Chapter 285: Number Monster

When asked what Lin Jiang had done to warrant the Bureau's pursuit, Hou Jingchuan's expression turned awkward.

How to put it? It was like being pointed at the nose and asked, "What do you have to say about this failure of yours?"

If it had been anyone else, the question would have ended there, but facing Wu Chang, Hou Jingchuan could not evade—he could only grit his teeth and reveal the truth.

"Do you remember how the power spaces of the four organizations were recently attacked?"

"I recall." Wu Chang nodded; he remembered clearly—it was from that incident that his opinion of the four organizations plummeted.

Even before he realized the conflict between the Evolutionists and the Orderists was irreconcilable, he had once suspected the four organizations had staged it themselves.

Hou Jingchuan smiled bitterly. "Lord Peace, how much do you know about that attack?"

Wu Chang poured himself a cup of tea, not intending to let Hou Jingchuan probe his knowledge. "How much I know? It's certainly less true than what you, Mr. Hou, tell me directly."

Hou Jingchuan stared into the tea in his cup, as if seeing the day the Crimson Wave Space was attacked.

"Though you're not a Bureau member and can't enter Crimson Wave Space, you must have heard rumors about the attack through the public-area bars."

"The attackers didn't just wreak havoc within Crimson Wave Space—they severely damaged the Hongmeng Temple, which held the temporary administrator permissions, and breached the top-secret central zone."

"Of course, it wasn't just Crimson Wave Space—all three other organizations suffered identical attacks at the same time, with losses no less severe than the Bureau's."

Hou Jingchuan couldn't let himself be the only one grilled—he had to drag the other three organizations into this.

"The attackers possessed extremely powerful hacking skills, combined with a mole's high-level permissions, directly infiltrating Crimson Wave Space. They first triggered malfunctions across public facilities—trade halls displayed garbled pricing, training rooms suddenly increased difficulty, dungeon waiting halls malfunctioned, preventing entry."

"Once internal members scattered to investigate the malfunctions, they triggered widespread explosions. Since Crimson Wave Space is a non-combat space, skills couldn't be used and stats were capped—personnel scattered across the space were trapped by the explosions and couldn't escape."

"The mole who had already infiltrated the Hongmeng Temple then seized the opportunity to sabotage it, stealing Crimson Wave Space's highest permission from the top-secret central core."

"The other three organizations experienced nearly identical events—all had their Wasteland Realm power space's highest permission stolen."

Wu Chang clicked his tongue, lips curling downward. No wonder the power space attacks had caused a huge uproar at first, only to vanish from public discourse days later.

It turned out the stakes were too high—the four organizations had suppressed the trending topic, fearing someone might guess the truth.

He asked curiously: "You lost the highest permission—haven't you found it yet?"

Hou Jingchuan shook his head. "This is more complicated than it sounds."

When the Bureau was first established, its founders, fearing high-ranking officials would be corrupted by power and abuse it, imposed many restrictions on the highest permission.

One such restriction required that the holder of the highest permission must gain approval from at least five Crimson Wave Space administrators before using its power.

Thus, losing the highest permission was more like a symbolic humiliation than actual damage.

Moreover, once the highest permission left Crimson Wave Space, the Hongmeng Temple would sound an alarm—it could temporarily assume the highest permission's functions and generate a new highest permission within fifteen days, revoking the lost one.

After the Crimson Wave Space attack, the Hongmeng Temple received no alarm, meaning the attackers had kept the highest permission hidden inside Crimson Wave Space, concealing it so they couldn't detect it.

In Hou Jingchuan's view, whether mole or outsider, no one could gain direct benefit from stealing the highest permission.

Their elaborate planning for the attack could only mean one thing: they simply wanted to disrupt the four organizations' control over the Wasteland Realm.

During that period, the loss of the highest permissions across the four organizations' power spaces meant they couldn't replace the entrance to the Pillar of the Present in time, allowing the Pillar of the Present to be repeatedly damaged by the Light Society and the Orderist Evolutionists.

Add to that the Numinous Sect, the Apocalypse, and the Believers Circle stirring up chaos by periodically claiming responsibility—and the four organizations' leadership concluded the theft of the highest permission was merely meant to obstruct their management of the Wasteland Realm.

So they searched for the highest permission within their power spaces while simultaneously initiating procedures to generate new ones in their respective top-secret central cores.

But since the old permission hadn't left the power space, generating a new highest permission required forty-five days—and it still hadn't been generated.

To the four organizations, as long as they endured forty-five days until the new highest permission was created, they could pretend nothing had happened.

Avoidance may be shameful, but it's effective.

Even in many eyes, though the new highest permission hadn't yet been generated, the incident was already considered past history—closed.

But after Lin Jiang attacked the Bureau's headquarters and fled, the matter resurfaced.

Because when Lin Jiang fled, the Hongmeng Temple sounded an alarm: the missing highest permission had been removed from Crimson Wave Space.

Moreover, on the same day, alarms erupted one after another from the top-secret central cores of the other three organizations.

Hou Jingchuan took a sip of tea, moistening his dry throat, his voice bitter:

"It's likely that the highest permissions of all four organizations' Wasteland Realm power spaces are now in Lin Jiang's hands."

Wu Chang asked: "Mr. Hou, you previously said that to use the highest permission, you need approval from at least five Crimson Wave Space administrators—so then you…"

Wu Chang paused mid-question, suddenly realizing something—he remembered Hou Jingchuan's repeated insistence that Lin Jiang must be kept in the Wasteland Realm.

Hou Jingchuan sighed and answered the question Wu Chang hadn't finished.

"Lin Jiang has no support in the Wasteland Realm—but he can gain it in the Rational Realm."

"Once he obtains authorization in the Rational Realm, the blockade established by the four organizations' temporary administrator permissions can no longer prevent him from returning to reality through the Pillar of the Present. When he returns to Crimson Wave Space, he can use the highest permission to lift all blockades."

"If it comes to that, even if we vote to revoke his permission, by the time the process finishes, the Rational Realm's people will already have arrived and killed us."

Hou Jingchuan fixed Wu Chang with a solemn gaze:

"Lin Jiang is a peripheral member of the Light Society. Everything he's done has been directed by them. From the moment the four organizations were attacked, it's all been the Light Society's conspiracy—that's why I've boldly asked you, Lord Peace, to intervene."

Wu Chang closed his eyes, pondering what Hou Jingchuan had just said.

Anyone else would have thought Hou Jingchuan was delusional—especially since, even if there was a mole, how could a hacker breach a private space?

But hearing this, Wu Chang instantly recalled the hacker-god the Ironclad Squad had hired via contract at Saint Song Corporation.

If that man had acted, with the mole as the entry point, perhaps he truly could have carried out the attack Hou Jingchuan described.

With that hacker altering data, hiding the highest permission right under the four organizations' noses wouldn't be difficult.

Hou Jingchuan's account revealed countless flaws in the four organizations' operations—many details, perhaps even more absurd than described.

But it was too late to blame them now. The fact remained: the highest permissions of the four organizations' power spaces had indeed fallen into Lin Jiang's hands.

If Lin Jiang succeeded and let the creatures of the Second Abyss return to reality, even Wu Chang would find it a headache.

Wu Chang slowly opened his eyes, drained his tea, and reached for the teapot—only to find Hou Jingchuan had already lifted it, ready to refill his cup.

He initially thought to stop him, hesitated a moment, then didn't intervene—instead, he calmly pushed his cup forward.

"I need details about that strange dungeon you mentioned."

The solemnness on Hou Jingchuan's face dissolved into unmasked delight.

To the senior officials of the Bureau, as long as Wu Chang agrees to act, the matter is already eighty percent settled.

He poured water while describing the dungeon Lin Jiang was about to enter.

This dungeon lies outside the jurisdiction of the Four Organizations, belonging to none, thus becoming the property of all four.

The Four Organizations jointly divided it, tightly controlling access to the dungeon; other players wishing to enter must rely on random matching, with a probability one-tenth that of a normal dungeon.

!

This made the dungeon obscure to outsiders and absent from any difficulty rankings.

The dungeon is named "Cursed by Misfortune," its content extremely simple: no world-building mysteries, no unbeatable bosses.

Players need do only one thing: survive, and survive with their sanity intact.

Players entering the dungeon will, after a set interval, develop a Misfortune Mark.

The Misfortune Mark brings random troubles: sometimes inexplicable horror hallucinations; those lacking mental fortitude will be affected, losing a temporary cap on their Sanity;

sometimes thrusting players into a bizarre space, where one misstep leads to death;

sometimes summoning monsters from the sky; only by defeating the monster or escaping its pursuit can a player survive one Misfortune.

Once inside, players face relentless Misfortunes, sinking into prolonged terror and exhaustion; insufficient preparation makes mid-dungeon collapse inevitable.

The dungeon's pressure is immense, but so are its rewards.

The dungeon's scoring is so lenient it borders on generous: even completing only the most basic survival main storyline, the completion rate exceeds 60%, and players who have entered this dungeon greatly increase the chance of upgrading certain skills or talents.

Among known completers, the most absurd reward went to Sword Star: when he was under level twenty, Sword Star experienced a sudden insight within this dungeon, triggering the Advanced Class Transformation Quest of the Sword Sect ahead of schedule.

To many among the Four Organizations' completers, this is not "Cursed by Misfortune"—it is "Blessed by Fortune."

"Wait." Wu Chang interrupted Hou Jingchuan.

"I'm confused. Didn't you say earlier this dungeon is extremely difficult, even more bizarre than some S-rank dungeons? Then why do you say someone can clear it before level twenty?"

Hou Jingchuan knew Wu Chang would ask this, and replied:

"This is the most bizarre aspect of the Cursed by Misfortune dungeon: all players' stats are suppressed to one-tenth, but never below five. Stat differences among players are infinitely narrowed within this dungeon."

"Whether a player is level ten or thirty, entering Cursed by Misfortune makes them nearly equal to ordinary people. Clear thinking, sharp observation, and techniques honed a thousand times matter far more than stats for survival."

Hou Jingchuan's expression turned complex as he said:

"Because of this dungeon's unique mechanism, it became a cradle for nurturing powerful new players—but now, this cradle of talent has turned into a death trap dragging the Wasteland Realm into irrevocable ruin."

"Lin Jiang chose this place precisely because, in Cursed by Misfortune, every player must fight tooth and nail just to survive—no one has the bandwidth to hunt him."

Here, Hou Jingchuan suddenly smiled at Wu Chang, making Wu Chang's skin crawl.

"This dungeon is extraordinarily difficult for us—but not for Peace."

"Peace, you cleared the Moonlight Sanatorium perfectly during your trial dungeon. The mechanics of Cursed by Misfortune seem tailor-made for you."

Wu Chang drank his tea with a blank face, but internally scoffed.

This isn't tailor-made for me—it's clearly my worst nightmare, designed to cripple a stat monster like me.

But the job was accepted; he had no reason to back out.

As Hou Jingchuan said, in such a dangerous dungeon, many players would surely die.

The more players die, the wider the stage for his own performance.

Having played a stat monster for too long, it was time to remember he was a mechanism monster.

"How do I ambush Lin Jiang?"

Seeing Wu Chang ask this, Hou Jingchuan knew he had him firmly hooked, and immediately pulled out a piece of equipment and handed it to Wu Chang.

"Item Name: Fate Cube"

"Item Type: Special Consumable"

"Item Description: A player with temporary administrative permissions may input a specific dungeon coordinate into the Fate Cube. Upon activation, the user may enter the designated dungeon via the coordinate."

"Note: Current target dungeon: Wasteland—91162, Dungeon Name: Cursed by Misfortune."

Wu Chang toyed with the Fate Cube in his hand; he had only heard rumors that the Four Organizations possessed items to specify dungeons—he had never seen the real thing before.

Hou Jingchuan said:

"The Cursed by Misfortune dungeon is highly unusual: each player may enter only once, and it opens only at fixed intervals, each session lasting one hour; during that time, all players are placed into the same instance."

"The next opening will be in four days at noon. Peace, your dungeon cooldown should already be refreshed, so it won't delay you."

Wu Chang continued to fiddle with the cube and asked, "Mr. Hou, won't your Four Organizations also send your own people on this operation?"

Hunting Lin Jiang concerns the highest permissions of the Four Organizations and the fate of the entire Wasteland Realm; even if Hou Jingchuan trusted him completely, he would never stake everything on Wu Chang alone.

Hou Jingchuan admitted: "Besides Peace, we will make our own arrangements. Cursed by Misfortune allows only fifteen entrants per session; the more of our people we send, the fewer random players will match in, reducing variables."

"But rest assured, the personnel we select have been thoroughly vetted—they will serve only as your Nurse Zhu Li, never as your burden."

Wu Chang nodded, placed the Fate Cube back on the table, and for the first time since the conversation began, smiled—a professional, service-industry smile.

"Now that the operation is settled, let's discuss compensation."

(End of Chapter)