Ji Yang took the large meal he had specially ordered from the delivery person at the door. As he headed back to his room, he noticed his own mother offering incense to the Bodhisattva Guanyin.
Yao Yingxiang also saw her son, or more accurately, she saw the takeout in his hand. "I've told you countless times, you brat, that outside food isn't sanitary. If you want to eat something, learn to cook it yourself."
Ji Yang retorted helplessly, "I don't eat it every day. I just felt like treating myself today."
Yao Yingxiang said with annoyance, "You'll be happy when you get diarrhea. Fine, go on. I'm offering a stick of incense to Lady Guanyin."
Ji Yang shrugged and turned back to his room.
Ever since the God Hunt descended, his mother's incense offerings had gone from once a year to once a month, and now to every single day. It was all for a bit of psychological comfort, hoping to protect the family from being selected by the God Hunt game.
He didn't know if it worked, but so far, none of their family had been chosen.
At his mother's request, Ji Yang would occasionally offer incense too, though he didn't really believe in or worship gods and Buddhas.
Yao Yingxiang also knew her son wasn't enthusiastic about burning incense or revering deities, so she didn't force him.
Ji Yang sat in front of his computer, eating his takeout while scrolling through his phone.
He was only paying attention to information about Xu Xi.
When he saw that Xu Xi had successfully cleared the instance, he was so excited he almost jumped up and ran a few laps.
Flash Play's reputation was still quite loud, and Xu Xi, who had broken the Flash Play curse, was popular once again.
The internet was flooded with related content, practically overwhelming. You could scroll through any video platform and see various explanations and analyses of this instance. All sorts of forum posts were sprouting up like bamboo shoots after rain.
#Shocking! The One Who Broke That Production Team's Curse Was Actually Him!#
#248! The Gold Content of This Title Has Risen Again!#
#Who Has Only Cleared Four Instances but Has Reached 800 Million Fans?!#
Ji Yang was dazzled and his heart swelled with excitement.
His potential seed was still there, and it was growing rapidly, thriving vigorously!
He paused for a moment, then suddenly put down his disposable chopsticks. He stealthily opened his bedroom door and peeked towards a certain small room.
His mother was no longer there. Only three lit incense sticks were smoldering, smoke curling upwards.
Ji Yang looked left and right, then quickly walked into the small room. He picked three incense sticks from the table, lit them, and piously bowed towards the statue.
After he straightened up, he gazed at the statue of Bodhisattva Guanyin enveloped in the curling incense smoke before him and thought to himself, regardless of whether it's useful or not, consider it praying for blessings for that guy.
If before, his belief that Xu Xi might go further than Zhang Song and even create more miracles was mostly to comfort netizens, now he felt he might actually live to see that day.
Perhaps one day in the future, this young man would truly become the hope of the entire Hua Nation.
——
Inside the player space.
Xu Xi's expression was rather peculiar.
Originally, he had been pondering whether the inexplicable favor he received from the Mountain God in the last instance was because the God Hunt had detected his uniqueness and thus began giving him special "attention."
However, just a moment ago, a stream of information slowly flowed into his mind like a trickle of water.
It was the space transmitting a message to him.
After reading the content in his mind, Xu Xi couldn't help but feel a bit dazed.
The information from the space wasn't much. The gist was that the Fourth Mixed-Nation Team Competition was about to begin, and players could voluntarily choose whether to participate.
If they chose to participate, they first needed to take part in a selection process. The selection method was to clear a solo instance. The instance difficulty was relatively high. Successfully clearing it would qualify the player to participate in the team competition.
However, clearing the solo instance did not guarantee participation. The God Hunt would randomly select one player from among all those who passed the selection.
The vast majority of players shrank back upon seeing that the solo instance's difficulty was higher than usual. They only had one life. They felt barely scraping by in regular instances was hard enough. Moreover, even if they passed, they might not be chosen. They weren't willing to gamble on that luck.
Only a minority of players, sufficiently confident in their own abilities, would give it a try.
For players to feel the itch to participate, the team competition's rewards naturally had to be bountiful.
Successfully clearing the team competition would exempt the player from the mandatory instance quota for a three-month period. This was equivalent to the player being able to "lie flat" for three months, as long as they didn't voluntarily enter an instance, until the next team competition began.
After clearing, there were also 1-3 item rewards. The better the player's performance within the instance, the more items they would receive, with a guaranteed minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3.
Simultaneously, all pollution in the player's home city in the outside world would be cleared.
Xu Xi lowered his head in thought.
The Fourth Mixed-Nation Team Competition?
It sounded very difficult just from the name.
And why did he feel... the rewards for this team competition were overly generous?
If a player failed to clear, aside from their personal proportional pollution, there was actually no other punishment.
Was the God Hunt that generous?
You had to remember, climbing all 999 stone steps of the ladder only granted a single wish, with nothing else given. It was so stingy it left one speechless.
The contrast couldn't be more stark.
The team competition rewards should have at least half of them stripped away, and failing should result in double or triple the pollution—that would be more like the God Hunt's style.
Unable to think of any conclusion, Xu Xi also felt too lazy to ponder deeply. His current level was too low; thinking too much wasn't useful anyway.
However, he did intend to sign up for this team competition to take a look.
After all, he had nothing to lose but death. Might as well try.
The number of players selected by the God Hunt in Hua Nation alone numbered in the tens of millions. Even if only a small fraction signed up, the quantity would still be extremely vast.
Originally, he had been pondering whether the inexplicable favor he received from the Mountain God in the last instance was because the God Hunt had detected his **special nature** and thus began giving him special "attention."
Xu Xi's main goal wasn't really aiming for the team competition itself. He actually wanted to participate in another solo instance more.
If someone had asked Xu Xi in the past which he preferred between a solo instance and a multiplayer instance, he would have firmly answered: multiplayer instance!
Having more people could be an advantage sometimes. Moreover, in a dangerous instance, having fellow humans nearby provided a bit of psychological comfort. Being alone always made one more afraid.
But after participating in three multiplayer instances, Xu Xi no longer sought that tiny bit of comfort. He just felt dealing with other players was a bit mentally exhausting.
He really couldn't integrate into his teammates' discussion circles.
Sigh.
After mentally agreeing to participate in the selection, Xu Xi quietly waited for the selection to begin.
It's worth mentioning that both the selection process and successfully clearing the team competition allowed for climbing the ladder, and because the difficulty was higher, the number of steps gained was greater.
This was also one of the reasons he was willing to participate.