Chapter 307

Feeling the warmth from Erin's palm, Amber gradually calmed down and stopped trembling.

Wu Chang arrived at the bedroom at this moment, and when Amber's expression steadied, he asked:

"Still that dream you can't remember?"

Amber's voice was dry as she said, "This time I can recall a little."

Seeing Amber's emotions slipping again, Wu Chang soothed her: "Don't be afraid—we're all here. Take your time and speak."

Amber furrowed her brow, straining to recall the scenes of the dream.

"I dreamed something terrifying was watching me from outside—I tried to run away, but no matter where I went, it kept its gaze on me."

"It realized I couldn't escape, so it began slowly gnawing at the house from outside. I wanted to stop it, but I couldn't."

"When I became aware again, I was already sitting up."

As Amber recalled the nightmare, Wu Chang saw thick black mist rising from her wrist.

He had seen this scene many times before—it was the Mark of Misfortune.

Unlike before, his attributes had further unlocked, his Inspiration exceeding 60 points; the previously blurred Mark of Misfortune now gradually revealed its true form in his eyes.

Within the black mist, the true entity was a strand of black thorns.

The black thorns formed a circular band, like a thorned bracelet wrapped around Amber's wrist, its sharp spines piercing into her body and releasing ominous energy.

Unlike previous times, this appearance of the Mark of Misfortune was not followed by disaster.

At first, Wu Chang wondered if too many players had triggered the Mark of Misfortune, and disasters were booked too full to reach his home.

But after waiting over ten minutes with no disaster arriving, his expression darkened.

For during the wait, the fear in Amber's eyes grew, and she radiated an "fragile" aura.

This was a sign of declining willpower and runaway Inspiration.

The Mark of Misfortune entwined around Amber—its very existence was calamity itself.

Wu Chang reached out and seized Amber's wrist, trying to forcibly remove the Mark of Misfortune, but just because he could see the black thorns didn't mean he could touch them.

He tried several times—with flesh, spirit, energy, even the She Lei from the Five Thunder Art that grants protection—but none could reach the black thorns.

Erin used several light-based magics, which only improved Amber's state slightly and let her fall back asleep—none could remove the Mark of Misfortune.

After Amber fell asleep, Wu Chang rubbed his temples, grimacing as he said:

"This is troublesome."

Erin showed concern, stroking Amber as she asked, "What can I do for her?"

Wu Chang sighed. "There's little we can do right now—we must first understand the root of the problem."

"For now, stay with her, give her as much security as you can. As for a solution, I'll think of something."

The next morning, though Amber tried hard to act normal, as if nothing had happened, Wu Chang still sensed her spirit had grown weary.

She was afraid of something.

Amber pretended to be fine; Wu Chang and Erin feared that pointing it out would only increase her pressure, so they pretended not to notice and carried on as usual.

Arriving at Knox Elementary, Wu Chang watched Amber enter her classroom, then went alone to the rooftop, overlooking the school.

Since the Faceless Shadow began, solving Amber's problem could no longer be done by brute force alone.

Especially this time—appearance of the Mark of Misfortune meant it was tied to the instance's core mechanism.

A non-corporeal, non-divine entity had him stumped for now.

He pulled out the Omniscient Crystal, attempting to take out a small loan for a breakthrough solution.

Tempted by the Great Primordial Pivot of the Misfortune-Enshrouded instance, the Omniscient Crystal approved Wu Chang's loan request—but when he asked how to resolve Amber's nightmares, it gave no reply and went silent.

"Is there no solution… or does it simply not know?"

Watching the Omniscient Crystal continue to feign death, Wu Chang clicked his tongue.

Even the Omniscient Crystal couldn't offer a solution for something tied to the Misfortune-Enshrouded instance—Hou Jingchuan had said the anomaly of the Mark of Misfortune rivaled an S-rank instance, and Wu Chang had thought that exaggerated; now it seemed he'd been too conservative.

As he pondered his next move, at the edge of his vision, thick black mist coalesced on the ground near the school's small library.

The color and texture of the mist resembled that of the Mark of Misfortune.

Amber was still in class—so who was the unlucky one who'd drawn the Mark of Misfortune?

He rushed to the small library, and only when he drew near did he realize it wasn't one unlucky person—it was the entire library.

Black thorns erupted from the ground, enveloping the library; dozens of white, plump, half-meter-long worms crawled out of the holes torn by the thorns, climbing up the thorns toward the library.

The white worms swarmed densely—numbering over a hundred already—covering nearly thirty percent of the library's surface.

They gnawed at the building's surface; wherever they ate, the space once occupied by the library and its very sense of existence faded away.

The library's sense of existence had already thinned drastically; a teacher coming to return a book walked nearby, stared directly at the library—and saw nothing.

He glanced around twice, embarrassed, scratched his head, turned, and left, muttering as he went: "What was I supposed to do again?"

Even after consuming only thirty percent, the library had already become invisible and forgotten.

If the white worms devoured the entire library, the space it occupied and all memory of it would vanish completely.

Hou Jingchuan's intelligence only mentioned that the Mark of Misfortune summoned monsters to attack players without shelter at night.

A monster that spawns in daylight and targets buildings—something the four major organizations had never encountered in all their years monopolizing the Misfortune-Enshrouded instance.

Looks like we've hit a hidden quest.

Wu Chang wasn't sure if this current situation was tied to Amber's anomaly—but the appearance of white worms that devoured existence was certainly no good sign.

Seeing no one nearby, he waved his hand, opening the Blind Abyss, and hurled the entire swarm of white worms into it.

The worms couldn't breathe and couldn't escape the Blind Abyss; within minutes, they drowned within it.

An A-rank skill was truly an A-rank skill—any other ability would've struggled to clear hundreds of white worms so easily.

The white worm swarm was dead, but the Mark of Misfortune surrounding the library remained—meaning the monster hadn't been fully cleared.

He entered the library and found, as expected, a single colossal worm—three meters tall, five meters long—lying motionless in the center of the lobby; its size marked it as the king of the swarm.

The white worm king's presence was overwhelmingly strong—so strong that upon entering the library, nothing else would remain in your field of vision.

Such a conspicuous aura meant that even without relying on the insect swarms outside, merely by its own body, it could easily overpower puppets like the centipede doll.

If today's intruders had been any other players—even Booker, a core player of one of the four major organizations—they would never dare engage it head-on due to the vast numerical disparity. Too bad it ran into Wu Chang.

According to the four major organizations' records, once a monster in an instance targets a player, even several players working together must expend considerable effort to defeat it.

If a player encounters a monster alone—like Parker's ambush by the Thousand-Eyed—it's nearly impossible for even a max-level player to escape death.

But now, the white worm king's situation was even more helpless than that of lone players targeted by monsters.

The mighty worm king, before it could even react, found a pool of water forming beneath it—and the next moment, it plunged into the Blind Abyss.

Wu Chang didn't even bother entering the Blind Abyss himself; he merely added a touch of Deep Water Devourer, rendering the worm king's struggles futile.

As the entire white worm clan settled neatly together at the ocean floor, the black thorns surrounding the small library shattered and vanished, and the lost sense of presence returned.

The familiar small library reappeared in everyone's sight. The librarian, nearly back at the classroom, slapped his forehead and remembered he'd come to return books—then turned back toward the library.

He muttered, "Getting old, forgetting things so easily."

He bumped into Wu Chang as he entered, and they exchanged a greeting.

The appearance of the white worms filled Wu Chang with intense dread; for the rest of the day, he patrolled the campus, fearing hidden monsters might be quietly devouring Knox Elementary.

!

The good news: aside from the curse mark encountered in the small library, the campus remained peaceful for the rest of the time—no more monsters appeared.

The bad news: after school, as he drove Amber and Erin back to 26 Huayuanjie, he discovered a faint black mist hovering over his attic.

What the hell is this? Are they just going to slap me in the face directly?

Wu Chang glanced silently at Amber and noticed that though she feigned calmness, her gaze lingered on the attic for an extra second before stepping out of the car.

She couldn't see the curse mark on her own arm, yet she could see the anomaly above the attic—this wasn't good news at all.

He'd rather Amber saw nothing at all than believe the disaster had come to their home because of her.

After dinner, Wu Chang refused Amber's request to sleep alone in the attic and had Erin take her to bed early.

He stood guard alone in the attic, eager to see which fool dared come to deliver his head.

Time slipped swiftly to midnight, when he heard sirens on the street outside.

Through the perspective of True Self, he knew the chaos outside stemmed from Lin Jiang's ally, Long Kai, the leader of the Iron Armor Gang.

He'd been spotted entering the city, detected by surveillance cameras, prompting the police to dispatch officers to pursue him.

Since Long Kai was already a wanted criminal and his crimes were exceptionally heinous—linked to the mass murder case on Roman Street—the Sigeft City Police Department had been under constant media pressure.

So the moment Long Kai appeared, a high-level apprehension operation was launched: police cars, armored vehicles, and armed helicopters all mobilized.

Long Kai fled; the police chased.

As they pursued and evaded, the battlefield stretched all the way from Huayuanjie to the neighboring Milan Street.

Frustrated by the armed helicopters hovering overhead, Long Kai revealed his fused-monster form and condensed three energy spears in his hands, hurling them skyward.

The spears pierced through the cockpit from below, killing the pilot and two soldiers instantly; the runaway aircraft wobbled and plummeted toward the ground.

It landed—of all places—right on 26 Huayuanjie.

Seeing the massive armed helicopter crash down from the sky, Wu Chang stared blankly, his face covered in question marks.

You've got to be kidding me.

The power from the Sea Giant's consumption of vital energy was all channeled into True Self's body; even transformed into the Sea Giant, his base physical attributes were too limited to withstand a ten-ton object crashing from above.

Fortunately, he wasn't the only one in the house who could fight.

Erin, who had been soothing Amber to sleep, sensed the anomaly in the sky and immediately revealed her divine true form.

Two enormous wings of light extended from either side of the house, converging upward into an arched barrier that caught the falling helicopter.

The divine wings, soft as real feathers, caught the helicopter with effortless grace, making not a single sound to disturb Amber's sleep.

The wings gently carried the helicopter down onto the lawn, then retracted back into the house, as if nothing had happened.

As the helicopter landed safely, the curse mark surrounding the attic shattered.

Wu Chang exhaled deeply—he'd intended to guard the attic so Amber wouldn't feel guilty over property damage, but he'd nearly been the one to crash.

Though the attic had once housed the fluorescent fungal cluster that brought Amber sorrowful memories, it also held many of her cherished recollections; if she woke tomorrow to find it in ruins, he couldn't imagine how devastated she'd be.

Fortunately, Erin had saved the day.

Long Kai, Lin Jiang—you truly deserve to die.

I must accelerate actions on the True Self front—take control of Sigeft City and strike back hard.

I'll make sure these bastards can't stay in Sigeft City for even an hour.

At Bai Lao's warehouse, True Self was holding a meeting with several lieutenants.

After Miles finished his report, it was the Negotiator's turn—but Wu Chang interrupted before she could speak:

"When we probed their stance earlier, those three who clearly refused to support my mayoral campaign—how have you handled them?"

Those three council members were all local aristocrats of Sigeft City, frequenting high-end circles; Bai Lao's members couldn't act against them directly, so Wu Chang assigned the task to several players.

The Negotiator took charge of two of them; Veronica chose one.

Veronica's target suffered a car accident last night, the vehicle losing control and plunging into the sea.

But two days have passed, and the Negotiator's side has remained silent—those two targets are still running around, questioning whether Wu Chang's fire suppression was divinely inspired.

Wu Chang hadn't been overly anxious before, but the sudden change in Amber's situation forced him to hasten the mayoral election—and now he had to press.

The Negotiator sensed Wu Chang's urgency, yet her face showed no guilt of failure; instead, she wore the calm confidence of someone about to pull off a grand scheme.

She said, "Boss, for this mission, we've brought in a special ally—our secret weapon. She's been working tirelessly toward its completion, without slacking."

"After tonight, everything will be clear."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow—the Negotiator meant the player handling the operation was a secret asset of the Bureau, and she was nearly successful.

Given the Negotiator's confidence, Wu Chang grew curious about this secret weapon—wondering who she was, and whether he'd ever met her.

Henderson Building, the most luxurious office tower in Sigef City, without exception.

Senator Henderson had just finished touring his building with his favorite young son, Little Henderson, and was about to return to his villa to host a birthday party for Little Henderson's fifth birthday.

At a distance from Henderson Building, a girl with an easel before her gazed past it, gazing far off at the father and son, murmuring to herself:

"Love—I have seen love."

(End of Chapter)