Chapter 334: I Need an Explanation

Due to the time flow ratio of 15:1 between the Faith instance and reality, when Wu Chang and Erin returned to reality, it was already the evening of June 11.

It had been one and a half days since they entered the Cursed instance.

Back in reality, Wu Chang stretched lazily and took deep breaths of the air in the real world.

This time spent in the Abyss Game was longer than before; after finishing the Cursed instance, he immediately headed to the Silent Route and the Quiet Town.

He hadn't noticed it before, but after staying so long in the Abyss, returning to reality made him feel a lightness in every breath he drew.

In contrast, within the Abyss Game, no matter the situation—even in Gao Mu's realm, his own personal dimension—the air carried an underlying heaviness.

That heaviness made him feel oppressed and restless, urging him to complete something as soon as possible.

That faint heaviness might be the manifestation of Abyss corruption.

Feeling the relaxation spreading from within his body outward, Wu Chang reaffirmed his resolve: he must not let Abyss corruption drag the real world down with it.

First, begin with purifying Wanghai City.

Under cover of night, Wu Chang and Erin arrived at the grand auditorium of Wanghai No. 1 High School, the core node of Erin's terrestrial godrealm in Wanghai City.

Erin stepped onto the podium before the auditorium and planted the Miracle Tree.

Originally, Wu Chang had planted the False Miracle here to seize the Revelation godrealm; now they would plant the transformed Miracle Tree—once the False Miracle—to turn the terrestrial godrealm into Erin's true godrealm.

With Wu Chang's temporary administrative authority blessing, the Miracle Tree grew at an astonishing speed.

As it rose upward, its roots spread along the esoteric patterns of the terrestrial godrealm, extending throughout Wanghai City.

In less than an hour, Wanghai City's terrestrial godrealm was fully absorbed into Erin's grand godrealm.

This meant that from now on, Wanghai City was Erin's true godrealm, and its rules would influence reality through the temporary administrative authority.

Whatever effects Erin's godrealm achieved within the Abyss Game would manifest identically in reality, unconstrained by real-world laws.

For example, if Erin could, like the Deep Lord, sink the land beneath her godrealm's domain into the ocean, she could do the same within Wanghai City.

Although Erin's divine rank was too low to condense unique traits within her godrealm, as long as she remained in Wanghai City, she would receive godrealm bonuses and could summon faith energy from other dimensions at will.

Without exaggeration, even if a nuclear war erupted and the surface became a wasteland like the Underground Shelter dimension, Wanghai City under Erin's godrealm would remain untouched.

Not even nuclear war—aside from Joy, any top-tier player from the second layer who entered Wanghai City would at least endure two blows from Erin.

This was the true value of a godrealm controlling rules: unless suppressed by an equally ranked godrealm, even possessing divinity would be useless.

Gazing at the Miracle Tree, Wu Chang couldn't help thinking of the Painter.

If the Painter, unwilling to give up, dared return to Wanghai City seeking revenge, the moment he stepped into the godrealm, he would never leave unscathed.

Watching the colossal Miracle Tree, towering and engulfing all of Wanghai City, Wu Chang finally felt at ease.

The establishment of the godrealm gave him the confidence to face any upheaval—even if the Light Society ever seized the Wasteland Realm and controlled reality, it could not touch him.

Returning home, only two hours remained until dawn; before heading to the Administration Bureau, he opened his attribute panel and selected upgrading Spatial Magic.

After the Administration Bureau paid him for the Rotting Silver Coins and the Cursed instance settlement, his total Rotting Silver Coins reached nearly 380,000.

Even so, when he saw the skill upgrade consume 200,000 Rotting Silver Coins in one go, he still felt a sharp pang.

As the coin count rapidly decreased, his understanding of Spatial Magic deepened; in a daze, his eyes saw countless lines.

He quickly realized this was the synergy between the Lawbreaking Eye and Spatial Magic, revealing to him the origin of space.

He released his inspiration, letting the Lawbreaking Eye perceive the origin of space; as Spatial Magic improved, the number of lines he could see increased.

The world in his eyes gradually split into countless tiny grids, divided by countless intersecting lines.

At first, he could only see them, not touch them.

Later, thinking of how to use Spatial Folding, he realized his physical body could touch these grids.

Then, following the instinct given by his inspiration, using will as an extension of his body and channeling energy, he could touch grids far from himself.

His gaze locked onto the far end of the room, where a vase sat; he tried to use will and energy to forcefully "grip" the grid containing the vase.

The next instant, the vase twisted as its grid was compressed; when the distortion exceeded the vase's structural limit, it exploded with a loud bang.

"You have upgraded Spatial Magic to Master level, reaching its maximum potential. Your Life attribute increases by 10 points, Energy attribute by 25 points, Inspiration attribute by 10 points, Will attribute by 25 points."

No wonder it cost 200,000 Rotting Silver Coins to reach max level—just the upgrade from B to A granted him 70 attribute points.

You get what you pay for; compared to the Lightning Technique fragment upgraded to A-level for 150,000 Rotting Silver Coins, this cost 50,000 more but granted 20 additional attribute points.

If 50,000 Rotting Silver Coins could buy 20 attribute points, top players from major factions would go mad buying them.

Yet beyond the attribute gains, Wu Chang cared more about the new abilities granted by the upgraded Spatial Magic.

"Skill Name: Master-Level Spatial Magic"

"Skill Level: A"

"Skill Description: Your understanding of Spatial Magic has surpassed all prior frameworks; you now touch the origin of space. In your eyes, space is shedding its veil of mystery."

"Note: All theories recorded in the Introduction to Spatial Science have been fully realized by you; you can no longer gain further knowledge from it. This skill has reached its maximum level. To advance further, you must explore the origin of space and forge your own path."

As with previous upgrades, advancing Spatial Magic to Master level enhanced all his existing Spatial abilities.

The bonus of "Efficient Spatial Utilization" doubled directly, becoming a 2000% increase.

The "Inner World" ability gained a new Spatial Barrier effect: if someone attempts to escape using Spatial Magic or forcibly break the space, Wu Chang can reinforce the barrier by channeling energy.

Each point of Energy converts into 30 HP of Spatial Barrier; only by shattering the barrier or having both Spatial Magic level and Energy higher than Wu Chang's can one escape his Inner World.

His current Energy attribute is 206 points; even without entering an instance, using the Abyssal Giant Snake transformation raises this to 335 points.

In a one-on-one scenario, if he converts all his Energy into Spatial Barrier HP, even if the trapped player exhausts themselves, they cannot escape.

The addition of the Spatial Barrier mechanism means he no longer needs to worry about a player like Gilman escaping via Spatial Magic next time he's trapped.

Both foundational Spatial Magic skills saw massive boosts, but they paled compared to the enhancement of Spatial Teleportation.

After becoming a Master of Spatial Magic, he can now use short-range Spatial Teleportation five times consecutively—here, "short-range" means within one kilometer.

His long-range Spatial Teleportation distance increased to 1500 kilometers.

Next time he goes to Beijing, he won't need to endure a flight—he can teleport directly.

Beyond Spatial Teleportation, the "Spatial Folding" ability he mastered as a Grandmaster has now evolved into "Spatial Distortion."

"Skill Name: Spatial Distortion"

"Skill Description: You have touched the root of spatial transformation; your will is gradually replacing the will of space, allowing you to easily alter the spatial grids within your sight, flattening, elongating, or bending them, shaping them at will, with the distortion effect depending on your Inspiration and Energy attributes.

Range of Effect: Will Attribute × 2 meters; Maximum edge length of affectable spatial grids: Energy Attribute / 5 meters; Cooldown Time: Depends on the extent of skill usage, minimum 30 seconds."

"Note: The smaller the spatial grid you distort, the stronger the distortion effect."

Spatial Distortion retained the effects of Spatial Folding, and on that basis, allowed him to exert a destructive influence on space.

For instance, what he had just done: shattering a bottle within space by distorting the space itself.

If the bottle were replaced with a player, the result would not be much better.

If he set the distorted spatial grid to an edge length of 10 centimeters, even the Great Holy Mother and the Lord of the Deep Sea might not be able to withstand it.

The lethality was sufficient; the only flaw lay in the somewhat long wind-up time required to distort space.

Against experts with keen Inspiration, it might be dodged, but against weaker fodder, or targets already hit by crowd control and unable to move, using it resulted in an instant kill.

Wu Chang immersed himself in comprehending spatial magic, and in a flash, the sky brightened completely.

As usual, he arrived at the Wanghai Branch Bureau right on time; after two days apart, he found the atmosphere within the bureau had changed.

The most obvious change was that the usually deserted combat zone was now packed with people, especially around the arena where Zhao Yan was, with everyone lining up to spar with him.

It was worth noting that just a few days ago, other members of the Administration Bureau had been extremely reluctant to spar with Zhao Yan due to the huge gap in combat ability and the lack of any real experience.

Taking advantage of Zhao Yan throwing a member out of the arena, Wu Chang sidled up beside Zhao Yan and asked:

"Er Huo, why are you so popular lately?"

Zhao Yan picked up his water cup and gulped down two mouthfuls, glanced sideways at Wu Chang, and said:

"You kid are pretending to be ignorant while knowing exactly what's going on; what they are doing right now is the same thing you've been busy with during your two-day disappearance."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow; he hadn't realized that in just two days, the Large Divine Kingdom had already become widespread throughout the Wanghai City Administration Bureau Branch.

Zhao Yan put down his water cup and said irritably:

"By the way, is 'Er Huo' something you're allowed to call? It seems you kid have prepared quite thoroughly these past two days; care to come up and spar?"

Wu Chang propped himself up with one hand and flipped onto the arena, saying, "Come on; if you lose, you'll be 'Er Huo' to me from now on."

As it happened, he was just worrying about finding someone to test his suddenly surged combat abilities on, and Zhao Yan had conveniently delivered himself to his door.

The members of the Wanghai Branch Bureau had often watched Wu Chang and Zhao Yan spar; without using energy or skills, the two of them consistently ranked as the top two in combat proficiency within the branch.

Seeing the two about to spar again, the crowd immediately gathered around to watch the spectacle, with even Director Gao and Lei Huo joining in.

Wu Chang could faintly hear people placing bets.

"I bet Scallion can last five moves."

"I bet ten moves!"

"Are you kidding? They'll fight for at least one full round. Brother Zhao has already fought four matches; no matter how you look at it, his stamina must have been somewhat depleted."

Seeing the crowd's high spirits, Zhao Yan also returned to the arena and said:

"See that? Everyone is waiting to see the results of your secret training, so I won't hold back this time."

Wu Chang stood in a relaxed posture without raising any guard, saying, "Come on, Er Huo."

Zhao Yan wrinkled his nose and immediately threw a hook punch at Wu Chang, saying, "If you can't last one round, you'll eat a bowl of plain scallions for lunch."

Wu Chang appeared relaxed, but internally he was fully focused, observing the movements of Zhao Yan's muscles.

He controlled his attributes to match Zhao Yan's level; just before Zhao Yan's fist could hit him, he slapped away the hook punch, simultaneously stepped back two paces to the side to dodge Zhao Yan's rapid elbow strike, and countered with a solid hook punch of his own.

Zhao Yan was knocked off balance, narrowed his eyes, and said, "Interesting."

The ensuing battle was far easier than Wu Chang had anticipated.

After witnessing the Martial Curious Star Lord's combat, he had gained a kind of root-level comprehension of fighting; whenever Zhao Yan initiated an attack, Wu Chang could already see through his movements and landing points, even clearly perceiving the trajectory of the attacks.

Although both were grandmasters of combat, having witnessed the Martial Curious Star Lord's martial arts, Wu Chang's insight and realm were now far ahead.

Even among grandmasters, there are differences.

As a grandmaster-level fighter, Zhao Yan possessed extremely keen combat intuition; although on the surface the two seemed evenly matched, after a few exchanges, he realized he simply could not land any effective blows on Wu Chang.

On the contrary, Wu Chang became more and more relaxed as the fight went on, even relaxing enough to start holding back.

Zhao Yan realized his every move had been seen through, and sweat immediately began to bead on his forehead.

In the realm of combat, if neither strength nor agility can absolutely overwhelm the opponent, once one's movements are seen through, the battle is already over.

After launching several more fierce attacks that were all easily neutralized by Wu Chang, he immediately stepped back two paces and admitted defeat, saying:

"I won't fight anymore; I am not your match."

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire hall erupted in clamor; ever since Wu Chang and Zhao Yan had last sparred, everyone already knew that Zhao Yan's combat skills had reached the grandmaster level.

However, with Zhao Yan, a grandmaster-level fighter, voluntarily admitting defeat, it went without saying what level Wu Chang must be at.

Zhao Yan couldn't figure it out: how could Wu Chang leap from combat proficiency to combat grandmaster in just two short days?

For him to cross that threshold, it had taken several hundred periods of two days.

"I can't make sense of this; did you enter some special plane these past two days and train bitterly for several years under a mysterious old grandpa, or did you practice some treasure manual, sacrificing certain parts to exchange for a cultivation technique? How did you suddenly become so fierce?"

Wu Chang pursed his lips and said, "Er Huo, don't slander me with such baseless accusations; my little brother is invincible under heaven—do you think I would sacrifice him just for a cultivation technique?"

"Didn't you say before that I have a talent for combat? It was a sudden enlightenment, get it?"

Zhao Yan's face was written all over with disbelief, and he was about to press further when Director Gao interrupted him.

"We can chat about your matters later; it's time for the meeting."

Wu Chang followed Zhao Yan down from the arena and asked, "Er Huo, what kind of meeting is this? Has something happened again?"

Zhao Yan replied, "You've been staying in the Abyss Game preparing these past two days and haven't even bothered to check the bureau's information, have you? Because of that Peace, the entire Wasteland Realm is rolling up for the World Dungeon, with all sorts of suspicions and conspiracy theories emerging one after another."

"To dispel everyone's doubts, the bureau has specially convened a general assembly; you've arrived at just the right time."

Wu Chang followed the crowd into the conference room; after a brief wait, the large screen lit up, and Shi Ning appeared on the camera.

Behind Shi Ning was not a conference room, but his laboratory; he wore a white lab coat, as if he had just finished an experiment and hastily initiated a remote meeting.

In the background behind him, people were packing up equipment, dragging electronic whiteboards, and helping organize materials.

Among those in frame was a muscular man, twice and a half as broad as an average person, wearing glasses—he looked extremely familiar; it was Gao Xuezhang, the third roommate.

After a brief preparation, Shi Ning began explaining World Copies to the Bureau members, and the reasons the Bureau had concealed this information.

The first thing Shi Ning mentioned was the existence of World Copies.

Perhaps because he assumed most Bureau members had limited knowledge of the Wasteland Realm and lacked too many prerequisite concepts, Shi Ning did not mention Deep Abyss corruption; instead, he called World Copies an expansion of the Deep Abyss Game.

In his account, a World Copy had a hidden progress bar; each time players successfully cleared a copy, the bar would rise slightly, and when it neared full, the Public Zone would release a countdown for the World Copy.

World Copies had no explicit level restrictions—anyone with access credentials could enter.

The scale and scope of World Copies far exceeded ordinary copies; they concealed countless opportunities. Once, a player under level twenty entered a copy, gained a special fortune, and upon exiting, leapt directly to level cap, ascending into the Rational Realm.

Great opportunities corresponded to great challenges.

Every World Copy started at S-rank difficulty; one misstep, even a top-ranked player from the Wasteland Realm, could die.

In World Copies, for the vast majority of players, survival depended not on strength, but on luck.

After acknowledging the existence of World Copies and confirming they were indeed, as He Yi had said, a tremendous opportunity, Shi Ning shifted tone, his voice growing heavy.

Next, he mentioned the Qualification Copies He Yi had spoken of.

"He Yi is correct—the prerequisite to enter a World Copy is obtaining access credentials in a Qualification Copy."

"The condition to enter a Qualification Copy is exactly as he said: maintain any one attribute above 70 points, or any two attributes above 50 points, and enter the Crimson Courtyard at the designated time on the tenth day before the countdown ends, and the next copy will activate as a Qualification Copy."

Shi Ning paused, his gaze through the screen fixed on everyone.

"At this point, I imagine many of you are already angry—angry why we've concealed this information, why even within the Four Organizations, only the chosen few know."

"There's nothing to hide here; one reason is to preserve opportunities for members with greater potential."

"Forgive my phrasing—another reason is to protect those others who overestimate themselves, risking their lives for luck."

"He Yi told you much, but he omitted one crucial detail: Qualification Copies are always Real Copies, and their contamination level will never be below 60%."

Shi Ning displayed on everyone's screens, via software, the survival and clearance rates of Real Copies, the difficulty multiplier compared to Projection Copies, and the curve showing how difficulty rises with contamination levels.

"Concerningly, even among members of the Four Organizations, over ninety percent have never entered a Real Copy."

"Under these conditions, entering a Qualification Copy is no different from suicide."

"As the data shows, concealing this information from most members is to prevent unnecessary sacrifices."

Gazing at the data on screen, the conference room fell silent; many who had planned to gamble on a World Copy now felt doubt.

Wu Chang stared at the data without speaking, but his brow furrowed deeper than anyone else's.

The data Shi Ning presented were Bureau secrets from the Wasteland Realm—access required both clearance and a hefty sum of Corrupt Silver Coins; this was the first time he had seen them.

After viewing them, he wanted to speak with the Deep Abyss Game Administrator, to ask what on earth was meant by "Real Copies are generally two to four times harder than Projection Copies"?

What did it mean that when contamination exceeded 50%, Real Copy difficulty surged drastically—so severely that in extreme cases, a near-uncontrollable Real Copy could be over ten times harder than a Projection Copy?

And what did it mean that Real Copies with contamination below 50% had a clearance rate only one-tenth that of regular Projection Copies, and a survival rate only one-fifth?

And what he most wanted the Copy Administrator to explain was the phrase spoken to him upon entering the Deep Abyss Game.

What the hell did it mean, "The Deep Abyss Game matches players to corresponding realms based on strength, with smooth difficulty gradients, easy for newcomers, suitable for all ages"?

(End of Chapter)