Chapter 109: The Painter (4k-word chapter, two-in-one)

Even though Wu Chang was accustomed to grand scenes, hearing this number made him unable to help but skip a beat in his breathing.

Five million players—what kind of concept was this number?

His player ID was 4444444; according to the most common hypothesis, after every player dies, the ID is recycled and reissued.

The true number of players would not be much higher than his player ID.

An increase of five million players at once meant the number of players in the game had doubled, and it also meant there were suddenly five million more people in reality who were in the know.

All existing systems would be impacted, and the control exerted by the major factions would reach its weakest point.

When that time comes, would it still be possible to firmly seal off information about the Abyss Game like now?

The Abyss Game is not like the Main God Game; it does not mind its own existence being known by ordinary people.

Once the existence of the Abyss Game is leaked, reality will surely undergo earth-shaking changes.

Wu Chang still remembered the First Law of Occultism from the Moonlight Sanatorium.

Human cognition is one of the sources of the existence of occultism; the more people believe in its existence, the more powerful its strength becomes.

The influx of a large number of new players was like breaking through an information blockade, causing ordinary people to begin learning about the Abyss Game.

People's belief in the Abyss Game would very likely accelerate the expansion of the Abyss Game, leading to the further absorption of players.

Round and round it goes, until the era of the Great Abyss Game descends.

How can one seize enough primitive accumulation before the era arrives? There is a saying: when standing in the path of the wind, even a pig can fly.

The upcoming world dungeon is undoubtedly the path of the wind for the Abyss Game.

Zhao Yan's meaning was very clear: if Wu Chang could seize this opportunity, he might be able to gain the upper hand and achieve something in the future.

"Many thanks, Instructor."

Wu Chang nodded, thinking to himself that this Zhao Yan was a decent person and worth associating with.

When the two of them came out of the lounge, they happened to see Jian Xing and the Negotiation Master appearing in the waiting hall.

As soon as they appeared, they instantly attracted everyone's attention.

The previous conflict between Zhao Yan and Cotton had already become common knowledge; subsequently, to prevent strange rumors from spreading, Lin Jiang could only reveal to the outside that Jian Xing's dungeon clearance was progressing smoothly and everything was according to plan.

Furthermore, according to current progress, Jian Xing's future was limitless.

Seeing the main subjects appear, people swarmed over, all wanting to take a close look at these two genius players of the younger generation.

Especially Jian Xing; if one could get an autograph, it would be enough to brag about for a lifetime once Jian Xing became a big shot in the Administration.

However, before the players could surround the waiting hall, members of the Evolution Faction had already blocked the crowd, escorting Jian Xing and the Negotiation Master into the lounge.

Entering the lounge, Lin Jiang, who was desperately suppressing the smile on his lips, was the first to greet them. Behind Lin Jiang followed the smiling and congratulatory Director Gao, and the expressionless Lei Huo and Meng Yawen.

Standing at the very end was Xu Dejun, with a face full of kind smiles.

Seeing this formation, Jian Xing's heart skipped a beat, thinking to himself that things were going to go bad.

Lin Jiang, like someone showing off a child who had made something of themselves, asked, "Jian Xing, your trip to the dungeon has tugged at the hearts of many. Elder Xu and Director Gao gave quite a bit of support so that you could successfully complete the dungeon."

"Hurry and tell us, what realm did you break through to this time, and how did you manage to clear the dungeon so quickly?"

Jian Xing looked at the Negotiation Master for help, but the Negotiation Master, showing great loyalty, looked up at the corner of the ceiling, pretending not to notice Jian Xing's gaze.

With no other choice, Jian Xing could only bite the bullet and say, "I didn't clear the dungeon. I know nothing about what happened inside."

As soon as these words were spoken, it was as if time had frozen in the lounge. Including Director Gao and the other members of the Order Faction, everyone remained motionless in their current positions, their brains spinning at high speed.

They were thinking about what Jian Xing's words meant—was it a new way of being modest, or did he want to hide his trump cards? It couldn't possibly be literal, could it?

Seeing this, the Negotiation Master was no longer satisfied with looking up at the sky; she turned her whole body around, facing away from everyone.

If the situation had allowed it, she would have definitely run away immediately.

Lin Jiang's intuition was always sharp; he sensed an ominous aura, but he could only force a smile on his face and ask, "Jian Xing, do you mean that the Quiet Town dungeon collapsed on its own without you needing to take action?"

Jian Xing shook his head, completely extinguishing the hope in everyone's hearts.

"This time in the dungeon, I was matched with that mysterious newcomer. The dungeon clearance was all completed by him alone. When the Negotiation Master came in, I hadn't even investigated the main quest of the dungeon clearly and thought the dungeon was about to collapse. The Negotiation Master can testify."

Jian Xing certainly couldn't let the Negotiation Master hide behind and stay relaxed, so he immediately dragged her into it.

Dragged to the forefront, the Negotiation Master reluctantly moved her gaze down from the ceiling and gave a dry laugh at the group.

"Jian Xing is right."

Ten minutes later, everyone in the lounge finally accepted this reality.

Jian Xing had not had a super breakthrough; they were still some distance away from having their own newcomer monster.

At the same time, their desire for that mysterious newcomer became even more intense.

They had previously thought that the newcomer had completed the clearance by using super-strong dungeon plot excavation abilities, skillful application of dungeon rules, and certain special skills to achieve victory against the odds.

Now it seemed their deduction was completely wrong; that newcomer was the opposite of their guesses.

He was purely "not acting like a human," just brute-forcing his way through.

But this kind was even more desirable—who could refuse the temptation of a stats monster? While feeling regretful, Xu Dejun was also thinking about the current situation.

The Quiet Town dungeon had deviated from the harvest they had previously expected, but the outcome was good nonetheless.

As long as Jian Xing could steadily complete his job transfer, the future remained promising.

The only problem was that the reason they were able to suppress things before was largely due to Jian Xing's breakthrough on the spot; if not for that, Director Gao would not have accepted the reconciliation so easily.

But now that the breakthrough was fake, the problem became complicated.

They had to compensate them with something more.

Xu Dejun thought for a moment and said, "Shi Ning's lecture tour has just reached Wanghai City. Jian Xing, you go with the lecture team to Wanghai. Before your job transfer quest is completed, just stay there and work under Director Gao, and incidentally, guide the few newcomers who were implicated by you."

Jian Xing bowed his head and replied, "Yes."

As the person in charge of Wanghai City, Director Gao was different from Jian Xing; his attention was on the first half.

"Elder Xu, has Professor Shi's lecture already reached second-tier cities?"

Shi Ning, a professor at Yan University, was currently conducting a series of lectures on the theme of consciousness and energy.

The content was mainly about the mutual attraction between consciousness and energy, mass hysteria similar to the Mandela Effect, and the possibility of the existence of parallel worlds.

On the surface, it was a scientific lecture, but in reality, it was to explain the recent abnormal phenomena around the world while paving the way for supernatural abilities to be made public.

Shi Ning's lectures had previously stayed in first-tier cities; he hadn't expected that this time they would actually choose Wanghai.

Xu Dejun sighed, "There's no help for it. Great chaos is coming, and the existence of the Abyss Game can no longer be hidden. Rather than facing the Abyss Game completely unprepared, it's better to let people have some idea in their hearts so they can accept it better in the future."

Jian Xing's matter came to an end, and Xu Dejun chatted about some recent layouts before preparing to leave. Seeing this, Lin Jiang stood up to leave as well, but Director Gao grabbed Lin Jiang's sleeve.

"Brother Lin, you seem to have forgotten something."

Lin Jiang looked at Director Gao in confusion and asked, "What did I forget?"

Director Gao wore a smile, looking completely harmless, and said, "Brother Lin, do you remember promising that if Quiet Town could achieve a perfect clearance, you would give everyone some benefits? When the forced portal opened, I had the Dungeon Master take a detector inside. The detector just sent back the results; Quiet Town did indeed achieve a perfect clearance. Aren't we waiting to share in your good fortune?"

Lin Jiang frowned, feeling very baffled.

"That was if Jian Xing achieved a perfect clearance, I only..."

Before Lin Jiang could finish, Lei Huo had already projected a video onto the large screen in the lounge.

"If Quiet Town can achieve a perfect clearance, I will give them each a packet of ten thousand decayed silver coins as compensation. Not just them, everyone present gets a share; let's all share in the good fortune. In addition, I will give them each one intermediate reward dungeon permit. Director Gao, what do you think?"

Director Gao coughed lightly and said somewhat embarrassedly, "You don't seem to have added that limitation. Elder Xu is still watching here; our Administration people have always kept their word. I, Gao, can run naked in Baishui Bay for a slip of the tongue; surely you, Brother Lin, wouldn't want to welch on a debt?"

"You!" Lin Jiang was so angry at Director Gao that he couldn't speak; he turned his head to look at Xu Dejun.

Xu Dejun closed his eyes to rest, saying nothing.

Not expressing an opinion was already an expression of opinion.

Lin Jiang gritted his teeth and said, "Gao Wenju, you're a good one. Fine, we are in the wrong this time, I acknowledge this debt."

Lin Jiang turned to leave, but as he took a step, his body stopped in place.

He looked back at Director Gao, who was still holding onto him, and said with dissatisfaction, "What else is there?"

Director Gao said with a face full of embarrassment, "Words are not proof, Brother Lin, why don't you write a note."

Inside a certain private art gallery.

The melancholic artistic man walked out of a huge scroll, and behind him, the huge scroll burned, turning into ashes.

The spatial prop, "Scroll of Painting the World," disappeared completely as the effect of its final dungeon traversal was exhausted.

The artistic man caught a piece of burning ash and put it into his mouth to chew carefully.

At the end of the dungeon, he had sensed an aura similar to the Scroll of Painting the World.

He had already located the aura of that spatial prop; as long as he got his hands on it, he would be able to continue traveling through various dungeons and witness scene after scene of art.

Just as he was sensing the aura of the other spatial prop, the door of the art gallery behind him was pushed open heavily, and seven or eight men in robes burst in.

The leader was a thin, gaunt man whose head was shaved like a marinated egg, his entire body covered in tattoos of runes, wrapped in white cloth filled with scriptures.

The man was full of anger as he came before the artistic man and loudly questioned:

"Painter, why does my mission progress show that the Secret Treasure Contender has completed a trial! We spent such a huge price to hire you to take action, yet you can't even handle this small matter. Don't tell me you think our Serenity Sect's money comes for free!"

The artistic man, called the Painter, frowned; he hated rude and impolite fellows.

Especially for this mission, facing so many art-level emotions, he hadn't been able to save or record any of them; it was truly annoying.

When he was in a bad mood, he would become less friendly.

The Painter took a piece of white canvas and sketched a mouth with a few strokes.

Accompanied by a "crack" sound, the seven or eight bodyguards behind the egg-head collectively lost their upper bodies, turning into individual fountains of blood.

The texture of the severed flesh was rough, and one could see traces of tooth marks, as if half of their bodies had been bitten off in one gulp by some huge creature.

The egg-head instantly turned into a boiled egg; he retreated a few steps with a pale face, his voice trembling as he said:

"You can't treat us like this! I paid money!"

As a candidate for the Saint of the Serenity Sect, the bodyguards following behind him were all elite players carefully selected from the Serenity Church.

Each person's level exceeded level 20; although they had received the Lord's blessing and burned their potential, leaving no possibility of further progress, in terms of current combat power, none of them were weaker than him.

Furthermore, they were fearless of death and could unleash power that surpassed their own limits.

Yet, for the Painter, crushing them to death was as easy as stepping on a swarm of ants.

Hard-Boiled Egg now understood why the Archbishop had told him never to provoke the Painter.

The Painter walked up to Hard-Boiled Egg, pointed at the sign standing at the entrance of the art gallery, and asked with a smile:

"Do you see what is written on it?"

Hard-Boiled Egg nodded desperately, "I see it: Private premises, no loud noises."

The Painter turned around, returned to his easel, replaced it with a new canvas, and said slowly:

"I like religion because religion uses all sorts of rules to restrain human nature. The tighter they restrain it, the more intense the desires and emotions that erupt when they are liberated."

"Desires and emotions are the most brilliant light in the human soul, and they are the art I pursue. If you cannot even learn the most basic act of following rules, you don't even have the qualifications to become material for art."

Hard-Boiled Egg hurriedly said, "You are right to teach me; I will definitely learn when I go back."

The Painter picked up his brush and began to paint; he painted very quickly, as if he were printing the images from his mind directly onto the canvas.

"Rest assured, I won't let your money go to waste. People these days are just too impatient; one should enjoy the process of doing things rather than focusing only on the result."

Hard-Boiled Egg waited to the side, nodding like a pestle pounding garlic.

Yes, yes, yes, everything you say is correct. Had I known you were this capable, I wouldn't have just avoided making loud noises—I would have put on shoe covers before even coming in.

Ten minutes later, a painting as detailed as a photograph was completed.

The Painter beckoned, summoned Hard-Boiled Egg to his front, then pinched Hard-Boiled Egg's chin and shoved the rolled-up painting directly into Hard-Boiled Egg's throat.

Such a thick object being forced into his throat instantly caused tears to overflow from Hard-Boiled Egg's eyes, and he let out a whimpering scream.

By the time Hard-Boiled Egg had swallowed the entire painting, he collapsed onto the ground, screaming as his body began to convulse uncontrollably.

With every convulsion, parts of a pattern would emerge on the surface of his skin.

The pattern that emerged was exactly the painting the Painter had just created.

The Painter crouched down beside Hard-Boiled Egg and reached out to pat Hard-Boiled Egg's face.

"I said I wouldn't let your money go to waste. You had better not try to take out what I've stuffed into your body; it is an already out-of-control B-rank dungeon, a work I am quite satisfied with, and something you couldn't buy no matter how much money you spent outside."

"Aren't you trying to take down Jianxing? Just follow the mission guidance to find the real-life Jianxing. When you meet, it will go 'bang' and explode, causing an out-of-control event directly in reality."

A look of anticipation appeared in the Painter's eyes, "A B-rank out-of-control dungeon suddenly eroding reality—isn't that interesting? Isn't it worth more than what you paid?"

"Most importantly, regardless of whether you succeed or not, I won't have to see your face ever again."

This chapter's plot was hard to break, so I'm posting it all together.

(End of chapter)