CHAPTER 1455: CHAPTER 1456: PUZZLE DOMAIN

Seeing treasure hunters in casual outfits with Spirit Beasts passing by from time to time, Feng Yuan scratched his head and said,

"I didn’t expect there to be so many people here. It’s a pity that Data City can’t create instances, otherwise..."

"It seems that’s not the case. But, what exactly is the criterion for this door?"

Veronia pointed to the suddenly appearing stone gate ahead and said. That thing was obviously the entrance to another area, and unsurprisingly, Feng Yuan’s treasure hunting prompt changed too.

"Through the nightmare challenge, find the way forward? Hmm, could this be an instance?"

Poking at the stone gate, Feng Yuan curiously remarked. He wasn’t worried about this thing at all, as Data City wasn’t likely to have dangerous stuff, given the almost permanent undead rule in the Data Domain. He didn’t believe anyone could remove it, let alone understand its purpose.

"Without seeing a team interface, could this be judged based on how we act?"

Dou Yanlan pinched her chin, opened her own treasure hunting prompt, and found that it had indeed changed, showing the same content as Feng Yuan’s for team treasure hunting.

"Could there be an error in judgment? What if two strangers coincidentally take the same route?"

Glancing at Qi Chen’s panel, Feng Yuan curiously asked, while Dou Yanlan thought for a moment and said,

"Perhaps it’s judged through a period of action analysis, determining we’re in a team state. Initially, our treasure hunting prompts had separate content, but the computational load..."

"Isn’t analyzing these things in the Data Domain an easy task? Never mind, I don’t feel like thinking too much. Since it’s a team, even better. Let’s go and see what’s inside~"

Feng Yuan shrugged and said with a smile. Seeing Feng Yuan leading the way into the door, Xiao Ji hurriedly followed, and soon everyone walked in. It wasn’t long before the door gradually became semi-transparent.

"This... What if I suddenly want to cheat?"

Observing the surrounding environment, Feng Yuan spoke speechlessly. They were on the remains of a plaza, with blue skies below, white clouds floating all around, and numerous Tiraya City fragments drifting in this area. Without needing tips, Feng Yuan could guess this place was either traversed similarly to parkour or by finding various suspicious mechanisms to create paths.

"Are you sure you can fly up?"

Standing on the ground, Agunas glanced at Feng Yuan and said moodily. Veronia summoned Rainbow Bubbles, only to see them plummet to the ground like lead.

"The rules here are a bit special. Are they really unrelated to those enemies outside the world?"

This no-fly zone reminded Agunas of the invading Chaotic Data Clusters, which had similar powers.

"It’s okay, this originates from Data City’s rules. As long as your strength is enough, you can break through these restrictions, or you can find loopholes like Big Cat does."

Looking at Big Cat, Feng Yuan said. Seeing the data chains flying rapidly in front of Big Cat, Feng Yuan had no doubt what it intended to do.

Qi Chen asked Feng Yuan,

"But, if we cheat, will it be fun?"

"Hmm, it depends. If this area is simply hard for the sake of being hard, I wouldn’t mind cheating."

Feng Yuan shrugged and said, as he just wasn’t fond of overly difficult levels. Long Boduo ran up to a large jar painted with an abstract conception of Tiraya City’s deity and shouted to Feng Yuan,

"Come quickly and look at this. It seems there’s something wrong with it!"

"Hmm, a big jar with glowing effects. It doesn’t seem to be something excessively difficult."

Examining the jar painted with the deity, Feng Yuan stroked his chin and said, while Dou Yanlan pondered and said,

"Could it be that we need to put food inside it?"

"Hmm, that’s possible, but we can’t exactly cook food on the spot, can we?"

"There might be what we need there."

Pointing to a place piled high with strange things like a garbage heap, Dou Yanlan smiled slightly and said. Feng Yuan paused, remembered something, and said to Dou Yanlan,

"A scavenger hunt? But you can actually recognize this. I thought you were a good student who doesn’t play games~"

Qi Chen looked at Feng Yuan speechlessly and said,

"What do you mean by a good student doesn’t play games? I play games occasionally for fun too."

"You’re one of those good students~ But if it’s a scavenger hunt, what happens if I just take the food?"

Feng Yuan walked over, completely ignoring the shadowed bubbles that appeared when he got closer, grabbed a piece of fruit, and was about to leave. Unexpectedly, once the fruit left a certain range of the item pile, it instantly turned into light and dissipated, only to materialize back into a fruit in its original position.

"Tch! What a hassle."

Glancing at the floating bubbles in front of him, Feng Yuan clicked his tongue with dissatisfaction. Xiao Ji came over to examine the shadows and looked at the messy pile of things on the ground. Although he had anticipated the situation, Feng Yuan couldn’t help but complain upon seeing these items,

"If I were allowed to take things directly, this pile alone could easily fill the jar."

At this moment, Xiao Ji barked and nudged an item shadow, picking up a roast duck plate, Feng Yuan placed it into the corresponding shadow bubble. With a ’pop’ sound, the bubble with the roast duck broke and disappeared.

"I knew it..."

Sighing, Feng Yuan noted Xiao Ji seemed interested in this, so he quietly helped with the operations. Dou Yanlan looked to Qi Chen and said,

"Let’s see if there are any peculiar mechanisms nearby."

"Could this level be a puzzle-solving one?"

Qi Chen’s face didn’t look too good, as he wasn’t used to such content. Though he usually seemed calm, he preferred to bulldoze through games.

"Maybe, but maybe not. After all, this area is too large. Even if puzzles are arranged, they shouldn’t be overwhelming, otherwise, it’s not a fun activity."

Looking at the distant platforms, Dou Yanlan said. She couldn’t tell how large the actual area was, but she guessed it wasn’t small. If all of it was crammed with puzzles, it wouldn’t be good. After all, this was supposed to be entertainment, not a challenging level for people.

"I suspect there might be other content later, like a small bit of racing content."

Smiling slightly, Dou Yanlan said. She couldn’t predict what would come next, but from her judgment, this area couldn’t be all about puzzles, or the organizers would be in for some criticism.

While Qi Chen and the rest searched around, Feng Yuan and Xiao Ji managed to deal with all the bubbles. With the last bubble and item shattered, the pile of junk turned into light, dispersed, and formed a dish in the air.

"Hmm, Hundred Flowers Fresh Vegetable Soup? This stuff isn’t very tasty."

"And all that stuff just turned into this little bit in the end?"

Though he expected it, seeing things develop as he had guessed, Feng Yuan still felt speechless. Holding the Hundred Flowers Fresh Vegetable Soup, he placed it above the jar, and the bowl of soup turned into a red light shooting into the jar. Pale golden liquid magically filled a quarter of the jar.

"Tch, does this mean we need to find three more foods?"

"I just found one using a fishing rod."

At this moment, Long Boduo walked over with a plate of food. As it turned into a red light, the pale golden liquid finally reached halfway up the jar.

"It’s a shame those things aren’t edible. Otherwise, I’d love to taste the Yuhua Salad to see how it compares to the ones sold outside."

Looking at the pale golden liquid, Long Boduo said regretfully. Feng Yuan didn’t find it strange, as giving food the attribute to be edible wasn’t difficult. But they faced a problem: what if tourists ate the food and got stuck?

Not everyone had Feng Yuan’s ability to forcefully break through rules and skip levels.