Chapter 156: Career Change

Shi Ning pressed the record button and said to Wu Chang: "When you're ready, start."

Wu Chang cleared his throat and said: "My attribute panel is… is this opening acceptable?"

Shi Ning nodded, signaling him to continue.

"My attribute panel is…"

Wu Chang recited his edited attribute panel without interruption; when his voice fell silent, Shi Ning stopped recording.

"Good, that's done."

Xiang Jianxing walked over, patted Wu Chang on the shoulder, and said: "I told you, this is just a formality, no need to be so tense—we believe you're not one of the Dark God's followers."

Seeing Xiang Jianxing's smile, Wu Chang exhaled in relief; adding the prefix "My attribute panel" gave him far more confidence, fooling the humanoid lie detector Xiang Jianxing.

He made an exaggerated gesture of wiping sweat and said: "I'm naturally socially anxious, a classic I-person, unaccustomed to speaking under so many eyes."

"But why do you believe I'm not a Dark God follower? Because I was born looking virtuous and righteous?"

Zhao Yan, just arriving behind Wu Chang, whispered: "Because the threshold to become a Dark God follower is high; based on your score before the infiltration, you wouldn't have found any clues to the Dark God inside the instance."

Jian Xin's smile turned awkward, his gaze slightly averted. "That's not what I meant—I just meant you look very reliable."

Wu Chang shrugged indifferently. "I'd actually hope the Dark God followers keep ignoring me—it'd give me more chances."

While they spoke, Shi Ning had already uploaded the recording's data. He turned to Wu Chang and said:

"I've uploaded your registration info. It'll take two to three business days to be reviewed. Once approved, the Bureau's mini-program will notify you."

Shi Ning put away the recorder, nodded to Director Gao, signaling his task was complete, then stepped aside.

Director Gao stepped before the group, rubbed his gleaming bald head, and smiled:

"First, as head of the Wanghai City branch, I sincerely thank all of you for your contributions in the infiltration instance. Thanks to you, Wanghai City didn't descend into chaos."

He looked at Shi Ning and Xiang Jianxing. "Though Shi Professor and Brother Xiang Jianxing may not hold Wanghai City in high regard, should you ever need anything in the future, I, Gao, will never refuse. I won't waste time with bureaucratic fluff—what needs saying, we'll say over drinks tonight at the victory banquet."

After exchanging a few lighthearted words, Director Gao's smile vanished, replaced by solemnity.

"Now that the happy part is over, it's time to discuss something less pleasant."

"Yesterday, seven or eight infiltration instances appeared around Xia Country, and three more appeared within its borders—all between C and A rank—with severe consequences."

"One of them—an A-rank rampaging instance—is only three hundred kilometers from us. If the clear fails, they may request aid from Wanghai City, and you may all be called to support."

Hearing of the consecutive outbreak of seven or eight infiltration instances, Wu Chang immediately thought of the mysterious person who hired Lei Hu.

That person spent heavily to hire Lei Hu, signed a special contract to prevent leaks: should the signatory even think of betraying the plan, they'd be struck by attacks from the Abyss's second or even third layer.

With such caution, their ambitions couldn't be small—they weren't targeting only Midnight Cemetery, nor did they hire only Lei Hu and his group.

The consecutive outbreaks of infiltration instances were very likely their doing.

"Seven or eight consecutive infiltration instance outbreaks—could there be a conspiracy behind this?"

Director Gao looked at Shi Ning. "About this, I've discussed it with Professor Shi."

"The rampaging instances last night were mostly located at the borders of major factions, with high difficulty and danger—too risky for the Four Major Powers to intervene, too dangerous for minor factions to handle, and ordinary Breakers would avoid them at a glance."

"For such instances, minor factions commonly let them go unchecked—or even actively trigger their rampaging—to let them invade reality under prepared conditions, then overwhelm them with large numbers of players."

"Most of last night's rampaging instances were exactly like these—expected to erupt in two or three weeks. But last night's instance point event drew massive player concentration, causing them to rampage prematurely."

Shi Ning added: "Beyond Xia Country's vicinity, infiltration instances have appeared worldwide—over twenty confirmed, possibly over thirty if uncounted ones are included. But most appeared in uninhabited zones, causing little real-world impact."

"Many in the Bureau find this abnormal, but after inputting the data into the Bureau's central AI, the AI judged human involvement unlikely."

Director Gao spread his hands. "I thought it suspicious too at first—but among the Four Organizations, last night's rampaging wave affected Xia Country the least. Even if there's a conspiracy, it's probably not aimed at us."

Wu Chang put on an expression of sudden understanding and stopped pressing.

He knew of the secret organization's existence, but couldn't mention it directly—just explaining his source of information would give him a headache.

Not to mention his current attributes shouldn't have placed him in Midnight Cemetery at all, and even if they did, he couldn't explain how he completed the breakthrough.

Even if he risked exposing his true identity and claimed he'd been reassigned as a monster newbie, following monster newbie intel—what if the secret organization has moles inside the Bureau?

Core member registration targets only Dark God followers, not others.

If he were exposed and drew a wave of Abyss-level two or three players to assassinate him in reality, things would get very messy.

He had no problems, but his companion Zhao Yan did.

"Didn't the Bureau send any Abyss-level two experts to handle that A-rank infiltration instance?"

The Bureau's experts couldn't intervene in Wanghai City's infiltration instance because they originated from the Painter—intervention would cause massive casualties.

But why didn't the Bureau send experts to the A-rank instance three hundred kilometers away?

Zhao Yan had just survived a B-rank instance last night—he'd gone to a temple, burned incense, and still hadn't calmed down. Now he might be sent to an A-rank instance—who could take that?

Director Gao adopted an aloof stance and passed the question to Shi Ning—since Shi Ning, a Traveler-class technician, was present, it wasn't his place to answer.

Shi Ning said: "Due to dimensional rules, only a tiny fraction of Abyss-level two players can remain long-term in reality. Most high-level players require complex rituals and long cooldowns to return."

"Support in recent infiltration instances was only possible because an Abyss-level two player happened to be in reality and happened to be from Wanghai City. In most cases, events in reality must be resolved by Wasteland Realm players."

Wu Chang nodded—he now understood why the Wanghai City branch head was a Level Three Investigator like Director Gao, not an Abyss-level two player.

Lin is in the Wasteland Realm—when revealing her divine true form, she's affected. Why wouldn't Abyss-level two players be affected too?

The fact that deep Abyss players can't easily return to reality suddenly made everything clear.

After the meeting, Director Gao led the group straight to the hotel for today's victory banquet.

To celebrate the successful response to the infiltration instance, the Bureau rented Wanghai City's most famous restaurant for the day and gave each player who participated in the clear a substantial gift—including Linghu Cangshu and others merely caught in the incident, who each received the latest triple-fold mobile phone.

Wu Chang and Xiang Jianxing, as key contributors, each received a sports car outright.

The total value of gifts given out at the banquet alone was estimated at over a hundred million.

Wu Chang elbowed Zhao Yan and whispered: "Does the Bureau have this much funding? Can they really reimburse this?"

Zhao Yan waved his hand. "We're a legitimate department—we don't reimburse like this. These are all sponsorships from local Wanghai City businesses."

"What excuse did they use to get the sponsorship?" Wu Chang asked, puzzled.

Surely Director Gao didn't just stand before some CEO and say: "While you weren't paying attention, we saved Wanghai City once—we need a victory banquet. Here's the bill. Pay up quickly."

Zhao Yan curled his lip and said:

"No matter when it is, people with power and influence always have better information, and that's no different now. The biggest companies in Wanghai City basically all know about the existence of Abyss Game, and some of the company owners are themselves players of Abyss Game. We don't need to step forward; they'll come to us on their own to offer sponsorship."

After chatting with Zhao Yan for a while, Wu Chang realized that the Management Bureau's mystery was only toward ordinary people. Many years ago, Management Bureaus in various regions had already begun cooperating with local powers.

Abyss Game had been around for several decades. No matter how good the secrecy work was, plenty of traces would leak out. Once or twice was fine, but if you wanted to hide it from local bigwigs who had eyes and ears everywhere, you'd be treating them like fools.

!

Since they couldn't keep it hidden, the Management Bureau reached cooperation with the other side early on. For bold and ambitious partners, they even provided services to help them and their family members become Abyss players.

After hearing this, Wu Chang shook his head, feeling everything was too realistic—so realistic it bordered on the surreal.

What Wu Chang hadn't quite expected was that in the second half of the celebration party, Meng Yawen suddenly showed up looking as if she'd just returned from a trip out.

As she passed by Wu Chang, she exclaimed: "Why are you here?"

Her acting needed work—it looked too deliberate. Zhao Yan could barely hold it together and could only turn his head to look at the scenery outside the window.

Wu Chang's acting was much more natural. He also put on a look of surprise, as if he hadn't known before that Meng Yawen was from the Management Bureau, and began recounting what had happened.

Back and forth, the two quickly accepted each other's identities, cementing that today's encounter and Wu Chang's entry into the Management Bureau were all coincidences.

Seeing Meng Yawen arrive, Director Gao and Lei Huo and others gathered over to ask about her situation.

Meng Yawen's appearance of having just returned to Wanghai City wasn't an act—she really had just gone to the neighboring city to help out with something. The commission went very smoothly, but on the way back, she ran into a little hiccup.

According to Meng Yawen, while driving back, she passed a stretch of wasteland in the far suburbs of Wanghai City and saw thirty or forty young rich second-generation kids drag racing, each one speeding past her.

Where would she ever take that kind of grievance? Just as she was about to teach these little brats who the king of the Wanghai City far-suburb curves was, she saw that group of rich second-gen kids leave the highway and head into a patch of wild land.

Her occupational habit kicking in, she followed them and saw those guys park their cars in a circle, everyone kneeling on the ground, loudly calling out wishes toward something.

The wishing lasted about ten minutes, then they started dancing. The dance was very difficult, demanding extreme flexibility, yet that group of rich second-gen kids—who clearly looked like their bodies had been hollowed out by wine and women—danced with extraordinary ease, as if every joint in their bodies could rotate 360 degrees.

They inhaled illegal drugs while dancing, getting higher and higher, gradually shifting from dancing to brawling.

The brawl escalated more and more, until she couldn't stand watching anymore and stepped in to stop them, only then did they stop.

Meng Yawen reminded Director Gao and Lei Huo:

"I was delayed because of them. That group should have been affected by an erosion instance; their minds and bodies have undergone varying degrees of change. There should be quite a few people like this in Wanghai City, so be careful lately."

Director Gao frowned after hearing this. He got up and left the restaurant, returning after a while.

"I just made some calls to check. Thirty-seven people in total, all injured, and four are in the ICU being resuscitated. Their psychological trauma was actually this severe—it nearly cost lives."

Meng Yawen seemed to remember something and said: "Those few guys weren't hurt because of the mutual brawl. When I stepped forward to stop them, they actually tried to get handsy with me. One woman came up trying to strip my clothes, and I couldn't hold back—my hand was a bit too heavy."

Director Gao: "..."

Meng Yawen waved her hand. "Don't worry about those details. What you should pay attention to is that these guys affected by erosion instances have already started spontaneously grouping up. If we don't stop it in time, the consequences will be very serious."

After the celebration banquet ended, Wu Chang accompanied Director Gao and Lei Huo and others for a second round of drinks, only getting home in the middle of the night.

He didn't take the opportunity to rest while drunk. Instead, he had Irene use a Sobriety Art to dispel his drunken state, then entered the inner world and took out the "Secret Law Knight Order New Member Guidelines."

In the past, he would have taken the chance to rest for a night, but the approaching world instances and the concentrated eruption of erosion instances gave him a vague sense of urgency, as if some crisis was chasing him from behind—one step slower and he'd be swept into it.

Time is life. He had to raise his strength as much as possible before the crisis arrived.

Among the methods to raise his strength, what he needed most right now was undoubtedly a class advancement.

"Item Name: Secret Law Knight Order New Member Guidelines."

"Item Effect: When the player's attributes reach Strength: 30; Agility: 20; Endurance: 20; Energy: 30; Inspiration: 20; Willpower: 20, a class advancement quest can be unlocked. Completing the quest allows advancement to the hidden class: Secret Law Knight."

The "Secret Law Knight Order New Member Guidelines" was a class advancement item he obtained from the Moonlight Sanatorium settlement, and it was an extremely rare hidden class advancement item.

The advancement requirements for Secret Law Knight were extremely stringent. Even he, relying on earning a large amount of experience in erosion instances and leveling up multiple times in a row, had only just barely met the advancement requirements.

If it weren't for the core member registration, he should have started his class advancement before entering the Midnight Graveyard instance. But afraid he couldn't evade the Management Bureau's detection, he postponed the advancement until now.

In case his identity was exposed during detection, he could still keep a card up his sleeve, rather than letting the Management Bureau fully figure out his hand.

Now that the core member registration was over, it was time to begin the class advancement.

The False Divine Manifestation effect had already passed, so he directly activated the class advancement item.

"The player has used the Secret Law Knight Order New Member Guidelines. It is detected that the player's current attributes meet the advancement standard. Choosing to begin advancement will activate the advancement quest. Completing all advancement quests will grant the player the class—Secret Law Knight."

"Please note, player: once advancement begins, the advancement item will disappear. Stopping midway or abandoning the advancement quest will not result in the item being returned."

"Please confirm, player, whether to begin advancement."

"Confirm!"

(End of this chapter)