Chapter 86: Seven Deadly Sins

Hearing Lin Jiang's exclamation, the others quickly turned to the instance monitor and saw that the contamination level of the Silent Town had indeed dropped significantly; their faces all lit up with surprise and delight.

Especially Xu Dejun, who grinned even more broadly than Lin Jiang.

"Good, good, good! After many years, our Xia Nation Bureau is about to produce another Sword Immortal!"

In the Abyss Game, class transformation is the most critical system.

Players with the same attributes can see vastly different combat power changes depending on their chosen class.

Whether a player's class is powerful depends on two factors.

One is rarity; the other is how well the class suits the player.

In terms of rarity, hidden classes unquestionably surpass all others.

Many hidden classes are even unique, existing as the sole instance across the entire Abyss.

Although hidden classes are rare, this is relative to ordinary classes; after decades of the Abyss Game's existence, recorded hidden classes number at least eight thousand, if not ten thousand.

The Sword Sect stands out among all hidden classes, firmly ranking in the top ten for class combat power, primarily due to its resilience!

A sword's sharpness comes from honing; the greater the crisis a swordsman faces, the greater the benefits he gains if he survives it.

The more desperate a swordsman's situation, the stronger the power he unleashes.

Thus, the Sword Sect and its lineage are called the Kings of Adversity, the Gods of Desperation.

The current changes in the instance further confirm the true value of the Sword Sect class.

Sword Star suffered repeated failed instance clears due to attacks by demonic cultists, causing his will limit to plummet drastically and bringing him close to losing control.

He intended to use a new player to enter a low-level instance, but accidentally wandered into the Silent Town.

Even in his prime, Lin Jiang would never have advised Sword Star to enter such an aberrant instance, let alone now that his strength is damaged.

The Evolution Faction had already prepared the worst-case scenario for Sword Star's future.

Let this class transformation mission fail, and abandon allowing Sword Star to transform into a swordsman prematurely in the Wasteland Realm.

But Sword Star, as expected, proved perfectly attuned to the Sword Sect—he inherited the class's traditions!

Against all odds, Sword Star suddenly erupted!

Sword Star did not fear the instance's difficulties; instead, he launched a counterattack, reducing the instance's contamination level from 75% to 65%.

The people seated in the rest room, all of whom were top-tier figures in the Wasteland Realm, naturally understood the implications.

Such a drastic fluctuation in contamination level indicates Sword Star has made tremendous progress within the instance.

The contamination level dropped by only one-seventh, but for instance clearing, this means at least half the main storyline has been completed.

How long has it been since Sword Star and his assistants entered the instance?

Less than forty minutes!

If the monster from the previous Moonlight Sanatorium clear hadn't appeared, Sword Star's clearing speed would have set a new record.

With such results, it's obvious Sword Star must have erupted under desperation and gained massive growth.

Once Sword Star clears the Silent Town, he may leap directly from a promising future warrior to a fully formed one, taking up the mantle of the Bureau's younger generation ahead of schedule.

Exaggerating slightly, Sword Star's performance already qualifies him as the second strongest under that new monster.

After all, clearing a B-class instance at level 1 is too godlike—even normal players with cheats wouldn't dare play like this.

To match this difficulty in the Wasteland Realm, one would likely need to clear an S-class instance before reaching max level.

Director Gao looked at Lin Jiang and asked: "What do we do? Are we still sending someone in?"

Swordsmen gain greater benefits the more pressure they endure after breaking through; sending more people in now might not help, but could instead steal his "experience."

Lin Jiang hesitated for a moment, then made his decision:

"Send someone! The Silent Town can no longer stop Sword Star, but I fear those demonic cultists—they can't defeat Sword Star, but they might send infiltrators into the Silent Town to sabotage the instance using their previous methods."

"The immediate priority is ensuring Sword Star's safety."

Director Gao nodded. "The forced teleporter is ready. Who have you found?"

Lin Jiang said: "The Negotiation Master is on the way; she'll arrive in half an hour."

"You managed to get her?" Director Gao was surprised.

Lin Jiang bowed to Xu Lao. "Thanks to Xu Lao's help."

The Negotiation Master is a super-talent on par with Sword Star; for many factions, her name carries even greater weight than Sword Star's.

She doesn't possess an ultra-rare hidden class, but she holds something just as rare, even harder to obtain than a hidden class.

A title!

A red title!

Her nickname is her title: "Negotiation Master."

The Negotiation Master title reduces the success threshold for check skills by 60%, and grants a 5% chance to automatically pass any check.

When using check skills herself, she gains additional amplification.

It's said her title has a hidden ability, but as her most core secret, even the top leadership of the Bureau knows of it only among two or three people.

The Silent Town, a C-class instance that can wipe out an entire B-class exploration team, must be tied to rules and checks.

The Negotiation Master is the natural enemy of such instances; if she intervenes, even if Sword Star doesn't break through in battle, she can ensure his safe extraction.

But title holders are never easy to persuade, especially red-title holders.

The absurd difficulty of obtaining titles makes even second-layer Abyss players struggle to earn one, let alone a red title. Only two members of the Bureau in the Wasteland Realm possess red titles.

The other one is Xia Nation's top breaker, Leng Shan.

Director Gao studied Lin Jiang, guessing how great a price the Evolution Faction paid to secure the Negotiation Master's aid.

Lin Jiang didn't notice Director Gao's gaze; his full attention was fixed on the instance monitor screen.

He was eager to see what state Sword Star would be in upon exiting the instance.

He must be slaughtering everything inside right now.

Inside the instance, Wu Chang was testing his new swimsuit.

He sent his True Self, carrying the Proof of Sloth, back to Fisherman's Wharf to explore the boundaries of the Inner World.

His physical body returned to the post office to wait for tomorrow's work.

His True Self, transformed into a giant whale, leaped into the sea and quickly mapped the boundaries of the Inner World.

!

Fisherman's Wharf extended along the coastline in both directions, adjacent to two other Inner World zones on the left and right, separated by thin mist barriers that prevented direct passage even with a Divine Messenger's permission.

Yet, thanks to the Divine Messenger privileges granted by the Proof of Sloth, he could faintly see the scenes of the neighboring Inner World.

On the left Inner World, a full moon hung high in the sky, its reflection forming a vast glowing expanse upon the sea.

This scene was precisely the sea region where the Town Council organized the golden flying fish harvest on Divine Grace Day.

On the right Inner World, since the moon had moved to the left, only a starry sky remained above.

But precisely because there was no moonlight, the night sky appeared profoundly dark, making the stars shine even more brilliantly.

Beneath the starry sky stood a towering lighthouse.

Occasionally, beams of light shot from the lighthouse, illuminating the distant sea.

The right Inner World must be where Windstorm worked.

Advancing inland from Fisherman's Wharf, following the road toward the town district, he soon reached the zone barrier.

The inland Inner World was the Briver District, where faint flames could be seen burning within.

That was the Inner World the former journalist had entered.

The item dropped upon clearing Fisherman's Wharf was the Proof of Sloth.

When the former journalist confessed his sins, Wu Chang saw within him a sea of envy.

If the Inner World where the former journalist died were destroyed, would the item obtained be the Proof of Envy?

Following this logic, does the Inner World of the Quiet Town correspond to the Seven Deadly Sins?

Fisherman's Wharf corresponds to Sloth, the burning district to Envy, and the golden flying fish sea region to Gluttony.

The Deadly Sin corresponding to the lighthouse remains undetermined.

That leaves only three more, and he would then have located all the Inner Worlds on the island.

Lord Jermaine expended such great effort to arrange seven Inner Worlds on the island—his disappearance must be tied to them.

Once he clears all these Inner Worlds and collects the Seven Proofs of Sin, he will surely follow the trail to find the missing lord.

Just as he was preparing to think further, the post office door opened.

Wu Chang looked up and saw that the one entering was the Hamster.

Do players come at midnight to urge him to deliver mail?

"What's the matter?"

The Hamster looked at Wu Chang with confusion and asked, "The Sheriff sent me to the post office to find Councilor Xiao En. Do you know where he is?"

Wu Chang stood up from his desk and smiled. "I'm him. What do you need?"

"You're a town councilor?!"

The Hamster opened her mouth in shock, unable to believe it—until Wu Chang pulled out the town councilor badge and pinned it to his chest, forcing her to accept the reality.

"How did you do it?" the Hamster could hardly accept it.

Everyone else had just entered the instance and were still slaving away—how had Wu Chang quietly become a town councilor, rising above them all?

Had he completed some hidden quest?

Wu Chang shrugged. "Because I worked hard, the Mayor took notice of me."

The Hamster rolled her eyes cutely. "I'm working overtime at three in the morning—doesn't that mean I work hard too?"

"Then maybe you're working in the wrong direction."

Wu Chang didn't want to dwell on this issue and changed the subject. "We'll talk about this later. You haven't said why the Sheriff sent you."

The Hamster suddenly remembered something important and rushed out: "Come with me quickly—the Sheriff wants you to pick someone up at the station."

"Pick someone up? Who?"

"Sword Star! He was arrested by the Sheriff and is being held in the detention room!"

Wu Chang: "Huh?"

(End of Chapter)