Chapter 201: Person in Charge of the Administration Bureau

Whether Scalpel's head hurt or not, Wu Chang didn't know; he only knew that Scalpel's head was pretty fragile.

Nice sound — that's a good head.

Crack.

Along with the crisp sound of a skull shattering, Scalpel's head burst open on the spot, like a venomous snake.

It's just that he didn't have the local's buff — locals were protected by the rules, so no matter how recklessly they acted, nothing happened to them. He, a stinky outsider, had taken an iron fist, and if he died, he was really dead.

Wu Chang swallowed Scalpel's life-force in one gulp. Worthy of a player from the second layer of the Abyss — it instantly gave him 55 points of Strength.

The amount of Strength Scalpel brought, he had somewhat anticipated; but what he hadn't expected was that, after absorbing Scalpel's life-force, his Strength had reached 234, not 224.

This change astonished him greatly. Could it be a hidden boost from the Sea Giant bloodline?

The number only looked like an extra 10 points of Strength, but in reality, it meant the planar barrier's binding on him had dropped substantially.

The so-called planar barrier comes both from the outside and from oneself.

The external planar barrier refers to the planar barrier that surrounds the Wasteland Realm as a whole, separating every layer of the Abyss from one another.

With this barrier in place, beings from the higher layers of the Abyss cannot descend directly; even if they descend, they will be bound by this barrier.

The external planar barrier allows exit but not entry.

Take Eileen as an example — if she wanted to leave the Wasteland Realm, she absolutely would not be affected by the Wasteland Realm's barrier; but once she left and wanted to come back in, it wouldn't be that easy.

Since the Wasteland Realm's external planar barrier does not block life from leaving the Wasteland Realm, then what blocks players from entering the second layer of the Abyss?

The answer is simple — it is the internal planar barrier that comes from the players themselves.

Beings born in the Wasteland Realm are, as if by birth, equipped with a limiter that confines them to the Wasteland Realm.

In the Abyss Game, when a player's level reaches 30, they begin to be able to come into contact with the internal planar barrier.

Advancing from the first layer of the Abyss, the Wasteland Realm, to the second layer of the Abyss, the Reason Realm, is not a matter of going from level 30 to level 31 — in essence, it is breaking through the planar barrier's binding on the self.

When a player breaks through the Wasteland Realm's internal planar barrier, and with powerful strength condenses an internal planar barrier sufficient to enter the Reason Realm, the player can naturally enter the second layer of the Abyss.

More than ninety-nine percent of players, their awareness of the internal planar barrier, is at most at the stage of seeing it.

When a player reaches level 30 and can see their own planar barrier, knowing of its existence, they will receive the Abyss Game's advancement quest; completing the quest allows them to break through the internal planar barrier.

Very few players can feel the restriction from the internal planar barrier while still in the Wasteland Realm.

Someone like Wu Chang, who felt it this early, is even rarer.

The so-called internal planar barrier restriction is this: when Wu Chang originally used his Giant Whale transformation, if he stacked his Strength above 200 points, then stacking further and adding attributes would cause the increase to drop by 50%.

If it exceeded 300, then on top of that, it would drop by another 50%.

After his bloodline awakened into the Sea Giant, what it brought him was not just a change in skills — it also lowered the internal planar restriction on him from 50% to 30%.

The number only dropped by 20%, but in reality, it meant the internal planar binding on him had dropped by 40%.

Simply put, originally stacking his Strength from 200 to 300 required 200 points of Strength; now it only required 143 points. From 300 to 400, originally it required 400 points; now it only requires 204 points.

Seen this way, the boost in magnitude becomes extremely considerable.

While Wu Chang was examining the reduced planar barrier restriction from his Sea Giant transformation, the area below the arena was dead silent. Only after Wu Chang finished his examination did the crowd below erupt into thunderous cursing.

"Damn it! Give me my money back!"

"A rigged match — this is a blatant rigged match!"

"Rematch! A rematch is a must!"

The previously so fierce Scalpel had suddenly become extremely sluggish in his movements, and had become extremely unable to take a beating — he wasn't even bothering to pretend anymore.

This had to be a scheme by the Broken Bottle Bar — at the start, they tricked the guy who drank the stinky water into coming in to be killed!

But in just a few sentences, the host quelled the crowd's anger.

The content was very simple — Scalpel was an outsider.

Outsiders cannot rewind time; if they die, they're really dead. No one would stake their life to throw a rigged match.

Having ruled out a rigged match, then it could only be that Wu Chang had done something shady — but as long as no weapon was used, any rule on the arena was compliant.

The audience could no longer keep nitpicking, and could only leave the area around the arena cursing and grumbling.

The real gamblers who had made a killing came to the bar counter and ostentatiously placed their orders, while the poor sods who had lost a fortune headed straight up to the rooftop as soon as they stepped outside.

The wind on the rooftop was really strong. Tomorrow, when they woke up, they'd just pretend this stretch of time had never happened.

Inside the bar, Wu Chang did not choose to continue challenging He Yun, but left through the bar's front door.

Contrary to yesterday, this time it was He Yun who blocked him, and in a tone of surprise mixed with anticipation, asked:

"You actually still retained your memory?"

Wu Chang put on a blank look, as if seeing He Yun for the first time. "Miss, have we met before?"

Hearing Wu Chang's response, He Yun's spirits instantly sank. Right — no one would remember what had happened during her time loop.

But why did this cycle of events begin from the moment she saw him?

Could he really be the one destined by fate?

He Yun took a deep breath, patted her cheeks with her hands, and decided that this time, she would be the one to push everything forward.

"I know it's hard for newcomers who have just arrived here to believe, but I can guarantee that everything I say is the truth, without a single falsehood…"

Immediately after, He Yun dragged Wu Chang to a corner and recounted everything that had happened before.

Now that the offensive and defensive positions had reversed, He Yun certainly couldn't say how shamelessly Wu Chang had clung to her before, but she still needed to make the development of the whole story sound reasonable.

This cost her a great deal of effort before she managed to smooth everything over.

After hearing it, Wu Chang's face showed a look of doubt, and he asked:

"You're saying we used to be friends?"

He Yun nodded.

"Friends who risked our lives for each other?"

He Yun nodded again.

Wu Chang confirmed one last time: "Friends who can forgive each other's small mistakes that easily?"

"As long as it doesn't touch principles, even big mistakes I'll find a way to help you clean up." He Yun confirmed. She still needed Wu Chang to help her seal the underground temple; as long as he didn't go too far, she could let him off for the sake of the underground shelter's future.

Hearing this, Wu Chang set his mind at ease. He let out a long breath and said: "Since you say so, I'm relieved. Actually, I was just joking with you earlier—I still have my memories from before."

He Yun:?

The air suddenly fell silent.

Then Wu Chang saw the mechanical gauntlet on He Yun's hand light up.

Thanks to his quick reflexes, he dodged in time; another half-second and he would have taken a solid punch.

"Didn't we agree you could forgive me?"

He Yun resentfully pulled back her fist. "I'm not angry, just having a little joke with you."

Although he almost took a punch, this little skin-deep moment was extremely important, both for the relationship between the two and for the power of negotiation in future cooperation.

As the saying goes, eagerness doesn't make a deal. For something as big as saving the underground shelter, He Yun should be more anxious than him; he couldn't always be the one pushing forward, closing the distance between them.

Him moving alone wasn't enough—He Yun had to put in some effort too.

After the brief interlude, the two turned their attention back to the main topic.

The goal of heading deeper underground to re-seal the unknown divine temple was set, but what to do next was also a big problem.

First of all, tomorrow they couldn't go to the power station's inspection.

Helmet Guy wasn't like Scalpel, who would stand still and tank Deep Water Bite. With Wu Chang's current attributes, fighting him head-on would be a struggle even against Scalpel through the planar barrier. Better to stack up some attributes first before going to settle things with Helmet Guy.

After a brief discussion, the two decided to shift their target to the Bliss Cult.

Wu Chang could basically confirm that the religious group that had kidnapped Fang Hui was the Bliss Cult of the underground shelter, and there was a high probability the Bliss Cult had already taken control of the temple He Yun mentioned.

Combined with the Bliss Cult's pursuit of He Yun, it was very likely the Bliss Cult and Helmet Guy had already joined forces, or they shared the same target—He Yun.

Since they were going deeper underground to fight the Bliss Cult, they naturally needed to scout out the Bliss Cult's situation inside the shelter first.

He Yun had mentioned that the Bliss Cult was very popular in the underground shelter. Going straight to their door without cause would give them no justification, and the Bliss Cult could easily play the victim first, accusing them of starting trouble.

In this situation, they needed a pretext.

Coincidentally, He Yun's home had two pretexts waiting for them to retrieve.

They wouldn't run into Helmet Guy until tomorrow morning, so tonight they were still safe. After finalizing the plan, the two sprinted all the way and finally caught the last bus.

Same as before, three ill-intentioned thugs waited in the back row, ready to make a move on them when the bus stopped at the terminal.

He Yun naturally used the standard response—hanging the three from a tree, then transferring the money from their bodies.

Wu Chang leaned over to glance at He Yun's account balance. Whether by coincidence or not, the money He Yun had won from him at the bar was exactly equal to the bonus for defeating Scalpel in her debut.

After transferring the money from the three of them, her account balance was exactly the same as last night.

The two walked toward He Yun's home, and halfway there they again saw the shelter's version of Pete sneaking around, running out naked.

This time, Wu Chang spoke up to interrupt Pete's action. "Hey, what do you think you're doing!"

Fearing being discovered by outsiders, the shelter's version of Pete flew into a rage and cursed: "Damn outsider, you're obstructing a sacred free love!"

Saying so, he reached behind him and somehow drew a gun, aiming at Wu Chang.

Wu Chang naturally couldn't indulge him. He instinctively fired off a palm thunderbolt. By the time he came back to his senses, he saw the shelter's version of Pete trying to dodge the bullet with a big jump, only for the lightning bolt that should have hit his chest to strike his exposed little Pete instead.

"Ah!"

Accompanied by a scream, Pete's entire body turned to charcoal. Summoning all his willpower, he crawled to a billboard, hugged it, and then breathed his last.

This made Wu Chang's brow furrow even more deeply. Even though he tried to change it, Pete still died hugging the billboard from electricity.

In the unseen workings of fate, there seemed to be a force constraining how things developed, keeping everything on its previous course.

It wasn't convenient to ask outside. The moment they entered He Yun's home, Wu Chang voiced his doubts.

"To carry out the plan more smoothly, I think I need to know what happened—why your death causes the entire underground shelter to rewind."

!

He Yun answered calmly: "I don't know. After surviving the temple incident, it became like this. At the time I tried to kill myself, but found that as the trigger was pulled, time rewound to the moment the temple incident had just ended and I woke up from the hospital bed."

"That was my first and only death. I've thought about studying my own death, but my decision would affect the lives of everyone in the entire underground shelter—I can't do that lightly."

Wu Chang asked, not giving up: "Does this have something to do with what happened to you in the temple?"

He Yun said: "It definitely does, but I don't know the specific connection, which is why we need to go back and break this curse."

He Yun's answer was so reasonable that Wu Chang couldn't raise any objection.

Thinking carefully, He Yun really had no way to study her own death—her death would rewind the entire underground shelter, and neither people nor instruments could escape it.

This meant she couldn't use instruments to assist, nor could she find an assistant.

She didn't have the Eye of Spell-Breaking either; no matter how many times she died, she couldn't rely on physical sensation to discover anything.

But Wu Chang was certain He Yun was definitely hiding something—he just had no evidence for the moment.

Seeing Wu Chang stop questioning, it was now He Yun's turn.

He Yun turned to look at Wu Chang. Their eyes met, with no hint of evasion in either gaze.

"Actually, I want to ask you—I originally thought this rewind would be like before, sending me back to the hospital bed, but when I opened my eyes, I found I had returned to that night when I met you."

"Do you have anything to say about this?"

Wu Chang smiled. "Nothing to say. The rewind has already said everything for me. This means that whether it's the curse on you or the time rewind shrouding the entire underground shelter, I will be the one to break it."

He said it as a matter of course, as if everything were meant to be this way.

Because he was so certain, even He Yun began to believe it.

"I hope you can do it."

They had just finished talking when they heard the footsteps of two assassins outside.

This time, it was Wu Chang's turn to strike first.

He activated Elite Stealth, circled behind the two, and subdued both assassins before they could take aim.

Next came the interrogation of the two men.

Wu Chang tied them to chairs and asked, "Speak up—why did you come to assassinate He Yun?"

Both were hardened criminals; they sneered at Wu Chang's question.

"You outsider, are you questioning our loyalty to the Bliss Church? None of us from Shelter 88 fear death! Do whatever you want to your grandfather—I'll die under torture before I betray Archbishop Weilin!"

Wu Chang and He Yun stood frozen, staring at each other, feeling as if they'd thrown a punch into cotton.

The other assassin spat a thick glob of phlegm. "What? Scared? If you're scared, let us go—our fellow believers are already watching you. They'll avenge us soon!"

Wu Chang: "Did you record it?"

He Yun nodded: "All of it."

After confirming the video was clear and the audio smooth, Wu Chang stuffed rags into the assassins' mouths, then left the storage room with He Yun.

No telling whether these two were too clever or just mentally broken.

But since they'd confessed, there was no need to kill them.

They were just mech-fighting trash—killing them wouldn't grant much power, and repeatedly turning locals into infants might expose his trump card too soon.

Drawing from last time's experience, He Yun brought her greatest masterpiece—the strongest mech in the entire underground shelter.

Dressed in the mech, He Yun's strength, agility, and energy all exceeded 200 points; her endurance was astonishing. As long as her energy held and the mech wasn't destroyed, she could fight indefinitely.

The underground shelter was a failed halfway upgrade of an intermediate-layer dungeon; its locals existed in a special state—they had no Heavenly Principle realm barrier, nor were they affected by one.

Wearing her greatest masterpiece, He Yun might still stand a chance against the Helmeted Man.

After preparing, they left home that night. To remain hidden, He Yun took two motorcycles from the garage and rode with Wu Chang into the city.

Their destination: Hotel 88 in the city center.

This hotel was built early in the crisis, when underground shelters still maintained contact, specifically as lodging for traveling caravans.

As people grew more fanatical about the underground and more hostile toward the surface, underground shelters ceased surface trade, and the hotel fell into ruin.

Only after Shelter 88 became a Pillar of the Present World and outsiders re-entered did the hotel reopen.

They didn't sneak in—they checked in openly.

The reason was simple: even the Helmeted Man and the Bliss Church wouldn't dare fight in the city center.

Underground shelters were built differently from ordinary cities—their city centers had the highest security, so all key buildings were clustered there.

Fighting here meant threatening the entire shelter, declaring war on all locals—even the Bliss Church, with its immense public prestige, dared not do it.

Though the chance of attack was low, for safety's sake, they booked only one room.

It was Wu Chang's idea, but truthfully, he genuinely thought of safety.

The facts soon proved him right.

He Yun's warning about not fighting meant using armed combat mechs like the locals did.

But if the attacker was a player, methods weren't limited to destructive force—and though He Yun was powerful, her heart clearly had a fatal flaw.

True enough, at 2:30 a. m., when sleepiness peaked and vigilance dropped, a wisp of black smoke slipped through the door crack.

Once inside, the smoke formed a faint black silhouette, ghostlike, floating without touching the ground, gliding to He Yun's bed, then dissolving into mist to slip into her mouth and nose.

"I advise you not to touch her," Wu Chang's voice came from behind the smoke.

The smoke didn't dare stop—it accelerated its ethereal form, surging toward He Yun.

Wu Chang sighed, gripping the Purifying Soul Banner.

"You dare use ghostly tricks before me? And you voluntarily disperse? You must be tired of living."

He swung the Purifying Soul Banner—the banner's fabric crackled with wind and thunder as it swept toward the black mist.

The Purifying Soul Banner inherently suppressed evil spirits; now, it carried the Heavenly Thunder from the Five Thunder Art's specialized demon-slaying technique, which bore an anti-evil effect.

With three powers united, the banner's sweep instantly scattered the black smoke.

Simultaneously, in another room down the hall, the player who had been seated in a formation, using the Yin Soul Out-Body Technique, let out a deafening scream—then his seven orifices burst open, blood gushing like a fountain.

By the time his companions rushed in, he was already dead.

A max-level Wasteland Realm player had been one-shot!

Wu Chang's banner had scattered the mist and revealed a wisp of vital energy—he realized the opponent's cultivation and stats were weak. He'd intended to trap the mist with Heavenly Thunder and play with him, extract some intel—but his hand was too heavy, and he killed him outright.

After a brief moment of confusion, he found the culprit: his specialized skill, Melee Shaman.

Melee Shaman's effect amplified his energy-based damage skills by an amount equal to his Energy stat.

Because of this conversion, he hadn't held back—and one blow had killed him.

With a sigh, he opened his mouth and sucked in the floating vital energy.

The vital energy granted only 40 points of Strength; after the realm barrier's deduction, he gained just 28.

The attacker was a Wasteland Realm player—and an unranked one at that. When did such people start entering the Pillar of the Present World?

He wasn't acting alone. Wu Chang roused the startled He Yun, opened the door, and rushed toward the room where the scream had come from.

Their reaction was fast—but when they arrived, the room's door stood wide open, and four players had already entered, pinning another player to the floor.

Wu Chang looked at the leader among the four—he sensed a familiar aura from him.

"Who are you?"

The leader said: "Don't be alarmed. We're from the Administration Bureau—the overseers of this special space."

(End of Chapter)