Chapter 364: Self-Detonation

Players capable of entering the Steam Phantom dungeon are all at the very pinnacle of the Desolate Realm, their strength and insight far exceeding that of ordinary max-level players.

Their power is sufficient to resist the influence brought by the Abyss's erosion, which allows them to remain calm at all times and essentially never make decisions based on a hot head.

Of course, with the exception of lunatics.

This mental composure meant that after Zhu Li announced the start, the players did not immediately take action, but instead cautiously sized up their surroundings.

There were thirty-five players present, and only five invitations to compete for.

Many people would be eliminated; the earlier one made a move, the greater the chance of being eliminated.

The most important thing for players was to avoid entering an absolute free-for-all.

Taking a few area-of-effect skills of unknown range and being forced to exit with a face full of question marks and resentment was a scenario no one wanted to encounter.

The players moved slowly, forming five small circles around the five invitations.

As the first player snatched an invitation into their hand from a distance and immediately vanished into stealth, the players in the plaza began to fight.

Aside from Wu Chang’s true body, Wu Chang’s True Self and the members of the Management Bureau stood on the roof of a clock tower in the distance, also gathering information on the players in the plaza.

After a brief observation, he discovered that this final battle for the invitations was far more interesting than he had imagined.

He discovered that the players appearing in the plaza were not all just scraps who had failed to grab an invitation earlier and had come to try their luck.

Among them were guys with no small amount of strength who had come to the final battle to "fry fish" and show off their power.

For example, among the players competing for the invitation closest to St. George's Cathedral, there was one exceptionally eye-catching player.

He had a ridiculously large saber hanging at his waist and was wearing a black tuxedo, as if he had come to attend an evening banquet rather than a brutal battle for invitations.

He paid no attention to the surrounding players at all, walking with elegant strides straight toward the invitation.

"Choosing this group shows that your discernment is not worthy of entering tonight's banquet," he said, not forgetting to mock them as he reached out to take the invitation.

By this time, battles had already begun in the other four areas, and the players around the saber-wielding man were already eager to try; hearing him mock them, they naturally could not hold back.

A bald man wearing a studded leather jacket and sunglasses immediately ignited his entire body in flames and struck toward the saber-wielding man's face.

"Whether I'm worthy or not, you have to try..."

Before the bald man could finish his harsh words, he was sent flying backward, dragging a black line across the stone plaza floor until he hit the light barrier of the combat space and barely came to a stop.

Everyone looked at the bald man who had flown out, only to see a clear fist print on his face; the force of the punch was immense, not only shattering his nose bridge but also caving in his face.

Fortunately, it was only a flesh wound; the bald man scrambled up from the ground and ran out of the combat space on all fours.

Leaving this place meant he had given up on this final battle for the invitation.

Before people could recover from the bald man's exit, the next moment, the other three men in the group surrounding the invitation followed in his footsteps and were knocked flying.

The saber-wielding man reached out to pick up the invitation from the ground, smiled at the two female players who hadn't reacted to what had happened, and said:

"I don't like hitting women, especially beautiful women; it's too crude and would affect their beauty."

The two female players slowed their retreat, feeling a sense of relief in their hearts. Just as they were about to say, "I withdraw from this battle for the invitation," they opened their mouths, but only the sound of "huff, huff" breathing could come from their throats.

Looking down, they discovered bright red blood gushing from their necks; they didn't know when, but their necks had already been slashed open by the saber-wielding man.

They hadn't even seen how the saber-wielding man drew his blade.

The two hurriedly covered the wounds on their necks, and one of them drank a bottle of healing potion before turning into a stream of light and fleeing.

The other was even more cautious, fearing the saber-wielding man would deliver a finishing blow, and directly activated a dungeon-exit item.

"What a fast blade," Xiang Jianxing couldn't help but exclaim from the clock tower in the distance.

As an expert who also used cold weapons, Xiang Jianxing couldn't help but compare his own Flying Sword Art with the other's blade technique.

After simulating the comparison in his mind, his expression turned somewhat ugly as he said:

"Within thirty meters, my sword is not as fast as his blade."

Although he could see the saber-wielding man draw his blade, he could not surpass it.

Wu Chang also saw the saber-wielding man's performance and said:

"He can be that fast not just because of his blade technique; look closer, he just used the Power of Origin related to speed."

Leng Shan nodded after hearing this, and just as he was about to agree with Wu Chang, the word turned into a "Huh?"

"You can see that he used the Power of Origin from here?"

Leng Shan suspected something was wrong with his ears. Wasn't the Power of Origin something that could only be discovered if one was close enough to others who possessed it, allowing them to sense each other?

Seeing the Power of Origin directly from nearly a thousand meters away—what kind of operation was this?

Wu Chang also showed a look of confusion and asked in return: "Doesn't mastering the Power of Origin naturally allow one to see the Power of Origin of others?"

Leng Shan shook his head and said: "This is the first time I've heard this claim, but I have heard another claim that might be related to your situation."

Wu Chang asked curiously: "What claim?"

Leng Shan's lips moved, then he shook his head and said: "Nothing, just pretend I didn't say anything."

It took a great deal of effort for Leng Shan to hold back the phrase, "Dogs can see things that humans can't."

Wu Chang shrugged, guessing that Leng Shan was about to say something baseless about him cheating, so he didn't press further.

He really wasn't cheating; if other players couldn't see the Power of Origin, then his ability might have two sources.

One was his Eye of Law-Breaking, and the other was his Inspiration stat; regardless of which, they were both reasonable mechanisms within the game, clean and clear.

Leng Shan paused for a moment before continuing the topic that had been interrupted by Wu Chang's observation.

"That man with the saber is named Phantom, the strongest player in the Evolution Committee, at least the strongest on the surface."

Xiang Jianxing realized: "The Phantom ranked fifth on the Combat Power Ranking?"

Fifth on the Combat Power Ranking—no wonder fighting in an S-rank dungeon felt like frying fish.

Leng Shan nodded in confirmation. He looked at Xiang Jianxing, but was actually explaining to Wu Chang:

"Players who can rank in the top fifteen on the Combat Power Ranking are called Ranked Players, and the threshold for being a Ranked Player is mastering the Power of Origin."

"The Power of Origin that Phantom has mastered is small-scale speed manipulation. Combined with his class advancement into Blade Dancer, it makes his blade technique incredibly fast; he is one of the most troublesome guys in the Desolate Realm."

"The best way to deal with Phantom is to use non-ballistic skills, such as curses or mental shocks, to attack him directly from outside the range his Power of Origin can influence."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow; come to think of it, he hadn't paid attention to the Combat Power Ranking.

The so-called Combat Power Ranking was a list compiled by the Abyss game based on a certain algorithm that converted a player's combat power into a numerical value.

Excluding a small number of high-score-low-ability players and special cases like Wu Chang, who started with 50 points of Inspiration and 30 points of Willpower, the Combat Power Ranking's estimate of player ability was very accurate in the vast majority of cases.

In his memory, when he first completed a dungeon, he had seen a prompt from the Abyss game asking if he wanted to make his combat power value public; he had chosen to refuse, so he was not on the list.

Many who didn't want their true strength discovered, such as the Painter, also chose not to make their combat power values public.

But the four major organizations were different; they needed to demonstrate their dominance through the values of their top players, so they would choose some top players to be on the list.

Wu Chang asked Leng Shan: "I haven't paid much attention to the Combat Power Ranking before; what positions are you and Xiang Jianxing ranked at?"

Leng Shan said: "Because there are too many strong people like you who hide themselves, my ranking looks a bit better; I am currently ranked second on the Combat Power Ranking."

Wu Chang applauded after hearing this: "My respects, my respects; I didn't expect you to be a big shot ranked second on the Combat Power Ranking."

Leng Shan showed a look of helplessness, ignored Wu Chang's reaction, and continued:

"Although Xiang Jianxing possesses an extremely powerful class advancement and has touched upon the Power of Origin, he is not yet at max level and has a lot of room for improvement, so he is currently ranked forty-ninth."

Wu Chang looked at Xiang Jianxing with some surprise. When he first saw this kid, he was a rookie whose willpower was on the verge of collapse, and he even had to call for help just to break through a C-rank dungeon.

In the blink of an eye, he could actually rank in the top fifty.

They say there is always someone better, and there is always a heaven beyond the heaven; geniuses among the players of the Desolate Realm are as numerous as crucian carp in a river. It seems that's not quite the case after all.

He didn't know if it was because there were too many players hiding their true strength, or if everyone's combat power values were indeed not high enough.

Wu Chang turned his gaze back to the plaza, focusing on the competition for the invitations.

There were quite a few players who, like Phantom, wanted to show off their strength by "frying fish" and attract the attention of various factions, but only Phantom could play it beautifully.

Most of the other players who came to "fry fish" would run into peers and then get locked in a stalemate, becoming part of the fish pond, which only highlighted Phantom's dominance even more.

There was no second player of Phantom's level in the plaza, but Wu Chang saw a few acquaintances among the players.

Among them, the ones who first caught his attention were Bu Ke from the White Tower and Veronica from the Evolution Committee.

If it were two months ago, their strength would not have been enough to enter an S-rank dungeon; even if they were unlucky enough to draw a "Great Misfortune" sign, they wouldn't have been able to get in.

Being paired with Wu Chang for two consecutive dungeons, *Sacred Song Company* and *Beset by Misfortune*, allowed them to gain many benefits by clinging to his coattails, greatly improving their strength and successfully sneaking into the top five hundred in combat power, which gave them the qualifications to enter an S-rank dungeon.

But they were only just able to get in; among the crowd of players, they belonged to the very bottom.

However, their goals were also very clear; the focus was obviously not on fighting, but on observing the players who had already obtained invitations in front of St. George's Cathedral and the other players in the plaza.

Wu Chang could see it; they had come to confirm whether he had entered the dungeon, clearly here to cling to his coattails.

He sighed. Forget it; even someone like Xiang Jianxing could rank in the top fifty, so he didn't really care about the players' combat power anymore.

Compared to strange players like Phantom who were powerful but whose backgrounds were unknown, he preferred to team up with guys who were a bit more useless but familiar.

Anyway, they were all just there to help out; the "useless" ones had clear positioning and wouldn't complain.

Colton, who often teamed up with Bu Ke in the "Cling-to-Coattails" trio, didn't appear.

Perhaps Colton's power leaned toward the technological side, and a dungeon plane like *Steam Phantom*, where even electricity wasn't popularized and was still in the steam engine era, wasn't suitable for him to display his skills, so he wasn't chosen by the Abyss game.

Thinking of the reason, Wu Chang couldn't help but wrinkle his nose, his eyes showing some dissatisfaction.

The Abyss game was indeed very considerate when dealing with players other than him, focusing on difficulty balance and being full of human touch.

But when facing him, it was always "how can I make this as difficult as possible," and now it wasn't even pretending anymore.

Competing for an invitation only determined one's status when joining a faction and whether one could receive more preferential treatment; not getting one didn't mean the dungeon walkthrough would fail.

Precisely because of this, the players competed with great restraint; unless the atmosphere reached a point where they had to fight to their heart's content, most players did not use their trump cards, such as ultimate class-advancement skills, here.

The time reached 11:30, and the fighting in the plaza had entered its final stages.

Of the five invitations, four had already been snatched away.

Except for Phantom, whose strength gap was too large—he simply walked to the chair area and sat down, and no one dared to stop him—the other three players who had guarded their invitations were all vigilant against the players in the plaza, preventing anyone from "stealing the tower" before the final deadline.

Thirty-five people arrived, and at this moment, nine had exited, leaving twenty-six people in the plaza.

Counting it up, except for the unlucky ones in Phantom's group who all exited, the other four groups combined only had two people who were knocked out early.

No wonder fishing with explosives makes people hate you.

As the battle for the invitations neared its end, the players who had lost hope of competing gradually gathered together, turning into spectators to witness who would claim the final invitation.

Just as the players' attention was focused on the final battle, an inconspicuous guy in the crowd emitted a faint clicking sound from within his body.

The faint clicking sound was drowned out by the noise of colliding skills, and no one noticed it.

Except for Wu Chang.

Both his physical body and his True Self noticed immediately that the transcendent, who had been knocked to the ground early on and given up on competing for the invitation, actually had mist-like Source Power surging within his body.

This Source Power was of the same origin as the Source Power of the Steam Phantom plane.

The True Self pointed at the anomaly and asked Leng Shan:

"Is that guy one of the ranked players you mentioned?"

Leng Shan looked at the anomaly, examined him carefully for a few moments, and shook his head, saying, "I haven't seen him before. Why do you ask?"

Wu Chang said, "I saw Source Power on him, the current Source Power of the plane."

As if to confirm what he had seen, the clicking sound on the anomaly began to grow louder, loud enough for the players around him to notice.

Immediately after, steam began to emerge from the anomaly's seven orifices, and his body began to turn red and glow.

In St. George Square, whether they were players in the middle of a fight or players in the seating area who had already obtained invitations, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked toward the anomaly.

An energy so massive that they could not ignore it was rapidly gathering within the anomaly.

He had turned into a giant bomb, ready to detonate at any moment.

"Damn it, are you fucking crazy!"

A player dressed as a mage near the anomaly was the first to act; light flickered on his staff, condensed into a blade, and stabbed directly at the anomaly.

But as soon as the light blade touched the steam emitted by the anomaly, it melted away instantly like butter in a hot pan.

The staff, now devoid of energy, poked the anomaly, but instead of shaking him, it only made him turn redder and emit more steam.

The mage refused to believe it and was about to increase his effort for another go, but before he could use a stronger skill, he took a punch to the face from a nearby player.

"You're the one who's crazy! We're so close; if you make him explode, we'll be the first to die!"

The mage also realized what was happening, a look of lingering fear appearing in his eyes. He followed the other players, casting defensive skills on himself while moving toward the edge of the square.

Woo~

A huge steam whistle sound came from within the anomaly. Sensing that the players were trying to run, he released a massive amount of steam, instantly shrouding the entire St. George Square and the St. George Church.

The players discovered that their abilities were ineffective within the mist, with only a few players, such as those with Buke's motorcycle ability, still able to use them normally.

Not only that, as some players tried to escape, the anomaly's self-detonation progress accelerated, and the power within his body increased sharply.

It was as if the players' fear was providing it with extra power.

"Don't run!"

Just as they were shouting for the players at the edge of the square to stop, the anomaly's entire body turned into a red ball of light, and it looked like it was about to explode.

At this moment, the power accumulated within him was enough to alarm even Zhu Li and Phantom.

Just as they were about to intervene, a figure appeared out of thin air in front of the anomaly. He ignored the surging steam, smashed the anomaly to the ground with an elbow, and caused the anomaly's self-detonation to pause for a moment.

Immediately after, a large hole suddenly burst open in the anomaly's chest. The power accumulated within the anomaly seemed to find a vent, leaking out as thick steam from the hole in his chest and obscuring everyone's vision.

The one who acted was naturally Wu Chang. He used teleportation to arrive in front of the anomaly, first using a Mamba Iron Elbow to interrupt the casting, and then, guided by the Omniscient Crystal, used highly concentrated spatial distortion to neutralize the steam source while piercing the detonation device inside the anomaly.

Unfortunately, to avoid making other players wary, his Mamba Iron Elbow had to be used covertly without shouting the name out loud, which made him feel like something was missing when he delivered the elbow strike.

He pressed his hand against the anomaly's head; the sensation from his hand was not that of flesh and blood, but more like steel covered with a layer of human skin.

As the anomaly stopped struggling completely, a line of information appeared before his eyes.

"Item Name: Self-Detonating Steam Cyborg" (Unlocked by King's Badge)

"Item Type: Special"

"Item Description: A special product made using a transcendent as raw material, processed through a special technique to replace most of the bones, flesh, and internal organs with steel. The Steam Cyborg retains part of the combat consciousness from when it was alive and will self-detonate upon receiving a command."

"Note: This Self-Detonating Steam Cyborg is manufactured by a Franken-class Transcendent Machine Tool. The Franken-class Transcendent Machine Tool is a product of the fusion of steam rules and mysticism, capable of bridging the distance between life and machinery. It is the masterpiece of the Stilan Machine Tool and a shining pearl on the crown of industry."

(End of chapter)