Chapter 113: Erosion of Reality: B-Class Out-of-Control Dungeon

The Management Bureau's touring lecture series kicked off at the multipurpose hall of Wanghai University Library in Wanghai City.

Wu Chang and the others called out by Zhao Yan were now wearing volunteer uniforms, standing outside the venue maintaining order.

Watching the packed crowd inside the venue, Wu Chang glanced at the hamster and asked quietly, "Do people really like lectures this much now?"

The hamster was taking photos of the stage with his phone and said, "Conghua, you clearly don't use Weibo much."

Wu Chang said, "Occasionally."

"Professor Shi Ning is currently the top streamer," the hamster perked up, launching into an introduction about Shi Ning.

Professor Shi Ning, who hosted the lecture, was a young scholar who had risen to immense fame in recent years—he was admitted early to Yan University at twelve, graduated at thirteen, completed his Ph. D. at fifteen, and stayed on as a professor.

To him, every difficult problem seemed not a problem at all.

Shi Ning, just thirty-three this year, researched across multiple disciplines including electronic information, biology, and quantum mechanics.

If you needed a real-world example of the word "prodigy," no one fit better than Shi Ning.

His genius mind, combined with outstanding looks, repeatedly broke through his niche—even influencing idol culture, where "academic genius" and "cold scholarly" personas became trendy.

Because of this, Shi Ning's lectures drew massive attention, selling out every time.

Wu Chang nodded—he finally understood.

Most of the packed crowd hadn't come for the lecture itself.

At least half of them had no idea what Shi Ning was talking about, but for them, taking a check-in photo and posting it on Moments was enough.

If lucky enough to get a selfie with Shi Ning and slip it into a vlog, it would surely top the trending list.

Another portion understood what he said, but mistakenly thought he was discussing his latest research on brain-computer interfaces, unaware that what he described was reality itself.

But whether they understood or not, several concepts from the lecture had trended online, becoming popular phrases with countless derivative memes.

This was precisely the purpose of the Countermeasures Bureau's touring lectures.

First, let these concepts become familiar to the public; when the Abyss Games are eventually revealed, people will comprehend them faster and avoid excessive panic.

The speech had been a success—at least as a publicity stunt, it was extremely successful.

During lunch break, Wu Chang and the others went to the touring team's rest room and met Xiang Jianxing in reality.

To conceal his identity, Xiang Jianxing's facial features and bone structure differed slightly from his Abyss Game appearance, but the aura of a wuxia novel's male lead remained unchanged.

Compared to their last meeting, Xiang Jianxing's condition had improved greatly.

The cessation of consecutive failed dungeon runs and the phased completion of his career change quest had restored his willpower, temporarily eliminating the risk of inspiration running out of control.

The Jian Zong profession's loophole was this: overcoming adversity made you stronger, but you didn't necessarily have to overcome it yourself.

Xiang Jianxing was in adversity, but he'd been carried to victory by Wu Chang—still counted as overcoming adversity.

Though the increase wasn't nearly as massive as Xu Dejun and Lin Jiang had expected, it wasn't insignificant—the breakthrough not only made up for Xiang Jianxing's lost attributes during this period but also gave him a slight boost.

But no one knew if the Jian Zong's adversity breakthrough ability had a cooldown—if it had none, or a very short one, you could artificially create adversity in every dungeon, stage a last-second comeback, endlessly exploit the bug, and just brute-force your stats to max?

The Jian Zong profession was so unfair that even Wu Chang winced at it.

He couldn't help mentally ranting at the Abyss Game administrators: Look, this is what I call a mechanism—this is what Xiang Jianxing calls cheating.

In reality, Xiang Jianxing was just as unpretentious as he was in the dungeon.

Despite the huge gap in status between them, he still greeted the group warmly.

With the brief bond formed in Quiet Town, Wu Chang and the others conversed with Xiang Jianxing without feeling overly restrained.

Wu Chang had never disliked Xiang Jianxing, and upon learning that Xiang Jianxing had come with another compensation package—substantial at that—he found the kid increasingly likable.

While they discussed the one-on-one tutoring plan, the touring team and Wanghai University's administrative leaders finished their brief pleasantries.

With the afternoon lecture still half to go, Shi Ning, citing tight schedule and unwillingness to delay matters, refused the restaurant booked outside campus and insisted on a simple meal in the cafeteria.

At Shi Ning's level, wherever he went, others followed his lead—so the group marched en masse toward the university cafeteria.

At first, passing students lingered to stare and sneak photos, but as they progressed, the onlookers thinned out.

Midway through their meal, during the lunch rush, the cafeteria suddenly grew eerily quiet—even the cafeteria ladies vanished. Not just their floor, but the entire cafeteria building fell into deathly silence.

Several university leaders, baffled, assumed some teacher had wisely evacuated the students.

But Shi Ning and Xiang Jianxing had already put down their chopsticks, their eyes sharply fixed on the stairs.

Seeing the others react, Wu Chang exhaled in relief, abandoned the idea of flipping over his soup bowl as a warning, and calmly resumed eating.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Heavy footsteps echoed from the stairwell, loud and unmistakable in the silent cafeteria.

A man with dark skin appeared at the stairwell—he already had a menacing face, and with no hair, eyebrows, or beard, he looked even more sinister.

Lu Dan glanced at Xiang Jianxing, who had risen to his feet, and smiled: "I found you."

The next instant, he flung open his coat like a exhibitionist, revealing the patterns on his body.

A man showing up and stripping off his clothes—how had the vice president of Wanghai University ever seen such a scene? He was about to order security to throw this lunatic out, but the words died on his lips.

!

You know what? You really shouldn't say it—but this lunatic's body art? Actually pretty good—better than those old guys in the art department.

Could this be some famous painter doing performance art?

Unlike the administrators' reaction, Xiang Jianxing, seeing the glowing patterns on Lu Dan's body, reacted like a startled cat—he slapped the rectangular cloth bundle beside him, and a sharp sword qi ripped the bundle apart, sending his flying sword straight at Lu Dan.

Too late.

The flying sword struck Lu Dan—and passed through like cutting through a projection, offering no resistance, no feedback.

The next instant, the images on Lu Dan's body rapidly expanded, engulfing everyone.

"I'll wait for you at the end," Lu Dan told Xiang Jianxing, then vanished entirely.

The entire cafeteria fell utterly silent—only the sound of Wu Chang chewing his crispy-skinned pork rice bowl could be heard.

The crunching sound—clearly, the skin was perfectly crisp.

Even Zhao Yan felt embarrassed—he elbowed Wu Chang and whispered, "Stop eating."

Still eating? You really are carefree.

Gulp~

The sound of Wu Chang swallowing food in his mouth jolted the vice principal of Wanghai University back to his senses. He belatedly pointed at the braised egg that had vanished into thin air, and at the flying sword hovering in the air.

"Wh-what's going on?"

Shi Ning glanced at him and said flatly, "You're too tired. You're hallucinating."

As he spoke, Shi Ning dipped his finger in water and drew a talisman on the tabletop.

The talisman's light flickered, and every ordinary person in the room fell into a deep sleep.

He stood up and said, "Let's go. Step outside and see what's happening."

The few of them walked out of the cafeteria and saw a massive grey canopy forming overhead.

It spread outward from above their heads, and instead of stopping once it had enveloped Wanghai University, it kept extending outward until it nearly reached the limits of their vision, then ceased expanding and hung down like a waterfall.

If one stood high in the air and looked down, one could see a layer of grey light-screen, like an upturned glass bowl, covering a large swath of the city.

Beneath the light-screen, Wu Chang sensed a familiar aura—the signature aura of a dungeon on the verge of losing control, where pollution values had exceeded the limit.

Ordinary players placed in a high-pollution dungeon environment would feel oppressed and uneasy, but he felt as comfortable as if he had come home.

Before Shi Ning could speak, an alert from the Management Bureau came through the earpiece Wu Chang was wearing.

"Alert. Abnormal energy fluctuations detected in Wanghai City. An anomalous erosion zone has appeared in the Peace District. Initial assessment: Class-B lost-control dungeon. The city has entered Level One Alert status. All members of the Countermeasure Bureau, prepare to clear the anomalous erosion point."

"Repeating…"

(End of chapter)