Chapter 53: The Master of Breaking the Game

Same as last time, after leaving the dungeon, Wu Chang was teleported into a white room.

The video wall at the front of the room played back his various performances in the dungeon.

"Player number 4444444, you have successfully completed the dungeon Peace Year After Year. Settlement begins based on the player's performance in the dungeon."

"Player has completed Main Quest One: Travel to Huaigu Village and attend the New Year Eve Festival."

"Player has completed Main Quest Two: Guard Huaigu Village and complete the New Year Eve Ceremony."

"Player uncovered the secret of the Heishan bandits and saw through the disguises of Huaigu Village and Chen Family Village."

"Player discovered the true form of the evil spirit, helped the evil spirit resolve its obsession, and completed its revenge."

"Player completed the hidden side quest: Find the source of the demonic aura in Huaigu Village."

"Player discovered the existence of the demon-transforming evil art and performed rites to release the resentful will of the players who had been transformed into yang-gu in the Weeping Ghost Forest."

"Player discovered and thwarted Seeing Chiyuan's conspiracy."

"Dungeon completion: 100%!"

"Title Perfectionist activated, dungeon completion +5%, final dungeon completion: 100%!"

"Dungeon rating: Perfect!"

"Experience and Tarnish Silver Coin settlement correction: 300%!"

"Player gains experience: 3600."

"Player gains Tarnish Silver Coins: 6000."

"Player completed a hidden side quest, reward obtained: Soul-Cleansing Command Flag."

The dungeon settlement process was similar to the one at Moonlight Sanatorium.

It was worth mentioning that his base dungeon completion was 100%, and after Perfectionist activated, the completion was still 100%.

This showed that 100% was merely the settlement cap, not his own cap.

Given his exploration of the plot, he had very likely long since exceeded the perfect standard for Peace Year After Year.

After a brief pause, the settlement continued.

"Player's dungeon rating has reached S-rank. You may designate one item from the current dungeon world as a special drop reward. The selected item must be a prop for which usage rights have already been obtained. Please make your selection."

Wu Chang only glanced at the item list once before making his choice.

"The C-rank prop Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp chosen by the player — after leaving the dungeon plane, the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp's skill will change. Maintain selection?"

"Confirm."

"Player obtains prop: Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp."

"Year-Fire skill has changed."

"Prop skill: Year-Fire."

"Skill description: When the wick is lit, a Year-Fire that guards the mortal world can be kindled. While the Year-Fire burns, it can slow the user's life流逝."

Although he had prepared himself for the loss of the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp's death-immunity ability, seeing it for real still left him feeling quite regretful.

But on second thought, if the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp could still possess death-immunity after leaving the dungeon plane's special rules, its grade would have to be at least A (Growable).

"Player's dungeon rating has reached Perfect. You may select one rare prop from the current dungeon plane as a reward."

This time was different from Moonlight Sanatorium — perhaps because the dungeon was one grade lower and couldn't drop a class-change prop — what appeared before him were three cultivation arts.

"Thunder Art Fragment."

"Living Vessel Crafting Fragment."

"Demon Transformation Fragment."

After a brief consideration, he chose "Thunder Art Fragment."

Although Living Vessel Crafting was powerful, crafting living people into vessels was not his style.

Although he had no taboo against killing, he had no interest in making vessels out of living people either. That sort of behavior was too sinister — sooner or later it would invite heavenly retribution.

As for the Demon Transformation Fragment, any player who had exchanged for an Orc Bloodline in the public area would surely choose this.

But with his Mirror-Shadow Human Face, he was destined to directly transform into an immortal in the future; transforming into a demon instead became a minor path.

Choosing the Thunder Art Fragment would not only patch his短板 of lacking offensive手段, but Thunder Arts occupied an extremely heavy share in cultivation-world planes, allowing him to smoothly convert it into more powerful Thunder Arts in the future.

"Prop name: Thunder Art Fragment."

"Prop effect: Once the player's attributes reach Energy: 10; Inspiration: 20; Will: 25, the prop can be activated to learn the Thunder Art Fragment."

Compared to the class-change requirements of the Arcane Knight Order, the threshold for the Thunder Art Fragment was much lower.

"Cultivation Art: Thunder Art Fragment."

"Cultivation Art Grade: F. The Thunder Art Fragment can be upgraded by paying Tarnish Silver Coins or absorbing lightning-attribute spiritual items. This art can be raised to a maximum of B-grade."

"Upgrading the cultivation art to E-grade requires 1000 Tarnish Silver Coins."

After the dungeon settlement, he had just happened to level up twice. He allocated the 10 free attribute points into Energy, clicked to learn, and saw that the Thunder Art Fragment included four skills.

"Movement Art: Lightning Flash Thunder Shadow."

"Ward Art: Blazing Light Curse."

"Thunder Art: Palm Thunder."

"Thunder Art: Thousand Thunder Summoning (Not Activated) — activates once the cultivation art reaches C-grade."

The Tarnish Silver Coins consumed to upgrade the cultivation art were not few, but the benefit was that as the cultivation art rose, the four subordinate skills would rise in sync — it was still within an acceptable range.

After the perfect-rating reward came the main event of this settlement.

"Player achieved a perfect clear in a失控 dungeon (dungeon pollution value > 85) at or above character level, obtaining a random Title Chest."

"Player will only draw titles that meet the prerequisites."

Looking at the title-chest roulette before him, Wu Chang felt a pang of regret. If he could use props inside the settlement space, he could pull out the Goddess of Luck's Dice right now — wouldn't he get whatever he wanted? He closed his eyes and slammed his palm down hard on the draw button.

The roulette spun rapidly, then slowly came to a stop after ten rotations.

A treasure chest dropped in front of Wu Chang, and a blinding light surged out.

Wow! Another golden legendary!

He raised his head and found another colorful title had appeared above him.

"Title: Master of Breaking the Game"

"Title Acquisition Requirement: Achieve a perfect clear on every real instance the player encounters."

"Title Description: To cope with corrupted instances, the Master of Breaking the Game has strengthened his adaptability, able to draw energy from corruption to empower himself."

"Title Effect: While wearing this title, in real instances, attributes other than inspiration and will increase alongside the instance's corruption level, with the increase being (corruption value / 2)%."

"Note: Colorful titles can stack with other titles."

In the Peaceful Years instance, just as Wu Chang was settling his score, a light gate appeared outside Huai Gu Village.

A young man dressed as a scholar stepped out from within. The scholar was dignified in bearing, elegant in posture—one look told you he was a young master from a wealthy family.

He shook his fan, paced with measured steps, and slowly walked into the valley.

After a few steps he felt something was off. How could it be that after only one year apart, the villagers of Huai Gu Village had become so cold and indifferent, not even coming out to greet their great benefactor upon his visit?

Frowning, he entered the valley. Seeing corpses strewn across the ground and Huai Gu Village in utter chaos, his face went blank with bewilderment.

No—what's going on?

My Huai Gu Village, the game I worked so hard to set up for the Lord—who destroyed it?! Those damned Heishan bandits, I told them again and again not to hold the New Year Purge early, a bunch of dimwitted brutes who can't understand human speech! He could spare no thought for appearances, hitching up the hem of his long robe as he hurried toward Hollow Mountain.

A moment later, the roar of a groundhog echoed from within Hollow Mountain.

"Ah!"

"Where is my huge erosion core!"

The scholar walked out of Hollow Mountain with an ashen face. Clenching his back teeth, he scanned his surroundings, and only after confirming that the culprit behind all this had already left did he reluctantly accept his fate, forming hand seals to summon something.

He formed the seals three times in succession with no result, and the scholar completely lost his composure.

"You rotten thief! Give me back my lantern!"

They had carefully chosen an instance in an area where several major powers' territories overlapped, and spent a fortune to mask the instance's corruption value so those major powers wouldn't notice.

After long, painstaking cultivation, they had finally waited for the seed to sprout, blossom, and bear fruit.

Just as the fruit was about to ripen, someone got there first and plucked it—who the hell could stand for that?!

Plucking the fruit would have been bad enough, but they even uprooted the tree, and stole the farming tools to boot.

The angrier he got, the more he thought about it. He took out a golden toad tea pet from his pocket, placed it in his palm, and tapped the toad's forehead with his index finger. The tea pet came to life.

The golden toad sucked in sharply, as if about to drain all the air from Huai Gu Village. The inhalation lasted a full half minute before stopping.

It closed its mouth, its two bulging eyes rolling about nonstop. Once the eyes stopped spinning, it closed them and fell into a deep sleep, becoming a tea pet once more.

The scholar's face twisted viciously as he put away the tea pet. He had already recorded the aura of the player who had cleared the instance.

That rotten thief better hope he doesn't catch him inside an instance, or he'll make the other party pay the price!

Their Tranquil Sect always repaid their debts, no matter who the enemy was! Just wait!

(End of Chapter)