Chapter 71: The Evil God Believers' Lock-On

Crimson Courtyard, Crimson Wave Space, Dungeon Waiting Hall.

After hearing Cotton's words, Lei Huo's expression turned solemn as if to say, "Are you kidding me?"

"You mean our people got dragged into the Quiet Town because Xiang Jianxing slipped into the new players and queued for the dungeon with them?"

Cotton turned to look at the senior behind him; seeing the senior nod, he said, "Yes."

Xiang Jianxing is a genius entrusted with great hope by the Evolution Sect, naturally exceptionally suited to the Swordmaster class.

He not only obtained the hidden class Sword Master, but also activated the pre-requisite for the Swordmaster class transformation while still in the Wasteland Realm.

In the second layer of the Abyss, Swordmasters are universally recognized as among the top ten in strength.

It can be said that if Xiang Jianxing grows properly, there will surely be a seat for him at the table of the Bureau's top brass.

Such a genius is the future of the Bureau.

Upon hearing Xiang Jianxing's name, Lei Huo and Meng Yawen's expressions turned solemn.

The mid-level officer sent by the Evolution Sect to lend weight, though senior in experience, has his talent long fixed and lacks drive—he will inevitably be discarded by the times.

They could ignore the mid-level officer's authority, but they could not ignore Xiang Jianxing.

The world is this harsh: absolute fairness never exists. Even an organization like the Bureau, which emphasizes rules and order, must yield its rules for certain exceptional beings.

Lei Huo asked, "What's Xiang Jianxing doing mingling with new players? Don't tell me his transformation quest is to escort newbies through dungeons."

Cotton wiped sweat from his forehead and said, voice tinged with grievance:

"Above instructed me to find several trustworthy new players to lower Xiang Jianxing's dungeon match score, enabling him to enter low-tier dungeons with reward authorization."

The upper command told him: the lower the dungeon level matched, the better.

He thought it would be an easy task—six rookies to lower the score; even if they couldn't hit a D-rank dungeon, the worst they'd get was a weak C-rank.

Who is Xiang Jianxing? A 20-level genius with a hidden class, who can stroll through B-rank dungeons and has cleared an A-rank dungeon once. What would he do in a C-rank dungeon? Slice and dice without mercy.

But who could have expected that among hundreds of C-rank dungeons, they'd draw the most deadly one—the Quiet Town?

Now, not only has all his merits vanished, but he has also earned the hatred of the entire Order Sect.

There's always a jinx!

Cotton's answer didn't satisfy Lei Huo—it only deepened his confusion.

"You mean Xiang Jianxing is so weak he dares not enter a dungeon alone?"

Cotton's expression froze; he turned to look at the senior behind him.

This time, he wasn't seeking approval—he simply didn't know why either.

"I'll handle the rest."

The Evolution Sect's middle-aged man waved his hand, signaling Lei Huo and Meng Yawen to follow him to the lounge.

Inside the lounge, they found two others already seated.

The bald, muscular man was familiar—they knew him as their own Director Gao.

The other, they'd only seen from afar a few times.

He looked barely thirty, yet his aura was as steady as a man in his fifties or sixties. He wore no flashy gear—only a standard military uniform.

The Evolution Sect's middle-aged man Cotton called "senior" bowed respectfully and addressed the man as "Xu Lao."

Xu Dejun, one of the first Bureau members to enter the Abyss Game when it began large-scale player recruitment twenty years ago—a true senior.

He is one of the three highest-ranking officials of the Bureau in the Wasteland Realm, belonging to the Zhongli Sect; he cares nothing for whether the future belongs to the Evolution Sect or the Order Sect—he cares only for results.

If it strengthens Xiaoguo, if it strengthens the Bureau, that's enough.

Only by bringing out a senior of this caliber could today's matter be suppressed; otherwise, with Lei Huo and Meng Yawen's stubbornness, plus the sly Director Gao lurking behind them, this would explode into a scandal known to every Bureau member.

Xu Dejun looked at everyone and said, "Lin Jiang just told me the basic situation. They concealed the problem and handled it improperly—clearly at fault."

"But that boy Xiang Jianxing is truly a promising talent—he must be protected. I'm here not to take sides. Lin Jiang and his team admit their fault and accept punishment. Those who survive, they'll pay compensation. Those who die, they'll pay funeral allowances—double the maximum standard amount. If they refuse, I'll collect it for you."

In just a few sentences, Xu Dejun had already defined the solution. Lei Huo and Meng Yawen glanced at the man named Lin Jiang and silently cursed: old fox.

The moment the matter surfaced, he summoned Xu Dejun. Though displeased, they dared not oppose Xu Dejun—they had no choice but to grit their teeth and accept it.

Seeing no objections, Xu Dejun turned to Lin Jiang and signaled him to explain the details.

Lin Jiang sighed and slowly recounted the situation to everyone.

The cause of the matter truly stemmed from Xiang Jianxing's transformation quest.

In an A-rank dungeon, Xiang Jianxing triggered the pre-requisite for his transformation; the item required to complete the quest happened to be in the hands of a player who worshipped a dark god.

While completing the quest, Xiang Jianxing also thwarted the player's plan—he smashed the altar, tore open the temporary flesh body needed for the dark god's descent, and extracted the quest item from the heart of the corpse.

Since then, Xiang Jianxing has been targeted by those dark god worshippers.

According to the quest's requirements, Xiang Jianxing must carry the item through five dungeon worlds and successfully clear at least two to absorb it.

But the item he obtained was tainted with the dark god's aura, and the worshippers have been tracking it via a special method.

In the first dungeon world, halfway through the攻略, a player suddenly went mad and destroyed a key item, causing the main quest to fail outright.

!

In the second dungeon world, the protected dungeon native suddenly became possessed, ran into the boss's arms, and triggered the boss's full form—nearly wiping out the team.

Two consecutive dungeon failures made Xiang Jianxing and the Evolution Sect wary.

For the third dungeon world, the Evolution Sect applied for authorization to lock down a nearly uncontrollable C-rank solo dungeon to ensure Xiang Jianxing wouldn't be disturbed.

Yet for reasons unknown, halfway through the攻略, the dungeon suddenly went completely out of control—had Xiang Jianxing not used a survival item to forcibly escape, he would have been trapped forever.

Three consecutive failures not only brought Xiang Jianxing's transformation quest to the brink of collapse, but also triggered the penalty for three straight failures: his Will stat cap was reduced by 14 points.

If he fails a fourth time, he'll lose 16 more points from his Will cap.

Xiang Jianxing never allocated many points to Will to begin with; one more failure and he himself would lose control before even worrying about the pre-requisite.

Helpless, the Evolution Sect resorted to this desperate tactic: have Xiang Jianxing blend into new players, have the new players lower the match score, and use reward dungeon items to enter low-tier dungeons.

And the lower, the better.

Facing ordinary D-rank or C-rank instances, Sword Star's ability could easily crush them outright; even if there were Heretic God believers causing trouble, facing absolute numbers, they couldn't stir up any waves.

However, what the aggressive faction, including Lin Jiang, hadn't expected was that Sword Star had actually been assigned to Silent Town.

The true difficulty of Silent Town probably already exceeded that of an ordinary C-rank instance on the verge of losing control. Combined with Sword Star's lowered willpower cap, he had to guard against losing control at every moment, and could only bring out seventy or eighty percent of his full strength, making clearing the instance even more perilous.

Saying this, Lin Jiang bowed toward the people from the Wanghai City branch and said:

"Although I know it's shameless to say this, I still hope to borrow the strength of the Order faction, and borrow that item the Wanghai City Countermeasures Bureau keeps, to send Sword Star an assistant."

Before Director Gao could respond, Xu Dejun gave a light cough and pointed at the sky.

Under Xu Dejun's operation, the ceiling above everyone's heads turned transparent, revealing the huge countdown above the Crimson Courtyard.

Wu Chang had seen this countdown before. When he first entered the public area of the Crimson Courtyard, the countdown had still been at 100; now only 80 remained.

"There are only 80 days left before the Wasteland Realm's world instance. We need as much strength as possible. If Sword Star can change class to a Sword Cultivator right here in the Wasteland Realm, his strength won't be much weaker than Hearing Leng Shan."

Xu Dejun's meaning was very clear: Sword Star had to be saved.

After a moment of silence, Director Gao sighed and said: "The item can be lent to you, but the person entering the instance, you'll have to figure that out yourselves. Also, after entering the instance, I want you to do your best to ensure the safety of our new people on this side."

Lin Jiang let out a breath of relief and promised: "No problem. Sword Star himself feels the same way. Back then, we promised to provide mid-tier reward instance permissions, further reducing the risks the new people faced, and only then was he willing to cooperate with our plan."

"I've looked at the personnel information of those entering the instance. With Sword Star's protection, most players' safety should be reasonably assured. For example, there's a player inside called Hamster, covered in defensive-type skills — even in an ordinary C-rank instance, he might not be unable to survive."

"But this one is rated D-minus, a level 7 newbie with only 2 skills and no survival or defensive skills. Forget Sword Star, no one could guarantee he'd come out alive. I'll say the ugly part upfront: if necessary, I would even advise the players entering later to abandon him."

Inside the instance, Wu Chang, who was about to make conversation with the player slacking off under the tree, sneezed.

Which little cutie is thinking about him again?

I previously posted a 71, but it had a violating paragraph and got locked. I didn't have time to wait for review, so I revised it and posted again. In a while or tomorrow I'll release another 71 with the same content — if you've already read it, no need to read it again.

(End of this chapter)