Chapter 257

"Player dungeon rating has reached S-class; you may select one item from the current dungeon world as a special drop reward. The selected item must be an item you have already obtained usage rights for. Please make your selection."

In the Hymn Corp dungeon, valuable items are mostly Primordial Armaments; two of them Wu Chang favored were "Electromagnetic Controller" and Mo Ke's "Psychic Resonance."

Both possess Spirit Light Amplifiers, capable of condensing Spirit Light into divinity; the dilemma is whether to enhance Thunder abilities or Mental abilities.

After a moment's thought, he still chose Psychic Resonance.

His current Thunder techniques are already powerful enough—Five Thunder Arts each have their focus, and they grow slowly with cultivation; Electromagnetic Controller is merely icing on the cake.

In contrast, Psychic Resonance's second skill delivers mental attacks scaled by Inspiration attribute; with his current Inspiration value, the mental shockwave will be far from weak.

Moreover, mental shockwave can pierce the target's will barrier and fully control them—ideal for interrogation and control during dungeon runs, offering superior functionality and being more comprehensive than Electromagnetic Controller.

"Player dungeon rating has reached Perfect class; you may select one rare item from the current dungeon dimension as a reward."

"Virtue and Sin"

"One-Time Primordial Armament Transmuter"

"Portable Mini Hive"

The Perfect reward from the Hymn Corp dungeon was straightforward—its meaning was clear from the names alone.

"Virtue and Sin" resembled the book Schultz always kept beside him; in Xiao En's memory, since taking over Hymn Corp, Schultz always had that book nearby.

If nothing unexpected, this item is the most valuable on the surface.

"Portable Mini Hive" was listed alongside "One-Time Primordial Armament Transmuter," easily suggesting connections to Degraded Monsters and Primordial Armament production.

The effect of "Portable Mini Hive" should resemble a strategic weapon: upon use, it transforms a person into a Degraded Monster.

The name implies portability and compactness, so its power must be partially restricted; but Degraded Monsters inherently carry divinity. In other Wasteland Realm dungeons, as long as they don't encounter boss-level entities, even the weakest Degraded Monster can slaughter freely.

If multiple Degraded Monsters could be transformed, it might even be possible to overwhelm dungeons with a horde.

Both items had their advantages, but what Wu Chang cared about most was still the "One-Time Primordial Armament Transmuter."

He understood the manufacturing principle of Primordial Armaments and had witnessed the transformation process; he'd even chosen a Primordial Armament as his S-class reward.

On the surface, it merely allows the user to craft one A-class item aligned with their desired direction.

Moreover, if the user has not undergone Spirit Energy Activation surgery and lacks Spirit Light, one of this A-class item's skills cannot be activated.

But Wu Chang cared about this item not because of the Primordial Armament itself, but because of its act: transforming a person into an item, then extracting the transformed individual's innate talent.

Spirit Light originates from the brain's talent zone—in other words, Spirit Light is essentially the talent in the attribute panel.

The process of manufacturing Primordial Armaments uses Virtue as a medium to extract the target's talent in the form of Spirit Light and seal it into an item.

Transforming a dungeon resident who has undergone Spirit Energy Activation yields an ordinary A-class Primordial Armament—what if applied to a player?

Could a player's talent be stripped, condensed into equipment, and absorbed?

By principle, it is not impossible.

If this method is not unique to Hymn Corp, and similar techniques exist in other dungeon dimensions, could one compensate for one's own deficiencies by plundering the talents of geniuses?

Hymn Corp's Primordial Armaments reminded Wu Chang of his second dungeon: "Everlasting Peace."

The manufacturing of Primordial Armaments resembled a more potent, higher-grade version of the Demon-Transformation Art.

Back then, he chose not to reveal himself or rashly join any of the Four Organizations, partly because he had seen Seeing Chiyuan's methods.

He wasn't certain whether these major organizations held similar technologies—if they did, his talent alone would be enough to make anyone risk everything.

After the "Everlasting Peace" dungeon, he'd heard no rumors about such items, leading him to wonder if he'd overthought it.

Now, seeing the "One-Time Primordial Armament Transmuter" as a dungeon-extractable reward confirmed his past suspicions were not excessive.

Having talent is only the beginning—you must also be able to protect it.

Among the three items, the "One-Time Primordial Armament Transmuter" had the lowest surface value—but if auctioned, it would fetch the highest price by a landslide.

Yet for Wu Chang, this item held no appeal; he had no intention of exchanging or selling it, lest he invite future trouble.

After brief consideration, he selected "Virtue and Sin."

"Item Name: Virtue and Sin"

"Item Type: Special Consumable"

"Item Description: A book exploring human nature, recording Schultz's interpretations of humanity and divinity; using it to enhance growth-type items may trigger special effects."

"Note: Using this item for enhancement will not inflict negative effects on the enhanced item. Use with confidence."

As Wu Chang suspected, the reward "Virtue and Sin" was indeed the book always beside Schultz. He opened it—the margins and lines between text were filled with tiny script, identical to Schultz's handwriting in Xiao En's memory.

Wu Chang glanced at it briefly, then frowned and closed the book.

He couldn't understand it.

Schultz's annotations included not only humanistic insights but also numerous formulas and principles from biology and medicine.

Who knew how Schultz derived these scientific inspirations from a literary work?

He stared at the book—he had guessed the reward would be this, but hadn't anticipated its function wasn't to enhance his Spirit Light, but to boost growth-type items.

"Virtue and Sin" clearly contained two opposing elements; combined with growth-type items, Wu Chang naturally thought of the Saint's Remnant Mask.

He retrieved the Saint's Remnant Mask—and the book stirred immediately, popping up a prompt: "Enhance Saint's Remnant Mask?"

Since the item's note stated no negative effects, it shouldn't affect Ailin either.

"Enhance."

As Wu Chang selected enhance, Virtue and Sin dissolved into a stream of light and entered the Saint's Remnant Mask.

The last enhancement of the Saint's Remnant Mask had used the Holy Light Recasting Talisman and Ailin's Holy Scar; its interior was saturated with holy energy, causing the white region where Ailin resided to be covered in golden runes, appearing sacred and solemn, while the black region remained ordinary.

On the same mask, the styles were starkly divided.

Under the enhancement of Virtue and Sin, the runes on the mask began to flow; some runes from the white region "flowed" into the black region, bringing the black region's visual quality up to par with the white.

The sharply divided black and white zones on the mask slowly rotated like the yin-yang fish of Taiji; where they met, the boundary blurred, gradually becoming interwoven—each within the other.

Just as human nature contains both virtue and sin simultaneously—where there is light, darkness must exist; without understanding sin, how could virtue be defined?

Black and white cycled and flowed; the so-called sage is not born flawless, but one who sees the sin within, confronts and acknowledges its existence, suppresses the nature of evil, and cultivates and guides the nature of good—thus becoming a sage.

"Item Name: Sage's Remnant Mask"

"Item Description: A mask that records the projection of the Great Sage and the man-made holy image. Its birth was blessed by the Light. Wearing this mask, one will be regarded as the Sage's emissary walking upon the earth, gaining immense favor from the Holy Light faction."

"Note: It saw through the essence of virtue and sin within the soul, allowing the wearer to gradually break free from blind devotion to the gods and explore the divinity born from within human nature."

"Item Grade: A (growable)."

"Item Skill: True Self Rebirth."

"Skill Description: Omitted."

"Item Skill: Immortal Transformation."

"Skill Description: Omitted."

"Item Skill: Saintess Projection."

"Skill Description: Due to certain special reasons, the Saintess Eileen has fused with the Reflection Mask, becoming a permanent resident artifact spirit, forever becoming part of the item. Eileen can enjoy all the permissions of True Self. You may summon Eileen to participate in battle at any time and any place. Eileen's level and attributes will change according to the item user's level and attributes." "Note: Currently, Eileen's normal-state attributes can enjoy the player's permanent buff effects in instances."

"Item Skill: Shadow of Balance (Empty)."

"Skill Description: Where there is light, there is darkness; where there is virtue, there is sin. You may take in a second permanent resident artifact spirit. The process requires the target soul to be in a conscious state and voluntarily become an artifact spirit to take effect."

Wu Chang toyed with the Sage's Remnant Mask, the corners of his mouth almost splitting to his ears.

Schultz was indeed his dear cousin — even after leaving the instance, the reward he left behind was this top-tier.

The strengthened Sage's Remnant Mask could rightly be said to have doubled in power.

First was the strengthening of Eileen. Although Eileen had already completed her true divine form, as a man-made deity born too recently, she had not yet had time to gather enough faith to support high-intensity combat as a god.

Most of the time, Eileen would still act in her normal state.

Originally, Eileen's normal-state attributes were only linked to Wu Chang's total attributes in his normal state, unable to benefit from the permanent buffs of Rule Breaker and the newly acquired "Survivor's Revenge."

But after this round of strengthening, Eileen's normal-state attributes would also change accordingly. Because different item buffs are calculated multiplicatively, this alone boosted Eileen in her normal state by 65%.

!

Eileen's strengthening was obvious, but the enhancement brought by "Reflection" changing to "Shadow of Balance" was even more obvious.

Because the previous upgrade of the Reflection Mask used the Holy Light Reforged Talisman to fuse Eileen's soul and holy marks into the white portion of the mask, while the black portion was not modified, the skill still retained the Reflection Mask's original skill "Reflection."

Reflection could record the figure of a target and summon the recorded figure to fight. The upper limit of the power this figure could exert could not exceed Level 17.

At the time, no problem was seen with it, but Wu Chang's rate of improvement was too fast, and the difficulty of the instances he entered skyrocketed like a rocket. Soon, the Reflection skill fell out of the meta.

A Level 17 projection was a freebie even in a Grade B rampage instance, let alone a Grade A erosion instance, or a Pillar of Reality instance.

Using a Level 17 projection to fight an Evil God Remnant, a Hive Mother, or the Holy Light Society members — just thinking about it was hilarious.

Especially after Wu Chang underwent the psionic awakening surgery, the projections he created with his talent could already crush Reflection.

Now, changing "Reflection" to "Shadow of Balance" was equivalent to giving the Sage's Remnant Mask an extra skill — and a skill with an extremely high ceiling. If he was lucky enough to find an artifact spirit comparable in strength to Eileen, the boost to him would be terrifying.

The only slight imperfection was that, although the Sage's Remnant Mask had been upgraded to Grade A, the "Immortal Transformation" skill in the skill slot was still unactivated, and the item description was still three question marks.

It had grown to Grade A and still showed no change — was it really preparing for Immortal Transformation?

However, the improvement to the Sage's Remnant Mask was already great enough. The unactivated state of the Immortal Transformation skill instead made him look forward more to the mask's next upgrade.

After claiming the Perfect-grade reward, following procedure, it was time for the title draw segment.

"The player has achieved a Perfect Clear in a rampage instance (instance pollution value > 85) of a level greater than or equal to the player's level, and obtained a random Title Chest."

"The player will only draw titles that meet the prerequisites."

Having drawn the big wheel many times, Wu Chang had long since figured out the rules of the lottery. He was especially relaxed, watching the spinning wheel.

As the wheel stopped, the drawn chest released the expected golden light.

Another, again, yet another golden legendary.

Wu Chang shrugged — he knew this would be the result.

Drawing a rainbow title with 100% certainty was not the administrator giving up on targeting him, but rather a balance from the Abyss Game — a kind of compensation for him.

Every time he broke through an instance, he explored the instance storyline far beyond the required extent.

Other players' instance requirement was to defeat the instance boss. He not only took out the mastermind behind the instance boss, he even dug out the puppet master behind the mastermind — the deeper-layer behind-the-scenes controller of the Abyss — and slapped them twice.

If his instance completion rate was taken as 100%, then other players probably wouldn't be able to survive.

So the Abyss Game transferred the portion of rewards he was missing over to the title draw.

"Title: Titan"

"Title Acquisition Requirement: The player's size/body length has reached over one thousand meters."

"Title Description: As the giant of myth, you possess nearly infinite vitality. The attacks of ants cannot deal fatal damage to your massive body."

"Title Effect: Equipping this title, the player will no longer be threatened by fatal wounds. Even if vital points are attacked, it will not cause direct death. At the same time, the player will still be affected by dismemberment effects, but only an attack powerful enough to dismember the player in their maximum body form will dismember the player's true body; otherwise, the attack will be intercepted by the flesh."

"When the player's HP falls below 5%, attacks will no longer deduct HP, but will instead deduct the temporary cap of the Strength attribute. Duration of the Strength attribute temporary cap deduction: one plane."

"Note: Rainbow titles can stack with other titles."

Wu Chang clicked his tongue, looking at the Titan title with a somewhat complicated expression.

Since entering the Abyss Game, because his attribute points were all allocated toward offense, and he lacked sufficiently strong self-preservation skills, he had always been in a state of high attack and low defense.

The Titan title undoubtedly made up for this shortcoming.

The concept of immunity to fatal wounds alone greatly boosted his tankiness. Headshots, heart stabs, kidney jabs, groin kicks — for him, they were no different from being hit on any other part of the body.

Just hearing the description made him think of the trigger for entering the Abyss Game — Blood Thorn, whom he killed on the bus.

Both granted immunity to fatal wounds, and both were affected by dismemberment. But where the Titan title was powerful lay in how difficult it was to dismember a Titan.

For example, Wu Chang in his kilometer form — an ordinary person's wrist is about seven or eight centimeters wide. Converted, Wu Chang's wrist in kilometer form would be at least over forty meters wide.

To dismember his true body, an attack would need to be powerful enough to chop through a forty-meter-wide wrist.

Simply put, without hauling out a forty-meter-long greatsword, but using a dagger with a blade length of about twenty centimeters — even if Wu Chang stretched out his hand and let the other person saw at it, they wouldn't be able to achieve dismemberment in a few days.

And compared to Super Regeneration, which deducts sanity once damage taken exceeds the recovery cap, the Titan's deduction of the Strength cap was more than just a little stronger.

Now, if he activated the Knight of Strife transformation again, the Sea Giant's body of power, combined with the Titan title, he could almost achieve immortality.

From the player's perspective, Wu Chang really liked the Titan title — without the Fatal Wound constraint, a warrior like him was every assassin's nightmare, and he no longer feared any sneak attack.

But without the Fatal Wound, could he still be considered human?

If he wasn't human, then...

Wu Chang was downcast for a moment, then quickly recovered.

If he wasn't human, then so be it — he wasn't Schultz, insisting on becoming a god in a human body; not being human was actually better.

It was all the fault of Schultz's and Xiao En's memories, which had led him astray.

Abyss, I'm done being human!

As the title roulette draw completed, his instance settlement fully ended; it was time to exit the settlement space and return to Crimson Court.

The trouble inside the instance had come to a temporary close, but outside the instance, things were about to get lively.

The three people he had saved — Buck and the others — should have by now reported to their respective organizations the Iron Armor Regiment's operation, the appearance of the Light Society, and the intel about the mysterious newcomer Peace showing off his might in the instance.

Behind every piece of intel lurked a storm.

The Iron Armor Regiment being completely wiped out was already a foregone conclusion; the Light Society's covert schemes being exposed would also put the four major organizations on guard, forcing them to reassess the current situation.

As for Peace, who could stand his ground against Huanxi — whether the four major organizations would continue their declaration of war or halt their actions and keep mum about it — just thinking about it made Wu Chang excited.

If they called off the declaration of war, he wouldn't mind joining a player-hosted interview show and dropping some bombshells for everyone.

The World Instance was imminent; whether it was the Wasteland Realm or the real world, the heavens were about to change.

(End of this chapter)