Chapter 387: A Fat One!

As the lion-shaped mechanical beast carrying the differential engine shattered, the steam rules enveloping Grimlan began to dissipate.

The residents of the city, who had been turned to statues under the influence of the differential engine and steam rules, awoke as if from a dream and resumed their previous actions, completely unaware that the world had once been "frozen" for a time.

For residents outside the Crystal Palace, the steam rules had little impact, but for visitors inside, the situation appeared deeply strange.

When everyone began applauding as everything returned to normal, they were astonished to find Olivia on the stage looking disheveled—her clothes covered in dust, her mood fallen from high to low, and her crown nowhere to be seen.

It was as if, while they weren't looking, Olivia had stumbled off the stage and rolled on the ground several times.

If only Olivia had acted strangely, it might have been explainable—perhaps she had been distracted while clapping and hadn't noticed.

But who could tell them why the glass wall on the side of the Crystal Palace facing the square had completely shattered, with a large hole punched into the steel frame?

Could it really be that such a massive change was also something they hadn't noticed?

But Olivia gave no answer, and no one dared to ask; they could only exit, faces full of questions, as the Mystic Knights and Secret Police dispersed the crowd.

Not only the native inhabitants of the visited realm were baffled—the visiting players were equally unaware of what had happened.

Only Leng Shan, Jian Xing, and Shen Zhi She had glimpsed fragments of what occurred, yet could not confirm anything.

They had heard the sounds of battle and rushed toward them, only to find a winged lion-shaped mechanical beast fighting a modern mech.

The scene nearly fried their already sluggish CPUs under the steam rules.

What the hell? Where did this come from? How did it jump straight from the steam age to a sci-fi realm?

Then came a torrent of steam; when it cleared, they saw Wu Chang, Zhu Li, and Olivia standing before a pile of rubble, speaking.

The only thing they knew was that Peace had a mech—a very powerful mech.

They gathered around Wu Chang, wanting to ask what had happened, but Wu Chang showed no intention of telling them.

With the main quest of the instance completed, players could only remain for a short time before being forcibly expelled upon reaching the time limit.

After several failed attempts to ask, they left the instance realm, still confused.

What exactly had transpired between the final hidden boss of Steam Phantom and the World Industrial Exposition became an unsolved mystery of the Wasteland Realm.

Like other players, Wu Chang should have been forcibly expelled upon time expiration, but Olivia and Zhu Li's recognition allowed him to remain in the Steam Phantom instance.

"Player has gained the recognition of Wasteland Realm - 46957's Controller; Wasteland Realm - 46957 has become the player's private realm; the player now holds administrative permissions within this realm, and non-player targets cannot enter."

"Player, as Controller, is anchored to Wasteland Realm - 46957; a fixed portal to this realm has been opened."

…

"Player has gained recognition from the World Will; all player actions, including the spread of faith, are no longer restricted."

"Detection: Player has obtained temporary administrative permissions for Wasteland Realm; areas of the Real Realm covered by the player's Divine Nation are under the player's absolute control; the existence of the player and the Divine Nation is now absolutely rational. Unless the player permits, no other entity may detect anomalies."

"Player has obtained the highest-tier temporary administrative permissions for Wasteland Realm; no further upgrades possible."

By turning Steam Phantom into a private realm, Wu Chang could extend his stay within the realm.

After seeing off the other players and the visitors of the World Industrial Exposition, he went to the wreckage of the lion-shaped mechanical beast and retrieved the All-Knowing Crystal.

The lion-shaped mechanical beast's body had integrated the cores of all supernatural steam engines, including the core of the differential engine, within which the Primordial Spirit Pivot was hidden—it was time to recover it.

The All-Knowing Crystal slowly rotated in midair, retrieving the Primordial Spirit Pivot, invisible even to Wu Chang, from the mechanical beast's remains.

Though Wu Chang could not perceive the Primordial Spirit Pivot, he guessed that the differential engine contained a vast amount of it; after absorbing it, the All-Knowing Crystal entered a "satiated" state.

It had accumulated sufficient Primordial Spirit Pivot; it only needed a trigger or some time to restore part of its abilities through it.

Even in its injured state, the All-Knowing Crystal was already this powerful; Wu Chang looked forward to its performance once it regained some abilities.

After retrieving the Primordial Spirit Pivot, he took out the Mortal Poison and began absorbing the instance's corruption energy.

Completing an S-rank instance: Energy +3; S-rank instance corruption core: Energy +7.

As the S-rank instance, the most severely corrupted by the Abyss among all Wasteland Realm instances, it yielded nearly double the Abyssal corruption energy of an A-rank instance.

Combined with the previous 15 energy points accumulated, the second round of extraction from the Mortal Poison reached 25/50 energy.

Recalling how he had once needed to complete countless instances just to gather the 10 energy points needed to activate the Mortal Poison, now he could accumulate 10 energy points simply by completing one instance.

Time had flown like a white horse passing through a crevice; from the moment he could only earn one or two energy points per instance, it felt like no time had passed.

Oh, he'd only been in the Abyss Game for less than a hundred days—so it was fine.

Steam Phantom was not only an S-rank instance but also a Pillar of the Real Realm; once Wu Chang left the instance, its time flow would synchronize with the Real World.

Thus, after completing the main quest, Wu Chang and Ailin remained in the Steam Phantom instance for another week.

After gaining realm recognition, Ailin's missionary work was no longer bound by the realm's constraints; her Divine Nation spread from the Grey Church slums, first expanding across the entire East District, then rapidly engulfing all of Grimlan under Olivia's support.

During Ailin's missionary period, Wu Chang assisted Olivia in finalizing the Stilan project.

First, the World Industrial Exposition: leveraging Stilan's industrial foundation and Olivia's steam rules, the damaged areas of the Crystal Palace were restored by eighty percent in a single night.

Politically, although Olivia's mechanical world plan had failed, all her prior efforts were not in vain; both the Conservative and Liberal parties were left too weakened to recover in the short term.

She further absorbed the public's expectations through the World Industrial Exposition.

With new Prime Minister Randy's support on the political front and both Ailin and Zhu Li's backing on the religious front, all forces now aligned behind her.

With support from every direction, Stilan now had only Olivia's voice; her power approached that of absolute monarchy.

No one could stop any reform or bill she wished to push forward.

By the time Wu Chang prepared to leave the instance, she had already placed the state religion reform and the New Factory Act on the legislative agenda.

The only drawback was that Zhu Li, having clarified her path, had made explosive progress in mastering the power of spatial origins—she would likely leave the Wasteland Realm and ascend to the Rational Realm soon.

When Wu Chang heard Zhu Li say she heard a voice during prayer, attempting to guide her to another realm to serve as a Saint and manage the church, he remembered Christin's request: not only to help Zhu Li resolve her troubles, but also to assist her in her ascension.

From Zhu Li's tone, it seemed the Revelation was desperately short-staffed and needed her to go to the Rational Realm to oversee its affairs.

Though he did not know why Christin had chosen Zhu Li, her ascension was all but inevitable.

Zhu Li approached Wu Chang not only to inform him of the anomaly she experienced during prayer, but also to deliver his hidden side quest reward.

The hidden side quest he received from Olivia was to clear the gloom of Grimlan—by capturing at least one mastermind behind a city anomaly.

In fulfilling this quest, he didn't just uncover every mastermind behind Grimlan's city anomalies—he even exposed Olivia herself, the greatest mastermind of all.

Exceeding expectations in completing the hidden side quest granted him a special reward.

Zhu Li gave him a horn as a reward.

She said: "Back at the Moonlight Sanatorium, you only drove back the Lyman projection possessing Randy. After that, He forcibly descended part of His power to the lower realm through the altar beneath the sanatorium, attempting a surprise attack on you."

"I used the divine artifact granted to me by the True God to shatter Lyman's projection and seal it inside."

"The True God told me you would appreciate this reward."

Wu Chang took the horn from Zhu Li's hand.

"Item Name: Holy Revelation Horn"

"Item Type: Special"

"Item Description: A divine artifact crafted by the True God of Revelation, Christine, which deals extra damage to Lyman, the main deity of the Church of Serenity. It contains a complete fragment of Lyman's power sealed within."

Christine guessed correctly—Wu Chang was extremely satisfied with this reward.

He had only gained one fragment of Lyman's power by killing the Lyman avatar possessing the Initiate, but now he was directly given a fragment of Lyman's power, plus the Holy Revelation Horn, which dealt extra damage to Lyman.

Even if it contained no sealed Lyman power, the Holy Revelation Horn, crafted by Christine specifically to target Lyman, was still extremely useful to him.

Once he used up his second Lyman Eye, he could take the Holy Revelation Horn and borrow another eye from Lyman. Time passed swiftly; as the Steam Phantom dimension gradually stabilized, he prepared to leave the instance dimension.

The Steam Phantom instance was merely a qualification instance; the real prize lay in the world instance that followed.

Leaving the Steam Phantom dimension occurred in the morning, as usual—Reventon sat at Wu Chang's breakfast table early, waiting to piggyback on today's meal.

During the meal, Wu Chang asked:

"What are your plans next?"

Reventon sliced his sausage and said: "There's nothing left for me here. I plan to visit the new world and see if I can learn the kind of inspiration you use."

Wu Chang said: "I heard Zhu Li received a summons from the Lord of Revelation. What do you think about that?"

Reventon quickened his slicing motion and said with indifference:

"You know, those old bastards in the Church have spent their entire lives guarding their chapels and never once heard a single word in response from the Holy Lord. In the past few decades, the only response the Holy Lord has given them is a moldy patch on the communion bread that vaguely resembles His face."

Compared to having one's face stamped on bread to declare one's existence, Zhu Li is unbelievably lucky."

Wu Chang rolled his eyes and said:

"As a friend, I must warn you—some opportunities, once missed, may never come again."

"As for divine summons, don't overcomplicate it. Entering other worlds is no different from buying a ticket to the new world—your god isn't the only one who can issue descent tickets to the lower realm."

Reventon quickly glanced at Erin—he understood Wu Chang's implication: the Yongguang Sect also had a path to ascension—but he made no further comment.

This made Wu Chang shake his head in frustration, thinking: You're this cowardly? How are you going to compete with Olivia?

There was no choice—he had to give Reventon one final push.

After breakfast, Wu Chang took Erin and returned with Reventon to his detective agency.

As Vice Commander of the Arcane Knights Order, Reventon had been reinstated as a noble and granted a mansion by Olivia.

But he hadn't moved out yet—he was still living at 41 Sael Street.

Entering the second floor, Wu Chang held Erin's hand and said:

"Reventon, don't go to the new world yet. Erin and I need to leave Stilan for a while. While we're gone, watch over the Arcane Knights Order for me."

Reventon asked, puzzled: "Where are you going? Back to the new world?"

Wu Chang said: "It's the new world—but not the new world you know."

Reventon: "What do you mean…"

Before Reventon could finish, Wu Chang and Erin vanished in a flash of light.

Reventon stood frozen, staring at the spot where Wu Chang and Erin had disappeared. The new world they went to seemed truly different from the one he knew.

The S-rank instance, with its qualification instance status, was different—even the light transporting him out of the Steam Phantom instance and into the instance settlement space carried steam effects.

Entering the instance settlement space, the TV walls played back his performance within the instance.

"Player ID 4444444 has successfully completed the instance Steam Phantom. Settlement begins based on player performance."

"Player completed Main Quest 1: Survived at least thirty days in the capital of Stilan, Grimlan, and witnessed the Grand International Industrial Exhibition."

"Player completed Main Quest 2: Acquired at least one Pearl of the Industrial Crown. Player acquired number of Pearls of the Industrial Crown: 6."

"Player completed Main Quest 3: Investigated the truth behind the Prime Minister's assassination."

"Player completed Hidden Side Quest: Purged the gloom of Grimlan by exposing at least one mastermind behind a city anomaly."

"Player became Commander of the Arcane Knights Order, led the Order to its end, and successfully helped the supported interior minister, Randy Anderson, become the new Prime Minister."

"Player discovered the true cause of Prime Minister Ron's death and learned Queen Olivia's true plan."

"Player dismantled the hidden trap planted by the Church of Serenity within the arcane steam engine and successfully harvested the divine seed it had nurtured."

"Instance Completion Rate: 100%!"

"Title 'Perfectionist' activated: Instance Completion Rate +5%."

"Title 'True Practitioner' activated: Instance Completion Rate +15%."

"Congratulations—player won the Side Quest Competition, gaining 40% additional Instance Completion Rate. Since player's Instance Completion Rate exceeded 70%, the excess has been converted into base instance rewards."

"Total excess Instance Completion Rate: 60%. Base instance reward increased by 300%."

"Instance Rating: Perfect!"

"Experience and Corroded Silver Coins settlement bonus: 300%!"

"This instance is the player's transitional instance. Transitional instance count reduced by 1. Instance settlement yields +20% extra output. Current remaining transitional instance count: 9."

"Player gained Experience: 115200 (8000×4×3×1.2)."

"Player gained Corroded Silver Coins: 216000 (15000×4×3×1.2)."

Looking at the base instance reward settlement, even Wu Chang, who had seen great wealth before, could not help holding his breath.

How much?

How much was this thing rewarding?

What do you call a big haul? This is a big haul.

First, the dungeon experience: 115,000 experience points—even after removing a zero—exceeds the rewards of many players who survived the Steam Phantom dungeon.

More importantly, he is no longer what he was; he has reached the upper limit of the Wasteland Realm level, and excess experience points convert at a ratio of 1000:1 into free attribute points.

115,000 experience points equate to 115 attribute points.

If each level-up grants five attribute points, the attribute points gained from completing the Steam Phantom dungeon equal twenty-three levels for an ordinary player.

Is this a bit too much?

In the past, when facing game administrator targeting, he could stand firm; now he truly feels a twinge of guilt.

Could he have single-handedly inflated the Abyss game's numbers?

Aside from experience, 210,000 Rotting Silver Coins also made him dizzy.

Previously, when upgrading his cultivation techniques, facing expenditures of tens or even hundreds of thousands of Rotting Silver Coins, he always thought the Abyss game was ruthlessly exploitative.

If he could guarantee a 210,000 Rotting Silver Coin yield per dungeon, the Abyss game wouldn't just be fair—it would be an industry conscience.

After settling the base rewards, the next step was the dungeon rating settlement.

"Player dungeon rating has reached S-class; you may select one item from the current dungeon world as a special drop reward. The selected item must be an item you have already obtained usage permission for. Please make your selection."

In the Steam Phantom dungeon, the extraordinary items players can obtain are mostly extraordinary steam engines.

To facilitate player selection, the Abyss game added a special note behind each extraordinary steam engine.

"Once you select this reward, you will receive an identical portable scaled extraordinary steam engine."

To expand his selection options during dungeon settlement, on the first daytime of the International Industrial Exposition, he used his position as团长 of the Secret Method Knights to inspect every extraordinary steam engine.

As long as he wished, he could exchange for any extraordinary steam engine, including the already damaged Difference Engine.

But after reviewing them all, he ultimately chose to exchange for a badge.

"Item Name: Lake Light Badge"

"Item Type: Special"

"Item Description: The highest-ranking badge of Stilan, named after the Lake Light Sacred Sword, awarded to meritorious subjects who saved the nation. Merging the Lake Light Badge with the Lake Light Sacred Sword will cause the Lake Light Sacred Sword to undergo a wondrous transformation."

(End of Chapter)