker players, the Cucumber Slice and its associates were all too familiar with the deep space zone.
That area is usually set up by the game as a dungeon space.
Ships that make quantum leaps to arrive there are automatically added to the dungeon, starting battles with monsters, or embarking on missions like rescuing, decrypting, interception, and so on. noveldrama
Cracking this first clue was not difficult.
The difficulty lay in the second and third clues.
The second clue read: Only those who pilot escape pods may enter this place.
The third clue was: Once entered, one cannot leave unless permission is granted.
That was rather absurd.
Escape pods don’t come with defense or firing systems.
Piloting an escape pod to make a quantum leap to the Lisom Star System and then entering the deep space zone was basically like delivering oneself to malicious players, wasn’t it?
There would definitely be those who, having nothing better to do, would camp in the Lisom Star System, scanning for escape pods in all directions, and then either extort money or engage in direct combat looting.
“Did that NPC with a skeleton look change locations?”
A player asked.
“From the clues we have, it seems so,” another player responded.
“Why did he change locations? That’s really strange.”
“If Boss Jin logs on and can’t find the NPC, wouldn’t he go mad?”
“By the way, do you guys know what that NPC is called?”
As soon as this question was asked, the room fell silent.
Yes, what was the NPC called?
From beginning to end, the game interface only referred to that NPC with question marks.
Beyond knowing he was a skeleton, they didn’t have any more impression of him.
As the maintenance neared its end, everyone still hadn’t come up with any solid ideas.
With just half an hour left before the servers came back online, the Cucumber Slice had no choice but to end the meeting, instructed everyone to prepare to log in and just see how things would go.
Time passed in anxious anticipation.
Half an hour later, players donned their game helmets, leaned back in their chairs, and officially logged on.
Lisom Star System.
Dikaga Federation Space Navy Academy, Logistics Engineering Space Station.
The space station, empty just a moment ago, came to life in the next second.
Players shouted as they rushed through the corridors, heading towards the terminal to rent escape pods from the space station.
Most of the players on the space station were members of the Golden Dragon in the Sky guild.
Only a very few had passed the first phase of the trial task before maintenance and obtained the magic egg.
The vast majority had just arrived at this space station before the maintenance and had only set their resurrection safe zones.
Without needing prodding from the Golden Dragon in the Sky, naturally there would be players not afraid of losing experience who would take the initiative to scout the locations pointed out by the clues.
After pinpointing the target area with a deep space detector, the first group of escape pods were ready to launch.
The escape pods, looking like chicken eggs, turned into a white light and entered the quantum leap channel.
Shortly after, stunning news came from the destination, causing a stir in the guild’s chat channel.
“Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!”
“Stop just cursing, tell us what’s happening!”
“Quick, say something, what’s the situation there?”
The player who sent back the message was silent now, and their icon showed that they were temporarily out of contact, seemingly in combat status.