Chapter 62: Folks, It Really Works!

Flatter without cause, a thief or a fraud.

But after checking twice, Wu Chang found nothing amiss, and since Cotton really was from the Bureau, he accepted Cotton's invitation.

As he accepted, he saw the other fellow assistants from the same batch tap "Confirm" with half-belief.

After accepting the invitation, the group's vision blurred, and two unfamiliar players appeared in the waiting hall.

The two Dongyang City assistants looked honest and wooden, textbook introverts; after a brief self-introduction, they pulled on their hoods, shrank into a corner of the room, wishing they could vanish on the spot.

Wu Chang chatted briefly with the two; nothing untoward in their words — like him, they were assistants who had just joined the Bureau this batch.

Did a pie really just fall from the sky? Cotton said with a smile, "If everyone's ready, tap Confirm on your status bar."

Following Cotton's words, the few of them changed their waiting status from "Just Arrived" to "Ready," only for Cotton to directly activate the reward instance.

"Have fun, everyone."

Before they could react, they vanished from the waiting hall and arrived in a room resembling a settlement space.

A prompt popped up before Wu Chang's eyes.

"Matching instance for player. Player current level: 10. Instance difficulty match probability: F-rank: 25%; E-rank: 60%; D-rank: 15%; C-rank: 0.1%."

Seeing the random probabilities, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

The probabilities really had been lowered.

Though the C-rank instance stubbornly clung to its 0.1%, the B-rank probability that had appeared in his earlier simulations had indeed vanished.

Judging by the delighted looks on the other assistants, the reward-instance effect worked for them too.

Wu Chang chose to start matching, and a loading icon floated up before his eyes.

Maybe it was his imagination, but this match was unusually long — slower even than his first match to the Moonlight Containment Facility.

"Match complete!"

Wu Chang's vision blurred, and he appeared on a beach at night.

"Successfully entered 'Wasteland — Plane 86951'."

"Instance Name: Quiet Town."

"Instance Type: Multiplayer Survival Instance."

"Instance Mode: Cooperative. Damage between players reduced by 80%."

"Instance Difficulty: C."

"Official recommended minimum exploration level: 10. players should proceed with caution."

"Due to the large level gap between matched players and the instance, additional players will be auto-supplemented."

"Instance Status: High Pollution!"

"Main Quest 1: Successfully survive thirty days in the town. Timer pauses when outside town limits."

"Main Quest 2: Investigate the missing Earl and uncover the truth."

C-rank instance, high pollution! After a brief silence, Wu Chang suddenly punched the air.

Folks, this reward-instance probability nerf really works! Given how much the Abyss Game targets him, at level 8 it had already matched him to a C-rank near-collapse instance — now that he's level 10, it ought to throw at least a B-rank his way.

He'd prepared for the worst, and then suddenly got queued into an ordinary C-rank instance.

After growing used to instances with pollution above 90, teetering on collapse, Quiet Town's high pollution looked like an ordinary instance to his eyes.

Talk about a perfect fit.

If he hadn't been queued into this one, he'd have thought the Abyss Game was nothing but collapse instances.

After a brief surge of excitement, he began paying attention to the instance's other details.

Multiplayer survival instance.

He looked around and spotted other players' figures lying not far off on the beach; they were still unconscious.

He was the first to wake.

While no one was looking, he summoned his clone from Rebirth of the True Self and had it lie down at a distance.

In multiplayer instances, to avoid drawing attention, it was often inconvenient to act alone.

Using a clone to pose as an aloof, unsociable lone wolf made moving around far easier.

Once the clone was settled, he looked at the activated title.

With Master of Breaking the Game, the vague pollution level in the instance brief had been rendered as a concrete number.

"Current instance pollution value: 70."

"Master of Breaking the Game attribute boost: 35%."

Boosted by Master of Breaking the Game, Wu Chang's current attribute panel read: Player Nickname: No Beef.

Player Level: 10 (0/2600)

Titles: Perfectionist, Master of Breaking the Game.

HP: 28 (21)

Strength: 27 (20)

Agility: 20 (15)

Endurance: 22 (16)

Energy: 19 (14)

Inspiration: 90 Willpower: 64 (Note: values in parentheses are pre-boost attributes.) Free Attribute Points: 0 Tainted Silver Coins: 30000.

Skills: Mamba Iron Elbow, Firearms (Proficient).

Art: Thunder Art Remnant Pages (D).

Items: Silver Dawn, Favor of the Goddess of Luck, Whisperer's Echo ×1, Mortal Poison, Secret Order Knights Newcomer Handbook, Soul-Purifying Banner, Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp, Shadow-Illuminating Visage, Healing Type I ×3, Minor Recovery Potion ×2.

Talents: Salvation, Calamity.

With the Breakthrough Master's boost, his stats rose further, and he felt that the current version of himself was terrifyingly strong.

Just as he was immersed in his stat panel and thoughts on how to explore the instance, the other players slowly woke up.

Similar to Wu Chang, the other players, upon waking, first stared blankly at their stat panels, then confirmed something in disbelief.

After a moment, curses directed at Cotton himself and his family rang out across the beach.

What a joke! The reward instance was a high-pollution Rank C instance — what kind of reward is that? Rebirth?! They didn't do anything, and there's no way they could have been matched with such a difficult instance — it must be that bastard Cotton pulling strings! Outside the instance, the waiting hall.

Zhao Yan walked in carrying a tray of cocktails, humming a tune.

The specially made cocktails on the tray — each one would grant 3 points of temporary Will and 2 points of temporary Strength — five cups in total, costing him quite a few Corrupted Silver Coins.

He always kept his word. He had said before that if Wu Chang could hit him, he'd treat him to drinks once they entered the Abyss Game. Taking advantage of the time while the others were preparing, he immediately found a familiar bartender and had the man make special cocktails for them.

But the moment he turned his head, how come everyone was gone?

The assistants he was in charge of had vanished without a trace, and in their place stood an utterly repulsive fatty.

People are complicated, and organizations made up of people are just as complicated.

Even within the same Bureau, not everyone shared the same ideals and goals.

For example, there was the Order Faction that Meng Yawen and Zhao Yan belonged to, which advocated maintaining the existing order and balancing the relationships between high-level players, low-level players, and ordinary people alike.

There was also the Evolution Faction, represented by people like Cotton, who believed all resources should be concentrated on players with potential, nurturing a batch of top experts.

Once enough experts existed, the Bureau would stand above all organizations, able to set its own rules, and only then spare the surplus strength to safeguard the interests of low-level players and ordinary people.

The two viewpoints differed enormously — one could even say they were diametrically opposed.

Zhao Yan saw Cotton's unfriendly expression, but Cotton himself didn't mind at all, and cheerfully sidled up.

"Yo, Brother Huo, treating the newbies to drinks? How generous."

As Cotton spoke, he reached out and swiped a glass. Under Zhao Yan's displeased gaze, he took a sip, then nodded and said: "Still the special stat-boosting cocktails — Brother Huo, you're generous!"

It's said you don't hit a smiling face, but facing Cotton, Zhao Yan didn't want to give even the slightest pleasant look.

As a member of the Order Faction, countless predecessors had told him: good kids must never play with the Evolution Faction — not a single decent one among them.

"Cotton, where are the people I brought?"

Cotton finished a cocktail, smacked his lips twice, and grinned.

"I sent them into the reward instance."

"You sent them into the instance?" Zhao Yan's heart skipped a beat.

Cotton: "Don't be ungrateful. I came bearing goodwill this time — I upgraded them to an intermediate reward instance for free. You don't have to thank me, but having two of your drinks isn't too much to ask, right?"

As Cotton spoke, he reached out and took another glass.

Zhao Yan said in disbelief: "Helping new assistants — you people could be that kind-hearted?"

While drinking, Cotton pulled up the reward instance progress and said smugly: "You still don't believe it? Look — what instance did they enter…"

"Pfft!"

The instant Cotton caught sight of the instance name, he sprayed a mouthful of wine straight onto Zhao Yan's face.

"The Q-The Quiet Town?!"

(End of Chapter)