There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

While choosing Equipment, Duan Fei took a moment to check the indicator on his hand. He saw the pollution progress hadn’t changed, which meant this wasn’t its source.

Although pollution lowers a player’s Attributes, it also provides some positive feedback once it reaches a certain level.

Namely, random buffs.

When the progress bar hits 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%, the player will receive a random buff. The variety of buffs is so vast that even the development team simply brushed it off with the phrase "a lot."

Once a player cleanses the pollution from their body, the random buff disappears. Increasing their pollution level again will grant them a different random buff.

Therefore, some players adopt a playstyle of deliberately not cleansing the pollution in their bodies, trading their Attributes for powerful buff effects.

Of course, it has to be cleansed eventually. After all, polluted players aren’t allowed to enter other dungeons, and the buffs become useless once the event is over.

Seeing that the progress bar hadn’t risen, Duan Fei confirmed this wasn’t the source of the pollution and that they needed to keep searching.

Since they were all skeletons, they didn’t need to prepare food, water, or a change of clothes. They could just hit the road directly.

Mounting three skeletal horses, the three Undead Skeletons set off on their journey, arriving at a town half an hour later.

"This is way too close!" Duan Fei couldn’t help but shout when he realized how short the distance was. "It only took half an hour to get to town! What’s up with this distance? A single charge from the Undead Creatures could wipe this place out!"

"Then let’s hurry up and bring democracy and freedom to the ignorant masses here!" the old skeleton in the Mage Robe said excitedly.

"Whoa, don’t jump straight to that! What kind of evil creature are you?!"

"But I am an evil creature," the old skeleton replied, confused.

"You don’t remember anything else, but you’ve got this part down pat. How about this: from now on, you play the part of a rebellious evil creature?"

The old skeleton’s eyes lit up. "That role sounds like fun! How does it work, exactly?"

"Basically, you’re extremely evil and want to slaughter and destroy everything you see."

"Uh-huh, I like that." The old skeleton immediately began to nod.

"But you’re also extremely rebellious, so you refuse to follow your own instincts. This is how you’ll display your capricious and rebellious nature as an evil creature."

"Right, right! That makes perfect sense! Wait a minute... something feels a little off."

Muddled by the paradoxical logic, the old skeleton began to think. But his brain wasn’t capable of such complex processing, so in the end, he could only follow Duan Fei in a daze.

After placating the old skeleton, Duan Fei noticed the Big Skeleton was spacing out again.

Following the Big Skeleton’s gaze, Duan Fei saw he was staring at a statue in the town.

"What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for that statue at first sight. Skeletons can’t do that. Or at least, they shouldn’t."

"No. I hate him. No, ’hate’ isn’t strong enough to describe what I’m feeling. I loathe him."

Duan Fei looked at the Big Skeleton, thinking he was acting strange as well.

They had forgotten much since their deaths, but memories of their past lives would occasionally spring up to attack them, forcing them to remember fragments of what they’d lost.

The large statue must have triggered some of the Big Skeleton’s memories, reviving buried emotions and making him express his loathing for the person depicted.

Stepping closer, Duan Fei saw it was a statue of an exceptionally burly man clad in exquisitely crafted armor.

The man had a righteous expression, and behind him was a halo symbolizing an Angel, lending the statue an air of sanctity.

The base of the statue was covered in fresh flowers. A middle-aged couple was in the middle of laying down their own offering and praying piously.

With each prayer, Duan Fei could see the statue shimmer faintly. It seemed the prayers possessed a certain Power, which was being channeled into the statue.

Judging from the couple’s attire and the town’s style, Duan Fei felt the place had a medieval feel. The class system, however, didn’t seem particularly rigid. He saw a plainly dressed young woman by the road, laughing and chatting with a young nobleman, and no one around them seemed surprised.

A gap between the rich and poor existed, but it didn’t seem too severe. It was, one might say, a rather idyllic medieval world.

Once the middle-aged couple finished praying, Duan Fei stepped forward and asked politely, "Excuse me, I was hoping you could tell me who this is?"

The man from the couple looked at Duan Fei with a puzzled expression.

Duan Fei was currently dressed in a black, hooded robe that hid all his Undead Skeleton features, making him look like a rather scrawny Adventurer.

Adventurers seemed to be well-respected in this world, so the man relaxed his guard after a moment of scrutiny, though he still asked, puzzled, "You don’t know of the great hero, Beist?"

"I come from a rather remote place, so I’ve never heard the name."

"I see. In that case, you must have at least heard of the war to defeat the Demon King fifty years ago."

Duan Fei knew nothing about that period of history, but he still feigned surprise. "So that was him..."

"That’s right. It was Beist who defeated the Demon King and brought us lasting peace. He’s the hero who saved the world. Every year, we offer him flowers and pray for his continued health and long life."

"Thank you. I never knew his name before. I’m glad to finally learn it."

"Don’t mention it. Would you and your companions like to offer flowers? You can get them for free over there."

"Yes, thank you."

To avoid arousing suspicion, Duan Fei got some flowers from a nearby stand and handed them to the Big Skeleton and the old skeleton.

"Lay down the flowers, then we’ll find some Adventurers to gather intel. Big Skeleton? What are you doing?"

But the Big Skeleton didn’t take the flowers. Instead, he slung the giant iron hammer off his back.

Pointing at the statue before them, he roared, "What is this thing you’re worshipping?!"

"Big Skeleton, calm down!"

"I can’t calm down! We struggled for so long! We sacrificed so much! And in the end, what did it get us?! Tell me, why are you worshipping that *thing*!"

Pointing at the statue, the Big Skeleton roared in fury, then raised his hammer and brought it crashing down on the stone figure.

The sudden attack made the wife who had just offered her flowers scream. Her husband immediately rushed forward, pulled her into his arms, and scrambled backward.

The Big Skeleton paid the human couple no mind, simply raising his hammer to continue his assault on the statue.

With his terrifying brute Power, each strike of the hammer left another crack on the statue until it finally split down the middle.

In the blink of an eye, the fractured statue crumbled into pieces. The debris rained down upon the bed of flowers at its base, crushing the vibrant blossoms.

And at the statue’s core, the thing that the Big Skeleton loathed with every fiber of his being finally revealed its true form.

It was a massive eye. The enormous eyeball hovered in midair, staring coldly at its surroundings.

Blood vessels as thick as a man’s arm connected the bottom of the eye to the earth below. The residual Power from the statue was absorbed by the eye, then siphoned underground through the vessels.

Realizing its disguise had been broken, the eyeball swiveled to stare at Duan Fei and his companions.

At that moment, Duan Fei saw his pollution indicator bar finally begin to rise.

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