Chapter 54: Doomsday Omen

The dungeon settlement was complete; Wu Chang was about to leave when a prompt popped up before him.

"Player cleared a C-rank dungeon in 45 minutes, breaking the Wasteland Realm's fastest C-rank dungeon clearance record. This record will be added to the leaderboard. Would you like to display your game nickname?"

"Decline."

He checked the original fastest C-rank dungeon clearance time: 3 hours, 23 minutes, and 45 seconds.

He was barely three hours faster.

Looking back, he had indeed taken many shortcuts during the clearance.

Using the mountain's resentments as landmarks, he completed Main Quest One: Proceed to Huai Valley Village, saving at least a day and a half over others.

Later, traveling to Chen Village and returning, he saved nearly four more days.

This doesn't even count him accelerating the End-of-Year Ritual to begin a month early.

Unsurprisingly, after securing the fastest C-rank dungeon clearance record, he also claimed the record for the lowest level to clear a C-rank dungeon.

He moved the previous Level 10 record down to Level 8.

After again declining to display his identity information, he left the Crimson Courtyard and returned to the real world.

Player nickname: NoBeef.

Player level: 10 (0/2600)

(4100/1900) — (2200/2200) — (0/2600)

Titles: Perfectionist, Breaker of Deadlocks.

Life: 21 Strength: 20 Agility: 15 Endurance: 16 Energy: 14 Inspiration: 90 Willpower: 64 Free attribute points: 0 Corroded Silver Coins: 5000.

Skills: Mamba Iron Elbow, Firearms Proficiency (Proficient).

Cultivation Method: Fragment of Thunder Art (E).

Items: Silver Dawn, Favor of the Goddess of Luck, Whisperer's Echo ×1, Poison of the Commoner, Novice Code of the Secret Art Knights, Soul-Purifying Flag, Four-Sided Yearfire Lantern, Reflection Mask.

Talents: Transcendence, Misfortune.

Wu Chang glanced at his stats panel and stretched vigorously.

The first thing after leaving a dungeon was to rest properly for a full day.

The esports hotel room still had time left; he tore open a bag of chips, twisted open a bottle of Happy Water, and turned on his computer screen.

The time of joy was about to begin.

In the evening, just before check-out, Wu Chang's phone rang; he glanced at the caller ID and answered:

"Hui Zi, what's up?"

"Boss, I haven't seen a single soul all day—what are you so busy with?"

Wu Chang: "Job interviews. Unlike you, I can't just go home and inherit the family business if I can't find work."

"What kind of job?"

"Funeral industry." Wu Chang wasn't lying—he'd just buried an entire village and dug a grave for Seeing Chiyuan; calling it funeral industry wasn't wrong.

Fang Hui felt tricked and snapped: "Sales, buy one get the second half-price, right? Enough joking—any plans tonight?"

"Depends on what it is."

"Seven tonight at Jin Yu Village—seafood, king crab, all you can eat."

"Then I'm definitely free."

After hanging up, he checked out of the esports hotel and walked toward Jin Yu Village.

Jin Yu Village was a landmark restaurant near Wanghai Da, notable for one thing: expensive.

Its advantage? It doesn't cheat the poor.

With an average per-person cost of several hundred to over a thousand, Wu Chang couldn't afford it unless he converted his Corroded Silver Coins into cash—he'd need to take out microloans.

Only by tagging along with big spenders like Fang Hui could he even get through the door.

He stared at Jin Yu Village's luxurious sign and clenched his fist unconsciously.

If his life had followed a normal path—ordinary interviews, a job, being a workhorse—he'd never have set foot here voluntarily.

But now, the Transcendence talent and the Abyss Game had given him this chance—to reach heights even higher than this.

When fate offers, take it; refuse, and suffer the consequence.

If he couldn't secure his footing in the Abyss Game, he might as well die inside a dungeon.

Just as he wore a grave expression, brows knotted tightly, as if making a firm decision, a mocking voice rang out behind him.

"Boss, is that face constipation or diarrhea?"

Wu Chang rolled his eyes and turned to see the Dragon and Phoenix duo from 426.

The mood was ruined by these idiots.

Whatever—he wasn't a battle-obsessed player; survival and stealth were his style.

As he stepped out of that sudden battle-frenzy state, he sensed something off.

The Abyss Game seemed to subtly influence his thoughts, making him more submissive to his desires, more aggressive, and luring him to immerse himself deeper into the game.

For a moment, he'd even entertained the thought that to explore the Abyss Game, he'd stop at nothing—anyone who stood in his way must be eliminated. With his 64-point Willpower, he was still affected; he dared not imagine what prolonged exposure would do to ordinary players.

He shuddered, and suddenly, the voice of "Xiao Hong" from the public square echoed in his ears.

"Living in a collapsing world, humanity will eventually be devoured by power—the dungeon bosses have shown this more than once."

Combined with his recent experience, this felt like the horn of a prelude to doomsday.

An indescribable suffocation surged over him, just as it had in the Moonlight Sanatorium, when he stared directly into Lehman's true form and saw through it to the truth: Lehman's essence was countless entwined emotions.

Now, the opposite of that moment—he saw fleeting images through the inexplicable emotions rising within him.

He couldn't understand what he saw, yet he was certain it was a glimpse of the future.

He could only make out a fragment; the full picture remained hidden.

The sky was full of red, and he couldn't tell whether it was the red of resentment, the red of the Crimson Court, or some other, deeper red.

Everything he saw was being eroded by that shade of red.

He didn't know what that shade of red represented, only that the things he had seen absolutely must not happen.

For that reason, he had to do something.

Before he sank any deeper into the visions, he forced himself out of the hallucination by sheer will.

Damn, my Inspiration's a bit too high — saw some weird stuff.

He took a deep breath, turned his head, and said, "Huizi, I'm craving fish."

Fang Hui waved his hand grandly. "Consider it done!"

The group arrived at the private room they'd booked, and it didn't take long for them to figure out the purpose of tonight's dinner.

He had brought along the female police officer who had saved him during the emergency evacuation.

Fang Hui's girlfriend was named Meng Yawen — she wore a neat short haircut, carried herself with brisk efficiency, and had a dashing, spirited air.

If you asked an AI to generate a "police beauty" look and it didn't use Meng Yawen as its template, that would just mean the AI still needs more training.

As a rule, anyone Fang Hui took a liking to was no ordinary person.

Meng Yawen worked at the Wanghai City Headquarters; she had served in the military — special forces, no less — and after discharge she had returned to Wanghai City and joined the Wanghai Headquarters.

Fang Hui's introduction was deliberately understated, but anyone who thought about it for a moment would realize this Miss's background ran a little deep.

Over dinner, Fang Hui brought up what he wanted to do after graduation.

Guided by his uncle, he wanted to become an adventure UP主, specializing in filming the unusual natural landscapes that had recently been discovered.

Over the past half year, marvelous natural landscapes had begun appearing all over the world — bizarre and strange sights, painted in a style unlike any other scenery on Blue Star, as if they had come from another world.

Players of Abyss Games like Wu Chang knew these landscapes were the aftermath of dungeon ruptures that had eroded reality, left behind once the erosion crisis was resolved.

But the official explanation called them special regions previously unexplored by humanity.

As these special regions kept multiplying, video creators across every platform — Douyin, Mainshou, Papalapala — had sprung up to film content using them as material.

Wu Chang was a little worried hearing this. Those places had been dungeons, after all; even if the surface-level erosion crisis was resolved, who knew what hidden dangers might still be lurking.

"Huizi, I've got a feeling those places are strange. What if there's radiation or some kind of toxin? Your Yawen works on the official side — she definitely knows more than I do. Let's hear what she thinks."

He tried to get Meng Yawen to talk Fang Hui out of it together with him, but to his surprise Meng Yawen didn't care at all. Instead she said:

"It's fine. Let Fang Hui do what he loves. I happen to love exploring too — when he goes, I'll go with him, and then we won't have to worry about accidents."

Fang Hui was deeply moved and took Meng Yawen's hand.

"Yawen, no matter where we go, I'll always go with you."

Watching the two of them all lovey-dovey, the private room was instantly filled with a sour smell.

The sour smell of jealousy.

Seeing that persuasion was hopeless, Wu Chang could only let it go.

After dinner, Fang Hui and Meng Yawen vanished to who-knows-where, leaving behind three single dogs to head back to the dorm together.

He Wei muttered, "A ladies' man is a ladies' man — in just half a month, he's already hooked up with the girl he's been eyeing."

Wu Chang patted He Wei on the shoulder and comforted him:

"Look on the bright side. Fang Hui only has one Meng Yawen, but your computer and portable hard drive have thousands of teachers waiting for you. You've already won by a mile."

He Wei: "Damn!"

In the days that followed, it took Wu Chang two whole days to recover from the visions he'd seen during that burst of Inspiration.

What he'd seen that day — any ordinary person who so much as glanced at it would have had their SAN value drop to zero on the spot.

But he, after seeing it, not only didn't break down — his Will stat actually went up by 30 points.

Having pulled himself together and become his sunny, cheerful big-boy self again, Wu Chang glanced at his status panel, and his mood immediately soured.

A very urgent, and very real, problem was staring him in the face.

He was out of money.

(End of Chapter)