"How much time is left until the instance ends?"
Gao Ming glanced at Liang Jie, who replied, "About an hour left."
Bai Ye asked, "Are there no more bosses we can kill?"
Liang Jie said, "The fastest one will refresh in three hours and forty minutes."
Bai Ye nodded, then said, "Then let's head back to town first."
Bai Ye wanted to finish things here and leave quickly, but he still needed to gather all the items he intended to bring out.
Therefore, the first step was to formulate a plan for boss hunting, as instances were also a high-yield source of red-quality items.
Once they returned to town, they wouldn't have to worry about the people from Cang Long Hui for the time being.
Towns within the game could be understood as safe zones. However, unlike the false safe zones in the world battlefield, towns in the game were true safe zones.
Fighting was strictly prohibited here; any attack was ineffective, causing no damage, and unable to destroy anything within the town. Furthermore, there were guards.
Simply put, nothing done here would have any effect, and one would be kicked out.
Upon entering the town, Gao Ming first had people take stock of their items.
With twelve people, if each person brought out three red-quality items, they would need thirty-six red-quality items in total.
"The harvest from defeating the Earth Spider was immense. We currently have twenty-two red-quality items..."
Gao Ming looked at Bai Ye, his gaze questioning.
This was because Bai Ye was also among the twelve people.
"I only need one," Bai Ye said. "I just obtained two items I want to bring out. How about I pick them?"
"No problem, you pick, you pick!"
Gao Ming was now like a kept wife, extremely obedient, doing whatever Bai Ye said.
Bai Ye naturally wasn't actually looking to pick items; this was to let the King's Treasure collect another wave of leeks, so he couldn't pick them now.
So...
"No rush," Bai Ye said. "Let's gather the items first."
Gao Ming nodded, then said, "Liang Jie, you speak."
Liang Jie explained, "A boss generally drops at least one red-quality item, regardless of its quality, as a guaranteed drop. If you're lucky, you might get two or three."
"Calculating at this rate, we'll be done after killing at most fourteen bosses. But based on experience, ten bosses should be enough to gather everything. It's not like every single one will be a guaranteed drop, right?"
Bai Ye asked, "What about the game instances?"
Liang Jie replied, "The drop rates are similar to the outside bosses. However, the two instances on the third floor, one has five bosses, and the other has four. They refresh synchronously with the instance refresh. Unlike wild bosses, you don't need to time them and search for them one by one."
Bai Ye stated, "Then let's secure one instance. Your numbers and strength probably can't handle two instances simultaneously."
Liang Jie asked, "What about Cang Long Hui?"
Bai Ye inquired, "If you enter the instance, they won't be able to get in, right? To monopolize an instance, you have to camp at the entrance, correct?"
Liang Jie confirmed, "Yes."
Bai Ye then asked, "I'll go to the instance entrance and kill them all, or scatter them, won't that work?"
Liang Jie: "..."
The logic was sound, but after all, they were the elite team of the current number one power in the world battlefield. Each of them possessed first-class individual strength, and they had been honed for a long time with tacit coordination. It wasn't good to say it so casually.
What made Liang Jie uncomfortable was that he couldn't refute it, because Bai Ye had actually accomplished something similar before.
However, Gao Ming was more familiar with Bai Ye and had no qualms about speaking his mind. He said, "Bai Ye, I know you're very powerful, and you did repel the people from Cang Long Hui before, but that wasn't their main force."
"Instances are very valuable. Occupying two instances is equivalent to monopolizing nine bosses. Therefore, Cang Long Hui's energy will definitely be focused on the two game instances."
"However, there's a player limit for instances. The excess people who can't enter the game instances will come to bother us out of boredom. So, what do you think is the standard for being able to enter a game instance?"
What is the standard?
It's strength, of course!
Gao Ming was reminding Bai Ye in a rather veiled manner that the group Bai Ye had easily defeated must have been the relatively weaker ones among those dispatched by Cang Long Hui into the virtual game forbidden zone.
Being able to defeat them easily didn't mean he could easily defeat the others in Cang Long Hui.
"It's fine, if I can't handle it, it's my problem." Bai Ye pointed at Liang Jie and asked, "Can you guys handle the bosses inside the instance?"
It wasn't that Bai Ye was being overly cautious; these guys weren't a match for the Earth Spider.
While they wouldn't be unable to kill the Earth Spider, they would definitely lose some lives.
"We can," Liang Jie replied. "We arrived before Cang Long Hui. We actually pioneered one of the game instances and managed to clear it smoothly back then, it just takes a bit longer."
Bai Ye nodded, then instructed, "Make a table and plan the schedule. Since one game instance's bosses are not enough to gather the items, list the bosses that can be hunted before the instance opens."
"If we can't gather enough before the instance opens, then list how many more bosses need to be hunted after the instance opens, based on their refresh times. However, the fourteen bosses you mentioned earlier are incorrect. Don't forget the guardian boss on the third floor."
"Right!" Liang Jie slapped his forehead. "Regardless of the quality of the items, as long as we need red-quality ones, the guardian boss on the third floor is guaranteed to drop at least three red-quality items, and can drop up to five!"
As Liang Jie spoke, he took out a piece of paper and began writing and drawing.
"That's enough!" Liang Jie declared. "Before the instance opens, we can still kill two more bosses, namely Aoandon and Arakawa no Nushi. Then, by occupying the five bosses within the instance and the guardian boss on the third floor, it should likely be enough, unless we're extremely unlucky and all of them are just guaranteed drops."
Bai Ye added, "It's fine. We can decide based on the number of items after the instance ends. If we gather eleven items, we'll directly go for the guardian boss. Even if we only get the guaranteed three red-quality items, it will be enough for us to reach thirty-six red-quality items."
Gao Ming nodded and said, "If it's not enough, we'll consider hunting one or two more bosses. However, these are minor issues; they just require a bit more time. The main problem is Cang Long Hui..."
"It's fine, as I said, if I can't handle it, the responsibility is mine." Bai Ye clapped his hands. "It's about time, let's get moving. First, let's kill Aoandon and Arakawa no Nushi, and then we'll go to the instance to find the people from Cang Long Hui!"
The others looked at each other, then became excited.
They had been bullied by the people from Cang Long Hui for a long time. Now that Bai Ye was planning to lead them to confront them directly, how could they not be excited?
...