There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

"Re-entering the Abyss..."

"Special entry method detected. You have entered a special instance."

"Chaos of the Abyss is not fond of that place, but she is still watching over you with gentle eyes, continuing to grant you her blessing."

"Welcome to our event: Pollution Invasion. Due to the event’s special nature, each event instance can be challenged repeatedly. The event will only conclude in victory once all pollutants within every event instance have been completely cleared."

"The base Abyss Coin and experience rewards from event instances are tripled. The speed of skill learning and the chance of an epiphany are doubled, and the drop rate of extractable items is increased."

"Be aware that any item may be polluted. Polluted items will most likely be cursed, and their effects will be significantly reduced. We advise all players to have items appraised before use. Of course, if you choose to use the ’true man’s appraisal method,’ we will not object and will respect your personal destiny."

"Players can also be polluted. When you see your pollution indicator bar is almost full, please exit the instance immediately and return to the city’s Divine Hall for treatment."

"Finally, enjoy the game."

Accompanied by the sensation of falling, Duan Fei heard the system prompts in his ear, slowly explaining the details of the event.

Although he fell for a long time, there was no sense of impact when he finally landed. It felt like rolling from a bed onto the floor.

Getting to his feet, Duan Fei first checked his Attributes and Equipment and found that everything was in order.

His Void Energy was also slowly regenerating. His original Void Energy cap was 100, but after several Spirit enhancements, plus the boosts from his various Void Skills and the Void Glasses, his energy cap had risen to 320.

His recharge rate had also increased dramatically. He originally only recharged 32 points per hour, but now he could recharge 32 points per minute—a 60-fold increase.

Of course, most of this was the result of his Eye of the Void and Void Glasses working together. The former skill communed directly with the Void, while the latter absorbed Void Energy, causing Duan Fei’s Energy Storage speed to skyrocket.

Excess Void Energy was converted into Void Enlightenment. When the Void Enlightenment bar filled, it would become a free skill point, usable only on Void Skills.

He earned skill points at a rate of roughly one every 48 hours. Duan Fei happened to have one right now, and he spent it on a skill he desperately wanted.

[Void Flash]: Passive Skill. When you are about to be hit by a powerful attack, this skill consumes 300 Void Energy and lets you slip into the Void for one second, dodging the initial attack and any others within that second. This skill has a 10-second cooldown. As the Skill Level increases, the Void Energy cost and cooldown time will be reduced.

This was a life-saving skill. Although it consumed a lot of Void Energy, it triggered passively and provided one second of invincibility.

With this skill, he should have enough time to escape when facing attacks from firearms.

In addition to these standard features, Duan Fei also saw an indicator bar on his arm.

The bar was currently at 0, with the word "Pollution" displayed next to it. This was this instance’s special mechanic.

The higher the pollution level, the lower all his Attributes would fall. He would also start to experience hallucinations, reduced stamina recovery, and increased fatigue.

In other words, pollution offered players nothing but drawbacks.

The indicator bar also served another important purpose: detecting the location of the instance’s source of pollution.

The closer one got to the source, the faster the bar would fill. This was the method most players used to track it down.

After confirming that his Attributes and Skills were intact, Duan Fei began to observe his surroundings.

He was in total darkness.

It was so dark he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face, but he could still smell the stench of rot and mildew. He could also hear a cacophony of thunderous snores, grinding teeth, and mumbled sleep-talking.

After waiting for a moment and realizing no event was triggering, Duan Fei opened the "Instance Mission" interface to check his objective.

"Instance Objective: Find and eliminate the source of pollution in the current instance."

’The objective for every event instance is probably the same: find and eliminate the source of pollution.’

Duan Fei took a can of fluorescent spray from his backpack and spritzed the ground, which was immediately coated in a faint, glowing light.

He didn’t use too much of the fluorescent spray, just enough to see his surroundings clearly.

But once he could see his surroundings, he wished he couldn’t.

The narrow crypt was piled high with skeletons and rotting corpses. ’This nightmarish scene... there’s no way this instance is rated 15+,’ Duan Fei thought. ’Even an 18+ rating would mean the censors were blind!’

Tens of thousands of skeletons were stacked haphazardly, their terrifying white bones forming a forest that would chill anyone to the core.

’This damn game has some serious nerve,’ he muttered. ’Does the ratings board just not care?’

Cursing under his breath, Duan Fei was about to look for an exit when a shrill voice rang out beside him. "Duan Someone, it’s the middle of the day. Why aren’t you sleeping? What are you doing? Don’t just stand there, are you mute?! I asked you what you’re doing!"

"Nothing that concerns your parents," Duan Fei snapped back irritably.

His answer was met with a moment of silence, followed by a ripple of stifled snickers from all corners.

Before Duan Fei could figure out where the voices were coming from, an enemy attacked.

A WHOOSH cut through the darkness. A heavy hammer swung at Duan Fei’s head, but it only hit a puff of black mist.

The instant the attack came, [Void Flash] activated automatically, letting Duan Fei slip into the Void and evade the strike.

But Duan Fei wasn’t one to take a hit without fighting back. He immediately summoned Yan Yuan and unleashed all his Magic Bullets at the figure in the darkness.

Following a series of muffled grunts, Duan Fei heard a colossal body CRASH to the ground. Gasps of shock and wonder erupted from all around.

"Duan Someone won!"

"What just happened?"

"It’s a mutation, he’s mutated!"

"Magic Missile! Is he a Wizard now?"

Hearing these voices, Duan Fei’s sense of unease grew.

Yan Yuan, who had just been summoned, landed on Duan Fei’s shoulder and asked in confusion, "Master, this place is so strange. There’s Magic Power everywhere, but it all feels chaotic."

"Yeah," Duan Fei said. "And I can’t see anyone else. Where are they talking from?"

"Other people? There’s no one else here. Including you, Master. There are no people here."

Duan Fei stared at Yan Yuan with wide eyes, then realized it was right.

In the faint fluorescent light, Duan Fei saw his own reflection in Yan Yuan’s Demon Eye.

A creature of stark, bare-bones simplicity. A skeleton.

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