Chapter 98: Sea Monster

The painting in front of the artistic man was still a depiction of the sea.

Since entering the instance, he had been repeating this painting, repeatedly attempting to capture the charm of this sea surface.

He could be certain that he had discovered the truth of this ocean and, through art, was already establishing a connection with it.

Unfortunately, the progress of the instance being cleared was far beyond his expectations.

He shook his head and thought to himself: What a cheater.

The artistic man dipped his brush into pure black and brushed it toward the sea on the canvas; with just a few strokes, he outlined a massive shadow beneath the surface.

"What an ultimate emotion; this is simply art."

On the other side of the coast, Jianxing came alone to the vicinity of the small pier, untied a small wooden boat moored at the shore, and rowed toward the open sea.

While rowing, he constantly adjusted his direction, as if searching for something.

After rowing for about fifteen minutes, he reached the boundary of Brifer Island, far enough from the island that a system prompt popped up before his eyes.

"You are about to leave Brifer Island. Leaving the mission area will pause the countdown for Main Mission 1 and may trigger unknown consequences. Please decide carefully, player."

Jianxing stopped the boat at the boundary, and on the water surface beside the hull, a logo of the Administration appeared.

When they were first targeted by the Evil God cultists, the Administration did not take it to heart, because the two were natural mortal enemies; even if Jianxing did not have his own prerequisite missions, he would still go to sabotage the cultists' plans.

Evil God cultists can be understood as a group of traitors to humanity.

For various reasons, they are unwilling to complete the Abyss Game step by step and grow stronger gradually.

Instead, they choose to defect to the Evil Gods in the Abyss Game, eager to take shortcuts through the power of the Evil Gods to obtain certain special abilities.

In the Abyss Game, Evil God cultists are synonymous with chaos; they will stop at nothing to please the objects of their worship.

The major organizations in the Abyss Game, especially the four organizations that possess temporary administrative authority, are the maintainers of the Abyss Game's order and are naturally in opposition to the Evil God cultists.

Jianxing being hated by the Evil God cultists is equivalent to a police officer being hated by criminals; it is perfectly normal, so at first, no one took it to heart.

Only Lin Jiang sensed something amiss and made preparations from the very beginning.

When Jianxing obtained his class-transfer item and entered an instance for the first time, Lin Jiang gave him an item capable of contacting the outside of the instance.

Due to the time dilation between the inside and outside of the instance, they could not communicate in real-time through this item, but Jianxing could use it to call for help.

As long as Jianxing could hold out for a while, Lin Jiang, who was outside, could provide Jianxing with a coordinate through the item—a coordinate for external reinforcements to descend.

From the very beginning, Lin Jiang had set his sights on the forced Any-Door in Wanghai City.

Although they were prepared, the speed at which the previous worlds were failed was too fast, and they were not the scenarios they had anticipated where the crisis was so great that external aid was needed, so this item had never been put to use.

As time passed, Jianxing even forgot about its existence.

Unexpectedly, just a moment ago, he suddenly sensed a reaction from the item in his portable space.

Because of the time dilation between the inside and outside of the instance, he had sufficient time to react and arrive at the designated location.

He looked at the mark on the water, wondering who Lin Jiang would send; after all, for the Quiet Town, an ordinary level-twenty player wouldn't be of much help.

Could it be that they found a way outside to break the rules for using the forced portal? Just as he was wondering, a door appeared directly above him, and a white figure fell from it, plummeting straight toward the water.

Jianxing was just about to catch them, but saw the person flip nimbly in the air and stand steadily on the water surface.

The newcomer was a woman of twenty-four or twenty-five, tall, standing at a full 1.85 meters, with long "princess-cut" hair; her hair color was split in two from the center line, black on the left and white on the right, which was exceptionally striking.

As geniuses of the new generation of the Administration, the two had met many times on formal occasions.

One of them always carried a sword, and the other was tall with split-colored hair; once seen, they were hard to forget.

"Negotiation Master?" Jianxing was somewhat surprised by the woman's arrival.

Negotiation Master walked from the sea onto the boat and said, "Who else could it be but me?"

Jianxing: "Isn't your motto 'a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall'?"

"Who else but us are friends," Negotiation Master said, going against her conscience. She was willing to come purely because the other party paid too much; she couldn't refuse.

Jianxing glanced at her and reminded, "Did you forget that my Sword Heart can sense heartbeats?"

Negotiation Master clicked her tongue, "I hate you guys who can read minds the most; you don't understand what privacy is at all."

"But it doesn't matter; you've already cleared away most of the obstacles anyway, entering the easy harvesting stage. Don't waste time, let's quickly go through the motions to wrap things up, and then go out for a victory banquet."

Before coming in, Xu Dejun and Lin Jiang had both told her that Jianxing had made a breakthrough in a crisis, his strength had surged, and he had stabilized the situation. She was only responsible for checking for omissions and guarding against the Evil God cultists lurking in the shadows.

Hearing Negotiation Master's words, Jianxing was full of question marks.

What do you mean the instance has entered an easy stage? It's not easy at all! His inspiration value is currently severely overflowing; if he fights for even a little longer, he might lose control of his will.

There weren't many veterans among the players to begin with, the two veterans from the Iron Armor Group died earlier, and the final Ronin was very suspicious of him, refusing any cooperation.

Not only that, but strange things have been happening in town these days, various statues are shattering one after another, looking like the sky is about to collapse; it must be that too many players have died, causing the instance to be on the verge of losing control.

In terms of the situation, it is definitely much more serious now than when he first entered the instance, okay? Jianxing was just about to confirm with Negotiation Master to see if she had misunderstood something, when he saw her suddenly look at the sea with a strange expression and say, "Jianxing, look, has the sea turned black?"

Jianxing looked toward the water; originally, under the moonlight, the sea presented a charming deep blue, but at this moment, the blue was becoming increasingly profound, even turning toward black.

No!

That's not a color change; something is about to surface!

"Row, quickly!"

Jianxing threw an oar to Negotiation Master, and then the two frantically paddled, driving the small boat toward the small pier.

Behind the two, a massive figure emerged from the water; just the body exposed above the surface was nearly ten meters high. It followed behind the small boat, its enormous frame blocking out the moonlight, and the shadow completely enveloped the small boat.

Negotiation Master's scalp went numb, feeling she had been set up. She shouted at Jianxing, "Before entering the instance, they told me this was a judgment-type instance and that there was no danger inside. Then explain to me, what the hell is this thing behind us!"

Jianxing said helplessly, "I need someone to explain it to me too!"

In the Golden Flying Fish sea area, Wu Chang's true self brought Ailin under the cliff.

Although Ailin had lost her stigmata, possessing the Great Mother's blessing allowed her to use some Holy Light-type magic, and she still possessed no weak power.

When they approached the Golden Flying Fish statue, a large Golden Flying Fish, transformed from a divine messenger, leaped out of the sea, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth as it charged toward the two.

Without seeing Ailin make any move, Wu Chang saw the divine messenger, which had been aggressive a second ago, suddenly become docile the next second, swimming slowly around Ailin.

No, sister, are you using mind control?

Honestly, is your nickname Yuri?

Wu Chang really wanted to ask Ailin if she also used this ability when she was preaching.

If so, then he would have to say a few words for the Perception Church; everyone is a religion, and stealing believers like this is really playing dirty.

The divine messenger, influenced by Ailin, had a stable mental state and did not show any intention to attack until Wu Chang smashed the statue in the inner world and it disappeared.

"Item Name: Proof of Gluttony"

"Item Type: Special"

"Item Description: Holding the Proof of Gluttony allows free entry into the special space—Golden Sea Area. In the Golden Sea Area, you will be regarded as a divine messenger and can actively summon a school of Golden Flying Fish. Summoning cooldown: 15 days."

Good stuff; although the Proof of Gluttony cannot judge those who enter, it can summon an extra school of Golden Flying Fish every month.

If one could stably enter the Quiet Town instance, relying on the Proof of Gluttony, one could really open up a path for stably capturing Golden Flying Fish.

Putting away the Proof of Gluttony, he turned his attention back to his main body and looked at the small pier.

The inner world of the small pier is the last stop before going to the Count's Manor.

This look was not trivial; wow, good heavens, what a big sea monster.

Let me see which unlucky guy was caught in the inner world tonight and ran into such a big catch.

(End of chapter)