Monster? Failed product?
The Fortune-teller sat behind a garbage mound, listening intently to the sounds coming from behind her.
The sound was likely from patrol officers; the monster's cries must have caught their attention.
Due to the mad dog's imnse stamina consumption, the Fortune-teller was sweating profusely and gasping for breath even while sitting still.
As she was panting heavily, the sounds behind her grew closer.
She turned her head and saw two people, a man and a woman, erging from behind a nearby mountain of trash.
They both wore matching deep blue jackets and deep blue sweatpants, resembling appliance repairn. They had sothing akin to work badges hanging around their necks. The Fortune-teller glanced at them and saw the words "Patrol Officer."
The three of them stared at each other beside a pile of trash. The two patrol officers seed equally surprised to encounter a player so suddenly.
However, this player didn't scream or shout as they might have expected. Instead, she remained silent, rely staring at them with wide eyes, her gaze sweeping over them.
The Fortune-teller truly had no strength to speak. She also had no idea where that mad dog had run off to play. She could feel the dog running faster and faster, as if soone were luring it onward with a at bone.
The three of them exchanged strange glances for a few seconds, but ultimately, no one spoke.
The two patrol officers in deep blue paused for a few seconds, then turned and left.
"The players in this instance are really strange," the woman said to the man, puzzled. "She just gave us that look when she saw us and didn't say a word."
There had been previous encounters between patrol officers and players.
When they saw extra people in the instance, most players would be wary or flee imdiately. So would even ask who we were.
That player just now, though, had no reaction at all. If it weren't for the rise and fall of her chest, they would have thought she was dead.
The man surveyed their surroundings. "We're here to investigate the cause of the recent tremors. We don't need to interact with players. Still, that player was indeed strange."
"I don't think it's just the players who are strange, right?" the woman's voice ca from beside him.
The male patrol officer gave her a curious look. She was staring intently at a specific spot.
Following her gaze, the male patrol officer also looked in that direction.
Over there was a tall platform.
All the NPCs privy to the details knew that this area was difficult to make into an instance due to its lack of playability and story elents.
Coincidentally, garbage sorting was very popular at the ti, so soone had a flash of inspiration and turned this place into a garbage-sorting instance. This not only increased the instance's playability but also reduced the NPCs' workload—killing two birds with one stone.
Due to the special nature of the recycling station, this place wasn't particularly dangerous. The instance's content involved a Knight rescuing Princess Mianmian, who had been captured by a demon, by passing through stages via garbage sorting.
Players had ten chances for errors; if they made ten mistakes, the demon would reach Princess Mianmian.
With ten chances for mistakes, the tolerance for error was quite high.
Most players who entered here made no mistakes at all. At most, they would make one or two mistakes due to carelessness.
To put it bluntly, as long as you weren't a complete idiot, you wouldn't sort the garbage incorrectly.
Therefore, the demon on the high platform was always extrely bored. It usually sat in place playing cards by itself and would barely move throughout the entire instance.
But today, the demon was acting out of character.
It seed to have noticed the two patrol officers and was leaning over the edge of the platform, enthusiastically waving at them.
The male patrol officer averted his gaze from the enthusiastically waving demon. "What's wrong with it today? Why is it so enthusiastic?"
"That's why I said it wasn't acting normal..."
The two patrol officers were bewildered, feeling that sothing was strange.
"Should we go over and take a look?"
"There's probably a player over there. Our patrol officers' rule is to avoid players as much as possible during patrols. Let's not go. Don't forget we ca in to find the cause of the tremors."
"Alright," the male patrol officer muttered as he started walking. "Today is really strange..."
But before they had taken more than a few steps, they encountered sothing even stranger.
They encountered another player.
This ti, it was a beautiful woman.
Only, this beautiful woman seed to have a few screws loose.
The mont she saw them, her eyes lit up.
She kept muttering, "Talking trash! Running trash!"
Her unsettling gaze made the two patrol officers recoil several steps in fear.
But then she stopped and muttered to herself, "No, that's not right. Now I need to find trash that's beautiful on the inside..."
As she spoke, she looked the two patrol officers up and down, then left with an expression of disdain.
The patrol officers: "?"
"What was that just now? Was that a player?"
"What was with her expression? It was even more outrageous than the first player we saw!"
"What in the world is going on with this instance? Why have so many weirdos shown up all of a sudden?"
"The demon is still waving at us from up there. How about we go take a look?"
"...Alright."
However, just as they arrived beneath the high platform, they witnessed a shocking scene.
They saw Fatty standing before a trash can with a magazine in hand, a thoughtful look on his face. The cover of the magazine featured several attractive won. They could even hear him muttering to himself, "The people on the cover are so beautiful, their hearts must be beautiful too, right? It can't be wrong if I put this in, can it?"
A short while ago, Fatty had been searching for a clown mask but found nothing.
He then found this magazine along the way, and inspiration struck. He imdiately took the magazine to the trash can, right when the two patrol officers arrived and saw him.
While the two patrol officers stared at him as if he were an idiot, Fatty stuffed the magazine into the trash can.
Unsurprisingly, it was incorrect.
The magazine featuring the beautiful won was spat out.
Witnessing this, the two patrol officers found it rather amusing and even chuckled aloud.
"I never thought a player like this actually existed. How could he think this magazine was 'beautiful on the inside'?"
"Looking at him, he must have sorted a lot of trash incorrectly already. I bet the demon is very close to the player on the platform now. The person up there must hate his guts."
As they spoke, they looked towards the high platform. They couldn't see clearly from a distance before, but now they could make out the demon and the player on the platform.
Indeed, the demon was already very close to the player above; just a few more steps and it would reach them.
There was indeed soone up there glaring furiously at Fatty, but... the one with the hateful gaze was the demon?
"What's going on? What kind of expression is that?"
Puzzled, the two patrol officers shifted their gaze to the player acting as "Princess Mianmian."
Upon seeing Princess Mianmian's face, the smiles that hadn't yet faded from their faces froze.
Now they understood.
Why the demon on the platform waved so enthusiastically, why the instance players were acting so unhinged, why Fatty was repeatedly acting like an idiot—was this a distortion of human nature or a collapse of morality?
The two of them gaped at the player seated on the platform, suddenly feeling that the future was full of hope.
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