Xu Xi instinctively closed his eyes against the intense white light.
When he opened them again, he had already returned to the player space.
Before him were still the layered golden steps, massive and magnificent.
Yet Xu Xi had an inexplicable sense that he was closer to the giant steps at the top than before.
So this is what climbing the ladder means.
It was somewhat different from what he had imagined—he thought it would require physically climbing.
The physical and mental fatigue from completing an instance, along with the dizziness and nausea from being cooped up in the car for so long, now felt as if they had been washed away by a gentle drizzle, leaving him feeling unprecedentedly relaxed all over.
Xu Xi didn't care about his image in the slightest, plopping down casually on the ground.
The second instance hadn't been very long either, with most of the time spent on traveling.
He had died eight times in the first instance, and this one wasn't much better—he died six times.
"Let's review what happened."
With nothing else to do and the space having restored him to peak condition, Xu Xi, not feeling like resting for now, decided to summarize his experience in the second instance.
This instance was his first multiplayer experience.
The beer-bellied uncle Tan Xingyun had a steady personality, bold yet meticulous, and wasn't stubbornly self-opinionated—he always considered his teammates' input.
The denim skirt woman Xu Xiuman had meticulous thinking and was very observant, often noticing small details.
Both were intelligent people.
Although Li Kang didn't have any particularly outstanding qualities, he simply followed what his teammates did and never held them back.
It could be said that encountering these three relatively reliable teammates for his first multiplayer instance was quite fortunate.
As for the content of this instance... let's just say there were many pitfalls.
After dying six times, Xu Xi certainly didn't consider this instance particularly easy.
Actually, he was quite self-aware.
He knew he might have some cleverness, but compared to truly intelligent people, he was just an ordinary person.
Without his special ability, he would only be one of countless players dying in instances, not even making a ripple.
Speaking of special abilities, he had been somewhat puzzled before.
If he returned to the very beginning after each death, would subsequent deaths in future instances bring him back to the start of the first instance or the current one?
Unexpectedly, neither guess turned out to be correct.
In this instance, after dying, he only returned to the point where he needed to make a choice.
That description wasn't entirely accurate either.
From Xu Xi's understanding, he returned to the node that would lead to his subsequent death.
Regarding why the return times differed between the two instances, he had some preliminary theories.
Perhaps this ability detected that returning to the very beginning in the first instance could effectively prevent his death.
That's right—Xu Xi had now vaguely confirmed in his heart that the name "rebirth after death" was too vague. He preferred to call this ability "death reload."
Just like in games, where characters reset to a previous time point after dying.
The difference was that games allowed manual saving and loading, while he could only load randomly.
But even so, this was an incredibly overpowered ability!
As for how long this ability could be used... since he couldn't reach any conclusions, he didn't delve too deeply into it.
If you asked whether he worried about this ability having limited uses or disappearing, of course he did.
But no matter how much he worried, he couldn't control it, unless he could guarantee he wouldn't die even once—but how was that possible?
If he had that capability, would he need to worry so much?
So when forced to use his life to test rules, he wouldn't hesitate.
Perhaps after experiencing more instances and gaining more experience, his death count would decrease.
Looking up at the seemingly endless golden staircase, Xu Xi—whose mindset had gradually and imperceptibly changed—felt a flicker of anticipation in his eyes.
No player had ever climbed all 999 steps to successfully reach the top, but perhaps he would have a chance.
After contemplating the future for a while, Xu Xi reluctantly pulled back his wandering thoughts and pulled two wedding candies and two spirit money notes from his pocket.
He hadn't expected these to actually be items that he could bring out with him.
Now in the player space, the moment he saw the wedding candies and spirit money, Xu Xi naturally understood their effects.
The patterned wedding candy cleared all negative status effects from himself, while the pure white wedding candy restored all physical injuries.
Xu Xi felt a surge of delight.
The effects of these two wedding candies completely exceeded his expectations.
No one could guarantee they wouldn't get injured in an instance, but even with injuries so severe that only one breath remained, eating the pure white wedding candy could restore them to full health.
In certain pollution or curse-type instances, the patterned wedding candy would be even more valuable.
Thanks for the beer-bellied uncle's generosity!
He wondered if the uncle would regret giving them out after seeing these incredible effects.
The spirit money's effect description was much simpler—special currency within instances, with no specified use.
Two notes added up to only 20 units, which didn't seem capable of accomplishing much.
Xu Xi shook his head and put everything back in his pocket.
Next, he could either wait in the space for the third instance to arrive or choose to enter an instance early.
...
#ExposingThePlayerWhoClearedSoloInstanceIn2Minutes48Seconds#
#After2Minutes48SecondsEffortlesslyClearsAnotherInstance#
#XuXi!TheRealMaster!!!#
#DidYouUnderstandAllTheMaster'sMoves#
#2Minutes48SecondsIsThePeak!AndJustTheBeginning!#
Xu Xi didn't know that his deeds continued to ferment in the real world. After he cleared his second instance, the impact reached its peak.
Most of the trending search terms were about him, and videos clipping his live stream segments were everywhere across various platforms.
It could be said that Xu Xi had become thoroughly famous.
Of course, this was also thanks to multiple halos like "2 minutes 48 seconds" and "speedrunning instances."
Especially after he seemingly effortlessly cleared the second instance, comment sections were abuzz with discussions about him.
Main Post: [Discussion] If you see the words "Xu Xi," you can come right in!
1L (OP): Posting a handsome photo of the master to anchor the thread!
Attachment: image.jpg (The young man in the photo sat in the back seat, supporting his head as if resting with his eyes closed)
2L: OMG, the master radiates an aura of "stay away" from head to toe
3L (OP): Ahem (tactical throat clearing), presumably everyone clicking in already knows about Master Xu Xi—the first player to speedrun a solo instance in under three minutes! When I first saw this news, I thought those uploaders and marketing accounts had eaten some wild mushrooms, until I went to observe the master's first instance...