Chapter 337: Misfortune Space

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

Still couldn't do it, it seems. The intelligence he discovered was destined never to arrive at the Wasteland Realm.

Not far from him, two figures—one tall, one short—stared at him.

The short one was two and a half meters tall, wearing armor made of lion hide, with an enormous lion-head helmet on his head that was strikingly conspicuous.

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

One big, one small, both bursting with muscle, both in beast-hide style—as if one were a scaled-down version of the other.

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

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

Xu Dejun coughed up a mouthful of blood and said with a bitter smile to the giant:

"Hongwen, I thought you died in that instance break three years ago. I didn't expect you not only survived, but joined the Radiant Society."

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

When Hearing Leng Shan chose to become an instance-breaker, he apprenticed himself to Gu Hongwen.

Gu Hongwen was deeply respected within the Administration; even Xu Dejun, an elder of the Administration, treated him as a peer.

The reason was simple: Gu Hongwen was reckless enough, passionate enough.

Whenever the Primordial Divine Temple detected an instance with a high contamination level—whether B-rank or A-rank, no matter how dangerous—he would join the break as the very first.

Even though instance-breakers themselves were players dancing on a knife's edge, breakers generally considered Gu Hongwen too extreme.

Shi Ning's data stated it clearly: instances on the verge of losing control were far more difficult than ordinary ones. Not only were they extremely difficult in themselves, most of them also involved Rules.

An instance-breaker with poor compatibility entering was almost a death sentence.

Every entry into an instance on the verge of losing control was like flipping a coin with Death itself. Other breakers wouldn't take such a risk unless absolutely necessary, but Gu Hongwen behaved as if he were addicted.

If he didn't gamble big against Death every so often, it was as if ants were crawling all over him.

By repeatedly breaking instances on the verge of losing control, Gu Hongwen obtained a hidden class-change suited to him, plus a gold title, without needing the Administration's resources.

In pure talent, he was no inferior to Jian Xing—quite the opposite.

Three years ago, Gu Hongwen failed while breaking an instance on the verge of losing control in the Reasoning Realm; the instance went out of control, and Gu Hongwen vanished without a trace.

The Administration all assumed he had died inside the instance. No one expected that upon meeting again, he had already become a member of the Radiant Society.

The giant sighed: "Xu Lao, no need to bring up the past. I now have a new name—you may call me Kuafu."

The Kuafu here is not the Kuafu from the movie or anime character bathing scene, where the comment section shouts 'I, Kuafu, only drink one mouthful.'

He is the Kuafu who could race the sun.

Xu Dejun had been fleeing for an entire day. Two flyers had been wrecked, and along the way he had even entered two private spaces.

His movements had not only failed to shake off his pursuers, he had turned into a walking disaster, leading Kuafu straight into those private spaces.

To wipe out the two private spaces belonging to the Order faction, Kuafu and his companion had spent some time—otherwise he would have been caught long ago.

Being chased by such a monster all day—no, being chased by this monster all day—nearly drove Xu Dejun to breaking point.

At this moment, he fully understood the despair of the sun of old. After all, the sun could still fight back; before Kuafu, who possessed divinity, he had no power to resist at all.

With no hope of escape, Xu Dejun wanted to die understanding why, and asked:

"Hongwen, you're not one of those schemers. Why did you join the Radiant Society? Was there someone inside the Administration targeting you, forcing you to leave?"

Gu Hongwen shook his head: "No. I chose to join the Radiant Society of my own accord."

"I've seen too much inside instances. No matter how you struggle, as long as you stand within the Abyss, the road ahead is pitch black. Only by following Joy can one find the light that leads to the future."

Xu Dejun asked, puzzled: "Are you trying to imitate the Believer Circle?"

Gu Hongwen wore the helpless expression of someone unable to explain things to a fool: "Xu Lao, we are not imitating the Believer Circle, or any religion."

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

"We are not learning from anyone. We are using our own methods to show mortals a path to the future."

Xu Dejun frowned. He had assumed the Radiant Society was a group of lunatics pursuing great power, willing to use any means. Now it seemed they were even crazier than he had imagined.

Merely gaining divinity and believing themselves truly gods, wanting to "lead mortals"—compared to them, the Evolution faction didn't even seem all that evolved. No wonder the two sides hit it off and were able to cooperate.

Only the Evolution faction didn't know what kind of monster they had bred under their own negligence.

Cooperating with the Radiant Society was no different than seeking counsel from a tiger. Sooner or later they would be devoured down to the last scrap, not even dregs left behind.

Gu Hongwen tried to persuade him:

"Xu Lao, your vision is too narrow right now. You can't see things from a god's vantage point, nor see the future. I understand."

"For the sake of our past friendship, I'll give you one chance—join the Radiant Society and witness the future with us. When the light arrives, you'll know whether you were right, or we were. How about it?"

Xu Dejun was silent for a moment, then said with a smile:

"Forget it. I'm old. Even if the path is wrong, there's no time to turn back. I still want to believe that there never was any savior, and we don't rely on gods or the Emperor—humanity's fate can only be held in humanity's own hands."

"Whether you're right or wrong, I believe you're different from the others in the Radiant Society. If you remember our friendship, leave me a bottle of wine every Qingming."

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

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

As he finished speaking, his stride carried him off, and his figure vanished.

The lion-head helmet left behind grinned and said to Xu Dejun:

"Old man, my name is Heracles. Got any preferred way to die? For Big Brother's sake, I can make it happen for you."

Xu Dejun swayed to his feet, drew the greatsword he was skilled with, took a deep breath, and said: "Death in battle."

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

"No problem. I'll give you the glorious battle a warrior deserves."

Just as the battle was about to erupt, a hand suddenly pressed onto Xu Dejun's shoulder. He turned and found that the one 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 down?"

His eyes sparkled with excitement as he shoved a metal card, identical to the last one, into Wu Chang's hand, then said:

"Take it and go! I'll handle this place!"

He had held on this long solely to find an opportunity to pass on this intelligence, to deliver it to Wu Chang; now that the information had been delivered, his duty was done, and he had no further worries.

Wu Chang stared at the metal card in his hand, a question mark slowly forming on his face.

What play is this? Team members sacrificing themselves to hold the rear, letting the future's hope flee with vital intelligence?

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

Wu Chang rolled his eyes, gripped tighter, and yanked Xu Dejun back from charging toward Hercules.

"Don't rush to throw your life away—you ruined my good dream and nearly made me impotent. How are you going to compensate me?"

Now it was Xu Dejun's turn to blink in confusion. "Bro, this is the critical moment—this concerns the fate of the entire Wasteland Realm and all of humanity—why are you still worrying about impotence?"

And what's this about 'good dream' and 'impotence'—what does that have to do with me? You can't be practicing on me in your dreams, can you?

Xu Dejun opened his mouth several times, unsure where to start complaining. He desperately wanted Wu Chang to flee with the intelligence, but couldn't find the right opening to speak—he felt utterly helpless.

While the two argued loudly, Hercules grew impatient. Like a Spartan warrior, he struck his shield with his sword, signaling them to stop.

"You two—stop bickering. No one leaves today."

Wu Chang frowned, staring at the towering man. "Who is he?"

Xu Dejun whispered: "Member of the Light Society, calls himself Hercules. A formal member with divinity. He's different from the projections you fought before—don't underestimate him."

Wu Chang's lips parted slightly. He bowed slightly to Hercules. "So you're Zeus's son. My apologies. I know you have several brothers playing professionally."

Hercules didn't understand Wu Chang's words, but from the tone, he sensed it wasn't praise.

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

"I don't care who you are—you disrupted a sacred duel between warriors. You will pay for it."

Wu Chang soothed: "No problem. I'll complete this fair duel for him. I guarantee: only you and I will fight. No one else."

Hercules's anger lessened slightly. He studied Wu Chang closely, a flicker of confusion in his eyes.

From the man before him, he felt no barrier of the Principle Realm. "Are you a Wasteland Realm player?"

Wu Chang replied: "Yes. And you—are you a low-tier deity or a demigod?"

Though Hercules didn't understand how a Wasteland Realm player could enter the Principle Realm now that the Pillars of the Present were sealed, he still answered instinctively:

"Demigod."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow. "Then you still have a lot to train."

Before Hercules could react, a pool of water appeared beneath his feet, and his body sank into it.

Xu Dejun's eyes widened in disbelief. "Already done?"

Wu Chang shrugged. "Not that easy. Just temporarily trapped him."

Blind Abyss is highly effective against Wasteland Realm targets, but far less so against those with divinity.

Though Hercules is still a demigod, his divinity is thick—Blind Abyss cannot affect him at all.

Instead, Hercules sank deep into Blind Abyss, relentlessly striking the spatial barrier with his sword.

With divine power加持, each strike dealt over a hundred damage. Combined with his tireless momentum, Wu Chang frowned at the sight.

Normally, trapping someone in Blind Abyss lets you wear them down through the barrier. But trapping Hercules? He's trying to drain *my* energy using the barrier.

Since Blind Abyss was useless, he stopped. He hurled Hercules out.

As he threw him out, he pre-judged the landing point and unleashed a spatial distortion there.

The instant Hercules emerged from Blind Abyss, his chest slammed into the spatial distortion—the flesh around his chest twisted like a vortex, a fist-sized area warping.

Spatial Distortion, one of Wu Chang's strongest attacks, was devastating. Even Hercules's bone-tooth necklace, a game item, shattered instantly under the spatial shear.

Yet Spatial Distortion—powerful enough to pierce divinity—failed to injure Hercules. When the distortion ended, the twisted flesh on his chest twisted back, as if never wounded.

Wu Chang frowned slightly and secretly retrieved the Omniscient Crystal, asking for an explanation.

The Omniscient Crystal's insight activated. After brief analysis, it told Wu Chang: Hercules's immunity to Spatial Distortion came from his Lionhide Armor.

In myth, Hercules's Lionhide Armor was his signature ability and artifact, forged from the Nemean Lion he slew during his trials—the Nemean Lion was impervious to all mortal weapons.

The player version of Hercules's Lionhide Armor had a similar effect: while worn, the user cannot be harmed by non-divine attacks.

Spatial Distortion was powerful enough to pierce divinity—but its attack carried no divinity itself, making it exactly countered by the Lionhide Armor's ability.

But the Lionhide Armor had a weakness: if the attacker's strength value exceeds the wearer's, damage can be inflicted directly on the wearer's essence—even without divine power—and the damage is doubled.

Realizing the opponent's weakness, Wu Chang couldn't help grinning.

For safety, he used his True Self to save Xu Dejun. Hercules—no wonder he's the legendary strongman. His strength value is just that high. True Self, without stacking strength or triggering Breakthrough Master, was far below his.

But with this ability, high strength makes sense. If it were even slightly lower, this armor could be renamed "Suicide Armor."

No wonder his attitude turned dismissive the moment he heard Wu Chang was from the Wasteland Realm. Any other Wasteland Realm player would've been unable to harm him—even if they didn't resist.

Hercules stared at his shattered bone-tooth necklace. His eyes instantly filled with blood, pupils glowing red—as if entering a berserk state.

"Damned mortal—look what you've done!"

Watching the enraged Hercules, Wu Chang couldn't help sighing inwardly. Of course—Hercules and Berserker are a perfect match. The vibe was instantly right.

If only a white-haired legal loli were here, it'd be the ultimate combo.

Hercules didn't know what Wu Chang was thinking. He leapt high, lunging straight at Wu Chang, bringing his sword down with all his might to split him in two.

Hercules moved fast—but nothing moved faster than spatial teleportation.

Wu Chang grabbed Xu Dejun's shoulder. Their forms flashed—instantly teleporting five hundred meters behind Hercules.

Hercules's sword slammed down, carving a massive crater. Every giant Shi Zhu within a hundred-meter radius shattered into rubble.

Before the shockwave from the strike could even spread, Hercules had already locked onto Wu Chang's new position. He kicked off the ground and flew toward him again.

Previously, facing Hercules's dogged pursuit, Wu Chang's teleportation couldn't cool down fast enough.

But now, as a Master-level Spatial Magic expert, Wu Chang could teleport repeatedly over short distances. He activated teleportation again, flashing with Xu Dejun hundreds of meters away.

His short-range teleportation was limited to within a kilometer; he only moved a few hundred meters each time to exploit the activation range of the All-Knowing Crystal.

He wasn't fleeing blindly—he used the time pulled by teleportation to activate the All-Knowing Crystal's Weakness Insight skill and search for Hercules' vulnerability.

He refused to believe a demigod could have zero weaknesses.

After the third teleportation, the All-Knowing Crystal sent a message.

In myth, Hercules, in a frenzy, killed his own three children and once went mad and murdered his closest friend—these experiences were his nightmares.

Due to Hercules' divinity, which perfectly replicated the original god, the player's current weakness was identical to that of the mythic Hercules: his inner demon.

Having discerned his opponent's weakness, Wu Chang shook his head as Hercules lunged for the fourth time.

"Your will is unstable—you're lucky you met me."

This time, he did not teleport again; instead, he activated his newly upgraded talent, "Misfortune."

The upgraded Misfortune, beyond its original three abnormal states, gained a new effect under the influence of the Misfortune Realm.

"Talent Effect: Misfortune Space"

"Effect: If the target's Insight and Will combined are lower than the user's, the target is forcibly pulled into Misfortune Space and enters the Special State: Mental Echo, an effect that cannot be resisted. Cooldown: Seven days."

"Special State: Mental Echo"

"Probe the target's mental vulnerabilities and manifest them as Mental Monsters. If the target is attacked by a Mental Monster, they suffer soul damage that strikes directly at their essence. While the Mental Monster exists, the target's all attributes decrease by 20%, their Will plummets, and their skill failure rate increases by 30%."

Thick black mist surged from Wu Chang's body, engulfing Hercules and transforming into countless black thorn-like spikes that dragged him into a pitch-black world.

Wu Chang released Xu Dejun, said, "Wait," then stepped into Misfortune Space.

Inside Misfortune Space, the mighty Hercules vanished; his body shrank from a towering 2.5 meters to a mere one-meter-tall runt, and a number appeared on his hand: No. 46.

Behind him, three guards in uniforms, wielding specially made metal rods, laughed as they chased after him.

"Break time's over—Sister Sister Amanda's looking for you. Come out now, and we'll pretend nothing happened."

"Little rat, your friends are already back in their dorms. The last one to return gets hung from the square."

"Did you see No. 82 hung up this morning? His eyes were bulging out—so disgusting. You don't want to end up like that, do you?"

The three guards taunted No. 46 in mocking tones, striking the walls with their metal rods as they searched for his whereabouts.

Without surprise, the panicked, trembling Hercules was the "little rat" the guards spoke of.

The guards mentioned Sister Sister Amanda—clearly, No. 46 and Amber came from the same secret research facility.

The child-sized Hercules wore a lion-skin armor and possessed high strength, but to him, the guards seemed the most terrifying monsters on earth—he dared not fight back.

Using his agility, he crawled through the complex piping of the secret facility, finally hiding in a storage room via the ventilation shaft.

According to his experience, the guards would overlook a locked storage room; once they left, he could crawl back to his dorm through the vent and escape safely.

Of course, this all depended on there being only three guards and him.

After entering Misfortune Space, Wu Chang, observing from above, used the "Manifest Illusion as Reality" ability to write a line on the storage room door.

"Shh, the rat's in here."

Hidden in the storage room, Hercules curled up in a gap between crates, his ear pressed to the floor, listening to the guards' footsteps. When the steps faded into silence, he exhaled in relief and stood up.

He carefully moved aside the cardboard box above him, just as he was about to crawl out—he looked up and met three kind-looking gazes.

"Hehe, this little rat really hid here."

(End of Chapter)