Chapter 337: Doom Space

In the Reason Realm, Xu Dejun was covered in blood, leaning against a towering stone pillar.

Still couldn't do it, it seems the intelligence he discovered is destined never to reach the Desolate Realm.

Not far from him, two figures, one tall and one short, were watching him.

The short one was two and a half meters tall, wearing armor made of lion skin, with a massive lion-head helmet that was exceptionally striking.

The tall one was over ten meters tall, with thick yellow snakes coiled around his limbs, his upper body bare, wearing only a beast-hide skirt.

The two, one large and one small, both had full, powerful muscles and were both styled in beast hides, as if one were a scaled version of the other.

The lion-head helmet seemed impatient, wanting to finish off Xu Dejun and leave quickly, but was stopped by the giant.

The giant stood in the distance, looking at Xu Dejun with pity.

Xu Dejun coughed up a mouthful of blood and smiled bitterly at the giant:

"Hongwen, I thought you died in that instance break three years ago. I didn't expect that not only are you alive, but you've also joined the Light Society."

Gu Hongwen, once a genius player of the Administration, the former number one instance breaker of the Desolate Realm.

When Leng Shan chose to become an instance breaker, he took Gu Hongwen as his master.

Gu Hongwen was highly respected in the Administration; even Xu Dejun, an elder of the Administration, treated him as an equal.

The reason was simple: Gu Hongwen was sufficiently desperate and sufficiently passionate.

Whenever the Primordial Temple detected an instance with a high level of pollution, whether it was B-rank or A-rank, no matter how dangerous it was, he would be the first to join the break.

Even though instance breakers were players who danced on the edge of a blade, they generally considered Gu Hongwen too extreme.

Shi Ning's data stated clearly that instances on the verge of spiraling out of control had a difficulty far exceeding normal ones; not only was the instance itself extremely difficult, but such instances mostly involved rules.

For an incompatible instance breaker to enter was almost equivalent to suicide.

Every time he entered an instance on the verge of spiraling out of control, it was like flipping a coin with the Grim Reaper. Other instance breakers wouldn't take such risks unless absolutely necessary, but Gu Hongwen seemed addicted to it.

If he didn't gamble big with the Grim Reaper every so often, it felt like ants were crawling all over him.

By repeatedly breaking instances on the verge of spiraling out of control, Gu Hongwen didn't need the Administration's resources to obtain a hidden class change suitable for him, as well as a golden title.

In terms of talent alone, he was no lower than Jianxing.

Three years ago, Gu Hongwen failed while breaking an instance on the verge of spiraling out of control in the Reason Realm; the instance spiraled out of control, and Gu Hongwen went missing.

The Administration all thought he had died in the instance; they didn't expect that upon meeting again, he had actually become a member of the Light Society.

The giant sighed: "Elder Xu, there is no need to bring up the past. I have a new name now; you can call me Kuafu."

The Kuafu here is not the Kuafu from the comment section who shouts "I, Kuafu, only take one sip" when a movie or animation character is taking a bath.

It is the Kuafu who could race against the sun.

Xu Dejun had been running for an entire day, two aircraft had been destroyed, and he had even entered two private spaces along the way.

His actions not only failed to shake off the pursuit but turned him into a jinx, leading Kuafu to break into the private spaces.

To wipe out two private spaces belonging to the Order Faction, the two of them spent some time, otherwise he would have been caught long ago.

Being chased by such a monster—no, wait, being chased by this monster all day—left Xu Dejun nearly broken.

At this moment, he fully understood the despair of the sun back then; after all, the sun could still fight back, while he had no power to resist in front of Kuafu, who possessed divinity.

With no hope of escape, Xu Dejun wanted to die with clarity, so he asked:

"Hongwen, you are not one of those ambitious schemers. Why did you join the Light Society? Was there someone in the Administration targeting you, forcing you to leave?"

Gu Hongwen shook his head: "No, I chose to join the Light Society of my own volition."

"I have seen too much within the instances. No matter how one struggles, as long as one is in the abyss, the path ahead is pitch black. Only by following Joy can one bring the light that leads to the future."

Xu Dejun asked suspiciously: "Are you learning from the Believer Circle?"

Gu Hongwen showed the helplessness of being unable to explain to a fool: "Elder Xu, we are not learning from the Believer Circle or any religion."

"This is the abyss, and we are the gods."

"We haven't learned from anyone; we are using our own methods to point out a path to the future for mortals."

Xu Dejun frowned. He had thought the Light Society was a group of lunatics pursuing powerful strength and using any means necessary to achieve it. Now it seemed they were even crazier than he had imagined.

Merely obtaining divinity and thinking they had truly become gods, wanting to "lead mortals"—compared to them, even the Evolution Faction seemed less evolved. No wonder the two sides hit it off and were able to reach a cooperation.

It was just that the Evolution Faction didn't know what kind of monster they had raised under their indulgence.

Cooperating with the Light Society was no different from asking a tiger for its skin; they would be eaten clean sooner or later, with not even a scrap left.

Gu Hongwen advised:

"Elder Xu, your current vision is too short; you cannot see problems from the height of a god, nor can you see the future. I can understand that."

"For the sake of our past friendship, I will give you a chance: join the Light Society and witness the future with us. When the light appears, you will know whether you were right or we were right. How about it?"

Xu Dejun was silent for a moment, then smiled and said:

"Forget it. I'm old; even if the path is wrong, it's too late to turn back. I still want to believe that there has never been any savior, nor do we rely on immortal emperors; the fate of humanity can only be held in the hands of humanity itself."

"Regardless of whether you are right or wrong, I believe you are different from the others in the Light Society. If you remember our friendship, please place a bottle of wine for me every Qingming Festival."

Gu Hongwen shook his head and said to the lion helmet:

"I'll leave this to you; I'm going to chase the survivors of those two private spaces."

After he finished speaking, he took a step, and his figure had already disappeared.

The remaining lion helmet grinned and said to Xu Dejun:

"Old man, my name is Heracles. If you have any preferred way to die, for the sake of my big brother, I can help you achieve it."

Xu Dejun stood up unsteadily, took out the broadsword he was skilled at using, took a deep breath, and said: "Let's die in battle."

The lion helmet pulled a sword and shield from his personal space with both hands, stepped toward Xu Dejun, and said:

"No problem, I will grant you the glorious battle a warrior deserves."

Just as the battle was about to break out, a hand suddenly pressed onto Xu Dejun's shoulder. He turned around and discovered that the person who had appeared behind him was none other than Wu Chang.

Wu Chang complained: "Why is it that every time I see you, you're being hunted?"

He (Xu Dejun) had a look of excitement in his eyes, shoved a metal card identical to the last one into Wu Chang's hand, and then said:

"Take it and go quickly! Leave this to me to handle!"

He had held on until now just to find an opportunity to leave this intelligence behind and find a chance to give it to Wu Chang. Now that the intelligence had been delivered, his duty was fulfilled, and he immediately had no more worries.

Wu Chang looked at the metal card in his hand, and a question mark slowly appeared on his face.

What kind of play is this? A team member sacrificing their life to cover the retreat, letting the hope of the future take the important intelligence and leave first?

But you covering for me—did you forget who saved you last time?

Wu Chang rolled his eyes, used force, and dragged Xu Dejun, who was just about to charge at Heracles, back.

"Don't be in such a hurry to go feed them your head. You ruined a good dream of mine and almost caused me to have mental impotence. How are you going to compensate me?"

This time it was Xu Dejun's turn to have a question mark. No, buddy, at such a critical moment, involving the fate of the entire Desolate Realm and humanity, why are you still concerned about impotence?

And what does your good dream or your impotence have to do with me? You can't be practicing on me in your dreams, can you?

Xu Dejun opened his mouth several times, not knowing where to start complaining. He was anxious to have Wu Chang take the intelligence and leave first, but he couldn't find a suitable entry point to speak, and for a moment, he felt extremely helpless.

The two were talking animatedly, but Heracles was unwilling. Like a Spartan warrior, he struck his shield with his sword, signaling the two to stop.

"You two stop arguing; no one is leaving today."

Wu Chang frowned and looked at the burly man in the distance. He asked: "Who is he?"

Xu Dejun whispered: "A member of the Light Society, calling himself Heracles, a formal member possessing divinity. He is different from the projections you have dealt with before; do not underestimate him."

Wu Chang's mouth opened slightly, he cupped his hands at Heracles and said: "So it's the son of Zeus. Disrespectful, I know you have a few brothers playing in professional leagues."

Heracles couldn't understand what Wu Chang was saying, but judging by the tone, it didn't sound like anything good.

He roared, like a standing lion, and stepped toward Wu Chang.

"I don't care who you are; you have ruined a sacred duel between warriors, and you will pay the price for it."

Wu Chang appeased him: "It's okay, I will complete this fair duel for him. I guarantee that there will only be you and me in the battle, no one else."

Heracles' anger subsided slightly. He observed Wu Chang carefully, a look of confusion appearing in his eyes.

How could he not feel the plane barrier of the Reason Realm from the other party? "Are you a player from the Desolate Realm?"

Wu Chang replied: "Yes, what about you? Are you a low-level god or a demigod?"

Although Heracles hadn't figured out how a Desolate Realm player had arrived in the Reason Realm when the Pillars of the World were already sealed, he still answered subconsciously:

"Still a demigod."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow and said: "Then you still need to practice."

Before Heracles could react, a puddle of water appeared under his feet, and his body fell into it.

Xu Dejun's eyes widened in disbelief: "That solved it?"

Wu Chang shrugged and said: "Not that easy; it's just trapping him temporarily."

Blind Abyss has miraculous effects against targets from the Desolate Realm, but it is not that useful against targets possessing divinity.

Although Heracles is still a demigod, his divinity is thick, and Blind Abyss cannot affect him at all.

On the contrary, Heracles sank directly into the deep layers of the Blind Abyss, constantly attacking the space barriers with his long sword.

The damage from attacks blessed by divinity is extremely high; every slash can deal hundreds of points of damage. Combined with his seemingly tireless momentum, it made Wu Chang frown.

When he traps others in the Blind Abyss, he can wear them out through the space barriers. Trapping Heracles in here, this guy is actually turning the tables and trying to exhaust his energy using the space barriers.

Since Blind Abyss was ineffective, he didn't continue and threw Heracles out.

The moment he threw him out, he predicted the landing spot in advance and unleashed a Spatial Distortion at that location.

The moment Heracles was thrown out of the Blind Abyss, his chest hit the Spatial Distortion exactly, and the space the size of a fist in front of his chest twisted like a vortex.

As one of Wu Chang's strongest attacks, Spatial Distortion is extremely powerful. The bone-tooth necklace item Heracles wore on his chest could not resist the distortion from space and shattered on the spot.

Yet, the Spatial Distortion that could even destroy game items failed to injure Heracles. As the Spatial Distortion ended, the flesh on his chest that had been twisted simply twisted back, as if it had never been injured at all.

Wu Chang frowned slightly and secretly took out the Omniscient Crystal to ask for the reason.

The revelation effect of the Omniscient Crystal activated; after a brief analysis, it told Wu Chang that the reason Heracles was immune to spatial distortion came from the lion-skin armor on his body.

In mythology, the lion-skin armor worn by Heracles is his iconic ability and item, originating from the Nemean Lion he killed during his trials; the Nemean Lion was impervious to blades and spears and could not be wounded by mortal abilities.

The player version of Heracles before him had a lion-skin armor with a similar effect; while wearing it, the wearer cannot be harmed by non-divine attacks.

Spatial distortion has high lethality, strong enough to pierce divinity, but its attacks contain no divinity, so it was perfectly countered by the ability of the lion-skin armor.

However, the lion-skin armor is not without weaknesses: if the strength check is greater than that of the wearer, one does not need to possess divinity to directly damage the wearer's origin, and the damage dealt is doubled.

Wu Chang, having perceived the other party's background, could not help but grin.

To be safe, he was using his True Self to save Xu Dejun; Heracles, worthy of being the legendary Hercules, had high strength stats, and his True Self, without stacking strength or triggering the Breaker Master, had a strength value far lower than the opponent's.

However, with this kind of ability, it is only normal for the strength attribute to be high; if it were even a little lower, this set of armor could be renamed the Sudden Death Armor.

No wonder this fellow’s attitude became much more contemptuous upon hearing he was from the Desolate Realm; if it were any other player from the Desolate Realm, this fellow wouldn't be injured even if he didn't resist.

Heracles looked at the shattered bone-tooth necklace on his chest, his eyes instantly bloodshot, and red light lit up in his pupils as if he had entered a berserk state.

"Damn mortal, look at what you've done!"

Watching the agitated Heracles, Wu Chang could not help but sigh in his heart; indeed, Heracles and a Berserker are a perfect match, the vibe was instantly right.

If there were a white-haired legal loli present, that would be a total kill.

Heracles did not know what Wu Chang was thinking; he took a great leap, pouncing directly toward Wu Chang, his longsword slashing down fiercely, intending to cut Wu Chang in two.

Heracles's movements were fast, but no matter how fast, they could not be faster than spatial teleportation.

Wu Chang grabbed Xu Dejun’s shoulder, and the two figures flashed, instantly teleporting to a spot five hundred meters behind Heracles.

Heracles slashed down with his sword, creating a huge crater in the ground, and the massive stone pillars within a hundred-meter radius all collapsed.

Before the shockwave from the longsword strike could even spread, Heracles had already locked onto Wu Chang’s position again, pushed off with his feet, and flew toward Wu Chang once more.

If it were before, facing Heracles’s mad-dog-like pursuit, Wu Chang’s teleportation would not have had time to cool down.

But now, having become a Grandmaster-level Spatial Magic Master, Wu Chang could teleport continuously over short distances; he activated teleportation again, flashing several hundred meters away with Xu Dejun.

His short-distance teleportation is limited to within a thousand meters; the reason he only went a few hundred meters each time was to keep within the effective range of the Omniscient Crystal.

He was not fleeing blindly, but using the time pulled out by the teleportation to activate the Omniscient Crystal’s Weakness Insight skill to search for Heracles’s flaws.

He did not believe that a demigod could have no flaws at all.

After the third teleportation, the Omniscient Crystal sent back information.

The Heracles in mythology went mad and killed his own three children, and also once killed his close friend in a fit of madness; these experiences were his nightmares.

Due to Heracles’s divinity completely replicating the original god, the weakness of the player before him, like the Heracles in mythology, was his inner demons.

Having insight into the opponent’s weakness, Wu Chang shook his head at the Heracles flying toward him for the fourth time.

"Will unstable, you're lucky to have met me."

This time, he did not use teleportation again, but activated his newly upgraded talent, "Calamity."

The upgraded Calamity, in addition to the original three abnormal statuses, was influenced by the Misfortune-Plagued Plane and gained a brand-new effect.

"Talent Effect: Misfortune Space"

"Note: If the sum of the target's inspiration and will is lower than the user's, the target will be forcibly pulled into the Misfortune Space and enter the special status of Mental Echo; this effect cannot be immunized. Cooldown: Seven days."

"Special Status: Mental Echo"

"Peep into the target's mental loopholes and manifest mental monsters based on them. If the target is attacked by a mental monster, they will receive soul damage that strikes directly at their origin. While the mental monster is alive, the target's total attributes are reduced by 20%, their will is significantly lowered, and the probability of skill failure increases by 30%."

Thick black mist surged from Wu Chang’s body, shrouding Heracles and transforming into countless black thorns that dragged him directly into a pitch-black world.

Wu Chang let go of Xu Dejun, said "Wait," and then stepped into the Misfortune Space.

Inside the Misfortune Space, the majestic Hercules had disappeared; his body had shrunk from a two-and-a-half-meter giant to a little bean just over a meter tall, and a number, 46, had appeared on the back of his hand.

Behind him, three guards in uniforms, holding special metal rods, were laughing as they chased after him.

"It's break time, Manager Amanda is looking for you; if you come out now, we can pretend nothing happened."

"Little mouse, your companions have all returned to the dormitory; the bad child who returns last will be hung in the square."

"Did you see Number 82 hanging this morning? His eyes were about to pop out, so disgusting; you don't want to end up like that, do you?"

The three guards intimidated Number 46 in a mocking tone, while tapping the walls with their metal rods, searching for traces of 46.

If nothing unexpected happened, the panicked and trembling Heracles was the little mouse the guards were talking about.

And since the guards mentioned Manager Amanda, it seemed 46 and An Bo came from the same secret research institute.

The child version of Heracles wore the lion-skin armor and possessed high strength, but in his eyes, the guards were like the most terrifying monsters in the world, making him afraid to fight back at all.

He used his body's agility to crawl through the pipes of the complex secret research institute, and finally, through a ventilation duct, hid in a utility room.

According to his experience, the guards would not notice the locked utility room; once they walked far away, he could crawl back to the dormitory through the ventilation duct and escape danger.

Of course, the premise for everything was that there were only three guards and him here.

After entering the Misfortune Space, Wu Chang, observing from above with a bird's-eye view, thoughtfully used "Solidify the Void" to write a line on the utility room door.

"Shh, the mouse is here."

Heracles, hiding in the utility room, lay curled up in the gaps between the cargo, his ears pressed against the floor, listening to the guards' footsteps. When he heard the footsteps gradually fade away until they could no longer be heard, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and stood up.

He carefully moved the cardboard box above his head, and just as he was about to come out from the gap, he looked up and bumped into three kind gazes.

"Hee hee, this little mouse is really hiding here."

(End of chapter)