Chapter 316

Amid the noise and confusion, Wu Chang finally clarified that his relationship with Grace was a misunderstanding.

Because Amber had woken up early, Wu Chang's plan had to be slightly adjusted: he would deal with the Giant Stitched Monster first, then have breakfast.

If the goal were merely to protect Amber's inner world, defeat the final monster, awaken her, and complete her ascension, then the True Self alone would suffice.

But he had not forgotten his original reason for entering the Doom-Enshrouded Dungeon: to hunt down Lin Jiang and prevent the Four Organizations' highest authority from being brought into the Rational Realm.

If Amber awakened the moment he killed the Giant Stitched Monster and the dungeon ended immediately, that would be problematic.

To ensure the Giant Stitched Monster and Lin Jiang died together, his physical body must accompany him, just in case.

He reached the door, about to leave, when he noticed Amber gripping the cuff of his sleeve.

"I want to go with you."

He turned and smiled. "Don't worry—I'm just going out to buy groceries. I'll be back soon."

Amber shook her head. "I know. You're going to fight that monster, aren't you?"

Wu Chang sighed helplessly. "You heard our conversation?"

To prevent Amber from overhearing, he had already performed a mystical ritual to seal the sound.

But this was Amber's inner world—nothing could stop her if she chose to listen.

Amber clung tightly to Wu Chang's sleeve, looking up at him. Her appearance had not changed at all, but Wu Chang sensed a shift in her aura and gaze.

Amber said: "At first I only heard a few words, but when you were halfway through, I remembered many things—I regained my memories."

Wu Chang looked at Amber, as if his daughter had suddenly grown up overnight, unsure what to say.

Amber spoke on her own:

"They never explained many things clearly, but those things were vital to me."

"At the research institute, many wanted to escape—including me. At first, whenever they organized attempts, the institute's surveillance would detect them, and the organizers were brutally killed. But we didn't stop."

As Amber spoke, the weather above No. 26 Flower Street changed rapidly.

Amber continued: "We adopted more covert communication methods and more cautious plans, but we all failed."

"I participated in every operation, but I was afraid of failure, so I only dared to follow behind them. That's why, whenever a plan was about to collapse, I had just enough time to use Gaia's divinity to hide some people, saving them from the guards' pursuit."

"Everyone called me the Seed of Hope, believing that as long as I was there, we could gradually find the institute's weaknesses and eventually lead everyone out of that hell. But only I knew—I wasn't the Seed of Hope. I was simply afraid, afraid that one day I'd die and become one of the bodies hanging in the training yard."

Wu Chang recalled Amber's third mental flaw: Survivor's Guilt. This flaw likely stemmed from this very experience.

Amber's gaze hardened. "This time, I won't be a bystander or just a Seed of Hope. I want to walk to the very end myself."

Wu Chang asked: "As the center of this world, can you now control your own power?"

A divine aura emanated from Amber as she replied:

"I and that monster represent the two sides of this world. As long as it exists, I cannot fully take control of this world—but I possess enough power to match it closely, and I can still be useful."

The divine aura radiating from Amber alone proved her floor was not low.

Not much weaker than the Giant Stitched Monster, by her current stats, even if all players except Wu Chang were bound together, they still couldn't match her.

Any dungeon selected by the Abyss Game is never a guaranteed death sentence.

If the Giant Stitched Monster is the hidden final boss of this dungeon, then Amber—having repaired her mental flaws and recovered her memories—is the ally who can help defeat that hidden final boss.

According to the original game flow, players were meant to assist Amber in a final battle against the Giant Stitched Monster to have any chance of victory.

But for Wu Chang, as long as Amber couldn't fully control the dungeon world, he could simply snap his fingers and erase the Giant Stitched Monster—so her involvement was unnecessary.

Her presence nearby would only complicate things; it was cleaner if he acted alone.

He patted Amber's head. "I can see you've been trying hard to change—but do you remember our agreement?"

"Just be yourself. Trust your guardian's strength for what comes next."

Sigef City, City Hall.

The appearance of the Giant Stitched Monster had thrown City Hall into emergency mode; phone rings echoed everywhere, and emergency calls from across the city were overwhelming every employee's line.

Everyone was discussing how to deal with the sudden monster, yet the newly appointed mayor, Pinghe, sat calmly in his office, unruffled.

City Hall employees wanted to ask him: Didn't he know that after this monster incident, he'd be the one to take the blame?

Or did he think the gods would protect him a second time, sending an angel to eliminate the monster?

Though the second method was genuinely feasible, Wu Chang had no intention of letting Ailin intervene.

Ailin was his secret weapon—he wouldn't use her until the final moment. For the Giant Stitched Monster, he alone was enough.

He sat here not without preparation—he was waiting.

He wasn't waiting for the Giant Stitched Monster's arrival, but for a result.

Shortly after the Giant Stitched Monster appeared, he had already used his True Self to observe it up close.

The Giant Stitched Monster reminded Wu Chang of a game he'd played long ago—the stitched monster resembled a character called Butcher, or Abomination.

Its form retained a humanoid shape; if a severely nearsighted person removed their glasses and stood far enough away, they might mistake it for a human.

But upon closer inspection, every part of it was stitched together from different bodies—or rather, corpse fragments.

The stitching holding these corpse pieces together was thick, black thorns.

Wu Chang was no stranger to these thorns—they were the very essence of the Doom Mark.

Under the black thorns' stitching, the Giant Stitched Monster became a bloated, obese creature: its left hand ended in sharp, elongated claws, its right hand dragged five thick tentacles, and beneath its body sprouted the lower limbs of a cow, a horse, a sheep, and a lion.

As for the monster's appearance—aside from looking vaguely human from afar, every single part of it, up close, was unmistakably non-human.

While experiencing the monster's grotesque visage up close, he also noticed the large red last words etched onto its body.

He had assumed the grudge's owner would be Li Zi—but it turned out to be Lin Jiang.

Lin Jiang, having passed the stage of belief in Mercury and entered the stage of doubt, held no loyalty to the Society of Light.

His grudge recorded everything they had done in the Doom-Enshrouded Dungeon, faithfully documenting how Li Zi seized the highest authority and then betrayed him.

Additionally, in the final moments of the grudge, just before Lin Jiang's consciousness was about to be consumed by the divine Stitched Monster, there was a brief solo scene involving Li Zi.

Li Zi had a bad habit: he liked to mock dead corpses.

Everyone says villains die from talking too much, so Li Zi learned from films and TV, reversed the order: kill first, then mock the corpse.

He revealed that the Light Society had always treated him as a trump card, preparing a special item for him.

As long as the Cursed Dungeon becomes a Pillar of the Real World or ascends to the Principle Realm, he could use the special item to smuggle himself into the Principle Realm.

Li Zi held the special item and mocked Lin Jiang before the thorn cocoon, saying Lin Jiang had been nothing but expendable material meant to draw the four organizations' attention, yet believed he controlled everything—making it exhausting for him, nearly causing Li Zi to burst out laughing multiple times.

Grievances have a source, debts have an owner; Lin Jiang didn't just die by Li Zi's hand, he was also danced upon at his grave, leaving his bloody last words simple and direct.

【Eliminate Li Zi, cause the Cursed Dungeon to ascend, and destroy the Light Society's plan.】

Tsk, the Light Society and Li Zi went so far as to squeeze every last drop of utility from Lin Jiang before discarding him as a pawn—they never imagined Lin Jiang's resentment would turn back and expose their conspiracy.

Heaven watches what men do; if Heaven doesn't see it, Wu Chang sees it.

After confirming the giant stitched monster's true identity was Lin Jiang, Zhen Wo returned to City Hall and used the mayor's authority to file an emergency status application with the council.

Once approved, it would mean Xigefu City had entered emergency status, and the mayor would become the supreme leader, gaining emergency powers.

During the duration of this authority, his powers would face no restrictions or constraints.

Right now, he sat in his office, waiting for the council's response.

After waiting longer, less than two minutes remained before the giant stitched monster reached City Hall.

At that moment, the Negotiation Master finally sent word.

The council voted to approve; Xigefu City officially entered emergency status.

Wu Chang stood up, a gleam of excitement on his face—he'd finally waited long enough.

Originally, he ran for mayor to conveniently command Xigefu City's police force, investigate Lin Jiang and others' actions, and along the way complete Main Quest Three.

But after becoming mayor, he realized the mayor's position was truly valuable: in Xigefu City, money could buy anything, but the mayor's special authority could accomplish what money couldn't.

Federal currency was powerful, but whether activating construction, accelerating elections, or unlocking extra attributes, it only affected Xigefu City and the player themselves.

The mayor's authority was different.

When Xigefu City entered emergency status and came entirely under his command, he gained a degree of dungeon authority, allowing him to set rules, add or delete dungeon rules.

Though he could only influence one world rule to a limited extent, for Wu Chang, one was enough.

He chose to modify the world rule as follows: nullify the additional damage reduction effect of the Oath of Brotherhood, and increase damage between players.

"The existence of the Oath of Brotherhood's effect is deemed a threat to public safety in Xigefu City. To maintain urban peace, the additional damage reduction between players provided by the Oath of Brotherhood is removed; damage dealt between players is reduced from 70% to 50%."

The mayor's authority took immediate effect; the moment Wu Chang made his decision, the Abyss Game issued a notice to all players in the dungeon.

If the mayor's authority worked this well, why didn't anyone mention it in Hou Jingchuan's dungeon intel?

Oh, right—no previous player entering the dungeon had ever become mayor. Never mind.

Wu Chang stood up and asked his secretary beside him: "If the office window breaks, can we claim it on public funds?"

The secretary, slow to follow Wu Chang's train of thought, nodded dumbly: "Repair costs are covered by City Hall's budget."

Wu Chang nodded in satisfaction and instructed: "Be sure to overreport—Air Force coffee cups alone can be claimed at 1200 Federal coins; with this much glass, claiming 100,000 should be perfectly reasonable."

Without waiting for the secretary to react, he grabbed the office chair he'd been sitting on and smashed it through the office's floor-to-ceiling window.

He stepped to the window's edge, about to jump down, then remembered something and turned back to add: "Don't forget to claim the chair."

He then leapt straight out the window, sprinting toward the giant stitched monster.

After landing from City Hall, with each step he took, his body doubled in size; by the time he reached the giant stitched monster, he had grown to two hundred meters tall.

The massive stitched monster now looked tiny before Wu Chang.

Lin Jiang's consciousness had been swallowed by the giant stitched monster; now, it was merely a beast driven by instinct to destroy.

Without sentience, Wu Chang had nothing to say to it. For the first divine entity he'd encountered in the dungeon, he must grant it the highest respect.

"Man!"

He slammed his elbow at the monster, the elbow tip glowing with divine lightning, striking the monster's head stitched from five different faces.

Divine lightning combined with the Desecrator's synergy could overwhelm even a lower deity like Mercury—let alone a collection of fringe divine seed fragments.

The lightning surged into the monster's body; through its flesh, the electric currents could be clearly seen writhing inside, wreaking havoc.

One elbow strike shattered the monster's seams; black thorns snapped, and large fragments broke loose from its body.

The ejected parts, deprived of the body's life force, were instantly consumed by divine lightning, turning to ash in the electric glow.

The giant stitched monster lacked the Dragon Armor's immunity mechanism; struck by Manba's Iron Elbow, it was blinded, flailing its tentacles in indiscriminate attacks.

Perhaps due to the Cursed Dungeon's special mechanics, the Abyss Game had given the dungeon boss extremely restrictive stats—the stitched monster's attributes hovered around 150 points each.

Compared to other players under attribute suppression, this was absurdly high; fighting such a boss meant dying instantly from a single touch.

But compared to Wu Chang, the stitched monster's stats were laughable.

At least its blind attacks posed no threat to Wu Chang.

Even so, though he held the advantage, Wu Chang remained cautious, delivering two more elbow strikes to stack Manba's mark to full.

After modifying the dungeon rules, other players' damage reduction had dropped, but Wu Chang's extra damage reduction from Manba's mark remained largely unaffected.

With three layers of Manba's mark reducing damage, the stitched monster's already pitiful attacks became even weaker.

Wu Chang endured the monster's assaults, pulling apart its black thorn seams one by one, dismantling its parts piece by piece.

Before Wu Chang's strength exceeding 200 points, the stitched monster had no right to struggle.

First the claws, then the tentacles, then the four animal limbs, finally layer upon layer of armor-like flesh.

When dismantled to the core, Lin Jiang was revealed at the monster's center, a seal resting on his forehead.

This seal, inscribed with the character "ten thousand," was the special item the Light Society gave Lin Jiang; it connected to the divine hidden mine planted by the Light Society, allowing him to subdue dungeon monsters or fuse with them for extra attribute liberation.

He never imagined the seal's final use would be on himself.

Pulled from within the stitched monster and exposed to light again, Lin Jiang seemed to regain a sliver of awareness, gasping for breath.

Wu Chang pulled Lin Jiang out and asked him in a voice he could hear:

"Does it feel good to be surrounded by divine remnants, drowning in pain and despair?"

In Lin Jiang's memories, he had mentioned more than once that he wanted to make the World Will collapse, and Wu Chang remembered his words.

Unfortunately, the only thing that answered him was a hoarse, gasping breath.

Wu Chang felt a little disappointed, casually crushed Lin Jiang's body, and took the Ten Thousand Character Yuan Seal.

Not far from the battle between Wu Chang and Lin Jiang, a monster that had suddenly appeared disrupted the lives of the citizens of Sigef City.

To avoid the monster's attack, people steered clear of its path and ducked into the buildings along the street.

Li Zi blended in among the panicked citizens, hiding inside a bank and watching the battle in the distance.

He had anticipated the battle's failure, but the course of the battle had completely exceeded his expectations.

He couldn't understand how a Wasteland Realm player called Peace could suppress Lin Jiang, who had fused with a divine aspect.

Lin Jiang looked like a crudely stitched cheap rag doll, having parts casually torn off, cloth ripped open, and stuffing pulled out.

Li Zi hadn't even had time to gather intel before the battle was already over.

He couldn't comprehend how, when everyone was clearly a Wasteland Realm player, Peace could maintain his stats inside the Misfortune-Plagued Instance, and how he could treat divinity as nothing.

When Peace took down Murphy, he was also on the scene. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but Peace seemed to deal with the divine-aspect fusion body even more easily than with the Fearless Stone Man.

Li Zi shook his head, offering a silent prayer for the Abyss Game—yet another game ruined by cheaters.

Fortunately, he had the foresight to guess that even a divine-aspect fusion body might not be enough, so he had transferred the highest authority of the four major organizations in advance.

Now he only needed to wait for the instance to upgrade, and before the instance ended and he entered the settlement space, use an item to smuggle himself into the Reason Realm.

Although the World Will hadn't been recovered, at least the highest authority had been preserved.

Watching Peace turn and leave after killing Lin Jiang, Li Zi's suspended heart finally settled. He was just about to leave the bank and find a place to hide until the instance ended, when he suddenly noticed a puddle of water at his feet.

Was the lobby leaking?

Just as he was wondering, someone patted his shoulder.

Li Zi turned his head and saw a stranger smiling at him.

"Hello, did you drop something?"

Li Zi looked at the stranger's hand and saw that what the other party was holding was precisely the seal bearing the Ten Thousand Character Yuan.

Why was this thing in his hand? When had he pried it off Lin Jiang's head? And what was his relationship with Peace?

Li Zi froze on the spot, his brain momentarily overloaded, experiencing firsthand the state Murphy had been in when he transformed into the Fearless Stone Man.

Wu Chang smiled and said, "If you can't figure it out, take a swim and you'll understand."

The next moment, Li Zi was swallowed by the puddle at his feet.

(End of this chapter)