Chapter 25: Future Planning and Re-entering the Dungeon

A Daoist Priest pointed at the leaderboard and asked, "If I remember correctly, 'Moonlight Sanitarium' is that dungeon ranked fourth in difficulty, the one that suddenly jumped to number one in popularity yesterday, right?"

Someone nearby chimed in: "Right, a death dungeon with a 0% survival rate. The Administration sealed that dungeon off a week ago, and they sent four consecutive dungeon-breakers who all failed."

"I heard a newcomer accidentally stumbled in through the trial passage yesterday. The whole world was waiting to see us make a fool of ourselves, but who would have thought that newcomer actually cleared it!"

"Your intelligence is not up to date." A shirtless Martial Artist wagged his finger and said mysteriously: "More than just clearing it, I heard they broke the dungeon!"

"Broke the dungeon?!" This news, once released, shocked the entire leaderboard area.

The Daoist Priest stroked the horsetail whisk in his hand and muttered: "My Boundless Heavenly Venerable, a broken, out-of-control B-rank dungeon—that must be a mountain of experience. It should be enough to boost them straight to level 5 or 6."

The Martial Artist laughed at himself, "Comparing people to people will only make you want to die. I had to grind through six dungeons just to reach level five, and back then I was called an experience harvester because I broke the organization's record."

A passing Orc patted the Martial Artist on the shoulder and comforted him: "Look on the bright side, the gap between you two will only get wider."

The Martial Artist spat on the ground and said with dissatisfaction:

"The gap between me and them? The gap between them and the whole world! Just wait and see, by tomorrow at the latest, the top of the list for lowest level and fastest B-rank dungeon break will be refreshed. Save that line for the others on the board."

"Huh?"

"No way, a level 1 clearing a B-rank dungeon? Can a big shot speed-run the Abyss Game without taking damage too?"

"I get it, the major organizations are trying to buy hacks from that guy!"

As the protagonist of the topic, Wu Chang, standing in the crowd, was no less shocked than the other players.

What did that mean? He had become the top big shot on the speed-run leaderboard? In his original understanding, clearing a B-rank dungeon during a newcomer trial might attract some discussion, but the popularity shouldn't be this high.

After all, in the games he had played before, the final boss that he would spend hours or even dozens of hours clearing with top-tier equipment could be easily cleared by many people online at level 1, naked, and without taking damage.

By comparison, a level 1 just clearing a B-rank dungeon didn't seem like much.

With a population of nearly ten billion on Blue Star, no rational person would easily think they were the most special one.

But he overlooked one point: the Abyss Game is not a video game; there are no retries.

No matter how flashy a genius is after growing up, if they die early, there is no future of killing bosses with their eyes closed.

The massive bounties flooding the reward board and the overwhelming discussions all around made Wu Chang feel a bit lightheaded.

Happiness came too suddenly, like walking down the street and suddenly finding ten digits in your pocket—who wouldn't be confused?

Fortunately, his Will attribute was high enough to help him sober up quickly.

There is no such thing as a free lunch; the powers capable of putting up such a massive bounty are not fools.

The more you gain, the more you have to bear.

Right now, he was just a newcomer who had just entered the Abyss Game; in front of those old foxes, he could be called a rookie among rookies.

If he rushed in blindly out of greed, he feared he would be sold and still be counting the money for them.

He had just passed the newcomer trial, and these powers were throwing out so many chips without hesitation; they surely had such intentions in mind.

He had to hear what the veteran players had to say.

Now that the entire leaderboard area was discussing his issue, he didn't need to worry about gathering intelligence.

Not far from him, a combat squad of four, wearing red, yellow, blue, and white bodysuits respectively and pumpkin-head masks, was discussing which side was better to join.

White was the first to offer a choice, "This is an easy question. If I were that person, I would definitely choose White Tower. White Tower's exploration and research into the Abyss lead the world; it is absolutely the better platform." "Not necessarily." Yellow shook his head and said: "For a genius of this level, any organization would tilt enough resources to cultivate them; the difference between platforms won't be that great. If it were me, I'd go to Yingdao."

White said disdainfully: "Yingdao can't even break a B-rank team dungeon that can't make the top 100 of the danger list. Are you going there for technical poverty alleviation?"

Yellow let out an intriguing laugh, "The platform isn't important; the environment is. To recruit geniuses, Yingdao has built a paradise called Takamagahara using Yingdao specialties. Wine pools and meat forests are like children's programs compared to that place."

"If you ask me, it's better to go to the West Union." Blue, standing to the side, took over the conversation.

"Go to the West Union and become a Divine Envoy, a legal 'person above others,' and have more fun than in Yingdao. Plus, the West Union's exploration of the Abyss is second only to White Tower and us. There are fewer people there, more resources, less dungeon pressure, and to compete with other big organizations, they offer higher prices. It's definitely an underrated, optimal choice."

Red, who had been silent the whole time, spoke slowly.

"If it were me, I wouldn't go anywhere. The Administration is quite good."

"The reason?" Wu Chang couldn't help but ask, along with the White, Yellow, and Blue trio.

Red shrugged and said: "The reason is that after the Administration was established, they distributed the introductory guide, which was originally worth 100 Decay Silver Coins, to all official players in the Xia Country region for free."

"90% of players can't earn 100 Decay Silver Coins after their trial dungeon. In a vicious cycle, they need a third or even fourth dungeon to buy the most basic introductory guide. This 100 Decay Silver Coin starting capital increased the survival rate of players by at least 30%."

White said indifferently: "A big shot wouldn't care about such small favors."

"But a big shot also needs stable order." Red asserted.

"With the increase in Abyss Game players, the old order of Blue Star will collapse sooner or later, turning into a social Darwinist model of survival of the fittest. This trend may be unavoidable, but I believe our place here will definitely be the last to collapse."

"Living in a collapsing world, humanity will sooner or later be backlashed by power; the bosses in the dungeons have already demonstrated this more than once."

Wu Chang listened to the discussions of several other groups of adventurers afterward. The viewpoints raised by these veterans gave him a lot of inspiration and allowed him to have a rough plan for his future.

However, he was in no hurry to make a decision.

Other people's perceptions are, after all, their own. He needed to witness and confirm things for himself to reach his own conclusions.

He was the one being fought over; he had enough leeway.

That night, as the leaderboard for the earliest and fastest B-rank dungeon breaks refreshed, the Wasteland and even the entire Abyss Game world were shaken.

Level 1 break of an out-of-control B-rank dungeon, break time: two hours and thirty-five minutes.

The more senior the player, the more they understood the gold content of these two data points.

Some said this was a long-planned hype by Xia Country, choosing a specific dungeon to build momentum for someone in the younger generation.

Some said that the newcomer player had actually died in the dungeon, and although the dungeon was broken, what came out was actually the dungeon boss.

Others said the clearer was a messenger of the gods, carrying supreme power, who had descended to help humanity control the Abyss.

The top ten bounties on the public area's most valuable reward board began to refresh again, with major powers competing in the void for that unknown genius.

However, Wu Chang, who was at the center of the public opinion vortex, no longer paid attention to it.

Following the ideas given in the introductory guide, he searched for paid intelligence articles full of solid information on the forum, frantically learning everything about the Abyss Game.

Half a month passed in a flash. Wu Chang arrived at the esports hotel he had booked in advance and hung up the "Do Not Disturb" sign.

When the countdown to enter the dungeon on his attribute panel hit zero, his vision blurred, and he entered the Abyss Game once again.

New dungeon begins. Please follow and read; good brothers, try not to hoard the book. A newbie really needs this.

(End of chapter)