Chapter 286: Cursed by Misfortune

Four days passed in the blink of an eye, and soon it was time to enter the instance.

During this period, Wu Chang's life was far from easy; as the strongest numerical monster in the version, he preemptively adapted to his weakened body and further refined all his techniques to prepare for the upcoming nerf.

His main body continued sparring with Zhao Yan; though he got beaten badly on the arena, his combat skills were now fully stabilized after their upgrade.

At least in Wanghai Branch, under ability-restricted conditions, purely in terms of hand-to-hand combat, no one except Zhao Yan could match him.

What, you ask about rankings without ability restrictions?

Nothing to say—just elbow them into submission.

While his main body underwent devilish training on the arena, his true self wasn't idle either.

He directed his true self into the Anthem Corporation's dimension to complete follow-up tasks and train with firearms.

Before leaving the Anthem Corporation's dimension, Wu Chang publicly claimed Schultz had retired to focus on research, stepping from the spotlight to behind the scenes.

But the world is never short of clever people, nor of fools who believe in conspiracy theories.

After that night's battle with Huanxi, Schultz's condition was poor; many astute observers had already guessed his retirement was due to health issues—or death.

Under their instigation, the pacing and probes against Anthem Corporation grew increasingly frequent.

Not just competitors, but even national governments began subtly probing Anthem Corporation.

After all, whether in technology or scale, Anthem Corporation had surpassed every other nation on Earth, including the Federation—even the Rabbits had stopped analyzing the Federation's PPTs and now studied Anthem Corporation's press conferences instead.

Such an unregulated behemoth possessing absolute military power was a thorn in the side of every faction.

Previously, Schultz's presence had kept everyone restrained, but if Anthem Corporation's soul—Schultz—was compromised, then sorry, everyone would come to claim their share.

To deal with these persistent vultures, Wu Chang held two press conferences, using Projection of the Illusory into Reality to display a frail Schultz delivering brief statements.

Schultz's frailty satisfied everyone's speculation and caused them to rein in their probes.

After the press conferences, Wu Chang donned the latest model Primordial Armor and went to the White House to play golf with Meishen Sect.

He swung his club and blew away the entire lawn within hundreds of meters, shattering a small artificial lake into a mist of water droplets—immediately, the eyes of all Federation factions turned clear, and all probes against Anthem Corporation were canceled.

Of course, what enabled this wasn't the latest Primordial Armor—it was purely his physical stats and the Water Thunder from the Five Thunder Art.

Regarding research on Primordial Armor and Disqualified Monsters, he had ordered all work halted and redirected all resources toward high-energy weapons and Spirit-Trigger Surgery.

Using artificial materials to craft weapons and thereby enhance his combat power—Wu Chang found such methods beneath him, and the gains too trivial.

Aside from existing stock, he had no intention of continuing research in either field.

Having resolved external pressures, he assigned two tasks.

The first task was for the News Department: he ordered them to release a statement that, building on the experience of the previous Hymn Project, Schultz had made another breakthrough and was now developing a true human deity.

He named this project the Hymn of Light, then handed the News Department a photo of Ailin's selfie as the conceptual art for the artificial deity.

To facilitate Ailin's absorption of faith, the artificial deity's name remained the Eternal Pure Light.

His assignment to the News Department served as groundwork for the next harvest of faith from the Anthem Corporation dimension—first, make everyone aware of this artificial deity, embed His existence deeply in public consciousness, and spark discussion.

Only then, when Ailin truly descended, would the harvest become effortless.

Besides, Ailin was already an artificial deity; aside from Schultz's name being attached, no false claims were made in the publicity—on the contrary, it had been restrained.

The second task was to notify the Weapon R&D Department to prepare the highest-specification firing range—he was going to practice shooting.

As the sole true god of the arms industry, the Unicorn was no longer sufficient to describe Anthem Corporation's position—it was more fitting to call it Babel Tower.

Within Anthem Corporation's Weapon R&D Department lay the world's most advanced firing range, its capabilities and amenities surpassing even the official range of the Crimson Courtyard.

And it was cheaper too.

In four days, he raised his firearm proficiency to mastery and, during this time, fully familiarized himself with the modified Dawn's Weight's abilities.

Entering the private dimension cost the same as entering a Past instance—only 400 Corrupted Silver Coins; if this were done at the Crimson Courtyard's official range with full functionality and Zhinengsi Sect AI coaching, this amount wouldn't even cover a single day.

At 11:30 a. m., after this grueling period of cultivation, Wu Chang, wearing a disguise mask, arrived at the public zone's instance waiting area.

The waiting area was packed—far more players than he'd anticipated.

Since his interview with "Hot Topics of the Week," player enthusiasm for entering instances had surged unprecedentedly; everyone wanted to level up quickly and seize an opportunity in the World instance.

Wu Chang had heard from Bureau members about the surge, but hadn't expected it to reach this scale.

He scanned the crowd, searching for Lin Jiang—but Lin Jiang was extremely cautious; even as the instance was about to open and he was in a safe space, he refused to reveal himself recklessly.

After their agreement that day, Hou Jingchuan handed Wu Chang all intelligence on Lin Jiang, as well as all information the Four Organizations held on the Cursed by Misfortune instance.

Regarding the payment for that day, considering they were all working for the Wasteland Realm, Wu Chang gave Hou Jingchuan a friend's price.

Before success, the Four Organizations must provide him with relevant intelligence and all types of consumables potentially needed in the instance, with total consumable value no less than 50,000 Corrupted Silver Coins.

After success, they would pay him 200,000 Corrupted Silver Coins and allow him to select one A-rank consumable from any of the Four Organizations' treasuries.

Numerically speaking, such compensation could hire Leng Shan, the Wasteland Realm's second breaker, five times—it hardly qualified as a friend's price.

But in Wu Chang's view, he was cleaning up after the Four Organizations; instead of demanding one payment from each, he made them split the cost—this was already a friend's price.

Time quickly reached noon—the instance was about to open.

Wu Chang pulled out the Fate Cube, ready to activate it, when he noticed someone in the crowd moved faster than him.

It was a young man dressed in cheap synthetic gear, unremarkable as a background extra.

The young man raised his right hand, holding an identical Fate Cube; the cube glowed a pale blue, beams shooting from all its faces to form a personal instance entrance before him.

At the same time, Wu Chang activated his own Fate Cube—but he remained low-key, showing no public display of a unique light portal.

As the instance's aura reached him through the portal, he confirmed the young man's entrance led to the Cursed by Misfortune instance.

The Four Organizations' snipers concealed themselves by matching instances within their own faction spaces; without doubt, the young man using the Fate Cube was Lin Jiang in disguise.

As Wu Chang memorized Lin Jiang's disguise, he saw Lin Jiang pull out another item with his left hand.

It was a red metal plaque, inscribed in gold lacquer with the character "Yi." Seeing the plaque, Wu Chang involuntarily recalled the "Righteousness Edict" from films.

Unlike ordinary items, the red token radiated a Root-level aura—no item from the Wasteland Realm had ever emitted such energy; Wu Chang had only seen this before on items belonging to Li Realm players.

Gazing at the red token, a bad premonition rose in him. He watched Lin Jiang press the token against the Fate Cube—next instant, the private teleportation portal before Lin Jiang expanded several times in size, transforming from a private exclusive portal into a public one.

Then Lin Jiang shouted: "I emulate the Holy Peaceful Open Source—breaking the Four Organizations' monopoly over ordinary players! Behind this gate lies an A-rank special reward instance sealed by the Four Organizations—anyone above level 15 has a chance to clear it. The portal lasts only one minute. If you're not afraid of death, follow me!"

Saying this, Lin Jiang stepped first into the instance.

The players on-site immediately erupted—they had never seen such a scene before: free public use of designated instance items. Had the Wasteland Realm truly entered the era of open-source?

But was the instance behind the door really a reward instance?

Just as everyone hesitated, someone suddenly shouted: "What's there to fear? My life isn't worth one-tenth of the designated instance item, let alone two. What could he possibly trick me into?"

With that, he dashed into the light portal.

Others realized this was true: spending two precious items just to trick ordinary players like them was definitely a losing deal.

The passage only lasted one minute; using it to lure people in as decoys was too random to fool many.

Could it be that they're being used as pawns to disrupt the Four Organizations?

As if reading minds, someone else shouted: "So it's the Four Organizations? Fine—consider it a rehearsal for the World instance."

Seeing more and more people rushing into the light portal, and the portal itself dimming and flickering, the undecided onlookers grew anxious and began pushing toward the portal.

!

Wu Chang watched this scene, shook his head, and stepped into his private dimensional passage before the crowd filled the instance.

This Lin Jiang really knows how to stir things up—but using my name to stir them up… has he already guessed I'd join, and is he provoking me?

Since you're so full of energy, you might as well stop living altogether.

"Matching player to instance… Detected player using Fate Cube. Instance match canceled. Switching to designated instance."

Was it an illusion? When the Deep Game detected his designated instance instead of random matching, its notification carried a hint of disappointment.

What are you disappointed about?

"Successfully entered designated instance: 'Wasteland—91162 Dimension'."

"Instance Name: Cursed by Misfortune."

"Instance Type: Chaotic Survival instance."

"Detected player using Unity Decree. Instance Type changed to Multiplayer Survival instance. Player-inflicted damage reduced by an additional 20%."

"Instance Mode: Cooperative Mode. Player-inflicted damage reduced by 70%."

"Instance Difficulty: A"

"Official Recommendation: Minimum Level 25 for instance exploration. Players should proceed with caution."

"Instance Status: On the Brink of Collapse!"

"This is a special instance. All players entering have all attributes reduced to 10% of their original values."

Wu Chang stared at the prompt, stunned. Could this even happen?

The additional 20% damage reduction from the Unity Decree, combined with the 70% from Cooperative Mode, meant player-inflicted damage was lower than the threat posed by the instance dimension's natives.

According to the Bureau's intelligence on him, Lin Jiang was a Tank-type player specializing in Life attributes. With 90% total player-damage reduction now, who could possibly kill him?

No wonder he dared provoke me before entering the instance. If I catch him, I'll pin him down and reward him with a hundred elbow strikes.

"Main Quest One: Survive thirty days in Sigef City. Do not leave Sigef City during this period."

"Main Quest Two: Remain conscious. Do not let your Will drop below 5."

"Main Quest Three: Leave your mark in Sigef City. Become a well-known figure."

"Side Quest: After the instance ends, surviving players will be ranked by their influence in Sigef City. The top five receive additional instance completion bonuses of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% respectively. Additional completion bonus may raise total completion to a maximum of 60%. Excess bonus converts into base instance rewards."

"Note: Many methods exist to gain influence. Think creatively. Do not be bound by common sense."

After the system prompt, a blinding flash of light engulfed Wu Chang as he entered the instance.

He now sat in a small reception room, beside him sat Aileen, dressed in a white long dress. The room's door stood open—as if someone had temporarily left and would return soon.

His presence here was clearly due to the effect of his title "True Walker," but Aileen's presence alongside him indicated she, too, had been affected by "True Walker."

Was this a unique crossover exclusive to him—or was it due to the changes brought by the Primordial Spirit Pivot?

He had no time to ponder this. Memories of the original identity's owner flooded into his mind.

The original owner's name was Xiao En, a former mixed martial arts athlete who accidentally killed his opponent during a match, leading to his expulsion from the competition. Due to his previously arrogant personality, he was widely reported on and subjected to intense online harassment.

Unfortunately, in the Cursed by Misfortune dimension, I am currently enduring massive online harassment—diagnosed with "Yuyu Syndrome," quit the internet, attempted a comeback and rebranding, but the "Don't Laugh Challenge" formula doesn't work here.

Disheartened, Xiao En prematurely ended his career and, with his fiancée Aileen, left their original city to start anew in the remote town of Sigef.

Both were accepted by Knox Elementary School: Xiao En became the school's physical education teacher, while Aileen became the school nurse.

Settled in, they used all their savings to purchase a house.

The house had a garden and a garage, was beautiful and spacious—the most attractive building in several surrounding blocks—and most importantly, it was cheap.

The reason for its low price was simple: the house was haunted. Neighbors said ghosts frequently appeared. The third owner, a middle-aged couple of compassionate psychologists, had just died in an accident.

Ghosts plus a haunted house made the property exceptionally cheap.

The day after they moved in, Aileen learned from a neighbor that the psychologist couple had adopted a young girl. With the guardians' deaths, the girl had been sent back to the orphanage.

Both Xiao En and Aileen were orphans themselves. Hearing this, Aileen felt the girl was pitiful and urged her fiancé to go to the orphanage and adopt the girl, giving her another home.

Wu Chang and Aileen were now inside the orphanage, waiting for the orphanage director to bring the girl.

Wu Chang looked at Aileen and saw her eyes filled with emptiness—she had only received the identity, not the original owner's memories, unlike Wu Chang.

Fortunately, the situation wasn't complicated. Before the orphanage director returned, Wu Chang briefly explained everything to Aileen.

Five minutes later, a middle-aged woman dressed as a nun returned to the room. She was the orphanage director, Susan.

Susan spoke without emotion: "Amber, come out. Meet your adoptive parents. If you know gratitude, you should behave well this time."

Director Susan turned to Wu Chang and asked: "Are you certain you don't want to choose another child? This girl is strange—and she always brings trouble to those around her."

Wu Chang shook his head: "We choose her!"

The moment he saw the girl named Amber, his title "Perfectionist" reacted.

(End of Chapter)