Chapter 52 Part 1 – Butterflies in the Stomach 2

{This chapter is split into 2 coz it’s super long, twice the size of a normal chapter at 6800+ characters. Anything over 6000 characters I’ll split into 2 chapters, I think there’s only 3 such chapters in the entire story.}

Xu RenDong walked out of the elevator. This was a dark and narrow alley with a disgusting smell floating in the air like the smell of putrefaction mixed with burning coal. He clutched his nose and walked out of the alley. He found himself in a street with people coming and going. On the streets were all kinds of shops and there were vendors pushing mobile trucks to sell them.

The people walking around him were all blond and blue-eyed foreigners, dressed in British-style olden-day costumes. {I just want to 吐槽/complain about something here, how come when Chinese people imagine/describe Westerners, they’re always blonde and blue-eyed? As a Chinese person I don’t understand this. There are so many famous Western celebrities in China who aren’t blonde and blue-eyed...}

The vendors wore shirts and vests and the gentlemen wore top hats and tuxedos. Ladies wore all kinds of tulle long skirts and they carefully carried the skirts to avoid them being splashed by the dirty water on the ground.

Xu RenDong noticed that the signs of the shops on both sides were written in flowery English. The roar of a huge steam turbine could be heard in the distance and a towering chimney was billowing black smoke. It seems that the world this time was set in Britain during the Industrial Revolution.

But was it actually an open world?

At the same time, Lian Qiao from the left-eye perspective had already begun to head towards the castle on his side.

Xu RenDong was wondering where he should go next and soon heard shouts coming from behind him.

“Hey! You just got off the boat, right? Don’t wander around, keep up!”

Chinese?

Xu RenDong looked towards the voice in surprise and found that at some point, a group of Chinese people had appeared on the street. The one at the front was the one who was talking to him. It was a young man with a beret and his expression was a little impatient. He walked up to Xu RenDong and said in a dissatisfied manner: “What are you running around! Hurry up and follow me to the factory dormitory!”

The factory..? It seems that the setting this time was Chinese workers who travelled by ferry to Britain to find work.

Behind the man was a dozen men and women with differing appearances however they were all wearing modern clothes so they were probably his teammates this time around. Xu RenDong joined the group and walked behind the man with the beret.

“How many instances have you been through?” Someone in the team struck up a conversation with him, it was a man in his thirties. His appearance was ordinary, the kind that can’t be recognized in the crowd. He seemed very gentle and polite.

Lian Qiao in his left eye suddenly typed three words on his phone: experienced player.

Xu RenDong calmly looked at the man in front of him and cautiously replied: “It’s my third time. How about you?”

“Me too.” After he said this, he smiled at Xu RenDong. “You look very nervous. Relax, this instance won’t be too difficult.”

Xu RenDong was a little surprised: “How do you know that?”

The man said, “You can tell by the number of people in our team. The difficulty of the instance is based on the number of people. There are only ten people in total this time, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Xu RenDong counted the number of teammates surreptitiously and just as the man said, not counting the man in the beret who was leading them, there were a total of five men and five women. There were exactly ten people. Five of them looked upset and had the expression that showed they didn’t know what was happening. You could tell at first glance that they were newcomers.

Lian Qiao in the vision of his left eye typed out a line: “This man definitely wants to form an alliance with you.”

Since other people were present, Xu RenDong couldn’t take out his mobile phone to type a reply so he could only nod slightly to show he agreed.

At this moment, the man seemed to notice something suddenly. A hint of surprise flashed across his face: “Your eyes..?”

Xu RenDong subconsciously covered his left eye with his hand. He said in a deliberately calm manner, “You mean this? It’s a congenital deformity I’ve had since birth. Sorry if it scares you.”

“No, I should apologize. I was being too forward, I’m sorry.” The man apologized in a gentlemanly manner and asked with concern, “Does it affect your eyesight?” “

Xu RenDong said: “It doesn’t affect..” After thinking about it, he added, “It does a little bit but I’m used to it.”

“That’s good.” The man seemed to be relieved, “If you have a physical defect then it’ll be harder for you to find someone to form an alliance with.”

Xu RenDong: “Oh, is that so?”

The man stared into his eyes earnestly, showing a sincere expression of admiration: “It’s so beautiful.. it’s a pity.”

Xu RenDong was taken aback. He wasn’t used to being praised so bluntly about his appearance and the other person was also a man at that. Xu RenDong momentarily didn’t know what to say but his left eye flashed and, from the other side, Lian Qiao typed frantically.

“Don’t answer! Don’t answer! Don’t answer!!!” (Author’s note says this refers to something from Liu CiXin’s novel “The Three Body Problem”.)

Xu RenDong: “..” You can’t hear right? Why is your reaction so big?

After that, Xu RenDong stopped talking and the man also did not continue to talk to him. The group of people followed the beret man to the dormitory in silence. The veteran players were paying attention to the surrounding environment and refused to let go of the slightest clue. The newcomers shivered nervously and it seemed they had been warned about the dangers they were about to face.

As they walked, the original bustling streets gradually disappeared and were replaced by a dilapidated scene. The stall vendors were gone and there were a few broken-down houses scattered on both sides of the street, all crumbling. It was clearly the slums.

The dormitory building was not far from the entrance of the slum. A small three-story building, the exterior wall looked very dilapidated and the windows were also broken. The beret man led everyone into the room and instructed everyone to wait on the first floor while he went to call the doctor. After telling them that, he thumped his way up to the second floor.

There is a musty smell in the house which indicated that it had not been inhabited for a long time. There was dust and cobwebs everywhere and practically no place to go. As soon as the beret man was gone, everyone immediately began to chatter in low voices.

“What does the instance prompt mean this time?” “Did you find any clues?” “Butterflies in the stomach sounds so disgusting..” “The NPC said he was going to get the doctor? Why call a doctor for?”

Xu RenDong was looking around the layout of the house. The first floor of this dormitory building was a lobby. Other than a few crooked tables, chairs and a dusty front desk, there was nothing else special.

Lian Qiao: “There is a wall calendar on the wall with writing on it. Remember to check it out. There may be something in the drawer under the front desk. The electric fan on the ceiling seems to be unstable and may fall off at any time. Try not to go under the electric fan.”

.. So in Lian Qiao’s eyes, there were in fact so many things worth paying attention to? The vision of professional gamers is really different.

Lian Qiao’s fingers were still typing words quickly, Xu RenDong took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention to him and quietly took out his mobile phone: “Stop focusing on me.”

Lian Qiao: “Oh, okay. Let me show you the environment here^^.”

The angle of view turned and what appeared in the left eye was a magnificent medieval-style living room. The tables and chairs were all made of leather and there were huge crystal chandeliers on the ceiling. A lot of people were gathered in front of a man who looked like a housekeeper and seemed to be listening to him.

This was the inside of the Gothic castle.

Xu RenDong counted the number of teammates on Lian Qiao’s side. There were 22 in total, more than double the number on his side. This showed that Lian Qiao’s instance was much more difficult than his.

Xu RenDong typed to tell Lian Qiao to be careful and then the sound of footsteps on the stairs drew his attention back to his side. He saw two men walking down the second floor one after the other. The beret man was the leader and he was talking happily with the person behind him. When everyone saw what the other person was wearing, they were all taken aback.

The so-called “doctor” did not wear an ordinary white coat but instead a white robe like a monk. The robe was attached to a white hood and both of his wrists were tied with ropes. He wore long white gloves on his hands, presumably to facilitate certain operations. What’s more noticeable was that he was wearing an exaggerated beak mask. The beak was sharp and long and looked like it could stab people to death. Behind the beak were two dark goggles and it was impossible to see what the person behind the mask looked like.

Everyone fell silent.

Lian Qiao was suddenly excited, and started typing frantically: “Ahhhhh! Doctor Birdbeak! It must be steampunk!!! I just knew that factories and the industrial revolution and bird beak doctors must be steampunk!!! Ahhhh I want to come to your instance too! I don’t want to play in the castle. It’s so gloomy and boring!!!”

Xu RenDong: “..” He tried to roll his eyes to warn Lian Qiao to calm down but it was a pity that Lian Qiao didn’t seem to get it. He can only ignore the words coming from his left eye and tried to focus on his right eye.

The beret man chatted and laughed with Doctor Birdbeak in English. But when he turned his head and looked at everyone, the smile on the beret man’s face disappeared instantly. Then he spoke in a weird tone of voice.

“Next, the doctor will conduct a physical examination for each of you to make sure that you are not carrying that damned plague! Now line up for me one by one and come over to this side to be examined!”

The NPC gave an order and everyone lined up obediently. Doctor Birdbeak, holding a stethoscope and a small torch, checked everyone’s body one by one. He didn’t make any excessive examinations and seemed to be really just confirming if they had any disease. Soon, the last person passed the medical examination without any problem. Doctor Birdbeak nodded to the beret man, picked up his exam kit and left the dormitory.

After their check ups, the beret man arranged rooms and beds for everyone. After placing their luggage down, he then took them outside to the factory.

The factory was located in the suburbs. Fortunately, the slum area is already on the edge of the town. It only takes about ten minutes to walk from the dormitory to the factory. From afar, everyone saw several chimneys towering into the clouds and continuously spitting black smoke into the sky. The sky was lead-grey and it was hard to see whether the clouds were too thick or the sky was just originally this color. There was also a river next to the factory with dark and muddy water. After walking a few steps, you can see a sewage pipe draining waste water into the river.

There were traces of industrial pollution everywhere in this small town which made? everyone feel very uncomfortable. The closer you got to the factory, the stronger the smell of burning coal in the air was. Some people even began to choke and cough.