yasinovel Chapter 4343 The Silent Evening Bell
Chapter 4343 The Silent Evening Bell
Chapter 4343 The Silent Evening Bell
Feeling the familiar connection, a hint of doubt flashed in Angell's eyes.
Didn't we agree beforehand that only five groups of people would be allowed to enter?
The fifth batch has been in place for quite some time now, so why are you contacting them again?
Is there a new batch of faculty and staff?
With these questions in mind, Angell activated his God's-eye view and looked towards the players' camp.
When he saw that there were no large crowds gathered at the athletes' camp, he realized that Laplace's contact with him was probably unrelated to the "sixth batch of faculty and staff".
Laplace sat on one side of the camp, gazing at the floating islands in the sky, seemingly deep in thought.
Her thoughts were interrupted only by Angell's voice.
"The fifth batch of faculty and staff has all arrived, and things are going well so far."
Laplace slowly raised his eyebrows: "If everything goes smoothly, you'll summon the Prussians into the instance next, right?"
“Several groups have already arrived, but next I will bring everyone on the Dream Bridge to the Academy City,” Angel replied.
Laplace nodded: "Alright, although Dreambridge has always been very stable, they are, after all, derived from the Decayers. The Decayers' mental state may affect the stability of Dreambridge. Letting them stay on Dreambridge may still lead to some unknown risks."
"Bringing them to the school city as soon as possible can minimize the risks."
Angel agreed, explaining that the reason he hadn't left the academy despite having already set up the teleportation anchor was because of these Prussians.
He wouldn't feel at ease until he saw them all enter the academy.
"You contacted me this time not just to give me these instructions, right?"
Laplace nodded: "I'm contacting you this time because of two things... one is the situation with the Rabbit Hole team, and the other is the changes on Luigi's side."
Which one do you want to hear first?
Rabbit hole and Luigi? A hint of curiosity flashed in Angel's eyes.
The information related to the rabbit hole is undoubtedly related to the Night City Evening Bell instance; as for Luigi's side... Angor hesitated for a moment, unable to figure out what had happened.
Could it be that he has already discovered the truth about the Misty Forest?
"Is there bad news in either of these two pieces of news?" Angell asked.
Laplace: "At this point, it's impossible to determine whether either piece of news is good or bad."
Angell: "Let's start with the rabbit hole, shall we?"
Although Angor was also curious about Luigi's situation, the information about Luigi, whether related to reality or the dungeon, should not change much in the short term.
However, the Rabbit Hole team was involved in the "blank information" level of Night City Evening Bell, so Angel was naturally more interested in knowing the details.
Laplace didn't waste any time; he nodded and then recounted the information he had just received.
The news about Rabbit Hole came from the Red Clay Team.
The Red Clay Team comes from the city of Tuluga, the birthplace of grey porcelain, and is a teacuphead clan.
This team entered the Night City Evening Bell checkpoint three days ago and has not left the instance since, nor has it woken up in reality.
But just half an hour ago, the Red Clay team returned to the players' camp, immediately causing a huge uproar.
After all, this was the first group to leave Night City Evening Bell!
Elite squads from various tribes approached them, wanting to inquire about information regarding Night City Evening Bell. In particular, those tribes whose teams had been trapped there blocked the Red Mud Squad from leaving.
Just then, Mud Pot, the leader of the Red Mud Squad, stepped forward and said, "We will tell everyone about the situation inside the level later, but right now we must first bring the information about the Rabbit Hole Squad to the Dream Mirror Organization."
When Nihu said "rabbit hole," the surrounding teams all turned to look, seemingly understanding something.
Could the Red Clay Squad's ability to leave Night City Evening Bell be related to the Rabbit Hole Squad?
Thinking about it carefully, it does seem quite possible, because just five hours ago, the Rabbit Hole team stepped into the Night City Evening Bell checkpoint.
This also caused a huge uproar in the camp.
Everyone is speculating whether the Rabbit Hole team, which has been advancing rapidly, will also be able to take down the Night City Evening Bell level in a single day, just like in the previous levels.
Everyone tacitly agreed that the Rabbit Hole team was currently the leading team in the player camp. Their participation, even if it didn't guarantee a perfect clear, would definitely bring new changes to the level.
The return of the Red Clay Squad seems to confirm this speculation.
Therefore, when Nihu said he would bring the information about the Rabbit Hole team to the Dream Mirror organization, the crowd that had been watching and trying to stop him stopped blocking the road and made way for him.
Coincidentally, Laplace was at the athletes' camp, arranging foreign affairs work for the College City faculty and staff.
With the help of others, Mud Pot, along with two Cuphead teammates, found Laplace.
"The first thing it said to me was thank you," Laplace said calmly. "According to it, all the members of the Red Clay Squad were trapped in the underworld of Night City, and it was the Rabbit Hole Squad that eventually woke them up and rescued them."
The Other World?
A look of astonishment flashed across Angell's eyes. Could this be the reason why the various squads were trapped and unable to be rescued?
He didn't immediately press for answers, but continued to listen silently to Laplace's story.
"After leaving the Otherworld, they tried to commit suicide and eventually succeeded in escaping from Night City."
This is a general overview of the Red Clay Team's experience.
As for the details? After recounting the main points, Laplace turned back to slowly tell the story of the Red Clay Team's entry into Night City Evening Bell.
After all the squads enter the Night City Evening Bell checkpoint, they will arrive at a human city called "Night Rolando".
This city has no daytime, only an endless night filled with neon lights.
Therefore, this place is also known as... the City of Night!
Night City is extremely prosperous.
At least for the Red Clay Squad, the first word that came to mind when they saw Night City was: extreme prosperity.
The City of Night is located in a void, neither above nor below the sky.
All the buildings were piled up together in a dense, crowded manner.
Most of the buildings are over a kilometer tall, or even taller... because there is no end in sight.
The location they entered was called the "normal zone".
Above the normal zone lies the dazzling "Rainbow Zone"; below the normal zone lies the deep and dark "Dark Zone".
At this point in the discussion about clay pots, fearing that Laplace might have difficulty understanding intuitively, he added an analogy: the entire City of Night can be seen as two pyramids fitting side by side.
The middle waistline is where the Red Clay Squad is located.
From the normal zone downwards, the dark zone expands outwards continuously, like an inverted pyramid, growing larger and dimmer as you go down.
Moving upwards from the normal zone, the rainbow zone resembles an upright pyramid, tapering to a point and becoming increasingly vibrant as you ascend.
As for why there are distinctions between "Dark Zone," "Normal Zone," and "Rainbow Zone," the information obtained by the Mud Pot Squad is that the Normal Zone is where ordinary people live. There are scattered neon lights and advertisements from conglomerates. In short, there is "light" here, allowing ordinary people to live a normal life.
The Dark Zone is located below the Regular Zone. When you ride the circular track car, you can look down and see a completely dark area, with only occasional glimpses of light from inside a few buildings.
Therefore, this place is also known as the Dark Zone, a place for the poor.
It is also an area where criminal gangs are entrenched.
It can be said that the Dark Zone is the true essence of Night City.
The uppermost rainbow zone naturally corresponds to the dark zone. Although there is no concept of "daytime" here, the area is filled with neon lights 24 hours a day, and the bright projections illuminate the area as if it were daytime.
This is an upscale area, a place where the wealthy congregate.
The Red Clay Team had never set foot in the Rainbow Zone, because the Normal Zone was several hundred meters away from the Rainbow Zone. But even just looking up, they could still feel the Rainbow Zone's dazzling colors.
Leaving aside the Rainbow District, the Chang District alone can be described as "extremely prosperous".
At least the Red Clay Squad had never seen such a dense and magnificent array of buildings anywhere else. Each one was a spectacle, and riding the circular railcar revealed that there were tens of thousands, or even more, of such buildings, densely packed in the void, collectively constructing this frenzied city of night.
Upon entering Night City, the Red Clay Squad was completely immersed in the city's apparent prosperity, and it took them quite a while to remember to look at the main quest.
Upon opening the text bar, the first thing that catches the eye is the information that appears before entering the Night City Evening Bell.
Welcome to "Night City Evening Bells," one of the six-part platter.
"Level Description: This level comes from ???, and the challenger team's goal is to successfully ring the evening bell."
"Challenge Rules: A maximum of ten people can team up for the challenge. The team leader must participate, while the other teammates can choose to participate themselves. If the challenge is failed, all team members will enter a challenge cooldown period of one day."
Completion rate: 0%
This information appears even before entering the level.
As they arrived, new intelligence emerged.
First, the background information of the level—
"For hundreds of years, Night City has been divided into day and night, with the daily chimes of the clock in the tower in the city center serving as the boundary—daytime belongs to the living, and nighttime belongs to the ghosts."
"But at some point, the daylight stopped and the evening bells of the City of Night stopped ringing. Now, only endless night remains. The boundary between day and night has become blurred, and the division between day and night has become history. Humans and ghosts have entered into chaos."
"Who can save the collapsing edifice?"
"Who can hunt down the boundless ghosts?"
"Who will succeed in ringing the final bell?"
The background information completely baffled the Red Clay Team, but what baffled them even more were the precautions that followed.
"Note 1: Being an outsider is both an advantage and a disadvantage for challengers. Please make good use of your identity."
"Note 2: The ghosts in this level are different from regular ghosts. They are special energy bodies and are not transformations after the death of living beings."
Note 3: The prerequisite for ringing the evening bell is the "separation of day and night". When the boundary between day and night is still blurred, the evening bell cannot be rung.
The three points of attention seemed to be just a straightforward introduction, but the implied meaning of each one made the Red Clay Team feel very uneasy.
The first is identity.
It has both advantages and disadvantages, but it doesn't specify where those advantages and disadvantages lie.
However, it is certain that they did not obtain an "identity" upon entering the checkpoint this time.
Many dungeons actually provide challengers with a basic identity to avoid trouble. For example, in Modern City, all entrants come with a Modern City identity, and if your appearance is unusual, the dungeon will even correct any strange looks from outsiders. For instance, when Star Worm entered Modern City, no one questioned his appearance; to them, Star Worm looked perfectly normal.
This is the "adaptive identity" that the instance gives to the challenger.
Night City doesn't have this adaptive identity; you're an outsider, and the instance doesn't correct your unique appearance.
Just like the Red Clay Squad, as soon as they entered Night City, the people of the Chang District frequently cast curious and scrutinizing glances at them because they looked so unique... a teacup-shaped head with a ceramic body, who wouldn't be confused by it?
Next, note the phrase mentioned in point 2: "This ghost is not that ghost."
They can understand that too.
Simply put, people often equate ghosts with the dead, which is actually true in the outside world; they are just different names for the same species.
But in Night City, ghosts are not the dead, but a special kind of energy.
If a ghost is not an undead, it means that a ghost may not have the negative energy pollution that undead have, which is a good thing, but it could also be a bad thing.
Because they are free from negative energy pollution, ghosts are considered to possess "wisdom".
Intelligent energy beings, also known as "ghosts," signify their skill in concealment... Dealing with ghosts is extremely difficult, perhaps even more so than dealing with the undead.
The final note, number 3, is to inform the challengers that although they already know the location of the evening bell, even if they go and ring it now, it will not complete the task. They must ensure that "day and night are separated."
Here comes the problem.
The premise of separating day and night is... that there is daytime!
Currently, Night City has no daylight, and this situation has persisted for hundreds of years.
Where can they find the daylight again?
In short, these three points made the Red Clay Team's hearts pound, and they felt that this level was a bit too difficult.
Of course, they hadn't been to the other levels of the Six-Fold Puzzle and couldn't make comparisons, so they could only grit their teeth and continue exploring Night City.
Soon, they obtained their first intelligence.
In fact, the source of this intelligence came from their identities.
When they entered Night City as Cupheads, they naturally attracted the attention of many passersby. During this process, the Red Clay Squad quickly discovered the advantages that their "identity" brought.
Many random NPCs are very enthusiastic towards them. If they see that the NPCs seem confused about their surroundings, they will take the initiative to come and explain things to them.
Upon learning that they had nowhere to go, they would invite them to stay at their homes.
As for inviting someone to dinner, giving gifts... the list goes on and on.
At first, they didn't understand what was going on, but then an old lady told them with a smile: "Everyone welcomes you because of an ancient prophecy."